The $HOME/replica.my.cnf file is infrastructure maintained by Toolforge. If it is removed a monitoring job will notice and recreate it. Is there a specific reason that you want this tool to loose it's access to the Wiki Replica and ToolsDB database services?

Hello @bd808,
I don't think our Django web app requires "Wiki Replica and ToolsDB database services" (which, by the way, I don't quite understand). But I guess I can leave this file there.

What are Wikimedia Toolforge's Wiki Replica and ToolsDB database services ?

Wikimedia Toolforge provides two main database services:

1. Wiki Replicas (Read-only Wikipedia & Wikimedia database copies)

🔹 What it is:

• A read-only copy of Wikimedia wikis' databases (Wikipedia, Wiktionary, etc.).
• Useful for running queries on page content, user contributions, links, categories, etc.

🔹 Key Features:

• Live mirror of Wikimedia production databases (delayed by a few minutes).
• SQL-based access (MariaDB).
• Used for tools that analyze Wikimedia projects.

🔹 How to use it:

• Connect using: `bash sql enwiki # Connect to English Wikipedia sql frwiki # Connect to French Wikipedia `
• Query example: `sql SELECT page_title FROM page WHERE page_namespace = 0 LIMIT 10; `

⚠️ Limitations:

• Read-only (no write operations).
• Some private user data is removed for privacy reasons.
• Heavy queries should run on analytics.db.svc.eqiad.wmflabs.

2. ToolsDB (Private writable database for Toolforge users)

🔹 What it is:

• A MariaDB database that allows read/write access for Toolforge tools.
• Used for storing custom tool data (logs, user preferences, statistics, etc.).

🔹 Key Features:

• Each tool gets its own private database.
• Can be used for caching, indexing, or tracking tool-specific data.
• Persistent storage (unlike Wiki Replicas).

🔹 How to use it:

• Get connection details: `bash echo $TOOLSDB `
• Connect using: `bash sql toolsdb `
• Query example: `sql CREATE TABLE my_tool_data ( id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, username VARCHAR(255), action TEXT, timestamp TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ); `

⚠️ Limitations:

• Only accessible from Toolforge (not from external servers).
• Limited disk space and query performance.

When to use each?

Let me know if you need help setting up queries! 🚀