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This repository was archived by the owner on Mar 10, 2026. It is now read-only.

MBUtil

MBUtil is a utility for importing and exporting the MBTiles format, typically created with MapboxTileMill.

Before exporting tiles to disk, see if there's a Mapbox Hosting plan or an open source MBTiles server implementation that works for you - tiles on disk are notoriously difficult to manage.

Build Status

Note well: this project is no longer actively developed. Issues and pull requests will be attended to when possible, but delays should be expected.

Installation

Git checkout (requires git)

git clone https://github.com/mapbox/mbutil.git
cd mbutil
# get usage
./mb-util -h

Then to install the mb-util command globally:

sudo python setup.py install
# then you can run:
mb-util

Python installation (requires easy_install)

easy_install mbutil
mb-util -h

Usage

$ mb-util -h
Usage: mb-util [options] input output
Examples:
Export an mbtiles file to a directory of files:
$ mb-util world.mbtiles tiles # tiles must not already exist
Import a directory of tiles into an mbtiles file:
$ mb-util tiles world.mbtiles # mbtiles file must not already exist
Options:
-h, --help Show this help message and exit
--scheme=SCHEME Tiling scheme of the tiles. Default is "xyz" (z/x/y),
other options are "tms" which is also z/x/y
but uses a flipped y coordinate, and "wms" which replicates
the MapServer WMS TileCache directory structure "z/000/000/x/000/000/y.png"''',
and "zyx" which is the format vips dzsave --layout google uses.
--image_format=FORMAT
The format of the image tiles, either png, jpg, webp or pbf
--grid_callback=CALLBACK
Option to control JSONP callback for UTFGrid tiles. If
grids are not used as JSONP, you can
remove callbacks specifying --grid_callback=""
--do_compression Do mbtiles compression
--silent Dictate whether the operations should run silently
Export an `mbtiles` file to files on the filesystem:
mb-util World_Light.mbtiles adirectory
Import a directory into a `mbtiles` file
mb-util directory World_Light.mbtiles

Requirements

  • Python >= 2.6

Metadata

MBUtil imports and exports metadata as JSON, in the root of the tile directory, as a file named metadata.json.

{"name": "World Light","description": "A Test Metadata","version": "3"}

Testing

This project uses nosetests for testing. Install nosetests:

pip install nose

or

easy_install nose

Then run:

nosetests

See Also

License

BSD - see LICENSE.md

Authors

  • Tom MacWright (tmcw)
  • Dane Springmeyer (springmeyer)
  • Mathieu Leplatre (leplatrem)

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Importer and Exporter of MBTiles

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