Note: wget may still download files that match to crawl them for extra links Finishing the job Breaking down the commandįor those who like to know what their commands do, here's an explanation of each argument: -m Mirror a site (sets an appropriate group of options) -p Download extra resources for the page (images, etc) -np No Parent - don't go any higher up the directory structure (prevents wget crawling outside the forum if it is in a sub-directory) -R Reject (don't keep) files that match this pattern. Wget will then crawl your site and save a copy of each page under its original name. To archive the forum, run the following command: wget -m -p -np -R '*sid=*,ucp.php*,memberlist.php*,*mode=viewprofile*,*view=print*,viewonline.php*,search.php*,posting.php*' Make sure you've got plenty of high-speed network bandwidth for this bit (or run it from the server itsself - ideally in another directory). This will use a command-line tool called wget to 'crawl' the site (follow all of the links it finds) and save copies of the files. Once this is done, any requests using the wget command-line tool will be treated as Bot requests and will get the minimal content-only version of the site without interaction options. Next, make sure that Bots don't have the 'Search' permission. The first step is to make sure that our archive doesn't try to includes these features.įirst, go to the Admin Control Panel and add a new 'bot' configuration and use the name 'wget/'.

login/logout, posting, reporting, etc), others are pointless (prompts to log-in to view profiles) and others would be useful but can be provided in other ways (Google search is 'good enough'). Initial PreparationĬertain features aren't required for archive forums (e.g. Here is a summary of my phpBB forum archiving notes. Unfortunately, the information on how to archive a forum was minimal. Eventually the time came to close the forums (to save maintenance effort on a ghost of a community), after nearly fourteen long years of service. The HiveWorldTerra Forums most recently ran on phpBB3, and previously phpBB2.

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