The full ITIS database is available for download via HTTP.

We provide data files that are updated as new data is added to ITIS. After the monthly data update, the ITIS database and associated files are exported and compressed, then posted to this site on or about the 10th of each month.

The data files are packaged in two formats:

• A gzipped TAR file
  • A compressed archive format popular on Unix/Linix, the data files are archived using the tar command, then compressed using gzip.
  • These files are uncompressed using the command: tar xvfz filename.
  • This will create a folder in the current folder containing the data files.
• A zip file
  • A compressed archive format popular on Windows, the files are zipped into a single file to reduce the size and simplify downloading.
  • Windows XP or higher can open and uncompress these files natively. You can also use a number of publically available utilities (such as 7-Zip, Winzip, etc.) to open and uncompress the file.
  • Unzipping the file should create a folder in the current folder containing the data files.

The data files provided on the download page are (mmddyy are the month, day, and year the file was created):

• Informix 7 Full ITIS Data Set (itismmddyy.TAR.gz) - This contains a set of pipe delimited data files (one per ITIS table) and a SQL script to create the database and import the tables.
• Microsoft SQL Server Full ITIS Data Set (itisMSmmddyy.TAR.gz) - This contains a set of pipe delimited data files (one per ITIS table) and a SQL script to create the database and import the tables. A README file with instructions is also included.
• MySql Full ITIS Data Set (itisMySQLmmddyy.TAR.gz) - This contains a set of pipe delimited data files (one per ITIS table) and a SQL script to create the database and import the tables. A README file with instructions is also included.
• MySql Full ITIS Data Set (itisMySQLmmddyy.zip) - This contains a pipe delimited data file (containing all the ITIS data) and SQL scripts to create the database and import the tables. A README file with instructions is also included.

Note: The following instructions assume you have the database of your choice (Informix, Sql Server or MySql) installed, you are familiar with the setup and use of your database software, and you have access to create database tables on that database.

Instructions:

The basic steps to create and use the data files are:

1. Use a browser to download the data file of your choice from the ITIS downloads page at http://www.itis.gov/downloads.
2. Uncompress the data file on the system where the database is running.
• You can extract a TAR.gz file on your local Linux machine with the command:
  "tar xvfz itismmddyy.TAR.gz".
  This will unzip and untar the file into a directory with its name in the following format "itis.mmddyy" where mmddyy is the month, day and year.
• You can extract a zip file on your local Linux machine with the command:
  "unzip itismmddyy.zip".
  This will unzip the file into a directory with its name in the following format "itis.mmddyy" where mmddyy is the month, day and year.
• If the local machine uses Windows, the TAR.gz files may be unzipped with a number of publically available utilities (such as 7-Zip, WinZip, etc.)
• Zip files can be opened and uncompressed natively by Windows XP or higher.
3. Create ITIS database and tables and load the ITIS data into the new database.

Detailed instructions are provided in the README files provided with the downloads.

Notes:

• In the Informix TAR file, the end-of-line character on all files is the new line (LF) or (\n) character.
• In the MS Sql Server 2000 TAR file, the end-of-line characters are the carriage return and newline (CR LF) or (\r\n) characters.
• The SQL schema file is an ISO Latin 1 (ISO 8859-1) file that includes all of the create table statements plus additional information. This will allow comparison to the schema files that are available in the future to determine any changes.
• The data table files are in ISO Latin 1 (ISO 8859-1) pipe delimited format.
• Diacritical characters associated with taxon authors have been modified to reflect their ISO Latin 1 (ISO 8859-1) representation.