This script was created in 2011 and takes an offline XML dump file, containing page content wikitext, and feeds its entries through the Preprocessor without actually importing any content into the wiki.

The documented purpose of the script is to "get statistics" or "fill the cache". I was unable to find any stats being emitted. I did find that the method called indeed fills "preprocess-hash" cache keys, which have a TTL of 24 hours (e.g. Memcached).

I could not think of a use case for this and am wondering if anyone remembers its original purpose and/or knows of a current need for it.

-- Timo

[1] First commit: http://mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:Code/MediaWiki/80466

[2] Commit history: https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/plugins/gitiles/mediawiki/core/+log/1.35.0/maintenance/preprocessDump.php

PS: This came up because there's a minor refactor proposed to the script, and I was wondering how to test it and whether we it makes sense to continue maintenance and support for it. https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/641323