This script imports geonames into postgres for the purposes of knn-spgist vs knn-gist benchmarking. Based on the script from geonames forums: http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/15/926.page

geogres-knn-benchmark

#!/bin/bash
#===============================================================================
#
# FILE: getgeo.sh
#
# USAGE: ./getgeo.sh
#
# DESCRIPTION: run the script so that the geodata will be downloaded and inserted into your
# database
#
# OPTIONS: ---
# REQUIREMENTS: ---
# BUGS: ---
# NOTES: ---
# AUTHOR: Andreas (aka Harpagophyt )
# COMPANY: <a href="http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/926.page" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/926.page</a>
# VERSION: 1.4
# CREATED: 07/06/2008
# REVISION: 1.1 2008-06-07 replace COPY continentCodes through INSERT statements.
# 1.2 2008-11-25 Adjusted by Bastiaan Wakkie in order to not unnessisarily
# download.
# 1.3 2011-08-07 Updated script with tree changes. Removes 2 obsolete records from "countryinfo" dump image,
#                updated timeZones table with raw_offset and updated postalcode to varchar(20).
# 1.4 2012-03-31 Don Drake  - Add FKs after data is loaded, also vacuum analyze tables to ensure FK lookups use PK
#			- Don't unzip text files
#			- added DROP TABLE 
# 1.5 2012-06-30 Furdui Marian - added CountryCode to TimeZones and updated geonames.alternatenames to varchar(8000) 
#===============================================================================

/bin/date
WORKPATH="${HOME}/tmp/GIS/gisnames/geodata"
TMPPATH="tmp"
PCPATH="pc"
PREFIX="_"
DBHOST="127.0.0.1"
DBPORT="5432"
DBUSER="postgres"
FILES="allCountries.zip"
psql -U $DBUSER -h $DBHOST -p $DBPORT -c "CREATE DATABASE geonames WITH TEMPLATE = template0 ENCODING = 'UTF8';"
psql -U $DBUSER -h $DBHOST -p $DBPORT geonames <<EOT
DROP TABLE  geoname CASCADE;
CREATE TABLE geoname (
geonameid int,
name varchar(200),
asciiname varchar(200),
alternatenames varchar,
latitude float,
longitude float,
fclass char(1),
fcode varchar(10),
country varchar(2),
cc2 varchar(60),
admin1 varchar(20),
admin2 varchar(80),
admin3 varchar(20),
admin4 varchar(20),
population bigint,
elevation int,
gtopo30 int,
timezone varchar(40),
moddate date
);
EOT

# check if needed directories do already exsist
if [ -d "$WORKPATH" ]; then
    echo "$WORKPATH exists..."
    sleep 0
else
    echo "$WORKPATH and subdirectories will be created..."
    mkdir -p $WORKPATH
    mkdir -p $WORKPATH/$TMPPATH
    mkdir -p $WORKPATH/$PCPATH
    echo "created $WORKPATH"
fi
echo
echo ",---- STARTING (downloading, unpacking and preparing)"
cd $WORKPATH/$TMPPATH
for i in $FILES
do
    wget -N -q "http://download.geonames.org/export/dump/$i" # get newer files
    if [ $i -nt $PREFIX$i ] || [ ! -e $PREFIX$i ] ; then
        cp -p $i $PREFIX$i
        if [ `expr index zip $i` -eq 1 ]; then
            unzip -o -u -q $i
        fi
        echo "| $i has been downloaded";
    else
        echo "| $i is already the latest version"
    fi
done
# download the postalcodes. You must know yourself the url
cd $WORKPATH/$PCPATH
wget -q -N "http://download.geonames.org/export/zip/allCountries.zip"
if [ $WORKPATH/$PCPATH/allCountries.zip -nt $WORKPATH/$PCPATH/allCountries$PREFIX.zip ] || [ ! -e $WORKPATH/$PCPATH/allCountries.zip ]; then
    echo "Attempt to unzip $WORKPATH/$PCPATH/allCountries.zip file..."
    unzip -o -u -q $WORKPATH/$PCPATH/allCountries.zip
    cp -p $WORKPATH/$PCPATH/allCountries.zip $WORKPATH/$PCPATH/allCountries$PREFIX.zip
    echo "| ....zip has been downloaded"
else
    echo "| ....zip is already the latest version"
fi

echo "+---- FILL DATABASE ( this takes 2 days on my machine )"

psql -e -U $DBUSER -h $DBHOST -p $DBPORT geonames <<EOT
copy geoname (geonameid,name,asciiname,alternatenames,latitude,longitude,fclass,fcode,country,cc2,admin1,admin2,admin3,admin4,population,elevation,gtopo30,timezone,moddate) from '${WORKPATH}/${TMPPATH}/allCountries.txt' null as '';
ALTER TABLE ONLY geoname
ADD CONSTRAINT pk_geonameid PRIMARY KEY (geonameid);
vacuum analyze verbose geoname;
 
drop table quad_point_tbl;
drop table kd_point_tbl;
drop table gist_point_tbl;
drop table plain_point_tbl;
create table quad_point_tbl as select point(latitude, longitude) as p from geoname;
create table kd_point_tbl as select point(latitude, longitude) as p from geoname;
create table gist_point_tbl as select point(latitude, longitude) as p from geoname;
create table plain_point_tbl as select point(latitude, longitude) as p from geoname;

create index sp_quad_ind on quad_point_tbl using spgist(p);
create index sp_kd_ind on kd_point_tbl using spgist(p kd_point_ops);
create index gist_ind on gist_point_tbl using gist(p);

explain (analyze on, buffers on) select *, p <-> point(40,40) from quad_point_tbl order by p <-> point(40,40) limit 500;
explain (analyze on, buffers on) select *, p <-> point(40,40) from kd_point_tbl order by p <-> point(40,40) limit 500;
explain (analyze on, buffers on) select *, p <-> point(40,40) from gist_point_tbl order by p <-> point(40,40) limit 500;
explain (analyze on, buffers on) select *, p <-> point(40,40) from plain_point_tbl order by p <-> point(40,40) limit 500;
EOT
echo "'----- DONE" 
/bin/date