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A MaxMind license key is required to authenticate every download request that maxmind-geolite-mirror makes to download.maxmind.com. Without a valid key the tool cannot reach the MaxMind API, and it will exit immediately with an error. You can supply the key in one of two ways: as an environment variable (recommended) or by editing lib/config.js directly.
If no license key is configured — neither the MAXMIND_LICENSE_KEY environment variable nor exports.license_key in lib/config.js — the tool prints an error message and exits with code 1. No databases are downloaded.

​
Setting the license key

Export MAXMIND_LICENSE_KEY before running the mirror command:
export MAXMIND_LICENSE_KEY=your_key_here
maxmind-geolite-mirror
To make the variable available in every new shell session, add the export line to your shell profile:
# ~/.bashrc  or  ~/.zshrc
export MAXMIND_LICENSE_KEY=your_key_here
Then reload the profile:
source ~/.bashrc   # or: source ~/.zshrc
The environment variable approach is recommended because it keeps credentials out of source-controlled files.

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How the two methods interact

lib/config.js contains the following logic: 
exports.license_key = '';
if (process.env.MAXMIND_LICENSE_KEY && exports.license_key === '') {
    exports.license_key = process.env.MAXMIND_LICENSE_KEY;
}
The environment variable is applied only when exports.license_key is still an empty string. This means:
  • If MAXMIND_LICENSE_KEY is set and config.js has '' (the default), the environment variable wins.
  • If config.js has a non-empty string, that value is used regardless of the environment variable.

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Verifying the key

Run the tool and watch for download output: 
maxmind-geolite-mirror
A successful run prints lines such as: 
downloading /usr/local/share/GeoIP/GeoLite2-Country.mmdb
downloading /usr/local/share/GeoIP/GeoLite2-City.mmdb
downloading /usr/local/share/GeoIP/GeoLite2-ASN.mmdb
If the databases are already up to date, each line will instead read <path> is up-to-date. An authentication failure or missing key produces an error message and a non-zero exit code.
Free GeoLite2 license keys are available at maxmind.com/en/geolite2/signup. A MaxMind account is required, but there is no cost for GeoLite2 access.

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