How do I interpret the results of this openstreetmap-tiles-update-expire run?

sudo ~/src/mod_tile/openstreetmap-tiles-update-expire 2018-05-28T20:00:02Z has initialised the replication system to that date; run it without the date to update.

Actually I wouldn't tend to do it through sudo but through a normal user account, but the principle is the same.

Running without the date gave me: rm: cannot remove '/var/lib/mod_tile/changes.osc.gz': No such file or directory rm: cannot remove '/var/lib/mod_tile/dirty_tiles.29567': No such file or directory

Now I'm researching that.

The reason for sudo is that I did most of my compiling with my regular account but had created a tileserver user for running things. I'm now learning it would have been easier to create the tileserver user first, then install/build everything under that. Or, maybe there is a better way?

I'd pick one user and use that throughout.

The "cannot remove" error might mean it failed to dowbload it in the first place - edit the script to not remove the temporary files that it creates (or rename them to "something.$$" so that you can look at the files afterwards). Check you're using https, not http, throughout. If you're using openstreetmap's version of openstreetmap-tiles-update-expire rather than the switch2osm version, you'll need to change it for https.

I'm using switch2osm, but I'll double check the https when I go through the file.

To be clear, the script should do the download, right?

Yes, the script should download and import the file.