DISCLAIMER These files are intended to facilitate offline analyses of Gaia data for which the full content of one or more tables in the Gaia Archive is needed. The files do not constitute a reference for Gaia DR2. The only authoritative reference for the Gaia DR2 data and metadata is the Gaia Archive. http://archives.esac.esa.int/gaia These files can only be considered a data dump. Every effort has been made to ensure the contents are identical at the numerical level to those in the Archive data base. Most tables are provided as csv files. The metadata in the fits versions are included "as is", in case they are helpful. There is no guarantee they will conform to any standard in terms of unit specification or that they are identical to the metadata in the Gaia archive. The reference data model documentation can be found at: http://archives.esac.esa.int/gaia/documentation/GDR2/Gaia_archive/chap_datamodel/