Definitely not weeks.
Last time I looked into downloading the snapshots so I could have a offline Wikipedia version for an old laptop without Wifi, I read it usually took several hours to render the entire English articles into static HTML.
I didn't need static HTML, so I only installed the MediaWiki software and used the downloaded database in its current format, so I can't personally attest to how long it would take. But if you have a modern processor, I don't think you need to worry about the HTML rendering taking weeks.
I found this on the Wikipedia help page on downloading dumps:
Quote:
|
MediaWiki 1.5 includes routines to dump a wiki to HTML, rendering the HTML with the same parser used on a live wiki. As the following page states, putting one of these dumps on the web unmodified will constitute a trademark violation. They are intended for private viewing in an intranet or desktop installation.
|
Since this functionality is available in the official MediaWiki software package, I would assume the code is relatively well written/optimized. This means you don't have to rely on a 3rd-party tool that might use a rough and dirty solution to get the job done. This might have been the case with where you heard the several weeks estimate maybe?
ALSO:
Last time I looked, I found a few download links to Static HTML dumps that other people have already rendered, and made available for download. You're probably going to be stuck with old snapshots if you use these sources, but it will save you the step of rendering the HTML yourself.
In any case, the resulting ePub file is going to be friggen MASSIVE, and you might run into problems with eReader software and mobile readers even being able to use it meaningfully in the best case, and not even able to open it due to sheer size in the worst case.