gdal

GDAL Skill

Use GDAL command line tools for common raster and vector geospatial workflows.

Tools

Prefer the smallest tool that fits the task:

• gdalinfo
• ogrinfo
• gdalwarp
• gdal_translate
• gdalbuildvrt
• gdaltindex
• gdal_rasterize
• gdal2tiles.py
• ogr2ogr

If GDAL is not installed, ask the user to install it before continuing.

Workflow

1. Inspect first

gdalinfo INPUT.tif
ogrinfo INPUT.shp -so

2. Pick raster vs vector path

• Raster tasks: gdalwarp, gdal_translate, gdalbuildvrt, gdal_rasterize, gdal2tiles.py
• Vector tasks: ogr2ogr, ogrinfo, gdaltindex

3. Write a new output

• prefer new output files
• preserve CRS and nodata intentionally
• use compression for large rasters

4. Validate output

gdalinfo OUTPUT.tif
ogrinfo OUTPUT.geojson -so

Quick Reference

# Inspect
gdalinfo INPUT.tif
ogrinfo INPUT.shp -so

# Vector conversion and clipping
ogr2ogr -f GeoJSON -t_srs epsg:4326 OUTPUT.geojson INPUT.shp
gdaltindex -t_srs epsg:4326 -f GeoJSON OUTPUT_EXTENT.geojson INPUT_RASTER.tif
ogr2ogr -f GeoJSON -clipsrc OUTPUT_EXTENT.geojson OUTPUT_CLIPPED.geojson INPUT.shp

# Raster reprojection and clipping
gdalwarp -t_srs epsg:4326 INPUT.tif OUTPUT.tif
gdalwarp -cutline INPUT.shp -crop_to_cutline -dstalpha INPUT.tif OUTPUT.tif

# Raster conversion
gdal_translate -b 1 -b 2 -b 3 INPUT.tif OUTPUT.tif
gdal_translate -b 1 -b 2 -b 3 -of JPEG -outsize 400 0 INPUT.tif OUTPUT.jpg

# Mosaic and stack
gdalbuildvrt OUTPUT.vrt path/to/tiffs/*.tif
gdal_translate -co BIGTIFF=YES -co NUM_THREADS=ALL_CPUS -co COMPRESS=LZW -co PREDICTOR=2 OUTPUT.vrt OUTPUT.tif

# Rasterize and tile
gdal_rasterize -burn 1.0 -ot Byte -of GTiff -co COMPRESS=LZW -co BIGTIFF=YES INPUT.shp OUTPUT.tif
gdal2tiles.py -z 10-16 INPUT_BYTE.tif OUTPUT/

# COG
gdalwarp -co BIGTIFF=YES -co NUM_THREADS=ALL_CPUS -co COMPRESS=LZW -co PREDICTOR=2 -of COG INPUT.tif OUTPUT.tif

References

• references/gdal-recipes.md