Migration guide to "gdal" command line interface

This page documents through examples how to migrate from the traditional GDAL command line utilities to the unified "gdal" command line interface added in GDAL 3.11.

Raster commands

  • Getting information on a raster dataset in human-readable format

gdalinfo my.tif

==>

gdal raster info --format=text my.tif

  • Converting a georeferenced netCDF file to cloud-optimized GeoTIFF

gdal_translate -of COG in.nc out.tif

==>

gdal raster convert --of=COG in.nc out.tif

  • Reprojecting a GeoTIFF file to a Deflate compressed tiled GeoTIFF file

gdalwarp -t_srs EPSG:4326 -co TILED=YES -co COMPRESS=DEFLATE -overwrite in.tif out.tif

==>

gdal raster reproject --dst-crs=EPSG:4326 --co=TILED=YES,COMPRESS=DEFLATE --overwrite in.tif out.tif

  • Converting a PNG file to a tiled GeoTIFF file, adding georeferencing for world coverage in WGS 84 and metadata

gdal_translate -a_ullr -180 90 180 -90 -a_srs EPSG:4326 -co TILED=YES -mo DESCRIPTION=Mean_day_temperature in.png out.tif

==>

gdal raster pipeline read in.png ! edit --crs=EPSG:4326 --bbox=-180,-90,180,90 --metadata=DESCRIPTION=Mean_day_temperature ! write --co=TILED=YES out.tif

Note that the order of elements differ: "upper-left-x upper-left-y lower-right-x lower-right-y" for gdal_translate, compared to "minimum-x,minimum-y,maximum-x,maximum-y" for the --bbox option of "gdal raster pipeline ... edit".

  • Clipping a raster with a bounding box

gdal_translate -projwin 2 50 3 49 in.tif out.tif

==>

gdal raster clip --bbox=2,49,3,50 in.tif out.tif

  • Creating a virtual mosaic (.vrt) from all GeoTIFF files in a directory

gdalbuildvrt out.vrt src/*.tif

==>

gdal raster mosaic src/*.tif out.vrt

  • Creating a mosaic in COG format from all GeoTIFF files in a directory

gdalbuildvrt tmp.vrt src/*.tif
gdal_translate -of COG tmp.vrt out.tif

==>

gdal raster mosaic --of=COG src/*.tif out.tif

  • Adding internal overviews for reduction factors 2, 4, 8 and 16 to a GeoTIFF file

gdaladdo -r average my.tif 2 4 8 16

==>

gdal raster overview add -r average --levels=2,4,8,16 my.tif

  • Combining single-band rasters into a multi-band raster

gdalbuildvrt tmp.vrt red.tif green.tif blue.tif
gdal_translate tmp.vrt out.tif

==>

gdal raster stack red.tif green.tif blue.tif out.tif

  • Reorder a 3-band dataset with bands ordered Blue, Green, Red to Red, Green, Blue

gdal_translate -b 3 -b 2 -b 1 bgr.tif rgb.tif

==>

gdal raster select --band 3,2,1 bgr.tif rgb.tif --overwrite

  • Expand a dataset with a color table to RGB

gdal_translate -expand rgb color_table.tif rgb.tif

==>

gdal raster color-map color_table.tif rgb.tif --overwrite

  • Apply an external color-map to a dataset

gdaldem color-map color_table.tif color_map.txt rgb.tif

==>

gdal raster color-map --color-map=color_map.txt color_table.tif rgb.tif --overwrite

  • Convert nearly black values of the collar to black

nearblack -nb 1 -near 10 my.tif

==>

gdal raster clean-collar --update --color-threshold=1 --pixel-distance=10 my.tif

  • Generating tiles between zoom level 2 and 5 of WebMercator from an input GeoTIFF

gdal2tiles --zoom=2-5 input.tif output_folder

==>

gdal raster tile --min-zoom=2 --max-zoom=5 input.tif output_folder

Vector commands

  • Getting information on a vector dataset in human-readable format

ogrinfo -al -so my.gpkg

==>

gdal vector info --format=text my.gpkg

  • Converting a shapefile to a GeoPackage

ogr2ogr out.gpkg in.shp

==>

gdal vector convert in.shp out.gpkg

  • Reprojecting a shapefile to a GeoPackage

ogr2ogr -t_srs EPSG:4326 out.gpkg in.shp

==>

gdal vector reproject --dst-crs=EPSG:4326 in.shp out.gpkg

  • Clipping a GeoPackage file

ogr2ogr -clipsrc 2 49 3 50 out.gpkg in.shp

==>

gdal vector clip --bbox=2,49,3,50 in.gpkg out.gpkg

  • Selecting features from a GeoPackage file intersecting a bounding box, but not clipping them to it

ogr2ogr -spat 2 49 3 50 out.gpkg in.shp

==>

gdal vector filter --bbox=2,49,3,50 in.gpkg out.gpkg

  • Selecting features from a shapefile intersecting a bounding box, but not clipping them to it and reprojecting

ogr2ogr -t_srs EPSG:32631 -spat 2 49 3 50 out.gpkg in.shp

==>

gdal vector pipeline read in.gpkg ! filter --bbox=2,49,3,50 ! reproject --dst-crs=EPSG:32631 ! write out.gpkg

  • Selecting features from a shapefile based on an attribute query, and restricting to a few fields

ogr2ogr -where "country='Greenland'" -select population,_ogr_geometry_ out.gpkg in.shp

==>

gdal vector pipeline ! read in.shp ! filter --where "country='Greenland'" ! select --fields population,_ogr_geometry_ ! write out.gpkg

  • Creating a GeoPackage stacking all input shapefiles in separate layers.

ogrmerge -f GPKG -o merged.gpkg *.shp

==>

gdal vector concat --mode=stack *.shp merged.gpkg