gdal-vector-pipeline - Man Page

gdal-vector-pipeline — Process a vector dataset

Added in version 3.11.

Usage: gdal vector pipeline [OPTIONS] <PIPELINE>

Process a vector dataset.

Positional arguments:

Common Options:
  -h, --help              Display help message and exit
  --json-usage            Display usage as JSON document and exit
  --config <KEY>=<VALUE>  Configuration option [may be repeated]
  --progress              Display progress bar

<PIPELINE> is of the form: read|concat [READ-OPTIONS] ( ! <STEP-NAME> [STEP-OPTIONS] )* ! write [WRITE-OPTIONS]

A pipeline chains several steps, separated with the ! (exclamation mark) character. The first step must be read or concat, and the last one write. Each step has its own positional or non-positional arguments. Apart from read, concat and write, all other steps can potentially be used several times in a pipeline.

Potential steps are:

• read

  * read [OPTIONS] <INPUT>
  ------------------------
  
  Read a vector dataset.
  
  Positional arguments:
    -i, --input <INPUT>                       Input vector datasets [required]
  
  Options:
    -l, --layer, --input-layer <INPUT-LAYER>  Input layer name(s) [may be repeated]
  
  Advanced Options:
    --if, --input-format <INPUT-FORMAT>       Input formats [may be repeated]
    --oo, --open-option <KEY>=<VALUE>         Open options [may be repeated]

• concat

  * concat [OPTIONS] <INPUT>...
  -----------------------------
  
  Concatenate vector datasets.
  
  Positional arguments:
    -i, --input <INPUT>                                        Input vector datasets [1.. values] [required]
  
  Options:
    -l, --layer, --input-layer <INPUT-LAYER>                   Input layer name(s) [may be repeated]
    --mode <MODE>                                              Determine the strategy to create output layers from source layers . MODE=merge-per-layer-name|stack|single (default: merge-per-layer-name)
    --output-layer <OUTPUT-LAYER>                              Name of the output vector layer (single mode), or template to name the output vector layers (stack mode)
    --source-layer-field-name <SOURCE-LAYER-FIELD-NAME>        Name of the new field to add to contain identificoncation of the source layer, with value determined from 'source-layer-field-content'
    --source-layer-field-content <SOURCE-LAYER-FIELD-CONTENT>  A string, possibly using {AUTO_NAME}, {DS_NAME}, {DS_BASENAME}, {DS_INDEX}, {LAYER_NAME}, {LAYER_INDEX}
    --field-strategy <FIELD-STRATEGY>                          How to determine target fields from source fields. FIELD-STRATEGY=union|intersection (default: union)
    -s, --src-crs <SRC-CRS>                                    Source CRS
    -d, --dst-crs <DST-CRS>                                    Destination CRS
  
  Advanced Options:
    --if, --input-format <INPUT-FORMAT>                        Input formats [may be repeated]
    --oo, --open-option <KEY>=<VALUE>                          Open options [may be repeated]

Details for options can be found in gdal vector concat.

• clip

  * clip [OPTIONS]
  ----------------
  
  Clip a vector dataset.
  
  Options:
    --active-layer <ACTIVE-LAYER>    Set active layer (if not specified, all)
    --bbox <BBOX>                    Clipping bounding box as xmin,ymin,xmax,ymax
                                     Mutually exclusive with --geometry, --like
    --bbox-crs <BBOX-CRS>            CRS of clipping bounding box
    --geometry <GEOMETRY>            Clipping geometry (WKT or GeoJSON)
                                     Mutually exclusive with --bbox, --like
    --geometry-crs <GEOMETRY-CRS>    CRS of clipping geometry
    --like <DATASET>                 Dataset to use as a template for bounds
                                     Mutually exclusive with --bbox, --geometry
    --like-sql <SELECT-STATEMENT>    SELECT statement to run on the 'like' dataset
                                     Mutually exclusive with --like-where
    --like-layer <LAYER-NAME>        Name of the layer of the 'like' dataset
    --like-where <WHERE-EXPRESSION>  WHERE SQL clause to run on the 'like' dataset
                                     Mutually exclusive with --like-sql

Details for options can be found in gdal vector clip.

• edit

  * edit [OPTIONS]
  ----------------
  
  Edit metadata of a vector dataset.
  
  Options:
    --active-layer <ACTIVE-LAYER>    Set active layer (if not specified, all)
    --geometry-type <GEOMETRY-TYPE>  Layer geometry type
    --crs <CRS>                      Override CRS (without reprojection)
    --metadata <KEY>=<VALUE>         Add/update dataset metadata item [may be repeated]
    --unset-metadata <KEY>           Remove dataset metadata item [may be repeated]
    --layer-metadata <KEY>=<VALUE>   Add/update layer metadata item [may be repeated]
    --unset-layer-metadata <KEY>     Remove layer metadata item [may be repeated]

Details for options can be found in gdal vector edit.

• filter

  * filter [OPTIONS]
  ------------------
  
  Filter a vector dataset.
  
  Options:
    --active-layer <ACTIVE-LAYER>  Set active layer (if not specified, all)
    --bbox <BBOX>                  Bounding box as xmin,ymin,xmax,ymax
    --where <WHERE>|@<filename>    Attribute query in a restricted form of the queries used in the SQL WHERE statement

Details for options can be found in gdal vector filter.

• geom

  * geom <COMMAND> [OPTIONS]
  where <COMMAND> is one of:
    - buffer:              Compute a buffer around geometries of a vector dataset.
    - explode-collections: Explode geometries of type collection of a vector dataset.
    - make-valid:          Fix validity of geometries of a vector dataset.
    - segmentize:          Segmentize geometries of a vector dataset.
    - set-type:            Modify the geometry type of a vector dataset.
    - simplify:            Simplify geometries of a vector dataset.
    - swap-xy:             Swap X and Y coordinates of geometries of a vector dataset.

Details for options can be found in gdal vector geom.

• reproject

  * reproject [OPTIONS]
  ---------------------
  
  Reproject a vector dataset.
  
  Options:
    --active-layer <ACTIVE-LAYER>  Set active layer (if not specified, all)
    -s, --src-crs <SRC-CRS>        Source CRS
    -d, --dst-crs <DST-CRS>        Destination CRS [required]

Details for options can be found in gdal vector reproject.

• select

  * select [OPTIONS] <FIELDS>
  ---------------------------
  
  Select a subset of fields from a vector dataset.
  
  Positional arguments:
    --fields <FIELDS>              Fields to select (or exclude if --exclude) [may be repeated] [required]
  
  Options:
    --active-layer <ACTIVE-LAYER>  Set active layer (if not specified, all)
    --exclude                      Exclude specified fields
                                   Mutually exclusive with --ignore-missing-fields
    --ignore-missing-fields        Ignore missing fields
                                   Mutually exclusive with --exclude

Details for options can be found in gdal vector select.

• sql

  * sql [OPTIONS] <statement>|@<filename>
  ---------------------------------------
  
  Apply SQL statement(s) to a dataset.
  
  Positional arguments:
    --sql <statement>|@<filename>      SQL statement(s) [may be repeated] [required]
  
  Options:
    -l, --output-layer <OUTPUT-LAYER>  Output layer name(s) [may be repeated]
    --dialect <DIALECT>                SQL dialect (e.g. OGRSQL, SQLITE)

Details for options can be found in gdal vector sql.

• write

  * write [OPTIONS] <OUTPUT>
  --------------------------
  
  Write a vector dataset.
  
  Positional arguments:
    -o, --output <OUTPUT>                                Output vector dataset [required]
  
  Options:
    -f, --of, --format, --output-format <OUTPUT-FORMAT>  Output format ("GDALG" allowed)
    --co, --creation-option <KEY>=<VALUE>                Creation option [may be repeated]
    --lco, --layer-creation-option <KEY>=<VALUE>         Layer creation option [may be repeated]
    --overwrite                                          Whether overwriting existing output is allowed
    --update                                             Whether to open existing dataset in update mode
    --overwrite-layer                                    Whether overwriting existing layer is allowed
    --append                                             Whether appending to existing layer is allowed
    -l, --output-layer <OUTPUT-LAYER>                    Output layer name

gdal vector pipeline can be used to process a vector dataset and perform various processing steps.

A pipeline can be serialized as a JSON file using the GDALG output format. The resulting file can then be opened as a vector dataset using the GDALG: GDAL Streamed Algorithm driver, and apply the specified pipeline in a on-the-fly / streamed way.

The command_line member of the JSON file should nominally be the whole command line without the final write step, and is what is generated by gdal vector pipeline ! .... ! write out.gdalg.json.

{
    "type": "gdal_streamed_alg",
    "command_line": "gdal vector pipeline ! read in.gpkg ! reproject --dst-crs=EPSG:32632"
}

The final write step can be added but if so it must explicitly specify the stream output format and a non-significant output dataset name.

{
    "type": "gdal_streamed_alg",
    "command_line": "gdal vector pipeline ! read in.gpkg ! reproject --dst-crs=EPSG:32632 ! write --output-format=streamed streamed_dataset"
}

Even Rouault <even.rouault@spatialys.com>

1998-2025