GDAL-VECTOR-MAKE-POINT(1)

🌸 NAME 🌸

okay bestie, welcome to GDAL-VECTOR-MAKE-POINT(1) 💖 the manual page (yes, the whole page, that's the name up top) for

gdal-vector-make-point — Create point features from attribute fields ✨

Added in version 3.12. 🎀

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

here's the whole shape of it, no cap, exactly how you type it:

Usage: gdal vector make-point [OPTIONS] <INPUT> <OUTPUT>

Create point geometries from attribute fields

Positional arguments:
  -i, --input <INPUT>                                  Input vector datasets [required] [not available in pipelines]
  -o, --output <OUTPUT>                                Output vector dataset [required] [not available in pipelines]

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]
  -q, --quiet                                          Quiet mode (no progress bar or warning message) [not available in pipelines]

Options:
  -l, --layer, --input-layer <INPUT-LAYER>             Input layer name(s) [may be repeated] [not available in pipelines]
  -f, --of, --format, --output-format <OUTPUT-FORMAT>  Output format ("GDALG" allowed) [not available in pipelines]
  --co, --creation-option <KEY>=<VALUE>                Creation option [may be repeated] [not available in pipelines]
  --lco, --layer-creation-option <KEY>=<VALUE>         Layer creation option [may be repeated] [not available in pipelines]
  --overwrite                                          Whether overwriting existing output dataset is allowed [not available in pipelines]
  --update                                             Whether to open existing dataset in update mode [not available in pipelines]
  --overwrite-layer                                    Whether overwriting existing output layer is allowed [not available in pipelines]
  --append                                             Whether appending to existing layer is allowed [not available in pipelines]
                                                       Mutually exclusive with --upsert
  --output-layer <OUTPUT-LAYER>                        Output layer name [not available in pipelines]
  --skip-errors                                        Skip errors when writing features [not available in pipelines]
  --x <X>                                              Field from which X coordinate should be read [required]
  --y <Y>                                              Field from which Y coordinate should be read [required]
  --z <Z>                                              Optional field from which Z coordinate should be read
  --m <M>                                              Optional field from which M coordinate should be read
  --output-crs <OUTPUT-CRS>                            Output CRS

Advanced Options:
  --if, --input-format <INPUT-FORMAT>                  Input formats [may be repeated] [not available in pipelines]
  --oo, --open-option <KEY>=<VALUE>                    Open options [may be repeated] [not available in pipelines]
  --output-oo, --output-open-option <KEY>=<VALUE>      Output open options [may be repeated] [not available in pipelines]
  --upsert                                             Upsert features (implies 'append') [not available in pipelines]
                                                       Mutually exclusive with --append

quick vibe check on that, because there's lore in the brackets 👀:

• anything tagged [required] is literally required — the tool is not doing it without you
• anything tagged [may be repeated] means you can stack that flag over and over, go off
• anything tagged [not available in pipelines] is a no-pipeline zone bestie, it just isn't a thing there 🙈
• and there are two Mutually exclusive situations: --append vs --upsert, and --upsert vs --append (it's giving toxic exes, pick one 💀)

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💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

gdal vector make-point creates point geometries from attribute fields containing coordinates. that's the whole assignment, and it ate 🔥

like — you have a table where the X and Y (and maybe Z and M) live as regular old attribute columns, and this command goes "say less" and turns those columns into actual point geometries. iconic behavior. periodt ✨

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🎀 PROGRAM-SPECIFIC OPTIONS 🎀

these are the ones that are this command's whole personality, bestie 💖

• --output-crs <CRS> — optional coordinate reference system to slap onto the created points. the CRSs you can pass are literally anything that the OGRSpatialReference::SetFromUserInput() call supports, which includes EPSG Projected, Geographic or Compound CRS (like EPSG:4296), a well known text (WKT) CRS definition, PROJ.4 declarations, or the name of a .prj file containing a WKT CRS definition. so many doors, all open 🚪✨
• --m <FIELD_NAME> — optional field name containing M coordinate values 🌀
• --x <FIELD_NAME> — field name containing X coordinate values (yeah, the main character one 👑)
• --y <FIELD_NAME> — field name containing Y coordinate values
• --z <FIELD_NAME> — optional field name containing Z coordinate values 🦋

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🌈 STANDARD OPTIONS 🌈

the shared besties, the ones everybody in the gdal vector friend group has 💜

• --append — whether appending features to existing layer(s) is allowed. this also creates the output dataset if it does not exist yet, so it's giving "make yourself at home" energy 🫶
• --co, --creation-option <NAME>=<VALUE> — many formats have one or more optional dataset creation options that can be used to control particulars about the file created. for instance, the GeoPackage driver supports creation options to control the version.

May be repeated.

the dataset creation options available vary by format driver, and some simple formats have no creation options at all. a list of options supported for a format can be listed with the --formats command line option but the documentation for the format is the definitive source of information on driver creation options. see Vector drivers format specific documentation for legal creation options for each format.

ok and this part matters, don't skip it: note that dataset creation options are different from layer creation options. two different things. do not conflate them. iykyk 💀

• --if, --input-format <format> — format/driver name to be attempted to open the input file(s). it is generally not necessary to specify it, but it can be used to skip automatic driver detection, when it fails to select the appropriate driver. this option can be repeated several times to specify several candidate drivers. note that it does not force those drivers to open the dataset. in particular, some drivers have requirements on file extensions.

May be repeated.

• --input-layer <INPUT-LAYER> — specifies the name of one or more layers to process. by default, all layers will be processed 🌸
• --lco, --layer-creation-option <NAME>=<VALUE> — many formats have one or more optional layer creation options that can be used to control particulars about the layer created. for instance, the GeoPackage driver supports layer creation options to control the feature identifier or geometry column name, setting the identifier or description, etc.

May be repeated.

the layer creation options available vary by format driver, and some simple formats have no layer creation options at all. a list of options supported for a format can be listed with the --formats command line option but the documentation for the format is the definitive source of information on driver creation options. see Vector drivers format specific documentation for legal creation options for each format.

and again, bestie, the sequel: note that layer creation options are different from dataset creation options. 🫠

• --oo, --open-option <NAME>=<VALUE> — dataset open option (format specific).

May be repeated.

• -f, --of, --format, --output-format <OUTPUT-FORMAT> — which output vector format to use. allowed values may be given by

gdal --formats | grep vector | grep rw | sort

run it, it's free ✨

• --output-layer <NAME> — specifies the name of the layer to which features will be written. if not specified, output layer names will be the same as input layer names. twin behavior 👯
• --output-open-option, --output-oo <NAME>=<VALUE> — Added in version 3.12.

dataset open option for output dataset (format specific).

May be repeated.

• --overwrite — allow program to overwrite existing target file or dataset. otherwise, by default, gdal errors out if the target file or dataset already exists. so like, default mode is "don't touch my stuff" 🛑
• --overwrite-layer — whether overwriting the existing output vector layer is allowed.
• --skip-errors — Added in version 3.12.

whether failures to write feature(s) should be ignored. note that this option sets the size of the transaction unit to one feature at a time, which may cause severe slowdown when inserting into databases. 😭 cute in theory, painful in practice, fr fr

• --update — whether to open an existing output dataset in update mode.
• --upsert — Added in version 3.12.

variant of --append where the OGRLayer::UpsertFeature() operation is used to insert or update features instead of appending with OGRLayer::CreateFeature().

this is currently implemented only in a few drivers: GPKG -- GeoPackage vector, Elasticsearch: Geographically Encoded Objects for Elasticsearch and MongoDBv3 (drivers that implement upsert expose the GDAL_DCAP_UPSERT capability).

the upsert operation uses the FID of the input feature, when it is set (and the FID column name is not the empty string), as the key to update existing features. it is crucial to make sure that the FID in the source and target layers are consistent. ⚠️ like genuinely crucial, do not play with this one

for the GPKG driver, it is also possible to upsert features whose FID is unset or non-significant (the --unset-fid option of gdal vector edit can be used to ignore the FID from the source feature), when there is a UNIQUE column that is not the integer primary key.

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⭐ RETURN STATUS CODE ⭐

the program returns status code 0 in case of success, and non-zero in case of error (non-blocking errors emitted as warnings are considered as a successful execution). so a lil warning is not a fail, it's just the tool being chatty 🗣️💖

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Dan Baston <dbaston@gmail.com> — thank you for your service, legend 🫡✨

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🦋 COPYRIGHT 🦋

1998-2026 🎀

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and that's the whole page, bestie, you made it to the end 🥳 this lil manual is a GDAL situation, and the little date stamp down in the corner reads Aug 18, 2026, so now you know exactly what era of docs you're living in 💅 go make some points, you're gonna slay 🫶🌸