GDAL(1)

💖 GDAL — NAME 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to gdal, the main gdal entry point — this is the manual page for it, from the GDAL manual collection. It's the front door to literally everything GDAL does, and it got here in version 3.11 ✨

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🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

The whole shape of it, no cap:

Usage: gdal <COMMAND> [OPTIONS]
where <COMMAND> is one of:
  - convert:  Convert a dataset (shortcut for 'gdal raster convert' or 'gdal vector convert').
  - dataset:  Commands to manage datasets.
  - driver:   Command for driver specific operations.
  - info:     Return information on a dataset (shortcut for 'gdal raster info' or 'gdal vector info').
  - mdim:     Multidimensional commands.
  - pipeline: Process a dataset applying several steps.
  - raster:   Raster commands.
  - vector:   Vector commands.
  - vsi:      GDAL Virtual System Interface (VSI) commands.

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]

Options:
  --version               Display GDAL version and exit
  --drivers               Display driver list as JSON document

'gdal <FILENAME>' can also be used as a shortcut for 'gdal info <FILENAME>'.
And 'gdal read <FILENAME> ! ...' as a shortcut for 'gdal pipeline <FILENAME> ! ...'.

🎀 the commands, explained with love

• convert — turns one dataset into another format. it's lowkey a shortcut for gdal raster convert or gdal vector convert, depending on the vibe of your data 💅
• dataset — commands for managing datasets. the caretaker energy.
• driver — driver-specific operations live here. very iykyk.
• info — gives you the tea on a dataset. also a shortcut, this time for gdal raster info or gdal vector info 🍓
• mdim — multidimensional commands. the extra dimensions, bestie.
• pipeline — process a dataset by applying several steps in a row. the glow-up pipeline, literally ✨
• raster — raster commands.
• vector — vector commands.
• vsi — GDAL Virtual System Interface (VSI) commands. iconic name, iconic job 🦋

🫶 the common options

• -h, --help — shows the help message and exits. your emotional support flag fr fr
• --json-usage — dumps the usage as a JSON document and exits. for when you need it machine-readable 📄
• --config <KEY>=<VALUE> — a configuration option, and yes, it may be repeated. stack them like bracelets 💜

👑 the other options

• --version — shows the GDAL version and exits.
• --drivers — shows the driver list as a JSON document. all of them. the whole roster ⭐

alsoooo, sneaky shortcuts alert: gdal <FILENAME> is literally a shortcut for gdal info <FILENAME> 💅 and gdal read <FILENAME> ! ... is a shortcut for gdal pipeline <FILENAME> ! .... the ! is doing the heavy lifting, periodt.

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🔥 RETURN STATUS CODE 🔥

The program returns status code 0 when things went well (slay), and non-zero when there's an error 💀

but heads up: non-blocking errors that get emitted as warnings still count as a successful execution. so a little chaos is apparently fine, no cap.

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🌸 EXAMPLES 🌸

✨ Example 1: Display the GDAL version

$ gdal --version
GDAL 3.13.3 "Iowa City", released 2026/08/13 (debug build)

look at that release name. main character energy, honestly.

✨ Example 2: Getting information on the file utm.tif (with JSON output)

$ gdal info utm.tif

(yes, the title says with JSON output, we're just keeping it exactly how it is, bestie 🫶)

✨ Example 3: Converting file utm.tif to GeoPackage raster

$ gdal convert utm.tif utm.gpkg

in goes utm.tif, out comes utm.gpkg. glow-up complete 💖

✨ Example 4: Getting information on all available commands and subcommands as a JSON document.

$ gdal --json-usage

everything, in one JSON blob. obsessed.

✨ Example 5: Getting list of all formats supported by the current GDAL build, as text

$ gdal --formats

the full format roster, plain text edition 👑

✨ Example 6: Search for Parquet in the list of all formats using jq

Bash

$ gdal --drivers | jq '.[] | select(.short_name == "Parquet")'

PowerShell

gdal --drivers | jq '.[] | select(.short_name == \"Parquet\")'

note the backslashes on the quotes in the PowerShell one — that's not a typo, that's just how it goes over there 🙈

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🧚 AUTHOR 🧚

Even Rouault <even.rouault@spatialys.com>

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💜 COPYRIGHT 💜

1998-2026

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! 🎀 this was the GDAL manual page for gdal, footer flavor: Aug 18, 2026, manual name GDAL(1) — love you, go convert something pretty 🌈💅✨