GDALMOVE(1)

💫 NAME 💫

gdalmove — bestie, this one transforms the georeferencing of a raster file in place, no resampling, no drama ✨

Like, it's the gdalmove.py script and it lives in the GDAL family, and I'm obsessed with how much it does while touching literally zero pixels 🫶

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

gdalmove.py [-s_srs <srs_defn>] -t_srs <srs_defn>
            [-et <max_pixel_err>] <target_file>

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🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

Okay so here's the vibe 👑: the gdalmove.py script takes the bounds of a raster file and transforms them from one coordinate system to another, then updates the coordinate system and the geotransform of the file. And the way it does this? It does not alter pixel values at all. Not even a little. 💅

It's loosely similar to using gdalwarp to transform an image, but it skips the resampling step entirely — like, on purpose — so there's no image damage. No cap. It's generally only suitable for transformations that are effectively linear in the area of the file, though, so keep that in mind bestie 🌈

Now the important bit 👇 If no error threshold value (-et) is provided, then the file is not actually updated — instead it just reports the errors that would be incurred. Like a little vibe check before the real thing 🙈 But if -et is provided, then the file is only modified if the apparent error being introduced is less than the indicated threshold (in pixels).

Heads up 🍓 — currently the transformed geotransform is computed based on the transformation of the top left, top right, and bottom left corners. A reduced overall error could be produced using a least squares fit of at least all four corner points. So like, it's giving "good enough" energy, not "perfect" energy 😭

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

• -s_srs <srs_defn> — overrides the coordinate system of the file with the coordinate system definition you give it. Optional! If you don't provide it, the source coordinate system is just read from the source file. Easy 💖
• -t_srs <srs_defn> — defines the target coordinate system. This is the one that gets written to the file after an update. Main character energy, honestly 🌟
• -et <max_pixel_err> — the error threshold (in pixels) beyond which the file will not be updated. If you don't provide it, no update gets applied to the file at all — it'll just report errors at you. Lowkey the safe mode 🦋
• <target_file> — the file to be operated on. To actually update, this has to be a file format that supports in place updates of the geotransform and SRS. fr fr, check that first 💀

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🌺 AUTHOR 🌺

Frank Warmerdam <warmerdam@pobox.com> — iconic, we stan 💜

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🧚 COPYRIGHT 🧚

1998-2026

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And that's the whole page bestie, slay 💅✨ This was GDAL's gdalmove manual, dated Jan 08, 2026 — go forth and move those geotransforms responsibly, mwah 🎀🫶🔥