GDALMANAGE(1)

💅 GDALMANAGE

okay bestie, welcome to gdalmanage — it's the little multitool in the GDAL family (you'll find it in section 1 of the manual, iykyk) and it does ✨four whole things✨ to your raster data files: it looks at them, copies them, renames them, and deletes them. That's it. That's the whole vibe. But she does it flawlessly. 🦋

🌸 NAME 🌸

gdalmanage — identify, delete, rename and copy raster data files. no cap, that's literally her entire job description. 🎀

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

Usage: gdalmanage [--help] [--help-general]
                  <mode> [-r] [-fr] [-u] [-f <format>]
                  <datasetname> [<newdatasetname>]

look at her. so compact. so powerful. 💅

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👑 DESCRIPTION 👑

so gdalmanage can do a bunch of different operations on dataset files, and which one you get depends on the mode you pick. She identifies dataset types, and she deletes, renames, or copies the actual files. pick your fighter:

<mode> — the mode of operation, aka what energy we're bringing today

• identify <datasetname> — list the data format of the file(s). basically she looks at your file and goes "oh that's a GTiff bestie" 🕵️♀️
• copy <datasetname> <newdatasetname> — make a copy of the dataset file under a new name. twin energy fr fr.
• rename <datasetname> <newdatasetname> — change the name of the dataset file. glow-up, but for filenames.
• delete <datasetname> — delete dataset file(s). 💀 rest in peace.

and then the options that mod your behavior:

• -r — recursively scan files/folders for dataset files. she goes digging through everything.
• -fr — recursively scan folders for dataset files, forcing recursion in folders that are recognized as valid formats. yes, she will barge in even where she's technically already arrived. that's the bit.
• -u — report failures if the file type is unidentified. so instead of staying quiet about it, she'll tell on it. honestly? communication queen.
• -f <format> — specify the format of the dataset file if the application doesn't know it. you use the short data format name here (e.g. GTiff). it's giving "here bestie, let me help you out". 🫶

and the actual things you feed her:

• <datasetname> — the raster file to operate on. with identify, you can repeat it for multiple files. multipolycule behavior, we love to see it.
• <newdatasetname> — for copy and rename modes you give a source filename AND a target filename, exactly like copy and move commands in an operating system. source ➡️ target. that's the whole plot. 🎬

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💜 RETURN STATUS CODE 💜

she returns status code 0 when it's a slay (success), and non-zero when it's a flop (error). one lil caveat though: non-blocking errors that get emitted as warnings still count as a successful execution. so if you see a warning, don't panic — she still considers that a win. 🙈

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🎀 EXAMPLES 🎀

🔍 Using identify mode

wanna know what format your dataset file is? hit her with identify and hand over a data file name:

$ gdalmanage identify NE1_50M_SR_W.tif

NE1_50M_SR_W.tif: GTiff

boom. GTiff. classified. ⭐

Recursive mode will scan subfolders and report the data format:

$ gdalmanage identify -r 50m_raster/

NE1_50M_SR_W/ne1_50m.jpg: JPEG
NE1_50M_SR_W/ne1_50m.png: PNG
NE1_50M_SR_W/ne1_50m_20pct.tif: GTiff
NE1_50M_SR_W/ne1_50m_band1.tif: GTiff
NE1_50M_SR_W/ne1_50m_print.png: PNG
NE1_50M_SR_W/NE1_50M_SR_W.aux: HFA
NE1_50M_SR_W/NE1_50M_SR_W.tif: GTiff
NE1_50M_SR_W/ne1_50m_sub.tif: GTiff
NE1_50M_SR_W/ne1_50m_sub2.tif: GTiff

look at that full roster 😭 she found every single one. JPEG, PNG, GTiff, HFA — the whole friend group showed up.

📋 Using copy mode

copy the dataset:

$ gdalmanage copy NE1_50M_SR_W.tif ne1_copy.tif

and now there's two of them. iconic.

✏️ Using rename mode

rename the dataset:

$ gdalmanage rename NE1_50M_SR_W.tif ne1_rename.tif

new name, same file, fresh start. main character energy tbh.

🗑️ Using delete mode

delete the dataset:

gdalmanage delete NE1_50M_SR_W.tif

⚠️ bestie be careful — this one actually deletes your dataset file(s). there is no undo, no recycle bin, no "nvm". make sure you meant it before you press enter. 💀

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🫶 AUTHOR 🫶

Frank Warmerdam <warmerdam@pobox.com>

(he built her. we thank him. respectfully. 🙏)

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⭐ COPYRIGHT ⭐

1998-2026

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and that's the whole page!! 🌈 you now officially know everything gdalmanage has ever done or will ever do. go forth and identify, copy, rename, and (responsibly) delete. slay GDAL edition, manual page GDALMANAGE(1), dated Aug 18, 2026. 💖✨ bye bestie, mwah 🎀