r.buildvrt(1)

📦
version 8.4.2 · 8 versions
, in fedora 44

💖 r.buildvrt — the manual page, bestie edition 💖

okay so you opened the GRASS GIS User's Manual page for r.buildvrt and honestly? good taste. let's get into it 💅

✨ NAME ✨

r.buildvrt — build a VRT (Virtual Raster) from the list of input raster maps. that's it, that's the whole job 🫶

🌈 KEYWORDS 🌈

raster, mosaic, virtual raster — iykyk 🦋

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

r.buildvrt
r.buildvrt --help
r.buildvrt  [input=name[,name,...]]   [file=name]  output=name
[title=phrase]   [--overwrite]  [--help]  [--verbose]  [--quiet]  [--ui]

🚩 Flags (the little switches, slay)

  • --overwrite — allow output files to overwrite existing files. yes bestie, it will simply replace them 💀
  • --help — print usage summary. your emotional support text 🥺
  • --verbose — verbose module output. it will tell you EVERYTHING, no holding back ✨
  • --quiet — quiet module output. shhh 🤫
  • --ui — force launching GUI dialog. for when you want the pretty buttons 🎀

🌸 Parameters (the actual inputs)

  • input=name[,name,...] — name of input raster files. a whole list, comma-separated, go off 👑
  • file=name — input file with one raster map name per line. one per line, okay? one. per. line. 📝
  • output=name [required] — name for output raster map. required required, no skipping this one bestie 🚨
  • title=phrase — title for resultant raster map. give your baby a name 💖

💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

r.buildvrt builds a virtual raster (VRT) that is a mosaic of the list of input raster maps. the whole point of a VRT like this is to give you fast access to small subsets of the VRT, and also to handle multiple simultaneous read requests. it's giving efficient. it's giving main character energy 🌟

🔥 NOTES 🔥

r.buildvrt creates a list of raster maps that can be located in different mapsets. the output is a read-only link to the original raster maps, and it is only valid if the original raster maps remain in the originally indicated mapset. like, do not move them. do not touch them. they live there now 🏠

a VRT can also be built from raster maps registered with r.external. ok versatile queen 🌈

real talk though: reading the whole VRT is slower than reading the equivalent single raster map. the performance benefit only shows up when you're reading small parts of the VRT. so if you were planning to just inhale the entire thing, that's not the vibe 💀

a GRASS virtual raster can be regarded as a simplified version of GDAL's virtual raster format. the GRASS equivalent is simpler because issues like nodata, projection, resolution, resampling, and masking are already handled by native GRASS raster routines. GRASS said "don't worry about it, i got it" 💅

🦋 EXAMPLES 🦋

⭐ VRT from a DEM in the North Carolina sample dataset ⭐

so in this exercise a low resolution DEM is resampled to a high resolution DEM. then it gets cut into small tiles, and from that a virtual tile mosaik is created. let's go step by step bestie, no cap:

# set the computational region to elevation map
g.region raster=elev_state_500m -p
# enforce higher resolution
g.region res=50 -p
# resample the 500 meter DEM to 50 meter resolution
r.resamp.interp input=elev_state_500m output=elev_state_50m method=bilinear
# create tiles from resulting large 50 m elevation map
r.tile input=elev_state_50m output=elev_state_50m_tile_ width=1000 height=1000 overlap=0
# for convenience, dump list of tile names to a file
g.list type=raster pattern=elev_state_50m_tile_* output=tilelist.csv
# build a mosaik as VRT from tile list
r.buildvrt file=tilelist.csv output=elev_state_50m_vrt

ate. no crumbs. 👑

🌸 SEE ALSO 🌸

  • r.tile
  • r.patch
  • r.external

the equivalent GDAL utility: gdalbuildvrt 🧚

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Markus Metz Sponsored by mundialis — shoutout 💖

💻 SOURCE CODE 💻

Available at: r.buildvrt source code (history)

Accessed: Saturday Jan 17 05:40:43 2026

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© 2003-2025 GRASS Development Team, GRASS GIS 8.4.2 Reference Manual

and that's the whole page bestie 🫶 this was GRASS 8.4.2, page r.buildvrt(1), accessed Saturday Jan 17 05:40:43 2026, © 2003-2025 GRASS Development Team. go build that virtual raster, you absolute icon ✨💅🎀

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