d.path(1grass)

📦
version 8.5.0 · 10 versions
, in alpine 3.24, ubuntu stonking

💖 d.path — the manual, but make it make sense 💖

okay bestie, gather round, because today we're talking about d.path(1grass), straight out of the GRASS User's Manual. She's a display module, she finds shortest paths, and she is lowkey iconic. Let's get into it ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

d.path — finds shortest path for selected starting and ending node. that's it, that's the whole job. main character energy fr 💅

🏷️ KEYWORDS 🏷️

display, network, shortest path — iykyk 🦋

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

d.path
d.path --help
d.path [-gb] map=name  [arc_type=string[,string,...]]
coordinates=x1,y1,x2,y2  [arc_layer=string]   [node_layer=string]
[arc_column=string]   [arc_backward_column=string]
[node_column=string]   [highlight_color=string]   [--help]  [--verbose]
[--quiet]  [--ui]

🎀 Flags 🎀

  • -g — use geodesic calculation for longitude-latitude locations. fancy math for the round-earth girlies 🌍
  • -b — render bold lines. thicc. bold. unmissable 💅
  • --help — print usage summary
  • --verbose — verbose module output
  • --quiet — quiet module output (she's not talking, periodt)
  • --ui — force launching GUI dialog

🫶 Parameters 🫶

  • map=name — [required] name of vector map. or, plot twist, a data source for direct OGR access 👑
  • arc_type=string[,string,...] — arc type. options: line, boundary. default: line,boundary
  • coordinates=x1,y1,x2,y2 — [required] starting and ending coordinates. that's four numbers: start x, start y, end x, end y 📍
  • arc_layer=string — arc layer. so here's the tea: vector features can have category values in different layers, and this number decides which layer to use. when you're doing direct OGR access, this is the layer name instead. default: 1
  • node_layer=string — node layer. same whole situation as arc layer: vector features can have category values in different layers, this number picks which one. with direct OGR access it's the layer name. default: 2
  • arc_column=string — arc forward/both direction(s) cost column, and it's a number
  • arc_backward_column=string — arc backward direction cost column (number)
  • node_column=string — node cost column
  • highlight_color=string — highlight color. default: red 🍓

💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

d.path enables shortest path vector networking — she's doing the routing, bestie. 💫

Costs may be either line lengths, or attributes saved in a database table. supported are cost assignments for both arcs and nodes, and also different in both directions of a vector line. for areas, cost will be calculated along boundary lines.

⚠️ NOTE ⚠️

the user needs to display a vector map before using d.path. if no graphics monitor is open, a file map.png is generated in the current directory. so yeah, she'll make her own little picture if you don't give her a screen 🙈

the 'from' and 'to' points are entered by mouse into the map displayed in the GRASS monitor, or if the coordinates option is used they can be specified non-interactively. the actions bound to the mouse buttons are described in the terminal window when running the command 🖱️

to calculate shortest path non-interactively and save the path to a new vector map, use the v.net.path module. different module, different vibe 🌈

🔥 EXAMPLES 🔥

Interactive shortest path routing on road network (North Carolina sample dataset):

g.region vector=roadsmajor -p
d.vect roadsmajor
d.path roadsmajor coordinates=668646.15,224447.16,668348.83,235894.02

Non-interactive shortest path routing on road network (North Carolina sample dataset):

d.path -b roadsmajor coordinates=668646.15,224447.16,668348.83,235894.02

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

  • v.net.path

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Radim Blazek, ITC-Irst, Trento, Italy. a legend, no cap 🫡

🧚 SOURCE CODE 🧚

available at: d.path source code (history)

latest change: Friday Apr 17 01:04:26 2026 in commit: 32a143358df26b2e518b03c7e0d79541e8d1e5b1

Main index | Display index | Topics index | Keywords index | Graphical index | Full index

and that's the whole page, bestie — she lives in GRASS 8.5.0, © 2003-2026 GRASS Development Team, from the GRASS 8.5.0 Reference Manual. d.path(1grass) out. slay, go find your shortest path, and text me when you get there 💖✨🎀🦋💅

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