helptext(1grass)

🌍 helptext(1grass) — the GRASS Quickstart glow-up 🌍

okay bestie, so you just typed helptext in GRASS and got dropped into the manual page for the Quickstart, which is genuinely the cutest lil onboarding doc ever. this is the GRASS User's Manual moment where everything makes sense. let's go, no cap 💖

✨ GRASS Quickstart ✨

When you launch GRASS for the very first time, you're gonna land in a default project called "world_latlog_wgs84" — and inside it there's a map layer called "country_boundaries" showing you a world map in the WGS84 coordinate system. it's giving ✨welcome to the planet✨.

The main character of the Data tab is the Data Catalog, which shows off the GRASS hierarchical structure made of the database, project and mapset. three besties, one hierarchy, periodt.

🗂 GRASS database (directory with projects)

Running GRASS for the first time, a folder named "grassdata" gets automatically created. Where does it live? Depends on your operating system, bestie:

• in your $HOME directory (*nix), or
• in My Documents (MS Windows).

🎯 project (previously called location)

A project is defined by its coordinate reference system (CRS). In the case of the default project, it's a geographic coordinate reference system WGS84 (EPSG:4326). If your data is in a CRS that isn't WGS84, you should create a new project that matches your system. don't fight it, just make the project 💅

🧺 mapset (a subproject)

Every project can have many mapsets for managing different aspects of a project or the project's subregions. When you create a new project, GRASS automatically creates a special mapset called PERMANENT where the core data for the project can be stored. iconic behaviour honestly 👑

For more info about the data hierarchy, see the GRASS Database page.

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🌸 GRASS started in the default project, now what? 🌸

First of all, if you wanna get to know GRASS better before importing your own data, please download the provided samples — like the "North Carolina" dataset. You can simply reach them through the "Download sample project to current database" management icon. obsessed with a shortcut 🎀

To work with your own data, you typically want to first create a new project with a coordinate reference system (CRS) suitable for your study area, or one that matches your data's CRS. The Project Wizard will help you with that by guiding you through a series of dialogs — browse and select predefined projections (also via EPSG code) or define individual projections. it literally holds your hand, respectfully 🫶

🧚 Creating a New project with the Project Wizard

If you know the CRS of your data or study area, you can fill in the EPSG code or description and the Project Wizard finds an appropriate CRS from a predefined list of projections.

If you do not know the CRS of your data, you can read it from your georeferenced data file (e.g. shapefile or GeoTiff file with the related metadata properly included). the metadata is doing the heavy lifting, iykyk 😭

📥 Importing data

After creating a new project, you're ready to import your data. You can use simple raster or vector data import, or a whole variety of more specialized tools. And here's the slay part: if the data's CRS does not match your project's CRS, the data will be automatically reprojected. no manual labour, we love to see it 🔥

After import, your raster or vector data are added as a layer to Map Display. To change layer properties, go to the Display tab. To analyze your data, search for a tool in the Modules tab. three tabs, infinite possibilities, main character energy fr fr ✨

⌨️ Text-based startup and project creation

GRASS can be run entirely without using the graphical user interface. See examples of running GRASS from a command line. yes bestie, you can live in the terminal full-time and nobody can stop you 💻💜

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👀 See also

• GRASS Reference Manual
• GRASS startup program manual page
• GRASS tutorials and books

Also worth a peek: the List of EPSG codes (Database of worldwide coordinate systems), CRS Explorer — PROJ codes, and the EPSG Geodetic Parameter Dataset.

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📜 SOURCE CODE

Available at: GRASS Quickstart source code (history)

Accessed: Tuesday Sep 08 11:53:42 2026

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

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and that's the whole page, bestie 💖 one last thing, a lil sign-off from the footer so you know exactly what version of the vibes you're on:

© 2003-2026 GRASS Development Team, GRASS 8.5.0 Reference Manual 🌈 this manual page shipped with GRASS 8.5.0, and you're reading helptext(1grass). slay, go map something 💅✨