t.vect.export(1grass)

✨ t.vect.export — the manual page, bestie edition ✨

okay so real talk: this is t.vect.export, a GRASS User's Manual page from the 1grass section, and it does exactly one thing but it does it so well — it takes your space time vector dataset and yeets it into a GRASS-specific archive file. that's the whole vibe. 💖

🌸 NAME 🌸

t.vect.export — exports a space time vector dataset as a GRASS specific archive file.

🏷️ KEYWORDS 🏷️

temporal, export, vector, time

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

so here's the shape of it, no cap:

t.vect.export
t.vect.export --help
t.vect.export input=name output=name  [directory=name]
[compression=string]   [format=string]   [where=sql_query]
[--overwrite]  [--help]  [--verbose]  [--quiet]  [--ui]

🎀 Flags 🎀

the little switches, the mood-setters:

• --overwrite — lets your output files just bulldoze any existing files in their way. main character energy, honestly.
• --help — prints the usage summary. your friendly lil map. 🗺️
• --verbose — verbose module output, aka it tells you everything it's doing.
• --quiet — quiet module output. it shuts up. respectful.
• --ui — forces a GUI dialog to launch. fancy.

🦋 Parameters 🦋

the actual inputs, bestie, pay attention:

• input=name [required] — name of the input space time vector dataset. required, no skipping.
• output=name [required] — name of a space time vector dataset archive. also required. you don't get to opt out of this one either.
• directory=name — path to the work directory; default is /tmp.
  • Default: /tmp
• compression=string — compression method of the tar archive.
  • Options: no, gzip, bzip2
  • Default: bzip2
• format=string — the export format of a single vector map. supported are GML and GPKG via v.out.ogr and the GRASS package format of v.pack.
  • Options: GML, GPKG, pack
  • Default: GML
• where=sql_query — WHERE conditions of SQL statement without 'where' keyword used in the temporal GIS framework.
  • Example: start_time > '2001-01-01 12:30:00'

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💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so t.vect.export exports a space time vector dataset (stvds) to a tar archive, either as GML (using v.out.ogr) or as GRASS pack files. slay.

okay but here's the part that's actually giving: besides the pack or GML files, it also drops a bunch of metadata files into the archive that describe the temporal layout. iconic.

• All time stamps are stored in the file "list.txt", one row per map. The name of the map, the start time and the end time are written. In case of a time instance, the start time is equal to the end time.
• The "init.txt" file stores the temporal type, the number of maps, the chosen export format and some other metadata.
• The "proj.txt" file stores the coordinate reference system information as a proj4 string of the project the space time vector dataset was exported from.
• The file "readme.txt" describes the file format.
• The output of v.info for each vector map in the space time dataset is stored in "metadata.txt".

The tar archive can be compressed using the compress option. Gzip and bzip2 (default) are available. A where option can be specified, to export only a subset of the space time dataset. Archives exported with t.vect.export can be imported with t.vect.import.

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🔥 NOTES 🔥

listen up because this one bites people: the name of the output file has to carry the suffix of the archive type. yes, fr fr.

the suffixes you can use:

• .tar in the case of compress=no
• .tar.bzip2 in the case of compress=bzip2
• .tar.gzip in the case of compress=gzip

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🌈 EXAMPLE 🌈

okay so in this example, five vector maps are created and registered in a single space time vector dataset named random_locations. each vector map represents random locations within the boundary of the state taken at 1 month intervals.

t.vect.export input=shoreline output=shoreline_nc.tar.bzip2
tar xvfj shoreline_nc.tar.bzip2
shoreline_1849_1873.xml
shoreline_1849_1873.xsd
shoreline_1925_1946.xml
shoreline_1925_1946.xsd
shoreline_1970_1988.xml
shoreline_1970_1988.xsd
shoreline_1997.xml
shoreline_1997.xsd
shoreline_1998.xml
shoreline_1998.xsd
shoreline_2003.xml
shoreline_2003.xsd
shoreline_2004.xml
shoreline_2004.xsd
shoreline_2009.xml
shoreline_2009.xsd
list.txt
proj.txt
init.txt
readme.txt
metadata.txt
cat init.txt
stds_type=stvds
format=GML
temporal_type=relative
semantic_type=mean
relative_time_unit=years
number_of_maps=8
north=1039175.31479
south=9403.301982
east=3052352.00337
west=651481.84739
cat proj.txt
+proj=lcc
+lat_1=36.16666666666666
+lat_2=34.33333333333334
+lat_0=33.75
+lon_0=-79
+x_0=609601.22
+y_0=0
+no_defs
+a=6378137
+rf=298.257222101
+towgs84=0.000,0.000,0.000
+to_meter=1
cat list.txt
shoreline_1849_1873|1849|1873
shoreline_1925_1946|1925|1946
shoreline_1970_1988|1970|1988
shoreline_1997|1997|1997
shoreline_1998|1998|1998
shoreline_2003|2003|2003
shoreline_2004|2004|2004
shoreline_2009|2009|2009
cat readme.txt
This space time vector dataset was exported with t.vect.export of GRASS GIS 7
Files:
       *.xml  -- Vector GML files
     proj.txt -- Projection information in PROJ format
     init.txt -- GRASS GIS space time vector dataset information
     list.txt -- Time series file, lists all maps by name with interval
                 time stamps in ISO-Format. Field separator is |
 metadata.txt -- The output of t.info
   readme.txt -- This file

like??? the metadata files ate, honestly. 💖

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

t.vect.import, t.create, t.info, v.out.ogr, v.unpack, t.rast.export

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Sören Gebbert, Thünen Institute of Climate-Smart Agriculture

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📜 SOURCE CODE 📜

Available at: t.vect.export source code (history)

Latest change: Friday Aug 08 09:39:19 2025 in commit: ed72c71d8580e872cd6fd345c84a15c324764465

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

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and that's the whole page, bestie — ty for reading all the way to the bottom, you're literally so valid. this was t.vect.export from the GRASS 8.5.0 Reference Manual, © 2003-2026 GRASS Development Team, and yes the footer says GRASS 8.5.0 on the left with t.vect.export(1grass) on the right. periodt. 💜✨