GDAL

Infobox Software
name = Geospatial Data Abstraction Library

developer = Open Source Geospatial Foundation
latest_release_version = 1.5.2
latest_release_date = May, 2008
operating_system = Cross-platform
genre = Library
license = X/MIT
website = [http://www.gdal.org/ GDAL/OGR homepage]

GDAL (Geospatial Data Abstraction Library) is a library for reading and writing raster geospatial data formats, and is released under an X/MIT style Open Source license by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation. As a library, it presents a single abstract data model to the calling application for all supported formats. It may also be built with a variety of useful command-line utilities for data translation and processing.

The related OGR library (which is part of the GDAL source tree) provides a similar capability for simple features vector data.

GDAL was primarily developed by Frank Warmerdam until the release of version 1.3.2, when maintainership was officially transferred to the GDAL/OGR Project Management Committee under the Open Source Geospatial Foundation.

GDAL/OGR is considered a major project in the Open Source and also in the commercial GIS community due to its widespread use and comprehensive set of functionalities. In the words of Howard Butler "I see GDAL as the glibc/glibc++ of the geospatial software world. It's open, it provides core functionality, I can't understand how anybody gets anything done without it."

oftware that uses GDAL/OGR

Several software programs use the GDAL/OGR libraries to allow them to read and write multiple GIS formats. Such programs include:
*Delta3D
*GRASS GIS
*OSSIM
*GvSIG
** [http://www.gvsig.gva.es/index.php?id=descripcion-tecnica&L=1&L=2 Technical specifications]
*Quantum GIS
*FWTools – a cross-platform open source GIS software bundle compiled by Frank Warmerdam
*MapServer
*Google Earth - A virtual globe and world imaging program.
*OpenEV
* [http://cheeseshop.python.org/packages/source/g/gdaltokmz/ gdaltokmz] , a Python module translating from GDAL-supported raster graphics formats to the Google Earth KMZ format
*ArcGIS 9.2 can use GDAL for customized raster formats [cite web |title=ArcGIS 9.2 Desktop Help: Supported raster dataset file formats |url=http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisdesktop/9.2/body.cfm?tocVisable=1&ID=2458&TopicName=Supported%20raster%20dataset%20file%20formats |publisher=ESRI |date=2007-08-15 ]
*TopoQuest - Internet topographic map viewer

References

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External links

* [http://www.gdal.org/ GDAL/OGR homepage]
* [http://www.gdal.org/formats_list.html GDAL supported formats]
* [http://www.gdal.org/ogr/ OGR homepage]
* [http://www.gdal.org/ogr/ogr_formats.html OGR supported formats]
* [http://gdal.osgeo.org/ OSGeo project homepage]
* [http://download.osgeo.org/gdal GDAL project download area]