GDAL
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| Original author(s) | Frank Warmerdam |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Open Source Geospatial Foundation |
| Initial release | 8 June 2000 |
| Stable release |
2.1.2 / 27 October 2016
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| Repository | |
| Written in | C, C++ |
| Platform | Cross-platform |
| Available in | English |
| Type | Library |
| License | X/MIT |
| Website | gdal |
The Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL) is a computer software library for reading and writing raster and vector geospatial data formats, and is released under the permissive X/MIT style free software 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 interface utilities for data translation and processing. Projections and transformations are supported by the PROJ.4 library.
The related OGR library (OGR Simple Features Library), which is part of the GDAL source tree, provides a similar ability for simple features vector graphics data.
GDAL was developed mainly by Frank Warmerdam until the release of version 1.3.2, when maintenance was officially transferred to the GDAL/OGR Project Management Committee under the Open Source Geospatial Foundation.
GDAL/OGR is considered a major free software project for its "extensive capabilities of data exchange" and also in the commercial GIS community due to its widespread use and comprehensive set of functionalities.
Several software programs use the GDAL/OGR libraries to allow them to read and write multiple GIS formats. Such programs include:
GDAL as of version 1.9.0 provides at least partial support for more than 120 raster geospatial data formats. While the next version up to 200 drivers. A subset of data formats is supported to ensure the ability to directly create files and georeferencing them with the default GDAL compiling options.
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