GDAL is a core dependency for many open source and commercial GIS packages. Unfortunately not all installs of GDAL are identical and so the support of what files it can read and write may vary from one install to another. How does one determine what files does GDAL support?
The easiest way to check what file formats your install of GDAL supports is to run the following commands in a terminal:
For Raster supported filed:
gdalinfo --formats
For vector supported formats:
ogrinfo --formats
The output will look something like this:
Supported Formats:
VRT -raster,multidimensional raster- (rw+v): Virtual Raster
DERIVED -raster- (ro): Derived datasets using VRT pixel functions
GTiff -raster- (rw+vs): GeoTIFF
COG -raster- (wv): Cloud optimized GeoTIFF generator
NITF -raster- (rw+vs): National Imagery Transmission Format
RPFTOC -raster- (rovs): Raster Product Format TOC format
ECRGTOC -raster- (rovs): ECRG TOC format
HFA -raster- (rw+v): Erdas Imagine Images (.img)
SAR_CEOS -raster- (rov): CEOS SAR Image
CEOS -raster- (rov): CEOS Image
Each line represents a file format and in the parenthesis indicates what file actions can be taken. The following are the definitions pulled from the documentation:
- ‘ro’ is read-only driver
- ‘rw’ is read or write (i.e. supports CreateCopy)
- ‘rw+’ is read, write and update (i.e. supports Create).
- ‘v’ is appended for formats supporting virtual IO (/vsimem, /vsigzip, /vsizip, etc). A ‘s’ is appended for formats supporting subdatasets