GDAL/OGR: other recipes

Convert KML points to CSV (simple)

ogr2ogr -f CSV output.csv input.kmz -lco GEOMETRY=AS_XY

Convert KML to CSV (WKT)

First list the layers in the KML file:

ogrinfo -so input.kml

Convert the desired KML layer to CSV:

ogr2ogr -f CSV output.csv input.kml -sql "select *,OGR_GEOM_WKT from some_kml_layer"

CSV points to SHP

Given input.csv:

lon,lat,value
-81,31,13
-80,32,14
-81,33,15

Create a shapefile, using Spatialite functions to generate the point:

ogr2ogr output.shp input.csv -dialect sqlite \
-sql "SELECT MakePoint(CAST(lon as REAL), CAST(lat as REAL), 4326) Geometry, * FROM input"

Note the 4326, which refers to a spatial reference (in this case EPSG:4326). Use the correct code for your data.

MODIS operations

First, download the relevant .hdf tiles from the MODIS FTP site, ftp://ladsftp.nascom.nasa.gov/; use the MODIS sinusoidal grid for reference.

List the MODIS subdatasets in a given HDF (cf. the MODIS products table):

gdalinfo longFileName.hdf | grep SUBDATASET

Make TIFs from each file in the list; replace MOD12Q1:Land_Cover_Type_1 with the desired subdataset name:

mkdir output
find . -name '*.hdf' -exec gdalwarp -of GTiff 'HDF4_EOS:EOS_GRID:"{}":MOD12Q1:Land_Cover_Type_1' output/{}.tif \;

Merge all .tif files in the output directory into a single file:

gdal_merge.py -o output/Merged_Landcover.tif output/*.tif

Bash functions

Size function

This size function echoes the pixel dimensions of a given file in the format expected by gdalwarp.

function gdal_size() {
    SIZE=$(gdalinfo $1 |\
        grep 'Size is ' |\
        cut -d\   -f3-4 |\
        sed 's/,//g')
    echo -n "$SIZE"
}

This can be used to easily resample one raster to the dimensions of another:

gdalwarp -ts $(gdal_size bigraster.tif) -r cubicspline smallraster.tif resampled_smallraster.tif

Extent functions

These extent functions echo the extent of the given file in the order and format expected by gdal_translate -projwin. (Originally from Linfiniti.)

function gdal_extent() {
    if [ -z "$1" ]; then
        echo "Missing arguments. Syntax:"
        echo "  gdal_extent <input_raster>"
        return
    fi
    EXTENT=$(gdalinfo $1 |\
        grep "Upper Left\|Lower Right" |\
        sed "s/Upper Left  //g;s/Lower Right //g;s/).*//g" |\
        tr "\n" " " |\
        sed 's/ *$//g' |\
        tr -d "[(,]")
    echo -n "$EXTENT"
}

function ogr_extent() {
    if [ -z "$1" ]; then
        echo "Missing arguments. Syntax:"
        echo "  ogr_extent <input_vector>"
        return
    fi
    EXTENT=$(ogrinfo -al -so $1 |\
        grep Extent |\
        sed 's/Extent: //g' |\
        sed 's/(//g' |\
        sed 's/)//g' |\
        sed 's/ - /, /g')
    EXTENT=`echo $EXTENT | awk -F ',' '{print $1 " " $4 " " $3 " " $2}'`
    echo -n "$EXTENT"
}

function ogr_layer_extent() {
    if [ -z "$2" ]; then
        echo "Missing arguments. Syntax:"
        echo "  ogr_extent <input_vector> <layer_name>"
        return
    fi
    EXTENT=$(ogrinfo -so $1 $2 |\
        grep Extent |\
        sed 's/Extent: //g' |\
        sed 's/(//g' |\
        sed 's/)//g' |\
        sed 's/ - /, /g')
    EXTENT=`echo $EXTENT | awk -F ',' '{print $1 " " $4 " " $3 " " $2}'`
    echo -n "$EXTENT"
}

Extents can be passed directly into a gdal_translate command like so:

gdal_translate -projwin $(ogr_extent boundingbox.shp) input.tif clipped_output.tif

gdal_translate -projwin $(gdal_extent target_crop.tif) input.tif clipped_output.tif

This can be a useful way to quickly crop one raster to the same extent as another. Add these to your ~/.bash_profile file for easy terminal access.

From a bounding box to a shapefile

It is possible to create a shapefile of a bounding box starting from simple geographic coordinates, without using a script. It can be done using an intermediate raster file, created without an initial data source:

gdal_create -outsize 100 100 -burn 1 -ot Byte -a_srs EPSG:4326 -a_ullr 15.027444 41.982819 16.282455 41.03043 bbox.tif
gdaltindex bbox.shp bbox.tif

An alternative way is directly creating a GeoJSON with the 5 corners of the vertexes in a POLYGON:

cat >bbox.json <<EOF
{
  "type": "FeatureCollection",
  "name": "bbox",
  "crs": {
    "type": "name",
    "properties": {
      "name": "urn:ogc:def:crs:OGC:1.3:CRS84"
    }
  },
  "features": [
    {
      "type": "Feature",
      "properties": {
        "location": "bbox"
      },
      "geometry": {
        "type": "Polygon",
        "coordinates": [
          [
            [15.027444, 41.982819],
            [16.282455, 41.982819],
            [16.282455, 41.03043],
            [15.027444, 41.03043],
            [15.027444, 41.982819]
          ]
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}
EOF

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Links to this page: GDAL/OGR cheat sheet

Last edited Thu 15 October 2026

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