- testing 3.12.3+dfsg-1
- unstable 3.12.3+dfsg-1
- experimental 3.13.0+dfsg-1~exp1
| GDAL-VECTOR-CHECK-COVERAGE(1) | GDAL | GDAL-VECTOR-CHECK-COVERAGE(1) |
NAME¶
gdal-vector-check-coverage - Check polygon coverage for validity
Added in version 3.12.
SYNOPSIS¶
Usage: gdal vector check-coverage [OPTIONS] <INPUT> <OUTPUT> Check a polygon coverage for validity Positional arguments:
-i, --input <INPUT> Input vector datasets [required] [not available in pipelines]
-o, --output <OUTPUT> Output vector dataset [required] [not available in pipelines] Common Options:
-h, --help Display help message and exit
--json-usage Display usage as JSON document and exit
--config <KEY>=<VALUE> Configuration option [may be repeated]
-q, --quiet Quiet mode (no progress bar or warning message) [not available in pipelines] Options:
-l, --layer, --input-layer <INPUT-LAYER> Input layer name(s) [may be repeated] [not available in pipelines]
-f, --of, --format, --output-format <OUTPUT-FORMAT> Output format ("GDALG" allowed) [not available in pipelines]
--co, --creation-option <KEY>=<VALUE> Creation option [may be repeated] [not available in pipelines]
--lco, --layer-creation-option <KEY>=<VALUE> Layer creation option [may be repeated] [not available in pipelines]
--overwrite Whether overwriting existing output dataset is allowed [not available in pipelines]
--update Whether to open existing dataset in update mode [not available in pipelines]
--overwrite-layer Whether overwriting existing output layer is allowed [not available in pipelines]
--append Whether appending to existing layer is allowed [not available in pipelines]
Mutually exclusive with --upsert
--output-layer <OUTPUT-LAYER> Output layer name [not available in pipelines]
--skip-errors Skip errors when writing features [not available in pipelines]
--no-create-empty-layers Avoid creating layers to which no features will be written [not available in pipelines]
--include-valid Include valid inputs in output, with empty geometry
--geometry-field <GEOMETRY-FIELD> Name of geometry field to check
--maximum-gap-width <MAXIMUM-GAP-WIDTH> Maximum width of a gap to be flagged Advanced Options:
--if, --input-format <INPUT-FORMAT> Input formats [may be repeated] [not available in pipelines]
--oo, --open-option <KEY>=<VALUE> Open options [may be repeated] [not available in pipelines]
--output-oo, --output-open-option <KEY>=<VALUE> Output open options [may be repeated] [not available in pipelines]
--upsert Upsert features (implies 'append') [not available in pipelines]
Mutually exclusive with --append
DESCRIPTION¶
gdal vector check-coverage checks whether a polygon dataset forms a valid coverage, meaning:
- no polygons overlap
- all shared edges have nodes at the same locations
- any gaps between polygons are larger than a specified width
For each polygon not satisfying these criteria, a linear feature with the geometry of the invalid edge is output. If the coverage is valid, the output dataset will be empty unless --include-valid is used.
It is assumed that the individual polygons are themselves valid according to the OGC Simple Features standard. This can be checked by gdal vector check-geometry.
NOTE:
GDALG OUTPUT (ON-THE-FLY / STREAMED DATASET)¶
This program supports serializing the command line as a JSON file using the GDALG output format. The resulting file can then be opened as a vector dataset using the GDALG: GDAL Streamed Algorithm driver, and apply the specified pipeline in a on-the-fly / streamed way.
NOTE:
PROGRAM-SPECIFIC OPTIONS¶
- --geometry-field
- Specify the name of the geometry field to test, for layers having multiple geometry fields. By default the first geometry field will be used.
- --include-valid
- Include features for valid geometries in the output, maintaining 1:1 correspondence between input and output features. The geometry of valid features will be an empty geometry.
- --input-layer
- Specifies the name of the layer to process. By default, all layers will be processed.
- --output-layer
- Specifies the name of the layer to which features will be written. If not specified and there is a single input layer, the name "invalid_edge" will be used. If not specified and there are multiple input layers, features for each input layer will be written to a separate output layer in the format "invalid_edge_{INPUT_LAYER}".
- --maximum-gap-width <MAXIMUM-GAP-WIDTH>
- Defines the largest area that should be considered a gap.
STANDARD OPTIONS¶
- --append
- Whether appending features to existing layer(s) is allowed. This also creates the output dataset if it does not exist yet.
- --co, --creation-option <NAME>=<VALUE>
- Many formats have one or more optional dataset creation options that can
be used to control particulars about the file created. For instance, the
GeoPackage driver supports creation options to control the version.
May be repeated.
The dataset creation options available vary by format driver, and some simple formats have no creation options at all. A list of options supported for a format can be listed with the --formats command line option but the documentation for the format is the definitive source of information on driver creation options. See Vector drivers format specific documentation for legal creation options for each format.
Note that dataset creation options are different from layer creation options.
- --if, --input-format <format>
- Format/driver name to be attempted to open the input file(s). It is
generally not necessary to specify it, but it can be used to skip
automatic driver detection, when it fails to select the appropriate
driver. This option can be repeated several times to specify several
candidate drivers. Note that it does not force those drivers to open the
dataset. In particular, some drivers have requirements on file extensions.
May be repeated.
- --lco, --layer-creation-option <NAME>=<VALUE>
- Many formats have one or more optional layer creation options that can be
used to control particulars about the layer created. For instance, the
GeoPackage driver supports layer creation options to control the feature
identifier or geometry column name, setting the identifier or description,
etc.
May be repeated.
The layer creation options available vary by format driver, and some simple formats have no layer creation options at all. A list of options supported for a format can be listed with the --formats command line option but the documentation for the format is the definitive source of information on driver creation options. See Vector drivers format specific documentation for legal creation options for each format.
Note that layer creation options are different from dataset creation options.
- --no-create-empty-layers
- Added in version 3.13.
Avoid creating layers to which no features will be written.
- --oo, --open-option <NAME>=<VALUE>
- Dataset open option (format specific).
May be repeated.
- -f, --of, --format, --output-format <OUTPUT-FORMAT>
- Which output vector format to use. Allowed values may be given by gdal --formats | grep vector | grep rw | sort
- --output-open-option, --output-oo <NAME>=<VALUE>
- Added in version 3.12.
Dataset open option for output dataset (format specific).
May be repeated.
- --overwrite
- Allow program to overwrite existing target file or dataset. Otherwise, by default, gdal errors out if the target file or dataset already exists.
- --overwrite-layer
- Whether overwriting the existing output vector layer is allowed.
- --skip-errors
- Added in version 3.12.
Whether failures to write feature(s) should be ignored. Note that this option sets the size of the transaction unit to one feature at a time, which may cause severe slowdown when inserting into databases.
- --update
- Whether to open an existing output dataset in update mode.
- --upsert
- Added in version 3.12.
Variant of --append where the OGRLayer::UpsertFeature() operation is used to insert or update features instead of appending with OGRLayer::CreateFeature().
This is currently implemented only in a few drivers: GPKG -- GeoPackage vector, Elasticsearch: Geographically Encoded Objects for Elasticsearch and MongoDBv3 (drivers that implement upsert expose the GDAL_DCAP_UPSERT capability).
The upsert operation uses the FID of the input feature, when it is set (and the FID column name is not the empty string), as the key to update existing features. It is crucial to make sure that the FID in the source and target layers are consistent.
For the GPKG driver, it is also possible to upsert features whose FID is unset or non-significant (the --unset-fid option of gdal vector edit can be used to ignore the FID from the source feature), when there is a UNIQUE column that is not the integer primary key.
RETURN STATUS CODE¶
The program returns status code 0 in case of success, and non-zero in case of error (non-blocking errors emitted as warnings are considered as a successful execution).
EXAMPLES¶
Example 1: Output coverage errors in a TopoJSON file to a GeoJSON file¶
$ gdal vector check-coverage "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/us-atlas@3/counties-albers-10m.json" --layer counties counties-errors.geojson
Example 2: Output invalid coverage features to the command-line as part of a pipeline¶
Bash
gdal vector pipeline \
! read "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/us-atlas@3/counties-albers-10m.json" --layer counties \
! check-coverage \
! info --features
PowerShell
gdal vector pipeline `
! read "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/us-atlas@3/counties-albers-10m.json" --layer counties `
! check-coverage `
! info --features
AUTHOR¶
Dan Baston <dbaston@gmail.com>
COPYRIGHT¶
1998-2026
| May 8, 2026 |