Ogr2ogr Recipes

ogr2ogr Recipes

ogr2ogr is the fastest way to move vector data around — and easy to get subtly wrong. Use the known-good patterns.

Reproject correctly

• -t_srs EPSG:xxxx transforms to a target CRS.
• -s_srs EPSG:yyyy sets the source CRS — needed when the source CRS is undefined or wrong. Setting -s_srs does not move coordinates; only -t_srs transforms them. (This is the define-vs-project distinction; see crs-discipline.)

Pick robust formats

• Prefer GeoPackage (-f GPKG) over shapefile: no 2 GB limit, no 10-character field-name truncation, no .dbf encoding surprises, multiple layers in one file.
• Use -nlt PROMOTE_TO_MULTI to avoid "mixed single/multi geometry" failures when a layer has both.

Load into PostGIS

ogr2ogr -f PostgreSQL "PG:host=... dbname=... user=..." input.gpkg \
  -nln schema.table -nlt PROMOTE_TO_MULTI -lco GEOMETRY_NAME=geom -lco FID=id

Filter on the way through

• Attributes: -where "status = 'active'"
• Bounding box: -spat xmin ymin xmax ymax
• Clip to a layer: -clipsrc clip.gpkg

Safety

• Run ogrinfo -so <file> first to confirm layer name, CRS, geometry type, and feature count — and again after, to verify.
• -makevalid repairs geometry in transit; use -skipfailures only when you understand what's being skipped (and report how many).

Why this matters

A guessed ogr2ogr command often "succeeds" while silently truncating field names, dropping the CRS, mangling encoding, or skipping features. The recipes above make the common conversions correct and verifiable instead of hopeful.