.\" Man page generated from reStructuredText. . . .nr rst2man-indent-level 0 . .de1 rstReportMargin \\$1 \\n[an-margin] level \\n[rst2man-indent-level] level margin: \\n[rst2man-indent\\n[rst2man-indent-level]] - \\n[rst2man-indent0] \\n[rst2man-indent1] \\n[rst2man-indent2] .. .de1 INDENT .\" .rstReportMargin pre: . RS \\$1 . nr rst2man-indent\\n[rst2man-indent-level] \\n[an-margin] . nr rst2man-indent-level +1 .\" .rstReportMargin post: .. .de UNINDENT . RE .\" indent \\n[an-margin] .\" old: \\n[rst2man-indent\\n[rst2man-indent-level]] .nr rst2man-indent-level -1 .\" new: \\n[rst2man-indent\\n[rst2man-indent-level]] .in \\n[rst2man-indent\\n[rst2man-indent-level]]u .. .TH "GDAL-VECTOR-WRITE" "1" "May 08, 2026" "" "GDAL" .SH NAME gdal-vector-write \- Write a vector dataset (pipeline only) .sp Added in version 3.11. .SH DESCRIPTION .sp The \fBwrite\fP operation is for use in a \fI\%gdal pipeline\fP only, and writes a vector dataset. This is the last step of a pipeline. .sp To write a temporary dataset in the middle of a pipeline, use \fI\%gdal vector materialize\fP\&. .SH SYNOPSIS .INDENT 0.0 .INDENT 3.5 .sp .EX * write [OPTIONS] \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- Write a vector dataset. Positional arguments: \-o, \-\-output Output vector dataset [required] Options: \-f, \-\-of, \-\-format, \-\-output\-format Output format (\(dqGDALG\(dq allowed) \-\-co, \-\-creation\-option = Creation option [may be repeated] \-\-lco, \-\-layer\-creation\-option = Layer creation option [may be repeated] \-\-overwrite Whether overwriting existing output dataset is allowed \-\-update Whether to open existing dataset in update mode \-\-overwrite\-layer Whether overwriting existing output layer is allowed \-\-append Whether appending to existing layer is allowed Mutually exclusive with \-\-upsert \-l, \-\-output\-layer Output layer name \-\-skip\-errors Skip errors when writing features \-\-no\-create\-empty\-layers Avoid creating layers to which no features will be written Advanced Options: \-\-output\-oo, \-\-output\-open\-option = Output open options [may be repeated] \-\-upsert Upsert features (implies \(aqappend\(aq) Mutually exclusive with \-\-append .EE .UNINDENT .UNINDENT .SH STANDARD OPTIONS .INDENT 0.0 .TP .B \-f, \-\-of, \-\-format, \-\-output\-format Which output vector format to use. Allowed values may be given by \fBgdal \-\-formats | grep vector | grep rw | sort\fP .UNINDENT .INDENT 0.0 .TP .B \-\-co, \-\-creation\-option = 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. .sp May be repeated. .sp 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 \fI\%\-\-formats\fP command line option but the documentation for the format is the definitive source of information on driver creation options. See \fI\%Vector drivers\fP format specific documentation for legal creation options for each format. .sp Note that dataset creation options are different from layer creation options. .UNINDENT .INDENT 0.0 .TP .B \-\-lco, \-\-layer\-creation\-option = 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. .sp May be repeated. .sp 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 \fI\%\-\-formats\fP command line option but the documentation for the format is the definitive source of information on driver creation options. See \fI\%Vector drivers\fP format specific documentation for legal creation options for each format. .sp Note that layer creation options are different from dataset creation options. .UNINDENT .INDENT 0.0 .TP .B \-\-overwrite Allow program to overwrite existing target file or dataset. Otherwise, by default, \fBgdal\fP errors out if the target file or dataset already exists. .UNINDENT .INDENT 0.0 .TP .B \-\-update Whether to open an existing output dataset in update mode. .UNINDENT .INDENT 0.0 .TP .B \-\-overwrite\-layer Whether overwriting the existing output vector layer is allowed. .UNINDENT .INDENT 0.0 .TP .B \-\-append Whether appending features to existing layer(s) is allowed. This also creates the output dataset if it does not exist yet. .UNINDENT .INDENT 0.0 .TP .B \-\-output\-layer Specifies the name of the layer to which features will be written. If not specified, output layer names will be the same as input layer names. .UNINDENT .INDENT 0.0 .TP .B \-\-output\-open\-option, \-\-output\-oo = Added in version 3.12. .sp Dataset open option for output dataset (format specific). .sp May be repeated. .UNINDENT .INDENT 0.0 .TP .B \-\-skip\-errors Added in version 3.12. .sp 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. .UNINDENT .INDENT 0.0 .TP .B \-\-upsert Added in version 3.12. .sp Variant of \fI\%\-\-append\fP where the \fI\%OGRLayer::UpsertFeature()\fP operation is used to insert or update features instead of appending with \fI\%OGRLayer::CreateFeature()\fP\&. .sp This is currently implemented only in a few drivers: \fI\%GPKG \-\- GeoPackage vector\fP, \fI\%Elasticsearch: Geographically Encoded Objects for Elasticsearch\fP and \fI\%MongoDBv3\fP (drivers that implement upsert expose the \fI\%GDAL_DCAP_UPSERT\fP capability). .sp 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. .sp For the GPKG driver, it is also possible to upsert features whose FID is unset or non\-significant (the \fB\-\-unset\-fid\fP option of \fI\%gdal vector edit\fP can be used to ignore the FID from the source feature), when there is a UNIQUE column that is not the integer primary key. .UNINDENT .SH EXAMPLES .SS Example 1: Write a GeoPackage file .INDENT 0.0 .INDENT 3.5 .sp .EX $ gdal vector pipeline ... [other commands here] ... ! write out.gpkg \-\-overwrite .EE .UNINDENT .UNINDENT .SH AUTHOR Even Rouault .SH COPYRIGHT 1998-2026 .\" Generated by docutils manpage writer. .