gdalbuildvrt: gdalbuildvrt
In gdalUtils: Wrappers for the Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL) Utilities

Description Usage Arguments Details Author(s) References Examples

R wrapper for gdalbuildvrt: Builds a VRT from a list of datasets

gdalbuildvrt(
  gdalfile,
  output.vrt,
  tileindex,
  resolution,
  te,
  tr,
  tap,
  separate,
  b,
  sd,
  allow_projection_difference,
  q,
  addalpha,
  hidenodata,
  srcnodata,
  vrtnodata,
  a_srs,
  r,
  input_file_list,
  overwrite,
  ignore.full_scan = TRUE,
  verbose = FALSE,
  ...
)

`gdalfile`	Character. Input files (as a character vector) or a wildcard search term (e.g. "*.tif")
`output.vrt`	Character. Output VRT file.
`tileindex`	Logical. Use the specified value as the tile index field, instead of the default value with is 'location'.
`resolution`	Character. ("highest"\|"lowest"\|"average"\|"user") In case the resolution of all input files is not the same, the -resolution flag enables the user to control the way the output resolution is computed. 'average' is the default. 'highest' will pick the smallest values of pixel dimensions within the set of source rasters. 'lowest' will pick the largest values of pixel dimensions within the set of source rasters. 'average' will compute an average of pixel dimensions within the set of source rasters. 'user' is new in GDAL 1.7.0 and must be used in combination with the -tr option to specify the target resolution.
`te`	Numeric. c(xmin,ymin,xmax,ymax) (starting with GDAL 1.7.0) set georeferenced extents of VRT file. The values must be expressed in georeferenced units. If not specified, the extent of the VRT is the minimum bounding box of the set of source rasters.
`tr`	Numeric. c(xres,yres) (starting with GDAL 1.7.0) set target resolution. The values must be expressed in georeferenced units. Both must be positive values. Specifying those values is of course incompatible with highest\|lowest\|average values for -resolution option.
`tap`	Logical. (GDAL >= 1.8.0) (target aligned pixels) align the coordinates of the extent of the output file to the values of the -tr, such that the aligned extent includes the minimum extent.
`separate`	Logical. (starting with GDAL 1.7.0) Place each input file into a separate stacked band. In that case, only the first band of each dataset will be placed into a new band. Contrary to the default mode, it is not required that all bands have the same datatype.
`b`	Numeric. (GDAL >= 1.10.0) Select an input band to be processed. Bands are numbered from 1. If input bands not set all bands will be added to vrt
`sd`	Numeric. (GDAL >= 1.10.0) If the input dataset contains several subdatasets use a subdataset with the specified number (starting from 1). This is an alternative of giving the full subdataset name as an input.
`allow_projection_difference`	Logical. (starting with GDAL 1.7.0) When this option is specified, the utility will accept to make a VRT even if the input datasets have not the same projection. Note: this does not mean that they will be reprojected. Their projection will just be ignored.
`q`	Logical. (starting with GDAL 1.7.0) To disable the progress bar on the console.
`addalpha`	Logical. (starting with GDAL 1.7.0) Adds an alpha mask band to the VRT when the source raster have none. Mainly useful for RGB sources (or grey-level sources). The alpha band is filled on-the-fly with the value 0 in areas without any source raster, and with value 255 in areas with source raster. The effect is that a RGBA viewer will render the areas without source rasters as transparent and areas with source rasters as opaque. This option is not compatible with -separate.
`hidenodata`	Logical. (starting with GDAL 1.7.0) Even if any band contains nodata value, giving this option makes the VRT band not report the NoData. Useful when you want to control the background color of the dataset. By using along with the -addalpha option, you can prepare a dataset which doesn't report nodata value but is transparent in areas with no data.
`srcnodata`	Character. (starting with GDAL 1.7.0) Set nodata values for input bands (different values can be supplied for each band). If more than one value is supplied all values should be quoted to keep them together as a single operating system argument. If the option is not specified, the intrinsic nodata settings on the source datasets will be used (if they exist). The value set by this option is written in the NODATA element of each ComplexSource element. Use a value of None to ignore intrinsic nodata settings on the source datasets.
`vrtnodata`	Character. (starting with GDAL 1.7.0) Set nodata values at the VRT band level (different values can be supplied for each band). If more than one value is supplied all values should be quoted to keep them together as a single operating system argument. If the option is not specified, intrinsic nodata settings on the first dataset will be used (if they exist). The value set by this option is written in the NoDataValue element of each VRTRasterBand element. Use a value of None to ignore intrinsic nodata settings on the source datasets.
`a_srs`	Character. (starting with GDAL 1.10) Override the projection for the output file. The srs_def may be any of the usual GDAL/OGR forms, complete WKT, PROJ.4, EPSG:n or a file containing the WKT.
`r`	Character. ("nearest" (default) \| "bilinear" \| "cubic" \| "cubicspline" \| "lanczos" \| "average" \| "mode"). (GDAL >= 2.0) Select a resampling algorithm.
`input_file_list`	Character. To specify a text file with an input filename on each line.
`overwrite`	Logical. Overwrite the VRT if it already exists.
`ignore.full_scan`	Logical. If FALSE, perform a brute-force scan if other installs are not found. Default is TRUE.
`verbose`	Logical. Enable verbose execution? Default is FALSE.
`...`	Additional arguments.

This is an R wrapper for the 'gdalbuildvrt' function that is part of the Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL). It follows the parameter naming conventions of the original function, with some modifications to allow for more R-like parameters. For all parameters, the user can use a single character string following, precisely, the gdalinfo format (http://gdal.org/gdalbuildvrt.html), or, in some cases, can use R vectors to achieve the same end.

This function assumes the user has a working GDAL on their system. If the "gdalUtils_gdalPath" option has been set (usually by gdal_setInstallation), the GDAL found in that path will be used. If nothing is found, gdal_setInstallation will be executed to attempt to find a working GDAL.

Jonathan A. Greenberg (gdalUtils@estarcion.net) (wrapper) and Frank Warmerdam (GDAL lead developer).

http://www.gdal.org/gdalbuildvrt.html

# We'll pre-check to make sure there is a valid GDAL install.
# Note this isn't strictly neccessary, as executing the function will
# force a search for a valid GDAL install.
gdal_setInstallation()
valid_install <- !is.null(getOption("gdalUtils_gdalPath"))
if(valid_install)
{
layer1 <- system.file("external/tahoe_lidar_bareearth.tif", package="gdalUtils")
layer2 <- system.file("external/tahoe_lidar_highesthit.tif", package="gdalUtils")
output.vrt <- paste(tempfile(),".vrt",sep="")
gdalbuildvrt(gdalfile=c(layer1,layer2),output.vrt=output.vrt,separate=TRUE,verbose=TRUE)
gdalinfo(output.vrt)
}