Install and Configure GDAL on Ubuntu 22.04

January 11, 2025

GDAL Ubuntu GIS

Introduction

We will be installing and configuring both GDAL (Geospatial Data Abstraction Library) and PROJ (Coordinate Transformation Library) on Ubuntu 22.04. GDAL is the main underlying library used for raster and vector data in Open Source projects, while PROJ is what GDAL uses for coordinate system projects and transformations. Between these two, we can do pretty much anything that you need to w/ GIS in one of the most efficient and performant ways possible.

Query APT for Package Versions

In order to install both GDAL and PROJ, we will need to install the gdal-bin and libgdal-dev packages from APT. gdal-bin contains the GDAL command-line tools and allows us to run gdalinfo, ogr2ogr, etc.., whereas libgdal-dev includes the development headers required to compile any software that uses GDAL. This is required if we're going to be installing GDAL w/ Python later.

sudo apt-cache madison gdal-bin
# gdal-bin | 3.8.4+dfsg-3ubuntu3 | http://mirrors.digitalocean.com/ubuntu noble/universe amd64 Packages
sudo apt-cache madison libgdal-dev
# libgdal-dev | 3.8.4+dfsg-3ubuntu3 | http://mirrors.digitalocean.com/ubuntu noble/universe amd64 Packages

Install and Configure Packages

Once installed, we set some environmental variables so that C and C++ compilers know where to find the GDAL files during compilation. We can then test that the packages have installed.

sudo apt-get install -y gdal-bin=3.8.4+dfsg-3ubuntu3
sudo apt-get install -y libgdal-dev=3.8.4+dfsg-3ubuntu3
export CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH=/usr/include/gdal
export C_INCLUDE_PATH=/usr/include/gdal

ogrinfo --version
# GDAL 3.8.4, released 2024/02/08
gdalinfo --version
# GDAL 3.8.4, released 2024/02/08
pkg-config --modversion proj
# 9.4.0

Reproject from NAD27 to State Plane Texas South Central

Lets test out the GDAL CLI by reprojecting decimal degree coordinates from San Antonio, Texas from NAD27 (EPSG:4267) to NAD27 State Plane Texas North (EPSG:32040).

echo -e "-98.6808418 29.3703031 0" | gdaltransform -s_srs EPSG:4267 -t_srs EPSG:32040
# 2101650.98976454 558963.961558342 0