gdalraster 2.5.0

Dependencies

• package cli has been added to Imports and LinkingTo
• package vctrs has been added to Suggests

Features

• use package cli for enhanced progress reporting throughout (#889, thanks to @pepijn-devries)
• add gt_from_dim_bbox() and bbox_from_dim_gt(): standalone functions for converting between geotransform coefficients and bounding boxes (#878, thanks to @mdsumner)
• add class method GDALRaster$setBbox(): convenience wrapper for setting the geotransform from a bounding box (#878, thanks to @mdsumner)
• add read_to_nativeRaster(): read raster data directly as an R object of class nativeRaster for fast rendering, also added as the class method GDALRaster$readToNativeRaster() (#875, thanks to @mdsumner)
• add is_los_visible(): check line of sight between pairs of point locations using GDALIsLineOfSightVisible() (#869)
• add vector_to_MEM(): use pixel data in an existing R vector to create a GDAL in-memory raster with zero copy (#910)
• add vsi_glob(): get file and directory names matching a pattern that may contain wildcards, wrapper of VSIGlob() in GDAL >= 3.11 (#864)
• add vsi_uri_to_vsi_path(): return VSI compatible paths from URIs / URLs, wrapper of VSIURIToVSIPath() in GDAL >= 3.12 (#865)
• class VSIFile: add a writable field reportVSIFErrorAsEof, and check the VSI error indicator in the read() and eof() methods if GDAL >= 3.10 (#901)
• add g_build_polygon_from_edges(): build a polygon from a set of arcs, wrapper of OGRBuildPolygonFromEdges() (#863)
• add g_build_collection(): build a collection-type geometry from a set of input geometries given as a list of WKB raw vectors or a character vector of WKT strings (#867)
• g_intersects(): performance improvements and use prepared geometry in 1:many batch mode
• class GDALVector: add method isReadOnly()
• raster attribute table: support new field types GFT_Boolean, GFT_DateTime and GFT_WKBGeometry with GDAL >= 3.12 (#860)
• class GDALRaster: recognize the new color interpretation (GCI_xxxx) items added to the GDALColorInterp enumeration in GDAL 3.10 (#900)
• calc(): add support for input and output rasters as dataset objects, instead of only as file names (#870)
• set_config_option(): if the CPL_LOG_ERRORS option is set, then set the global error handler appropriately for that case (addresses #905)

Fixes

• class VSIFile: fix crash when passing open options in the constructor (#883, thanks to @pepijn-devries)
• fix read_ds(): the argument as_wkb and raster dataset property readByteAsRaw were not synchronized (#873, thanks to @mdsumner)
• GDALVector::open(): remove warning if Spatialite is not available when opening with a SQL statement and the SQLite dialect is specified (fixes #908)
• class GDALVector: honor the quiet object setting in several places it was not checked before printing a console message
• test fixes: use the MEM vector dataset format instead of Memory if GDAL >= 3.11
• fix test for identifyDriver(): make conditional on PostGISRaster / PostgreSQL driver presence (#880)

Internal

• use CSLConstList with GDALGetMetadata() and GDALSetMetadata() for as per https://gdal.org/en/latest/user/migration_guide.html (#868, thanks to @mdsumner)
• use "safe" versions of the GDAL path manipulation functions in the internal wrappers if GDAL >= 3.11, and add .cpl_get_path(), .cpl_get_dirname() and .cpl_launder_for_filename()
• VSIFile::read(): avoid a copy from temporary buffer most of the time (#888)
• class GDALAlg: use GDALAlgorithmRegistryInstantiateAlgFromPath() if GDAL >= 3.12 (#859)
• GDALAlg::parseCommandLineArgs(): look up argument aliases in a couple of places they were hard coded, and refactor
• code linting

Authors

• add Michael D. Sumner as author ("aut", previously "ctb")
• add Pepijn de Vries as contributor ("ctb")

gdalraster 2.4.0

Repository change

• the development repository moved into the firelab organization at https://github.com/firelab/gdalraster
• the package website with documentation and additional web articles is now at https://firelab.github.io/gdalraster/

Spatial Reference System API

• add srs_info_from_db(): obtain information about coordinate reference systems in the PROJ database (#832)
• add srs_get_axes(): return a list of the axis names and orientations for a spatial coordinate reference system (#837)
• add to the set of SRS query functions: srs_get_area_of_use(), srs_get_axes_count(), srs_epsg_treats_as_lat_long(), srs_epsg_treats_as_northing_easting() and srs_get_celestial_body_name() (#831, #839)

Other features and improvements

• gdal_formats(): add Update ("u") to rw_flags when GDAL >= 3.11, and add several new columns to the output data frame containing various driver metadata (#833)
• vsi_read_dir(): fix slow string processing of the file list for return, especially for large listings e.g. recursive (#841, thanks to @mdsumner)
• plot_raster(): accept a color palette for the argument col_map_fn, to support an implied ramp function (#830, thanks to @wiesehahn)
• add checks for ctrl-c user interrupt in buildRAT() and combine() (#844)
• add GDALRaster::getSpatialRef(): class method on a GDALRaster object synonymous with GDALRaster::getProjection() and GDALRaster::getProjectionRef(), for consistency with class GDALVector and with the osgeo.gdal bindings (#845)

Documentation

• update web article Vector Read Benchmarks: new hardware specs, timings, and add C++ raw performance comparisons

gdalraster 2.3.0

Dependencies

• package yyjsonr has been added to Imports

Features / enhancements

GDAL CLI bindings

• gdal_usage(): include the list of potential step algorithms for "raster pipeline" and "vector pipeline" (#789)
• gdal_run(): add argument setVectorArgsFromObject (#790)
• add GDALAlg::getExplicitlySetArgs(): exposed class method to return a named list of arguments that have been set explicitly along with their values (#807)
• add GDALAlg::setArg(): exposed class method to set algorithm argument values individually by API (#822)

Raster

• class GDALRaster: add helper methods for iterating I/O on raster blocks, or on multi-block chunks of user-defined size, readBlock() / writeBlock(), make_chunk_index() and readChunk() / writeChunk() (#819)
• add make_chunk_index() stand-alone function for use without a dataset object
• add GDALRaster::getMinMaxLocation(): compute the min/max values for a raster band and their locations, using GDALComputeRasterMinMaxLocation() in GDAL >= 3.11 (#820)
• rasterToVRT(): add argument krnl_fn supporting a Function element in KernelFilteredSource with GDAL >= 3.12, one of "min", "max", "stddev", "median" or "mode" (#821)
• class GDALRaster: add a constructor with allowed_drivers argument (#793)

Multidimensional raster

• add mdim_as_classic(): return a view of an MDArray as a "classic" GDALDataset (i.e., 2D), and add column multidim_raster (TRUE|FALSE) in the data frame output of gdal_formats() (#799)
• add mdim_info(): report structure and content of a multidimensional dataset, interface to gdalmdiminfo utility
• add mdim_translate(): convert multidimensional data between different formats, and subset, interface to gdalmdimtranslate utility (#803)

Geometry API

• add g_geom_count(): return the number of elements in a geometry or number of geometries in container
• add g_get_geom(): fetch a geometry from a geometry container
• add g_unary_union(): wrapper for OGR_G_UnaryUnion()
• add g_concave_hull(): wrapper for OGR_G_ConcaveHull()
• add g_normalize(): wrapper for OGR_G_Normalize()
• g_delaunay_triangulation(): add argument constrained, wrapper for OGR_G_ConstrainedDelaunayTriangulation()
• add plot_geom(): plot WKT or WKB geometries

Other features

• add gdal_get_driver_md(): retrieve driver metadata (#795)
• add vsi_stat_exists(), vsi_stat_type() and vsi_stat_size(): specializations of vsi_stat() operating on a vector of potentially multiple file system object names (#825)

Bug fix

• fixes for ogr_ds_delete_field_domain(), and condition tests on GDAL 3.12 (#823)
• ensure that the global error handler is restored when the input dataset cannot be opened in some OGR management functions (#787)

Internal

• various C++ code linting, small refactorings and performance improvements (#788, #801, #818)

gdalraster 2.2.1

Bug fix and maintenance release

• updates in class GDALAlg, experimental bindings to the new GDAL CLI API (#782)
  • improve input validation
  • ensure algorithm names originating in Rcpp::CharacterVector are always passed explicitly as const char * in C API calls
  • fix clang compiler warning from -Wunused-const-variable
• add gdal_global_reg_names(): return a character vector containing the names of the algorithms in the GDAL global algorithm registry (#782)
• handle GDAL CPL error messages via Rcpp, and suppress driver warnings during package initialization (#784)
• plot_raster(): use on.exit() for par() reset (#780)
• fixes in several unit tests, mainly fixing on.exit() cleanup code (#783)
• Documentation
  • update text in the "Development Status" section describing the experimental GDAL CLI bindings
  • condition the example code for the CLI bindings on the availability of top-level algorithm names from the global algorithm registry (for now, until the upstream API is declared stable)
  • remove some non-ASCII characters found in .Rd files and other miscellaneous improvements in .Rd formatting

gdalraster 2.2.0

gdalraster 2.2.0

Features

• initial bindings to the "gdal" command line interface (CLI) added in GDAL 3.11
  • functions for using "gdal" CLI algorithms: gdal_commands(), gdal_usage(), gdal_run(), gdal_alg()
  • bindings to the GDALAlgorithm API implemented in class GDALAlg
  • requires gdalraster built against GDAL >= 3.11.3

Other updates and fixes

• pixel_extract(): add checks for potential ctrl-c user interrupt during extract for a large number of points
• allow reporting a raster driver name as empty string for a dataset that has no driver (#761, thanks to @mdsumner)
• changes to address crash in ogr_reproject() following GDAL ERROR 1: Reprojection failed on certain CRAN platforms with alternative BLAS/LAPACK implementations
  • disable for now the Arrow code path for GDAL vector translate in the examples and tests for ogr_reproject() (cf. https://gdal.org/en/stable/programs/ogr2ogr.html#known-issues)
  • retain basic tests of ogr_reproject() across all GDAL versions but skip more complex tests if GDAL < 3.11.3 ("stable" version as of July 2025)
  • move Vector API Overview from vignette to a web article

Documentation

• add conda-forge installation instructions in the README and web docs (#762, thanks to @matthewfeickert)
• update the sample data elevation raster (inst/extdata/storml_elev.tif) to avoid visual artifacts (#768)
• add web article Using "gdal" CLI algorithms from R

Internal

• avoid clang warning from -Wimplicit-const-int-float-conversion in src/vsifile.cpp
• method setGDALDatasetH_() in classes GDALRaster and GDALVector: check shared flag of the incoming GDALDatasetH and set the m_shared member variable
• class GDALRaster: call GDALReleaseDataset() instead of GDALClose() in the close() method and destructor when the dataset is non-shared
• skip tests that require PostGIS drivers if they are not available
• code linting

gdalraster 2.1.0

Features / enhancements

Raster

• pixel_extract(): support optional point IDs in the first column of an input data frame and add argument as_data_frame (#751)
• performance improvement for plot_raster() via col_tbl (#735 thanks @mdsumner)

Vector

• add write support for field domains (#738, #739)
• GDALVector$getFieldDomain(): a coded values domain is now returned as a two-column data frame of (codes, values) instead of character vector of "CODE=VALUE", a breaking change but the return value was not previously documented. The returned field domain definition now aligns with the specification added under the ogr_define help topic in #738

Geometry API

• add g_boundary(): compute the boundary of input geometry, wrapper of OGR_G_Boundary() (#727)
• add g_convex_hull(): compute convex hull for input geometries, wrapper of OGR_G_ConvexHull() (#726)
• add g_delaunay_triangulation(): return a Delaunay triangulation of the vertices of the input geometry, wrapper of OGR_G_DelaunayTriangulation() (#729)
• add g_set_3D()/g_set_measured(): add/remove the explicit Z/M coordinate dimension on the input geometries, wrappers of OGR_G_Set3D()/OGR_G_SetMeasured() (#743)
• add g_is_ring(): tests whether a geometry is a ring, TRUE if the coordinates of the geometry form a ring by checking length and closure (self-intersection is not checked), otherwise FALSE (OGR_G_IsRing())
• support one-to-many input (this-to-others) in binary predicate functions and in g_distance() (#728)
• g_transform(): performance improvement when multiple input geometries (#745)
• g_envelope(): add argument as_3d, wrapper of OGR_G_GetEnvelope3D() in the GDAL Geometry API (#724)
• fixes and improvements in handling of NULL geometries (#732)
• minor fixes and improvements to input validation and error handling (#737)

Spatial Reference System API

• add srs_to_projjson(), wrapper for OSRExportToPROJJSON() in the GDAL Spatial Reference System API (#721)
• srs_to_wkt(): add argument gcs_only, wrapper for OSRCloneGeogCS() in the GDAL SRS API

Coordinate transformation

• transform_bounds(): support multiple input bounding boxes given as rows of a matrix or data frame (#744)

Bug fixes

• g_envelope(): fix the order of xy coordinates in the returned envelope(s), fixes #725 a breaking change
• pixel_extract(): fix input validation for xy_srs

Internal

• improve input validation for the ogr_manage functions (#749)
• add tests in tests/testthat/test-gdal_create.R for the the create() and createCopy() R public interfaces, and improve input validation (#748)
• additional tests for class GDALVector with a few minor code improvements (#747)
• class GDALVector: improve error handling in setIgnoredFields()/setSelectedFields() and add several new tests (#731)
• make variables constexpr or const in several places

Documentation

• add web article Vector Read Benchmarks

gdalraster 2.0.0

Summary of main changes

• add bindings to the GDAL Vector API, implemented in the exposed C++ class GDALVector along with several additions and enhancements to ogr_*() stand-alone functions
• enhance and expand existing bindings to the Geometry API, now operating on raw vectors of WKB or WKT strings
• enhance and expand existing bindings to the Spatial Reference Systems API
• add several new features and improvements to the Raster API, Virtual Systems Interface (VSI) API, and coordinate transformation functions
• add helper functions for working with GDAL raster data types (see ?data_type_helpers)
• add an S4 show() method for all Rcpp exposed classes
• bug fixes, code linting and other internal improvements

Dependencies

• package nanoarrow has been added to Imports and LinkingTo
• package wk has been added to Imports
• C++17 is now a System Requirement
• PROJ is removed as a stand-alone external System Requirement since:
  • gdalraster as of 1.12 requires GDAL >= 3.1
  • PROJ has been a GDAL build requirement since GDAL 3.0
  • gdalraster only uses PROJ via GDAL headers (i.e., there is no longer a requirement for linking to external libproj in this case)

Vector API bindings

• add class GDALVector: encapsulates an OGRLayer object and the GDALDataset that contains it, exposing 48 class methods for obtaining vector layer information, attribute and spatial filtering, and reading/writing feature data
• wrap GDAL's Arrow C Stream interface for reading vector data by exposing an ArrowArrayStream on a layer as a nanoarrow_array_stream object (GDAL >= 3.6) (#591)
• add ogr_reproject(): reproject a vector layer (purpose-built wrapper of GDALVectorTranslate())
• add ogr_proc(): interface to GDAL OGR facilities for vector geoprocessing
• add ogr_layer_rename(): rename an existing layer in a vector dataset (GDAL >= 3.5)
• ogr_execute_sql() now returns an object of class GDALVector for SQL SELECT statements
• add argument return_obj in ogr_ds_create() and ogr_layer_create(), TRUE to return a GDALVector object for write access on the created layer
• the layer argument in certain ogr_manage functions now supports NULL or empty string, which will default to the first layer by index (mainly as a convenience for single-layer formats)
• remove element $is_ignored from the list object for a feature class definition (affects certain ogr_define and ogr_manage functions): potentially breaking change but assumed to be unused in layer / field creation (#513)

Geometry API

• update the geometry interface to support the vector API in gdalraster 2.0, with changes to existing functions, and add g_wk2wk() (WKB <--> WKT conversion), g_create() (create geometries from input points), g_add_geom() (build container geometry types from sub-geometries) (#572)
• the geometry wrapper functions now operate on input of either WKB raw vector, list of WKB, or character vector of WKT strings, with returned geometries as either WKB raw vector (or list of) or WKT character string (vector of)
• breaking changes: breaks some existing functions by renaming argument wkt to geom, and by returning raw vectors of WKB by default from functions that return geometries (as_wkb = TRUE by default)
• update g_is_valid(), g_is_empty(), g_name() and g_buffer() to the new style Geometry API
• add g_make_valid(): attempt to make invalid geometries valid
• add g_summary(): obtain text summaries of WKB/WKT geometries (GDAL >= 3.7)
• add g_simplify(): simplify WKB/WKT geometries, optionally preserving topology
• add g_swap_xy(): swap x and y coordinates of the input geometry
• add g_geodesic_area() and g_geodesic_length() (#671)
• add g_is_3D() and g_is_measured() (#650)
• add g_envelope(): computes and returns the bounding envelope(s) for input geometries
• add g_coords(): extract coordinate values from geometries
• g_transform(): add argument traditional_gis_order with default TRUE, to support authority compliant order for geometries using geographic coordinates
• bbox_transform(): add argument use_transform_bounds (TRUE by default but requires GDAL >= 3.4)

Spatial Reference Systems API

• improve and expand bindings to a subset of the GDAL Spatial Reference System API (#584)
• breaking change in srs_is_same(): argument srs1 is renamed to srs and argument srs2 to srs_other
• functions that previously required input as a WKT string now accept SRS definitions in any of the formats supported by srs_to_wkt() (wrapper of OSRSetFromUserInput())
• the documentation is grouped under two topics, ?srs_convert and ?srs_query, and now includes the following:
  • srs_convert functions: epsg_to_wkt(), srs_to_wkt()
  • srs_query functions: srs_find_epsg(), srs_get_name(), srs_is_geographic(), srs_is_derived_gcs(), srs_is_local(), srs_is_projected(), srs_is_compound(), srs_is_geocentric(), srs_is_vertical(), srs_is_dynamic(), srs_is_same(), srs_get_angular_units(), srs_get_linear_units(), srs_get_coord_epoch(), srs_get_utm_zone(), srs_get_axis_mapping_strategy()

GDALRaster-class

• add method $get_block_indexing(): helper to get indexing values for the block layout of a raster band (#667)
• add method $addBand(): add a band to a dataset if the underlying format supports this action, e.g., MEM and VRT
• add method $clearColorTable(): clear the color table associated with a raster band
• add method $getMaskBand(): return the mask filename and band number associated with a given band of the dataset
• add method $getMaskFlags(): return the status flags of the mask band associated with a given band of the dataset
• add method $setMetadata(): set dataset or band-level metadata from a character vector of NAME=VALUE pairs (instead of per metadata item with the existing method $setMetadataItem())
• support band = 0 in the existing method $setDescription() to set the dataset-level description
• improve methods $bbox() and $res() to handle south-up / rotated raster (with related fixes in read_ds() and plot_raster()) (#569)

GDAL VSI for operations on virtual file systems

• add vsi_get_actual_url(): return the actual URL of a supplied VSI filename, wrapper of VSIGetActualURL() in the GDAL API
• add vsi_get_signed_url(): return a signed URL for a supplied VSI filename, wrapper of VSIGetSignedURL() in the GDAL API
• add vsi_is_local(): returns whether the file/filesystem is "local", wrapper of VSIIsLocal() in the GDAL API

GDAL configuration

• add get_cache_max() and set_cache_max(): get/set maximum memory size available for the GDAL block cache
• get_cache_used(): change the return value to R numeric type carrying the integer64 class attribute, and add argument units defaulting to "MB"
• expose gdal_version_num() (previously internal/undocumented): return the full version number as an integer value (convenience for as.integer(gdal_version()[2]))
• add gdal_compute_version(): compute the integer version number (GDAL_VERSION_NUM) from the individual components (major, minor, revision)

Other stand-alone functions

• add pixel_extract(): extract pixel values at geospatial point locations, with options for multiple interpolation methods and returning the individual pixel values from a N x N kernel (#570)
• add transform_bounds(): transform a bounding box, densifying the edges to account for nonlinear transformations along these edges and extracting the outermost bounds (wrapper of OCTTransformBounds() in the GDAL Spatial Reference System API, requires GDAL >= 3.4)
• add autoCreateWarpedVRT(): create a warped virtual dataset representing the input raster warped into the target coordinate system (wrapper of GDALAutoCreateWarpedVRT())
• add validateCreationOptions(): validate the list of creation options that are handled by a driver (#663)
• getCreationOptions(): change the return value to a named list of options with their information (#662)
• getCreationOptions(): include $min and $max attributes in the returned list if GDAL >= 3.11
• create(): add argument return_obj, TRUE to return an object of class GDALRaster with update access on the created dataset
• createCopy(): add argument return_obj, TRUE to return an object of class GDALRaster with update access on the created dataset
• createCopy(): an object of class GDALRaster can be given for argument src_filename to specify the source dataset
• warp(): source and destination rasters may be given as objects of class GDALRaster
• translate(): source raster can be given as a GDALRaster object
• inspectDataset(): handle the case if separate raster and vector drivers are identified but a specific flag for the dataset type was not given (#693)
• rasterize(): support passing a GDALRaster object for in-place updating (#660)
• accept one (x, y) as a vector in functions that expect matrix or data frame input (transform_xy(), inverse_proj(), apply_geotransform(), get_pixel_line())
• transform_xy() / inv_project(): support input points with z vertices (three column xyz) or time values (four column xyzt), and optionally accept input of point geometries as character vector of WKT strings, WKB raw vector, or list of WKB raw vectors
• transform_xy() / inv_project(): account for be...

gdalraster 1.12.0

Features / enhancements

• add inspectDataset(): obtain information about a GDAL raster or vector dataset (#552)
• add identifyDriver(): identify the driver that can open a given filename, connection string, etc. (#553)
• transform_xy() and inv_project(): accept the SRS arguments in any format supported by srs_to_wkt()
• vsi_read_dir(): add the recursive argument (#426); omit "." and ".." from the output directory listing; add the all_files argument, TRUE to include hidden files; sort the directory listing alphabetically

Bug fixes

• fix the mode name for "color-relief" in DEFAULT_DEM_PROC (#430)
• fix a unit test for class VSIFile: create file with "w+" access for read/write (#546)
• ogr_def_geom_field(): fix input validation for the srs argument (#507)
• createCopy(): check the driver for GDAL_DCAP_CREATE capability as well as GDAL_DCAP_CREATECOPY (#479)
• plot_raster(): default to no stretch when the input is an RGB Byte raster (#435)

Documentation

• fix an example for class VSIFile that needs "w+" access instead of "w"
• fix missing double quote in transform_xy() examples
• document the fillRaster() method in class GDALRaster

gdalraster 1.11.1

• fix test in test-ogr_manage.R: the test for GeoJSON layer did not need to check existence using with_update = TRUE on a file in extdata (#410)

• add apply_geotransform(): convert raster column/row to geospatial x/y coordinates, wrapper of GDALApplyGeoTransform() in the GDAL API, operating on a matrix of input col/row coordinates (the internal wrapper .apply_geotransform() is unchanged)

• add GDALRaster$apply_geotransform(): class method alternative to calling the stand-alone function apply_geotransform() on an object of class GDALRaster

• vsi_curl_clear_cache(): add parameter quiet to wrap the API call in a quiet error handler, TRUE by default

• Documentation: document the w+ access flag for class VSIFile; add CPL_VSIL_USE_TEMP_FILE_FOR_RANDOM_WRITE configuration option in vignette GDAL Config Quick Reference; replace paste0() with file.path() in the examples throughout

• code linting

gdalraster 1.11.0

System requirements

• GDAL >= 3.1.0 is now required (previously >= 2.4.0)
• package bit64 has been added to Imports
• package RcppInt64 has been added in LinkingTo

New utility functions for managing vector data sources

• initial bindings to the GDAL/OGR Vector API supporting data source management: ogr_ds_exists(), ogr_ds_format(), ogr_ds_test_cap(), ogr_ds_create(), ogr_ds_layer_count(), ogr_ds_layer_names(), ogr_layer_exists(), ogr_layer_test_cap(), ogr_layer_create(), ogr_layer_field_names(), ogr_layer_delete(), ogr_field_index(), ogr_field_create(), ogr_geom_field_create(), ogr_field_rename(), ogr_field_delete(), ogr_execute_sql()
• documentation and helper functions for feature class definition: ogr_def_field(), ogr_def_geom_field(), ogr_def_layer()

New bindings to the GDAL VSIVirtualHandle API

• class VSIFile wraps VSIVirtualHandle for Standard C binary file I/O on regular file systems, URLs, cloud storage services, Zip/GZip/7z/RAR, and in-memory files

GDAL VSI for operations on virtual file systems (bug fix / enhancements)

• bug fix in vsi_mkdir(): the file mode was set incorrectly because mode was not passed correctly as octal literal. mode is now passed as a character string containing the file mode as octal.
• add vsi_get_file_metadata(): returns metadata for network filesystem objects (/vsicurl/, /vsis3/, /vsiaz/, etc.), and with GDAL >= 3.7, /vsizip/ SOZip metadata
• add vsi_set_path_option(): set a path specific option for a given path prefix, e.g., credential setting for a virtual file system (GDAL >= 3.6)
• add vsi_clear_path_options(): clear path specific configuration options previously set with vsi_set_path_option() (GDAL >= 3.6)
• vsi_rmdir(): add argument recursive, TRUE to delete the directory and its content
• vsi_mkdir(): add argument recursive, TRUE to create the directory and its ancestors
• several VSI functions returned 0 or -1 invisibly indicating success/failure, consistent with GDAL return values. Those return values are now visible to be consistent with return values from VSIFile class methods.
• vsi_stat() with info = "size", and vsi_get_disk_free_space() now return bit64::integer64 type

GDALRaster-class

• behavior change: the class methods $info() and $infoAsJSON() now use the default command-line arguments for the underlying gdalinfo utility. Arguments are configurable in the new read/write $infoOptions field, which is an empty vector by default (character(0)).
• add support for I/O of Byte raster as R raw type, and add the setting $readByteAsRaw as a class field (#314, thanks to @mdsumner)
• add read/write fields $infoOptions and $quiet for applying per-object settings
• add an optional constructor to allow specifying whether the dataset is opened in shared mode, TRUE by default
• add method $getActualBlockSize(): retrieve the actual block size for a given block offset
• add method $get_pixel_line(): class method alternative to calling the stand-alone function get_pixel_line() on an object of class GDALRaster(#339)
• add method $getProjection(): equivalent to $getProjectionRef() (consistent with osgeo.gdal.Dataset.getProjection() / osgeo.gdal.Dataset.getProjectionRef() in the GDAL Python API)
• method $getDefaultRAT(): add progress bar since retrieving large raster attribute tables could take >30 sec

Stand-alone processing functions

• calc(): add support for multiband output (#319)
• calc(): add input validation for var.names, must be in expr
• get_pixel_line(): an object of class GDALRaster can now be passed for the gt parameter, in which case the geotransform will be obtained from the object and bounds checking on the raster extent will be done (original behavior for gt as numeric vector is unchanged) (#339)
• ogr2ogr(): add parameter open_options to support options on the source dataset
• read_ds(): add parameter as_raw to read a Byte raster as R raw type (#314, thanks to @mdsumner)

GDAL configuration

• add dump_open_datasets(): dump a list of all open datasets (shared or not) to the console
• add get_num_cpus(): get the number of processors detected by GDAL
• add get_usable_physical_ram(): get usable physical RAM reported by GDAL
• add has_spatialite(): returns TRUE if GDAL was built with SpatiaLite support
• add http_enabled(): returns TRUE if GDAL was built with libcurl support
• add .cpl_http_cleanup(): wrapper of CPLHTTPCleanup() for internal use (2024-05-29)

Geometry functions

• new additional geometry functions operating on WKT (GEOS via GDAL headers): g_is_empty(), g_is_valid(), g_name(), g_intersects(), g_equals(), g_disjoint(), g_touches(), g_contains(), g_within(), g_crosses(),g_overlaps(), g_intersection(), g_union(), g_difference(), g_sym_difference(), g_distance(), g_length(), g_area(), g_centroid()
• add bbox_transform(): transform a bounding box to a different projection
• g_transform(): now uses OGR_GeomTransformer_Create() and OGR_GeomTransformer_Transform() in the GDAL API, enhanced version of OGR_G_Transform(); add arguments wrap_date_line and date_line_offset

Documentation

• add Discussions on the GitHub repository
• add a section for HTTP/HTTPS (/vsicurl/) in the vignette GDAL Config Quick Reference
• DESCRIPTION file: add Michael D. Sumner in Authors@R

Other internal changes and fixes

• fix memory leaks detected by Valgrind in GDALRaster class methods $info(), $infoAsJSON() and $getDefaultRAT()
• register a finalizer to call CPLHTTPCleanup() upon R session exit
• add GDALRaster class method $setFilename(): set the filename of an uninitialized GDALRaster object, currently undocumented / for internal use
• add GDALRaster class method _getGDALDatasetH(): get the GDAL dataset handle for internal use
• buildRAT(): if the input raster is an object of class GDALRaster, use it by reference rather than instantiating another GDALRaster object internally
• calc(): close input raster dataset before exit when a differing extent is detected
• add some missing null checks, and object destruction on error conditions, in src/geos_wkt.cpp
• improve the check for "-json" as a cl_arg to ogrinfo()
• code linting