v.external(1)

NAME
v.external - Creates a new pseudo-vector map as a link to an OGR-supported layer or a PostGIS feature table.

KEYWORDS
vector, import, external, OGR, PostGIS, level1

SYNOPSIS
v.external
v.external --help
v.external [-ojfltb] input=string [layer=name] [where=sql_query] [output=name] [--overwrite] [--help] [--verbose] [--quiet] [--ui]

  Flags:

-o
    Override projection check (use current project’s CRS)
    Assume that the dataset has the same coordinate reference system as the current project

-j
    Perform projection check only and exit

-f
    List supported formats and exit

-l
    List available layers in data source and exit

-t
    List available layers including feature type in data source and exit
    Format: layer name,type,projection check,geometry

-b
    Do not build topology
    Advantageous when handling a large number of points

--overwrite
    Allow output files to overwrite existing files

--help
    Print usage summary

--verbose
    Verbose module output

--quiet
    Quiet module output

--ui
    Force launching GUI dialog

  Parameters:

input=string [required]
    Name of input OGR or PostGIS data source
    Examples:
    ESRI Shapefile: directory containing a shapefile
    MapInfo File: directory containing a mapinfo file
    PostGIS database: connection string, eg. ’PG:dbname=db user=grass’

layer=name
    Name of OGR layer or PostGIS feature table to be linked
    Examples:
    ESRI Shapefile: shapefile name
    MapInfo File: mapinfo file name
    PostGIS database: table name

where=sql_query
    WHERE conditions of SQL statement without ’where’ keyword
    Example: income < 1000 and population >= 10000

output=name
    Name for output GRASS vector map (default: input layer)

DESCRIPTION
v.external creates new vector map as a link to external OGR layer or PostGIS feature table. OGR (Simple Features Library) is part of the GDAL library, so you need to install GDAL to use v.external for external OGR layers. Note that a PostGIS feature table can be linked also using built-in GRASS-PostGIS data driver (requires GRASS to be built with PostgreSQL support).

NOTES

The simple feature data model used by OGR (or PostGIS) is very different from the topological format used by GRASS. Instead of true topology, so called ’pseudo topology’ is created for data linked by v.external. User should learn the difference between those two formats, because some modules working correctly with GRASS native data, can produce wrong results with input vector maps created by v.external.

Limitations:

Due to these data model differences v.external does not work with all data formats. In general, for all formats that do not have a key column (e.g. SHAPE file), attributes are not accessible, and attributes would get lost when modifying the geometries. Therefore it is generally not safe to link vector data with v.external. In many cases it does not make sense to use v.external linked data with simple features, instead vector data should be imported with v.import or v.in.ogr to get true topology support. Importantly, point cloud data which do not have topology, can be linked with v.external as long as there are no attributes attached to these point cloud data, or if the format of the point cloud data has a key column that allows linking vector geometries to attributes.

See v.db.connect for an example of maintaining attributes in external DBMS in also writable mode.

  Supported OGR vector formats
To list supported OGR formats, type

v.external -f

For details see GDAL web site.

EXAMPLES

  ESRI Shapefile
Assuming that ’test_shape.shp’ is located in directory ’/home/user/shape_data’.

v.external input=/home/user/shape_data layer=test_shape output=grass_map

  PostGIS layers
By default, PostGIS links are created by built-in PostGIS support, ie. using GRASS-PostGIS data driver. If the environment variable GRASS_VECTOR_OGR exists, or GRASS is compiled without PostgreSQL support then GRASS will use OGR-PostgreSQL driver for creating a link.

List of layers for given data source can be printed by -l flag.

v.external input="PG:host=localhost user=postgres dbname=postgis" -l
...
polymap
...

v.external input="PG:host=localhost user=postgres dbname=postgis" layer=polymap

Note: Authentication details (user password) can be preferably defined by db.login.

  MapInfo files
Assuming that ’mapinfo_test’ MapInfo file is located in the current directory (".").

v.external input=./ layer=mapinfo_test output=grass_map

  SDTS files
Note: you have to select the CATD file

v.external input=CITXCATD.DDF output=cities

  TIGER files

v.external input=input/2000/56015/ layer=CompleteChain,PIP output=t56015_all

  Linking subset of features
By where option only subset of features can be linked. In the example below only one feature (in this case a vector tile) will be linked as a new GRASS vector map.

v.external in="PG:dbname=tiles" layer=wrs2_descending where="pr=191026"
...
Number of areas: 1
...

REFERENCES
OGR vector library C API documentation

SEE ALSO
v.external.out, v.clean, v.db.connect, v.import, v.in.db, v.in.ogr, v.out.ogr

GDAL Library
PostGIS

See also GRASS user wiki page for more examples.

AUTHORS
Radim Blazek, ITC-Irst, Trento, Italy
PostGIS support by Martin Landa, GeoForAll (OSGeoREL) Lab, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic

SOURCE CODE

Available at: v.external source code (history)

Accessed: Monday May 11 17:55:19 2026

Main index | Vector index | Topics index | Keywords index | Graphical index | Full index

© 2003-2026 GRASS Development Team, GRASS 8.5.0 Reference Manual