# GPKG -- GeoPackage vector

Driver short name

GPKG

Build dependencies

libsqlite3

This driver implements support for access to spatial tables in the OGC GeoPackage format standard The GeoPackage standard uses a SQLite database file as a generic container, and the standard defines:

- Expected metadata tables (`gpkg_contents`, `gpkg_spatial_ref_sys`, `gpkg_geometry_columns`)

- Binary format encoding for geometries in spatial tables (basically a GPKG standard header object followed by ISO standard well-known binary (WKB))

- Naming and conventions for extensions (extended feature types) and indexes (how to use SQLite r-tree in an interoperable manner)

This driver reads and writes SQLite files from the file system, so it must be run by a user with read/write access to the files it is working with.

The driver also supports reading and writing the following non-linear geometry types: CIRCULARSTRING, COMPOUNDCURVE, CURVEPOLYGON, MULTICURVE and MULTISURFACE

GeoPackage raster/tiles are supported. See the GeoPackage raster documentation page.

## Driver capabilities

Supports Create()

This driver supports the `GDALDriver::Create()` operation

Supports Georeferencing

This driver supports georeferencing

Supports VirtualIO

This driver supports virtual I/O operations (/vsimem/, etc.)

## Specification version

GeoPackage version 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 or 1.4 can be specified through the VERSION dataset creation option. Starting with GDAL 3.11, it defaults to 1.4. For earlier versions, it defaults to 1.2.

## Limitations

- GeoPackage only supports one geometry column per table.

## SQL

The driver supports OGR attribute filters, and users are expected to provide filters in the SQLite dialect, as they will be executed directly against the database.

SQL SELECT statements passed to ExecuteSQL() are also executed directly against the database.

If the SQLite dialect is used with the SpatiaLite functions, an explicit cast operator AsGPB() is required to transform SpatiaLite geometries into GeoPackage geometries.

    ogrinfo -update points.gpkg -sql "INSERT INTO points (geom) values (AsGPB(ST_GeomFromText('POINT(3 54)', 4326)))"

The reverse conversion from GPKG geometries into SpatiaLite geometries is automatically done.

The "DROP TABLE layer_name" and "ALTER TABLE layer_name RENAME TO new_layer" statements can be used. They will update GeoPackage system tables.

The "HasSpatialIndex('table_name','geom_col_name')" statement can be used for checking if the table has spatial index on the named geometry column.

When dropping a table, or removing records from tables, the space they occupied is not immediately released and kept in the pool of file pages that SQLite may reuse later. If you need to shrink the file to its minimum size, you need to issue an explicit "VACUUM" SQL request. Note that this will result in a full rewrite of the file.

### SQL functions

The following SQL functions, from the GeoPackage specification, are available:

- ST_MinX(geom Geometry): returns the minimum X coordinate of the geometry

- ST_MinY(geom Geometry): returns the minimum Y coordinate of the geometry

- ST_MaxX(geom Geometry): returns the maximum X coordinate of the geometry

- ST_MaxY(geom Geometry): returns the maximum Y coordinate of the geometry

- ST_IsEmpty(geom Geometry): returns 1 if the geometry is empty (but not null), e.g. a POINT EMPTY geometry

- ST_GeometryType(geom Geometry): returns the geometry type: 'POINT', 'LINESTRING', 'POLYGON', 'MULTIPOLYGON', 'MULTILINESTRING', 'MULTIPOINT', 'GEOMETRYCOLLECTION'

- ST_SRID(geom Geometry): returns the SRID of the geometry

- GPKG_IsAssignable(expected_geom_type String, actual_geom_type String) : mainly, needed for the 'Geometry Type Triggers Extension'

The following functions, with identical syntax and semantics as in Spatialite, are also available :

- CreateSpatialIndex(table_name String, geom_column_name String): creates a spatial index (RTree) on the specified table/geometry column

- DisableSpatialIndex(table_name String, geom_column_name String): drops an existing spatial index (RTree) on the specified table/geometry column

- ST_Area(geom Geometry): compute the area in square units of the geometry SRS.

- ST_Area(geom Geometry, use_ellipsoid boolean): (GDAL >= 3.9): compute the area in square meters, considering the geometry on the ellipsoid (use_ellipsoid must be set to true/1).

- ST_Length(geom Geometry): (GDAL >= 3.10): compute the area in units of the geometry SRS.

- ST_Length(geom Geometry, use_ellipsoid boolean): (GDAL >= 3.10): compute the area in meters, considering the geometry on the ellipsoid (use_ellipsoid must be set to true/1).

- SetSRID(geom Geometry, srs_id Integer): overrides the geometry' SRS ID, without reprojection.

- ST_Transform(geom Geometry, target_srs_id Integer): reproject the geometry to the SRS of specified srs_id. If no SRS with that given srs_id is not found in gpkg_spatial_ref_sys, starting with GDAL 3.2, it will be interpreted as a EPSG code.

- ST_EnvIntersects(geom Geometry, minx Double, miny Double, maxx Double, maxy Double): (GDAL >= 3.7) Returns 1 if the minimum bounding box of geom intersects the bounding box defined by (minx,miny)-(maxx,maxy), or 0 otherwise.

- ST_EnvIntersects(geom1 Geometry, geom2 Geometry): (GDAL >= 3.7) Returns 1 if the minimum bounding box of geom1 intersects the one of geom2, or 0 otherwise. (Note: this function, as all others, does not automatically uses spatial indices)

The raster SQL functions mentioned at Raster SQL functions are also available.

### Link with Spatialite

If GDAL has been compiled against Spatialite, it is also possible to use Spatialite SQL functions. Transformation from GPKG geometry binary to Spatialite geometry binary encoding is done implicitly

    ogrinfo poly.gpkg -sql "SELECT ST_Buffer(geom,5) FROM poly"

Note that due to the loose typing mechanism of SQLite, if a geometry expression returns a NULL value for the first row, this will generally cause OGR not to recognize the column as a geometry column. It might be then useful to sort the results by making sure that non-null geometries are returned first:

    ogrinfo poly.gpkg -sql "SELECT * FROM (SELECT ST_Buffer(geom,5) AS geom, * FROM poly) ORDER BY geom IS NULL ASC"

## Transaction support

The driver implements transactions at the database level, per RFC 54: Dataset transactions

## Relationships

Added in version 3.6.

Many-to-many relationship retrieval is supported, respecting the OGC GeoPackage Related Tables Extension. One-to-many relationships will also be reported for tables which utilize FOREIGN KEY constraints.

Relationship creation, deletion and updating is supported since GDAL 3.7. Relationships can only be updated to change their base or related table fields, or the relationship related table type. It is not permissible to change the base or related table itself, or the mapping table details. If this is desired then a new relationship should be created instead.

Note that when a many-to-many relationship is created in a GeoPackage, GDAL will always insert the mapping table into the gpkg_contents table. Formally this is not required by the Related Tables Extension (instead, the table should only be listed in gpkgext_relations), however failing to list the mapping table in gpkg_contents prevents it from being usable in some other applications (e.g. ESRI software).

## Dataset open options

Open options can be specified in command-line tools using the syntax `-oo <NAME>=<VALUE>` or by providing the appropriate arguments to `GDALOpenEx()` (C) or `gdal.OpenEx` (Python). The following open options are available:

- LIST_ALL_TABLES=[AUTO​/​YES​/​NO]: Defaults to `AUTO`. Whether all tables, including those not listed in gpkg_contents, should be listed. If AUTO, all tables including those not listed in gpkg_contents will be listed, except if the aspatial extension is found or a table is registered as 'attributes' in gpkg_contents. If YES, all tables including those not listed in gpkg_contents will be listed, in all cases. If NO, only tables registered as 'features', 'attributes' or 'aspatial' will be listed.

- PRELUDE_STATEMENTS=value: (GDAL >= 3.2) SQL statement(s) to send on the SQLite3 connection before any other ones. In case of several statements, they must be separated with the semicolon (;) sign. This option may be useful to attach another database to the current one and issue cross-database requests.

  Note

  The attached database must be a GeoPackage one too, so that its geometry blobs are properly recognized (so typically not a Spatialite one)

- NOLOCK=[YES​/​NO]: (GDAL >= 3.4.2) Defaults to `NO`. Whether the database should be used without doing any file locking. Setting it to YES will only be honoured when opening in read-only mode and if the journal mode is not WAL. This corresponds to the nolock=1 query parameter described at https://www.sqlite.org/uri.html

- IMMUTABLE=[YES​/​NO]: (GDAL >= 3.5.3) Whether the database should be opened by assuming that the file cannot be modified by another process. This will skip any checks for change detection. This can be useful for WAL enabled files on read-only storage. GDAL will automatically try to turn it on when not being able to open in read-only mode a WAL enabled file. This corresponds to the immutable=1 query parameter described at https://www.sqlite.org/uri.html

Note: open options are typically specified with "-oo name=value" syntax in most OGR utilities, or with the `GDALOpenEx()` API call.

Note: configuration option `OGR_SQLITE_JOURNAL` can be used to set the journal mode of the GeoPackage (and thus SQLite) file, see also https://www.sqlite.org/pragma.html#pragma_journal_mode.

## Creation issues

When creating a new GeoPackage file, the driver will attempt to force the database into a UTF-8 mode for text handling, satisfying the OGR strict UTF-8 capability. For pre-existing files, the driver will work with whatever it is given.

The driver updates the GeoPackage `last_change` timestamp when the file is created or modified. If consistent binary output is required for reproducibility, the timestamp can be forced to a specific value by setting the `OGR_CURRENT_DATE` global configuration option. When setting the option, take care to meet the specific time format requirement of the GeoPackage standard, e.g. for version 1.2.

### Dataset creation options

Dataset creation options can be specified in command-line tools using the syntax `-dsco <NAME>=<VALUE>` or by providing the appropriate arguments to `GDALCreate()` (C) or `Driver.Create` (Python). The following creation options (specific to vector, or common with raster) are available:

- VERSION=[AUTO​/​1.0​/​1.1​/​1.2​/​1.3​/​1.4]: Set GeoPackage version (for application_id and user_version fields). In AUTO mode, this will be equivalent to 1.4 starting with GDAL 3.11 (1.2 in prior versions) 1.3 is available starting with GDAL 3.3 1.4 is available starting with GDAL 3.7.1

- ADD_GPKG_OGR_CONTENTS=[YES​/​NO]: Defaults to `YES`. Defines whether to add a gpkg_ogr_contents table to keep feature count, and associated triggers.

- DATETIME_FORMAT=[WITH_TZ​/​UTC]: (GDAL >= 3.2) Defaults to `WITH_TZ`. Defines whether to keep the DateTime values in the time zones as used in the data source (WITH_TZ), or to convert the date and time expressions to UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). Pedantically, non-UTC time zones are not currently supported by GeoPackage v1.3 (see https://github.com/opengeospatial/geopackage/issues/530). When using UTC format, with a unspecified timezone, UTC will be assumed.

- CRS_WKT_EXTENSION=[YES​/​NO]: (GDAL >= 3.8) Defaults to `NO`. Defines whether to add the `definition_12_063` column to the `gpkg_spatial_ref_sys` system table, according to http://www.geopackage.org/spec/#extension_crs_wkt . The default is NO, unless the tile gridded coverage extension is used. With VERSION >= 1.4, a `epoch` column is also added. WKT strings in `definition_12_063` will follow the WKT2:2015 standard when possible, but may use the WKT2:2019 standard for specific cases (dynamic CRS with coordinate epoch). This option generally does not need to be specified, as the driver will automatically update the `gpkg_spatial_ref_sys` table when needed, but it may be useful to create GeoPackage datasets matching the exceptions of other software or profiles (such as the DGIWG-GPKG profile).

- METADATA_TABLES=[YES​/​NO]: (GDAL >= 3.8) Defines whether to add the metadata system tables. By default, they are created on demand. If NO is specified, they are not created, even if metadata is set. If YES is specified, they are always created.

Other options are available for raster. See the GeoPackage raster documentation page.

### Layer creation options

Layer creation options can be specified in command-line tools using the syntax `-lco <NAME>=<VALUE>` or by providing the appropriate arguments to `GDALDatasetCreateLayer()` (C) or `Dataset.CreateLayer` (Python). The following layer creation options are available:

- LAUNDER=[YES​/​NO]: (GDAL >= 3.9) Defaults to `NO`. Whether layer and field names will be laundered. Laundering makes sure that the recommendation of https://www.geopackage.org/guidance/getting-started.html is followed: an identifier should start with a lowercase character and only use lowercase characters, numbers 0-9, and underscores (_). UTF-8 accented characters in the Latin-1 Supplement and Latin Extented-A sets are replaced when possible with the closest ASCII letter. Characters that do not match the recommendation are replaced with underscore. Consequently this option is not appropriate for non-Latin languages.

- GEOMETRY_NAME=value: Defaults to `geom`. Column to use for the geometry column. Default to "geom".

- GEOMETRY_NULLABLE=[YES​/​NO]: Defaults to `YES`. Whether the values of the geometry column can be NULL. Can be set to NO so that geometry is required.

- SRID=<integer>: (GDAL >= 3.9) Forced `srs_id` of the entry in the `gpkg_spatial_ref_sys` table to point to. This may be -1 ("Undefined Cartesian SRS"), 0 ("Undefined geographic SRS"), 99999 ("Undefined SRS"), a valid EPSG CRS code or an existing entry of the `gpkg_spatial_ref_sys` table. If pointing to a non-existing entry, only a warning will be emitted.

- DISCARD_COORD_LSB=[YES​/​NO]: (GDAL >= 3.9) Defaults to `NO`. Whether the geometry coordinate precision should be used to set to zero non-significant least-significant bits of geometries. Helps when further compression is used. See Geometry coordinate precision for more details.

- UNDO_DISCARD_COORD_LSB_ON_READING=[YES​/​NO]: (GDAL >= 3.9) Defaults to `NO`. Whether to ask GDAL to take into coordinate precision to undo the effects of DISCARD_COORD_LSB. See Geometry coordinate precision for more details.

- FID=value: Defaults to `fid`. Column name to use for the OGR FID (primary key in the SQLite database).

- OVERWRITE=[YES​/​NO]: Defaults to `NO`. If set to "YES" will delete any existing layers that have the same name as the layer being created.

- SPATIAL_INDEX=[YES​/​NO]: Defaults to `YES`. If set to "YES" will create a spatial index for this layer.

- PRECISION=[YES​/​NO]: Defaults to `YES`. This may be "YES" to force new fields created on this layer to try and represent the width of text fields (in terms of UTF-8 characters, not bytes), if available using TEXT(width) types. If "NO" then the type TEXT will be used instead.

- TRUNCATE_FIELDS=[YES​/​NO]: Defaults to `NO`. This may be "YES" to force truncated of field values that exceed the maximum allowed width of text fields, and also to "fix" the passed string if needed to make it a valid UTF-8 string. If "NO" then the value is not truncated nor modified.

- IDENTIFIER=value: Identifier of the layer, as put in the contents table.

- DESCRIPTION=value: Description of the layer, as put in the contents table.

- ASPATIAL_VARIANT=[GPKG_ATTRIBUTES​/​NOT_REGISTERED]: Defaults to `GPKG_ATTRIBUTES`. How to register non spatial tables. Defaults to GPKG_ATTRIBUTES. Starting with GeoPackage 1.2, non spatial tables are part of the specification. They are recorded with data_type="attributes" in the gpkg_contents table. It is also possible to use the NOT_REGISTERED option, in which case the non spatial table is not registered at all in any GeoPackage system tables.

- DATETIME_PRECISION=[AUTO​/​MILLISECOND​/​SECOND​/​MINUTE]: (GDAL >= 3.8) Defaults to `AUTO`. Determines the level of detail for datetime fields. Starting with GeoPackage 1.4, three variants of datetime formats are supported: truncated at minute (`MINUTE`), truncated at second (`SECOND`) or including milliseconds (`MILLISECOND`). In `AUTO` mode and GeoPackage 1.4, milliseconds are included only if non-zero. Selecting modes `MINUTE` or `SECOND` will raise a warning with GeoPackage < 1.4.

## Configuration options

Configuration options can be specified in command-line tools using the syntax `--config <NAME>=<VALUE>` or using functions such as `CPLSetConfigOption()` (C) or `gdal.config_options` (Python). The following configuration options are available:

- OGR_SQLITE_JOURNAL=value: can be used to set the journal mode of the SQLite file, see also https://www.sqlite.org/pragma.html#pragma_journal_mode.

- OGR_SQLITE_CACHE=value: see Performance hints.

- OGR_SQLITE_SYNCHRONOUS=value: see Performance hints.

- OGR_SQLITE_LOAD_EXTENSIONS=[<extension1,...,extensionN>​/​ENABLE_SQL_LOAD_EXTENSION]: (GDAL >= 3.5.0) Comma separated list of names of shared libraries containing extensions to load at database opening. If a file cannot be loaded directly, attempts are made to load with various operating-system specific extensions added. So for example, if "samplelib" cannot be loaded, then names like "samplelib.so" or "samplelib.dylib" or "samplelib.dll" might be tried also. The special value `ENABLE_SQL_LOAD_EXTENSION` can be used to enable the use of the SQL `load_extension()` function, which is normally disabled in standard builds of sqlite3. Loading extensions as a potential security impact if they are untrusted.

- OGR_SQLITE_PRAGMA=value: with this option any SQLite pragma can be specified. The syntax is `OGR_SQLITE_PRAGMA = "pragma_name=pragma_value[,pragma_name2=pragma_value2]*"`.

- OGR_CURRENT_DATE=value: the driver updates the GeoPackage `last_change` timestamp when the file is created or modified. If consistent binary output is required for reproducibility, the timestamp can be forced to a specific value by setting this global configuration option. When setting the option, take care to meet the specific time format requirement of the GeoPackage standard, e.g. for version 1.2.

- SQLITE_USE_OGR_VFS=[YES​/​NO]: YES enables extra buffering/caching by the GDAL/OGR I/O layer and can speed up I/O. More information here. Be aware that no file locking will occur if this option is activated, so concurrent edits may lead to database corruption.

- OGR_GPKG_NUM_THREADS=value: (GDAL >= 3.8.3) Can be set to an integer or `ALL_CPUS`. This is the number of threads used when reading tables through the ArrowArray interface, when no filter is applied and when features have consecutive feature ID numbering. The default is the minimum of 4 and the number of CPUs. Note that setting this value too high is not recommended: a value of 4 is close to the optimal.

## Metadata

GDAL uses the standardized gpkg_metadata and gpkg_metadata_reference tables to read and write metadata, on the dataset and layer objects.

GDAL metadata, from the default metadata domain and possibly other metadata domains, is serialized in a single XML document, conformant with the format used in GDAL PAM (Persistent Auxiliary Metadata) .aux.xml files, and registered with md_scope=dataset and md_standard_uri=http://gdal.org in gpkg_metadata. For the dataset, this entry is referenced in gpkg_metadata_reference with a reference_scope=geopackage. For a layer, this entry is referenced in gpkg_metadata_reference with a reference_scope=table and table_name={name of the table}

Metadata not originating from GDAL can be read by the driver and will be exposed as metadata items with keys of the form GPKG_METADATA_ITEM_XXX and values the content of the metadata columns of the gpkg_metadata table. Update of such metadata is not currently supported through GDAL interfaces ( although it can be through direct SQL commands).

The specific DESCRIPTION and IDENTIFIER metadata item of the default metadata domain can be used in read/write to read from/update the corresponding columns of the gpkg_contents table.

## Non-spatial tables

The core GeoPackage specification of GeoPackage 1.0 and 1.1 did not support non-spatial tables. This was added in GeoPackage 1.2 as the "attributes" data type.

The driver allows creating and reading non-spatial tables with the GeoPackage aspatial extension.

The driver will also, by default, list non spatial tables that are not registered through the gdal_aspatial extension, and support the GeoPackage 1.2 "attributes" data type as well. Non spatial tables are by default created following the GeoPackage 1.2 "attributes" data type (can be controlled with the `ASPATIAL_VARIANT` layer creation option).

## Spatial views

Views can be created and recognized as valid spatial layers if a corresponding record is inserted into the gpkg_contents and gpkg_geometry_columns table.

In the case of the columns in the SELECT clause of the view acts a integer primary key, then it can be recognized by OGR as the FID column of the view, provided it is renamed as OGC_FID. Selecting a feature id from a source table without renaming will not be sufficient, since due to joins this feature id could appear several times. Thus the user must explicitly acknowledge that the column is really a primary key.

For example:

    CREATE VIEW my_view AS SELECT foo.fid AS OGC_FID, foo.geom FROM foo JOIN another_table ON foo.some_id = another_table.other_id;
    INSERT INTO gpkg_contents (table_name, identifier, data_type, srs_id) VALUES ( 'my_view', 'my_view', 'features', 4326);
    INSERT INTO gpkg_geometry_columns (table_name, column_name, geometry_type_name, srs_id, z, m) values ('my_view', 'my_geom', 'GEOMETRY', 4326, 0, 0);

This requires GDAL to be compiled with the SQLITE_HAS_COLUMN_METADATA option and SQLite3 with the SQLITE_ENABLE_COLUMN_METADATA option. This can be easily verified if the SQLITE_HAS_COLUMN_METADATA=YES driver metadata item is declared (for example with "ogrinfo --format GPKG").

Starting with GDAL 3.7.1, it is possible to define a geometry column as the result of a Spatialite spatial function. Note however that this is an extension likely to be non-interoperable with other software that does not activate Spatialite for the SQLite3 database connection. Such geometry column should be registered into the `gpkg_extensions` using the `gdal_spatialite_computed_geom_column` extension name (cf GeoPackage Spatialite computed geometry column extension), like below:

    CREATE VIEW my_view AS SELECT foo.fid AS OGC_FID, AsGBP(ST_Multi(foo.geom)) FROM foo;
    INSERT INTO gpkg_contents (table_name, identifier, data_type, srs_id) VALUES (
        'my_view', 'my_view', 'features', 4326);
    INSERT INTO gpkg_geometry_columns (table_name, column_name, geometry_type_name, srs_id, z, m) VALUES (
        'my_view', 'my_geom', 'MULTIPOLYGON', 4326, 0, 0);
    INSERT INTO gpkg_extensions (table_name, column_name, extension_name, definition, scope) VALUES (
        'my_view', 'my_geom', 'gdal_spatialite_computed_geom_column',
        'https://gdal.org/drivers/vector/gpkg_spatialite_computed_geom_column.html', 'read-write');

## Coordinate Reference Systems

Valid geographic, projected and compound CRS supported in general by GDAL are also supported by GeoPackage and stored in the `gpkg_spatial_ref_sys` table.

Two special hard-coded CRS are reserved per the GeoPackage specification:

- srs_id=0, for a Undefined Geographic CRS. For GDAL 3.8 or earlier, this one is selected by default if creating a spatial layer without any explicit CRS

- srs_id=-1, for a Undefined Projected CRS. It might be selected by creating a layer with a CRS instantiated from the following WKT string: `LOCAL_CS["Undefined Cartesian SRS"]`. (GDAL >= 3.3)

Starting with GDAL 3.9, a layer without any explicit CRS is mapped from/to a custom entry of srs_id=99999 with the following properties:

- `srs_name`: `Undefined SRS`

- `organization`: `GDAL`

- `organization_coordsys_id`: 99999

- `definition`: `LOCAL_CS["Undefined SRS",LOCAL_DATUM["unknown",32767],UNIT["unknown",0],AXIS["Easting",EAST],AXIS["Northing",NORTH]]`

- `definition_12_063` (when the CRS WKT extension is used): `ENGCRS["Undefined SRS",EDATUM["unknown"],CS[Cartesian,2],AXIS["easting",east,ORDER[1],LENGTHUNIT["unknown",0]],AXIS["northing",north,ORDER[2],LENGTHUNIT["unknown",0]]]`

- `description`: `Custom undefined coordinate reference system`

Note that the use of a LOCAL_CS / EngineeringCRS is mostly to provide a valid CRS definition to comply with the requirements of the GeoPackage specification and to be compatible of other applications (or GDAL 3.8 or earlier), but the semantics of that entry is intended to be "undefined SRS of any kind".

## Level of support of GeoPackage Extensions

(Restricted to those that have a vector scope)

Extensions
Extension name | OGC adopted extension ? | Supported by GDAL?
--- | --- | ---
Non-Linear Geometry Types | Yes | Yes
RTree Spatial Indexes | Yes | Yes
Metadata | Yes | Yes
Schema | Yes | Yes, since GDAL 3.3 (Geopackage constraints exposed as field domains)
WKT for Coordinate Reference Systems (WKT v2) | Yes | Yes
GeoPackage aspatial extension | No | Yes. Deprecated, in favor of the attributes official data_type
GeoPackage Spatialite computed geometry column extension | No | Yes, starting with GDAL 3.7.1
OGC GeoPackage Related Tables Extension | Yes | Yes, starting with GDAL 3.6

## Compressed files

Starting with GDAL 3.7, the driver can also support reading and creating .gpkg.zip files containing one .gpkg file.

On large files, good read performance can only be achieved if the file inside the .zip is not compressed or compressed using the SOZip optimization.

Update of an existing file is not supported.

Creation involves the creation of a temporary file. Sufficiently large files will be automatically compressed using the SOZip optimization.

## Geometry coordinate precision

Added in version GDAL: 3.9

The GeoPackage driver supports reading and writing the geometry coordinate precision, using the `OGRGeomCoordinatePrecision` settings of the `OGRGeomFieldDefn`. By default, the geometry coordinate precision is only noted in metadata, and does not cause geometries that are written to be modified to comply with this precision.

Several settings may be combined to apply further processing:

- if the `OGR_APPLY_GEOM_SET_PRECISION` configuration option is set to `YES`, the `OGRGeometry::SetPrecision()` method will be applied when calling the CreateFeature() and SetFeature() method of the driver, to round X and Y coordinates to the specified precision, and fix potential geometry invalidities resulting from the rounding.

- if the `DISCARD_COORD_LSB` layer creation option is set to YES, the less-significant bits of the WKB geometry encoding which are not relevant for the requested precision are set to zero. This can improve further lossless compression stages, for example when putting a GeoPackage in an archive. Note however that when reading back such geometries and displaying them to the maximum precision, they will not "exactly" match the original `OGRGeomCoordinatePrecision` settings. However, they will round back to it. The value of the `DISCARD_COORD_LSB` layer creation option is written in the dataset metadata, and will be re-used for later edition sessions.

- if the `UNDO_DISCARD_COORD_LSB_ON_READING` layer creation option is set to YES (only makes sense if the `DISCARD_COORD_LSB` layer creation option is also set to YES), when reading back geometries from a dataset, the `OGRGeometry::roundCoordinates()` method will be applied so that the geometry coordinates exactly match the original specified coordinate precision. That option will only be honored by GDAL 3.9 or later.

Implementation details: the coordinate precision is stored in a record in each of the `gpkg_metadata` and `gpkg_metadata_reference` table, with the following additional constraints on top of the ones imposed by the GeoPackage specification:

- gpkg_metadata.md_standard_uri = 'http://gdal.org'

- gpkg_metadata.mime_type = 'text/xml'

- gpkg_metadata.metadata = '<CoordinatePrecision xy_resolution="{xy_resolution}" z_resolution="{z_resolution}" m_resolution="{m_resolution}" discard_coord_lsb={true or false} undo_discard_coord_lsb_on_reading={true or false} />'

- gpkg_metadata_reference.reference_scope = 'column'

- gpkg_metadata_reference.table_name = '{table_name}'

- gpkg_metadata_reference.column_name = '{geometry_column_name}'

Note that the xy_resolution, z_resolution or m_resolution attributes of the XML CoordinatePrecision element are optional. Their numeric value is expressed in the units of the SRS for xy_resolution and z_resolution.

## Performance hints

The same performance hints apply as those mentioned for the SQLite driver.

## Examples

- Simple translation of a single shapefile into GeoPackage. The table 'abc' will be created with the features from abc.shp and attributes from abc.dbf. The file `filename.gpkg` must not already exist, as it will be created. For adding new layers into existing geopackage run ogr2ogr with -update.

      ogr2ogr -f GPKG filename.gpkg abc.shp

- Update of an existing GeoPackage file – e.g. a GeoPackage template – by adding features to it from another GeoPackage file containing features according to the same or a backwards compatible database schema.

      ogr2ogr -append output.gpkg input.gpkg

- Translation of a directory of shapefiles into a GeoPackage. Each file will end up as a new table within the GPKG file. The file `filename.gpkg` must not already exist, as it will be created.

      ogr2ogr -f GPKG filename.gpkg ./path/to/dir

- Translation of a PostGIS database into a GeoPackage. Each table in the database will end up as a table in the GPKG file. The file `filename.gpkg` must not already exist, as it will be created.

      ogr2ogr -f GPKG filename.gpkg PG:'dbname=mydatabase host=localhost'

- Perform a join between 2 GeoPackage databases:

  >     ogrinfo my_spatial.gpkg \
  >       -sql "SELECT poly.id, other.foo FROM poly JOIN other_schema.other USING (id)" \
  >       -oo PRELUDE_STATEMENTS="ATTACH DATABASE 'other.gpkg' AS other_schema"

## Secure deletion

Depending on how SQLite3 is built, secure deletion might or might not be enabled. Starting with GDAL 3.10, secure deletion is always enabled, unless `SECURE_DELETE` is specified through the `OGR_SQLITE_PRAGMA` configuration option. Note that secure deletion does not recover potential lost space, so running a VACUUM query is recommended to fully optimized a database that has been subject to updates or deletions.

## See Also

- GeoPackage raster documentation page

- Getting Started With GeoPackage

- OGC GeoPackage format standard specification, HTML format (current/development version of the standard)

- OGC GeoPackage Encoding Standard page

- SQLite