RFC 27: Improved Supporting Data File Options

Author: Frank Warmerdam
Contact: warmerdam@…
Status: Development

Summary

Currently GDAL depends on a variety of supporting data files from the ​gdal data directory. The largest part of these are coordinate system dictionaries from EPSG and other sources. It also includes S-57 dictionaries, seed DGN and DXF files, and project logos. Uncompressed it currently comes to roughly 1.8MB and it is expected to grow as additional dictionaries are added (for PCI and IAU coordinate systems for instance).

It has also been a frequent problem at run time to find the data files when they are installed in unusual locations.

This RFC aims to overhaul support file handling with two new major features.

1. The ability to read from compressed data files to reduce the disk footprint of GDAL.
2. The ability to embed the data files with the GDAL DLL or shared library to remove the "finding" problem.