GDAL-VECTOR-EXPORT-SCHEMA(1)         GDAL         GDAL-VECTOR-EXPORT-SCHEMA(1)

NAME
       gdal-vector-export-schema - Export the OGR_SCHEMA from a vector dataset

       Added in version 3.13.


SYNOPSIS

          Usage: gdal vector export-schema [OPTIONS] <INPUT>...

          Export the OGR_SCHEMA from a vector dataset.

          Positional arguments:
            -i, --dataset, --input <INPUT>            Input vector datasets [may be repeated] [required]

          Common Options:
            -h, --help                                Display help message and exit
            --json-usage                              Display usage as JSON document and exit
            --config <KEY>=<VALUE>                    Configuration option [may be repeated]

          Options:
            -l, --layer, --input-layer <INPUT-LAYER>  Input layer name [may be repeated]

          Advanced Options:
            --oo, --open-option <KEY>=<VALUE>         Open options [may be repeated]
            --if, --input-format <INPUT-FORMAT>       Input formats [may be repeated]

DESCRIPTION
       gdal vector export-schema exports the OGR_SCHEMA from a GDAL-supported
       vector dataset, and returns it on the standard output stream when used
       from the command line, or in the output parameter when used from the
       API.

       OGR_SCHEMA is a JSON object describing the structure of a vector
       dataset according to the schema definition at
       ogr_fields_override.schema.json

       gdal vector export-schema can be used as the last step of a pipeline.

       The following options are available:

PROGRAM-SPECIFIC OPTIONS

       -l, --layer, --input-layer <INPUT-LAYER>
              Name of one or more layers to inspect. If no layer names are
              passed, then all layers will be selected.

STANDARD OPTIONS

       --oo, --open-option <NAME>=<VALUE>
              Dataset open option (format specific).

              May be repeated.

       --if, --input-format <format>
              Format/driver name to be attempted to open the input file(s). It
              is generally not necessary to specify it, but it can be used to
              skip automatic driver detection, when it fails to select the
              appropriate driver.  This option can be repeated several times
              to specify several candidate drivers.  Note that it does not
              force those drivers to open the dataset. In particular, some
              drivers have requirements on file extensions.

              May be repeated.

RETURN STATUS CODE
       The program returns status code 0 in case of success, and non-zero in
       case of error (non-blocking errors emitted as warnings are considered
       as a successful execution).

EXAMPLES
   Example 1: Extracting the OGR_SCHEMA from the file poly.gpkg

          gdal vector export-schema poly.gpkg

   Example 2: Save the OGR_SCHEMA to a file
       When using Windows PowerShell 5.1, redirecting output with > or
       Out-File -Encoding utf8 produces UTF-8 with a BOM (Byte Order Mark).
       When using the schema with gdal vector create it may fail with ERROR 1:
       JSON parsing error: unexpected character (at offset 0).

       In PowerShell 5.1, use -Encoding ascii for JSON output that contains no
       non-ASCII characters.  Bash

          gdal vector export-schema natural_earth_vector.gpkg --layer "ne_50m_admin_0_countries" > countries.json
       PowerShell

          # PowerShell 5.1
          gdal vector export-schema natural_earth_vector.gpkg --layer "ne_50m_admin_0_countries" | Out-File countries.json -Encoding ascii

          # PowerShell 7+
          gdal vector export-schema natural_earth_vector.gpkg --layer "ne_50m_admin_0_countries" | Out-File countries.json -Encoding utf8

   Example 3: Validate an OGR_SCHEMA file using Python
       Validate against the latest version of the schema definition at
       ogr_fields_override.schema.json using the Python package
       check-jsonschema available on PyPI.

          $ pip install check-jsonschema
          $ check-jsonschema --schemafile https://raw.githubusercontent.com/OSGeo/gdal/master/ogr/data/ogr_fields_override.schema.json countries.json --verbose

   Example 4: Create an OGR_SCHEMA at the end of a pipeline
       This example renames the field pop_est to estimated_population and
       changes its type from Real to Integer, before exporting the resulting
       OGR_SCHEMA.  Bash

          gdal vector pipeline \
              ! read natural_earth_vector.gpkg --layer ne_50m_admin_0_countries \
              ! sql --sql "SELECT geom,name,abbrev,pop_est AS estimated_population FROM ne_50m_admin_0_countries" --output-layer "countries" \
              ! set-field-type --field-name "estimated_population" --field-type Integer \
              ! export-schema
       PowerShell

          gdal vector pipeline `
              ! read natural_earth_vector.gpkg --layer ne_50m_admin_0_countries `
              ! sql --sql "SELECT geom,name,abbrev,pop_est AS estimated_population FROM ne_50m_admin_0_countries" --output-layer "countries" `
              ! set-field-type --field-name "estimated_population" --field-type Integer `
              ! export-schema

AUTHOR
       Alessandro Pasotti <elpaso@itopen.it>

COPYRIGHT
       1998-2026

                                August 18, 2026   GDAL-VECTOR-EXPORT-SCHEMA(1)