[Gdal-dev] URL filenames

[Frank Warmerdam]

Matt Hanson wrote:
> Does GDAL support URL filenames at all, or is that left up to each Driver?
> Is there a way to know which ones do without testing each one?   Does the
> VRT format support URL's ?

Matt,

Currently the only driver which really supports urls is the OPeNDAP driver,
which the uses a special protocol to talk to the remote server.  GDAL does
not currently support fetching remote files and using them locally.

I'd be open to the idea of having GDALOpen() take care of fetching the
data from an URL if it wasn't successfully opened on a first pass through
the drivers.  Then try opening the fetched data file.  But this isn't
something I'm planning to implement soon.

I'd add I am hoping to implement WCS client support in GDAL this fall.  So
we need to keep in mind that some drivers may want to handle http urls in
special ways.  That's why I suggest it only be generically fetched if none
of the drivers access it.

Best regards,
-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGeo, http://osgeo.org