[gdal-dev] Regarding using VRT to open a raw file

[Frank Warmerdam]

Dan Greve wrote:
> I'm using the VRT schema to open a raw binary image file.  I can 
> successfully access the image data by creating a VRT file with the 
> necessary metadata, and then perform GDALOpen using the filename of the 
> VRT file.  Is there a clean way to just create the VRT metadata file in 
> memory, instead of having to create a VRT file on disk?

Dan,

I believe the VRT driver is unusual in that it allows passing the entire
VRT XML contents as the filename to GDALOpen() instead of it being a file
on disk.

If the driver did not have this specific capacity, you could also use the
/vsimem/ pseudo-filesystem handling to create the file in memory but have
it appear to be on disk to most of the GDAL software.

Best regards,
-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
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and watch the world go round - Rush    | Geospatial Programmer for Rent