Current status of displaying mrsid images with mapserver

[Jeff Hoffmann]

Don Silvia wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm hoping someone can give me some details on what it will take to
> display mrsid images with mapserver 4.8.3.  I've searched the list
> archive and I think I need to build gdal with mrsid support using the
> LizardTech SDK, which in turn requires that I use gcc 2.95 or 3.2.
> The problem I have is that the machine I have available is running
> Fedora Core 4 with gcc 4.0.0.  So my questions are:
> 
> 1. Has anyone successfully built gdal with mrsid support using a
> version of gcc later than 3.2?

> 2. Is it feasible to install gcc 3.2 separately from a later version,
> and have the two coexist peacefully?

I haven't done this with FC4, but I think it would be possible (although 
probably quite a pain).  You'll need to install the compat-gcc-32-* rpms 
and then build everything with gcc32 instead of the regular gcc.

> 3. If options 1 and 2 don't work for me, I could convert the mrsid
> images to TIFFs, but that creates a TIFF file of over 120 MB from a
> roughly 10 MB mrsid file.  The disk space isn't a problem, but how
> well will mapserver perform with TIFFs that large?

This is your best option if disk space isn't an issue.  The only thing 
I'd say is make sure you build overviews into your tiff with gdaladdo. 
That will help performance at various map scales.

--
Jeff Hoffmann
jeff at propertykey.com