[OSGeo-UK] Fwd: Geoparquet as standard for Linux and Mac QGIS users

Mon Jun 30 07:49:33 PDT 2025

Just a heads up to all QGIS users on MAC that a new dedicated installer is
ready for testing.

Please help and test where you can. Also note that QGIS 4.0 is scheduled
for an October release! 🥳🤩

Cheers

Matt

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Matthias Kuhn <matthias at opengis.ch>
Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2025 at 14:43
Subject: Re: Geoparquet as standard for Linux and Mac QGIS users
To: Matt Travis <matt.travis1 at gmail.com>

Hi Matt,

1.5 years later ... And we have something in place.
In the end I was lucky to get financed by QGIS.org -- and Chris Holmes also
helped for the parquet/arrow part.
We now have nightly builds in place which will be promoted to regular
releases starting from October (QGIS 4).

If you want to spread the news within OSGeoUK, the builds can be downloaded
from here https://github.com/opengisch/qgis-notarize (there's a link in the
readme) and they are properly notarised (no more scary warnings during the
installation).
It would be great if this could be thoroughly tested until October, so we
have a solid mac release towards the end of the year.

Best wishes
Matthias

On Sun, Feb 25, 2024 at 12:05 AM Matt Travis <matt.travis1 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Matthias
>
> Thanks for getting in touch and the detailed explanation of the situation.
> It's really helpful to understand the history.
>
> Sounds like vcpkg is definitely the way to go with the Mac builds. I'm not
> a mac user myself but I know a growing number of QGIS users are these days.
> If you need help then could you perhaps get a crowd funder going? I could
> possibly help you with that somehow. I know OSGeoUK would probably donate
> towards it.
>
> Thanks
>
> Matt
>
>
> On Mon, Feb 12, 2024, 08:23 Matthias Kuhn <matthias at opengis.ch> wrote:
>
>> Hi Matt,
>>
>> The last two months were busy, sorry for the long delay.
>>
>> For the sake of completeness, an overview of the situation, sorry if I am
>> repeating things that are already clear:
>>
>> Conda is an external party that is focused around the python ecosystem.
>> As such, they provide QGIS builds for a long time and these seem to run
>> relatively well and see continued maintenance. That's why I proposed to
>> create builds on top of these and that's why I would also recommend using
>> this system to anyone who wants a modern QGIS installation on a mac today.
>> While working on the grant last year I realized that conda is focused on
>> scientist requirements. It's excellent if you are able to use a command
>> line, but limited when you want to create a portable installer (dmg) or
>> complete control over the build process. That's why I moved attention
>> towards vcpkg which gives full control over the build process and the
>> content of installers/packages. Flip side: there is limited python support
>> so far. What I am working on in my spare time at the moment is to bring
>> this further (adding the fundamental python packages needed for QGIS and
>> trying to incentivise the building of a community around that).
>>
>> What makes me confident is the example of QField: we had a homegrown
>> system for years (osgeo4a) it tended to be out of date and a nightmare to
>> maintain, we switched to vcpkg some time ago and don't want to look back
>> <https://www.opengis.ch/2022/09/20/how-we-build-qfield-for-many-platforms-a-look-behind-the-curtain/>.
>> The mac builds are currently based on a copy of osgeo4a.
>>
>> In short: there is a plan, it needs some work and I am following up on
>> it. But since it's a lot of work and hard to estimate and "sell", I am
>> currently doing this in my free time. But I definitely want to push this to
>> the end and release a demo .dmg at some point.
>>
>> Kind regards
>> Matthias
>>
>> On Fri, Nov 24, 2023 at 10:46 PM Matt Travis <matt.travis1 at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Matthias
>>>
>>> I've just commented on the thread. I don't fully understand what
>>> the process is and who makes the decisions on what is included but I think
>>> they should make an exception with this.
>>>
>>> Happy to work with you guys in any way to get this up and running.
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>>
>>> Matt
>>>
>>> On Tue, 21 Nov 2023 at 09:37, Matthias Kuhn <matthias at opengis.ch> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Matt,
>>>>
>>>> The PR has been merged in the end, but subsequently reverted.
>>>> It looks like conda people want to keep the base package small and
>>>> instead improve documentation on how to install drivers:
>>>> https://github.com/conda-forge/qgis-feedstock/pull/387 . It looks like
>>>> the "complete and easy to use" installer needs to be provided elsewhere
>>>> (read: QGIS itself).
>>>>
>>>> Cheers
>>>> Matthias
>>>>
>>>> On Sun, Nov 19, 2023 at 3:46 PM Matt Travis <matt.travis1 at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Thanks Matthias, I really appreciate your work on this.
>>>>>
>>>>> I noticed the PR failed the checks?
>>>>>
>>>>> Cheers
>>>>>
>>>>> Matt
>>>>>
>>>>> On Sun, 19 Nov 2023 at 06:15, Matthias Kuhn <matthias at opengis.ch>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi Matt,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Yes, there's a prototype for a conda based installer available in
>>>>>> https://github.com/opengisch/qgis-conda-builder which should work
>>>>>> not that bad. I'm doing some experiments with another approach (vcpkg) in
>>>>>> my free time these days, as I'm expecting this to be a bit better
>>>>>> maintainable.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Matthias
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Le sam. 18 nov. 2023, 22:12, Matt Travis <matt.travis1 at gmail.com> a
>>>>>> écrit :
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Hi Matthias
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Thanks for getting back to me whilst you're on a break. Thanks for
>>>>>>> making the upstream changes.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> You'll have to excuse my naivety but as well as installing QGIS via
>>>>>>> conda on Mac is there a stand alone installer that you guys have developed.
>>>>>>> I remember seeing a lot about it a while back.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Thanks
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Matt
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Sat, 18 Nov 2023, 09:45 Matthias Kuhn, <matthias at opengis.ch>
>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Hi Matt,
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> To bring geoparquet into conda, it's best to update this upstream,
>>>>>>>> I've created a PR here:
>>>>>>>> https://github.com/conda-forge/qgis-feedstock/pull/386
>>>>>>>> A new installer is being evaluated (see
>>>>>>>> https://github.com/qgis/QGIS-Enhancement-Proposals/issues/270,
>>>>>>>> where also a prototype of a conda based installer is linked).
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Kind regards
>>>>>>>> Matthias
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On Fri, Nov 17, 2023 at 11:02 PM Matt Travis <
>>>>>>>> matt.travis1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Hi Nyall
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Thanks for getting back to me.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Currently on Mac and Ubuntu (not sure about the other distros) you
>>>>>>>>> have to run the following to be to open Geoparquet files.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> conda install qgis libgdal-arrow-parquet
>>>>>>>>> qgis
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Matthias - I've copied you in regards to Mac builds see the
>>>>>>>>> previous email about the call for proposals.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Not sure how we would go about getting it working on the various
>>>>>>>>> Linux distros working. I might pose the question on the telegram group and
>>>>>>>>> see if arch/fedora users to see if they can open them Geoparquet files.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Thanks
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Matt
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> On Fri, 17 Nov 2023, 21:22 Nyall Dawson, <nyall at north-road.com>
>>>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Hi Matt!
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Regarding Mac builds -- you'll want to reach out to OpenGIS (
>>>>>>>>>> matthias at opengis.ch), as they are re-writing the MacOS installer
>>>>>>>>>> now and will be in charge of dependencies and libraries for that.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> What's the missing part with the Linux builds? As far as I'm
>>>>>>>>>> aware geoparquet should already be usable in up-to-date versions of the
>>>>>>>>>> common distributions (Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch,...). Or is this about replacing
>>>>>>>>>> the Geopackage default choices in QGIS with Geoparquet?
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Nyall
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> On Fri, 17 Nov 2023 at 23:01, Matt Travis <matt.travis1 at gmail.com>
>>>>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> Hi Nyall and Saber
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> There's an OGC call for proposals out at the moment for any work
>>>>>>>>>>> that is promoting the use of geoparquet. Chris asked me if I knew anyone
>>>>>>>>>>> who might want to bid to make Linux and Mac builds of QGIS. Is this
>>>>>>>>>>> something either of your companies could help with?
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> Thanks
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> Matt
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>>>> Nyall Dawson (he/him/his) — Director
>>>>>>>>>> nyall at north-road.com / 0468 514 110
>>>>>>>>>> [image: https://north-road.com]
>>>>>>>>>> *North Road*
>>>>>>>>>> Cartography • Development • Spatial Analysis
>>>>>>>>>> ------------------------------
>>>>>>>>>> *north-road.com* <http://north-road.com>
>>>>>>>>>> <https://twitter.com/northroadgeo>
>>>>>>>>>> <https://www.linkedin.com/company/north-road-studios>
>>>>>>>>>> <https://www.facebook.com/North-Road-997236690392419/home>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
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