---
name: "r.buildvrt"
section: "1grass"
platform: "linux"
package: "grass-doc"
version: "8.4.1-1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/r.buildvrt"
---

# r.buildvrt(1grass)

Build a VRT (Virtual Raster) from the list of input raster maps.

## NAME

**r.buildvrt**  - Build a VRT (Virtual Raster) from the list of input raster maps.

## KEYWORDS

raster, mosaic, virtual raster

## SYNOPSIS

**r.buildvrt**\
 **r.buildvrt --help**\
 **r.buildvrt**  \[**input**=*name*\[,*name*,...\]\]   \[**file**=*name*\]  **output**=*name*  \[**title**=*phrase*\]   \[--**overwrite**\]  \[--**help**\]  \[--**verbose**\]  \[--**quiet**\]  \[--**ui**\]

### Flags:

- **--overwrite**

  Allow output files to overwrite existing files

- **--help**

  Print usage summary

- **--verbose**

  Verbose module output

- **--quiet**

  Quiet module output

- **--ui**

  Force launching GUI dialog

### Parameters:

- **input**=*name\[,name*,...\]

  Name of input raster files

- **file**=*name*

  Input file with one raster map name per line

- **output**=*name* **\[required\]**

  Name for output raster map

- **title**=*phrase*

  Title for resultant raster map

## DESCRIPTION

*r.buildvrt* builds a virtual raster (VRT) that is a mosaic of the list of input raster maps. The purpose of such a VRT is to provide fast access to small subsets of the VRT, also with multiple simultaneous read requests.

## NOTES

*r.buildvrt* creates a list of raster maps that can be located in different mapsets. The output is a read-only link to the original raster maps which is only valid if the original raster maps remain in the originally indicated mapset. A VRT can also be built from raster maps registered with *r.external*.

Reading the whole VRT is slower than reading the equivalent single raster map. Only reading small parts of the VRT provides a performance benefit.

A GRASS virtual raster can be regarded as a simplified version of GDAL’s virtual raster format. The GRASS equivalent is simpler because issues like nodata, projection, resolution, resampling, masking are already handled by native GRASS raster routines.

## EXAMPLES

### VRT from a DEM in the North Carolina sample dataset

In this exercise a low resolution DEM is resampled to a high resolution DEM. This is subsequently cut into small tiles and from that a virtual tile mosaik is created:\

```
# set the computational region to elevation map
g.region raster=elev_state_500m -p
# enforce higher resolution
g.region res=50 -p
# resample the 500 meter DEM to 50 meter resolution
r.resamp.interp input=elev_state_500m output=elev_state_50m method=bilinear
# create tiles from resulting large 50 m elevation map
r.tile input=elev_state_50m output=elev_state_50m_tile_ width=1000 height=1000 overlap=0
# for convenience, dump list of tile names to a file
g.list type=raster pattern=elev_state_50m_tile_* output=tilelist.csv
# build a mosaik as VRT from tile list
r.buildvrt file=tilelist.csv output=elev_state_50m_vrt
```

## SEE ALSO

*r.tile,* *r.patch,* *r.external*

The equivalent GDAL utility *gdalbuildvrt*

## AUTHOR

Markus Metz\
 Sponsored by mundialis

## SOURCE CODE

Available at: r.buildvrt source code (history)

Accessed: Monday Feb 24 17:50:33 2025

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