How To Install PDAL on Rocky Linux 8

In this tutorial we learn how to install PDAL on Rocky Linux 8. PDAL is Point Data Abstraction Library

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install PDAL on Rocky Linux 8.

What is PDAL

PDAL is a BSD licensed library for translating and manipulating point cloud data of various formats. It is a library that is analogous to the GDAL raster library. PDAL is focused on reading, writing, and translating point cloud data from the ever-growing constellation of data formats. While PDAL is not explicitly limited to working with LiDAR data formats, its wide format coverage is in that domain. PDAL is related to Point Cloud Library (PCL) in the sense that both work with point data, but PDAL’s niche is data translation and processing pipelines, and PCL’s is more in the algorithmic exploitation domain. There is cross over of both niches, however, and PDAL provides a user the ability to exploit data using PCL’s techniques.

We can use yum or dnf to install PDAL on Rocky Linux 8. In this tutorial we discuss both methods but you only need to choose one of method to install PDAL.

Install PDAL on Rocky Linux 8 Using dnf

Update yum database with dnf using the following command.

sudo dnf makecache --refresh

After updating yum database, We can install PDAL using dnf by running the following command:

sudo dnf -y install PDAL

Install PDAL on Rocky Linux 8 Using yum

Update yum database with yum using the following command.

sudo yum makecache --refresh

After updating yum database, We can install PDAL using yum by running the following command:

sudo yum -y install PDAL

How To Uninstall PDAL on Rocky Linux 8

To uninstall only the PDAL package we can use the following command:

sudo dnf remove PDAL

PDAL Package Contents on Rocky Linux 8

/usr/bin/pdal
/usr/lib/.build-id
/usr/lib/.build-id/8d
/usr/lib/.build-id/8d/d6f959d1a36c2bae044025af4df1e39d7d59b7

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install PDAL on Rocky Linux 8 using yum and dnf.