r.in.lidar / v.in.lidar missing in Ubunutgis package

[sbl]

Ubunutgis package for GRASS GIS 7.8 is build without liblas support, thus r.in.lidar / v.in.lidar modules are missing.

See: ​https://launchpadlibrarian.net/455539996/buildlog_ubuntu-bionic-amd64.grass_7.8.2-1~bionic1_BUILDING.txt.gz (and search for dh_auto_configure).

Note that dependencies (I guess liblas-dev) are not installed prior to configuration either.

See: ​https://launchpad.net/~ubuntugis/+archive/ubuntu/ubuntugis-unstable/+sourcepub/10345798/+listing-archive-extra for available liblas packages from UbuntuGIS unstable.

[Bas Couwenberg]

libLAS is deprecated and PDAL should be used instead, the ​libLAS website documents this:

As of 2018, libLAS has been replaced by the ​PDAL project and it is in hibernation or maintenance mode. libLAS does not provide support for LAS or LAZ 1.4, which PDAL does. PDAL also provides support for many more formats, the notion of ​PDAL pipelines, Python support, and has packages for OSGeo4W, Docker/Ubuntu/Alpine, and OSX Homebrew. Additionally, libLAS’ Python capabilities are much better expressed by the pure-Python ​laspy library, and if manipulating LAS data in Python is your ultimate desire, use that instead of libLAS.

The liblas package has been removed from Debian, and hence the grass package is only built with pdal. Because the grass package in UbuntuGIS uses the same source as Debian it likewise no longer supports liblas.

While liblas is still available in Ubuntu bionic, their next LTS (focal) won't have it either as it was removed in eoan.

Functionality provided by *.in.lidar should be ported to their *.in.pdal counterparts or port *.in.lidar to use PDAL instead of libLAS.

[neteler]

Replying to Bas Couwenberg:

Functionality provided by *.in.lidar should be ported to their *.in.pdal counterparts or port *.in.lidar to use PDAL instead of libLAS.

Yes.

See also ​https://github.com/OSGeo/grass/pull/61 ("WIP r.in.pdal - PDAL-based version of r.in.lidar") ... to be completed and extended to v.in.lidar.

[sbl]

Yes, I agree that it would be important to port the functionality to PDAL.

But until that is done, and as long as liblas is available in UbuntuGIS (and here I am particularly talking about UbuntuGIS-unstable), I would love to see GRASS GIS build with liblas functionality. Importing LiDAR data would be dearly missed otherwise…

This is just a humble wish, I know you packagers have a lot to consider and I am very grateful for all your work!

[sbl]

Most as a note to other readers and myself: v.in.pdal is already available in core at least since GRASS GIS 7.6 and r.in.pdal is available as an addon.

The manual for v.in.pdal however is not online (except for Ubuntu man pages ​https://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/disco/man1/v.in.pdal.1grass.html), making it less accessible.

Maybe pdal-support should be switched on for the build process that creates the online HTML manuals?

[neteler]

Replying to sbl:

Maybe pdal-support should be switched on for the build process that creates the online HTML manuals?

Your wish is my command:

• https://grass.osgeo.org/grass78/manuals/v.in.pdal.html
• https://grass.osgeo.org/grass79/manuals/v.in.pdal.html

[sbl]

Closing this cause liblas is deprecated and pdal available...