Here is the documentation

http://gdal.org/classGDALRasterAttributeTable.html

and here is a good GISStackX reference.

Build Raster Attribute Table with GDAL Utilities

They are known as RATs and came about after your question. http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/gdal-dev/2005-July/006082.html

I believe ArcGIS will not read them but would like to be corrected.

Here is the documentation

http://gdal.org/classGDALRasterAttributeTable.html

They are known as RATs and came about after your question. http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/gdal-dev/2005-July/006082.html

I believe ArcGIS will not read them but would like to be corrected.