Skip a specified input layer in ogr2ogr

Question

I am using ogr2ogr to load data from multiple GML files into PostGIS. As shown in the ogrinfo output below, each GML file has multiple layers.

    Had to open data source read-only.
INFO: Open of `D:\Projects\osmaps\data\vectorMapDistrict_unzipped\HP40.gml'
      using driver `GML' successful.
1: Ornament (Polygon)
2: SurfaceWater_Line (Line String)
3: TidalWater (Polygon)
4: SpotHeight (Point)
5: TidalBoundary (Line String)
6: FunctionalSite (Point)
7: SurfaceWater_Area (Polygon)
8: Road (Line String)
9: Foreshore (Polygon)
10: AdministrativeBoundary (Line String)
11: NamedPlace (Point)
12: Building (Polygon)

I want to load all layers except the Ornament layer. How do I get ogr2ogr to skip the specific layer?

My current script in Windows Powershell:

# Input gml directory
$gmlDir = "D:\Projects\osmaps\data\vectorMapDistrict_unzipped"
# Loop through gml files
Foreach($gmlFile in Get-ChildItem $gmlDir -filter *.gml) {
    #Load data
    ogr2ogr -f PostgreSQL PG:"dbname=osmaps host=localhost port=5432 active_schema=vectormapdistrict user=postgres" -append -progress --config PG_USE_COPY YES $gmlFile.fullname}

Answer 1

You can't skip layers but you can select explicitly the layers which you want to keep with ogr2ogr command by giving a list of layers after the datasource.

This should work:

ogr2ogr -f PostgreSQL PG:"dbname=osmaps host=localhost port=5432 active_schema=vectormapdistrict user=postgres" -append -progress --config PG_USE_COPY YES $gmlFile.fullname} SurfaceWater_Line TidalWater SpotHeight TidalBoundary FunctionalSite SurfaceWater_Area Road Foreshore AdministrativeBoundary NamedPlace Building

Answer 2

You can't skip layers but you can select explicitly the layers which you want to keep by writing a VRT file http://www.gdal.org/drv_vrt.html. For your data this file should expose only one layer from your GML

<OGRVRTDataSource>
    <OGRVRTLayer name="SurfaceWater_Line">
        <SrcDataSource>HP40.gml</SrcDataSource>
        <SrcLayer>SurfaceWater_Line</SrcLayer>
    </OGRVRTLayer>
</OGRVRTDataSource>

Save as filtered_gml.xml and test with ogrinfo filtered_gml.xml. Go on and add more OGRVRTLayer elements.