LAStools runs on Windows and Linux. This article describes the features and installation of LAStools for Linux.
Features
All binaries are 64bit.
Multicore (-cores) is supported.
BLAST (blast2dem) is available.
The „-gui“ option is not available because most users run LAStools@Linux on the command line for batch processing.
Installation
Download the binaries via a browser or use the console. In our simple example installation, we install into „~/lastools“:
cd ~
mkdir lastools
cd lastools
wget https://downloads.rapidlasso.de/LAStools.tar.gzExtract the download and optionally remove the download file:
tar xvzf LAStools.tar.gz
rm LAStools.tar.gzLAStools needs some external shared object files (.so).
At most systems this libraries are available or can be installed using a package manager.
Additionally the mandatory libraries are also included in the delivery and located in the directory „./lib“.
To use this libraries the system needs to find this files. This can be done by expanding the library path environment variable.
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=./lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATHOptional the missing dependencies can be installed by the linux system.
Most likely you need to install libgeotiff-dev, optionally you can (re)install all dependencies.
sudo apt-get install libgeotiff-dev
sudo apt-get install libjpeg62 libpng-dev libtiff-dev libjpeg-dev libz-dev libproj-dev liblzma-dev libjbig-dev libzstd-dev libgeotiff-dev libwebp-dev liblzma-devNow you can test one of the tool commands:
./laszip64If startup fails with a ‘missing library’ message, you may need to install one of the additional dependencies mentioned above.
To view all required dependencies, you can do the following:
ldd laszip64All required libraries are listed here and where they were found:
linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007ffd2c3b2000) cLASlib.so => ./cLASlib.so (0x00007f57025a5000) LASlib.so => ./LASlib.so (0x00007f5702463000) libstdc++.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6 (0x00007f570226b000) libm.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6 (0x00007f570211c000) libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00007f5702101000) libc.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0x00007f5701f0f000) libpng16.so.16 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpng16.so.16 (0x00007f5701ed5000) libtiff.so.5 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libtiff.so.5 (0x00007f5701e53000) libgeotiff.so.5 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgeotiff.so.5 (0x00007f5701e1e000) /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007f57027bb000) libjpeg.so.62 => not found libz.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1 (0x00007f5701e02000) libwebp.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libwebp.so.6 (0x00007f5701d96000) libzstd.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libzstd.so.1 (0x00007f5701ced000) liblzma.so.5 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/liblzma.so.5 (0x00007f5701cc4000) libjbig.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libjbig.so.0 (0x00007f5701cb3000) libjpeg.so.8 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libjpeg.so.8 (0x00007f5701c2e000) libproj.so.15 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libproj.so.15 (0x00007f570193f000) libpthread.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007f570191a000) libsqlite3.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsqlite3.so.0 (0x00007f57017f1000) libdl.so.2 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libdl.so.2 (0x00007f57017eb000)If a library is marked as ‘not found’, you must install that dependency. In the example output above, “libjpeg62” needs to be installed.
sudo apt-get install libjpeg62
Licensing
If you don’t own a commercial license, the same limitations apply as in the Windows version: The number of points is limited, usually to 3 million points. If you own a license, place your license file („lastoolslicense.txt“) in the .\LAStools\bin directory of the distribution.
Optionally, you can reference the license file in a different directory:
export LAStoolsLicenseFile=~/somewhere/lastoolslicense.txtThis location is checked if the license file is not found in the current path.
Warranty
Kindly note our license agreement. Please check all your results always carefully.
Feedback
Suggestions for optimizing LAStools@Linux or this documentation are welcome. Your feedback is greatly appreciated.
Happy LAStooling@Linux!