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.TH SHAPELIB 1 "OCTOBER 2004" "shapelib" "User Commands"
.SH NAME
shpcreate \- create an empty ESRI shapefile
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B shpcreate
.I file shapetype
.SH DESCRIPTION
Creates an empty shapefile supporting shapes of the given type
.IR shapetype .
Shapefiles actually consist of two files with the same basename and
extensions
.BR .shp \ and\  .shx " (or " .SHP \ and\  .SHX ") "
containing the shape data and shape index respectively.  The files
to create are determined by first stripping any filename extension
from
.I file 
and attempting to create the files
.IB file .shp
or 
.IB file .SHP,
and
.IB file .shx
or
.IB file .SHX
for the respective data and index files.  The supported values for the
.I shapetype
argument are:
.BR point ", " arc ", " polygon ", and " multipoint .
.SH EXIT STATUS
.TP
.B 0
Successful program execution.
.TP
.B 1
Missing
.I file
or 
.I shapetype
argument.
.TP
.B 2
Unknown 
.IR shapetype .
.TP
.B 3
Unable to create the shapefile.
.SH DIAGNOSTICS
The following diagnostics may be issued on stdout:
.TP
.RI "Shape Type `" shapetype "' not recognised."
.TP
.RI "Unable to create:" file
.SH AUTHORS
Frank Warmerdam (warmerdam@pobox.com) is the maintainer of the
.B shapelib
shapefile library.  Joonas Pihlaja (jpihlaja@cc.helsinki.fi) wrote
this man page.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR dbfadd (1),
.BR dbfcreate (1),
.BR dbfdump (1),
.BR dbf_dump (1),
.BR shpadd (1),
.BR shpdump (1),
.BR shprewind (1)