Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF Validator in Rust

Introduction

This project is a Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF (COG) validator implemented in Rust using GDAL. It checks compliance of GeoTIFF files with the COG specification, ensuring they are optimized for cloud storage and efficient access.

The validation logic mirrors rouault/cog_validator (the reference Python validator shipped with GDAL) and was initially inspired by cog-validator-java.

Features

• Supports GDAL Virtual File Systems: Validates local files and remote sources via /vsicurl/, /vsis3/, /vsimem/, etc.
• Warnings vs errors: Hard errors fail validation; soft issues (e.g. large image without overviews) are returned as warnings via ValidationReport.
• Configurable strictness through ValidationOptions.

Validation Checks

File-level structure

• Driver must be GTiff.
• Overviews must be internal — no external .ovr sidecar allowed.
• Main IFD must be at offset 8 (classic TIFF) / 16 (BigTIFF), or immediately after a GDAL_STRUCTURAL_METADATA block aligned to a 2-byte boundary.
• GDAL_STRUCTURAL_METADATA block is parsed for the flags:
  • BLOCK_ORDER=ROW_MAJOR
  • BLOCK_LEADER=SIZE_AS_UINT4
  • BLOCK_TRAILER=LAST_4_BYTES_REPEATED
  • MASK_INTERLEAVED_WITH_IMAGERY=YES
• KNOWN_INCOMPATIBLE_EDITION=YES is rejected.

Image structure metadata

• LAYOUT=COG is required (configurable, downgradable to warning).
• COMPRESSION must be one of: LZW, DEFLATE, ZSTD, LERC, LERC_DEFLATE, LERC_ZSTD, WEBP, JPEG, JXL, PACKBITS, CCITTFAX4.
• INTERLEAVE must be BAND, PIXEL, or TILE.
• Georeferencing (projection + geotransform) is required (configurable).

Main image / bands

• Images larger than 512 px in either dimension must be tiled.
• Tile dimensions must be multiples of 16.
• Large images without internal overviews produce a warning (configurable to error).

Overviews

• Overview dimensions must strictly decrease as the level index increases.
• Overview reduction factor (in both x and y) must strictly increase as the level index increases.
• Overview IFD offsets must be in increasing order.
• Each overview must be tiled.
• First data block of the smallest overview must be after its own IFD.
• For multi-overview files: data block of overview i must be after data block of overview i+1 (smallest overview is written first).
• First data block of the main image must be after the first data block of overview 0 (largest overview).

Per-block (when corresponding structural metadata flags are present)

• BLOCK_LEADER=SIZE_AS_UINT4: the uint32 leader preceding each block must match its byte count.
• BLOCK_TRAILER=LAST_4_BYTES_REPEATED: the last 4 bytes of each block must be repeated as the trailing 4 bytes.
• BLOCK_ORDER=ROW_MAJOR: block offsets within a band must be non-decreasing in row-major order.

Mask bands

• Per-dataset mask bands are recursively validated.
• When MASK_INTERLEAVED_WITH_IMAGERY=YES:
  • Mask block size must match the imagery band block size.
  • For each block, mask_offset == imagery_offset + byte_count + leader_pad + trailer_pad.

Requirements

• Rust toolchain
• GDAL library (installed separately)

Installation

git clone https://github.com/Zwishing/cog_validator.git
cd cog_validator
cargo build --release

Usage

Basic check (boolean result)

use cog_validator::cog_validator;

fn main() {
    let result = cog_validator("/vsicurl/https://oin-hotosm.s3.amazonaws.com/59c66c5223c8440011d7b1e4/0/7ad397c0-bba2-4f98-a08a-931ec3a6e943.tif");
    println!("COG validation result: {:?}", result);
}

Detailed report with warnings

use cog_validator::{cog_validator_with_options, validator::ValidationOptions};

fn main() {
    let report = cog_validator_with_options(
        "path/to/file.tif",
        ValidationOptions::default(),
    );
    match report {
        Ok(r) => {
            for w in &r.warnings {
                println!("warning: {w}");
            }
            println!("valid COG with {} warning(s)", r.warnings.len());
        }
        Err(e) => eprintln!("invalid COG: {e}"),
    }
}

Configuring strictness

use cog_validator::validator::ValidationOptions;

let options = ValidationOptions {
    require_cog_layout: true,                          // require LAYOUT=COG
    require_georeferencing: false,                     // downgrade to warning
    require_internal_overviews_for_large_images: true, // promote to error
};

License

Licensed under the Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE for details.

Acknowledgments

• rouault/cog_validator — the reference Python validator whose check semantics this project mirrors.
• cog-validator-java — the original inspiration.
• GDAL — geospatial data handling library this validator builds on.