shapefile - converting shp to fileGDB with ogr2ogr changes geometry type?

Tuesday 21 November 2017

I'm converting a shapefile to file geodatabase with GDAL 1.11.3 and the ESRI FileGDB driver.

ogrinfo on the .shp gives:

$ ogrinfo NED1_Index.shp
INFO: Open of `NED1_Index.shp'
  using driver `ESRI Shapefile' successful.

1: NED1_Index (Polygon)

I run this command:

$ ogr2ogr -f "FileGDB" nedtest.gdb NED1_Index.shp

or this one specifying the geometry type:

$ ogr2ogr -f "FileGDB" -nlt POLYGON nedtest.gdb NED1_Index.shp

and then ogrinfo on the output fileGDB gives:

$ ogrinfo nedtest.gdb/  

INFO: Open of `nedtest.gdb/'  
  using driver `FileGDB' successful.  
1: NED1_Index (Multi Polygon)

Why is the geometry changing to MultiPolygon?

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