Re: AutoIdentifyEPSG() fails on standard ESRI-dialect NAD83/UTM .prj (proj_identify succeeds); FindMatches() also missing from Java bindings

I have submitted a pull request for my draft solutions.  
https://github.com/OSGeo/gdal/pull/15033

It is probably a good idea to switch the discussion of this issue to github.
Tom


On Thu, Aug 13, 2026, at 7:53 AM, Even Rouault wrote:
> Tom,
> 
> yes FindMatches() is what is needed for your use case and it is not currently available in the Java bindings. That would require someone to write the appropriate typemap(s) to map the C types to Java types.
> 
> Even
> 
> Le 13/08/2026 à 13:15, Tom Moore via gdal-dev a écrit :
>> Hi all,
>> 
>> I'm running into a case where SpatialReference.AutoIdentifyEPSG() fails on a completely standard, well-formed ESRI-dialect .prj file, even though the underlying PROJ identification machinery (proj_identify(), as exercised via "projinfo --identify") resolves it correctly with 100% confidence. I'd like to know whether this is a known limitation, and whether there's a recommended workaround for Java bindings users specifically, since FindMatches() isn't exposed there.
>> 
>> Environment:
>> - GDAL 3.11.1 (Windows build)
>> - PROJ 9.6.2
>> - Java bindings (org.gdal.osr / SWIG)
>> 
>> Input WKT (contents of a shapefile .prj, ESRI dialect):
>> 
>> PROJCS["NAD_1983_UTM_Zone_11N",GEOGCS["GCS_North_American_1983",DATUM["D_North_American_1983",SPHEROID["GRS_1980",6378137.0,298.257222101]],PRIMEM["Greenwich",0.0],UNIT["Degree",0.0174532925199433]],PROJECTION["Transverse_Mercator"],PARAMETER["False_Easting",500000.0],PARAMETER["False_Northing",0.0],PARAMETER["Central_Meridian",-117.0],PARAMETER["Scale_Factor",0.9996],PARAMETER["Latitude_Of_Origin",0.0],UNIT["Meter",1.0]]
>> 
>> QGIS correctly identifies this as EPSG:26911.
>> 
>> What I tried (Java):
>> 
>>     SpatialReference srs = new SpatialReference();
>>     srs.ImportFromESRI(lines);   // also tried plain ImportFromWkt() but got the same result
>>     srs.SetAxisMappingStrategy(osrConstants.OAMS_TRADITIONAL_GIS_ORDER);
>> 
>>     try {
>>         srs.AutoIdentifyEPSG();
>>     } catch (Exception ex) {
>>         System.out.println("Exception: " + ex.getMessage());
>>     }
>>     System.out.println("code = " + srs.GetAuthorityCode(null));
>> 
>> Result:
>> 
>>     Exception: OGR Error: Unsupported SRS
>>     code = null
>> 
>> gdal.GetLastErrorType() / GetLastErrorMsg() are empty.  No additional diagnostic detail is surfaced beyond the generic exception.
>> 
>> I ruled out several things before suspecting this is a AutoIdentifyEPSG() limitation rather than an environment/config issue on my end:
>> 
>> 1. proj.db itself is correct.  Confirmed by mounting the exact same proj.db (from the PROJ 9 data directory used by my JAva app) into a clean ghcr.io/osgeo/gdal:ubuntu-small-latest container and running `gdalsrsinfo -e` against the same .prj file. It resolved to EPSG:26911 correctly, full WKT2 with all authority IDs.
>> 2. PROJ_LIB / PROJ_DATA environment variables are set correctly and confirmed using System.getenv() to be visible to the process
>> 3. Tried MorphFromESRI() (both via ImportFromESRI() alone, and combined with an explicit MorphFromESRI() call) - no change.
>> 4. Tried explicit SetAxisMappingStrategy(OAMS_TRADITIONAL_GIS_ORDER) before calling AutoIdentifyEPSG() - no change.
>> 5. Ran the projinfo.exe from the gdal build that I am using with the Java app directly against the same .prj file:
>> 
>>     projinfo.exe --identify fmu.prj
>>     ...
>>     Identification match count: 1
>>     EPSG:26911: 100 %
>> 
>> So proj_identify() / FindMatches()-equivalent logic resolves this WKT perfectly in the exact same native build, but AutoIdentifyEPSG() fails on it.
>> 
>> This looks consistent with a few things I found in the tracker/mailing list archives while investigating:
>> 
>> - https://trac.osgeo.org/gdal/ticket/6188 -- maintainer comment noting AutoIdentifyEPSG() has "very limited capabilities" and would need fuzzy matching to handle inexact datum/ellipsoid names, "especially when dealing with WKT coming from ESRI." 
>> - https://github.com/OSGeo/gdal/issues/4038 -- near-identical repro WKT (ESRI-dialect UTM), with a maintainer noting AutoIdentifyEPSG() can return OGRERR_UNSUPPORTED_SRS while having still injected partial AUTHORITY tags into sub-nodes.  This matches what I see when printing the WKT after the failed call (DATUM gets EPSG:6269, but the top-level PROJCS never gets an ID).
>> - https://github.com/OSGeo/gdal/issues/2303 -- shows the standard Python workaround (fall back to FindMatches() when AutoIdentifyEPSG() fails), which leads to my second question below.
>> 
>> Questions:
>> 
>> 1. Is AutoIdentifyEPSG() failing on this ESRI-dialect NAD83/UTM WKT a known limitation, or does this look like a genuine regression/bug worth filing?
>> 2. FindMatches() does not appear to be exposed in the Java SWIG bindings (org.gdal.osr.SpatialReference).  Is that correct, or am I missing something? If it's genuinely absent, is there any appetite for adding it, given it's the documented fallback for exactly this situation in other language bindings?
>> 3. Short of shelling out to "projinfo --identify" as a subprocess, is there a recommended in-process approach for Java bindings users to reach the same identification logic?
>> 
>> Happy to provide a minimal reproducible test case / file a tracker issue if that's useful, but I wanted to check here first in case this is already understood behavior.
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> Tom
>> 
>> 
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