Make Vector Topographic Maps (Open Street Map, Maperitive, and Inkscape)

by Michael Altfield

This guide will show you how to generate vector-based topopgraphic maps, for printing very large & high-quality paper wall maps using inkscape. All of the tools used in this guide are free (as in beer).

How-to Guide to Making Vector Topo Maps with Maperitive and Inkscape

Intro

I recently volunteered at a Biological Research Station located on the eastern slopes of the Andes mountains. If the skies were clear (which is almost never, as it's a cloud forest), you would have a great view overlooking the Amazon Rainforest below.

Yanayacu is in a cloud forest on the east slopes of the Andes mountains, just 30 km from the summit of the glacial-capped Antisana volcano (source)

The field station was many years old with some permanent structures and a network of established trails that meandered towards the border of Antisana National Park -- a protected area rich with biodiversity that attracts biologists from around the world. At the top of the park is a glacial-capped volcano with a summit at 5,753 meters.

Surprisingly, though Estacion Biologicia Yanayacu was over 30 years old, nobody ever prepared a proper map of their trails. And certainly there was no high-resolution topographical map of the area to be found at the Station.

That was my task: to generate maps that we could bring to a local print shop to print-out huge 1-3 meter topographical maps.

And if you want to print massive posters that don't look terrible, you're going to be working with vector graphics. However, most of the tools that I found for browsing Open Street Map data that included contour lines couldn't export an SVG. And the tools I found that could export an SVG, couldn't export contour lines.

It took me several days to figure out how to render a topographical map and export it as an SVG. This article will explain how, so you can produce a vector-based topographical map in about half a day of work.

Assumptions

This guide was written in 2024, and it uses the following software and versions:

1. Debian 12 (bookworm)
2. OsmAnd~ v4.7.10
3. JOSM v18646
4. Maperitive v2.4.3
5. Inkscape v1.2.2

The Tools

Unfortunately, there's no all-in-one app that will let you just load a slippy map, zoom-in, draw a box, and hit "export as SVG". We'll be using a few different tools to meet our needs.

OsmAnd

OsmAnd

OsmAnd is a mobile app.

We'll be using OsmAnd to walk around on the trails and generate GPX files (which contain a set of GPS coordinates and some metadata). We'll use these coordinates to generate vector lines of a trail overlaying the topographic map.

If you just want a topographic map without trails (or your trails are already marked on OSM data), then you won't need this tool.

In this guide we'll be using OsmAnd, but you an also use other apps -- such as Organic Maps, Maps.me, or Gaia.

JOSM

JOSM

JOSM is a java-based tool for editing Open Street Map data.

We'll be using JOSM to upload the paths of our trails (recorded GPX files from OsmAnd) and also to download additional data (rivers, national park boundary line, road to the trailhead, etc). We'll then be able to combine all of this data into a larger GPX file, which will eventually become vector lines overlaying the topographic map.

You can skip this if you just want contour lines without things like rivers, roads, trails, buildings, and park borders.

View Finder Panoramas

Have you ever wondered how you can zoom-in almost anywhere in the world and see contour lines? I always thought that this was the result of some herculean effort of surveyors scaling mountains and descending canyons the world-over. But, no -- it's a product of the US Space Shuttle program.

In the year 2000, an international program called SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) was launched into space with the Endaevor Space Shuttle. It consisted of a special radar system tethered to the shuttle with a 60 meter mast as it orbited the earth.

This illustration shows the Space Shuttle Endeavour orbiting ~233 kilometers above Earth. The two anternae, one located in the Shuttle bay and the other located on a 60-meter mast, were able to penetrate clouds, obtaining 3-dimentional topographic images of the world's surface (source: NASA)

When the shuttle returned to earth, the majority of our planet's contours were mapped. This data was placed on the public domain. Today, it is the main data source for elevation data in most maps.

While the data from SRTM was a huge boon to cartographers, it did have some gaps. Namely: elevation data was missing in very tall mountains and very low canyons. Subsequent work was done to fill-in these gaps. One particular source that ingested the SRTM data, completed its gaps, and made the results public is Jonathan de Ferranti's viewfinderpanoramas.org.

We will be downloading .hgt files from View Finder Panoramas in order to generate vector contour lines for our topographical map.

Maperitive

Maperitive

Maperitive is a closed-source .NET-based mapping software (which runs fine in Linux with mono).

We'll be using Maperitive to tie together our GPX tracks, generate contour lines, generate hillshades, and export it all as a SVG.

Inkscape

Inkscape

Inkscape is a cross-platform app for artists working with vector graphics.

We'll be using inkscape to make some final touches to our vector image, such as hiding some paths, changing their stroke color/shape/thickness, and adding/moving text labels. Finally, we'll use inkscape to export a gigantic, high-definition .png raster image (to send to the print shop).

Guide

To read the full guide on how to create vector-based maps, click here:

• tech.michaelaltfield.net/2024/10/01/osm-contours-svg-maperitive

Example Maps

For example, here's the (A4-sized) topo map that I built for Yanayacu.

Final (raster) export, ready for sending to the print shop (source svg)

Note that I changed the stroke and thickness of the National Park boundary to be large and green, I changed the path of the road (downloaded from OSM data in JOSM) to be thick and black, and I changed my GPX tracks (recorded in OsmAnd and merged with the OSM data in JOSM) to be thin, dashed, and red.

The source .svg file for the above image can be found here

• github.com/maltfield/yanayacu/tree/main/maps/yanayacu_topo

I also used this method to generate a simplified "trail map" of Yanayacu (without contour lines). The workflow was similar, except I didn't generate contour nor hillshades layers in Maperitive before exporting as a .svg

)
Yanayacu Trail Guide (source svg)

The source .svg file for the above image can be found here

• github.com/maltfield/yanayacu/tree/main/maps/yanayacu_trail_guide

Make Vector Topographic Maps (Open Street Map, Maperitive, and Inkscape)

by Michael Altfield

This guide will show you how to generate vector-based topopgraphic maps, for printing very large & high-quality paper wall maps using inkscape. All of the tools used in this guide are free (as in beer).

How-to Guide to Making Vector Topo Maps with Maperitive and Inkscape

Intro

I recently volunteered at a Biological Research Station located on the eastern slopes of the Andes mountains. If the skies were clear (which is almost never, as it's a cloud forest), you would have a great view overlooking the Amazon Rainforest below.

Yanayacu is in a cloud forest on the east slopes of the Andes mountains, just 30 km from the summit of the glacial-capped Antisana volcano (source)

The field station was many years old with some permanent structures and a network of established trails that meandered towards the border of Antisana National Park -- a protected area rich with biodiversity that attracts biologists from around the world. At the top of the park is a glacial-capped volcano with a summit at 5,753 meters.

Surprisingly, though Estacion Biologicia Yanayacu was over 30 years old, nobody ever prepared a proper map of their trails. And certainly there was no high-resolution topographical map of the area to be found at the Station.

That was my task: to generate maps that we could bring to a local print shop to print-out huge 1-3 meter topographical maps.

And if you want to print massive posters that don't look terrible, you're going to be working with vector graphics. However, most of the tools that I found for browsing Open Street Map data that included contour lines couldn't export an SVG. And the tools I found that could export an SVG, couldn't export contour lines.

It took me several days to figure out how to render a topographical map and export it as an SVG. This article will explain how, so you can produce a vector-based topographical map in about half a day of work.

Assumptions

This guide was written in 2024, and it uses the following software and versions:

1. Debian 12 (bookworm)
2. OsmAnd~ v4.7.10
3. JOSM v18646
4. Maperitive v2.4.3
5. Inkscape v1.2.2

The Tools

Unfortunately, there's no all-in-one app that will let you just load a slippy map, zoom-in, draw a box, and hit "export as SVG". We'll be using a few different tools to meet our needs.

OsmAnd

OsmAnd

OsmAnd is a mobile app.

We'll be using OsmAnd to walk around on the trails and generate GPX files (which contain a set of GPS coordinates and some metadata). We'll use these coordinates to generate vector lines of a trail overlaying the topographic map.

If you just want a topographic map without trails (or your trails are already marked on OSM data), then you won't need this tool.

In this guide we'll be using OsmAnd, but you an also use other apps -- such as Organic Maps, Maps.me, or Gaia.

JOSM

JOSM

JOSM is a java-based tool for editing Open Street Map data.

We'll be using JOSM to upload the paths of our trails (recorded GPX files from OsmAnd) and also to download additional data (rivers, national park boundary line, road to the trailhead, etc). We'll then be able to combine all of this data into a larger GPX file, which will eventually become vector lines overlaying the topographic map.

You can skip this if you just want contour lines without things like rivers, roads, trails, buildings, and park borders.

View Finder Panoramas

Have you ever wondered how you can zoom-in almost anywhere in the world and see contour lines? I always thought that this was the result of some herculean effort of surveyors scaling mountains and descending canyons the world-over. But, no -- it's a product of the US Space Shuttle program.

In the year 2000, an international program called SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) was launched into space with the Endaevor Space Shuttle. It consisted of a special radar system tethered to the shuttle with a 60 meter mast as it orbited the earth.

This illustration shows the Space Shuttle Endeavour orbiting ~233 kilometers above Earth. The two anternae, one located in the Shuttle bay and the other located on a 60-meter mast, were able to penetrate clouds, obtaining 3-dimentional topographic images of the world's surface (source: NASA)

When the shuttle returned to earth, the majority of our planet's contours were mapped. This data was placed on the public domain. Today, it is the main data source for elevation data in most maps.

While the data from SRTM was a huge boon to cartographers, it did have some gaps. Namely: elevation data was missing in very tall mountains and very low canyons. Subsequent work was done to fill-in these gaps. One particular source that ingested the SRTM data, completed its gaps, and made the results public is Jonathan de Ferranti's viewfinderpanoramas.org.

We will be downloading .hgt files from View Finder Panoramas in order to generate vector contour lines for our topographical map.

Maperitive

Maperitive

Maperitive is a closed-source .NET-based mapping software (which runs fine in Linux with mono).

We'll be using Maperitive to tie together our GPX tracks, generate contour lines, generate hillshades, and export it all as a SVG.

Inkscape

Inkscape

Inkscape is a cross-platform app for artists working with vector graphics.

We'll be using inkscape to make some final touches to our vector image, such as hiding some paths, changing their stroke color/shape/thickness, and adding/moving text labels. Finally, we'll use inkscape to export a gigantic, high-definition .png raster image (to send to the print shop).

Guide

To read the full guide on how to create vector-based maps, click here:

• tech.michaelaltfield.net/2024/10/01/osm-contours-svg-maperitive

Example Maps

For example, here's the (A4-sized) topo map that I built for Yanayacu.

Final (raster) export, ready for sending to the print shop (source svg)

Note that I changed the stroke and thickness of the National Park boundary to be large and green, I changed the path of the road (downloaded from OSM data in JOSM) to be thick and black, and I changed my GPX tracks (recorded in OsmAnd and merged with the OSM data in JOSM) to be thin, dashed, and red.

The source .svg file for the above image can be found here

• github.com/maltfield/yanayacu/tree/main/maps/yanayacu_topo

I also used this method to generate a simplified "trail map" of Yanayacu (without contour lines). The workflow was similar, except I didn't generate contour nor hillshades layers in Maperitive before exporting as a .svg

)
Yanayacu Trail Guide (source svg)

The source .svg file for the above image can be found here

• github.com/maltfield/yanayacu/tree/main/maps/yanayacu_trail_guide

Make Vector Topographic Maps (Open Street Map, Maperitive, and Inkscape)

by Michael Altfield

This guide will show you how to generate vector-based topopgraphic maps, for printing very large & high-quality paper wall maps using inkscape. All of the tools used in this guide are free (as in beer).

How-to Guide to Making Vector Topo Maps with Maperitive and Inkscape

Intro

I recently volunteered at a Biological Research Station located on the eastern slopes of the Andes mountains. If the skies were clear (which is almost never, as it's a cloud forest), you would have a great view overlooking the Amazon Rainforest below.

Yanayacu is in a cloud forest on the east slopes of the Andes mountains, just 30 km from the summit of the glacial-capped Antisana volcano (source)

The field station was many years old with some permanent structures and a network of established trails that meandered towards the border of Antisana National Park -- a protected area rich with biodiversity that attracts biologists from around the world. At the top of the park is a glacial-capped volcano with a summit at 5,753 meters.

Surprisingly, though Estacion Biologicia Yanayacu was over 30 years old, nobody ever prepared a proper map of their trails. And certainly there was no high-resolution topographical map of the area to be found at the Station.

That was my task: to generate maps that we could bring to a local print shop to print-out huge 1-3 meter topographical maps.

And if you want to print massive posters that don't look terrible, you're going to be working with vector graphics. However, most of the tools that I found for browsing Open Street Map data that included contour lines couldn't export an SVG. And the tools I found that could export an SVG, couldn't export contour lines.

It took me several days to figure out how to render a topographical map and export it as an SVG. This article will explain how, so you can produce a vector-based topographical map in about half a day of work.

Assumptions

This guide was written in 2024, and it uses the following software and versions:

1. Debian 12 (bookworm)
2. OsmAnd~ v4.7.10
3. JOSM v18646
4. Maperitive v2.4.3
5. Inkscape v1.2.2

The Tools

Unfortunately, there's no all-in-one app that will let you just load a slippy map, zoom-in, draw a box, and hit "export as SVG". We'll be using a few different tools to meet our needs.

OsmAnd

OsmAnd

OsmAnd is a mobile app.

We'll be using OsmAnd to walk around on the trails and generate GPX files (which contain a set of GPS coordinates and some metadata). We'll use these coordinates to generate vector lines of a trail overlaying the topographic map.

If you just want a topographic map without trails (or your trails are already marked on OSM data), then you won't need this tool.

In this guide we'll be using OsmAnd, but you an also use other apps -- such as Organic Maps, Maps.me, or Gaia.

JOSM

JOSM

JOSM is a java-based tool for editing Open Street Map data.

We'll be using JOSM to upload the paths of our trails (recorded GPX files from OsmAnd) and also to download additional data (rivers, national park boundary line, road to the trailhead, etc). We'll then be able to combine all of this data into a larger GPX file, which will eventually become vector lines overlaying the topographic map.

You can skip this if you just want contour lines without things like rivers, roads, trails, buildings, and park borders.

View Finder Panoramas

Have you ever wondered how you can zoom-in almost anywhere in the world and see contour lines? I always thought that this was the result of some herculean effort of surveyors scaling mountains and descending canyons the world-over. But, no -- it's a product of the US Space Shuttle program.

In the year 2000, an international program called SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) was launched into space with the Endaevor Space Shuttle. It consisted of a special radar system tethered to the shuttle with a 60 meter mast as it orbited the earth.

This illustration shows the Space Shuttle Endeavour orbiting ~233 kilometers above Earth. The two anternae, one located in the Shuttle bay and the other located on a 60-meter mast, were able to penetrate clouds, obtaining 3-dimentional topographic images of the world's surface (source: NASA)

When the shuttle returned to earth, the majority of our planet's contours were mapped. This data was placed on the public domain. Today, it is the main data source for elevation data in most maps.

While the data from SRTM was a huge boon to cartographers, it did have some gaps. Namely: elevation data was missing in very tall mountains and very low canyons. Subsequent work was done to fill-in these gaps. One particular source that ingested the SRTM data, completed its gaps, and made the results public is Jonathan de Ferranti's viewfinderpanoramas.org.

We will be downloading .hgt files from View Finder Panoramas in order to generate vector contour lines for our topographical map.

Maperitive

Maperitive

Maperitive is a closed-source .NET-based mapping software (which runs fine in Linux with mono).

We'll be using Maperitive to tie together our GPX tracks, generate contour lines, generate hillshades, and export it all as a SVG.

Inkscape

Inkscape

Inkscape is a cross-platform app for artists working with vector graphics.

We'll be using inkscape to make some final touches to our vector image, such as hiding some paths, changing their stroke color/shape/thickness, and adding/moving text labels. Finally, we'll use inkscape to export a gigantic, high-definition .png raster image (to send to the print shop).

Guide

To read the full guide on how to create vector-based maps, click here:

• tech.michaelaltfield.net/2024/10/01/osm-contours-svg-maperitive

Example Maps

For example, here's the (A4-sized) topo map that I built for Yanayacu.

Final (raster) export, ready for sending to the print shop (source svg)

Note that I changed the stroke and thickness of the National Park boundary to be large and green, I changed the path of the road (downloaded from OSM data in JOSM) to be thick and black, and I changed my GPX tracks (recorded in OsmAnd and merged with the OSM data in JOSM) to be thin, dashed, and red.

The source .svg file for the above image can be found here

• github.com/maltfield/yanayacu/tree/main/maps/yanayacu_topo

I also used this method to generate a simplified "trail map" of Yanayacu (without contour lines). The workflow was similar, except I didn't generate contour nor hillshades layers in Maperitive before exporting as a .svg

)
Yanayacu Trail Guide (source svg)

The source .svg file for the above image can be found here

• github.com/maltfield/yanayacu/tree/main/maps/yanayacu_trail_guide

Make Vector Topographic Maps (Open Street Map, Maperitive, and Inkscape)

by Michael Altfield

This guide will show you how to generate vector-based topopgraphic maps, for printing very large & high-quality paper wall maps using inkscape. All of the tools used in this guide are free (as in beer).

How-to Guide to Making Vector Topo Maps with Maperitive and Inkscape

Intro

I recently volunteered at a Biological Research Station located on the eastern slopes of the Andes mountains. If the skies were clear (which is almost never, as it's a cloud forest), you would have a great view overlooking the Amazon Rainforest below.

Yanayacu is in a cloud forest on the east slopes of the Andes mountains, just 30 km from the summit of the glacial-capped Antisana volcano (source)

The field station was many years old with some permanent structures and a network of established trails that meandered towards the border of Antisana National Park -- a protected area rich with biodiversity that attracts biologists from around the world. At the top of the park is a glacial-capped volcano with a summit at 5,753 meters.

Surprisingly, though Estacion Biologicia Yanayacu was over 30 years old, nobody ever prepared a proper map of their trails. And certainly there was no high-resolution topographical map of the area to be found at the Station.

That was my task: to generate maps that we could bring to a local print shop to print-out huge 1-3 meter topographical maps.

And if you want to print massive posters that don't look terrible, you're going to be working with vector graphics. However, most of the tools that I found for browsing Open Street Map data that included contour lines couldn't export an SVG. And the tools I found that could export an SVG, couldn't export contour lines.

It took me several days to figure out how to render a topographical map and export it as an SVG. This article will explain how, so you can produce a vector-based topographical map in about half a day of work.

Assumptions

This guide was written in 2024, and it uses the following software and versions:

1. Debian 12 (bookworm)
2. OsmAnd~ v4.7.10
3. JOSM v18646
4. Maperitive v2.4.3
5. Inkscape v1.2.2

The Tools

Unfortunately, there's no all-in-one app that will let you just load a slippy map, zoom-in, draw a box, and hit "export as SVG". We'll be using a few different tools to meet our needs.

OsmAnd

OsmAnd

OsmAnd is a mobile app.

We'll be using OsmAnd to walk around on the trails and generate GPX files (which contain a set of GPS coordinates and some metadata). We'll use these coordinates to generate vector lines of a trail overlaying the topographic map.

If you just want a topographic map without trails (or your trails are already marked on OSM data), then you won't need this tool.

In this guide we'll be using OsmAnd, but you an also use other apps -- such as Organic Maps, Maps.me, or Gaia.

JOSM

JOSM

JOSM is a java-based tool for editing Open Street Map data.

We'll be using JOSM to upload the paths of our trails (recorded GPX files from OsmAnd) and also to download additional data (rivers, national park boundary line, road to the trailhead, etc). We'll then be able to combine all of this data into a larger GPX file, which will eventually become vector lines overlaying the topographic map.

You can skip this if you just want contour lines without things like rivers, roads, trails, buildings, and park borders.

View Finder Panoramas

Have you ever wondered how you can zoom-in almost anywhere in the world and see contour lines? I always thought that this was the result of some herculean effort of surveyors scaling mountains and descending canyons the world-over. But, no -- it's a product of the US Space Shuttle program.

In the year 2000, an international program called SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) was launched into space with the Endaevor Space Shuttle. It consisted of a special radar system tethered to the shuttle with a 60 meter mast as it orbited the earth.

This illustration shows the Space Shuttle Endeavour orbiting ~233 kilometers above Earth. The two anternae, one located in the Shuttle bay and the other located on a 60-meter mast, were able to penetrate clouds, obtaining 3-dimentional topographic images of the world's surface (source: NASA)

When the shuttle returned to earth, the majority of our planet's contours were mapped. This data was placed on the public domain. Today, it is the main data source for elevation data in most maps.

While the data from SRTM was a huge boon to cartographers, it did have some gaps. Namely: elevation data was missing in very tall mountains and very low canyons. Subsequent work was done to fill-in these gaps. One particular source that ingested the SRTM data, completed its gaps, and made the results public is Jonathan de Ferranti's viewfinderpanoramas.org.

We will be downloading .hgt files from View Finder Panoramas in order to generate vector contour lines for our topographical map.

Maperitive

Maperitive

Maperitive is a closed-source .NET-based mapping software (which runs fine in Linux with mono).

We'll be using Maperitive to tie together our GPX tracks, generate contour lines, generate hillshades, and export it all as a SVG.

Inkscape

Inkscape

Inkscape is a cross-platform app for artists working with vector graphics.

We'll be using inkscape to make some final touches to our vector image, such as hiding some paths, changing their stroke color/shape/thickness, and adding/moving text labels. Finally, we'll use inkscape to export a gigantic, high-definition .png raster image (to send to the print shop).

Guide

To read the full guide on how to create vector-based maps, click here:

• tech.michaelaltfield.net/2024/10/01/osm-contours-svg-maperitive

Example Maps

For example, here's the (A4-sized) topo map that I built for Yanayacu.

Final (raster) export, ready for sending to the print shop (source svg)

Note that I changed the stroke and thickness of the National Park boundary to be large and green, I changed the path of the road (downloaded from OSM data in JOSM) to be thick and black, and I changed my GPX tracks (recorded in OsmAnd and merged with the OSM data in JOSM) to be thin, dashed, and red.

The source .svg file for the above image can be found here

• github.com/maltfield/yanayacu/tree/main/maps/yanayacu_topo

I also used this method to generate a simplified "trail map" of Yanayacu (without contour lines). The workflow was similar, except I didn't generate contour nor hillshades layers in Maperitive before exporting as a .svg

)
Yanayacu Trail Guide (source svg)

The source .svg file for the above image can be found here

• github.com/maltfield/yanayacu/tree/main/maps/yanayacu_trail_guide

Make Vector Topographic Maps (Open Street Map, Maperitive, and Inkscape)

by Michael Altfield

This guide will show you how to generate vector-based topopgraphic maps, for printing very large & high-quality paper wall maps using inkscape. All of the tools used in this guide are free (as in beer).

How-to Guide to Making Vector Topo Maps with Maperitive and Inkscape

Intro

I recently volunteered at a Biological Research Station located on the eastern slopes of the Andes mountains. If the skies were clear (which is almost never, as it's a cloud forest), you would have a great view overlooking the Amazon Rainforest below.

Yanayacu is in a cloud forest on the east slopes of the Andes mountains, just 30 km from the summit of the glacial-capped Antisana volcano (source)

The field station was many years old with some permanent structures and a network of established trails that meandered towards the border of Antisana National Park -- a protected area rich with biodiversity that attracts biologists from around the world. At the top of the park is a glacial-capped volcano with a summit at 5,753 meters.

Surprisingly, though Estacion Biologicia Yanayacu was over 30 years old, nobody ever prepared a proper map of their trails. And certainly there was no high-resolution topographical map of the area to be found at the Station.

That was my task: to generate maps that we could bring to a local print shop to print-out huge 1-3 meter topographical maps.

And if you want to print massive posters that don't look terrible, you're going to be working with vector graphics. However, most of the tools that I found for browsing Open Street Map data that included contour lines couldn't export an SVG. And the tools I found that could export an SVG, couldn't export contour lines.

It took me several days to figure out how to render a topographical map and export it as an SVG. This article will explain how, so you can produce a vector-based topographical map in about half a day of work.

Assumptions

This guide was written in 2024, and it uses the following software and versions:

1. Debian 12 (bookworm)
2. OsmAnd~ v4.7.10
3. JOSM v18646
4. Maperitive v2.4.3
5. Inkscape v1.2.2

The Tools

Unfortunately, there's no all-in-one app that will let you just load a slippy map, zoom-in, draw a box, and hit "export as SVG". We'll be using a few different tools to meet our needs.

OsmAnd

OsmAnd

OsmAnd is a mobile app.

We'll be using OsmAnd to walk around on the trails and generate GPX files (which contain a set of GPS coordinates and some metadata). We'll use these coordinates to generate vector lines of a trail overlaying the topographic map.

If you just want a topographic map without trails (or your trails are already marked on OSM data), then you won't need this tool.

In this guide we'll be using OsmAnd, but you an also use other apps -- such as Organic Maps, Maps.me, or Gaia.

JOSM

JOSM

JOSM is a java-based tool for editing Open Street Map data.

We'll be using JOSM to upload the paths of our trails (recorded GPX files from OsmAnd) and also to download additional data (rivers, national park boundary line, road to the trailhead, etc). We'll then be able to combine all of this data into a larger GPX file, which will eventually become vector lines overlaying the topographic map.

You can skip this if you just want contour lines without things like rivers, roads, trails, buildings, and park borders.

View Finder Panoramas

Have you ever wondered how you can zoom-in almost anywhere in the world and see contour lines? I always thought that this was the result of some herculean effort of surveyors scaling mountains and descending canyons the world-over. But, no -- it's a product of the US Space Shuttle program.

In the year 2000, an international program called SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) was launched into space with the Endaevor Space Shuttle. It consisted of a special radar system tethered to the shuttle with a 60 meter mast as it orbited the earth.

This illustration shows the Space Shuttle Endeavour orbiting ~233 kilometers above Earth. The two anternae, one located in the Shuttle bay and the other located on a 60-meter mast, were able to penetrate clouds, obtaining 3-dimentional topographic images of the world's surface (source: NASA)

When the shuttle returned to earth, the majority of our planet's contours were mapped. This data was placed on the public domain. Today, it is the main data source for elevation data in most maps.

While the data from SRTM was a huge boon to cartographers, it did have some gaps. Namely: elevation data was missing in very tall mountains and very low canyons. Subsequent work was done to fill-in these gaps. One particular source that ingested the SRTM data, completed its gaps, and made the results public is Jonathan de Ferranti's viewfinderpanoramas.org.

We will be downloading .hgt files from View Finder Panoramas in order to generate vector contour lines for our topographical map.

Maperitive

Maperitive

Maperitive is a closed-source .NET-based mapping software (which runs fine in Linux with mono).

We'll be using Maperitive to tie together our GPX tracks, generate contour lines, generate hillshades, and export it all as a SVG.

Inkscape

Inkscape

Inkscape is a cross-platform app for artists working with vector graphics.

We'll be using inkscape to make some final touches to our vector image, such as hiding some paths, changing their stroke color/shape/thickness, and adding/moving text labels. Finally, we'll use inkscape to export a gigantic, high-definition .png raster image (to send to the print shop).

Guide

To read the full guide on how to create vector-based maps, click here:

• tech.michaelaltfield.net/2024/10/01/osm-contours-svg-maperitive

Example Maps

For example, here's the (A4-sized) topo map that I built for Yanayacu.

Final (raster) export, ready for sending to the print shop (source svg)

Note that I changed the stroke and thickness of the National Park boundary to be large and green, I changed the path of the road (downloaded from OSM data in JOSM) to be thick and black, and I changed my GPX tracks (recorded in OsmAnd and merged with the OSM data in JOSM) to be thin, dashed, and red.

The source .svg file for the above image can be found here

• github.com/maltfield/yanayacu/tree/main/maps/yanayacu_topo

I also used this method to generate a simplified "trail map" of Yanayacu (without contour lines). The workflow was similar, except I didn't generate contour nor hillshades layers in Maperitive before exporting as a .svg

)
Yanayacu Trail Guide (source svg)

The source .svg file for the above image can be found here

• github.com/maltfield/yanayacu/tree/main/maps/yanayacu_trail_guide

This article will describe how to download an image from a (docker) container registry.

Manual Download of Container Images with wget and curl

Intro

Remember the good `'ol days when you could just download software by visiting a website and click "download"?

Even apt and yum repositories were just simple HTTP servers that you could just curl (or wget) from. Using the package manager was, of course, more secure and convenient -- but you could always just download packages manually, if you wanted.

But have you ever tried to curl an image from a container registry, such as docker? Well friends, I have tried. And I have the scars to prove it.

It was a remarkably complex process that took me weeks to figure-out. Lucky you, this article will break it down.

Examples

Specifically, we'll look at how to download files from two OCI registries.

1. Docker Hub
2. GitHub Packages

Terms

First, here's some terminology used by OCI

1. OCI - Open Container Initiative
2. blob - A "blob" in the OCI spec just means a file
3. manifest - A "manifest" in the OCI spec means a list of files

Prerequisites

This guide was written in 2024, and it uses the following software and versions:

1. debian 12 (bookworm)
2. curl 7.88.1
3. OCI Distribution Spec v1.1.0 (which, unintuitively, uses the '/v2/' endpoint)

Of course, you'll need 'curl' installed. And, to parse json, 'jq' too.

sudo apt-get install curl jq

What is OCI?

OCI stands for Open Container Initiative.

OCI was originally formed in June 2015 for Docker and CoreOS. Today it's a wider, general-purpose (and annoyingly complex) way that many projects host files (that are extremely non-trivial to download).

One does not simply download a file from an OCI-complianet container registry. You must:

1. Generate an authentication token for the API
2. Make an API call to the registry, requesting to download a JSON "Manifest"
3. Parse the JSON Manifest to figure out the hash of the file that you want
4. Determine the download URL from the hash
5. Download the file (which might actually be many distinct file "layers")

One does not simply download from a container registry

In order to figure out how to make an API call to the registry, you must first read (and understand) the OCI specs here.

• https://opencontainers.org/release-notices/overview/

OCI APIs

OCI maintains three distinct specifications:

1. image spec
2. runtime spec
3. distribution spec

OCI "Distribution Spec" API

To figure out how to download a file from a container registry, we're interested in the "distribution spec". At the time of writing, the latest "distribution spec" can be downloaded here:

• https://github.com/opencontainers/distribution-spec/releases/tag/v1.1.0
• https://github.com/opencontainers/distribution-spec/releases/download/v1.1.0/oci-distribution-spec-v1.1.0.pdf

The above PDF file defines a set of API endpoints that we can use to query, parse, and then figure out how to download a file from a container registry. The table from the above PDF is copied below:

In OCI, files are (cryptically) called "blobs". In order to figure out the file that we want to download, we must first reference the list of files (called a "manifest").

The above table shows us how we can download a list of files (manifest) and then download the actual file (blob).

Examples

Let's look at how to download files from a couple different OCI registries:

1. Docker Hub
2. GitHub Packages

Docker Hub

To see the full example of downloading images from docker hub, click here

GitHub Packages

To see the full example of downloading files from GitHub Packages, click here.

Why?

I wrote this article because many, many folks have inquired about how to manually download files from OCI registries on the Internet, but their simple queries are usually returned with a barrage of useless counter-questions: why the heck would you want to do that!?!

The answer is varied.

Some people need to get files onto a restricted environment. Either their org doesn't grant them permission to install software on the machine, or the system has firewall-restricted internet access -- or doesn't have internet access at all.

3TOFU

Personally, the reason that I wanted to be able to download files from an OCI registry was for 3TOFU.

Verifying Unsigned Releases with 3TOFU

Unfortunaetly, most apps using OCI registries are extremely insecure. Docker, for example, will happily download malicious images. By default, it doesn't do any authenticity verifications on the payloads it downloaded. Even if you manually enable DCT, there's loads of pending issues with it.

Likewise, the macOS package manager brew has this same problem: it will happily download and install malicious code, because it doesn't use cryptography to verify the authenticity of anything that it downloads. This introduces watering hole vulnerabilities when developers use brew to install dependencies in their CI pipelines.

My solution to this? 3TOFU. And that requires me to be able to download the file (for verification) on three distinct linux VMs using curl or wget.

⚠ NOTE: 3TOFU is an approach to harm reduction.

It is not wise to download and run binaries or code whose authenticity you cannot verify using a cryptographic signature from a key stored offline. However, sometimes we cannot avoid it. If you're going to proceed with running untrusted code, then following a 3TOFU procedure may reduce your risk, but it's better to avoid running unauthenticated code if at all possible.

Registry (ab)use

Container registries were created in 2013 to provide a clever & complex solution to a problem: how to package and serve multiple versions of simplified sources to various consumers spanning multiple operating systems and architectures -- while also packaging them into small, discrete "layers".

However, if your project is just serving simple files, then the only thing gained by uploading them to a complex system like a container registry is headaches. Why do developers do this?

In the case of brew, their free hosing provider (JFrog's Bintray) shutdown in 2021. Brew was already hosting their code on GitHub, so I guess someone looked at "GitHub Packages" and figured it was a good (read: free) replacement.

Many developers using Container Registries don't need the complexity, but -- well -- they're just using it as a free place for their FOSS project to store some files, man.

This article will describe how to download an image from a (docker) container registry.

Manual Download of Container Images with wget and curl

Intro

Remember the good `'ol days when you could just download software by visiting a website and click "download"?

Even apt and yum repositories were just simple HTTP servers that you could just curl (or wget) from. Using the package manager was, of course, more secure and convenient -- but you could always just download packages manually, if you wanted.

But have you ever tried to curl an image from a container registry, such as docker? Well friends, I have tried. And I have the scars to prove it.

It was a remarkably complex process that took me weeks to figure-out. Lucky you, this article will break it down.

Examples

Specifically, we'll look at how to download files from two OCI registries.

1. Docker Hub
2. GitHub Packages

Terms

First, here's some terminology used by OCI

1. OCI - Open Container Initiative
2. blob - A "blob" in the OCI spec just means a file
3. manifest - A "manifest" in the OCI spec means a list of files

Prerequisites

This guide was written in 2024, and it uses the following software and versions:

1. debian 12 (bookworm)
2. curl 7.88.1
3. OCI Distribution Spec v1.1.0 (which, unintuitively, uses the '/v2/' endpoint)

Of course, you'll need 'curl' installed. And, to parse json, 'jq' too.

sudo apt-get install curl jq

What is OCI?

OCI stands for Open Container Initiative.

OCI was originally formed in June 2015 for Docker and CoreOS. Today it's a wider, general-purpose (and annoyingly complex) way that many projects host files (that are extremely non-trivial to download).

One does not simply download a file from an OCI-complianet container registry. You must:

1. Generate an authentication token for the API
2. Make an API call to the registry, requesting to download a JSON "Manifest"
3. Parse the JSON Manifest to figure out the hash of the file that you want
4. Determine the download URL from the hash
5. Download the file (which might actually be many distinct file "layers")

One does not simply download from a container registry

In order to figure out how to make an API call to the registry, you must first read (and understand) the OCI specs here.

• https://opencontainers.org/release-notices/overview/

OCI APIs

OCI maintains three distinct specifications:

1. image spec
2. runtime spec
3. distribution spec

OCI "Distribution Spec" API

To figure out how to download a file from a container registry, we're interested in the "distribution spec". At the time of writing, the latest "distribution spec" can be downloaded here:

• https://github.com/opencontainers/distribution-spec/releases/tag/v1.1.0
• https://github.com/opencontainers/distribution-spec/releases/download/v1.1.0/oci-distribution-spec-v1.1.0.pdf

The above PDF file defines a set of API endpoints that we can use to query, parse, and then figure out how to download a file from a container registry. The table from the above PDF is copied below:

In OCI, files are (cryptically) called "blobs". In order to figure out the file that we want to download, we must first reference the list of files (called a "manifest").

The above table shows us how we can download a list of files (manifest) and then download the actual file (blob).

Examples

Let's look at how to download files from a couple different OCI registries:

1. Docker Hub
2. GitHub Packages

Docker Hub

To see the full example of downloading images from docker hub, click here

GitHub Packages

To see the full example of downloading files from GitHub Packages, click here.

Why?

I wrote this article because many, many folks have inquired about how to manually download files from OCI registries on the Internet, but their simple queries are usually returned with a barrage of useless counter-questions: why the heck would you want to do that!?!

The answer is varied.

Some people need to get files onto a restricted environment. Either their org doesn't grant them permission to install software on the machine, or the system has firewall-restricted internet access -- or doesn't have internet access at all.

3TOFU

Personally, the reason that I wanted to be able to download files from an OCI registry was for 3TOFU.

Verifying Unsigned Releases with 3TOFU

Unfortunaetly, most apps using OCI registries are extremely insecure. Docker, for example, will happily download malicious images. By default, it doesn't do any authenticity verifications on the payloads it downloaded. Even if you manually enable DCT, there's loads of pending issues with it.

Likewise, the macOS package manager brew has this same problem: it will happily download and install malicious code, because it doesn't use cryptography to verify the authenticity of anything that it downloads. This introduces watering hole vulnerabilities when developers use brew to install dependencies in their CI pipelines.

My solution to this? 3TOFU. And that requires me to be able to download the file (for verification) on three distinct linux VMs using curl or wget.

⚠ NOTE: 3TOFU is an approach to harm reduction.

It is not wise to download and run binaries or code whose authenticity you cannot verify using a cryptographic signature from a key stored offline. However, sometimes we cannot avoid it. If you're going to proceed with running untrusted code, then following a 3TOFU procedure may reduce your risk, but it's better to avoid running unauthenticated code if at all possible.

Registry (ab)use

Container registries were created in 2013 to provide a clever & complex solution to a problem: how to package and serve multiple versions of simplified sources to various consumers spanning multiple operating systems and architectures -- while also packaging them into small, discrete "layers".

However, if your project is just serving simple files, then the only thing gained by uploading them to a complex system like a container registry is headaches. Why do developers do this?

In the case of brew, their free hosing provider (JFrog's Bintray) shutdown in 2021. Brew was already hosting their code on GitHub, so I guess someone looked at "GitHub Packages" and figured it was a good (read: free) replacement.

Many developers using Container Registries don't need the complexity, but -- well -- they're just using it as a free place for their FOSS project to store some files, man.

This article will describe how to download an image from a (docker) container registry.

Manual Download of Container Images with wget and curl

Intro

Remember the good `'ol days when you could just download software by visiting a website and click "download"?

Even apt and yum repositories were just simple HTTP servers that you could just curl (or wget) from. Using the package manager was, of course, more secure and convenient -- but you could always just download packages manually, if you wanted.

But have you ever tried to curl an image from a container registry, such as docker? Well friends, I have tried. And I have the scars to prove it.

It was a remarkably complex process that took me weeks to figure-out. Lucky you, this article will break it down.

Examples

Specifically, we'll look at how to download files from two OCI registries.

1. Docker Hub
2. GitHub Packages

Terms

First, here's some terminology used by OCI

1. OCI - Open Container Initiative
2. blob - A "blob" in the OCI spec just means a file
3. manifest - A "manifest" in the OCI spec means a list of files

Prerequisites

This guide was written in 2024, and it uses the following software and versions:

1. debian 12 (bookworm)
2. curl 7.88.1
3. OCI Distribution Spec v1.1.0 (which, unintuitively, uses the '/v2/' endpoint)

Of course, you'll need 'curl' installed. And, to parse json, 'jq' too.

sudo apt-get install curl jq

What is OCI?

OCI stands for Open Container Initiative.

OCI was originally formed in June 2015 for Docker and CoreOS. Today it's a wider, general-purpose (and annoyingly complex) way that many projects host files (that are extremely non-trivial to download).

One does not simply download a file from an OCI-complianet container registry. You must:

1. Generate an authentication token for the API
2. Make an API call to the registry, requesting to download a JSON "Manifest"
3. Parse the JSON Manifest to figure out the hash of the file that you want
4. Determine the download URL from the hash
5. Download the file (which might actually be many distinct file "layers")

One does not simply download from a container registry

In order to figure out how to make an API call to the registry, you must first read (and understand) the OCI specs here.

• https://opencontainers.org/release-notices/overview/

OCI APIs

OCI maintains three distinct specifications:

1. image spec
2. runtime spec
3. distribution spec

OCI "Distribution Spec" API

To figure out how to download a file from a container registry, we're interested in the "distribution spec". At the time of writing, the latest "distribution spec" can be downloaded here:

• https://github.com/opencontainers/distribution-spec/releases/tag/v1.1.0
• https://github.com/opencontainers/distribution-spec/releases/download/v1.1.0/oci-distribution-spec-v1.1.0.pdf

The above PDF file defines a set of API endpoints that we can use to query, parse, and then figure out how to download a file from a container registry. The table from the above PDF is copied below:

In OCI, files are (cryptically) called "blobs". In order to figure out the file that we want to download, we must first reference the list of files (called a "manifest").

The above table shows us how we can download a list of files (manifest) and then download the actual file (blob).

Examples

Let's look at how to download files from a couple different OCI registries:

1. Docker Hub
2. GitHub Packages

Docker Hub

To see the full example of downloading images from docker hub, click here

GitHub Packages

To see the full example of downloading files from GitHub Packages, click here.

Why?

I wrote this article because many, many folks have inquired about how to manually download files from OCI registries on the Internet, but their simple queries are usually returned with a barrage of useless counter-questions: why the heck would you want to do that!?!

The answer is varied.

Some people need to get files onto a restricted environment. Either their org doesn't grant them permission to install software on the machine, or the system has firewall-restricted internet access -- or doesn't have internet access at all.

3TOFU

Personally, the reason that I wanted to be able to download files from an OCI registry was for 3TOFU.

Verifying Unsigned Releases with 3TOFU

Unfortunaetly, most apps using OCI registries are extremely insecure. Docker, for example, will happily download malicious images. By default, it doesn't do any authenticity verifications on the payloads it downloaded. Even if you manually enable DCT, there's loads of pending issues with it.

Likewise, the macOS package manager brew has this same problem: it will happily download and install malicious code, because it doesn't use cryptography to verify the authenticity of anything that it downloads. This introduces watering hole vulnerabilities when developers use brew to install dependencies in their CI pipelines.

My solution to this? 3TOFU. And that requires me to be able to download the file (for verification) on three distinct linux VMs using curl or wget.

⚠ NOTE: 3TOFU is an approach to harm reduction.

It is not wise to download and run binaries or code whose authenticity you cannot verify using a cryptographic signature from a key stored offline. However, sometimes we cannot avoid it. If you're going to proceed with running untrusted code, then following a 3TOFU procedure may reduce your risk, but it's better to avoid running unauthenticated code if at all possible.

Registry (ab)use

Container registries were created in 2013 to provide a clever & complex solution to a problem: how to package and serve multiple versions of simplified sources to various consumers spanning multiple operating systems and architectures -- while also packaging them into small, discrete "layers".

However, if your project is just serving simple files, then the only thing gained by uploading them to a complex system like a container registry is headaches. Why do developers do this?

In the case of brew, their free hosing provider (JFrog's Bintray) shutdown in 2021. Brew was already hosting their code on GitHub, so I guess someone looked at "GitHub Packages" and figured it was a good (read: free) replacement.

Many developers using Container Registries don't need the complexity, but -- well -- they're just using it as a free place for their FOSS project to store some files, man.

This article will describe how to download an image from a (docker) container registry.

Manual Download of Container Images with wget and curl

Intro

Remember the good `'ol days when you could just download software by visiting a website and click "download"?

Even apt and yum repositories were just simple HTTP servers that you could just curl (or wget) from. Using the package manager was, of course, more secure and convenient -- but you could always just download packages manually, if you wanted.

But have you ever tried to curl an image from a container registry, such as docker? Well friends, I have tried. And I have the scars to prove it.

It was a remarkably complex process that took me weeks to figure-out. Lucky you, this article will break it down.

Examples

Specifically, we'll look at how to download files from two OCI registries.

1. Docker Hub
2. GitHub Packages

Terms

First, here's some terminology used by OCI

1. OCI - Open Container Initiative
2. blob - A "blob" in the OCI spec just means a file
3. manifest - A "manifest" in the OCI spec means a list of files

Prerequisites

This guide was written in 2024, and it uses the following software and versions:

1. debian 12 (bookworm)
2. curl 7.88.1
3. OCI Distribution Spec v1.1.0 (which, unintuitively, uses the '/v2/' endpoint)

Of course, you'll need 'curl' installed. And, to parse json, 'jq' too.

sudo apt-get install curl jq

What is OCI?

OCI stands for Open Container Initiative.

OCI was originally formed in June 2015 for Docker and CoreOS. Today it's a wider, general-purpose (and annoyingly complex) way that many projects host files (that are extremely non-trivial to download).

One does not simply download a file from an OCI-complianet container registry. You must:

1. Generate an authentication token for the API
2. Make an API call to the registry, requesting to download a JSON "Manifest"
3. Parse the JSON Manifest to figure out the hash of the file that you want
4. Determine the download URL from the hash
5. Download the file (which might actually be many distinct file "layers")

One does not simply download from a container registry

In order to figure out how to make an API call to the registry, you must first read (and understand) the OCI specs here.

• https://opencontainers.org/release-notices/overview/

OCI APIs

OCI maintains three distinct specifications:

1. image spec
2. runtime spec
3. distribution spec

OCI "Distribution Spec" API

To figure out how to download a file from a container registry, we're interested in the "distribution spec". At the time of writing, the latest "distribution spec" can be downloaded here:

• https://github.com/opencontainers/distribution-spec/releases/tag/v1.1.0
• https://github.com/opencontainers/distribution-spec/releases/download/v1.1.0/oci-distribution-spec-v1.1.0.pdf

The above PDF file defines a set of API endpoints that we can use to query, parse, and then figure out how to download a file from a container registry. The table from the above PDF is copied below:

In OCI, files are (cryptically) called "blobs". In order to figure out the file that we want to download, we must first reference the list of files (called a "manifest").

The above table shows us how we can download a list of files (manifest) and then download the actual file (blob).

Examples

Let's look at how to download files from a couple different OCI registries:

1. Docker Hub
2. GitHub Packages

Docker Hub

To see the full example of downloading images from docker hub, click here

GitHub Packages

To see the full example of downloading files from GitHub Packages, click here.

Why?

I wrote this article because many, many folks have inquired about how to manually download files from OCI registries on the Internet, but their simple queries are usually returned with a barrage of useless counter-questions: why the heck would you want to do that!?!

The answer is varied.

Some people need to get files onto a restricted environment. Either their org doesn't grant them permission to install software on the machine, or the system has firewall-restricted internet access -- or doesn't have internet access at all.

3TOFU

Personally, the reason that I wanted to be able to download files from an OCI registry was for 3TOFU.

Verifying Unsigned Releases with 3TOFU

Unfortunaetly, most apps using OCI registries are extremely insecure. Docker, for example, will happily download malicious images. By default, it doesn't do any authenticity verifications on the payloads it downloaded. Even if you manually enable DCT, there's loads of pending issues with it.

Likewise, the macOS package manager brew has this same problem: it will happily download and install malicious code, because it doesn't use cryptography to verify the authenticity of anything that it downloads. This introduces watering hole vulnerabilities when developers use brew to install dependencies in their CI pipelines.

My solution to this? 3TOFU. And that requires me to be able to download the file (for verification) on three distinct linux VMs using curl or wget.

⚠ NOTE: 3TOFU is an approach to harm reduction.

It is not wise to download and run binaries or code whose authenticity you cannot verify using a cryptographic signature from a key stored offline. However, sometimes we cannot avoid it. If you're going to proceed with running untrusted code, then following a 3TOFU procedure may reduce your risk, but it's better to avoid running unauthenticated code if at all possible.

Registry (ab)use

Container registries were created in 2013 to provide a clever & complex solution to a problem: how to package and serve multiple versions of simplified sources to various consumers spanning multiple operating systems and architectures -- while also packaging them into small, discrete "layers".

However, if your project is just serving simple files, then the only thing gained by uploading them to a complex system like a container registry is headaches. Why do developers do this?

In the case of brew, their free hosing provider (JFrog's Bintray) shutdown in 2021. Brew was already hosting their code on GitHub, so I guess someone looked at "GitHub Packages" and figured it was a good (read: free) replacement.

Many developers using Container Registries don't need the complexity, but -- well -- they're just using it as a free place for their FOSS project to store some files, man.

This article will describe how to download an image from a (docker) container registry.

Manual Download of Container Images with wget and curl

Intro

Remember the good `'ol days when you could just download software by visiting a website and click "download"?

Even apt and yum repositories were just simple HTTP servers that you could just curl (or wget) from. Using the package manager was, of course, more secure and convenient -- but you could always just download packages manually, if you wanted.

But have you ever tried to curl an image from a container registry, such as docker? Well friends, I have tried. And I have the scars to prove it.

It was a remarkably complex process that took me weeks to figure-out. Lucky you, this article will break it down.

Examples

Specifically, we'll look at how to download files from two OCI registries.

1. Docker Hub
2. GitHub Packages

Terms

First, here's some terminology used by OCI

1. OCI - Open Container Initiative
2. blob - A "blob" in the OCI spec just means a file
3. manifest - A "manifest" in the OCI spec means a list of files

Prerequisites

This guide was written in 2024, and it uses the following software and versions:

1. debian 12 (bookworm)
2. curl 7.88.1
3. OCI Distribution Spec v1.1.0 (which, unintuitively, uses the '/v2/' endpoint)

Of course, you'll need 'curl' installed. And, to parse json, 'jq' too.

sudo apt-get install curl jq

What is OCI?

OCI stands for Open Container Initiative.

OCI was originally formed in June 2015 for Docker and CoreOS. Today it's a wider, general-purpose (and annoyingly complex) way that many projects host files (that are extremely non-trivial to download).

One does not simply download a file from an OCI-complianet container registry. You must:

1. Generate an authentication token for the API
2. Make an API call to the registry, requesting to download a JSON "Manifest"
3. Parse the JSON Manifest to figure out the hash of the file that you want
4. Determine the download URL from the hash
5. Download the file (which might actually be many distinct file "layers")

One does not simply download from a container registry

In order to figure out how to make an API call to the registry, you must first read (and understand) the OCI specs here.

• https://opencontainers.org/release-notices/overview/

OCI APIs

OCI maintains three distinct specifications:

1. image spec
2. runtime spec
3. distribution spec

OCI "Distribution Spec" API

To figure out how to download a file from a container registry, we're interested in the "distribution spec". At the time of writing, the latest "distribution spec" can be downloaded here:

• https://github.com/opencontainers/distribution-spec/releases/tag/v1.1.0
• https://github.com/opencontainers/distribution-spec/releases/download/v1.1.0/oci-distribution-spec-v1.1.0.pdf

The above PDF file defines a set of API endpoints that we can use to query, parse, and then figure out how to download a file from a container registry. The table from the above PDF is copied below:

In OCI, files are (cryptically) called "blobs". In order to figure out the file that we want to download, we must first reference the list of files (called a "manifest").

The above table shows us how we can download a list of files (manifest) and then download the actual file (blob).

Examples

Let's look at how to download files from a couple different OCI registries:

1. Docker Hub
2. GitHub Packages

Docker Hub

To see the full example of downloading images from docker hub, click here

GitHub Packages

To see the full example of downloading files from GitHub Packages, click here.

Why?

I wrote this article because many, many folks have inquired about how to manually download files from OCI registries on the Internet, but their simple queries are usually returned with a barrage of useless counter-questions: why the heck would you want to do that!?!

The answer is varied.

Some people need to get files onto a restricted environment. Either their org doesn't grant them permission to install software on the machine, or the system has firewall-restricted internet access -- or doesn't have internet access at all.

3TOFU

Personally, the reason that I wanted to be able to download files from an OCI registry was for 3TOFU.

Verifying Unsigned Releases with 3TOFU

Unfortunaetly, most apps using OCI registries are extremely insecure. Docker, for example, will happily download malicious images. By default, it doesn't do any authenticity verifications on the payloads it downloaded. Even if you manually enable DCT, there's loads of pending issues with it.

Likewise, the macOS package manager brew has this same problem: it will happily download and install malicious code, because it doesn't use cryptography to verify the authenticity of anything that it downloads. This introduces watering hole vulnerabilities when developers use brew to install dependencies in their CI pipelines.

My solution to this? 3TOFU. And that requires me to be able to download the file (for verification) on three distinct linux VMs using curl or wget.

⚠ NOTE: 3TOFU is an approach to harm reduction.

It is not wise to download and run binaries or code whose authenticity you cannot verify using a cryptographic signature from a key stored offline. However, sometimes we cannot avoid it. If you're going to proceed with running untrusted code, then following a 3TOFU procedure may reduce your risk, but it's better to avoid running unauthenticated code if at all possible.

Registry (ab)use

Container registries were created in 2013 to provide a clever & complex solution to a problem: how to package and serve multiple versions of simplified sources to various consumers spanning multiple operating systems and architectures -- while also packaging them into small, discrete "layers".

However, if your project is just serving simple files, then the only thing gained by uploading them to a complex system like a container registry is headaches. Why do developers do this?

In the case of brew, their free hosing provider (JFrog's Bintray) shutdown in 2021. Brew was already hosting their code on GitHub, so I guess someone looked at "GitHub Packages" and figured it was a good (read: free) replacement.

Many developers using Container Registries don't need the complexity, but -- well -- they're just using it as a free place for their FOSS project to store some files, man.

This article will describe how to download an image from a (docker) container registry.

Manual Download of Container Images with wget and curl

Intro

Remember the good `'ol days when you could just download software by visiting a website and click "download"?

Even apt and yum repositories were just simple HTTP servers that you could just curl (or wget) from. Using the package manager was, of course, more secure and convenient -- but you could always just download packages manually, if you wanted.

But have you ever tried to curl an image from a container registry, such as docker? Well friends, I have tried. And I have the scars to prove it.

It was a remarkably complex process that took me weeks to figure-out. Lucky you, this article will break it down.

Examples

Specifically, we'll look at how to download files from two OCI registries.

1. Docker Hub
2. GitHub Packages

Terms

First, here's some terminology used by OCI

1. OCI - Open Container Initiative
2. blob - A "blob" in the OCI spec just means a file
3. manifest - A "manifest" in the OCI spec means a list of files

Prerequisites

This guide was written in 2024, and it uses the following software and versions:

1. debian 12 (bookworm)
2. curl 7.88.1
3. OCI Distribution Spec v1.1.0 (which, unintuitively, uses the '/v2/' endpoint)

Of course, you'll need 'curl' installed. And, to parse json, 'jq' too.

sudo apt-get install curl jq

What is OCI?

OCI stands for Open Container Initiative.

OCI was originally formed in June 2015 for Docker and CoreOS. Today it's a wider, general-purpose (and annoyingly complex) way that many projects host files (that are extremely non-trivial to download).

One does not simply download a file from an OCI-complianet container registry. You must:

1. Generate an authentication token for the API
2. Make an API call to the registry, requesting to download a JSON "Manifest"
3. Parse the JSON Manifest to figure out the hash of the file that you want
4. Determine the download URL from the hash
5. Download the file (which might actually be many distinct file "layers")

One does not simply download from a container registry

In order to figure out how to make an API call to the registry, you must first read (and understand) the OCI specs here.

• https://opencontainers.org/release-notices/overview/

OCI APIs

OCI maintains three distinct specifications:

1. image spec
2. runtime spec
3. distribution spec

OCI "Distribution Spec" API

To figure out how to download a file from a container registry, we're interested in the "distribution spec". At the time of writing, the latest "distribution spec" can be downloaded here:

• https://github.com/opencontainers/distribution-spec/releases/tag/v1.1.0
• https://github.com/opencontainers/distribution-spec/releases/download/v1.1.0/oci-distribution-spec-v1.1.0.pdf

The above PDF file defines a set of API endpoints that we can use to query, parse, and then figure out how to download a file from a container registry. The table from the above PDF is copied below:

In OCI, files are (cryptically) called "blobs". In order to figure out the file that we want to download, we must first reference the list of files (called a "manifest").

The above table shows us how we can download a list of files (manifest) and then download the actual file (blob).

Examples

Let's look at how to download files from a couple different OCI registries:

1. Docker Hub
2. GitHub Packages

Docker Hub

To see the full example of downloading images from docker hub, click here

GitHub Packages

To see the full example of downloading files from GitHub Packages, click here.

Why?

I wrote this article because many, many folks have inquired about how to manually download files from OCI registries on the Internet, but their simple queries are usually returned with a barrage of useless counter-questions: why the heck would you want to do that!?!

The answer is varied.

Some people need to get files onto a restricted environment. Either their org doesn't grant them permission to install software on the machine, or the system has firewall-restricted internet access -- or doesn't have internet access at all.

3TOFU

Personally, the reason that I wanted to be able to download files from an OCI registry was for 3TOFU.

Verifying Unsigned Releases with 3TOFU

Unfortunaetly, most apps using OCI registries are extremely insecure. Docker, for example, will happily download malicious images. By default, it doesn't do any authenticity verifications on the payloads it downloaded. Even if you manually enable DCT, there's loads of pending issues with it.

Likewise, the macOS package manager brew has this same problem: it will happily download and install malicious code, because it doesn't use cryptography to verify the authenticity of anything that it downloads. This introduces watering hole vulnerabilities when developers use brew to install dependencies in their CI pipelines.

My solution to this? 3TOFU. And that requires me to be able to download the file (for verification) on three distinct linux VMs using curl or wget.

⚠ NOTE: 3TOFU is an approach to harm reduction.

It is not wise to download and run binaries or code whose authenticity you cannot verify using a cryptographic signature from a key stored offline. However, sometimes we cannot avoid it. If you're going to proceed with running untrusted code, then following a 3TOFU procedure may reduce your risk, but it's better to avoid running unauthenticated code if at all possible.

Registry (ab)use

Container registries were created in 2013 to provide a clever & complex solution to a problem: how to package and serve multiple versions of simplified sources to various consumers spanning multiple operating systems and architectures -- while also packaging them into small, discrete "layers".

However, if your project is just serving simple files, then the only thing gained by uploading them to a complex system like a container registry is headaches. Why do developers do this?

In the case of brew, their free hosing provider (JFrog's Bintray) shutdown in 2021. Brew was already hosting their code on GitHub, so I guess someone looked at "GitHub Packages" and figured it was a good (read: free) replacement.

Many developers using Container Registries don't need the complexity, but -- well -- they're just using it as a free place for their FOSS project to store some files, man.

This article will describe how to download an image from a (docker) container registry.

Manual Download of Container Images with wget and curl

Intro

Remember the good `'ol days when you could just download software by visiting a website and click "download"?

Even apt and yum repositories were just simple HTTP servers that you could just curl (or wget) from. Using the package manager was, of course, more secure and convenient -- but you could always just download packages manually, if you wanted.

But have you ever tried to curl an image from a container registry, such as docker? Well friends, I have tried. And I have the scars to prove it.

It was a remarkably complex process that took me weeks to figure-out. Lucky you, this article will break it down.

Examples

Specifically, we'll look at how to download files from two OCI registries.

1. Docker Hub
2. GitHub Packages

Terms

First, here's some terminology used by OCI

1. OCI - Open Container Initiative
2. blob - A "blob" in the OCI spec just means a file
3. manifest - A "manifest" in the OCI spec means a list of files

Prerequisites

This guide was written in 2024, and it uses the following software and versions:

1. debian 12 (bookworm)
2. curl 7.88.1
3. OCI Distribution Spec v1.1.0 (which, unintuitively, uses the '/v2/' endpoint)

Of course, you'll need 'curl' installed. And, to parse json, 'jq' too.

sudo apt-get install curl jq

What is OCI?

OCI stands for Open Container Initiative.

OCI was originally formed in June 2015 for Docker and CoreOS. Today it's a wider, general-purpose (and annoyingly complex) way that many projects host files (that are extremely non-trivial to download).

One does not simply download a file from an OCI-complianet container registry. You must:

1. Generate an authentication token for the API
2. Make an API call to the registry, requesting to download a JSON "Manifest"
3. Parse the JSON Manifest to figure out the hash of the file that you want
4. Determine the download URL from the hash
5. Download the file (which might actually be many distinct file "layers")

One does not simply download from a container registry

In order to figure out how to make an API call to the registry, you must first read (and understand) the OCI specs here.

• https://opencontainers.org/release-notices/overview/

OCI APIs

OCI maintains three distinct specifications:

1. image spec
2. runtime spec
3. distribution spec

OCI "Distribution Spec" API

To figure out how to download a file from a container registry, we're interested in the "distribution spec". At the time of writing, the latest "distribution spec" can be downloaded here:

• https://github.com/opencontainers/distribution-spec/releases/tag/v1.1.0
• https://github.com/opencontainers/distribution-spec/releases/download/v1.1.0/oci-distribution-spec-v1.1.0.pdf

The above PDF file defines a set of API endpoints that we can use to query, parse, and then figure out how to download a file from a container registry. The table from the above PDF is copied below:

In OCI, files are (cryptically) called "blobs". In order to figure out the file that we want to download, we must first reference the list of files (called a "manifest").

The above table shows us how we can download a list of files (manifest) and then download the actual file (blob).

Examples

Let's look at how to download files from a couple different OCI registries:

1. Docker Hub
2. GitHub Packages

Docker Hub

To see the full example of downloading images from docker hub, click here

GitHub Packages

To see the full example of downloading files from GitHub Packages, click here.

Why?

I wrote this article because many, many folks have inquired about how to manually download files from OCI registries on the Internet, but their simple queries are usually returned with a barrage of useless counter-questions: why the heck would you want to do that!?!

The answer is varied.

Some people need to get files onto a restricted environment. Either their org doesn't grant them permission to install software on the machine, or the system has firewall-restricted internet access -- or doesn't have internet access at all.

3TOFU

Personally, the reason that I wanted to be able to download files from an OCI registry was for 3TOFU.

Verifying Unsigned Releases with 3TOFU

Unfortunaetly, most apps using OCI registries are extremely insecure. Docker, for example, will happily download malicious images. By default, it doesn't do any authenticity verifications on the payloads it downloaded. Even if you manually enable DCT, there's loads of pending issues with it.

Likewise, the macOS package manager brew has this same problem: it will happily download and install malicious code, because it doesn't use cryptography to verify the authenticity of anything that it downloads. This introduces watering hole vulnerabilities when developers use brew to install dependencies in their CI pipelines.

My solution to this? 3TOFU. And that requires me to be able to download the file (for verification) on three distinct linux VMs using curl or wget.

⚠ NOTE: 3TOFU is an approach to harm reduction.

It is not wise to download and run binaries or code whose authenticity you cannot verify using a cryptographic signature from a key stored offline. However, sometimes we cannot avoid it. If you're going to proceed with running untrusted code, then following a 3TOFU procedure may reduce your risk, but it's better to avoid running unauthenticated code if at all possible.

Registry (ab)use

Container registries were created in 2013 to provide a clever & complex solution to a problem: how to package and serve multiple versions of simplified sources to various consumers spanning multiple operating systems and architectures -- while also packaging them into small, discrete "layers".

However, if your project is just serving simple files, then the only thing gained by uploading them to a complex system like a container registry is headaches. Why do developers do this?

In the case of brew, their free hosing provider (JFrog's Bintray) shutdown in 2021. Brew was already hosting their code on GitHub, so I guess someone looked at "GitHub Packages" and figured it was a good (read: free) replacement.

Many developers using Container Registries don't need the complexity, but -- well -- they're just using it as a free place for their FOSS project to store some files, man.