d.rhumbline - GRASS manual
Author: GRASS Development Team
Description: d.rhumbline: Displays the rhumbline joining two longitude/latitude coordinates.
Keywords: display, distance, rhumbline

## NAME

d.rhumbline - Displays the rhumbline joining two longitude/latitude coordinates.

## KEYWORDS

display, distance, rhumbline

## SYNOPSIS

d.rhumbline
d.rhumbline --help
d.rhumbline coordinates=lon1,lat1,lon2,lat2 [line_color=name] [--help] [--verbose] [--quiet] [--ui]

### Flags:

--help
  Print usage summary
--verbose
  Verbose module output
--quiet
  Quiet module output
--ui
  Force launching GUI dialog

### Parameters:

coordinates=lon1,lat1,lon2,lat2 [required]
  Starting and ending coordinates
line_color=name
  Line color
  Either a standard color name or R:G:B triplet
  Default: black

## DESCRIPTION

A rhumbline (loxodrome) is a line following a constant angle of the compass (i.e., a line of constant direction). It crosses all meridians at the same angle, i.e. a path of constant bearing. d.rhumbline displays the rhumbline joining any two user-specified points in the active frame on the user's graphics monitor. The named coordinate locations must fall within the boundaries of the user's current geographic region.

The user has to specify the starting and ending longitude/latitude coordinates of the rhumbline and (optionally) the color in which the rhumbline will be displayed; in this case, the program will run non-interactively.

## EXAMPLE

A geodesic line if shown over the political map of the world (demolocation dataset):

    g.region vector=country_boundaries -p
    d.mon wx0
    d.vect country_boundaries type=area
    d.rhumbline coordinates=55:58W,33:18S,26:43E,60:37N \
      line_color=yellow
    # show additionally 10 degree grid
    d.grid 10

Rhumbline (loxodrome)

## NOTES

This program works only with longitude/latitude coordinate system.

## SEE ALSO

d.geodesic, d.grid, m.measure

## AUTHOR

Michael Shapiro, U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory

## SOURCE CODE

Available at: d.rhumbline source code (history)

Latest change: Friday Apr 17 01:04:26 2026 in commit: 32a143358df26b2e518b03c7e0d79541e8d1e5b1

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© 2003-2026 GRASS Development Team, GRASS 8.5.1dev Reference Manual