GpsPrune downloads

GpsPrune is available to download either as compiled jar (just the runnable code) or as source code (the entire java source) if you want to compile it yourself. The latest released version is version 24.5, from October 2024. For the details of the new features, see what's new.

Jar file

Runnable code (1.4 MB or 1421 kB)
gpsprune_24.5.jar - Get this one if you just want to run it. Requires Java 11+.

Jar file

Runnable code for Java8 (1.5 MB)
gpsprune_24.5_java8.jar - Get this one if you want to run it but only have an old Java8. Requires Java 8+.

 
Compressed Tar file

Source code (776 kB)
gpsprune_24.5_source.tar.bz2 - Get this one if you want to be able to edit and compile it
Redistribution is possible according to the included license conditions of the GPL.

Java 8 was released in 2014 and is no longer the latest LTS version of java. Java 11 LTS was released in 2018 and is now standard in many environments, Java 17 LTS was released in 2021, and the current LTS version is Java 21 from late 2023. This makes Java 8 really quite old now. Some runtime issues have been discovered in GpsPrune which only affect Java 8, so GpsPrune is now available as a separate Java 8-compatible jar to alleviate these issues for users who can't upgrade their java. But realistically the number of such users should be quite small now.

For special linux packages for OpenSuse, Mandriva, Debian, Ubuntu and Arch, see the details below.

Installation

There is no installation. Simply download the jar file to your machine.

Running

If you have associated jar files with java already, then you can just double-click on the jar file to run it. If not, you can right-click on the jar file and select "open with..." and then "Java platform" (or something similar).

Alternatively you can use the command line to launch the jar, like this:

java -jar gpsprune_24.5.jar

But remember you must include the whole path to the GpsPrune jar file. To make it easier, you can create a shortcut on your desktop or menu to call the above command. Or you can set up a bash script to call it (see below), so you just have to type "gpsprune" to run it.

GpsPrune logo

If you want to attach an icon to your shortcut then feel free to use this one. You can choose between either a png file (256x256 pixels) or a Windows ico (64x64 pixels).

GpsPrune should automatically select the language based on your system settings - but remember that only the languages AF, CZ, EN, DE, DE_ch, ES, FR, HU, IT, JA, KO, NL, NO, PL, PT, RO, RU and ZH are currently supported. A handful of other languages are partially supported. If you want to override these settings and select the language yourself, you can do this with an extra parameter:

java -jar gpsprune_24.5.jar --lang=DE

Or you can use the menu option "Settings -> Set language" to choose another language, save your settings and then restart GpsPrune.

Linux packages

If you have a linux system, you may find it easier to install GpsPrune directly from your built-in repositories rather than use the downloads from this page. The advantage is that it's a bit easier to install and all the dependencies can be installed automatically. The disadvantage is that you might be getting an older version of GpsPrune from the repositories as it can take a while for it to go through the process.

There are a variety of package formats for the different distributions:

RPM download

If you have an RPM-based linux system, like OpenSuse or Fedora or Mandriva, you may want to have a look at the OpenSuse build service - under "Application:GEO" they have rpms, source rpms and also one-click meta-package installers.

In theory this rpm should make it easier for any rpm-based linux distribution to include it in their own repositories, making it much simpler to find and install, but I haven't heard of any such plans yet. The rpm from the build service installs fine on OpenSuse 11.2 using the OpenJDK.

Debian package

Thanks to the Debian people, there is a package of GpsPrune for Debian linux. Thanks to Bas the packaging and publishing process has got much faster lately, and both Testing (the new Trixie) and Stable-Backports already have version 24.5 since just a few days after release. Oldstable Backports (for Bullseye) and Stable (Bookworm) still have the older version 22.2.

The package is called gpsprune. Just install the package using the regular "add software" gui, and the dependencies will get installed too, everything you need (except maybe gnuplot-x11 which can then be easily added). This includes a java runtime such as OpenJDK, the libjava3d-java, and optionally other packages like gnuplot, gpsbabel and exiftool. Or if you prefer the command line, just type (as root) aptitude install gpsprune .

Once it's installed, you get a menu entry for "gpsprune" (either in the "Science" menu or the "Education" menu), or you can launch it from a console with gpsprune.

Alternatively, if you don't like using backports or you don't like installing Debian packages on non-Debian systems, just download this jar: gpsprune_24.5_debian.jar and run it with java -jar <filename> instead of using the main jar above — the advantage is that this special Debian jar knows where your Java3d packages should be and so automatically finds them.

Ubuntu package

For the current release of Ubuntu, there is also a gpsprune package, taken from Debian's package. So now all you need to do is search in the "add software" tool for "gpsprune", click the install button and you're done! It looks like it's installing a huge package, but that's only because it's automatically pulling in the (optional) dependencies such as gpsbabel, exiftool and gnuplot. Version 23.2 is in the official repositories for Numbat (24.04, the latest LTS release of Ubuntu), but if you want a more recent version (or if you're not using Numbat yet) you should consider using the regular jar (or the debian jar) above.

The packages for versions 24.* are in the system, but it takes some time for them to work their way through.

Arch, Gentoo, BSD and other packages

There is apparently also a package of Prune for Arch linux, but I haven't had chance to test it yet. It seems to be just a wrapper around the binary jar file, including a desktop file. If you're interested, see the Arch User Repository.

There's also a similar wrapper for Gentoo linux called gpsprune-bin which downloads the jar from this website. I'm told that this can be installed with a command like emerge -a sci-geosciences/gpsprune-bin but if you're using Gentoo you can probably figure it out :)

Also for FreeBSD users there is a "port" of GpsPrune at freshports.org, currently at version 23.2. I haven't had chance to test this one either.

For other distributions such as Manjaro, Kali, Raspbian and many more, see Repology's information page and their list of packages.

What's new in version 24.*

For full details on all the changes since version 23.*, see What's new.

Name change

Up until version 12.1, GpsPrune was made available under the name "Prune". Starting with version 13, it's called "GpsPrune". However, it's not a split, it's not a fork, it's not a change of ownership or anything like that. It's just a name change.

The reason behind it is that the completely unrelated program graphviz includes an executable called prune as one of its many files. This meant that when Prune was submitted to Debian for packaging, they couldn't call it "Prune" because it would conflict with the graphviz file. That's why Debian (and subsequently Ubuntu) have called the package "gpsprune" instead.

In order to reduce the confusion of both names being used, it was decided to call it "GpsPrune" everywhere.

Additional language packs

Volunteers provide most of the language translations for GpsPrune, and every time a version of GpsPrune is released, the latest version of the translations is taken and included in the jar file. If the translations are improved after GpsPrune has been released, these can be made available in a separate text file, and then specified in the command used to launch GpsPrune.

Currently, all these translations (apart from the very incomplete ones below) are included in version 24.5.

There are a few other language packs available which are still under development. These hold the minimal Turkish, Ukrainian, Farsi and Indonesian texts, and the new languages Danish and Welsh. The files are here if you want to use them, but they only cover between 6% and 38% of the texts used by GpsPrune, so most of the texts still appear in English.

If you want to use one of these language packs, just save the text file to your machine (preferably in the same directory as the GpsPrune jar file), and then specify the location of this file with an extra parameter when you launch the program, for example:

java -jar gpsprune.jar --langfile=gpsprune_farsi_texts.txt

You can also select a language file using Settings->Set language, and as long as you save your settings (Settings->Save settings), it will be used the next time GpsPrune is started.

Optional extras

See the dependencies page for how to get the additional bits of software to extend GpsPrune's functionality. These include the Java runtime, the Java3d libraries for real-time 3d display, Povray for rendering of 3d images, Exiftool for saving coordinates to exif information of jpegs, GPSBabel for communicating with GPS receivers, and gnuplot for drawing charts of altitudes, speeds etc.

Version history

See the history page for details of previous versions of GpsPrune and the history of development, or the old screenshots for how GpsPrune used to look.

To do

There are several additional features planned which have not yet been implemented. The current status of development is shown in the development page and user suggestions are listed in the wishlist.

Of course any suggestions or contributions, especially multi-lingual translation expertise, would be very gratefully received! Please see the translation wiki for details on how to help with this.

Screenshots // How-tos // How-tos (français) // How-tos (deutsch) // How-tos (español) // User guide // Demo videos // Problem-solving // Configuration // Download // Dependencies // What's new // Development // Wishlist // History // Old Screenshots // Internet Fame // User survey // Dev stats