Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/1.5-maintenance' into 1.5-mainte…

…nance

doc/faq.rst

@@ -11,6 +11,27 @@ FAQ
   The proper spelling of the project name is PDAL, in uppercase. It is
   pronounced to rhyme with "GDAL".
 
+* Why do I get the error "Couldn't create ... stage of type ..."?
+
+  In almost all cases this error occurs because you're trying to run a stage
+  that is built as a plugin and the plugin (a shared library file or DLL)
+  can't be found by pdal.  You can verify whether the plugin can
+  be found by running "pdal --drivers"
+
+  If you've built pdal yourself, make sure you've requested to build the
+  plugin in question (set BUILD_PLUGIN_PCL=ON, for example, in CMakeCache.txt).
+
+  If you've successfully built the plugin, a
+  shared object called
+  libpdal_plugin_<plugin type>_<plugin name>.<shared library extension> should
+  have been created that's installed in a location where pdal can find it.
+  pdal will search
+  the following paths for plugins: ".", "./lib", "../lib", "./bin", "../bin".
+
+  You can also override the default search path by setting the environment
+  variable PDAL_DRIVER_PATH to a list of directories that pdal should search
+  for plugins.
+
 * What is PDAL's relationship to PCL?
 
   PDAL is PCL's data translation cousin. PDAL is focused on providing a

io/LasWriter.cpp

@@ -397,11 +397,30 @@ void LasWriter::setPDALVLRs(MetadataNode& forward)
     std::ostringstream ostr;
     Utils::toJSON(forward, ostr);
     std::string json = ostr.str();
-    store(ostr.str(), 12, "PDAL metadata");
+
+    if (json.size() > LasVLR::MAX_DATA_SIZE &&
+        m_minorVersion.val() < 4)
+    {
+        log()->get(LogLevel::Debug) << "pdal metadata VLR too large "
+            "to write in VLR for files < LAS 1.4";
+    } else
+    {
+        store(json, 12, "PDAL metadata");
+    }
+
 
     ostr.str("");
     PipelineWriter::writePipeline(this, ostr);
-    store(ostr.str(), 13, "PDAL pipeline");
+    json = ostr.str();
+    if (json.size() > LasVLR::MAX_DATA_SIZE &&
+        m_minorVersion.val() < 4)
+    {
+        log()->get(LogLevel::Debug) << "pdal pipeline VLR too large "
+            "to write in VLR for files < LAS 1.4";
+    } else
+    {
+        store(ostr.str(), 13, "PDAL pipeline");
+    }
 }