Interface to the Raster API of the Geospatial Data Abstraction Library ('GDAL', <https://gdal.org>). Bindings are implemented in an exposed C++ class encapsulating a GDALDataset and its raster band objects, along with several stand-alone functions. These support manual creation of uninitialized datasets, creation from existing raster as template, read/set dataset parameters, low level I/O, color tables, raster attribute tables, virtual raster (VRT), and gdalwarp wrapper for reprojection and mosaicing. Includes GDAL algorithms ('dem_proc()', polygonize()', rasterize()', etc.), and functions for coordinate transformation and spatial reference systems. Calling signatures resemble the native C, C++ and Python APIs provided by the GDAL project. Includes raster calc() to evaluate a given R expression on a layer or stack of layers, with pixel x/y available as variables in the expression; and raster combine() to identify and count unique pixel combinations across multiple input layers, with optional output of the pixel-level combination IDs. Provides raster display using base graphics'. Bindings to a subset of the OGR API are also included for managing vector data sources. Bindings to a subset of the Virtual Systems Interface ('VSI') are also included to support operations on GDAL virtual file systems. These are general utility functions that abstract file system operations on URLs, cloud storage services, Zip'/'GZip'/'7z'/'RAR archives, and in-memory files. gdalraster may be useful in applications that need scalable, low-level I/O, or prefer a direct GDAL API.