# Recommended Programs

## gpsbabel

&appname; uses &gpsbabel; for several important functions, such as:

- Importing Files from many formats (including KML)

- Exporting Files to various formats

- Transfer Data to/from GPS Devices via serial connections

Thus these will not be available if the program can not be found.

For Unix like systems this will search the system path to find the program, as it is typically installed via the System's package manager.

From &appname; 1.6 onwards &gpsbabel; is not deployed automatically on Windows systems. If &gpsbabel; is not installed in a typical Windows location that &appname; can find, then the &gpsbabel; preference can be set to specify the exact location. See prefs_external.

&appname; will need to be restarted to use the new &gpsbabel; location preference.

## unbuffer

&appname; uses unbuffer command to optimize conversion calls.

This mainly applies to Unix like systems when invoking &gpsbabel; commands.

## gpsd (not available for Windows)

&appname; can use gpsd to get the current location.

## togpx

&appname; will use togpx to open GeoJSON files if the program is available on the system.

## togeojson

&appname; will use togeojson to export to GeoJSON files if the program is available on the system.