[svn-r4114]

Purpose:
    Maintenance
Description:
    Source directory has been rearranged.                                                                        INSTALL*, HISTORY.txt and RELEASE.txt were moved to the release_docs directory.                              *.zip files were moved to the windows directory.                                                             README file was renamed to README.txt                                                                        MANIFEST was updated to reflect those changes.

7 files changed, 3134 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/release_docs/HISTORY.txt b/release_docs/HISTORY.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..79f5065
--- /dev/null
+++ b/release_docs/HISTORY.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,984 @@
+HDF5 HISTORY
+============
+
+CONTENTS
+I.   Release Information for hdf5-1.2.2
+II.  Release Information for hdf5-1.2.1
+III. Release Information for hdf5-1.2.0
+     A. Platforms Supported
+     B. Known Problems
+     C. Changes Since Version 1.0.1  
+        1. Documentation
+        2. Configuration
+        3. Debugging
+        4. Datatypes
+        5. Dataspaces
+        6. Persistent Pointers
+        7. Parallel Support
+        8. New API Functions
+           a. Property List Interface
+           b. Dataset Interface
+           c. Dataspace Interface
+           d. Datatype Interface
+           e. Identifier Interface
+           f. Reference Interface
+           g. Ragged Arrays
+        9. Tools
+
+IV.  Changes from Release 1.0.0 to Release 1.0.1
+V.   Changes from the Beta 1.0.0 Release to Release 1.0.0
+VI.  Changes from the Second Alpha 1.0.0 Release to the Beta 1.0.0 Release
+VII. Changes from the First Alpha 1.0.0 Release to the 
+         Second Alpha 1.0.0 Release
+
+[Search on the string '%%%%' for per-release section breaks.]
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+%%%%1.2.2%%%%   Release Information for hdf5-1.2.2 (6/23/00)
+
+I. Release Information for hdf5-1.2.2
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+This document describes the differences between HDF5-1.2.1 and 
+HDF5-1.2.2, and contains information on the platforms where HDF5-1.2.2
+was tested and known problems in HDF5-1.2.2. 
+
+The HDF5 documentation can be found on the NCSA ftp server 
+(ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu) in the directory:
+
+     /HDF/HDF5/docs/
+
+For more information look at the HDF5 home page at:
+   
+    http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HDF5/
+
+If you have any questions or comments, please send them to:
+
+    hdfhelp@ncsa.uiuc.edu
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+- Features Added since HDF5-1.2.1 
+- Bug Fixes since HDF5-1.2.1
+- Known Problems
+- Platforms Tested
+
+
+Features Added since HDF5-1.2.1
+===============================
+   * Added internal free-lists to reduce memory required by the library and
+     H5garbage_collect API function.
+   * h5dump displays opaque and bitfield types.
+   * New features added to snapshots.  Use 'snapshot help' to see a
+     complete list of features.
+   * Improved configure to detect if MPIO routines are available when
+     parallel mode is requested.
+
+Bug Fixes since HDF5-1.2.1
+==========================
+   * h5dump correctly displays compound datatypes, including simple and
+     nested compound types.
+   * h5dump correctly displays the committed copy of predefined types.
+   * Corrected an error in h5toh4 which did not convert the 32-bit
+     int from HDF5 to HDF4 correctly for the T3E platform.
+   * Corrected a floating point number conversion error for the
+     Cray J90 platform.  The error did not convert the value 0.0
+     correctly.
+   * Fixed error in H5Giterate which was not updating the "index" parameter
+     correctly.
+   * Fixed error in hyperslab iteration which was not walking through the
+     correct sequence of array elements if hyperslabs were staggered in a
+     certain pattern.
+   * Fixed several other problems in hyperslab iteration code.
+   * Fixed another H5Giterate bug which caused groups with large numbers
+     of objects in them to misbehave when the callback function returned
+     non-zero values.
+   * Changed return type of H5Aiterate and H5A_operator_t typedef to be
+     herr_t, to align them with the dataset and group iterator functions.
+   * Changed H5Screate_simple and H5Sset_extent_simple to not allow dimensions
+     of size 0 without the same dimension being unlimited.
+   * Improved metadata hashing & caching algorithms to avoid
+     many hash flushes and also removed some redundant I/O when moving metadata
+     blocks in the file.
+   * The libhdf5.settings file shows the correct machine byte-sex.
+   * The "struct(opt)" type conversion function which gets invoked for
+     certain compound datatype conversions was fixed for nested compound
+     types. This required a small change in the datatype conversion
+     function API.
+
+Known Problems
+==============
+
+o SunOS 5.6 with C WorkShop Compilers 4.2:  hyperslab selections will 
+  fail if library is compiled using optimization of any level.
+o TFLOPS: dsets test fails if compiled with optimization turned on.
+o J90: tools fail to dispay data for the datasets with a compound datatype. 
+
+Platforms Tested
+================
+
+  AIX 4.3.3 (IBM SP)            3.6.6                               | binaries
+                                mpicc using mpich 1.1.2             | are not
+                                mpicc_r using IBM MPI-IO prototype  | available
+  AIX 4.3.2.0 (IBM SP)          xlc 5.0.1.0
+  Cray J90 10.0.0.7             cc 6.3.0.2
+  Cray T3E 2.0.5.29             cc 6.3.0.2
+                                mpt.1.3
+  FreeBSD 4.0                   gcc 2.95.2
+  HP-UX B.10.20                 HP C  HP92453-01 A.10.32
+  HP-UX B.11.00                 HP92453-01 A.11.00.13 HP C Compiler 
+                                (static library only, h5toh4 tool is not available) 
+  IRIX 6.5                      MIPSpro cc 7.30
+  IRIX64 6.5 (64 & n32)         MIPSpro cc 7.3.1m
+                                mpt.1.4
+
+  Linux 2.2.10 SMP              gcc 2.95.1 
+                                mpicc(gcc-2.95.1)
+                                gcc (egcs-2.91.66)
+                                mpicc (egcs-2.91.66)
+  Linux 2.2.16 (RedHat 6.2)     gcc 2.95.2
+
+  OSF1 V4.0                     DEC-V5.2-040
+  SunOS 5.6                     cc WorkShop Compilers 5.0 no optimization
+  SunOS 5.7                     cc WorkShop Compilers 5.0
+  SolarisX86 SunOS 5.5.1        gcc version 2.7.2 with --disable-hsizet
+  TFLOPS 3.2.1                  pgcc Rel 3.1-3i
+                                mpich-1.1.2 with local changes
+  Windows NT4.0 sp5             MSVC++ 6.0
+  Windows 98                    MSVC++ 6.0
+  Windows 2000                  MSVC++ 6.0
+
+
+
+%%%%1.2.1%%%%   Release Information for hdf5-1.2.1
+
+II. Release Information for hdf5-1.2.1
+
+Bug fixes since HDF5-1.2.0
+==========================
+
+Configuration
+-------------
+
+   * The hdf5.h include file was fixed to allow the HDF5 Library to be compiled
+     with other libraries/applications that use GNU autoconf. 
+   * Configuration for parallel HDF5 was improved. Configure now attempts to
+     link with libmpi.a and/or libmpio.a as the MPI libraries by default.
+     It also uses "mpirun" to launch MPI tests by default.  It tests to
+     link MPIO routines during the configuration stage, rather than failing
+     later as before.  One can just do "./configure --enable-parallel"
+     if the MPI library is in the system library.
+
+Library
+-------
+
+   * Error was fixed which was not allowing dataset region references to have
+     their regions retrieved correctly.
+   * Added internal free-lists to reduce memory required by the library and
+     H5garbage_collect API function
+   * Fixed error in H5Giterate which was not updating the "index" parameter
+     correctly.
+   * Fixed error in hyperslab iteration which was not walking through the
+     correct sequence of array elements if hyperslabs were staggered in a
+     certain pattern
+   * Fixed several other problems in hyperslab iteration code.
+
+Tests
+------
+
+   * Added additional tests for group and attribute iteration.
+   * Added additional test for staggered hyperslab iteration.
+   * Added additional test for random 5-D hyperslab selection.
+
+Tools
+------
+
+   * Added an option, -V, to show the version information of h5dump.
+   * Fixed a core dumping bug of h5toh4 when executed on platforms like 
+     TFLOPS.
+   * The test script for h5toh4 used to not able to detect the hdp
+     dumper command was not valid.  It now detects and reports the
+     failure of hdp execution.
+
+Documentation
+-------------
+
+   * User's Guide and Reference Manual were updated. 
+     See doc/html/PSandPDF/index.html for more details. 
+
+   
+Platforms Tested:
+================
+Note: Due to the nature of bug fixes, only static versions of the library and tools were tested.
+
+
+  AIX 4.3.2 (IBM SP)            3.6.6
+  Cray T3E 2.0.4.81             cc 6.3.0.1
+                                mpt.1.3
+  FreeBSD 3.3-STABLE            gcc 2.95.2
+  HP-UX B.10.20                 HP C  HP92453-01 A.10.32
+  IRIX 6.5                      MIPSpro cc 7.30
+  IRIX64 6.5 (64 & n32)         MIPSpro cc 7.3.1m
+                                mpt.1.3 (SGI MPI 3.2.0.0)
+
+  Linux 2.2.10 SuSE             egcs-2.91.66               configured with
+  (i686-pc-linux-gnu)                                      --disable-hsizet
+                                mpich-1.2.0 egcs-2.91.66 19990314/Linux 
+
+  OSF1 V4.0                     DEC-V5.2-040
+  SunOS 5.6                     cc WorkShop Compilers 4.2  no optimization
+  SunOS 5.7                     cc WorkShop Compilers 5.0
+  TFLOPS 2.8                    cicc (pgcc Rel 3.0-5i)
+                                mpich-1.1.2 with local changes
+  Windows NT4.0 sp5             MSVC++ 6.0
+
+Known Problems:
+==============
+
+o SunOS 5.6 with C WorkShop Compilers 4.2:  Hyperslab selections will 
+  fail if library is compiled using optimization of any level.
+
+
+
+%%%%1.2.0%%%%   Release Information for hdf5-1.2.0
+         
+III. Release Information for hdf5-1.2.0
+
+A. Platforms Supported
+   -------------------
+
+Operating systems listed below with compiler information and MPI library, if
+applicable, are systems that HDF5 1.2.0 was tested on.
+
+                           Compiler & libraries
+  Platform                      Information              Comment
+  --------                      ----------               -------- 
+                                
+  AIX 4.3.2 (IBM SP)            3.6.6
+
+  Cray J90 10.0.0.6             cc 6.3.0.0
+
+  Cray T3E 2.0.4.61             cc 6.2.1.0 
+                                mpt.1.3
+
+  FreeBSD 3.2                   gcc 2.95.1
+
+  HP-UX B.10.20                 HP C  HP92453-01 A.10.32
+                                gcc 2.8.1
+
+  IRIX 6.5                      MIPSpro cc 7.30 
+
+  IRIX64 6.5 (64 & n32)         MIPSpro cc 7.3.1m
+  			        mpt.1.3 (SGI MPI 3.2.0.0)
+
+  Linux 2.2.10                  egcs-2.91.66               configured with
+  						         --disable-hsizet
+                                                           lbraries: glibc2
+
+  OSF1 V4.0                     DEC-V5.2-040
+
+  SunOS 5.6                     cc WorkShop Compilers 4.2   
+                                                           no optimization
+  			        gcc 2.8.1
+
+  SunOS 5.7                     cc WorkShop Compilers 5.0
+                                gcc 2.8.1
+ 
+  TFLOPS 2.7.1                  cicc (pgcc Rel 3.0-4i)
+  			        mpich-1.1.2 with local changes
+
+  Windows NT4.0 intel           MSVC++ 5.0 and 6.0
+
+  Windows NT alpha 4.0          MSVC++ 5.0 
+
+  Windows 98                    MSVC++ 5.0
+
+
+B. Known Problems
+   --------------
+
+* NT alpha 4.0
+  Dumper utiliy h5dump fails if linked with DLL.
+
+* SunOS 5.6 with C WorkShop Compilers 4.2
+  Hyperslab selections will fail if library is compiled using optimization
+  of any level.
+
+ 
+C. Changes Since Version 1.0.1
+   ---------------------------
+
+1. Documentation
+   -------------
+
+* More examples
+
+* Updated user guide, reference manual, and format specification.
+
+* Self-contained documentation for installations isolated from the
+  Internet.
+
+* HDF5 Tutorial was added to the documentation  
+
+2. Configuration
+   -------------
+
+* Better detection and support for MPI-IO.
+
+* Recognition of compilers with known code generation problems.
+
+* Support for various compilers on a single architecture (e.g., the
+  native compiler and the GNU compilers).
+
+* Ability to build from read-only media and with different compilers
+  and/or options concurrently.
+
+* Added a libhdf5.settings file which summarizes the configuration
+  information and is installed along with the library.
+
+* Builds a shared library on most systems that support it.
+
+* Support for Cray T3E, J90 and Windows/NT.
+
+3. Debugging
+   ---------
+
+* Improved control and redirection of debugging and tracing messages.
+
+4. Datatypes
+   ---------
+
+* Optimizations to compound datatype conversions and I/O operations.
+
+* Added nearly 100 optimized conversion functions for native datatypes 
+  including support for non-aligned data.
+
+* Added support for bitfield, opaque, and enumeration types.
+
+* Added distinctions between signed and unsigned char types to the
+  list of predefined native hdf5 datatypes.
+
+* Added HDF5 type definitions for C9x types like int32_t.
+
+* Application-defined type conversion functions can handle non-packed
+  data.
+
+* Changed the H5Tunregister() function to use wildcards when matching
+  conversion functions.  H5Tregister_hard() and H5Tregister_soft()
+  were combined into H5Tregister().
+
+* Support for variable-length datatypes (arrays of varying length per
+  dataset element). Variable length strings currently supported only
+  as variable length arrays of 1-byte integers.
+
+5. Dataspaces
+   ----------
+
+* New query functions for selections.
+
+* I/O operations bypass the stripmining loop and go directly to
+  storage for certain contiguous selections in the absense of type
+  conversions.  In other cases the stripmining buffers are used more
+  effectively.
+
+* Reduced the number of I/O requests under certain circumstances,
+  improving performance on systems with high I/O latency.
+
+6. Persistent Pointers
+   -------------------
+
+* Object (serial and parallel) and dataset region (serial only)
+  references are implemented.
+
+7. Parallel Support
+   ----------------
+
+* Improved parallel I/O performance.
+
+* Supported new platforms: Cray T3E, Linux, DEC Cluster.
+
+* Use vendor supported version of MPIO on SGI O2K and Cray platforms.
+
+* Improved the algorithm that translates an HDF5 hyperslab selection
+  into an MPI type for better collective I/O performance.
+
+8. New API functions 
+   -----------------
+
+  a. Property List Interface:
+     ------------------------
+
+  H5Pset_xfer		- set data transfer properties
+  H5Pset_preserve      - set dataset transfer property list status 
+  H5Pget_preserve      - get dataset transfer property list status
+  H5Pset_hyper_cache   - indicates whether to cache hyperslab blocks during I/O
+  H5Pget_hyper_cache   - returns information regarding the caching of 
+                         hyperslab blocks during I/O
+  H5Pget_btree_ratios  - sets B-tree split ratios for a dataset 
+                         transfer property list
+  H5Pset_btree_ratios  - gets B-tree split ratios for a dataset
+                         transfer property list
+  H5Pset_vlen_mem_manager - sets the memory manager for variable-length 
+                            datatype allocation
+  H5Pget_vlen_mem_manager - sets the memory manager for variable-length
+                            datatype allocation
+
+  b. Dataset Interface:
+     ------------------
+
+  H5Diterate           - iterate over all selected elements in a dataspace
+  H5Dget_storage_size  - return the amount of storage required for a dataset
+  H5Dvlen_reclaim      - reclaim VL datatype memory buffers
+
+  c. Dataspace Interface:
+     --------------------
+  H5Sget_select_hyper_nblocks   - get number of hyperslab blocks
+  H5Sget_select_hyper_blocklist - get the list of hyperslab blocks 
+                                  currently selected
+  H5Sget_select_elem_npoints    - get the number of element points 
+                                  in the current selection
+  H5Sget_select_elem_pointlist  - get the list of element points 
+                                  currently selected
+  H5Sget_select_bounds          - gets the bounding box containing 
+                                  the current selection
+
+  d. Datatype Interface:
+     -------------------
+  H5Tget_super         - return the base datatype from which a 
+                         datatype is derived
+  H5Tvlen_create       - creates a new variable-length dataype
+  H5Tenum_create       - creates a new enumeration datatype
+  H5Tenum_insert       - inserts a new enumeration datatype member
+  H5Tenum_nameof       - returns the symbol name corresponding to a 
+                         specified member of an enumeration datatype
+  H5Tvalueof           - return the value corresponding to a 
+                         specified member of an enumeration datatype 
+  H5Tget_member_value  - return the value of an enumeration datatype member
+  H5Tset_tag           - tags an opaque datatype
+  H5Tget_tag           - gets the tag associated with an opaque datatype
+
+  e. Identifier Interface:
+     ---------------------
+  H5Iget_type          - retrieve the type of an object
+
+  f. Reference Interface:
+     --------------------
+  H5Rcreate            - creates a reference
+  H5Rdereference       - open the HDF5 object referenced
+  H5Rget_region        - retrieve a dataspace with the specified region selected
+  H5Rget_object_type   - retrieve the type of object that an 
+                         object reference points to
+
+  g. Ragged Arrays (alpha) (names of those API functions were changed):
+     ------------------------------------------------------------------
+   H5RAcreate		- create a new ragged array (old name was H5Rcreate)
+   H5RAopen		- open an existing array    (old name was H5Ropen)
+   H5RAclose		- close a ragged array      (old name was H5Rclose)
+   H5RAwrite		- write to an array         (old name was H5Rwrite)
+   H5RAread		- read from an array        (old name was H5Rread)
+
+
+9. Tools
+   -----
+
+* Enhancements to the h5ls tool including the ability to list objects
+  from more than one file, to display raw hexadecimal data, to
+  show file addresses for raw data, to format output more reasonably,
+  to show object attributes, and to perform a recursive listing, 
+
+* Enhancements to h5dump: support new data types added since previous
+  versions.
+
+* h5toh4: An hdf5 to hdf4 converter.
+
+
+
+%%%%1.0.1%%%%   Release Information for hdf5-1.0.1
+         
+IV. Changes from Release 1.0.0 to Release 1.0.1
+
+* [Improvement]: configure sets up the Makefile in the parallel tests
+  suit (testpar/) correctly.
+
+* [Bug-Fix]: Configure failed for all IRIX versions other than 6.3.
+  It now configures correctly for all IRIX 6.x version.
+
+* Released Parallel HDF5 
+
+     Supported Features:
+     ------------------
+
+     HDF5 files are accessed according to the communicator and INFO
+     object defined in the property list set by H5Pset_mpi.
+
+     Independent read and write accesses to fixed and extendable dimension
+     datasets.
+
+     Collective read and write accesses to fixed dimension datasets.
+
+     Supported Platforms:
+     -------------------
+
+     Intel Red
+     IBM SP2
+     SGI Origin 2000
+
+     Changes In This Release: 
+     -----------------------
+
+   o Support of Access to Extendable Dimension Datasets.
+     Extendable dimension datasets must use chunked storage methods.
+     A new function, H5Dextend, is created to extend the current
+     dimensions of a dataset.  The current release requires the
+     MPI application must make a collective call to extend the
+     dimensions of an extendable dataset before writing to the
+     newly extended area.  (The serial does not require the
+     call of H5Dextend.  The dimensions of an extendable
+     dataset is increased when data is written to beyond the
+     current dimensions but within the maximum dimensions.)
+     The required collective call of H5Dextend may be relaxed
+     in future release.
+
+     This release only support independent read and write accesses
+     to extendable datasets.  Collective accesses to extendable
+     datasets will be implemented in future releases.
+
+   o Collective access to fixed dimension datasets.
+     Collective access to a dataset can be specified in the transfer
+     property list argument in H5Dread and H5Dwrite.  The current
+     release supports collective access to fixed dimension datasets.
+     Collective access to extendable datasets will be implemented in
+     future releases.
+
+   o HDF5 files are opened according to Communicator and INFO object.
+     H5Dopen now records the communicator and INFO setup by H5Pset_mmpi
+     and pass them to the corresponding MPIO open file calls for
+     processing.
+
+   o This release has been tested on IBM SP2, Intel Red and SGI Origin 2000
+     systems.  It uses the ROMIO version of MPIO interface for parallel
+     I/O supports.
+
+
+
+%%%%1.0.0%%%%   Release Information for hdf5-1.0.0
+
+V. Changes from the Beta 1.0.0 Release to Release 1.0.0
+
+* Added fill values for datasets.  For contiguous datasets fill value
+  performance may be quite poor since the fill value is written to the 
+  entire dataset when the dataset is created.  This will be remedied
+  in a future version.  Chunked datasets using fill values do not
+  incur any additional overhead. See H5Pset_fill_value().
+
+* Multiple hdf5 files can be "mounted" on one another to create a
+  larger virtual file. See H5Fmount().
+
+* Object names can be removed or changed but objects are never
+  actually removed from the file yet. See H5Gunlink() and H5Gmove().
+
+* Added a tuning mechanism for B-trees to insure that sequential
+  writes to chunked datasets use less overhead.  See H5Pset_btree_ratios().
+
+* Various optimizations and bug fixes.
+
+
+
+%%%%1.0.0 Beta%%%%   Release Information for hdf5-1.0.0 Beta
+
+VI. Changes from the Second Alpha 1.0.0 Release to the Beta 1.0.0 Release
+
+* Strided hyperslab selections in dataspaces now working.
+
+* The compression API has been replaced with a more general filter
+  API.  See doc/html/Filters.html for details.
+
+* Alpha-quality 2d ragged arrays are implemented as a layer built on
+  top of other hdf5 objects.  The API and storage format will almost
+  certainly change.
+
+* More debugging support including API tracing.  See Debugging.html.
+
+* C and Fortran style 8-bit fixed-length character string types are
+  supported with space or null padding or null termination and
+  translations between them.
+
+* Added function H5Fflush() to write all cached data immediately to
+  the file.
+
+* Datasets maintain a modification time which can be retrieved with
+  H5Gstat().
+
+* The h5ls tool can display much more information, including all the
+  values of a dataset.
+
+
+
+%%%%1.0.0 Alpha 2%%%%   Release Information for hdf5-1.0.0 Alpha 2
+
+VII. Changes from the First Alpha 1.0.0 Release to 
+     the Second Alpha 1.0.0 Release
+
+* Two of the packages have been renamed.  The data space API has been
+  renamed from `H5P' to `H5S' and the property list (template) API has 
+  been renamed from `H5C' to `H5P'.
+
+* The new attribute API `H5A' has been added.  An attribute is a small 
+  dataset which can be attached to some other object (for instance, a
+  4x4 transformation matrix attached to a 3-dimensional dataset, or an 
+  English abstract attached to a group).
+
+* The error handling API `H5E' has been completed.  By default, when an
+  API function returns failure an error stack is displayed on the
+  standard error stream.  The H5Eset_auto() controls the automatic
+  printing and H5E_BEGIN_TRY/H5E_END_TRY macros can temporarily
+  disable the automatic error printing.
+
+* Support for large files and datasets (>2GB) has been added.  There
+  is an html document that describes how it works.  Some of the types
+  for function arguments have changed to support this: all arguments
+  pertaining to sizes of memory objects are `size_t' and all arguments 
+  pertaining to file sizes are `hsize_t'.
+
+* More data type conversions have been added although none of them are
+  fine tuned for performance.  There are new converters from integer
+  to integer and float to float, but not between integers and floating
+  points.  A bug has been fixed in the converter between compound
+  types.
+
+* The numbered types have been removed from the API: int8, uint8,
+  int16, uint16, int32, uint32, int64, uint64, float32, and float64.
+  Use standard C types instead.  Similarly, the numbered types were
+  removed from the H5T_NATIVE_* architecture; use unnumbered types
+  which correspond to the standard C types like H5T_NATIVE_INT.
+
+* More debugging support was added.  If tracing is enabled at
+  configuration time (the default) and the HDF5_TRACE environment
+  variable is set to a file descriptor then all API calls will emit
+  the function name, argument names and values, and return value on
+  that file number.  There is an html document that describes this.
+  If appropriate debugging options are enabled at configuration time,
+  some packages will display performance information on stderr.
+
+* Data types can be stored in the file as independent objects and
+  multiple datasets can share a data type.
+
+* The raw data I/O stream has been implemented and the application can 
+  control meta and raw data caches, so I/O performance should be
+  improved from the first alpha release.
+
+* Group and attribute query functions have been implemented so it is
+  now possible to find out the contents of a file with no prior
+  knowledge.
+
+* External raw data storage allows datasets to be written by other
+  applications or I/O libraries and described and accessed through
+  HDF5.
+
+* Hard and soft (symbolic) links are implemented which allow groups to 
+  share objects. Dangling and recursive symbolic links are supported.
+
+* User-defined data compression is implemented although we may
+  generalize the interface to allow arbitrary user-defined filters
+  which can be used for compression, checksums, encryption,
+  performance monitoring, etc.  The publicly-available `deflate'
+  method is predefined if the GNU libz.a can be found at configuration 
+  time.
+
+* The configuration scripts have been modified to make it easier to
+  build debugging vs. production versions of the library.
+
+* The library automatically checks that the application was compiled
+  with the correct version of header files.
+
+
+		    Parallel HDF5 Changes
+
+* Parallel support for fixed dimension datasets with contiguous or
+  chunked storages.  Also, support unlimited dimension datasets which
+  must use chunk storage.  No parallel support for compressed datasets.
+
+* Collective data transfer for H5Dread/H5Dwrite.  Collective access
+  support for datasets with contiguous storage only, thus only fixed
+  dimension datasets for now.
+
+* H5Pset_mpi and H5Pget_mpi no longer have the access_mode
+  argument.  It is taken over by the data-transfer property list
+  of H5Dread/H5Dwrite.
+
+* New functions H5Pset_xfer and H5Pget_xfer to handle the
+  specification of independent or collective data transfer_mode
+  in the dataset transfer properties list.  The properties
+  list can be used to specify data transfer mode in the H5Dwrite
+  and H5Dread function calls.
+
+* Added parallel support for datasets with chunked storage layout.
+  When a dataset is extend in a PHDF5 file, all processes that open
+  the file must collectively call H5Dextend with identical new dimension
+  sizes.
+
+
+			LIST OF API FUNCTIONS
+
+The following functions are implemented. Errors are returned if an
+attempt is made to use some feature which is not implemented and
+printing the error stack will show `not implemented yet'.
+
+Library
+   H5check		- check that lib version matches header version
+   H5open		- initialize library (happens automatically)
+   H5close		- shut down the library (happens automatically)
+   H5dont_atexit	- don't call H5close on exit
+   H5get_libversion	- retrieve library version info
+   H5check_version	- check for specific library version
+
+Property Lists
+   H5Pclose		- release template resources
+   H5Pcopy		- copy a template
+   H5Pcreate		- create a new template
+   H5Pget_chunk		- get chunked storage properties
+   H5Pset_chunk		- set chunked storage properties
+   H5Pget_class		- get template class
+   H5Pget_istore_k	- get chunked storage properties
+   H5Pset_istore_k	- set chunked storage properties
+   H5Pget_layout	- get raw data layout class
+   H5Pset_layout	- set raw data layout class
+   H5Pget_sizes		- get address and size sizes
+   H5Pset_sizes		- set address and size sizes
+   H5Pget_sym_k		- get symbol table storage properties
+   H5Pset_sym_k		- set symbol table storage properties
+   H5Pget_userblock	- get user-block size
+   H5Pset_userblock	- set user-block size
+   H5Pget_version	- get file version numbers
+   H5Pget_alignment	- get data alignment properties
+   H5Pset_alignment	- set data alignment properties
+   H5Pget_external_count- get count of external data files
+   H5Pget_external	- get information about an external data file
+   H5Pset_external	- add a new external data file to the list
+   H5Pget_driver	- get low-level file driver class
+   H5Pget_stdio		- get properties for stdio low-level driver
+   H5Pset_stdio		- set properties for stdio low-level driver
+   H5Pget_sec2		- get properties for sec2 low-level driver
+   H5Pset_sec2		- set properties for sec2 low-level driver
+   H5Pget_core		- get properties for core low-level driver
+   H5Pset_core		- set properties for core low-level driver
+   H5Pget_split		- get properties for split low-level driver
+   H5Pset_split		- set properties for split low-level driver
+   H5P_get_family	- get properties for family low-level driver
+   H5P_set_family	- set properties for family low-level driver
+   H5Pget_cache		- get meta- and raw-data caching properties
+   H5Pset_cache		- set meta- and raw-data caching properties
+   H5Pget_buffer	- get raw-data I/O pipe buffer properties
+   H5Pset_buffer	- set raw-data I/O pipe buffer properties
+   H5Pget_preserve	- get type conversion preservation properties
+   H5Pset_preserve	- set type conversion preservation properties
+   H5Pget_nfilters	- get number of raw data filters
+   H5Pget_filter	- get raw data filter properties
+   H5Pset_filter	- set raw data filter properties
+   H5Pset_deflate	- set deflate compression filter properties
+   H5Pget_mpi		- get MPI-IO properties
+   H5Pset_mpi		- set MPI-IO properties
+   H5Pget_xfer		- get data transfer properties
+ + H5Pset_xfer		- set data transfer properties
+ + H5Pset_preserve      - set dataset transfer property list status 
+ + H5Pget_preserve      - get dataset transfer property list status
+ + H5Pset_hyper_cache   - indicates whether to cache hyperslab blocks during I/O
+ + H5Pget_hyper_cache   - returns information regarding the caching of 
+                          hyperslab blocks during I/O
+ + H5Pget_btree_ratios  - sets B-tree split ratios for a dataset 
+                          transfer property list
+ + H5Pset_btree_ratios  - gets B-tree split ratios for a dataset
+                          transfer property list
+ + H5Pset_vlen_mem_manager - sets the memory manager for variable-length 
+                             datatype allocation
+ + H5Pget_vlen_mem_manager - sets the memory manager for variable-length
+                             datatype allocation
+
+Datasets
+   H5Dclose		- release dataset resources
+   H5Dcreate		- create a new dataset
+   H5Dget_space		- get data space
+   H5Dget_type		- get data type
+   H5Dget_create_plist	- get dataset creation properties
+   H5Dopen		- open an existing dataset
+   H5Dread		- read raw data
+   H5Dwrite		- write raw data
+   H5Dextend		- extend a dataset
+ + H5Diterate           - iterate over all selected elements in a dataspace
+ + H5Dget_storage_size  - return the amount of storage required for a dataset
+ + H5Dvlen_reclaim      - reclaim VL datatype memory buffers
+
+Attributes
+   H5Acreate		- create a new attribute
+   H5Aopen_name		- open an attribute by name
+   H5Aopen_idx		- open an attribute by number
+   H5Awrite		- write values into an attribute
+   H5Aread		- read values from an attribute
+   H5Aget_space		- get attribute data space
+   H5Aget_type		- get attribute data type
+   H5Aget_name		- get attribute name
+   H5Anum_attrs		- return the number of attributes for an object
+   H5Aiterate		- iterate over an object's attributes
+   H5Adelete		- delete an attribute
+   H5Aclose		- close an attribute
+
+Errors
+   H5Eclear		- clear the error stack
+   H5Eprint		- print an error stack
+   H5Eget_auto		- get automatic error reporting settings
+   H5Eset_auto		- set automatic error reporting
+   H5Ewalk		- iterate over the error stack
+   H5Ewalk_cb		- the default error stack iterator function
+   H5Eget_major		- get the message for the major error number
+   H5Eget_minor		- get the message for the minor error number
+
+Files
+   H5Fclose		- close a file and release resources
+   H5Fcreate		- create a new file
+   H5Fget_create_plist	- get file creation property list
+   H5Fget_access_plist	- get file access property list
+   H5Fis_hdf5		- determine if a file is an hdf5 file
+   H5Fopen		- open an existing file
+   H5Freopen            - reopen an HDF5 file
+   H5Fmount             - mount a file
+   H5Funmount           - unmount a file
+   H5Fflush             - flush all buffers associated with a file to disk
+
+Groups
+   H5Gclose		- close a group and release resources
+   H5Gcreate    	- create a new group
+   H5Gopen		- open an existing group
+   H5Giterate   	- iterate over the contents of a group
+   H5Gmove		- change the name of some object
+   H5Glink		- create a hard or soft link to an object
+   H5Gunlink    	- break the link between a name and an object
+   H5Gget_objinfo	- get information about a group entry
+   H5Gget_linkval	- get the value of a soft link
+   H5Gget_comment	- get the comment string for an object
+   H5Gset_comment	- set the comment string for an object
+
+Dataspaces
+   H5Screate	        - create a new data space
+   H5Scopy		- copy a data space
+   H5Sclose		- release data space
+   H5Screate_simple	- create a new simple data space
+   H5Sset_space		- set simple data space extents
+   H5Sis_simple		- determine if data space is simple
+   H5Sset_extent_simple	- set simple data space dimensionality and size
+   H5Sget_simple_extent_npoints	- get number of points in simple extent
+   H5Sget_simple_extent_ndims - get simple data space dimensionality
+   H5Sget_simple_extent_dims - get simple data space size
+   H5Sget_simple_extent_type - get type of simple extent
+   H5Sset_extent_none	- reset extent to be empty
+   H5Sextent_copy	- copy the extent from one data space to another
+   H5Sget_select_npoints - get number of points selected for I/O
+   H5Sselect_hyperslab	- set hyperslab dataspace selection
+   H5Sselect_elements   - set element sequence dataspace selection
+   H5Sselect_all	- select entire extent for I/O
+   H5Sselect_none	- deselect all elements of extent
+   H5Soffset_simple	- set selection offset
+   H5Sselect_valid	- determine if selection is valid for extent
+ + H5Sget_select_hyper_nblocks   - get number of hyperslab blocks
+ + H5Sget_select_hyper_blocklist - get the list of hyperslab blocks 
+                                   currently selected
+ + H5Sget_select_elem_npoints    - get the number of element points 
+                                   in the current selection
+ + H5Sget_select_elem_pointlist  - get the list of element points 
+                                   currently selected
+ + H5Sget_select_bounds          - gets the bounding box containing 
+                                   the current selection
+
+Datatypes
+   H5Tclose		- release data type resources
+   H5Topen		- open a named data type
+   H5Tcommit		- name a data type
+   H5Tcommitted		- determine if a type is named
+   H5Tcopy		- copy a data type
+   H5Tcreate		- create a new data type
+   H5Tequal		- compare two data types
+   H5Tlock		- lock type to prevent changes
+   H5Tfind		- find a data type conversion function
+   H5Tconvert		- convert data from one type to another
+   H5Tregister    	- register a conversion function
+   H5Tunregister	- remove a conversion function
+   H5Tget_overflow	- get function that handles overflow conv. cases
+   H5Tset_overflow	- set function to handle overflow conversion cases
+   H5Tget_class		- get data type class
+   H5Tget_cset		- get character set
+   H5Tget_ebias		- get exponent bias
+   H5Tget_fields	- get floating point fields
+   H5Tget_inpad		- get inter-field padding
+   H5Tget_member_dims	- get struct member dimensions
+   H5Tget_member_name	- get struct member name
+   H5Tget_member_offset	- get struct member byte offset
+   H5Tget_member_type	- get struct member type
+   H5Tget_nmembers	- get number of struct members
+   H5Tget_norm		- get floating point normalization
+   H5Tget_offset	- get bit offset within type
+   H5Tget_order		- get byte order
+   H5Tget_pad		- get padding type
+   H5Tget_precision	- get precision in bits
+   H5Tget_sign		- get integer sign type
+   H5Tget_size		- get size in bytes
+   H5Tget_strpad	- get string padding
+   H5Tinsert		- insert scalar struct member
+   H5Tinsert_array	- insert array struct member
+   H5Tpack		- pack struct members
+   H5Tset_cset		- set character set
+   H5Tset_ebias		- set exponent bias
+   H5Tset_fields	- set floating point fields
+   H5Tset_inpad		- set inter-field padding
+   H5Tset_norm		- set floating point normalization
+   H5Tset_offset	- set bit offset within type
+   H5Tset_order		- set byte order
+   H5Tset_pad		- set padding type
+   H5Tset_precision	- set precision in bits
+   H5Tset_sign		- set integer sign type
+   H5Tset_size		- set size in bytes
+   H5Tset_strpad	- set string padding
+ + H5Tget_super         - return the base datatype from which a 
+                          datatype is derived
+ + H5Tvlen_create       - creates a new variable-length dataype
+ + H5Tenum_create       - creates a new enumeration datatype
+ + H5Tenum_insert       - inserts a new enumeration datatype member
+ + H5Tenum_nameof       - returns the symbol name corresponding to a 
+                          specified member of an enumeration datatype
+ + H5Tvalueof           - return the value corresponding to a 
+                          specified member of an enumeration datatype 
+ + H5Tget_member_value  - return the value of an enumeration datatype member
+ + H5Tset_tag           - tags an opaque datatype
+ + H5Tget_tag           - gets the tag associated with an opaque datatype
+
+ - H5Tregister_hard	- register specific type conversion function
+ - H5Tregister_soft	- register general type conversion function
+
+Filters
+   H5Tregister		- register a conversion function 
+
+Compression
+   H5Zregister		- register new compression and uncompression 
+                          functions for a method specified by a method number
+
+Identifiers
+ + H5Iget_type          - retrieve the type of an object
+
+References
+ + H5Rcreate            - creates a reference
+ + H5Rdereference       - open the HDF5 object referenced
+ + H5Rget_region        - retrieve a dataspace with the specified region selected
+ + H5Rget_object_type   - retrieve the type of object that an 
+                          object reference points to
+
+Ragged Arrays (alpha)
+   H5RAcreate		- create a new ragged array
+   H5RAopen		- open an existing array
+   H5RAclose		- close a ragged array
+   H5RAwrite		- write to an array
+   H5RAread		- read from an array
+
+
diff --git a/release_docs/INSTALL b/release_docs/INSTALL
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..20ce060
--- /dev/null
+++ b/release_docs/INSTALL
@@ -0,0 +1,538 @@
+
+	Instructions for the Installation of HDF5 Software
+	==================================================
+
+	CONTENTS
+	--------
+	1. Obtaining HDF5
+
+	2. Warnings about compilers
+	2.1. GNU (Intel platforms)
+	2.2. DEC
+	2.3. SGI (Irix64 6.2)
+	2.4. Windows/NT
+
+	3. Quick installation
+	3.1. TFLOPS
+	3.2. Windows
+        3.3. Certain Virtual File Layer(VFL)
+
+	4. HDF5 dependencies
+	4.1. Zlib
+	4.2. MPI and MPI-IO
+
+	5. Full installation instructions for source distributions
+	5.1. Unpacking the distribution
+	5.1.1. Non-compressed tar archive (*.tar)
+	5.1.2. Compressed tar archive (*.tar.Z)
+	5.1.3. Gzip'd tar archive (*.tar.gz)
+	5.1.4. Bzip'd tar archive (*.tar.bz2)
+	5.2. Source vs. Build Directories
+	5.3. Configuring
+	5.3.1. Specifying the installation directories
+	5.3.2. Using an alternate C compiler
+	5.3.3. Additional compilation flags
+	5.3.4. Compiling HDF5 wrapper libraries
+	5.3.5. Specifying other programs
+	5.3.6. Specifying other libraries and headers
+	5.3.7. Static versus shared linking
+	5.3.8. Optimization versus symbolic debugging
+	5.3.9. Large (>2GB) vs. small (<2GB) file capability
+	5.3.10. Parallel vs. serial library
+	5.4. Building
+	5.5. Testing
+	5.6. Installing
+
+	6. Using the Library
+
+	7. Support
+
+*****************************************************************************
+
+1. Obtaining HDF5
+	The latest supported public release of HDF5 is available from
+	ftp://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/pub/dist/HDF5.  For Unix platforms, it is
+	available in tar format uncompressed or compressed with compress,
+	gzip, or bzip2.  For Microsoft Windows, it is in ZIP format.
+
+	The HDF team also makes snapshots of the source code available on
+	a regular basis. These snapshots are unsupported (that is, the
+	HDF team will not release a bug-fix on a particular snapshot;
+	rather any bug fixes will be rolled into the next snapshot).
+	Furthermore, the snapshots have only been tested on a few
+	machines and may not test correctly for parallel applications.
+	Snapshots can be found at
+	ftp://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/pub/outgoing/hdf5/snapshots in a limited
+	number of formats.
+
+2. Warnings about compilers
+	OUTPUT FROM THE FOLLOWING COMPILERS SHOULD BE EXTREMELY SUSPECT
+	WHEN USED TO COMPILE THE HDF5 LIBRARY, ESPECIALLY IF
+	OPTIMIZATIONS ARE ENABLED. IN ALL CASES, HDF5 ATTEMPTS TO WORK
+	AROUND THE COMPILER BUGS BUT THE HDF5 DEVELOPMENT TEAM MAKES NO
+	GUARANTEES THAT THERE ARE OTHER CODE GENERATION PROBLEMS.
+
+2.1. GNU (Intel platforms)
+	Versions before 2.8.1 have serious problems allocating registers
+	when functions contain operations on `long long' data types.
+	Supplying the `--disable-hsizet' switch to configure (documented
+	below) will prevent hdf5 from using `long long' data types in
+	situations that are known not to work, but it limits the hdf5
+	address space to 2GB.
+
+2.2. DEC
+	The V5.2-038 compiler (and possibly others) occasionally
+	generates incorrect code for memcpy() calls when optimizations
+	are enabled, resulting in unaligned access faults. HDF5 works
+	around the problem by casting the second argument to `char *'.
+
+2.3. SGI (Irix64 6.2)
+	The Mongoose 7.00 compiler has serious optimization bugs and
+	should be upgraded to MIPSpro 7.2.1.2m. Patches are available
+	from SGI.
+
+2.4. Windows/NT
+	The MicroSoft Win32 5.0 compiler is unable to cast unsigned long
+	long values to doubles. HDF5 works around this bug by first
+	casting to signed long long and then to double.
+        A link warning: defaultlib "LIBC" conflicts with use of other
+        libs  appears for debug version of VC++ 6.0. This warning will
+        not affect building and testing hdf5 libraries. 
+        
+
+3. Quick installation
+	For those that don't like to read ;-) the following steps can be
+	used to configure, build, test, and install the HDF5 library,
+	header files, and support programs.
+
+	$ gunzip < hdf5-1.4.0.tar.gz | tar xf -
+	$ cd hdf5-1.4.0
+	$ make check
+	$ make install
+
+3.1. TFLOPS
+	Users of the Intel TFLOPS machine, after reading this file,
+	should see the INSTALL_TFLOPS for more instructions.
+
+3.2. Windows
+	Users of Microsoft Windows should see the INSTALL_Windows for
+	detailed instructions.
+
+3.3. Certain Virtual File Layer(VFL)
+	If users want to install with special Virtual File Layer(VFL),
+	please go to read INSTALL_VFL file.  SRB and Globus-GASS have
+	been documented. 
+
+
+4. HDF5 dependencies
+4.1. Zlib
+	The HDF5 library has a predefined compression filter that uses
+	the "deflate" method for chunked datatsets. If zlib-1.1.2 or
+	later is found then HDF5 will use it, otherwise HDF5's predefined
+	compression method will degenerate to a no-op (the compression
+	filter will succeed but the data will not be compressed).
+
+4.2. MPI and MPI-IO
+	The parallel version of the library is built upon the foundation
+	provided by MPI and MPI-IO. If these libraries are not available
+	when HDF5 is configured then only a serial version of HDF5 can be
+	built.
+
+5. Full installation instructions for source distributions
+5.1. Unpacking the distribution
+	The HDF5 source code is distributed in a variety of formats which
+	can be unpacked with the following commands, each of which
+	creates an `hdf5-1.2.0' directory.
+
+5.1.1. Non-compressed tar archive (*.tar)
+
+	    $ tar xf hdf5-1.4.0.tar
+
+5.1.2. Compressed tar archive (*.tar.Z)
+
+	    $ uncompress -c < hdf5-1.4.0.tar.Z | tar xf -
+
+5.1.3. Gzip'd tar archive (*.tar.gz)
+
+	    $ gunzip < hdf5-1.4.0.tar.gz | tar xf -
+
+5.1.4. Bzip'd tar archive (*.tar.bz2)
+
+	    $ bunzip2 < hdf5-1.2.0.tar.bz2 | tar xf -
+
+5.2. Source vs. Build Directories
+	On most systems the build can occur in a directory other than the
+	source directory, allowing multiple concurrent builds and/or
+	read-only source code. In order to accomplish this, one should
+	create a build directory, cd into that directory, and run the
+	`configure' script found in the source directory (configure
+	details are below).
+
+	Unfortunately, this does not work on recent Irix platforms (6.5?
+	and later) because that `make' doesn't understand the VPATH
+	variable. However, hdf5 also supports Irix `pmake' which has a
+	.PATH target which serves a similar purpose. Here's what the man
+	pages say about VPATH, which is the facility used by HDF5
+	makefiles for this feature:
+
+	    The VPATH facility is a derivation of the undocumented VPATH
+	    feature in the System V Release 3 version of make. System V
+	    Release 4 has a new VPATH implementation, much like the
+	    pmake(1) .PATH feature. This new feature is also undocumented
+	    in the standard System V Release 4 manual pages.  For this
+	    reason it is not available in the IRIX version of make. The
+	    VPATH facility should not be used with the new parallel make
+	    option.
+
+5.3. Configuring
+	HDF5 uses the GNU autoconf system for configuration, which
+	detects various features of the host system and creates the
+	Makefiles. On most systems it should be sufficient to say:
+
+	    $ ./configure		OR
+	    $ sh configure
+
+	The configuration process can be controlled through environment
+	variables, command-line switches, and host configuration files.
+	For a complete list of switches type:
+
+	    $ ./configure --help
+
+	The host configuration files are located in the `config'
+	directory and are based on architecture name, vendor name, and/or
+	operating system which are displayed near the beginning of the
+	`configure' output. The host config file influences the behavior
+	of configure by setting or augmenting shell variables.
+
+5.3.1. Specifying the installation directories
+	Typing `make install' will install the HDF5 library, header
+	files, and support programs in /usr/local/lib,
+	/usr/local/include, and /usr/local/bin. To use a path other than
+	/usr/local specify the path with the `--prefix=PATH' switch:
+
+	    $ ./configure --prefix=$HOME
+
+	If shared libraries are being built (the default) then the final
+	home of the shared library must be specified with this switch
+	before the library and executables are built.
+
+5.3.2. Using an alternate C compiler
+	By default, configure will look for the C compiler by trying
+	`gcc' and `cc'. However, if the environment variable "CC" is set
+	then its value is used as the C compiler (users of csh and
+	derivatives will need to prefix the commands below with `env').
+	For instance, to use the native C compiler on a system which also
+	has the GNU gcc compiler:
+
+	    $ CC=cc ./configure
+
+	A parallel version of hdf5 can be built by specifying `mpicc' as
+	the C compiler (the `--enable-parallel' flag documented below is
+	optional).  Using the `mpicc' compiler will insure that the
+	correct MPI and MPI-IO header files and libraries are used.
+
+	    $ CC=/usr/local/mpi/bin/mpicc ./configure
+
+	On Irix64 the default compiler is `cc'. To use an alternate
+	compiler specify it with the CC variable:
+
+	    $ CC='cc -o32' ./configure
+
+	One may also use various environment variables to change the
+	behavior of the compiler.  E.g., to ask for -n32 ABI:
+
+	    $ SGI_ABI=-n32
+	    $ export SGI_ABI
+	    $ ./configure
+
+        Similarly, users compiling on a Solaris machine and desiring to
+        build the distribution with 64-bit support should specify the
+        correct flags with the CC variable:
+
+	    $ CC='cc -xarch=v9' ./configure
+
+        Specifying these machine architecture flags in the CFLAGS variable
+        (see below) will not work correctly.
+
+5.3.3. Additional compilation flags
+	If addtional flags must be passed to the compilation commands
+	then specify those flags with the CFLAGS variable. For instance,
+	to enable symbolic debugging of a production version of HDF5 one
+	might say:
+
+	    $ CFLAGS=-g ./configure --enable-production
+
+5.3.4. Compiling HDF5 wrapper libraries
+	One can optionally build the Fortran and/or C++ interface to the
+	HDF5 C library. By default, both options are disabled. To build
+	them, specify `--enable-fortran' and `--enable-cxx' respectively.
+
+	    $ ./configure --enable-fortran
+	    $ ./configure --enable-cxx
+	
+	Configuration will halt if a working Fortran 90 or 95 compiler or
+	C++ compiler is not found. Currently, the Fortran configure tests
+	for these compilers in order: f90, pgf90, f95. To use an
+	alternative compiler specify it with the F9X variable:
+
+	    $ F9X=/usr/local/bin/g95 ./configure --enable-fortran
+
+	Note: The Fortran and C++ interfaces are not supported on all the
+	platforms the main HDF5 library supports. Also, the Fortran
+	interface supports parallel HDF5 while the C++ interface does
+	not.
+          
+        Note:  On T3E and J90 the following files should be modified before
+               building the Fortran Library:
+                 fortran/src/H5Dff.f90
+                 fortran/src/H5Aff.f90
+                 fortran/src/H5Pff.f90
+               Check for "Comment if on T3E ..." comment and comment out 
+               specified lines.       
+          
+
+5.3.5. Specifying other programs
+	The build system has been tuned for use with GNU make but works
+	also with other versions of make.  If the `make' command runs a
+	non-GNU version but a GNU version is available under a different
+	name (perhaps `gmake') then HDF5 can be configured to use it by
+	setting the MAKE variable. Note that whatever value is used for
+	MAKE must also be used as the make command when building the
+	library:
+
+	    $ MAKE=gmake ./configure
+	    $ gmake
+
+	The `AR' and `RANLIB' variables can also be set to the names of
+	the `ar' and `ranlib' (or `:') commands to override values
+	detected by configure.
+
+	The HDF5 library, include files, and utilities are installed
+	during `make install' (described below) with a BSD-compatible
+	install program detected automatically by configure. If none is
+	found then the shell script bin/install-sh is used. Configure
+	doesn't check that the install script actually works, but if a
+	bad install is detected on your system (e.g., on the ASCI blue
+	machine as of March 2, 1999) you have two choices:
+
+	    1. Copy the bin/install-sh program to your $HOME/bin
+	       directory, name it `install', and make sure that $HOME/bin
+	       is searched before the system bin directories.
+
+	    2. Specify the full path name of the `install-sh' program
+	       as the value of the INSTALL environment variable. Note: do
+	       not use `cp' or some other program in place of install
+	       because the HDF5 makefiles also use the install program to
+	       also change file ownership and/or access permissions.
+
+5.3.6. Specifying other libraries and headers
+	Configure searches the standard places (those places known by the
+	systems compiler) for include files and header files. However,
+	additional directories can be specified by using the CPPFLAGS
+	and/or LDFLAGS variables:
+
+	    $ CPPFLAGS=-I/home/robb/include \
+              LDFLAGS=-L/home/robb/lib \
+	      ./configure
+
+	HDF5 uses the zlib library for two purposes: it provides support
+	for the HDF5 deflate data compression filter, and it is used by
+	the h5toh4 converter and  the h4toh5 converter in support of
+	HDF4. Configure searches the standard places (plus those
+	specified above with CPPFLAGS and LDFLAGS variables) for the zlib
+	headers and library. The search can be disabled by specifying
+	`--without-zlib' or alternate directories can be specified with
+	`--with-zlib=INCDIR,LIBDIR' or through the CPPFLAGS and LDFLAGS
+	variables:
+
+	    $ ./configure --with-zlib=/usr/unsup/include,/usr/unsup/lib
+
+	    $ CPPFLAGS=-I/usr/unsup/include \
+	      LDFLAGS=-L/usr/unsup/lib \
+	      ./configure
+
+	The HDF5-to-HDF4 and HDF4-to-HDF5 conversion tool requires the
+	HDF4 library and header files which are detected the same way as
+	zlib. The switch to give to configure is `--with-hdf4'.  Note
+	that HDF5 requires a newer version of zlib than the one shipped
+	with some versions of HDF4. Also, unless you have the "correct"
+	version of hdf4 the confidence testing will fail in the tools
+	directory.
+
+5.3.7. Static versus shared linking
+	The build process will create static libraries on all systems and
+	shared libraries on systems that support dynamic linking to a
+	sufficient degree. Either form of library may be suppressed by
+	saying `--disable-static' or `--disable-shared'.
+
+	    $ ./configure --disable-shared
+
+	The C++ and Fortran libraries are currently only available in the
+	static format.
+
+	To build only statically linked executables on platforms which
+	support shared libraries, use the `--enable-static-exec' flag.
+
+	    $ ./configure --enable-static-exec
+
+5.3.8. Optimization versus symbolic debugging
+	The library can be compiled to provide symbolic debugging support
+	so it can be debugged with gdb, dbx, ddd, etc or it can be
+	compiled with various optimizations. To compile for symbolic
+	debugging (the default for snapshots) say `--disable-production';
+	to compile with optimizations (the default for supported public
+	releases) say `--enable-production'. On some systems the library
+	can also be compiled for profiling with gprof by saying
+	`--enable-production=profile'.
+
+	    $ ./configure --disable-production         #symbolic debugging
+	    $ ./configure --enable-production          #optimized code
+	    $ ./configure --enable-production=profile  #for use with gprof
+
+	Regardless of whether support for symbolic debugging is enabled,
+	the library also is able to perform runtime debugging of certain
+	packages (such as type conversion execution times, and extensive
+	invariant condition checking). To enable this debugging supply a
+	comma-separated list of package names to to the `--enable-debug'
+	switch (see Debugging.html for a list of package names).
+	Debugging can be disabled by saying `--disable-debug'. The
+	default debugging level for snapshots is a subset of the
+	available packages; the default for supported releases is no
+	debugging (debugging can incur a significant runtime penalty).
+
+	    $ ./configure --enable-debug=s,t  #debug only H5S and H5T
+	    $ ./configure --enable-debug      #debug normal packages
+	    $ ./configure --enable-debug=all  #debug all packages
+	    $ ./configure --disable-debug     #no debugging
+
+	HDF5 is also able to print a trace of all API function calls,
+	their arguments, and the return values. To enable or disable the
+	ability to trace the API say `--enable-trace' (the default for
+	snapthots) or `--disable-trace' (the default for public
+	releases). The tracing must also be enabled at runtime to see any
+	output (see Debugging.html).
+
+5.3.9. Large (>2GB) vs. small (<2GB) file capability
+	In order to read or write files that could potentially be larger
+	than 2GB it is necessary to use the non-ANSI `long long' data
+	type on some platforms. However, some compilers (e.g., GNU gcc
+	versions before 2.8.1 on Intel platforms) are unable to produce
+	correct machine code for this data type. To disable use of the
+	`long long' type on these machines say:
+
+	    $ ./configure --disable-hsizet
+
+5.3.10. Parallel vs. serial library
+	The HDF5 library can be configured to use MPI and MPI-IO for
+	parallelizm on a distributed multi-processor system.  Read the
+	file INSTALL_parallel for detailed explanations.
+
+5.3.11. Threadsafe capability
+	The HDF5 library can be configured to be thread-safe (on a very
+	large scale) with the with the `--enable-threadsafe' flag to
+	configure. Read the file doc/TechNotes/ThreadSafeLibrary.html for
+	further details.
+
+5.3.12. Backward compatibility
+	The 1.4 version of the HDF5 library can be configured to operate
+	identically to the v1.2 library with the `--enable-hdf5v1_2'
+	configure flag. This allows existing code to be compiled with the
+	v1.4 library without requiring immediate changes to the
+	application source code. This flag will only be supported in the
+	v1.4 branch of the library, it will not be available in v1.5+.
+
+5.3.13. Network stream capability
+	The HDF5 library can be configured with a network stream file
+	driver with the `--enable-stream-vfd' configure flag. This option
+	compiles the "stream" Virtual File Driver into the main library.
+	See the documentation on the Virtual File Layer for more details
+	about the use of this driver.
+
+
+5.4. Building
+	The library, confidence tests, and programs can be build by
+	saying just:
+
+	    $ make
+
+	Note that if you supplied some other make command via the MAKE
+	variable during the configuration step then that same command
+	must be used here.
+
+	When using GNU make you can add `-j -l6' to the make command to
+	compile in parallel on SMP machines. Do not give a number after
+	th `-j' since GNU make will turn it off for recursive invocations
+	of make.
+
+	    $ make -j -l6
+
+5.5. Testing
+	HDF5 comes with various test suites, all of which can be run by
+	saying
+
+	    $ make check
+
+	To run only the tests for the library change to the `test'
+	directory before issuing the command. Similarly, tests for the
+	parallel aspects of the library are in `testpar' and tests for
+	the support programs are in `tools'.
+
+	Temporary files will be deleted by each test when it complets,
+	but may continue to exist in an incomplete state if the test
+	fails. To prevent deletion of the files define the HDF5_NOCLEANUP
+	environment variable.
+
+5.6. Installing
+	The HDF5 library, include files, and support programs can be
+	installed in a (semi-)public place by saying `make install'. The
+	files are installed under the directory specified with
+	`--prefix=DIR' (or '/usr/local') in directories named `lib',
+	`include', and `bin'. The prefix directory must exist prior to
+	`make install', but its subdirectories are created automatically.
+
+	If `make install' fails because the install command at your site
+	somehow fails, you may use the install-sh that comes with the
+	source. You need to run ./configure again.
+
+            $ INSTALL="$PWD/bin/install-sh -c" ./configure ...
+            $ make install
+
+	The library can be used without installing it by pointing the
+	compiler at the `src' directory for both include files and
+	libraries. However, the minimum which must be installed to make
+	the library publically available is:
+
+	    The library:
+		./src/libhdf5.a
+
+	    The public header files:
+		./src/H5*public.h
+
+	    The main header file:
+		./src/hdf5.h
+
+	    The configuration information:
+		./src/H5pubconf.h
+	
+    	The support programs that are useful are:
+	    ./tools/h5ls	(list file contents)
+	    ./tools/h5dump	(dump file contents)
+	    ./tools/h5repart	(repartition file families)
+	    ./tools/h5toh4	(hdf5 to hdf4 file converter)
+	    ./tools/h5debug	(low-level file debugging)
+	    ./tools/h5import	(a demo)
+            ./tools/h4toh5      (hdf4 to hdf5 file converter)
+
+6. Using the Library
+	Please see the User Manual in the doc/html directory.
+
+	Most programs will include <hdf5.h> and link with -lhdf5.
+	Additional libraries may also be necessary depending on whether
+	support for compression, etc. was compiled into the hdf5 library.
+
+	A summary of the hdf5 installation can be found in the
+	libhdf5.settings file in the same directory as the static and/or
+	shared hdf5 libraries.
+
+7. Support
+	Support is described in the README file.
diff --git a/release_docs/INSTALL_TFLOPS b/release_docs/INSTALL_TFLOPS
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a05ef7f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/release_docs/INSTALL_TFLOPS
@@ -0,0 +1,163 @@
+
+FOR THE INTEL TFLOPS MACHINE:
+
+Below are the step-by-step procedures for building, testing, and
+installing both the sequential and parallel versions of the HDF5 library.
+
+-----------------
+Software locations
+------------------
+The zlib compression library is installed in /usr/community/hdf5/ZLIB.
+The mpich library, including mpi-io support, is in
+/usr/community/mpich/mpich-1.2.0.
+
+---------------
+Sequential HDF5:
+---------------
+
+The setup process for building the sequential HDF5 library for the
+ASCI Red machine is done by a coordination of events from sasn100 and
+janus.  Though janus can do compiling, it is better to build it
+from sasn100 which has more complete building tools and runs faster.
+It is also anti-social to tie up janus with compiling.  The HDF5 building
+requires the use of janus because one of steps is to execute a program
+to find out the run-time characteristics of the TFLOPS machine.
+
+Assuming you have already unpacked the HDF5 tar-file into the 
+directory <hdf5>, follow the steps below:
+
+FROM SASN100,
+
+1) cd <hdf5>
+
+2) ./configure tflop
+   Due to a bug, you need to patch up two Makefile, src/Makefile and
+   test/Makefile, before the next step.  You can use the following
+   shell commands.
+
+# Patch up various Makefile's.
+# patch up src/Makefile
+echo "patching src/Makefile"
+ed - src/Makefile <<'EOF'
+/^LT_RUN=.*/s//LT_RUN=$(RUNTEST)/
+w
+q
+EOF
+
+# patch up test/Makefile
+echo "patching test/Makefile"
+ed - test/Makefile <<'EOF'
+/^RUNTEST=$(LT_RUN)/s/^/#/
+w
+q
+EOF
+
+3) make H5detect
+
+
+FROM JANUS, 
+
+4) cd <hdf5>
+
+5) make H5Tinit.c
+
+
+FROM SASN100,
+
+6) make
+
+
+When everything is finished compiling and linking,
+you can run the tests by
+FROM JANUS, 
+
+7) make check 
+     Sometimes the "make check" fails in the sub-directories of test
+     or tools with a message as "print not found".  This is due to the
+     "make" of Janus thinking some binary code needs to be recompiled.
+     The easiest way to fix it is
+     FROM SASN100
+     cd <hdf5>/test	# or cd <hdf5>/tools
+     make clean; make   # re-make all binary
+
+
+Once satisfied with the test results, you can install
+the software by
+FROM SASN100,
+
+8) make install
+
+
+---------------
+Parallel HDF5:
+---------------
+
+The setup process for building the parallel version of the HDF5 library for the
+ASCI Red machine is very similar to the sequential version.  Since TFLOPS
+does not support MPIO, we have prepared a shell-script file that configures
+with the appropriate MPI library.
+
+Assuming you have already unpacked the HDF5 tar-file into the 
+directory <hdf5>, follow the steps below:
+FROM SASN100,
+
+1) cd <hdf5>
+
+2) CC=/usr/community/mpich/mpich-1.2.0/bin/mpicc ./configure tflop
+   Due to a bug, you need to patch up two Makefile, src/Makefile and
+   test/Makefile, before the next step.  You can use the following
+   shell commands.
+
+# Patch up various Makefile's.
+# patch up src/Makefile
+echo "patching src/Makefile"
+ed - src/Makefile <<'EOF'
+/^LT_RUN=.*/s//LT_RUN=$(RUNTEST)/
+w
+q
+EOF
+
+# patch up test/Makefile
+echo "patching test/Makefile"
+ed - test/Makefile <<'EOF'
+/^RUNTEST=$(LT_RUN)/s/^/#/
+w
+q
+EOF
+
+
+3) make H5detect
+
+
+FROM JANUS, 
+
+4) cd <hdf5>
+
+5) make H5Tinit.c
+
+
+FROM SASN100,
+
+6) make
+
+
+When everything is finished compiling and linking,
+FROM JANUS, 
+
+7) make check 
+     Sometimes the "make check" fails in the sub-directories of test
+     or tools with a message as "print not found".  This is due to the
+     "make" of Janus thinking some binary code needs to be recompiled.
+     The easiest way to fix it is
+     FROM SASN100
+     cd <hdf5>/test	# or cd <hdf5>/tools
+     make clean; make   # re-make all binary
+
+
+Once satisfied with the parallel test results, as long as you 
+have the correct permission,
+FROM SASN100,
+
+8) make install
+
+
diff --git a/release_docs/INSTALL_VFL b/release_docs/INSTALL_VFL
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d0466a3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/release_docs/INSTALL_VFL
@@ -0,0 +1,130 @@
+		Installation Instructions for HDF5
+                with Different Virtual File Layer 
+              
+                   *              *             *
+
+This file contains installation instructions for HDF5 with certain Virtual File
+Layer to handle file I/O.  We currently have documented SRB and Globus-GASS.
+
+
+
+                         ---   Part I.   SRB   ---
+I. Overview
+-----------
+This part contains instructions for remote-accessing HDF5 through SRB.  The 
+SRB version 1.1.7 on Sun Solaris 2.7 platform has been tested.  If you have 
+difficulties installing the software in your system, please send mails to me
+(Raymond Lu) at
+
+        slu@ncsa.uiuc.edu
+
+First, you must obtain and unpack the HDF5 source as described in the file 
+INSTALL.  You need the SRB library(client part) installed.  You should also 
+have access to SRB server. 
+
+
+The Storage Resource Broker(SRB) from San Diego Supercomputer Center is client-
+server middleware that provides a uniform interface for connecting to 
+heterogeneous data resources over a network and accessig replicated data sets.
+SRB, in conjunction with the Metadata Catalog(MCAT), provides a way to access 
+data sets and resources based on their attributes rather than their names or 
+physical locations.  Their webpage is at http://www.npaci.edu/Research/DI/srb.
+
+HDF5 is built on the top of SRB as a client to remotely access files on SRB
+server through SRB.  Right now, HDF-SRB only support low-level file transfer of
+SRB.  The MCAT part is not supported yet.  Low-level file transfer means files
+are treated just like Unix type files.  Files can be read, written and 
+appended.  Partial access(read and write to a chunk of file without transferrig
+the whole) is also supported.  
+
+
+II. Installation Steps
+----------------------
+The installation steps are similar to the ones in INSTALL file:
+
+1. Run 'configure' file with SRB options:
+   configure --with-srb=$SRB/include,$SRB/lib
+   where $SRB is your SRB installed library directory.
+
+   For example, below is a script file to run 'configure':
+	#! /bin/sh
+	# how to configure to use the SRB
+
+	SRB_DIR=/afs/ncsa.uiuc.edu/projects/hdf/users/slu/srb_install
+	configure --with-srb=$SRB_DIR/include,$SRB_DIR/lib
+
+2. Run 'make'
+
+3. Run 'make check'
+
+4. Run 'make install'
+
+5. Run testing program(Optional):
+   Go to the testing directory(cd test) and run srb_write, srb_read, 
+   srb_append.  Actually, these tests have been run in step 3.
+
+   srb_write:  Connect to SRB server, write an HDF5 file with an integer 
+               dataset to SRB server.
+   srb_read:   Connect to SRB server, read part of HDF5 file on the SRB server.
+   srb_append: Connect to SRB server, append an integer dataset to an existent
+               HDF5 file on the SRB server.
+
+6. For using HDF-SRB, please read comments in srb_write.c, srb_read.c, 
+   srb_append.c in the hdf5/test directory.
+
+
+
+                      ---   Part II.   Globus-GASS   ---
+
+I. Overview
+-----------
+This part contains instructions for remote-accessing HDF5 through Globus-GASS.
+The SGI IRIX64(and IRIX) 6.5 platform have been tested.  If you have 
+difficulties installing the software in your system, please send mails to me
+(Raymond Lu) at
+        slu@ncsa.uiuc.edu
+
+First, you must obtain and unpack the HDF5 source as described in the file 
+INSTALL.  You need the Globus 1.1.x and SSL(should have come with Globus) 
+packages.  
+
+HDF5 is built on the top of Globus-GASS(1.1.x) to handle remote access.  
+Globus-GASS(1.1.x) only supports HTTP and HTTPS protocals for 'whole file 
+read and write'.  More features may be added in the future.  
+
+II. Installation Steps
+----------------------
+The installation steps are similar to the ones in INSTALL file:
+
+1. Run 'configure' file with SSL and GASS options:
+   configure --with-ssl=$SSL/lib --with-gass=$GASS/include,$GASS/lib
+   where $SSL is your SSL directory, and $GASS is your Globus directory.
+
+   For example, below is a script file to run 'configure':
+	#! /bin/sh
+	# how to configure to use the Globus-GASS(1.1.x)
+
+	GASS_DIR=/usr/local/globus-install-1.1.1/development/mips-sgi-irix6.5-64_nothreads_standard_debug
+	SSL_LIB=/usr/local/ssl/lib
+
+	configure --with-ssl=$SSL_LIB --with-gass=$GASS_DIR/include,$GASS_DIR/lib
+
+2. Run 'make'
+
+3. Run 'make check'
+
+4. Run 'make install'
+
+5. Run testing program:
+   There is one read testing program called 'gass_read' in the 'test' 
+   directory.  It does whole file read through HTTP protocal.  The URL is 
+   hard coded as 
+      http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/GLOBUS/a.h5
+
+   The writing really depends on your web server.  You have to set up your 
+   server in right way to accept writing in files.  We have tested it using 
+   Apache Server(1.3.12) without authentication.  If you need more details 
+   about our testing, please contact us.  Globus suggests using their GASS
+   server. 
+
+   There is another program called 'gass_append' used for experiments.
diff --git a/release_docs/INSTALL_Windows.txt b/release_docs/INSTALL_Windows.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..46e85e8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/release_docs/INSTALL_Windows.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,915 @@
+HDF5 Build and Install Instructions for Windows 2000/NT/98.
+----------------------------------------------------------
+
+The instructions which follow assume that you will be using the 
+source code release 'zip' file (hdf5-1_4_0.zip).
+
+***************************WARNINGS****************************
+Please read CAREFULLY about Preconditions before you go to the 
+following sections
+
+Preconditions 
+
+   1. Installed MicroSoft Developer Studio,Visual C++ 6.0 and 
+      WinZip.
+
+   2. Set up a directory structure to unpack the library. 
+      For example:
+
+	    c:\					(any drive)
+	   MyHDFstuff\				(any folder name)
+
+   3. Run WinZip on hdf5-1_4_0.zip (the entire source tree) and
+      extract hdf5 package into c:\MyHDFstuff(or whatever drive 
+      and folder name you would like to choose). This creates a 
+      directory called 'hdf5'under MyHDFstuff which contains 
+      several files and directories.
+
+   4. HDF5 uses zlib for compression and zlib is distributed 
+      with hdf5 lib. If you have your own version read section 
+      VI about the zlib library.
+
+   5. You do need hdf4 (hdf and mfhdf) static and dll libraries 
+      to generate hdf4-related tools.
+
+   6. Currently you can build and test either hdf5 libraries  
+      and non-hdf4 related tools or hdf5 libraries and hdf4  
+      related tools;but not BOTH.In other words,you may either 
+      follow Section II or Section III but NOT both Sections to 
+      build HDF5 libraries and related tools.
+
+---------------------------------------------------------------
+
+The following sections discuss installation procedures in detail:
+
+  Section I: What do we build and install
+  Section II: Building and testing hdf5 libraries and non-hdf4 
+              related hdf5 tools 
+  Section III: Building and testing hdf5 libraries and all hdf5 
+               tools
+  Section IV: Building an application using the HDF5 library or 
+              DLL
+  Section V: Some more helpful pointers
+  Section VI: ZLIB library - removing or changing the path
+
+***************************************************************
+
+Section I:
+
+What do we build and install? 
+
+ HDF5 static library: 
+	debug and release version
+
+ HDF5 Dynamic Link Library(DLL): 
+	debug and release version as well as export libraries for
+      DLL
+
+ HDF5 tool library:
+	debug and release version
+
+ HDF5 tool export library for DLL:
+	debug and release version 
+
+ HDF5 tools:
+	non-hdf4 related tools and hdf4 related tools
+
+ HDF5 library testing programs:
+      hdf5 library related comprehensive tests
+		
+ HDF5 related tools testing programs:
+	hdf5 tools testing programs
+
+ HDF5 examples:
+      simple HDF5 examples
+
+**************************************************************
+
+Section II: 
+
+  Building and testing hdf5 libraries and non-hdf4 related tools 
+
+      ==================================================
+
+STEP 1: Building hdf5 libraries and non-hdf4 related tools
+
+
+    1. Unpack all.zip in 'hdf5' and move the zlib.dll from
+       c:\myHDFstuff\hdf5\src\zlib\dll to the Windows system 
+       directory.
+
+	 The system directory can usually be found under the path 
+		C:\WINNT\system or C:\WINDOWS\system
+      
+    2. Invoke Microsoft Visual C++, go to "File" and select 
+       the "Open Workspace" option. 
+
+       Then open the c:\myHDFstuff\hdf5\proj\all\all.dsw 
+       workspace. 
+
+    3. If you don't want to build and test backward 
+       compatibility with hdf5 1.2, you may skip this part and
+       go to part 4.
+
+       To build and test backward compatibility with hdf5 1.2, 
+           a) go to "Project" and select "Settings"
+           b) A window called "Project Settings" should be 
+              popped up,on the upper-left corner is a small box 
+              "Settings For". Set the option to 
+              "Win32 Release".
+           c) Go to the the right side of "Project Settings" 
+              window,choose C/C++ on the menu.
+           d) Go to the "Category" box below menu bar, choose 
+              Preprocessor.
+           e) Go to "Preprocessor definitions" box below   
+              "Category". Inside the box, type 
+              "WANT_H5_V1_2_COMPAT". Note: don't type double 
+              quote for "WANT_H5_V1_2_COMPAT" and add a comma
+              between "WANT_H5_V1_2_COMPAT" and the last 
+              preprocessor definations(WIN32).
+           f) click OK at the bottom of "Project Settings" 
+              window.
+           g) repeat a)-f) and choose the option as 
+              "win32 Debug" on step b).
+             
+    4. Select "Build", then Select "Set Active Configuration".
+
+       On Windows platform select as the active configuration
+
+	   "all -- Win32 Debug" to build debug versions of
+	    single-threaded static libraries, Debug multithreaded
+          DLLs and tests. 
+                or
+
+	   "all -- Win32 Release" to build release versions of
+          single-threaded static libraries, multithreaded DLLs
+          and tests.
+
+      
+       NOTE : "all" is a dummy target. You will get a link  
+              error when "all.exe." is built:
+
+             LINK: error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol
+			_mainCRTStartup.....
+             all.exe - 2 error(s), ....
+
+       Warning messages can be ignored. The "all.exe" is never 
+       created, so it is OK.
+
+       When the debug or release build is done the directories 
+       listed below will contain the following files:
+
+            c:\MyHDFstuff\hdf5\proj\hdf5\debug - 
+            c:\MyHDFstuff\hdf5\proj\hdf5\release - 
+
+                  hdf5.lib- the hdf5 library
+
+            c:\MyHDFstuff\hdf5\proj\hdf5dll\debug - 
+
+                  hdf5ddll.dll- the hdf5 library
+                  hdf5ddll.lib- the dll export library                  
+
+            c:\MyHDFstuff\hdf5\proj\hdf5dll\release - 
+
+                  hdf5dll.dll- the hdf5 library
+                  hdf5dll.lib- the dll export library
+
+            c:\MyHDFstuff\hdf5\test\"test directory"-
+
+            where test directory is one of the following:
+
+			big(dll)
+
+			bittests(dll)
+
+			chunk(dll)
+
+			cmpd_dset(dll)
+
+			dsets(dll)
+
+			dtypes(dll)
+			
+			enum(dll)
+
+			extend(dll)
+
+			external(dll)
+
+			fillval(dll)
+
+			flush1(dll)
+
+			flush2(dll)
+
+			gheap(dll)
+
+			hyperslab(dll)
+
+			iopipe(dll)
+
+			istore(dll)
+
+			links(dll)
+
+			mount(dll) 
+
+			mtime(dll)
+
+			ohdr(dll)
+
+			overhead(dll)
+
+			stab(dll)
+
+			testhdf5(dll) 
+
+			unlink(dll)
+
+            
+		c:\MyHDFstuff\hdf5\tools\toolslib\debug
+	      c:\MyHDFstuff\hdf5\tools\toolslib\release
+
+                  toolslib.lib- the tools library
+
+            c:\MyHDFstuff\hdf5\tools\toolslibD\debug
+	      c:\MyHDFstuff\hdf5\tools\toolslibD\release
+
+                  toolslibD.lib- the dll export library 
+
+            c:\MyHDFstuff\hdf5\tools\"tools directory"-
+            where non-hdf4 related tools directory is one of the 
+            following:
+ 
+	            h5dump(dll)
+
+                  h5ls(dll)
+
+                  h5debug(dll)
+
+                  h5import(dll)
+                    
+                  h5repart(dll)	            
+		
+
+           Test and tool directory contains debug and release 
+           subdirectories with the corresponding tests and tools.
+
+
+STEP 2:   testing hdf5 libraries and non-hdf4 related tools 
+
+In a command prompt window run the test batch file which resides in 
+the hdf5\test directory(for example: C:\MyHDFstuff\hdf5\test)to make 
+sure that the library was built correctly.
+
+You can possibily test four versions of hdf5 library and tools. They are:
+
+	release version
+	release dll version
+	debug version
+	debug dll version
+
+NOTE: The hdf5ddll.dll and hdf5dll.dll should be placed into
+the C:\WINNT\system or C:\WINDOWS\system directory before using the dlls.
+
+We strongly suggest you to redirect your testing results into
+an output file and you can easily check the testing results. 
+You may use either NotePad or NoteTab Light or whatever other
+windows tools to check the results. For the purpose of printing, 
+please choose font less than 14 for better alignment of the text.
+
+  1. hdf5 library testing 
+
+     cd into the hdf5\test directory. 
+
+        (1) basic tests
+            
+            Go to a) b) c) or d) to test your chosen version
+
+            a) release static version
+            type:             
+               hdf5test release >"Your output filename" 
+
+	      b) release dll version
+            type:
+               hdf5test release dll > "Your output filename"
+				
+            c) debug static version
+            type: 
+               hdf5test debug >"Your output filename"
+
+            d) debug dll version
+            type:
+               hdf5test debug dll >"Your output filename"
+            
+        (2) timing tests
+
+            Go to a) b) c) or d) to test your chosen version
+
+            a) release static version
+            type:             
+               hdf5timingtest release >"Your output filename" 
+
+	      b) release dll version
+            type:
+             hdf5timingtest release dll >"Your output filename"
+				
+            c) debug static version
+            type: 
+               hdf5timingtest debug >"Your output filename"
+
+            d) debug dll version
+            type:
+               hdf5timingtest debug dll >"Your output filename"
+
+
+     Use notepad or notetab light to check results. You should 
+not find any FAILED marks in your output files.
+
+  Note: big test is currently not working for windows, we are 
+still investigating this.
+ 
+ 2. hdf5 tools testing
+ 
+    Currently we are only supporting h5dump test. We are 
+investigating h5ls test now. 
+    
+    1) h5dump test
+
+    cd back into hdf5 directory and then cd into tools
+directory(...\hdf5\tools)
+
+    Go to a) b) c) or d) to test your chosen version
+
+        a) release static version
+        type:             
+           dumptest release >"Your output filename" 
+
+	  b) release dll version
+        type:
+           dumptest release dll > "Your output filename"
+				
+        c) debug static version
+        type: 
+           dumptest debug >"Your output filename"
+
+        d) debug dll version
+        type:
+           dumptest debug dll >"Your output filename"
+   
+
+    We are using "fc" command to compare whether dumper 
+generates correct results. Supposedly you should find 
+"FC: no differences encountered" in your output file. 
+However, since we are comparing the actual dumper output
+with the expected dumper output under different directory, 
+you may see something like:
+
+"
+***** ..\TESTFILES\tall-1.ddl
+#############################
+Expected output for 'h5dump tall.h5'
+#############################
+HDF5 "tall.h5" {
+GROUP "/" {
+***** TALL-1.RESULTS
+HDF5 "..\..\testfiles\tall.h5" {
+GROUP "/" {
+*****
+"
+
+   The actual dumper output is correct. The difference showing 
+here is the different representations of filename of the same 
+file.
+
+STEP 3: BUILDING THE EXAMPLES
+
+    1. Invoke Microsoft Visual C++, go to "File" and select
+       the "Open Workspace" option. 
+       Then open the workspace
+       c:\myHDFstuff\hdf5\examples\allexamples\allexamples.dsw.
+
+    2. Select "Build", then Select "Set Active Configuration".
+
+       On Windows platform select as the active configuration
+
+	   "allexamples -- Win32 Debug" to build debug versions 
+          of the examples.
+
+                or
+	
+	   "allexamples -- Win32 Release" to build release 
+          versions the examples.
+
+          When the debug build or release build is done 
+          there should be the following subdirectories in 
+          C:\myHDFstuff\hdf5\examples\
+
+			attributetest
+ 
+			chunkread
+
+			compoundtest 
+
+			extendwritetest 
+
+			grouptest 
+
+			readtest 
+
+			selecttest 
+
+			writetest 
+
+
+
+    3. Run the batch file "InstallExamples.bat" which 
+       resides in the top level directory(C:\MyHDFSTUFF\hdf5).
+       This file creates 2 new directories,examplesREL and 
+       examplesDBG,in the examples directory and places
+       all the executables in it. Both the release and debug
+       versions of the examples should be built before this 
+       step is done. The examples should be tested in these 2 
+       new directories due to some dependencies between the 
+       examples. Especially writetest.exe and extendwritetest.exe 
+       should be executed before chunkread.exe and readtest.exe 
+       due to dependencies among these files.
+
+**************************************************************
+
+Section III: BUILDING AND TESTING HDF5 LIBRARIES AND ALL HDF5 TOOLS
+
+------------------WARNINGS---------------------------------
+
+1. This section is specifically for building HDF5 tools that needs to call HDF4 library. 
+
+Currently we are supporting two hdf4-relatedtools: H4toh5 converter 
+and H5toh4 converter. If you are not using these tools, please go 
+back to Section II for building and installing information. 
+
+2. This section builds and tests all versions of hdf5 libraries, 
+testing programs and tools covered in section II. 
+Additionally, it also builds and tests hdf4-related tools. We may refer some duplicated parts of this section to section II. 
+
+3. In case 
+     a) you don't install hdf libraries and related tools in
+        your machine, 
+     b) or if the top directory of your hdf4 libraries and 
+        tools are not under C:\hdf41r4 and you are not familar
+        on how to change settings of VC++ projects.
+
+   you may get binary distribution from 
+ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HDF/HDF/HDF4.1r4/windows_precompiled_code/HDF41r4.zip 
+and use Winzip to unpack HDF41r4.zip into C:\hdf41r4.
+
+4. We assume that you've installed hdf4(mfhdf and hdf) 
+libraries into drive C. The top level path should be 
+C:\HDF41r4. Under C:\HDF41r4 it should at least 
+include the following six directories: 
+
+C:\HDF41r4\bin where hdf4 utilities are stored
+
+C:\HDF41r4\dlllib where release dll versions of hdf and mfhdf 
+libraries and export libraries of dlls are stored
+
+C:\HDF41r4\dlllibdbg where debug dll versions of hdf and mfhdf 
+libraries and export libraries of dlls are stored
+
+C:\HDF41r4\lib where release versions of hdf and mfhdf 
+libraries are stored
+
+C:\HDF41r4\libdbg where debug versions of hdf and mfhdf 
+libraries are stored
+
+C:\HDF41r4\include where header files are included 
+
+Make sure that you copy all *.dll files under C:\HDF41r4 into Windows
+system directory before the next step.
+
+If your path of hdf libraries and mfhdf libraries is different 
+from the default assumption, please DO follow No.4 of Step 1 on 
+the following:
+
+
+Step 1. 
+  
+    1. Unpack all_withhdf4.zip in 'hdf5' and move the zlib.dll 
+       from c:\myHDFstuff\hdf5\src\zlib\dll to the Windows     
+       system directory.
+
+	 The system directory can usually be found under the path 
+		C:\WINNT\system or C:\WIN98\system
+      
+    2. Invoke Microsoft Visual C++, go to "File" and select the 
+       "Open Workspace" option. 
+
+       Then open the c:\myHDFstuff\hdf5\proj\all\all.dsw 
+       workspace. 
+    
+    3. If you don't want to build and test backward 
+       compatibility with hdf5 1.2, you may skip this part and 
+       go to part 4.
+
+       To build and test backward compatibility with hdf5 1.2, 
+           a) go to "Project" and select "Settings"
+           b) A window called "Project Settings" should be 
+              popped up,on the upper-left corner is a small box 
+              "Settings For" Choose the option to
+              "Win32 Release".
+           c) Go to the the right side of "Project Settings" 
+              window, choose C/C++ on the menu.
+           d) Go to the "Category" box below menu bar, choose 
+              Preprocessor.
+           e) Go to "Preprocessor definitions" box below 
+              "Category". Inside the box, type 
+              "WANT_H5_V1_2_COMPAT". Note: don't type
+              double quote for "WANT_H5_V1_2_COMPAT" and add a 
+              comma between "WANT_H5_V1_2_COMPAT" and the last               
+              preprocessor defination(WIN32).
+           f) click OK at the bottom of "Project Settings" 
+              window.
+           g) repeat a)-f) and set the option to "win32 Debug" 
+              on step b).
+
+    4. This part is for users who are familar with handling 
+       settings of VC++ project and store their hdf4 libraries 
+       not under C:\hdf41r4. Other users can skip this part. 
+        
+       4.1 Change the path where hdf4 library header files are 
+       located
+
+       a) On the View menu, click Workspace, you may see a 
+          pop-up window with names of projects in all.dsw. 
+       b) click FileView on the bottom of this window if you 
+          are not seeing "all files big files ......."
+       c) You need to modify settings of four projects: h4toh5, 
+          h4toh5dll,h5toh4 and h5toh4dll.
+          You also need to modify both debug and release 
+          versions.
+ 
+          You may do as follows: 
+          c1)Right click the selected project and then click 
+             "Settings"
+          c2)A dialog box called "Project Settings" will be 
+             poped up
+          c3)On the upper-left part of the "Project Settings" 
+             box, you may find a small window "Settings for".
+             Make sure inside this "Settings for" box is either 
+             "Win32 Debug" or "Win32 Release". Change contents
+             into "Win32 Debug" or "Win32 Release" otherwise.
+             Remember the version(Win32 Release or Debug) you
+             chose.
+          c4)On the upper-right menu of the "Project Settings" 
+             window, find C/C++  and click it.
+          c5)Just below the upper-right menu, find a small 
+             window called category, make sure that 
+             "Preprocessor" appear in this window.
+          c6)In the middle of "Project Settings" windows, you 
+             may find a box called 
+             "Additional include directories:" . You may notice
+             "C:\hdf41r4\include" inside this box. This is the 
+             path where the default hdf4 header files is 
+             included. Replace only this path
+             (C:\hdf41r4\include) with your own path that
+             includes your hdf4 header files. Don't touch any 
+             other paths.
+          c7)After you've done this, click OK at the bottom of 
+             "Project Settings" window. 
+          c8)Repeat c1)-c7)but change contents of "settings 
+             for" in c3) from "Win32 Release" to "Win32 Debug" 
+             or vice versa.
+       d) repeat step c) for the other three projects.
+       
+	 4.2 Replace the user's hdf and mfhdf libraries, export 
+           libraries of hdf and mfhdf DLLs
+
+	 You also need to modify four projects: h4toh5,   
+       h4toh5dll, h5toh4 and h5toh4dll:
+       a) select project h4toh5 following instruction 4.1 a) 
+          and b). 
+       b) click h4toh5, you may find four libraries: 
+          hm414d.lib,hd414d.lib and hm414.lib,hd414.lib 
+          attached under the project h4toh5. hm414d.lib and 
+          hd414d.lib are debug versions of mfhdf and hdf 
+          libraries. hm414.lib and hd414.lib are release 
+          versions of mfhdf and hdf libraries.
+       c) select these four libraries; go back to Edit menu and 
+          choose "delete" option to delete template of these 
+          libraries. 
+       d) select project h4toh5 and right click the mouse, find 
+          "Add Files to Projects", follow the instructions on 
+          the pop-up box, to insert your own hm414d.lib, 
+          hd414d.lib,hm414.lib and hd414.lib. You must know 
+          their paths at first.
+       e) select project h4toh5dll following instruction 4.1 a) 
+          and b).
+       f) click h4toh5dll, you may also find four libraries: 
+          hd414m.lib,hd414md.lib and hm414m.lib,hd414m.lib 
+          attached under the project h4toh5dll. These libraries 
+          are debug and release versions of Export libraries of 
+          mfhdf and hdf DLLs. 
+       g) select these four libraries; go back to Edit menu and 
+          choose "delete" option to delete template of these 
+          libraries. 
+       h) select project h4toh5dll and right click the mouse, 
+          find "Add Files to Projects", follow the instructions 
+          on the pop-up box, to insert your own hd414m.lib, 
+          hd414md.lib,hm414m.lib and hd414m.lib. You must know 
+          their paths at first.
+	 i) repeat a)-h) for h5toh4 and h5toh4dll.
+
+    5. Select "Build", then Select "Set Active Configuration".
+
+       On Windows platform select as the active configuration
+
+	   "all -- Win32 Debug" to build debug versions 
+                              single-threaded static libraries, 
+                              and tests. 
+                or
+
+	   "all -- Win32 Release" to build release versions of
+                                   single-threaded static 
+                                   libraries, and tests.
+
+      
+       NOTE : "all" is a dummy target. You will get a link 
+              error when "all.exe." is built:
+
+             LINK: error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol
+			_mainCRTStartup.....
+             all.exe - 2 error(s), ....
+
+       Warning messages can be ignored. The "all.exe" is never 
+       created, so it is OK.
+
+       You should see hdf5 libraries, tests and tools under   
+       section II Step 1. 
+       In addtion, under  c:\MyHDFstuff\hdf5\tools\       
+
+       You may also find:
+         h4toh5
+         h5toh4 
+         h4toh5dll
+         h5toh4dll
+       for both the debug and release versions.
+
+STEP 2:   testing hdf5 libraries and all hdf5 tools 
+
+     1. hdf5 library testing 
+       Follow all instructions of the same part in Section II 
+       STEP 2
+    
+     2. non-hdf4 related tools testing
+       Follow all instructions of the same part in Section II 
+       STEP 2
+
+     3. hdf4-related tools testing
+
+       1) h4toh5 converter tool testing
+          
+           First cd into hdf5\tools
+
+           Go to a) b) c) or d) to test your chosen version
+
+           a) release static version
+           type:             
+            h4toh5testrun release >"Your output filename" 
+
+ 	     b) release dll version
+           type:
+            h4toh5testrun release dll > "Your output filename"
+ 				
+           c) debug static version
+           type: 
+            h4toh5testrun debug >"Your output filename"
+
+           d) debug dll version
+           type:
+            h4toh5testrun debug dll >"Your output filename"
+
+        We are using "fc" command to compare whether h4toh5 
+        converter converts the hdf4 file into the correct hdf5 
+        file.In your output files, Please only pay attention to 
+        those lines which start with
+        "FC:",you should find "FC: no differences encountered"  
+        for all tested hdf4 files in your output.
+                       
+        2) h5toh4 converter tool testing                
+                                                             
+        To test the h5toh4 utility, you need to have hdf4  
+        dumper utility "hdp" in your system.
+
+        Note: Currently h5toh4 release dll doesn't work
+        for all test cases possibly due to windows dealing
+        with "free memory" conventions for dll versions.      
+
+       1) If your hdp utility is located at C:\hdf41r4\bin,
+          you may skip this part. Otherwise, copy your hdp.exe
+          file into the directory where your hdf5 tools are 
+          located. For example, if your hdf5 tools directory is
+          C:\myHDFstuff\hdf5\tools; please copy hdp.exe into
+          this directory.
+       
+       2) cd into \...\hdf5\tools. 
+          Go to a) b) c) or d) to test your chosen version
+
+           a) release static version
+           type:             
+            h5toh4testrun release >"Your output filename" 
+
+ 	     b) release dll version
+           type:
+            h5toh4testrun release dll > "Your output filename"
+ 				
+           c) debug static version
+           type: 
+            h5toh4testrun debug >"Your output filename"
+
+           d) debug dll version
+           type:
+            h5toh4testrun debug dll >"Your output filename"
+
+        We are using "fc" command to compare whether h5toh4
+        converter converts the hdf5 file into the correct hdf4 
+        file.In your output files, Please only pay attention to 
+        those lines which start with
+        "FC:",you should find "FC: no differences encountered"  
+        for all tested hdf4 files in your output.
+        Warnings appear on the prompt when testing h5toh4 converter
+        can be ignored. 
+                
+				
+STEP 3: BUILDING THE EXAMPLES
+
+      Follow all instructions of SECTION II STEP 3.
+
+Section IV:  
+BUILDING AN APPLICATION USING THE HDF5 LIBRARY OR DLL- SOME HELPFUL 
+POINTERS
+====================================================================
+
+If you are building an application that uses the HDF5 library the
+following locations will need to be specified for locating header files
+and linking in the HDF libraries:
+
+            <top-level HDF5 directory>\src
+
+where <top-level HDF5 directory> may be 
+
+            C:\MyHDFstuff\hdf5\
+
+To specify this location in the settings for your VC++ project:
+
+    1. Open your VC project in Microsoft Visual C++ and make sure it is
+       the active project.
+
+    2. Go to the Project menu and chose the 'Settings' option.
+
+    3. Chose the build configuration you would like to modify in the
+       drop down menu labeled with 'Settings For:'
+
+    4. Chose the C/C++ tab
+
+    5. At the bottom of the window, there should be a text-area labeled
+       with 'Project Options:'. In this text-area, scroll until you
+       reach the end and type /I "<top-level HDF5 directory>\src" and
+       then click OK.
+
+To link the HDF5 library with your application:
+
+    1. Open your VC project in Microsoft Visual C++ and make sure it is
+       the active project.
+
+    2. Go to the Project menu and chose the 'Add to Project' option and
+       then 'Files' option.
+
+    3. Change the 'Files of type:' to 'Library Files (.lib)'
+
+    4. Navigate through the directories until you find the location of 
+       the hdf5.lib. 
+
+    5. Select hdf5.lib and click OK.
+
+
+To use the DLL:
+
+    1. Follow the steps for specifing the location of the header files
+       as shown above.
+
+    2. Follow the steps for linking the HDF5 library as shown above
+       except now link the export library that is created with the DLL.
+       The export library is called hdf5dll.lib or hdf5ddll.lib for
+       debug version.
+
+    3. Place the DLL in a location that Windows will be able to locate 
+       it. The search path and order for DLL's is
+
+       a) The directory where the executable module for the current
+          process is located.
+       b) The current directory. 
+       c} The Windows system directory. The GetSystemDirectory function 
+          retrieves the path of this directory. 
+       d) The Windows directory. The GetWindowsDirectory function
+          retrieves the path of this directory.
+       e) The directories listed in the PATH environment variable. 
+
+
+Section V:
+MORE HELPFUL POINTERS
+=====================
+
+
+Here are some notes that may be of help if you are not familiar with
+using the Visual C++ Development Environment.
+
+Project name and location issues: 
+       
+    The files in all.zip must end up in the hdf5\ directory installed by
+    hdf5-1_4_0.zip
+
+    If you must install all.dsw and all.dsp in another directory,
+    relative to hdf5\ , you will be asked to locate the sub-project
+    files, when you open the project all.dsw.
+
+    If you want to rename all (the entire project), you will need to
+    modify two files all.dsw and all.dsp as text (contrary to the
+    explicit warnings in the files).
+
+    You can also modify all.dsw and all.dsp as text, to allow these 2
+    files to be installed in another directory.
+
+  
+Settings... details:
+
+    If you create your own project, the necessary settings can be read
+    from the all.dsp file(as text), or from the Project Settings in the
+    Developer Studio project settings dialog.
+
+    Project
+	  Settings
+	      C/C++
+		  Category
+		     PreProcessor
+			 Code Generation
+			    Use run-time Library
+				   These are all set to use 
+                                      Single-Threaded
+
+DLL... hints:
+  
+   If you want to use DLL versions of hdf5 library in your application, 
+   you should  
+      1) put hdf5 DLL into windows system directory
+      2) add hdf5 DLL export library into your project
+      3) Follow "Settings... details" into the last line:
+         change Single-Threaded into Multithreaded DLL or 
+         Debug Multithreaded DLL
+      4) Follow "Settings.. details" into PreProcessor:
+         Project
+	       Settings
+	           C/C++
+		       Category
+		          PreProcessor
+
+         Find PreProcessor definations and Add _HDF5USEDLL_ at the
+         end of the PreProcessor definations
+         
+
+
+
+Section VI:
+ZLIB LIBRARY- REMOVING OR CHANGING THE PATH
+============================================
+
+If you would like to remove the zlib library from the hdf5 library or 
+use your own version of the zlib library then follow the steps below.
+
+Removing the zlib library completely:
+
+    Open the all.dsw workspace file in Microsoft Visual C++. Go to the
+    hdf5 project. Select the zlib.lib file from this project and
+    delete(press the 'delete' key) it. Next open the H5config.h and H5pubconf.h 
+    files from the src directory. Remove the the following two lines:
+
+		#define HAVE_LIBZ 1
+		#define HAVE_COMPRESS2
+
+    then save the file.
+	
+    Next go to the hdf5dll project. Remove the zlib.lib from this 
+    project too. Open the project settings for the hdf5dll project. 
+    Go to the C/C++ settings tab and under the preprocessor definitions 
+    remove the ZLIB_DLL in both the debug and the release settings. 
+    Recompile the all project and then save the workspace.
+
+
+Replacing the zlib library:
+
+    Open the all.dsw workspace and go to the hdf5 project. Delete the
+    zlib.lib file from the file listing. Then select the hdf5 project
+    and richt click to get a menu. Pick the "add files to project..."
+    option and find the version of the zlib that you would like to use.
+    Then click OK in the file chooser dialog. Repeat the steps for the
+    hdf5dll project. You may also want to replace the zlib.h and zconf.h
+    files which are in the src directory with your own versions of these
+    files. Then recompile the all project.
diff --git a/release_docs/INSTALL_parallel b/release_docs/INSTALL_parallel
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e2a0709
--- /dev/null
+++ b/release_docs/INSTALL_parallel
@@ -0,0 +1,177 @@
+	    Installation instructions for Parallel HDF5
+	    -------------------------------------------
+
+
+1. Overview
+-----------
+
+This file contains instructions for the installation of parallel
+HDF5. Platforms supported by this release are SGI Origin 2000, IBM SP2,
+Intel TFLOPs, and Linux version 2.4 and greater. The steps are kind of
+unnatural and will be more automized in the next release. If you have
+difficulties installing the software in your system, please send mail to
+
+	hdfparallel@ncsa.uiuc.edu
+
+In your mail, please include the output of "uname -a". Also attach the
+content of "config.log" if you ran the "configure" command.
+
+First, you must obtain and unpack the HDF5 source as described in the
+INSTALL file. You also need to obtain the information of the include and
+library paths of MPI and MPIO software installed in your system since the
+parallel HDF5 library uses them for parallel I/O access.
+
+
+2. Quick Instruction for known systems
+--------------------------------------
+
+The following shows particular steps to run the parallel HDF5
+configure for a few machines we've tested. If your particular platform
+is not shown or somehow the steps do not work for yours, please go
+to the next section for more detailed explanations.
+
+------
+TFLOPS
+------
+
+Follow the instuctions in INSTALL_TFLOPS.
+
+-------
+IBM SP2
+-------
+
+First of all, make sure your environment variables are set correctly
+to compile and execute a single process mpi applications for the SP2
+machine. They should be similar to the following:
+
+    setenv CC              mpcc_r
+    setenv MP_PROCS         1
+    setenv MP_NODES         1
+    setenv MP_LABELIO       no
+    setenv MP_RMPOOL        0
+    setenv RUNPARALLEL      "MP_PROCS=2 MP_TASKS_PER_NODE=2 poe"
+    setenv LLNL_COMPILE_SINGLE_THREADED TRUE
+
+The shared library configuration for this version is broken. So, only
+static library is supported.
+
+An error for powerpc-ibm-aix4.3.2.0's (LLNL Blue) install method was
+discovered after the code freeze. You need to remove the following line
+from config/powerpc-ibm-aix4.3.2.0 before configuration:
+
+    ac_cv_path_install=${ac_cv_path_install='cp -r'}
+
+Then do the following steps:
+
+    $ ./configure --disable-shared --prefix=<install-directory>
+    $ make		# build the library
+    $ make check	# verify the correctness
+    $ make install
+
+
+---------------
+SGI Origin 2000
+Cray T3E
+(where MPI-IO is part of system MPI library such as mpt 1.3)
+---------------
+
+#!/bin/sh
+
+RUNPARALLEL="mpirun -np 3"
+export RUNPARALLEL
+LIBS="-lmpi"
+export LIBS
+./configure --enable-parallel --disable-shared --prefix=$PWD/installdir
+make
+make check
+make install
+
+
+---------------
+SGI Origin 2000
+Cray T3E
+(where MPI-IO is not part of system MPI library or I want to use my own
+ version of MPIO)
+---------------
+
+mpi1_inc=""                                     #mpi-1 include
+mpi1_lib=""                                     #mpi-1 library
+mpio_inc=-I$HOME/ROMIO/include                  #mpio include
+mpio_lib="-L$HOME/ROMIO/lib/IRIX64"             #mpio library
+
+MPI_INC="$mpio_inc $mpi1_inc"
+MPI_LIB="$mpio_lib $mpi1_lib"
+
+#for version 1.1
+CPPFLAGS=$MPI_INC
+export CPPFLAGS
+LDFLAGS=$MPI_LIB
+export LDFLAGS
+RUNPARALLEL="mpirun -np 3"
+export RUNPARALLEL
+LIBS="-lmpio -lmpi"
+export LIBS
+
+./configure --enable-parallel --disable-shared --prefix=$PWD/installdir
+make
+make check
+make install
+
+
+---------------------
+Linux 2.4 and greater
+---------------------
+
+Be sure that your installation of MPICH was configured with the following
+configuration command-line option:
+
+    -cflags="-D_LARGEFILE_SOURCE -D_LARGEFILE64_SOURCE -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64"
+
+This allows for >2GB sized files on Linux systems and is only available
+with Linux kernels 2.4 and greater.
+
+
+------------------
+HP V2500 and N4000
+------------------
+
+Follow the instructions in section 3.
+
+
+3. Detail explanation
+---------------------
+
+The HDF5 library can be configured to use MPI and MPI-IO for parallelism
+on a distributed multi-processor system. The easiest way to do this is to
+have a properly installed parallel compiler (e.g., MPICH's mpicc or IBM's
+mpcc) and supply that executable as the value of the CC environment
+variable:
+
+    $ CC=mpcc ./configure
+    $ CC=/usr/local/mpi/bin/mpicc ./configure
+
+If no such wrapper script is available then you must specify your normal
+C compiler along with the distribution of MPI/MPI-IO which is to be used
+(values other than `mpich' will be added at a later date):
+
+    $ ./configure --enable-parallel=mpich
+
+If the MPI/MPI-IO include files and/or libraries cannot be found by the
+compiler then their directories must be given as arguments to CPPFLAGS
+and/or LDFLAGS:
+
+    $ CPPFLAGS=-I/usr/local/mpi/include \
+      LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/mpi/lib/LINUX/ch_p4 \
+      ./configure --enable-parallel=mpich
+
+If a parallel library is being built then configure attempts to determine
+how to run a parallel application on one processor and on many
+processors. If the compiler is `mpicc' and the user hasn't specified
+values for RUNSERIAL and RUNPARALLEL then configure chooses `mpirun' from
+the same directory as `mpicc':
+
+    RUNSERIAL:    /usr/local/mpi/bin/mpirun -np 1
+    RUNPARALLEL:  /usr/local/mpi/bin/mpirun -np $${NPROCS:=3}
+
+The `$${NPROCS:=3}' will be substituted with the value of the NPROCS
+environment variable at the time `make check' is run (or the value 3).
diff --git a/release_docs/RELEASE.txt b/release_docs/RELEASE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..eca88b5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/release_docs/RELEASE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,227 @@
+HDF5 library version 1.5.7 currently under development
+================================================================================
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+This document describes the differences between HDF5-1.4.0 and
+HDF5-1.5-snap0, and contains information on the platforms tested and
+known problems in HDF5-1.5-snap0. For more details check the HISTORY.txt
+file in the HDF5 source.
+
+The HDF5 documentation can be found on the NCSA ftp server
+(ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu) in the directory:
+
+     /HDF/HDF5/docs/
+
+For more information look at the HDF5 home page at:
+   
+    http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HDF5/
+
+If you have any questions or comments, please send them to:
+
+    hdfhelp@ncsa.uiuc.edu
+
+CONTENTS
+
+- New Features
+- Bug Fixes since HDF5-1.4.0
+- Platforms Tested
+- Known Problems
+
+Bug Fixes since HDF5-1.4.0
+==========================
+
+Library
+-------
+    * Fixed bug with contiguous hyperslabs not being detected, causing
+      slower I/O than necessary.
+    * Fixed bug where non-aligned hyperslab I/O on chunked datasets was
+      causing errors during I/O
+    * The RCSID string in H5public.h was causing the C++ compiling problem
+      because when it was included multiple times, C++ did not like multiple
+      definitions of the same static variable.  All occurance of RCSID
+      definition are removed since we have not used it consistently before.
+    * Fixed bug with non-zero userblock sizes causing raw data to not write
+      correctly. 
+    * Fixed build on Linux systems with --enable-static-exec flag. It now
+      works correctly.
+    * IMPORTANT: Fixed file metadata corruption bug which could cause metadata
+      data loss in certain situations.
+    * The allocation by alignment (H5Pset_alignment) feature code somehow
+      got dropped in some 1.3.x version. Re-implemented it with "new and
+      improved" algorithm.  It keeps track of "wasted" file-fragment in
+      the free-list too.
+    * Removed limitation that the data transfer buffer size needed to be
+      set for datasets whose dimensions were too large for the 'all' selection
+      code to handle.  Any size dimensioned datasets should be handled
+      correctly now.
+
+Configuration
+-------------
+    * Changed the default value of $NPROCS from 2 to 3 since 3 processes
+      have a much bigger chance catching parallel errors than just 2.
+    * Basic port to Compaq (nee DEC) Alpha OSF 5.
+
+
+Tools
+-----
+
+Documentation
+-------------
+
+
+New Features
+============
+
+    * C++ API:
+        - Added two new member functions: Exception::getFuncName() and
+          Exception::getCFuncName() to provide the name of the member
+          function, where an exception is thrown.
+        - IdComponent::operator= becomes a virtual function because
+          DataType, DataSpace, and PropList provide their own
+          implementation.  The new operator= functions invoke H5Tcopy,
+          H5Scopy, and H5Pcopy to make a copy of a datatype, dataspace,
+          and property list, respectively.
+    * F90 API:
+        - Added aditional parameter "dims" to the h5dread/h5dwrite and
+          h5aread/h5awrite subroutines. This parameter is 1D array of size
+          7 and contains the sizes of the data buffer dimensions. 
+    * F90 static library is available on Windows platforms. See
+      INSTALL_Windows.txt for details.
+    * F90 APIs are available on HPUX 11.00 and IBM SP platforms.
+    * File sizes greater than 2GB are now supported on Linux systems with
+      version 2.4.x or higher kernels.
+    * Added a global string variable H5_lib_vers_info_g which holds the
+      HDF5 library version information.  This can be used to identify
+      an hdf5 library or hdf5 application binary.
+      Also added a verification of the consistency between H5_lib_vers_info_g
+      and other version information in the source code.
+    * H5 <-> GIF convertor has been added. This is available under 
+      tools/gifconv. The convertor supports the ability to create animated
+      gifs as well.
+    * Parallel HDF5 now runs on the HP V2500 and HP N4000 machines.
+    * Verified correct operation of library on Solaris 2.8 in both 64-bit and
+      32-bit compilation modes.  See INSTALL document for instructions on
+      compiling the distribution with 64-bit support.
+    * Modified the Pablo build procedure to permit building of the instrumented
+      library to link either with the Trace libraries as before or with the
+      Pablo Performance Caputure Facility.
+
+Platforms Tested
+================
+
+  AIX 4.3.3.0 (IBM SP powerpc)  mpcc_r 3.6.6
+  Cray T3E sn6711 2.0.5.45      Cray Standard C Version 6.4.0.0
+                                Cray Fortran Version 3.4.0.2
+  Cray SV1 sn9605 10.0.0.7      Cray Standard C Version 6.4.0.0
+                                Cray Fortran Version 3.4.0.2
+  FreeBSD 4.3                   gcc 2.95.2
+                                g++ 2.95.2
+  HP-UX B.10.20                 HP C  HP92453-01 A.10.32.30
+  HP-UX B.11.00                 HP C  HP92453-01 A.11.00.13
+                                HP C  HP92453-01 A.11.01.20
+  IRIX 6.5                      MIPSpro cc 7.30
+  IRIX64 6.5 (64 & n32)         MIPSpro cc 7.3.1m
+                                mpt.1.4.0.2
+                                mpich-1.2.1
+  Linux 2.4.4                   gcc-2.95.3
+                                g++ 2.95.3
+  Linux 2.2.16-3smp             gcc-2.95.2
+                                g++ 2.95.2
+                                pgf90 3.1-3
+  OSF1 V4.0                     DEC-V5.2-040
+                                Digital Fortran 90 V4.1-270
+  SunOS 5.6                     WorkShop Compilers 5.0 98/12/15 C 5.0 
+  (Solaris 2.6)                 WorkShop Compilers 5.0 99/10/25 Fortran 90
+                                       2.0 Patch 107356-04
+                                Workshop Compilers 5.0 98/12/15 C++ 5.0
+  SunOS 5.7                     WorkShop Compilers 5.0 98/12/15 C 5.0
+  (Solaris 2.7)                 WorkShop Compilers 5.0 99/10/25 Fortran 90
+                                       2.0 Patch 107356-04
+                                Workshop Compilers 5.0 98/12/15 C++ 5.0
+  TFLOPS r1.0.4 v4.0            mpich-1.2.1 with local changes
+  Windows NT4.0, 2000 (NT5.0)   MSVC++ 6.0
+  Windows 98                    MSVC++ 6.0
+
+Known Problems
+==============
+* DLLs do not work on Windows 98 (and probably on NT and 2000 too)
+
+* The stream-vfd test uses ip port 10007 for testing.  If another application
+  is already using that port address, the test will hang indefinitely and
+  has to be terminated by the kill command.  To try the test again, change
+  the port address in test/stream_test.c to one not being used in the host.
+
+* The --enable-static-exec configure flag fails to compile for Solaris
+  platforms. This is due to the fact that not all of the system
+  libraries on Solaris are available in a static format.
+
+  The --enable-static-exec configure flag also fails to correctly compile
+  on IBM SP2 platform for the serial mode. The parallel mode works fine
+  with this option.
+  
+  It is suggested that you don't use this option on these platforms
+  during configuration.
+
+* With the gcc 2.95.2 compiler, HDF 5 uses the `-ansi' flag during
+  compilation. The ANSI version of the compiler complains about not being
+  able to handle the `long long' datatype with the warning:
+
+        warning: ANSI C does not support `long long'
+  
+  This warning is innocuous and can be safely ignored.
+
+* SunOS 5.6 with C WorkShop Compilers 4.2:  Hyperslab selections will 
+  fail if library is compiled using optimization of any level.
+
+* When building hdf5 tools and applications on windows platform, a linking
+  warning: defaultlib "LIBC" conflicts with use of other libs will appear
+  on debug version when running VC++6.0. This warning doesn't affect building
+  and testing hdf5 applications. We will continue investigating this.
+
+* h5toh4 converter fails two cases(tstr.h5 and tmany.h5) for release dll version on
+  windows 2000 and NT. The reason is possibly due to windows NT DLL
+  convention on freeing memory. It seems that memory cannot be free
+  across library or DLL. It is still under investigated.
+
+* The Stream VFD was not tested yet under Windows.
+  It is not supported in the TFLOPS machine.
+
+* Shared library option is broken for IBM SP and some Origin 2000 platforms.
+  One needs to run ./configure with '--disable-shared'
+
+* The ./dsets tests failed in the TFLOPS machine if the test program,
+  dsets.c, is compiled with the -O option.  The hdf5 library still works
+  correctly with the -O option.  The test program works fine if it is
+  compiled with -O1 or -O0.  Only -O (same as -O2) causes the test
+  program to fail.
+
+* Certain platforms give false negatives when testing h5ls:
+    - Solaris x86 2.5.1, Cray T3E and Cray J90 give errors during testing
+        when displaying object references in certain files.  These are benign 
+        differences due to the difference in sizes of the objects created on
+        those platforms.  h5ls appears to be dumping object references
+        correctly.
+    - Cray J90 (and Cray T3E?) give errors during testing when displaying
+        some floating-point values.  These are benign differences due to the
+        different precision in the values displayed and h5ls appears to be
+        dumping floating-point numbers correctly.
+
+* Before building HDF5 F90 Library from source on Crays (T3E and J90) 
+  replace H5Aff.f90, H5Dff.f90 and H5Pff.f90 files in the fortran/src subdirectory 
+  in the top level directory with the Cray-specific files from the 
+  ftp://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/pub/ougoing/hdf5/hdf5-1.4.0-beta/F90_source_for_Crays
+  directory.
+
+* The h4toh5 utility produces images that do not correctly conform
+  to the HDF5 Image and Palette Specification. 
+
+     http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HDF5/doc/ImageSpec.html
+
+  Several required HDF5 attributes are omitted, and the dataspace 
+  is reversed (i.e., the ht. and width of the image dataset is 
+  incorrectly described.)  For more information, please see:
+
+     http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HDF5/H5Image/ImageDetails.htm
+