Installation Instructions for Remote-Accessing HDF5 

I. Overview
-----------
This file contains instructions for remote-accessing HDF5 through SRB.  The 
SRB version 1.1.6 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.  


III. 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 testing program:
   Go to the testing directory(cd test) and run srb_write, srb_read, 
   srb_append.

   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.

4. For using HDF-SRB, please read comments in srb_write.c, srb_read.c, 
   srb_append.c in the hdf5/test directory.