HDF5 Library Environment Variables and Configuration Parameters

1. Environment Variables

The HDF5 library uses UNIX environment variables to control or adjust certain library features at runtime. The variables and their defined effects are as follows:

HDF5_DEBUG: Defines a list of debugging switches documented in the Debugging section of the HDF5 User's Guide.
HDF5_NOCLEANUP: When set to a non-empty value, the programs in the test directory do not remove temporary HDF5 data files. The default is for each test to remove the files before exit.
HDF5_MPI_OPT_TYPES (for parallel beta version only): When set to 1, PHDF5 will use the MPI optimized code to perform parallel read/write accesses to datasets. Currently, this optimization fails when accessing extendable datasets. The default is not to use the optimized code.
HDF5_MPI_1_METAWRITE (for parallel beta version only): When set to 1, PHDF5 will write the metadata via process 0 of each opened parallel HDF5 file. This should improve I/O throughput. The default is not to use this optimization.

2. Configuration Parameters

The HDF5 configuration script accepts a list of parameters to control configuration features when creating the Makefiles for the library. The command
configure --help
will display the current list of parameters and their effects.

Introduction to HDF5
HDF5 Reference Manual
Other HDF5 documents and links

HDF Help Desk

Last modified: 13 December 1999
Describes HDF5 Release 1.4 Beta, December 2000