H5G: Group Interface

Group Object API Functions

The Group interface functions create and manipulate physical groups of objects on disk.
             
(NYI = Not yet implemented)

A group associates names with objects and provides a mechanism for mapping a name to an object. Since all objects appear in at least one group (with the possible exception of the root object) and since objects can have names in more than one group, the set of all objects in an HDF5 file is a directed graph. The internal nodes (nodes with out-degree greater than zero) must be groups while the leaf nodes (nodes with out-degree zero) are either empty groups or objects of some other type. Exactly one object in every non-empty file is the root object. The root object always has a positive in-degree because it is pointed to by the file boot block.

Every file identifier returned by H5Fcreate or H5Fopen maintains an independent current working group stack, the top item of which is the current working group. The stack can be manipulated with H5Gset, H5Gpush, and H5Gpop. The root object is the current working group if the stack is empty.

An object name consists of one or more components separated from one another by slashes. An absolute name begins with a slash and the object is located by looking for the first component in the root object, then looking for the second component in the first object, etc., until the entire name is traversed. A relative name does not begin with a slash and the traversal begins with the current working group.

The library does not maintain the full absolute name of its current working group because (1) cycles in the graph can make the name length unbounded and (2) a group does not necessarily have a unique name. A more Unix-like hierarchical naming scheme can be implemented on top of the directed graph scheme by creating a ".." entry in each group that points to its single predecessor; a getcwd function would then be trivial.


Name: H5Gcreate
Signature:
hid_t H5Gcreate(hid_t loc_id, const char *name, size_t size_hint )
Purpose:
Creates a new empty group and gives it a name.
Description:
H5Gcreate creates a new group with the specified name at the specified location, loc_id. The location is identified by a file or group identifier. The name, name, must not already be taken by some other object and all parent groups must already exist.

size_hint is a hint for the number of bytes to reserve to store the names which will be eventually added to the new group. Passing a value of zero for size_hint is usually adequate since the library is able to dynamically resize the name heap, but a correct hint may result in better performance. If a non-positive value is supplied for size_hint, then a default size is chosen.

The return value is a group identifier for the open group. This group identifier should be closed by calling H5Gclose() when it is no longer needed.

Parameters:
hid_t loc_id
The file or group identifier.
const char *name
The absolute or relative name of the new group.
size_t size_hint
An optional parameter indicating the number of bytes to reserve for the names that will appear in the group. A conservative estimate could result in multiple system-level I/O requests to read the group name heap; a liberal estimate could result in a single large I/O request even when the group has just a few names. HDF5 stores each name with a null terminator.
Returns:
Returns a valid group identifier for the open group if successful; otherwise FAIL (-1).

Name: H5Gopen
Signature:
hid_t H5Gopen(hid_t loc_id, const char *name )
Purpose:
Opens an existing group for modification and returns a group identifier for that group.
Description:
H5Gopen opens an existing group with the specified name at the specified location, loc_id. The location is identified by a file or group identifier, and returns a group identifier for the group. The obtained group identifier should be released by calling H5Gclose() when it is no longer needed.
Parameters:
hid_t loc_id
File or group identifier within which group is to be open.
const char * name
Name of group to open.
Returns:
Returns a valid group identifier if successful; otherwise FAIL (-1).

Name: H5Gset
Signature:
herr_t H5Gset (hid_t loc_id, const char *name )
Purpose:
Sets the current working group within a file.
Description:
H5Gset sets the group with the specified name to be the current working group for the file which contains it. This function sets the current working group by modifying the top element of the current working group stack or, if the stack is empty, by pushing a new element onto the stack. The initial current working group is the root group.

loc_id can be a file identifier or a group identifier.

name is an absolute or relative name and is resolved as follows. Each file identifier has a current working group, initially the root group of the file. Relative names do not begin with a slash and are relative to the specified group or to the current working group. Absolute names begin with a slash and are relative to the file's root group. For instance, the name /Foo/Bar/Baz is resolved by first looking up Foo in the root group; the name Foo/Bar/Baz is resolved by first looking up the name Foo in the current working group.

Each file identifier maintains its own notion of the current working group. If loc_id is a group identifier, the file identifier is derived from the group identifier.

If a single file is opened with multiple calls to H5Fopen(), which would return multiple file identifiers, then each identifier's current working group can be set independently of the other file identifiers for that file.

Parameters:
hid_t loc_id
The file or group identifier.
const char *name
The name of the new current working group.
Returns:
Returns SUCCEED (0) if successful; otherwise FAIL (-1).

Name: H5Gpush
Signature:
herr_t H5Gpush (hid_t loc_id, const char *name )
Purpose:
Sets the current working group by pushing a new element onto the current working group stack.
Description:
Each file identifier maintains a stack of groups, the top group of which is the current working group. The stack initially contains only the root group. H5Gpush pushes a new group onto the stack, thus setting a new current working group.
Parameters:
hid_t loc_id
File or group identifier.
const char *name
The name of the new current working group. The name may be an absolute or relative name.
Returns:
Returns SUCCEED (0) if successful; otherwise FAIL (-1).

Name: H5Gpop
Signature:
herr_t H5Gpop (hid_t loc_id)
Purpose:
Removes the top, or latest, entry from the working group stack, setting the current working group to the previous value.
Description:
H5Gpop restores the previous current working group by popping an element from the current working group stack. An empty stack implies that the current working group is the root object. Attempting to pop an empty stack results in failure.

Each file identfier maintains its own notion of the current working group. That is, if a single file is opened with multiple calls to H5Fopen(), which returns multiple file handles, then each identfier's current working group can be set independently of the other file identfiers for that file.

If loc_id is a group identifier, it is used only to determine the file identifier for the stack from which to pop the top entry.

Parameters:
hid_t loc_id
The file or group identifier.
Returns:
Returns SUCCEED (0) if successful; otherwise FAIL (-1).

Name: H5Gclose
Signature:
herr_t H5Gclose(hid_t group_id)
Purpose:
Closes the specified group.
Description:
H5Gclose releases resources used by a group which was opened by H5Gcreate() or H5Gopen(). After closing a group, the group_id cannot be used again.

Failure to release a group with this call will result in resource leaks.

Parameters:
hid_t group_id
Group identifier to release.
Returns:
Returns SUCCEED (0) if successful; otherwise FAIL (-1).

Name: H5Glink
Signature:
herr_t H5Glink(hid_t loc_id, H5G_link_t link_type, const char *current_name, const char *new_name )
Purpose:
Creates a link of the specified type from new_name to current_name.
Description:
H5Glink creates a new name for an object that has some current name, possibly one of many names it currently has.

If link_type is H5G_LINK_HARD, then current_name must name an existing object and both names are interpreted relative to loc_id, which is either a file identifier or a group identifier.

If link_type is H5G_LINK_SOFT, then current_name can be anything and is interpreted at lookup time relative to the group which contains the final component of new_name. For instance, if current_name is ./foo, new_name is ./x/y/bar, and a request is made for ./x/y/bar, then the actual object looked up is ./x/y/./foo.

Parameters:
hid_t loc_id
File or group identifier.
H5G_link_t link_type
Link type. Possible values are H5G_LINK_HARD and H5G_LINK_SOFT.
const char * current_name
Name of the existing object if link is a hard link. Can be anything for the soft link.
const char * new_name
New name for the object.
Returns:
Returns SUCCEED (0) if successful; otherwise FAIL (-1).

Name: H5Gunlink      (Not implemented in this release.)
Signature:
herr_t H5Gunlink(hid_t loc_id, const char *name )
Purpose:
Removes the specified name from the group graph and decrements the link count for the object to which name points
Description:
H5Gunlink removes an association between a name and an object. Object headers keep track of how many hard links refer to the object; when the hard link count reaches zero, the object can be removed from the file. Objects which are open are not removed until all identifiers to the object are closed.

If the link count reaches zero, all file-space associated with the object will be reclaimed. If the object is open, the reclamation of the file space is delayed until all handles to the object are closed.

Parameters:
hid_t loc_id
Identifier of the file containing the object.
const char * name
Name of the object to unlink.
Returns:
Returns SUCCEED (0) if successful; otherwise FAIL (-1).

Name: H5Giterate
Signature:
int H5Giterate(hid_t loc_id, const char *name, int *idx, H5G_operator_t operator, void *operator_data )
Purpose:
Iterates an operation over the entries of a group.
Description:
H5Giterate iterates over the members of name in the file or group specified with loc_id. For each object in the group, the operator_data and some additional information, specified below, are passed to the operator function. The iteration begins with the idx object in the group and the next element to be processed by the operator is returned in idx. If idx is NULL, then the iterator starts at the first group member; since no stopping point is returned in this case, the iterator cannot be restarted if one of the calls to its operator returns non-zero.

The prototype for H5G_operator_t is:

The operation receives the group identifier for the group being iterated over, group_id, the name of the current object within the group, member_name, and the pointer to the operator data passed in to H5Giterate, operator_data.

The return values from an operator are:

Parameters:
hid_t loc_id
IN: File or group identifier.
const char *name
IN: Group over which the iteration is performed.
int *idx
IN/OUT: Location at which to begin the iteration.
H5G_iterate_t operator
IN: Operation to be performed on an object at each step of the iteration.
void *operator_data
IN/OUT: Data associated with the operation.
Returns:
Returns the return value of the last operator if it was non-zero, or zero if all group members were processed. Otherwise, returns FAIL (-1).

Name: H5Gmove      (Not implemented in this release.)
Signature:
herr_t H5Gmove(hid_t loc_id, const char *src, const char *dst )
Purpose:
Renames an object within an HDF5 file.
Description:
H5Gmove renames an object within an HDF5 file. The original name, src, is unlinked from the group graph and the new name, dst, is inserted as an atomic operation. Both names are interpreted relative to loc_id, which is either a file or a group identifier.
Parameters:
hid_t loc_id
File or group identifier.
const char *src
Object's original name.
const char *dst
Object's new name.
Returns:
Returns SUCCEED (0) if successful; otherwise FAIL (-1).

Name: H5Gstat
Signature:
herr_t H5Gstat(hid_t loc_id, const char *name, hbool_t follow_link, H5G_stat_t *statbuf )
Purpose:
Returns information about an object.
Description:
H5Gstat returns information about the specified object through the statbuf argument. loc_id (a file, group, or dataset identifier) and name together determine the object. If the object is a symbolic link and follow_link is zero (0), then the information returned is that for the link itself; otherwise the link is followed and information is returned about the object to which the link points. If follow_link is non-zero but the final symbolic link is dangling (does not point to anything), then an error is returned. The statbuf fields are undefined for an error. The existence of an object can be tested by calling this function with a null statbuf.

H5Gstat() fills in the following data structure:

                  typedef struct H5G_stat_t {
                      unsigned long fileno[2];
                      unsigned long objno[2];
                      unsigned nlink;
                      H5G_type_t type;
                      size_t linklen;
                  } H5G_stat_t
        
The fileno and objno fields contain four values which uniquely itentify an object among those HDF5 files which are open: if all four values are the same between two objects, then the two objects are the same (provided both files are still open). The nlink field is the number of hard links to the object or zero when information is being returned about a symbolic link (symbolic links do not have hard links but all other objects always have at least one). The type field contains the type of the object, one of H5G_GROUP, H5G_DATASET, or H5G_LINK. If information is being returned about a symbolic link then linklen will be the length of the link value (the name of the pointed-to object with the null terminator); otherwise linklen will be zero. Other fields may be added to this structure in the future.
Parameters:
hid_t loc_id
IN: File, group, or dataset identifier.
const char *name
IN: Name of the object for which status is being sought.
hbool_t follow_link
IN: Link flag.
H5G_stat_t *statbuf
OUT: Buffer in which to return information about the object.
Returns:
Returns SUCCEED (0) with the fields of STATBUF (if non-null) initialized. Otherwise returns FAIL (-1).

Name: H5Gget_linkval
Signature:
herr_t H5Gget_linkval(hid_t loc_id, const char *name, size_t size, char *value )
Purpose:
Returns link value.
Description:
H5Gget_linkval returns size characters of the link value through the value argument if loc_id (a file or group identifier) and name specify a symbolic link. If size is smaller than the link value, then value will not be null terminated.

This function fails if the specified object is not a symbolic link. The presence of a symbolic link can be tested by passing zero for size and NULL for value.

Use H5Gstat() to get the size of a link value.

Parameters:
hid_t loc_id
IN: Identifier of the file or group .
const char *name
IN: Name of the object whose link value is to be checked.
size_t size
IN: Maximum number of characters of value to be returned.
char *value
OUT: Link value.
Returns:
Returns SUCCEED (0), with the link value in value, if successful. Otherwise returns FAIL (-1).


UNUSED PORTIONS OF EMAIL NOTES.
.... in left margin indicates where material was pulled out for use.


Hi Elena, here's a hodgepodge of stuff from html documents and
previous e-mails to answer your questions. Let me know if you need
further clarification.

....
....  [H5Gmove and H5Gunlink "NYI" comments were here]
....

Elena> We need little bit more user-friendly description of the H5Gstat and
Elena> H5Giterate functions.

>From a Mar 31 e-mail...

Robb>
....
....  [H5Giterate was here]
....
Robb> 
Robb> 
Robb> Group Information Functions:
....
....  [H5Gstat was here]
....
Robb> 
Robb> herr_t H5Gname(hid_t group_id, char *name, size_t max_name_len);
Robb>
Robb> This function retrieves the name of the group for a group ID.  The
Robb> name is returned in 'name' up to the length specified in 'max_name_len'.
Robb>
....
....  [H5Gget_linkval was here]
....
Robb> 
Robb> H5Giterate example #1: The operator just looks at the member name and if it has an
Robb>     `X' in it then it returns 1, otherwise return zero.  Returning 1 (or any
Robb>     positive value) causes the iterator to immediately return that value.  If
Robb>     none of the operators return 1 then the iterator eventually returns zero.
Robb> 
Robb> 1  herr_t
Robb> 2  any_X (hid_t group_id/*unused*/,
Robb> 4         const char *member_name,
Robb> 5         void *op_data/*unused*/)
Robb> 6  {
Robb> 7      return strchr(member_name,'X') ? 1 : 0;
Robb> 8  }
Robb> 
Robb> The iterator is invoked as:
Robb> 
Robb> 9  int elmt=0;
Robb> 10  herr_t found = H5Giterate(file_id, "/foo", &elmt, any_X, NULL);
Robb> 11  
Robb> 12  if (found<0) {
Robb> 13     printf ("Error iterating through group, at member %d\n", elmt);
Robb> 14  } else if (found) {
Robb> 15     printf ("Yes, member %d has an `X' in the name\n", elmt);
Robb> 16  } else {
Robb> 17     printf ("No member name contains an `X'\n");
Robb> 18  }
Robb> 
Robb> H5Giterate example #2: An iterator to find an object whose name contains an `X'
Robb>     This is the same as Example 1 except the operator also returns the name
Robb>     that contains the `X'.  We do this by passing a pointer to a `char*' as the
Robb>     operator data and the operator will initialize that `char*' by strdup'ing
Robb>     the object name.
Robb> 
Robb> 1  herr_t
Robb> 2  find_X (hid_t group_id/*unused*/,
Robb> 4          const char *member_name,
Robb> 5          void *op_data/*out*/)
Robb> 6  {
Robb> 7      if (strchr(member_name,'X')) {
Robb> 8          *((char**)op_data) = strdup(member_name);
Robb> 9          return 1;
Robb> 10      }
Robb> 11      return 0;
Robb> 12  }
Robb> 
Robb> To print all the names with an `X' the iterator is invoked
Robb> repeatedly until it returns zero.
Robb> 
Robb> 13  int elmt = 0;
Robb> 14  char *name;
Robb> 15  while (H5Giterate(file_id, "/foo", &elmt, find_X, &name)) {
Robb> 16      puts (name);
Robb> 17      free (name);
Robb> 18  }
Robb> 
Robb> H5Giterate example #3: Print all names that contain the specified character.
Robb>     This is the same as Example 2 except we have to pass data into the operator
Robb>     as well as get data out.  We create a struct that contains the input data
Robb>     (character to look for) and a slot for the output data (the name) and pass
Robb>     that as the operator data.
Robb> 
Robb> 1  typedef struct {
Robb> 2      char look_for;
Robb> 3      char *name;
Robb> 4  } find_char_t;
Robb> 5  
Robb> 6  herr_t
Robb> 7  find_char (hid_t group_id/*unused*/,
Robb> 9             const char *member_name,
Robb> 10             find_char_t *op_data/*in,out*/)
Robb> 11  {
Robb> 13      if (strchr(member_name, op_data->look_for)) {
Robb> 14          op_data->name = strdup (member_name);
Robb> 15          return 1;
Robb> 16      }
Robb> 17      return 0;
Robb> 18  }
Robb> 
Robb> To print all names that have a `Y' one would say
Robb> 
Robb> 19  find_char_t op_data;
Robb> 20  int elmt = 0;
Robb> 21  op_data->look_for = 'Y';
Robb> 22  while (H5Giterate(file_id, "/foo", &elmt, find_X, &op_data)) {
Robb> 23      puts (op_data->name);
Robb> 24      free (op_data->name);
Robb> 25  }
Robb> 
Robb> H5Giterate example #4: Efficient version of Example 3.
Robb>     Examples 2 and 3 weren't too efficient because we kept interrupting the
Robb> iterator and it had to start over, albeit from the middle of the search. If
Robb> we could allow the iterator to go further then we wouldn't end up scanning
Robb> through the leaf nodes of the symbol table so often (searching for a
Robb> particular index, n, in a B-tree is an O(n) operation).
Robb>     The H5Glist() function defined earlier returns the names of all the group
Robb> members which belong to a certain class, H5G_ALL, H5G_DATASET, or H5G_GROUP.
Robb> This example shows how to implement that functionality.
Robb>     First we need a struct to describe the operator data and it's return
Robb> value(s).  These correspond to the arguments presented for H5Glist, whose
Robb> definition is at the end of this example. (Since most of the work is done by
Robb> the operator we have to pass all this stuff back and forth through the
Robb> iterator).
Robb> 
Robb> 1  typedef struct {
Robb> 2      size_t     name_heap_size;
Robb> 3      char       *name_heap;
Robb> 4      unsigned   max_entries;
Robb> 5      char       *names[];
Robb> 6      int        type;
Robb> 7      unsigned   cur_entries; /* How many names read so far */
Robb> 8      size_t     cur_heap_size; /* How large is the heap */
Robb> 9  } H5G_list_t;
Robb> 
Robb> The operator checks if an object is the right type, and if so adds it to
Robb> the return value arrays in the op_data struct.  If the arrays become full
Robb> then the operator returns 1 to stop the iterator. The H5*isa() functions
Robb> return true iff the named object is of the * type (sans error handling).
Robb> 
Robb> 10  herr_t
Robb> 11  H5G_list_op (hid_t grp_id, const char *memb_name,
Robb> 12               H5G_list_t *op_data)
Robb> 13  {
Robb> 14      char *out_name;
Robb> 15  
Robb> 16      if (H5G_ALL==op_data->type ||
Robb> 17          (H5G_DATASET==op_data->type && H5Disa(grp_id,memb_name)) ||
Robb> 18          (H5G_GROUP==op_data->type && H5Gisa(grp_id, memb_name))) {
Robb> 19  
Robb> 20          /* Is there enough room for the name in the heap? */
Robb> 21          if (op_data->cur_heap_size + strlen(memb_name) + 1 >
Robb> 22              op_data->name_heap_size) {
Robb> 23              return 2; /*try again later, see lines 59-62*/
Robb> 24          }
Robb> 25  
Robb> 26          /* Add name to op_data return value arrays */
Robb> 27          out_name = op_data->name_heap + op_data->cur_heap_size;
Robb> 28          strcpy (out_name, memb_name);
Robb> 29          op_data->names[op_data->cur_entries] = out_name;
Robb> 30          op_data->cur_heap_size += strlen(memb_name) + 1;
Robb> 31  
Robb> 32          /* Is the output full? */
Robb> 33          if (op_data->cur_entries >= op_data->max_entries) {
Robb> 34              return 1;
Robb> 35          }
Robb> 36      }           
Robb> 37      return 0;
Robb> 38  }
Robb> 
Robb> And finally, the definition of H5Glist():
Robb> 
Robb> 39  int
Robb> 40  H5Glist (hid_t group_id, size_t name_heap_size, char *name_heap,
Robb> 41           int *start_idx, unsigned max_entries, char *names[],
Robb> 42           int type)
Robb> 43  {
Robb> 44      H5G_list_t op_data;
Robb> 45      herr_t status;
Robb> 46  
Robb> 47      op_data->name_heap_size = name_heap_size;
Robb> 48      op_data->name_heap = name_heap;
Robb> 49      op_data->max_entries = max_entries;
Robb> 50      op_data->names = names;
Robb> 51      op_data->type = type;
Robb> 52      op_data->cur_entries = 0;
Robb> 53      op_data->cur_heap_size = 0;
Robb> 54  
Robb> 55      if (0==cur_entries) return 0;
Robb> 56      status = H5Giterate (group_id, ".", start_idx, H5G_list_op,
Robb> 57                           &op_data);
Robb> 58  
Robb> 59      if (2==status && 0==op_data->cur_entries) {
Robb> 60          return -1; /*heap not large enough for even one name*/
Robb> 61      } else if (2==status) {
Robb> 62          --*start_idx; /*heap overflow, try again later*/
Robb> 63      } else if (status<0) {
Robb> 64          return status; /*iterator or operator error*/
Robb> 65      }
Robb> 66      return op_data->cur_entries;
Robb> 67  }
Robb> 
Robb>     The only other really interesting thing in this example are lines 23, 61,
Robb> and 62.  We don't know if the name heap will overflow until we find a name to
Robb> put there.  And then if it does, we need to be able to restart the iterator at
Robb> the entry that failed instead of the following entry.
Robb> 
Robb> H5Giterate example #5: Print all the names of objects in a group, without any
Robb>                         buffers.
Robb> ---------------------
Robb> 
Robb> herr_t print_names (hid_t grp_id, const char *name, void *opdata)
Robb> {
Robb>     puts (name);
Robb>     return 0;
Robb> }
Robb> 
Robb> {
Robb>     H5Giterate (file_id, "/foo/bar", NULL, print_names, NULL);
Robb> }

Elena> I believe there is a typo in the H5Pget_layout function in the source
Elena> code. Second argument ( H5D_layout_t *layout is missing....)  

It's returned by value, not reference.  It returns only the class of
layout and then, based on the class, you must call some other H5Pget
function like H5Pget_chunk() like this:

	hid_t dcpl; /*dataset creation property list*/
	hsize_t dims[32]; /*chunk dimensions*/
	...
	switch (H5Pget_layout(dcpl)) {
	case H5D_CHUNKED:
	    H5Pget_chunk(dcpl, NELMTS(dims), dims);
	    break;
	...
	case H5D_LAYOUT_ERROR:
	    ...
	...
	}


Quincy and html> 
Quincy and html> 
....
....  [Datatype material move to H5T.html]
....
Quincy and html> 
Quincy and html> 





Frank Baker
HDF5 Documentation
Last modified: 8 July 1998