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HDF5/Tools Draft API Specification
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<h1>HDF5 Tools</h1>
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<h2>HDF5 Tool Interfaces</h2>
<p>
These tools enable the user to examine HDF5 files interactively.


<table border=0>
<tr><td valign=top>
<ul>
    <li><a href="#Tools-Dump">h5dump</a> -- A tool for displaying 
        HDF5 file contents
    <li><a href="#Tools-Ls">h5ls</a> -- A tool for listing specified
        features of HDF5 file contents
    <li><a href="#Tools-Repart">h5repart</a> -- A tool for repartitioning 
        a file, creating a family of files
</ul>
</td></tr>
</table>

<p>


<hr>
<dl>
<dt><strong>Tool Name:</strong> <a name="Tools-Dump">h5dump</a>
<dt><strong>Syntax:</strong>
    <dd><code>h5dump
        [-h]
        [-bb]
        [-header] 
        [-a </code><em>names</em><code>]
        [-d </code><em>names</em><code>]
        [-g </code><em>names</em><code>]
        [-l </code><em>names</em><code>] </code>
        <em>file</em>
<dt><strong>Purpose:</strong>
    <dd>Displays HDF5 file contents.
<dt><strong>Description:</strong>
    <dd><code>h5dump</code> enables the user to interactively examine 
        the contents of an HDF5 file and dump those contents, 
        in human readable form, to an ASCII file or to other tools.
        <p>
        <code>h5dump</code> displays HDF5 file content on 
        standard output.  It may display the content of the 
        whole HDF5 file or selected objects, which can be groups, 
        datasets, links, or attributes. 
        <p>
        The <code>-header</code> option displays object 
        header information only and must appear before the 
        <code>-a</code>, <code>-d</code>, <code>-g</code>, or 
        <code>-l</code> options. 
        <p>
        Native data types created in one machine are displayed with native
        names when <code>h5dump</code> runs in the same machine type. But when 
        <code>h5dump</code> runs in a different machine type, it displays the 
        native data types with standard type names. This will be changed in the 
        next release to always display with standard type names.
        <p>
        The <code>h5dump</code> output is described in detail in 
        <a href="../html/ddl.html">DDL</a>, the <cite>Data Description 
        Language</cite> document. 
<dt><strong>Options and Parameters:</strong>
    <dl>
        <dt><code>-h</code>
            <dd>Print information on this command.
        <dt><code>-bb</code>
            <dd>Displays the content of boot block. The default is 
                not to display.
        <dt><code>-header</code>
            <dd>Displays header information only; no data is displayed.
        <dt><code>-a</code> <em>names</em>
            <dd>Displays the specified attribute(s).
        <dt><code>-d</code> <em>names</em>
            <dd>Displays the specified dataset(s).
        <dt><code>-g</code> <em>names</em>
            <dd>Displays all the objects within the specified group(s).
        <dt><code>-l</code> <em>names</em>
            <dd>Displays the specified link value(s).
        <dt><em>file</em>
            <dd>The file to be examined.
    </dl>
<dt><strong>Current Status:</strong>
    <dd>The current version of <code>h5dump</code> can display the
        following types of information:
        <ul>
          <li>Group name
          <li>Attribute name, data type, data space, and data
          <li>Dataset name, data type, data space, and data
          <li>Soft link name, link value
        </ul>

        <dd>Limitions in the current implementaion include the
            following:
        <ul>
          <li>Only one file is displayed at a time (file families are 
              not supported).
          <li>The whole file content is displayed (none of above 
              options are supported).
          <li>Compound data types are not yet supported.
          <li>Complex data spaces are not yet supported.
        </ul>
<dt><strong>See Also:</strong>
    <dd>HDF5 Data Description Language syntax 
        (<a href="../html/ddl.html">DDL</a>)
</dl>


<hr>
<dl>
<dt><strong>Tool Name:</strong> <a name="Tools-Ls">h5ls</a>
<dt><strong>Syntax:</strong>
    <dd><code>h5ls
        [</code><em>options</em><code>]</code><em>
        file</em><code> 
        [</code><em>objects...</em><code>]</code>
<dt><strong>Purpose:</strong>
    <dd>Prints information about a file or dataset.
<dt><strong>Description:</strong>
    <dd><code>h5ls</code> prints selected information about file objects 
        in the specified format.
<dt><strong>Options and Parameters:</strong>
    <dl>
        <dt><code>-h</code> &nbsp;&nbsp;or&nbsp;&nbsp; <code>-?</code> &nbsp;&nbsp;or&nbsp;&nbsp; <code>--help</code>
            <dd>Print a usage message and exit.
        <dt><code>-d</code> &nbsp;&nbsp;or&nbsp;&nbsp; <code>--dump</code>
            <dd>Print the values of datasets.
        <dt><code>-w</code><em>N</em> &nbsp;&nbsp;or&nbsp;&nbsp; <code>--width=</code><em>N</em>
            <dd>Set the number of columns of output.
        <dt><code>-v</code> &nbsp;&nbsp;or&nbsp;&nbsp; <code>--verbose</code>
            <dd>Generate more verbose output.
        <dt><code>-V</code> &nbsp;&nbsp;or&nbsp;&nbsp; <code>--version</code>
            <dd>Print version number and exit.
        <dt><em>file</em>
            <dd>The file name may include a printf(3C) integer format 
                such as <code>%%05d</code> to open a file family.
        <dt><em>objects</em>
            <dd>The names of zero or more objects about which information 
                should be displayed.  If a group is mentioned then 
                information about each of its members is displayed.  
                If no object names are specified then information about 
                all of the objects in the root group is displayed.
    </dl>
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<dt><strong>Current Status:</strong>
    <dd>
<dt><strong>See Also:</strong>
    <dd>
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</dl>


<hr>
<dl>
<dt><strong>Tool Name:</strong> <a name="Tools-Repart">h5repart</a>
<dt><strong>Syntax:</strong>
    <dd><code>h5repart
        [-v] 
        [-V] 
        [-[b|m]</code><em>N</em><code>[g|m|k]]</code>
        <em>source_file
        dest_file</em>
<dt><strong>Purpose:</strong>
    <dd>Repartitions a file or family of files.
<dt><strong>Description:</strong>
    <dd><code>h5repart</code> splits a single file into a family of 
        files, joins a family of files into a single file, or copies 
        one family of files to another while changing the size of the 
        family members.  <code>h5repart</code> can also be used to 
        copy a single file to a single file with holes.
        <p>
        Sizes associated with the <code>-b</code> and <code>-m</code> 
        options may be suffixed with <code>g</code> for gigabytes, 
        <code>m</code> for megabytes, or <code>k</code> for kilobytes.
        <p>
        File family names include an integer <code>printf</code> 
        format such as <code>%d</code>.

<dt><strong>Options and Parameters:</strong>
    <dl>
        <dt><code>-v</code>
            <dd>Produce verbose output.
        <dt><code>-V</code>
            <dd>Print a version number and exit.
        <dt><code>-b</code><em>N</em>
            <dd>The I/O block size, defaults to 1kB
        <dt><code>-m</code><em>N</em>
            <dd>The destination member size or 1GB
        <dt><em>source_file</em>
            <dd>The name of the source file
        <dt><em>dest_file</em>
            <dd>The name of the destination files
    </dl>
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<dt><strong>Current Status:</strong>
    <dd>
<dt><strong>See Also:</strong>
    <dd>
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Last modified:  9 September 1998

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