/* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Copyright by The HDF Group. * * All rights reserved. * * * * This file is part of HDF5. The full HDF5 copyright notice, including * * terms governing use, modification, and redistribution, is contained in * * the COPYING file, which can be found at the root of the source code * * distribution tree, or in https://www.hdfgroup.org/licenses. * * If you do not have access to either file, you may request a copy from * * help@hdfgroup.org. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * */ /* * Purpose: This file contains declarations which define macros for the * H5G package. Including this header means that the source file * is part of the H5G package. */ #ifndef H5Gmodule_H #define H5Gmodule_H /* Define the proper control macros for the generic FUNC_ENTER/LEAVE and error * reporting macros. */ #define H5G_MODULE #define H5_MY_PKG H5G #define H5_MY_PKG_ERR H5E_SYM /** \page H5G_UG HDF5 Groups * * \section sec_group HDF5 Groups * \subsection subsec_group_intro Introduction * As suggested by the name Hierarchical Data Format, an HDF5 file is hierarchically structured. * The HDF5 group and link objects implement this hierarchy. * * In the simple and most common case, the file structure is a tree structure; in the general case, the * file structure may be a directed graph with a designated entry point. The tree structure is very * similar to the file system structures employed on UNIX systems, directories and files, and on * Apple and Microsoft Windows systems, folders and files. HDF5 groups are analogous * to the directories and folders; HDF5 datasets are analogous to the files. * * The one very important difference between the HDF5 file structure and the above-mentioned file * system analogs is that HDF5 groups are linked as a directed graph, allowing circular references; * the file systems are strictly hierarchical, allowing no circular references. The figures below * illustrate the range of possibilities. * * In the first figure below, the group structure is strictly hierarchical, identical to the file system * analogs. * * In the next two figures below, the structure takes advantage of the directed graph’s allowance of * circular references. In the second figure, GroupA is not only a member of the root group, /, but a * member of GroupC. Since Group C is a member of Group B and Group B is a member of Group * A, Dataset1 can be accessed by means of the circular reference /Group A/Group B/Group * C/Group A/Dataset1. The third figure below illustrates an extreme case in which GroupB is a * member of itself, enabling a reference to a member dataset such as /Group A/Group B/Group * B/Group B/Dataset2. * * * * * *
* \image html Groups_fig1.gif "A file with a strictly hierarchical group structure" *
* * * * * *
* \image html Groups_fig2.gif "A file with a circular reference" *
* * * * * *
* \image html Groups_fig3.gif "A file with one group as a member of itself" *
* * As becomes apparent upon reflection, directed graph structures can become quite complex; * caution is advised! * * The balance of this chapter discusses the following topics: * \li The HDF5 group object (or a group) and its structure in more detail * \li HDF5 link objects (or links) * \li The programming model for working with groups and links * \li HDF5 functions provided for working with groups, group members, and links * \li Retrieving information about objects in a group * \li Discovery of the structure of an HDF5 file and the contained objects * \li Examples of file structures * * \subsection subsec_group_descr Description of the Group Object * \subsubsection subsubsec_group_descr_object The Group Object * Abstractly, an HDF5 group contains zero or more objects and every object must be a member of * at least one group. The root group, the sole exception, may not belong to any group. * * * * * *
* \image html Groups_fig4.gif "Abstract model of the HDF5 group object" *
* * Group membership is actually implemented via link objects. See the figure above. A link object * is owned by a group and points to a named object. Each link has a name, and each link points to * exactly one object. Each named object has at least one and possibly many links to it. * * There are three classes of named objects: group, dataset, and committed datatype (formerly * called named datatype). See the figure below. Each of these objects is the member of at least one * group, which means there is at least one link to it. * * * * * *
* \image html Groups_fig5.gif "Classes of named objects" *
* * The primary operations on a group are to add and remove members and to discover member * objects. These abstract operations, as listed in the figure below, are implemented in the \ref H5G * APIs. For more information, @see @ref subsec_group_function. * * To add and delete members of a group, links from the group to existing objects in the file are * created and deleted with the link and unlink operations. When a new named object is created, the * HDF5 Library executes the link operation in the background immediately after creating the * object (in other words, a new object is added as a member of the group in which it is created * without further user intervention). * * Given the name of an object, the get_object_info method retrieves a description of the object, * including the number of references to it. The iterate method iterates through the members of the * group, returning the name and type of each object. * * * * * *
* \image html Groups_fig6.gif "The group object" *
* * Every HDF5 file has a single root group, with the name /. The root group is identical to any other * HDF5 group, except: * \li The root group is automatically created when the HDF5 file is created (#H5Fcreate). * \li The root group has no parent, but by convention has a reference count of 1. * \li The root group cannot be deleted (in other words, unlinked)! * * \subsubsection subsubsec_group_descr_model The Hierarchy of Data Objects * An HDF5 file is organized as a rooted, directed graph using HDF5 group objects. The named * data objects are the nodes of the graph, and the links are the directed arcs. Each arc of the graph * has a name, with the special name / reserved for the root group. New objects are created and then * inserted into the graph with a link operation that is automatically executed by the library; * existing objects are inserted into the graph with a link operation explicitly called by the user, * which creates a named link from a group to the object. * * An object can be the target of more than one link. * * The names on the links must be unique within each group, but there may be many links with the * same name in different groups. These are unambiguous, because some ancestor must have a * different name, or else they are the same object. The graph is navigated with path names, * analogous to Unix file systems. For more information, @see @ref subsubsec_group_descr_path. * * An object can be opened with a full path starting at the root group, or with a relative path and a * starting point. That starting point is always a group, though it may be the current working group, * another specified group, or the root group of the file. Note that all paths are relative to a single * HDF5 file. In this sense, an HDF5 file is analogous to a single UNIX file system. * * It is important to note that, just like the UNIX file system, HDF5 objects do not have names, the * names are associated with paths. An object has an object identifier that is unique within the file, * but a single object may have many names because there may be many paths to the same object. * An object can be renamed, or moved to another group, by adding and deleting links. In this case, * the object itself never moves. For that matter, membership in a group has no implication for the * physical location of the stored object. * * Deleting a link to an object does not necessarily delete the object. The object remains available * as long as there is at least one link to it. After all links to an object are deleted, it can no longer * be opened, and the storage may be reclaimed. * * It is also important to realize that the linking mechanism can be used to construct very complex * graphs of objects. For example, it is possible for an object to be shared between several groups * and even to have more than one name in the same group. It is also possible for a group to be a * member of itself, or to create other cycles in the graph, such as in the case where a child group is * linked to one of its ancestors. * * HDF5 also has soft links similar to UNIX soft links. A soft link is an object that has a name and * a path name for the target object. The soft link can be followed to open the target of the link just * like a regular or hard link. The differences are that the hard link cannot be created if the target * object does not exist and it always points to the same object. A soft link can be created with any * path name, whether or not the object exists; it may or may not, therefore, be possible to follow a * soft link. Furthermore, a soft link’s target object may be changed. * * \subsubsection subsubsec_group_descr_path HDF5 Path Names * The structure of the HDF5 file constitutes the name space for the objects in the file. A path name * is a string of components separated by slashes (/). Each component is the name of a hard or soft * link which points to an object in the file. The slash not only separates the components, but * indicates their hierarchical relationship; the component indicated by the link name following a * slash is a always a member of the component indicated by the link name preceding that slash. * * The first component in the path name may be any of the following: * \li The special character dot (., a period), indicating the current group * \li The special character slash (/), indicating the root group * \li Any member of the current group * * Component link names may be any string of ASCII characters not containing a slash or a dot * (/ and ., which are reserved as noted above). However, users are advised to avoid the use of * punctuation and non-printing characters, as they may create problems for other software. The * figure below provides a BNF grammar for HDF5 path names. * * A BNF grammar for HDF5 path names * \code * PathName ::= AbsolutePathName | RelativePathName * Separator ::= "/" ["/"]* * AbsolutePathName ::= Separator [ RelativePathName ] * RelativePathName ::= Component [ Separator RelativePathName ]* * Component ::= "." | Characters * Characters ::= Character+ - { "." } * Character ::= {c: c Î { { legal ASCII characters } - {'/'} } * \endcode * * An object can always be addressed by either a full or an absolute path name, starting at the root * group, or by a relative path name, starting in a known location such as the current working * group. As noted elsewhere, a given object may have multiple full and relative path names. * * Consider, for example, the file illustrated in the figure below. Dataset1 can be identified by either * of these absolute path names: * /GroupA/Dataset1 * * /GroupA/GroupB/GroupC/Dataset1 * * Since an HDF5 file is a directed graph structure, and is therefore not limited to a strict tree * structure, and since this illustrated file includes the sort of circular reference that a directed graph * enables, Dataset1 can also be identified by this absolute path name: * /GroupA/GroupB/GroupC/GroupA/Dataset1 * * Alternatively, if the current working location is GroupB, Dataset1 can be identified by either of * these relative path names: * GroupC/Dataset1 * * GroupC/GroupA/Dataset1 * * Note that relative path names in HDF5 do not employ the ../ notation, the UNIX notation * indicating a parent directory, to indicate a parent group. * * * * * *
* \image html Groups_fig2.gif "A file with a circular reference" *
* * \subsubsection subsubsec_group_descr_impl Group Implementations in HDF5 * The original HDF5 group implementation provided a single indexed structure for link storage. A * new group implementation, as of HDF5 Release 1.8.0, enables more efficient compact storage * for very small groups, improved link indexing for large groups, and other advanced features. * * * The original group structure and the newer structures are not directly interoperable. By default, a * group will be created in the original indexed format. An existing group can be changed to a * compact-or-indexed format if the need arises; there is no capability to change back. As stated * above, once in the compact-or-indexed format, a group can switch between compact and indexed * as needed. * * Groups will be initially created in the compact-or-indexed format only when one or more of the * following conditions is met: * * * An existing group, currently in the original indexed format, will be converted to the compact-or- * indexed format upon the occurrence of any of the following events: * * * The compact-or-indexed format offers performance improvements that will be most notable at * the extremes (for example, in groups with zero members and in groups with tens of thousands of * members). But measurable differences may sometimes appear at a threshold as low as eight * group members. Since these performance thresholds and criteria differ from application to * application, tunable settings are provided to govern the switch between the compact and indexed * formats (see #H5Pset_link_phase_change). Optimal thresholds will depend on the application and * the operating environment. * * Future versions of HDF5 will retain the ability to create, read, write, and manipulate all groups * stored in either the original indexed format or the compact-or-indexed format. * * \subsection subsec_group_h5dump Using h5dump * You can use h5dump, the command-line utility distributed with HDF5, to examine a file for * purposes either of determining where to create an object within an HDF5 file or to verify that * you have created an object in the intended place. * * In the case of the new group created later in this chapter, the following h5dump command will * display the contents of FileA.h5: * \code * h5dump FileA.h5 * \endcode * * For more information, @see @ref subsubsec_group_program_create. * * Assuming that the discussed objects, GroupA and GroupB are the only objects that exist in * FileA.h5, the output will look something like the following: * \code * HDF5 "FileA.h5" { * GROUP "/" { * GROUP GroupA { * GROUP GroupB { * } * } * } * } * \endcode * * h5dump is described on the “HDF5 Tools” page of the \ref RM. * * The HDF5 DDL grammar is described in the @ref DDLBNF110. * * \subsection subsec_group_function Group Function Summaries * Functions that can be used with groups (\ref H5G functions) and property list functions that can used * with groups (\ref H5P functions) are listed below. A number of group functions have been * deprecated. Most of these have become link (\ref H5L) or object (\ref H5O) functions. These replacement * functions are also listed below. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Group functions
FunctionPurpose
#H5GcreateCreates a new empty group and gives it a name. The * C function is a macro: \see \ref api-compat-macros.
#H5Gcreate_anonCreates a new empty group without linking it into the file structure.
#H5GopenOpens an existing group for modification and returns a group identifier for that group. * The C function is a macro: \see \ref api-compat-macros.
#H5GcloseCloses the specified group.
#H5Gget_create_plistGets a group creation property list identifier.
#H5Gget_infoRetrieves information about a group. Use instead of H5Gget_num_objs.
#H5Gget_info_by_idxRetrieves information about a group according to the group’s position within an index.
#H5Gget_info_by_nameRetrieves information about a group.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Link and object functions
FunctionPurpose
#H5Lcreate_hardCreates a hard link to an object. Replaces H5Glink and H5Glink2.
#H5Lcreate_softCreates a soft link to an object. Replaces H5Glink and H5Glink2.
#H5Lcreate_externalCreates a soft link to an object in a different file. Replaces H5Glink and H5Glink2.
#H5Lcreate_udCreates a link of a user-defined type.
#H5Lget_valReturns the value of a symbolic link. Replaces H5Gget_linkval.
#H5LiterateIterates through links in a group. Replaces H5Giterate. * See also #H5Ovisit and #H5Lvisit.
#H5Literate_by_nameIterates through links in a group.
#H5LvisitRecursively visits all links starting from a specified group.
#H5OvisitRecursively visits all objects accessible from a specified object.
#H5Lget_infoReturns information about a link. Replaces H5Gget_objinfo.
#H5Oget_infoRetrieves the metadata for an object specified by an identifier. Replaces H5Gget_objinfo.
#H5Lget_name_by_idxRetrieves name of the nth link in a group, according to the order within a specified field * or index. Replaces H5Gget_objname_by_idx.
#H5Oget_info_by_idxRetrieves the metadata for an object, identifying the object by an index position. Replaces * H5Gget_objtype_by_idx.
#H5Oget_info_by_nameRetrieves the metadata for an object, identifying the object by location and relative name.
#H5Oset_commentSets the comment for specified object. Replaces H5Gset_comment.
#H5Oget_commentGets the comment for specified object. Replaces H5Gget_comment.
#H5LdeleteRemoves a link from a group. Replaces H5Gunlink.
#H5LmoveRenames a link within an HDF5 file. Replaces H5Gmove and H5Gmove2.
* * \snippet{doc} tables/propertyLists.dox gcpl_table * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Other external link functions
FunctionPurpose
#H5Pset_elink_file_cache_sizeSets the size of the external link open file cache from the specified * file access property list.
#H5Pget_elink_file_cache_sizeRetrieves the size of the external link open file cache from the specified * file access property list.
#H5Fclear_elink_file_cacheClears the external link open file cache for a file.
* * \subsection subsec_group_program Programming Model for Groups * The programming model for working with groups is as follows: *
  1. Create a new group or open an existing one.
  2. *
  3. Perform the desired operations on the group. * *
  4. Terminate access to the group (Close the group).
* * \subsubsection subsubsec_group_program_create Creating a Group * To create a group, use #H5Gcreate, specifying the location and the path of the new group. The * location is the identifier of the file or the group in a file with respect to which the new group is to * be identified. The path is a string that provides either an absolute path or a relative path to the * new group. For more information, @see @ref subsubsec_group_descr_path. * * A path that begins with a slash (/) is * an absolute path indicating that it locates the new group from the root group of the HDF5 file. A * path that begins with any other character is a relative path. When the location is a file, a relative * path is a path from that file’s root group; when the location is a group, a relative path is a path * from that group. * * The sample code in the example below creates three groups. The group Data is created in the * root directory; two groups are then created in /Data, one with absolute path, the other with a * relative path. * * Creating three new groups * \code * hid_t file; * file = H5Fopen(....); * * group = H5Gcreate(file, "/Data", H5P_DEFAULT, H5P_DEFAULT, H5P_DEFAULT); * group_new1 = H5Gcreate(file, "/Data/Data_new1", H5P_DEFAULT, H5P_DEFAULT, H5P_DEFAULT); * group_new2 = H5Gcreate(group, "Data_new2", H5P_DEFAULT, H5P_DEFAULT, H5P_DEFAULT); * \endcode * The third #H5Gcreate parameter optionally specifies how much file space to reserve to store the * names that will appear in this group. If a non-positive value is supplied, a default size is chosen. * * \subsubsection subsubsec_group_program_open Opening a Group and Accessing an Object in that Group * Though it is not always necessary, it is often useful to explicitly open a group when working * with objects in that group. Using the file created in the example above, the example below * illustrates the use of a previously-acquired file identifier and a path relative to that file to open * the group Data. * * Any object in a group can be also accessed by its absolute or relative path. To open an object * using a relative path, an application must first open the group or file on which that relative path * is based. To open an object using an absolute path, the application can use any location identifier * in the same file as the target object; the file identifier is commonly used, but object identifier for * any object in that file will work. Both of these approaches are illustrated in the example below. * * Using the file created in the examples above, the example below provides sample code * illustrating the use of both relative and absolute paths to access an HDF5 data object. The first * sequence (two function calls) uses a previously-acquired file identifier to open the group Data, * and then uses the returned group identifier and a relative path to open the dataset CData. The * second approach (one function call) uses the same previously-acquired file identifier and an * absolute path to open the same dataset. * * Open a dataset with relative and absolute paths * \code * group = H5Gopen(file, "Data", H5P_DEFAULT); * * dataset1 = H5Dopen(group, "CData", H5P_DEFAULT); * dataset2 = H5Dopen(file, "/Data/CData", H5P_DEFAULT); * \endcode * * \subsubsection subsubsec_group_program_dataset Creating a Dataset in a Specific Group * Any dataset must be created in a particular group. As with groups, a dataset may be created in a * particular group by specifying its absolute path or a relative path. The example below illustrates * both approaches to creating a dataset in the group /Data. * * Create a dataset with absolute and relative paths * \code * dataspace = H5Screate_simple(RANK, dims, NULL); * dataset1 = H5Dcreate(file, "/Data/CData", H5T_NATIVE_INT, dataspace, * H5P_DEFAULT, H5P_DEFAULT, H5P_DEFAULT); * group = H5Gopen(file, "Data", H5P_DEFAULT); * dataset2 = H5Dcreate(group, "Cdata2", H5T_NATIVE_INT, dataspace, * H5P_DEFAULT, H5P_DEFAULT, H5P_DEFAULT); * \endcode * * \subsubsection subsubsec_group_program_close Closing a Group * To ensure the integrity of HDF5 objects and to release system resources, an application should * always call the appropriate close function when it is through working with an HDF5 object. In * the case of groups, H5Gclose ends access to the group and releases any resources the HDF5 * library has maintained in support of that access, including the group identifier. * * As illustrated in the example below, all that is required for an H5Gclose call is the group * identifier acquired when the group was opened; there are no relative versus absolute path * considerations. * * Close a group * \code * herr_t status; * * status = H5Gclose(group); * \endcode * * A non-negative return value indicates that the group was successfully closed and the resources * released; a negative return value indicates that the attempt to close the group or release resources * failed. * * \subsubsection subsubsec_group_program_links Creating Links * As previously mentioned, every object is created in a specific group. Once created, an object can * be made a member of additional groups by means of links created with one of the H5Lcreate_* * functions. * * A link is, in effect, a path by which the target object can be accessed; it therefore has a name * which functions as a single path component. A link can be removed with an #H5Ldelete call, * effectively removing the target object from the group that contained the link (assuming, of * course, that the removed link was the only link to the target object in the group). * *

Hard Links

* There are two kinds of links, hard links and symbolic links. Hard links are reference counted; * symbolic links are not. When an object is created, a hard link is automatically created. An object * can be deleted from the file by removing all the hard links to it. * * Working with the file from the previous examples, the code in the example below illustrates the * creation of a hard link, named Data_link, in the root group, /, to the group Data. Once that link is * created, the dataset Cdata can be accessed via either of two absolute paths, /Data/Cdata or * /Data_Link/Cdata. * * Create a hard link * \code * status = H5Lcreate_hard(Data_loc_id, "Data", DataLink_loc_id, "Data_link", H5P_DEFAULT, H5P_DEFAULT); * * dataset1 = H5Dopen(file, "/Data_link/CData", H5P_DEFAULT); * dataset2 = H5Dopen(file, "/Data/CData", H5P_DEFAULT); * \endcode * * The example below shows example code to delete a link, deleting the hard link Data from the * root group. The group /Data and its members are still in the file, but they can no longer be * accessed via a path using the component /Data. * * Delete a link * \code * status = H5Ldelete(Data_loc_id, "Data", H5P_DEFAULT); * * dataset1 = H5Dopen(file, "/Data_link/CData", H5P_DEFAULT); * // This call should succeed; all path components still exist * dataset2 = H5Dopen(file, "/Data/CData", H5P_DEFAULT); * // This call will fail; the path component '/Data' has been deleted. * \endcode * * When the last hard link to an object is deleted, the object is no longer accessible. #H5Ldelete will * not prevent you from deleting the last link to an object. To see if an object has only one link, use * the #H5Oget_info function. If the value of the rc (reference count) field in the is greater than 1, * then the link can be deleted without making the object inaccessible. * * The example below shows #H5Oget_info to the group originally called Data. * * Finding the number of links to an object * \code * status = H5Oget_info(Data_loc_id, object_info); * \endcode * * It is possible to delete the last hard link to an object and not make the object inaccessible. * Suppose your application opens a dataset, and then deletes the last hard link to the dataset. While * the dataset is open, your application still has a connection to the dataset. If your application * creates a hard link to the dataset before it closes the dataset, then the dataset will still be * accessible. * *

Symbolic Links

* Symbolic links are objects that assign a name in a group to a path. Notably, the target object is * determined only when the symbolic link is accessed, and may, in fact, not exist. Symbolic links * are not reference counted, so there may be zero, one, or more symbolic links to an object. * * The major types of symbolic links are soft links and external links. Soft links are symbolic links * within an HDF5 file and are created with the #H5Lcreate_soft function. Symbolic links to objects * located in external files, in other words external links, can be created with the * #H5Lcreate_external function. Symbolic links are removed with the #H5Ldelete function. * * The example below shows the creating two soft links to the group /Data. * * Create a soft link * \code * status = H5Lcreate_soft(path_to_target, link_loc_id, "Soft2", H5P_DEFAULT, H5P_DEFAULT); * status = H5Lcreate_soft(path_to_target, link_loc_id, "Soft3", H5P_DEFAULT, H5P_DEFAULT); * dataset = H5Dopen(file, "/Soft2/CData", H5P_DEFAULT); * \endcode * * With the soft links defined in the example above, the dataset CData in the group /Data can now * be opened with any of the names /Data/CData, /Soft2/CData, or /Soft3/CData. * * In release 1.8.7, a cache was added to hold the names of files accessed via external links. The * size of this cache can be changed to help improve performance. For more information, see the * entry in the \ref RM for the #H5Pset_elink_file_cache_size function call. * *

Note Regarding Hard Links and Soft Links

* Note that an object’s existence in a file is governed by the presence of at least one hard link to * that object. If the last hard link to an object is removed, the object is removed from the file and * any remaining soft link becomes a dangling link, a link whose target object does not exist. * *

Moving or Renaming Objects, and a Warning

* An object can be renamed by changing the name of a link to it with #H5Lmove. This has the same * effect as creating a new link with the new name and deleting the link with the old name. * * Exercise caution in the use of #H5Lmove and #H5Ldelete as these functions each include a step * that unlinks a pointer to an HDF5 object. If the link that is removed is on the only path leading to * an HDF5 object, that object will become permanently inaccessible in the file. * *
Scenario 1: Removing the Last Link
* To avoid removing the last link to an object or otherwise making an object inaccessible, use the * #H5Oget_info function. Make sure that the value of the reference count field (rc) is greater than 1. * *
Scenario 2: Moving a Link that Isolates an Object
* Consider the following example: assume that the group group2 can only be accessed via the * following path, where top_group is a member of the file’s root group: * /top_group/group1/group2/ * * Using #H5Lmove, top_group is renamed to be a member ofgroup2. At this point, since * top_group was the only route from the root group to group1, there is no longer a path by which * one can access group1, group2, or any member datasets. And since top_group is now a member * of group2, top_group itself and any member datasets have thereby also become inaccessible. * *

Mounting a File

* An external link is a permanent connection between two files. A temporary connection can be set * up with the #H5Fmount function. For more information, @see sec_file. * For more information, see the #H5Fmount function in the \ref RM. * * \subsubsection subsubsec_group_program_info Discovering Information about Objects * There is often a need to retrieve information about a particular object. The #H5Lget_info and * #H5Oget_info functions fill this niche by returning a description of the object or link in an * #H5L_info_t or #H5O_info_t structure. * * \subsubsection subsubsec_group_program_objs Discovering Objects in a Group * To examine all the objects or links in a group, use the #H5Literate or #H5Ovisit functions to * examine the objects, and use the #H5Lvisit function to examine the links. #H5Literate is useful * both with a single group and in an iterative process that examines an entire file or section of a * file (such as the contents of a group or the contents of all the groups that are members of that * group) and acts on objects as they are encountered. #H5Ovisit recursively visits all objects * accessible from a specified object. #H5Lvisit recursively visits all the links starting from a * specified group. * * \subsubsection subsubsec_group_program_all Discovering All of the Objects in the File * The structure of an HDF5 file is self-describing, meaning that an application can navigate an * HDF5 file to discover and understand all the objects it contains. This is an iterative process * wherein the structure is traversed as a graph, starting at one node and recursively visiting linked * nodes. To explore the entire file, the traversal should start at the root group. * * \subsection subsec_group_examples Examples of File Structures * This section presents several samples of HDF5 file structures. * * Figure 9 shows examples of the structure of a file with three groups and one dataset. The file in * part a contains three groups: the root group and two member groups. In part b, the dataset * dset1 has been created in /group1. In part c, a link named dset2 from /group2 to the dataset has * been added. Note that there is only one copy of the dataset; there are two links to it and it can be * accessed either as /group1/dset1 or as /group2/dset2. * * Part d illustrates that one of the two links to the dataset can be deleted. In this case, the link from * /group1 * has been removed. The dataset itself has not been deleted; it is still in the file but can only be * accessed as * /group2/dset2 * * * * * * * * * * * *
Figure 9 - Some file structures
* \image html Groups_fig9_a.gif "a) The file contains three groups: the root group, /group1, and /group2." * * \image html Groups_fig9_b.gif "b) The dataset dset1 (or /group1/dset1) is created in /group1." *
* \image html Groups_fig9_aa.gif "c) A link named dset2 to the same dataset is created in /group2." * * \image html Groups_fig9_bb.gif "d) The link from /group1 to dset1 is removed. The dataset is * still in the file, but can be accessed only as /group2/dset2." *
* * Figure 10 illustrates loops in an HDF5 file structure. The file in part a contains three groups * and a dataset; group2 is a member of the root group and of the root group’s other member group, * group1. group2 thus can be accessed by either of two paths: /group2 or /group1/GXX. Similarly, * the dataset can be accessed either as /group2/dset1 or as /group1/GXX/dset1. * * Part b illustrates a different case: the dataset is a member of a single group but with two links, or * names, in that group. In this case, the dataset again has two names, /group1/dset1 and * /group1/dset2. * * In part c, the dataset dset1 is a member of two groups, one of which can be accessed by either of * two names. The dataset thus has three path names: /group1/dset1, /group2/dset2, and * /group1/GXX/dset2. * * And in part d, two of the groups are members of each other and the dataset is a member of both * groups. In this case, there are an infinite number of paths to the dataset because GXX and * GYY can be traversed any number of times on the way from the root group, /, to the dataset. This * can yield a path name such as /group1/GXX/GYY/GXX/GYY/GXX/dset2. * * * * * * * * * * * *
Figure 10 - More sample file structures
* \image html Groups_fig10_a.gif "a) dset1 has two names: /group2/dset1 and /group1/GXX/dset1." * * \image html Groups_fig10_b.gif "b) dset1 again has two names: /group1/dset1 and /group1/dset2." *
* \image html Groups_fig10_c.gif "c) dset1 has three names: /group1/dset1, /group2/dset2, and * /group1/GXX/dset2." * * \image html Groups_fig10_d.gif "d) dset1 has an infinite number of available path names." *
* * Figure 11 takes us into the realm of soft links. The original file, in part a, contains only three * hard links. In part b, a soft link named dset2 from group2 to /group1/dset1 has been created, * making this dataset accessible as /group2/dset2. * * In part c, another soft link has been created in group2. But this time the soft link, dset3, points * to a target object that does not yet exist. That target object, dset, has been added in part d and is * now accessible as either /group2/dset or /group2/dset3. * * It could be said that HDF5 extends the organizing concepts of a file system to the internal * structure of a single file. * * * * * * * * * * * *
Figure 11 - Hard and soft links
* \image html Groups_fig11_a.gif "a) The file contains only hard links." * * \image html Groups_fig11_b.gif "b) A soft link is added from group2 to /group1/dset1." *
* \image html Groups_fig11_c.gif "c) A soft link named dset3 is added with a target that does not yet exist." * * \image html Groups_fig11_d.gif "d) The target of the soft link is created or linked." *
* * Previous Chapter \ref sec_file - Next Chapter \ref sec_dataset * */ /** * \defgroup H5G Groups (H5G) * * Use the functions in this module to manage HDF5 groups. * * * * * * * * * * * *
CreateRead
* \snippet{lineno} H5G_examples.c create * * \snippet{lineno} H5G_examples.c read *
UpdateDelete
* \snippet{lineno} H5G_examples.c update * * \snippet{lineno} H5G_examples.c delete *
* * \details \Bold{Groups in HDF5:} 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 an out-degree greater than zero) * must be groups, while the leaf nodes (nodes with an 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 * superblock. * * \Bold{Locating objects in the HDF5 file hierarchy:} 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 at the location specified by the * create or access function. * * \Bold{Group implementations in HDF5:} The original HDF5 group * implementation provided a single-indexed structure for link * storage. A new group implementation, in HDF5 Release 1.8.0, enables * more efficient compact storage for very small groups, improved link * indexing for large groups, and other advanced features. * * \li The \Emph{original indexed} format remains the default. Links * are stored in a B-tree in the group’s local heap. * \li Groups created in the new \Emph{compact-or-indexed} format, the * implementation introduced with Release 1.8.0, can be tuned for * performance, switching between the compact and indexed formats * at thresholds set in the user application. * - The \Emph{compact} format will conserve file space and processing * overhead when working with small groups and is particularly * valuable when a group contains no links. Links are stored * as a list of messages in the group’s header. * - The \Emph{indexed} format will yield improved * performance when working with large groups, e.g., groups * containing thousands to millions of members. Links are stored in * a fractal heap and indexed with an improved B-tree. * \li The new implementation also enables the use of link names consisting of * non-ASCII character sets (see #H5Pset_char_encoding) and is * required for all link types other than hard or soft links, e.g., * external and user-defined links (see the \ref H5L APIs). * * The original group structure and the newer structures are not * directly interoperable. By default, a group will be created in the * original indexed format. An existing group can be changed to a * compact-or-indexed format if the need arises; there is no capability * to change back. As stated above, once in the compact-or-indexed * format, a group can switch between compact and indexed as needed. * * Groups will be initially created in the compact-or-indexed format * only when one or more of the following conditions is met: * \li The low version bound value of the library version bounds property * has been set to Release 1.8.0 or later in the file access property * list (see H5Pset_libver_bounds()). Currently, that would require an * H5Pset_libver_bounds() call with the low parameter set to * #H5F_LIBVER_LATEST.\n When this property is set for an HDF5 file, * all objects in the file will be created using the latest available * format; no effort will be made to create a file that can be read by * older libraries. * \li The creation order tracking property, #H5P_CRT_ORDER_TRACKED, has been * set in the group creation property list (see H5Pset_link_creation_order()). * * An existing group, currently in the original indexed format, will be * converted to the compact-or-indexed format upon the occurrence of * any of the following events: * \li An external or user-defined link is inserted into the group. * \li A link named with a string composed of non-ASCII characters is * inserted into the group. * * The compact-or-indexed format offers performance improvements that * will be most notable at the extremes, i.e., in groups with zero * members and in groups with tens of thousands of members. But * measurable differences may sometimes appear at a threshold as low as * eight group members. Since these performance thresholds and criteria * differ from application to application, tunable settings are * provided to govern the switch between the compact and indexed * formats (see H5Pset_link_phase_change()). Optimal thresholds will * depend on the application and the operating environment. * * Future versions of HDF5 will retain the ability to create, read, * write, and manipulate all groups stored in either the original * indexed format or the compact-or-indexed format. * */ #endif /* H5Gmodule_H */