summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/doc/html/ADGuide/Changes.html
blob: f6601b18b2c8b88daa3425465721e5bd6e688f6f (plain)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
731
732
733
734
735
736
737
738
739
740
741
742
743
744
745
746
747
748
749
750
751
752
753
754
755
756
757
758
759
760
761
762
763
764
765
766
767
768
769
770
771
772
773
774
775
776
777
778
779
780
781
782
783
784
785
786
787
788
789
790
791
792
793
794
795
796
797
798
799
800
801
802
803
804
805
806
807
808
809
810
811
812
813
814
815
816
817
818
819
820
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
828
829
830
831
832
833
834
835
836
837
838
839
840
841
842
843
844
845
846
847
848
849
850
851
852
853
854
855
856
857
858
859
860
861
862
863
864
865
866
867
868
869
870
871
872
873
874
875
876
877
878
879
880
881
882
883
884
885
886
887
888
889
890
891
892
893
894
895
896
897
898
899
900
901
902
903
904
905
906
907
908
909
910
911
912
913
914
915
916
917
918
919
920
921
922
923
924
925
926
927
928
929
930
931
932
933
934
935
936
937
938
939
940
941
942
943
944
945
946
947
948
949
950
951
952
953
954
955
956
957
958
959
960
961
962
963
964
965
966
967
968
969
970
971
972
973
974
975
976
977
978
979
980
981
982
983
984
985
986
987
988
989
990
991
992
993
994
995
996
997
998
999
1000
1001
1002
1003
1004
1005
1006
1007
1008
1009
1010
1011
1012
1013
1014
1015
1016
1017
1018
1019
1020
1021
1022
1023
1024
1025
1026
1027
1028
1029
1030
1031
1032
1033
1034
1035
1036
1037
1038
1039
1040
1041
1042
1043
1044
1045
1046
1047
1048
1049
1050
1051
1052
1053
1054
1055
1056
1057
1058
1059
1060
1061
1062
1063
1064
1065
1066
1067
1068
1069
1070
1071
1072
1073
1074
1075
1076
1077
1078
1079
1080
1081
1082
1083
1084
1085
1086
1087
1088
1089
1090
1091
1092
1093
1094
1095
1096
1097
1098
1099
1100
1101
1102
1103
1104
1105
1106
1107
1108
1109
1110
1111
1112
1113
1114
1115
1116
1117
1118
1119
1120
1121
1122
1123
1124
1125
1126
1127
1128
1129
1130
1131
1132
1133
1134
1135
1136
1137
1138
1139
1140
1141
1142
1143
1144
1145
1146
1147
1148
1149
1150
1151
1152
1153
1154
1155
1156
1157
1158
1159
1160
1161
1162
1163
1164
1165
1166
1167
1168
1169
1170
1171
1172
1173
1174
1175
1176
1177
1178
1179
1180
1181
1182
1183
1184
1185
1186
1187
1188
1189
1190
1191
1192
1193
1194
1195
1196
1197
1198
1199
1200
1201
1202
1203
1204
1205
1206
1207
1208
1209
1210
1211
1212
1213
1214
1215
1216
1217
1218
1219
1220
1221
1222
1223
1224
1225
1226
1227
1228
1229
1230
1231
1232
1233
1234
1235
1236
1237
1238
1239
1240
1241
1242
1243
1244
1245
1246
1247
1248
1249
1250
1251
1252
1253
1254
1255
1256
1257
1258
1259
1260
1261
1262
1263
1264
1265
1266
1267
1268
1269
1270
1271
1272
1273
1274
1275
1276
1277
1278
1279
1280
1281
1282
1283
1284
1285
1286
1287
1288
1289
1290
1291
1292
1293
1294
1295
1296
1297
1298
1299
1300
1301
1302
1303
1304
1305
1306
1307
1308
1309
1310
1311
1312
1313
1314
1315
1316
1317
1318
1319
1320
1321
1322
1323
1324
1325
1326
1327
1328
1329
1330
1331
1332
1333
1334
1335
1336
1337
1338
1339
1340
1341
1342
1343
1344
1345
1346
1347
1348
1349
1350
1351
1352
1353
1354
1355
1356
1357
1358
1359
1360
1361
1362
1363
1364
1365
1366
1367
1368
1369
1370
1371
1372
1373
1374
1375
1376
1377
1378
1379
1380
1381
1382
1383
1384
1385
1386
1387
1388
1389
1390
1391
1392
1393
1394
1395
1396
1397
1398
1399
1400
1401
1402
1403
1404
1405
1406
1407
1408
1409
1410
1411
1412
1413
1414
1415
1416
1417
1418
1419
1420
1421
1422
1423
1424
1425
1426
1427
1428
1429
1430
1431
1432
1433
1434
1435
1436
1437
1438
1439
1440
1441
1442
1443
1444
1445
1446
1447
1448
1449
1450
1451
1452
1453
1454
1455
1456
1457
1458
1459
1460
1461
1462
1463
1464
1465
1466
1467
1468
1469
1470
1471
1472
1473
1474
1475
1476
1477
1478
1479
1480
1481
1482
1483
1484
1485
1486
1487
1488
1489
1490
1491
1492
1493
1494
1495
1496
1497
1498
1499
1500
1501
1502
1503
1504
1505
1506
1507
1508
1509
1510
1511
1512
1513
1514
1515
1516
1517
1518
1519
1520
1521
1522
1523
1524
1525
1526
1527
1528
1529
1530
1531
1532
1533
1534
1535
1536
1537
1538
1539
1540
1541
1542
1543
1544
1545
1546
1547
1548
1549
1550
1551
1552
1553
1554
1555
1556
1557
1558
1559
1560
1561
1562
1563
1564
1565
1566
1567
1568
1569
1570
1571
1572
1573
<html>
  <head>
    <title>HDF5 Software Changes</title>
  </head>

  <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF">


<hr>
<center>
<table border=0 width=98%>
<tr><td valign=top align=left>
   <a href="../index.html">HDF5 documents and links</a>&nbsp;<br>
   <a href="../H5.intro.html">Introduction to HDF5</a>&nbsp;<br>
   <a href="../RM_H5Front.html">HDF5 Reference Manual</a>&nbsp;<br>
   <!--
   <a href="../Glossary.html">Glossary</a><br>
   -->
</td>
<td valign=top align=right>
   <br>
   <a href="../H5.user.html">HDF5 User's Guide</a>&nbsp;<br>
   <a href="../ADGuide.html">HDF5 Application Developer's Guide</a>&nbsp;
</td></tr>
</table>
</center>
<hr>


<center>
<h1>HDF5 Software Changes from Release to Release</h1>
</center>

This document is intended to assist application developers who must keep 
an application synchroniaed with the HDF5 library or related software.


<h2>Release 1.4 (current release)</h2> 

<!--                                                  -->
<!--   insert the file hdf5/RELEASE in this section   -->
<!--   insert the file hdf5/HISTORY in next section   -->
<!--                                                  -->


<dir>

    Several functions were added to or removed from the HDF5 library
    in the development of Release 1.4.
    A few functions have been modified in minor ways.

    <h3>New Functions</h3>
        The following functions are new for Release 1.4 and are included in the
        <a href="../RM_H5Front.html"><cite>HDF5 Reference Manual</cite></a>.

<dir>
<pre>
herr_t <font color=red>H5Dvlen_get_buf_size</font> (hid_t dataset_id, hid_t type_id, 
           hid_t space_id, hsize_t *size);
herr_t <font color=red>H5Epush</font> (const char *file, const char *func,
           unsigned line, H5E_major_t maj, H5E_minor_t min, 
           const char *str);
hid_t <font color=red>H5Pget_driver</font> (hid_t plist_id);
void *<font color=red>H5Pget_driver_info</font> (hid_t plist_id);
herr_t <font color=red>H5Pget_dxpl_mpio</font> (hid_t dxpl_id, 
           H5FD_mpio_xfer_t *xfer_mode/*out*/);
herr_t <font color=red>H5Pget_dxpl_multi</font> (hid_t dxpl_id, 
           hid_t *memb_dxpl/*out*/);
herr_t <font color=red>H5Pget_fapl_core</font> (hid_t fapl_id, size_t *increment/*out*/,
           hbool_t *backing_store/*out*/) 
herr_t <font color=red>H5Pget_fapl_family</font> (hid_t fapl_id, 
           hsize_t *memb_size/*out*/, hid_t *memb_fapl_id/*out*/);
herr_t <font color=red>H5Pget_fapl_mpio</font> (hid_t fapl_id, MPI_Comm *comm/*out*/,
           MPI_Info *info/*out*/);
herr_t <font color=red>H5Pget_fapl_multi</font> (hid_t fapl_id, 
           H5FD_mem_t *memb_map/*out*/, hid_t *memb_fapl/*out*/, 
           char **memb_name/*out*/, haddr_t *memb_addr/*out*/, 
           hbool_t *relax/*out*/);
herr_t <font color=red>H5Pget_fapl_stream</font> (hid_t fapl_id,
           H5FD_stream_fapl_t *fapl /*out*/ );
herr_t <font color=red>H5Pget_meta_block_size</font> (hid_t fapl_id, 
           hsize_t *size/*out*/);
herr_t <font color=red>H5Pget_sieve_buf_size</font> (hid_t fapl_id, 
           hsize_t *size/*out*/);
herr_t <font color=red>H5Pset_driver</font> (hid_t plist_id, hid_t driver_id,
           const void *driver_info);
herr_t <font color=red>H5Pset_dxpl_mpio</font> (hid_t dxpl_id, 
           H5FD_mpio_xfer_t xfer_mode);
herr_t <font color=red>H5Pset_dxpl_multi</font> (hid_t dxpl_id, 
           const hid_t *memb_dxpl);
herr_t <font color=red>H5Pset_fapl_core</font> (hid_t fapl_id, size_t increment, 
           hbool_t backing_store)
herr_t <font color=red>H5Pset_fapl_family</font> (hid_t fapl_id, hsize_t memb_size,
           hid_t memb_fapl_id);
herr_t <font color=red>H5Pset_fapl_log</font> (hid_t fapl_id, char *logfile, 
           int verbosity);
herr_t <font color=red>H5Pset_fapl_mpio</font> (hid_t fapl_id, MPI_Comm comm, 
           MPI_Info info);
herr_t <font color=red>H5Pset_fapl_multi</font> (hid_t fapl_id, 
           const H5FD_mem_t *memb_map, const hid_t *memb_fapl, 
           const char **memb_name, const haddr_t *memb_addr, 
           hbool_t relax);
herr_t <font color=red>H5Pset_fapl_sec2</font> (hid_t fapl_id);
herr_t <font color=red>H5Pset_fapl_split</font> (hid_t fapl, const char *meta_ext,
           hid_t meta_plist_id, const char *raw_ext,
           hid_t raw_plist_id);
herr_t <font color=red>H5Pset_fapl_stdio</font> (hid_t fapl_id);
herr_t <font color=red>H5Pset_fapl_stream</font> (hid_t fapl_id,
           H5FD_stream_fapl_t *fapl);
herr_t <font color=red>H5Pset_meta_block_size</font>(hid_t fapl_id, hsize_t size);
herr_t <font color=red>H5Pset_sieve_buf_size</font>(hid_t fapl_id, hsize_t size);
hid_t <font color=red>H5Tarray_create</font> (hid_t base, int rank, const hsize_t dims[], 
           const int perm[])
int <font color=red>H5Tget_array_dims</font> (hid_t adtype_id, hsize_t *dims[], int *perm[])
int <font color=red>H5Tget_array_ndims</font> (hid_t adtype_id)
</pre>
</dir>


        <p>
        The following functions are new for Release 1.4, but 
        are intended only for use in specialized environments.
        These are also included in the
        <a href="../RM_H5Front.html"><cite>HDF5 Reference Manual</cite></a>.

<dir>
<pre>
herr_t <font color=red>H5Pget_fapl_dpss</font> (hid_t fapl_id);
herr_t <font color=red>H5Pget_fapl_gass</font> (hid_t fapl_id, GASS_Info *info/*out*/);
herr_t <font color=red>H5Pget_fapl_srb</font> (hid_t fapl_id, SRB_Info *info);
herr_t <font color=red>H5Pset_fapl_dpss</font> (hid_t fapl_id);
herr_t <font color=red>H5Pset_fapl_gass</font> (hid_t fapl_id, GASS_Info info);
herr_t <font color=red>H5Pset_fapl_srb</font> (hid_t fapl_id, SRB_Info info);
</pre>
</dir>


        <p>
        The following functions are new for Release 1.4 but are intended 
        only for driver development work, not for general use.  
        They are listed in the
        <a href="../TechNotes/VFLfunc.html"><cite>List of VFL Functions</cite></a>
        document in the 
        <a href="../TechNotes.html"><cite>HDF5 Technical Notes</cite></a>.
        They are described in detail only in the source code and 
        do not appear in the <cite>HDF5 Reference Manual</cite>.

<dir>
<pre>
haddr_t <font color=red>H5FDalloc</font> (H5FD_t *file, H5FD_mem_t type, 
          hsize_t size);
herr_t <font color=red>H5FDclose</font> (H5FD_t *file);
int <font color=red>H5FDcmp</font> (const H5FD_t *f1, const H5FD_t *f2);
herr_t <font color=red>H5FDflush</font> (H5FD_t *file);
herr_t <font color=red>H5FDfree</font> (H5FD_t *file, H5FD_mem_t type, 
          haddr_t addr, hsize_t size);
haddr_t <font color=red>H5FDget_eoa</font> (H5FD_t *file);
haddr_t <font color=red>H5FDget_eof</font> (H5FD_t *file);
H5FD_t *<font color=red>H5FDopen</font> (const char *name, unsigned flags, 
          hid_t fapl_id, haddr_t maxaddr);
int <font color=red>H5FDquery</font> (const H5FD_t *f, unsigned long *flags);
herr_t <font color=red>H5FDread</font> (H5FD_t *file, hid_t dxpl_id, haddr_t addr, 
          hsize_t size, void *buf/*out*/);
haddr_t <font color=red>H5FDrealloc</font> (H5FD_t *file, H5FD_mem_t type, 
          haddr_t addr, hsize_t old_size, hsize_t new_size);
hid_t <font color=red>H5FDregister</font> (const H5FD_class_t *cls);
herr_t <font color=red>H5FDset_eoa</font> (H5FD_t *file, haddr_t eof);
herr_t <font color=red>H5FDunregister</font> (hid_t driver_id);
herr_t <font color=red>H5FDwrite</font> (H5FD_t *file, H5FD_mem_t type, 
          hid_t dxpl_id, haddr_t addr, hsize_t size, 
          const void *buf);
</pre>
</dir>


    <h3>Deleted Functions</h3>
        The following functions have been removed from the HDF5 library
        and from the <cite>HDF5 Reference Manual</cite>.
        <dir>
        <table>
        <tr valign=top align=left><td>
<pre>
H5Pget_core
H5Pget_driver
H5Pget_family
H5Pget_mpi
H5Pget_sec2
H5Pget_split
H5Pget_stdio
H5Pget_xfer
</pre>
        </td><td>
        &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
        </td><td>
<pre>
H5Pset_core
H5Pset_family
H5Pset_mpi
H5Pset_sec2
H5Pset_split
H5Pset_stdio
H5Pset_xfer
</pre>
        </td><td>
        &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
        </td><td>
<pre>
H5RAclose
H5RAcreate
H5RAopen
H5RAread
H5RAwrite
H5Tget_member_dims
H5Tinsert_array
</pre>
        </td></tr>
        </table>
        </dir>
        Note that the entire H5RA interface, an esperimental interface for 
        ragged arrays, has been removed from the library.


    <h3>Functions with Changed Syntax</h3>
        The following functions have changed slightly.
        <dir>
        <dl>
        <dt><code>H5Pget_buffer</code>
          <dd>Return type has changed to <em>hsize_t</em>.
        <dt><code>H5Pset_buffer</code>
          <dd>The type of the <code>size</code> parameter has changed 
              to <em>hsize_t</em>.
        <dt><code>H5Tconvert</code>
          <dd>The type of the <code>nelmts</code> parameter has changed 
              to <em>hsize_t</em>.
        </dl>
        </dir>

    <h3>Constants with Changed Values</h3>
        The values of the constants <code>H5P_DEFAULT</code> and 
        <code>H5S_ALL</code> have been changed from <code>-2</code>
        to <code>0</code>.   
        These default values had to be special-cased in situations where
        they could be returned to distinguish them from error values.

    <h3>Full Release Notes</h3>
        The following material is from the file <code>hdf5/RELEASE</code>, 
        as distributed with the HDF5 library source code.

<pre>

                       HDF5 Release 1.4-Beta2


INTRODUCTION

This document describes the differences between HDF5-1.2.0 and
HDF5-1.4-Beta2, and contains information on the platforms tested and
known problems in HDF5-1.4-Beta2. For more details check the HISTORY 
file in the HDF5 source.

The HDF5 documentation can be found on the NCSA ftp server
(ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu) in the directory:

     /HDF/HDF5/docs/

For more information look at the HDF5 home page at:
   
    http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HDF5/

If you have any questions or comments, please send them to:

    hdfhelp@ncsa.uiuc.edu


CONTENTS

- New Features
- h4toh5 Utility 
- F90 Support
- C++ Support
- Bug Fixes since HDF5-1.2.0 
- Platforms Tested
- Known Problems

New Features
============
   * The Virtual File Layer, VFL, was added to replace the old file
     drivers. It also provides an API for user defined file drivers.
   * New features added to snapshots. Use 'snapshot help' to see a
     complete list of features.
   * Improved configure to detect if MPIO routines are available when
     parallel mode is requested.
   * Added Thread-Safe support. Phase I implemented.
   * Added data sieve buffering to raw data I/O path. This is enabled
     for all VFL drivers except the mpio & core drivers. Setting the
     sieve buffer size is controlled with the new API function,
     H5Pset_sieve_buf_size(), and retrieved with H5Pget_sieve_buf_size().
   * Added new Virtual File Driver, Stream VFD, to send/receive entire
     HDF5 files via socket connections.
   * As parts of VFL, HDF-GASS and HDF-SRB are also added to this
     release. To find out details, please read INSTALL_VFL file. 
   * Increased maximum number of dimensions for a dataset (H5S_MAX_RANK)
     from 31 to 32 to align with HDF4 & netCDF.
   * Added 'query' function to VFL drivers.  Also added 'type' parameter to
     VFL 'read' & 'write' calls, so they are aware of the type of data
     being accessed in the file.  Updated the VFL document also.
   * A new h4toh5 uitlity, to convert HDF4 files to analogous HDF5 files.
   * Added a new array datatype to the datatypes which can be created.  Removed
     "array fields" from compound datatypes (use an array datatype instead).
   * Parallel HDF5 works correctly with mpich-1.2.1 on Solaris, SGI, Linux.

h4toh5 Utility 
==============

    The h4toh5 utility is a new utility that converts an HDF4 file to an 
    HDF5 file.  For details, see the document, "Mapping HDF4 Objects to 
    HDF5 Objects":
       http://hdf.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HDF5/papers/H4-H5MappingGuidelines.pdf

    Known Limitations of the h4toh5 beta release
    ---------------------------------------------

    1. Error Handling

    Error reporting is minimal.

    2. String Datatype

    HDF4 has no 'string' type. String valued data are usually defined as
    an array of 'char' in HDF4. The h4toh5 utility will generally map
    these to HDF5 'String' types rather than array of char, with the
    following additional rules:

       * For the data of an HDF4 SDS, image, and palette, if the data is
	 declared 'DFNT_CHAR8' it will be assumed to be integer and
	 will be an H5T_INTEGER type.
       * For attributes of any HDF4 object, data of type 'DFNT_CHAR8'
	 will be converted to an HDF5 'H5T_STRING' type.
       * For an HDF4 Vdata, it is difficult to determine whether data 
	 of type 'DFNT_CHAR8' is intended to be bytes or characters.
	 The h4toh5 utility will consider them to be C characters, and
	 will convert them to an HDF5 'H5T_STRING' type.


    3. Compression, Chunking and External Storage

    Chunking is supported, but compression and external storage is not.

    An HDF4 object that uses chunking will be converted to an HDF5 file
    with analogous chunked storage.

    An HDF4 object that uses compression will be converted to an
    uncompressed HDF5 object.  

    An HDF4 object that uses external storage will be converted to an
    HDF5 object without external storage.  

    4. Memory Use

    The beta version of the h4toh5 utility copies data from HDF4 objects
    in a single read followed by a single write to the HDF5 object. For
    large objects, this requires a very large amount of memory, which may
    be extremely slow or fail on some platforms.

    Note that a dataset that has only been partly written will
    be read completely, including uninitialized data, and all the
    data will be written to the HDF5 object.

    5. Platforms

    The h4toh5 utility requires HDF5.1.4.

    The beta h4toh5 utility has been tested on Solaris 2.6, Solaris 2.5,
    Irix 6.5, HPUX 11.0, DEC Unix, FreeBSD, and Windows 2000.

F90 Support
===========
 
    This is the first release of the HDF5 Library with fully integrated 
    F90 API support.  The Fortran Library is created when the 
    --enable-fortran flag is specified during configuration.

    Not all F90 subroutines are implemented. Please refer to the HDF5 
    Reference Manual for more details.
   
    F90 APIs are available for the Solaris 2.6 and 2.7, Linux, DEC UNIX, 
    T3E, J90 and O2K (64 bit option only) platforms. The Parallel version of 
    the HDF5 F90 Library is supported on the O2K and T3E platforms.

    Changes since the last prototype release (July 2000)
    ----------------------------------------------------

       * h5open_f and h5close_f must be called instead of h5init_types and 
         h5close_types.

       * The following subroutines are no longer available: 
             h5pset_xfer_f
             h5pget_xfer_f
             h5pset_mpi_f
             h5pget_mpi_f
             h5pset_stdio_f
             h5pget_stdio_f
             h5pset_sec2_f
             h5pget_sec2_f
             h5pset_core_f
             h5pget_core_f
             h5pset_family_f
             h5pget_family_f
             
       * The following functions have been added:
             h5pset_fapl_mpio_f
             h5pget_fapl_mpio_f
             h5pset_dxpl_mpio_f
             h5pget_dxpl_mpio_f
        
       * In the previous HDF5 F90 releases, the implementation of object 
         references and dataset region references was not portable. This 
         release introduces a portable implementation, but it also introduces 
         changes to the read/write APIs that handle references.  If object or 
         dataset region references are written or read to/from an HDF5 file, 
         h5dwrite_f and h5dread_f must use the extra parameter, n, for the 
         buffer size:

            h5dwrite(read)_f(dset_id, mem_type_id, buf, n, hdferr, &
                                                       ^^^ 
                             mem_space_id, file_space_id, xfer_prp)

         For other datatypes the APIs were not changed. 
              
             
C++ Support
===========

        This is the first release of the HDF5 Library with fully integrated 
        C++ API support. The HDF5 C++ library is built when the --enable-cxx
        flag is specified during configuration.

        Check the HDF5 Reference Manual for available C++ documentation.

        C++ APIs are available for Solaris 2.6 and 2.7, Linux, and FreeBSD. 
 

Bug Fixes since HDF5-1.2.0
==========================

Library
-------

   * The function H5Pset_mpi is renamed as H5Pset_fapl_mpio.
   * Corrected a floating point number conversion error for the Cray J90
     platform. The error did not convert the value 0.0 correctly.
   * Error was fixed which was not allowing dataset region references to
     have their regions retrieved correctly.
   * Corrected a bug that caused non-parallel file drivers to fail in
     the parallel version.
   * Added internal free-lists to reduce memory required by the library
     and H5garbage_collect API function
   * Fixed error in H5Giterate which was not updating the "index"
     parameter correctly.
   * Fixed error in hyperslab iteration which was not walking through the
     correct sequence of array elements if hyperslabs were staggered in a
     certain pattern
   * Fixed several other problems in hyperslab iteration code.
   * Fixed another H5Giterate bug which was causes groups with large
     numbers of objects in them to misbehave when the callback function
     returned non-zero values.
   * Changed return type of H5Aiterate and H5A_operator_t typedef to be
     herr_t, to align them with the dataset and group iterator functions.
   * Changed H5Screate_simple and H5Sset_extent_simple to not allow
     dimensions of size 0 with out the same dimension being unlimited.
   * QAK - 4/19/00 - Improved metadata hashing & caching algorithms to
     avoid many hash flushes and also remove some redundant I/O when
     moving metadata blocks in the file.
   * The "struct(opt)" type conversion function which gets invoked for
     certain compound datatype conversions was fixed for nested compound
     types. This required a small change in the datatype conversion
     function API.
   * Re-wrote lots of the hyperslab code to speed it up quite a bit.
   * Added bounded garbage collection for the free lists when they run
     out of memory and also added H5set_free_list_limits API call to
     allow users to put an upper limit on the amount of memory used for
     free lists.
   * Checked for non-existent or deleted objects when dereferencing one
     with object or region references and disallow dereference.
   * "Time" datatypes (H5T_UNIX_D*) were not being stored and retrieved
     from object headers correctly, fixed now.
   * Fixed H5Dread or H5Dwrite calls with H5FD_MPIO_COLLECTIVE requests
     that may hang because not all processes are transfer the same amount
     of data. (A.K.A. prematured collective return when zero amount data
     requested.) Collective calls that may cause hanging is done via the
     corresponding MPI-IO independent calls.

Configuration
-------------

   * The hdf5.h include file was fixed to allow the HDF5 Library to be
     compiled with other libraries/applications that use GNU autoconf. 
   * Configuration for parallel HDF5 was improved. Configure now attempts
     to link with libmpi.a and/or libmpio.a as the MPI libraries by
     default. It also uses "mpirun" to launch MPI tests by default. It
     tests to link MPIO routines during the configuration stage, rather
     than failing later as before. One can just do "./configure
     --enable-parallel" if the MPI library is in the system library.
   * Added support for pthread library and thread-safe option.
   * The libhdf5.settings file shows the correct machine byte-sex.
   * Added option "--enable-stream-vfd" to configure w/o the Stream VFD.
     For Solaris, added -lsocket to the LIBS list of libraries.

Tools
-----
    * h5dump now accepts both short and long command-line parameters. A
      change from the old way is that multiple attributes, datasets,
      groups, soft-links, and object-ids cannot be specified with just
      one flag but you have to use a flag with each object. I.e., instead
      of doing this:

        h5dump -a /attr1 /attr2 foo.h5

      do this:

        h5dump -a /attr1 -a /attr2 foo.h5

      The cases are similar for the other object types.
    * h5dump correctly displays compound datatypes.
    * Corrected an error in h5toh4 which did not convert the 32bits
      int from HDF5 to HDF4 corectly for the T3E platform.
    * h5dump correctly displays the committed copy of predefined types
      correctly.
    * Added an option, -V, to show the version information of h5dump.
    * Fixed a core dumping bug of h5toh4 when executed on platforms like 
      TFLOPS.
    * The test script for h5toh4 used to not able to detect the hdp
      dumper command was not valid.  It now detects and reports the
      failure of hdp execution.
    * Merged the tools with the 1.2.2 branch. Required adding new
      macros, VERSION12 and VERSION13, used in conditional compilation.
      Updated the Windows project files for the tools.            
    * h5dump displays opaque and bitfield data correctly.
    * h5dump and h5ls can browse files created with the Stream VFD
      (eg. "h5ls <hostname>:<port>").
    * h5dump has a new feature "-o <filename>" which outputs the raw data
      of the dataset into ascii text file <filename>.
    * h5toh4 used to converts hdf5 strings type to hdf4 DFNT_INT8 type.
      Corrected to produce hdf4 DFNT_CHAR type instead.
    * h5dump and h5ls displays array data correctly.

Documentation
-------------

    * User's Guide and Reference Manual were updated. 
      See doc/html/PSandPDF/index.html for more details. 

   
Bug Fixes since HDF5-1.4.0-beta2
================================

    * Corrected configuration error which was not including compression support
        correctly.
    * Cleaned up lots of warnings.
    * Changed a few h5dump command line switches and added long versions of
        the switches.

Platforms Tested
================

 Note: Due to the nature of the bug fixes, only static versions of the
       library and tools were tested.


  AIX 4.3.2 (IBM SP)            mpcc_r 3.6.6
  Cray T3E sn6711 2.0.539b      Cray Standard C Version 6.3.0.2
                                Cray Fortran Version 3.4.0.2
  FreeBSD 4.2-STABLE            gcc 2.95.2
                                g++ 2.95.2
  HP-UX B.10.20                 HP C  HP92453-01 A.10.32.30
  HP-UX B.11.00                 HP C  HP92453-01 A.11.00.13
  IRIX 6.5                      MIPSpro cc 7.30
  IRIX64 6.5 (64 & n32)         MIPSpro cc 7.3.1m
                                mpt.1.4.0.2
				mpich-1.2.1
  Linux 2.2.16-3smp             gcc-2.95.2
                                g++ 2.95.2
                                pgf90 3.1-3
  OSF1 V4.0                     DEC-V5.2-040
                                Digital Fortran 90 V4.1-270
  SunOS 5.6                     WorkShop Compilers 5.0 98/12/15 C 5.0 
  (Solaris 2.6)                 WorkShop Compilers 5.0 99/10/25 Fortran 90
                                       2.0 Patch 107356-04
                                Workshop Compilers 5.0 98/12/15 C++ 5.0
  SunOS 5.7                     WorkShop Compilers 5.0 98/12/15 C 5.0
  (Solaris 2.7)                 WorkShop Compilers 5.0 99/10/25 Fortran 90
                                       2.0 Patch 107356-04
                                Workshop Compilers 5.0 98/12/15 C++ 5.0
  TFLOPS 3.3                    mpich-1.2.0 with local changes
  Windows NT4.0, 2000 (NT5.0)   MSVC++ 6.0

Known Problems
==============

* When building the HDF5 test project on Windows NT 4.0 (testhdf5
  and testhdf5dll), the compiler fails to compile tvstr.c within
  the whole project; however, when separately selecting the 
  tvstr.c source code, it passes the compiler and everything that
  depends on tvstr.obj links correctly.

* h4toh5 fails on object references on the Cray T3E.

* The installation of the DEC Fortran binaries fails.  It can be
  done manually by copying the *.mod files from the fortran/src
  directory.

* Fortran modules are not installed when created. This should be done
  manually by copying the modules from the fortran/src directory.

* SunOS 5.6 with C WorkShop Compilers 4.2:  Hyperslab selections will 
  fail if library is compiled using optimization of any level.

* The Stream VFD was not tested yet under Windows.
  It is not supported in the TFLOPS machine.

* Shared library option is broken for IBM SP and some Origin 2000 platforms.
  One needs to run ./configure with '--disable-shared'

* The ./dsets tests failed in the TFLOPS machine if the test program,
  dsets.c, is compiled with the -O option.  The hdf5 library still works
  correctly with the -O option.  The test program works fine if it is
  compiled with -O1 or -O0.  Only -O (same as -O2) causes the test
  program to fail.

* Certain platforms give false negatives when testing h5ls:
    - Solaris x86 2.5.1, Cray T3E and Cray J90 give errors during testing
        when displaying object references in certain files.  These are benign 
        differences due to the difference in sizes of the objects created on
        those platforms.  h5ls appears to be dumping object references
        correctly.
    - Cray J90 (and Cray T3E?) give errors during testing when displaying
        some floating-point values.  These are benign differences due to the
        different precision in the values displayed and h5ls appears to be
        dumping floating-point numbers correctly.

</pre>
</dir>


<h2>Previous Releases</h2>

<dir>
    The following material is from the file <code>hdf5/HISTORY</code>, 
    as distributed with the HDF5 library source code.

<pre>

CONTENTS
I.   Release Information for hdf5-1.2.1
II.  Release Information for hdf5-1.2.0
     A. Platforms Supported
     B. Known Problems
     C. Changes Since Version 1.0.1  
        1. Documentation
        2. Configuration
        3. Debugging
        4. Datatypes
        5. Dataspaces
        6. Persistent Pointers
        7. Parallel Support
        8. New API Functions
           a. Property List Interface
           b. Dataset Interface
           c. Dataspace Interface
           d. Datatype Interface
           e. Identifier Interface
           f. Reference Interface
           g. Ragged Arrays
        9. Tools

III.  Changes Since the Version 1.0.0 Release   

IV.   Changes Since the Beta 1.0.0 Release

V.    Changes Since the Second Alpha 1.0.0 Release

VI.   Changes Since the First Alpha 1.0.0 Release 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I. Release Information for hdf5-1.2.1

Bug fixes since HDF5-1.2.0
==========================

Configuration
-------------

   * The hdf5.h include file was fixed to allow the HDF5 Library to be compiled
     with other libraries/applications that use GNU autoconf. 
   * Configuration for parallel HDF5 was improved. Configure now attempts to
     link with libmpi.a and/or libmpio.a as the MPI libraries by default.
     It also uses "mpirun" to launch MPI tests by default.  It tests to
     link MPIO routines during the configuration stage, rather than failing
     later as before.  One can just do "./configure --enable-parallel"
     if the MPI library is in the system library.

Library
-------

   * Error was fixed which was not allowing dataset region references to have
     their regions retrieved correctly.
   * Added internal free-lists to reduce memory required by the library and
     H5garbage_collect API function
   * Fixed error in H5Giterate which was not updating the "index" parameter
     correctly.
   * Fixed error in hyperslab iteration which was not walking through the
     correct sequence of array elements if hyperslabs were staggered in a
     certain pattern
   * Fixed several other problems in hyperslab iteration code.

Tests
------
   * Added additional tests for group and attribute iteration.
   * Added additional test for staggered hyperslab iteration.
   * Added additional test for random 5-D hyperslab selection.

Tools
------

   * Added an option, -V, to show the version information of h5dump.
   * Fixed a core dumping bug of h5toh4 when executed on platforms like 
     TFLOPS.
   * The test script for h5toh4 used to not able to detect the hdp
     dumper command was not valid.  It now detects and reports the
     failure of hdp execution.

Documentation
-------------

   * User's Guide and Reference Manual were updated. 
     See doc/html/PSandPDF/index.html for more details. 

   
Platforms Tested:
================
 Note: Due to the nature of bug fixes, only static versions of the library and tools were tested.


  AIX 4.3.2 (IBM SP)            3.6.6
  Cray T3E 2.0.4.81             cc 6.3.0.1
                                mpt.1.3
  FreeBSD 3.3-STABLE            gcc 2.95.2
  HP-UX B.10.20                 HP C  HP92453-01 A.10.32
  IRIX 6.5                      MIPSpro cc 7.30
  IRIX64 6.5 (64 & n32)         MIPSpro cc 7.3.1m
                                mpt.1.3 (SGI MPI 3.2.0.0)

  Linux 2.2.10 SuSE             egcs-2.91.66               configured with
  (i686-pc-linux-gnu)                                      --disable-hsizet
                                mpich-1.2.0 egcs-2.91.66 19990314/Linux 

  OSF1 V4.0                     DEC-V5.2-040
  SunOS 5.6                     cc WorkShop Compilers 4.2  no optimization
  SunOS 5.7                     cc WorkShop Compilers 5.0
  TFLOPS 2.8                    cicc (pgcc Rel 3.0-5i)
                                mpich-1.1.2 with local changes
  Windows NT4.0 sp5             MSVC++ 6.0

Known Problems:
==============

o SunOS 5.6 with C WorkShop Compilers 4.2:  Hyperslab selections will 
  fail if library is compiled using optimization of any level.


         
II. Release Information for hdf5-1.2.0

A. Platforms Supported
   -------------------

Operating systems listed below with compiler information and MPI library, if
applicable, are systems that HDF5 1.2.0 was tested on.

                           Compiler & libraries
  Platform                      Information              Comment
  --------                      ----------               -------- 
                                
  AIX 4.3.2 (IBM SP)            3.6.6

  Cray J90 10.0.0.6             cc 6.3.0.0

  Cray T3E 2.0.4.61             cc 6.2.1.0 
                                mpt.1.3

  FreeBSD 3.2                   gcc 2.95.1

  HP-UX B.10.20                 HP C  HP92453-01 A.10.32
                                gcc 2.8.1

  IRIX 6.5                      MIPSpro cc 7.30 

  IRIX64 6.5 (64 & n32)         MIPSpro cc 7.3.1m
  			        mpt.1.3 (SGI MPI 3.2.0.0)

  Linux 2.2.10                  egcs-2.91.66               configured with
  						         --disable-hsizet
                                                           lbraries: glibc2

  OSF1 V4.0                     DEC-V5.2-040

  SunOS 5.6                     cc WorkShop Compilers 4.2   
                                                           no optimization
  			        gcc 2.8.1

  SunOS 5.7                     cc WorkShop Compilers 5.0
                                gcc 2.8.1
 
  TFLOPS 2.7.1                  cicc (pgcc Rel 3.0-4i)
  			        mpich-1.1.2 with local changes

  Windows NT4.0 intel           MSVC++ 5.0 and 6.0

  Windows NT alpha 4.0          MSVC++ 5.0 

  Windows 98                    MSVC++ 5.0


B. Known Problems
   --------------

* NT alpha 4.0
  Dumper utiliy h5dump fails if linked with DLL.

* SunOS 5.6 with C WorkShop Compilers 4.2
  Hyperslab selections will fail if library is compiled using optimization
  of any level.

 
C. Changes Since Version 1.0.1
   ---------------------------

1. Documentation
   -------------

* More examples

* Updated user guide, reference manual, and format specification.

* Self-contained documentation for installations isolated from the
  Internet.

* HDF5 Tutorial was added to the documentation  

2. Configuration
   -------------

* Better detection and support for MPI-IO.

* Recognition of compilers with known code generation problems.

* Support for various compilers on a single architecture (e.g., the
  native compiler and the GNU compilers).

* Ability to build from read-only media and with different compilers
  and/or options concurrently.

* Added a libhdf5.settings file which summarizes the configuration
  information and is installed along with the library.

* Builds a shared library on most systems that support it.

* Support for Cray T3E, J90 and Windows/NT.

3. Debugging
   ---------

* Improved control and redirection of debugging and tracing messages.

4. Datatypes
   ---------

* Optimizations to compound datatype conversions and I/O operations.

* Added nearly 100 optimized conversion functions for native datatypes 
  including support for non-aligned data.

* Added support for bitfield, opaque, and enumeration types.

* Added distinctions between signed and unsigned char types to the
  list of predefined native hdf5 datatypes.

* Added HDF5 type definitions for C9x types like int32_t.

* Application-defined type conversion functions can handle non-packed
  data.

* Changed the H5Tunregister() function to use wildcards when matching
  conversion functions.  H5Tregister_hard() and H5Tregister_soft()
  were combined into H5Tregister().

* Support for variable-length datatypes (arrays of varying length per
  dataset element). Variable length strings currently supported only
  as variable length arrays of 1-byte integers.

5. Dataspaces
   ----------

* New query functions for selections.

* I/O operations bypass the stripmining loop and go directly to
  storage for certain contiguous selections in the absense of type
  conversions.  In other cases the stripmining buffers are used more
  effectively.

* Reduced the number of I/O requests under certain circumstances,
  improving performance on systems with high I/O latency.

6. Persistent Pointers
   -------------------

* Object (serial and parallel) and dataset region (serial only)
  references are implemented.

7. Parallel Support
   ----------------

* Improved parallel I/O performance.

* Supported new platforms: Cray T3E, Linux, DEC Cluster.

* Use vendor supported version of MPIO on SGI O2K and Cray platforms.

* Improved the algorithm that translates an HDF5 hyperslab selection
  into an MPI type for better collective I/O performance.

8. New API functions 
   -----------------

  a. Property List Interface:
     ------------------------

  H5Pset_xfer		- set data transfer properties
  H5Pset_preserve      - set dataset transfer property list status 
  H5Pget_preserve      - get dataset transfer property list status
  H5Pset_hyper_cache   - indicates whether to cache hyperslab blocks during I/O
  H5Pget_hyper_cache   - returns information regarding the caching of 
                         hyperslab blocks during I/O
  H5Pget_btree_ratios  - sets B-tree split ratios for a dataset 
                         transfer property list
  H5Pset_btree_ratios  - gets B-tree split ratios for a dataset
                         transfer property list
  H5Pset_vlen_mem_manager - sets the memory manager for variable-length 
                            datatype allocation
  H5Pget_vlen_mem_manager - sets the memory manager for variable-length
                            datatype allocation

  b. Dataset Interface:
     ------------------

  H5Diterate           - iterate over all selected elements in a dataspace
  H5Dget_storage_size  - return the amount of storage required for a dataset
  H5Dvlen_reclaim      - reclaim VL datatype memory buffers

  c. Dataspace Interface:
     --------------------
  H5Sget_select_hyper_nblocks   - get number of hyperslab blocks
  H5Sget_select_hyper_blocklist - get the list of hyperslab blocks 
                                  currently selected
  H5Sget_select_elem_npoints    - get the number of element points 
                                  in the current selection
  H5Sget_select_elem_pointlist  - get the list of element points 
                                  currently selected
  H5Sget_select_bounds          - gets the bounding box containing 
                                  the current selection

  d. Datatype Interface:
     -------------------
  H5Tget_super         - return the base datatype from which a 
                         datatype is derived
  H5Tvlen_create       - creates a new variable-length dataype
  H5Tenum_create       - creates a new enumeration datatype
  H5Tenum_insert       - inserts a new enumeration datatype member
  H5Tenum_nameof       - returns the symbol name corresponding to a 
                         specified member of an enumeration datatype
  H5Tvalueof           - return the value corresponding to a 
                         specified member of an enumeration datatype 
  H5Tget_member_value  - return the value of an enumeration datatype member
  H5Tset_tag           - tags an opaque datatype
  H5Tget_tag           - gets the tag associated with an opaque datatype

  e. Identifier Interface:
     ---------------------
  H5Iget_type          - retrieve the type of an object

  f. Reference Interface:
     --------------------
  H5Rcreate            - creates a reference
  H5Rdereference       - open the HDF5 object referenced
  H5Rget_region        - retrieve a dataspace with the specified region selected
  H5Rget_object_type   - retrieve the type of object that an 
                         object reference points to

  g. Ragged Arrays (alpha) (names of those API functions were changed):
     ------------------------------------------------------------------
   H5RAcreate		- create a new ragged array (old name was H5Rcreate)
   H5RAopen		- open an existing array    (old name was H5Ropen)
   H5RAclose		- close a ragged array      (old name was H5Rclose)
   H5RAwrite		- write to an array         (old name was H5Rwrite)
   H5RAread		- read from an array        (old name was H5Rread)


9. Tools
   -----

* Enhancements to the h5ls tool including the ability to list objects
  from more than one file, to display raw hexadecimal data, to
  show file addresses for raw data, to format output more reasonably,
  to show object attributes, and to perform a recursive listing, 

* Enhancements to h5dump: support new data types added since previous
  versions.

* h5toh4: An hdf5 to hdf4 converter.



III. Changes Since The Version 1.0.0 Release

* [Improvement]: configure sets up the Makefile in the parallel tests
  suit (testpar/) correctly.

* [Bug-Fix]: Configure failed for all IRIX versions other than 6.3.
  It now configures correctly for all IRIX 6.x version.

* Released Parallel HDF5 

     Supported Features:
     ------------------

     HDF5 files are accessed according to the communicator and INFO
     object defined in the property list set by H5Pset_mpi.

     Independent read and write accesses to fixed and extendable dimension
     datasets.

     Collective read and write accesses to fixed dimension datasets.

     Supported Platforms:
     -------------------

     Intel Red
     IBM SP2
     SGI Origin 2000

     Changes In This Release: 
     -----------------------

   o Support of Access to Extendable Dimension Datasets.
     Extendable dimension datasets must use chunked storage methods.
     A new function, H5Dextend, is created to extend the current
     dimensions of a dataset.  The current release requires the
     MPI application must make a collective call to extend the
     dimensions of an extendable dataset before writing to the
     newly extended area.  (The serial does not require the
     call of H5Dextend.  The dimensions of an extendable
     dataset is increased when data is written to beyond the
     current dimensions but within the maximum dimensions.)
     The required collective call of H5Dextend may be relaxed
     in future release.

     This release only support independent read and write accesses
     to extendable datasets.  Collective accesses to extendable
     datasets will be implemented in future releases.

   o Collective access to fixed dimension datasets.
     Collective access to a dataset can be specified in the transfer
     property list argument in H5Dread and H5Dwrite.  The current
     release supports collective access to fixed dimension datasets.
     Collective access to extendable datasets will be implemented in
     future releases.

   o HDF5 files are opened according to Communicator and INFO object.
     H5Dopen now records the communicator and INFO setup by H5Pset_mmpi
     and pass them to the corresponding MPIO open file calls for
     processing.

   o This release has been tested on IBM SP2, Intel Red and SGI Origin 2000
     systems.  It uses the ROMIO version of MPIO interface for parallel
     I/O supports.



IV. Changes Since The Beta 1.0.0 Release

* Added fill values for datasets.  For contiguous datasets fill value
  performance may be quite poor since the fill value is written to the 
  entire dataset when the dataset is created.  This will be remedied
  in a future version.  Chunked datasets using fill values do not
  incur any additional overhead. See H5Pset_fill_value().

* Multiple hdf5 files can be "mounted" on one another to create a
  larger virtual file. See H5Fmount().

* Object names can be removed or changed but objects are never
  actually removed from the file yet. See H5Gunlink() and H5Gmove().

* Added a tuning mechanism for B-trees to insure that sequential
  writes to chunked datasets use less overhead.  See H5Pset_btree_ratios().

* Various optimizations and bug fixes.


V. Changes Since The Second Alpha 1.0.0 Release

* Strided hyperslab selections in dataspaces now working.

* The compression API has been replaced with a more general filter
  API.  See doc/html/Filters.html for details.

* Alpha-quality 2d ragged arrays are implemented as a layer built on
  top of other hdf5 objects.  The API and storage format will almost
  certainly change.

* More debugging support including API tracing.  See Debugging.html.

* C and Fortran style 8-bit fixed-length character string types are
  supported with space or null padding or null termination and
  translations between them.

* Added function H5Fflush() to write all cached data immediately to
  the file.

* Datasets maintain a modification time which can be retrieved with
  H5Gstat().

* The h5ls tool can display much more information, including all the
  values of a dataset.


VI. Changes Since The First Alpha 1.0.0 Release

* Two of the packages have been renamed.  The data space API has been
  renamed from `H5P' to `H5S' and the property list (template) API has 
  been renamed from `H5C' to `H5P'.

* The new attribute API `H5A' has been added.  An attribute is a small 
  dataset which can be attached to some other object (for instance, a
  4x4 transformation matrix attached to a 3-dimensional dataset, or an 
  English abstract attached to a group).

* The error handling API `H5E' has been completed.  By default, when an
  API function returns failure an error stack is displayed on the
  standard error stream.  The H5Eset_auto() controls the automatic
  printing and H5E_BEGIN_TRY/H5E_END_TRY macros can temporarily
  disable the automatic error printing.

* Support for large files and datasets (>2GB) has been added.  There
  is an html document that describes how it works.  Some of the types
  for function arguments have changed to support this: all arguments
  pertaining to sizes of memory objects are `size_t' and all arguments 
  pertaining to file sizes are `hsize_t'.

* More data type conversions have been added although none of them are
  fine tuned for performance.  There are new converters from integer
  to integer and float to float, but not between integers and floating
  points.  A bug has been fixed in the converter between compound
  types.

* The numbered types have been removed from the API: int8, uint8,
  int16, uint16, int32, uint32, int64, uint64, float32, and float64.
  Use standard C types instead.  Similarly, the numbered types were
  removed from the H5T_NATIVE_* architecture; use unnumbered types
  which correspond to the standard C types like H5T_NATIVE_INT.

* More debugging support was added.  If tracing is enabled at
  configuration time (the default) and the HDF5_TRACE environment
  variable is set to a file descriptor then all API calls will emit
  the function name, argument names and values, and return value on
  that file number.  There is an html document that describes this.
  If appropriate debugging options are enabled at configuration time,
  some packages will display performance information on stderr.

* Data types can be stored in the file as independent objects and
  multiple datasets can share a data type.

* The raw data I/O stream has been implemented and the application can 
  control meta and raw data caches, so I/O performance should be
  improved from the first alpha release.

* Group and attribute query functions have been implemented so it is
  now possible to find out the contents of a file with no prior
  knowledge.

* External raw data storage allows datasets to be written by other
  applications or I/O libraries and described and accessed through
  HDF5.

* Hard and soft (symbolic) links are implemented which allow groups to 
  share objects. Dangling and recursive symbolic links are supported.

* User-defined data compression is implemented although we may
  generalize the interface to allow arbitrary user-defined filters
  which can be used for compression, checksums, encryption,
  performance monitoring, etc.  The publicly-available `deflate'
  method is predefined if the GNU libz.a can be found at configuration 
  time.

* The configuration scripts have been modified to make it easier to
  build debugging vs. production versions of the library.

* The library automatically checks that the application was compiled
  with the correct version of header files.


		    Parallel HDF5 Changes

* Parallel support for fixed dimension datasets with contiguous or
  chunked storages.  Also, support unlimited dimension datasets which
  must use chunk storage.  No parallel support for compressed datasets.

* Collective data transfer for H5Dread/H5Dwrite.  Collective access
  support for datasets with contiguous storage only, thus only fixed
  dimension datasets for now.

* H5Pset_mpi and H5Pget_mpi no longer have the access_mode
  argument.  It is taken over by the data-transfer property list
  of H5Dread/H5Dwrite.

* New functions H5Pset_xfer and H5Pget_xfer to handle the
  specification of independent or collective data transfer_mode
  in the dataset transfer properties list.  The properties
  list can be used to specify data transfer mode in the H5Dwrite
  and H5Dread function calls.

* Added parallel support for datasets with chunked storage layout.
  When a dataset is extend in a PHDF5 file, all processes that open
  the file must collectively call H5Dextend with identical new dimension
  sizes.


			LIST OF API FUNCTIONS

The following functions are implemented. Errors are returned if an
attempt is made to use some feature which is not implemented and
printing the error stack will show `not implemented yet'.

Library
   H5check		- check that lib version matches header version
   H5open		- initialize library (happens automatically)
   H5close		- shut down the library (happens automatically)
   H5dont_atexit	- don't call H5close on exit
   H5get_libversion	- retrieve library version info
   H5check_version	- check for specific library version

Property Lists
   H5Pclose		- release template resources
   H5Pcopy		- copy a template
   H5Pcreate		- create a new template
   H5Pget_chunk		- get chunked storage properties
   H5Pset_chunk		- set chunked storage properties
   H5Pget_class		- get template class
   H5Pget_istore_k	- get chunked storage properties
   H5Pset_istore_k	- set chunked storage properties
   H5Pget_layout	- get raw data layout class
   H5Pset_layout	- set raw data layout class
   H5Pget_sizes		- get address and size sizes
   H5Pset_sizes		- set address and size sizes
   H5Pget_sym_k		- get symbol table storage properties
   H5Pset_sym_k		- set symbol table storage properties
   H5Pget_userblock	- get user-block size
   H5Pset_userblock	- set user-block size
   H5Pget_version	- get file version numbers
   H5Pget_alignment	- get data alignment properties
   H5Pset_alignment	- set data alignment properties
   H5Pget_external_count- get count of external data files
   H5Pget_external	- get information about an external data file
   H5Pset_external	- add a new external data file to the list
   H5Pget_driver	- get low-level file driver class
   H5Pget_stdio		- get properties for stdio low-level driver
   H5Pset_stdio		- set properties for stdio low-level driver
   H5Pget_sec2		- get properties for sec2 low-level driver
   H5Pset_sec2		- set properties for sec2 low-level driver
   H5Pget_core		- get properties for core low-level driver
   H5Pset_core		- set properties for core low-level driver
   H5Pget_split		- get properties for split low-level driver
   H5Pset_split		- set properties for split low-level driver
   H5P_get_family	- get properties for family low-level driver
   H5P_set_family	- set properties for family low-level driver
   H5Pget_cache		- get meta- and raw-data caching properties
   H5Pset_cache		- set meta- and raw-data caching properties
   H5Pget_buffer	- get raw-data I/O pipe buffer properties
   H5Pset_buffer	- set raw-data I/O pipe buffer properties
   H5Pget_preserve	- get type conversion preservation properties
   H5Pset_preserve	- set type conversion preservation properties
   H5Pget_nfilters	- get number of raw data filters
   H5Pget_filter	- get raw data filter properties
   H5Pset_filter	- set raw data filter properties
   H5Pset_deflate	- set deflate compression filter properties
   H5Pget_mpi		- get MPI-IO properties
   H5Pset_mpi		- set MPI-IO properties
   H5Pget_xfer		- get data transfer properties
 + H5Pset_xfer		- set data transfer properties
 + H5Pset_preserve      - set dataset transfer property list status 
 + H5Pget_preserve      - get dataset transfer property list status
 + H5Pset_hyper_cache   - indicates whether to cache hyperslab blocks during I/O
 + H5Pget_hyper_cache   - returns information regarding the caching of 
                          hyperslab blocks during I/O
 + H5Pget_btree_ratios  - sets B-tree split ratios for a dataset 
                          transfer property list
 + H5Pset_btree_ratios  - gets B-tree split ratios for a dataset
                          transfer property list
 + H5Pset_vlen_mem_manager - sets the memory manager for variable-length 
                             datatype allocation
 + H5Pget_vlen_mem_manager - sets the memory manager for variable-length
                             datatype allocation

Datasets
   H5Dclose		- release dataset resources
   H5Dcreate		- create a new dataset
   H5Dget_space		- get data space
   H5Dget_type		- get data type
   H5Dget_create_plist	- get dataset creation properties
   H5Dopen		- open an existing dataset
   H5Dread		- read raw data
   H5Dwrite		- write raw data
   H5Dextend		- extend a dataset
 + H5Diterate           - iterate over all selected elements in a dataspace
 + H5Dget_storage_size  - return the amount of storage required for a dataset
 + H5Dvlen_reclaim      - reclaim VL datatype memory buffers

Attributes
   H5Acreate		- create a new attribute
   H5Aopen_name		- open an attribute by name
   H5Aopen_idx		- open an attribute by number
   H5Awrite		- write values into an attribute
   H5Aread		- read values from an attribute
   H5Aget_space		- get attribute data space
   H5Aget_type		- get attribute data type
   H5Aget_name		- get attribute name
   H5Anum_attrs		- return the number of attributes for an object
   H5Aiterate		- iterate over an object's attributes
   H5Adelete		- delete an attribute
   H5Aclose		- close an attribute

Errors
   H5Eclear		- clear the error stack
   H5Eprint		- print an error stack
   H5Eget_auto		- get automatic error reporting settings
   H5Eset_auto		- set automatic error reporting
   H5Ewalk		- iterate over the error stack
   H5Ewalk_cb		- the default error stack iterator function
   H5Eget_major		- get the message for the major error number
   H5Eget_minor		- get the message for the minor error number

Files
   H5Fclose		- close a file and release resources
   H5Fcreate		- create a new file
   H5Fget_create_plist	- get file creation property list
   H5Fget_access_plist	- get file access property list
   H5Fis_hdf5		- determine if a file is an hdf5 file
   H5Fopen		- open an existing file
   H5Freopen            - reopen an HDF5 file
   H5Fmount             - mount a file
   H5Funmount           - unmount a file
   H5Fflush             - flush all buffers associated with a file to disk

Groups
   H5Gclose		- close a group and release resources
   H5Gcreate    	- create a new group
   H5Gopen		- open an existing group
   H5Giterate   	- iterate over the contents of a group
   H5Gmove		- change the name of some object
   H5Glink		- create a hard or soft link to an object
   H5Gunlink    	- break the link between a name and an object
   H5Gget_objinfo	- get information about a group entry
   H5Gget_linkval	- get the value of a soft link
   H5Gget_comment	- get the comment string for an object
   H5Gset_comment	- set the comment string for an object

Dataspaces
   H5Screate	        - create a new data space
   H5Scopy		- copy a data space
   H5Sclose		- release data space
   H5Screate_simple	- create a new simple data space
   H5Sset_space		- set simple data space extents
   H5Sis_simple		- determine if data space is simple
   H5Sset_extent_simple	- set simple data space dimensionality and size
   H5Sget_simple_extent_npoints	- get number of points in simple extent
   H5Sget_simple_extent_ndims - get simple data space dimensionality
   H5Sget_simple_extent_dims - get simple data space size
   H5Sget_simple_extent_type - get type of simple extent
   H5Sset_extent_none	- reset extent to be empty
   H5Sextent_copy	- copy the extent from one data space to another
   H5Sget_select_npoints - get number of points selected for I/O
   H5Sselect_hyperslab	- set hyperslab dataspace selection
   H5Sselect_elements   - set element sequence dataspace selection
   H5Sselect_all	- select entire extent for I/O
   H5Sselect_none	- deselect all elements of extent
   H5Soffset_simple	- set selection offset
   H5Sselect_valid	- determine if selection is valid for extent
 + H5Sget_select_hyper_nblocks   - get number of hyperslab blocks
 + H5Sget_select_hyper_blocklist - get the list of hyperslab blocks 
                                   currently selected
 + H5Sget_select_elem_npoints    - get the number of element points 
                                   in the current selection
 + H5Sget_select_elem_pointlist  - get the list of element points 
                                   currently selected
 + H5Sget_select_bounds          - gets the bounding box containing 
                                   the current selection

Datatypes
   H5Tclose		- release data type resources
   H5Topen		- open a named data type
   H5Tcommit		- name a data type
   H5Tcommitted		- determine if a type is named
   H5Tcopy		- copy a data type
   H5Tcreate		- create a new data type
   H5Tequal		- compare two data types
   H5Tlock		- lock type to prevent changes
   H5Tfind		- find a data type conversion function
   H5Tconvert		- convert data from one type to another
   H5Tregister    	- register a conversion function
   H5Tunregister	- remove a conversion function
   H5Tget_overflow	- get function that handles overflow conv. cases
   H5Tset_overflow	- set function to handle overflow conversion cases
   H5Tget_class		- get data type class
   H5Tget_cset		- get character set
   H5Tget_ebias		- get exponent bias
   H5Tget_fields	- get floating point fields
   H5Tget_inpad		- get inter-field padding
   H5Tget_member_dims	- get struct member dimensions
   H5Tget_member_name	- get struct member name
   H5Tget_member_offset	- get struct member byte offset
   H5Tget_member_type	- get struct member type
   H5Tget_nmembers	- get number of struct members
   H5Tget_norm		- get floating point normalization
   H5Tget_offset	- get bit offset within type
   H5Tget_order		- get byte order
   H5Tget_pad		- get padding type
   H5Tget_precision	- get precision in bits
   H5Tget_sign		- get integer sign type
   H5Tget_size		- get size in bytes
   H5Tget_strpad	- get string padding
   H5Tinsert		- insert scalar struct member
   H5Tinsert_array	- insert array struct member
   H5Tpack		- pack struct members
   H5Tset_cset		- set character set
   H5Tset_ebias		- set exponent bias
   H5Tset_fields	- set floating point fields
   H5Tset_inpad		- set inter-field padding
   H5Tset_norm		- set floating point normalization
   H5Tset_offset	- set bit offset within type
   H5Tset_order		- set byte order
   H5Tset_pad		- set padding type
   H5Tset_precision	- set precision in bits
   H5Tset_sign		- set integer sign type
   H5Tset_size		- set size in bytes
   H5Tset_strpad	- set string padding
 + H5Tget_super         - return the base datatype from which a 
                          datatype is derived
 + H5Tvlen_create       - creates a new variable-length dataype
 + H5Tenum_create       - creates a new enumeration datatype
 + H5Tenum_insert       - inserts a new enumeration datatype member
 + H5Tenum_nameof       - returns the symbol name corresponding to a 
                          specified member of an enumeration datatype
 + H5Tvalueof           - return the value corresponding to a 
                          specified member of an enumeration datatype 
 + H5Tget_member_value  - return the value of an enumeration datatype member
 + H5Tset_tag           - tags an opaque datatype
 + H5Tget_tag           - gets the tag associated with an opaque datatype

 - H5Tregister_hard	- register specific type conversion function
 - H5Tregister_soft	- register general type conversion function

Filters
   H5Tregister		- register a conversion function 

Compression
   H5Zregister		- register new compression and uncompression 
                          functions for a method specified by a method number

Identifiers
 + H5Iget_type          - retrieve the type of an object

References
 + H5Rcreate            - creates a reference
 + H5Rdereference       - open the HDF5 object referenced
 + H5Rget_region        - retrieve a dataspace with the specified region selected
 + H5Rget_object_type   - retrieve the type of object that an 
                          object reference points to

Ragged Arrays (alpha)
   H5RAcreate		- create a new ragged array
   H5RAopen		- open an existing array
   H5RAclose		- close a ragged array
   H5RAwrite		- write to an array
   H5RAread		- read from an array

</pre>
</dir>


<!--
<h2>Release 1.4</h2>
<dir>

    <h3>New Functions</h3>

    <h3>Deleted Functions</h3>

    <h3>Functions with Changed Syntax</h3>

</dir>
<h2>Release 1.2.2</h2>
<dir>

</dir>
<h2>Release 1.2.1</h2>
<dir>

</dir>
<h2>Release 1.2</h2>
<dir>

</dir>
<h2>Release 1.0.1</h2>
<dir>

</dir>
<h2>Release 1.0</h2>
<dir>

</dir>
-->






<hr>
<center>
<table border=0 width=98%>
<tr><td valign=top align=left>
   <a href="../index.html">HDF5 documents and links</a>&nbsp;<br>
   <a href="../H5.intro.html">Introduction to HDF5</a>&nbsp;<br>
   <a href="../RM_H5Front.html">HDF5 Reference Manual</a>&nbsp;<br>
   <!--
   <a href="../Glossary.html">Glossary</a><br>
   -->
</td>
<td valign=top align=right>
   <br>
   <a href="../H5.user.html">HDF5 User's Guide</a>&nbsp;<br>
   <a href="../ADGuide.html">HDF5 Application Developer's Guide</a>&nbsp;
</td></tr>
</table>
</center>



<hr>
<address>
<a href="mailto:hdfhelp@ncsa.uiuc.edu">HDF Help Desk</a>
</address>

<!-- Created: Spring 1999 -->
<!-- hhmts start -->
Last modified:  22 January 2001 
<!-- hhmts end -->

<br>
Describes HDF5 Release 1.4 Beta, December 2000


  </body>
</html>