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h5edit

The h5edit tool was developed so that users could edit attributes in HDF5 files. The tool can create, copy, delete, rename, and modify attributes. Attributes may be attached to either groups or datasets, and the datatype, dataspace, and data of the attributes can be specified. The tool can read in a command file, or commands can be specified from a command line.

Here are some simple examples that illustrate how to use the h5edit tool.

$ h5edit -c "DELETE /sta1/month12/temperature" greenland.h5

This deletes the attribute temperature from the dataset /sta1/month12 in the HDF5 data file greenland.h5.


$ h5edit -c "CREATE /sta1/month12/temperature {{-40.0}}" greenland.h5

This creates in the dataset /sta1/month12 a new attribute temperature with the value of -40.0 in the HDF5 data file greenland.h5. The datatype and dataspace are not specified; the default datatype of H5T_NATIVE_FLOAT and the default dataspace of SCALAR are used.

Note: If the above two commands are executed in sequence, they have the net effect of changing the value of the attribute temperature.

A performance study on the Backup VFD feature that was implemented in the 1.3.0 release indicates an improvement for incremental atomicity. Please see the study:   H5edit with Backup Virtual File Driver Atomicity Performance

A previous study was done on the performance times of h5edit with different levels of atomicity using data files of different sizes. See the h5edit Atomicity Performance Study for the results.


Use the menu on the left or click on the links below to access the documentation and source code for the tool.


- - Last modified: 12 October 2016