When an HDF5 file points outside itself

When something goes wrong, someone is going to tell the story. You’ll be better off if it’s you. Otherwise, you create an opportunity for rumors, hearsay, and false information to spread. (Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson, Rework) Reports on the July 2026 OpenAI agent intrusion have highlighted HDF5, as a feature of the format […]

Release of HDF5 2.2.0 and Two August Events (Newsletter #210)

HDF5 2.2.0 Now Available The HDF Group is pleased to announce the release of HDF5 2.2.0, delivering improved cloud performance, stronger security capabilities, enhanced build and deployment workflows, and numerous reliability and usability improvements across the HDF5 ecosystem. This release focuses on making HDF5 easier to deploy, more secure in production environments, and more efficient

Standardizing Tabular Data: Introducing the HDF5 Extension Proposal HEP001

In this episode of “Call the Doctor,” Aleksandar Jelenak explores the HDF5 Extension Proposal HEP001. This proposal aims to modernize how we handle tabular data in HDF5 by introducing a columnar storage specification, moving beyond legacy row-based approaches to enable better interoperability, performance, and metadata flexibility. Relevant Links HDF Alliance GitHub Repository HEP001 Proposal Document

String-Based Filter Configuration with TOML – Scot Breitenfeld – Call the Doctor (5/12/26)

In this session of “Call the Doctor,” The HDF Group’s Scot Breitenfeld discusses a major modernization effort for HDF5: moving from opaque integer-based filter parameters to human-readable TOML strings. This update, targeted for the HDF5 2.2 release, simplifies the developer experience for plugin authors and users of high-level languages like Python, Java, and Fortran. Configuring

Solving S3 Pricing Traps and h5diff Testing with Aleksandar Jelenak

In this “Call the Doctor” session, Aleksandar Jelenak (Senior Informatics Architect) and a user engage in a live troubleshooting discussion. They dive into new h5diff features for cleaner regression testing and share critical benchmarks on why standard S3 mount points might be costing you more than you think. Relevant Links GitHub Issue #6364: Exclude attributes

Agentic HDF5: Telemetry and Proactive Performance Advice – Matthew Larson – Call the Doctor (4/14/26)

In this session of “Call the Doctor,” Matt Larson provides a technical update on Agentic HDF5, a project designed to assist domain scientists in leveraging the power of HDF5 without needing to become experts in the library’s internal mechanics. The discussion focuses on a new telemetry system that proactively identifies performance bottlenecks and suggests optimizations

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