Cloned library HDF5-1.14.1 with extra build files for internal package management.
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<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>HDF5 File Format Specification Version 2.0</title>
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</style>
<center>
<table border="0" width="90%">
<tr>
<td valign="top">
<ol type="I">
<li><a href="#Intro">Introduction</a></li>
<font size="-1">
<ol type="A">
<li><a href="#ThisDocument">This Document</a></li>
<li><a href="#ChangesForHdf5_1_10">Changes for HDF5 1.10</a></li>
</ol>
</font>
<li><a href="#FileMetaData">Disk Format: Level 0 - File
Metadata</a></li>
<font size="-1">
<ol type="A">
<li><a href="#Superblock">Disk Format: Level 0A - Format
Signature and Superblock</a></li>
<li><a href="#DriverInfo">Disk Format: Level 0B - File
Driver Info</a></li>
<li><a href="#SuperblockExt">Disk Format: Level 0C -
Superblock Extension</a></li>
</ol>
</font>
<li><a href="#FileInfra">Disk Format: Level 1 - File
Infrastructure</a></li>
<font size="-1">
<ol type="A">
<li><a href="#Btrees">Disk Format: Level 1A - B-trees
and B-tree Nodes</a></li>
<ol type="1">
<li><a href="#V1Btrees">Disk Format: Level 1A1 -
Version 1 B-trees (B-link Trees)</a></li>
<li><a href="#V2Btrees">Disk Format: Level 1A2 -
Version 2 B-trees</a></li>
</ol>
<li><a href="#SymbolTable">Disk Format: Level 1B - Group
Symbol Table Nodes</a></li>
<li><a href="#SymbolTableEntry">Disk Format: Level 1C -
Symbol Table Entry</a></li>
<li><a href="#LocalHeap">Disk Format: Level 1D - Local
Heaps</a></li>
<li><a href="#GlobalHeap">Disk Format: Level 1E - Global
Heap</a></li>
<li><a href="#FractalHeap">Disk Format: Level 1F -
Fractal Heap</a></li>
<li><a href="#FreeSpaceManager">Disk Format: Level 1G -
Free-space Manager</a></li>
<li><a href="#SOHMTable">Disk Format: Level 1H - Shared
Object Header Message Table</a></li>
</ol>
</font>
<li><a href="#DataObject">Disk Format: Level 2 - Data
Objects</a></li>
<font size="-1">
<ol type="A">
<li><a href="#ObjectHeader">Disk Format: Level 2A - Data
Object Headers</a></li>
<ol type="1">
<li><a href="#ObjectHeaderPrefix">Disk Format: Level
2A1 - Data Object Header Prefix</a></li>
<ol type="a">
<li><a href="#V1ObjectHeaderPrefix">Version 1 Data
Object Header Prefix</a></li>
<li><a href="#V2ObjectHeaderPrefix">Version 2 Data
Object Header Prefix</a></li>
</ol>
<li><a href="#ObjectHeaderMessages">Disk Format: Level
2A2 - Data Object Header Messages</a></li>
<ol type="a">
<li><a href="#NILMessage">The NIL Message</a></li>
<!-- 0x0000 -->
<li><a href="#DataspaceMessage">The Dataspace Message</a></li>
<!-- 0x0001 -->
<li><a href="#LinkInfoMessage">The Link Info Message</a></li>
<!-- 0x0002 -->
</ol>
</ol>
</ol>
</font>
</ol>
</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td valign="top">
<ol type="I" start="4">
<li><a href="#DataObject">Disk Format: Level 2 - Data
Objects</a><font size="-1"><i> (Continued)</i></font></li>
<ol type="A">
<li><a href="#ObjectHeader">Disk Format: Level 2A - Data
Object Headers</a><i> (Continued)</i></li>
<ol type="1" start="2">
<li><a href="#ObjectHeaderMessages">Disk Format: Level
2A2 - Data Object Header Messages</a><i> (Continued)</i></li>
<ol type="a" start="4">
<li><a href="#DatatypeMessage">The Datatype Message</a></li>
<!-- 0x0003 -->
<li><a href="#OldFillValueMessage">The Data Storage -
Fill Value (Old) Message</a></li>
<!-- 0x0004 -->
<li><a href="#FillValueMessage">The Data Storage - Fill
Value Message</a></li>
<!-- 0x0005 -->
<li><a href="#LinkMessage">The Link Message</a></li>
<!-- 0x0006 -->
<li><a href="#ExternalFileListMessage">The Data Storage
- External Data Files Message</a></li>
<!-- 0x0007 -->
<li><a href="#LayoutMessage">The Data Storage - Layout
Message</a></li>
<!-- 0x0008 -->
<li><a href="#BogusMessage">The Bogus Message</a></li>
<!-- 0x0009 -->
<li><a href="#GroupInfoMessage">The Group Info Message</a></li>
<!-- 0x000a -->
<li><a href="#FilterMessage">The Data Storage - Filter
Pipeline Message</a></li>
<!-- 0x000b -->
<li><a href="#AttributeMessage">The Attribute Message</a></li>
<!-- 0x000c -->
<li><a href="#CommentMessage">The Object Comment
Message</a></li>
<!-- 0x000d -->
<li><a href="#OldModificationTimeMessage">The Object
Modification Time (Old) Message</a></li>
<!-- 0x000e -->
<li><a href="#SOHMTableMessage">The Shared Message
Table Message</a></li>
<!-- 0x000f -->
<li><a href="#ContinuationMessage">The Object Header
Continuation Message</a></li>
<!-- 0x0010 -->
<li><a href="#SymbolTableMessage">The Symbol Table
Message</a></li>
<!-- 0x0011 -->
<li><a href="#ModificationTimeMessage">The Object
Modification Time Message</a></li>
<!-- 0x0012 -->
<li><a href="#BtreeKValuesMessage">The B-tree
&lsquo;K&rsquo; Values Message</a></li>
<!-- 0x0013 -->
<li><a href="#DrvInfoMessage">The Driver Info Message</a></li>
<!-- 0x0014 -->
<li><a href="#AinfoMessage">The Attribute Info Message</a></li>
<!-- 0x0015 -->
<li><a href="#RefCountMessage">The Object Reference
Count Message</a></li>
<!-- 0x0016 -->
<li><a href="#FsinfoMessage">The File Space Info
Message</a></li>
<!-- 0x0018 -->
</ol>
</ol>
<li><a href="#DataStorage">Disk Format: Level 2B - Data
Object Data Storage</a></li>
</ol>
<font></font>
<li><a href="#AppendixA">Appendix A: Definitions</a></li>
<li><a href="#AppendixB">Appendix B: File Memory
Allocation Types</a></li>
</ol>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<br />
<br />
<hr />
<a name="Intro"><h2>I. Introduction</h2></a>
<table align="right" width="100">
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td align="center">
<hr /> <img src="FF-IH_FileGroup.gif" alt="HDF5 Groups" hspace="15"
vspace="15">
</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td align="center"><strong>Figure 1:</strong> Relationships among
the HDF5 root group, other groups, and objects
<hr /></td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td align="center"><img src="FF-IH_FileObject.gif"
alt="HDF5 Objects" hspace="15" vspace="15"></td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td align="center"><strong>Figure 2:</strong> HDF5 objects --
datasets, datatypes, or dataspaces
<hr /></td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p>The format of an HDF5 file on disk encompasses several key ideas
of the HDF4 and AIO file formats as well as addressing some
shortcomings therein. The new format is more self-describing than the
HDF4 format and is more uniformly applied to data objects in the file.</p>
<p>An HDF5 file appears to the user as a directed graph. The nodes
of this graph are the higher-level HDF5 objects that are exposed by the
HDF5 APIs:</p>
<ul>
<li>Groups</li>
<li>Datasets</li>
<li>Committed (formerly Named) datatypes</li>
</ul>
<p>At the lowest level, as information is actually written to the
disk, an HDF5 file is made up of the following objects:</p>
<ul>
<li>A superblock</li>
<li>B-tree nodes</li>
<li>Heap blocks</li>
<li>Object headers</li>
<li>Object data</li>
<li>Free space</li>
</ul>
<p>The HDF5 Library uses these low-level objects to represent the
higher-level objects that are then presented to the user or to
applications through the APIs. For instance, a group is an object
header that contains a message that points to a local heap (for storing
the links to objects in the group) and to a B-tree (which indexes the
links). A dataset is an object header that contains messages that
describe datatype, dataspace, layout, filters, external files, fill
value, and other elements with the layout message pointing to either a
raw data chunk or to a B-tree that points to raw data chunks.</p>
<br />
<a name="ThisDocument"><h3>I.A. This Document</h3></a>
<p>
This document describes the lower-level data objects; the higher-level
objects and their properties are described in the <a
href="UG/HDF5_User_Guide-Responsive HTML5/index.html"><cite>HDF5
User Guide</cite></a>.
</p>
<p>
Three levels of information comprise the file format. Level 0 contains
basic information for identifying and defining information about the
file. Level 1 information contains the information about the pieces of
a file shared by many objects in the file (such as a B-trees and
heaps). Level 2 is the rest of the file and contains all of the data
objects, with each object partitioned into header information, also
known as <em>metadata</em>, and data.
</p>
<p>
The sizes of various fields in the following layout tables are
determined by looking at the number of columns the field spans in the
table. There are three exceptions: (1) The size may be overridden by
specifying a size in parentheses, (2) the size of addresses is
determined by the <em>Size of Offsets</em> field in the superblock and
is indicated in this document with a superscripted &lsquo;O&rsquo;, and
(3) the size of length fields is determined by the <em>Size of
Lengths</em> field in the superblock and is indicated in this document with
a superscripted &lsquo;L&rsquo;.
</p>
<p>Values for all fields in this document should be treated as
unsigned integers, unless otherwise noted in the description of a
field. Additionally, all metadata fields are stored in little-endian
byte order.</p>
<p>
All checksums used in the format are computed with the <a
href="http://www.burtleburtle.net/bob/hash/doobs.html">Jenkins&rsquo;
lookup3</a> algorithm.
</p>
<p>Whenever a bit flag or field is mentioned for an entry, bits are
numbered from the lowest bit position in the entry.</p>
<p>Various tables in this document aligned with &ldquo;This space
inserted only to align table nicely&rdquo;. These entries in the table
are just to make the table presentation nicer and do not represent any
values or padding in the file.</p>
<br />
<a name="ChangesForHdf5_1_10"><h3>I.B. Changes for HDF5 1.10</h3></a>
<p>As of October 2015, changes in the file format for HDF5 1.10 have
not yet been finalized.</p>
<br />
<br />
<hr />
<h2>
<a name="FileMetaData"> II. Disk Format: Level 0 - File Metadata</a>
</h2>
<br />
<h3>
<a name="Superblock"> II.A. Disk Format: Level 0A - Format
Signature and Superblock</a>
</h3>
<p>The superblock may begin at certain predefined offsets within the
HDF5 file, allowing a block of unspecified content for users to place
additional information at the beginning (and end) of the HDF5 file
without limiting the HDF5 Library&rsquo;s ability to manage the objects
within the file itself. This feature was designed to accommodate
wrapping an HDF5 file in another file format or adding descriptive
information to an HDF5 file without requiring the modification of the
actual file&rsquo;s information. The superblock is located by searching
for the HDF5 format signature at byte offset 0, byte offset 512, and at
successive locations in the file, each a multiple of two of the
previous location; in other words, at these byte offsets: 0, 512, 1024,
2048, and so on.</p>
<p>The superblock is composed of the format signature, followed by a
superblock version number and information that is specific to each
version of the superblock. Currently, there are three versions of the
superblock format. Version 0 is the default format, while version 1 is
basically the same as version 0 with additional information when a
non-default B-tree &lsquo;K&rsquo; value is stored. Version 2 is the
latest format, with some fields eliminated or compressed and with
superblock extension and checksum support.</p>
<p>Version 0 and 1 of the superblock are described below:</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Superblock (Versions 0 and 1)</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Format Signature (8 bytes)<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version # of Superblock</td>
<td>Version # of File&rsquo;s Free Space Storage</td>
<td>Version # of Root Group Symbol Table Entry</td>
<td>Reserved (zero)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version # of Shared Header Message Format</td>
<td>Size of Offsets</td>
<td>Size of Lengths</td>
<td>Reserved (zero)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Group Leaf Node K</td>
<td colspan="2">Group Internal Node K</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">File Consistency Flags</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2" style="border: dotted;">Indexed Storage Internal
Node K<sup>1</sup>
</td>
<td colspan="2" style="border: dotted;">Reserved (zero)<sup>1</sup></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Base Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Address of File Free space Info<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />End of File Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Driver Information Block Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Root Group Symbol Table Entry</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets.&rdquo;)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>(Items marked with a &lsquo;1&rsquo; in the above table are
new in version 1 of the superblock)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Format Signature</p></td>
<td><p>This field contains a constant value and can be used
to quickly identify a file as being an HDF5 file. The constant
value is designed to allow easy identification of an HDF5 file and
to allow certain types of data corruption to be detected. The file
signature of an HDF5 file always contains the following values:</p>
<center>
<table border align="center" cellpadding="4">
<tr align="center">
<td align="right">Decimal:</td>
<td width="8%">137</td>
<td width="8%">72</td>
<td width="8%">68</td>
<td width="8%">70</td>
<td width="8%">13</td>
<td width="8%">10</td>
<td width="8%">26</td>
<td width="8%">10</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td align="right">Hexadecimal:</td>
<td>89</td>
<td>48</td>
<td>44</td>
<td>46</td>
<td>0d</td>
<td>0a</td>
<td>1a</td>
<td>0a</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td align="right">ASCII C Notation:</td>
<td>\211</td>
<td>H</td>
<td>D</td>
<td>F</td>
<td>\r</td>
<td>\n</td>
<td>\032</td>
<td>\n</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<p>
This signature both identifies the file as an HDF5 file and
provides for immediate detection of common file-transfer problems.
The first two bytes distinguish HDF5 files on systems that expect
the first two bytes to identify the file type uniquely. The first
byte is chosen as a non-ASCII value to reduce the probability that
a text file may be misrecognized as an HDF5 file; also, it catches
bad file transfers that clear bit 7. Bytes two through four name
the format. The CR-LF sequence catches bad file transfers that
alter newline sequences. The control-Z character stops file display
under MS-DOS. The final line feed checks for the inverse of the
CR-LF translation problem. (This is a direct descendent of the <a
href="http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/spec/iso/index-object.html#5PNG-file-signature">PNG</a>
file signature.)
</p>
<p>
<em>This field is present in version 0+ of the superblock.</em>
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version Number of the Superblock</p></td>
<td><p>This value is used to determine the format of the
information in the superblock. When the format of the information
in the superblock is changed, the version number is incremented to
the next integer and can be used to determine how the information
in the superblock is formatted.</p>
<p>Values of 0, 1 and 2 are defined for this field. (The format
of version 2 is described below, not here)</p>
<p>
<em>This field is present in version 0+ of the superblock.</em>
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version Number of the File&rsquo;s Free Space
Information</p></td>
<td>
<p>This value is used to determine the format of the
file&rsquo;s free space information.</p>
<p>
The only value currently valid in this field is &lsquo;0&rsquo;,
which indicates that the file&rsquo;s free space is as described <a
href="#FreeSpaceManager">below</a>.
</p>
<p>
<em>This field is present in version 0 and 1 of the
superblock.</em>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version Number of the Root Group Symbol Table Entry</p></td>
<td><p>This value is used to determine the format of the
information in the Root Group Symbol Table Entry. When the format
of the information in that field is changed, the version number is
incremented to the next integer and can be used to determine how
the information in the field is formatted.</p>
<p>
The only value currently valid in this field is &lsquo;0&rsquo;,
which indicates that the root group symbol table entry is formatted
as described <a href="#SymbolTableEntry">below</a>.
</p>
<p>
<em>This field is present in version 0 and 1 of the
superblock.</em>
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version Number of the Shared Header Message Format</p></td>
<td><p>This value is used to determine the format of the
information in a shared object header message. Since the format of
the shared header messages differs from the other private header
messages, a version number is used to identify changes in the
format.</p>
<p>
The only value currently valid in this field is &lsquo;0&rsquo;,
which indicates that shared header messages are formatted as
described <a href="#ObjectHeaderMessages">below</a>.
</p>
<p>
<em>This field is present in version 0 and 1 of the
superblock.</em>
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Size of Offsets</p></td>
<td><p>This value contains the number of bytes used to store
addresses in the file. The values for the addresses of objects in
the file are offsets relative to a base address, usually the
address of the superblock signature. This allows a wrapper to be
added after the file is created without invalidating the internal
offset locations.</p>
<p>
<em>This field is present in version 0+ of the superblock.</em>
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Size of Lengths</p></td>
<td><p>This value contains the number of bytes used to store
the size of an object.</p>
<p>
<em>This field is present in version 0+ of the superblock.</em>
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Group Leaf Node K</p></td>
<td>
<p>Each leaf node of a group B-tree will have at least this many
entries but not more than twice this many. If a group has a single
leaf node then it may have fewer entries.</p>
<p>This value must be greater than zero.</p>
<p>
See the <a href="#Btrees">description</a> of B-trees below.
</p>
<p>
<em>This field is present in version 0 and 1 of the
superblock.</em>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Group Internal Node K</p></td>
<td>
<p>Each internal node of a group B-tree will have at least this
many entries but not more than twice this many. If the group has
only one internal node then it might have fewer entries.</p>
<p>This value must be greater than zero.</p>
<p>
See the <a href="#Btrees">description</a> of B-trees below.
</p>
<p>
<em>This field is present in version 0 and 1 of the
superblock.</em>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>File Consistency Flags</p></td>
<td>
<p>This value contains flags to indicate information about the
consistency of the information contained within the file.
Currently, the following bit flags are defined:</p>
<ul>
<li>Bit 0 set indicates that the file is opened for
write-access.</li>
<li>Bit 1 set indicates that the file has been verified for
consistency and is guaranteed to be consistent with the format
defined in this document.</li>
<li>Bits 2-31 are reserved for future use.</li>
</ul> Bit 0 should be set as the first action when a file is opened for
write access and should be cleared only as the final action when
closing a file. Bit 1 should be cleared during normal access to a
file and only set after the file&rsquo;s consistency is guaranteed
by the library or a consistency utility.
<p></p>
<p>
<em>This field is present in version 0+ of the superblock.</em>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Indexed Storage Internal Node K</p></td>
<td>
<p>Each internal node of an indexed storage B-tree will have at
least this many entries but not more than twice this many. If the
index storage B-tree has only one internal node then it might have
fewer entries.</p>
<p>This value must be greater than zero.</p>
<p>
See the <a href="#Btrees">description</a> of B-trees below.
</p>
<p>
<em>This field is present in version 1 of the superblock.</em>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Base Address</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the absolute file address of the first byte of the
HDF5 data within the file. The library currently constrains this
value to be the absolute file address of the superblock itself when
creating new files; future versions of the library may provide
greater flexibility. When opening an existing file and this address
does not match the offset of the superblock, the library assumes
that the entire contents of the HDF5 file have been adjusted in the
file and adjusts the base address and end of file address to
reflect their new positions in the file. Unless otherwise noted,
all other file addresses are relative to this base address.</p>
<p>
<em>This field is present in version 0+ of the superblock.</em>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Address of Global Free-space Index</p></td>
<td>
<p>
The file&rsquo;s free space is not persistent for version 0 and 1
of the superblock. Currently this field always contains the <a
href="#UndefinedAddress">undefined address</a>.
</p>
<p>
<em>This field is present in version 0 and 1 of the
superblock.</em>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>End of File Address</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the absolute file address of the first byte past the
end of all HDF5 data. It is used to determine whether a file has
been accidentally truncated and as an address where file data
allocation can occur if space from the free list is not used.</p>
<p>
<em>This field is present in version 0+ of the superblock.</em>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Driver Information Block Address</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is the relative file address of the file driver information
block which contains driver-specific information needed to reopen
the file. If there is no driver information block then this entry
should be the <a href="#UndefinedAddress">undefined address</a>.
</p>
<p>
<em>This field is present in version 0 and 1 of the
superblock.</em>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Root Group Symbol Table Entry</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is the <a href="#SymbolTableEntry">symbol table entry</a> of
the root group, which serves as the entry point into the group
graph for the file.
</p>
<p>
<em>This field is present in version 0 and 1 of the
superblock.</em>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<p>Version 2 of the superblock is described below:</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Superblock (Version 2)</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Format Signature (8 bytes)<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version # of Superblock</td>
<td>Size of Offsets</td>
<td>Size of Lengths</td>
<td>File Consistency Flags</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Base Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Superblock Extension Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />End of File Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Root Group Object Header Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Superblock Checksum</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets.&rdquo;)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Format Signature</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field is the same as described for versions 0 and 1 of
the superblock.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version Number of the Superblock</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field has a value of 2 and has the same meaning as for
versions 0 and 1.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Size of Offsets</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field is the same as described for versions 0 and 1 of
the superblock.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Size of Lengths</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field is the same as described for versions 0 and 1 of
the superblock.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>File Consistency Flags</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field is the same as described for versions 0 and 1
except that it is smaller (the number of reserved bits has been
reduced from 30 to 6).</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Base Address</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field is the same as described for versions 0 and 1 of
the superblock.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Superblock Extension Address</p></td>
<td>
<p>
The field is the address of the object header for the <a
href="#SuperblockExt">superblock extension</a>. If there is no
extension then this entry should be the <a href="#UndefinedAddress">undefined
address</a>.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>End of File Address</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field is the same as described for versions 0 and 1 of
the superblock.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Root Group Object Header Address</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is the address of the <a href="#DataObject">root group
object header</a>, which serves as the entry point into the group
graph for the file.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Superblock Checksum</p></td>
<td>
<p>The checksum for the superblock.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<h3>
<a name="DriverInfo"> II.B. Disk Format: Level 0B - File Driver
Info</a>
</h3>
<p>
The <b>driver information block</b> is an optional region of the file
which contains information needed by the file driver to reopen a file.
The format is described below:
</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Driver Information Block</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td colspan="3">Reserved</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Driver Information Size</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Driver Identification (8 bytes)<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />
<br />Driver Information (<em>variable size</em>)<br />
<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td>
<p>The version number of the Driver Information Block. This
document describes version 0.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Driver Information Size</p></td>
<td>
<p>
The size in bytes of the <em>Driver Information</em> field.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Driver Identification</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is an eight-byte ASCII string without null termination which
identifies the driver and/or version number of the Driver
Information Block. The predefined driver encoded in this field by
the HDF5 Library is identified by the letters
<code>NCSA</code>
followed by the first four characters of the driver name. If the
Driver Information block is not the original version then the last
letter(s) of the identification will be replaced by a version
number in ASCII, starting with 0.
</p>
<p>Identification for user-defined drivers is also eight-byte
long. It can be arbitrary but should be unique to avoid the four
character prefix &ldquo;NCSA&rdquo;.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top">
<td><p>Driver Information</p></td>
<td>Driver information is stored in a format defined by the file
driver (see description below).</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br /> The two drivers encoded in the
<em>Driver Identification</em> field are as follows:
<ul>
<li>Multi driver:
<p>The identifier for this driver is &ldquo;NCSAmulti&rdquo;. This
driver provides a mechanism for segregating raw data and different
types of metadata into multiple files. These files are viewed by the
library as a single virtual HDF5 file with a single file address. A
maximum of 6 files will be created for the following data:
superblock, B-tree, raw data, global heap, local heap, and object
header. More than one type of data can be written to the same file.</p>
</li>
<li>Family driver
<p>The identifier for this driver is &ldquo;NCSAfami&rdquo; and is
encoded in this field for library version 1.8 and after. This driver
is designed for systems that do not support files larger than 2
gigabytes by splitting the HDF5 file address space across several
smaller files. It does nothing to segregate metadata and raw data;
they are mixed in the address space just as they would be in a single
contiguous file.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>
The format of the <em>Driver Information</em> field for the above two
drivers are described below:
</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Multi Driver Information</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Member Mapping</td>
<td>Member Mapping</td>
<td>Member Mapping</td>
<td>Member Mapping</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Member Mapping</td>
<td>Member Mapping</td>
<td>Reserved</td>
<td>Reserved</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Address of Member File 1<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />End of Address for Member File 1<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Address of Member File 2<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />End of Address for Member File 2<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />... ...<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Address of Member File N<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />End of Address for Member File N<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Name of Member File 1 <em>(variable
size)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Name of Member File 2 <em>(variable
size)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />... ...<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Name of Member File N <em>(variable
size)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Member Mapping</p></td>
<td><p>These fields are integer values from 1 to 6
indicating how the data can be mapped to or merged with another
type of data.</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Member Mapping</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">1</td>
<td>The superblock data.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">2</td>
<td>The B-tree data.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">3</td>
<td>The raw data.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">4</td>
<td>The global heap data.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">5</td>
<td>The local heap data.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">6</td>
<td>The object header data.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
<p>For example, if the third field has the value 3 and all the
rest have the value 1, it means there are two files: one for raw
data, and one for superblock, B-tree, global heap, local heap, and
object header.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Reserved</p></td>
<td><p>These fields are reserved and should always be zero.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Address of Member File N</p></td>
<td><p>This field Specifies the virtual address at which the
member file starts.</p>
<p>N is the number of member files.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>End of Address for Member File N</p></td>
<td><p>This field is the end of the allocated address for
the member file.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Name of Member File N</p></td>
<td><p>
This field is the null-terminated name of the member file and its
length should be multiples of 8 bytes. Additional bytes will be
padded with <em>NULL</em>s. The default naming convention is <em>%s-X.h5</em>,
where <em>X</em> is one of the letters <em>s</em> (for superblock),
<em>b</em> (for B-tree), <em>r</em> (for raw data), <em>g</em> (for
global heap), <em>l</em> (for local heap), and <em>o</em> (for
object header). The name of the whole HDF5 file will substitute the
<em>%s</em> in the string.
</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Family Driver Information</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="8"><br />Size of Member File<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Size of Member File</p></td>
<td><p>This field is the size of the member file in the
family of files.</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<h3>
<a name="SuperblockExt"> II.C. Disk Format: Level 0C - Superblock
Extension</a>
</h3>
<p>
The <em>superblock extension</em> is used to store superblock metadata
which is either optional, or added after the version of the superblock
was defined. Superblock extensions may only exist when version 2+ of
superblock is used. A superblock extension is an object header which
may hold the following messages:
</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="#SOHMTableMessage">Shared Message Table message</a>
containing information to locate the master table of shared object
header message indices.</li>
<li><a href="#BtreeKValuesMessage">B-tree &lsquo;K&rsquo;
Values message</a> containing non-default B-tree &lsquo;K&rsquo; values.</li>
<li><a href="#DrvInfoMessage">Driver Info message</a> containing
information needed by the file driver in order to reopen a file. See
also the <a href="#DriverInfo">&ldquo;Disk Format: Level 0B - File
Driver Info&rdquo;</a> section above.</li>
<li><a href="#FsinfoMessage">File Space Info message</a>
containing information about file space handling in the file.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<hr />
<h2>
<a name="FileInfra"> III. Disk Format: Level 1 - File
Infrastructure</a>
</h2>
<br />
<h3>
<a name="Btrees"> III.A. Disk Format: Level 1A - B-trees and B-tree
Nodes</a>
</h3>
<p>B-trees allow flexible storage for objects which tend to grow in
ways that cause the object to be stored discontiguously. B-trees are
described in various algorithms books including &ldquo;Introduction to
Algorithms&rdquo; by Thomas H. Cormen, Charles E. Leiserson, and Ronald
L. Rivest. B-trees are used in several places in the HDF5 file format,
when an index is needed for another data structure.</p>
<p>The version 1 B-tree structure described below is the original
index structure, but are limited by some bugs in our implementation
(mainly in how they handle deleting records). The version 1 B-trees are
being phased out in favor of the version 2 B-trees described below,
although both types of structures may be found in the same file,
depending on application settings when creating the file.</p>
<br />
<h4>
<a name="V1Btrees"> III.A.1. Disk Format: Level 1A1 - Version 1
B-trees (B-link Trees)</a>
</h4>
<p>
Version 1 B-trees in HDF5 files an implementation of the B-link tree,
in which the sibling nodes at a particular level in the tree are stored
in a doubly-linked list, is described in the &ldquo;Efficient Locking
for Concurrent Operations on B-trees&rdquo; paper by Phillip Lehman and
S. Bing Yao as published in the <cite>ACM Transactions on
Database Systems</cite>, Vol. 6, No. 4, December 1981.
</p>
<p>The B-link trees implemented by the file format contain one more
key than the number of children. In other words, each child pointer out
of a B-tree node has a left key and a right key. The pointers out of
internal nodes point to sub-trees while the pointers out of leaf nodes
point to symbol nodes and raw data chunks. Aside from that difference,
internal nodes and leaf nodes are identical.</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>B-link Tree Nodes</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Signature</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Node Type</td>
<td>Node Level</td>
<td colspan="2">Entries Used</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Address of Left Sibling<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Address of Right Sibling<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Key 0 (variable size)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Address of Child 0<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Key 1 (variable size)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Address of Child 1<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">...</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Key 2<em>K</em> (variable size)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Address of Child 2<em>K</em><sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Key 2<em>K</em>+1 (variable size)
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Signature</p></td>
<td>
<p>
The ASCII character string &ldquo;
<code>TREE</code>
&rdquo; is used to indicate the beginning of a B-link tree node.
This gives file consistency checking utilities a better chance of
reconstructing a damaged file.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Node Type</p></td>
<td>
<p>
Each B-link tree points to a particular type of data. This field
indicates the type of data as well as implying the maximum degree <em>K</em>
of the tree and the size of each Key field.
</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Node Type</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">0</td>
<td>This tree points to group nodes.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">1</td>
<td>This tree points to raw data chunk nodes.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Node Level</p></td>
<td>
<p>The node level indicates the level at which this node appears
in the tree (leaf nodes are at level zero). Not only does the level
indicate whether child pointers point to sub-trees or to data, but
it can also be used to help file consistency checking utilities
reconstruct damaged trees.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top">
<td><p>Entries Used</p></td>
<td>
<p>This determines the number of children to which this node
points. All nodes of a particular type of tree have the same
maximum degree, but most nodes will point to less than that number
of children. The valid child pointers and keys appear at the
beginning of the node and the unused pointers and keys appear at
the end of the node. The unused pointers and keys have undefined
values.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top">
<td><p>Address of Left Sibling</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is the relative file address of the left sibling of the
current node. If the current node is the left-most node at this
level then this field is the <a href="#UndefinedAddress">undefined
address</a>.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top">
<td><p>Address of Right Sibling</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is the relative file address of the right sibling of the
current node. If the current node is the right-most node at this
level then this field is the <a href="#UndefinedAddress">undefined
address</a>.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top">
<td><p>Keys and Child Pointers</p></td>
<td>
<p>
Each tree has 2<em>K</em>+1 keys with 2<em>K</em> child pointers
interleaved between the keys. The number of keys and child pointers
actually containing valid values is determined by the node&rsquo;s
<em>Entries Used</em> field. If that field is <em>N</em> then the
B-link tree contains <em>N</em> child pointers and <em>N</em>+1
keys.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top">
<td><p>Key</p></td>
<td>
<p>
The format and size of the key values is determined by the type of
data to which this tree points. The keys are ordered and are
boundaries for the contents of the child pointer; that is, the key
values represented by child <em>N</em> fall between Key <em>N</em>
and Key <em>N</em>+1. Whether the interval is open or closed on
each end is determined by the type of data to which the tree
points.
</p>
<p>The format of the key depends on the node type. For nodes of
node type 0 (group nodes), the key is formatted as follows:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<td width="20%">A single field of <i>Size of Lengths</i>
bytes:
</td>
<td width="80%">Indicates the byte offset into the local heap
for the first object name in the subtree which that key
describes.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
<p>For nodes of node type 1 (chunked raw data nodes), the key is
formatted as follows:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<td width="20%">Bytes 1-4:</td>
<td width="80%">Size of chunk in bytes.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Bytes 4-8:</td>
<td>Filter mask, a 32-bit bit field indicating which filters
have been skipped for this chunk. Each filter has an index number
in the pipeline (starting at 0, with the first filter to apply)
and if that filter is skipped, the bit corresponding to its index
is set.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>(<em>D + 1</em>) 64-bit fields:
</td>
<td>The offset of the chunk within the dataset where <i>D</i>
is the number of dimensions of the dataset, and the last value is
the offset within the dataset&rsquo;s datatype and should always
be zero. For example, if a chunk in a 3-dimensional dataset
begins at the position <code>[5,5,5]</code>, there will be three
such 64-bit values, each with the value of <code>5</code>,
followed by a <code>0</code> value.
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top">
<td><p>Child Pointer</p></td>
<td>
<p>The tree node contains file addresses of subtrees or data
depending on the node level. Nodes at Level 0 point to data
addresses, either raw data chunks or group nodes. Nodes at non-zero
levels point to other nodes of the same B-tree.</p>
<p>
For raw data chunk nodes, the child pointer is the address of a
single raw data chunk. For group nodes, the child pointer points to
a <a href="#SymbolTable">symbol table</a>, which contains
information for multiple symbol table entries.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>Conceptually, each B-tree node looks like this:</p>
<center>
<table>
<tr valign="top" align="center">
<td>key[0]</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>child[0]</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>key[1]</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>child[1]</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>key[2]</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>...</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>...</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>key[<i>N</i>-1]
</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>child[<i>N</i>-1]
</td>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>key[<i>N</i>]
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<br /> where child[
<i>i</i>] is a pointer to a sub-tree (at a level above Level 0) or to
data (at Level 0). Each key[
<i>i</i>] describes an
<i>item</i> stored by the B-tree (a chunk or an object of a group node).
The range of values represented by child[
<i>i</i>] is indicated by key[
<i>i</i>] and key[
<i>i</i>+1].
<p>
The following question must next be answered: &ldquo;Is the value
described by key[<i>i</i>] contained in child[<i>i</i>-1] or in child[<i>i</i>]?&rdquo;
The answer depends on the type of tree. In trees for groups (node type
0) the object described by key[<i>i</i>] is the greatest object
contained in child[<i>i</i>-1] while in chunk trees (node type 1) the
chunk described by key[<i>i</i>] is the least chunk in child[<i>i</i>].
</p>
<p>That means that key[0] for group trees is sometimes unused; it
points to offset zero in the heap, which is always the empty string and
compares as &ldquo;less-than&rdquo; any valid object name.</p>
<p>
And key[<i>N</i>] for chunk trees is sometimes unused; it contains a
chunk offset which compares as &ldquo;greater-than&rdquo; any other
chunk offset and has a chunk byte size of zero to indicate that it is
not actually allocated.
</p>
<br />
<h4>
<a name="V2Btrees"> III.A.2. Disk Format: Level 1A2 - Version 2
B-trees</a>
</h4>
<p>
Version 2 B-trees are &ldquo;traditional&rdquo; B-trees, with one major
difference. Instead of just using a simple pointer (or address in the
file) to a child of an internal node, the pointer to the child node
contains two additional pieces of information: the number of records in
the child node itself, and the total number of records in the child
node and all its descendants. Storing this additional information
allows fast array-like indexing to locate the n<sup>th</sup> record in
the B-tree.
</p>
<p>
The entry into a version 2 B-tree is a header which contains global
information about the structure of the B-tree. The <em>root node
address</em> field in the header points to the B-tree root node, which is
either an internal or leaf node, depending on the value in the
header&rsquo;s <em>depth</em> field. An internal node consists of
records plus pointers to further leaf or internal nodes in the tree. A
leaf node consists of solely of records. The format of the records
depends on the B-tree type (stored in the header).
</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Version 2 B-tree Header</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Signature</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td>Type</td>
<td colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Node Size</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Record Size</td>
<td colspan="2">Depth</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Split Percent</td>
<td>Merge Percent</td>
<td colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Root Node Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Number of Records in Root Node</td>
<td colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Total Number of Records in B-tree<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Checksum</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>(Items marked with an &lsquo;L&rsquo; in the above table are
of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of Lengths&rdquo; field in the
superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Signature</p></td>
<td>
<p>
The ASCII character string &ldquo;
<code>BTHD</code>
&rdquo; is used to indicate the header of a version 2 B-link tree
node.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td>
<p>The version number for this B-tree header. This document
describes version 0.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Type</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field indicates the type of B-tree:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Value</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">0</td>
<td>A &ldquo;testing&rdquo; B-tree, this value should <em>not</em>
be used for storing records in actual HDF5 files.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">1</td>
<td>This B-tree is used for indexing indirectly accessed,
non-filtered &lsquo;huge&rsquo; fractal heap objects.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">2</td>
<td>This B-tree is used for indexing indirectly accessed,
filtered &lsquo;huge&rsquo; fractal heap objects.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">3</td>
<td>This B-tree is used for indexing directly accessed,
non-filtered &lsquo;huge&rsquo; fractal heap objects.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">4</td>
<td>This B-tree is used for indexing directly accessed,
filtered &lsquo;huge&rsquo; fractal heap objects.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">5</td>
<td>This B-tree is used for indexing the &lsquo;name&rsquo;
field for links in indexed groups.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">6</td>
<td>This B-tree is used for indexing the &lsquo;creation
order&rsquo; field for links in indexed groups.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">7</td>
<td>This B-tree is used for indexing shared object header
messages.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">8</td>
<td>This B-tree is used for indexing the &lsquo;name&rsquo;
field for indexed attributes.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">9</td>
<td>This B-tree is used for indexing the &lsquo;creation
order&rsquo; field for indexed attributes.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
<p>The format of records for each type is described below.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top">
<td><p>Node Size</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the size in bytes of all B-tree nodes.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top">
<td><p>Record Size</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field is the size in bytes of the B-tree record.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top">
<td><p>Depth</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the depth of the B-tree.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top">
<td><p>Split Percent</p></td>
<td>
<p>The percent full that a node needs to increase above before
it is split.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top">
<td><p>Merge Percent</p></td>
<td>
<p>The percent full that a node needs to be decrease below
before it is split.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top">
<td><p>Root Node Address</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is the address of the root B-tree node. A B-tree with no
records will have the <a href="#UndefinedAddress">undefined
address</a> in this field.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top">
<td><p>Number of Records in Root Node</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the number of records in the root node.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top">
<td><p>Total Number of Records in B-tree</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the total number of records in the entire B-tree.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr valign="top">
<td><p>Checksum</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the checksum for the B-tree header.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Version 2 B-tree Internal Node</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Signature</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td>Type</td>
<td colspan="2">Records 0, 1, 2...N-1 <em>(variable size)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Child Node Pointer 0<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Number of Records N<sub>0</sub> for Child
Node 0 <em>(variable size)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Total Number of Records for Child Node 0
<em>(optional, variable size)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Child Node Pointer 1<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Number of Records N<sub>1</sub> for Child
Node 1 <em>(variable size)</em></td>
<tr></tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Total Number of Records for Child Node 1
<em>(optional, variable size)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">...</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Child Node Pointer N<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Number of Records N<sub>n</sub> for Child
Node N <em>(variable size)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Total Number of Records for Child Node N
<em>(optional, variable size)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Checksum</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Signature</p></td>
<td>
<p>
The ASCII character string &ldquo;
<code>BTIN</code>
&rdquo; is used to indicate the internal node of a B-link tree.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td>
<p>The version number for this B-tree internal node. This
document describes version 0.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Type</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field is the type of the B-tree node. It should always
be the same as the B-tree type in the header.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Records</p></td>
<td>
<p>The size of this field is determined by the number of records
for this node and the record size (from the header). The format of
records depends on the type of B-tree.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Child Node Pointer</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field is the address of the child node pointed to by the
internal node.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Number of Records in Child Node</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is the number of records in the child node pointed to by the
corresponding <em>Node Pointer</em>.
</p>
<p>The number of bytes used to store this field is determined by
the maximum possible number of records able to be stored in the
child node.</p>
<p>The maximum number of records in a child node is computed in
the following way:</p>
<ul>
<li>Subtract the fixed size overhead for the child node (for
example, its signature, version, checksum, and so on and <em>one</em>
pointer triplet of information for the child node (because there
is one more pointer triplet than records in each internal node))
from the size of nodes for the B-tree.
</li>
<li>Divide that result by the size of a record plus the
pointer triplet of information stored to reach each child node
from this node.</li>
</ul>
<p></p>
<p>Note that leaf nodes do not encode any child pointer
triplets, so the maximum number of records in a leaf node is just
the node size minus the leaf node overhead, divided by the record
size.</p>
<p>
Also note that the first level of internal nodes above the leaf
nodes do not encode the <em>Total Number of Records in Child
Node</em> value in the child pointer triplets (since it is the same as
the <em>Number of Records in Child Node</em>), so the maximum
number of records in these nodes is computed with the equation
above, but using (<em>Child Pointer</em>, <em>Number of
Records in Child Node</em>) pairs instead of triplets.
</p>
<p>The number of bytes used to encode this field is the least
number of bytes required to encode the maximum number of records in
a child node value for the child nodes below this level in the
B-tree.</p>
<p>For example, if the maximum number of child records is 123,
one byte will be used to encode these values in this node; if the
maximum number of child records is 20000, two bytes will be used to
encode these values in this node; and so on. The maximum number of
bytes used to encode these values is 8 (in other words, an unsigned
64-bit integer).</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Total Number of Records in Child Node</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is the total number of records for the node pointed to by the
corresponding <em>Node Pointer</em> and all its children. This
field exists only in nodes whose depth in the B-tree node is
greater than 1 (in other words, the &ldquo;twig&rdquo; internal
nodes, just above leaf nodes, do not store this field in their
child node pointers).
</p>
<p>The number of bytes used to store this field is determined by
the maximum possible number of records able to be stored in the
child node and its descendants.</p>
<p>The maximum possible number of records able to be stored in a
child node and its descendants is computed iteratively, in the
following way: The maximum number of records in a leaf node is
computed, then that value is used to compute the maximum possible
number of records in the first level of internal nodes above the
leaf nodes. Multiplying these two values together determines the
maximum possible number of records in child node pointers for the
level of nodes two levels above leaf nodes. This process is
continued up to any level in the B-tree.</p>
<p>
The number of bytes used to encode this value is computed in the
same way as for the <em>Number of Records in Child Node</em> field.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Checksum</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the checksum for this node.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Version 2 B-tree Leaf Node</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Signature</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td>Type</td>
<td colspan="2">Record 0, 1, 2...N-1 <em>(variable size)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Checksum</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Signature</p></td>
<td>
<p>
The ASCII character string &ldquo;
<code>BTLF</code>
&ldquo; is used to indicate the leaf node of a version 2 B-link
tree.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td>
<p>The version number for this B-tree leaf node. This document
describes version 0.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Type</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field is the type of the B-tree node. It should always
be the same as the B-tree type in the header.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Records</p></td>
<td>
<p>The size of this field is determined by the number of records
for this node and the record size (from the header). The format of
records depends on the type of B-tree.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Checksum</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the checksum for this node.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<p>The record layout for each stored (in other words, non-testing)
B-tree type is as follows:</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Version 2 B-tree, Type 1 Record Layout - Indirectly
Accessed, Non-Filtered, &lsquo;Huge&rsquo; Fractal Heap Objects</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Huge Object Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Huge Object Length<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Huge Object ID<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>(Items marked with an &lsquo;L&rsquo; in the above table are
of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of Lengths&rdquo; field in the
superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Huge Object Address</p></td>
<td>
<p>The address of the huge object in the file.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Huge Object Length</p></td>
<td>
<p>The length of the huge object in the file.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Huge Object ID</p></td>
<td>
<p>The heap ID for the huge object.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Version 2 B-tree, Type 2 Record Layout - Indirectly
Accessed, Filtered, &lsquo;Huge&rsquo; Fractal Heap Objects</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Filtered Huge Object Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Filtered Huge Object Length<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Filter Mask</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Filtered Huge Object Memory Size<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Huge Object ID<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>(Items marked with an &lsquo;L&rsquo; in the above table are
of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of Lengths&rdquo; field in the
superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Filtered Huge Object Address</p></td>
<td>
<p>The address of the filtered huge object in the file.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Filtered Huge Object Length</p></td>
<td>
<p>The length of the filtered huge object in the file.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Filter Mask</p></td>
<td>
<p>A 32-bit bit field indicating which filters have been skipped
for this chunk. Each filter has an index number in the pipeline
(starting at 0, with the first filter to apply) and if that filter
is skipped, the bit corresponding to its index is set.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Filtered Huge Object Memory Size</p></td>
<td>
<p>The size of the de-filtered huge object in memory.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Huge Object ID</p></td>
<td>
<p>The heap ID for the huge object.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Version 2 B-tree, Type 3 Record Layout - Directly
Accessed, Non-Filtered, &lsquo;Huge&rsquo; Fractal Heap Objects</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Huge Object Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Huge Object Length<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>(Items marked with an &lsquo;L&rsquo; in the above table are
of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of Lengths&rdquo; field in the
superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Huge Object Address</p></td>
<td>
<p>The address of the huge object in the file.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Huge Object Length</p></td>
<td>
<p>The length of the huge object in the file.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Version 2 B-tree, Type 4 Record Layout - Directly
Accessed, Filtered, &lsquo;Huge&rsquo; Fractal Heap Objects</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Filtered Huge Object Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Filtered Huge Object Length<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Filter Mask</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Filtered Huge Object Memory Size<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>(Items marked with an &lsquo;L&rsquo; in the above table are
of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of Lengths&rdquo; field in the
superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Filtered Huge Object Address</p></td>
<td>
<p>The address of the filtered huge object in the file.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Filtered Huge Object Length</p></td>
<td>
<p>The length of the filtered huge object in the file.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Filter Mask</p></td>
<td>
<p>A 32-bit bit field indicating which filters have been skipped
for this chunk. Each filter has an index number in the pipeline
(starting at 0, with the first filter to apply) and if that filter
is skipped, the bit corresponding to its index is set.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Filtered Huge Object Memory Size</p></td>
<td>
<p>The size of the de-filtered huge object in memory.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Version 2 B-tree, Type 5 Record Layout - Link Name
for Indexed Group</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Hash of Name</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">ID <em>(bytes 1-4)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="3">ID <em>(bytes 5-7)</em></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Hash</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field is hash value of the name for the link. The hash
value is the Jenkins&rsquo; lookup3 checksum algorithm applied to
the link&rsquo;s name.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>ID</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is a 7-byte sequence of bytes and is the heap ID for the
link record in the group&rsquo;s fractal heap.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Version 2 B-tree, Type 6 Record Layout - Creation
Order for Indexed Group</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Creation Order <em>(8 bytes)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">ID <em>(bytes 1-4)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="3">ID <em>(bytes 5-7)</em></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Creation Order</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field is the creation order value for the link.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>ID</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is a 7-byte sequence of bytes and is the heap ID for the
link record in the group&rsquo;s fractal heap.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Version 2 B-tree, Type 7 Record Layout - Shared
Object Header Messages (Sub-Type 0 - Message in Heap)</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan>Message Location</td>
<td colspan="3" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Hash</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Reference Count</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Heap ID <em>(8 bytes)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Message Location</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field Indicates the location where the message is
stored:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Value</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">0</td>
<td>Shared message is stored in shared message index heap.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">1</td>
<td>Shared message is stored in object header.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Hash</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field is hash value of the shared message. The hash
value is the Jenkins&rsquo; lookup3 checksum algorithm applied to
the shared message.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Reference Count</p></td>
<td>
<p>The number of objects which reference this message.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Heap ID</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is an 8-byte sequence of bytes and is the heap ID for
the shared message in the shared message index&rsquo;s fractal
heap.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Version 2 B-tree, Type 7 Record Layout - Shared
Object Header Messages (Sub-Type 1 - Message in Object Header)</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan>Message Location</td>
<td colspan="3" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Hash</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Reserved (zero)</td>
<td>Message Type</td>
<td colspan="2">Object Header Index</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Object Header Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Message Location</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field Indicates the location where the message is
stored:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Value</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">0</td>
<td>Shared message is stored in shared message index heap.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">1</td>
<td>Shared message is stored in object header.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Hash</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field is hash value of the shared message. The hash
value is the Jenkins&rsquo; lookup3 checksum algorithm applied to
the shared message.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Message Type</p></td>
<td>
<p>The object header message type of the shared message.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Object Header Index</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This field indicates that the shared message is the n<sup>th</sup>
message of its type in the specified object header.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Object Header Address</p></td>
<td>
<p>The address of the object header containing the shared
message.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Version 2 B-tree, Type 8 Record Layout - Attribute
Name for Indexed Attributes</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Heap ID <em>(8 bytes)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan>Message Flags</td>
<td colspan="3" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Creation Order</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Hash of Name</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Heap ID</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is an 8-byte sequence of bytes and is the heap ID for
the attribute in the object&rsquo;s attribute fractal heap.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Message Flags</p></td>
<td><p>The object header message flags for the attribute
message.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Creation Order</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field is the creation order value for the attribute.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Hash</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field is hash value of the name for the attribute. The
hash value is the Jenkins&rsquo; lookup3 checksum algorithm applied
to the attribute&rsquo;s name.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Version 2 B-tree, Type 9 Record Layout- Creation
Order for Indexed Attributes</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Heap ID <em>(8 bytes)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan>Message Flags</td>
<td colspan="3" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Creation Order</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Heap ID</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is an 8-byte sequence of bytes and is the heap ID for
the attribute in the object&rsquo;s attribute fractal heap.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Message Flags</p></td>
<td>
<p>The object header message flags for the attribute message.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Creation Order</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field is the creation order value for the attribute.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<h3>
<a name="SymbolTable"> III.B. Disk Format: Level 1B - Group Symbol
Table Nodes</a>
</h3>
<p>A group is an object internal to the file that allows arbitrary
nesting of objects within the file (including other groups). A group
maps a set of link names in the group to a set of relative file
addresses of objects in the file. Certain metadata for an object to
which the group points can be cached in the group&rsquo;s symbol table
entry in addition to being in the object&rsquo;s header.</p>
<p>An HDF5 object name space can be stored hierarchically by
partitioning the name into components and storing each component as a
link in a group. The link for a non-ultimate component points to the
group containing the next component. The link for the last component
points to the object being named.</p>
<p>
One implementation of a group is a collection of symbol table nodes
indexed by a B-link tree. Each symbol table node contains entries for
one or more links. If an attempt is made to add a link to an already
full symbol table node containing 2<em>K</em> entries, then the node is
split and one node contains <em>K</em> symbols and the other contains <em>K</em>+1
symbols.
</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Symbol Table Node (A Leaf of a B-link tree)</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Signature</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version Number</td>
<td>Reserved (zero)</td>
<td colspan="2">Number of Symbols</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />
<br />Group Entries<br />
<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Signature</p></td>
<td>
<p>
The ASCII character string &ldquo;
<code>SNOD</code>
&rdquo; is used to indicate the beginning of a symbol table node.
This gives file consistency checking utilities a better chance of
reconstructing a damaged file.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version Number</p></td>
<td>
<p>The version number for the symbol table node. This document
describes version 1. (There is no version &lsquo;0&rsquo; of the
symbol table node)</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Number of Entries</p></td>
<td>
<p>Although all symbol table nodes have the same length, most
contain fewer than the maximum possible number of link entries.
This field indicates how many entries contain valid data. The valid
entries are packed at the beginning of the symbol table node while
the remaining entries contain undefined values.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Symbol Table Entries</p></td>
<td>
<p>
Each link has an entry in the symbol table node. The format of the
entry is described below. There are 2<em>K</em> entries in each
group node, where <em>K</em> is the &ldquo;Group Leaf Node K&rdquo;
value from the <a href="#Superblock">superblock</a>.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<h3>
<a name="SymbolTableEntry"> III.C. Disk Format: Level 1C - Symbol
Table Entry </a>
</h3>
<p>Each symbol table entry in a symbol table node is designed to
allow for very fast browsing of stored objects. Toward that design
goal, the symbol table entries include space for caching certain
constant metadata from the object header.</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Symbol Table Entry</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Link Name Offset<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Object Header Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Cache Type</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Reserved (zero)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />
<br />Scratch-pad Space (16 bytes)<br />
<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Link Name Offset</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the byte offset into the group&rsquo;s local heap for
the name of the link. The name is null terminated.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Object Header Address</p></td>
<td>
<p>Every object has an object header which serves as a permanent
location for the object&rsquo;s metadata. In addition to appearing
in the object header, some of the object&rsquo;s metadata can be
cached in the scratch-pad space.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Cache Type</p></td>
<td>
<p>The cache type is determined from the object header. It also
determines the format for the scratch-pad space:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Type</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">0</td>
<td>No data is cached by the group entry. This is guaranteed
to be the case when an object header has a link count greater
than one.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">1</td>
<td>Group object header metadata is cached in the scratch-pad
space. This implies that the symbol table entry refers to another
group.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">2</td>
<td>The entry is a symbolic link. The first four bytes of the
scratch-pad space are the offset into the local heap for the link
value. The object header address will be undefined.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Reserved</p></td>
<td>
<p>These four bytes are present so that the scratch-pad space is
aligned on an eight-byte boundary. They are always set to zero.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Scratch-pad Space</p></td>
<td>
<p>This space is used for different purposes, depending on the
value of the Cache Type field. Any metadata about an object
represented in the scratch-pad space is duplicated in the object
header for that object.</p>
<p>Furthermore, no data is cached in the group entry scratch-pad
space if the object header for the object has a link count greater
than one.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<h4>Format of the Scratch-pad Space</h4>
<p>The symbol table entry scratch-pad space is formatted according
to the value in the Cache Type field.</p>
<p>
If the Cache Type field contains the value zero
<code>(0)</code>
then no information is stored in the scratch-pad space.
</p>
<p>
If the Cache Type field contains the value one
<code>(1)</code>
, then the scratch-pad space contains cached metadata for another
object header in the following format:
</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Object Header Scratch-pad Format</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Address of B-tree<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Address of Name Heap<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Address of B-tree</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the file address for the root of the group&rsquo;s
B-tree.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Address of Name Heap</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the file address for the group&rsquo;s local heap, in
which are stored the group&rsquo;s symbol names.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<p>
If the Cache Type field contains the value two
<code>(2)</code>
, then the scratch-pad space contains cached metadata for a symbolic
link in the following format:
</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Symbolic Link Scratch-pad Format</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Offset to Link Value</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Offset to Link Value</p></td>
<td>
<p>The value of a symbolic link (that is, the name of the thing
to which it points) is stored in the local heap. This field is the
4-byte offset into the local heap for the start of the link value,
which is null terminated.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<h3>
<a name="LocalHeap"> III.D. Disk Format: Level 1D - Local Heaps</a>
</h3>
<p>A local heap is a collection of small pieces of data that are
particular to a single object in the HDF5 file. Objects can be inserted
and removed from the heap at any time. The address of a heap does not
change once the heap is created. For example, a group stores addresses
of objects in symbol table nodes with the names of links stored in the
group&rsquo;s local heap.</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Local Heap</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Signature</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td colspan="3">Reserved (zero)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Data Segment Size<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Offset to Head of Free-list<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Address of Data Segment<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>(Items marked with an &lsquo;L&rsquo; in the above table are
of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of Lengths&rdquo; field in the
superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Signature</p></td>
<td>
<p>
The ASCII character string &ldquo;
<code>HEAP</code>
&rdquo; is used to indicate the beginning of a heap. This gives
file consistency checking utilities a better chance of
reconstructing a damaged file.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td>
<p>Each local heap has its own version number so that new heaps
can be added to old files. This document describes version zero (0)
of the local heap.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Data Segment Size</p></td>
<td>
<p>The total amount of disk memory allocated for the heap data.
This may be larger than the amount of space required by the objects
stored in the heap. The extra unused space in the heap holds a
linked list of free blocks.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Offset to Head of Free-list</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is the offset within the heap data segment of the first free
block (or the <a href="#UndefinedAddress">undefined address</a> if
there is no free block). The free block contains &ldquo;Size of
Lengths&rdquo; bytes that are the offset of the next free block (or
the value &lsquo;1&rsquo; if this is the last free block) followed
by &ldquo;Size of Lengths&rdquo; bytes that store the size of this
free block. The size of the free block includes the space used to
store the offset of the next free block and the size of the current
block, making the minimum size of a free block 2 * &ldquo;Size of
Lengths&rdquo;.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Address of Data Segment</p></td>
<td>
<p>The data segment originally starts immediately after the heap
header, but if the data segment must grow as a result of adding
more objects, then the data segment may be relocated, in its
entirety, to another part of the file.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>Objects within a local heap should be aligned on an 8-byte
boundary.</p>
<br />
<h3>
<a name="GlobalHeap"> III.E. Disk Format: Level 1E - Global Heap</a>
</h3>
<p>Each HDF5 file has a global heap which stores various types of
information which is typically shared between datasets. The global heap
was designed to satisfy these goals:</p>
<ol type="A">
<li>Repeated access to a heap object must be efficient without
resulting in repeated file I/O requests. Since global heap objects
will typically be shared among several datasets, it is probable that
the object will be accessed repeatedly.</li>
<li>Collections of related global heap objects should result in
fewer and larger I/O requests. For instance, a dataset of object
references will have a global heap object for each reference. Reading
the entire set of object references should result in a few large I/O
requests instead of one small I/O request for each reference.</li>
<li>It should be possible to remove objects from the global heap
and the resulting file hole should be eligible to be reclaimed for
other uses.</li>
</ol>
<p>
The implementation of the heap makes use of the memory management
already available at the file level and combines that with a new object
called a <em>collection</em> to achieve goal B. The global heap is the
set of all collections. Each global heap object belongs to exactly one
collection and each collection contains one or more global heap
objects. For the purposes of disk I/O and caching, a collection is
treated as an atomic object, addressing goal A.
</p>
<p>When a global heap object is deleted from a collection (which
occurs when its reference count falls to zero), objects located after
the deleted object in the collection are packed down toward the
beginning of the collection and the collection&rsquo;s global heap
object 0 is created (if possible) or its size is increased to account
for the recently freed space. There are no gaps between objects in each
collection, with the possible exception of the final space in the
collection, if it is not large enough to hold the header for the
collection&rsquo;s global heap object 0. These features address goal C.
</p>
<p>The HDF5 Library creates global heap collections as needed, so
there may be multiple collections throughout the file. The set of all
of them is abstractly called the &ldquo;global heap&rdquo;, although
they do not actually link to each other, and there is no global place
in the file where you can discover all of the collections. The
collections are found simply by finding a reference to one through
another object in the file. For example, data of variable-length
datatype elements is stored in the global heap and is accessed via a
global heap ID. The format for global heap IDs is described at the end
of this section.</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>A Global Heap Collection</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Signature</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td colspan="3">Reserved (zero)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Collection Size<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Global Heap Object 1<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Global Heap Object 2<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />...<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Global Heap Object <em>N</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Global Heap Object 0 (free space)<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;L&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Lengths&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Signature</p></td>
<td>
<p>
The ASCII character string &ldquo;
<code>GCOL</code>
&rdquo; is used to indicate the beginning of a collection. This
gives file consistency checking utilities a better chance of
reconstructing a damaged file.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td>
<p>Each collection has its own version number so that new
collections can be added to old files. This document describes
version one (1) of the collections (there is no version zero (0)).
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Collection Size</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the size in bytes of the entire collection including
this field. The default (and minimum) collection size is 4096 bytes
which is a typical file system block size. This allows for 127
16-byte heap objects plus their overhead (the collection header of
16 bytes and the 16 bytes of information about each heap object).</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>
Global Heap Object 1 through <em>N</em>
</p></td>
<td>
<p>The objects are stored in any order with no intervening
unused space.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Global Heap Object 0</p></td>
<td>
<p>Global Heap Object 0 (zero), when present, represents the
free space in the collection. Free space always appears at the end
of the collection. If the free space is too small to store the
header for Object 0 (described below) then the header is implied
and the collection contains no free space.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Global Heap Object</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Heap Object Index</td>
<td colspan="2">Reference Count</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Reserved (zero)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Object Size<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Object Data<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;L&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Lengths&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Heap Object Index</p></td>
<td>
<p>
Each object has a unique identification number within a collection.
The identification numbers are chosen so that new objects have the
smallest value possible with the exception that the identifier
<code>0</code>
always refers to the object which represents all free space within
the collection.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Reference Count</p></td>
<td>
<p>All heap objects have a reference count field. An object
which is referenced from some other part of the file will have a
positive reference count. The reference count for Object 0 is
always zero.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Reserved</p></td>
<td>
<p>Zero padding to align next field on an 8-byte boundary.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Object Size</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the size of the object data stored for the object.
The actual storage space allocated for the object data is rounded
up to a multiple of eight.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Object Data</p></td>
<td>
<p>The object data is treated as a one-dimensional array of
bytes to be interpreted by the caller.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<p>The format for the ID used to locate an object in the global heap
is described here:</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Global Heap ID</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Collection Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Object Index</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Collection Address</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field is the address of the global heap collection where
the data object is stored.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>ID</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field is the index of the data object within the global
heap collection.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<h3>
<a name="FractalHeap"> III.F. Disk Format: Level 1F - Fractal Heap</a>
</h3>
<p>
Each fractal heap consists of a header and zero or more direct and
indirect blocks (described below). The header contains general
information as well as initialization parameters for the doubling
table. The <em>Root Block Address</em> in the header points to the
first direct or indirect block in the heap.
</p>
<p>
Fractal heaps are based on a data structure called a <em>doubling
table</em>. A doubling table provides a mechanism for quickly extending an
array-like data structure that minimizes the number of empty blocks in
the heap, while retaining very fast lookup of any element within the
array. More information on fractal heaps and doubling tables can be
found in the RFC &ldquo;<a
href="Supplements/FractalHeap/PrivateHeap.pdf">Private Heaps in
HDF5</a>.&rdquo;
</p>
<p>The fractal heap implements the doubling table structure with
indirect and direct blocks. Indirect blocks in the heap do not actually
contain data for objects in the heap, their &ldquo;size&rdquo; is
abstract - they represent the indexing structure for locating the
direct blocks in the doubling table. Direct blocks contain the actual
data for objects stored in the heap.</p>
<p>
All indirect blocks have a constant number of block entries in each
row, called the <em>width</em> of the doubling table (stored in the
heap header). The number of rows for each indirect block in the heap is
determined by the size of the block that the indirect block represents
in the doubling table (calculation of this is shown below) and is
constant, except for the &ldquo;root&rdquo; indirect block, which
expands and shrinks its number of rows as needed.
</p>
<p>
Blocks in the first <em>two</em> rows of an indirect block are <em>Starting
Block Size</em> number of bytes in size, and the blocks in each subsequent
row are twice the size of the blocks in the previous row. In other
words, blocks in the third row are twice the <em>Starting Block
Size</em>, blocks in the fourth row are four times the <em>Starting
Block Size</em>, and so on. Entries for blocks up to the <em>Maximum
Direct Block Size</em> point to direct blocks, and entries for blocks
greater than that size point to further indirect blocks (which have
their own entries for direct and indirect blocks).
</p>
<p>
The number of rows of blocks, <em>nrows</em>, in an indirect block of
size <em>iblock_size</em> is given by the following expression: <br />
<br /> <em>nrows</em> = (log<sub>2</sub>(<em>iblock_size</em>) - log<sub>2</sub>(<em>&lt;Starting
Block Size&gt;</em> * <em>&lt;Width&gt;</em>)) + 1
</p>
<p>
The maximum number of rows of direct blocks, <em>max_dblock_rows</em>,
in any indirect block of a fractal heap is given by the following
expression: <br /> <br /> <em>max_dblock_rows</em> = (log<sub>2</sub>(<em>&lt;Max.
Direct Block Size&gt;</em>) - log<sub>2</sub>(<em>&lt;Starting Block
Size&gt;</em>)) + 2
</p>
<p>
Using the computed values for <em>nrows</em> and <em>max_dblock_rows</em>,
along with the <em>Width</em> of the doubling table, the number of
direct and indirect block entries (<em>K</em> and <em>N</em> in the
indirect block description, below) in an indirect block can be
computed: <br /> <br /> <em>K</em> = MIN(<em>nrows</em>, <em>max_dblock_rows</em>)
* <em>Width</em> <br /> <br /> If <em>nrows</em> is less than or
equal to <em>max_dblock_rows</em>, <em>N</em> is 0. Otherwise, <em>N</em>
is simply computed: <br /> <br /> <em>N</em> = <em>K</em> - (<em>max_dblock_rows</em>
* <em>Width</em>)
</p>
<p>The size indirect blocks on disk is determined by the number of
rows in the indirect block (computed above). The size of direct blocks
on disk is exactly the size of the block in the doubling table.</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Fractal Heap Header</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Signature</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td colspan="3" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Heap ID Length</td>
<td colspan="2">I/O Filters&rsquo; Encoded Length</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Flags</td>
<td colspan="3" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Maximum Size of Managed Objects</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Next Huge Object ID<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />v2 B-tree Address of Huge Objects<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Amount of Free Space in Managed Blocks<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Address of Managed Block Free Space
Manager<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Amount of Managed Space in Heap<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Amount of Allocated Managed Space in Heap<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Offset of Direct Block Allocation
Iterator in Managed Space<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Number of Managed Objects in Heap<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Size of Huge Objects in Heap<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Number of Huge Objects in Heap<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Size of Tiny Objects in Heap<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Number of Tiny Objects in Heap<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Table Width</td>
<td colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Starting Block Size<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Maximum Direct Block Size<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Maximum Heap Size</td>
<td colspan="2">Starting # of Rows in Root Indirect Block</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Address of Root Block<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Current # of Rows in Root Indirect Block</td>
<td colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Size of Filtered Root Direct Block <em>(optional)</em><sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">I/O Filter Mask<em> (optional)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">I/O Filter Information<em> (optional,
variable size)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Checksum</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>(Items marked with an &lsquo;L&rsquo; in the above table are
of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of Lengths&rdquo; field in the
superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="40%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Signature</p></td>
<td>
<p>
The ASCII character string &ldquo;
<code>FRHP</code>
&rdquo; is used to indicate the beginning of a fractal heap header.
This gives file consistency checking utilities a better chance of
reconstructing a damaged file.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td>
<p>This document describes version 0.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Heap ID Length</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the length in bytes of heap object IDs for this heap.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>I/O Filters&rsquo; Encoded Length</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is the size in bytes of the encoded <em>I/O Filter
Information</em>.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Flags</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field is the heap status flag and is a bit field
indicating additional information about the fractal heap.</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Bit(s)</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>If set, the ID value to use for huge object has wrapped
around. If the value for the <em>Next Huge Object ID</em> has
wrapped around, each new huge object inserted into the heap will
require a search for an ID value.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>If set, the direct blocks in the heap are checksummed.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2-7</code></td>
<td>Reserved</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Maximum Size of Managed Objects</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the maximum size of managed objects allowed in the
heap. Objects greater than this this are &lsquo;huge&rsquo; objects
and will be stored in the file directly, rather than in a direct
block for the heap.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Next Huge Object ID</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the next ID value to use for a huge object in the
heap.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>v2 B-tree Address of Huge Objects</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is the address of the <a href="#V2Btrees">v2 B-tree</a> used
to track huge objects in the heap. The type of records stored in
the <em>v2 B-tree</em> will be determined by whether the address &
length of a huge object can fit into a heap ID (if yes, it is a
&ldquo;directly&rdquo; accessed huge object) and whether there is a
filter used on objects in the heap.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Amount of Free Space in Managed Blocks</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the total amount of free space in managed direct
blocks (in bytes).</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Address of Managed Block Free Space Manager</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is the address of the <em><a href="#FreeSpaceManager">Free-space
Manager</a></em> for managed blocks.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Amount of Managed Space in Heap</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the total amount of managed space in the heap (in
bytes), essentially the upper bound of the heap&rsquo;s linear
address space.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Amount of Allocated Managed Space in Heap</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is the total amount of managed space (in bytes) actually
allocated in the heap. This can be less than the <em>Amount of
Managed Space in Heap</em> field, if some direct blocks in the
heap&rsquo;s linear address space are not allocated.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Offset of Direct Block Allocation Iterator in Managed
Space</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is the linear heap offset where the next direct block should
be allocated at (in bytes). This may be less than the <em>Amount
of Managed Space in Heap</em> value because the heap&rsquo;s address
space is increased by a &ldquo;row&rdquo; of direct blocks at a
time, rather than by single direct block increments.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Number of Managed Objects in Heap</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the number of managed objects in the heap.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Size of Huge Objects in Heap</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the total size of huge objects in the heap (in
bytes).</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Number of Huge Objects in Heap</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the number of huge objects in the heap.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Size of Tiny Objects in Heap</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the total size of tiny objects that are packed in
heap IDs (in bytes).</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Number of Tiny Objects in Heap</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the number of tiny objects that are packed in heap
IDs.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Table Width</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the number of columns in the doubling table for
managed blocks. This value must be a power of two.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Starting Block Size</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the starting block size to use in the doubling table
for managed blocks (in bytes). This value must be a power of two.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Maximum Direct Block Size</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the maximum size allowed for a managed direct block.
Objects inserted into the heap that are larger than this value
(less the # of bytes of direct block prefix/suffix) are stored as
&lsquo;huge&rsquo; objects. This value must be a power of two.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Maximum Heap Size</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the maximum size of the heap&rsquo;s linear address
space for managed objects (in bytes). The value stored is the log2
of the actual value, that is: the # of bits of the address space.
&lsquo;Huge&rsquo; and &lsquo;tiny&rsquo; objects are not counted
in this value, since they do not store objects in the linear
address space of the heap.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Starting # of Rows in Root Indirect Block</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is the starting number of rows for the root indirect block. A
value of 0 indicates that the root indirect block will have the
maximum number of rows needed to address the heap&rsquo;s <em>Maximum
Heap Size</em>.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Address of Root Block</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is the address of the root block for the heap. It can be the <a
href="#UndefinedAddress">undefined address</a> if there is no data
in the heap. It either points to a direct block (if the <em>Current
# of Rows in the Root Indirect Block</em> value is 0), or an indirect
block.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Current # of Rows in Root Indirect Block</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is the current number of rows in the root indirect block. A
value of 0 indicates that <em>Address of Root Block</em> points to
direct block instead of indirect block.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Size of Filtered Root Direct Block</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is the size of the root direct block, if filters are applied
to heap objects (in bytes). This field is only stored in the header
if the <em>I/O Filters&rsquo; Encoded Length</em> is greater than
0.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>I/O Filter Mask</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is the filter mask for the root direct block, if filters are
applied to heap objects. This mask has the same format as that used
for the filter mask in chunked raw data records in a <a
href="#V1Btrees">v1 B-tree</a>. This field is only stored in the
header if the <em>I/O Filters&rsquo; Encoded Length</em> is greater
than 0.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>I/O Filter Information</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is the I/O filter information encoding direct blocks and huge
objects, if filters are applied to heap objects. This field is
encoded as a <a href="#FilterMessage">Filter Pipeline</a> message.
The size of this field is determined by <em>I/O Filters&rsquo;
Encoded Length</em>.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Checksum</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the checksum for the header.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Fractal Heap Direct Block</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Signature</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td colspan="3" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Heap Header Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Block Offset <em>(variable size)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Checksum <em>(optional)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Object Data <em>(variable size)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Signature</p></td>
<td>
<p>
The ASCII character string &ldquo;
<code>FHDB</code>
&rdquo; is used to indicate the beginning of a fractal heap direct
block. This gives file consistency checking utilities a better
chance of reconstructing a damaged file.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td>
<p>This document describes version 0.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Heap Header Address</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the address for the fractal heap header that this
block belongs to. This field is principally used for file integrity
checking.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Block Offset</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is the offset of the block within the fractal heap&rsquo;s
address space (in bytes). The number of bytes used to encode this
field is the <em>Maximum Heap Size</em> (in the heap&rsquo;s
header) divided by 8 and rounded up to the next highest integer,
for values that are not a multiple of 8. This value is principally
used for file integrity checking.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Checksum</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the checksum for the direct block.</p>
<p>
This field is only present if bit 1 of <em>Flags</em> in the
heap&rsquo;s header is set.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Object Data</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This section of the direct block stores the actual data for objects
in the heap. The size of this section is determined by the direct
block&rsquo;s size minus the size of the other fields stored in the
direct block (for example, the <em>Signature</em>, <em>Version</em>,
and others including the <em>Checksum</em> if it is present).
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Fractal Heap Indirect Block</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Signature</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td colspan="3" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Heap Header Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Block Offset <em>(variable size)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Child Direct Block #0 Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Size of Filtered Direct Block #0 <em>(optional)</em>
<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Filter Mask for Direct Block #0 <em>(optional)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Child Direct Block #1 Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Size of Filtered Direct Block #1 <em>(optional)</em><sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Filter Mask for Direct Block #1 <em>(optional)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">...</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Child Direct Block #K-1 Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Size of Filtered Direct Block #K-1 <em>(optional)</em><sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Filter Mask for Direct Block #K-1 <em>(optional)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Child Indirect Block #0 Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Child Indirect Block #1 Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">...</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Child Indirect Block #N-1 Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Checksum</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>(Items marked with an &lsquo;L&rsquo; in the above table are
of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of Lengths&rdquo; field in the
superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Signature</p></td>
<td>
<p>
The ASCII character string &ldquo;
<code>FHIB</code>
&rdquo; is used to indicate the beginning of a fractal heap
indirect block. This gives file consistency checking utilities a
better chance of reconstructing a damaged file.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td>
<p>This document describes version 0.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Heap Header Address</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the address for the fractal heap header that this
block belongs to. This field is principally used for file integrity
checking.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Block Offset</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is the offset of the block within the fractal heap&rsquo;s
address space (in bytes). The number of bytes used to encode this
field is the <em>Maximum Heap Size</em> (in the heap&rsquo;s
header) divided by 8 and rounded up to the next highest integer,
for values that are not a multiple of 8. This value is principally
used for file integrity checking.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Child Direct Block #K Address</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field is the address of the child direct block. The size
of the [uncompressed] direct block can be computed by its offset in
the heap&rsquo;s linear address space.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Size of Filtered Direct Block #K</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the size of the child direct block after passing
through the I/O filters defined for this heap (in bytes). If no I/O
filters are present for this heap, this field is not present.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Filter Mask for Direct Block #K</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is the I/O filter mask for the filtered direct block. This
mask has the same format as that used for the filter mask in
chunked raw data records in a <a href="#V1Btrees">v1 B-tree</a>. If
no I/O filters are present for this heap, this field is not
present.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Child Indirect Block #N Address</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field is the address of the child indirect block. The
size of the indirect block can be computed by its offset in the
heap&rsquo;s linear address space.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Checksum</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the checksum for the indirect block.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<p>An object in the fractal heap is identified by means of a fractal
heap ID, which encodes information to locate the object in the heap.
Currently, the fractal heap stores an object in one of three ways,
depending on the object&rsquo;s size:</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="list80">
<tr>
<th width="20%">Type</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">Tiny</td>
<td>
<p>When an object is small enough to be encoded in the heap ID,
the object&rsquo;s data is embedded in the fractal heap ID itself.
There are 2 sub-types for this type of object: normal and extended.
The sub-type for tiny heap IDs depends on whether the heap ID is
large enough to store objects greater than 16 bytes or not. If the
heap ID length is 18 bytes or smaller, the &lsquo;normal&rsquo;
tiny heap ID form is used. If the heap ID length is greater than 18
bytes in length, the &ldquo;extended&rdquo; form is used. See
format description below for both sub-types.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">Huge</td>
<td>
<p>
When the size of an object is larger than <em>Maximum Size of
Managed Objects</em> in the <em>Fractal Heap Header</em>, the
object&rsquo;s data is stored on its own in the file and the object
is tracked/indexed via a version 2 B-tree. All huge objects for a
particular fractal heap use the same v2 B-tree. All huge objects
for a particular fractal heap use the same format for their huge
object IDs.
</p>
<p>Depending on whether the IDs for a heap are large enough to
hold the object&rsquo;s retrieval information and whether I/O
pipeline filters are applied to the heap&rsquo;s objects, 4
sub-types are derived for huge object IDs for this heap:</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th align="left" width="35%">Sub-type</th>
<th align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">Directly accessed, non-filtered</td>
<td>
<p>The object&rsquo;s address and length are embedded in the
fractal heap ID itself and the object is directly accessed from
them. This allows the object to be accessed without resorting
to the B-tree.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">Directly accessed, filtered</td>
<td>
<p>The filtered object&rsquo;s address, length, filter mask
and de-filtered size are embedded in the fractal heap ID itself
and the object is accessed directly with them. This allows the
object to be accessed without resorting to the B-tree.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">Indirectly accessed, non-filtered</td>
<td>
<p>The object is located by using a B-tree key embedded in
the fractal heap ID to retrieve the address and length from the
version 2 B-tree for huge objects. Then, the address and length
are used to access the object.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="left">Indirectly accessed, filtered</td>
<td>
<p>The object is located by using a B-tree key embedded in
the fractal heap ID to retrieve the filtered object&rsquo;s
address, length, filter mask and de-filtered size from the
version 2 B-tree for huge objects. Then, this information is
used to access the object.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center">Managed</td>
<td>
<p>When the size of an object does not meet the above two
conditions, the object is stored and managed via the direct and
indirect blocks based on the doubling table.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>The specific format for each type of heap ID is described below:
</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Fractal Heap ID for Tiny Objects (sub-type 1 -
&lsquo;Normal&rsquo;)</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version, Type & Length</td>
<td colspan="3" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Data <em>(variable size)</em></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version, Type & Length</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is a bit field with the following definition:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Bit</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>6-7</code></td>
<td>The current version of ID format. This document describes
version 0.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>4-5</code></td>
<td>The ID type. Tiny objects have a value of <code>2</code>.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0-3</code></td>
<td>The length of the tiny object. The value stored is one
less than the actual length (since zero-length objects are not
allowed to be stored in the heap). For example, an object of
actual length 1 has an encoded length of 0, an object of actual
length 2 has an encoded length of 1, and so on.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Data</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the data for the object.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Fractal Heap ID for Tiny Objects (sub-type 2 -
&lsquo;Extended&rsquo;)</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version, Type & Length</td>
<td>Extended Length</td>
<td colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Data <em>(variable size)</em></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version, Type & Length</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is a bit field with the following definition:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Bit</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>6-7</code></td>
<td>The current version of ID format. This document describes
version 0.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>4-5</code></td>
<td>The ID type. Tiny objects have a value of <code>2</code>.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0-3</code></td>
<td>These 4 bits, together with the next byte, form an
unsigned 12-bit integer for holding the length of the object.
These 4-bits are bits 8-11 of the 12-bit integer. See description
for the <em>Extended Length</em> field below.
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Extended Length</p></td>
<td>
<p>This byte, together with the 4 bits in the previous byte,
forms an unsigned 12-bit integer for holding the length of the tiny
object. These 8 bits are bits 0-7 of the 12-bit integer formed. The
value stored is one less than the actual length (since zero-length
objects are not allowed to be stored in the heap). For example, an
object of actual length 1 has an encoded length of 0, an object of
actual length 2 has an encoded length of 1, and so on.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Data</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the data for the object.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Fractal Heap ID for Huge Objects (sub-type 1 & 2):
indirectly accessed, non-filtered/filtered</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version & Type</td>
<td colspan="3" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />v2 B-tree Key<sup>L</sup><em>
(variable size)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;L&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Lengths&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version & Type</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is a bit field with the following definition:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Bit</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>6-7</code></td>
<td>The current version of ID format. This document describes
version 0.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>4-5</code></td>
<td>The ID type. Huge objects have a value of <code>1</code>.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0-3</code></td>
<td>Reserved.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>v2 B-tree Key</p></td>
<td><p>
This field is the B-tree key for retrieving the information from
the version 2 B-tree for huge objects needed to access the object.
See the description of <a href="#V2Btrees">v2 B-tree</a> records
sub-type 1 & 2 for a description of the fields. New key values are
derived from <em>Next Huge Object ID</em> in the <em>Fractal
Heap Header</em>.
</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Fractal Heap ID for Huge Objects (sub-type 3):
directly accessed, non-filtered</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version & Type</td>
<td colspan="3" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Address <sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Length <sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>(Items marked with an &lsquo;L&rsquo; in the above table are
of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of Lengths&rdquo; field in the
superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version & Type</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is a bit field with the following definition:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Bit</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>6-7</code></td>
<td>The current version of ID format. This document describes
version 0.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>4-5</code></td>
<td>The ID type. Huge objects have a value of <code>1</code>.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0-3</code></td>
<td>Reserved.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Address</p></td>
<td><p>This field is the address of the object in the file.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Length</p></td>
<td><p>This field is the length of the object in the file.</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Fractal Heap ID for Huge Objects (sub-type 4):
directly accessed, filtered</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version & Type</td>
<td colspan="3" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Address <sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Length <sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Filter Mask</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />De-filtered Size <sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>(Items marked with an &lsquo;L&rsquo; in the above table are
of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of Lengths&rdquo; field in the
superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version & Type</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is a bit field with the following definition:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Bit</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>6-7</code></td>
<td>The current version of ID format. This document describes
version 0.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>4-5</code></td>
<td>The ID type. Huge objects have a value of <code>1</code>.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0-3</code></td>
<td>Reserved.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Address</p></td>
<td><p>This field is the address of the filtered object in
the file.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Length</p></td>
<td><p>This field is the length of the filtered object in
the file.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Filter Mask</p></td>
<td><p>This field is the I/O pipeline filter mask for the
filtered object in the file.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Filtered Size</p></td>
<td><p>This field is the size of the de-filtered object in
the file.</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Fractal Heap ID for Managed Objects</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version & Type</td>
<td colspan="3" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Offset <em>(variable size)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Length <em>(variable size)</em></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version & Type</p></td>
<td><p>This is a bit field with the following definition:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Bit</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>6-7</code></td>
<td>The current version of ID format. This document describes
version 0.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>4-5</code></td>
<td>The ID type. Managed objects have a value of <code>0</code>.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0-3</code></td>
<td>Reserved.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Offset</p></td>
<td><p>
This field is the offset of the object in the heap. This
field&rsquo;s size is the minimum number of bytes necessary to
encode the <em>Maximum Heap Size</em> value (from the <em>Fractal
Heap Header</em>). For example, if the value of the <em>Maximum
Heap Size</em> is less than 256 bytes, this field is 1 byte in length,
a <em>Maximum Heap Size</em> of 256-65535 bytes uses a 2 byte
length, and so on.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Length</p></td>
<td><p>
This field is the length of the object in the heap. It is
determined by taking the minimum value of <em>Maximum Direct
Block Size</em> and <em>Maximum Size of Managed Objects</em> in the <em>Fractal
Heap Header</em>. Again, the minimum number of bytes needed to encode
that value is used for the size of this field.
</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<h3>
<a name="FreeSpaceManager"> III.G. Disk Format: Level 1G -
Free-space Manager</a>
</h3>
<p>Free-space managers are used to describe space within a heap or
the entire HDF5 file that is not currently used for that heap or file.
</p>
<p>
The <em>free-space manager header</em> contains metadata information
about the space being tracked, along with the address of the list of <em>free
space sections</em> which actually describes the free space. The header
records information about free-space sections being tracked, creation
parameters for handling free-space sections of a client, and section
information used to locate the collection of free-space sections.
</p>
<p>
The <em>free-space section list</em> stores a collection of free-space
sections that is specific to each <em>client</em> of the free-space
manager. For example, the fractal heap is a client of the free space
manager and uses it to track unused space within the heap. There are 4
types of section records for the fractal heap, each of which has its
own format, listed below.
</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Free-space Manager Header</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Signature</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td>Client ID</td>
<td colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Total Space Tracked<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Total Number of Sections<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Number of Serialized Sections<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Number of Un-Serialized Sections<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Number of Section Classes</td>
<td colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Shrink Percent</td>
<td colspan="2">Expand Percent</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Size of Address Space</td>
<td colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Maximum Section Size <sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Address of Serialized Section List<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Size of Serialized Section List Used<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Allocated Size of Serialized Section List<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Checksum</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>(Items marked with an &lsquo;L&rsquo; in the above table are
of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of Lengths&rdquo; field in the
superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="35%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Signature</p></td>
<td>
<p>
The ASCII character string &ldquo;
<code>FSHD</code>
&rdquo; is used to indicate the beginning of the Free-space Manager
Header. This gives file consistency checking utilities a better
chance of reconstructing a damaged file.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the version number for the Free-space Manager Header
and this document describes version 0.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Client ID</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the client ID for identifying the user of this
free-space manager:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">ID</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>Fractal heap</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>File</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2+</code></td>
<td>Reserved.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Total Space Tracked</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the total amount of free space being tracked, in
bytes.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Total Number of Sections</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the total number of free-space sections being
tracked.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Number of Serialized Sections</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the number of serialized free-space sections being
tracked.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Number of Un-Serialized Sections</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the number of un-serialized free-space sections being
managed. Un-serialized sections are created by the free-space
client when the list of sections is read in.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Number of Section Classes</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the number of section classes handled by this free
space manager for the free-space client.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Shrink Percent</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the percent of current size to shrink the allocated
serialized free-space section list.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Expand Percent</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the percent of current size to expand the allocated
serialized free-space section list.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Size of Address Space</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is the size of the address space that free-space sections are
within. This is stored as the log<sub>2</sub> of the actual value
(in other words, the number of bits required to store values within
that address space).
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Maximum Section Size</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the maximum size of a section to be tracked.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Address of Serialized Section List</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the address where the serialized free-space section
list is stored.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Size of Serialized Section List Used</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is the size of the serialized free-space section list used (in
bytes). This value must be less than or equal to the <em>allocated
size of serialized section list</em>, below.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Allocated Size of Serialized Section List</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the size of serialized free-space section list
actually allocated (in bytes).</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Checksum</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the checksum for the free-space manager header.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<p>
The free-space sections being managed are stored in a <em>free-space
section list</em>, described below. The sections in the free-space section
list are stored in the following way: a count of the number of sections
describing a particular size of free space and the size of the
free-space described (in bytes), followed by a list of section
description records; then another section count and size, followed by
the list of section descriptions for that size; and so on.
</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Free-space Section List</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Signature</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td colspan="3" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Free-space Manager Header Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Number of Section Records in Set #0 <em>(variable
size)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Size of Free-space Section Described in Record
Set #0 <em>(variable size)</em>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Record Set #0 Section Record #0 Offset<em>(variable
size)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="1">Record Set #0 Section Record #0 Type</td>
<td colspan="3" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Record Set #0 Section Record #0 Data <em>(variable
size)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">...</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Record Set #0 Section Record #K-1 Offset<em>(variable
size)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="1">Record Set #0 Section Record #K-1 Type</td>
<td colspan="3" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Record Set #0 Section Record #K-1 Data <em>(variable
size)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Number of Section Records in Set #1 <em>(variable
size)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Size of Free-space Section Described in Record
Set #1 <em>(variable size)</em>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Record Set #1 Section Record #0 Offset<em>(variable
size)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="1">Record Set #1 Section Record #0 Type</td>
<td colspan="3" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Record Set #1 Section Record #0 Data <em>(variable
size)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">...</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Record Set #1 Section Record #K-1 Offset<em>(variable
size)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="1">Record Set #1 Section Record #K-1 Type</td>
<td colspan="3" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Record Set #1 Section Record #K-1 Data <em>(variable
size)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><strong>...</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><strong>...</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Number of Section Records in Set #N-1 <em>(variable
size)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Size of Free-space Section Described in Record
Set #N-1 <em>(variable size)</em>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Record Set #N-1 Section Record #0 Offset<em>(variable
size)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="1">Record Set #N-1 Section Record #0 Type</td>
<td colspan="3" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Record Set #N-1 Section Record #0 Data <em>(variable
size)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">...</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Record Set #N-1 Section Record #K-1 Offset<em>(variable
size)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="1">Record Set #N-1 Section Record #K-1 Type</td>
<td colspan="3" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Record Set #N-1 Section Record #K-1 Data <em>(variable
size)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Checksum</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="35%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Signature</p></td>
<td>
<p>
The ASCII character string &ldquo;
<code>FSSE</code>
&rdquo; is used to indicate the beginning of the Free-space Section
Information. This gives file consistency checking utilities a
better chance of reconstructing a damaged file.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the version number for the Free-space Section List
and this document describes version 0.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Free-space Manager Header Address</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is the address of the <em>Free-space Manager Header</em>. This
field is principally used for file integrity checking.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Number of Section Records for Set #N</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is the number of free-space section records for set #N. The
length of this field is the minimum number of bytes needed to store
the <em>number of serialized sections</em> (from the <em>free-space
manager header</em>).
</p>
<p>
The number of sets of free-space section records is determined by
the <em>size of serialized section list</em> in the <em>free-space
manager header</em>.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Section Size for Record Set #N</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is the size (in bytes) of the free-space section described for
<em>all</em> the section records in set #N.
</p>
<p>
The length of this field is the minimum number of bytes needed to
store the <em>maximum section size</em> (from the <em>free-space
manager header</em>).
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Record Set #N Section #K Offset</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the offset (in bytes) of the free-space section
within the client for the free-space manager.</p>
<p>
The length of this field is the minimum number of bytes needed to
store the <em>size of address space</em> (from the <em>free-space
manager header</em>).
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Record Set #N Section #K Type</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is the type of the section record, used to decode the <em>record
set #N section #K data</em> information. The defined record type for <em>file</em>
client is:
</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Type</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>File&rsquo;s section (a range of actual bytes in file)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1+</code></td>
<td>Reserved.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
<p>
The defined record types for a <em>fractal heap</em> client are:
</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Type</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>Fractal heap &ldquo;single&rdquo; section</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>Fractal heap &ldquo;first row&rdquo; section</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2</code></td>
<td>Fractal heap &ldquo;normal row&rdquo; section</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>3</code></td>
<td>Fractal heap &ldquo;indirect&rdquo; section</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>4+</code></td>
<td>Reserved.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Record Set #N Section #K Data</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the section-type specific information for each record
in the record set, described below.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Checksum</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is the checksum for the <em>Free-space Section List</em>.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<p>The section-type specific data for each free-space section record
is described below:</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>File&rsquo;s Section Data Record</caption>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><em>No additional record data stored</em></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Fractal Heap &ldquo;Single&rdquo; Section Data
Record</caption>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><em>No additional record data stored</em></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Fractal Heap &ldquo;First Row&rdquo; Section Data
Record</caption>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><em>Same format as &ldquo;indirect&rdquo;
section data</em></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Fractal Heap &ldquo;Normal Row&rdquo; Section Data
Record</caption>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><em>No additional record data stored</em></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Fractal Heap &ldquo;Indirect&rdquo; Section Data
Record</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Fractal Heap Indirect Block Offset <em>(variable
size)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Block Start Row</td>
<td colspan="2">Block Start Column</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Number of Blocks</td>
<td colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Fractal Heap Block Offset</p></td>
<td>
<p>The offset of the indirect block in the fractal heap&rsquo;s
address space containing the empty blocks.</p>
<p>
The number of bytes used to encode this field is the minimum number
of bytes needed to encode values for the <em>Maximum Heap Size</em>
(in the fractal heap&rsquo;s header).
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Block Start Row</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the row that the empty blocks start in.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Block Start Column</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the column that the empty blocks start in.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Number of Blocks</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the number of empty blocks covered by the section.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<h3>
<a name="SOHMTable"> III.H. Disk Format: Level 1H - Shared Object
Header Message Table</a>
</h3>
<p>
The <em>shared object header message table</em> is used to locate
object header messages that are shared between two or more object
headers in the file. Shared object header messages are stored and
indexed in the file in one of two ways: indexed sequentially in a <em>shared
header message list</em> or indexed with a v2 B-tree. The shared messages
themselves are either stored in a fractal heap (when two or more
objects share the message), or remain in an object&rsquo;s header (when
only one object uses the message currently, but the message can be
shared in the future).
</p>
<p>
The <em>shared object header message table</em> contains a list of
shared message index headers. Each index header records information
about the version of the index format, the index storage type, flags
for the message types indexed, the number of messages in the index, the
address where the index resides, and the fractal heap address if shared
messages are stored there.
</p>
<p>
Each index can be either a list or a v2 B-tree and may transition
between those two forms as the number of messages in the index varies.
Each shared message record contains information used to locate the
shared message from either a fractal heap or an object header. The
types of messages that can be shared are: <em>Dataspace, Datatype,
Fill Value, Filter Pipeline and Attribute</em>.
</p>
<p>
The <em>shared object header message table</em> is pointed to from a <a
href="#SOHMTableMessage">shared message table</a> message in the
superblock extension for a file. This message stores the version of the
table format, along with the number of index headers in the table.
</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Shared Object Header Message Table</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Signature</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version for index #0</td>
<td>Index Type for index #0</td>
<td colspan="2">Message Type Flags for index #0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Minimum Message Size for index #0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">List Cutoff for index #0</td>
<td colspan="2">v2 B-tree Cutoff for index #0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Number of Messages for index #0</td>
<td colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Index Address<sup>O</sup> for index #0<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Fractal Heap Address<sup>O</sup> for
index #0<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">...</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">...</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version for index #N-1</td>
<td>Index Type for index #N-1</td>
<td colspan="2">Message Type Flags for index #N-1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Minimum Message Size for index #N-1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">List Cutoff for index #N-1</td>
<td colspan="2">v2 B-tree Cutoff for index #N-1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Number of Messages for index #N-1</td>
<td colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Index Address<sup>O</sup> for index #N-1<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Fractal Heap Address<sup>O</sup> for
index #N-1<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Checksum</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="35%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Signature</p></td>
<td>
<p>
The ASCII character string &ldquo;
<code>SMTB</code>
&rdquo; is used to indicate the beginning of the Shared Object
Header Message table. This gives file consistency checking
utilities a better chance of reconstructing a damaged file.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version for index #N</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the version number for the list of shared object
header message indexes and this document describes version 0.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Index Type for index #N</p></td>
<td>
<p>The type of index can be an unsorted list or a v2 B-tree.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Message Type Flags for index #N</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field indicates the type of messages tracked in the
index, as follows:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Bits</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>If set, the index tracks <em>Dataspace Messages</em>.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>If set, the message tracks <em>Datatype Messages</em>.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2</code></td>
<td>If set, the message tracks <em>Fill Value Messages</em>.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>3</code></td>
<td>If set, the message tracks <em>Filter Pipeline
Messages</em>.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>4</code></td>
<td>If set, the message tracks <em>Attribute Messages</em>.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>5-15</code></td>
<td>Reserved (zero).</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
<p>An index can track more than one type of message, but each
type of message can only by in one index.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Minimum Message Size for index #N</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the message size sharing threshold for the index. If
the encoded size of the message is less than this value, the
message is not shared.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>List Cutoff for index #N</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the cutoff value for the indexing of messages to
switch from a list to a v2 B-tree. If the number of messages is
greater than this value, the index should be a v2 B-tree.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>v2 B-tree Cutoff for index #N</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the cutoff value for the indexing of messages to
switch from a v2 B-tree back to a list. If the number of messages
is less than this value, the index should be a list.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Number of Messages for index #N</p></td>
<td>
<p>The number of shared messages being tracked for the index.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Index Address for index #N</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field is the address of the list or v2 B-tree where the
index nodes reside.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Fractal Heap Address for index #N</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field is the address of the fractal heap if shared
messages are stored there.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Checksum</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the checksum for the table.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<p>
Shared messages are indexed either with a <em>shared message
record list</em>, described below, or using a v2 B-tree (using record type
7). The number of records in the <em>shared message record list</em> is
determined in the index&rsquo;s entry in the <em>shared object
header message table</em>.
</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Shared Message Record List</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Signature</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Shared Message Record #0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Shared Message Record #1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">...</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Shared Message Record #N-1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Checksum</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Signature</p></td>
<td>
<p>
The ASCII character string &ldquo;
<code>SMLI</code>
&rdquo; is used to indicate the beginning of a list of index nodes.
This gives file consistency checking utilities a better chance of
reconstructing a damaged file.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Shared Message Record #N</p></td>
<td>
<p>
The record for locating the shared message, either in the fractal
heap for the index, or an object header (see format for <em>index
nodes</em> below).
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Checksum</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the checksum for the list.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<p>The record for each shared message in an index is stored in one
of the following forms:</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Shared Message Record, for messages stored in a
fractal heap</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Message Location</td>
<td colspan="3" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Hash Value</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Reference Count</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Fractal Heap ID<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Message Location</p></td>
<td>
<p>This has a value of 0 indicating that the message is stored
in the heap.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Hash Value</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the hash value for the message.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Reference Count</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the number of times the message is used in the file.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Fractal Heap ID</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is an 8-byte fractal heap ID for the message as stored
in the fractal heap for the index.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Shared Message Record, for messages stored in an
object header</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Message Location</td>
<td colspan="3" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Hash Value</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Reserved</td>
<td>Message Type</td>
<td colspan="2">Creation Index</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Object Header Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Message Location</p></td>
<td>
<p>This has a value of 1 indicating that the message is stored
in an object header.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Hash Value</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the hash value for the message.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Message Type</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the message type in the object header.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Creation Index</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the creation index of the message within the object
header.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Object Header Address</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the address of the object header where the message is
located.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<hr />
<h2>
<a name="DataObject"> IV. Disk Format: Level 2 - Data Objects </a>
</h2>
<p>Data objects contain the &ldquo;real&rdquo; user-visible
information in the file. These objects compose the scientific data and
other information which are generally thought of as &ldquo;data&rdquo;
by the end-user. All the other information in the file is provided as a
framework for storing and accessing these data objects.</p>
<p>A data object is composed of header and data information. The
header information contains the information needed to interpret the
data information for the object as well as additional
&ldquo;metadata&rdquo; or pointers to additional &ldquo;metadata&rdquo;
used to describe or annotate each object.</p>
<br />
<h3>
<a name="ObjectHeader"> IV.A. Disk Format: Level 2A - Data Object
Headers</a>
</h3>
<p>The header information of an object is designed to encompass all
of the information about an object, except for the data itself. This
information includes the dataspace, the datatype, information about how
the data is stored on disk (in external files, compressed, broken up in
blocks, and so on), as well as other information used by the library to
speed up access to the data objects or maintain a file&rsquo;s
integrity. Information stored by user applications as attributes is
also stored in the object&rsquo;s header. The header of each object is
not necessarily located immediately prior to the object&rsquo;s data in
the file and in fact may be located in any position in the file. The
order of the messages in an object header is not significant.</p>
<p>Object headers are composed of a prefix and a set of messages.
The prefix contains the information needed to interpret the messages
and a small amount of metadata about the object, and the messages
contain the majority of the metadata about the object.</p>
<br />
<h3>
<a name="ObjectHeaderPrefix"> IV.A.1. Disk Format: Level 2A1 - Data
Object Header Prefix</a>
</h3>
<br />
<h4>
<a name="V1ObjectHeaderPrefix"> IV.A.1.a. Version 1 Data Object
Header Prefix</a>
</h4>
<p>Header messages are aligned on 8-byte boundaries for version 1
object headers.</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Version 1 Object Header</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td>Reserved (zero)</td>
<td colspan="2">Total Number of Header Messages</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Object Reference Count</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Object Header Size</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Header Message Type #1</td>
<td colspan="2">Size of Header Message Data #1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Header Message #1 Flags</td>
<td colspan="3">Reserved (zero)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Header Message Data #1<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">.<br />.<br />.<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Header Message Type #n</td>
<td colspan="2">Size of Header Message Data #n</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Header Message #n Flags</td>
<td colspan="3">Reserved (zero)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Header Message Data #n<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td>
<p>This value is used to determine the format of the information
in the object header. When the format of the object header is
changed, the version number is incremented and can be used to
determine how the information in the object header is formatted.
This is version one (1) (there was no version zero (0)) of the
object header.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Total Number of Header Messages</p></td>
<td>
<p>This value determines the total number of messages listed in
object headers for this object. This value includes the messages in
continuation messages for this object.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Object Reference Count</p></td>
<td>
<p>This value specifies the number of &ldquo;hard links&rdquo;
to this object within the current file. References to the object
from external files, &ldquo;soft links&rdquo; in this file and
object references in this file are not tracked.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Object Header Size</p></td>
<td>
<p>This value specifies the number of bytes of header message
data following this length field that contain object header
messages for this object header. This value does not include the
size of object header continuation blocks for this object elsewhere
in the file.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Header Message #n Type</p></td>
<td>
<p>This value specifies the type of information included in the
following header message data. The message types for header
messages are defined in sections below.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Size of Header Message #n Data</p></td>
<td>
<p>This value specifies the number of bytes of header message
data following the header message type and length information for
the current message. The size includes padding bytes to make the
message a multiple of eight bytes.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Header Message #n Flags</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is a bit field with the following definition:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Bit</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>If set, the message data is constant. This is used for
messages like the datatype message of a dataset.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>If set, the message is <em>shared</em> and stored in
another location than the object header. The Header Message Data
field contains a Shared Message (described in the <a
href="#ObjectHeaderMessages">Data Object Header Messages</a>
section below) and the Size of Header Message Data field contains
the size of that Shared Message.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2</code></td>
<td>If set, the message should not be shared.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>3</code></td>
<td>If set, the HDF5 decoder should fail to open this object
if it does not understand the message&rsquo;s type and the file
is open with permissions allowing write access to the file.
(Normally, unknown messages can just be ignored by HDF5 decoders)
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>4</code></td>
<td>If set, the HDF5 decoder should set bit 5 of this
message&rsquo;s flags (in other words, this bit field) if it does
not understand the message&rsquo;s type and the object is
modified in any way. (Normally, unknown messages can just be
ignored by HDF5 decoders)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>5</code></td>
<td>If set, this object was modified by software that did not
understand this message. (Normally, unknown messages should just
be ignored by HDF5 decoders) (Can be used to invalidate an index
or a similar feature)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>6</code></td>
<td>If set, this message is shareable.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>7</code></td>
<td>If set, the HDF5 decoder should always fail to open this
object if it does not understand the message&rsquo;s type
(whether it is open for read-only or read-write access).
(Normally, unknown messages can just be ignored by HDF5 decoders)
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Header Message #n Data</p></td>
<td>
<p>The format and length of this field is determined by the
header message type and size respectively. Some header message
types do not require any data and this information can be
eliminated by setting the length of the message to zero. The data
is padded with enough zeroes to make the size a multiple of eight.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<h4>
<a name="V2ObjectHeaderPrefix"> IV.A.1.b. Version 2 Data Object
Header Prefix</a>
</h4>
<p>Note that the &ldquo;total number of messages&rdquo; field has
been dropped from the data object header prefix in this version. The
number of messages in the data object header is just determined by the
messages encountered in all the object header blocks.</p>
<p>
Note also that the fields and messages in this version of data object
headers have <em>no</em> alignment or padding bytes inserted - they are
stored packed together.
</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Version 2 Object Header</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Signature</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td>Flags</td>
<td colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Access time <em>(optional)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Modification Time <em>(optional)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Change Time <em>(optional)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Birth Time <em>(optional)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Maximum # of compact attributes <em>(optional)</em></td>
<td colspan="2">Minimum # of dense attributes <em>(optional)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Size of Chunk #0 <em>(variable size)</em></td>
<td colspan="3" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Header Message Type #1</td>
<td colspan="2">Size of Header Message Data #1</td>
<td>Header Message #1 Flags</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Header Message #1 Creation Order <em>(optional)</em></td>
<td colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Header Message Data #1<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">.<br />.<br />.<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Header Message Type #n</td>
<td colspan="2">Size of Header Message Data #n</td>
<td>Header Message #n Flags</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Header Message #n Creation Order <em>(optional)</em></td>
<td colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Header Message Data #n<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Gap <em>(optional, variable size)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Checksum</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Signature</p></td>
<td>
<p>
The ASCII character string &ldquo;
<code>OHDR</code>
&rdquo; is used to indicate the beginning of an object header. This
gives file consistency checking utilities a better chance of
reconstructing a damaged file.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field has a value of 2 indicating version 2 of the
object header.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Flags</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field is a bit field indicating additional information
about the object header.</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Bit(s)</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0-1</code></td>
<td>This two bit field determines the size of the <em>Size
of Chunk #0</em> field. The values are:
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Value</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>The <em>Size of Chunk #0</em> field is 1 byte.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>The <em>Size of Chunk #0</em> field is 2 bytes.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2</code></td>
<td>The <em>Size of Chunk #0</em> field is 4 bytes.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>3</code></td>
<td>The <em>Size of Chunk #0</em> field is 8 bytes.
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2</code></td>
<td>If set, attribute creation order is tracked.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>3</code></td>
<td>If set, attribute creation order is indexed.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>4</code></td>
<td>If set, non-default attribute storage phase change values
are stored.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>5</code></td>
<td>If set, access, modification, change and birth times are
stored.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>6-7</code></td>
<td>Reserved</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Access Time</p></td>
<td>
<p>This 32-bit value represents the number of seconds after the
UNIX epoch when the object&rsquo;s raw data was last accessed (in
other words, read or written).</p>
<p>
This field is present if bit 5 of <em>flags</em> is set.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Modification Time</p></td>
<td>
<p>This 32-bit value represents the number of seconds after the
UNIX epoch when the object&rsquo;s raw data was last modified (in
other words, written).</p>
<p>
This field is present if bit 5 of <em>flags</em> is set.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Change Time</p></td>
<td>
<p>This 32-bit value represents the number of seconds after the
UNIX epoch when the object&rsquo;s metadata was last changed.</p>
<p>
This field is present if bit 5 of <em>flags</em> is set.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Birth Time</p></td>
<td>
<p>This 32-bit value represents the number of seconds after the
UNIX epoch when the object was created.</p>
<p>
This field is present if bit 5 of <em>flags</em> is set.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Maximum # of compact attributes</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the maximum number of attributes to store in the
compact format before switching to the indexed format.</p>
<p>
This field is present if bit 4 of <em>flags</em> is set.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Minimum # of dense attributes</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the minimum number of attributes to store in the
indexed format before switching to the compact format.</p>
<p>
This field is present if bit 4 of <em>flags</em> is set.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Size of Chunk #0</p></td>
<td>
<p>This unsigned value specifies the number of bytes of header
message data following this field that contain object header
information.</p>
<p>This value does not include the size of object header
continuation blocks for this object elsewhere in the file.</p>
<p>
The length of this field varies depending on bits 0 and 1 of the <em>flags</em>
field.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Header Message #n Type</p></td>
<td>
<p>Same format as version 1 of the object header, described
above.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Size of Header Message #n Data</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This value specifies the number of bytes of header message data
following the header message type and length information for the
current message. The size of messages in this version does <em>not</em>
include any padding bytes.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Header Message #n Flags</p></td>
<td>
<p>Same format as version 1 of the object header, described
above.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Header Message #n Creation Order</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field stores the order that a message of a given type
was created in.</p>
<p>
This field is present if bit 2 of <em>flags</em> is set.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Header Message #n Data</p></td>
<td>
<p>Same format as version 1 of the object header, described
above.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Gap</p></td>
<td>
<p>A gap in an object header chunk is inferred by the end of the
messages for the chunk before the beginning of the chunk&rsquo;s
checksum. Gaps are always smaller than the size of an object header
message prefix (message type + message size + message flags).</p>
<p>Gaps are formed when a message (typically an attribute
message) in an earlier chunk is deleted and a message from a later
chunk that does not quite fit into the free space is moved into the
earlier chunk.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Checksum</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the checksum for the object header chunk.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>The header message types and the message data associated with
them compose the critical &ldquo;metadata&rdquo; about each object.
Some header messages are required for each object while others are
optional. Some optional header messages may also be repeated several
times in the header itself, the requirements and number of times
allowed in the header will be noted in each header message description
below.</p>
<br />
<h3>
<a name="ObjectHeaderMessages"> IV.A.2. Disk Format: Level 2A2 -
Data Object Header Messages</a>
</h3>
<p>Data object header messages are small pieces of metadata that are
stored in the data object header for each object in an HDF5 file. Data
object header messages provide the metadata required to describe an
object and its contents, as well as optional pieces of metadata that
annotate the meaning or purpose of the object.</p>
<p>
Data object header messages are either stored directly in the data
object header for the object or are shared between multiple objects in
the file. When a message is shared, a flag in the <em>Message
Flags</em> indicates that the actual <em>Message Data</em> portion of that
message is stored in another location (such as another data object
header, or a heap in the file) and the <em>Message Data</em> field
contains the information needed to locate the actual information for
the message.
</p>
<p>The format of shared message data is described here:</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Shared Message (Version 1)</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td>Type</td>
<td colspan="2">Reserved (zero)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Reserved (zero)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td><p>The version number is used when there are changes in
the format of a shared object message and is described here:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Version</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>Never used.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>Used by the library before version 1.6.1.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Type</p></td>
<td><p>The type of shared message location:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Value</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>Message stored in another object&rsquo;s header (a <em>committed</em>
message).
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Address</p></td>
<td><p>The address of the object header containing the
message to be shared.</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Shared Message (Version 2)</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td>Type</td>
<td colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td><p>The version number is used when there are changes in
the format of a shared object message and is described here:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Version</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2</code></td>
<td>Used by the library of version 1.6.1 and after.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Type</p></td>
<td><p>The type of shared message location:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Value</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>Message stored in another object&rsquo;s header (a <em>committed</em>
message).
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Address</p></td>
<td><p>The address of the object header containing the
message to be shared.</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Shared Message (Version 3)</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td>Type</td>
<td colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Location <em>(variable size)</em></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td><p>The version number indicates changes in the format of
shared object message and is described here:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Version</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>3</code></td>
<td>Used by the library of version 1.8 and after. In this
version, the <em>Type</em> field can indicate that the message is
stored in the fractal heap.
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Type</p></td>
<td><p>The type of shared message location:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Value</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>Message is not shared and is not shareable.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>Message stored in file&rsquo;s <em>shared object
header message</em> heap (a <em>shared</em> message).
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2</code></td>
<td>Message stored in another object&rsquo;s header (a <em>committed</em>
message).
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>3</code></td>
<td>Message stored is not shared, but is shareable.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Location</p></td>
<td><p>
This field contains either a <em>Size of Offsets</em>-bytes address
of the object header containing the message to be shared, or an
8-byte fractal heap ID for the message in the file&rsquo;s <em>shared
object header message</em> heap.
</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>The following is a list of currently defined header messages:</p>
<br />
<h4>
<a name="NILMessage">IV.A.2.a. The NIL Message</a>
</h4>
<!-- start msgdesc table -->
<center>
<table class="msgdesc">
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Name:</b> NIL</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Type:</b> 0x0000</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Length:</b> Varies</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Status:</b> Optional; may be repeated.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Description:</b></td>
<td>The NIL message is used to indicate a message which is to be
ignored when reading the header messages for a data object.
[Possibly one which has been deleted for some reason.]</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Format of Data:</b> Unspecified</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<!-- end msgdesc table -->
<br />
<h4>
<a name="DataspaceMessage">IV.A.2.b. The Dataspace Message</a>
</h4>
<!-- start msgdesc table -->
<center>
<table class="msgdesc">
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Name:</b> Dataspace</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Type:</b> 0x0001</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Length:</b> Varies according to the number of
dimensions, as described in the following table.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Status:</b> Required for dataset objects; may
not be repeated.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Description:</b></td>
<td>The dataspace message describes the number of dimensions (in
other words, &ldquo;rank&rdquo;) and size of each dimension that the
data object has. This message is only used for datasets which have a
simple, rectilinear, array-like layout; datasets requiring a more
complex layout are not yet supported.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Format of Data:</b> See the tables below.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<!-- end msgdesc table -->
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Dataspace Message - Version 1</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td>Dimensionality</td>
<td>Flags</td>
<td>Reserved</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Reserved</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Dimension #1 Size<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">.<br />.<br />.<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Dimension #n Size<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Dimension #1 Maximum Size<sup>L</sup> <em>(optional)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">.<br />.<br />.<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Dimension #n Maximum Size<sup>L</sup> <em>(optional)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Permutation Index #1<sup>L</sup> <em>(optional)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">.<br />.<br />.<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Permutation Index #n<sup>L</sup> <em>(optional)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;L&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Lengths&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td>
<p>This value is used to determine the format of the Dataspace
Message. When the format of the information in the message is
changed, the version number is incremented and can be used to
determine how the information in the object header is formatted.
This document describes version one (1) (there was no version zero
(0)).</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Dimensionality</p></td>
<td>
<p>This value is the number of dimensions that the data object
has.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Flags</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field is used to store flags to indicate the presence of
parts of this message. Bit 0 (the least significant bit) is used to
indicate that maximum dimensions are present. Bit 1 is used to
indicate that permutation indices are present.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Dimension #n Size</p></td>
<td>
<p>This value is the current size of the dimension of the data
as stored in the file. The first dimension stored in the list of
dimensions is the slowest changing dimension and the last dimension
stored is the fastest changing dimension.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Dimension #n Maximum Size</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This value is the maximum size of the dimension of the data as
stored in the file. This value may be the special &ldquo;<a
href="#UnlimitedDim">unlimited</a>&rdquo; size which indicates
that the data may expand along this dimension indefinitely. If
these values are not stored, the maximum size of each dimension is
assumed to be the dimension&rsquo;s current size.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Permutation Index #n</p></td>
<td>
<p>This value is the index permutation used to map each
dimension from the canonical representation to an alternate axis
for each dimension. If these values are not stored, the first
dimension stored in the list of dimensions is the slowest changing
dimension and the last dimension stored is the fastest changing
dimension.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<p>Version 2 of the dataspace message dropped the optional
permutation index value support, as it was never implemented in the
HDF5 Library:</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Dataspace Message - Version 2</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td>Dimensionality</td>
<td>Flags</td>
<td>Type</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Dimension #1 Size<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">.<br />.<br />.<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Dimension #n Size<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Dimension #1 Maximum Size<sup>L</sup> <em>(optional)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">.<br />.<br />.<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Dimension #n Maximum Size<sup>L</sup> <em>(optional)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;L&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Lengths&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td>
<p>This value is used to determine the format of the Dataspace
Message. This field should be &lsquo;2&rsquo; for version 2 format
messages.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Dimensionality</p></td>
<td>
<p>This value is the number of dimensions that the data object
has.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Flags</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field is used to store flags to indicate the presence of
parts of this message. Bit 0 (the least significant bit) is used to
indicate that maximum dimensions are present.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Type</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field indicates the type of the dataspace:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Value</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>A <em>scalar</em> dataspace; in other words, a dataspace
with a single, dimensionless element.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>A <em>simple</em> dataspace; in other words, a dataspace
with a rank > 0 and an appropriate # of dimensions.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2</code></td>
<td>A <em>null</em> dataspace; in other words, a dataspace
with no elements.
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Dimension #n Size</p></td>
<td>
<p>This value is the current size of the dimension of the data
as stored in the file. The first dimension stored in the list of
dimensions is the slowest changing dimension and the last dimension
stored is the fastest changing dimension.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Dimension #n Maximum Size</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This value is the maximum size of the dimension of the data as
stored in the file. This value may be the special &ldquo;<a
href="#UnlimitedDim">unlimited</a>&rdquo; size which indicates
that the data may expand along this dimension indefinitely. If
these values are not stored, the maximum size of each dimension is
assumed to be the dimension&rsquo;s current size.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<!--
<br />
<h4><a name="DataSpaceMessage">Header Message Name: Complex Dataspace (Fiber Bundle?)</a></h4>
<!-- start msgdesc table --
<center>
<table class="msgdesc">
<p><b>Header Message Name: ???????</b></td></tr>
<b>Header Message Type: </b>0x0002<br />
<b>Length:</b> Varies</td></tr>
<b>Status:</b> One of the <em>Simple Dataspace</em> or
<em>Complex Dataspace</em> messages is required (but not both) and may
not be repeated.<br /> <b>Description:</b> The
<em>Dataspace</em> message describes space that the dataset is
mapped onto in a more comprehensive way than the <em>Simple
Dimensionality</em> message is capable of handling. The
dataspace of a dataset encompasses the type of coordinate system
used to locate the dataset&rsquo;s elements as well as the structure and
regularity of the coordinate system. The dataspace also
describes the number of dimensions which the dataset inhabits as
well as a possible higher dimensional space in which the dataset
is located within.
<br />
<p><b>Format of Data:</b></p>
<center>
<table border cellpadding="4" width="80%">
<caption align="bottom">
<b>HDF5 Dataspace Message Layout</b>
</caption>
<tr align="center">
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td colspan="4">Mesh Type</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td colspan="4">Logical Dimensionality</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<br />
<dl>
<dt>The elements of the dimensionality message are described below:
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>Mesh Type: (unsigned 32-bit integer)
<dd>This value indicates whether the grid is
polar/spherical/cartesion,
structured/unstructured and regular/irregular. <br />
The mesh type value is broken up as follows: <br />
<br />
<center>
<table border cellpadding="4" width="80%">
<caption align="bottom">
<b>HDF5 Mesh-type Layout</b>
</caption>
<tr align="center">
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td colspan="1">Mesh Embedding</td>
<td colspan="1">Coordinate System</td>
<td colspan="1">Structure</td>
<td colspan="1">Regularity</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
The following are the definitions of mesh-type bytes:
<dl>
<dt>Mesh Embedding
<dd>This value indicates whether the dataset dataspace
is located within
another dataspace or not:
<dl> <dl>
<dt>&lt;STANDALONE&gt;
<dd>The dataset mesh is self-contained and is not
embedded in another mesh.
<dt>&lt;EMBEDDED&gt;
<dd>The dataset&rsquo;s dataspace is located within
another dataspace, as
described in information below.
</dl> </dl>
<dt>Coordinate System
<dd>This value defines the type of coordinate system
used for the mesh:
<dl> <dl>
<dt>&lt;POLAR&gt;
<dd>The last two dimensions are in polar
coordinates, higher dimensions are
cartesian.
<dt>&lt;SPHERICAL&gt;
<dd>The last three dimensions are in spherical
coordinates, higher dimensions
are cartesian.
<dt>&lt;CARTESIAN&gt;
<dd>All dimensions are in cartesian coordinates.
</dl> </dl>
<dt>Structure
<dd>This value defines the locations of the grid-points
on the axes:
<dl> <dl>
<dt>&lt;STRUCTURED&gt;
<dd>All grid-points are on integral, sequential
locations, starting from 0.
<dt>&lt;UNSTRUCTURED&gt;
<dd>Grid-points locations in each dimension are
explicitly defined and
may be of any numeric datatype.
</dl> </dl>
<dt>Regularity
<dd>This value defines the locations of the dataset
points on the grid:
<dl> <dl>
<dt>&lt;REGULAR&gt;
<dd>All dataset elements are located at the
grid-points defined.
<dt>&lt;IRREGULAR&gt;
<dd>Each dataset element has a particular
grid-location defined.
</dl> </dl>
</dl>
<p>The following grid combinations are currently allowed:</p>
<dl> <dl>
<dt>&lt;POLAR-STRUCTURED-REGULAR&gt;
<dt>&lt;SPHERICAL-STRUCTURED-REGULAR&gt;
<dt>&lt;CARTESIAN-STRUCTURED-REGULAR&gt;
<dt>&lt;POLAR-UNSTRUCTURED-REGULAR&gt;
<dt>&lt;SPHERICAL-UNSTRUCTURED-REGULAR&gt;
<dt>&lt;CARTESIAN-UNSTRUCTURED-REGULAR&gt;
<dt>&lt;CARTESIAN-UNSTRUCTURED-IRREGULAR&gt;
</dl> </dl>
All of the above grid types can be embedded within another
dataspace.
<br /> <br />
<dt>Logical Dimensionality: (unsigned 32-bit integer)
<dd>This value is the number of dimensions that the dataset occupies.
<br />
<center>
<table border cellpadding="4" width="80%">
<caption align="bottom">
<b>HDF5 Dataspace Embedded Dimensionality Information</b>
</caption>
<tr align="center">
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td colspan="4">Embedded Dimensionality</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td colspan="4">Embedded Dimension Size #1</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td colspan="4">.<br />.<br />.<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td colspan="4">Embedded Dimension Size #n</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td colspan="4">Embedded Origin Location #1</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td colspan="4">.<br />.<br />.<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td colspan="4">Embedded Origin Location #n</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<dt>Embedded Dimensionality: (unsigned 32-bit integer)
<dd>This value is the number of dimensions of the space the
dataset is located within: in other words, a planar dataset
located within a 3-D space, a 3-D dataset
which is a subset of another 3-D space, and so on.
<dt>Embedded Dimension Size: (unsigned 32-bit integer)
<dd>These values are the sizes of the dimensions of the
embedded dataspace
that the dataset is located within.
<dt>Embedded Origin Location: (unsigned 32-bit integer)
<dd>These values comprise the location of the dataset&rsquo;s
origin within the embedded dataspace.
</dl>
</dl>
[Comment: need some way to handle different orientations of the
dataset dataspace
within the embedded dataspace]<br />
<br />
<center>
<table border cellpadding="4" width="80%">
<caption align="bottom">
<b>HDF5 Dataspace Structured/Regular Grid Information</b>
</caption>
<tr align="center">
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td colspan="4">Logical Dimension Size #1</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td colspan="4">Logical Dimension Maximum #1</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td colspan="4">.<br />.<br />.<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td colspan="4">Logical Dimension Size #n</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td colspan="4">Logical Dimension Maximum #n</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<br />
<dl>
<dt>The elements of the dimensionality message are described below:
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>Logical Dimension Size #n: (unsigned 32-bit integer)
<dd>This value is the current size of the dimension of the
data as stored in
the file. The first dimension stored in the list of
dimensions is the slowest
changing dimension and the last dimension stored is the
fastest changing
dimension.
<dt>Logical Dimension Maximum #n: (unsigned 32-bit integer)
<dd>This value is the maximum size of the dimension of the
data as stored in
the file. This value may be the special value
&lt;UNLIMITED&gt; which
indicates that the data may expand along this dimension
indefinitely.
</dl>
</dl>
<br />
<center>
<table border cellpadding="4" width="80%">
<caption align="bottom">
<b>HDF5 Dataspace Structured/Irregular Grid Information</b>
</caption>
<tr align="center">
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td colspan="4"># of Grid Points in Dimension #1</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td colspan="4">.<br />.<br />.<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td colspan="4"># of Grid Points in Dimension #n</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td colspan="4">Datatype of Grid Point Locations</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td colspan="4">Location of Grid Points in Dimension #1</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td colspan="4">.<br />.<br />.<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td colspan="4">Location of Grid Points in Dimension #n</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<br />
<center>
<table border cellpadding="4" width="80%">
<caption align="bottom">
<b>HDF5 Dataspace Unstructured Grid Information</b>
</caption>
<tr align="center">
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td colspan="4"># of Grid Points</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td colspan="4">Datatype of Grid Point Locations</td>
</tr>
<tr align="center">
<td colspan="4">Grid Point Locations<br />.<br />.<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
-->
<br />
<h4>
<a name="LinkInfoMessage">IV.A.2.c. The Link Info Message</a>
</h4>
<!-- start msgdesc table -->
<center>
<table class="msgdesc">
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Name:</b> Link Info</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Type:</b> 0x002</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Length:</b> Varies</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Status:</b> Optional; may not be repeated.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Description:</b></td>
<td>The link info message tracks variable information about the
current state of the links for a &ldquo;new style&rdquo;
group&rsquo;s behavior. Variable information will be stored in this
message and constant information will be stored in the <a
href="#GroupInfoMessage">Group Info</a> message.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Format of Data:</b> See the tables below.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<!-- end msgdesc table -->
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Link Info</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td>Flags</td>
<td colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Maximum Creation Index <em>(8 bytes,
optional)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Fractal Heap Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Address of v2 B-tree for Name Index<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Address of v2 B-tree for Creation Order
Index<sup>O</sup> <em>(optional)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td>
<p>The version number for this message. This document describes
version 0.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Flags</p></td>
<td><p>This field determines various optional aspects of the
link info message:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Bit</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>If set, creation order for the links is tracked.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>If set, creation order for the links is indexed.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2-7</code></td>
<td>Reserved</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Maximum Creation Index</p></td>
<td><p>This 64-bit value is the maximum creation order index
value stored for a link in this group.</p>
<p>
This field is present if bit 0 of <em>flags</em> is set.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Fractal Heap Address</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This is the address of the fractal heap to store dense links. Each
link stored in the fractal heap is stored as a <a
href="#LinkMessage">Link Message</a>.
</p>
<p>
If there are no links in the group, or the group&rsquo;s links are
stored &ldquo;compactly&rdquo; (as object header messages), this
value will be the <a href="#UndefinedAddress">undefined address</a>.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Address of v2 B-tree for Name Index</p></td>
<td><p>This is the address of the version 2 B-tree to index
names of links.</p>
<p>
If there are no links in the group, or the group&rsquo;s links are
stored &ldquo;compactly&rdquo; (as object header messages), this
value will be the <a href="#UndefinedAddress">undefined address</a>.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Address of v2 B-tree for Creation Order Index</p></td>
<td><p>This is the address of the version 2 B-tree to index
creation order of links.</p>
<p>
If there are no links in the group, or the group&rsquo;s links are
stored &ldquo;compactly&rdquo; (as object header messages), this
value will be the <a href="#UndefinedAddress">undefined address</a>.
</p>
<p>
This field exists if bit 1 of <em>flags</em> is set.
</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<h4>
<a name="DatatypeMessage">IV.A.2.d. The Datatype Message</a>
</h4>
<!-- start msgdesc table -->
<center>
<table class="msgdesc">
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Name:</b> Datatype</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Type:</b> 0x0003</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Length:</b> Variable</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Status:</b> Required for dataset or committed
datatype (formerly named datatype) objects; may not be repeated.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Description:</b></td>
<td><p>The datatype message defines the datatype for each
element of a dataset or a common datatype for sharing between
multiple datasets. A datatype can describe an atomic type like a
fixed- or floating-point type or more complex types like a C struct
(compound datatype), array (array datatype) or C++ vector
(variable-length datatype).</p>
<p>Datatype messages that are part of a dataset object do not
describe how elements are related to one another; the dataspace
message is used for that purpose. Datatype messages that are part
of a committed datatype (formerly named datatype) message describe
a common datatype that can be shared by multiple datasets in the
file.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Format of Data:</b> See the tables below.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<!-- end msgdesc table -->
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Datatype Message</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Class and Version</td>
<td>Class Bit Field, Bits 0-7</td>
<td>Class Bit Field, Bits 8-15</td>
<td>Class Bit Field, Bits 16-23</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Size</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />
<br />Properties<br />
<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Class and Version</p></td>
<td>
<p>The version of the datatype message and the datatype&rsquo;s
class information are packed together in this field. The version
number is packed in the top 4 bits of the field and the class is
contained in the bottom 4 bits.</p>
<p>The version number information is used for changes in the
format of the datatype message and is described here:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Version</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>Never used</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>Used by early versions of the library to encode compound
datatypes with explicit array fields. See the compound datatype
description below for further details.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2</code></td>
<td>Used when an array datatype needs to be encoded.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>3</code></td>
<td>Used when a VAX byte-ordered type needs to be encoded.
Packs various other datatype classes more efficiently also.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
<p>The class of the datatype determines the format for the class
bit field and properties portion of the datatype message, which are
described below. The following classes are currently defined:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Value</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>Fixed-Point</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>Floating-Point</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2</code></td>
<td>Time</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>3</code></td>
<td>String</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>4</code></td>
<td>Bit field</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>5</code></td>
<td>Opaque</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>6</code></td>
<td>Compound</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>7</code></td>
<td>Reference</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>8</code></td>
<td>Enumerated</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>9</code></td>
<td>Variable-Length</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>10</code></td>
<td>Array</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Class Bit Fields</p></td>
<td>
<p>The information in these bit fields is specific to each
datatype class and is described below. All bits not defined for a
datatype class are set to zero.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Size</p></td>
<td>
<p>The size of a datatype element in bytes.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Properties</p></td>
<td>
<p>This variable-sized sequence of bytes encodes information
specific to each datatype class and is described for each class
below. If there is no property information specified for a datatype
class, the size of this field is zero bytes.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<p>Class specific information for Fixed-Point Numbers (Class 0):</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<caption>Fixed-point Bit Field Description</caption>
<tr>
<th width="10%">Bits</th>
<th>Meaning</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>0</p></td>
<td><p>
<b>Byte Order.</b> If zero, byte order is little-endian; otherwise,
byte order is big endian.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>1, 2</p></td>
<td><p>
<b>Padding type.</b> Bit 1 is the lo_pad bit and bit 2 is the
hi_pad bit. If a datum has unused bits at either end, then the
lo_pad or hi_pad bit is copied to those locations.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>3</p></td>
<td><p>
<b>Signed.</b> If this bit is set then the fixed-point number is in
2&rsquo;s complement form.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>4-23</p></td>
<td><p>Reserved (zero).</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Fixed-Point Property Description</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Bit Offset</td>
<td colspan="2">Bit Precision</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Bit Offset</p></td>
<td>
<p>The bit offset of the first significant bit of the
fixed-point value within the datatype. The bit offset specifies the
number of bits &ldquo;to the right of&rdquo; the value (which are
set to the lo_pad bit value).</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Bit Precision</p></td>
<td>
<p>The number of bits of precision of the fixed-point value
within the datatype. This value, combined with the datatype
element&rsquo;s size and the Bit Offset field specifies the number
of bits &ldquo;to the left of&rdquo; the value (which are set to
the hi_pad bit value).</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<p>Class specific information for Floating-Point Numbers (Class 1):</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<caption>Floating-Point Bit Field Description</caption>
<tr>
<th width="10%">Bits</th>
<th>Meaning</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>0, 6</p></td>
<td><p>
<b>Byte Order.</b> These two non-contiguous bits specify the
&ldquo;endianness&rdquo; of the bytes in the datatype element.
</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="10%" align="center">Bit 6</th>
<th width="10%" align="center">Bit 0</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>Byte order is little-endian</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>Byte order is big-endian</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>Reserved</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>Byte order is VAX-endian</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>1, 2, 3</p></td>
<td><p>
<b>Padding type.</b> Bit 1 is the low bits pad type, bit 2 is the
high bits pad type, and bit 3 is the internal bits pad type. If a
datum has unused bits at either end or between the sign bit,
exponent, or mantissa, then the value of bit 1, 2, or 3 is copied
to those locations.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>4-5</p></td>
<td><p>
<b>Mantissa Normalization.</b> This 2-bit bit field specifies how
the most significant bit of the mantissa is managed.
</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Value</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>No normalization</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>The most significant bit of the mantissa is always set
(except for 0.0).</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2</code></td>
<td>The most significant bit of the mantissa is not stored,
but is implied to be set.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>3</code></td>
<td>Reserved.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>7</p></td>
<td><p>Reserved (zero).</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>8-15</p></td>
<td><p>
<b>Sign Location.</b> This is the bit position of the sign bit.
Bits are numbered with the least significant bit zero.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>16-23</p></td>
<td><p>Reserved (zero).</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Floating-Point Property Description</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Bit Offset</td>
<td colspan="2">Bit Precision</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Exponent Location</td>
<td>Exponent Size</td>
<td>Mantissa Location</td>
<td>Mantissa Size</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Exponent Bias</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Bit Offset</p></td>
<td>
<p>The bit offset of the first significant bit of the
floating-point value within the datatype. The bit offset specifies
the number of bits &ldquo;to the right of&rdquo; the value.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Bit Precision</p></td>
<td>
<p>The number of bits of precision of the floating-point value
within the datatype.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Exponent Location</p></td>
<td>
<p>The bit position of the exponent field. Bits are numbered
with the least significant bit number zero.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Exponent Size</p></td>
<td>
<p>The size of the exponent field in bits.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Mantissa Location</p></td>
<td>
<p>The bit position of the mantissa field. Bits are numbered
with the least significant bit number zero.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Mantissa Size</p></td>
<td>
<p>The size of the mantissa field in bits.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Exponent Bias</p></td>
<td>
<p>The bias of the exponent field.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<p>Class specific information for Time (Class 2):</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<caption>Time Bit Field Description</caption>
<tr>
<th width="10%">Bits</th>
<th>Meaning</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>0</p></td>
<td><p>
<b>Byte Order.</b> If zero, byte order is little-endian; otherwise,
byte order is big endian.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>1-23</p></td>
<td><p>Reserved (zero).</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Time Property Description</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Bit Precision</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Bit Precision</p></td>
<td>
<p>The number of bits of precision of the time value.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<p>Class specific information for Strings (Class 3):</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<caption>String Bit Field Description</caption>
<tr>
<th width="10%">Bits</th>
<th>Meaning</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>0-3</p></td>
<td><p>
<b>Padding type.</b> This four-bit value determines the type of
padding to use for the string. The values are:
</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Value</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>Null Terminate: A zero byte marks the end of the string
and is guaranteed to be present after converting a long string to
a short string. When converting a short string to a long string
the value is padded with additional null characters as necessary.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>Null Pad: Null characters are added to the end of the
value during conversions from short values to long values but
conversion in the opposite direction simply truncates the value.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2</code></td>
<td>Space Pad: Space characters are added to the end of the
value during conversions from short values to long values but
conversion in the opposite direction simply truncates the value.
This is the Fortran representation of the string.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>3-15</code></td>
<td>Reserved</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>4-7</p></td>
<td><p>
<b>Character Set.</b> The character set used to encode the string.
</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Value</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>ASCII character set encoding</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>UTF-8 character set encoding</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2-15</code></td>
<td>Reserved</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>8-23</p></td>
<td><p>Reserved (zero).</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>There are no properties defined for the string class.</p>
<p>Class specific information for bit fields (Class 4):</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<caption>Bitfield Bit Field Description</caption>
<tr>
<th width="10%">Bits</th>
<th>Meaning</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>0</p></td>
<td><p>
<b>Byte Order.</b> If zero, byte order is little-endian; otherwise,
byte order is big endian.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>1, 2</p></td>
<td><p>
<b>Padding type.</b> Bit 1 is the lo_pad type and bit 2 is the
hi_pad type. If a datum has unused bits at either end, then the
lo_pad or hi_pad bit is copied to those locations.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>3-23</p></td>
<td><p>Reserved (zero).</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Bit Field Property Description</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Bit Offset</td>
<td colspan="2">Bit Precision</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Bit Offset</p></td>
<td>
<p>The bit offset of the first significant bit of the bit field
within the datatype. The bit offset specifies the number of bits
&ldquo;to the right of&rdquo; the value.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Bit Precision</p></td>
<td>
<p>The number of bits of precision of the bit field within the
datatype.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<p>Class specific information for Opaque (Class 5):</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<caption>Opaque Bit Field Description</caption>
<tr>
<th width="10%">Bits</th>
<th>Meaning</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>0-7</p></td>
<td><p>Length of ASCII tag in bytes.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>8-23</p></td>
<td><p>Reserved (zero).</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Opaque Property Description</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />ASCII Tag<br /> <br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>ASCII Tag</p></td>
<td>
<p>This NUL-terminated string provides a description for the
opaque type. It is NUL-padded to a multiple of 8 bytes.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<p>Class specific information for Compound (Class 6):</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<caption>Compound Bit Field Description</caption>
<tr>
<th width="10%">Bits</th>
<th>Meaning</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>0-15</p></td>
<td><p>
<b>Number of Members.</b> This field contains the number of members
defined for the compound datatype. The member definitions are
listed in the Properties field of the data type message.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>16-23</p></td>
<td><p>Reserved (zero).</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>The Properties field of a compound datatype is a list of the
member definitions of the compound datatype. The member definitions
appear one after another with no intervening bytes. The member types
are described with a (recursively) encoded datatype message.</p>
<p>Note that the property descriptions are different for different
versions of the datatype version. Additionally note that the version 0
datatype encoding is deprecated and has been replaced with later
encodings in versions of the HDF5 Library from the 1.4 release onward.</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Compound Properties Description for Datatype
Version 1</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Name<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Byte Offset of Member</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Dimensionality</td>
<td colspan="3">Reserved (zero)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Dimension Permutation</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Reserved (zero)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Dimension #1 Size (required)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Dimension #2 Size (required)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Dimension #3 Size (required)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Dimension #4 Size (required)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Member Type Message<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Name</p></td>
<td>
<p>This NUL-terminated string provides a description for the
opaque type. It is NUL-padded to a multiple of 8 bytes.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Byte Offset of Member</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the byte offset of the member within the datatype.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Dimensionality</p></td>
<td>
<p>If set to zero, this field indicates a scalar member. If set
to a value greater than zero, this field indicates that the member
is an array of values. For array members, the size of the array is
indicated by the &lsquo;Size of Dimension n&rsquo; field in this
message.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Dimension Permutation</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field was intended to allow an array field to have its
dimensions permuted, but this was never implemented. This field
should always be set to zero.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Dimension #n Size</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field is the size of a dimension of the array field as
stored in the file. The first dimension stored in the list of
dimensions is the slowest changing dimension and the last dimension
stored is the fastest changing dimension.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Member Type Message</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field is a datatype message describing the datatype of
the member.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Compound Properties Description for Datatype
Version 2</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Name<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Byte Offset of Member</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Member Type Message<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Name</p></td>
<td>
<p>This NUL-terminated string provides a description for the
opaque type. It is NUL-padded to a multiple of 8 bytes.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Byte Offset of Member</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the byte offset of the member within the datatype.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Member Type Message</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field is a datatype message describing the datatype of
the member.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Compound Properties Description for Datatype
Version 3</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Name<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Byte Offset of Member <em>(variable size)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Member Type Message<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Name</p></td>
<td><p>
This NUL-terminated string provides a description for the opaque
type. It is <em>not</em> NUL-padded to a multiple of 8 bytes.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Byte Offset of Member</p></td>
<td><p>This is the byte offset of the member within the
datatype. The field size is the minimum number of bytes necessary,
based on the size of the datatype element. For example, a datatype
element size of less than 256 bytes uses a 1 byte length, a
datatype element size of 256-65535 bytes uses a 2 byte length, and
so on.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Member Type Message</p></td>
<td><p>This field is a datatype message describing the
datatype of the member.</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<p>Class specific information for Reference (Class 7):</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<caption>Reference Bit Field Description</caption>
<tr>
<th width="10%">Bits</th>
<th>Meaning</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>0-3</p></td>
<td><p>
<b>Type.</b> This four-bit value contains the type of reference
described. The values defined are:
</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Value</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>Object Reference: A reference to another object in this
HDF5 file.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>Dataset Region Reference: A reference to a region within
a dataset in this HDF5 file.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2-15</code></td>
<td>Reserved</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>4-23</p></td>
<td><p>Reserved (zero).</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>There are no properties defined for the reference class.</p>
<br />
<p>Class specific information for Enumeration (Class 8):</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<caption>Enumeration Bit Field Description</caption>
<tr>
<th width="10%">Bits</th>
<th>Meaning</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>0-15</p></td>
<td><p>
<b>Number of Members.</b> The number of name/value pairs defined
for the enumeration type.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>16-23</p></td>
<td><p>Reserved (zero).</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Enumeration Property Description for Datatype
Versions 1 & 2</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Base Type<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Names<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Values<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Base Type</p></td>
<td>
<p>Each enumeration type is based on some parent type, usually
an integer. The information for that parent type is described
recursively by this field.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Names</p></td>
<td>
<p>The name for each name/value pair. Each name is stored as a
null terminated ASCII string in a multiple of eight bytes. The
names are in no particular order.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Values</p></td>
<td>
<p>The list of values in the same order as the names. The values
are packed (no inter-value padding) and the size of each value is
determined by the parent type.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Enumeration Property Description for Datatype
Version 3</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Base Type<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Names<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Values<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Base Type</p></td>
<td>
<p>Each enumeration type is based on some parent type, usually
an integer. The information for that parent type is described
recursively by this field.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Names</p></td>
<td>
<p>
The name for each name/value pair. Each name is stored as a null
terminated ASCII string, <em>not</em> padded to a multiple of eight
bytes. The names are in no particular order.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Values</p></td>
<td>
<p>The list of values in the same order as the names. The values
are packed (no inter-value padding) and the size of each value is
determined by the parent type.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<p>Class specific information for Variable-Length (Class 9):</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<caption>Variable-Length Bit Field Description</caption>
<tr>
<th width="10%">Bits</th>
<th>Meaning</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>0-3</p></td>
<td><p>
<b>Type.</b> This four-bit value contains the type of
variable-length datatype described. The values defined are:
</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Value</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>Sequence: A variable-length sequence of any datatype.
Variable-length sequences do not have padding or character set
information.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>String: A variable-length sequence of characters.
Variable-length strings have padding and character set
information.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2-15</code></td>
<td>Reserved</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>4-7</p></td>
<td><p>
<b>Padding type.</b> (variable-length string only) This four-bit
value determines the type of padding used for variable-length
strings. The values are the same as for the string padding type, as
follows:
</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Value</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>Null terminate: A zero byte marks the end of a string and
is guaranteed to be present after converting a long string to a
short string. When converting a short string to a long string,
the value is padded with additional null characters as necessary.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>Null pad: Null characters are added to the end of the
value during conversion from a short string to a longer string.
Conversion from a long string to a shorter string simply
truncates the value.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2</code></td>
<td>Space pad: Space characters are added to the end of the
value during conversion from a short string to a longer string.
Conversion from a long string to a shorter string simply
truncates the value. This is the Fortran representation of the
string.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>3-15</code></td>
<td>Reserved</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
<p>This value is set to zero for variable-length sequences.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>8-11</p></td>
<td><p>
<b>Character Set.</b> (variable-length string only) This four-bit
value specifies the character set to be used for encoding the
string:
</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Value</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>ASCII character set encoding</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>UTF-8 character set encoding</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2-15</code></td>
<td>Reserved</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
<p>This value is set to zero for variable-length sequences.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>12-23</p></td>
<td><p>Reserved (zero).</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Variable-Length Property Description</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Base Type<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="10%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Base Type</p></td>
<td>
<p>Each variable-length type is based on some parent type. The
information for that parent type is described recursively by this
field.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<p>Class specific information for Array (Class 10):</p>
<p>There are no bit fields defined for the array class.</p>
<p>Note that the dimension information defined in the property for
this datatype class is independent of dataspace information for a
dataset. The dimension information here describes the dimensionality of
the information within a data element (or a component of an element, if
the array datatype is nested within another datatype) and the dataspace
for a dataset describes the size and locations of the elements in a
dataset.</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Array Property Description for Datatype Version 2</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Dimensionality</td>
<td colspan="3">Reserved (zero)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Dimension #1 Size</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">.<br />.<br />.<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Dimension #n Size</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Permutation Index #1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">.<br />.<br />.<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Permutation Index #n</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Base Type<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Dimensionality</p></td>
<td>
<p>This value is the number of dimensions that the array has.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Dimension #n Size</p></td>
<td>
<p>This value is the size of the dimension of the array as
stored in the file. The first dimension stored in the list of
dimensions is the slowest changing dimension and the last dimension
stored is the fastest changing dimension.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Permutation Index #n</p></td>
<td>
<p>This value is the index permutation used to map each
dimension from the canonical representation to an alternate axis
for each dimension. Currently, dimension permutations are not
supported, and these indices should be set to the index position
minus one. In other words, the first dimension should be set to 0,
the second dimension should be set to 1, and so on.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Base Type</p></td>
<td>
<p>Each array type is based on some parent type. The information
for that parent type is described recursively by this field.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Array Property Description for Datatype Version 3</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
<th width="25%">Byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Dimensionality</td>
<td colspan="3" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Dimension #1 Size</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">.<br />.<br />.<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Dimension #n Size</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Base Type<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Dimensionality</p></td>
<td>
<p>This value is the number of dimensions that the array has.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Dimension #n Size</p></td>
<td>
<p>This value is the size of the dimension of the array as
stored in the file. The first dimension stored in the list of
dimensions is the slowest changing dimension and the last dimension
stored is the fastest changing dimension.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Base Type</p></td>
<td>
<p>Each array type is based on some parent type. The information
for that parent type is described recursively by this field.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<h4>
<a name="OldFillValueMessage">IV.A.2.e. The Data Storage - Fill
Value (Old) Message</a>
</h4>
<!-- start msgdesc table -->
<center>
<table class="msgdesc">
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Name:</b> Fill Value (old)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Type:</b> 0x0004</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Length:</b> Varies</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Status:</b> Optional; may not be repeated.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Description:</b></td>
<td><p>The fill value message stores a single data value
which is returned to the application when an uninitialized data
element is read from a dataset. The fill value is interpreted with
the same datatype as the dataset. If no fill value message is
present then a fill value of all zero bytes is assumed.</p>
<p>This fill value message is deprecated in favor of the
&ldquo;new&rdquo; fill value message (Message Type 0x0005) and is
only written to the file for forward compatibility with versions of
the HDF5 Library before the 1.6.0 version. Additionally, it only
appears for datasets with a user-defined fill value (as opposed to
the library default fill value or an explicitly set
&ldquo;undefined&rdquo; fill value).</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Format of Data:</b> See the tables below.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<!-- end msgdesc table -->
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Fill Value Message (Old)</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Size</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Fill Value <em>(optional, variable
size)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Size</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the size of the Fill Value field in bytes.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Fill Value</p></td>
<td>
<p>The fill value. The bytes of the fill value are interpreted
using the same datatype as for the dataset.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<h4>
<a name="FillValueMessage">IV.A.2.f. The Data Storage - Fill Value
Message</a>
</h4>
<!-- start msgdesc table -->
<center>
<table class="msgdesc">
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Name:</b> Fill Value</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Type:</b> 0x0005</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Length:</b> Varies</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Status:</b> Required for dataset objects; may
not be repeated.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Description:</b></td>
<td>The fill value message stores a single data value which is
returned to the application when an uninitialized data element is
read from a dataset. The fill value is interpreted with the same
datatype as the dataset.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Format of Data:</b> See the tables below.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<!-- end msgdesc table -->
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Fill Value Message - Versions 1 & 2</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td>Space Allocation Time</td>
<td>Fill Value Write Time</td>
<td>Fill Value Defined</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Size <em>(optional)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Fill Value <em>(optional, variable
size)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td>
<p>The version number information is used for changes in the
format of the fill value message and is described here:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Version</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>Never used</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>Initial version of this message.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2</code></td>
<td>In this version, the Size and Fill Value fields are only
present if the Fill Value Defined field is set to 1.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>3</code></td>
<td>This version packs the other fields in the message more
efficiently than version 2.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
<p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Space Allocation Time</p></td>
<td>
<p>When the storage space for the dataset&rsquo;s raw data will
be allocated. The allowed values are:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Value</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>Not used.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>Early allocation. Storage space for the entire dataset
should be allocated in the file when the dataset is created.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2</code></td>
<td>Late allocation. Storage space for the entire dataset
should not be allocated until the dataset is written to.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>3</code></td>
<td>Incremental allocation. Storage space for the dataset
should not be allocated until the portion of the dataset is
written to. This is currently used in conjunction with chunked
data storage for datasets.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Fill Value Write Time</p></td>
<td>
<p>At the time that storage space for the dataset&rsquo;s raw
data is allocated, this value indicates whether the fill value
should be written to the raw data storage elements. The allowed
values are:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Value</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>On allocation. The fill value is always written to the
raw data storage when the storage space is allocated.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>Never. The fill value should never be written to the raw
data storage.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2</code></td>
<td>Fill value written if set by user. The fill value will be
written to the raw data storage when the storage space is
allocated only if the user explicitly set the fill value. If the
fill value is the library default or is undefined, it will not be
written to the raw data storage.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Fill Value Defined</p></td>
<td>
<p>This value indicates if a fill value is defined for this
dataset. If this value is 0, the fill value is undefined. If this
value is 1, a fill value is defined for this dataset. For version 2
or later of the fill value message, this value controls the
presence of the Size and Fill Value fields.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Size</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the size of the Fill Value field in bytes. This field
is not present if the Version field is greater than 1, and the Fill
Value Defined field is set to 0.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Fill Value</p></td>
<td>
<p>The fill value. The bytes of the fill value are interpreted
using the same datatype as for the dataset. This field is not
present if the Version field is greater than 1, and the Fill Value
Defined field is set to 0.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Fill Value Message - Version 3</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td>Flags</td>
<td colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Size <em>(optional)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Fill Value <em>(optional, variable
size)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td>
<p>The version number information is used for changes in the
format of the fill value message and is described here:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Version</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>Never used</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>Initial version of this message.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2</code></td>
<td>In this version, the Size and Fill Value fields are only
present if the Fill Value Defined field is set to 1.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>3</code></td>
<td>This version packs the other fields in the message more
efficiently than version 2.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Flags</p></td>
<td>
<p>When the storage space for the dataset&rsquo;s raw data will
be allocated. The allowed values are:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Bits</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0-1</code></td>
<td>Space Allocation Time, with the same values as versions 1
and 2 of the message.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2-3</code></td>
<td>Fill Value Write Time, with the same values as versions 1
and 2 of the message.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>4</code></td>
<td>Fill Value Undefined, indicating that the fill value has
been marked as &ldquo;undefined&rdquo; for this dataset. Bits 4
and 5 cannot both be set.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>5</code></td>
<td>Fill Value Defined, with the same values as versions 1
and 2 of the message. Bits 4 and 5 cannot both be set.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>6-7</code></td>
<td>Reserved (zero).</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Size</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the size of the Fill Value field in bytes. This field
is not present if the Version field is greater than 1, and the Fill
Value Defined flag is set to 0.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Fill Value</p></td>
<td>
<p>The fill value. The bytes of the fill value are interpreted
using the same datatype as for the dataset. This field is not
present if the Version field is greater than 1, and the Fill Value
Defined flag is set to 0.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<h4>
<a name="LinkMessage">IV.A.2.g. The Link Message</a>
</h4>
<!-- start msgdesc table -->
<center>
<table class="msgdesc">
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Name:</b> Link</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Type:</b> 0x0006</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Length:</b> Varies</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Status:</b> Optional; may be repeated.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Description:</b></td>
<td><p>This message encodes the information for a link in a
group&rsquo;s object header, when the group is storing its links
&ldquo;compactly&rdquo;, or in the group&rsquo;s fractal heap, when
the group is storing its links &ldquo;densely&rdquo;.</p>
<p>
A group is storing its links compactly when the fractal heap
address in the <em><a href="#LinkInfoMessage">Link Info
Message</a></em> is set to the &ldquo;undefined address&rdquo; value.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Format of Data:</b> See the tables below.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<!-- end msgdesc table -->
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Link Message</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td>Flags</td>
<td>Link type <em>(optional)</em></td>
<td bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted only to align
table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Creation Order <em>(8 bytes,
optional)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Link Name Character Set <em>(optional)</em></td>
<td>Length of Link Name (variable size)</td>
<td colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Link Name (variable size)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Link Information (variable size)<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td><p>The version number for this message. This document
describes version 1.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Flags</p></td>
<td><p>This field contains information about the link and
controls the presence of other fields below.</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Bits</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0-1</code></td>
<td>Determines the size of the <em>Length of Link Name</em>
field.
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Value</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>The size of the <em>Length of Link Name</em> field is
1 byte.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>The size of the <em>Length of Link Name</em> field is
2 bytes.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2</code></td>
<td>The size of the <em>Length of Link Name</em> field is
4 bytes.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>3</code></td>
<td>The size of the <em>Length of Link Name</em> field is
8 bytes.
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2</code></td>
<td>Creation Order Field Present: if set, the <em>Creation
Order</em> field is present. If not set, creation order information
is not stored for links in this group.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>3</code></td>
<td>Link Type Field Present: if set, the link is not a hard
link and the <em>Link Type</em> field is present. If not set, the
link is a hard link.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>4</code></td>
<td>Link Name Character Set Field Present: if set, the link
name is not represented with the ASCII character set and the <em>Link
Name Character Set</em> field is present. If not set, the link name
is represented with the ASCII character set.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>5-7</code></td>
<td>Reserved (zero).</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Link type</p></td>
<td><p>This is the link class type and can be one of the
following values:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Value</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>A hard link (should never be stored in the file)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>A soft link.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2-63</code></td>
<td>Reserved for future HDF5 internal use.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>64</code></td>
<td>An external link.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>65-255</code></td>
<td>Reserved, but available for user-defined link types.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
<p>
This field is present if bit 3 of <em>Flags</em> is set.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Creation Order</p></td>
<td><p>This 64-bit value is an index of the link&rsquo;s
creation time within the group. Values start at 0 when the group is
created an increment by one for each link added to the group.
Removing a link from a group does not change existing links&rsquo;
creation order field.</p>
<p>
This field is present if bit 2 of <em>Flags</em> is set.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Link Name Character Set</p></td>
<td><p>This is the character set for encoding the
link&rsquo;s name:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Value</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>ASCII character set encoding (this should never be stored
in the file)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>UTF-8 character set encoding</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
<p>
This field is present if bit 4 of <em>Flags</em> is set.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Length of link name</p></td>
<td><p>
This is the length of the link&rsquo;s name. The size of this field
depends on bits 0 and 1 of <em>Flags</em>.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Link name</p></td>
<td><p>This is the name of the link, non-NULL terminated.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Link information</p></td>
<td><p>
The format of this field depends on the <em>link type</em>.
</p>
<p>
For <b>hard</b> links, the field is formatted as follows:
</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<td width="20%"><i>Size of Offsets</i> bytes:</td>
<td width="80%">The address of the object header for the
object that the link points to.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
<p>
For <b>soft</b> links, the field is formatted as follows:
</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<td width="20%">Bytes 1-2:</td>
<td width="80%">Length of soft link value.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><em>Length of soft link value</em> bytes:</td>
<td>A non-NULL-terminated string storing the value of the
soft link.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
<p>
For <b>external</b> links, the field is formatted as follows:
</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<td width="20%">Bytes 1-2:</td>
<td width="80%">Length of external link value.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><em>Length of external link value</em> bytes:</td>
<td>The first byte contains the version number in the upper 4
bits and flags in the lower 4 bits for the external link. Both
version and flags are defined to be zero in this document. The
remaining bytes consist of two NULL-terminated strings, with no
padding between them. The first string is the name of the HDF5
file containing the object linked to and the second string is the
full path to the object linked to, within the HDF5 file&rsquo;s
group hierarchy.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
<p>
For <b>user-defined</b> links, the field is formatted as follows:
</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<td width="20%">Bytes 1-2:</td>
<td width="80%">Length of user-defined data.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><em>Length of user-defined link value</em> bytes:</td>
<td>The data supplied for the user-defined link type.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<h4>
<a name="ExternalFileListMessage">IV.A.2.h. The Data Storage -
External Data Files Message</a>
</h4>
<!-- start msgdesc table -->
<center>
<table class="msgdesc">
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Name:</b> External Data Files</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Type:</b> 0x0007</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Length:</b> Varies</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Status:</b> Optional; may not be repeated.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Description:</b></td>
<td>The external data storage message indicates that the data
for an object is stored outside the HDF5 file. The filename of the
object is stored as a Universal Resource Location (URL) of the
actual filename containing the data. An external file list record
also contains the byte offset of the start of the data within the
file and the amount of space reserved in the file for that data.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Format of Data:</b> See the tables below.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<!-- end msgdesc table -->
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>External File List Message</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td colspan="3">Reserved (zero)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Allocated Slots</td>
<td colspan="2">Used Slots</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Heap Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Slot Definitions...<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td>
<p>The version number information is used for changes in the
format of External Data Storage Message and is described here:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Version</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>Never used.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>The current version used by the library.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Allocated Slots</p></td>
<td>
<p>The total number of slots allocated in the message. Its value
must be at least as large as the value contained in the Used Slots
field. (The current library simply uses the number of Used Slots
for this message)</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Used Slots</p></td>
<td>
<p>The number of initial slots which contains valid information.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Heap Address</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the address of a local heap which contains the names
for the external files (The local heap information can be found in
Disk Format Level 1D in this document). The name at offset zero in
the heap is always the empty string.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Slot Definitions</p></td>
<td>
<p>The slot definitions are stored in order according to the
array addresses they represent.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>External File List Slot</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Name Offset in Local Heap<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Offset in External Data File<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Data Size in External File<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;L&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Lengths&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Name Offset in Local Heap</p></td>
<td>
<p>
The byte offset within the local name heap for the name of the
file. File names are stored as a URL which has a protocol name, a
host name, a port number, and a file name:
<code>
<em>protocol</em>:<em>port</em>//<em>host</em>/<em>file</em>
</code>
. If the protocol is omitted then &ldquo;file:&rdquo; is assumed.
If the port number is omitted then a default port for that protocol
is used. If both the protocol and the port number are omitted then
the colon can also be omitted. If the double slash and host name
are omitted then &ldquo;localhost&rdquo; is assumed. The file name
is the only mandatory part, and if the leading slash is missing
then it is relative to the application&rsquo;s current working
directory (the use of relative names is not recommended).
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Offset in External Data File</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the byte offset to the start of the data in the
specified file. For files that contain data for a single dataset
this will usually be zero.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Data Size in External File</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the total number of bytes reserved in the specified
file for raw data storage. For a file that contains exactly one
complete dataset which is not extendable, the size will usually be
the exact size of the dataset. However, by making the size larger
one allows HDF5 to extend the dataset. The size can be set to a
value larger than the entire file since HDF5 will read zeroes past
the end of the file without failing.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<h4>
<a name="LayoutMessage">IV.A.2.i. The Data Storage - Layout Message</a>
</h4>
<!-- start msgdesc table -->
<center>
<table class="msgdesc">
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Name:</b> Data Storage -
Layout</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Type:</b> 0x0008</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Length:</b> Varies</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Status:</b> Required for datasets; may not be
repeated.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Description:</b></td>
<td>Data layout describes how the elements of a
multi-dimensional array are stored in the HDF5 file. Three types of
data layout are supported:
<ol>
<li>Contiguous: The array is stored in one contiguous area of
the file. This layout requires that the size of the array be
constant: data manipulations such as chunking, compression,
checksums, or encryption are not permitted. The message stores the
total storage size of the array. The offset of an element from the
beginning of the storage area is computed as in a C array.</li>
<li>Chunked: The array domain is regularly decomposed into
chunks, and each chunk is allocated and stored separately. This
layout supports arbitrary element traversals, compression,
encryption, and checksums. (these features are described in other
messages). The message stores the size of a chunk instead of the
size of the entire array; the storage size of the entire array can
be calculated by traversing the B-tree that stores the chunk
addresses.</li>
<li>Compact: The array is stored in one contiguous block, as
part of this object header message.</li>
</ol>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Format of Data:</b> See the tables below.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<!-- end msgdesc table -->
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Data Layout Message (Versions 1 and 2)</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td>Dimensionality</td>
<td>Layout Class</td>
<td>Reserved <em>(zero)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Reserved <em>(zero)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Data Address<sup>O</sup> <em>(optional)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Dimension 0 Size</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Dimension 1 Size</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">...</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Dimension #n Size</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Dataset Element Size <em>(optional)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Compact Data Size <em>(optional)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Compact Data... <em>(variable size,
optional)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td>
<p>The version number information is used for changes in the
format of the data layout message and is described here:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Version</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>Never used.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>Used by version 1.4 and before of the library to encode
layout information. Data space is always allocated when the data
set is created.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2</code></td>
<td>Used by version 1.6.x of the library to encode layout
information. Data space is allocated only when it is necessary.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Dimensionality</p></td>
<td><p>An array has a fixed dimensionality. This field
specifies the number of dimension size fields later in the message.
The value stored for chunked storage is 1 greater than the number
of dimensions in the dataset&rsquo;s dataspace. For example, 2 is
stored for a 1 dimensional dataset.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Layout Class</p></td>
<td><p>The layout class specifies the type of storage for
the data and how the other fields of the layout message are to be
interpreted.</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Value</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>Compact Storage</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>Contiguous Storage</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2</code></td>
<td>Chunked Storage</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Data Address</p></td>
<td><p>For contiguous storage, this is the address of the
raw data in the file. For chunked storage this is the address of
the v1 B-tree that is used to look up the addresses of the chunks.
This field is not present for compact storage. If the version for
this message is greater than 1, the address may have the
&ldquo;undefined address&rdquo; value, to indicate that storage has
not yet been allocated for this array.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Dimension #n Size</p></td>
<td><p>For contiguous and compact storage the dimensions
define the entire size of the array while for chunked storage they
define the size of a single chunk. In all cases, they are in units
of array elements (not bytes). The first dimension stored in the
list of dimensions is the slowest changing dimension and the last
dimension stored is the fastest changing dimension.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Dataset Element Size</p></td>
<td><p>The size of a dataset element, in bytes. This field
is only present for chunked storage.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Compact Data Size</p></td>
<td><p>This field is only present for compact data storage.
It contains the size of the raw data for the dataset array, in
bytes.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Compact Data</p></td>
<td><p>This field is only present for compact data storage.
It contains the raw data for the dataset array.</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<p>Version 3 of this message re-structured the format into specific
properties that are required for each layout class.</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>
<b>Data Layout Message (Version 3)</b>
</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td>Layout Class</td>
<td colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Properties <em>(variable size)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td>
<p>The version number information is used for changes in the
format of layout message and is described here:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Version</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>3</code></td>
<td>Used by the version 1.6.3 and later of the library to
store properties for each layout class.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Layout Class</p></td>
<td><p>The layout class specifies the type of storage for
the data and how the other fields of the layout message are to be
interpreted.</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Value</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>Compact Storage</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>Contiguous Storage</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2</code></td>
<td>Chunked Storage</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Properties</p></td>
<td><p>This variable-sized field encodes information
specific to each layout class and is described below. If there is
no property information specified for a layout class, the size of
this field is zero bytes.</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<p>Class-specific information for compact layout (Class 0): (Note:
The dimensionality information is in the Dataspace message)</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Compact Storage Property Description</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Size</td>
<td colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Raw Data... <em>(variable size)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Size</p></td>
<td><p>This field contains the size of the raw data for the
dataset array, in bytes.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Raw Data</p></td>
<td><p>This field contains the raw data for the dataset
array.</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<p>Class-specific information for contiguous layout (Class 1):
(Note: The dimensionality information is in the Dataspace message)</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Contiguous Storage Property Description</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Size<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>(Items marked with an &lsquo;L&rsquo; in the above table are
of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of Lengths&rdquo; field in the
superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Address</p></td>
<td><p>This is the address of the raw data in the file. The
address may have the &ldquo;undefined address&rdquo; value, to
indicate that storage has not yet been allocated for this array.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Size</p></td>
<td><p>This field contains the size allocated to store the
raw data, in bytes.</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<p>Class-specific information for chunked layout (Class 2):</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Chunked Storage Property Description</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Dimensionality</td>
<td colspan="3" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Dimension 0 Size</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Dimension 1 Size</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">...</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Dimension #n Size</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Dataset Element Size</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Dimensionality</p></td>
<td><p>A chunk has a fixed dimensionality. This field
specifies the number of dimension size fields later in the message.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Address</p></td>
<td><p>This is the address of the v1 B-tree that is used to
look up the addresses of the chunks that actually store portions of
the array data. The address may have the &ldquo;undefined
address&rdquo; value, to indicate that storage has not yet been
allocated for this array.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Dimension #n Size</p></td>
<td><p>These values define the dimension size of a single
chunk, in units of array elements (not bytes). The first dimension
stored in the list of dimensions is the slowest changing dimension
and the last dimension stored is the fastest changing dimension.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Dataset Element Size</p></td>
<td><p>The size of a dataset element, in bytes.</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<h4>
<a name="BogusMessage">IV.A.2.j. The Bogus Message</a>
</h4>
<!-- start msgdesc table -->
<center>
<table class="msgdesc">
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Name:</b> Bogus</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Type:</b> 0x0009</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Length:</b> 4 bytes</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Status:</b> For testing only; should never be
stored in a valid file.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Description:</b></td>
<td>This message is used for testing the HDF5 Library&rsquo;s
response to an &ldquo;unknown&rdquo; message type and should never
be encountered in a valid HDF5 file.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Format of Data:</b> See the tables below.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<!-- end msgdesc table -->
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Bogus Message</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Bogus Value</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Bogus Value</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This value should always be:
<code>0xdeadbeef</code>
.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<h4>
<a name="GroupInfoMessage">IV.A.2.k. The Group Info Message </a>
</h4>
<!-- start msgdesc table -->
<center>
<table class="msgdesc">
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Name:</b> Group Info</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Type:</b> 0x000A</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Length:</b> Varies</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Status:</b> Optional; may not be repeated.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Description:</b></td>
<td><p>
This message stores information for the constants defining a
&ldquo;new style&rdquo; group&rsquo;s behavior. Constant
information will be stored in this message and variable information
will be stored in the <a href="#LinkInfoMessage">Link Info</a>
message.
</p>
<p>Note: the &ldquo;estimated entry&rdquo; information below is
used when determining the size of the object header for the group
when it is created.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Format of Data:</b> See the tables below.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<!-- end msgdesc table -->
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Group Info Message</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td>Flags</td>
<td colspan="2">Link Phase Change: Maximum Compact Value <em>(optional)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Link Phase Change: Minimum Dense Value <em>(optional)</em></td>
<td colspan="2">Estimated Number of Entries <em>(optional)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Estimated Link Name Length of Entries <em>(optional)</em></td>
<td colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td><p>The version number for this message. This document
describes version 0.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Flags</p></td>
<td><p>This is the group information flag with the following
definition:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Bit</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>If set, link phase change values are stored.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>If set, the estimated entry information is non-default
and is stored.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2-7</code></td>
<td>Reserved</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Link Phase Change: Maximum Compact Value</p></td>
<td><p>The is the maximum number of links to store
&ldquo;compactly&rdquo; (in the group&rsquo;s object header).</p>
<p>
This field is present if bit 0 of <em>Flags</em> is set.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Link Phase Change: Minimum Dense Value</p></td>
<td><p>
This is the minimum number of links to store &ldquo;densely&rdquo;
(in the group&rsquo;s fractal heap). The fractal heap&rsquo;s
address is located in the <a href="#LinkInfoMessage">Link Info</a>
message.
</p>
<p>
This field is present if bit 0 of <em>Flags</em> is set.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Estimated Number of Entries</p></td>
<td><p>This is the estimated number of entries in groups.</p>
<p>
If this field is not present, the default value of
<code>4</code>
will be used for the estimated number of group entries.
</p>
<p>
This field is present if bit 1 of <em>Flags</em> is set.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Estimated Link Name Length of Entries</p></td>
<td><p>This is the estimated length of entry name.</p>
<p>
If this field is not present, the default value of
<code>8</code>
will be used for the estimated link name length of group entries.
</p>
<p>
This field is present if bit 1 of <em>Flags</em> is set.
</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p></p>
<br />
<h4>
<a name="FilterMessage">IV.A.2.l. The Data Storage - Filter
Pipeline Message</a>
</h4>
<!-- start msgdesc table -->
<center>
<table class="msgdesc">
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Name:</b> Data Storage -
Filter Pipeline</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Type:</b> 0x000B</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Length:</b> Varies</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Status:</b> Optional; may not be repeated.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Description:</b></td>
<td><p>This message describes the filter pipeline which
should be applied to the data stream by providing filter
identification numbers, flags, a name, and client data.</p>
<p>This message may be present in the object headers of both
dataset and group objects. For datasets, it specifies the filters
to apply to raw data. For groups, it specifies the filters to apply
to the group&rsquo;s fractal heap. Currently, only datasets using
chunked data storage use the filter pipeline on their raw data.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Format of Data:</b> See the tables below.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<!-- end msgdesc table -->
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Filter Pipeline Message - Version 1</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td>Number of Filters</td>
<td colspan="2">Reserved (zero)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Reserved (zero)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Filter Description List <em>(variable
size)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td><p>The version number for this message. This table
describes version 1.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Number of Filters</p></td>
<td><p>The total number of filters described in this
message. The maximum possible number of filters in a message is 32.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Filter Description List</p></td>
<td><p>A description of each filter. A filter description
appears in the next table.</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Filter Description</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Filter Identification Value</td>
<td colspan="2">Name Length</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Flags</td>
<td colspan="2">Number Client Data Values</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Name <em>(variable size, optional)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Client Data <em>(variable size,
optional)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Padding <em>(variable size, optional)</em></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Filter Identification Value</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This value, often referred to as a filter identifier, is designed
to be a unique identifier for the filter. Values from zero through
32,767 are reserved for filters supported by The HDF Group in the
HDF5 Library and for filters requested and supported by third
parties. Filters supported by The HDF Group are documented
immediately below. Information on 3rd-party filters can be found at
The HDF Group&rsquo;s <a
href="http://www.hdfgroup.org/services/contributions.html">
Contributions</a> page.
</p>
<p>
To request a filter identifier, please contact The HDF
Group&rsquo;s Help Desk at <img src="Graphics/help.png"
valign="middle" height="14" alt="The HDF Group Help Desk">.
You will be asked to provide the following information:
</p>
<ol>
<li>Contact information for the developer requesting the new
identifier</li>
<li>A short description of the new filter</li>
<li>Links to any relevant information, including licensing
information</li>
</ol>
<p>Values from 32768 to 65535 are reserved for non-distributed
uses (for example, internal company usage) or for application usage
when testing a feature. The HDF Group does not track or document
the use of the filters with identifiers from this range.</p>
<p>The filters currently in library version 1.8.0 are listed
below:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Identification</th>
<th width="15%" align="left">Name</th>
<th width="65%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>N/A</td>
<td>Reserved</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>deflate</td>
<td>GZIP deflate compression</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2</code></td>
<td>shuffle</td>
<td>Data element shuffling</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>3</code></td>
<td>fletcher32</td>
<td>Fletcher32 checksum</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>4</code></td>
<td>szip</td>
<td>SZIP compression</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>5</code></td>
<td>nbit</td>
<td>N-bit packing</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>6</code></td>
<td>scaleoffset</td>
<td>Scale and offset encoded values</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Name Length</p></td>
<td><p>Each filter has an optional null-terminated ASCII
name and this field holds the length of the name including the null
termination padded with nulls to be a multiple of eight. If the
filter has no name then a value of zero is stored in this field.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Flags</p></td>
<td><p>The flags indicate certain properties for a filter.
The bit values defined so far are:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Bit</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>If set then the filter is an optional filter. During
output, if an optional filter fails it will be silently skipped
in the pipeline.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1-15</code></td>
<td>Reserved (zero)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Number of Client Data Values</p></td>
<td><p>
Each filter can store integer values to control how the filter
operates. The number of entries in the <em>Client Data</em> array
is stored in this field.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Name</p></td>
<td><p>
If the <em>Name Length</em> field is non-zero then it will contain
the size of this field, padded to a multiple of eight. This field
contains a null-terminated, ASCII character string to serve as a
comment/name for the filter.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Client Data</p></td>
<td><p>
This is an array of four-byte integers which will be passed to the
filter function. The <em>Client Data Number</em> of Values
determines the number of elements in the array.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Padding</p></td>
<td><p>Four bytes of zeroes are added to the message at this
point if the Client Data Number of Values field contains an odd
number.</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Filter Pipeline Message - Version 2</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td>Number of Filters</td>
<td colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Filter Description List <em>(variable
size)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td><p>The version number for this message. This table
describes version 2.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Number of Filters</p></td>
<td><p>The total number of filters described in this
message. The maximum possible number of filters in a message is 32.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Filter Description List</p></td>
<td><p>A description of each filter. A filter description
appears in the next table.</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Filter Description</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Filter Identification Value</td>
<td colspan="2">Name Length <em>(optional)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Flags</td>
<td colspan="2">Number Client Data Values</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Name <em>(variable size, optional)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Client Data <em>(variable size,
optional)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Filter Identification Value</p></td>
<td>
<p>
This value, often referred to as a filter identifier, is designed
to be a unique identifier for the filter. Values from zero through
32,767 are reserved for filters supported by The HDF Group in the
HDF5 Library and for filters requested and supported by third
parties. Filters supported by The HDF Group are documented
immediately below. Information on 3rd-party filters can be found at
The HDF Group&rsquo;s <a
href="http://www.hdfgroup.org/services/contributions.html">
Contributions</a> page.
</p>
<p>
To request a filter identifier, please contact The HDF
Group&rsquo;s Help Desk at <img src="Graphics/help.png"
valign="middle" height="14" alt="The HDF Group Help Desk">.
You will be asked to provide the following information:
</p>
<ol>
<li>Contact information for the developer requesting the new
identifier</li>
<li>A short description of the new filter</li>
<li>Links to any relevant information, including licensing
information</li>
</ol>
<p>Values from 32768 to 65535 are reserved for non-distributed
uses (for example, internal company usage) or for application usage
when testing a feature. The HDF Group does not track or document
the use of the filters with identifiers from this range.</p>
<p>The filters currently in library version 1.8.0 are listed
below:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Identification</th>
<th width="15%" align="left">Name</th>
<th width="65%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>N/A</td>
<td>Reserved</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>deflate</td>
<td>GZIP deflate compression</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2</code></td>
<td>shuffle</td>
<td>Data element shuffling</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>3</code></td>
<td>fletcher32</td>
<td>Fletcher32 checksum</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>4</code></td>
<td>szip</td>
<td>SZIP compression</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>5</code></td>
<td>nbit</td>
<td>N-bit packing</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>6</code></td>
<td>scaleoffset</td>
<td>Scale and offset encoded values</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Name Length</p></td>
<td><p>Each filter has an optional null-terminated ASCII
name and this field holds the length of the name including the null
termination padded with nulls to be a multiple of eight. If the
filter has no name then a value of zero is stored in this field.</p>
<p>
Filters with IDs less than 256 (in other words, filters that are
defined in this format documentation) do not store the <em>Name
Length</em> or <em>Name</em> fields.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Flags</p></td>
<td><p>The flags indicate certain properties for a filter.
The bit values defined so far are:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Bit</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>If set then the filter is an optional filter. During
output, if an optional filter fails it will be silently skipped
in the pipeline.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1-15</code></td>
<td>Reserved (zero)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Number of Client Data Values</p></td>
<td><p>
Each filter can store integer values to control how the filter
operates. The number of entries in the <em>Client Data</em> array
is stored in this field.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Name</p></td>
<td><p>
If the <em>Name Length</em> field is non-zero then it will contain
the size of this field, <em>not</em> padded to a multiple of eight.
This field contains a <em>non-</em>null-terminated, ASCII character
string to serve as a comment/name for the filter.
</p>
<p>
Filters that are defined in this format documentation such as
deflate and shuffle do not store the <em>Name Length</em> or <em>Name</em>
fields.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Client Data</p></td>
<td><p>
This is an array of four-byte integers which will be passed to the
filter function. The Client Data Number of Values<em></em>
determines the number of elements in the array.
</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<h4>
<a name="AttributeMessage">IV.A.2.m. The Attribute Message</a>
</h4>
<!-- start msgdesc table -->
<center>
<table class="msgdesc">
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Name:</b> Attribute</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Type:</b> 0x000C</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Length:</b> Varies</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Status:</b> Optional; may be repeated.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Description:</b></td>
<td><p>
The <em>Attribute</em> message is used to store objects in the HDF5
file which are used as attributes, or &ldquo;metadata&rdquo; about
the current object. An attribute is a small dataset; it has a name,
a datatype, a dataspace, and raw data. Since attributes are stored
in the object header, they should be relatively small (in other
words, less than 64KB). They can be associated with any type of
object which has an object header (groups, datasets, or committed
(named) datatypes).
</p>
<p>
In 1.8.x versions of the library, attributes can be larger than
64KB. See the <a
href="UG/HDF5_Users_Guide-Responsive%20HTML5/index.html#t=HDF5_User_Guide%2FAttributes%2FHDF5_Attributes.htm%3Frhtocid%3Dtoc8.2_1%23TOC_8_5_Special_Issuesbc-13">
&ldquo;Special Issues&rdquo;</a> section of the Attributes chapter in
the <cite>HDF5 User Guide</cite> for more information.
</p>
<p>Note: Attributes on an object must have unique names: the
HDF5 Library currently enforces this by causing the creation of an
attribute with a duplicate name to fail. Attributes on different
objects may have the same name, however.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Format of Data:</b> See the tables below.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<!-- end msgdesc table -->
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Attribute Message (Version 1)</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td>Reserved (zero)</td>
<td colspan="2">Name Size</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Datatype Size</td>
<td colspan="2">Dataspace Size</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Name <em>(variable size)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Datatype <em>(variable size)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Dataspace <em>(variable size)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Data <em>(variable size)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td><p>The version number information is used for changes in
the format of the attribute message and is described here:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Version</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>Never used.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>Used by the library before version 1.6 to encode
attribute message. This version does not support shared
datatypes.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Name Size</p></td>
<td><p>
The length of the attribute name in bytes including the null
terminator. Note that the <em>Name</em> field below may contain
additional padding not represented by this field.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Datatype Size</p></td>
<td><p>
The length of the datatype description in the <em>Datatype</em>
field below. Note that the <em>Datatype</em> field may contain
additional padding not represented by this field.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Dataspace Size</p></td>
<td><p>
The length of the dataspace description in the <em>Dataspace</em>
field below. Note that the <em>Dataspace</em> field may contain
additional padding not represented by this field.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Name</p></td>
<td><p>The null-terminated attribute name. This field is
padded with additional null characters to make it a multiple of
eight bytes.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Datatype</p></td>
<td><p>The datatype description follows the same format as
described for the datatype object header message. This field is
padded with additional zero bytes to make it a multiple of eight
bytes.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Dataspace</p></td>
<td><p>The dataspace description follows the same format as
described for the dataspace object header message. This field is
padded with additional zero bytes to make it a multiple of eight
bytes.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Data</p></td>
<td><p>
The raw data for the attribute. The size is determined from the
datatype and dataspace descriptions. This field is <em>not</em>
padded with additional bytes.
</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Attribute Message (Version 2)</caption>
<tr align="center">
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td>Flags</td>
<td colspan="2">Name Size</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Datatype Size</td>
<td colspan="2">Dataspace Size</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Name <em>(variable size)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Datatype <em>(variable size)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Dataspace <em>(variable size)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Data <em>(variable size)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td><p>The version number information is used for changes in
the format of the attribute message and is described here:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Version</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2</code></td>
<td>Used by the library of version 1.6.x and after to encode
attribute messages. This version supports shared datatypes. The
fields of name, datatype, and dataspace are not padded with
additional bytes of zero.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Flags</p></td>
<td><p>This bit field contains extra information about
interpreting the attribute message:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Bit</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>If set, datatype is shared.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>If set, dataspace is shared.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Name Size</p></td>
<td><p>The length of the attribute name in bytes including
the null terminator.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Datatype Size</p></td>
<td><p>
The length of the datatype description in the <em>Datatype</em>
field below.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Dataspace Size</p></td>
<td><p>
The length of the dataspace description in the <em>Dataspace</em>
field below.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Name</p></td>
<td><p>
The null-terminated attribute name. This field is <em>not</em>
padded with additional bytes.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Datatype</p></td>
<td><p>The datatype description follows the same format as
described for the datatype object header message.</p>
<p>
If the <em>Flag</em> field indicates this attribute&rsquo;s
datatype is shared, this field will contain a &ldquo;shared
message&rdquo; encoding instead of the datatype encoding.
</p>
<p>
This field is <em>not</em> padded with additional bytes.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Dataspace</p></td>
<td><p>The dataspace description follows the same format as
described for the dataspace object header message.</p>
<p>
If the <em>Flag</em> field indicates this attribute&rsquo;s
dataspace is shared, this field will contain a &ldquo;shared
message&rdquo; encoding instead of the dataspace encoding.
</p>
<p>
This field is <em>not</em> padded with additional bytes.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Data</p></td>
<td><p>The raw data for the attribute. The size is
determined from the datatype and dataspace descriptions.</p>
<p>
This field is <em>not</em> padded with additional zero bytes.
</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Attribute Message (Version 3)</caption>
<tr align="center">
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td>Flags</td>
<td colspan="2">Name Size</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Datatype Size</td>
<td colspan="2">Dataspace Size</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Name Character Set Encoding</td>
<td colspan="3" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Name <em>(variable size)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Datatype <em>(variable size)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Dataspace <em>(variable size)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Data <em>(variable size)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td><p>The version number information is used for changes in
the format of the attribute message and is described here:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Version</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>3</code></td>
<td>Used by the library of version 1.8.x and after to encode
attribute messages. This version supports attributes with
non-ASCII names.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Flags</p></td>
<td><p>This bit field contains extra information about
interpreting the attribute message:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Bit</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>If set, datatype is shared.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>If set, dataspace is shared.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Name Size</p></td>
<td><p>The length of the attribute name in bytes including
the null terminator.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Datatype Size</p></td>
<td><p>
The length of the datatype description in the <em>Datatype</em>
field below.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Dataspace Size</p></td>
<td><p>
The length of the dataspace description in the <em>Dataspace</em>
field below.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Name Character Set Encoding</p></td>
<td><p>The character set encoding for the attribute&rsquo;s
name:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Value</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>ASCII character set encoding</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>UTF-8 character set encoding</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Name</p></td>
<td><p>
The null-terminated attribute name. This field is <em>not</em>
padded with additional bytes.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Datatype</p></td>
<td><p>The datatype description follows the same format as
described for the datatype object header message.</p>
<p>
If the <em>Flag</em> field indicates this attribute&rsquo;s
datatype is shared, this field will contain a &ldquo;shared
message&rdquo; encoding instead of the datatype encoding.
</p>
<p>
This field is <em>not</em> padded with additional bytes.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Dataspace</p></td>
<td><p>The dataspace description follows the same format as
described for the dataspace object header message.</p>
<p>
If the <em>Flag</em> field indicates this attribute&rsquo;s
dataspace is shared, this field will contain a &ldquo;shared
message&rdquo; encoding instead of the dataspace encoding.
</p>
<p>
This field is <em>not</em> padded with additional bytes.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Data</p></td>
<td><p>The raw data for the attribute. The size is
determined from the datatype and dataspace descriptions.</p>
<p>
This field is <em>not</em> padded with additional zero bytes.
</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<h4>
<a name="CommentMessage">IV.A.2.n. The Object Comment Message</a>
</h4>
<!-- start msgdesc table -->
<center>
<table class="msgdesc">
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Name:</b> Object Comment</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Type:</b> 0x000D</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Length:</b> Varies</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Status:</b> Optional; may not be repeated.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Description:</b></td>
<td>The object comment is designed to be a short description of
an object. An object comment is a sequence of non-zero (<code>\0</code>)
ASCII characters with no other formatting included by the library.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Format of Data:</b> See the tables below.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<!-- end msgdesc table -->
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Name Message</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Comment <em>(variable size)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Name</p></td>
<td><p>A null terminated ASCII character string.</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<h4>
<a name="OldModificationTimeMessage">IV.A.2.o. The Object
Modification Time (Old) Message</a>
</h4>
<!-- start msgdesc table -->
<center>
<table class="msgdesc">
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Name:</b> Object Modification
Time (Old)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Type:</b> 0x000E</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Length:</b> Fixed</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Status:</b> Optional; may not be repeated.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Description:</b></td>
<td><p>The object modification date and time is a timestamp
which indicates (using ISO-8601 date and time format) the last
modification of an object. The time is updated when any object
header message changes according to the system clock where the
change was posted. All fields of this message should be interpreted
as coordinated universal time (UTC).</p>
<p>
This modification time message is deprecated in favor of the
&ldquo;new&rdquo; <a href="#ModificationTimeMessage">Object
Modification Time</a> message and is no longer written to the file in
versions of the HDF5 Library after the 1.6.0 version.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Format of Data:</b> See the tables below.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<!-- end msgdesc table -->
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Modification Time Message</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Year</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Month</td>
<td colspan="2">Day of Month</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Hour</td>
<td colspan="2">Minute</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Second</td>
<td colspan="2">Reserved</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Year</p></td>
<td><p>
The four-digit year as an ASCII string. For example,
<code>1998</code>
.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Month</p></td>
<td><p>
The month number as a two digit ASCII string where January is
<code>01</code>
and December is
<code>12</code>
.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Day of Month</p></td>
<td><p>
The day number within the month as a two digit ASCII string. The
first day of the month is
<code>01</code>
.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Hour</p></td>
<td><p>
The hour of the day as a two digit ASCII string where midnight is
<code>00</code>
and 11:00pm is
<code>23</code>
.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Minute</p></td>
<td><p>
The minute of the hour as a two digit ASCII string where the first
minute of the hour is
<code>00</code>
and the last is
<code>59</code>
.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Second</p></td>
<td><p>
The second of the minute as a two digit ASCII string where the
first second of the minute is
<code>00</code>
and the last is
<code>59</code>
.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Reserved</p></td>
<td><p>This field is reserved and should always be zero.</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<h4>
<a name="SOHMTableMessage">IV.A.2.p. The Shared Message Table
Message</a>
</h4>
<!-- start msgdesc table -->
<center>
<table class="msgdesc">
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Name:</b> Shared Message Table</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Type:</b> 0x000F</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Length:</b> Fixed</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Status:</b> Optional; may not be repeated.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Description:</b></td>
<td>This message is used to locate the table of shared object
header message (SOHM) indexes. Each index consists of information to
find the shared messages from either the heap or object header. This
message is <em>only</em> found in the superblock extension.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Format of Data:</b> See the tables below.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<!-- end msgdesc table -->
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Shared Message Table Message</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td colspan="3" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Shared Object Header Message Table
Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Number of Indices</td>
<td colspan="3" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td><p>The version number for this message. This document
describes version 0.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Shared Object Header Message Table Address</p></td>
<td><p>This field is the address of the master table for
shared object header message indexes.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Number of Indices</p></td>
<td><p>This field is the number of indices in the master
table.</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<h4>
<a name="ContinuationMessage">IV.A.2.q. The Object Header
Continuation Message</a>
</h4>
<!-- start msgdesc table -->
<center>
<table class="msgdesc">
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Name:</b> Object Header
Continuation</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Type:</b> 0x0010</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Length:</b> Fixed</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Status:</b> Optional; may be repeated.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Description:</b></td>
<td>The object header continuation is the location in the file
of a block containing more header messages for the current data
object. This can be used when header blocks become too large or are
likely to change over time.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Format of Data:</b> See the tables below.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<!-- end msgdesc table -->
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Object Header Continuation Message</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Offset<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Length<sup>L</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>(Items marked with an &lsquo;L&rsquo; in the above table are
of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of Lengths&rdquo; field in the
superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Offset</p></td>
<td><p>This value is the address in the file where the
header continuation block is located.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Length</p></td>
<td><p>This value is the length in bytes of the header
continuation block in the file.</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<p>The format of the header continuation block that this message
points to depends on the version of the object header that the message
is contained within.</p>
<p>
Continuation blocks for version 1 object headers have no special
formatting information; they are merely a list of object header message
info sequences (type, size, flags, reserved bytes and data for each
message sequence). See the description of <a
href="#V1ObjectHeaderPrefix">Version 1 Data Object Header Prefix.</a>
</p>
<p>
Continuation blocks for version 2 object headers <em>do</em> have
special formatting information as described here (see also the
description of <a href="#V2ObjectHeaderPrefix">Version 2 Data
Object Header Prefix.</a>):
</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Version 2 Object Header Continuation Block</caption>
<tr>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
<th>byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Signature</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Header Message Type #1</td>
<td colspan="2">Size of Header Message Data #1</td>
<td>Header Message #1 Flags</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Header Message #1 Creation Order <em>(optional)</em></td>
<td colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Header Message Data #1<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">.<br />.<br />.<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Header Message Type #n</td>
<td colspan="2">Size of Header Message Data #n</td>
<td>Header Message #n Flags</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Header Message #n Creation Order <em>(optional)</em></td>
<td colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Header Message Data #n<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Gap <em>(optional, variable size)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Checksum</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Signature</p></td>
<td>
<p>
The ASCII character string &ldquo;
<code>OCHK</code>
&rdquo; is used to indicate the beginning of an object header
continuation block. This gives file consistency checking utilities
a better chance of reconstructing a damaged file.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Header Message #n Type</p></td>
<td>
<p>Same format as version 1 of the object header, described
above.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Size of Header Message #n Data</p></td>
<td>
<p>Same format as version 1 of the object header, described
above.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Header Message #n Flags</p></td>
<td>
<p>Same format as version 1 of the object header, described
above.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Header Message #n Creation Order</p></td>
<td>
<p>This field stores the order that a message of a given type
was created in.</p>
<p>
This field is present if bit 2 of <em>flags</em> is set.
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Header Message #n Data</p></td>
<td>
<p>Same format as version 1 of the object header, described
above.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Gap</p></td>
<td>
<p>A gap in an object header chunk is inferred by the end of the
messages for the chunk before the beginning of the chunk&rsquo;s
checksum. Gaps are always smaller than the size of an object header
message prefix (message type + message size + message flags).</p>
<p>Gaps are formed when a message (typically an attribute
message) in an earlier chunk is deleted and a message from a later
chunk that does not quite fit into the free space is moved into the
earlier chunk.</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Checksum</p></td>
<td>
<p>This is the checksum for the object header chunk.</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<h4>
<a name="SymbolTableMessage">IV.A.2.r. The Symbol Table Message</a>
</h4>
<!-- start msgdesc table -->
<center>
<table class="msgdesc">
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Name:</b> Symbol Table Message</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Type:</b> 0x0011</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Length:</b> Fixed</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Status:</b> Required for &ldquo;old
style&rdquo; groups; may not be repeated.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Description:</b></td>
<td>Each &ldquo;old style&rdquo; group has a v1 B-tree and a
local heap for storing symbol table entries, which are located with
this message.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Format of data:</b> See the tables below.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<!-- end msgdesc table -->
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>
<b>Symbol Table Message</b>
</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />v1 B-tree Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Local Heap Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>v1 B-tree Address</p></td>
<td><p>This value is the address of the v1 B-tree containing
the symbol table entries for the group.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Local Heap Address</p></td>
<td><p>This value is the address of the local heap
containing the link names for the symbol table entries for the
group.</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<h4>
<a name="ModificationTimeMessage">IV.A.2.s. The Object Modification
Time Message</a>
</h4>
<!-- start msgdesc table -->
<center>
<table class="msgdesc">
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Name:</b> Object Modification
Time</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Type:</b> 0x0012</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Length:</b> Fixed</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Status:</b> Optional; may not be repeated.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Description:</b></td>
<td>The object modification time is a timestamp which indicates
the time of the last modification of an object. The time is updated
when any object header message changes according to the system clock
where the change was posted.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Format of Data:</b> See the tables below.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<!-- end msgdesc table -->
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Modification Time Message</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td colspan="3">Reserved (zero)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Seconds After UNIX Epoch</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td><p>The version number is used for changes in the format
of Object Modification Time and is described here:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Version</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>Never used.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>Used by Version 1.6.1 and after of the library to encode
time. In this version, the time is the seconds after Epoch.</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Seconds After UNIX Epoch</p></td>
<td><p>A 32-bit unsigned integer value that stores the
number of seconds since 0 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds, January 1,
1970, Coordinated Universal Time.</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<h4>
<a name="BtreeKValuesMessage">IV.A.2.t. The B-tree &lsquo;K&rsquo;
Values Message</a>
</h4>
<!-- start msgdesc table -->
<center>
<table class="msgdesc">
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Name:</b> B-tree
&lsquo;K&rsquo; Values</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Type:</b> 0x0013</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Length:</b> Fixed</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Status:</b> Optional; may not be repeated.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Description:</b></td>
<td>This message retrieves non-default &lsquo;K&rsquo; values
for internal and leaf nodes of a group or indexed storage v1
B-trees. This message is <em>only</em> found in the superblock
extension.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Format of Data:</b> See the tables below.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<!-- end msgdesc table -->
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>B-tree &lsquo;K&rsquo; Values Message</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td colspan="2">Indexed Storage Internal Node K</td>
<td bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted only to align
table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Group Internal Node K</td>
<td colspan="2">Group Leaf Node K</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td><p>The version number for this message. This document
describes version 0.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Indexed Storage Internal Node K</p></td>
<td><p>This is the node &lsquo;K&rsquo; value for each
internal node of an indexed storage v1 B-tree. See the description
of this field in version 0 and 1 of the superblock as well the
section on v1 B-trees.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Group Internal Node K</p></td>
<td><p>This is the node &lsquo;K&rsquo; value for each
internal node of a group v1 B-tree. See the description of this
field in version 0 and 1 of the superblock as well as the section
on v1 B-trees.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Group Leaf Node K</p></td>
<td><p>This is the node &lsquo;K&rsquo; value for each leaf
node of a group v1 B-tree. See the description of this field in
version 0 and 1 of the superblock as well as the section on v1
B-trees.</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<h4>
<a name="DrvInfoMessage">IV.A.2.u. The Driver Info Message</a>
</h4>
<!-- start msgdesc table -->
<center>
<table class="msgdesc">
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Name:</b> Driver Info</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Type:</b> 0x0014</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Length:</b> Varies</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Status:</b> Optional; may not be repeated.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Description:</b></td>
<td>This message contains information needed by the file driver
to reopen a file. This message is <em>only</em> found in the
superblock extension: see the <a href="#SuperblockExt">
&ldquo;Disk Format: Level 0C - Superblock Extension&rdquo;</a> section
for more information. For more information on the fields in the
driver info message, see the <a href="#DriverInfo"> &ldquo;Disk
Format : Level 0B - File Driver Info&rdquo;</a> section; those who use
the multi and family file drivers will find this section
particularly helpful.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Format of Data:</b> See the tables below.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<!-- end msgdesc table -->
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Driver Info Message</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td colspan="3" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Driver Identification</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2">Driver Information Size</td>
<td colspan="2" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />
<br />Driver Information <em>(variable size)</em><br />
<br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td><p>The version number for this message. This document
describes version 0.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Driver Identification</p></td>
<td><p>This is an eight-byte ASCII string without null
termination which identifies the driver.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Driver Information Size</p></td>
<td><p>
The size in bytes of the <em>Driver Information</em> field of this
message.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Driver Information</p></td>
<td><p>Driver information is stored in a format defined by
the file driver.</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<h4>
<a name="AinfoMessage">IV.A.2.v. The Attribute Info Message</a>
</h4>
<!-- start msgdesc table -->
<center>
<table class="msgdesc">
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Name:</b> Attribute Info</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Type:</b> 0x0015</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Length:</b> Varies</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Status:</b> Optional; may not be repeated.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Description:</b></td>
<td>This message stores information about the attributes on an
object, such as the maximum creation index for the attributes
created and the location of the attribute storage when the
attributes are stored &ldquo;densely&rdquo;.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Format of Data:</b> See the tables below.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<!-- end msgdesc table -->
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Attribute Info Message</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td>Flags</td>
<td colspan="2">Maximum Creation Index <em>(optional)</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Fractal Heap Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Attribute Name v2 B-tree Address<sup>O</sup><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><br />Attribute Creation Order v2 B-tree
Address<sup>O</sup> <em>(optional)</em><br />
<br /></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td><p>The version number for this message. This document
describes version 0.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Flags</p></td>
<td><p>This is the attribute index information flag with the
following definition:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Bit</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>0</code></td>
<td>If set, creation order for attributes is tracked.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>If set, creation order for attributes is indexed.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2-7</code></td>
<td>Reserved</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Maximum Creation Index</p></td>
<td><p>The is the maximum creation order index value for the
attributes on the object.</p>
<p>
This field is present if bit 0 of <em>Flags</em> is set.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Fractal Heap Address</p></td>
<td><p>This is the address of the fractal heap to store
dense attributes.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Attribute Name v2 B-tree Address</p></td>
<td><p>This is the address of the version 2 B-tree to index
the names of densely stored attributes.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Attribute Creation Order v2 B-tree Address</p></td>
<td><p>This is the address of the version 2 B-tree to index
the creation order of densely stored attributes.</p>
<p>
This field is present if bit 1 of <em>Flags</em> is set.
</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<h4>
<a name="RefCountMessage">IV.A.2.w. The Object Reference Count
Message</a>
</h4>
<!-- start msgdesc table -->
<center>
<table class="msgdesc">
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Name:</b> Object Reference
Count</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Type:</b> 0x0016</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Length:</b> Fixed</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Status:</b> Optional; may not be repeated.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Description:</b></td>
<td>This message stores the number of hard links (in groups or
objects) pointing to an object: in other words, its <em>reference
count</em>.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Format of Data:</b> See the tables below.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<!-- end msgdesc table -->
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>Object Reference Count</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td colspan="3" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><em>This space inserted
only to align table nicely</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Reference count</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td><p>The version number for this message. This document
describes version 0.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Reference Count</p></td>
<td><p>The unsigned 32-bit integer is the reference count
for the object. This message is only present in &ldquo;version
2&rdquo; (or later) object headers, and if not present those object
header versions, the reference count for the object is assumed to
be 1.</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<h4>
<a name="FsinfoMessage">IV.A.2.x. The File Space Info Message</a>
</h4>
<!-- start msgdesc table -->
<center>
<table class="msgdesc">
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Name:</b> File Space Info</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Header Message Type:</b> 0x0018</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Length:</b> Fixed</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Status:</b> Optional; may not be repeated.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Description:</b></td>
<td>This message stores the file space management strategy (see
description below) that the library uses in handling file space
request for the file. It also contains the free-space section
threshold used by the library&rsquo;s free-space managers for the
file. If the strategy is 1, this message also contains the addresses
of the file&rsquo;s free-space managers which track free space for
each type of file space allocation. There are six basic types of
file space allocation: superblock, B-tree, raw data, global heap,
local heap, and object header. See the description of <a
href="#FreeSpaceManager">Free-space Manager</a> as well the
description of allocation types in <a href="#AppendixB">Appendix
B</a>.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><b>Format of Data:</b> See the tables below.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</center>
<!-- end msgdesc table -->
<div align="center">
<table class="format">
<caption>File Space Info</caption>
<tr>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
<th width="25%">byte</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version</td>
<td>Strategy</td>
<td colspan="2">Threshold<sup>L</sup></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Super-block Free-space Manager Address<sup>O</sup></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">B-tree Free-space Manager Address<sup>O</sup></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Raw Data Free-space Manager Address<sup>O</sup></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Global Heap Free-space Manager Address<sup>O</sup></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Local Heap Free-space Manager Address<sup>O</sup></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Object Header Free-space Manager Address<sup>O</sup></td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="note">
<tr>
<td width="60%">&nbsp;</td>
<td width="40%">(Items marked with an &lsquo;O&rsquo; in the
above table are of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of
Offsets&rdquo; field in the superblock.)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;</td>
<td>(Items marked with an &lsquo;L&rsquo; in the above table are
of the size specified in &ldquo;Size of Lengths&rdquo; field in the
superblock.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Field Name</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Version</p></td>
<td><p>This is the version number of this message. This
document describes version 0.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Strategy</p></td>
<td><p>This is the file space management strategy for the
file. There are four types of strategies:</p>
<table class="list">
<tr>
<th width="20%" align="center">Value</th>
<th width="80%" align="left">Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>1</code></td>
<td>With this strategy, the HDF5 Library&rsquo;s free-space
managers track the free space that results from the manipulation
of HDF5 objects in the HDF5 file. The free space information is
saved when the file is closed, and reloaded when the file is
reopened. <br /> When space is needed for file metadata or raw
data, the HDF5 Library first requests space from the
library&rsquo;s free-space managers. If the request is not
satisfied, the library requests space from the aggregators. If
the request is still not satisfied, the library requests space
from the virtual file driver. That is, the library will use all
of the mechanisms for allocating space.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>2</code></td>
<td>This is the HDF5 Library&rsquo;s default file space
management strategy. With this strategy, the library&rsquo;s
free-space managers track the free space that results from the
manipulation of HDF5 objects in the HDF5 file. The free space
information is NOT saved when the file is closed and the free
space that exists upon file closing becomes unaccounted space in
the file. <br /> As with strategy #1, the library will try all
of the mechanisms for allocating space. When space is needed for
file metadata or raw data, the library first requests space from
the free-space managers. If the request is not satisfied, the
library requests space from the aggregators. If the request is
still not satisfied, the library requests space from the virtual
file driver.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>3</code></td>
<td>With this strategy, the HDF5 Library does not track free
space that results from the manipulation of HDF5 objects in the
HDF5 file and the free space becomes unaccounted space in the
file. <br /> When space is needed for file metadata or raw data,
the library first requests space from the aggregators. If the
request is not satisfied, the library requests space from the
virtual file driver.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="center"><code>4</code></td>
<td>With this strategy, the HDF5 Library does not track free
space that results from the manipulation of HDF5 objects in the
HDF5 file and the free space becomes unaccounted space in the
file. <br /> When space is needed for file metadata or raw data,
the library requests space from the virtual file driver.
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p></p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Threshold</p></td>
<td><p>
This is the free-space section threshold. The library&rsquo;s
free-space managers will track only free-space sections with size
greater than or equal to <em>threshold</em>. The default is to
track free-space sections of all sizes.
</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Superblock Free-space Manager Address</p></td>
<td><p>This is the address of the free-space manager for
H5FD_MEM_SUPER allocation type.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>B-tree Free-space Manager Address</p></td>
<td><p>This is the address of the free-space manager for
H5FD_MEM_BTREE allocation type.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Raw Data Free-space Manager Address</p></td>
<td><p>This is the address of the free-space manager for
H5FD_MEM_DRAW allocation type.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Global Heap Free-space Manager Address</p></td>
<td><p>This is the address of the free-space manager for
H5FD_MEM_GHEAP allocation type.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Local Heap Free-space Manager Address</p></td>
<td><p>This is the address of the free-space manager for
H5FD_MEM_LHEAP allocation type.</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p>Object Header Free-space Manager Address</p></td>
<td><p>This is the address of the free-space manager for
H5FD_MEM_OHDR allocation type.</p></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<h3>
<a name="DataStorage"> IV.B. Disk Format: Level 2B - Data Object
Data Storage</a>
</h3>
<p>The data for an object is stored separately from its header
information in the file and may not actually be located in the HDF5
file itself if the header indicates that the data is stored externally.
The information for each record in the object is stored according to
the dimensionality of the object (indicated in the dataspace header
message). Multi-dimensional array data is stored in C order; in other
words, the &ldquo;last&rdquo; dimension changes fastest.</p>
<p>Data whose elements are composed of atomic datatypes are stored
in IEEE format, unless they are specifically defined as being stored in
a different machine format with the architecture-type information from
the datatype header message. This means that each architecture will
need to [potentially] byte-swap data values into the internal
representation for that particular machine.</p>
<p>Data with a variable-length datatype is stored in the global heap
of the HDF5 file. Global heap identifiers are stored in the data object
storage.</p>
<p>Data whose elements are composed of reference datatypes are
stored in several different ways depending on the particular reference
type involved. Object pointers are just stored as the offset of the
object header being pointed to with the size of the pointer being the
same number of bytes as offsets in the file.</p>
<p>Dataset region references are stored as a heap-ID which points to
the following information within the file-heap: an offset of the object
pointed to, number-type information (same format as header message),
dimensionality information (same format as header message), sub-set
start and end information (in other words, a coordinate location for
each), and field start and end names (in other words, a [pointer to
the] string indicating the first field included and a [pointer to the]
string name for the last field).</p>
<p>Data of a compound datatype is stored as a contiguous stream of
the items in the structure, with each item formatted according to its
datatype.</p>
<br />
<br />
<hr />
<h2>
<a name="AppendixA"> V. Appendix A: Definitions</a>
</h2>
<p>Definitions of various terms used in this document are included
in this section.</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="glossary">
<tr>
<th width="20%">Term</th>
<th>Definition</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Undefined Address</td>
<td>The <a name="UndefinedAddress">undefined address</a> for a
file is a file address with all bits set: in other words, <code>0xffff...ff</code>.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Unlimited Size</td>
<td>The <a name="UnlimitedDim">unlimited size</a> for a size is
a value with all bits set: in other words, <code>0xffff...ff</code>.
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<hr />
<h2>
<a name="AppendixB"> VI. Appendix B: File Memory Allocation Types</a>
</h2>
<p>There are six basic types of file memory allocation as follows:</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Basic Allocation Type</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>H5FD_MEM_SUPER</td>
<td>File memory allocated for <em>Superblock.</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>H5FD_MEM_BTREE</td>
<td>File memory allocated for <em>B-tree.</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>H5FD_MEM_DRAW</td>
<td>File memory allocated for raw data.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>H5FD_MEM_GHEAP</td>
<td>File memory allocated for <em>Global Heap.</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>H5FD_MEM_LHEAP</td>
<td>File memory allocated for <em>Local Heap.</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>H5FD_MEM_OHDR</td>
<td>File memory allocated for <em>Object Header.</em></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>There are other file memory allocation types that are mapped to
the above six basic allocation types because they are similar in
nature. The mapping is listed in the following table:</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Basic Allocation Type</th>
<th>Mapping of Allocation Types to Basic Allocation Types</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>H5FD_MEM_SUPER</td>
<td><em>none</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>H5FD_MEM_BTREE</td>
<td>H5FD_MEM_SOHM_INDEX</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>H5FD_MEM_DRAW</td>
<td>H5FD_MEM_FHEAP_HUGE_OBJ</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>H5FD_MEM_GHEAP</td>
<td><em>none</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>H5FD_MEM_LHEAP</td>
<td>H5FD_MEM_FHEAP_DBLOCK, H5FD_MEM_FSPACE_SINFO</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>H5FD_MEM_OHDR</td>
<td>H5FD_MEM_FHEAP_HDR, H5FD_MEM_FHEAP_IBLOCK,
H5FD_MEM_FSPACE_HDR, H5FD_MEM_SOHM_TABLE</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<p>Allocation types that are mapped to basic allocation types are
described below:</p>
<div align="center">
<table class="desc">
<tr>
<th width="30%">Allocation Type</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>H5FD_MEM_FHEAP_HDR</td>
<td>File memory allocated for <em>Fractal Heap Header.</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>H5FD_MEM_FHEAP_DBLOCK</td>
<td>File memory allocated for <em>Fractal Heap Direct
Blocks.</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>H5FD_MEM_FHEAP_IBLOCK</td>
<td>File memory allocated for <em>Fractal Heap Indirect
Blocks.</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>H5FD_MEM_FHEAP_HUGE_OBJ</td>
<td>File memory allocated for huge objects in the fractal heap.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>H5FD_MEM_FSPACE_HDR</td>
<td>File memory allocated for <em>Free-space Manager
Header.</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>H5FD_MEM_FSPACE_SINFO</td>
<td>File memory allocated for <em>Free-space Section List</em>
of the free-space manager.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>H5FD_MEM_SOHM_TABLE</td>
<td>File memory allocated for <em>Shared Object Header
Message Table.</em></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>H5FD_MEM_SOHM_INDEX</td>
<td>File memory allocated for <em>Shared Message Record
List.</em></td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
</head>
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