# docs on how to build hdf5 with compression tool other than szip?

**URL:** <https://forum.hdfgroup.org/t/docs-on-how-to-build-hdf5-with-compression-tool-other-than-szip/1801>\
**Category:** Hdf-forum archives\
**Created:** [July 13, 2010, 11:15pm UTC](https://forum.hdfgroup.org/t/docs-on-how-to-build-hdf5-with-compression-tool-other-than-szip/1801 "2010-07-13T23:15:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Matt\_Funk](https://forum.hdfgroup.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/ccd318/32.png) [@Matt\_Funk](https://forum.hdfgroup.org/u/Matt_Funk)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 11:15pm UTC](https://forum.hdfgroup.org/t/docs-on-how-to-build-hdf5-with-compression-tool-other-than-szip/1801/1 "2010-07-13T23:15:28Z")

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Hi,

sorry if this is a stupid question (i looked on the website and googled but  
couldn't find much):

is it possible to use compression tool other than szip for hdf5 files? If so  
is there documentation on how this is accomplished?

thanks  
matt

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**Author:** ![miller86](https://forum.hdfgroup.org/user_avatar/forum.hdfgroup.org/miller86/32/124_2.png) [@miller86](https://forum.hdfgroup.org/u/miller86)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2010, 11:25pm UTC](https://forum.hdfgroup.org/t/docs-on-how-to-build-hdf5-with-compression-tool-other-than-szip/1801/2 "2010-07-13T23:25:33Z")

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Hi Matt,

> Hi,
> 
> sorry if this is a stupid question (i looked on the website and googled but  
> couldn't find much):
> 
> is it possible to use compression tool other than szip for hdf5 files?

Yes.

> If so  
> is there documentation on how this is accomplished?

I guess I looked at the source code for the szip compressor H5Zszip.c

Ref. manual on H5Zregister() was useful too.

> **···**
>
> On Tue, 2010-07-13 at 16:15 -0700, Matt Funk wrote:
> 
> > thanks  
> > matt
> > 
> > \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_  
> > Hdf-forum is for HDF software users discussion.  
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> 
> --  
> Mark C. Miller, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory  
> ================!!LLNL BUSINESS ONLY!!================  
> miller86@llnl.gov urgent: miller86@pager.llnl.gov  
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**Author:** ![Francesc\_Alted2](https://forum.hdfgroup.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Francesc\_Alted2](https://forum.hdfgroup.org/u/Francesc_Alted2)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2010, 10:59am UTC](https://forum.hdfgroup.org/t/docs-on-how-to-build-hdf5-with-compression-tool-other-than-szip/1801/3 "2010-07-14T10:59:46Z")

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A Wednesday 14 July 2010 01:15:28 Matt Funk escrigué:

> Hi,
> 
> sorry if this is a stupid question (i looked on the website and googled but  
> couldn't find much):
> 
> is it possible to use compression tool other than szip for hdf5 files? If  
> so is there documentation on how this is accomplished?

I don't think this is documented extensively, but you can always have a look  
at existing wrappers. Here it is one example for Blosc:

[http://blosc.pytables.org/trac/browser/trunk/hdf5/blosc\_filter.c](http://blosc.pytables.org/trac/browser/trunk/hdf5/blosc_filter.c)

and here for LZO and bzip2:

[http://www.pytables.org/trac/browser/trunk/src/H5Zlzo.c](http://www.pytables.org/trac/browser/trunk/src/H5Zlzo.c)  
[http://www.pytables.org/trac/browser/trunk/src/H5Zbzip2.c](http://www.pytables.org/trac/browser/trunk/src/H5Zbzip2.c)

all three are registered by THG, so you can use them as-is and don't be afraid  
that their IDs would be overwritten by other filters in the future.

> **···**
>
> --  
> Francesc Alted