Minimum size of an HDF5 file?

Hdf-forum archives
1

Hi Everyone,

I am thinking of using HDF5 for data that is usually very small, but
can sometimes get substantial. So I am wondering what is the minimum
size of an HDF5 file? I tried running this program

#include <hdf5.h>
int main()
{
  hid_t file;
  file = H5Fcreate("small_hdf5.h5", H5F_ACC_TRUNC, H5P_DEFAULT, H5P_DEFAULT);
  H5Fclose(file);
}

which gave me a file with 800 bytes. Is that the smallest it can get?

Thanks,
Walter Landry

2

If you use the latest file format version with a 1.8.x version of the library,
this goes down to 195 bytes. See https://www.hdfgroup.org/HDF5/doc/RM/RM_H5P.html#Property-SetLibverBounds

import h5py
h5py.File('foo.h5', libver='latest').close()

G.

···

-----Original Message-----
From: Hdf-forum [mailto:hdf-forum-bounces@lists.hdfgroup.org] On Behalf Of Walter Landry
Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2015 9:53 AM
To: hdf-forum@lists.hdfgroup.org
Subject: [Hdf-forum] Minimum size of an HDF5 file?

Hi Everyone,

I am thinking of using HDF5 for data that is usually very small, but can sometimes get substantial. So I am wondering what is the minimum size of an HDF5 file? I tried running this program

#include <hdf5.h>
int main()
{
  hid_t file;
  file = H5Fcreate("small_hdf5.h5", H5F_ACC_TRUNC, H5P_DEFAULT, H5P_DEFAULT);
  H5Fclose(file);
}

which gave me a file with 800 bytes. Is that the smallest it can get?

Thanks,
Walter Landry

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3

Thanks. That works for me too.

Cheers,
Walter Landry

···

Gerd Heber <gheber@hdfgroup.org> wrote:

If you use the latest file format version with a 1.8.x version of the library,
this goes down to 195 bytes. See https://www.hdfgroup.org/HDF5/doc/RM/RM_H5P.html#Property-SetLibverBounds

import h5py
h5py.File('foo.h5', libver='latest').close()