The HDF Group logo The HDF Group Documentation
 
 
Other HDF Links

HDF5 1.10 Documentation


New Features in HDF5 1.10
Additional New APIs

Collective Metadata I/O

Fine-tuning the Metadata Cache

File Space Management

Page Buffering

Partial Edge Chunks

Reference

SWMR

Virtual Datasets (VDS)
 

File Space Management Documentation
The purpose of this page is to list and briefly describe the documentation available to those who will use the file space management feature found in the HDF5 library.

The HDF5 library's file space management activities encompass both the allocation of file space and the management of free space. When an HDF5 object (group, dataset, etc.) is created and written, file space is allocated for storing its metadata and raw data. When an object is removed, the space associated with the object becomes free space.

The following are the sections on this page:

 
File Space Management Strategies

The HDF5 library uses three mechanisms to manage space in an HDF5 file. They are:

  • Free-space managers that track free-space sections of various sizes in the file that are not currently allocated.
  • Aggregators, which are contiguous blocks of free space in the file.
  • Virtual file drivers, which use the virtual file driver interface to request additional space from the file driver associated with the file.
There are four file space-handling strategies available to users that use these mechanisms:

H5F_FSPACE_STRATEGY_FSM_AGGR

This strategy has always been available in HDF5 and is the default. The mechanisms used for this strategy are free-space managers, aggregators, and virtual file drivers.

H5F_FSPACE_STRATEGY_PAGE

The current HDF5 file space allocation accumulates small pieces of metadata and raw data in aggregator blocks. However, these blocks are not page aligned and vary widely in sizes. The paged aggregation feature provides efficient paged access of these small pieces of metadata and raw data. It accumulates metadata and raw data into well-aligned pages called file space pages. The library defines a default file space page size but a user can set the page size via a new public routine.

The mechanisms used for this strategy are free-space managers with embedded paged aggregation and virtual file drivers.

See the RFC on this feature for complete details.

H5F_FSPACE_STRATEGY_AGGR

With this strategy the library will request space from either the metadata or raw data aggregator depending on the file space type. If the request is not satisfied, the library will request space from the virtual file driver.

The mechanisms used for this strategy are aggregators and virtual file drivers. It does not use the free-space manager.

H5F_FSPACE_STRATEGY_NONE

This strategy will request space from the virtual file driver. The only mechanism used is the virtual file driver. It does not use the free-space manager.

File Space Management User’s Guide
(This document is not yet available.)
 

HDF5 Library APIs
The APIs listed below from the HDF5 Reference Manual provide a means for users to directly manage the file space management feature.
 
H5Fget_free_sections   Retrieves free-space section information for a file.
 
H5Fget_freespace   Returns the amount of free space in a file.
 
H5Fget_info2   Returns global information for a file.
 
H5Pget_file_space_strategy   Retrieves the File Space Strategy for a file creation property list.
 
H5Pset_file_space_strategy   Sets the File Space Strategy for a file creation property list.
 
H5Pget_file_space_page_size   Retrieves the file space page size for paged aggregation.
 
H5Pset_file_space_page_size   Sets the file space page size for paged aggregation.
 
 
Tools
The tools listed below have been modified to preserve or modify file freepace information appropriately when processing files employing this feature.
 
h5dump When printing the file creation property information for the superblock via the -B option, h5dump includes the block size obtained via H5Pget_file_space_page_size.
h5stat When printing the file space information via the -S option, h5stat includes the block size obtained via H5Pget_file_space_page_size.
h5repack The following options were added to h5repack:

-G FS_PAGESIZE,--fs_pagesize=FS_PAGESIZE enables the file space page size to be changed to FS_PAGESIZE.

-P FS_PERSIST,--fs_persist=FS_PERSIST sets the persisting free space to persist (1) or to not persist (0).

-S FS_STRATEGY, --fs_strategy=FS_STRATEGY sets the file space management strategy.

-T FS_THRESHOLD, --fs_threshold=FS_THRESHOLD sets the free-space section threshold.

 
 



The HDF Group Help Desk: The HDF Group Help Desk
Last modified: February 2017

  Copyright by The HDF Group and the Board
of Trustees of the University of Illinois.
All rights reserved.