WARNING This documentation is a work in progress and does not reflect the full Decl'HDF5 potential.

The Decl'HDF5 plugin enables one to read and write data from HDF5 files in a declarative way. Decl'HDF5 does not support the full HDF5 feature set but offers a simple declarative interface to access a large subset of it.

Configuration grammar

At its root, the Decl'HDF5 configuration is made of either a single FILE_DESC or a list of FILE_DESCs.

FILE_DESC

A FILE_DESC specifies a list of actions to execute in one file. It is specified by a key/value map that contains at least the file key. Other keys are optional. The possible values for the keys are as follow:

logging: logging
file: a string that can contain $-expressions and specified the name of the file this FILE_DESC refers to.
write: a DATA_SECTION that defaults to an empty one. This DATA_SECTION describes writes to execute.
read: a DATA_SECTION that defaults to an empty one. This DATA_SECTION describes reads to execute.
on_event: a string identifying an event when the whole file is accessed. If not specified, each data is written when it is exposed and the file is opened and closed every time.
when: a $-expression specifying a default condition to test before executing the reads and writes of this FILE_DESC. This can be replaced by a more specific condition inside the DATA_SECTION.
communicator: a $-expression referencing a MPI communicator to use for HDF5 parallel synchronized reads and writes. It defaults to MPI_COMM_SELF which stands for sequential writes. In case of data-triggered (vs. event-triggered) reads and writes, this can be replaced inside the DATA_SECTION.
datasets: a key-value map associating a PDI type to string keys. Each string is the name of a dataset to create in the file on first access, with the type described in the value.
collision_policy: a string identifying a COLLISION_POLICY
deflate: an integer value (from 0 to 9) defining the default deflate (GNU gzip) compression level to use for datasets created in this file. This can be overriden on a per dataset basis. By default, the deflate filter is deactivated. See https://support.hdfgroup.org/HDF5/doc/RM/RM_H5P.html#Property-SetDeflate for more information.
fletcher: an integer value interpreted as a boolean (0 is false, non 0 values are true) that defines whether to activate the Fletcher32 checksum filter by default for datasets created in this file. This can be overriden on a per dataset basis. By default, the Fletcher32 checksum filter is deactivated. See https://support.hdfgroup.org/HDF5/doc/RM/RM_H5P.html#Property-SetFletcher32 for more information.

DATA_SECTION

The DATA_SECTION describes a set of I/O (read or write) to execute. A data section can take multiple forms:

a list of strings, each being either:
- the name of a PDI data to write in a dataset with the same name ( e.g. data, where data is both a PDI data and the HDF5 dataset name)
- the name of a PDI data to write in an attribute of the same name preceded by a # and the name of the dataset or datagroup to which the attribute applies ( e.g. dset#attr, where attr is both a PDI data and the HDF5 attribute name applied to the dset dataset)
a key-value map where each key is the name of a PDI data to write and the value is either a single DATA_IO_DESC or a list of DATA_IO_DESCs describing the I/O (read or write) to execute.

The first case behaves as if each data had its DATA_IO_DESC specified with all default values.

DATA_IO_DESC

A DATA_IO_DESC is a key-velue map describing one I/O (read or write) to execute. All keys are optional and have default values. The possible values for the keys are as follow:

dataset: a $-expression identifying the name of the dataset to access in the file. If not specified this defaults to the name of the data. On writing, if the dataset does not exist in the file and is not specified in the FILE_DESC then a dataset with the same size as the memory selection is automatically created.
attribute: a $-expression identifying the path of the attribute to access in the file. The path is specified as a /-separated path to the object on which the attribute is set (a dataset or a datagroup) followed by a # sign and the name of the attribute itself (e.g. group/dset#attr). If the attribute key is specified, then only the when key can also be specified, no other key can be present.
size_of: a $-expression identifying the path of the dataset that size should be written to data descriptor.
when: a $-expression specifying a condition to test before executing the I/O operation (read or write). This defaults to the value specified in the FILE_DESC if present or to unconditional I/O otherwise.
communicator: a $-expression referencing a MPI communicator to use for HDF5 parallel synchronized I/O operation (read or write). Specifying communicator at this level is incompatible with event-triggered (vs. data-triggered) This defaults to the value specified in the FILE_DESC if present or to sequential (MPI_COMM_SELF) I/O otherwise.
memory_selection: a SELECTION_DESC specifying the selection of data in memory to read or write. It defaults to selecting the whole data.
dataset_selection: a SELECTION_DESC specifying the selection of data in the file data to write or read. This is only valid if the
attributes: a key-value map specifying the set of attributes to read from (respectively, write to) the file when the associated dataset is read (respectively, written). Each key is the name of an attribute of the dataset. Each value is a $-expression (evaluated when the dataset is accessed) specifying the value to the attribute.
collision_policy: a string identifying a COLLISION_POLICY.
chunking: a intexpr_or_seq that defines the size of the chunks used to the dataset in a chunked layout. The intexpr_or_seq must have the same dimension as the dataset type. This can be overriden by the decl_hdf5.chunking attribute in the dataset type. By default, no chunking is activated. See https://support.hdfgroup.org/HDF5/doc/RM/RM_H5P.html#Property-SetChunk for more information.
deflate: an integer value (from 0 to 9) defining the deflate (GNU gzip) compression level to use or -1 for no filter for datasets created by this I/O. This can be overriden by the decl_hdf5.deflate attribute in the dataset type. By default, the deflate filter is deactivated. See https://support.hdfgroup.org/HDF5/doc/RM/RM_H5P.html#Property-SetDeflate for more information.
fletcher: an integer value interpreted as a boolean (0 is false, non 0 values are true) that defines whether to activate the Fletcher32 checksum filter by default for datasets created in this file. This can be overriden by the decl_hdf5.fletcher attribute in the dataset type. By default, the Fletcher32 checksum filter is deactivated. See https://support.hdfgroup.org/HDF5/doc/RM/RM_H5P.html#Property-SetFletcher32 for more information.

SELECTION_DESC

A SELECTION_DESC is a key-value map that describes the selection of a subset of data from a larger set. All keys are optional and have default values. The possible values for the keys are as follow:

size is either a single $-expression or a list of $-expressions. It describes the size of the selection in each dimension.
start is either a single $-expression or a list of $-expressions. It describes the number of point to skip at the beginning in each dimension.

Memory selection default values:

If the size is not specified, it defaults to size of the whole data in each dimension.
If the start is not specified it defaults to 0 in all dimensions.

Dataset selection default values:

If the size is not specified:
- if the number of dimensions match that of the memory, the size defaults to that of the memory,
- otherwise, the size default to the whole dataset.
If the start is not specified it defaults to 0 in all dimensions.

COLLISION_POLICY

A COLLISION_POLICY is a string that identifies what to do when writing to a file or dataset that already exists. Available policies are listed below:

skip - do not do anything
skip_and_warn - do not do anything, only generate a warning message
error - do not do anything, only throw an error
write_into - [default] write into the existing file/dataset (potentially overwriting existing data in it)
write_into_and_warn - write into the existing file/dataset (potentially overwriting existing data in it) and generate a warning message
replace - delete the existing file/dataset and create a new one
replace_and_warn - delete the existing file/dataset, create a new one, but generate a warning message

full configuration example

metadata: # small values for which PDI keeps a copy
  width:   int                    # per proc. width including ghost
  height:  int                    # per proc. height including ghost
  pwidth:  int                    # nb proc. in the x dim
  pheight: int                    # nb proc. in the y dim
  iter:    int                    # curent iteration id
  coord:   { type: array, subtype: int, size: 2 } # coordinate of the process as [x, y]
data:     # values that are not copied by PDI
  main_field:
    type: array
    subtype: double
    size: [$width, $height]
plugins:
  mpi: # loading MPI_Comm predefines (e.g. $MPI_COMM_WORLD)
  decl_hdf5: # a list of file to write to (can be a single element)
    file: data${coord[0]}x${coord[1]}.h5 # the file in which to write the data (required)
    collision_policy: write_into_and_warn # print a warning if file or any of dataset already exist
    on_event: newiter                    # the event that triggers these actions (default: trigger on data expose)
    when: "$iter>0 & $iter<11"           # a condition when to actually trigger the actions (default: always true)
    communicator: $MPI_COMM_SELF         # the MPI communicator used for HDF5 parallel synchronized write (default: $MPI_COMM_SELF, sequential write)
    datasets:                            # a list of datasets inside the file created on first access
      data/array: # a dataset name, datasets referenced but not defined are created just big enough to fit the data
        type: array
        subtype: double                # type of the data in the dataset
        size: [10, $width-2, $width-2] # size of the dataset
    write: # a list or map of data to write (default: empty)
      main_field: # name of the data, it contains either a list or a single write to execute
        - dataset: data/array      # a dataset name (default: the data name)
          when: "$iter>0&$iter<11" # an additional condition when to actually trigger the actions (default: always true)
          communicator: $MPI_COMM_SELF   # the MPI communicator used for HDF5 parallel synchronized write (default: that of the file)
          memory_selection:
            size:  [$width-2, $height-2] # number of elements to transfer in each dimension (default: size of the full data)
            start: [1, 1]                # coordinate of the start point in memory relative to the shared data (default: 0 in each dimensions)
          dataset_selection:
            size:  [1, $width-2, $width-2] # number of elements to transfer in each dimension, must amount to the same number as the memory selection (default: size of memory slab)
            start: [$iter, 0, 0]           # coordinate of the start point in the file relative to the dataset (default: 0 in each dimensions)
          attributes:
            size: ($width-2)*($width-2)
            width: $width-2
            height: $width-2
    read: # a list or map of data to read, similar to write (default: empty)
      - another_value

PDI 1.7.1