#4 HDF5 1.8.0-beta4 and beyond

[David Nickerson]

From HDF Newsletter #97 (2007/10/24):

Please note that this release marks a MAJOR SHIFT in APIs that affects how
applications must be COMPILED and LINKED with HDF5 1.8.0.

The following discussion applies to HDF5 C applications only; HDF5 Fortran,
C++, and Java applications are not affected.

In HDF5 Release 1.8.0, we are introducing new versions of several basic APIs
to accommodate new requirements and features. Thus, in HDF5 1.8.0-beta4,
many commonly used functions, such as H5Gcreate, H5Dcreate, H5Topen, etc.,
have been renamed and macros with the original function names have been
introduced. These macros can be mapped at compile time to either the old or
new versions of the APIs, which can all be available in the library.
"API Compatibility Macros" describes these changes in detail:

http://www.hdfgroup.uiuc.edu/HDF5/doc_1.8pre/doc/RM/APICompatMacros.html

We strongly encourage you to read this document before compiling any
C application(s) with the HDF5 1.8.0-beta4 library.

By default, the beta4 release maps the new macros to the NEW API versions
that are being introduced with release 1.8.0.

This means that C applications that worked with HDF5 Release 1.6.x,
1.8.0-beta3, or earlier, will not link with the HDF5-1.8.0-beta4
library unless you do one of the following:

 1) Configure and build the application using this compiler flag:
         -D H5_USE_16_API
 2) Configure and build the HDF5 1.8.0-beta4 library using this
    configuration flag:
         --with-default-api-version=v16
 3) Update the application to use the new 1.8.0 signatures.

Also be aware that the use of new features of the HDF5 1.8.0 library can
raise backward and forward compatibility issues that may affect your HDF5
files. The following document describes these issues in detail:

http://www.hdfgroup.uiuc.edu/HDF5/doc_1.8pre/doc/ADGuide/CompatFormat180.html

[David Nickerson]

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HDF5 1.8.0 has now been released as the official current version of HDF5.