HDF5 for Python

Websites

• Main website: http://www.h5py.org
• Source code: http://github.com/h5py/h5py
• Mailing list: h5py at googlegroups

Prerequisites

You need, at a minimum:

• HDF5 1.8.3 or later on Linux (On Windows, h5py ships with HDF5)
• Python 2.6, 2.7, 3.2 or 3.3
• Any modern version of NumPy

Optionally:

• Cython 0.13 or later, to build from a git checkout
• If using Python 2.6, unittest2 is needed to run the tests

Installing from release tarball

Run the following commands:

python setup.py build [--hdf5=/path/to/hdf5]
python setup.py test   # optional
[sudo] python setup.py install

Installing via easy_install

Run the following commands:

export HDF5_DIR=/path/to/hdf5   # optional
[sudo] easy_install h5py

Building from a Git checkout (UNIX)

We have switched development to GitHub. Here's how to build h5py from source:

1. Clone the project:

   git clone https://github.com/h5py/h5py.git
   

2. Build the project (this step also auto-compiles the .c files):

   python setup.py build [--hdf5=/path/to/hdf5]
   

3. Run the unit tests (optional):

   python setup.py test
   

If you add new functions to api_functions.txt, remember to run the script api_gen.py to update the Cython interface. See the developer guide at http://www.h5py.org for more information.

Reporting bugs

• Bug reports are always welcome at the GitHub tracker. Please don't be offended if it takes a while to respond to your report... we value user input and take all bugs seriously.
• If you're not sure you have a bug, or want to ask any question at all about h5py or HDF5, post to the mailing list (h5py at Google Groups). This list is read by the main developers of h5py, as well as the user community. As a bonus, posting to the list means that other people with similar problems can find your question and the responses.
• You're always free to email the author directly at [andrew dot collette at gmail dot com].