Last modified: 10 April 2013
Name: H5Oopen_by_addr
Signature:
hid_t H5Oopen_by_addr( hid_t loc_id, haddr_t addr )

Purpose:
Opens an object using its address within an HDF5 file.

Description:
H5Oopen_by_addr opens a group, dataset, or named datatype using its address within an HDF5 file, addr. The resulting opened object is identical to an object opened with H5Oopen and should be closed with H5Oclose or an object-type-specific closing function (such as H5Gclose) when no longer needed.

loc_id can be either the file identifier or a group identifier in the file. In either case, the HDF5 Library uses the identifier only to identify the file.

The object’s address within the file, addr, is the byte offset of the first byte of the object header from the beginning of the HDF5 file space, i.e., from the beginning of the super block (see the “HDF5 Storage Model” section of the “The HDF5 Data Model and File Structure” chapter of the HDF5 User’ Guide).

addr can be obtained via either of two function calls. H5Gget_objinfo returns the object’s address in the objno field of the H5G_stat_t struct; H5Lget_info returns the address in the address field of the H5L_linkinfo_t struct.

Warning: This function must be used with care!
Improper use can lead to inaccessible data, wasted space in the file, or file corruption.

This function is dangerous if called on an invalid address. The risk can be safely overcome by retrieving the object address with H5Gget_objinfo or H5Lget_linkinfo immediately before calling H5Oopen_by_addr. The immediacy of the operation can be important; if time has elapsed and the object has been deleted from the file, the address will be invalid and file corruption can result.

 

The address of the HDF5 file on a physical device has no effect on H5Oopen_by_addr, nor does the use of any file driver. As stated above, the object address is its offset within the HDF5 file; HDF5’s file drivers will transparently map this to an address on a storage device.

Parameters:

Returns:
Returns an object identifier for the opened object if successful; otherwise returns a negative value.

Fortran90 Interface: h5oopen_by_addr_f

History:
Release     Change
1.8.0 Function introduced in this release.
1.8.4 Fortran subroutine added in this release.