clawhdf5.File(path, 'r+') (and 'a' on an existing file) holds a
FileEditor, and with it the file's exclusive lock, until close():
- ds[key] = value: h5py's keys and broadcasting (numpy's rules for
slices and integers with extra leading 1-axes allowed; the exact shape
for an index list, a scalar only where h5py expands it). Arrays are
converted as libhdf5 converts them in native byte order (integers
saturate, floats truncate toward zero and clip, integers go into h5py's
bool enum by value); other values through
numpy.asarray(value, dtype=ds.dtype), as h5py does. NaN into an integer
dataset is a ValueError instead of libhdf5's arbitrary value. The value
preparation is a small Python module compiled into the extension
(src/edit_helpers.py).
- ds.resize(shape) / ds.resize(n, axis=k) with h5py's argument rules.
- attrs[name] = value, attrs.create(name, data, shape, dtype),
attrs.modify: numeric, bool, complex, bytes and str data of any shape,
with h5py's HDF5 types; str is stored as fixed-length UTF-8 (the editor
cannot write variable-length strings).
- File.mode, File.flush(), Dataset.chunks.
Each edit runs with the GIL released under the file handle's write lock
(no read sees a half-written edit), then the file is reopened;
datasets and attrs objects re-read their shape and attributes when the
handle's edit generation moved. What the editor cannot do is
NotImplementedError before anything is written: deleting attributes or
objects, creating datasets or groups, compound fields by name,
variable-length data, and FileEditor's own limits.
Where libhdf5 2.0 (h5py 3.16) converts inconsistently -- its soft
conversions in non-native byte order (a float in (-1, 0) becomes the
integer minimum, same-size unsigned->signed wraps) and native casts that
are undefined in C (half floats into unsigned, float(max) rounded up) --
clawhdf5 saturates as libhdf5's native path does; listed in
docs/known-issues.md.
Tests (tests/test_edit.py): every edit applied by h5py and by clawhdf5 to
copies of the same file and both read back through h5py after each edit,
on h5py files (libver earliest, v114, latest) and a clawhdf5 file: a fixed
sequence over every chunk index kind, compact/contiguous/gzip layouts and
numeric, bool, enum, complex, string and compound types, 16 random
sequences of 40 edits, and a numeric conversion matrix; a refused edit
must be refused by both and leave the file unchanged. Also dense
attributes, locking, objects seeing edits, readers racing a writer, and
h5dump (plus h5rs check in ci-test.sh) on every edited file. The
read-vs-h5py suite also runs on a file opened 'r+'.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <[email protected]>
