Files
clawhdf5/crates/clawhdf5-py/README.md
T
osobhandClaude Opus 5.5 910d81904c py: remote files (clawhdf5.File(url), File.open_url) through File::storage()
The Python bindings could not open a remote file: they parsed through
File::as_bytes() in eight places (path lookups, object headers,
dataspaces, attributes, group listings, the global heap of
variable-length data), which a storage-backed file does not have.

- Every object of a File now shares one handle (src/handle.rs) that
  runs all file access, metadata included, with the GIL released and
  parses through File::storage() and the clawhdf5_format *_in functions.
  Local files take the same path (their storage is the mmap).
- clawhdf5.File(url) opens any scheme://... through
  clawhdf5_remote::storage_for_url (read-only; another mode is a
  ValueError). File.open_url(url, **options) takes the cache and HTTP
  options (block_size, cache_size, headers, retries, timeout,
  allow_full_download, max_full_download, require_validator,
  max_redirects, max_parallel); File.remote_stats gives the block
  cache's counters.
- Default build: plain HTTP only, no C. https (rustls/ring) and
  s3/gcs/azure (aws-lc-rs) are opt-in features of clawhdf5-py, and
  ci-test.sh's no-C check now covers the crate.
- A failed storage read (network error, file changed on the server) is an
  OSError, never KeyError/ValueError and never data; `key in group`
  raises it instead of answering False.

Tests: the read-vs-h5py suite runs locally and over HTTP (1 MiB and
1 KiB blocks) against a range-capable http.server in the test process
(conftest.RangeServer); test_remote.py covers request counts, cache
hits, a server without Range support, a changed file, a server that
hangs up, 16 threads, and a spinning thread that keeps running while a
read waits on 0.2 s requests.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <[email protected]>
2026-09-27 06:40:44 -05:00

117 lines
4.6 KiB
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# clawhdf5-py
[![crates.io](https://img.shields.io/crates/v/clawhdf5-py.svg)](https://crates.io/crates/clawhdf5-py)
[![docs.rs](https://docs.rs/clawhdf5-py/badge.svg)](https://docs.rs/clawhdf5-py)
Python bindings for clawhdf5 — a pure-Rust HDF5 library. The package is
`clawhdf5` (`import clawhdf5`); it needs numpy and no libhdf5.
## Install
Not on PyPI yet. Build it into a virtualenv with [maturin](https://www.maturin.rs):
```bash
pip install maturin numpy
cd crates/clawhdf5-py
maturin develop --release
python -c "import clawhdf5; print(clawhdf5.__version__)"
```
## Reading
The read API follows h5py:
```python
import numpy as np
import clawhdf5
with clawhdf5.File("data.h5", "r") as f:
f.keys(), f["group"].items(), "group/data" in f
ds = f["group/data"] # or f["/group/data"], f["group"]["data"]
ds.shape, ds.dtype, ds.attrs["units"]
ds[10:20, ::2] # a small selection reads only its chunks
ds[-1], ds[..., 0], ds[[1, 4, 7]]
np.asarray(ds)
f["table"]["id"] # a compound field
```
- `Dataset.dtype` is the numpy dtype h5py reports: integers and IEEE floats
of every width in either byte order, `bool`, enums (with
`dtype.metadata['enum']`), complex, `S<n>` fixed strings, `object` for
variable-length strings (`bytes` values) and sequences (array values),
`V<n>` opaque, array types, and compounds as structured dtypes.
Other types raise `TypeError`.
- Keys are h5py's: integers, slices with a positive step, `...`, one
increasing list of integers, compound field names. Each maps onto a
hyperslab selection. `None`, negative steps and boolean masks are refused
with h5py's errors.
- What is read from the file: a selection whose bounding box covers at
most half the dataset decodes only the chunks (or contiguous rows) the box
overlaps. The library decodes the whole dataset for a larger box
(including a strided slice such as `ds[::100]` across a chunked dataset),
and for compact, virtual and unwritten datasets and chunked ones with a
non-default fill value. An index list is read one group of neighbouring
chunks at a time (a new group only past a chunk with no selected index),
so each chunk is decoded once. `ds[()]`, `ds[...]` and `np.asarray(ds)`
use the file's chunk cache; other selections do not.
- The bytes the library reads become the numpy array's buffer without a
copy, and the read runs with the GIL released, so threads read in
parallel. A bug in the library (a Rust panic) raises
`clawhdf5.InternalError`, a `RuntimeError`.
- Attributes return what h5py returns; `clawhdf5.Empty` stands for a null
dataspace (h5py's `Empty`).
## Remote files
A URL instead of a path reads the file where it is, through
`clawhdf5-remote`: HTTP range requests through a block cache (1 MiB blocks,
64 MiB budget by default), fetching only the blocks a read needs. The whole
read API works the same, and the GIL is released while waiting on the
network.
```python
f = clawhdf5.File("http://host/data.h5") # default options
f = clawhdf5.File.open_url(
"http://host/data.h5",
block_size=256 * 1024, cache_size=128 << 20, # the block cache
headers={"Authorization": "Bearer ..."}, # sent to this origin only
retries=3, timeout=30.0, max_redirects=5, max_parallel=8,
allow_full_download=False, # a server without Range support: refuse
require_validator=False, # refuse servers without ETag/Last-Modified
)
f.remote_stats # {'requests': ..., 'bytes_fetched': ..., 'hits': ..., ...}
```
- The file is pinned when opened (ETag or Last-Modified, and length): if it
changes on the server, reads raise `OSError` instead of mixing versions.
Network failures are `OSError` too.
- Remote files are read-only.
- Schemes: the default build (no C) reads `http://`. `https://` needs
`maturin develop --release --features https` (rustls with ring, which
compiles C); `s3://`, `gs://` and `az://` need the `s3`, `gcs` and
`azure` features (credentials from the environment; aws-lc-rs, C).
## Writing
`clawhdf5.File(path, "w")` with `create_dataset(name, data=array,
chunks=..., compression="gzip")`, `create_group` and `attrs[...] = ...`
writes `float64`, `float32`, `int64`, `int32` and `uint8` arrays; the file is
written on `close()`.
## Tests
```bash
pip install pytest h5py
pytest crates/clawhdf5-py/tests
```
`tests/test_read_vs_h5py.py` compares every read with h5py on a file h5py
writes, opened locally and over HTTP (an in-process range server,
`tests/conftest.py`); `tests/test_remote.py` checks remote reads (requests,
failures, the GIL). `scripts/ci-test.sh` builds the wheel and runs these
in CI.
## License
MIT