A version-4 layout stores every chunk dimension in the fewest bytes that
hold the largest one (H5D__chunk_set_sizes: (log2(dim) + 8) / 8), so a
chunk dimension of 65 536 to 16 777 215 takes 3 bytes. Only widths 1, 2,
4 and 8 were decoded; an h5py file with chunks=(70000,) and
libver='latest' failed with UnexpectedEof. Widths 1-8 are decoded now;
0 and more than 8 are refused with libhdf5's "encoded chunk dimension
size is too large", and a dimension past u32 is refused, not truncated.
The review asked for libhdf5's check that the stored width matches the
one computed from the dimensions. HDF5 2.0.0 (h5py 3.16) refuses any
mismatch, but HDFGroup/hdf5@e124c36 ("Allow reading of files with chunk
dimensions encoded using more bytes than necessary", 2026-06-05) relaxed
it to refusing only a width too small for the dimensions, which cannot
happen once the dimensions have been decoded from that width. Follow
current libhdf5: a wider-than-needed encoding is read. clawhdf5's own
writer produces such layouts (the next commit fixes that).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <[email protected]>
