The HDF Group currently supports two concurrent releases of HDF5. Since there are substantial differences in these releases, this page enables users to locate the desired documentation set.
Release 1.8.0 is the current release. New projects are strongly encouraged to use this release as it contains many new features, file optimizations, and performance enhancements.
Release 1.6.6 is the latest release in the 1.6 series. This release is supported for users with existing major projects that cannot be ported to the latest release. Users with tools that have not been ported to the newer release may also need to use this release.
Note that Release 1.8.0 includes a means of fully emulating Release 1.6.6 functionality. Many 1.6.x users will be able to meet their needs, while also taking advantage of several of 1.8.0’s performance enhancements, by configuring and installing Release 1.8.0 accordingly. See API Compatibility Macros in HDF5 for details.