PERFORMANCE

Type of Work

Research


Item

Append only support


Explanation

"Append-only HDF5" refers to a way to write HDF5-readable data on a medium that does not allow random access reads or writes (e.g., tape). This data would appear to the user to be the contents of a normal HDF5 dataset, and could be included in a file with other data that was written when random-access I/O was possible. This application of HDF5 could be useful in environments in which the speed at which data can be written to disk is important (e.g., flight testing). Such data could be captured quickly, then accessed without the need to be recopied into another format. It could later be stored in the same HDF5 file with processed versions of the original data. If the implementation of append-only HDF5 is simple enough, it might lend itself well to embedded applications. Append-only HDF5 may require an extension to the HDF5 file format, and may consist of a separate library to create append-only HDF5 files and datasets.


Documentation

Append-Only RFC.doc