Last modified: 12 March 2013
Tool Name: h5ls
Syntax:
  `h5ls [`OPTIONS`]` file[`/`OBJECT] [file[`/`OBJECT]`...`]

Purpose:
  Prints information about one or more HDF5 files or objects.

Description:
  `h5ls` prints selected information about specified HDF5 file(s) and/or object(s) in the specified format. In some cases, information regarding symbolic links is also provided.

Options and Parameters:

`-h` or `-?` or `--help` | Print a usage message and exit.
`-a` or `--address` | Print addresses for raw data. If a dataset is contiguous, the returned address is the offset in the file of the beginning of the raw data. If the dataset is chunked, the returned list of addresses indicates the offset of the beginning of each chunk. If the option `--follow-symlinks` is used and a dataset is accessed via an external link, the address(es) will be the offset(s) in the target file. This option works only in combination with the verbose option, `-v` or `--verbose`.
`-d` or `--data` | Print the values of datasets.
`--enable-error-stack` | Prints messages from the HDF5 error stack as they occur. Injects error stack information, which is normally suppressed, directly into the output stream. This will disrupt normal `h5ls` output but is a useful diagnostic tool when data is not being correctly listed.
`--follow-symlinks` | Follow symbolic links (soft links and external links) to display target object information. Without this option, `h5ls` identifies a symbolic link as a soft link or external link and prints the value assigned to the symbolic link; it does not provide any information regarding the target object or determine whether the link is a dangling link.
`--no-dangling-links` | Check for any symbolic links (soft links or external links) that do not resolve to an existing object (dataset, group, or named datatype). If any dangling link is found, this situation is treated as an error and `h5ls` returns an exit code of `1`. Must be used with the `--follow-symlinks` option; otherwise, `h5ls` will issue an error message and return an exit code of `1`.
`-f` or `--full` | Print full path names instead of base names.
`-g` or `--group` | Show information about a group, not its contents.
`-l` or `--label` | Label members of compound datasets.
`-r` or `--recursive` | List all groups recursively, avoiding cycles.
`-s` or `--string` | Print 1-bytes integer datasets as ASCII.
`-S` or `--simple` | Use a machine-readable output format.
`-w`N or `--width=`N | Set the number of columns of output.
`-v` or `--verbose` | Generate more verbose output.
`-V` or `--version` | Print version number and exit.
`--vfd=DRIVER` | Use the specified virtual file drver. Valid values for `DRIVER` include:
        sec2
        family
        multi
        split
        mpio
        mpiposix
`-x` or `--hexdump` | Show raw data in hexadecimal format.
file | The file to be examined. The file name may include a `printf(3C)` integer format such as `%05d` to open a file family. On Unix, Linux, and Mac OS X systems, multiple files can be specified through the use of Unix-style wildcards. For example, assume that we are working with the files `FileA.h5`, `FileB.h5`, `FileC.h5`, and `FileAB.h5`: `File[AB].h5` will pick up any file that begins with `File`, followed by any one of the characters contained in the square brackets, and ending with `.h5`. In this case, `File[AB].h5` will pick up the files `FileA.h5` and `FileB.h5`. `File?.h5` will pick up all files whose names are `File`, followed by exactly 1 character (any character), followed by `.h5`. In this case, `File?.h5` will pick up the files `FileA.h5` and `FileB.h5`, and `FileC.h5`. `File*.h5` will pick up all files whose names begin with `File` and end with `.h5`. In this case, `File*.h5` will pick up all four files. The wildcard capability is not currently available on Windows systems.
objects | Each object consists of an HDF5 file name optionally followed by a slash and an object name within the file (if no object is specified within the file then the contents of the root group are displayed). The file name may include a `printf(3C)` integer format such as `%05d` to open a file family.
Deprecated options: The following options have been deprecated in HDF5. While they remain available, they have been superseded as indicated and may be removed from HDF5 in the future. Use the indicated replacement option in all new work; where possible, existing scripts, et cetera, should also be updated to use the replacement option.
`-e` or `--errors` | Show all HDF5 error reporting. Replaced by `--enable-error-stack`. This is an option name change only.
`-E` or `--external` | Follow external links. Replaced by `--follow-symlinks`.

Exit Status:

  0 | Succeeded.
  >0 | An error occurred.

Examples:
  1. Display root group in file `quux.h5`:

             h5ls quux.h5

  2. Display datasets in file `quux.h5`:

             h5ls -d quux.h5/dset1

  3. Display target objects of symbolic links (soft and external links) in file `quux.h5`:

             h5ls --follow-symlinks quux.h5

  4. Display all group information in group `g1` recursively, avoiding cycles, in file `quux.h5`:

             h5ls -r -g quux.h5/g1

History:

  Release | Change
  1.8.5 | Options added in this release: `--follow-symlinks` `--no-dangling-links`
  1.8.7 | Option name `--enable-error-stack` replaces deprecated option name `--error` in this release.