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| HDF5 Last Updated on 2026-07-28 The HDF5 Field Guide

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This is the documentation set for HDF5. It includes specifications and documentation of software and tools developed and maintained by The HDF Group. It is impractical to document the entire HDF5 ecosystem in one place, and you should also consult the documentation sets of the many outstanding community projects.

For a first contact with HDF5, the best place is to have a look at the getting started page that shows you how to write and compile your first program with HDF5.

The main documentation is organized by documentation flavor. Most technical documentation consists to varying degrees of information related to tasks, concepts, or reference material. As its title suggests, the Reference Manual is 100% reference material, while the Cookbook is focused on tasks. The different guide-type documents cover a mix of tasks, concepts, and reference, to help a specific audience succeed.

Release Specific Information

Offline reading
  You can download the hdf5-<version>.doxygen.zip file for offline reading from HDF5 releases.

ToDo List
  There is plenty of Todo List unfinished business.