Re: netCDF-4 implementation question - whether or not to close HDF5

• To: netcdf-hdf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
• Subject: Re: netCDF-4 implementation question - whether or not to close HDF5
• From: Quincey Koziol <koziol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
• Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2005 09:43:00 -0500 (CDT)

Hi Ed,

> I'm just refactoring some code today, and I note all the code I have
> devoted to releasing HDF5 typeids, fileids, groupids, and other ids,
> on error conditions.
> 
> This is really all unnecessary work, if I just open the file with the
> proper access property list (setting H5F_CLOSE_STRONG), I can cause
> the HDF5 library to unwind its own open objects.
> 
> Do we all think it's OK to do that? Is there any reason from the HDF5
> side not to do it? Because it would make my code simpler if I can
> count on HDF5 to close everything down, instead of keeping track of it
> myself.
> 
> Perhaps an example will illustrate. If a user is reading a
> netCDF-4/HDF5 file with the nc_get_var() function, some H5Dread
> call(s) take place behind the scenes. If one of these calls fails
> (perhaps the file is corrupt), I (of course) return failure, but also
> release all HDF5 objects that I've opened/created in order to read
> that dataset (typeid, spaceid, etc.)
> 
> Instead, I could leave all these hanging until the user actually
> closed the file, and then rely on HDF5 to clean them all up. This
> would be helpful because, in general, figuring out all possible things
> that can go wrong, and recovering resources is non-trivial.
> 
> On the down-side, any of these hanging resources will accumulate until
> the user closes the file. I think that's OK. Anyone
> agree/disagree/even care?
> 
> When finally closing the file, I work through all my open HDF5 ids and
> close them. But that's just a waste of code too, because why not let
> HDF5 do that work?
> 
> Any thoughts would be welcome.

    I don't recommend this idea, since there's plenty of caching in the HDF5
library and information may be lost if a user's application crashes and there's
lots of un-closed IDs lying around.  As you point out also, it chews up a lot
of memory and other resources.

    Quincey

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: netCDF-4 implementation question - whether or not to close HDF5
    • From: Quincey Koziol

• References:
  • netCDF-4 implementation question - whether or not to close HDF5
    • From: Ed Hartnett