[bug#64448] [PATCH 0/2] Fix hdf5-1.14 wrappers and remove generated source files from all hdf5 versions.

[Gerd Heber]

Only HDF5 1.14.x (currently, 1.14.2) should be kept. However, hdf5 and hdf5-parallel should be kept separate. Aside from the MPI dependence,

the parallel build is NOT a superset of the sequential version. There could be even two versions of hdf5: a non-threadsafe build (hdf5) and a threadsafe build (hdf5-ts? hdf5-mt?).

For HDF4, 4.2.16-2 is the latest HDF4 release. We are maintaining that indefinitely (for NASA).

Best, G.

On Mon, Jul 24, 2023 at 8:49 AM Andreas Enge <andreas@enge.fr> wrote:

Hello,

adding Gerd Heber in cc, who seems to be the last person having worked on
these packages.

I am not competent at all about them, so commenting more as an outsider.
Using "guix package -A hdf":
hdf4                    4.2.14                  out             gnu/packages/maths.scm:1289:2
hdf4-alt                4.2.14                  out             gnu/packages/maths.scm:1372:2
hdf5                    1.8.23                  out,fortran     gnu/packages/maths.scm:1382:2
hdf5                    1.14.0                  out,fortran     gnu/packages/maths.scm:1543:2
hdf5                    1.12.2                  out,fortran     gnu/packages/maths.scm:1523:2
hdf5                    1.10.9                  out,fortran     gnu/packages/maths.scm:1503:2
hdf5-blosc              1.0.0                   out             gnu/packages/maths.scm:1807:2
hdf5-parallel-openmpi   1.10.9                  out,fortran     gnu/packages/maths.scm:1775:2

and a lot of packages in other languages, for instance:
cl-hdf5-cffi            1.8.18-1.5b5c88f        out             gnu/packages/lisp-xyz.scm:12238:4
ecl-hdf5-cffi           1.8.18-1.5b5c88f        out             gnu/packages/lisp-xyz.scm:12238:4
(apparently based on 1.8.18? but it has hdf5-1.10 as input).

So there are lots of versions, and in the middle of them,
(define-public hdf5
  ;; Default version of HDF5.
  hdf5-1.10)

And
hdf5-parallel-openmpi   1.10.9                  out,fortran     gnu/packages/maths.scm:1775:2
which inherits like this:
  (package/inherit hdf5-1.10                      ;use the latest
but takes inputs like this:
    (inputs
     `(("mpi" ,openmpi)
       ,@(package-inputs hdf5)))
which, I suppose, works by chance since currently hdf5-1.10 and hdf5 are
the same (but not "the latest").

Are all of these needed? If only the latest version 1.14.0 could be kept,
this would make the patch for 1.8.23 obsolete, for instance.

Andreas