pyfive is an open source library for reading HDF5 files written using pure Python (no C extensions). The package is still in development and not all features of HDF5 files are supported. For a more mature Python library for read and writing HDF5 files, try h5py.

pyfive aims to support the same API as h5py for reading files. Cases where a file uses a feature that is supported by h5py but not pyfive are considered bug and should be reported on the issue tracker. Writing HDF5 is not a goal of pyfive and portions of the API which apply only to writing will not be implemented.

pyfive is tested to work under 3.5, 3.6, 3.7 and 3.8. It may also work with other Python versions.

The only dependencies to run the software besides Python is NumPy.

pyfive can be installed using pip using the command:

pip install pyfive

conda package are also available from conda-forge which can be installed:

conda install -c conda-forge pyfive

To install from source in your home directory use:

python setup.py install --user

The library can also be imported directly from the source directory.

You can check out the latest pyfive souces with the command:

git clone https://github.com/jjhelmus/pyfive.git

pyfive comes with a test suite in the tests directory. These tests can be exercised using the commands pytest from the root directory assuming the pytest package is installed.

jsfive is a pure javascript HDF5 file reader based on pyfive.