Boost.org serialization module
This repository adds a new serialization archive format based on HDF5 to complement the ones already included in the official boost::serialization library: plain text, XML, and native binary. By building on the established and well-known boost::serialization framework, application code can use HDF5 or switch to any of the other established archive formats with only minimal changes to the code involved.
HDF5 has become a popular format to store scientific data. It is open and well-documented. Further advantages of HDF5 are the following:
- the format is self-describing and portable across computing platforms
- efficient storage of large arrays, parallel IO using MPI is possible (though not yet implemented)
- hierarchical description of stored data
- several low-level storage drivers, including single file or multiple-directory layouts
To compile and install this work in a Linux environment, please follow the following steps:
- Retrieve the official Git boost superproject
git clone --recursive https://github.com/boostorg/boost.git modular-boost- Change the serialization module to refer to the HDF5 archive version. For a recent version of Git you can edit the following line in ".gitmodules":
"url = ../serialization.git" --> "url = https://github.com/warn-naught/serialization.git"
- Synchronize submodules:
git submodule sync- Pull HDF5 serialization code from remote repository.
cd libs/serialization
git pull origin master- Bootstrap and update Boost headers (see https://svn.boost.org/trac/boost/wiki/TryModBoost for details)
cd ../..
./bootstrap.sh
./b2 headers- Define paths to HDF5 headers and library (assuming a bash shell syntax)
export HDF5_INCLUDE_PATH=...
export HDF5_LIB_PATH=...- Compile serialization lib
cd libs/serialization/build
../../../b2 -q