# Install hdf5 with Homebrew, apk, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, zypper File format designed to store large amounts of data. Version 2.1.1 via Homebrew; verified 2026-06-16. ## Install ```sh sudo av install brew:hdf5 ``` Additional install commands: ### macOS - Homebrew (100%): ```sh brew install hdf5 ``` Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata - MacPorts (94%): ```sh sudo port install hdf5 ``` Evidence: MacPorts ports tree: science/hdf5/Portfile from https://api.github.com/repos/macports/macports-ports/git/trees/master?recursive=1 ### Linux - apk (92%): ```sh sudo apk add hdf5 ``` Evidence: Alpine Linux edge package indexes: hdf5 from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/community/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz - Debian apt (92%): ```sh sudo apt install hdf5-helpers ``` Evidence: Debian stable package indexes: hdf5-helpers from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz - dnf (92%): ```sh sudo dnf install hdf5 ``` Evidence: Fedora Rawhide package metadata: hdf5 from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/e5ca8ce900cd68f5419e1c39ae517343100b306336cbaeb70a3c153121d95094-primary.xml.zst - Nix (92%): ```sh nix profile install nixpkgs#hdf5 ``` Evidence: nixpkgs package indexes: hdf5 from https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/master/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix - pacman (92%): ```sh sudo pacman -S hdf5 ``` Evidence: Arch Linux sync databases: hdf5 from https://geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com/extra/os/x86_64/extra.db.tar.gz - zypper (92%): ```sh sudo zypper install hdf5 ``` Evidence: openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: hdf5 from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/be8d3611d25469107f32075a1697e69ec57a2b850b42348a658cc671ad5ec2b50760d02c3e59524d50da9a11d5be799bdaffba2e166e8ca8858512e3c0bd665d-primary.xml.zst ## Package facts - **Package key:** brew:hdf5 - **Package manager:** Homebrew - **Package manager page:** - **Version:** 2.1.1 - **Source summary:** File format designed to store large amounts of data - **Homepage:** - **Repository:** - **Upstream docs:** - **License:** BSD-3-Clause - **Source archive:** - **Last updated:** 2026-06-16T13:28:14Z - **Generated:** 2026-07-08T07:18:31+00:00 ## Executables - h5c++ (cli) - h5cc (cli) - h5clear (cli) - h5copy (cli) - h5debug (cli) - h5delete (cli) - h5diff (cli) - h5dump (cli) - h5fc (cli) - h5format_convert (cli) - h5import (cli) - h5jam (cli) - h5ls (cli) - h5mkgrp (cli) - h5perf_serial (cli) - h5repack (cli) - h5repart (cli) - h5stat (cli) - h5unjam (cli) - h5watch (cli) - h5c++ (alias) - h5cc (alias) - h5clear (alias) - h5copy (alias) - h5debug (alias) - h5delete (alias) - h5diff (alias) - h5dump (alias) - h5fc (alias) - h5format_convert (alias) - h5import (alias) - h5jam (alias) - h5ls (alias) - h5mkgrp (alias) - h5perf_serial (alias) - h5repack (alias) - h5repart (alias) - h5stat (alias) - h5unjam (alias) - h5watch (alias) ## Dependencies - gcc - libaec - pkgconf ## Build dependencies - cmake ## Install behavior - Post-install hook: not defined - Bottle: available on arm64_linux, arm64_sequoia, arm64_sonoma, arm64_tahoe, sonoma, x86_64_linux ## Freshness - Page generated: 2026-07-08 - Package-manager version: 2.1.1 - Package-manager updated: 2026-06-16 - Local data: ok - Upstream repository: https://github.com/HDFGroup/hdf5 - info: No cached GitHub release or tag data was available. ## Project history and usage HDF5 is a high-performance data-management library and file format for heterogeneous scientific and engineering data. The upstream project combines a binary file format, C library, language interfaces, command-line utilities, specifications, documentation, and a long-lived ecosystem around portable self-describing data. ### Project history The HDF lineage began in 1987 at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois, where the Graphics Foundations Task Force set out to create an architecture-independent library and file format for sharing scientific data across different computing platforms. By 1996, the original HDF design was no longer enough for growing data volumes and computing systems. HDF5 was implemented in 1998 as a more scalable successor to HDF4, with core funding and requirements from Department of Energy national laboratories and other scientific-data stakeholders. The HDF Group separated from the University/NCSA setting in the 2005-2006 period to steward HDF technologies, support users, and keep the software aligned with advancing data requirements. The GitHub repository was created in 2020 as the official public source repository for the HDF5 library. ### Adoption history HDF5's adoption is unusually broad for a file-format library. The HDF Group describes it as used across academic research, aerospace, automotive, electronic instruments, finance, government, medicine, oil and gas, silicon manufacturing, astronomy, computational fluid dynamics, earth sciences, genomics, physics, and other data-heavy fields. The format spread because it combines portability, self-description, hierarchical groups, multidimensional datasets, metadata with data, compression and filtering support, and interfaces for C, C++, Fortran, Java, and higher-level ecosystems. It became infrastructure for tools rather than just an application format. Package-manager adoption reflects that infrastructure role: the batch input records Alpine, Homebrew, Debian/Ubuntu helpers, Fedora, MacPorts, Nix, Arch, and openSUSE packaging. Downstream software often depends on libhdf5, h5dump, h5ls, h5repack, h5diff, compiler wrappers, and headers rather than the user intentionally launching a single HDF5 app. ### How it is used Users create HDF5 files to store nested groups, datasets, attributes, datatypes, and metadata in one portable file. Command-line tools such as h5dump, h5ls, h5copy, h5diff, h5repack, h5stat, h5import, and h5watch make the package useful even outside application development. Developers link against HDF5 through C, C++, Fortran, Java, and bindings in scientific languages. The official README points users to install guides, CMake builds, documentation, release notes, examples, support, and HPC guidance, underscoring that HDF5 is both a library and an operational ecosystem. Parallel HDF5 extends the same model to MPI programs that need shared access to HDF5 files. The serial hdf5 package remains the ordinary default for many desktop, scripting, and build dependencies, while MPI-enabled builds are split out by package managers when parallel I/O semantics are needed. ### Why package nerds care HDF5 is package-nerd famous because it is a dependency with a large ABI and feature surface: serial versus MPI builds, CMake options, C and Fortran compiler wrappers, compression filters, high-level APIs, Java components, command-line tools, and downstream consumers that may require a particular feature combination. It is also a file-format package where old data matters. Users may be less interested in novelty than in long-term readability, stable tools such as h5dump and h5repack, and a build that keeps older files accessible while still supporting newer platform and performance work. For Homebrew specifically, hdf5 is the general-purpose package that many scientific packages find at build or runtime. Its sibling hdf5-mpi exists because the parallel build is important enough, and different enough, to deserve a separate dependency path. ### Timeline - 1987: NCSA began the HDF effort for architecture-independent scientific data sharing. - 1996: HDF maintainers identified scaling limits in the older HDF line. - 1998: HDF5 was implemented as the scalable successor to HDF4. - 2005: The HDF Group was incorporated as a not-for-profit company. - 2006: The HDF Group began operating separately in the University of Illinois Research Park. - 2020: HDFGroup/hdf5 official source repository was created on GitHub. - 2026: HDF5 2.x changelog material documents continuing work on build systems, tools, plugins, and compatibility. ### Related projects - HDF4 is the older HDF line that HDF5 superseded for many workloads. - Parallel HDF5 is the MPI-oriented build and programming model for parallel I/O. - HDFView is the graphical viewer in the broader HDF ecosystem. - HSDS is The HDF Group's highly scalable data service for HDF5-style data access. - netCDF, h5py, HDF5.jl, and many scientific applications depend on or integrate with HDF5. ### Sources - - - - - - - - ## Security Notes narrow executable package without higher-risk signals. - **Geiger risk:** green / low - narrow executable package without higher-risk signals ## Source Database Details - **Source Database:** Homebrew formula API - **Tap:** homebrew/core - **Full Name:** hdf5 - **Aliases:** hdf5@2.1 - **Version Scheme:** 1 - **Revision:** 0 - **Conflicts With:** hdf5-mpi - **Bottle Stable Root URL:** - **Deprecated:** no - **Disabled:** no - **Keg Only:** no - **URL Keys:** stable ## Other Package-Manager Records - Debian apt - hdf5-helpers - 1.14.5+repack-3: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: hdf5-helpers from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | HDF5 - Helper tools | http://hdfgroup.org/HDF5/ - Debian apt - hdf5-tools - 1.14.5+repack-3: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: hdf5-tools from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | HDF5 - Runtime tools | http://hdfgroup.org/HDF5/ - Debian apt - libhdf5-310 - 1.14.5+repack-3: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: libhdf5-310 from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | HDF5 C runtime files - serial version | http://hdfgroup.org/HDF5/ - Debian apt - libhdf5-cpp-310 - 1.14.5+repack-3: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: libhdf5-cpp-310 from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | HDF5 - C++ runtime files - serial version | http://hdfgroup.org/HDF5/ - Debian apt - libhdf5-dev - 1.14.5+repack-3: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: libhdf5-dev from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | HDF5 - development files - serial version | http://hdfgroup.org/HDF5/ - Debian apt - libhdf5-doc - 1.14.5+repack-3: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: libhdf5-doc from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | HDF5 - Documentation | http://hdfgroup.org/HDF5/ - Debian apt - libhdf5-fortran-310 - 1.14.5+repack-3: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: libhdf5-fortran-310 from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | HDF5 Fortran runtime files - serial version | http://hdfgroup.org/HDF5/ - Debian apt - libhdf5-hl-310 - 1.14.5+repack-3: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: libhdf5-hl-310 from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | HDF5 High Level runtime files - serial version | http://hdfgroup.org/HDF5/ - Debian apt - libhdf5-hl-cpp-310 - 1.14.5+repack-3: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: libhdf5-hl-cpp-310 from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | HDF5 High Level C++ runtime files - serial version | http://hdfgroup.org/HDF5/ - Debian apt - libhdf5-hl-fortran-310 - 1.14.5+repack-3: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: libhdf5-hl-fortran-310 from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | HDF5 High Level Fortran runtime files - serial version | http://hdfgroup.org/HDF5/ - Debian apt - libhdf5-java - 1.14.5+repack-3: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: libhdf5-java from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | HDF5 - Java Wrapper Library | http://hdfgroup.org/HDF5/ - Debian apt - libhdf5-jni - 1.14.5+repack-3: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: libhdf5-jni from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | native library used by libhdf5-java | http://hdfgroup.org/HDF5/ - Debian apt - libhdf5-mpi-dev - 1.14.5+repack-3: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: libhdf5-mpi-dev from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | HDF5 - development files - default MPI version | http://hdfgroup.org/HDF5/ - Debian apt - libhdf5-mpich-310 - 1.14.5+repack-3: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: libhdf5-mpich-310 from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | HDF5 - C runtime files - MPICH2 version | http://hdfgroup.org/HDF5/ - Debian apt - libhdf5-mpich-cpp-310 - 1.14.5+repack-3: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: libhdf5-mpich-cpp-310 from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | HDF5 - C++ runtime files - MPICH2 version - unsupported | http://hdfgroup.org/HDF5/ - Debian apt - libhdf5-mpich-dev - 1.14.5+repack-3: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: libhdf5-mpich-dev from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | HDF5 - development files - MPICH2 version | http://hdfgroup.org/HDF5/ ## Related links - [Terminal utility packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/terminal-utilities/) - Matched terminal and command-line workflow metadata. - [Text processing packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/text-processing-tools/) - Matched text, document, or structured-data processing metadata. - [Networking and protocol packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/networking-protocol-tools/) - Matched network, protocol, or remote-service metadata. - [Database and data packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/database-data-tools/) - Matched database, SQL, migration, or data-store metadata. - [gcc](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/gcc/) - Runtime dependency declared by Homebrew. - [pkgconf](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/pkgconf/) - Runtime dependency declared by Homebrew. - [cmake](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/cmake/) - Build dependency declared by Homebrew. - [alembic](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/alembic/) - Popular package that depends on this formula. - [cdo](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/cdo/) - Popular package that depends on this formula. - [cgns](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/cgns/) - Popular package that depends on this formula. - [csound](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/csound/) - Popular package that depends on this formula. - [f3d](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/f3d/) - Popular package that depends on this formula. - [flann](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/flann/) - Popular package that depends on this formula. - [gdal](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/gdal/) - Popular package that depends on this formula. - [hdf5-mpi](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/hdf5-mpi/) - Shares the same upstream source repository. - [libgetdata](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/libgetdata/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, data, scientific-data. - [netcdf](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/netcdf/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, data, scientific-data. - [netcdf-cxx](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/netcdf-cxx/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, data, scientific-data. - [netcdf-fortran](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/netcdf-fortran/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, data, scientific-data. - [adios2](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/adios2/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, data, scientific-data. - [datalad](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/datalad/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: cli, data, scientific-data. ## Combined YAML source View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/hdf5.yml](https://github.com/automic-vault/db/blob/main/combined/hdf5.yml) ## Sources - Nucleus package database - Geiger risk classifier - package-page enrichment - curated package history - package version freshness - av.db category and tag curation - package relationship graph - external package-manager database matches - cross-ecosystem install command graph