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Create a link to an object in a different HDF5 file

Source: R/H5L.R
H5Lcreate_external.Rd

H5Lcreate_external() creates a new external link. An external link is a soft link to an object in a different HDF5 file from the location of the link.

Usage

H5Lcreate_external(target_file_name, target_obj_name, link_loc, link_name)

Arguments

target_file_name

Name of the external HDF5 to link to

target_obj_name

Path to the object in the file specified by target_file_name to link to.

H5IdComponent object giving the location where the new link should be created. Can represent an HDF5 file or group.

Name (path) of the new link, relative to the location of link_loc.

Examples

## The example below creates a new HDF5 file in a temporary director, and then
## links to the group "/foo" found in the file "multiple_dtypes.h5"
## distributed with the package.

h5File1 <- system.file("testfiles", "multiple_dtypes.h5", package = "rhdf5")
h5File2 <- tempfile(pattern = "H5L_2_", fileext = ".h5")
h5createFile(h5File2)

## open the new file & create a link to the group "/foo" in the original file
fid <- H5Fopen(h5File2)
H5Lcreate_external(
  target_file_name = h5File1, target_obj_name = "/foo",
  link_loc = fid, link_name = "/external_link"
)
H5Fclose(fid)

## check the new file has a group called "/external_link"
h5ls(h5File2)
#>            group          name       otype  dclass   dim
#> 0              / external_link   H5I_GROUP              
#> 1 /external_link             A H5I_DATASET INTEGER 1 x 7
#> 2 /external_link             B H5I_DATASET   FLOAT 2 x 9