Create a link to an object in a different HDF5 file

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.

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.

link_loc

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

link_name

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