Fix h5ls issue with quoting when displaying integer data as ASCII characters by jhendersonHDF · Pull Request #6553 · HDFGroup/hdf5

jhendersonHDF · 2026-07-23T00:36:51Z

When using the -r option to have h5dump display 1-byte integer datasets and attributes as ASCII characters, the data display logic includes a section that deals with including a closing double-quote character for the data values. This logic wasn't carried over to h5ls for its similar -s option, causing it to drop the closing double-quote:

#include "hdf5.h"

int
main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    hid_t file_id;
    hid_t dset_id;
    hid_t type_id;
    hid_t space_id;
    hid_t attr_id;
    hsize_t dims[] = { 81 };
    /* 81-byte string, including NUL terminator */
    char *data = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz012345678901234567";

    file_id = H5Fcreate("testchar.h5", H5F_ACC_TRUNC, H5P_DEFAULT, H5P_DEFAULT);

    type_id = H5Tcopy(H5T_NATIVE_UCHAR);

    space_id = H5Screate_simple(1, dims, NULL);

    dset_id = H5Dcreate2(file_id, "dset", type_id, space_id,
                         H5P_DEFAULT, H5P_DEFAULT, H5P_DEFAULT);

    H5Dwrite(dset_id, type_id, H5S_ALL, H5S_ALL, H5P_DEFAULT, data);

    attr_id = H5Acreate2(dset_id, "attr", type_id, space_id,
                         H5P_DEFAULT, H5P_DEFAULT);

    H5Awrite(attr_id, type_id, data);

    H5Sclose(space_id);
    H5Tclose(type_id);
    H5Aclose(attr_id);
    H5Dclose(dset_id);
    H5Fclose(file_id);

    return 0;
}

h5ls -ds testchar.h5
dset                     Dataset {81}
    Data:
         "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz012345678901234567\000

These changes restore the double-quote for h5ls and refactor the logic for h5dump to fix some other similar formatting issues when data elements are wrapped to new lines according to the tool's column limit setting.

github-actions · 2026-07-23T00:37:09Z

Review Checklist

This PR touches the following areas. Each needs a sign-off
from its listed owners before merging.

tools ✅ — @mattjala
*.cmake ✅ — @mattjala
release_docs ✅ — @lrknox

✅ All areas have been signed off.

hyoklee · 2026-07-23T03:33:44Z

What's the issue number for this PR?

hyoklee · 2026-07-23T03:47:55Z


 ## Tools

+### Fixed an issue with quoting of data values in h5ls and h5dump when displaying as ASCII characters


quoting of data values -> data value quoting

I find the former better to read since the issue was with quoting and not "data value XXX"

hyoklee · 2026-07-23T03:48:00Z

+
+   When using the `-s` (h5ls) or `-r` (h5dump) option to display 1-byte integer datasets and
+   attributes as ASCII characters, a closing double-quote character for data values was being
+   dropped in some cases. This double-quote character has been restored and similar formatting


has been restored and similar -> has been restored, and similar

This is at best a preference

hyoklee · 2026-07-23T03:48:04Z

+   attributes as ASCII characters, a closing double-quote character for data values was being
+   dropped in some cases. This double-quote character has been restored and similar formatting
+   issues have been fixed for cases where elements are wrapped to new lines according to the
+   particular tool's column limit setting.


Remove particular.

Particular here is to distinguish between h5ls and h5dump, as each tool has its own column limit setting

jhendersonHDF · 2026-07-23T15:09:06Z

What's the issue number for this PR?

No issue currently, as the problem was reported external to GitHub

jhendersonHDF · 2026-07-23T15:14:06Z

                status = h5tools_dump_mem(stream, &string_dataformat, &datactx, obj_id);
            }
        }
-        if (datactx.display_char && H5Tget_size(f_type) == 1 && H5Tget_class(f_type) == H5T_INTEGER) {


This logic was added so that h5dump adds the closing quote character when displaying the data as ASCII characters, but it goes against the general tools architecture and complicates the logic. The fix that follows the tools architecture, allowing h5tools_simple_prefix() to print the closing quote character, is below.

jhendersonHDF · 2026-07-23T15:16:43Z

        }
+
+        /* Output closing line suffix character when printing 1-byte integer data as ASCII */
+        if (info->ascii) {


Since h5ls doesn't use the h5tools_dump_data() function from the tools library, it needs its own specific logic to cover this case.

hyoklee · 2026-07-23T15:31:46Z

-   issues have been fixed for cases where elements are wrapped to new lines according to the
-   particular tool's column limit setting.
+   attributes as ASCII characters, a closing double-quote character for data values was dropped
+   in some cases. This double-quote character has been restored and similar formatting issues


Add comma. has been restored and similar -> has been restored, and similar

…racters

jhendersonHDF · 2026-08-05T15:48:05Z

Fixed the conflict in CHANGELOG.md

lrknox

It appears you've considered previous suggestions for the CHANGELOG.md entry. Most CHANGELOG.md entries are a single line for the description part of the entry; you might consider changing that, or it can be done later if necessary.

jhendersonHDF · 2026-08-06T19:32:38Z

It appears you've considered previous suggestions for the CHANGELOG.md entry. Most CHANGELOG.md entries are a single line for the description part of the entry; you might consider changing that, or it can be done later if necessary.

I applied a few of the suggestions, but don't particularly agree with the remaining ones so left them alone.

github-project-automation Bot added this to HDF5 - TRIAGE & TRACK Jul 23, 2026

github-project-automation Bot moved this to To be triaged in HDF5 - TRIAGE & TRACK Jul 23, 2026

github-actions Bot assigned jhendersonHDF Jul 23, 2026

jhendersonHDF force-pushed the h5ls_ascii_quote_fix branch 2 times, most recently from bcbfa6c to c17486f Compare July 23, 2026 01:15

jhendersonHDF marked this pull request as ready for review July 23, 2026 01:59

jhendersonHDF requested review from bmribler, glennsong09, hyoklee, lrknox and mattjala as code owners July 23, 2026 01:59

github-actions Bot removed request for bmribler, glennsong09 and lrknox July 23, 2026 01:59

hyoklee approved these changes Jul 23, 2026

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hyoklee previously approved these changes Jul 23, 2026

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jhendersonHDF dismissed hyoklee’s stale review via 8bfa405 July 23, 2026 15:11

github-actions Bot requested a review from hyoklee July 23, 2026 15:12

jhendersonHDF commented Jul 23, 2026

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hyoklee previously approved these changes Jul 23, 2026

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jhendersonHDF added this to the HDF5 2.3.0 milestone Jul 24, 2026

mattjala reviewed Jul 27, 2026

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Comment thread tools/test/h5dump/h5dumpgentest.c Outdated

jhendersonHDF dismissed hyoklee’s stale review via d6a201a August 3, 2026 18:52

github-actions Bot requested review from bmribler, hyoklee and lrknox August 3, 2026 18:52

lrknox previously approved these changes Aug 4, 2026

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brtnfld requested review from mattjala and removed request for bmribler August 4, 2026 02:47

mattjala previously approved these changes Aug 5, 2026

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jhendersonHDF dismissed stale reviews from mattjala and lrknox via 4223d69 August 5, 2026 15:47

jhendersonHDF force-pushed the h5ls_ascii_quote_fix branch from d6a201a to 4223d69 Compare August 5, 2026 15:47

jhendersonHDF added 3 commits August 5, 2026 10:47

Fix h5ls issue with quoting when displaying integer data as ASCII cha…

c39a0e1

…racters

Minor changes to CHANGELOG text

3447866

Fix issue in generator program and update test files

4223d69

jhendersonHDF requested review from lrknox and mattjala August 5, 2026 15:48

github-actions Bot requested review from mattjala and removed request for hyoklee and mattjala August 5, 2026 17:24

mattjala approved these changes Aug 5, 2026

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lrknox approved these changes Aug 6, 2026

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jhendersonHDF merged commit 57128d3 into HDFGroup:develop Aug 7, 2026
131 of 133 checks passed

github-project-automation Bot moved this from To be triaged to Done in HDF5 - TRIAGE & TRACK Aug 7, 2026


		## Tools

		### Fixed an issue with quoting of data values in h5ls and h5dump when displaying as ASCII characters

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