Installation on Windows

MSI packages are available for the installation of the external filter plugins for Windows. It is strongly recommended to use these packages and do not attempt to install the packages from the sources.

Required packages

For the installation at least two packages are required

  • the package for the appropriate C++ runtime environment (vc_redist.x64.exe for 64Bit installations)
  • the MSI package for the filter plugin which should be installed (h5pl-1.0.0-win64.msi for the Eiger LZ4 plugin)

In the future we most probably will bundle the C++ runtime environment with the plugin package. However, for the time being the runtime package must be installed manually:

Please note that the tarballs (use e.g. 7z to uncompress) contain different versions compiled for 32 and 64 bits as well as built with VS12 and VS14. The one needed depends on your application, e.g. for MATLAB 2017a it would be hdf5plugin-1.8.20-win7_64-vs12.zip.

Installation of the C++ runtime environment

The C/C++ runtime environment is shipped as a installable .exe. file named vc_redist.x64.exe. To start the installation just double click on the file and follow the instructions.

Installation of the filter plugin (dialogs are deprecated)

Here we show the installation of the LZ4 filter plugin required to read data from the Eiger detector. The plugin comes in an MSI package named h5pl-1.0.0-win64.msi. Double click on the file launch the installation wizard (see Fig. 1).

_images/lz4_plugin_install_1.png

Fig. 1 First page of the LZ4 filter plugin installation wizard.

Continue by pressing Next and accept the licence agreement (see Fig. 2).

_images/lz4_plugin_install_2.png

Fig. 2 Accept the license agreement to continue with the installation.

In the next step the installation path must be provided (see Fig. 3). Usually the default value is fine. This step is rather important as we need this path for the later configuration of the installation. Here we used the default path c:\Program Files\HDF_Group\h5lz4\1.0.

_images/lz4_plugin_install_3.png

Fig. 3 Set the installation path. If you are not entirely sure what you are doing just leave the default value.

To continue the installation press Next to come to the last dialog of the installation wizard (see Fig. 4). Press Install to finish the installation.

_images/lz4_plugin_install_4.png

Fig. 4 Press Install to finish the plugin installation.

Environment configuration

Before your applications can make use of the filter plugin we have to tell them where to look for it. This is done via the HDF5_PLUGIN_PATH environment variable.

On Windows environment variables can be created and modified via a GUI dialog. Most probably the easiest way to come to this dialog is by searching for environment variables in the start menu of your Windows desktop. The dialog should look like in Fig. 5.

_images/env_1.png

Fig. 5 Dialog to manage environment variables on Windows.

If HDF5_PLUGIN_PATH does not already exist, add it as a new variable by pressing the New... button. This would lead you to a new dialog (see Fig. 6) which allows you to enter the name and the value of an environment variable.

_images/env_2.png

Append the path for the newly installed plugin to an existing path (use a ; as a separator) or, as in this example, simply set HDF5_PLUGIN_PATH to the appropriate directory. The path where to find the plugin library is the installation path (see above) plus an addition \bin.

Once this variable is set you may have to restart all applications which should use the plugin. This is necessary as they have to read the new environment variable which is typically done during program startup.

Applications which we know will work

We have tested the following applications with the filter plugin

Software Windows7 64Bit Windows10 64Bit
Matlab 2016 A OK OK
Anaconda Python 3.5 OK ??