Only HDF5 1.14.x (currently, 1.14.2) should be kept. However, hdf5 and
hdf5-parallel should be kept separate. Aside from the MPI dependence,
the parallel build is NOT a superset of the sequential version. There could
be even two versions of hdf5: a non-threadsafe build (hdf5) and a
threadsafe build (hdf5-ts? hdf5-mt?).

For HDF4, 4.2.16-2 is the latest HDF4 release. We are maintaining that
indefinitely (for NASA).

Best, G.

On Mon, Jul 24, 2023 at 8:49 AM Andreas Enge <andreas@enge.fr> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> adding Gerd Heber in cc, who seems to be the last person having worked on
> these packages.
>
> I am not competent at all about them, so commenting more as an outsider.
> Using "guix package -A hdf":
> hdf4                    4.2.14                  out
>  gnu/packages/maths.scm:1289:2
> hdf4-alt                4.2.14                  out
>  gnu/packages/maths.scm:1372:2
> hdf5                    1.8.23                  out,fortran
>  gnu/packages/maths.scm:1382:2
> hdf5                    1.14.0                  out,fortran
>  gnu/packages/maths.scm:1543:2
> hdf5                    1.12.2                  out,fortran
>  gnu/packages/maths.scm:1523:2
> hdf5                    1.10.9                  out,fortran
>  gnu/packages/maths.scm:1503:2
> hdf5-blosc              1.0.0                   out
>  gnu/packages/maths.scm:1807:2
> hdf5-parallel-openmpi   1.10.9                  out,fortran
>  gnu/packages/maths.scm:1775:2
>
> and a lot of packages in other languages, for instance:
> cl-hdf5-cffi            1.8.18-1.5b5c88f        out
>  gnu/packages/lisp-xyz.scm:12238:4
> ecl-hdf5-cffi           1.8.18-1.5b5c88f        out
>  gnu/packages/lisp-xyz.scm:12238:4
> (apparently based on 1.8.18? but it has hdf5-1.10 as input).
>
> So there are lots of versions, and in the middle of them,
> (define-public hdf5
>   ;; Default version of HDF5.
>   hdf5-1.10)
>
> And
> hdf5-parallel-openmpi   1.10.9                  out,fortran
>  gnu/packages/maths.scm:1775:2
> which inherits like this:
>   (package/inherit hdf5-1.10                      ;use the latest
> but takes inputs like this:
>     (inputs
>      `(("mpi" ,openmpi)
>        ,@(package-inputs hdf5)))
> which, I suppose, works by chance since currently hdf5-1.10 and hdf5 are
> the same (but not "the latest").
>
> Are all of these needed? If only the latest version 1.14.0 could be kept,
> this would make the patch for 1.8.23 obsolete, for instance.
>
> Andreas
>
>