2.1.5. Verification and validation of files

The intent of verification and validation of files is to ensure, in an unbiased way, that a given file conforms to the relevant specifications. Validation does not check that the data content of the file is sensible; this requires scientific interpretation based on the technique.

Validation is useful to anyone who manipulates or modifies the contents of NeXus files. This includes scientists/users, instrument staff, software developers, and those who might mine the files for metadata. First, the scientist or user of the data must be certain that the information in a file can be located reliably. The instrument staff or software developer must be confident the information they have written to the file has been located and formatted properly. At some time, the content of the NeXus file may contribute to a larger body of work such as a metadata catalog for a scientific instrument, a laboratory, or even an entire user facility.

2.1.5.1. nxvalidate

NeXus validation tool written in C (not via NAPI).

Its dependencies are libxml2 and the HDF5 libraries, version 1.8.9 or better. Its purpose is to validate HDF5 files against NeXus application definitions.

See the program documentation for more details: https://github.com/nexusformat/cnxvalidate.git

2.1.5.2. punx

Python Utilities for NeXus HDF5 files

punx can validate both NXDL files and NeXus HDF5 data files, as well as print the structure of any HDF5 file, even non-NeXus files.

NOTE: project is under initial construction, not yet released for public use, but is useful in its present form (version 0.2.5).

punx can show the tree structure of any HDF5 file. The output is more concise than that from h5dump.

See the program documentation for more details: https://punx.readthedocs.io