ASDF Notes

ASDF file

File structure

• optional index list at the end of the file. Consists of integers that provide the position of the first character of each binary data block. The index refers to the beginning of the file.

Writing files

Steps (ignoring simple checks):

• pre write step
  • running pre_write hooks of custom classes
  • add asdf version information to the tree using the key "asdf_library" and the value being an instance of a special Software class
  • update the extension history using the "history" key is the tree.
• serial writing step
  • write tree substep
    • write the file header first
    • dump the tree
      • decode the tag of the tree

Misc

• there is a serializable Software class in asdf