re: Discussion https://github.com/Unidata/netcdf-c/discussions/2214
The primary change is to support so-called "standard filters".
A standard filter is one that is defined by the following
netcdf-c API:
````
int nc_def_var_XXX(int ncid, int varid, size_t nparams, unsigned* params);
int nc_inq_var_XXXX(int ncid, int varid, int* usefilterp, unsigned* params);
````
So for example, zstandard would be a standard filter by defining
the functions *nc_def_var_zstandard* and *nc_inq_var_zstandard*.
In order to define these functions, we need a new dispatch function:
````
int nc_inq_filter_avail(int ncid, unsigned filterid);
````
This function, combined with the existing filter API can be used
to implement arbitrary standard filters using a simple code pattern.
Note that I would have preferred that this function return a list
of all available filters, but HDF5 does not support that functionality.
So this PR implements the dispatch function and implements
the following standard functions:
+ bzip2
+ zstandard
+ blosc
Specific test cases are also provided for HDF5 and NCZarr.
Over time, other specific standard filters will be defined.
## Primary Changes
* Add nc_inq_filter_avail() to netcdf-c API.
* Add standard filter implementations to test use of *nc_inq_filter_avail*.
* Bump the dispatch table version number and add to all the relevant
dispatch tables (libsrc, libsrcp, etc).
* Create a program to invoke nc_inq_filter_avail so that it is accessible
to shell scripts.
* Cleanup szip support to properly support szip
when HDF5 is disabled. This involves detecting
libsz separately from testing if HDF5 supports szip.
* Integrate shuffle and fletcher32 into the existing
filter API. This means that, for example, nc_def_var_fletcher32
is now a wrapper around nc_def_var_filter.
* Extend the Codec defaulting to allow multiple default shared libraries.
## Misc. Changes
* Modify configure.ac/CMakeLists.txt to look for the relevant
libraries implementing standard filters.
* Modify libnetcdf.settings to list available standard filters
(including deflate and szip).
* Add CMake test modules to locate libbz2 and libzstd.
* Cleanup the HDF5 memory manager function use in the plugins.
* remove unused file include//ncfilter.h
* remove tests for the HDF5 memory operations e.g. H5allocate_memory.
* Add flag to ncdump to force use of _Filter instead of _Deflate
or _Shuffle or _Fletcher32. Used for testing.
Filter support has three goals:
1. Use the existing HDF5 filter implementations,
2. Allow filter metadata to be stored in the NumCodecs metadata format used by Zarr,
3. Allow filters to be used even when HDF5 is disabled
Detailed usage directions are define in docs/filters.md.
For now, the existing filter API is left in place. So filters
are defined using ''nc_def_var_filter'' using the HDF5 style
where the id and parameters are unsigned integers.
This is a big change since filters affect many parts of the code.
In the following, the terms "compressor" and "filter" and "codec" are generally
used synonomously.
### Filter-Related Changes:
* In order to support dynamic loading of shared filter libraries, a new library was added in the libncpoco directory; it helps to isolate dynamic loading across multiple platforms.
* Provide a json parsing library for use by plugins; this is created by merging libdispatch/ncjson.c with include/ncjson.h.
* Add a new _Codecs attribute to allow clients to see what codecs are being used; let ncdump -s print it out.
* Provide special headers to help support compilation of HDF5 filters when HDF5 is not enabled: netcdf_filter_hdf5_build.h and netcdf_filter_build.h.
* Add a number of new test to test the new nczarr filters.
* Let ncgen parse _Codecs attribute, although it is ignored.
### Plugin directory changes:
* Add support for the Blosc compressor; this is essential because it is the most common compressor used in Zarr datasets. This also necessitated adding a CMake FindBlosc.cmake file
* Add NCZarr support for the big-four filters provided by HDF5: shuffle, fletcher32, deflate (zlib), and szip
* Add a Codec defaulter (see docs/filters.md) for the big four filters.
* Make plugins work with windows by properly adding __declspec declaration.
### Misc. Non-Filter Changes
* Replace most uses of USE_NETCDF4 (deprecated) with USE_HDF5.
* Improve support for caching
* More fixes for path conversion code
* Fix misc. memory leaks
* Add new utility -- ncdump/ncpathcvt -- that does more or less the same thing as cygpath.
* Add a number of new test to test the non-filter fixes.
* Update the parsers
* Convert most instances of '#ifdef _MSC_VER' to '#ifdef _WIN32'
