Installation

Prerequisites

The most recent zarrs requires Rust version msrv or newer.

You can check your current Rust version by running:

rustc --version

If you don’t have Rust installed, follow the official Rust installation guide.

Some optional zarrs codecs require:

The CMake build system.
The Clang compiler.

These are typically available through package managers on Linux, Homebrew on Mac, etc.

Adding `zarrs` to Your Rust Library/Application

zarrs is a Rust library. To use it as a dependency in your Rust project, add it to your Cargo.toml file:

[dependencies]
zarrs = "18.0" # Replace with the latest version

The latest version is . See crates.io for a full list of versions.

To use the latest development release:

[dependencies]
zarrs = { git = "https://github.com/LDeakin/zarrs.git" }

The Cargo reference has more information on git repository dependencies.

zarrs has a number of features for stores, codecs, or APIs, many of which are enabled by default. The below example demonstrates how to disable default features and explicitly enable required features:

[dependencies.zarrs]
version = "18.0"
default-features = false
features = ["filesystem", "blosc"]

See zarrs (docs.rs) - Crate Features for an up-to-date list of all available features.

`zarrs` Crates

Some zarrs functionality (e.g. additional stores, bindings, etc.) are in separate crates.

graph LR
    subgraph Core
        zarrs_metadata[zarrs_metadata <br> zarrs::metadata] --> zarrs
        zarrs_storage[zarrs_storage <br> zarrs::storage] --> zarrs
    end
    subgraph Stores
        direction LR
        zarrs_filesystem[zarrs_filesystem <br> zarrs::filesystem]
        zarrs_object_store
        zarrs_opendal
        zarrs_http
        zarrs_icechunk
        zarrs_zip
    end
    Stores --> zarrs_storage
    subgraph Bindings
        direction LR
        zarrs_ffi
        zarrs-python
    end
    zarrs --> Bindings
    subgraph CLI Tools
    zarrs --> zarrs_tools
    end
    subgraph metadata_conventions[Zarr Metadata Conventions]
    ome_zarr_metadata --> zarrs_tools
    end

Core Crates

`zarrs`

The core library for manipulating Zarr hierarchies.

`zarrs_metadata`

Provides Zarr V2 and V3 metadata serialisation and deserialisation.

If you are just interested in manipulating Zarr metadata, this crate may be relevant.

note

This crate is re-exported in zarrs as zarrs::metadata.

`zarrs_storage`

The storage API for zarrs.

Custom store implementations only need to depend on zarrs_storage.

note

This crate is re-exported in zarrs as zarrs::storage.

Store Crates

The Stores chapter details the various types of stores and their associated crates.

Bindings

`zarrs_ffi`

A subset of zarrs exposed as a C/C++ API.

This crate is detailed in the C/C++ Bindings chapter.

`zarrs-python`

A CodecPipeline for the zarr Python reference implementation that uses zarrs.

This crate is detailed in the Python Bindings chapter.

CLI Tools

`zarrs_tools`

Various tools for creating and manipulating Zarr v3 data with the zarrs rust crate.

This crate is detailed in the zarrs_tools chapter.

Zarr Metadata Conventions

`ome_zarr_metadata`

A Rust library for OME-Zarr (previously OME-NGFF) metadata.

OME-Zarr, formerly known as OME-NGFF (Open Microscopy Environment Next Generation File Format), is a specification designed to support modern scientific imaging needs. It is widely used in microscopy, bioimaging, and other scientific fields requiring high-dimensional data management, visualisation, and analysis.

The zarrs Book