Description:

In the current octave version, 4.4.0-1 the hdf5 headers used for compilation is on version 1.10.1 but the currently packaged version of hdf5 / hdf5-openmpi is 1.10.2. An error occurs when using using commands in octave to load files of type .mat (v7.3)

Steps to reproduce:

$ octave-cli
(...)
octave:1> data = load('matfile.mat');
Warning! ***HDF5 library version mismatched error***
The HDF5 header files used to compile this application do not match
the version used by the HDF5 library to which this application is linked.
Data corruption or segmentation faults may occur if the application continues.
This can happen when an application was compiled by one version of HDF5 but
linked with a different version of static or shared HDF5 library.
You should recompile the application or check your shared library related
settings such as 'LD_LIBRARY_PATH'.
You can, at your own risk, disable this warning by setting the environment
variable 'HDF5_DISABLE_VERSION_CHECK' to a value of '1'.
Setting it to 2 or higher will suppress the warning messages totally.
Headers are 1.10.1, library is 1.10.2
SUMMARY OF THE HDF5 CONFIGURATION
=================================

General Information:
-------------------
HDF5 Version: 1.10.2
Configured on: Wed May 23 16:18:18 CEST 2018
Configured by: builduser@
Host system: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
Uname information: Linux archange 4.16.10-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon May 21 07:57:23 UTC 2018 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Byte sex: little-endian
Installation point: /usr

Compiling Options:
------------------
Build Mode: production
Debugging Symbols: no
Asserts: no
Profiling: no
Optimization Level: high

Linking Options:
----------------
Libraries: shared
Statically Linked Executables:
LDFLAGS: -Wl,-O1,--sort-common,--as-needed,-z,relro,-z,now
H5_LDFLAGS:
AM_LDFLAGS:
Extra libraries: -lsz -lz -ldl -lm
Archiver: ar
AR_FLAGS: cr
Ranlib: ranlib

Languages:
----------
C: yes
C Compiler: /usr/bin/mpicc ( built with gcc version 8.1.0 (GCC))
CPPFLAGS: -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2
H5_CPPFLAGS: -D_GNU_SOURCE -D_POSIX_C_SOURCE=200112L -DNDEBUG -UH5_DEBUG_API
AM_CPPFLAGS:
C Flags: -march=x86-64 -mtune=generic -O2 -pipe -fstack-protector-strong -fno-plt
H5 C Flags: -std=c99 -pedantic -Wall -Wextra -Wbad-function-cast -Wc++-compat -Wcast-align -Wcast-qual -Wconversion -Wdeclaration-after-statement -Wdisabled-optimization -Wfloat-equal -Wformat=2 -Winit-self -Winvalid-pch -Wmissing-declarations -Wmissing-include-dirs -Wmissing-prototypes -Wnested-externs -Wold-style-definition -Wpacked -Wpointer-arith -Wredundant-decls -Wshadow -Wstrict-prototypes -Wswitch-default -Wswitch-enum -Wundef -Wunused-macros -Wunsafe-loop-optimizations -Wwrite-strings -finline-functions -s -Wno-inline -Wno-aggregate-return -Wno-missing-format-attribute -Wno-missing-noreturn -O
AM C Flags:
Shared C Library: yes
Static C Library: no


Fortran: yes
Fortran Compiler: /usr/bin/mpif90 ( built with gcc version 8.1.0 (GCC))
Fortran Flags:
H5 Fortran Flags: -pedantic -Wall -Wextra -Wunderflow -Wimplicit-interface -Wsurprising -Wno-c-binding-type -s -O2
AM Fortran Flags:
Shared Fortran Library: yes
Static Fortran Library: no

C++: yes
C++ Compiler: /usr/bin/mpicxx ( built with gcc version 8.1.0 (GCC))
C++ Flags: -march=x86-64 -mtune=generic -O2 -pipe -fstack-protector-strong -fno-plt
H5 C++ Flags: -pedantic -Wall -W -Wundef -Wshadow -Wpointer-arith -Wcast-qual -Wcast-align -Wwrite-strings -Wconversion -Wredundant-decls -Winline -Wsign-promo -Woverloaded-virtual -Wold-style-cast -Weffc++ -Wreorder -Wnon-virtual-dtor -Wctor-dtor-privacy -Wabi -finline-functions -s -O
AM C++ Flags:
Shared C++ Library: yes
Static C++ Library: no

Java: no


Features:
---------
Parallel HDF5: yes
High-level library: yes
Threadsafety: no
Default API mapping: v110
With deprecated public symbols: yes
I/O filters (external): deflate(zlib),szip(encoder)
MPE:
Direct VFD: no
dmalloc: no
Packages w/ extra debug output: none
API tracing: no
Using memory checker: no
Memory allocation sanity checks: no
Metadata trace file: no
Function stack tracing: no
Strict file format checks: no
Optimization instrumentation: no
Bye...
fatal: caught signal Aborted -- stopping myself...
Aborted (core dumped)

Additional info:
Octave version 4.4.0-1

Workaround:
as described in the warning, "You can, at your own risk, disable this warning by setting the environment
variable 'HDF5_DISABLE_VERSION_CHECK' to a value of '1'."

$ env HDF5_DISABLE_VERSION_CHECK=1 octave-cli