## General Properties

  Property | Value    | Description
 ----------|----------|------------
 LOGGING   | on/[off] | enable/disable logging of field input/output
 LOWER_CASE_VARIABLE_NAMES | [on]/off | Convert all variable names on database to lowercase; replace ' ' with '_'
 USE_GENERIC_CANONICAL_NAMES | on/[off]  | use `block_{id}` as canonical name of an element block instead of the name (if any) stored on the database. The database name will be an alias.
 ENABLE_FIELD_RECOGNITION | [on]/off | try to combine scalar fields with common basename and recognized suffix into vector, tensor, ...
 FIELD_SUFFIX_SEPARATOR  | character ['_'] | use this suffix as separtor between field basename and suffices when recognizing fields
 MINIMIZE_OPEN_FILES | on/[off] | If on, then close file after each timestep and then reopen on next output

## Auto-Decomposition-Related Properties
 
 Property        | Value  | Description
-----------------|--------|-----------------------------------------------------------
MODEL_DECOMPOSITION_METHOD | {method} | Decompose a DB with type `MODEL` using `method`
RESTART_DECOMPOSITION_METHOD | {method} | Decompose a DB with type `RESTART_IN` using `method`
DECOMPOSITION_METHOD | {method} | Decompose all input DB using `method`
PARALLEL_CONSISTENCY | [on]/off | On if the client will call Ioss functions consistently on all processors. If off, then the auto-decomp and auto-join cannot be used.
RETAIN_FREE_NODES | [on]/off | In auto-decomp, will nodes not connected to any elements be retained. 
LOAD_BALANCE_THRESHOLD | {real} [1.4] | CGNS-Structured only -- Load imbalance permitted Load on Proc / Avg Load

### Valid values for Decomposition Method

Method     | Description
------------|-------------------
rcb        | recursive coordinate bisection
rib        | recursive inertial bisection
hsfc       | hilbert space-filling curve 
metis_sfc  | metis space-filling-curve 
kway       | metis kway graph-based 
kway_geom  | metis kway graph-based method with geometry speedup
linear     | elements in order first n/p to proc 0, next to proc 1.
cyclic     | elements handed out to id % proc_count
random     | elements assigned randomly to processors in a way that preserves balance (do not use for a real run)
external   | Files are decomposed externally into a file-per-processor in a parallel run.

## Output File Composition -- Single File output from parallel run instead of file-per-processor 

 Property        | Value  | Description
-----------------|--------|-----------------------------------------------------------
COMPOSE_RESTART  | on/[off] |
COMPOSE_RESULTS  | on/[off] |
PARALLEL_IO_MODE | mpiio, pnetcdf |

## Properties Related to byte size of reals and integers 
 
 Property              | Value  | Description
-----------------------|--------|-----------------------------------------------------------
 INTEGER_SIZE_DB       | [4] / 8 | byte size of integers stored on the database.
 INTEGER_SIZE_API      | [4] / 8 | byte size of integers used in api functions.
 REAL_SIZE_DB          | 4 / [8] | byte size of floating point stored on the database.
 REAL_SIZE_API         | 4 / [8] | byte size of floating point used in api functions.

## Properties related to underlying file type (exodus only) 
 
 Property              | Value  | Description
-----------------------|--------|-----------------------------------------------------------
  FILE_TYPE            | [netcdf], netcdf4, netcdf-4, hdf5 |
 COMPRESSION_LEVEL     | [0]-9    | In the range [0..9]. A value of 0 indicates no compression, will automatically set `file_type=netcdf4`, recommend <=4
 COMPRESSION_SHUFFLE   | on/[off] |to enable/disable hdf5's shuffle compression algorithm.
 MAXIMUM_NAME_LENGTH   | [32]     | Maximum length of names that will be returned/passed via api call.
 APPEND_OUTPUT         | on/[off] | Append output to end of existing output database
 APPEND_OUTPUT_AFTER_STEP | {step}| Max step to read from an input db or a db being appended to (typically used with APPEND_OUTPUT)
 APPEND_OUTPUT_AFTER_TIME | {time}| Max time to read from an input db or a db being appended to (typically used with APPEND_OUTPUT)

## Properties for the heartbeat output 
 Property              | Value  | Description
-----------------------|--------|-----------------------------------------------------------
  FLUSH_INTERVAL       | int   | Minimum time interval between flushing heartbeat data to disk.  Default is 10 seconds
  TIME_STAMP_FORMAT    | [%H:%M:%S] | Format used to format time stamp.  See strftime man page
  SHOW_TIME_STAMP      | on/off | Should the output lines be preceded by the timestamp
  PRECISION            | 0..16 [5] | Precision used for floating point output.
  FIELD_WIDTH          | 0.. |  Width of an output field. If 0, then use natural width.
  SHOW_LABELS          | on/[off]  | Should each field be preceded by its name (ke=1.3e9, ie=2.0e9)
  SHOW_LEGEND          | [on]/off  | Should a legend be printed at the beginning of the output showing the field names for each column of data.
  SHOW_TIME_FIELD      | on/[off]  | Should the current analysis time be output as the first field.


## Experimental 

 Property              | Value  | Description
-----------------------|--------|-----------------------------------------------------------
MEMORY_READ        | on/[off]   | experimental
MEMORY_WRITE       | on/[off]   | experimental
ENABLE_FILE_GROUPS | on/[off]   | experimental

## Debugging / Profiling

  Property | Value    | Description
 ----------|----------|------------
 LOGGING   | on/[off] | enable/disable logging of field input/output
 DECOMP_SHOW_PROGRESS | on/[off] | show memory and elapsed time during autodecomp.
 DECOMP_SHOW_HWM      | on/[off] | show high-water memory during autodecomp
 IOSS_TIME_FILE_OPEN_CLOSE | on/[off] | show elapsed time during parallel-io file open/close/create
 CHECK_PARALLEL_CONSISTENCY | ignored | check Ioss::GroupingEntity parallel consistency