Command Line Interface¶
General Description¶
Each analysis type presented in QualiMap GUI is also available as command line tool. The common pattern to launch the tool is the following:
qualimap <tool_name> <tool_options>
<tool_name> is the name of the desired analysis. This could be: bamqc, rnaseq, multi-bamqc, counts, clustering or comp-counts.
<tool_options> are specific to each type analysis. If not option is provided for the specific tool a full list of available options will be shown
Note
If you are using Qualimap on Unix server without X11 system, make sure that the DISPLAY environment variable is unset. Otherwise this might result in problems when running Qualimap. Here is an instruction how to solve this issue.
To show available tools use command:
qualimap --help
There are certain options that are common to most of the command line tools:
-outdir <arg> Output folder for HTML report and raw
data.
-outfile <arg> Output file for PDF report (default value
is report.pdf).
-outformat <arg> Format of the ouput report (PDF or HTML,
default is HTML).
These options allow to confugre output of Qualimap. -outdir option sets the output folder for HTML report and raw data:
qualimap bamqc -bam file.bam -outdir qualimap_results
If the -outfile option is given then the output will be produced in PDF format. In this case -outdir option controls only the path to raw data.
Example:
qualimap bamqc -bam file.bam -outfile result.pdf
It is also possible to explictily set output format by using option -outformat. In this case report will be saved in the output dir under default name.
Example:
qualimap bamqc -bam file.bam -outdir qualimap_results -outformat pdf
Additionally each tool has its own defaults for output directory name. Check tools’ description for details.
BAM QC¶
The following command allows to perform BAM QC analysis:
usage: qualimap bamqc -bam <arg> [-c] [-gd <arg>] [-gff <arg>] [-hm <arg>] [-nr
<arg>] [-nt <arg>] [-nw <arg>] [-oc <arg>] [-os] [-outdir <arg>]
[-outfile <arg>] [-outformat <arg>] [-p <arg>]
-bam <arg> Input mapping file in BAM format
-c,--paint-chromosome-limits Paint chromosome limits inside charts
-cl,--cov-hist-lim <arg> Upstream limit for targeted per-bin
coverage histogram (default is 50X)
-dl,--dup-rate-lim <arg> Upstream limit for duplication rate
historgram (default is 50)
-gd,--genome-gc-distr <arg> Species to compare with genome GC
distribution. Possible values: HUMAN or
MOUSE.
-gff,--feature-file <arg> Feature file with regions of interest in
GFF/GTF or BED format
-hm <arg> Minimum size for a homopolymer to be
considered in indel analysis (default is
3)
-ip,--collect-overlap-pairs Activate this option to collect statistics
of overlapping paired-end reads
-nr <arg> Number of reads analyzed in a chunk
(default is 1000)
-nt <arg> Number of threads (default is 8)
-nw <arg> Number of windows (default is 400)
-oc,--output-genome-coverage <arg> File to save per base non-zero coverage.
Warning: large files are expected for large
genomes
-os,--outside-stats Report information for the regions outside
those defined by feature-file (ignored
when -gff option is not set)
-outdir <arg> Output folder for HTML report and raw
data.
-outfile <arg> Output file for PDF report (default value
is report.pdf).
-outformat <arg> Format of the ouput report (PDF or HTML,
default is HTML).
-p,--sequencing-protocol <arg> Sequencing library protocol:
strand-specific-forward,
strand-specific-reverse or
non-strand-specific (default)
-sd,--skip-duplicated Activate this option to skip duplicate
alignments from the analysis. If the
duplicates are not flagged in BAM file,
then they will be detected by Qualimap
and can be selected for skipping.
-sdmode,--skip-dup-mode <arg> Specific type of duplicated alignments to
skip (if this option is activated).
0 : only flagged duplicates (default)
1 : only estimated by Qualimap
2 : both flagged and estimated
The only required parameter is bam – the input mapping file.
If outdir is not provided, it will be created automatically in the same folder where BAM file is located.
Detailed explanation of available options can be found here.
Example (data available here):
qualimap bamqc -bam ERR089819.bam -c
RNA-seq QC¶
To perform RNA-seq QC analysis use the following command:
usage: qualimap rnaseq [-a <arg>] -bam <arg> -gtf <arg> [-oc <arg>] [-outdir
<arg>] [-outfile <arg>] [-outformat <arg>] [-p <arg>]
-a,--algorithm <arg> Counting algorithm:
uniquely-mapped-reads(default) or
proportional.
-bam <arg> Input mapping file in BAM format.
-gtf <arg> Annotations file in Ensembl GTF format.
-npb,--num-pr-bases <arg> Number of upstream/downstream nucleotide bases
to compute 5'-3' bias (default is 100).
-ntb,--num-tr-bias <arg> Number of top highly expressed transcripts to
compute 5'-3' bias (default is 1000).
-oc <arg> Path to output computed counts.
-outdir <arg> Output folder for HTML report and raw data.
-outfile <arg> Output file for PDF report (default value is
report.pdf).
-outformat <arg> Format of the ouput report (PDF or HTML,
default is HTML).
-p,--sequencing-protocol <arg> Sequencing library protocol:
strand-specific-forward,
strand-specific-reverse or non-strand-specific
(default)
-pe,--paired Setting this flag for paired-end experiments
will result in counting fragments instead of
reads.
-s,--sorted This flag indicates that the input file is
already sorted by name. If not set, additional
sorting by name will be performed. Only
required for paired-end analysis.
The required parameteres for this type of analysis are the spliced-alignment file in BAM format and annotations in GTF format.
Detailed explanation of available options can be found here.
Example (data available here):
qualimap rnaseq -bam kidney.bam -gtf human.64.gtf -outdir rnaseq_qc_results
Multi-sample BAM QC¶
To perform multi-sample BAM QC use the following command:
usage: qualimap multi-bamqc [-c] -d <arg> [-gff <arg>] [-hm <arg>] [-nr <arg>]
[-nw <arg>] [-outdir <arg>] [-outfile <arg>] [-outformat <arg>] [-r]
-c,--paint-chromosome-limits Only for -r mode. Paint chromosome limits inside
charts
-d,--data <arg> File describing the input data. Format of the
file is a 2-column tab-delimited table.
Column 1: sample name
Column 2: either path to the BAM QC result or
path to BAM file (-r mode)
-gff,--feature-file <arg> Only for -r mode. Feature file with regions of
interest in GFF/GTF or BED format
-hm <arg> Only for -r mode. Minimum size for a homopolymer
to be considered in indel analysis (default is
3)
-nr <arg> Only for -r mode. Number of reads analyzed in a
chunk (default is 1000)
-nw <arg> Only for -r mode. Number of windows (default is
400)
-outdir <arg> Output folder for HTML report and raw data.
-outfile <arg> Output file for PDF report (default value is
report.pdf).
-outformat <arg> Format of the ouput report (PDF or HTML, default
is HTML).
-r,--run-bamqc Raw BAM files are provided as input. If this
option is activated BAM QC process first will be
run for each sample, then multi-sample analysis
will be performed.
The main argument for this command is the configuration file describing input data (-d). This has to be a 2- or 3-column tab-delimted file. The first column should contain the sample name and the second column should contain either path to the results of BAM QC analysis or path to the BAM file (if -r mode is activated). The path for the data could be absolute or relative to the location of the configuration file. Additionally the third optional column can provide the condition of the sample. This is an optional column. However, if conditions are available they should be provided for each sample.
Here’s an example of configuration file describing samples with conditions:
sample_1 sample_1_stats group_1
sample_2 sample_2_stats group_1
sample_3 sample_3_stats group_1
sample_4 sample_4_stats group_2
sample_5 sample_5_stats group_2
sample_6 sample_6_stats group_2
Detailed explanation of the analysis can be found here here.
Example (data available here):
unzip gh2ax_chip_seq.zip
cd gh2ax_chip_seq.txt
qualimap multi-bamqc -i gh2ax_chip_seq.txt -outdir gh2ax_multibamqc
Counts QC¶
To perform counts QC analysis use the following command:
usage: qualimap counts [-c] -d <arg> [-i <arg>] [-k <arg>] [-outdir <arg>]
[-outfile <arg>] [-outformat <arg>] [-R <arg>] [-s <arg>]
-c,--compare Perform comparison of conditions. Currently 2 maximum
is possible.
-d,--data <arg> File describing the input data. Format of the file is
a 4 column tab-delimited table.
Column 1: sample name
Column 2: condition of the sample
Column 3: path to the counts data for the sample
Column 4: index of the column with counts
-i,--info <arg> Path to info file containing genes GC-content, length
and type.
-k,--threshold <arg> Threshold for the number of counts
-outdir <arg> Output folder for HTML report and raw data.
-outfile <arg> Output file for PDF report (default value is
report.pdf).
-outformat <arg> Format of the ouput report (PDF or HTML, default is
HTML).
-R,--rscriptpath <arg> Path to Rscript executable (by default it is assumed
to be available from system $PATH)
-s,--species <arg> Use built-in info file for the given species: HUMAN or
MOUSE.
The main argument for this command is the configuration file describing the input samples (-d). This has to be a 4-column tab-delimited file. The first column should contain the name of the sample, the second - name of the biological condition (e.g treated or untreated), the third - path to the file containing counts data for the sample and the fourth - the index of the column in the data file which contains counts. This is useful when counts for all samples are contained in the one file, but in different columns.
Detailed explanation of the analysis can be found here.
Example. Note: requires counts file mouse_counts_ensembl.txt (data available here):
qualimap counts -d GlcN_countsqc_input.txt -c -s mouse -outdir glcn_mice_counts
Clustering¶
To perform clustering of epigenomic signals use the following command:
usage: qualimap clustering [-b <arg>] [-c <arg>] -control <arg> [-expr <arg>]
[-f <arg>] [-l <arg>] [-name <arg>] [-outdir <arg>] [-outformat <arg>]
[-r <arg>] -regions <arg> -sample <arg> [-viz <arg>]
-b,--bin-size <arg> size of the bin (default is 100)
-c,--clusters <arg> comma-separated list of cluster sizes
-control <arg> comma-separated list of control BAM files
-expr <arg> name of the experiment
-f,--fragment-length <arg> smoothing length of a fragment
-l <arg> upstream offset (default is 2000)
-name <arg> comma-separated names of the replicates
-outdir <arg> output folder
-outformat <arg> output report format (PDF or HTML, default is
HTML)
-r <arg> downstream offset (default is 500)
-regions <arg> path to regions file
-sample <arg> comma-separated list of sample BAM files
-viz <arg> visualization type: heatmap or line
Detailed explanation of available options can be found here.
Example (data available here):
qualimap clustering -sample clustering/hmeDIP.bam -control clustering/input.bam -regions annotations/transcripts.human.64.bed -outdir clustering_result
Compute counts¶
To compute counts from mapping data use the following command:
usage: qualimap comp-counts [-a <arg>] -bam <arg> -gtf <arg> [-id <arg>] [-out
<arg>] [-p <arg>] [-pe] [-s <arg>] [-type <arg>]
-a,--algorithm <arg> Counting algorithm:
uniquely-mapped-reads(default) or proportional
-bam <arg> Mapping file in BAM format
-gtf <arg> Region file in GTF, GFF or BED format. If GTF
format is provided, counting is based on
attributes, otherwise based on feature name
-id <arg> GTF-specific. Attribute of the GTF to be used
as feature ID. Regions with the same ID will
be aggregated as part of the same feature.
Default: gene_id.
-out <arg> Path to output file
-p,--sequencing-protocol <arg> Sequencing library protocol:
strand-specific-forward,
strand-specific-reverse or non-strand-specific
(default)
-pe,--paired Setting this flag for paired-end experiments
will result in counting fragments instead of
reads
-s,--sorted <arg> This flag indicates that the input file is
already sorted by name. If not set, additional
sorting by name will be performed. Only
required for paired-end analysis.
-type <arg> GTF-specific. Value of the third column of the
GTF considered for counting. Other types will
be ignored. Default: exon
Detailed explanation of available options can be found here.
Example (data available here):
qualimap comp-counts -bam kidney.bam -gtf ../annotations/human.64.gtf -out kidney.counts