[maker-devel] BLAST options error / should Maker check for file format?

[Malte Petersen]

Dear MAKER devs,

I was running Maker version 2.30p-beta on an insect genome, and it
didn't produce any output. I got these error messages:


Widget::formater:
/path/to/makeblastdb -dbtype nucl -in
/tmp/maker_wwA6WO/0/blastprep/120215_I277_FCD0KP1ACXX_L7_INSjdsTAURAAPEI-62_e3%2Escaf.mpi.10.0
#-------------------------------#
BLAST options error: File
/tmp/maker_wwA6WO/0/blastprep/120215_I277_FCD0KP1ACXX_L7_INSjdsTAURAAPEI-62_e3%2Escaf.mpi.10.0
is empty
ERROR: /path/to/makeblastdb failed in Widget::formater
--> rank=NA, hostname=Jeanne-GBR
ERROR: Failed while doing blastn of ESTs
ERROR: Chunk failed at level:0, tier_type:3
FAILED CONTIG:scf7180005143343

ERROR: Chunk failed at level:4, tier_type:0
FAILED CONTIG:scf7180005143343


I figured out that this error is due to a non-Fasta file format being
fed to Maker as extrinsic evidence (I gave it a meta-info file).  While
I got the pipeline running now with the correct file, I think that it
should be complaining (a lot earlier) if any of the input files are of
the wrong format.  More people might run into this problem and have no
idea where to look for a solution.

What do you think?

Best,
Malte