fastqutils / bfq

Converts to/from BFQ (binary-compressed FASTQ format)

This stores the name/seq/qual information for a FASTQ file in a highly compact
binary format. This stores the sequence + qual in an 8-bit encoded format. It
can store more than one sequence+qual fragments for each read, meaning that it
efficiently deals with paired-end data (with support for upto 256 fragments).

To save paired end data, include one file for each fragment, or use a single
FASTQ file with one record for each fragment (consecuatively using the same
name for each fragment).

BFQ also compresses the read data with zlib, so it is very compact. (This can
be turned off for faster processing).

Finally, the file includes an MD5 checksum at the end so that file integrity
be confirmed at any point.

Usage: fastqutils bfq {opts} infile1.fastq {infile2.fastq ... }
       fastqutils bfq -d {opts} filename.bfq
       fastqutils bfq -t filename.bfq

Options:
    -d              Decode BFQ file to stdout in FASTQ format (one-file)
    -t              Test file integrity
    -i              Display information about the file and fragments

    -h              Display this message

Encoding options:
    -c              Output to stdout
    -f              Force overwriting existing files
    -fn             Include a name for a fragment (there can be as
                    many of these are there are fragments)
    -desc text      Include a description of the file
    -descf fname    The contents of the file fname will be used as the
                    description (this can be a binary file)
    -nc             Disable compression
    -o fname        Name of the output file
                    (defaults to input filename.bfq)
    -q              Quiet (no progress bar)

Decoding options:
    -desc           Extract the description only (to stdout)