Command Line: reference

Command Line: introduction
Command Line: basic usage
Command Line: advanced usage
Command Line: argument files
Command Line: reference


Initialising arguments

argument action
‑‑help / -h Display a help statement.
‑‑help‑configHelp for arguments used to configure Jalview from startup
‑‑help‑openingHelp for arguments used to open and format alignments
‑‑help‑structureHelp for arguments used to add and format 3D structure data
‑‑help‑processHelp for arguments used to process an alignment once opened
‑‑help‑outputHelp for arguments used to save data from a processed alignment
‑‑help‑imageHelp for arguments used to export an image of an alignment
‑‑help‑structureimageHelp for arguments used to export an image of an structure
‑‑help‑flowHelp for arguments that control processing of the other arguments
‑‑help‑allHelp for all arguments
‑‑headless Run Jalview in headless mode. In headless mode, no GUI interface will be created and Jalview will quit after all arguments have been processed.
If you use a command line argument to specify an output file of some kind (--output, --image or --structureimage) then headless mode will be assumed. If you don't want this behaviour use --gui.
‑‑gui Force Jalview to run in graphical mode. This can be used to counter the assumption of headless mode when an argument that creates an output file is used. --gui takes precedence over --headless.
‑‑jabaws URL Set a different URL to connect to a JABAWS server.
‑‑news / ‑‑nonews Show (/ or don't show) the news feed.
‑‑splash / ‑‑nosplash Show (/ or don't show) the About Jalview splash screen.
‑‑questionnaire / ‑‑noquestionnaire Show (/ or don't show) the questionnaire if one is available.
‑‑nousagestats Don't send usage stats via Google analytics for this session. Note: usage stats are useful for future funding for Jalview!
‑‑nostartupfile Don't show the default startup file.
‑‑webservicediscovery / ‑‑nowebservicediscovery Attempt (/ or don't attempt) to connect to JABAWS web services.
‑‑props filename Use file filename as the preferences file instead of the usual ~/.jalview_properties file.
‑‑debug Start Jalview in debug log level.
‑‑quiet Stop all output to STDOUT (after the Java Virtual Machine has started). Use ‑‑quiet a second time to stop all output to STDERR.
‑‑jvmmempc=PERCENT Limit maximum heap size (memory) to PERCENT% of total physical memory detected. This defaults to 90 if total physical memory can be detected.
The equals sign ("=") separator must be used with no spaces.
See Memory usage settings for Jalview for more details.
‑‑jvmmemmax=MAXMEMORY Limit maximum heap size (memory) to MAXMEMORY. MAXMEMORY can be specified in bytes, kilobytes(k), megabytes(m), gigabytes(g) or if you're lucky enough, terabytes(t). This defaults to 32g if total physical memory can be detected, or to 8g if total physical memory cannot be detected.
The equals sign ("=") separator must be used with no spaces.
See Memory usage settings for Jalview for more details.

Opening an alignment

argument action sub-value modifiers (optional) linked (optional)
‑‑open filename/URL ... Opens one or more alignment files filename or URLs URL in new alignment windows. colour=name,
title=string,
features=filename,
annotations=filename,
tree=filename,
showannotations,
showssannotations,
sortbytree,
wrap
‑‑append filename/URL ... Appends one or more alignment files filename or URLs URL to the open alignment window (or opens a new alignment if none already open). colour=name,
title=string,
features=filename,
annotations=filename,
tree=filename,
showannotations,
showssannotations,
sortbytree,
wrap
‑‑title "string" Specifies the title for the open alignment window as string.
‑‑colour name Applies the colour scheme name to the open alignment window. Valid values for name include:
clustal,
blosum62,
pc-identity,
zappo,
taylor,
gecos-flower,
gecos-blossom,
gecos-sunset,
gecos-ocean,
hydrophobic,
helix-propensity,
strand-propensity,
turn-propensity,
buried-index,
nucleotide,
nucleotide-ambiguity,
purine-pyrimidine,
rna-helices,
t-coffee-scores,
sequence-id.

Names of user defined schemes will also work, and jalview colour scheme specifications like:
‑‑colour "D,E=red; K,R,H=0022FF; C,c=yellow"
‑‑features filename/URL Add a feature file filename or URL URL to the open alignment.
‑‑tree filename/URL Add a tree file filename or URL URL to the open alignment.
‑‑sortbytree / ‑‑nosortbytree Enforces sorting (or not sorting) the alignment in the order of an attached phylogenetic tree.
‑‑annotations filename/URL Add an annotations file filename or URL URL to the open alignment.
‑‑showannotations / ‑‑noshowannotations Enforces showing (or not showing) alignment annotations.
‑‑wrap / ‑‑nowrap Enforces wrapped (or not wrapped) alignment formatting.
‑‑nostructure Do not open or process any 3D structure in the ‑‑open or ‑‑append files.

Adding 3D structure

argument action sub-value modifiers (optional) linked (optional)
‑‑structure filename/URL Load a structure file filename or URL URL associated with a sequence in the open alignment. The sequence to be associated with can be specified with a following ‑‑seqid argument, or the sub-value modifier seqid=ID can be used. A sub-value INDEX can also be used to specify the INDEX-th sequence in the open alignment. seqid=id or INDEX,
paefile=filename,
tempfac=name,
showssannotations,
structureviewer=name
‑‑seqid ID Specify the sequence name for the preceding ‑‑structure to be associated with.
‑‑paematrix filename Add a PAE json matrix file filename to the preceding ‑‑structure.
‑‑tempfac name Set the type of temperature factor. Valid values for name are:
default,
plddt
‑‑structureviewer name Set the structure viewer to use to open the 3d structure file specified in previous ‑‑structure to name. Valid values of name are:
none,
jmol,
chimera - requires installation, might need configuring in Preferences,
chimerax - requires installation, might need configuring in Preferences,
pymol - requires installation, might need configuring in Preferences
‑‑showssannotations / ‑‑noshowssannotations Do not show secondary structure annotations for the preceding ‑‑structure
‑‑close Close the open alignment window. This occurs after other output, processing and image export arguments. This applies to the current open alignment -- to apply to all ‑‑output and ‑‑image files, use after ‑‑all.

Processing alignments

argument action sub-value modifiers (optional) linked (optional)
‑‑groovy filename Process a groovy script in the file for the open alignment.

Outputting alignment files

argument action sub-value modifiers (optional) linked (optional)
‑‑output filename Export the open alignment to file filename. The format name is specified by the sub-value modifier format=name, a following ‑‑format name argument or guessed from the file extension. Valid format names (and file extensions) are:
fasta (fa, fasta, mfa, fastq),
pfam (pfam),
stockholm (sto, stk),
pir (pir),
blc (blc),
amsa (amsa),
json (json),
pileup (pileup),
msf (msf),
clustal (aln),
phylip (phy),
jalview (jvp, jar).
format=name
‑‑format name Sets the format for the preceding ‑‑output file. Valid formats are:
fasta,
pfam,
stockholm,
pir,
blc,
amsa,
json,
pileup,
msf,
clustal,
phylip,
jalview.
‑‑backups / ‑‑nobackups Enable (or disable) writing backup files when saving an ‑‑output file. This applies to the current open alignment -- to apply to all ‑‑output and ‑‑image files, use after ‑‑all.
‑‑overwrite / ‑‑nooverwrite Enable (or disable) overwriting of output files without backups enabled. This applies to the current open alignment -- to apply to all ‑‑output and ‑‑image files, use after ‑‑all.

Exporting image files

argument action sub-value modifiers (optional) linked (optional)
‑‑image filename Output an image of the open alignment window. Format is specified by the sub-value modifier, a following ‑‑type argument or guessed from the file extension. Valid formats/extensions are:
svg,
png,
eps,
html,
biojs.
type=name, textrenderer=name, scale=number, width=number, height=number
‑‑type name Set the image format for the preceding ‑‑image to name. Valid values for name are:
svg,
png,
eps,
html,
biojs.
‑‑textrenderer name Sets whether text in a vector image format (SVG, HTML, EPS) should be rendered as text or vector line-art. Valid values for name are:
text,
lineart.
‑‑scale number Sets a scaling for bitmap image format (PNG). Should be given as a floating point number. This can also be set as a sub-value modifier to the --image value. If used in conjunction with --width and --height then the smallest scaling will be used (scale, width and height provide bounds for the image).
‑‑width number Sets a width for bitmap image format (PNG) with the height maintaining the aspect ratio. Should be given as a positive integer. This can also be set as a sub-value modifier to the --image value. If used in conjunction with --scale and --height then the smallest scaling will be used (scale, width and height provide bounds for the image).
‑‑height number Sets a height for bitmap image format (PNG) with the width maintaining the aspect ratio. Should be given as a positive integer. This can also be set as a sub-value modifier to the --image value. If used in conjunction with --scale and --width then the smallest scaling will be used (scale, width and height provide bounds for the image).
‑‑groovy filename Process a groovy script in the file for the open alignment.

Exporting 3D structure image files (jmol only)

argument action sub-value modifiers (optional) linked (optional)
‑‑structureimage filename Export an image of a 3D structure opened in JMOL. Image formats can be:
svg,
png,
eps.
structureimagetype=name, structureimagetextrenderer=name, structureimagescale=number, structureimagewidth=number, structureimageheight=number
‑‑structureimagetype name Set the structure image format for the preceding --structureimage. Valid values are:
svg,
png,
eps.
‑‑structureimagetextrenderer name Sets whether text in a vector structure image format (SVG, EPS) should be rendered as text or vector line-art. Possible values are:
text,
lineart.
‑‑structureimagescale number Sets a scaling for bitmap structure image format (PNG). Should be given as a floating point number. If used in conjunction with --structureimagewidth and --structureimageheight then the smallest scaling will be used (structureimagescale, structureimagewidth and structureimageheight provide bounds for the structure image).
‑‑structureimagewidth number Sets a width for bitmap structure image format (PNG) with the height maintaining the aspect ratio. Should be given as a positive integer. If used in conjunction with --structureimagescale and --structureimageheight then the smallest scaling will be used (structureimagescale, structureimagewidth and structureimageheight provide bounds for the structure image).
‑‑structureimageheight number Sets a height for bitmap structure image format (PNG) with the width maintaining the aspect ratio. Should be given as a positive integer. If used in conjunction with --structureimagescale and --structureimagewidth then the smallest scaling will be used (structureimagescale, structureimagewidth and structureimageheight provide bounds for the structure image).

Controlling flow of arguments

argument action
‑‑new Move on to a new alignment window. This will ensure ‑‑append will start a new alignment window and other linked arguments will apply to the new alignment window.
Note that --open already starts a new alignment window for each file it opens.
‑‑substitutions / ‑‑nosubstitutions The following argument values allow (or don't allow) subsituting filename parts. This is initially true. Valid substitutions are {basename} - the filename-without-extension of the currently ‑‑opened file (or first ‑‑appended file),
{dirname}, - the directory (folder) name of the currently ‑‑opened file (or first ‑‑appended file),
{argfilebasename} - the filename-without-extension of the current ‑‑argfile,
{argfiledirname} - the directory (folder) name of the current ‑‑argfile,
{n} - the value of the index counter (starting at 0).
{++n} - increase and substitute the value of the index counter,
{} - the value of the current alignment window default index.
‑‑argfile filename Open one or more files filename and read, line-by-line, as arguments to Jalview.
Values in an argfile should be given with an equals sign ("=") separator with no spaces.
Note that if you use one or more ‑‑argfile arguments then all other non-initialising arguments will be ignored.
‑‑npp Increase the index counter used in argument value substitutions.
‑‑all / ‑‑noall Apply (or stop applying) the following output arguments to all sets of linked arguments.
‑‑allstructures / ‑‑noallstructures Apply (or stop applying) the following 3D structure formatting arguments to all structures within the current open alignment. Whilst --allstructures will continue to operate for a --new alignment, the structure formatting arguments must be set again for each new alignment.
‑‑quit After all files have been opened, appended and output, quit Jalview. In ‑‑headless mode this already happens.