BWA Compression

[desmo]

Hi everybody,
I would like to save each aligned reads in my database using the Bam compression scheme. Does anyone can give me some reference where I can find how exactly bam compression works? Thanks in advance

[gaffa]

For starters you can have a look at the end of the SAM specification: samtools.sourceforge.net/SAM1.pdf

[maubp]

The short answer is BAM is a binary version of SAM, and is compressed using a variation of the general purpose compression library/format GZIP.