the header of SAM and BAM missing

[dongshenglulv]

Hi

I use the soap2sam.pl to convert the soap file file.soap to file.sam, but the header in file.sam is missing, so I have to add the header to the file.sam. When I convert this file.sam to file.bam, the header in file.bam is missing again. I don't know why.

[doc.ramses]

Using the latest samtools (0.1.16) with samtools view -bS <in.sam> <out.bam> should write you a bam file with a header.

[dongshenglulv]

Actually I did. I'm using the samtools (0.1.16),
Here is my command line,

$ samtools view -bt hg19.fa.fai unsorted.sam -o unsorted.bam
note that the unsorted.sam has no header @SQ

then I tried this,
$ samtools view -hbt hg19.fa.fai unsorted.sam -o unsorted.bam
the -h can include the header in the output

but I failed to merge the header into unsorted.bam

[krinard]

Perhaps you could try this approach, although it doesn't resolve the reason why you are losing your header.

1) Get the header from your sam file by doing (although you have this header already, I believe)

samtools view -HS <yourfile.sam> > <yourheader.sam>

2) Then reheader your bam file:

samtools reheader <yourheader.sam> <yourfile.bam>

where yourfile.bam is the bam file lacking the header

[dongshenglulv]

Thanks very much, it's solved

[phatjoe]

Hi,

I am currently facing the same problem with soap2sam.pl as well. I've actually tried this

samtools faidx reference.fa
samtools view -bt reference.fa.fai aln.sam >aln.bam

The conversion from sam <-->bam went fine,somehow when when I ran the mpileup |bcftools commands I couldnt manage to get anything in my *.vcf file.

I am trying the alternative as mentioned by krinard. When I ran

samtools view -HS test.sam > header_test.sam

samtools outputs this
[samopen] no @SQ lines in the header.

Am I missing something here? I am currently using samtools 0.1.17 (r973:277) though.

Any help will be much appreciated!