---
name: "htsfile"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "tabix"
version: "1.21+ds-1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/htsfile"
---

# htsfile(1)

identify high-throughput sequencing data files

## NAME

htsfile - identify high-throughput sequencing data files

## SYNOPSIS

**htsfile** \[**-chHv**\] *FILE*...\
 **htsfile --copy** \[**-v**\] *FILE DESTFILE*

## DESCRIPTION

The **htsfile** utility attempts to identify what kind of high-throughput sequencing data files the specified files are, and provides minimal viewing capabilities for some kinds of data file.

It can identify sequencing data files such as SAM, BAM, and CRAM; variant calling data files such as VCF and BCF; index files used to index these data files; and compressed versions of many of them.

For each *FILE* given, **htsfile** prints a description of the file format determined, using similar keyword conventions to [**file**(1)](/file/1.md): "text" indicates a textual file that can probably be viewed on a terminal; "data" indicates binary data; "sequence", "variant calling", and "index" indicate different categories of data file. When it can be identified, the name of the particular file format (such as "BAM" or "VCF") is printed at the start of the description.

When used to view file contents as text, **htsfile** can optionally show only headers or only data records, but has no other filtering capabilities. Use **samtools** or **bcftools** if you need more extensive viewing or filtering capabilities.

Alternatively, when **--copy** is used, **htsfile** takes exactly two arguments and performs a byte-for-byte copy from *FILE* to *DESTFILE*. This is similar to [**cp**(1)](/cp/1.md), but HTSlib's remote file access facilities are available for both source and destination.

The following options are accepted:

- **-c**, **--view**

  Instead of identifying the specified files, display a textual representation of their contents on standard output.

-

  By default, **--view** refuses to display files in unknown formats. When **--verbose** is also given, the raw contents of such files are displayed, with non-printable characters shown via C-style "\\x" hexadecimal escape sequences.

- **-C**, **--copy**

  Instead of identifying or displaying the specified files, copy the source *FILE* to the destination *DESTFILE*. Only **--verbose** may be used in conjunction with **--copy**.

- **-h**, **--header-only**

  Display data file headers only. Implies **--view**.

- **-H**, **--no-header**

  When viewing files, display data records only.

- **-v**, **--verbose**

  Display additional warnings and diagnostic messages. Using **--verbose** repeatedly further raises the verbosity.

## SEE ALSO

[*bcftools*(1)](/bcftools/1.md), [*file*(1)](/file/1.md), [*samtools*(1)](/samtools/1.md)