Using HyPhy as a standard command line tool#

As of version 2.4.0 HyPhy is a bona fide command line tool. An executable with key-word arguments, relative paths to files and sane defaults. The interactive command line prompt is still available if you prefer that (simply run hyphy -i). This page provides some general information about using HyPhy as a command line tool; the older command line prompt tutorial provides more details about each method.

Like any command line tool, to see the available options simply run hyphy --help.

Once you've installed hyphy run the method of your choice like so (we'll use SLAC for demonstration purposes):

hyphy slac --alignment CD2.nex

If your tree is in a separate file (not the same file as the alignment) add a --tree flag.

hyphy slac --alignment CD2.fasta --tree CD2.newick

Most methods require only an alignment and a tree. Default values are used for any other option. To see a list of the available options for a method run hyphy <method_name> --help (hyphy slac --help in our example).

Key word arguments and interactive prompts can be mixed by including -i before any key word arguments. For example:
hyphy -i slac --alignment CD2.fasta --code Universal
Will begin a slac analysis with CD2.fasta using the universal genetic code and prompt you for all the non-specified options: a tree file, branch selection, number of samples for ancestral state reconstruction, p-value.

Markdown-formatted status indicators will be printed to stdout as the analysis runs. Final results will be saved in a JSON-formatted file (saved in the same directory as the alignment file unless a --output argument is provided). This JSON results file can be uploaded at vision.hyphy.org for an interactive visualization of the results.

To see a list of the methods that can be run with a command line invocation run hyphy --help.