diff --git a/docs/content/faq.rst b/docs/content/faq.rst index 8c7046645de237ce9a6b961501151f4c8ccd82c8..0088e2b664e5b4e5265a64984666b9de8cb51357 100644 --- a/docs/content/faq.rst +++ b/docs/content/faq.rst @@ -103,3 +103,33 @@ To display the help for a specific tool (e.g., ``bedtools shuffle``), use: -n Report the number of BED entries that were merged. - Note: "1" is reported if no merging occurred. + + + + + +==================== +Issues with output +==================== + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ +I *know* there are overlaps, but none are reported. What might be wrong? +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +There are two common causes of this problem. The first cause is non-obvious +differences in the way chromosomes are named in files being compared. +For example, "1" is not the same as "chr1" just as " chr1" is not the same +as "chr1". Secondly, users often copy files from a Windows machine to a UNIX +machine. This causes issues because Windows uses two bytes to represent +the end of a line (``\r\n``) whereas the UNIX convention uses a single byte +(``\n``). If your files don't conform to the UNIX convention, you will have +problems. One can convert files from Windows to UNIX with +the following command: + +.. code-block:: bash + + perl -i -p -e 's/\r\n/\n/g;' file.windows > file.unix + + + +