c5a92d81293edb5d95fbeb37cbe381557e61fac0
max
  Thu Oct 17 09:04:56 2024 -0700
extending hubtools to convert track archives to hubs, only supports BED for now, refs #34472

diff --git src/utils/hubtools/hubtools src/utils/hubtools/hubtools
index a9c06a7..37e55bc 100755
--- src/utils/hubtools/hubtools
+++ src/utils/hubtools/hubtools
@@ -1,694 +1,1086 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env python3
 
-import logging, sys, optparse, os, json, subprocess, shutil, string
+import logging, sys, optparse, os, json, subprocess, shutil, string, glob, tempfile, re
+import shlex
+from pathlib import Path
 from collections import defaultdict, OrderedDict
 from os.path import join, basename, dirname, isfile, relpath, abspath, splitext, isdir
 #import pyyaml   # not loaded here, so it's not a hard requirement, is lazy loaded in parseMetaYaml()
 
 # ==== functions =====
+asHead = """table bed
+"Browser extensible data (<=12 fields) "
+    (
+"""
+
+asLines = """
+    string chrom;      "Chromosome (or contig, scaffold, etc.)"
+    uint   chromStart; "Start position in chromosome"
+    uint   chromEnd;   "End position in chromosome"
+    string name;       "Name of item"
+    uint   score;      "Score from 0-1000"
+    char[1] strand;    "+ or -"
+    uint thickStart;   "Start of where display should be thick (start codon)"
+    uint thickEnd;     "End of where display should be thick (stop codon)"
+    uint reserved;     "Used as itemRgb as of 2004-11-22"
+    int blockCount;    "Number of blocks"
+    int[blockCount] blockSizes; "Comma separated list of block sizes"
+    int[blockCount] chromStarts; "Start positions relative to chromStart"
+""".split("\n")
 
 def parseArgs():
     " setup logging, parse command line arguments and options. -h shows auto-generated help page "
     parser = optparse.OptionParser("""usage: %prog [options] <cmd> - create and edit UCSC track hubs
             
     hubtools make <assemblyCode>: create a track hub for all bigBed/bigWig files under a directory. Creates single-file hub.txt
     - bigBed/bigWig files in the current directory will be top level tracks
     - big* files in subdirectories become composites
     - for every filename, the part before the first dot becomes the track base name
     - if a directory has more than 80% of track base names with both a bigBed
       and bigWig file, views are activated for this composite
-    - track attributes can be changed using tracks.tsv or tracks.json files, in
+    - track attributes can be changed using tracks.ra, tracks.tsv, tracks.json or tracks.yaml files, in
       each top or subdirectory
-    - tracks.tsv must have a first column named 'track'.
+    - The first column of tracks.tsv must be 'track'.
+    - tracks.json and tracks.yaml must be object at the top level, the attributes are <trackName> or
+      the special attribute "hub".
 
     hubtools up: upload files to hubSpace
     - needs ~/.hubt.conf with username and password. Create one with 'hubt conf'
     - uploads all files from the -i directory or the current dir if not specified.
 
     hubtools jbrowse <url> <db> : convert Jbrowse trackList.json files to hub.txt.
     - <url> is the URL to the Jbrowse2 installation, e.g. http://furlonglab.embl.de/FurlongBrowser/
     - <db> is assembly identifier
 
     hubtools tab <fname>: convert a hub.txt or trackDb.txt to tab-sep format, easier to bulk-edit with sed/cut/etc.
     - <fname> is the input filename. "hub" and "genome" stanzas are skipped.
     - output goes to stdout
 
+    hubtools conv -i myTsvDir
+    - convert .tsv files in inDir to .bigBed files in current directory
+
+    hubtools ct -i xxx/archive -o outDir
+    - Create a hub from an extracted xxx.tar.gz file "archive" directory. You can download a .tar.gz from
+      in the Genome Browser under My Data > My Session. The archive contains all your custom tracks.
+
     Examples:
+    hubtools conv -i myTsvs/
     hubtools make hg38
     hubtools jbrowse http://furlonglab.embl.de/FurlongBrowser/ dm3
     hubtools tab hub.txt > tracks.tsv
 
-    tracks.json can look like this:
-    { "hub" : {"hub": "mouse_motor_atac", "shortLabel":"scATAC-seq Developing Cranial Motor Neurons"} }
+    tar xvfz SC_20230723_backup.tar.gz
+    hubtools ct -i archive -o hub
+
+    For the "make" step:
+
+    tracks.json can look like this, can have more keys, one per track, or the special key "hub":
+    {
+        "hub" :      { "hub": "mouse_motor_atac", "shortLabel":"scATAC-seq Developing Cranial Motor Neurons" },
+        "myTrack" :  { "shortLabel" : "My nice track" }
+    }
+
+    tracks.tsv should look like this, but can have any number of columns:
+    #track<tab>shortLabel
+    myTrack<tab>My nice track
     """)
 
 
     parser.add_option("-i", "--inDir", dest="inDir", action="store", help="Input directory where files are stored. Default is current directory")
     parser.add_option("-o", "--outDir", dest="outDir", action="store", help="Input directory where hub.txt file is created. Default is same as input directory.")
 
     #parser.add_option("", "--igv", dest="igv", action="store", help="import an igv.js trackList.json file hierarchy")
     parser.add_option("-d", "--debug", dest="debug", action="store_true", help="show verbose debug messages")
     parser.add_option("-u", "--upload", dest="upload", action="store_true", help="upload all files from outDir to hubSpace")
     (options, args) = parser.parse_args()
 
     if len(args)==0:
         parser.print_help()
         exit(1)
 
     if options.debug:
         logging.basicConfig(level=logging.DEBUG)
     else:
         logging.basicConfig(level=logging.INFO)
     return args, options
 
 def errAbort(msg):
     " print and abort) "
     logging.error(msg)
     sys.exit(1)
 
+def makedirs(d):
+    if not isdir(d):
+        os.makedirs(d)
+
 def parseMetaRa(fname):
     """parse tracks.ra or tracks.txt and return as a dict of trackName -> dict of key->val """
     logging.debug("Reading %s as .ra" % fname)
     trackName = None
     stanzaData = {}
     ret = {}
     for line in open(fname):
         line = line.strip()
         if line.startswith("#"):
             continue
         if line=="":
             if len(stanzaData)==0:
                 # double newline
                 continue
             if trackName is None:
                 errAbort("File %s has a stanza without a track name" % fname)
             if trackName in ret:
                 errAbort("File %s contains two stanzas with the same track name '%s' " % trackName)
 
             ret[trackName] = stanzaData
             stanzaData = {}
             trackName = None
             continue
 
         key, val = line.split(" ", maxsplit=1)
         if key == "track":
             trackName = val
             continue
         else:
             stanzaData[key] = val
 
     if len(stanzaData)!=0:
         ret[trackName] = stanzaData
     logging.debug("Got %s from .ra" % str(ret))
     return ret
 
 def parseMetaTsv(fname):
     " parse a tracks.tsv file and return as a dict of trackName -> dict of key->val "
     headers = None
     meta = {}
     logging.debug("Parsing track meta data from %s in tsv format" % fname)
     for line in open(fname):
         row = line.rstrip("\r\n").split("\t")
         if headers is None:
             assert(line.startswith("track\t") or line.startswith("#track"))
             row[0] = row[0].lstrip("#")
             headers = row
             continue
 
         assert(len(row)==len(headers))
         key = row[0]
 
         rowDict = {}
         for header, val in zip(headers[1:], row[1:]):
             rowDict[header] = val
         #row = {k:v for k,v in zip(headers, fs)}
         meta[key] = rowDict
     return meta
 
 def parseMetaJson(fname):
     " parse a json file and merge it into meta and return "
     logging.debug("Reading %s as json" % fname)
     newMeta = json.load(open(fname))
     return newMeta
 
 def parseMetaYaml(fname):
     " parse yaml file "
     import yaml # if this doesn't work, run 'pip install pyyaml'
     with open(fname) as stream:
         try:
             return yaml.safe_load(stream)
         except yaml.YAMLError as exc:
             logging.error(exc)
 
 def parseMeta(inDir):
     " parse a tab-sep file with headers and return an ordered dict firstField -> dictionary "
     fname = join(inDir, "tracks.tsv")
     meta = OrderedDict()
     if isfile(fname):
         tsvMeta = parseMetaTsv(fname)
         meta = allMetaOverride(meta, tsvMeta)
 
     fname = join(inDir, "tracks.json")
     if isfile(fname):
         jsonMeta = parseMetaJson(fname)
         meta = allMetaOverride(meta, jsonMeta)
 
     fname = join(inDir, "tracks.ra")
     if isfile(fname):
         raMeta = parseMetaRa(fname)
         meta = allMetaOverride(meta, raMeta)
 
     fname = join(inDir, "tracks.yaml")
     if isfile(fname):
         yamlMeta = parseMetaYaml(fname)
         meta = allMetaOverride(meta, yamlMeta)
 
     logging.debug("Got meta from %s: %s" % (inDir, str(meta)))
     return meta
 
 def writeHubGenome(ofh, db, inMeta):
     " create a hub.txt and genomes.txt file, hub.txt is just a template "
     meta = inMeta.get("hub", {})
     ofh.write("hub autoHub\n")
     ofh.write("shortLabel %s\n" % meta.get("shortLabel", "Auto-generated hub"))
     ofh.write("longLabel %s\n" % meta.get("longLabel", "Auto-generated hub"))
     #ofh.write("genomesFile genomes.txt\n")
     if "descriptionUrl" in meta:
         ofh.write("descriptionUrl %s\n" % meta["descriptionUrl"])
     ofh.write("email %s\n" % meta.get("email", "yourEmail@example.com"))
     ofh.write("useOneFile on\n\n")
 
     ofh.write("genome %s\n\n" % db)
     return ofh
 
 def readSubdirs(inDir, subDirs):
     " given a list of dirs, find those that are composite dirs (not supporting supertracks for now) "
     compDicts, superDicts = {}, {}
     for subDir in subDirs:
         subPath = join(inDir, subDir)
         subSubDirs, subDict = readFnames(subPath)
         if len(subDict)==0:
             # no files in this dir
             continue
         if len(subSubDirs)==0:
             compDicts[subDir] = subDict
         #else:
             #superDicts[subDir] = subDict
 
     return compDicts, superDicts
 
 def reorderDirs(compDirs, meta):
     " order the directories in compDirs in the order that they appear in the meta data -> will mean that composites have the right order "
     if len(meta)==0:
         logging.debug("Not reordering these subdirectories: %s" % compDirs.keys())
         return compDirs
 
     # first use the names in the meta data, and put in the right order
     newCompDirs = OrderedDict()
     for dirName in meta.keys():
         if dirName in compDirs:
             newCompDirs[dirName] = compDirs[dirName]
 
     # then add everything else at the end
     for dirName in compDirs:
         if dirName not in newCompDirs:
             newCompDirs[dirName] = compDirs[dirName]
 
     logging.debug("Reordered input directories based on meta data. New order is: %s" % newCompDirs.keys())
     return newCompDirs
 
 
 def readDirs(inDir, meta):
     " recurse down into directories and return containerType -> parentName -> fileBase -> type -> list of absPath "
     ret = {}
     subDirs, topFiles = readFnames(inDir)
     ret["top"] = { None : topFiles } # top-level track files have None as the parent
 
     compDirs, superDirs = readSubdirs(inDir, subDirs)
     compDirs = reorderDirs(compDirs, meta)
     # superDirs not used yet, no time
 
     ret["comps"] = compDirs
     ret["supers"] = superDirs
 
     return ret
 
 def readFnames(inDir):
     " return dict with basename -> fileType -> filePath "
     fnameDict = defaultdict(dict)
     #tdbDir = abspath(dirname(trackDbPath))
     subDirs = []
     for fname in os.listdir(inDir):
         filePath = join(inDir, fname)
         if isdir(filePath):
             subDirs.append(fname)
             continue
         baseName, ext = splitext(basename(fname))
         ext = ext.lower()
 
         # actually, use the part before the first dot, not the one before the extension, as the track name
         # this means that a.scaled.bigBed and a.raw.bigWig get paired correctly
         fileBase = basename(fname).split(".")[0]
 
         if ext==".bw" or ext==".bigwig":
             fileType = "bigWig"
         elif ext==".bb" or ext==".bigbed":
             fileType = "bigBed"
         else:
             logging.debug("file %s is not bigBed nor bigWig, skipping" % fname)
             continue
 
         absFname = abspath(filePath)
         #relFname = relFname(absFname, tdbDir)
         fnameDict[fileBase].setdefault(fileType, [])
         #fnameDict[baseName][fileType].setdefault([])
         fnameDict[fileBase][fileType].append(absFname)
     return subDirs, fnameDict
 
 def mostFilesArePaired(fnameDict):
     " check if 80% of the tracks have a pair bigBed+bigWig"
     pairCount = 0
     for baseName, typeDict in fnameDict.items():
         if "bigBed" in typeDict and "bigWig" in typeDict:
             pairCount += 1
 
     pairShare = pairCount / len(fnameDict)
     return ( pairShare > 0.8 )
 
 def writeLn(ofh, spaceCount, line):
     "write line to ofh, with spaceCount before it "
     ofh.write("".join([" "]*spaceCount))
     ofh.write(line)
     ofh.write("\n")
 
 def writeStanza(ofh, indent, tdb):
     " write a stanza given a tdb key-val dict "
     track = tdb["track"]
 
     shortLabel = tdb.get("shortLabel", track.replace("_", " "))
     visibility = tdb.get("visibility", "pack")
     longLabel  = tdb.get("longLabel", shortLabel)
 
+    if not "type" in tdb:
+        errAbort("Track info has no type attribute: %s" % tdb)
     trackType = tdb["type"]
 
     writeLn(ofh, indent, "track %s" % track)
     writeLn(ofh, indent, "shortLabel %s" % shortLabel)
     if longLabel:
         writeLn(ofh, indent, "longLabel %s" % longLabel)
     if "parent" in tdb:
         writeLn(ofh, indent, "parent %s" % tdb["parent"])
     writeLn(ofh, indent, "type %s" % trackType)
     writeLn(ofh, indent, "visibility %s" % visibility)
     if "bigDataUrl" in tdb:
         writeLn(ofh, indent, "bigDataUrl %s" % tdb["bigDataUrl"])
 
     for key, val in tdb.items():
         if key in ["track", "shortLabel", "longLabel", "type", "bigDataUrl", "visibility", "parent"]:
             continue
         writeLn(ofh, indent, "%s %s" % (key, val))
 
     ofh.write("\n")
 
 def metaOverride(tdb, meta):
     " override track info for one single track, from meta into tdb "
     trackName = tdb["track"]
 
     if trackName not in meta and "__" in trackName:
         logging.debug("Using only basename of track %s" % trackName)
         trackName = trackName.split("__")[1]
 
     if trackName not in meta:
         logging.debug("No meta info for track %s" % tdb["track"])
         return
 
     trackMeta = meta[trackName]
 
     for key, val in trackMeta.items():
         if val!="":
             tdb[key] = trackMeta[key]
 
 def allMetaOverride(tdb, meta):
     " override track info for all tracks, from meta into tdb "
     if meta is None:
         return tdb
 
     for trackName in meta:
         trackMeta = meta[trackName]
         if trackName not in tdb:
             tdb[trackName] = {}
 
         trackTdb = tdb[trackName]
 
         for key, val in trackMeta.items():
             trackTdb[key] = val
 
     return tdb
 
 def reorderTracks(fileDict, meta):
     " given an unsorted dictionary of files and ordered metadata, try to sort the files according to the metadata"
     if len(meta)==0:
         return fileDict # no meta data -> no ordering necessary
 
     trackOrder = []
     # meta is an OrderedDict, so the keys are also ordered
     for trackName in meta.keys():
         if "__" in trackName: # in composite mode, the tracknames contain the parent and the track type
             trackName = trackName.split("__")[1]
         trackOrder.append( trackName )
 
     trackOrder = list(meta.keys())
 
     newFiles = OrderedDict()
     doneTracks = set()
     # first add the tracks in the order of the meta data
     for trackBase in trackOrder:
         # the tsv file can have the track names either as basenames or as full tracknames
         if trackBase not in fileDict and "__" in trackBase:
             trackBase = trackBase.split("__")[1]
 
         if trackBase in fileDict:
             newFiles[trackBase] = fileDict[trackBase]
             doneTracks.add(trackBase)
 
     logging.debug("Track ordering from meta data used: %s" % newFiles.keys())
 
     # then add all other tracks
     for trackBase, fileData in fileDict.items():
         if trackBase not in doneTracks:
             newFiles[trackBase] = fileDict[trackBase]
             logging.debug("Not specified in meta, so adding at the end: %s" % trackBase)
 
     logging.debug("Final track order is: %s" % newFiles.keys())
 
     assert(len(newFiles)==len(fileDict))
     return newFiles
 
 def writeTdb(inDir, dirDict, dirType, tdbDir, ofh):
     " given a dict with basename -> type -> filenames, write track entries to ofh "
     # this code is getting increasingly complex because it supports composites/views and pairing of bigBed/bigWig files
     # either this needs better comments or maybe a separate code path for this rare use case
     global compCount
 
     fnameDict = dirDict[dirType]
 
     for parentName, typeDict in fnameDict.items():
         if parentName is None: # top level tracks: use top tracks.tsv
             subDir = inDir
         else: # container tracks -> use tracks.tsv in the subdirectory
             subDir = join(inDir, parentName)
 
         parentMeta = parseMeta(subDir)
 
         indent = 0
         parentHasViews = False
 
         groupMeta = {}
 
         if dirType=="comps":
             tdb = {
                     "track" : parentName,
                     "shortLabel": parentName,
                     "visibility" : "dense",
                     "compositeTrack" : "on",
                     "autoScale" : "group",
                     "type" : "bed 4"
                   }
             metaOverride(tdb, parentMeta)
             groupMeta = parentMeta
 
             parentHasViews = mostFilesArePaired(typeDict)
 
             if parentHasViews:
                 tdb["subGroup1"] = "view Views PK=Peaks SIG=Signals"
                 logging.info("Container track %s has >80%% of paired files, activating views" % parentName)
 
             writeStanza(ofh, indent, tdb)
             indent = 4
 
             if parentHasViews:
                 # we have composites with paired files? -> write the track stanzas for the two views
                 groupMeta = parseMeta(subDir)
                 tdbViewPeaks = {
                         "track" : parentName+"ViewPeaks",
                         "shortLabel" : parentName+" Peaks",
                         "parent" : parentName,
                         "view" : "PK",
                         "visibility" : "dense",
                         "type" : "bigBed",
                         "scoreFilter" : "off",
                         "viewUi" : "on"
                         }
                 metaOverride(tdbViewPeaks, parentMeta)
                 writeStanza(ofh, indent, tdbViewPeaks)
 
                 tdbViewSig = {
                         "track" : parentName+"ViewSignal",
                         "shortLabel" : parentName+" Signal",
                         "parent" : parentName,
                         "view" : "SIG",
                         "visibility" : "dense",
                         "type" : "bigWig",
                         "viewUi" : "on"
                         }
                 metaOverride(tdbViewSig, parentMeta)
                 writeStanza(ofh, indent, tdbViewSig)
         else:
             # no composites
             groupMeta = parseMeta(subDir)
 
         typeDict = reorderTracks(typeDict, groupMeta)
 
         for trackBase, typeFnames in typeDict.items():
             for fileType, absFnames in typeFnames.items():
                 assert(len(absFnames)==1) # for now, not sure what to do when we get multiple basenames of the same file type
                 absFname = absFnames[0]
                 fileBase = basename(absFname)
                 relFname = relpath(absFname, tdbDir)
 
                 labelSuff = ""
                 if parentHasViews:
                     if fileType=="bigWig":
                         labelSuff = " Signal"
                     elif fileType=="bigBed":
                         labelSuff = " Peaks"
                     else:
                         assert(False) # views and non-bigWig/Bed are not supported yet?
 
                 if parentName is not None:
                     parentPrefix = parentName+"__"
                 else:
                     parentPrefix = ""
 
                 trackName = parentPrefix+trackBase+"__"+fileType
                 tdb = {
                         "track"      :  trackName,
                         "shortLabel" :  trackBase+labelSuff,
                         "longLabel"  :  trackBase+labelSuff,
                         "visibility" :  "dense",
                         "type"       :  fileType,
                         "bigDataUrl" :  relFname,
                       }
 
                 if parentName:
                     tdb["parent"] = parentName
 
                 if parentHasViews:
                     onOff = "on"
                     if trackName in groupMeta and "visibility" in groupMeta[trackName]:
                         vis = groupMeta[trackName]["visibility"]
                         if vis=="hide":
                             onOff = "off"
                         del tdb["visibility"]
 
                     if fileType=="bigBed":
                         tdb["parent"] = parentName+"ViewPeaks"+" "+onOff
                         tdb["subGroups"] = "view=PK"
                     else:
                         tdb["parent"] = parentName+"ViewSignal"+" "+onOff
                         tdb["subGroups"] = "view=SIG"
 
                 metaOverride(tdb, groupMeta)
 
                 if trackName in groupMeta and "visibility" in groupMeta[trackName]:
                     del tdb["visibility"]
 
                 writeStanza(ofh, indent, tdb)
 
 def importJbrowse(baseUrl, db, outDir):
     " import an IGV trackList.json hierarchy "
     import requests
     outFn = join(outDir, "hub.txt")
     ofh = open(outFn, "w")
     writeHubGenome(ofh, db, {})
 
     trackListUrl = baseUrl+"/data/trackList.json"
     logging.info("Loading %s" % trackListUrl)
     trackList = requests.get(trackListUrl).json()
     tdbs = []
     for tl in trackList["tracks"]:
-        #print(tl)
         if "type" in tl and tl["type"]=="SequenceTrack":
             logging.info("Genome is: "+tl["label"])
             continue
         if tl["storeClass"]=="JBrowse/Store/SeqFeature/NCList":
             logging.info("NCList found: ",tl)
             continue
         tdb = {}
         tdb["track"] = tl["label"]
         tdb["shortLabel"] = tl["key"]
         if "data_file" in tl:
             tdb["bigDataUrl"] = baseUrl+"/data/"+tl["data_file"]
         else:
             tdb["bigDataUrl"] = baseUrl+"/data/"+tl["urlTemplate"]
         if tl["storeClass"] == "JBrowse/Store/SeqFeature/BigWig":
             tdb["type"] = "bigWig"
 
         dispMode = tl.get("display_mode")
         if dispMode:
             if dispMode=="normal":
                 tdb["visibility"] = "pack"
             elif dispMode=="compact":
                 tdb["visibility"] = "dense"
             else:
                 tdb["visibility"] = "pack"
         else:
             tdb["visibility"] = "pack"
     
         writeStanza(ofh, 0, tdb)
 
 def installModule(package):
     " install a package "
     logging.info("Could not find Python module '%s', trying to install with pip" % package)
     subprocess.check_call([sys.executable, "-m", "pip", "install", package])
 
 def uploadFiles(tdbDir):
     "upload files to hubspace"
     try:
         from tusclient import client
     except ModuleNotFoundError:
         installModule("tuspy")
 
     serverUrl="https://hgwdev-hubspace.gi.ucsc.edu/files"
     my_client = client.TusClient(serverUrl, headers={})
     logging.info(f"Target server is {serverUrl}")
 
     for fname in os.listdir(tdbDir):
         fpath = join(tdbDir, fname)
         if isdir(fpath):
             continue
         logging.info(f"Uploading {fpath}")
         meta = {"db":"hg19"}
         uploader = my_client.uploader(fpath, metadata=meta)
         uploader.upload()
 
 def iterRaStanzas(fname):
     " parse an ra-style (trackDb) file and yield dictionaries "
     data = dict()
     logging.debug("Parsing %s in trackDb format" % fname)
     with open(fname, "rt") as ifh:
         for l in ifh:
             l = l.lstrip(" ").rstrip("\r\n")
             if len(l)==0:
                 yield data
                 data = dict()
             else:
                 if " " not in l:
                     continue
                 key, val = l.split(" ", maxsplit=1)
                 data[key] = val
 
     if len(data)!=0:
         yield data
 
 def raToTab(fname):
     " convert .ra file to .tsv "
     stanzas = []
     allFields = set()
     for stanza in iterRaStanzas(fname):
         if "hub" in stanza or "genome" in stanza:
             continue
         allFields.update(stanza.keys())
         stanzas.append(stanza)
 
     if "track" in allFields:
         allFields.remove("track")
     if "shortLabel" in allFields:
         allFields.remove("shortLabel")
 
     hasLongLabel = False
     if "longLabel" in allFields:
         allFields.remove("longLabel")
         hasLongLabel = True
 
     sortedFields = sorted(list(allFields))
     # make sure that track shortLabel and longLabel come first and always there, handy for manual edits
     if hasLongLabel:
         sortedFields.insert(0, "longLabel")
     sortedFields.insert(0, "shortLabel")
     sortedFields.insert(0, "track")
 
     ofh = sys.stdout
     ofh.write("#")
     ofh.write("\t".join(sortedFields))
     ofh.write("\n")
 
     for s in stanzas:
         row = []
         for fieldName in sortedFields:
             row.append(s.get(fieldName, ""))
         ofh.write("\t".join(row))
         ofh.write("\n")
 
-def hubt(args, options):
-    """ get writeLn(ofh, indent, d .bb files under dirName and create a trackDb.txt for them"""
+def guessFieldDesc(fieldNames):
+    "given a list of field names, try to guess to which fields in bed12 they correspond "
+    logging.info("No field description specified, guessing fields from TSV headers: %s" % fieldNames)
+    fieldDesc = {}
+    skipFields = set()
+
+    for fieldIdx, fieldName in enumerate(fieldNames):
+        caseField = fieldName.lower()
+        if caseField in ["chrom", "chromosome"]:
+            name = "chrom"
+        elif caseField.endswith(" id") or caseField.endswith("accession"):
+            name = "name"
+        elif caseField in ["start", "chromstart", "position"]:
+            name = "start"
+        elif caseField in ["Reference"]:
+            name = "refAllele"
+        elif caseField in ["strand"]:
+            name = "strand"
+        elif caseField in ["score"]:
+            name = "score"
+        else:
+            continue
+        fieldDesc[name] = fieldIdx
+        skipFields.add(fieldIdx)
+    logging.info("TSV <-> BED correspondance: %s" % fieldDesc)
+    return fieldDesc, skipFields
+
+def parseFieldDesc(fieldDescStr, fieldNames):
+    " given a string chrom=1,start=2,end=3,... return dict {chrom:1,...} "
+    if not fieldDescStr:
+        return guessFieldDesc(fieldNames)
+
+    fieldDesc, skipFields = guessFieldDesc(fieldNames)
+
+    if fieldDescStr:
+        for part in fieldDescStr.split(","):
+            fieldName, fieldIdx = part.split("=")
+            fieldIdx = int(fieldIdx)
+            fieldDesc[fieldName] = fieldIdx
+            skipFields.add(fieldIdx)
+
+    return fieldDesc, skipFields
+
+def makeBedRow(row, fieldDesc, skipFields, isOneBased):
+    " given a row of a tsv file and a fieldDesc with BedFieldName -> field-index, return a bed12+ row with extra fields "
+    bedRow = []
+
+    # first construct the bed 12 fields
+    for fieldName in ["chrom", "start", "end", "name", "score", "strand",
+            "thickStart", "thickEnd", "itemRgb", "blockCount", "blockSizes", "chromStarts"]:
+
+        fieldIdx = fieldDesc.get(fieldName)
+        if fieldIdx is not None:
+            if fieldName=="start":
+                chromStart = int(row[fieldDesc["start"]])
+                if isOneBased:
+                    chromStart = chromStart-1
+                val = str(chromStart)
+            elif fieldName=="end":
+                chromEnd = int(val)
+            else:
+                val = row[fieldIdx]
+        else:
+            if fieldName=="end":
+                chromEnd = chromStart+1
+                val = str(chromEnd)
+            elif fieldName=="score":
+                val = "0"
+            elif fieldName=="strand":
+                val = "."
+            elif fieldName=="thickStart":
+                val = str(chromStart)
+            elif fieldName=="thickEnd":
+                val = str(chromEnd)
+            elif fieldName=="itemRgb":
+                val = "0,0,0"
+            elif fieldName=="blockCount":
+                val = "1"
+            elif fieldName=="blockSizes":
+                val = str(chromEnd-chromStart)
+            elif fieldName=="chromStarts":
+                #val = str(chromStart)
+                val = "0"
+            else:
+                logging.error("Cannot find a field for %s" % fieldName)
+                sys.exit(1)
+
+        bedRow.append(val)
+
+    # now handle all other fields
+    for fieldIdx, val in enumerate(row):
+        if not fieldIdx in skipFields:
+            bedRow.append( row[fieldIdx] )
+
+    return bedRow
+
+def fetchChromSizes(db, outputFileName):
+    " find on local disk or download a <db>.sizes text file "
+    # Construct the URL based on the database name
+    url = f"https://hgdownload.cse.ucsc.edu/goldenPath/{db}/database/chromInfo.txt.gz"
+    # Send a request to download the file
+    response = requests.get(url, stream=True)
+    # Check if the request was successful
+    if response.status_code == 200:
+        # Open the output gzip file for writing
+        with gzip.open(outputFileName, 'wt') as outFile:
+            # Open the response content as a gzip file in text mode
+            with gzip.GzipFile(fileobj=response.raw, mode='r') as inFile:
+                # Read the content using csv reader to handle tab-separated values
+                reader = csv.reader(inFile, delimiter='\t')
+                writer = csv.writer(outFile, delimiter='\t', lineterminator='\n')
+                # Iterate through each row, and retain only the first two fields
+                for row in reader:
+                    writer.writerow(row[:2])  # Write only the first two fields
+    else:
+        raise Exception(f"Failed to download file from {url}, status code: {response.status_code}")
+    logging.info("Downloaded %s to %s" % (db, outputFileName))
+
+def getChromSizesFname(db):
+    " return fname of chrom sizes, download into ~/.local/ucscData/ if not found "
+    fname = "/hive/data/genomes/%s/chrom.sizes" % db
+    if isfile(fname):
+        return fname
+
+    dataDir = "~/.local/hubtools"
+    fname = join(dataDir, "%s.sizes" % db)
+    fname = os.path.expanduser(fname)
+    if not isfile(fname):
+        makedirs(dataDir)
+        fetchChromSizes(db, fname)
+    return fname
+
+def convTsv(db, tsvFname, outBedFname, outAsFname, outBbFname):
+    " convert tsv files in inDir to outDir, assume that they all have one column for chrom, start and end. Try to guess these or fail. "
+    #tsvFname, outBedFname, outAsFname = args
+
+    # join and output merged bed
+    bigCols = set() # col names of columns with > 255 chars
+
+    #bedFh = open(bedFname, "w")
+    unsortedBedFh = tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile(suffix=".bed", dir=dirname(outBedFname), mode="wt")
+    fieldNames = None
+    #isOneBased = options.oneBased
+    isOneBased = True
+    bedFieldsDesc = None # in the future, the user may want to input a string like name=0,start=1, but switch this off for now
+
+    for line in open(tsvFname):
+        row = line.rstrip("\r\n").split("\t")
+        if fieldNames is None:
+            fieldNames = row
+            fieldDesc, notExtraFields = parseFieldDesc(bedFieldsDesc, fieldNames)
+            continue
+
+        # note fields with data > 255 chars.
+        for colName, colData in zip(fieldNames, row):
+            if len(colData)>255:
+                bigCols.add(colName)
+
+        bedRow = makeBedRow(row, fieldDesc, notExtraFields, isOneBased)
+
+        chrom = bedRow[0]
+        if chrom.isdigit() or chrom in ["X", "Y"]:
+            bedRow[0] = "chr"+bedRow[0]
+
+        unsortedBedFh.write( ("\t".join(bedRow)))
+        unsortedBedFh.write("\n")
+    unsortedBedFh.flush()
+
+    cmd = "sort -k1,1 -k2,2n %s > %s" % (unsortedBedFh.name, outBedFname)
+    assert(os.system(cmd)==0)
+    unsortedBedFh.close() # removes the temp file
+
+    # generate autosql
+    # BED fields
+    #bedColCount = int(options.type.replace("bed", "").replace("+" , ""))
+    bedColCount = 12
+    asFh = open(outAsFname, "w")
+    asFh.write(asHead)
+    asFh.write("\n".join(asLines[:bedColCount+1]))
+    asFh.write("\n")
+
+    # extra fields
+    #fieldNames = fieldNames[bedColCount:]
+    for fieldIdx, field in enumerate(fieldNames):
+        if fieldIdx in notExtraFields:
+            continue
+        name = field.replace(" ","")
+        name = field.replace("%","perc_")
+        name = re.sub("[^a-zA-Z0-9]", "", name)
+        name = name[0].lower()+name[1:]
+        fType = "string"
+        if field in bigCols:
+            fType = "lstring"
+        asFh.write('      %s %s; "%s" \n' % (fType, name, field))
+    asFh.write(")\n")
+    asFh.close()
+
+    chromSizesFname = getChromSizesFname(db)
+
+    cmd = ["bedToBigBed", outBedFname, chromSizesFname, outBbFname, "-tab", "-type=bed%d+" % bedColCount, "-as=%s" % outAsFname]
+    subprocess.check_call(cmd)
+
+def convTsvDir(inDir, db, outDir):
+    " find tsv files under inDir and convert them all to .bb "
+    ext = "tsv"
+    pat = join(inDir, '**/*.'+ext)
+    logging.debug("Finding files under %s (%s), writing output to %s" % (inDir, pat, outDir))
+
+    for fname in glob.glob(pat, recursive=True):
+        logging.debug("Found %s" % fname)
+        absFname = abspath(fname)
+        relFname = relpath(absFname, inDir)
+        outPath = Path(join(outDir, relFname))
+
+        if not outPath.parents[0].is_dir():
+            logging.debug("mkdir -p %s" % outPath.parents[0])
+            makedirs(outPath.parents[0])
+
+        bedFname = outPath.with_suffix(".bed")
+        asFname = outPath.with_suffix(".as")
+        bbFname = outPath.with_suffix(".bb")
+
+        convTsv(db, fname, bedFname, asFname, bbFname)
+
+def parseTrackLine(s):
+    " Use shlex to split the string respecting quotes, written by chatGPT "
+    lexer = shlex.shlex(s, posix=True)
+    lexer.whitespace_split = True
+    lexer.wordchars += '='  # Allow '=' as part of words
+
+    tokens = list(lexer)
+
+    # Convert the tokens into a dictionary
+    it = iter(tokens)
+    result = {}
+    for token in it:
+        if '=' in token:
+            key, value = token.split('=', 1)
+            result[key] = value.strip('"')  # Remove surrounding quotes if present
+        else:
+            result[token] = next(it).strip('"')  # Handle cases like name="...".
+
+    return result
+
+def readTrackLines(fnames):
+    " read the first line and convert to a dict of all fnames. "
+    logging.debug("Reading track lines from %s" % fnames)
+    ret = {}
+    for fn in fnames:
+        line1 = open(fn).readline().rstrip("\n")
+        notTrack = line1.replace("track ", "", 1)
+        tdb = parseTrackLine(notTrack)
+        ret[fn] = tdb
+    return ret
+
+def stripFirstLine(inputFilename, outputFilename):
+    " written by chatGpt: copies all lines to output, except the first line "
+    with open(inputFilename, 'r') as infile, open(outputFilename, 'w') as outfile:
+        # Skip the first line
+        next(infile)
+        # Write the rest of the lines to the output file
+        for line in infile:
+            outfile.write(line)
+
+def bedToBigBed(inFname, db, outFname):
+    " convert bed to bigbed file, handles chrom.sizes download "
+    chromSizesFname = getChromSizesFname(db)
+    cmd = ["bedToBigBed", inFname, chromSizesFname, outFname]
+    logging.debug("Running %s" % cmd)
+    logging.info(f'Converting {inFname} to {outFname}. (chromSizes: {chromSizesFname}')
+    subprocess.check_call(cmd)
+
+def convCtDb(db, inDir, outDir):
+    " convert one db part of a track archive to an output directory "
+    findGlob = join(inDir, "*.ct")
+    inFnames = glob.glob(findGlob)
+    if len(inFnames)==0:
+        logging.info("No *.ct files found in %s" % findGlob)
+        return
+
+    tdbData = readTrackLines(inFnames)
+
+    makedirs(outDir)
+    hubTxtFname = join(outDir, "hub.txt")
+    ofh = open(hubTxtFname, "wt")
+
+    meta = parseMeta(inDir)
+    writeHubGenome(ofh, db, meta)
+
+    tdbIdx = 0
+    for fname, tdb in tdbData.items():
+        tdbIdx += 1
+        # custom track names can include spaces, spec characters, etc. Strip all those
+        # append a number to make sure that the result is unique
+        track = tdb["name"]
+        track = re.sub('[^A-Za-z0-9]+', '', track)+"_"+str(tdbIdx)
+        tdb["track"] = track
+
+        tdb["shortLabel"] = tdb["name"]
+        del tdb["name"]
+        tdb["longLabel"] = tdb["description"]
+        del tdb["description"]
+
+        if "bigDataUrl" not in tdb:
+            bedFname = join(outDir, tdb["track"]+".bed")
+            bbFname = join(outDir, tdb["track"]+".bb")
+            stripFirstLine(fname, bedFname)
+            bedToBigBed(bedFname, db, bbFname)
+            os.remove(bedFname)
+            tdb["bigDataUrl"] = tdb["track"]+".bb"
+            tdb["type"] = "bigBed"
+
+        writeStanza(ofh, 0, tdb)
+
+    logging.info("Wrote %s" % hubTxtFname)
+    ofh.close()
+
+def convCtDir(inDir, outDir):
+    " convert a directory created from the .tar.gz file downloaded via our track archive feature "
+    dbContent = os.listdir(inDir)
+    dbDirs = []
+    for db in dbContent:
+        subDir = join(inDir, db)
+        if isdir(subDir):
+            dbDirs.append((db, subDir))
+
+    if len(dbDirs)==0:
+        errAbort("No directories found under %s. Extract the tarfile and point this program at the 'archive' directory." % inDir)
+
+    for db, inSubDir in dbDirs:
+        logging.debug("Processing %s, db=%s" % (inSubDir, db))
+        outSubDir = join(outDir, db)
+        convCtDb(db, inSubDir, outSubDir)
+
+def hubtools(args, options):
+    """ find files under dirName and create a trackDb.txt for them"""
 
     cmd = args[0]
 
     inDir = "."
     if options.inDir:
         inDir = options.inDir
 
+    outDir = "."
+    if options.outDir:
+        outDir = options.outDir
+
     if cmd=="up":
         uploadFiles(inDir)
         return
 
     tdbDir = inDir
     if options.outDir:
         tdbDir = options.outDir
 
     if cmd=="jbrowse":
         importJbrowse(args[1], args[2], tdbDir)
     elif cmd == "tab":
         raToTab(args[1])
     elif cmd == "make":
         db = args[1]
 
         meta = parseMeta(inDir)
         dirFiles = readDirs(inDir, meta)
 
         hubFname = join(tdbDir, "hub.txt")
         logging.info("Writing %s" % hubFname)
         ofh = open(hubFname, "w")
 
         meta = parseMeta(inDir)
         writeHubGenome(ofh, db, meta)
 
         writeTdb(inDir, dirFiles, "top", tdbDir, ofh)
         writeTdb(inDir, dirFiles, "comps", tdbDir, ofh)
 
         ofh.close()
+
+    elif cmd=="conv":
+        db = args[1]
+
+        convTsvDir(inDir, db, outDir)
+
+    elif cmd=="ct":
+        convCtDir(inDir, outDir)
+
     else:
         logging.error("Unknown command: '%s'" % args[1])
 
 
 # ----------- main --------------
 def main():
     args, options = parseArgs()
 
-    hubt(args, options)
+    hubtools(args, options)
 
-    #if options.test:
-        #logging.debug("test is set")
-        #f = open(options.file, "r")
 
 main()