Download Flatfile

# 3) Validate existing flatfiles and delete broken or empty downloads
download-flatfile -verify BCT VRL

Recommended Workflow

1. Start in a dedicated download directory because all .seq.gz files are written to the current working directory.
2. Download the divisions you need, choosing -https if FTP is flaky in your environment.
3. Re-run with -verify before downstream processing when download integrity matters.
4. Convert or inspect the flatfiles only after the validation pass is clean.

Guardrails

• -verify is destructive by design: it removes empty or invalid .seq.gz files so they can be re-downloaded.
• The local wrapper validates content by decompressing and checking parsed records, so verification can be expensive on large downloads.
• Output is written into the current directory, and large GenBank divisions consume substantial disk space.
• The wrapper retries failed downloads, but persistent network or content failures still leave you with deleted files that must be fetched again later.