Ralf W. Grosse-Kunstleve wrote:
If the .def file has a syntax error, phenix.refine dies with an error that the file format is not recognized. Why not print syntax errors?
It is a side-effect of automatically recognizing all file formats. We give up only after trying each and every possible reader. If nothing works, we don't have a mechanism to score what the file is most likely and then produce the format-specific error. Solving that problem is harder than it may seem at first sight. You can get the syntax error via
iotbx.phil your.def
Ralf
OK, I understand the difficulty with the "try all input filters" method. Here is one way that may work without too much difficulty. Allow the file-input procedures to return a diagnostic text if it thinks the file is a match, but has errors. If they all fail, but only one file-reader returns a message, print it. A simple short-term solution might be to print a suggestion based on just the filename extension, such as your suggestion above. For example, *.mtz files could suggest running "mtzdmp file.mtz". Tanks, Joe