Dockstore CLI FAQ

For general FAQs not related to the Dockstore CLI, please see our main FAQ page.

How does launching CWLs/WDLs with Dockstore CLI compare with cwltool/Cromwell?

Under the hood, the Dockstore CLI invokes cwltool to launch CWL workflows by default (this can be configured). Likewise, the Dockstore CLI invokes Cromwell to launch WDL workflows. However, it adds additional features. The Dockstore CLI can generate JSON parameter files from entries on Dockstore (dockstore tool convert). Additionally, when launching tools, the Dockstore CLI makes it easy to specify entries from the Dockstore website. We can also provision input and output files using HTTP, FTP, S3, and GCS. As of Release 1.12, the Dockstore CLI has support for running on a WES server. We also have preliminary support for Synapse and the ICGC Storage client. Please see file provisioning plugins for more information on these two file transfer sources.

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How do I use the Dockstore CLI on a Mac?

Note

Our tutorials all assume you are using bash on an Ubuntu machine. Beginning with Mac OS 10.15 Catalina, the default shell has changed from bash to zsh. In almost all cases (especially in our tutorials), syntax between bash-on-Ubuntu, bash-on-Mac, and zsh-on-Mac is the same, but it is possible for slight differences to arise.

See Docker for Mac for information on installing Docker for Mac. With the exception of some installation and possible folder permission differences (see next FAQ below), usage of the Dockstore CLI on a Mac is more or less the same as it is on Ubuntu.

By default, Docker for Mac allocates fewer resources (CPU, Memory, Swap) to containers compared to what is available on your host machine. You can change what it allocates using the Docker for Mac GUI under Preferences > Advanced as described here.

The default allocation can cause workflows or tools to fail without informing the user with a memory or resource related error message. If you find that your workflow or tool is behaving differently on a Mac compared to a similarly resourced Ubuntu environment, you can try increasing the resources allocated to Docker on the Mac to resolve the discrepancy. If you are using WDL, see also our notes on local Cromwell configuration files`.

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Why am I getting “Mount denied” errors when launching workflows on Mac?

Docker behaves a bit differently on a Mac than on a typical Ubuntu machine. On a Mac, by default, the only shared volumes Docker can access are /Users, /Volumes, /tmp, and /private. This is problematic because many workflow executors, such as cwltool, uses your TMPDIR (the environment variable) to set up volumes with Docker. Since $TMDIR on a Mac can default to a subdirectory of /var, which Docker usually cannot access, you may run into an error. When using cwltool, the error will look something like this:

` docker: Error response from daemon: Mounts denied: cker-for-mac/osxfs/#namespaces for more info. . l_vvgsbw0000gn/T/tmptNfjZl/./empty_copy.txt is not shared from OS X and is not known to Docker. You can configure shared paths from Docker -> Preferences... -> File Sharing. See https://docs.docker.com/do. ERRO[0000] error getting events from daemon: net/http: request canceled `

This issue can happen when using cwltool or Cromwell, with or without the Dockstore CLI. There are two possible ways to fix this.

Option A: Overwrite $TMPDIR

B can set the $TMPDIR environment variable to be under one of the shared volumes that Docker for Mac can access by default, then relaunch Docker. You can do this by doing something similar to the following:
export TMPDIR=/tmp/docker_tmp

Warning

$TMPDIR is used for several things in the Mac environment. We recommend against putting this export command in your .bash_rc file.

Option B: Give Docker permission to the correct folder

Depending on the permissions available to your machine, you may be able to give Docker access to one of the head directories of $TMPDIR. First, echo $TMPDIR and check what the output is so you know which folder to add. If you are using Docker Desktop, you can make folders available for file sharing via Preferences > Resources > File Sharing.

$TMPDIR might be set to a subfolder of /private/var/folders. If you are still having issues, try adding /var/folders to Docker’s list of accessible directories instead.

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How do I launch tools/workflows without internet access on compute nodes?

Some tools/workflows require Docker images to launch even if they are local entries. If the compute nodes do not have internet access, you can follow these steps:

  1. download the Docker image(s) on the head node which does have internet access using the docker save -o <filename> <imagename>

  2. ensure that the <imagename> matches the image name specific in the CWL or WDL descriptor

  3. place the image file(s) in a location that the compute nodes have access to (make sure there are only images in that directory)

  4. specify in the dockstore config file (default ~/.dockstore/config) the directory that contains your image(s) using docker-images = /home/user/docker_images_directory

The Dockstore CLI will automatically load all Docker images in the directory specified prior to a launch --local-entry command.

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How do I find the return code for a WDL task?

The numeric return code for a WDL task will be in that task’s execution folder. It is a single file named rc with no extension. Generally speaking, a 0 is a success, and anything else is a failure.

Let’s say you are running [this vcf-to-gds file conversion workflow](https://dockstore.org/workflows/github.com/DataBiosphere/analysis_pipeline_WDL/vcf-to-gds-wdl:v7.1.1), which runs the check-gds task as a scattered task on an array of three files. Cromwell will refer to each instance of that scattered task as a “shard” and will name them starting with 0. If you notice that shard 0 seems to have failed, look for /cromwell-executions/[workflow ID]/call-check_gds/shard-0/execution/rc keeping in mind that the workflow ID will usually be a long mix of numbers, letters, and dashes such as 18a85cc0-aa59-4749-b1b9-e2580ed5e557.

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I was running a WDL locally, but some of my tasks are failing randomly and/or now I cannot use Docker.

This is a known issue with how Cromwell and Docker, which the Dockstore CLI uses to launch WDL workflows, manage resources on a local machine. Certain problems related to resource management may happen when running locally that do not happen when running on the cloud. These problems are much more likely to happen if you are running a computationally intensive scattered task, such as LD pruning 23 chromosomes where each chromosome is an instance of a scattered task. The two most common problems we see are a “Docker lockup” and stochastic failure of tasks. It is possible for one, both, or neither of these problems to occur during a single submission.

If a Docker lockup happens, you will notice in-progress WDL tasks do not progress beyond the WaitingForReturnCode status on the command line. Additionally, you will be temporarily unable to “spin up” any Docker containers, even outside of Cromwell. Thankfully, this state can be resolved by restarting the Docker service via the Docker Desktop dropdown, or entering service docker restart on the command line.

The other issue we often see is some instances of scattered tasks getting sigkilled by the operating system. You will know when this happens because the rc (return code) file will read 137. If it reads anything except 137, then you can assume that it wasn’t actually a resource management error and look in stderr or stdout for the true culprit. For more on return codes, see this FAQ entry.

To prevent these issues from happening, we recommend setting up your Cromwell configuration file to limit how many scattered tasks run at once, and then setting up the Dockstore CLI to make use of that Cromwell configuration file. A step-by-step tutorial is available here.

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The CLI is failing with Java 8 or 11

If you see the following error when running the Dockstore CLI, you need to upgrade your Java version:

$ dockstore
Error: A JNI error has occurred, please check your installation and try again
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: io/dockstore/client/cli/Client has been compiled by a more recent version of the Java Runtime (class file version 55.0), this version of the Java Runtime only recognizes class file versions up to 52.0

The Dockstore CLI as of 1.7.0 is compiled and tested using Java 11 due to the Java 8 EOL. You will need to upgrade from Java 8 to use CLI versions betweenn 1.7 and 1.13.

The Dockstore CLI as of 1.14.0 is compiled and tested using Java 17 due to the approaching Java 11 EOL. You will need to update to Java 17 to use the CLI version 1.14.0+.

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