[ensembl-dev] Error messages when using the Variation API

[Johanne Håøy Horn]

Dear ensembl dev team,

I have been using your variation API for some time now, and get a range of errors from time to time, without knowing exactly why. It is not because of the scripts, I think, as the same script producing the error can work just fine if I run it again.

The different error messages are:
/Parser/BaseVCF4.pm line 891, <IN> line 5.
Use of uninitialized value in list assignment at /Users/Johanne/src/ensembl-io/modules/Bio/EnsEMBL/IO/Parser/BaseVCF4.pm line 891, <IN> line 5.
connect: Operation timed out
[kftp_connect_file] 350 Restarting at 654385206. Send STORE or RETRIEVE to initiate transfer

[kftp_connect_file] 227 Entering Passive Mode (193,62,203,85,220,250).
Tabix::tabix_query: t is not of type tabix_tPtr at /Users/Johanne/src/ensembl-io/modules/Bio/EnsEMBL/IO/TabixParser.pm line 70.

[kftp_connect_file] 227 Entering Passive Mode (193,62,203,85,157,134).
[main] fail to open the data file.
Can't use an undefined value as an ARRAY reference at /Users/Johanne/src/ensembl-io/modules/Bio/EnsEMBL/IO/Parser/BaseVCF4.pm line 730.

Usually just one of these error occur at a time. I suspect it might have something to do with the connection between my computer and the ensembl database, as the first error at least always show up in repeats when I lose my Internet connection. However, are all of them caused by Internet trouble? I have checked that the MySQL instance is up and running, and can visit web pages through a browser when some of the errors occur. Could it be something on the server/database side?

Also, if I use the GRCh37 database:

$registry->load_registry_from_db(
  -host => 'ensembldb.ensembl.org<http://ensembldb.ensembl.org>',
  -user => 'anonymous',
  -port => 3337,
);

I get this warning/printout:
Use of uninitialized value $nums{"."} in numeric comparison (<=>) at /Users/Johanne/src/ensembl-variation/modules/Bio/EnsEMBL/Variation/VCFCollection.pm line 770, <IN> line 6.

I use version 84 of the Ensembl API, OS X 10.11.5, and the script I use when all of these errors occur, is attached. Note that the attached script by default uses hg38, but will produce the last printout mentioned when switching to hg37.

And something different I have been wondering about:
The VCF files that are downloaded locally (ALL.chr1.phase3_shapeit2_mvncall_integrated_v3plus_nounphased.rsID.genotypes.GRCh38_dbSNP.vcf.gz.tbi, for instance) - should they be deleted and re-downloaded from time to time to get the latest 1000G data? And where exactly are the VCFs downloaded from? Is it dbSNP, as indicated in the file name?

Best,
Johanne Håøy Horn
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