Feature Request: "dry run" feature or "simulate" feature

[kongdeju]

this would be perfect.

[hh1985]

I implemented a function in my project to achieve that. The basic idea is to use "touch <File>" in dry run mode to generate empty files.

[ssadedin]

That's an interesting idea @hh1985 - I can definitely see it would be nice to be able to get a full idea of what all the outputs would look like. There are some dynamic features of Bpipe however that would never be able to be supported. For example, it's possible to decide dynamically to forward different outputs or switch to different paths of the pipeline based on the actual results of previous stages. So there would always be this problem that what you simulated might not be what you actually get. Of course, if you don't use those type of features it seems feasible.

EDIT: just to make sure as well, you are aware of the functionality of bpipe test it's not a full simulation of course.