java -jar /home/shen/biosoft/picard.jar CreateSequenceDictionary \
R=reference.fasta \
O=reference.dict
This produces a SAM-style header file describing the contents of our fasta file.
> cat Homo_sapiens_assembly18.dict
@HD VN:1.0 SO:unsorted
@SQ SN:chrM LN:16571 UR:file:/humgen/gsa-scr1/depristo/dev/GenomeAnalysisTK/trunk/Homo_sapiens_assembly18.fasta M5:d2ed829b8a1628d16cbeee88e88e39eb
@SQ SN:chr1 LN:247249719 UR:file:/humgen/gsa-scr1/depristo/dev/GenomeAnalysisTK/trunk/Homo_sapiens_assembly18.fasta M5:9ebc6df9496613f373e73396d5b3b6b6
@SQ SN:chr2 LN:242951149 UR:file:/humgen/gsa-scr1/depristo/dev/GenomeAnalysisTK/trunk/Homo_sapiens_assembly18.fasta M5:b12c7373e3882120332983be99aeb18d
@SQ SN:chr3 LN:199501827 UR:file:/humgen/gsa-scr1/depristo/dev/GenomeAnalysisTK/trunk/Homo_sapiens_assembly18.fasta M5:0e48ed7f305877f66e6fd4addbae2b9a