GNdiff app takes two files with scientific names and compares them

• Introduction
• GNdiff Installation
  • Using Homebrew on Mac OS X, Linux, and Linux on Windows (WSL2)
  • Linux and Mac without Homebrew
  • MS Windows
  • Compile from source
• Usage
  • Compare Files
  • Compare using test files
  • Options and flags
    • help
    • version
    • format
    • quiet
• Family names as a disambiguation tool
  • The same nomenclatural code homonyms (senior, junior homonyms)
  • Homonyms from different nomenclatural codes (hemihomonyms)

Introduction

It is often useful to compare one checklist to another. This project uses pretty much the same algorithms as GNverifier, but does not require an external database and can be used offline.

GNdiff is a complementary tool to GNverifier. It is made to compare a checklist with checklists that are not in GNverifier database. If you need to compare a list of names that are already in GNverifier, either use GNverifier web app or install it locally and run:

gnvrifier names.txt -o -s 12,1

where -s option provides id/ids of selected GNverifier data-sources, and -o flag (--only-preferred) limits results to data-sources set by -s option.

If both checklists of scientific names are local, use GNdiff.

GNdiff Installation

Using Homebrew on Mac OS X, Linux, and Linux on Windows (WSL2)

Homebrew is a popular package manager for Open Source software originally developed for Mac OS X. Now it is also available on Linux, and can easily be used on MS Windows 10 or 11, if Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is installed.

Note that Homebrew requires some other programs to be installed, like Curl, Git, a compiler (GCC compiler on Linux, Xcode on Mac). If it is too much, go to the Linux and Mac without Homebrew section.

To use GNdiff with Homebrew:

1. Install Homebrew

2. Open terminal and run the following commands:

brew tap gnames/gn
brew install gndiff

Linux and Mac without Homebrew

Download the latest GNdiff release, untar, and install binary somewhere in your path.

tar xvf gndiff-linux-0.1.1.tar.gz
# or tar xvf gndiff-mac-0.1.1.tar.gz
sudo mv gndiff /usr/local/bin

MS Windows

Download the latest GNdiff release, unzip.

One possible way would be to create a default folder for executables and place GNdiff there.

Use Windows+R keys combination and type “cmd“. In the appeared terminal window type:

mkdir C:\Users\your_username\bin
copy path_to\gndiff.exe C:\Users\your_username\bin

Add C:\Users\your_username\bin directory to your PATH environment variable.

Another, simpler way, would be to use cd C:\Users\your_username\bin command in cmd terminal window. The GNdiff program then will be automatically found by Windows operating system when you run its commands from that directory.

Compile from source

Install Go according to installation instructions and run:

go install github.com/gnames/gndiff/gndiff@latest

Usage

Compare Files

Prepare two files with names. There are 3 possible file formats:

• A simple list of scientific names, one name per line.
• Comma-separated or Tab-separated (CSV) file with a ScientificName field.
• Tab-separated (TCV) file with a ScientificName field.

For both CSV and TSV files the fields TaxonID and Family are also ingested if given, any capitalization of either of the fields names is accepted.

The Family field indicates a family a particular species are assigned to according to the dataset. Normally this field is not needed, but in case of tricky homonyms it helps to resolve taxa from each other.

Run command:

gndiff query.csv reference.csv

The first of the two files should contain names that need to be matched. The second file should contain reference names.

Any combination of these 3 formats would work:

gndiff file.csv names.txt
gndiff file.tsv file.csv
gndiff name.txt file.tsv
# etc.

Compare using test files

To see how it works you can use tests files from the GNdiff project for example ebird.csv and ioc-bird.csv. These files contain avian names from eBird and eBird and IOC Bird checklists correspondingly. Open each link and use Ctrl-S on Windows/Linux or ⌘-S on Mac to save these files on your computer. You can then run:

gndiff path/to/ebird.csv path/to/ioc-bird.csv
# or
gndiff path/to/ioc-bird.csv path/to/ebird.csv

Options and flags

According to POSIX standard flags and options can be given either before or after file-paths arguments.

help

gndiff -h
# or
gndiff --help
# or
gndiff

version

gndiff -V
# or
gndiff --version

format

Sets the format of the comparison result and can take the following values:

• csv: Comma-separated format
• tsv: Tab-separated format
• compact: JSON as one line
• pretty: JSON in a human-readable format with indentations and lines separation.

The default format is CSV.

gndiff query.txt ref.txt -f pretty
# or
gndiff query.txt ref.txt --format=pretty

port (integer)

When port is set, GNdiff works as a web server with its RESTful API exposed at the given port.

gndiff -p 8080
# or
gndiff --port 8080

quiet

This flag supresses warnings log, showing only the matching results.

gndiff query.txt ref.txt -q
# or
gndiff query.txt ref.txt --quiet

Please note, that matching result uses STDOUT, while log uses STDERR, so a similar result can be achieved by redirecting STDERR to /dev/null

gndiff query.txt ref.txt 2> /dev/null

Family names as a disambiguation tool

Family sometimes help to distinquish homonyms in names lists. For example, there are homonyms within one nomenclatural code, and homonyms in between two nomenclatural codes.

The same nomenclatural code homonyms (senior, junior homonyms)

For example, in zoology a genus name Echidna has 3 homonyms:

1. Moray eel

   Family Muraenidae -> Genus Echidna J. R. Forster

2. Egg-laying mammal Echidna

   Family Tachyglossidae -> Echidna Cuvier, 1797 (junior homonym)

   Currently genus Tachyglossus Illiger, 1811

3. Snake

   Family Viperidae -> Echidna Merrem, 1820 (junior homonym)

   Currently genus Bitis Gray, 1842

Such homonyms are not allowed within the same code and eventually they get corrected. However historical records still contain them and have to be disambiguated.

Homonyms from different nomenclatural codes (hemihomonyms)

There are no rules how to deal with homonyms that are treated by different (for example Botanical and Zoological) nomenclatural codes.

1. Sea Snail (Zoological Nomenclatural Code)

   Family Ficidae -> Ficus variegata Röding, 1798

2. Red fig (Botanical Nomenclatural Code)

   Family Moraceae -> Ficus variegata Blume