2. Common Features and File Formats

All MORGAN programs use the same command line syntax, share many statements, and use the same pedigree data format. Most of the MORGAN programs need at least two input files in order to run: one parameter file and one pedigree data file. The parameter file contains computing requests, model parameters and input/output file options. It may also contain genotype data or other information specific to a particular MORGAN program. The pedigree file contains, at minimum, information on family relationships among the individuals in the sample.

It is worth pointing out that white space in any input file is defined to be any of these characters: `,' (comma), `\t' (horizontal tab), `\v' (vertical tab), `\n' (line feed, or newline), `\f' (form-feed), `\r' (carriage return).

2.1 Command syntax
2.2 Parameter file
2.3 File identification statements
2.4 Pedigree file
2.5 Pedigree file description statements