Decryption Using SRA Toolkit

This is a step-by-step manual for decrypting the encrypted genome data files using SRA Toolkit in macOS Mojave 10.14.4 for beginners.

Requirements

Here is a list of requirements:

• Having administrative privileges
• Accessing terminal
• Internet connection

Step 0

Download data files and they decryption key

Step 1

Download SRA Toolkit from HERE and uncompress by double click on the downloaded archive

Step 2

Open terminal using either (Ctrl + Alt + t) or Search and type in terminal and then hit Enter and go to /User/[username]/Downloads/sratoolkit.2.9.6-mac64/bin/

Note: Replace [username] with your username, e.g. mike, throughout this manual

Step 3

Type in ./vdb-config -i and hit Enter

Step 4

Hit 4 and navigate to the folder where the key is stored and hit OK

Step 5

vdb-config prompts if you want to import the key, hit OK

Step 6

Next, it will ask you if you want to change the directory, hit NO

Step 7

Now hit 6 to save changes, OK and then 7

Step 8

Now copy all data files download in ##Step 1 to /Users/[username]/ncbi/[dbGaP-#####]/files/

Step 9

Go back to terminal and navigate to /Users/[username]/ncbi/[dbGaP-#####]/files/

Step 10

Now type in /Users/[username]/Downloads/sratoolkit.2.9.6-mac64/bin/vdb-decrypt /Users/[Username]/ncbi/dbGaP-21073/files/[filename].ncbi_enc and hit Enter

Note: Replace [filename] with the actual file name

Step 11

The decrypted compressed file will be replaced with encrypted file in the same directory. To see the actual file uncompress the compressed one

More info

Check the following reference for further information

• Decrypting and Extracting Data