shm

bwa-mem3 shm stages an FM-index into POSIX shared memory so that subsequent bwa-mem3 mem invocations on the same machine attach to the in-memory segment instead of re-reading the index files from disk. For workloads that align many small samples back-to-back against the same reference — such as clinical panels or amplicon sequencing — this removes the dominant I/O bottleneck. shm also lists and destroys staged segments.

Synopsis


Usage: bwa-mem3 shm [-d|-l|--help] [--meth] [idxbase]

Options:
  -d        destroy all indices in shared memory (matches bwa v1 behavior)
  -l        list names of indices in shared memory
  --meth    stage a `bwa-mem3 index --meth` index — auto-appends
            `.bwameth.c2t` to <idxbase>, mirroring `mem --meth`
  -h --help print this help and exit

Stage with no flags: `bwa-mem3 shm <idxbase>` loads the index into
POSIX shared memory; subsequent `bwa-mem3 mem <idxbase> ...` runs
auto-attach instead of re-reading from disk. For meth indices, pass
the same plain `<idxbase>` to all three commands plus `--meth` on
`index`, `shm`, and `mem` (the c2t suffix is auto-appended).

Footgun: if you re-build the index, run `bwa-mem3 shm -d` first.
There is no staleness check -- a stale segment will silently mis-align.

macOS: POSIX shm has implementation-defined per-segment caps; large
       indices may simply fail to stage. Prefer Linux for production.
Linux: /dev/shm defaults to ~50% of RAM on bare metal; in containers
       it is often much smaller and may need raising via --shm-size
       (Docker) or an emptyDir tmpfs (Kubernetes).

Common usage

Stage a standard index, align two samples, then release the segment:

bwa-mem3 shm ref.fa
bwa-mem3 mem -t 16 ref.fa sample1_R1.fq sample1_R2.fq > sample1.sam
bwa-mem3 mem -t 16 ref.fa sample2_R1.fq sample2_R2.fq > sample2.sam
bwa-mem3 shm -d

Stage a methylation index and align:

bwa-mem3 shm --meth ref.fa
bwa-mem3 mem --meth -t 16 ref.fa R1.fq R2.fq | samtools sort -o out.bam -
bwa-mem3 shm -d

List all currently staged segments:

bwa-mem3 shm -l

Flag reference

(no flags) `<idxbase>` — stage an index

Loads all index files for <idxbase> into a POSIX shared-memory segment. After staging, any bwa-mem3 mem <idxbase> ... on the same machine auto-attaches and reads from memory rather than disk.

`-d` — destroy all segments

Removes every bwa-mem3 shared-memory segment on the machine. This is the correct clean-up command after a batch job and the required step before re-building the index (see the footgun warning below).

`-l` — list staged indices

Prints the names of all currently staged segments. Useful to confirm that staging succeeded before launching alignment jobs.

`--meth` — stage a methylation index

Auto-appends .bwameth.c2t to <idxbase> before staging, mirroring the behavior of bwa-mem3 index --meth and bwa-mem3 mem --meth. Pass the same plain <idxbase> to all three commands; the c2t suffix is handled transparently.

Notes / Gotchas

Warning — No staleness check — always destroy before re-indexing

There is no staleness check. If you re-run bwa-mem3 index ref.fa after staging, the on-disk index files will not match the in-memory segment, but bwa-mem3 mem will still attach to the stale segment and silently produce incorrect alignments. Always run bwa-mem3 shm -d before re-indexing.

Note — Platform limits

macOS: POSIX shared memory has implementation-defined per-segment size caps. Staging a full hg38 index (~28 GB) may fail silently or with a cryptic error. Prefer Linux for production use with large references.

Linux containers: /dev/shm typically defaults to ~50% of physical RAM on bare metal but is often much smaller inside Docker containers or Kubernetes pods. Raise the limit with --shm-size (Docker) or an emptyDir tmpfs volume with an explicit size (Kubernetes) before attempting to stage a large index.

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