acdvalid processes an ACD file and reports any errors or warnings caused by incorrect, deprecated or obsolete syntax. The tests go above and beyond those of acdc and acdtrace. It highlights ACD syntax that might cause problems to third-party parsing software which wrap the EMBOSS applications.
acdvalid validates the ACD file, testing many features which will not prevent an application from running, but will create problems for the interfaces, whether on the command-line or some other type.
The output file is empty, but any format available to the specified program can be used.
acdvalid does not have its own options, but takes a single parameter which is the name of the EMBOSS application that is being testsed. It is invoked by specifying the name of the application to be tested along with any command-line options after the name of the utility application itself:
acdvalid ApplicationName Options
acdvalid will run the command line interface of any EMBOSS program by reading its ACD file and processing the command line and user responses in exactly the same way as if the true program itself were running. The application proper is
acdvalid will use any data files specified in the ACD file of the specified program, but will ignore any data files that are only used directly by the program's code. EMBOSS data files are distributed with the application and stored in the standard EMBOSS data directory (see EMBOSS Users Manual for further information).
acdvalid generates both error and warning messages. If the message is an "Error" then the ACD file will not work and requires fixing. Most of the messages from acdvalid are "Warnings" and do not prevent a program from running, however it is still worth trying to fix the problem.
Although the warning messages are only advisory, as many warnings as possible are fixed for any application in the main release. Further validation tests will be added in future releases so it is worth running acdvalid on all local ACD files with each new version of EMBOSS