/*
* Copyright 2012-2015 Broad Institute, Inc.
* 
* Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person
* obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation
* files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without
* restriction, including without limitation the rights to use,
* copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
* copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
* Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following
* conditions:
* 
* The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
* included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
* 
* THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
* EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES
* OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
* NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT
* HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,
* WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING
* FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR
* THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
*/

package org.broadinstitute.gatk.utils.commandline;

import java.io.File;
import java.util.List;

/**
 * Combines a list of files into a single output.
 */
public abstract class Gatherer {
    /**
     * Gathers a list of files into a single output.
     * @param inputs Files to combine.
     * @param output Path to output file.
     */
    public abstract void gather(List<File> inputs, File output);

    /**
     * Returns true if the caller should wait for the input files to propagate over NFS before running gather().
     * @return true if the caller should wait for the input files to propagate over NFS before running gather().
     */
    public boolean waitForInputs() { return true; }
}
