# Input file names when viewing provenance

**URL:** https://forum.qiime2.org/t/input-file-names-when-viewing-provenance/2401
**Category:** User Support
**Tags:** pending-development, provenance
**Created:** [January 3, 2018, 3:33pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/input-file-names-when-viewing-provenance/2401 "2018-01-03T15:33:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![jpetteng](https://forum.qiime2.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/4491bb/32.png) [@jpetteng](https://forum.qiime2.org/u/jpetteng)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2018, 3:33pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/input-file-names-when-viewing-provenance/2401/1 "2018-01-03T15:33:14Z")

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Is there a way to see the actual file names that were the inputs for the various steps shown in the provenance chain when visualizing a .qza or .qzv object?

For example, I have a file taxa-bar-plots.qzv and I would like to make sure that the input files were all prefixed with 300bp as I also created files with 400bp prefixes to see the influence of --p-trim-length on the deblur output before moving onto downstream steps.

The provenance chain just lists the steps but not the input files as far as I can tell.

Thanks!  
jamie

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### Author: ![thermokarst](https://forum.qiime2.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/8e7dd6/32.png) [@thermokarst](https://forum.qiime2.org/u/thermokarst)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2018, 3:25pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/input-file-names-when-viewing-provenance/2401/3 "2018-01-04T15:25:12Z")

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Hi @jpetteng!

> [@jpetteng](#):
>
> Is there a way to see the actual file names that were the inputs for the various steps shown in the provenance chain when visualizing a .qza or .qzv object?

The filename isn't recorded as part of provenance --- I will ask @ebolyen to provide some detail as to why, but as I understand it, it boils down to the fact that filenames are mutable, while something like the artifact's UUID aren't. @ebolyen, is there a technical limitation/hurdle here, too?

Here is a simple `python` script to demonstrate how to get a mapping of Artifact UUIDs to filenames:

```python
import qiime2
import pathlib

artifacts = pathlib.Path('.').glob('**/*.qz*')
artifact_map = {qiime2.Artifact.peek(str(a)).uuid: str(a) for a in artifacts}
print(artifact_map)

{'00d4b3d4-a036-4d99-8a3d-25866fe519dd': 'beta-rarefaction.qzv',
 '158f42e6-0576-4ba6-9b7b-7ebf572a0b5b': 'alpha-rare-without-spaces.qzv',
 '2ecc209a-1e9f-4e2f-a417-c0e01c313170': 'table.qza',
 '45158415-22ed-4601-9373-f461042311f6': 'alpha-rare-with-spaces.qzv'}

```

That still requires a bit of manual work, although, to identify which file is which. We still have plenty of plans in the provenance (and citation) departments, so stay tuned! 🦖

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### Author: ![system](https://forum-qiime2-org.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/original/3X/2/1/21af5fe23cb6f4579467c66a9ed94e55274ca7bd.svg) [@system](https://forum.qiime2.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2018, 9:39pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/input-file-names-when-viewing-provenance/2401/5 "2018-02-04T21:39:26Z")

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