BLAST FTP Site

BLAST® Help

Tao Tao, PhD

NCBI
tao@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Corresponding author.

Tom Madden, PhD

NCBI
madden@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Camacho Christiam
NCBI
camacho@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
BLAST® Help

Lee Szilagyi
NCBI
szilagyl@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

BLAST is a Registered Trademark of the National Library of Medicine

Created: May 29, 2011.

Last Update: May 10, 2016.

The NCBI FTP server contains a BLAST-specific directory (ftp://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

blast/). Through this directory, the standalone BLAST packages and a standard set of
BLAST databases are available to the public for download through anonymous FTP. For
BLAST® Help

faster download, the service is also available through the Aspera client for those users with
the Aspera browser plug-in installed (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/public/?blast/).

This document describes the subdirectories and file contents of the BLAST FTP directory.
Technical details on how to use certain files, especially those under the db (database)
subdirectory, are also provided.

Subdirectories under the BLAST FTP directory

There are several subdirectories under the BLAST FTP directory. Each stores a set of files
with similar types of contents. These subdirectories are summarized in Table 1.
BLAST® Help

Table 1. File contents of subdirectories under the "/blast" FTP directory

Subdirectory File content

db Preformatted BLAST database files and FASTA sequence files (under the /FASTA subdirectory)

demo Various demonstration packages for developers

documents Preliminary documentation (mostly from developers) and pointers to other documentation

executables Different releases for standalone BLAST packages, including blast+

matrices Different supported and experimental scoring matrices

temp Miscellaneous files

 Page 2

Table 1. File contents of subdirectories under the "/blast" FTP directory

Subdirectory File content

WGS_TOOLS A tool for generating WGS project-based database alias for vdb blast and its readme
BLAST® Help

A collection of windowmasker files for various organisms/genomes, each in its own subdirectory named using their
windowmasker_files
taxonomic ids

The "/blast/db/ " subdirectory

This subdirectory contains a common set of preformatted BLAST database files. The
FASTA sequences are stored under the "/FASTA" subdirectory. The contents of available
preformatted databases are summarized separately according to their sequence nature and
sources (for nucleotide databases). The databases provided for the cloud-based BLAST
packages are under the "/cloud" subdirectory.
BLAST® Help

Table 2. Preformatted protein database files

File name Contents

cdd_delta.tar.gz Conserved domain database for use with the standalone delta-blast program.

Protein sequences from large environmental sequencing projects, e.g., Sargasso Sea, Acid Mine Drainage. Its entries are
env_nr.##.tar.gz
EXCLUDED from the nr database.

A collection of protein sequences with entries from GenPept, Swissprot, PDB, PRF, PIR and NCBI Reference Sequence
nr.##.tar.gz
(RefSeq) project.

pataa.tar.gz Protein sequences from patents as supplied by USPTO. Its entries are EXCLUDED from the nr database.

pdbaa.tar.gz Protein sequences from PDB structure records’ protein components.

refseq_protein.##.tar.gz Protein sequences from NCBI RefSeq project.

BLAST® Help

swissprot.tar.gz Protein sequences from the swiss-prot sequence database (last major update).

Protein sequences from annotated on the transcriptome shotgun assembly. Its entries are EXCLUDED from the nr
tsa_nr.tar.gz
database.

Table 3a. Preformatted non-RefSeq nucleotide database files

File Contents

Nucleotide sequences from large environmental sequence projects, such as Sargasso Sea and Acid Mine Drainage. Its entries
env_nt.##.tar.gz
are EXCLUDED from the nt database.

An ALIAS file for the EST database to combine est_*.*.tar.gz files into a large virtual EST database to represent entries
est.tar.gz
BLAST® Help

from the EST division of GenBank, EMBL and DDBJ. Entries are EXCLUDED from the nt database.

est_human.##.tar.gz The human subset of the EST database. Entries are EXCLUDED from the nt database.

est_mouse.##.tar.gz The mouse subset of the EST database. Entries are EXCLUDED from the nt database.

The non-human and non-mouse subset of the EST database. Entries are excluded from nt. Entries are EXCLUDED from the
est_others.##.tar.gz
nt database.

The GSS database with entries from the GSS division of GenBank, EMBL and DDBJ. Entries are EXCLUDED from the nt
gss.##.tar.gz
database.

BLAST FTP Site

 Page 3

Table 3a. Preformatted non-RefSeq nucleotide database files

File Contents

The HTGS database with entries from the HTG division of GenBank, EMBL and DDBJ. Entries are EXCLUDED from the
htgs.##.tar.gz
BLAST® Help

nt database.

The nucleotide sequence database contains entries from traditional divisions of GenBank, EMBL and DDBJ. Sequences
nt.##.tar.gz from bulk divisions, i.e., gss, sts, pat, est, htg, wgs, and environmental sequences are excluded. RefSeq genomic entries are
also excluded.

The patent nucleotide sequence database contains entries from USPTO through GenBank or from EU/Japan Patent Agencies
patnt.##.tar.gz
through EMBL/DDBJ. Entries are EXCLUDED from the nt database.

pdbnt.##.tar.gz A set of ALIAS files for the nt database, pointing to the subset of nucleotide sequences in nt that are from PDB structures.

The sts database with entries from the STS division of GenBank, EMBL and DDBJ. Entries are EXCLUDED from the nt
sts.##.tar.gz
database.

A database with earlier non-project based Transcriptome Sequence Assembly entries. Entries are EXCLUDED from the nt
tsa_nt.##.tar.gz
database.
BLAST® Help

vector.tar.gz A database contains common vector sequences found in the GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ.

Whole genome shotgun sequence assemblies for various organisms. It is already superseded by the project-based datasets
wgs.##.tar.gz
stored in vdb format (ftp://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sra/wgs/).

Table 3b. Preformatted RefSeq nucleotide database files

File Contents

16SMicrobial.tar.gz Microbial 16S RNA sequences from the RefSeq Targeted Loci project (http://1.usa.gov/1jwzhZL).

A core set of refseq genomic sequences selected by their representative nature according to Assembly
Representative_Genomes.##.tar.gz
annotation, for reduced redundancy, in multiple volumes.
BLAST® Help

Assembled human chromosomes from Reference and Genbank for various individuals, along with their
human_genomic.##.tar.gz
scaffold components.

human_genomic_transcript.tar.gz Human genomic contigs (NC) and mapped/predicted transcripts (NM/XM) for the current annotation release.

Mouse genomic contigs entries (NC) and mapped/predicted transcripts (NM/XM) for the current annotation
mouse_genomic_transcript.tar.gz
release.

other_genomic.##.tar.gz Genomic records (NC/NT/NS/NZ accessioned) for lower eukaryotes, microbes and organelles.

refseq_genomic.##.tar.gz All genomic sequences from NCBI RefSeq project, including wgs scaffolds.

refseq_rna.##.tar.gz RNA sequences from NCBI RefSeq project, also included in the nt database.

Genomic sequences for selected genes records from NCBI RefSeq project (NG accessioned), containing
refseqgene.tar.gz
additional up- and downstream sequences beyond the transcribed region.
BLAST® Help

A non-sequence database file containing taxonomic information for sequences in the preformatted databases
taxdb.tar.gz
providing common and scientific names for each entry.

Getting the preformatted database files

The advantages preformatted BLAST database files offer over the FASTA files are:
• The preformatted databases are broken into smaller volumes and therefore can be
downloaded more readily with fewer errors
• A convenient Perl script (update_blastdb.pl found in the bin directory of an installed
blast+ package) is available to simplify the download of these preformatted
databases

BLAST FTP Site

 Page 4

• Preformatted database files remove the formatting steps through makeblastdb and
saves valuable processing time
• Taxonomic information is encoded within the preformatted databases and can be
retrieved readily through blastdbcmd (taxdb.tar.gz installation required)
• Sequences in FASTA format can be generated from the preformatted databases by
BLAST® Help

the blastdbcmd utility when needed

Preformatted databases must be downloaded in binary mode, using the update_blastdb.pl
script or through FTP client. Instructions for update_blastdb.pl script can be obtained by
running the script without any arguments (installation of Perl is required). Example
command line for getting the preformatted env_nr protein database and the output are given
below.

perl update_blastdb.pl --passive env_nr

Connected to NCBI
Downloading env_nr (2 volumes) ...
Downloading env_nr.00.tar.gz... done.
BLAST® Help

Downloading env_nr (2 volumes) ...

Downloading env_nr.01.tar.gz... done.

The complete options of this script (obtained using specific option "--help") are shown
below.

$ perl update_blastdb.pl --help

NAME
update_blastdb.pl - Download preformatted BLAST databases from NCBI

SYNOPSIS
BLAST® Help

update_blastdb.pl [options] blastdb ...

OPTIONS
--decompress
Downloads, decompresses the archives in the current working directory,
and deletes the downloaded archive to save disk space, while
preserving the archive checksum files (default: false). Note: Using
this option may require more computing resources than using your
system's native decompression tool(s).

--showall
Show all available preformatted BLAST databases (default: false). The
BLAST® Help

output of this option lists the database names which should be used
when requesting downloads or updates using this script.

--passive
Use passive FTP, useful when behind a firewall (default: false).

--timeout
Timeout on connection to NCBI (default: 120 seconds).

--force
Force download even if there is a archive already on local directory

BLAST FTP Site

 Page 5

(default: false).

--verbose
Increment verbosity level (default: 1). Repeat this option multiple
times to increase the verbosity level (maximum 2).
BLAST® Help

--quiet
Produce no output (default: false). Overrides the --verbose option.

--version
Prints this script's version. Overrides all other options.

DESCRIPTION
This script will download the preformatted BLAST databases requested in
the command line from the NCBI ftp site.

EXIT CODES
BLAST® Help

This script returns 0 on successful operations that result in no

downloads, 1 on successful operations that downloaded files, and 2 on
errors.

BUGS
Please report them to <blast-help@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov>

COPYRIGHT
See PUBLIC DOMAIN NOTICE included at the top of this script.

Using the preformatted BLAST database files

The compressed files of preformatted blast databases must be inflated with gzip or other
BLAST® Help

decompress utilities. The working database files can then be extracted out of the resulting tar
file using tar program in Unix/Linux or WinZip and StuffIt Expander on Windows and
Macintosh platforms, respectively.

Large databases are formatted in multiple one-GB volumes, which are named using the
"name.##.tar.gz" convention. To reconstitute a given multi-volume database, all volume
files with the same base name are required. A database alias file, with ".pal" extension for
protein or ".nal" extension for nucleotide, is provided to tie the volumes together so that the
database can be called using the base database name. For example, binary programs from
the blast+ package can call the nt database using the command line option of "-db nt"
(without quotes).
BLAST® Help

Certain databases are subsets of a larger parent database (marked as alias in Tables 2, 3a and
3b). For those databases, alias and mask files, rather than actual databases, are provided. The
mask file points to a specific subset of the parent database and requires the parent database
to function properly. The parent databases should be generated at the same time as the mask
file. For example, to use pdbnt preformatted database (pdbnt.##.tar.gz), nt.##.tar.gz files
with the same date stamp are needed.

For proper setup of standalone BLAST, it is recommended that the database files be stored
in a centralized directory. Details are available for Windows and Mac/Linux/Unix.

BLAST FTP Site

 Page 6

Sequence files under the "/db/FASTA/" subdirectory

This subdirectory contains sequence files in the FASTA format. The protein and the
nucleotide sequence files are described in Tables 4a and 4b, respectively. They will need to
be converted by makeblastdb before they can be used with binary programs from the blast+
package.
BLAST® Help

Table 4a. Contents of protein database files under the /db/FASTA directory

File Content

alu.a.gz Protein translation of the alu.n repeats

drosoph.aa.gz 1 CDS translations of the Drosophila genome from drosophila.nt

env_nr.gz 2 The FASSTA equivalent of the env_nr.##.tar.gz database files

igSeqProt.gz Protein sequences for human and mouse immunoglobulin sequences

mito.aa.gz 1 CDS translations of the complete mitochondrial genomes

nr.gz 2
BLAST® Help

The FASTA equivalent of the nr.##.tar.gz database files

pataa.gz 2 The FASTA equivalent of the pataa.tar.gz database file.

pdbaa.gz 2 The FASTA equivalent of the pdbaa.tar.gz databse file.

swissprot.gz 2 The FASTA equivalent of the swissprot.tar.gz database file.

yeast.aa.gz 1 Protein translations of old baker yeast genomic contigs

Footnote:
1. These sequence files are provided for test purposes; their contents are not up-to-date.
2. It is recommended that their preformatted counterparts described in Table 2 be used whenever possible.

Table 4b. Contents of database files under the /db/FASTA directory

BLAST® Help

File Content

alu.n.gz Nucleotide sequences for alu repeat elements

drosoph.nt.gz 1 The old genomic contigs for Drosophila melanogaster

env_nt.gz 2 The FASTA equivalent of the env_nt.##.tar.gz database files.

est_human.gz 2 The FASTA equivalent of the est_human.##.tar.gz database files.

est_mouse.gz 2 The FASTA equivalent of the est_mouse.##.tar.gz database files.

est_others.gz 2 The FASTA equivalent of the est_others.##.tar.gz database files.

gss.gz 2 The FASTA equivalent of the gss.##.tar.gz database files.

BLAST® Help

htgs.gz 2 The FASTA equivalent of the htgs.##.tar.gz database files.

human_genomic.gz 2 The FASTA equivalent of the human_genomic.##.tar.gz database files.

igSeqNt.gz Nucleotide sequences for human and mouse immunoglobulin variable regions

mito.nt.gz 1 Complete mitochondrial genomes

nt.gz 2 The FASTA equivalent of the nt.##.tar.gz database files.

other_genomic.gz 2 The FASTA equivalent of the other_genomic.##.tar.gz database files.

patnt.gz 2 The FASTA equivalent of the patnt.##.tar.gz database files.

BLAST FTP Site

 Page 7

Table 4b. Contents of database files under the /db/FASTA directory

File Content

pdbnt.gz 3 The FASTA equivalent of the pdbnt.##.tar.gz database files.

BLAST® Help

sts.gz 2 The FASTA equivalent of the dbsts.tar.gz database files.

vector.gz 2 The FASTA equivalent of the vector.tar.gz database files.

wgs.gz The FASTA equivalent of the wgs.##.tar.gz database files, to be decommissioned soon.

yeast.nt.gz 1 Old baker’s yeast genomic contigs

Footnote:
1. These sequence files are provided for test purposes; their contents are not up-to-date.
2. It is recommended that their preformatted counterparts described in Table 2 be used whenever possible.
3. This may offer some advantage of the pdbnt.##.tar.gz alias files due to their requirement of nt.##.tar.gz.

For local BLAST searches, the recommendation is to use the preformatted version given in
BLAST® Help

the parent directory. For those without preformatted counterparts, the FASTA sequence file
need to be inflated using gzip or other comparable utilities first, and then formatted using
makeblastdb from the blast+ package. Example command lines for formatting igSeqNt and
igSeqProt are given below.

makeblastdb –in igSeqNt –dbtype nucl –parse_seqids

makeblastdb –in igSeqProt –dbtype prot –parse_seqids

The complete EST database is not available in FASTA or in preformatted form. All three
subsets, est_human, est_mouse and est_others, are required to reconstitute the EST database.
For screening of vector contamination, the UniVec database should be used instead. They
BLAST® Help

can be downloaded from:

ftp://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/UniVec/

Chromosome entries are available in the refseq_genomic and other_genomic databases.

Organism-specific sequences are available in FASTA format under the genomes FTP
directory:

ftp://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/genomes/ ftp://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/
factsheets/HowTo_Downloading_Genomic_Data.pdf

Database update
BLAST® Help

In general, BLAST databases are updated daily. There is no established incremental update
scheme at this time, and it is recommended that databases be downloaded at regular intervals
to keep the content of local copy current. The update_blastdb.pl script can help streamline
this download process. If the original database.##.tar.gz files are kept, this utility can
automatically check the time stamps to determine if update is required or not.

For faster download, installation of the Aspera plug-in is recommended. This client can be
downloaded from the Aspera Soft site under the download tab. NCBI bookshelf also
provides a detailed guide on downloading data from NCBI via Aspera. A web interface for
the NCBI FTP site is at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/public/.

BLAST FTP Site

 Page 8

Contents of the "/blast/demo/" subdirectory

This directory contains technical presentations given by NCBI BLAST developers in
scientific conferences and several tools and documents relevant to the BLAST service to
deomonstrate how specific functions from NCBI's C-toolkit code can be used.
BLAST® Help

Table 5. Contents of the /blast/demo/ subdirectory

File/Dir Name Content

README.blast_demo readme for blast_demo package

README.first readme for this directory

README.parse_blast_xml readme for parse_blast_xml package

benchmark Package with sample database and query for gauging the performance of BLAST releases on different platforms

blast_demo.tar.gz blast_demo package on blast db, blast object, and reformating blast alignment from blastobj file

blast_programming.ppt PowerPoint presentation on BLAST programing

BLAST® Help

bmc Sequences used in the generation of BLAST search data for the blast+ paper published in BMC

ieee_blast.final.ppt A set of PowerPoint slides presented during an IEEE conference

ieee_talk.pdf Above IEEE presentation in PDF format

igblast Directory with igblast related set of scripts, see its README for more details

mt_tback.tgz Multi-threaded traceback related test code

openmp_test.tar.gz Openmp multi-thread related test code

parse_blast_xml.tar.gz Demo package on parsing xml styled blast output

splitd.ppt PowerPoint presentation on NCBI BLAST servers splitd implementation

BLAST® Help

test_suite.tar.gz An old set of test sequences with csh script

vecscreen Binary program for vecscreen

Since NCBI is migrating to C++ code base provided by the C++ toolkit, some of the files
from this directory could become obsolete and may change without notice. Most of the
functions demonstrated here are incorporated in the blast_formatter utility distributed in the
blast+ package.

Contents of the "/blast/documents/" subdirectory

This directory contains mostly posters and other preliminary documentation from BLAST
developers. For blast+ packages, a user manual along with the instruction for installation are
BLAST® Help

available through NCBI bookshelf.

Table 6. File contents of the /blast/documents/ subdirectory

File/Dir Name Content

NEWXML Directory with newxml (xml2) related files

README Readme for this directory

blast-sc2004.pdf A poster describing the NCBI splitd system behind NCBI BLAST service

BLAST FTP Site

 Page 9

Table 6. File contents of the /blast/documents/ subdirectory

File/Dir Name Content

blastclust.html Readme for blastclust

BLAST® Help

blastdb.html Readme for blast databases

blastdocs.tar.gz Archive of old document files

subdirectory with additional technical documentation

blast_seqalign.txt: describing seqalign function
developer readdb.txt: describing readdb function
scoring.pdf: describing scoring systems used by BLAST
urlapi.txt: a short introduction on BLAST URLAPI

filter.html Readme on filter strings and their functions

Moleblast_poster2014.pdf Poster describing the MOLE-BLAST web search tool

web_blast.pl Example Perl script for doing blast searches through BLAST URLAPI
BLAST® Help

Contents of the "/blast/executables/" subdirectory

This directory contains several subdirectories each for a set of BLAST distribution packages
from a specific release. Binaries based on the new C++ toolkit are under the /blast+
subdirectory with the lastest release directly accessible through the /LATEST symbolic link.
The only program file is remote_fuser, for use in database fetching in the cloud
implementation.

Contents of the "/blast/executables/LATEST/" subdirectory

This directory is a symbolic link pointing to the LATEST release of BLAST+ programs
built from the NCBI C++ toolkit. Packages for commom platforms available in different
formats are summarized in Table 7 below.
BLAST® Help

Table 7. File contents of the /blast/executables/LATEST/ subdirectory

File Contents

ChangeLog Changes introduced in this release

ncbi-blast-#.#.##+.src.rpm blast+ source code as a rpm installation package

ncbi-blast-#.#.##+.x86_64.rpm rpm installation package for PC running 64-bit Linux

ncbi-blast-#.#.##+-src.tar.gz blast+ source code as a tar archive

ncbi-blast-#.#.##+-src.zip blast+ source code as a zip file

BLAST® Help

ncbi-blast-#.#.##+-universal-macosx.tar.gz Tar archive for Macintosh running OSX

ncbi-blast-#.#.##+-win64.exe Installer for PC running 64-bit Windows

ncbi-blast-#.#.##+-x64-linux.tar.gz Tar archive for PC running 64-bit Linux

ncbi-blast-#.#.##+-x64-win64.tar.gz Tar archive for PC running 64-bit Windows

ncbi-blast-#.#.##+.dmg Disk image for Macintosh running OSX

All non-source code archives or packages are equivalent. They contain a standard collection
of standalone command line blast programs and accessory utilities for different platforms.
Installation of the package enables local BLAST searches, custom database preparation from

BLAST FTP Site

 Page 10

FASTA sequences, as well as sequence retrieval from existing databases formatted with the
"-parse_seqids" setting.

Details on individual programs from the package as well as installation procedures are
available for Windows and Mac/Linux/Unix.
BLAST® Help

Note that blast+ does not provide a separate netblast equivalent package since the client-
server functions are built into individual blast programs, i.e. blastn , blastp , blastx , tblastn
and tblastx , which can be invoked using the "-remote" option on the command line to
remotely search against databases at NCBI. In addition, blast+ does not provide wwwblast
equivalent packages.

Contents of the "/blast/executables/blast+/" subdirectory

This subdirectory archives all releases of the blast+ package. Each release is under its own
directory named using its version number. Available builds start at version 2.2.18, with
2.2.20 skipped.

Contents of the "/blast/executables/legacy/" subdirectory

BLAST® Help

This subdirectory archives the releases of legacy blast package based on the NCBI C
Toolkit. Each release is under its own directory with the version number as its name.
Available builds start at version 2.0.7. The "/LATEST" is a symbolic link mapping to the
newest release.

Packages with version number 2.2.10 or newer are packaged with a built-in directory
structure to better organize the distributed contents. Package content and brief installation
procedures are available for Windows and Mac/Linux/Unix.

Contents of the "/blast/executables/snapshot/" subdirectory

This subdirectory archives the patches released between major releases. Each set of patches
BLAST® Help

is contained within a separate directory with the upload date as its name. The files available
vary from snapshot to snapshot depending on need. For example, the 2010-11-15 snapshot is
a complete package for blast+, while 2010-09-13 is for a single program.

Contents of the "/blast/executables/magicblast/" subdirectory

A subdirectory with files for the preliminary release of a next generation sequence read
mapper from NCBI. Refer to the readme file under the directory for more details.

Contents of the "/blast/executables/rmblast/" subdirectory

This subdirectory archives the repeat masker BLAST. Refer to the readme for more details.
Currently two versions (based on blast+ 2.2.27 and 2.2.28) are available, each within their
own subdirectory. Please refer to the README for more details.
BLAST® Help

Contents of the "/blast/matrices/" subdirectory

This directory contains an extensive list of score matrices, most of which are experimental in
nature and not supported by blast programs. The matrices can be grouped into PAM family
of matrices, BLOSUM family of matrices, matrices for nucleotide and other miscellaneous
matrices.

BLAST FTP Site

 Page 11

Table 8. Summary of matrices found in the /blast/matrices/ subdirectory

File Contents

BLOSUM* BLOSUM family of score matrices for protein alignment

BLAST® Help

PAM* PAM family of score matrices for protein alignment

DAYHOFF*, GONNET* Variants of PAM matrices for protein alignment

MATCH, IDENTITY Simplified score matrices for protein alignment

NUC* Nucleotide score matrices

PAM.tar.gz C source code for generating PAM matrices

Contents of the "/blast/temp/" subdirectory

This is a directory used for testing purposes or other special needs that do not fall into the
above categories.
BLAST® Help

Contents of the "/blast/WGS_TOOLS/" subdirectory

This directory provides two database alias generating tools to generate a database alias for
an input taxonomic id, for project-based WGS or TSA datasets - those with four letter
project prefix as listed at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Traces/wgs/. The alias file produced
can be used with the vdb blast tools available from the sratoolkit, which is available for
common platforms: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Traces/sra/?view=software.

A handout describing the general usage of these vdb blast programs is available at:

ftp://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/factsheets/HowTo_Local_SRA_BLAST.pdf
BLAST® Help

Getting Help
For details, please refer to the BLAST Help Manual and other documents under the Help tab
of the BLAST homepage or the document directory under the BLAST FTP site.

Comments, questions and bug reports specifically relating to the BLAST programs and their
usage should be sent to blast-help@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
BLAST® Help

BLAST FTP Site