macOS
Homebrewverified · 100%
brew install blastlocal Homebrew formula metadata
brew / rank 2195
Install blast with Homebrew, Nix
Basic Local Alignment Search Tool. Version 2.17.0 via Homebrew; verified 2026-06-22. Also installable with nix: nix profile install nixpkgs#blast.
install
Additional install commands
Linux
Nixverified · 92%
nix profile install nixpkgs#blastnixpkgs package indexes · pkgs/by-name/bl/blast/package.nix · source: api.github.com
overview
Package summary
Basic Local Alignment Search Tool
Project links
Commands and aliases
- blast_formatter
- blastdb_aliastool
- blastdb_convert
- blastdb_path
- blastdbcheck
- blastdbcmd
- blastdbcp
- blastn
- blastp
- blastx
- cleanup-blastdb-volumes.py
- convert2blastmask
- datatool
- deltablast
- dustmasker
- gc_cli
- get_species_taxids.sh
- legacy_blast.pl
- lmdbxx_sample
- makeblastdb
- makeclusterdb
- makembindex
- makeprofiledb
- project_tree_builder
- psiblast
- rpsblast
- rpstblastn
- run_with_lock
- seedtop
- segmasker
- seqdb_demo
- seqdb_perf
history
Project history and usage
BLAST, the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool, is one of the defining command-line programs of computational biology. It became the everyday sequence-search utility for comparing DNA and protein sequences against large databases, first through NCBI services and then through local command-line installations.
Project history
NCBI's BLAST help references the 1990 Altschul, Gish, Miller, Myers, and Lipman paper that introduced the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool. The same NCBI reference list traces later BLAST-family milestones including gapped BLAST and PSI-BLAST in 1997, MegaBLAST indexing work in 2008, BLAST+ architecture in 2008, DELTA-BLAST in 2012, Magic-BLAST in 2019, and ElasticBLAST in 2023.
The command-line package distributed today is BLAST+, documented by NCBI's BLAST Command Line Applications User Manual. The developer information page identifies BLAST as public-domain software and points developers to the NCBI C++ Toolkit implementation, matching the public GitHub toolkit repository used for source distribution.
Adoption history
BLAST became a standard because it joined a fast heuristic alignment algorithm with NCBI's growing public sequence databases. Web BLAST made ad hoc searches accessible, while the command-line applications let labs, sequencing centers, and pipelines run repeatable local searches against custom databases.
Package-manager adoption reflects that role: even when the upstream distribution is from NCBI rather than a typical single-purpose GitHub project, package managers keep `blastn`, `blastp`, `blastx`, `makeblastdb`, `blastdbcmd`, and related executables available as system tools for bioinformatics workflows.
How it is used
Common local workflows build a database with `makeblastdb`, search it with tools such as `blastn` or `blastp`, inspect databases with `blastdbcmd`, and format results with `blast_formatter`. NCBI also documents REST access for programmatic searches against hosted services.
The package contains a family of executables rather than one command. That matters for reproducible science because database construction, masking, protein-vs-nucleotide search modes, profile searches, and output formatting are split into scriptable tools.
Why package nerds care
For package nerds, BLAST is a canonical example of scientific infrastructure as a Unix package: many binaries, public-domain licensing, local database files, environment/config conventions, and a manual that is closer to laboratory protocol than app documentation.
It is also a reminder that the most important command-line tools are not always developer tools. BLAST made local compute a practical front end to public biological databases, so packaging it well directly affected how biology labs automated sequence analysis.
Timeline
- 1990: Original BLAST paper published.
- 1997: Gapped BLAST and PSI-BLAST paper published.
- 2008: NCBI BLAST Command Line Applications User Manual citation date and BLAST+ architecture paper appear.
- 2012: DELTA-BLAST paper published.
- 2019: Magic-BLAST paper published.
- 2023: ElasticBLAST cloud-search paper published.
Related projects
- Related projects and descendants include PSI-BLAST, MegaBLAST, DELTA-BLAST, Magic-BLAST, ElasticBLAST, the NCBI C++ Toolkit, FASTA-family sequence search tools, and downstream workflow systems that wrap BLAST searches.
Sources
security posture
Risk level: orange
infrastructure mutation or orchestration signal.
Risk classifier
orange risk · medium confidence · infrastructure
Why
- infrastructure mutation or orchestration signal
Signals
- text:cluster
Install behavior
- No Homebrew bottle metadata was recorded.
Recommended review
Before unattended agent use, check whether the tool reads plaintext credentials, writes remote state, publishes artifacts, or shells out to plugins.
local files
Configuration and credential file locations
These source-backed paths show where this package keeps local settings or durable credentials. Automic Vault can use them as review targets for secret scanning, migration, and command approval.
Configuration files
Config paths the tool may read or write during local use.
- Unix
.ncbirc~/.ncbirc$NCBI/.ncbirc/etc/.ncbirc- Windows
ncbi.ini%USERPROFILE%\ncbi.ini%NCBI%\ncbi.ini%SYSTEMROOT%\ncbi.ini
executables
Installed executables
| Command | Kind | Exposure | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
blast_formatter | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
blastdb_aliastool | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
blastdb_convert | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
blastdb_path | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
blastdbcheck | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
blastdbcmd | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
blastdbcp | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
blastn | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
blastp | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
blastx | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
cleanup-blastdb-volumes.py | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
convert2blastmask | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
datatool | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
deltablast | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
dustmasker | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
gc_cli | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
get_species_taxids.sh | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
legacy_blast.pl | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
lmdbxx_sample | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
makeblastdb | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
makeclusterdb | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
makembindex | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
makeprofiledb | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
project_tree_builder | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
psiblast | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
rpsblast | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
rpstblastn | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
run_with_lock | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
seedtop | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
segmasker | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
seqdb_demo | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
seqdb_perf | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
tax4blast | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
tblastn | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
tblastx | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
update_blastdb.pl | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
windowmasker | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
windowmasker_2.2.22_adapter.py | executable | indexed executable | Discovered from the local executable index. |
freshness
Version and freshness
These signals separate page generation age, package-manager activity, and upstream release comparison. Version lag is warned only when an evidence URL and comparable versions are present.
page generated2026-08-03
manager version2.17.0
manager updated2026-06-22
local dataunknown
upstreamnot available
latest detectednot detected
- okNo freshness warnings were generated.
install metadata
Package metadata
| Package key | brew:blast |
|---|---|
| Version | 2.17.0 |
| Package manager | Homebrew |
| Homepage | https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ |
| Last updated | 2026-06-22T14:02:53-07:00 |
| Pulse | updated |
| Bottle | not recorded |
| Service | none declared |
source database matches
Other package-manager records
Matches are pulled from external package-manager indexes and kept separate from local Automic Vault package links.
Nix95%
blast
nix profile install nixpkgs#blast- normalized package name match
- Matched by: Blast
source trail
Generated from repository data
This page is generated by av-web from the private package SQLite artifact built by scripts/generate-pkg-sqlite.py.
Combined YAML source
View the package source record on GitHub.
Used sources
- Geiger risk classifier
- cross-ecosystem install command graph
- curated configuration and credential file locations
- curated package history
- external package-manager database matches
- pkg.so package database
- pkgdb category and tag curation