This is a test version of Biostars. For the public version, visit https://www.biostars.org.
Rename an existing BLAST database

Is it possible to rename an existing BLAST database using the NCBI command line tools?

blast
• 3,171 views • link
updated by st.ph.n st.ph.n • written by cmdcolin cmdcolin

1 answer 

makeblastdb -in input_file.fasta -dbtype prot/nucl -out desired_name.fasta

USAGE
  makeblastdb [-h] [-help] [-in input_file] [-input_type type]
    -dbtype molecule_type [-title database_title] [-parse_seqids]
    [-hash_index] [-mask_data mask_data_files] [-mask_id mask_algo_ids]
    [-mask_desc mask_algo_descriptions] [-gi_mask]
    [-gi_mask_name gi_based_mask_names] [-out database_name]
    [-max_file_sz number_of_bytes] [-logfile File_Name] [-taxid TaxID]
    [-taxid_map TaxIDMapFile] [-version]

You can rename the files you have, but make sure you keep the blast extensions, which depend on dbtype.

• 0 views • link
written by st.ph.n st.ph.n

My particular case the -title argument was also added to the makeblastdb command, and I was hoping to just simply modify the title that was given to the DB rather than regenerate everything with makeblastdb. In this case renaming the files wouldn't work I think since the -title was used.

• 0 views • link
written by cmdcolin cmdcolin

I think there is a bug and so the title usually defaults to the input file name even if you set the -title argument. So, change the name of the input file to the name of the database you want.

• 0 views • link
written by theobroma22 theobroma22

Log in to answer this question.

More posts like this