# Install blast with Homebrew, Nix Basic Local Alignment Search Tool. Version 2.17.0 via Homebrew; verified 2026-06-22. ## Install ```sh sudo av install brew:blast ``` Additional install commands: ### macOS - Homebrew (100%): ```sh brew install blast ``` Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata ### Linux - Nix (92%): ```sh nix profile install nixpkgs#blast ``` Evidence: nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/bl/blast/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1 ## Package facts - **Package key:** brew:blast - **Package manager:** Homebrew - **Package manager page:** - **Version:** 2.17.0 - **Source summary:** Basic Local Alignment Search Tool - **Homepage:** - **Repository:** - **Upstream docs:** - **License:** LicenseRef-Homebrew-public-domain - **Source archive:** - **Last updated:** 2026-06-22T14:02:53-07:00 - **Generated:** 2026-07-08T07:18:31+00:00 ## Executables - blast_formatter (cli) - blastdb_aliastool (cli) - blastdb_convert (cli) - blastdb_path (cli) - blastdbcheck (cli) - blastdbcmd (cli) - blastdbcp (cli) - blastn (cli) - blastp (cli) - blastx (cli) - cleanup-blastdb-volumes.py (cli) - convert2blastmask (cli) - datatool (cli) - deltablast (cli) - dustmasker (cli) - gc_cli (cli) - get_species_taxids.sh (cli) - legacy_blast.pl (cli) - lmdbxx_sample (cli) - makeblastdb (cli) - makeclusterdb (cli) - makembindex (cli) - makeprofiledb (cli) - project_tree_builder (cli) - psiblast (cli) - rpsblast (cli) - rpstblastn (cli) - run_with_lock (cli) - seedtop (cli) - segmasker (cli) - seqdb_demo (cli) - seqdb_perf (cli) - tax4blast (cli) - tblastn (cli) - tblastx (cli) - update_blastdb.pl (cli) - windowmasker (cli) - windowmasker_2.2.22_adapter.py (cli) - blast_formatter (alias) - blastdb_aliastool (alias) - blastdb_convert (alias) - blastdb_path (alias) - blastdbcheck (alias) - blastdbcmd (alias) - blastdbcp (alias) - blastn (alias) - blastp (alias) - blastx (alias) - cleanup-blastdb-volumes.py (alias) - convert2blastmask (alias) - datatool (alias) - deltablast (alias) - dustmasker (alias) - gc_cli (alias) - get_species_taxids.sh (alias) - legacy_blast.pl (alias) - lmdbxx_sample (alias) - makeblastdb (alias) - makeclusterdb (alias) - makembindex (alias) - makeprofiledb (alias) - project_tree_builder (alias) - psiblast (alias) - rpsblast (alias) - rpstblastn (alias) - run_with_lock (alias) - seedtop (alias) - segmasker (alias) - seqdb_demo (alias) - seqdb_perf (alias) - tax4blast (alias) - tblastn (alias) - tblastx (alias) - update_blastdb.pl (alias) - windowmasker (alias) - windowmasker_2.2.22_adapter.py (alias) ## Dependencies - libomp - lmdb - mbedtls@3 - pcre2 ## Uses from macOS - bzip2 - sqlite ## Install behavior - Post-install hook: not defined - Bottle: available on arm64_linux, arm64_sequoia, arm64_sonoma, arm64_tahoe, sonoma, x86_64_linux ## Freshness - Page generated: 2026-07-08 - Package-manager version: 2.17.0 - Package-manager updated: 2026-06-22 - Local data: ok - Upstream repository: https://blast.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ - info: Release/tag comparison is only available for GitHub repositories. ## 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 Notes infrastructure mutation or orchestration signal. - **Geiger risk:** orange / medium - infrastructure mutation or orchestration signal ## 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 - Unix: .ncbirc, ~/.ncbirc, $NCBI/.ncbirc, /etc/.ncbirc - Windows: ncbi.ini, %USERPROFILE%\ncbi.ini, %NCBI%\ncbi.ini, %SYSTEMROOT%\ncbi.ini ## Source Database Details - **Source Database:** Homebrew formula API - **Tap:** homebrew/core - **Full Name:** blast - **Version Scheme:** 0 - **Revision:** 1 - **Conflicts With:** proj - **Bottle Stable Root URL:** - **Deprecated:** no - **Disabled:** no - **Keg Only:** no - **URL Keys:** stable ## Other Package-Manager Records - Nix - blast: normalized package name match | nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/bl/blast/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1 ## Related links - [Secret-risk packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/secret-risk-packages/) - Has protected-tool coverage, approval-gate, or non-low Geiger security signals. - [Terminal utility packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/terminal-utilities/) - Matched terminal and command-line workflow metadata. - [Text processing packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/text-processing-tools/) - Matched text, document, or structured-data processing metadata. - [Networking and protocol packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/networking-protocol-tools/) - Matched network, protocol, or remote-service metadata. - [lmdb](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/lmdb/) - Runtime dependency declared by Homebrew. - [mbedtls@3](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/mbedtls-3/) - Runtime dependency declared by Homebrew. - [pcre2](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/pcre2/) - Runtime dependency declared by Homebrew. - [abricate](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/abricate/) - Popular package that depends on this formula. - [lastz](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/lastz/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: bioinformatics, cli, genomics, science, sequence-alignment. - [minimap2](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/minimap2/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: bioinformatics, cli, genomics, science, sequence-alignment. - [mummer](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/mummer/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: bioinformatics, cli, genomics, science, sequence-alignment. - [abpoa](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/abpoa/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: bioinformatics, cli, science, sequence-alignment. - [bbtools](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/bbtools/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: bioinformatics, cli, genomics, science. - [bioperl](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/bioperl/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: bioinformatics, cli, genomics, science. - [bowtie2](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/bowtie2/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: bioinformatics, cli, genomics, science. - [diamond](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/diamond/) - Local package facts share a topical domain. Shared terms: alignment, bioinformatics, blast, cli, local. - [ropebwt3](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/ropebwt3/) - Local package facts share a topical domain. Shared terms: bioinformatics, cli, genomics, libomp, science. ## Combined YAML source View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/blast.yml](https://github.com/automic-vault/db/blob/main/combined/blast.yml) ## Sources - Nucleus package database - Geiger risk classifier - package-page enrichment - curated configuration and credential file locations - curated package history - package version freshness - av.db category and tag curation - package relationship graph - external package-manager database matches - cross-ecosystem install command graph