Before downloading, you can see a list of all available NCBI databases by running: update_blastdb.pl --showall Use code with caution.
wget "ftp://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/blast/db/swissprot.*.tar.gz" Use code with caution.
: Explicitly choose a source (e.g., ncbi , aws , or gcp ). If you are running your analysis on a cloud provider, the script can automatically pull from local cloud buckets to save on data costs.
If you cannot use the Perl script, you can manually download the compressed .tar.gz files using tools like wget or curl .
The update_blastdb.pl script is a Perl utility that automates the process of fetching, checking, and decompressing preformatted databases from the NCBI FTP site . 1. List Available Databases
: Use passive FTP mode, which is often required to bypass strict firewalls.