---
name: "edirect"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "ncbi-entrez-direct"
version: "14.6.20210224+dfsg-4+b1"
release: "Debian 11 (Bullseye)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/edirect"
---

# edirect(1)

access NCBI Entrez from the command line (DEPRECATED)

## NAME

edirect - access NCBI Entrez from the command line (DEPRECATED)

## SYNOPSIS

**edirect -version**

**esearch** (**edirect -search**) *options*

**elink** (**edirect -link**) *options*

**efilter** (**edirect -filter**) *options*

**esummary** (**edirect -summary**) *options*

**efetch** (**edirect -fetch**) *options*

**einfo** (**edirect -info**) *options*

**epost** (**edirect -post**) *options*

**espell** (**edirect -spell**) *options*

**ecitmatch** (**edirect -citmatch**) *options*

**eproxy** (**edirect -proxy**) *options*

**econtact** (**edirect -contact**) *options*

**enotify** (**edirect -notify**) *options*

**eaddress** (**edirect -address**) *options*

**eblast** (**edirect -blast**) *options*

**ftp-ls** (**edirect -ftpls**) *options*

**ftp-cp** (**edirect -ftpcp**) *options*

**transmute** (**edirect -tmute**) *options*

**edirect -nquir** *options*

## DESCRIPTION

**Note:** **edirect** might not appear in future releases of NCBI Entrez Direct. However, several individual commands (**esearch** through **epost**) live on as **nquire**-based shell scripts.

**edirect** (Entrez Direct) is a command-line utility for consulting NCBI's set of interconnected databases (publication, sequence, structure, gene, variation, expression, etc.) in a variety of fashions, most of which are documented individually in dedicated man pages. (The one exception is **edirect -nquir**, which roughly corresponds to **nquire** but is fully independent.)

## COMMON OPTIONS

Most subcommands accept the following options, in addition to command-specific options.

- **-help**

  Print usage information.

- **-email** *address*

  Send the given e-mail address to have someone to notify in case a runaway script causes problems with an NCBI Entrez server.

- **-tool** *name*

  *Send the given client name.*

- **-http***\[***s***\]* **get**

  *Force the use of* **GET** *rather than* **POST** *HTTPS requests.*

- **-alias** *filename*

  *Specify a file of shortcut keywords and query strings or URL sections.*

- **-silent**

  *Suppress connection failure retry messages.*

- **-verbose**

  *Display the* **ENTREZ\_DIRECT** *XML field values at each step.*

- **-debug**

  *Print the internal URL query and XML results of each step.*

- **-base** *URL*

  *Specify a particular server for quality assurance testing.*

## ENVIRONMENT

- **EDIRECT\_DO\_AUTO\_ABBREV**

  *Accept (currently) unambiguous truncated option names,* *as in* **-verbo** *for* **-verbose***.*

- **NCBI\_API\_KEY**

  *NCBI E-Utilities API key,* *allowing for a higher request rate* *at the cost of some anonymity.*

## SEE ALSO

[**eaddress**(1)](/eaddress/1.md), [**eblast**(1)](/eblast/1.md), [**ecitmatch**(1)](/ecitmatch/1.md), [**econtact**(1)](/econtact/1.md), [**efetch**(1)](/efetch/1.md), [**efilter**(1)](/efilter/1.md), [**einfo**(1)](/einfo/1.md), [**elink**(1)](/elink/1.md), [**enotify**(1)](/enotify/1.md), [**entrez-phrase-search**(1)](/entrez-phrase-search/1.md), [**epost**(1)](/epost/1.md), [**eproxy**(1)](/eproxy/1.md), [**esearch**(1)](/esearch/1.md), [**espell**(1)](/espell/1.md), [**esummary**(1)](/esummary/1.md), [**ftp-cp**(1)](/ftp-cp/1.md), [**ftp-ls**(1)](/ftp-ls/1.md), [**nquire**(1)](/nquire/1.md), [**transmute**(1)](/transmute/1.md), [**xtract**(1)](/xtract/1.md).