Table of Contents

## Name

obgrep -- an advanced molecular search program using SMARTS

## Synopsis

obgrep [OPTIONS] ‘SMARTS-pattern’ filename

## Description

The obgrep tool can be used to search for molecules inside multi-molecule database files (e.g., SMILES, SDF, etc.) or across multiple files.

## Options

If only a filename is given, obgrep will attempt to guess the file type from the filename extension.

-c
  Print the number of matches

-f
  Full match, print matching-molecules only when the number of heavy atoms is also equal to the number of atoms in the SMARTS pattern

-i format
  Specifies input and output format, see obabel(1) for available formats

-n
  Only print the name of the molecules

-t #
  Print a molecule only if the pattern occurs # times inside the molecule

-v
  Invert the matching, print non-matching molecules

## Examples

Note that in all examples, the SMARTS pattern is enclosed in single quotes '...' to ensure it is not changed by the shell.

Print all the molecules with a methylamine group:

    obgrep 'CN' database.smi

Print all the molecules without a methylamine group:

    obgrep -v 'CN' database.smi

Print the number of molecules without a methylamine group:

    obgrep -v -c 'CN' database.smi

Print methylamine (if it exists in the file):

    obgrep -f 'CN' database.smi

Print methylamine and/or methanol (if they exist):

    obgrep -f 'C[N,O]' database.smi

Print all molecules with aromatic carbon in all SMILES files in the directory (i.e., *.smi):

    obgrep 'c' *.smi

## See Also

obabel(1) , obfit(1) , obrotate(1) .

The web pages for Open Babel can be found at: <http://openbabel.org/>

A guide for constructing SMARTS patterns can be found at: <http://www.daylight.com/dayhtml/doc/theory/theory.smarts.html>

## Authors

The obgrep program was contributed by Fabien Fontaine

Open Babel is developed by a cast of many, including currrent maintainers Geoff Hutchison, Chris Morley, Michael Banck, and innumerable others who have contributed fixes and additions. For more contributors to Open Babel, see <http://openbabel.org/wiki/THANKS>

## Copyright

Copyright (C) 1998-2001 by OpenEye Scientific Software, Inc.
Some portions Copyright (C) 2001-2007 by Geoffrey R. Hutchison and other contributors.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation version 2 of the License.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

Table of Contents

- Name
- Synopsis
- Description
- Options
- Examples
- See Also
- Authors
- Copyright