SAM scoring file
File type: Various data file
The .dist-rdb file extension is used by Sequence Alignment and Modeling (SAM). A .dist-rdb file is an RDB-format scoring file created by hmmscore.
It contains sequence identifiers, sequence lengths, scores, and information about the scoring method.
File type category:
Various data file
Date updated: October 2, 2026
Sequence Alignment and Modeling (SAM) is a bioinformatics software suite for sequence analysis and modeling. Within SAM workflows, .dist-rdb files store scoring results produced by hmmscore.
The file records the sequences evaluated, their lengths, the calculated scores, and details about the scoring method. It is an auxiliary SAM data file rather than a general-purpose alignment format.
SAM and its associated tools are available for Linux and Unix systems. Because this is a SAM-specific RDB-format file, it is primarily useful within workflows that use the SAM software.
A .dist-rdb file can be inspected as a text-based data file with a plain-text editor on Linux or Unix. The contents are intended mainly for processing by SAM tools, especially the workflow that uses hmmscore, rather than for display in a general-purpose document application.
This SAM scoring file does not normally need conversion. It stores results for use in SAM workflows, and converting it to another format may discard scoring-method information.
If the scores are needed elsewhere, a user can parse the file with a script and export the selected fields to a general tabular format. Such an export is a data extraction, not a full conversion of the SAM scoring file.
Software apps that create dist-rdb files:
Linux/Unix
Software applications that handle other tasks involving dist-rdb files:
Linux/Unix
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