[EMBOSS] Warning: Cannot open division file '<null>' for database 'swissprot'

[Joanne Fox]

Hello EMBOSS community,

I used dbiflat to index the latest flatfile distribution of swissprot 
(uniprot_sprot.dat).  Now I am trying to use this database with the 
EMBOSS patmatdb program and I'm encountering an error that reads, 
"Warning: Cannot open division file '<null>' for database 'swissprot'".

I searched the mailing list archives and I see others with this same 
problem that boil down to permissions and/or path problems.  However, I 
still can't figure out what's going wrong on my system.  I've put more 
detailed information below.  I'm new to the world of configuring EMBOSS 
so if anyone has any ideas about what might be going wrong, I'd really 
appreciate the advice.

Thanks,
Joanne.
-- 
| Joanne Fox
| http://bioinformatics.ubc.ca/people/joanne


~> showdb
Displays information on the currently available databases
# Name        Type ID  Qry All Comment
# ====        ==== ==  === === =======
swissprot     P    OK  OK  OK  Swissprot Release 7.1, 2/21/2006

~> patmatdb
Search a protein sequence with a motif
Input sequence(s): swissprot
Warning: Cannot open division file '<null>' for database 'swissprot'
Error: Unable to read sequence 'swissprot'
Input sequence(s): swissprot:*
Warning: Cannot open division file '<null>' for database 'swissprot'
Error: Unable to read sequence 'swissprot:*'
Died: patmatdb terminated: Bad value for '-sequence' and no more retries

contents of .embossrc file:
set emboss_logfile /usr/local/software/bioinformatics/emboss/log/emboss.log
set emboss_database_dir /raid1/bioinformatics/data
DB swissprot [
    type: P
    method: emblcd
    format: swissprot
    dir: \$emboss_database_dir/swissprot/swissprot_V7_1
    file: "*.dat"
    release: "7.1"
    comment: "Swissprot Release 7.1, 2/21/2006"
]

contents of the /raid1/bioinformatics/data/swissprot/swissprot_V7_1/ 
directory:
-rw-r--r--    1 bin      bin       1165524 Mar  6 12:37 acnum.hit
-rw-r--r--    1 bin      bin       3899118 Mar  6 12:37 acnum.trg
-rw-r--r--    1 bin      bin           322 Mar  6 12:37 division.lkp
-rw-r--r--    1 bin      bin       4368405 Mar  6 12:37 entrynam.idx
-rw-r--r--    1 bin      bin      802445434 Mar  6 12:23 uniprot_sprot.dat