condense takes as input a residue list generated by get_near_res and compacts it into a format suitable for an ms -i file (for the UCSF version of ms - for the QCPE ms version, see autoMS ). This functionality comes in handy when attempting to generate an ms surface for a portion of a receptor. The program get_near_res can be used to obtain a listing of all receptor atoms within a specified distance of a small molecule, e.g. a crystallographically observed ligand. condense will then reformat and compact the listing to less than 100 entries for compatibility with UCSF ms. This program supports command-line operation: type condense -h for details.