BINTRANS(1) | General Commands Manual | BINTRANS(1) |
bintrans
, base64
,
uuencode
, uudecode
, —
encode/decode a binary file
bintrans |
[algorithm] [...] |
uuencode |
[-m ] [-r ]
[-o output_file]
[file] name |
uudecode |
[-cimprs ] [file ...] |
uudecode |
[-i ] -o
output_file |
b64encode |
[-r ] [-w
column] [-o
output_file] [file]
name |
b64decode |
[-cimprs ] [file ...] |
b64decode |
[-i ] -o
output_file [file] |
base64 |
[-h | -D |
-d ] [-b
count] [-i
input_file] [-o
output_file] |
The uuencode
and
uudecode
utilities are used to transmit binary files
over transmission mediums that do not support other than simple ASCII data.
The b64encode
utility is synonymous with
uuencode
with the -m
flag
specified. The b64decode
utility is synonymous with
uudecode
with the -m
flag
specified.
The base64
utility acts as a base64
decoder when passed the --decode
(or
-d
) flag and as a base64 encoder otherwise. As a
decoder it only accepts raw base64 input and as an encoder it does not
produce the framing lines. base64
reads standard
input or file if it is provided and writes to standard
output. Options --wrap
(or
-w
) and --ignore-garbage
(or
-i
) are accepted for compatibility with GNU base64,
but the latter is unimplemented and silently ignored.
The uuencode
utility reads
file (or by default the standard input) and writes an
encoded version to the standard output, or output_file
if one has been specified. The encoding uses only printing ASCII characters
and includes the mode of the file and the operand name
for use by uudecode
.
The uudecode
utility
transforms
uuencoded files
(or by default, the standard input) into the original form. The resulting
file is named either name or (depending on options
passed to uudecode
)
output_file and will have the mode of the original
file except that setuid and execute bits are not retained. The
uudecode
utility ignores any leading and trailing
lines.
The following options are available for
uuencode
:
-m
uuencode
algorithm.-r
-o
output_fileThe following options are available for
uudecode
:
-c
-i
-m
-r
flag, decode Base64 input
instead of traditional uuencode
input. Without
-r
it has no effect.-o
output_file-p
-r
uuencode
encoding, but if the
-m
flag is used, or if the utility is invoked as
b64decode
, then the input is assumed to be in
Base64 format.-s
uudecode
deletes any prefix ending with the last
slash '/' for security reasons.Additionally, b64encode
accepts the
following option:
-w
columnThe following options are available for
base64
:
-b
count,
--break
=count-d
,
-D
, --decode
-h
,
--help
-i
input_file,
--input
=input_file-o
output_file,
--output
=output_filebintrans
is a generic utility that can run
any of the aforementioned encoders and decoders. It can also run algorithms
that are not available through a dedicated program:
qp
is a quoted-printable converter and
accepts the following options:
The following example packages up a source tree, compresses it,
uuencodes it and mails it to a user on another system. When
uudecode
is run on the target system, the file
``src_tree.tar.Z'' will be created which may then be uncompressed and
extracted into the original tree.
tar cf - src_tree | compress | uuencode src_tree.tar.Z | mail user@example.com
The following example unpacks all uuencoded files from your mailbox into your current working directory.
uudecode -c < $MAIL
The following example extracts a compressed tar archive from your mailbox
uudecode -o /dev/stdout < $MAIL | zcat | tar xfv -
basename(1), compress(1), mail(1), uucp(1) (ports/net/freebsd-uucp), uuencode(5)
The uudecode
and
uuencode
utilities appeared in
4.0BSD.
Files encoded using the traditional algorithm are expanded by 35% (3 bytes become 4 plus control information).
April 18, 2022 | macOS 14.6 |