The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
are met:
1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
without specific prior written permission.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
SUCH DAMAGE.
.Dd January 23, 2024 .Dt BINTRANS 1 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm bintrans , .Nm uuencode , .Nm uudecode , .Nm b64encode , .Nm b64decode , .Nm base64 .Nd encode / decode a binary file .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm .Op algorithm .Op ... .Nm uuencode .Op Fl m .Op Fl r .Op Fl o Ar output_file .Op Ar file .Ar name .Nm uudecode .Op Fl cimprs .Op Ar .Nm uudecode .Op Fl i .Fl o Ar output_file .Nm b64encode .Op Fl r .Op Fl w Ar column .Op Fl o Ar output_file .Op Ar file .Ar name .Nm b64decode .Op Fl cimprs .Op Ar .Nm b64decode .Op Fl i .Fl o Ar output_file .Op Ar file .Nm base64 .Op Fl d .Op Fl w Ar column .Op Ar file .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm uuencode and .Nm uudecode utilities are used to transmit binary files over transmission mediums that do not support other than simple .Tn ASCII data. The .Nm b64encode utility is synonymous with .Nm uuencode with the .Fl m flag specified. The .Nm b64decode utility is synonymous with .Nm uudecode with the .Fl m flag specified.
p The .Nm base64 utility acts as a base64 decoder when passed the .Fl -decode
o or .Fl d
c 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. .Nm base64 reads standard input or .Ar file if it is provided and writes to standard output. Options .Fl -wrap
o or .Fl w
c and .Fl -ignore-garbage
o or .Fl i
c are accepted for compatibility with GNU base64, but the latter is unimplemented and silently ignored.
p The .Nm uuencode utility reads .Ar file (or by default the standard input) and writes an encoded version to the standard output, or .Ar output_file if one has been specified. The encoding uses only printing .Tn ASCII characters and includes the mode of the file and the operand .Ar name for use by .Nm uudecode .
p The .Nm uudecode utility transforms .Em uuencoded files (or by default, the standard input) into the original form. The resulting file is named either .Ar name or (depending on options passed to .Nm uudecode ) .Ar output_file and will have the mode of the original file except that setuid and execute bits are not retained. The .Nm uudecode utility ignores any leading and trailing lines.
p The following options are available for .Nm uuencode : l -tag -width ident t Fl m Use the Base64 method of encoding, rather than the traditional .Nm uuencode algorithm. t Fl r Produce raw output by excluding the initial and final framing lines. t Fl o Ar output_file Output to .Ar output_file instead of standard output. .El
p The following options are available for .Nm uudecode : l -tag -width ident t Fl c Decode more than one uuencoded file from .Ar file if possible. t Fl i Do not overwrite files. t Fl m When used with the .Fl r flag, decode Base64 input instead of traditional .Nm uuencode input. Without .Fl r it has no effect. t Fl o Ar output_file Output to .Ar output_file instead of any pathname contained in the input data. t Fl p Decode .Ar file and write output to standard output. t Fl r Decode raw (or broken) input, which is missing the initial and possibly the final framing lines. The input is assumed to be in the traditional .Nm uuencode encoding, but if the .Fl m flag is used, or if the utility is invoked as .Nm b64decode , then the input is assumed to be in Base64 format. t Fl s Do not strip output pathname to base filename. By default .Nm uudecode deletes any prefix ending with the last slash '/' for security reasons. .El
p Additionally, .Nm b64encode accepts the following option: l -tag -width ident t Fl w Ar column Wrap encoded output after .Ar column . .El
p .Nm 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:
p .Nm qp is a quoted-printable converter and accepts the following options: l -tag -width ident t Fl u Decode. t Fl o Ar output_file Output to .Ar output_file instead of standard output. .Sh EXAMPLES The following example packages up a source tree, compresses it, uuencodes it and mails it to a user on another system. When .Nm 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.
p d -literal -offset indent -compact tar cf - src_tree | compress | uuencode src_tree.tar.Z | mail user@example.com .Ed
p The following example unpacks all uuencoded files from your mailbox into your current working directory.
p d -literal -offset indent -compact uudecode -c < $MAIL .Ed
p The following example extracts a compressed tar archive from your mailbox
p d -literal -offset indent -compact uudecode -o /dev/stdout < $MAIL | zcat | tar xfv - .Ed .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr basename 1 , .Xr compress 1 , .Xr mail 1 , .Xr uucp 1 Pq Pa ports/net/freebsd-uucp , .Xr uuencode 5 .Sh HISTORY The .Nm uudecode and .Nm uuencode utilities appeared in x 4.0 . .Sh BUGS Files encoded using the traditional algorithm are expanded by 35% (3 bytes become 4 plus control information).