1.\" $NetBSD: uuencode.1,v 1.26 2014/09/06 21:21:36 wiz Exp $ 2.\" 3.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990, 1993 4.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 5.\" 6.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 7.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 8.\" are met: 9.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 11.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 12.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 13.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 14.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 15.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 16.\" without specific prior written permission. 17.\" 18.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 19.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 20.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 21.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 22.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 23.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 24.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 25.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 26.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 27.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 28.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 29.\" 30.\" @(#)uuencode.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93 31.\" 32.Dd September 6, 2014 33.Dt UUENCODE 1 34.Os 35.Sh NAME 36.Nm uuencode , 37.Nm uudecode 38.Nd encode/decode a binary file 39.Sh SYNOPSIS 40.Nm 41.Op Fl m 42.Op Ar inputfile 43.Ar headername 44.Nm uudecode 45.Op Fl m 46.Op Fl p | Fl o Ar outputfile 47.Op Ar encoded-file ... 48.Sh DESCRIPTION 49.Nm 50and 51.Nm uudecode 52are used to transmit binary files over transmission mediums 53that do not support other than simple 54.Tn ASCII 55data. 56.Pp 57The following options are available: 58.Bl -tag -width ".Fl m" 59.It Fl m 60Use base64 encoding. 61For 62.Nm , 63the historical uuencode algorithm is the default. 64For 65.Nm uudecode , 66by default the encoding is automatically detected. 67.It Fl o Ar outputfile 68.Po Nm uudecode No only . Pc 69Send the decoded output data to 70.Ar outputfile . 71By default, 72.Nm uudecode 73uses the 74.Ar headername 75recorded in the header of the encoded data stream. 76.It Fl p 77.Po Nm uudecode No only . Pc 78Write the decoded file to standard output instead of to a file. 79.El 80.Pp 81.Nm 82reads 83.Ar inputfile 84(or by default the standard input) and writes an encoded version 85to (always) the standard output. 86The encoding uses only printing 87.Tn ASCII 88characters suitable for text-only transport media. 89The string 90.Ar headername 91is inserted into the output header as the 92.Ar outputfile 93to use at 94.Nm uudecode 95time. 96The header also includes the mode (permissions) of the file. 97.Pp 98.Nm uudecode 99transforms 100.Em uuencoded 101files (or by default, the standard input) into the original form. 102The resulting file is named 103.Ar headername 104as recorded in the encoded file, 105or as specified by the 106.Fl o 107option, 108and will have the mode of the original file except that setuid 109and execute bits are not retained. 110If the 111.Fl p 112option is specified, or if the output file name is given as 113.Pa /dev/stdout , 114then the data will be written to the standard output 115instead of to a named file. 116.Nm uudecode 117ignores any leading and trailing lines. 118.Pp 119The encoded form of the file is expanded by 35%. 120Every 3 bytes become 4 plus control information. 121.Sh EXIT STATUS 122The 123.Nm uudecode 124and 125.Nm 126utilities exits 0 on success, and \*[Gt]0 if an error occurs. 127.Sh EXAMPLES 128The following example packages up a source tree, compresses it, 129uuencodes it and mails it to a user on another system. 130.Pp 131.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact 132tar czf \- src_tree \&| uuencode src_tree.tgz \&| mail user@example.com 133.Ed 134.Pp 135On the other system, if the user saves the mail to the file 136.Pa temp , 137the following example creates the file 138.Pa src_tree.tgz 139and extracts it to make a copy of the original tree. 140.Pp 141.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact 142uudecode temp 143tar xzf src_tree.tgz 144.Ed 145.Sh SEE ALSO 146.Xr gzip 1 , 147.Xr mail 1 , 148.Xr tar 1 , 149.\".Xr uucp 1 , 150.Xr uuencode 5 151.Sh STANDARDS 152The 153.Nm uudecode 154and 155.Nm 156utilities conform to 157.St -p1003.1-2008 . 158.Sh HISTORY 159The 160.Nm uudecode 161and 162.Nm 163utilities appeared in 164.Bx 4.0 . 165.Sh SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS 166When using 167.Nm uudecode 168with files coming from dubious sources, 169always either explicitly pass the 170.Fl o 171option or check the header (the first line) of the encoded file for 172safety. 173Blindly using a 174.Ar headername 175from a hostile source can overwrite important files. 176