1:mod:`uu` --- Encode and decode uuencode files
2==============================================
3
4.. module:: uu
5   :synopsis: Encode and decode files in uuencode format.
6
7.. moduleauthor:: Lance Ellinghouse
8
9**Source code:** :source:`Lib/uu.py`
10
11--------------
12
13This module encodes and decodes files in uuencode format, allowing arbitrary
14binary data to be transferred over ASCII-only connections. Wherever a file
15argument is expected, the methods accept a file-like object.  For backwards
16compatibility, a string containing a pathname is also accepted, and the
17corresponding file will be opened for reading and writing; the pathname ``'-'``
18is understood to mean the standard input or output.  However, this interface is
19deprecated; it's better for the caller to open the file itself, and be sure
20that, when required, the mode is ``'rb'`` or ``'wb'`` on Windows.
21
22.. index::
23   single: Jansen, Jack
24   single: Ellinghouse, Lance
25
26This code was contributed by Lance Ellinghouse, and modified by Jack Jansen.
27
28The :mod:`uu` module defines the following functions:
29
30
31.. function:: encode(in_file, out_file, name=None, mode=None, *, backtick=False)
32
33   Uuencode file *in_file* into file *out_file*.  The uuencoded file will have
34   the header specifying *name* and *mode* as the defaults for the results of
35   decoding the file. The default defaults are taken from *in_file*, or ``'-'``
36   and ``0o666`` respectively.  If *backtick* is true, zeros are represented by
37   ``'`'`` instead of spaces.
38
39   .. versionchanged:: 3.7
40      Added the *backtick* parameter.
41
42
43.. function:: decode(in_file, out_file=None, mode=None, quiet=False)
44
45   This call decodes uuencoded file *in_file* placing the result on file
46   *out_file*. If *out_file* is a pathname, *mode* is used to set the permission
47   bits if the file must be created. Defaults for *out_file* and *mode* are taken
48   from the uuencode header.  However, if the file specified in the header already
49   exists, a :exc:`uu.Error` is raised.
50
51   :func:`decode` may print a warning to standard error if the input was produced
52   by an incorrect uuencoder and Python could recover from that error.  Setting
53   *quiet* to a true value silences this warning.
54
55
56.. exception:: Error()
57
58   Subclass of :exc:`Exception`, this can be raised by :func:`uu.decode` under
59   various situations, such as described above, but also including a badly
60   formatted header, or truncated input file.
61
62
63.. seealso::
64
65   Module :mod:`binascii`
66      Support module containing ASCII-to-binary and binary-to-ASCII conversions.
67