usr.bin/uuencode/uuencode.1

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.\"     @(#)uuencode.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
.\"
.Dd November 30, 2008
.Dt UUENCODE 1
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm uuencode ,
.Nm uudecode
.Nd encode/decode a binary file
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Fl m
.Op Ar inputfile
.Ar outputname
.Nm uudecode
.Op Fl m | Fl p
.Op Ar encoded-file ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm
and
.Nm uudecode
are used to transmit binary files over transmission mediums
that do not support other than simple
.Tn ASCII
data.
.Pp
The following options are available:
.Bl -tag -width ".Fl m"
.It Fl m
Use base64 encoding.
.El
.Pp
.Nm
reads
.Ar inputfile
(or by default the standard input) and writes an encoded version
to the standard output.
The encoding uses only printing
.Tn ASCII
characters and includes the
mode of the file and the operand
.Ar outputname
for use by
.Nm uudecode .
.Pp
.Nm uudecode
transforms
.Em uuencoded
files (or by default, the standard input) into the original form.
The resulting file is named
.Ar outputname
as recorded in the encoded file,
and will have the mode of the original file except that setuid
and execute bits are not retained; if the
.Fl p
option is specified, the data will be written to the standard output
instead.
.Nm uudecode
ignores any leading and trailing lines.
.Sh EXIT STATUS
The
.Nm uudecode
and
.Nm
utilities exits 0 on success, and \*[Gt]0 if an error occurs.
.Sh EXAMPLES
The following example packages up a source tree, compresses it,
uuencodes it and mails it to a user on another system.
.Pp
.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
tar czf \- src_tree \&| uuencode src_tree.tgz \&| mail user@example.com
.Ed
.Pp
On the other system, if the user saves the mail to the file
.Pa temp ,
the following example creates the file
.Pa src_tree.tgz
and extracts it to make a copy of the original tree.
.Pp
.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
uudecode temp
tar xzf src_tree.tgz
.Ed
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr gzip 1 ,
.Xr mail 1 ,
.Xr tar 1 ,
.\".Xr uucp 1 ,
.Xr uuencode 5
.Sh STANDARDS
The
.Nm uudecode
and
.Nm
utilities conform to
.St -p1003.2-92 .
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm uudecode
and
.Nm
utilities appeared in
.Bx 4.0 .
.Sh BUGS
The encoded form of the file is expanded by 35% (3 bytes become 4 plus
control information).