uuencode(1) - NetBSD Manual Pages

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UUENCODE(1)             NetBSD General Commands Manual             UUENCODE(1)


NAME

     uuencode, uudecode -- encode/decode a binary file


SYNOPSIS

     uuencode [-m] [inputfile] headername
     uudecode [-m] [-p | -o outputfile] [encoded-file ...]


DESCRIPTION

     uuencode and uudecode are used to transmit binary files over transmission
     mediums that do not support other than simple ASCII data.

     The following options are available:

     -m  Use base64 encoding.  For uuencode, the historical uuencode algorithm
         is the default.  For uudecode, by default the encoding is automati-
         cally detected.

     -o outputfile
         (uudecode only.)  Send the decoded output data to outputfile.  By
         default, uudecode uses the headername recorded in the header of the
         encoded data stream.

     -p  (uudecode only.)  Write the decoded file to standard output instead
         of to a file.

     uuencode reads inputfile (or by default the standard input) and writes an
     encoded version to (always) the standard output.  The encoding uses only
     printing ASCII characters suitable for text-only transport media.  The
     string headername is inserted into the output header as the outputfile to
     use at uudecode time.  The header also includes the mode (permissions) of
     the file.

     uudecode transforms uuencoded files (or by default, the standard input)
     into the original form.  The resulting file is named headername as
     recorded in the encoded file, or as specified by the -o option, and will
     have the mode of the original file except that setuid and execute bits
     are not retained.  If the -p option is specified, or if the output file
     name is given as /dev/stdout, then the data will be written to the stan-
     dard output instead of to a named file.  uudecode ignores any leading and
     trailing lines.

     The encoded form of the file is expanded by 35%.  Every 3 bytes become 4
     plus control information.


EXIT STATUS

     The uudecode and uuencode utilities exits 0 on success, and >0 if an
     error occurs.


EXAMPLES

     The following example packages up a source tree, compresses it, uuencodes
     it and mails it to a user on another system.

           tar czf - src_tree | uuencode src_tree.tgz | mail user@example.com

     On the other system, if the user saves the mail to the file temp, the
     following example creates the file src_tree.tgz and extracts it to make a
     copy of the original tree.

           uudecode temp
           tar xzf src_tree.tgz


SEE ALSO

     gzip(1), mail(1), tar(1), uuencode(5)


STANDARDS

     The uudecode and uuencode utilities conform to IEEE Std 1003.1-2008
     (``POSIX.1'').


HISTORY

     The uudecode and uuencode utilities appeared in 4.0BSD.


SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS

     When using uudecode with files coming from dubious sources, always either
     explicitly pass the -o option or check the header (the first line) of the
     encoded file for safety.  Blindly using a headername from a hostile
     source can overwrite important files.

NetBSD 9.4                     September 6, 2014                    NetBSD 9.4