1uuencode(1) General Commands Manual uuencode(1)
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6 uuencode, uudecode - encode a binary file, or decode its representation
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9 uuencode [-m] [ file ] name
10 uudecode [-o outfile] [ file ]...
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14 Uuencode and uudecode are used to transmit binary files over transmis‐
15 sion mediums that do not support other than simple ASCII data.
16 Uuencode reads file (or by default the standard input) and writes an
18 encoded version to the standard output. The encoding uses only print‐
19 ing ASCII characters and includes the mode of the file and the operand
20 name for use by uudecode. If name is /dev/stdout the result will be
21 written to standard output. By default the standard UU encoding format
22 will be used. If the option -m is given on the command line base64
23 encoding is used instead.
24 Note: uuencode uses buffered input and assumes that it is not hand
26 typed from a tty. The consequence is that at a tty, you may need to
27 hit Ctl-D several times to terminate input.
28 Uudecode transforms uuencoded files (or by default, the standard input)
30 into the original form. The resulting file is named name (or outfile
31 if the -o option is given) and will have the mode of the original file
32 except that setuid and execute bits are not retained. If outfile or
33 name is /dev/stdout the result will be written to standard output.
34 Uudecode ignores any leading and trailing lines. The program can auto‐
35 matically decide which of the two supported encoding schemes are used.
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38 The following example packages up a source tree, compresses it, uuen‐
39 codes it and mails it to a user on another system. When uudecode is
40 run on the target system, the file ``src_tree.tar.Z'' will be created
41 which may then be uncompressed and extracted into the original tree.
42 tar cf - src_tree | compress | uuencode src_tree.tar.Z | mail
44 sys1!sys2!user
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47 compress(1), mail(1), uucp(1), uuencode(5)
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50 This implementation is compliant with P1003.2b/D11.
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53 If more than one file is given to uudecode and the -o option is given
54 or more than one name in the encoded files are the same the result is
55 probably not what is expected.
56 The encoded form of the file is expanded by 37% for UU encoding and by
58 35% for base64 encoding (3 bytes become 4 plus control information).
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61 Report bugs to <bug-gnu-utils@gnu.org>. Please put sharutils or uuen‐
62 code in the subject line. It helps to spot the message.
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65 The uuencode command appeared in BSD 4.0.
66 uuencode(1)