Encode a binary file.
Syntax
uuencode [-m] [-r] [-o output_file] [file] name
b64encode [-r] [-w column] [-o output_file] [file] name
Key:
-m Use the Base64 method of encoding, rather than the traditional
uuencode algorithm.
-o output_file
Output to output_file instead of standard output.
-r Produce raw output by excluding the initial and final framing lines.
Additionally, b64encode accepts the following option:
-w column
Wrap encoded output after column.
The uuencode and uudecode utilities are used to transmit binary files over transmission mediums that do not support other than simple ASCII data.
The b64encode utility is synonymous with uuencode with the -m flag specified.
The uuencode utility reads file (or by default the standard input) and writes an encoded version to the standard output, or output_file if one has been specified. The encoding uses only printing ASCII characters and includes the mode of the file and the operand name for use by uudecode.
The following example packages up a source tree, compresses it, uuencodes it and mails it to a user on another system. When uudecode is run on the target system, the file 'src_tree.tar.Z' will be created which may then be uncompressed and extracted into the original tree.
tar cf - src_tree | compress |
uuencode src_tree.tar.Z | mail sys1!sys2!user
“One of the main causes of the fall of the Roman Empire was that, lacking zero, they had no way to indicate successful termination of their C programs” ~ Robert Firth
Local man page: uuencode - Command line help page on your local machine.
uudecode - decode a binary file.
base64 - base64 encoder/decoder.
brew install qprint- a quoted-printable converter.
basename - return filename or directory portion of pathname.
gzip - Compress or decompress files.
uucp - Unix to Unix copy.