uuencode(1) UNIX System V uuencode(1)
NAME
uuencode - encode a binary file
uudecode - decode a file created by uuencode
SYNOPSIS
uuencode [-m] [ file ] name
uudecode [-o outfile] [ file ]...
DESCRIPTION
Uuencode and uudecode are used to transmit binary files over
transmission mediums that do not support other than simple
ASCII data.
Uuencode reads file (or by default the standard input) and
writes an encoded version to the standard output. The
encoding uses only printing ASCII characters and includes
the mode of the file and the operand name for use by
uudecode. If name is /dev/stdout the result will be written
to standard output. By default the standard UU encoding
format will be used. If the option -m is given on the
command line base64 encoding is used instead.
Uudecode transforms uuencoded files (or by default, the
standard input) into the original form. The resulting file
is named name (or outfile if the -o option is given) and
will have the mode of the original file except that setuid
and execute bits are not retained. If outfile or name is
/dev/stdout the result will be written to standard output.
Uudecode ignores any leading and trailing lines. The
program can automatically decide which of the both supported
encoding schemes are used.
EXAMPLES
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
SEE ALSO
compress(1), mail(1), uucp(1), uuencode(5)
STANDARDS
This implementation is compliant with P1003.2b/D11.
BUGS
If more than one file is given to uudecode and the -o option
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uuencode(1) UNIX System V uuencode(1)
is given or more than one name in the encoded files are the
same the result is probably not what is expected.
The encoded form of the file is expanded by 37% for UU
encoding and by 35% for base64 encoding (3 bytes become 4
plus control information).
HISTORY
The uuencode command appeared in BSD 4.0.
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