UUENCODE(1) UUENCODE(1)
NAME
uuencode, uudecode - encode/decode a file
SYNOPSIS
uuencode [ sourcefile ] remotefile
uudecode [ -p ] [ encodedfile ... ]
DESCRIPTION
Uuencode and Uudecode are used to transmit files over trans-
mission mediums that do not support other than simple ASCII
data.
Uuencode converts a file to a purely ASCII based representa-
tion. It encodes the contents of sourcefile or the standard
input if no source file is given. The remotefile is included
in the encoded file's header as the name of the file into
which uudecode should place the decoded data. The header
also includes the permission modes of the source file so
that these can be preserved on decoding. The encoded output
of uuencode is sent to the standard output.
Uudecode reads a file, ignoring any leading and trailing
lines that are not part of the encoding, and recreates the
original file with the filename and mode specified in it's
header. The file to decode is encodedfile or standard input
if none is given. The -p flag can be used to send the
decoded data to standard output rather than saving it in the
file whose name is specified in the header.
EXAMPLES
Encode a dis file limbo.dis so that it can be included in a
mail message:
uuencode limbo.dis limbo.dis > tmp
<place in mail message and send to recipient>
Decode the mail message(msg say):
cat msg | uudecode
This creates the file limbo.dis.
Decode the mail message into a file of your choosing(tmp.dis
say):
cat msg | uudecode -p > tmp.dis
SOURCE
/appl/cmd/uuencode.b
Page 1 Plan 9 (printed 12/21/24)
UUENCODE(1) UUENCODE(1)
/appl/cmd/uudecode.b
BUGS
The encoded file is expanded by at least a third.
Decoding a file may overwrite an existing file.
Uuencode should take the remote file name to be the same as
the source file if one is not given.
Page 2 Plan 9 (printed 12/21/24)