uudecode(1c) [bsd man page]
UUENCODE(1C) UUENCODE(1C) NAME
uuencode, uudecode - encode/decode a binary file for transmission via mail SYNOPSIS
uuencode [ source ] remotedest | mail sys1!sys2!..!decode uudecode [ file ] DESCRIPTION
Uuencode and uudecode are used to send a binary file via uucp (or other) mail. This combination can be used over indirect mail links even when uusend(1C) is not available. Uuencode takes the named source file (default standard input) and produces an encoded version on the standard output. The encoding uses only printing ASCII characters, and includes the mode of the file and the remotedest for recreation on the remote system. Uudecode reads an encoded file, strips off any leading and trailing lines added by mailers, and recreates the original file with the speci- fied mode and name. The intent is that all mail to the user ``decode'' should be filtered through the uudecode program. This way the file is created automati- cally without human intervention. This is possible on the uucp network by either using sendmail or by making rmail be a link to Mail instead of mail. In each case, an alias must be created in a master file to get the automatic invocation of uudecode. If these facilities are not available, the file can be sent to a user on the remote machine who can uudecode it manually. The encode file has an ordinary text form and can be edited by any text editor to change the mode or remote name. SEE ALSO
atob(n), uusend(1C), uucp(1C), uux(1C), mail(1), uuencode(5) BUGS
The file is expanded by 35% (3 bytes become 4 plus control information) causing it to take longer to transmit. The user on the remote system who is invoking uudecode (often uucp) must have write permission on the specified file. 4th Berkeley Distribution April 24, 1986 UUENCODE(1C)
Check Out this Related Man Page
uuencode(1) General Commands Manual 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 print- ing 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 out- file 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 out- file 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 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. uuencode(1)