uuencode(1) General Commands Manual uuencode(1)
NAME
uuencode, uudecode - Encodes or decodes a binary file
SYNOPSIS
uuencode [file] remotefile
uudecode [file...]
STANDARDS
Interfaces documented on this reference page conform to industry standards as follows:
uudecode: XCU5.0
uuencode: XCU5.0
Refer to the standards(5) reference page for more information about industry standards and associated tags.
DESCRIPTION
The uuencode and uudecode commands are used to send a binary file via uucp or other mail. This combination can be used over indirect mail
links even when uusend is not available.
The uuencode command takes the named 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 name for re-creation on the remote system, specified by
remotefile.
The uudecode command reads an encoded file, strips off any leading and trailing lines added by mailers, and recreates the original file
with the specified mode and name. Filter the encode through the uudecode program. Filtering the file causes the original file to be auto-
matically recreated. This is possible on the uucp network by using sendmail or by making rmail be a link to mailx. In each case, an alias
must be created in a master file to get the automatic invocation of uudecode.
If neither of the preceding facilities is available on a user's system, uudecode can be applied to the file manually by editing the file
with any text editor, removing the trailing and leading lines, and changing the mode or remote system name. The encoded file is an ordinary
text file.
EXAMPLES
In the following example, the ex1 file is encoded; the output is also redirected to the ex1.out file: prompt> uuencode ex1 ex1.en > ex1.out
If the source ex1 file is as follows:
This example shows how to encode a file using uuencode and how to decode a file using uudecode.
The encoded ex1.out file would be as follows:
begin 644 ex1.en M5&AI<R!E>&%M<&QE('-H;W=S"G1H92!H;W<@=&@96YC;V1E"F$@9FEL92!U
M<VEN9PIU=65N8V]D90IA;F0@:&]W('1O"F1E8V]D92!A(&9I;&4*=7-I;F<@ *=75D96-O9&4N"F]D ` end In the following example, the ex1.out file is
decoded: prompt> uudecode ex1.out
In this example, the uudecode command decodes the file and puts the output in ex1.en. To package up a source tree using tar, com-
press it, uuencode it, and mail it to a user on another system, enter: tar cf - src_tree | compress | uuencode src_tree.tar.Z |
mail sys1!sys2!user1
(Enter the command entirely on one line, not on two lines as shown above.)
When uudecode is run on the target system, the src_tree.tar.Z file is created; it may then be uncompressed and dearchived with tar.
SEE ALSO
Commands: ct(1), cu(1), mailx(1), Mail(1), rmail(1), sendmail(8), tip(1), uucico(8), uucleanup(8), uucp(1), uulog(1), uuname(1),
uupick(1), uusched(8), uusend(1), uustat(1), uuto(1), uux(1)
Standards: standards(5)
uuencode(1)