ultrix man page for uuencode

uuencode(5)							File Formats Manual						       uuencode(5)

Name
       uuencode - format of an encoded uuencode file

Description
       Files  output by consist of a header line, followed by a number of body lines, and a trailer line.  The command ignores any lines preceding
       the header or following the trailer.  Lines preceding a header must not, of course, look like a header.

       The header line is distinguished by having the first six characters by the word ``begin'', followed by a space.	The next item on the  line
       is a mode (in octal) and a string which names the remote file.  A space separates the three items in the header line.

       The  body  consists  of	a  number of lines, each at most 62 characters long including the trailing new line.  These consist of a character
       count, followed by encoded characters, followed by a new line.  The character count is a single printing character and represents an  inte-
       ger, the number of bytes the rest of the line represents.  Such integers are always in the range from 0 to 63 and can be determined by sub-
       tracting the character space (octal 40) from the character.

       Groups of 3 bytes are stored in 4 characters, with 6 bits per character.  All are offset by a space to make the characters print.  The last
       line may be shorter than the normal 45 bytes.  If the size is not a multiple of 3, this fact can be determined by the value of the count on
       the last line.  Extra dummy characters are included to make the character count a multiple of 4.  The body is terminated by a line  with  a
       count of zero.  This line consists of one ASCII space.

       The trailer line consists of "end" on a line by itself.

See Also
       mail(1), uucp(1c), uudecode(1c), uuencode(1c), uusend(1c)

																       uuencode(5)