UUENCODE(1)UUENCODE(1)NAME
uuencode, uudecode - encode/decode a file
SYNOPSISuuencode [ sourcefile ] remotefile
uudecode [ -p ] [ encodedfile ... ]
DESCRIPTION
Uuencode and Uudecode are used to transmit files over transmission
mediums that do not support other than simple ASCII data.
Uuencode converts a file to a purely ASCII based representation. 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 mes‐
sage:
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
/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.
UUENCODE(1)