freebsd-skq/usr.bin/uuencode/uuencode.1

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.\"     @(#)uuencode.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
.\" $FreeBSD$
.\"
.Dd June 6, 1993
.Dt UUENCODE 1
.Os BSD 4
.Sh NAME
.Nm uuencode ,
.Nm uudecode
.Nd encode/decode a binary file
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Ar file
.Ar name
.Nm uudecode
.Op Fl cips
.Op Ar
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm Uuencode
and
.Nm uudecode
are used to transmit binary files over transmission mediums
that do not support other than simple
.Tn ASCII
data.
.Pp
.Nm Uuencode
reads
.Ar file
(or by default the standard input) and writes an encoded version
to the standard output.
The encoding uses only printing
.Tn ASCII
characters and includes the
mode of the file and the operand
.Ar name
for use by
.Nm uudecode .
.Pp
.Nm Uudecode
transforms
.Em uuencoded
files (or by default, the standard input) into the original form.
The resulting file is named
.Ar name
and will have the mode of the original file except that setuid
and execute bits are not retained.
.Nm Uudecode
ignores any leading and trailing lines.
.Pp
The following options are available for
.Nm uudecode :
.Bl -tag -width ident
.It Fl c
Decode more than one uuencode'd file from 
.Ar file 
if possible.
.It Fl i
Do not overwrite files.
.It Fl p
Decode
.Ar file
and write output to standard output.
.It Fl s
Do not strip output pathname to base filename.
By default 
.Nm uudecode 
deletes any prefix ending with the last slash '/' for security
purpose.
.El
.Sh EXAMPLES
The following example packages up a source tree, compresses it,
uuencodes it and mails it to a user on another system.
When
.Nm 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.
.Pp
.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
tar cf \- src_tree \&| compress \&|
uuencode src_tree.tar.Z \&| mail sys1!sys2!user
.Ed
.Pp
The following example unpack all uuencode'd 
files from your mailbox into your current working directory.
.Pp
.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
uudecode -c < $MAIL
.Ed
.Pp
The following example extract a compress'ed tar
archive from your mailbox
.Pp
.Bd -literal -offset indent -compact
uudecode -p < $MAIL | zcat | tar xfv -
.Ed
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr basename 1 ,
.Xr compress 1 ,
.Xr mail 1 ,
.Xr uucp 1 ,
.Xr uuencode 5
.Sh BUGS
The encoded form of the file is expanded by 35% (3 bytes become 4 plus
control information).
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm uudecode
and
.Nm
utilities appeared in
.Bx 4.0 .