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UUENCODE(1)               BSD General Commands Manual              UUENCODE(1)

NAME
     uudecode, uuencode -- encode/decode a binary file

SYNOPSIS
     uuencode [-m] [-o output_file] [file] name
     uudecode [-cips] [file ...]
     uudecode [-i] -o output_file [file]

DESCRIPTION
     The uuencode and uudecode utilities are used to transmit binary files over transmission mediums that do
     not support other than simple ASCII data.

     The uuencode utility reads file (or by default the standard input) and writes an encoded version to the
     standard output, or output_file if one has been specified.  The encoding uses only printing ASCII char-acters characters
     acters and includes the mode of the file and the operand name for use by uudecode.

     The uudecode utility transforms uuencoded files (or by default, the standard input) into the original
     form.  The resulting file is named either name or (depending on options passed to uudecode) output_file
     and will have the mode of the original file except that setuid and execute bits are not retained.  The
     uudecode utility ignores any leading and trailing lines.

     The following options are available for uuencode:

     -m     Use the Base64 method of encoding, rather than the traditional uuencode algorithm.

     -o output_file
            Output to output_file instead of standard output.

     The following options are available for uudecode:

     -c     Decode more than one uuencode'd file from file if possible.

     -i     Do not overwrite files.

     -o output_file
            Output to output_file instead of any pathname contained in the input data.

     -p     Decode file and write output to standard output.

     -s     Do not strip output pathname to base filename.  By default uudecode deletes any prefix ending
            with the last slash '/' for security purpose.

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

     The following example unpack all uuencode'd files from your mailbox into your current working direc-tory. directory.
     tory.

           uudecode -c < $MAIL

     The following example extract a compress'ed tar archive from your mailbox

           uudecode -o /dev/stdout < $MAIL | zcat | tar xfv -

LEGACY DESCRIPTION
     In legacy operation, uudecode masks file modes with 0666, preventing the creation of executable files.

     uudecode cannot change the mode of a created file which is not owned by the current user (unless that
     user is root).  In legacy operation, fchmod(2) allows the mode to be changed.

     For more information about legacy mode, see compat(5).

SEE ALSO
     basename(1), compress(1), mail(1), uucp(1), fchmod(2), uuencode(5)

BUGS
     Files encoded using the traditional algorithm are expanded by 35% (3 bytes become 4, plus control
     information).

HISTORY
     The uudecode and uuencode utilities appeared in 4.0BSD.

BSD                            January 27, 2002                            BSD