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- .TH UUENCODE 1 "1 Sep 1987"
- .UC 4
- .SH NAME
- uuencode,uudecode \- encode/decode a binary file for transmission via
- (plain text) mail
- .SH SYNOPSIS
- .B uuencode
- [source] remotedest |
- .B mail
- sys1!sys2!..!decode
- .br
- .B uuencode
- >outfile.uue source remotedest
- .br
- .B uuencode
- >outfile.uue <source remotedest
- .br
- .B uudecode
- [file]
- .SH DESCRIPTION
- .I Uuencode
- and
- .I uudecode
- are used to send a binary file via uucp (or other) mail. This combination can
- be used over indirect mail links even when
- .IR uusend (1C)
- or other direct binary transmission methods are not available.
- .PP
- .I Uuencode
- takes the named source 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
- .I remotedest
- for recreation on the remote system.
- .PP
- .I Uudecode
- reads an encoded file, strips off any leading lines added by mailers,
- and recreates the original file with the specified mode and name. If
- there are other uuencoded files in the same input, they will be decoded
- as well.
- .PP
- The intent is that all mail to the user ``decode'' should be filtered
- through the uudecode program. This way the file is created automatically
- without human intervention. This is possible on the uucp network by either
- using
- .I sendmail
- or by making
- .I rmail
- be a link to
- .I Mail
- instead of
- .I mail.
- In each case, an alias must be created in a master file to get
- the automatic invocation of uudecode.
- .PP
- If these facilities are not available, the file can be uudecoded manually.
- .PP
- The encode file has an ordinary text form and can be edited by any text editor
- to change the mode or remote name.
- .PP
- This version of uuencode automatically adds checksums to each line, and
- an overall file size to the end. Old versions of uudecode will ignore this
- extra information, new versions will check it and complain if it is in
- error.
- .PP
- Care has been taken with these versions to compensate for most of the nasty
- things editors and networks can do to files. In particular, lines that
- have had trailing spaces truncated are handled, as are files that have
- passed through
- .I BITNET
- hosts.
- .SH SEE\ ALSO
- uuencode(5), uusend(1C), uucp(1C), uux(1C), mail(1)
- .SH AUTHOR
- Mark Horton
- .br
- Checksums and Amiga port by Alan J. Rosenthal
- .br
- File compatability added back in by Fred Fish
- .br
- File size check and various refinements by Bryce Nesbitt
- .SH BUGS
- The file is expanded by 35% (3 bytes become 4, plus control information)
- causing it to take longer to transmit.
- .PP
- The user on the remote system who is invoking
- .I uudecode
- (often
- .I uucp)
- must have write permission on the specified file
-