uuencode / uudecode

uuencode - encode a binary file

uudecode - decode a file created by uuencode

SYNTAX
       uuencode [-m] [ file ] name

       uudecode [-o outfile] [ file ]...

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

Uuencode reads file (or by default the standard input) and writes an encoded version to the standard output. The encoding uses only printing ASCII characters and includes the mode of the file and the operand name for use by uude code.

If name is /dev/stdout the result will be written to standard output.

By default the standard UU encoding format will be used. If the option -m is given on the command line base64 encoding is used instead.

Uudecode transforms uuencoded files (or by default, the standard input) into the original form. The resulting file is named name (or outfile if the -o option is given) and will have the mode of the original file except that setuid and execute bits are not retained.

If outfile or name is /dev/stdout the result will be written to standard output. Uudecode ignores any leading and trailing lines. The program can automatically decide which of the both supported encoding schemes are used.

EXAMPLES
       The following example packages  up  a  source  tree,  com­
       presses 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

"One of the main causes of the fall of the Roman Empire was that, lacking zero, they had no way to indicate successful termination of their C programs" - Robert Firth

Related Linux Bash commands:

compress(1) -
mail(1) -
uucp(1) -

Equivalent Windows XP commands:

NTUUCODE.EXE - 32-Bit UUDecode and UUEncode Utility