NAME

uuencode, uudecode − Encodes or decodes a binary file

SYNOPSIS

uuencode [file] remotefile

uudecode [file ...]

DESCRIPTION

The uuencode and uudecode commands are used to send a binary file via uucp (or other) mail.  This combination can be used over indirect mail links even when uusend is not available. 

The uuencode command takes the named 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 name for re-creation on the remote system, specified by remotefile. 

The uudecode command reads an encoded file, strips off any leading and trailing lines added by mailers, and re-creates the original file with the specified mode and name.  Filter the encode through the uudecode program.  Filtering the file causes the original file to be automatically re-created. This is possible on the uucp network by either using sendmail or by making rmail be a link to mailx.  In each case, an alias must be created in a master file to get the automatic invocation of uudecode. 

If neither of the preceding facilities are available on a user’s system, uudecode can be applied to the file manually by editing the file with any text editor, removing the trailing and leading lines, and changing either the mode or remote system name. The encoded file is an ordinary text file. 

EXAMPLES

In the following example, the ex1 file is encoded; the output is also redirected to the ex1.out file:

prompt> uuencode ex1 ex1.en > ex1.out

If the source ex1 file is as follows:

This example shows
the how to encode
a file using
uuencode
and how to
decode a file
using uudecode.

The encoded ex1.out file would be as follows:

begin 644 ex1.en
M5&AI<R!E>&%M<&QE(’-H;W=S"G1H92!H;W<@=&@96YC;V1E"F$@9FEL92!U
M<VEN9PIU=65N8V]D90IA;F0@:&]W(’1O"F1E8V]D92!A(&9I;&4∗=7-I;F<@
∗=75D96-O9&4N"F]D
‘
end

In the following example, the ex1.out file is decoded:

prompt> uudecode ex1.out

In this example, the uudecode command decodes the file and puts the output in ex1.en. 

To package up a source tree using tar, compress it, uuencode it, and mail it to a user on another system, enter:

tar cf - src_tree | compress | uuencode src_tree.tar.Z
| mail sys1!sys2!user1

(Enter the command entirely on one line, not on two lines as shown above.) 

When uudecode is run on the target system, the src_tree.tar.Z file is created; it may then be uncompressed and de-archived with tar. 

RELATED INFORMATION

Commands:  ct(1), cu(1), mailx(1), Mail(1), rmail(1), sendmail(8), tip(1), uucico(8), uucleanup(8), uucp(1), uulog(1), uuname(1), uupick(1), uusched(8), uusend(1), uustat(1), uuto(1), uux(1).