usr/src/usr.bin/uuencode/uuencode.1

.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990 The Regents of the University of California.
.\" All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" %sccs.include.redist.man%
.\"
.\"     @(#)uuencode.1  6.8 (Berkeley) %G%
.\"
.TH UUENCODE 1 "%Q"
.UC 4
.SH NAME
uuencode, uudecode \- encode/decode a binary file
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B uuencode
[ file ] name
.br
.B uudecode
[ file ... ]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I Uuencode
and
.I uudecode
are used to transmit binary files over transmission mediums
that do not support other than simple ASCII data.
.PP
.I Uuencode
reads
.I 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
.I name
for use by
.IR uudecode .
.PP
.I Uudecode
transforms
.I uuencoded
files (or by default, the standard input) into the original form.
The resulting file is named
.IR name
and will have the mode of the original file except that setuid
and execute bits are not retained.
.I Uudecode
ignores any leading and trailing lines.
.SH EXAMPLES
The following example packages up a source tree, compresses it,
uuencodes it and mails it to a user on another system.
When
.I 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.
.sp
.in +5
tar cf - src_tree | compress | uuencode src_tree.tar.Z | mail sys1!sys2!user
.sp
.SH SEE ALSO
compress(1), mail(1), uucp(1), uuencode.format(5)
.SH BUGS
The encoded form of the file is expanded by 35% (3 bytes become 4 plus
control information).