NAME

       munpack - unpack messages in MIME or split-uuencode format

SYNOPSIS

       munpack [ -f ] [ -q ] [ -t ] [ -C directory ] [ filename ...  ]

DESCRIPTION

       The munpack program reads each RFC-822 message filename and writes all non-text MIME parts
       or split-uuencoded files as files.  If no filename argument is given, munpack  reads  from
       standard input.

       If  the message suggests a file name to use for the imbedded part, that name is cleaned of
       potential problem characters and used for the output  file.   If  the  suggested  filename
       includes  subdirectories,  they  will  be  created  as necessary.  If the message does not
       suggest a file name, the names "part1", "part2", etc are used in sequence.

       If the imbedded part was preceded with  textual  information,  that  information  is  also
       written  to  a  file.   The file is named the same as the imbedded part, with any filename
       extension replaced with ".desc".

OPTIONS

       -f     Force overwriting of existing files.  If a message  suggests  a  file  name  of  an
              existing  file,  the  file will be overwritten.  Without this flag, munpack appends
              ".1", ".2", etc to find a nonexistent file.

       -q     Be quiet.  Suppresses messages about saving partial  messages  and  about  messages
              with no interesting information.

       -t     Also  write  the  text MIME parts of multipart messages as files.  By default, text
              parts that do not have a filename parameter  do  not  get  unpacked.   This  option
              effectively disables the ".desc" file feature for MIME messages.

       -C directory
              Change the current directory to directory before reading any files.  This is useful
              when invoking munpack from a mail or news reader.

DECODING MIME

       To decode a MIME message, first save it to a text file.  If possible,  save  it  with  all
       headers  included.   Munpack  can  decode  some MIME files when the headers are missing or
       incomplete, other files it cannot decode without having the information  in  the  headers.
       In  general, messages which have a statement at the beginning that they are in MIME format
       can be decoded without the headers.  Messages which have been split  into  multiple  parts
       generally require all headers in order to be reassembled and decoded.

       Some  LAN-based  mail systems and some mail providers (including America Online, as of the
       writing of this document) place the mail headers at the bottom of the message, instead  of
       at  the  top of the message.  If you are having problems decoding a MIME message on such a
       system, you need to convert the mail  back  into  the  standard  format  by  removing  the
       system's  nonstandard  headers  and moving the standard Internet headers at the top of the
       message (separated from the message body with a blank line).

       There must be exactly one message per file.  Munpack cannot deal with multiple messages in
       a  single file, to decode things correctly it must know when one message ends and the next
       one begins.

       To decode a message, run the command:

              munpack file

       where "file" is the name of the file containing the message.  More than one  filename  may
       be  specified,  munpack will try to decode the message in each file.  For more information
       on ways to run munpack, see the section "OPTIONS" above.

ENVIRONMENT

       TMPDIR Directory to store temporary files.  Default is /var/tmp.

FILES

       $TMPDIR/m-prts-$USER/
              Directory used to store partial messages awaiting reassembly.

                                                                                       MUNPACK(1)