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)