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PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface
may differ (consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface
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NAME
uuencode — encode a binary file
SYNOPSIS
uuencode [−m] [file] decode_pathname
DESCRIPTION
The uuencode utility shall write an encoded version of the named input file, or standard input if no file
is specified, to standard output. The output shall be encoded using one of the algorithms described in
the STDOUT section and shall include the file access permission bits (in chmod octal or symbolic
notation) of the input file and the decode_pathname, for re-creation of the file on another system that
conforms to this volume of POSIX.1‐2008.
OPTIONS
The uuencode utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Section 12.2, Utility
Syntax Guidelines.
The following option shall be supported by the implementation:
−m Encode the output using the MIME Base64 algorithm described in STDOUT. If −m is not specified,
the historical algorithm described in STDOUT shall be used.
OPERANDS
The following operands shall be supported:
decode_pathname
The pathname of the file into which the uudecode utility shall place the decoded file.
Specifying a decode_pathname operand of /dev/stdout shall indicate that uudecode is to use
standard output. If there are characters in decode_pathname that are not in the portable
filename character set the results are unspecified.
file A pathname of the file to be encoded.
STDIN
See the INPUT FILES section.
INPUT FILES
Input files can be files of any type.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
The following environment variables shall affect the execution of uuencode:
LANG Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. (See the
Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Section 8.2, Internationalization Variables for the
precedence of internationalization variables used to determine the values of locale
categories.)
LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalization
variables.
LC_CTYPE Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters
(for example, single-byte as opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments and input files).
LC_MESSAGES
Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic
messages written to standard error.
NLSPATH Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of LC_MESSAGES.
ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
Default.
STDOUT
uuencode Base64 Algorithm
The standard output shall be a text file (encoded in the character set of the current locale) that begins
with the line:
"begin-base64 %s %s\n", <mode>, <decode_pathname>
and ends with the line:
"====\n"
In both cases, the lines shall have no preceding or trailing <blank> characters.
The encoding process represents 24-bit groups of input bits as output strings of four encoded characters.
Proceeding from left to right, a 24-bit input group shall be formed by concatenating three 8-bit input
groups. Each 24-bit input group then shall be treated as four concatenated 6-bit groups, each of which
shall be translated into a single digit in the Base64 alphabet. When encoding a bit stream via the Base64
encoding, the bit stream shall be presumed to be ordered with the most-significant bit first. That is,
the first bit in the stream shall be the high-order bit in the first byte, and the eighth bit shall be
the low-order bit in the first byte, and so on. Each 6-bit group is used as an index into an array of 64
printable characters, as shown in Table 4-22, uuencode Base64 Values.
Table 4-22: uuencode Base64 Values
┌──────┬──────────┬┬──────┬──────────┬┬──────┬──────────┬┬──────┬──────────┐
│Value │ Encoding ││Value │ Encoding ││Value │ Encoding ││Value │ Encoding │
├──────┼──────────┼┼──────┼──────────┼┼──────┼──────────┼┼──────┼──────────┤
│ 0 │ A ││ 17 │ R ││ 34 │ i ││ 51 │ z │
│ 1 │ B ││ 18 │ S ││ 35 │ j ││ 52 │ 0 │
│ 2 │ C ││ 19 │ T ││ 36 │ k ││ 53 │ 1 │
│ 3 │ D ││ 20 │ U ││ 37 │ l ││ 54 │ 2 │
│ 4 │ E ││ 21 │ V ││ 38 │ m ││ 55 │ 3 │
│ 5 │ F ││ 22 │ W ││ 39 │ n ││ 56 │ 4 │
│ 6 │ G ││ 23 │ X ││ 40 │ o ││ 57 │ 5 │
│ 7 │ H ││ 24 │ Y ││ 41 │ p ││ 58 │ 6 │
│ 8 │ I ││ 25 │ Z ││ 42 │ q ││ 59 │ 7 │
│ 9 │ J ││ 26 │ a ││ 43 │ r ││ 60 │ 8 │
│ 10 │ K ││ 27 │ b ││ 44 │ s ││ 61 │ 9 │
│ 11 │ L ││ 28 │ c ││ 45 │ t ││ 62 │ + │
│ 12 │ M ││ 29 │ d ││ 46 │ u ││ 63 │ / │
│ 13 │ N ││ 30 │ e ││ 47 │ v ││ │ │
│ 14 │ O ││ 31 │ f ││ 48 │ w ││(pad) │ = │
│ 15 │ P ││ 32 │ g ││ 49 │ x ││ │ │
│ 16 │ Q ││ 33 │ h ││ 50 │ y ││ │ │
└──────┴──────────┴┴──────┴──────────┴┴──────┴──────────┴┴──────┴──────────┘
The character referenced by the index shall be placed in the output string.
The output stream (encoded bytes) shall be represented in lines of no more than 76 characters each. All
line breaks or other characters not found in the table shall be ignored by decoding software (see
uudecode).
Special processing shall be performed if fewer than 24 bits are available at the end of a message or
encapsulated part of a message. A full encoding quantum shall always be completed at the end of a
message. When fewer than 24 input bits are available in an input group, zero bits shall be added (on the
right) to form an integral number of 6-bit groups. Output character positions that are not required to
represent actual input data shall be set to the character '='. Since all Base64 input is an integral
number of octets, only the following cases can arise:
1. The final quantum of encoding input is an integral multiple of 24 bits; here, the final unit of
encoded output shall be an integral multiple of 4 characters with no '=' padding.
2. The final quantum of encoding input is exactly 16 bits; here, the final unit of encoded output shall
be three characters followed by one '=' padding character.
3. The final quantum of encoding input is exactly 8 bits; here, the final unit of encoded output shall
be two characters followed by two '=' padding characters.
A terminating "====" evaluates to nothing and denotes the end of the encoded data.
uuencode Historical Algorithm
The standard output shall be a text file (encoded in the character set of the current locale) that begins
with the line:
"begin %s %s\n" <mode>, <decode_pathname>
and ends with the line:
"end\n"
In both cases, the lines shall have no preceding or trailing <blank> characters.
The algorithm that shall be used for lines in between begin and end takes three octets as input and
writes four characters of output by splitting the input at six-bit intervals into four octets, containing
data in the lower six bits only. These octets shall be converted to characters by adding a value of 0x20
to each octet, so that each octet is in the range [0x20,0x5f], and then it shall be assumed to represent
a printable character in the ISO/IEC 646:1991 standard encoded character set. It then shall be translated
into the corresponding character codes for the codeset in use in the current locale. (For example, the
octet 0x41, representing 'A', would be translated to 'A' in the current codeset, such as 0xc1 if it were
EBCDIC.)
Where the bits of two octets are combined, the least significant bits of the first octet shall be shifted
left and combined with the most significant bits of the second octet shifted right. Thus the three octets
A, B, C shall be converted into the four octets:
0x20 + (( A >> 2 ) & 0x3F)
0x20 + (((A << 4) | ((B >> 4) & 0xF)) & 0x3F)
0x20 + (((B << 2) | ((C >> 6) & 0x3)) & 0x3F)
0x20 + (( C ) & 0x3F)
These octets then shall be translated into the local character set.
Each encoded line contains a length character, equal to the number of characters to be decoded plus 0x20
translated to the local character set as described above, followed by the encoded characters. The maximum
number of octets to be encoded on each line shall be 45.
STDERR
The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.
OUTPUT FILES
None.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
None.
EXIT STATUS
The following exit values shall be returned:
0 Successful completion.
>0 An error occurred.
CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
Default.
The following sections are informative.
APPLICATION USAGE
The file is expanded by 35 percent (each three octets become four, plus control information) causing it
to take longer to transmit.
Since this utility is intended to create files to be used for data interchange between systems with
possibly different codesets, and to represent binary data as a text file, the ISO/IEC 646:1991 standard
was chosen for a midpoint in the algorithm as a known reference point. The output from uuencode is a text
file on the local system. If the output were in the ISO/IEC 646:1991 standard codeset, it might not be a
text file (at least because the <newline> characters might not match), and the goal of creating a text
file would be defeated. If this text file was then carried to another machine with the same codeset, it
would be perfectly compatible with that system's uudecode. If it was transmitted over a mail system or
sent to a machine with a different codeset, it is assumed that, as for every other text file, some
translation mechanism would convert it (by the time it reached a user on the other system) into an
appropriate codeset. This translation only makes sense from the local codeset, not if the file has been
put into a ISO/IEC 646:1991 standard representation first. Similarly, files processed by uuencode can be
placed in pax archives, intermixed with other text files in the same codeset.
EXAMPLES
None.
RATIONALE
A new algorithm was added at the request of the international community to parallel work in RFC 2045
(MIME). As with the historical uuencode format, the Base64 Content-Transfer-Encoding is designed to
represent arbitrary sequences of octets in a form that is not humanly readable. A 65-character subset of
the ISO/IEC 646:1991 standard is used, enabling 6 bits to be represented per printable character. (The
extra 65th character, '=', is used to signify a special processing function.)
This subset has the important property that it is represented identically in all versions of the
ISO/IEC 646:1991 standard, including US ASCII, and all characters in the subset are also represented
identically in all versions of EBCDIC. The historical uuencode algorithm does not share this property,
which is the reason that a second algorithm was added to the ISO POSIX‐2 standard.
The string "====" was used for the termination instead of the end used in the original format because the
latter is a string that could be valid encoded input.
In an early draft, the −m option was named −b (for Base64), but it was renamed to reflect its
relationship to the RFC 2045. A −u was also present to invoke the default algorithm, but since this was
not historical practice, it was omitted as being unnecessary.
See the RATIONALE section in uudecode for the derivation of the /dev/stdout symbol.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
chmod, mailx, uudecode
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, Chapter 8, Environment Variables, Section 12.2, Utility
Syntax Guidelines
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition,
Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc
and The Open Group. (This is POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the event
of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original
IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at
http://www.unix.org/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have been introduced
during the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report such errors, see
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .