FreeBSD Man Pages

uuencode(5)

NAME

     uuencode -- format of an encoded uuencode file

DESCRIPTION

     Files output by uuencode(1) consist of a header line, followed by a num-
     ber of body lines, and a trailer line.  The uudecode(1) command will
     ignore any lines preceding the header or following the trailer.  Lines
     preceding a header must not, of course, look like a header.

     The header line is distinguished by having the first 6 characters
     ``begin '' (note the trailing space).  The word begin is followed by a
     mode (in octal), and a string which names the remote file.  A space sepa-
     rates the three items in the header line.

     The body consists of a number of lines, each at most 62 characters long
     (including the trailing newline).	These consist of a character count,
     followed by encoded characters, followed by a newline.  The character
     count is a single printing character, and represents an integer, the num-
     ber of bytes the rest of the line represents.  Such integers are always
     in the range from 1 to 45 or 64 and can be determined by subtracting the
     character space (octal 40) from the character.  Character 64 represents a
     count of zero.

     Groups of 3 bytes are stored in 4 characters, 6 bits per character.  All
     characters are always in range from 1 to 64 and are offset by a space
     (octal 40) to make the characters printing.  Character 64 represents a
     count of zero.  The last line may be shorter than the normal 45 bytes.
     If the size is not a multiple of 3, this fact can be determined by the
     value of the count on the last line.  Extra null characters will be
     included to make the character count a multiple of 4.  The body is termi-
     nated by a line with a count of zero.  This line consists of one ASCII
     backquote (octal 140) character.

     The trailer line consists of ``end'' on a line by itself.

SEE ALSO

     mail(1), uucp(1), uudecode(1), uuencode(1)

HISTORY

     The uuencode file format appeared in 4.0BSD.

FreeBSD 5.4		       January 12, 1994 		   FreeBSD 5.4

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