BASE32(1)

📦
version 9.12 · 24 versions
, in arch rolling

💖 BASE32(1) — the user-commands girlies 💖

okay so bestie, you found the manual page for base32, living in the User Commands section (section 1, obviously, main character energy 👑). It's a little encoder/decoder that turns your data into the base32 alphabet and yells it right back at your terminal. Let's get into it. 🦋

✨ NAME ✨

base32 — base32 encode/decode data and print to standard output

that's it. that's the whole vibe. encode, decode, print. 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

base32 [OPTION]... [FILE]

short, sweet, iconic. options optional, file optional. she's flexible. 🎀

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

So basically: base32 base32 encodes or decodes FILE, or standard input, and sends the result to standard output. no cap.

If you give her no FILE, or if FILE is literally just -, she reads from standard input instead. (yes bestie, - means stdin, that's the tradition, iykyk 🌸)

🫶 Quick heads-up that trips everyone up: mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too. So like, if the long version needs a value, the short version needs that same value. Don't come for her. She's consistent.

🌈 OPTIONS 🌈

  • -d, --decode — decode data. flip her into reverse mode, bestie. 🔄
  • -i, --ignore-garbage — when decoding, ignore non-alphabet characters. she'll politely look away from the mess. 🙈
  • -w, --wrap=COLS — wrap encoded lines after COLS character (default 76). Use 0 to disable line wrapping. yes, 0 = no wrapping, go off, one long line, periodt. 💜
  • --help — display this help and exit. she explains herself. communication queen. ✨
  • --version — output version information and exit. she tells you who she is. 💖

🧚 the actual encoding tea 🧚

The data are encoded as described for the base32 alphabet in RFC 4648. that's the receipts, bestie, no guessing. 📜

When decoding, the input may contain newlines in addition to the bytes of the formal base32 alphabet. so like, line breaks? fine. totally fine. 😌 Use --ignore-garbage to attempt to recover from any other non-alphabet bytes in the encoded stream. that's the rescue mission option. 🚨

✨ AUTHOR ✨

Written by Simon Josefsson. thank you king, we stan 💅✨

✨ REPORTING BUGS ✨

if something's busted, tell the right people, bestie, don't suffer in silence. 🫶

Copyright © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.

This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

NO WARRANTY. like, none. zero. the caps lock is intentional. 🚨

✨ SEE ALSO ✨

  • basenc(1) — her cousin, also iconic. 💜

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/base32> or available locally via: info '(coreutils) base32 invocation'

the local info page is right there on your machine, bestie, no wifi required. 🌸

and that's the whole page!! 💖 this one's from GNU coreutils 9.12, dated September 2026 — mwah, slay, go encode something. 🎀🦋✨💅

📦 where this page comes from