BASE64(1)

📦
version 9.12 · 26 versions
, in arch rolling

💖 BASE64(1) — the girlies' guide to base64 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to base64, a User Commands classic 💅 it's the manual page, it's iconic, it's literally right there in your terminal, and we're about to make it make sense. no cap.

✨ NAME ✨

base64 — base64 encode/decode data and print to standard output 🎀

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

base64 [OPTION]... [FILE]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so here's the vibe: base64 will base64 encode or decode FILE, or standard input, straight to standard output. she's a simple girl, she does one thing, she slays at it. ✨

If there's no FILE, or if FILE is literally just -, then bestie... she reads standard input. that's the whole thing. 🫶

🌈 little reminder, and it's important: mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too. like, the long option needs its argument, and the short option needs it too. no skipping. periodt.

👑 OPTIONS 👑

  • -d, --decode — decode data. she un-encodes. she reverses. she reads it back. 😌
  • -i, --ignore-garbage — when decoding, ignore non-alphabet characters. the mess doesn't matter, we're moving on. 💅
  • -w, --wrap=COLS — wrap encoded lines after COLS character (default 76). use 0 to disable line wrapping. so like, one long line? 0. cute little wrapped lines? default 76. ✨
  • --help — display this help and exit. she'll tell you how to use her. 🎀
  • --version — output version information and exit. the receipts, the credentials, the lore. 📜

💜 THE TEA ON ENCODING 💜

The data are encoded as described for the base64 alphabet in RFC 4648. 📚 that's the source, that's the canon, that's the syllabus.

When decoding, the input may contain newlines in addition to the bytes of the formal base64 alphabet. so newlines? allowed. chill. 🌸

Use --ignore-garbage to attempt to recover from any other non-alphabet bytes in the encoded stream. she's trying her best to salvage it, and honestly? valid. 💖

🫶 AUTHOR 🫶

Written by Simon Josefsson. we love him, we thank him, he ate. 👑

😭 REPORTING BUGS 😭

Found a bug? not the vibe, but okay, let's handle it:

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. read it again bestie. NO WARRANTY. she's free and she's fearless and she is not liable. 💀

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/base64>

or available locally via: info '(coreutils) base64 invocation'

and that's the whole page, bestie. GNU coreutils 9.12, dated September 2026 — this manual walked so you could run base64 with confidence. mwah. 💋

📦 where this page comes from