BASE32(1)

📦
version 9.10 · 5 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

🌸 BASE32(1) — the bestie guide to base32 🌸

okay so. hi. you're here because you need to turn bytes into a very specific flavor of text, or turn that text back into bytes. that's it, that's the whole vibe. base32 encodes and decodes data and prints it straight to standard output. she's simple, she's reliable, she's icon behavior. 💅

✨ NAME ✨

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

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

base32 [OPTION]... [FILE]

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

So basically, base32 base32-encodes or decodes FILE, or standard input, and sends the result to standard output. no drama, no side quests.

With no FILE, or when FILE is -, she reads standard input. yes, - literally means "the stdin bestie", it's giving classic Unix.

⚠️ Important note, and I mean it: mandatory arguments to long options are also mandatory for short options too. no skipping, no shortcuts, the argument comes with the option like it's attached at the hip. ✨

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

  • -d, --decode — decode data. she's flipping the direction of the whole operation, we're going backwards now.
  • -i, --ignore-garbage — when decoding, ignore non-alphabet characters. like, just look away from the mess and keep going. 🙈
  • -w, --wrap=COLS — wrap encoded lines after COLS character (default 76). use 0 to disable line wrapping entirely. yes, after COLS character — singular, that's what it says, and we're not arguing with the docs.
  • --help — display this help and exit. she's helpful AND she leaves immediately, respect.
  • --version — output version information and exit.

🌈 THE DATA VIBES 🌈

The data are encoded as described for the base32 alphabet in RFC 4648. periodt, that's the canonical reference, go read it if you want the full lore (iykyk).

When decoding, the input may contain newlines in addition to the bytes of the formal base32 alphabet. cute, she's flexible about line breaks.

If there's any other non-alphabet bytes hanging around in your encoded stream making a mess? use --ignore-garbage to attempt to recover from them. note the word attempt — she'll try her best for you, but no promises, bestie. 💀

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Written by Simon Josefsson. king behavior, fr fr. 🫶

😭 REPORTING BUGS 😭

Found a bug? do NOT suffer in silence, tell the people:

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

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

Packaged by Ubuntu (9.10-1ubuntu2)

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 cap, that last line matters. no warranty, none, zero, she said what she said.

🧚 SIGN-OFF 🧚

and that's the whole page, bestie!! this one's from GNU coreutils 9.10, dated August 2026, and it lives in the manual as BASE32(1). go forth, encode, decode, and slay. ⭐ 🎀 ✨

📦 where this page comes from