MEWENCODE(1)

πŸ‘‘ MEWENCODE β€” the MIME encoder/decoder bestie πŸ’–

okay so first things first: this is a page from the General Commands Manual, and the star of the show is mewencode β€” with its two ride-or-die sidekicks mewdecode and mewcat. 🫢


✨ NAME ✨

mewencode, mewdecode, mewcat β€” MIME encoder/decoder. that's the whole vibe. encoding, decoding, MIME. slay. πŸ’…


🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

mewencode [-options] [infile [outfile]]
mewdecode [-options] [infile [outfile]]
mewcat [-options] [infile]

see how mewcat is the only one that doesn't take an outfile? she's built different, and honestly? respect. πŸ‘‘


πŸ¦‹ DESCRIPTION πŸ¦‹

the mewencode utility encode/decode MIME objects. fr fr that's the entire job description. iconic.

the options are as follows, and yes bestie, we are going through all of them, no skipping, no cap:

  • -e β€” Encoding. πŸŽ€
  • -d β€” Decoding. πŸ”„
  • -8 β€” See if any 8bit characters are contained. it's giving "vibe check but for bytes" πŸ’€
  • -b β€” MIME base64 en/decoding. classic. timeless. main character energy. ✨
  • -q β€” MIME quoted-printable en/decoding.
  • -g β€” MIME gzip64 en/decoding (not yet specified in RFC). it's lowkey experimental, the girlies are still writing the rulebook. πŸ™ˆ
  • -z β€” The same as -g. literally the exact same thing, two names, one legend. πŸ’œ
  • -u β€” Uudecoding.
  • -l length β€” Line length into which base64/quoted-printable/gzip64 encoding truncate. like a character limit but for your encoded lines. πŸ“
  • -t β€” On base64/gzip64 encoding, local newline is treated as CRLF. On base/gzip64 decoding, any newline is translated into local newline. Specify this option only when the input is a line based object (e.g. Content-Type: is text/plain or application/postscript). so like, only when it's that kind of object, okay? don't be out here using it on everything. 🚫
  • -h β€” Display this help message. your bestie when you're lost. 🫢
  • -v β€” Display the version. gotta know what you're running, periodt. ⭐
ngl, the -t one is the sneaky one β€” it changes how newlines get handled on both encode and decode, so read it twice before you commit. no cap. 🧚

and that's the whole page, bestie β€” every flag, every option, every last little detail, all accounted for. πŸ’–

🌸 this gem was brought to you by the 4th Berkeley Distribution, and the date on the tag is March 17, 2001. so yes, she's vintage, she's iconic, she still works. πŸŽ€βœ¨πŸ‘‘