uuencode(1)

📦
version 4.15.2 · 3 versions
, in alpine 3.22, alpine 3.23, alpine 3.24, arch rolling, centos-stream 10, centos-stream 9, debian bookworm, debian trixie, fedora 43, fedora 44, nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable, opensuse-leap 16.0, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

uuencode(1) 💖 the "turn ur file into email-safe text" manual

okay bestie, gather round, because we're talking about uuencode — the User Commands girlie who takes your messy binary file and makes it ✨text✨ so it can survive the journey through email without getting absolutely destroyed. 🦋

🌸 NAME 🌸

uuencode — encode a file into email friendly text 💌

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

uuencode [-flags] [-flag [value]] [--option-name[[=| ]value]] [<in-file>] <output-name>

like. that's the whole vibe check right there. output-name is not optional, bestie, she NEEDS it. 💅

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

So here's the tea: uuencode makes an ASCII representation of a file so you can yeet it through channels that would otherwise corrupt the data. no cap. Specifically — email cannot handle binary data and will often even insert a character when the six character sequence "0rom " is seen. like, why is she like this. 😭

uuencode will read in-file if provided, and otherwise read data from standard in, and write the encoded form to standard out. The output will begin with a header line for use by uudecode, giving it the resulting suggested file output-name and access mode. And if the output-name is specifically /dev/stdout, then uudecode will emit the decoded file to standard out. iconic behavior honestly. 👑

Note: uuencode uses buffered input and assumes that it is not hand typed from a tty. The consequence is that at a tty, you may need to hit Ctl-D several times to terminate input. yes, SEVERAL. don't panic, just keep pressing. 🙈

💅 OPTIONS 💅

  • -m, --base64 — convert using base64. ✨

By default, uuencode will encode using the traditional conversion. It is slower and less compact than base64. The encoded form of the file is expanded by 37% for UU encoding and by 35% for base64 encoding (3 bytes become 4 plus control information). so like, base64 is the glow-up, fr fr.

  • -e, --encode-file-name — encode the output file name. 🎀

Since output file names may contain characters that are not handled well by various transmission modes, you may specify that the output-name be base64 encoded as well. (Traditional uuencoding of the file name is not supported.) sorry bestie, that's just how it is.

  • -h, --help — Display usage information and exit. 🫶
  • -!, --more-help — Pass the extended usage information through a pager. 📜
  • -R [cfgfile], --save-opts [=cfgfile] — Save the option state to cfgfile. The default is the last configuration file listed in the OPTION PRESETS section, below. The command will exit after updating the config file. 👋
  • -r cfgfile, --load-opts=cfgfile, --no-load-opts — Load options from cfgfile. The no-load-opts form will disable the loading of earlier config/rc/ini files. --no-load-opts is handled early, out of order. she's not like other flags. 💅
  • -v [{v|c|n --version [{v|c|n}]}] — Output version of program and exit. The default mode is v, a simple version. The c mode will print copyright information and the n will print the full copyright notice. ⭐

🌈 OPTION PRESETS 🌈

Any option that is not marked as not presettable may be preset by loading values from configuration ("RC" or ".INI") file(s). The file "$HOME/.sharrc" will be used, if present. cute lil home directory file, we love her. 🏠

🧚 STANDARDS 🧚

This implementation is compliant with P1003.2b/D11. periodt. 💯

🍓 FILES 🍓

See OPTION PRESETS for configuration files. that's it. that's the section. short queen. 👑

🔥 EXIT STATUS 🔥

One of the following exit values will be returned:

  • 0 (EXIT_SUCCESS) — Successful program execution. 🎉
  • 1 (EXIT_FAILURE) — The operation failed or the command syntax was not valid. 💀
  • 66 (EX_NOINPUT) — A specified configuration file could not be loaded. 😭
  • 70 (EX_SOFTWARE) — libopts had an internal operational error. Please report it to autogen-users@lists.sourceforge.net. Thank you. 🙏

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

uudecode(1), uuencode(5) — the sister commands, go say hi. 🫶

🌸 HISTORY 🌸

The uuencode command first appeared in BSD 4.0. an elder. a legend. a main character since day one. ⭐

💜 AUTHORS 💜

Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Copyright (C) 1994-2015 Free Software Foundation, Inc. all rights reserved. This program is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 3 or later. 🫶

🐛 BUGS 🐛

Please put sharutils in the subject line for emailed bug reports. It helps to spot the message. 👀

Please send bug reports to: bug-gnu-utils@gnu.org

📝 NOTES 📝

This manual page was AutoGen-erated from the uuencode option definitions. she wrote herself, we're just living in her world. ✨

and that's the whole page, bestie!! 💖✨🎀 this is GNU sharutils (4.15.2), dated 30 May 2015, and it's been serving uuencode(1) realness ever since. slay, hydrate, and always terminate your tty input with enough Ctl-Ds. love u, bye!! 🦋💅👑

📦 where this page comes from