MIME::...URLSafe(3pm)

💖 MIME::Base64::URLSafe 💖

okay bestie, so this page is from the User Contributed Perl Documentation collection, and it's about MIME::Base64::URLSafe — the module that does the URL-safe base64 thing. Pull up a chair, we're decoding this together 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

MIME::Base64::URLSafe — it's the Perl version of Python's URL-safe base64 codec. literally a whole port, and it ate 💅

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

here's the vibe, short and sweet:

use MIME::Base64::URLSafe;

$encoded = urlsafe_b64encode('Alladdin: open sesame');
$decoded = urlsafe_b64decode($encoded);

that's it. that's the whole flex ✨

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so, real talk: this module is a perl version of python's URL-safe base64 encoder / decoder. no cap, that's the whole job.

when you're embedding binary data in a URL, it is preferable to use base64 encoding. sounds great, right? except — the two characters '+' and '/' used in the standard base64 encoding have special meanings in URLs, and that often leads to re-encoding with URL-encoding, or worse, interoperability problems 😭 it's giving chaos.

to overcome the problem, the module provides a variation of base64 codec compatible with python's urlsafe_b64encode / urlsafe_b64decode. iconic behaviour, honestly 🫶

here's what gets modified from base64:

use '-' and '_' instead of '+' and '/'
no line feeds
no trailing equals (=)

bestie look closely at that list — '-' and '_' come in, '+' and '/'' go out, the line feeds are gone, and the trailing = is gone too. periodt.

the following functions are provided:

urlsafe_b64encode($str)
urlsafe_b64decode($str)

and if you prefer not to import these routines to your namespace — totally valid, no pressure — you can call them as:

use MIME::Base64::URLSafe ();
$encoded = MIME::Base64::URLSafe::encode($decoded);
$decoded = MIME::Base64::URLSafe::decode($encoded);

iykyk 👑

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• MIME::Base64

fore more discussion on using base64 encoding in URL applications, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base64#URL_Applications

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Kazuho Oku <kazuho ___at___ labs.cybozu.co.jp>

Copyright (C) 2006 Cybozu Labs, Inc.

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.8.7 or, at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.

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and that's the whole page, bestie — this one's from perl v5.36.0, dated 2022-11-27, and yeah the title up top really does say MIME::...URLSafe(3pm) because manpage headers love a little abbreviation moment 🙈 go forth and encode urlsafely, you've got this 💖✨🎀🦋🌸💅