NAME

       uuencode - format of an encoded uuencode file

DESCRIPTION

       Files  output  by uuencode(1) consist of a header line, followed by a number of body lines, and a trailer
       line.  The uudecode(1) command will ignore any lines preceding  the  header  or  following  the  trailer.
       Lines preceding a header must not, of course, look like a header.

       The header line is distinguished by having the first 5 characters be begin followed by a space, or else a
       hyphen  and  either base64 or encoded or both (also separated with a hyphen).  The base64 option says the
       file has been encoded using base64.  The encoded option  says  the  output  file  name  has  been  base64
       encoded.   It is never encoded with traditional uuencoding.  This is a GNU extension.  These are followed
       by a mode (in octal), and a string which names the remote file.  The mode is  separated  from  the  begin
       clause and the file name by a single space character.

   Traditional uuencoding
       The  traditional  uuencoded  file  body  consists  of  a number of lines, each at most 62 characters long
       (including the trailing newline). These consist of a character count  letter,  followed  by  the  encoded
       characters, followed by a newline.  The character count is a single printing character, and represents an
       integer, the number of bytes the rest of the line represents.  Such integers are always in the range from
       0 to 63 and can be determined by subtracting the character space (octal 40) from the character.

       Groups  of  3  bytes are stored in 4 characters, 6 bits per character.  All are offset by a space to make
       the characters printing.  The last line may be shorter than the normal 45 bytes.  If the size  is  not  a
       multiple  of  3,  this  fact can be determined by the value of the count on the last line.  Extra garbage
       will be included to make the character count a multiple of 4.  The body is terminated by a  line  with  a
       count of zero.  This line consists of one ASCII space.

       The trailer line consists of end on a line by itself.

   base64 encoding
       base64 encoded files follow the specified format for the body, but also include a begin-base64 header and
       a trailer line of four = characters.

EXAMPLES

            begin-base64-encoded 644 VE9ETw==
       This introduces a base64 encoded file named, TODO with that name encoded using base64 encoding.

            begin-encoded 644 5$]$3P``
       This  introduces  an encoded file named, TODO with that name encoded using uuencoding.  The encoding is a
       lot less friendly.  Please prefer base64 encoding.

CONFORMING TO

       IEEE Std 1003.1, plus extensions

       The -encoded suffix to the begin header line is a GNU extension.  Recipients must have the  GNU  uudecode
       program to decode them.

SEE ALSO

       uuencode(1), uudecode(1), base64(1GNU)

HISTORY

       The uuencode file format appeared in BSD 4.0 .

                                                                                                     UUENCODE(5)