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 6 characters
begin The word
begin is followed by a mode (in octal), and
a string which names the remote file. A space separates the three items in the
header line.
The body consists of a number of lines, each at most 62 characters long
(including the trailing newline). These consist of a character count, followed
by 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.
SEE ALSO¶
uuencode(1),
uudecode(1), uusend(1),
uucp(1),
mail(1)
HISTORY¶
The
uuencode file format appeared in BSD 4.0 .
