Mac OS X in a Nutshell

Name

uuencode

Synopsis

uuencode[file] name
                  

Encodes a binary file. The encoding uses only printable ASCII characters and includes the permissions and name of the file. When file is reconverted via uudecode, the output is saved as name. If the file argument is omitted, uuencode can take standard input, so a single argument is taken as the name to be given to the file when it is decoded.

uuencode does not preserve resource forks or metadata when copying files that contain them.

Examples

It’s common to encode a file and save it with an identifying extension, such as .uue. This example encodes the binary file flower12.jpg, names it rose.jpg, and saves it to a .uue file:

% uuencode flower12.jpg rose.jpg > rose.uue

Encode flower12.jpg and mail it:

% uuencode flower12.jpg flower12.jpg | mail [e-mail]