huschi.net

UUDECODE(1P)               POSIX Programmer's Manual              UUDECODE(1P)
PROLOG
       This  manual  page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The Linux
       implementation of this interface may differ (consult the  corresponding
       Linux  manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may
       not be implemented on Linux.
NAME
       uudecode -- decode a binary file
SYNOPSIS
       uudecode [-o outfile] [file]
DESCRIPTION
       The uudecode utility shall read a file, or standard input if no file is
       specified,  that  includes  data  created  by the uuencode utility. The
       uudecode utility shall scan the input file, searching for data compati-
       ble  with one of the formats specified in uuencode, and attempt to cre-
       ate or overwrite the file described by the data (or overridden  by  the
       -o option). The pathname shall be contained in the data or specified by
       the -o option. The file access permission bits  and  contents  for  the
       file  to  be produced shall be contained in that data. The mode bits of
       the created file (other than standard output) shall  be  set  from  the
       file  access  permission  bits  contained  in  the data; that is, other
       attributes of the mode, including the  file  mode  creation  mask  (see
       umask),  shall  not affect the file being produced. If either of the op
       characters '+' and '-' (see chmod) are specified in symbolic mode,  the
       initial mode on which those operations are based is unspecified.
       If  the  pathname  of the file to be produced exists, and the user does
       not have write permission on that file, uudecode shall  terminate  with
       an  error.  If  the pathname of the file to be produced exists, and the
       user has write permission on that file,  the  existing  file  shall  be
       overwritten.
       If the input data was produced by uuencode on a system with a different
       number of bits per byte than on the target system, the results of uude-
       code are unspecified.
OPTIONS
       The  uudecode  utility  shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of
       POSIX.1-2008, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.
       The following option shall be supported by the implementation:
       -o outfile
                 A pathname of a file that shall be used instead of any  path-
                 name  contained  in  the  input  data.  Specifying an outfile
                 option-argument of /dev/stdout shall indicate  standard  out-
                 put.
OPERANDS
       The following operand shall be supported:
       file      The pathname of a file containing the output of uuencode.
STDIN
       See the INPUT FILES section.
INPUT FILES
       The input files shall be files containing the output of uuencode.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       The following environment variables shall affect the execution of uude-
       code:
       LANG      Provide a default value for  the  internationalization  vari-
                 ables  that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions vol-
                 ume of POSIX.1-2008, Section 8.2, Internationalization  Vari-
                 ables  for  the  precedence of internationalization variables
                 used to determine the values of locale categories.)
       LC_ALL    If set to a non-empty string value, override  the  values  of
                 all the other internationalization variables.
       LC_CTYPE  Determine  the  locale for the interpretation of sequences of
                 bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as
                 opposed  to  multi-byte  characters  in  arguments  and input
                 files).
       LC_MESSAGES
                 Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format
                 and  contents  of  diagnostic  messages  written  to standard
                 error.
       NLSPATH   Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing
                 of LC_MESSAGES.
ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
       Default.
STDOUT
       If the file data header encoded by uuencode is - or /dev/stdout, or the
       -o /dev/stdout option overrides the  file  data,  the  standard  output
       shall be in the same format as the file originally encoded by uuencode.
       Otherwise, the standard output shall not be used.
STDERR
       The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.
OUTPUT FILES
       The output file shall be in the same  format  as  the  file  originally
       encoded by uuencode.
EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
       None.
EXIT STATUS
       The following exit values shall be returned:
        0    Successful completion.
       >0    An error occurred.
CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
       Default.
       The following sections are informative.
APPLICATION USAGE
       The  user  who  is  invoking uudecode must have write permission on any
       file being created.
       The output of uuencode is essentially an encoded bit stream that is not
       cognizant  of  byte boundaries. It is possible that a 9-bit byte target
       machine can process input from an 8-bit source, if it is aware  of  the
       requirement,  but  the reverse is unlikely to be satisfying. Of course,
       the only data that is meaningful for such a transfer between  architec-
       tures is generally character data.
EXAMPLES
       None.
RATIONALE
       Input  files are not necessarily text files, as stated by an early pro-
       posal. Although the uuencode output is a text file, that  output  could
       have  been  wrapped  within  another file or mail message that is not a
       text file.
       The -o option is not historical practice, but was added at the  request
       of  WG15  so  that  the user could override the target pathname without
       having to edit the input data itself.
       In early drafts, the [-o outfile] option-argument allowed the use of  -
       to  mean standard output. The symbol - has only been used previously in
       POSIX.1-2008 as a standard input indicator.   The  standard  developers
       did not wish to overload the meaning of - in this manner. The /dev/std-
       out concept exists on most modern systems. The /dev/stdout syntax  does
       not  refer  to a new special file. It is just a magic cookie to specify
       standard output.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
       None.
SEE ALSO
       chmod, umask, uuencode
       The Base Definitions volume of  POSIX.1-2008,  Chapter  8,  Environment
       Variables, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines
COPYRIGHT
       Portions  of  this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
       from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
       --  Portable  Operating  System  Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
       Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electri-
       cal  and  Electronics  Engineers,  Inc  and  The  Open Group.  (This is
       POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum  1  applied.)  In  the
       event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
       The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group  Standard
       is  the  referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
       at http://www.unix.org/online.html .
       Any typographical or formatting errors that appear  in  this  page  are
       most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source
       files to man page format. To report such errors,  see  https://www.ker-
       nel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
IEEE/The Open Group                  2013                         UUDECODE(1P)