NAME
     uuencode, uudecode - encode/decode a binary file

SYNOPSIS
     uuencode [file] name
     uudecode [file ...]

DESCRIPTION
     Uuencode and uudecode are used to transmit binary files over transmission
     mediums that do not support other than simple ASCII data.

     Uuencode reads file (or by default the standard input) and writes an en-
     coded version to the standard output.  The encoding uses only printing
     ASCII characters and includes the mode of the file and the operand name
     for use by uudecode.

     Uudecode transforms uuencoded files (or by default, the standard input)
     into the original form.  The resulting file is named name and will have
     the mode of the original file except that setuid and execute bits are not
     retained.  Uudecode ignores any leading and trailing lines.

EXAMPLES
     The following example packages up a source tree, compresses it, uuencodes
     it and mails it to a user on another system.  When uudecode is run on the
     target system, the file ``src_tree.tar.Z'' will be created which may then
     be uncompressed and extracted into the original tree.

           tar cf - src_tree | compress |
           uuencode src_tree.tar.Z | mail sys1!sys2!user

SEE ALSO
     compress(1),  mail(1),  uucp(1),  uuencode(5),  format(5)

BUGS
     The encoded form of the file is expanded by 35% (3 bytes become 4 plus
     control information).

HISTORY
     The uuencode command appeared in 4.0BSD.