File Compression using UUENCODE - UUDECODE

UUENCODE converts binary and/or formatted files into plain-text ASCII files which can be handled by mail systems.

The following represents a valid uuencoded file (although some browsers will automatically decode a uuencoded file it contains no useful information - don't bother decoding it!):

begin 666 bogus.file
MLEHHWHURHUH%$^4653%#$#&^%$$46^%#^%)LKDUHEWFHIUG^$^#DJIUTE&F
M&#H:FNP(ENER(*HNFUHDG(&#&B#HY@#(*@YNUF(&$HU$HF(YSAUHIRY(&YHU
#(*NUFE(YHD7H
end

Most decoders are smart enough to ignore anything before the "begin" line and after the "end" line.

The following section is taken from the documentation of one of the DOS uu-utilily programs. Please consult the documentation included with the utility package you are using.

The default name of the file to encode into is the base name of the file you are encoding plus the ".UUE" extension for UU encoding.

uuencode foo.bar ------ produces file foo.uue.

Long files are usually broken into several sections before transmission. This is done because very large files are cumbersome to handle and because some networks require files to be less than 64K bytes.

If uudecode is called with a file name extension, then that is used:

uudecode foo.XXX --------- decode file foo.xxx
uudecode foo. ------------ decode file foo with no extension

For multi-part files, life can be a little more difficult.

Some versions of the decode program search for the various sections, scan over preliminary comments and decodes all as if they were one big file. Decode is passed the base file name "FOO".

If all you have is a standard UUDECODE program (as opposed to a "smart decoder"), you will need to trim the headers and trailers out from the rest of the information. You can either do this by saving each part in its own file and editing them separately, then concatenate the edited files together to make one big file (this might be your only choice if your editor can't handle large files!), or you can save each part in order into one big file and then edit all the headers and trailers out from that file. Either way, you'll need to run the result through UUDECODE. You can use your favorite text editor to strip out header and trailer information.