You’ll decode files whenever you receive binary files through email—it’s the only way you can use encoded files. Although most email programs and news readers will take care of decoding files for you (and, therefore, you won’t need the information here), you may need to do it manually on occasion. (Hint: If you open up a file or an email message and see something like Code Listing 13.3, you’ve got a little decoding to do. To avoid the gibberish, decode your files, as shown in Code Listing 13.4.
[ejr@hobbes compression]$ head rowboat.uue
begin 664 rowboat.jpg
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M9R!O9B!T:&4@4V-R97<B"@H*"@HB1&ES8V@:7,@=&@;75S:6,@=VAA="!%
[ejr@hobbes compression]$
|
[ejr@hobbes compression]$ uudecode → rowboat.uue [ejr@hobbes compression]$ ls -l row* -rw-rw-r-1 ejr users 128886 Jul 27 → 09:52 rowboat.jpg -rw-r-r-1 ejr users 177606 Jul 27 → 09:51 rowboat.uue [ejr@hobbes compression]$ |
uudecode rowboat.uue
At the shell prompt, type uudecode followed by the name of the file to decode (Code Listing 13.4).
✓ Tips
When you receive an encoded file, you might have to uncompress or unzip it in addition to decoding it. See the appropriate sections later in this chapter for details.
If you have a file that you suspect is uuencoded, use head plus the filename to view the top ten lines of the file. If it’s really uuencoded, you’ll see a line saying so at the top, as shown in Code Listing 13.3. The 644 in the list is the file’s permissions, and rowboat.jpg is the filename that the extracted file will have. See Chapter 5 for highly interesting details about file permissions.