3.7 basenc: Transform data into printable data

basenc transforms data read from a file, or standard input, into (or from) various common encoding forms. The encoded form uses printable ASCII characters to represent binary data.

Synopses:

basenc encoding [option]… [file]
basenc encoding --decode [option]… [file]

The encoding argument is required. If file is omitted, basenc reads from standard input. The -w/--wrap,-i/--ignore-garbage, -d/--decode options of this command are precisely the same as for base64. See base64: Transform data into printable data.

Supported encodings are:

‘--base64’ ¶

Encode into (or decode from with -d/--decode) base64 form. The format conforms to RFC 4648#4. Equivalent to the base64 command.

‘--base64url’ ¶

Encode into (or decode from with -d/--decode) file-and-url-safe base64 form (using ‘_’ and ‘-’ instead of ‘+’ and ‘/’). The format conforms to RFC 4648#5.

‘--base32’ ¶

Encode into (or decode from with -d/--decode) base32 form. The encoded data uses the ‘ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ234567=’ characters. The format conforms to RFC 4648#6. Equivalent to the base32 command.

‘--base32hex’ ¶

Encode into (or decode from with -d/--decode) Extended Hex Alphabet base32 form. The encoded data uses the ‘0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUV=’ characters. The format conforms to RFC 4648#7.

‘--base16’ ¶

Encode into (or decode from with -d/--decode) base16 (hexadecimal) form. The encoded data uses the ‘0123456789ABCDEF’ characters. The format conforms to RFC 4648#8.

‘--base2lsbf’ ¶

Encode into (or decode from with -d/--decode) binary string form (‘0’ and ‘1’) with the least significant bit of every byte first.

‘--base2msbf’ ¶

Encode into (or decode from with -d/--decode) binary string form (‘0’ and ‘1’) with the most significant bit of every byte first.

‘--z85’ ¶

Encode into (or decode from with -d/--decode) Z85 form (a modified Ascii85 form). The encoded data uses the ‘0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTU VWXYZ.-:+=^!/*?&<>()[]{}@%$#’. characters. The format conforms to ZeroMQ spec:32/Z85.

When encoding with --z85, input length must be a multiple of 4; when decoding with --z85, input length must be a multiple of 5.

Encoding/decoding examples:

$ printf '\376\117\202' | basenc --base64
/k+C

$ printf '\376\117\202' | basenc --base64url
_k-C

$ printf '\376\117\202' | basenc --base32
7ZHYE===

$ printf '\376\117\202' | basenc --base32hex
VP7O4===

$ printf '\376\117\202' | basenc --base16
FE4F82

$ printf '\376\117\202' | basenc --base2lsbf
011111111111001001000001

$ printf '\376\117\202' | basenc --base2msbf
111111100100111110000010

$ printf '\376\117\202\000' | basenc --z85
@.FaC

$ printf 01010100 | basenc --base2msbf --decode
T

$ printf 01010100 | basenc --base2lsbf --decode
*