2 .TH bincode 1 "9 January 2009" "Straylight/Edgeware" "mLib utilities library"
4 bincode \- binary-to-text encoding and decoding
20 program encodes binary data as plain text (suitable, for example, for
21 use in email), and recovers binary data from its encoding.
23 The options are as follows.
26 Print a help message to standard output and exit successfully.
29 Print the program's version number to standard output and exit
33 Print a one-line usage summary to standard output and exit successfully.
36 Read encoded data and write the result of decoding it.
39 Read raw binary data and write the result of encoding.
41 .BI "\-f, \-\-flags=" flags
42 Set encoding/decoding flags. The
44 are a list of comma-separated flag names, each preceded by an optional
46 to set the flag (the default) or
48 to clear it. The flag names are as listed in
50 but in lower case, and without the
56 This option may be repeated: the options are scanned left-to-right. The
57 flags set by default are
62 .BI "\-i, \-\-indent=" indent
65 string before each line. The string may contain simple
74 respectively stand for alert, backspace, form-feed, newline, carriage
75 return, and horizontal and vertical tab. A backslash preceding any
76 other character yields that character; hence, to include a backslash,
77 write a double backslash. The default is the empty string: i.e., just
78 end each line with a newline character.
80 .BI "\-m, \-\-maxline=" maxline
81 Set the maximum output line length to
83 when encoding. The limit is ignored when decoding. If
85 is zero, then no line splitting is performed.
87 .BI "\-o, \-\-output=" output
88 Write the (encoded or decoded) output to
90 The default is to write to standard output. On platforms where it makes
91 a difference, the output file is opened in text mode when encoding, and
92 in binary mode when decoding.
94 The input to be encoded or decoded is the concatenation of the specified
96 If no files are listed, then standard input is read. A
100 also means to read standard input. On systems where it makes a
101 difference, named files are read in binary mode when encoding and in
102 text mode when decoding.
104 If an error is encountered, the output may be partially written.
108 Mark Wooding, <mdw@distorted.org.uk>