UUencoding Files

One way of sending large files, especially programs or other "binary" files, across the net, is to "uuencode" them, break the encoded file into pieces, and then mail each piece separately. The command is just that simple: uuencode [filename].

To reconstitute the orginal file, just add water. Alternatively:

Save the messages into a file. Then, go to a unix shell if you're not in one already (Panix Menu System users: type "!" at the "Panix>" prompt). Then type "nn filename" (where "filename" is the file you saved the messages into.)

When nn comes up, select all the messages, type ":decode" (and hit return), answer "." (which means "the current directory") to the question about where to decode the file to, and answer "+" for all messages. NN will decode the file and put it in your directory.

Don't forget to delete the files (the messages, and the decoded file) once you're done with them!

If you want to do things the hard way, you can save the messages in order, edit out the headers from the resulting file, and then pass it to "uudecode".

nn and uudecode both have man pages.

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