[0m


BTOA(1)             UNIX Programmer's Manual		  BTOA(1)



[1mNAME
     [0mbtoa, atob, tarmail, untarmail - encode/decode binary to
     printable ASCII

[1mSYNOPSIS
     btoa
     atob
     tarmail [0mwho subject files ...
     [1muntarmail [0m[ file ]

[1mDESCRIPTION
     [0m_B_t_o_a is a filter that reads anything from the standard
     input, and encodes it into printable ASCII on the standard
     output.  It also attaches a header and checksum information
     used by the reverse filter _a_t_o_b to find the start of the
     data and to check integrity.

     _A_t_o_b reads an encoded file, strips off any leading and
     trailing lines added by mailers, and recreates a copy of the
     original file on the standard output.  _A_t_o_b gives NO output
     (and exits with an error message) if its input is garbage or
     the checksums do not check.

     _T_a_r_m_a_i_l is a shell script that tar's up all the given files,
     pipes them through _c_o_m_p_r_e_s_s, _b_t_o_a, and mails them to the
     given person with the given subject phrase.  For example:

	  tarmail ralph "here it is ralph" foo.c a.out

     Will package up files "foo.c" and "a.out" and mail them to
     "ralph" using subject "here it is ralph".	Notice the quotes
     on the subject.  They are necessary to make it one argument
     to the shell.

     _T_a_r_m_a_i_l with no args will print a short message reminding
     you what the required args are.  When the mail is received
     at the other end, that person should use mail to save the
     message in some temporary file name (say "xx").  Then saying
     "untarmail xx" will decode the message and untar it. _U_n_t_a_r_-
     _m_a_i_l can also be used as a filter.  By using _t_a_r_m_a_i_l, binary
     files and entire directory structures can be easily
     transmitted between machines.  Naturally, you should under-
     stand what tar itself does before you use _t_a_r_m_a_i_l.

     Other uses:

     compress < secrets | crypt | btoa | mail ralph

     will mail the encrypted contents of the file "secrets" to
     ralph.  If ralph knows the encryption key, he can decode it
     by saving the mail (say in "xx"), and then running:




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BTOA(1)             UNIX Programmer's Manual		  BTOA(1)



     atob < xx | crypt | uncompress

     (crypt requests the key from the terminal, and the "secrets"
     come out on the terminal).

[1mAUTHOR
     [0mPaul Rutter (modified by Joe Orost)

[1mFEATURES
     [0m_B_t_o_a uses a compact base-85 encoding so that 4 bytes are
     encoded into 5 characters (file is expanded by 25%).  As a
     special case, 32-bit zero is encoded as one character.  This
     encoding produces less output than _u_u_e_n_c_o_d_e(1).

[1mSEE ALSO
     [0mcompress(1), uuencode(1C), mail(1), crypt(3)







































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