

BENCODE(1)                 Unix Programmer's Manual                 BENCODE(1)


NAME
     bencode, bdecode - encode a binary file into printable ASCII;  decode  it
     back into binary.

SYNOPSIS
     bencode [source]
     bdecode [source]

DESCRIPTION
     Bencode is used to a encode a  binary  file  into  printable  ASCII,  and
     bdecode  is  used  to  decode  an  encoded  file back into binary.  These
     functions are typically used to package a binary file for mailing.

     Bencode takes the named source file (the default is standard  input)  and
     produces  an  encoded  version on the standard output.  The encoding uses
     only the ASCII characters ``A'' - ``Z'', ``a'' - ``z'',  ``0''  -  ``9'',
     ``+'',  and  ``-''.   The ASCII characters blank, newline, and ``/'' also
     appear in the encoded file, but  do  not  represent  encoded  bits.   The
     encoded  file is terminated with a byte count and cyclic redundancy check
     for detecting corrupted files.

     Bdecode reads a file encoded by bencode (the default is standard  input),
     strips  off  any  leading and trailing lines added by mailers, and writes
     the decoded version to standard output.

     These functions are similar to uuencode and uudecode, but are more robust
     because  of  the  CRC  check  and because they don't send characters like
     ``^'' and ``\'', which are likely to  get  mangled  if  the  file  should
     happen to pass through a non-ASCII machine.

SEE ALSO
     uuencode(1)

AUTHORS
     Ken Lalonde and Reg Quinton

BUGS
     The file is expanded by 35% (3 bytes become 4 plus  control  information)
     causing it to take longer to transmit.



















4BSD                             9 January 1988                              1
