Uuencode takes the named source file (default standard input) and produces an encoded version on the standard output. The encoding uses only printing ASCII characters, and includes the mode of the file and the remotedest for recreation on the remote system.
Uudecode reads an encoded file, strips off any leading lines added by mailers, and recreates the original file with the specified mode and name. If there are other uuencoded files in the same input, they will be decoded as well.
The intent is that all mail to the user ``decode'' should be filtered through the uudecode program. This way the file is created automatically without human intervention. This is possible on the uucp network by either using sendmail or by making rmail be a link to Mail instead of mail. In each case, an alias must be created in a master file to get the automatic invocation of uudecode.
If these facilities are not available, the file can be uudecoded manually.
The encode file has an ordinary text form and can be edited by any text editor to change the mode or remote name.
This version of uuencode automatically adds checksums to each line, and an overall file size to the end. Old versions of uudecode will ignore this extra information, new versions will check it and complain if it is in error.
The user on the remote system who is invoking uudecode (often uucp) must have write permission on the specified file