NAME

basenc - Encode/decode data and print to standard output

SYNOPSIS

basenc [OPTION]... [FILE]

DESCRIPTION

basenc encode or decode FILE, or standard input, to standard output.

With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

--base64: same as 'base64' program (RFC4648 section 4)
--base64url: file- and url-safe base64 (RFC4648 section 5)
--base32: same as 'base32' program (RFC4648 section 6)
--base32hex: extended hex alphabet base32 (RFC4648 section 7)
--base16: hex encoding (RFC4648 section 8)
--base2msbf: bit string with most significant bit (msb) first
--base2lsbf: bit string with least significant bit (lsb) first
-d, --decode: decode data
-i, --ignore-garbage: when decoding, ignore non-alphabet characters
-w, --wrap=COLS: wrap encoded lines after COLS character (default 76). Use 0 to disable line wrapping
--z85: ascii85-like encoding (ZeroMQ spec:32/Z85); when encoding, input length must be a multiple of 4; when decoding, input length must be a multiple of 5
--help: display this help and exit
--version: output version information and exit

When decoding, the input may contain newlines in addition to the bytes of the formal alphabet. Use --ignore-garbage to attempt to recover from any other non-alphabet bytes in the encoded stream.

ENCODING EXAMPLES

$ printf '\376\117\202' | basenc --base64
/k+C
$ printf '\376\117\202' | basenc --base64url
_k-C
$ printf '\376\117\202' | basenc --base32
7ZHYE===
$ printf '\376\117\202' | basenc --base32hex
VP7O4===
$ printf '\376\117\202' | basenc --base16
FE4F82
$ printf '\376\117\202' | basenc --base2lsbf
011111111111001001000001
$ printf '\376\117\202' | basenc --base2msbf
111111100100111110000010
$ printf '\376\117\202\000' | basenc --z85
@.FaC

AUTHOR

Written by Simon Josefsson and Assaf Gordon.

REPORTING BUGS

GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.