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:mod:`uu` --- Encode and decode uuencode files

.. module:: uu
   :synopsis: Encode and decode files in uuencode format.


.. moduleauthor:: Lance Ellinghouse

Source code: :source:`Lib/uu.py`

This module encodes and decodes files in uuencode format, allowing arbitrary binary data to be transferred over ASCII-only connections. Wherever a file argument is expected, the methods accept a file-like object. For backwards compatibility, a string containing a pathname is also accepted, and the corresponding file will be opened for reading and writing; the pathname '-' is understood to mean the standard input or output. However, this interface is deprecated; it's better for the caller to open the file itself, and be sure that, when required, the mode is 'rb' or 'wb' on Windows.

.. index::
   single: Jansen, Jack
   single: Ellinghouse, Lance

This code was contributed by Lance Ellinghouse, and modified by Jack Jansen.

The :mod:`uu` module defines the following functions:

.. function:: encode(in_file, out_file, name=None, mode=None, *, backtick=False)

   Uuencode file *in_file* into file *out_file*.  The uuencoded file will have
   the header specifying *name* and *mode* as the defaults for the results of
   decoding the file. The default defaults are taken from *in_file*, or ``'-'``
   and ``0o666`` respectively.  If *backtick* is true, zeros are represented by
   ``'`'`` instead of spaces.

   .. versionchanged:: 3.7
      Added the *backtick* parameter.



.. function:: decode(in_file, out_file=None, mode=None, quiet=False)

   This call decodes uuencoded file *in_file* placing the result on file
   *out_file*. If *out_file* is a pathname, *mode* is used to set the permission
   bits if the file must be created. Defaults for *out_file* and *mode* are taken
   from the uuencode header.  However, if the file specified in the header already
   exists, a :exc:`uu.Error` is raised.

   :func:`decode` may print a warning to standard error if the input was produced
   by an incorrect uuencoder and Python could recover from that error.  Setting
   *quiet* to a true value silences this warning.



.. exception:: Error()

   Subclass of :exc:`Exception`, this can be raised by :func:`uu.decode` under
   various situations, such as described above, but also including a badly
   formatted header, or truncated input file.



.. seealso::

   Module :mod:`binascii`
      Support module containing ASCII-to-binary and binary-to-ASCII conversions.