[comp.unix.questions] Is ` allowed in uuencode'd files?

wscott@en.ecn.purdue.edu (Wayne H Scott) (11/16/90)

I ran in to an odd problem today.

I sent a file to a group of people using mail.  To do this I
uuencoded the file and included it in the message.

A couple of the people reported that the file would not decode
correctly (short file) the rest of the people had no problems.

As it turns out, my uuencode create output with no spaces and
several "`" characters.  The other peoples uuencode used 
spaces with mine had `.


Output from my uuencode program:
   begin 666 dialup
   M,S`*14,@-#DT+34P,3(*140@-#DT+38Q,#8*144@-#DT+3<V.#,*144@-#DT
   [deleted]
   M-#DT+3DP,S4*4$0@-#DT+3DR.#(*4$,@-#DT+3<P-C0*04Y813(@-#DT+3DR
   #,3`*
   `
   end

Output from some other uuencode program:
   begin 666 dialup
   M,S *14,@-#DT+34P,3(*140@-#DT+38Q,#8*144@-#DT+3<V.#,*144@-#DT
   [deleted]
   M-#DT+3DP,S4*4$0@-#DT+3DR.#(*4$,@-#DT+3<P-C0*04Y813(@-#DT+3DR
   #,3 *
 
   end

My uudecode will correctly decode both files.  The other peoples uudecode
will only understand the second file.

Which is correct?  Or more standard?

Anybody have some insight?
-- 
_______________________________________________________________________________
Wayne Scott             |  INTERNET:   wscott@ecn.purdue.edu
Electrical Engineering  |  BITNET:     wscott%ecn.purdue.edu@purccvm
Purdue University       |  UUCP:      {purdue, pur-ee}!ecn.purdue.edu!wscott

dhesi%cirrusl@oliveb.ATC.olivetti.com (Rahul Dhesi) (11/18/90)

The original "uuencode" (found on 4.1 or 4.2 BSD, I think) generated
blanks but the corresponding "uudecode" accepted both blanks and
back-quotes for the same thing.  Since there is no standard for
uuencoding other than the de facto standard set by the original
implementation, any uudecode that won't accept back-quotes is broken.

Later uuencodes (e.g. 4.3BSD) generate back-quotes because these are
more resistant to IBM mainframes.
--
Rahul Dhesi <dhesi%cirrusl@oliveb.ATC.olivetti.com>
UUCP:  oliveb!cirrusl!dhesi