bet@ecsvax.UUCP (08/09/84)
Uuencode is a fine utility, and works real smooth for *mail*, but
netnews seems to clobber it. The symptom I have seen is netnews
removing trailing blanks, which are unfortunately significant in
uuencode. Therefore I posted a shell script that appends 'X' to the
end of each line (after any trailing blanks), and wraps sh(1) commands
around the result in something like (and largely swiped from) 'shar'
format. The output is a shell script that when run recreates the
original file, and that has the property of surviving netnews
unscathed.
This is recommended for everybody who wants to post uuencoded binary,
else the result when it arrives is extremely difficult to uudecode (I
haven't been able to convince any existing UNIX utility or combination
thereof to repad the lines to fixed length; I had to write a
special-purpose program).
This is all of course subject to the final verdict on the debate,
currently transpiring in net.news, over whether it is acceptable to
post binaries at all.
Bennett Todd
...{decvax,ihnp4,akgua}!mcnc!ecsvax!betmark@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton) (08/14/84)
I wasn't aware of the blank eating problem for uuencode. However, there's an easy fix, and it doesn't require adding X's to the end or breaking compatibility with existing uudecodes. Just output the ` character instead of blanks. uudecode is only interested in the lower 6 bits of the characters anyway, so ` looks just like blank.