UUDeview Manpage
NAME
UUDeview - a powerful decoder for binary files
SYNOPSIS
uudeview [options] [@file] file(s)
DESCRIPTION
UUDeview is a smart decoder for attachments that you have
received in encoded form via electronic mail or from the
usenet. It is similar to the standard uudecode(1) command,
yet with more comfort and flexibility. UUDeview supports
the uuencoding, xxencoding, Base64 and BinHex encoding
methods, and is able to handle split-files (which have
been sent in multiple parts) as well as multiple files at
once, thus greatly simplifying the decoding process. Usu
ally, you will not have to manually edit files to prepare
them for decoding.
After invoking uudeview, it will scan all given files for
encoded data, sort them and their parts and then present
you with the list of files that seem like they can be
decoded properly. You can then pick files individually for
decoding.
OPTIONS
BEHAVIOR
-i Disables interactivity. After scanning the files
and sorting everything out, the program will not
promt you for whether a file shall be decoded or
not, but batch-decodes all available files. This
is the default when reading from standard input.
-a Autorename option. If a target file already exists,
and this option is given, a dot and a unique
sequence number is appended to the file name.
I.e., foo.gif becomes foo.gif.1 if decoded a second
time.
-o Gives the OK to overwrite existing files when
decoding. In interactive mode, the default is to
prompt the user whether to overwrite, rename or
skip the file. This option takes precedence over
-a. In non-interactive mode (using -f ), the
default is to overwrite files without asking.
+o Says it's not OK to overwrite files. This is useful
in non-interactive mode, so that existing files are
untouched. This has lesser precedence than -a.
-c Autoclear. Remove all input files that were suc
cessfully decoded. Use with care! UUDeview only
checks if any data was decoded from an input file,
but does not care about any other contents of that
input file, or whether a file also held an
incomplete attachment.
-p path
Sets the path where decoded files shall be written
to. This must be a valid pathname, or you'll get
errors when trying to decode anything. Defaults to
the current working directory.
-m Ignore file mode. Uuencoded and xxencoded files
have the original file permissions stored on the
begin line. Unless this option is given, UUDeview
will restore them without checking if they are sen
sible. With this option, the permissions are reset
to a default of 0666.
TWEAKING
-z Enforces stricter MIME adherance. Normally, the
program tries to find encoded data even in
"text/plain" plaintext parts of MIME messages. With
this option given, UUDeview will limit this capa
bility, and will not accept apparently incomplete
encoded messages (for example, seemingly uuencoded
data without begin or end lines). You can tighten
this option even more by using it twice, or by
using -z2. Then, UUDeview will not check plaintext
sections of MIME messages for encoded data at all
and behave fully MIME-compliant. Neither option
affects the behavior on non-MIME input files. This
option needs a better name, but I'm slowly running
out of option letters.
-f Uses fast mode for file scanning. The program
assumes that each input file holds at most one
part, which is usually true for files in a news
spool directory. This option breaks decoding of
input files with multiple articles. Also, certain
sanity checks are disabled, probably causing erro
neous files to be presented for decoding. Some
times you'll get error messages when decoding,
sometimes you'll just receive invalid files. Don't
use -f if you can't live with these problems.
-r Ignore reply messages, i.e. all messages whose sub
ject starts with Re:
-t Use plaintext messages. Usually, UUDeview only pre
sents encoded data for decoding. Plaintext messages
are only shown if they have an associated file
name. With this option set, unnamed text parts from
MIME messages and non-encoded messages are also
offered. Unnamed messages are assigned a unique
name in the form of a sequential four-digit number.
-d Sets the program into desperate mode. It will then
offer you to decode incomplete files. This is use
ful if you are missing the last part of a 50-parts
posting, but in most cases the desperately-decoded
files will simply be corrupt and unusable. The
degree of usefulness of an incomplete file depends
on the file type.
-b This changes UUDeview's "bracket policy." UUDeview
looks at a message's subject line, and reads num
bers in brackets as the part number, as in (3/7),
which is read as the third message in a series of
seven. By default, numbers in parentheses () are
preferred over numbers in brackets []. You can
change this using either -b or, for clarity -b[].
-s Read "minus smartness". This option turns off auto
matic part number detection from the subject line.
Try this option if UUDeview fails to parse the sub
ject line correctly and makes errors at guessing
part numbers, resulting in incorrect ordering of
the parts. With this option, parts are always put
together sequentially (so the parts must be cor
rectly ordered in the input file). Also, with this
option, the program cannot detect that parts are
missing. Note: The correct part number found in
proper MIME files is still evaluated. If this
option is given twice, the subject itself is
ignored, too, and won't be used to group parts. Use
if the messages that the parts come delivered in
have different subject lines.
OTHER OPTIONS
-q (Quiet) Disables verbosity. Normally, the program
prints some status messages while reading the input
files, which can be very helpful if something
should go wrong. Use if these messages disturb you.
-n No progress bars. Normally, UUDeview prints ASCII
bars crawling up to 100 percent, but does not check
if your terminal is capable of displaying them. Use
this switch if your terminal isn't, or if you find
the bars annoying.
+e exts
Selects only the files with the given extensions
for decoding, others will be ignored. +e .gif.jpg
would decode all gif and jpeg files, but not tif or
other files. The list of extensions works case-
insensitive.
-e exts
The reverse of the above.
You will experience unwanted results if you try to mix +e
and -e options on the command line.
INPUT OPTIONS
file(s)
The files to be scanned for encoded files. You can
also give a single hyphen ´-´ to read from standard
input. Any number of files may be given, but there
is usually a limitation of 128 options imposed by
the shell. If you are composing the list of files
with wildcards, make sure you don't accidentally
feed the program with binary files. This will
result in undefined behaviour.
@file Makes UUDeview read further options from the file.
Each line of the file must hold exactly one option.
The file is erased after the program finishes. This
feature may be used to specify an unlimited number
of files to be scanned. Combined with the powers of
find(1), entire directory trees (like the news
spool directory) can be processed.
Options may also be set in the $UUDEVIEW environment vari
able, which is read before processing the options on the
command line.
DECODING
After all input files have been scanned, you are asked for
each file what do do with it. Of course, the usual answer
is to decode it, but there are other possibilities. You
can use the following commands (each command is a single
letter):
d (D)ecode the file and write the decoded file to
disk, with the given name.
y (Y)es does the same as (d).
x E(x)tract also decodes the file.
a Decodes all remaining files without prompting.
n Skips this file without decoding it.
b Steps back to the previous file.
r Rename. You can choose a different name for the
file in order to save it under this new name.
p Set the path where decoded files shall be written
to. This path can also be set with the -p command
line option.
i Displays info about the file, if present. If a mul
tipart posting had a zeroeth part, it is printed,
otherwise the first part up to the encoded data is
printed.
e Execute a command. You can enter any arbitrary com
mand, possibly using the current file as an argu
ment. All dollar signs '$' in this command line are
replaced with the filename of the current file
(speaking correctly, the name of a temporary file).
You should not background processes using this tem
porary file, as programs might get confused if
their input file suddenly disappears.
l List a file. Use this command only if you know that
the file in question is a textfile, otherwise,
you'll get a load of junk.
q Quits the program immediately.
? Prints a short description of all these commands.
If you don't enter a command and simply hit return at the
prompt, the default command, decoding the file, is used.
RUNTIME MESSGAGES
In verbose mode (that is, if you didn't disable verbosity
with the -v option), progress messages will appear. They
are extremely helpful in tracing what the program does,
and can be used to figure out the reason why files cannot
be decoded, if you understand them. This section explains
how to interpret them. Understanding this section is not
essential to operate the program.
First, there are "Loading" messages, which begin with the
string "Loaded". Each line should feature the following
items:
Source File
The first item is the source file from which a part
was loaded. Many parts can be detected within a
single file.
Subject Line
The complete subject is reproduced in single
quotes.
Identifier
The program derives a unique identification for
this thread from the subject line, for grouping
articles that look like they belong to the same
file. The result of this algorithm is presented in
braces.
Filename
If a filename was detected on the subject line or
within the data (for example, on a begin line, or
as part of the Content-Type information).
Part Number
The part number derived from the subject line, or,
in the case of properly MIME-formatted messages,
from the "part" information.
Begin/End
If a "begin" or "end" token was detected, it is
printed here.
Encoding Type
If encoded data was detected within this part,
either "UUdata", "Base64", "XXdata" or "Binhex" is
printed here.
More messages are printed after scanning has completed. A
single line will be printed for each group of articles.
The contents of this line are best understood by looking
at an example. Here is one:
Found 'mailfile.gz' State 16 UUData Parts begin 1 2 3 4 5
end 6 OK
This indicates that the file mailfile.gz has been found.
The file was uuencoded ("UUData") and consists of 6 parts.
The "begin" token was found in the first part, and the
"end" token was found in the sixth part. Because it looks
like everything's there, this file is tagged as being
"OK". The State is a set of bits, where the following val
ues may be or'ed:
1 Missing Part
2 No Begin
4 No End
8 No encoded data found.
16 File looks Ok
32 An error occured during decoding of the file.
64 File was successfully decoded.
NOTES
Because the program cannot receive terminal input when a
file is being read from standard input, interactivity is
automatically disabled in this case.
UUDeview is aware of MIME messages, but normally ignores
strict MIME compliance in favor of finding unproperly
encoded data within them, e.g. to succeed when individual
parts of a uuencoded file have been sent with a MIME
mailer as MIME messages. For that, it subjects all
"text/plain" parts of a message to encoding detection. You
can use the -z option (see above) for more strict RFC2045
compliance.
The scanner tends to ignore short Base64 data (less than
four lines) outside of MIME messages. Some checks for this
condition are used in desperate mode, but they may cause
misdetection of encoded data, resulting in some invalid
files.
Files are always decoded into a temporary file first, then
this file is copied to the final location. This is to pre
vent accidentally overwriting existing files with data
that turns out too late to be undecodeable. Thus be care
ful to have twice the necessary space available. Also,
when reading from standard input, all the data is dumped
to a temporary file before starting the usual scanning
process on that file.
uudeview tries to derive all necessary information from
the Subject: line if present. If it holds garbage, or if
the program fails to find a unique identification and the
part number there, uudeview might still be able to decode
the file using other heuristics, but you'll need major
luck then.
Yet this is only a concern with split-files. If all
encoded files only consist of single parts, don't worry.
If you rename, copy or link the program to uudecode, it
may act as a smart replacement for the standard, accepting
the same command-line options. This has not been well-
tested yet.
SEE ALSO
uuenview(1), uudecode(1), uuencode(1),
The uudeview homepage on the Web,
http://www.fpx.de/fp/Software/UUDeview/
BUGS
To read a file whose name starts with a hyphen '-',
prepend a path name, for example './'.
The checksums found in BinHex data are ignored.
The program cannot fully handle partial multipart messages
(MIME-style multipart messages split over several mail
messages). The individual parts are recognized and con
catenated, and the embedded multipart message is "decoded"
into a plain-text file, which must then be fed again to
uudeview. Don't worry, these kinds of messages are rare.
UUDeview cannot decipher RFC 1522 headers.
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