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MUNPACK(1)		     General Commands Manual		      MUNPACK(1)

NAME
     munpack - unpack messages in MIME or split-uuencode format

SYNOPSIS
     munpack [ -f ] [ -q ] [ -t ] [ -C directory ] [ filename ...  ]

DESCRIPTION
     The munpack program reads each RFC-822 message filename and writes all non-
     text MIME parts or split-uuencoded files as files.  If no filename argument
     is given, munpack reads from standard input.

     If the message suggests a file name to use for the imbedded part, that name
     is  cleaned  of  potential problem characters and used for the output file.
     If the suggested filename includes subdirectories, they will be created  as
     necessary.  If the message does not suggest a file name, the names "part1",
     "part2", etc are used in sequence.

     If  the  imbedded part was preceded with textual information, that informa-
     tion is also written to a file.  The file is named the same as the imbedded
     part, with any filename extension replaced with ".desc".

OPTIONS
     -f     Force overwriting of existing files.  If a message suggests  a  file
	    name  of  an  existing  file, the file will be overwritten.  Without
	    this flag, munpack appends ".1", ".2", etc	to  find  a  nonexistent
	    file.

     -q     Be	quiet.	 Supresses  messages  about  saving partial messages and
	    about messages with no interesting information.

     -t     Also write the text MIME parts of multipart messages as  files.   By
	    default, text parts that do not have a filename parameter do not get
	    unpacked.  This option effectively disables the ".desc" file feature
	    for MIME messages.

     -C directory
	    Change  the current directory to directory before reading any files.
	    This is useful when invoking munpack from a mail or news reader.

DECODING MIME
     To decode a MIME message, first save it to a text file.  If possible,  save
     it  with all headers included.  Munpack can decode some MIME files when the
     headers are missing or incomplete, other files  it  cannot  decode  without
     having  the  information in the headers.  In general, messages which have a
     statement at the beginning that they are in  MIME	format	can  be  decoded
     without  the  headers.   Messages which have been split into multiple parts
     generally require all headers in order to be reassembled and decoded.

     Some LAN-based mail systems and some mail providers (including America  On-
     line,  as	of  the  writing of this document) place the mail headers at the
     bottom of the message, instead of at the top of the message.   If	you  are
     having  problems decoding a MIME message on such a system, you need to con-
     vert the mail back into the standard format by removing the  system's  non-
     standard headers and moving the standard Internet headers at the top of the
     message (separated from the message body with a blank line).

     There  must be exactly one message per file.  Munpack cannot deal with mul-
     tiple messages in a single file, to decode things correctly  it  must  know
     when one message ends and the next one begins.

     To decode a message, run the command:

	    munpack file

     where "file" is the name of the file containing the message.  More than one
     filename  may  be specified, munpack will try to decode the message in each
     file.  For more information on ways to run munpack, see  the  section  "OP-
     TIONS" above.

ENVIRONMENT
     TMPDIR
	    Directory to store temporary files.  Default is /tmp.

FILES
     $TMPDIR/m-prts-$USER/
	    Directory used to store partial messages awaiting reassembly.

								      MUNPACK(1)

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