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MIME::Base64(3)	      User Contributed Perl Documentation      MIME::Base64(3)

NAME
       MIME::Base64 - Encoding and decoding of base64 strings

SYNOPSIS
	use MIME::Base64;

	$encoded = encode_base64('Aladdin:open sesame');
	$decoded = decode_base64($encoded);

DESCRIPTION
       This module provides functions to encode	and decode strings into	and
       from the	base64 encoding	specified in RFC 2045 -	MIME (Multipurpose
       Internet	Mail Extensions). The base64 encoding is designed to represent
       arbitrary sequences of octets in	a form that need not be	humanly
       readable. A 65-character	subset ([A-Za-z0-9+/=])	of US-ASCII is used,
       enabling	6 bits to be represented per printable character.

       The following primary functions are provided:

       encode_base64( $bytes )
       encode_base64( $bytes, $eol );
	   Encode  data	 by  calling  the encode_base64() function.  The first
	   argument is the byte	string to encode.  The second argument is  the
	   line-ending	sequence to use.  It is	optional and defaults to "\n".
	   The returned	encoded	string is broken into lines of no more than 76
	   characters each and it will end with	$eol unless it is empty.  Pass
	   an empty string as second argument if you do	not want  the  encoded
	   string to be	broken into lines.

	   The	function  will croak with "Wide	character in subroutine	entry"
	   if $bytes contains characters with  code  above  255.   The	base64
	   encoding  is	 only  defined	for  single-byte  characters.  Use the
	   Encode module to select the byte encoding you want.

       decode_base64( $str )
	   Decode a base64 string by  calling  the  decode_base64()  function.
	   This	function takes a single	argument which is the string to	decode
	   and returns the decoded data.

	   Any	character  not	part  of  the  65-character  base64  subset is
	   silently  ignored.	Characters  occurring  after  a	 '='   padding
	   character are never decoded.

       If you prefer not to import these routines into your namespace, you can
       call them as:

	   use MIME::Base64 ();
	   $encoded = MIME::Base64::encode($decoded);
	   $decoded = MIME::Base64::decode($encoded);

       Additional functions not	exported by default:

       encode_base64url( $bytes	)
       decode_base64url( $str )
	   Encode   and	 decode	 according  to	the  base64  scheme  for  "URL
	   applications" [1].  This is a variant of the	base64 encoding	 which
	   does	not use	padding, does not break	the string into	multiple lines
	   and	use the	characters "-" and "_" instead of "+" and "/" to avoid
	   using reserved URL characters.

       encoded_base64_length( $bytes )
       encoded_base64_length( $bytes, $eol )
	   Returns the length that  the	 encoded  string  would	 have  without
	   actually   encoding	it.   This  will  return  the  same  value  as
	   "length(encode_base64($bytes))", but	should be more efficient.

       decoded_base64_length( $str )
	   Returns the length that  the	 decoded  string  would	 have  without
	   actually   decoding	it.   This  will  return  the  same  value  as
	   "length(decode_base64($str))", but should be	more efficient.

EXAMPLES
       If you want to encode a large file, you should encode it	in chunks that
       are a multiple of 57 bytes.  This ensures that the base64 lines line up
       and that	you do not end up with padding in the middle. 57 bytes of data
       fills one complete base64 line (76 == 57*4/3):

	  use MIME::Base64 qw(encode_base64);

	  open(FILE, "/var/log/wtmp") or die "$!";
	  while	(read(FILE, $buf, 60*57)) {
	      print encode_base64($buf);
	  }

       or if you know you have enough memory

	  use MIME::Base64 qw(encode_base64);
	  local($/) = undef;  #	slurp
	  print	encode_base64(<STDIN>);

       The same	approach as a command line:

	  perl -MMIME::Base64 -0777 -ne	'print encode_base64($_)' <file

       Decoding	does not need slurp mode if every line contains	a multiple  of
       four base64 chars:

	  perl -MMIME::Base64 -ne 'print decode_base64($_)' <file

       Perl  v5.8  and	better	allow  extended	Unicode	characters in strings.
       Such strings cannot be encoded directly,	as the base64 encoding is only
       defined for single-byte characters.  The	solution is to use the	Encode
       module to select	the byte encoding you want.  For example:

	   use MIME::Base64 qw(encode_base64);
	   use Encode qw(encode);

	   $encoded = encode_base64(encode("UTF-8", "\x{FFFF}\n"));
	   print $encoded;

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright 1995-1999, 2001-2004, 2010 Gisle Aas.

       This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
       under the same terms as Perl itself.

       Distantly    based   on	 LWP::Base64   written	 by   Martijn	Koster
       <m.koster@nexor.co.uk> and Joerg	Reichelt <j.reichelt@nexor.co.uk>  and
       code  posted to comp.lang.perl <3pd2lp$6gf@wsinti07.win.tue.nl> by Hans
       Mulder <hansm@wsinti07.win.tue.nl>

       The XS implementation uses code from  metamail.	 Copyright  1991  Bell
       Communications Research,	Inc. (Bellcore)

SEE ALSO
       MIME::QuotedPrint

       [1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base64#URL_applications>

perl v5.36.3			  2020-09-27		       MIME::Base64(3)

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