Edit File: uu.txt
:mod:`uu` --- Encode and decode uuencode files ============================================== .. module:: uu :synopsis: Encode and decode files in uuencode format. .. moduleauthor:: Lance Ellinghouse **Source code:** :source:`Lib/uu.py` -------------- This module encodes and decodes files in uuencode format, allowing arbitrary binary data to be transferred over ASCII-only connections. Wherever a file argument is expected, the methods accept a file-like object. For backwards compatibility, a string containing a pathname is also accepted, and the corresponding file will be opened for reading and writing; the pathname ``'-'`` is understood to mean the standard input or output. However, this interface is deprecated; it's better for the caller to open the file itself, and be sure that, when required, the mode is ``'rb'`` or ``'wb'`` on Windows. .. index:: single: Jansen, Jack single: Ellinghouse, Lance This code was contributed by Lance Ellinghouse, and modified by Jack Jansen. The :mod:`uu` module defines the following functions: .. function:: encode(in_file, out_file[, name[, mode]]) Uuencode file *in_file* into file *out_file*. The uuencoded file will have the header specifying *name* and *mode* as the defaults for the results of decoding the file. The default defaults are taken from *in_file*, or ``'-'`` and ``0666`` respectively. .. function:: decode(in_file[, out_file[, mode[, quiet]]]) This call decodes uuencoded file *in_file* placing the result on file *out_file*. If *out_file* is a pathname, *mode* is used to set the permission bits if the file must be created. Defaults for *out_file* and *mode* are taken from the uuencode header. However, if the file specified in the header already exists, a :exc:`uu.Error` is raised. :func:`decode` may print a warning to standard error if the input was produced by an incorrect uuencoder and Python could recover from that error. Setting *quiet* to a true value silences this warning. .. exception:: Error() Subclass of :exc:`Exception`, this can be raised by :func:`uu.decode` under various situations, such as described above, but also including a badly formatted header, or truncated input file. .. seealso:: Module :mod:`binascii` Support module containing ASCII-to-binary and binary-to-ASCII conversions.