| \section{\module{base64} --- |
| Encode and decode MIME base64 data} |
| |
| \declaremodule{standard}{base64} |
| \modulesynopsis{Encode and decode files using the MIME base64 data.} |
| |
| |
| \indexii{base64}{encoding} |
| \index{MIME!base64 encoding} |
| |
| This module performs base64 encoding and decoding of arbitrary binary |
| strings into text strings that can be safely emailed or posted. The |
| encoding scheme is defined in \rfc{1521} (\emph{MIME |
| (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) Part One: Mechanisms for |
| Specifying and Describing the Format of Internet Message Bodies}, |
| section 5.2, ``Base64 Content-Transfer-Encoding'') and is used for |
| MIME email and various other Internet-related applications; it is not |
| the same as the output produced by the \program{uuencode} program. |
| For example, the string \code{'www.python.org'} is encoded as the |
| string \code{'d3d3LnB5dGhvbi5vcmc=\e n'}. |
| |
| |
| \begin{funcdesc}{decode}{input, output} |
| Decode the contents of the \var{input} file and write the resulting |
| binary data to the \var{output} file. |
| \var{input} and \var{output} must either be file objects or objects that |
| mimic the file object interface. \var{input} will be read until |
| \code{\var{input}.read()} returns an empty string. |
| \end{funcdesc} |
| |
| \begin{funcdesc}{decodestring}{s} |
| Decode the string \var{s}, which must contain one or more lines of |
| base64 encoded data, and return a string containing the resulting |
| binary data. |
| \end{funcdesc} |
| |
| \begin{funcdesc}{encode}{input, output} |
| Encode the contents of the \var{input} file and write the resulting |
| base64 encoded data to the \var{output} file. |
| \var{input} and \var{output} must either be file objects or objects that |
| mimic the file object interface. \var{input} will be read until |
| \code{\var{input}.read()} returns an empty string. |
| \end{funcdesc} |
| |
| \begin{funcdesc}{encodestring}{s} |
| Encode the string \var{s}, which can contain arbitrary binary data, |
| and return a string containing one or more lines of |
| base64 encoded data. |
| \end{funcdesc} |
| |
| |
| \begin{seealso} |
| \seemodule{binascii}{Support module containing \ASCII{}-to-binary |
| and binary-to-\ASCII{} conversions.} |
| \seetext{Internet \rfc{1521}, \emph{MIME (Multipurpose Internet |
| Mail Extensions) Part One: Mechanisms for Specifying and |
| Describing the Format of Internet Message Bodies}, section |
| 5.2, ``Base64 Content-Transfer-Encoding,'' provides the |
| definition of the base64 encoding.} |
| \end{seealso} |