File: //usr/share/doc/python-docs-2.4.3/html/lib/module-uu.html
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<link rel="STYLESHEET" href="lib.css" type='text/css' />
<link rel="SHORTCUT ICON" href="../icons/pyfav.png" type="image/png" />
<link rel='start' href='../index.html' title='Python Documentation Index' />
<link rel="first" href="lib.html" title='Python Library Reference' />
<link rel='contents' href='contents.html' title="Contents" />
<link rel='index' href='genindex.html' title='Index' />
<link rel='last' href='about.html' title='About this document...' />
<link rel='help' href='about.html' title='About this document...' />
<link rel="next" href="module-xdrlib.html" />
<link rel="prev" href="module-quopri.html" />
<link rel="parent" href="netdata.html" />
<link rel="next" href="module-xdrlib.html" />
<meta name='aesop' content='information' />
<title>12.16 uu -- Encode and decode uuencode files</title>
</head>
<body>
<DIV CLASS="navigation">
<div id='top-navigation-panel' xml:id='top-navigation-panel'>
<table align="center" width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2">
<tr>
<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="prev" title="12.15 quopri "
href="module-quopri.html"><img src='../icons/previous.png'
border='0' height='32' alt='Previous Page' width='32' /></A></td>
<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="parent" title="12. Internet Data Handling"
href="netdata.html"><img src='../icons/up.png'
border='0' height='32' alt='Up One Level' width='32' /></A></td>
<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="next" title="12.17 xdrlib "
href="module-xdrlib.html"><img src='../icons/next.png'
border='0' height='32' alt='Next Page' width='32' /></A></td>
<td align="center" width="100%">Python Library Reference</td>
<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="contents" title="Table of Contents"
href="contents.html"><img src='../icons/contents.png'
border='0' height='32' alt='Contents' width='32' /></A></td>
<td class='online-navigation'><a href="modindex.html" title="Module Index"><img src='../icons/modules.png'
border='0' height='32' alt='Module Index' width='32' /></a></td>
<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="index" title="Index"
href="genindex.html"><img src='../icons/index.png'
border='0' height='32' alt='Index' width='32' /></A></td>
</tr></table>
<div class='online-navigation'>
<b class="navlabel">Previous:</b>
<a class="sectref" rel="prev" href="module-quopri.html">12.15 quopri </A>
<b class="navlabel">Up:</b>
<a class="sectref" rel="parent" href="netdata.html">12. Internet Data Handling</A>
<b class="navlabel">Next:</b>
<a class="sectref" rel="next" href="module-xdrlib.html">12.17 xdrlib </A>
</div>
<hr /></div>
</DIV>
<!--End of Navigation Panel-->
<H1><A NAME="SECTION00141600000000000000000">
12.16 <tt class="module">uu</tt> --
Encode and decode uuencode files</A>
</H1>
<P>
<A NAME="module-uu"></A>
<P>
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 <code>'-'</code> 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 <code>'rb'</code> or <code>'wb'</code> on Windows.
<P>
This code was contributed by Lance Ellinghouse, and modified by Jack
Jansen.
<a id='l2h-4160' xml:id='l2h-4160'></a>
<P>
The <tt class="module">uu</tt> module defines the following functions:
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-4157' xml:id='l2h-4157' class="function">encode</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var>in_file, out_file</var><big>[</big><var>, name</var><big>[</big><var>, mode</var><big>]</big><var></var><big>]</big><var></var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Uuencode file <var>in_file</var> into file <var>out_file</var>. The uuencoded
file will have the header specifying <var>name</var> and <var>mode</var> as
the defaults for the results of decoding the file. The default
defaults are taken from <var>in_file</var>, or <code>'-'</code> and <code>0666</code>
respectively.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><tt id='l2h-4158' xml:id='l2h-4158' class="function">decode</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var>in_file</var><big>[</big><var>, out_file</var><big>[</big><var>, mode</var><big>[</big><var>, quiet</var><big>]</big><var></var><big>]</big><var></var><big>]</big><var></var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
This call decodes uuencoded file <var>in_file</var> placing the result on
file <var>out_file</var>. If <var>out_file</var> is a pathname, <var>mode</var> is
used to set the permission bits if the file must be
created. Defaults for <var>out_file</var> and <var>mode</var> are taken from
the uuencode header. However, if the file specified in the header
already exists, a <tt class="exception">uu.Error</tt> is raised.
<P>
<tt class="function">decode()</tt> may print a warning to standard error if the
input was produced by an incorrect uuencoder and Python could
recover from that error. Setting <var>quiet</var> to a true value
silences this warning.
</dl>
<P>
<dl><dt><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="baseline">
<td><nobr><b><span class="typelabel">exception</span> <tt id='l2h-4159' xml:id='l2h-4159' class="exception">Error</tt></b>(</nobr></td>
<td><var></var>)</td></tr></table></dt>
<dd>
Subclass of <tt class="exception">Exception</tt>, this can be raised by
<tt class="function">uu.decode()</tt> under various situations, such as described
above, but also including a badly formatted header, or truncated
input file.
</dl>
<P>
<div class="seealso">
<p class="heading">See Also:</p>
<dl compact="compact" class="seemodule">
<dt>Module <b><tt class="module"><a href="module-binascii.html">binascii</a></tt>:</b>
<dd>Support module containing ASCII-to-binary
and binary-to-ASCII conversions.
</dl>
</div>
<DIV CLASS="navigation">
<div class='online-navigation'>
<p></p><hr />
<table align="center" width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2">
<tr>
<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="prev" title="12.15 quopri "
href="module-quopri.html"><img src='../icons/previous.png'
border='0' height='32' alt='Previous Page' width='32' /></A></td>
<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="parent" title="12. Internet Data Handling"
href="netdata.html"><img src='../icons/up.png'
border='0' height='32' alt='Up One Level' width='32' /></A></td>
<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="next" title="12.17 xdrlib "
href="module-xdrlib.html"><img src='../icons/next.png'
border='0' height='32' alt='Next Page' width='32' /></A></td>
<td align="center" width="100%">Python Library Reference</td>
<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="contents" title="Table of Contents"
href="contents.html"><img src='../icons/contents.png'
border='0' height='32' alt='Contents' width='32' /></A></td>
<td class='online-navigation'><a href="modindex.html" title="Module Index"><img src='../icons/modules.png'
border='0' height='32' alt='Module Index' width='32' /></a></td>
<td class='online-navigation'><a rel="index" title="Index"
href="genindex.html"><img src='../icons/index.png'
border='0' height='32' alt='Index' width='32' /></A></td>
</tr></table>
<div class='online-navigation'>
<b class="navlabel">Previous:</b>
<a class="sectref" rel="prev" href="module-quopri.html">12.15 quopri </A>
<b class="navlabel">Up:</b>
<a class="sectref" rel="parent" href="netdata.html">12. Internet Data Handling</A>
<b class="navlabel">Next:</b>
<a class="sectref" rel="next" href="module-xdrlib.html">12.17 xdrlib </A>
</div>
</div>
<hr />
<span class="release-info">Release 2.4.3, documentation updated on 29 March 2006.</span>
</DIV>
<!--End of Navigation Panel-->
<ADDRESS>
See <i><a href="about.html">About this document...</a></i> for information on suggesting changes.
</ADDRESS>
</BODY>
</HTML>