BASE64

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: February 2026
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NAME

base64 - base64 encode/decode data and print to standard output  

SYNOPSIS

base64 [,OPTION/]... [,FILE/]  

DESCRIPTION

Base64 encode or decode FILE, or standard input, to standard output.

With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#base6-d'-d, --decodeX'tty: link'

decode data

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#base6-i'-i, --ignore-garbageX'tty: link'

when decoding, ignore non-alphabet characters

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#base6-w'-w, --wrap=,COLSX'tty: link'/

wrap encoded lines after COLS character (default 76). Use 0 to disable line wrapping

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/base64#base6-help'--helpX'tty: link'

display this help and exit

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/base64#base6-version'--versionX'tty: link'

output version information and exit

The data are encoded as described for the base64 alphabet in RFC 4648. When decoding, the input may contain newlines in addition to the bytes of the formal base64 alphabet. Use --ignore-garbage to attempt to recover from any other non-alphabet bytes in the encoded stream.  

AUTHOR

Written by Simon Josefsson.  

REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs to: bug-coreutils@gnu.org

Report Gentoo bugs to: https://bugs.gentoo.org/
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>  

SEE ALSO

basenc(1)

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/base64>
or available locally via: info aq(coreutils) base64 invocationaq

Packaged by Gentoo (9.10 (p0))
Copyright © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

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Index

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

AUTHOR

REPORTING BUGS

SEE ALSO