BASENC

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

basenc - Encode/decode data and print to standard output  

SYNOPSIS

basenc [,OPTION/]... [,FILE/]  

DESCRIPTION

basenc 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#basen-base64'--base64X'tty: link'

same as 'base64' program (RFC4648 section 4)

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#basen-base64url'--base64urlX'tty: link'

file- and url-safe base64 (RFC4648 section 5)

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#basen-base58'--base58X'tty: link'

visually unambiguous base58 encoding

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#basen-base32'--base32X'tty: link'

same as 'base32' program (RFC4648 section 6)

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#basen-base32hex'--base32hexX'tty: link'

extended hex alphabet base32 (RFC4648 section 7)

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#basen-base16'--base16X'tty: link'

hex encoding (RFC4648 section 8)

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#basen-base2msbf'--base2msbfX'tty: link'

bit string with most significant bit (msb) first

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#basen-base2lsbf'--base2lsbfX'tty: link'

bit string with least significant bit (lsb) first

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

decode data

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

when decoding, ignore non-alphabet characters

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#basen-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/manual/coreutils.html#basen-z85'--z85X'tty: link'

ascii85-like encoding (ZeroMQ spec:32/Z85); when encoding, input length must be a multiple of 4; when decoding, input length must be a multiple of 5

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

display this help and exit

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

output version information and exit

When decoding, the input may contain newlines in addition to the bytes of the formal alphabet. Use --ignore-garbage to attempt to recover from any other non-alphabet bytes in the encoded stream.  

ENCODING EXAMPLES

$ printf '376117202' | basenc --base64
/k+C

$ printf '376117202' | basenc --base64url
_-C

$ printf '376117202' | basenc --base32
7ZHYE===

$ printf '376117202' | basenc --base32hex
VP7O4===

$ printf '376117202' | basenc --base16
FE4F82

$ printf '376117202' | basenc --base2lsbf
011111111111001001000001

$ printf '376117202' | basenc --base2msbf
111111100100111110000010

$ printf '376117202000' | basenc --z85
@.FaC

 

AUTHOR

Written by Simon Josefsson and Assaf Gordon.  

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

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

ENCODING EXAMPLES

AUTHOR

REPORTING BUGS

SEE ALSO