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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/>
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