Subject: MIME

From: "David A. Katz" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 29 Oct 1997 08:09:47 -0500

Hello:  I get emails that have attached files that are encoded.  The
encoding looks like this:

MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

-------------

begin 644 rtriso01.doc
MT,/1X*&Q&N$'''''''''''''
etc etc etc

Does anyone know how to easily decode such an attachment with Pine?

thanks,
Dave Katz
[email-masked]

---

From: Malcolm Florence <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 29 Oct 1997 15:23:24 +0200 (SAST)

> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

Hi Dave.

As far as I know, pine doesn't handle this type of decoding.  If you are
using a unix system, try uudecode or there is a utility that has versions
for dos and unix called uudeview/uuenview.  There are probably others like
this but one of these should do the trick.

Hope this helps.

Malcolm
([email-masked])

---

From: Pine Versions <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 29 Oct 1997 11:12:37 -0500 (EST)

Dave

I have included in the above attachment a helpsheet on how to use uuencode
and uudecode. It is meant for our Unix machines, but maybe it will help
you.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jessie Kleefstra                    E-Mail:[email-masked]
Consultant, Helpdesk Services               [email-masked]
Computing & Information Services     Phone: (905) 525-9140  ext. 24357
ABB-132                                Fax: (905) 528-3773
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

UUENCODE:

Uuencode is a UNIX utility for encoding binary, or non-binary, files such that
the resulting file is completely in printable ASCII characters.  The standard
use of uuencode is for the transfer, via e-mail, of non-ASCII files.

The usefulness of uuencode becomes apparent when attempting to send, via e-
mail, a non-ASCII (binary) file to a site that does not use MIME compliant
mail services, but does provide the uudecode facility (which is necessary to
decode the encoded file).

Note: Both uuencode and uudecode are standardly available with the UNIX
operating system, and PC versions of uuencode and uudecode are available on
the Internet.

To use uuencode, the command has the following structure:

     uuencode {file-to-encode} {name-to-appear-on-"begin"-line}  >  {name-of-
     encoded-file}

where {file-to-encode} is the original non-ASCII file to be encoded, {name-to-
appear-on-"begin"-line} is the name the file will have when uudecoded, and
{name-of-encoded-file} is the name of the encoded version of the original
file.  For example, if the non-ASCII text file is named myfile.exe then to
uuencode this file such that when uudecoded the file name is yourfile.exe and
such that the encoded file is named myfile.uue the command would be:

     uuencode myfile.exe yourfile.exe > myfile.uue

The file myfile.uue can then be sent as the body of a PINE message, in the
same way as any other text file being added to a PINE message.

WARNING! Make sure that you do not edit any of the information between the
"begin" and "end" lines which mark the beginning and ending of the encoded
file.

UUDECODE:

Uudecode is the counter-part to uuencode and is for decoding uuencoded files. 
To use uudecode:

     uudecode {file-to-be-decoded}

For instance, from the example above, if you receive an e-mail message with a
uuencoded file as part of the body of the message then you can extract this
message from PINE to a file (the file name is not important).  Then from the
prompt:

     uudecode {file-extracted-from-PINE}

where {file-extracted-from-PINE} is the extracted e-mail message.  This will
generate a new file with the name that appears on the "begin" line in the
original message, and is the decoded (non-ASCII) file that was originally
uuencoded by the message sender.

Hope this helps
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jessie Kleefstra                    E-Mail: [email-masked]
Consultant, Helpdesk Services               [email-masked]
Computing & Information Services     Phone: (905) 525-9140  ext. 24357
ABB-132                                Fax: (905) 528-3773
------------------------------------------------------------------------------