Re: uuencode not working at all

[Bob Proulx]

Ben Gardiner wrote:
> This syntax sent to me works okay:
> 
> cat INFILE | uuencode - >OUTFILE
> 
> which I got from Bauke Jan Douma, not from the man page, and he drew
> attention to the essential hyphen in the line.

That hyphen is simply the name to be recorded in the file as the
(eventual) output filename.  If you look at the first line of the
uuencoded file you will see it there.  Something like this:

  begin 664 somefilenamehere

> However I have decided on another strategy, since the uuencoded file is so
> big it needs to be split in order to pass through various email
> gates.

[...alarm bells ringing in my head...]

But mail is not really a file transfer protocol.  It may get stored
and forwarded on many 3rd party systems as it progresses along.  Best
not to be used for large files.  (Yes, I know it has been done that
way for years but still...)

> The other strategy is simply to establish a login account for my
> client and put the HUGE file there rather than email it to them.

Placing a large file on an ftp, http, https, or ssh/sftp site is
definitely a better way to go.

> Another mode of transmission that works fine is by scp but I do not want to
> automate that because of the need for a password at the receiving end.

If you don't want to deal with passwords then anonymous ftp download
or http download is definitely preferred.

> It was indeed simpler in former years.

Ha!  If you are having trouble mailing large files now then you would
never have been able to mail that through a long chain of uucp mail
forwarders.  It may be a more hostile network now but generally it is
also much more capable.

Bob