base64(1)

base641

Base64 encode/decode data and print to standard output

Usage

base64 [OPTION] ... [FILE]

Overview

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.

-d, --decode

decode data

-i, --ignore-garbage

when decoding, ignore non-alphabet characters

-w, --wrap=COLS

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

--help

display this help and exit

--version

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.

Releases

10 releases since Debian 5.0 (Lenny); the text changed 9 times.

  1. 5.0
  2. 6.0
  3. 7
  4. 8
  5. 9
  6. 10
  7. 11
  8. 12
  9. 13
  10. Arch

Author

Written by Simon Josefsson.

Reporting bugs

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

From coreutils 9.12-2 in Arch Linux 2026-11-01. Parsed by carta from the page's man source.