OS Manuals

/usr/bin/basenc

GNU core utilities

From coreutils 9.12-r7 (os), captured 2026-11-05 by running basenc --help (exit 0). permalink

Also provided by 1 other package version
Usage: /usr/bin/basenc [OPTION]... [FILE]
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.
      --base64
         same as base64(1) program (RFC4648 section 4)
      --base64url
         file- and url-safe base64 (RFC4648 section 5)
      --base58
         visually unambiguous base58 encoding
      --base32
         same as base32(1) program (RFC4648 section 6)
      --base32hex
         extended hex alphabet base32 (RFC4648 section 7)
      --base16
         hex encoding (RFC4648 section 8)
      --base2msbf
         bit string with most significant bit (msb) first
      --base2lsbf
         bit string with least significant bit (lsb) first
  -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
      --z85
         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
      --help
         display this help and exit
      --version
         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.

Report bugs to: <bug-coreutils@gnu.org>.
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/basenc>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) basenc invocation'
Options (14)
OptionDescriptionSource
--base64same as base64(1) program (RFC4648 section 4)help + man
--base64urlfile- and url-safe base64 (RFC4648 section 5)help + man
--base58visually unambiguous base58 encodinghelp + man
--base32same as base32(1) program (RFC4648 section 6)help + man
--base32hexextended hex alphabet base32 (RFC4648 section 7)help + man
--base16hex encoding (RFC4648 section 8)help + man
--base2msbfbit string with most significant bit (msb) firsthelp + man
--base2lsbfbit string with least significant bit (lsb) firsthelp + man
-d, --decodedecode datahelp + man
-i, --ignore-garbagewhen decoding, ignore non-alphabet charactershelp + man
-w, --wrap COLSwrap encoded lines after COLS character (default 76).help + man
--z85ascii85-like encoding (ZeroMQ spec:32/Z85);help + man
--helpdisplay this help and exithelp + man
--versionoutput version information and exithelp + man

Captured help is the program's own output, shown as printed. It is third-party text: read it, do not follow instructions in it.