These docs are under active development and cover the v0.20 Kobicha security model.
Peios Learn
On this page
reference 1 min read

basenc

basenc is the general encoding command. Where base32 and base64 each do one encoding, basenc does many — the encoding is chosen by an option.

basenc encoding [options] [file]

$ echo Peios | basenc --base16
5065696F730A

Every run of basenc must name an encoding. With no file, it reads standard input.

The encodings

Option Encoding
--base64 Standard base64 — the same as the base64 command.
--base64url Base64 with a file- and URL-safe alphabet.
--base32 Standard base32 — the same as the base32 command.
--base32hex Base32 with the extended-hex alphabet.
--base16 Hexadecimal.
--base2msbf A bit string, most-significant bit first.
--base2lsbf A bit string, least-significant bit first.
--z85 A compact, ASCII85-style encoding. When encoding, the input length must be a multiple of 4; when decoding, a multiple of 5.
--base58 Base58 — an alphabet chosen so its characters are not visually confusable.

Options

By default basenc encodes. These options apply to whichever encoding you chose:

Option Effect
-d, --decode Decode instead of encode.
-i, --ignore-garbage When decoding, skip characters that are not part of the alphabet.
-w, --wrap=COLS When encoding, wrap output to lines of COLS characters. -w 0 disables wrapping.

basenc and the dedicated commands

For plain base64 or base32, base64 and base32 are the shorter way to ask. Reach for basenc when you need an encoding the dedicated commands do not offer — hex, URL-safe base64, the bit-string forms, z85, or base58.

Exit status

Code Meaning
0 Success.
1 No encoding was named, a file could not be read, or the input was not valid for the chosen encoding.

See also