Re: base64 tool?

[Simon Josefsson]

Jim Meyering <address@hidden> writes:

>> Is a base64 encode/decode tool suitable for coreutils?
>
> As Padraig noted, GNU recode does this:
>
>   $ echo foo|recode ../64
>   Zm9vCg==
>   $ echo foo|recode ../64|recode /64
>   foo
>
> but I find the syntax to be obscure.
> And it's not always available.

Agreed.

Since last time this was discussed, I have released a couple of
versions of base64 <http://josefsson.org/base64/>.  It is stable, but
I suppose there are not many users yet.

I asked RMS whether it could be part of the GNU project, and he
agreed, but also thought that because of its tiny size, it would be
nice to bundle it together with some other package.  Since base64 rely
heavily on gnulib modules, and the tool was strongly influenced by the
coding style of several coreutils tools, making base64 be part of
coreutils seem to be a good idea, IMHO.  What do you think?  I
understand accepting new tools into coreutils is probably done rather
conservatively.  But base64 encoding is pretty common these days.

I'll volunteer to submit a patch and documentation for the tool if you
think it could be added.