Re: coreutils Digest, Vol 16, Issue 11

[e-letter]

On 17/06/2011, address@hidden <address@hidden> wrote:
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> Today's Topics:
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>    1. Re: base64 terminal input failure (Davide Brini)
>    2. Re: [PATCH] tests: use printf, not echo in init.sh's warn_
>       function (Jim Meyering)
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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 17 Jun 2011 14:18:45 +0200
> From: Davide Brini <address@hidden>
> To: address@hidden
> Subject: Re: base64 terminal input failure
> Message-ID: <address@hidden>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
> On Fri, 17 Jun 2011 09:38:07 +0100
> e-letter <address@hidden> wrote:
>
>> On 17/06/2011, Bob Proulx <address@hidden> wrote:
>> > e-letter wrote:
>> >> I have tried to copy base64 encoded text from the clipboard (i.e. a
>> >> web mail message) to the command terminal:
>> >>
>> >> base64 -d 'xyz'
>> >>
>> >> where 'xyz' is the base64 text. According to the manual, standard
>> >> input can be accepted if a file is not accepted but instead the
>> >> terminal response is:
>> >>
>> >> base64: xyz: No such file or directory
>> >>
>> >> What is my mistake please?
>> >
>> > The base64 syntax is:
>> >
>> >   base64 [OPTION]... [FILE]
>> >
>> > You have specified one option and what appears to the command to be
>> > one file.  The -d fits in the [OPTION] spot and the xyz fits in the
>> > [FILE] spot.
>> >
>> > The brackets indicate that those parts are optional.  For [OPTIONS] no
>> > options means to encode.  Specifying -d means to decode.
>> >
>> > For [FILE] this means that if a file is specified then the command
>> > will open the file and read it.  If no file is specified on the
>> > command line then it will read standard input.
>> >
>> >> The command:
>> >> 'echo xyz | base64 -d'
>> >>
>> >> returns:
>> >> ?,base64: invalid input
>> >>
>> >> If the base64 text is saved as a file, conversion is successful.
>> >
>> > This is because "xyz" isn't valid base64 encoded data.  It works
>> > successfully if you give it valid input data instead of random
>> > characters.  See this example:
>> >
>>
>> I wrote 'xyz' not as literal, verbatim encoded text but as an example.
>> Repeating this as follows causes the same error:
>>
>> ...@localhost ~]$ base64 -d Zm9vCg==
>> base64: Zm9vCg==: No such file or directory
>
> Which part of
>
> base64 [OPTION]... [FILE]
>
> is not clear?
>
isn't option '-d' not correct?

Therefore the syntax seems

base64 -d ...

If no file is to be specified then it seems logical to add the base64
encoded text where the ellipsis are shown above.