How to encode base64 via command line?

Question

Is there a terminal command in Mac OS X which will base64 encode a file or stdin?

Be aware that although the base64-encoding syntax is consistent from one OS to another, the base64-decoding syntax is either `base64 -d` or `base64 -D` depending on your operating system. OSX uses `-D`. — Chris Johnson, Nov 30 '12 at 22:06
@ChrisJohnson If used in concert with `openssl` the flag for decoding is `-d` on OS X (10.10 Yosemite). — ᴠɪɴᴄᴇɴᴛ, Jun 10 '15 at 12:11
Simply `echo -n password | base64` in your MacOS Terminal; and `echo -n password | base64 -D` to decode. — Bugs Bunny, May 30 '23 at 19:29

score 410 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 22 '15 at 04:02

410

openssl can do this for you, and it's all installed with OS X by default; no need to install darwinports.

$ openssl base64 -in <infile> -out <outfile>

Without the -in option reads from stdin

edited Jan 22 '15 at 04:02

Giacomo1968

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answered Mar 17 '10 at 00:25

Steve Folly

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Use `openssl base64 < path/to/file.png | tr -d '\n' | pbcopy` or `cat path/to/file.png | openssl base64 | tr -d '\n' | pbcopy` to skip writing to a file and just copy the base64-encoded output to the clipboard without the line breaks. – Mathias Bynens Apr 12 '11 at 13:07
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And use a `-d` flag to decode. – kenny Dec 11 '13 at 22:26
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In mac, To base64 encode a string: `openssl base64 -e <<< ram` and to decode: `openssl base64 -d <<< cmFtCg==` – Ram Patra Nov 13 '14 at 10:52
is there an option to output the base64-encoded string in the terminal? – Lucas Apr 08 '15 at 00:19
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never mind, I found it: `openssl base64 < path/to/file` should work fine. – Lucas Apr 08 '15 at 00:19
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@mathias if you want no newlines `openssl base64 [-e] -A` does that. + @kenny on decode if input does not have newline every 76 chars at most, including the no-newlines case I just stated, you need `-d -A` or you will get missing or corrupted data *with no error message* (although there is a pending bug report which may result in a fix to that). – dave_thompson_085 May 27 '15 at 14:54
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@Ram, `openssl base64 -e <<< ram` actually encodes 4 bytes, including a trailing line feed; see `hexdump <<< ram`. – Arjan Jun 03 '15 at 20:39
I had to use -D instead of the lowercase -d – kendepelchin Aug 09 '17 at 14:06
Taking @MathiasBynens even further: `pbpaste | openssl base64 -A | pbcopy` to automagically transform what's on your clipboard into base64. (added -A) – evan.bovie Feb 01 '19 at 23:03

score 209 · Answer 2 · edited Sep 09 '14 at 13:55

209

Openssl can be used more succinctly:

echo -n 'input' | openssl base64

[ echo -n -> must be used, or encoding will be done including new line character ]

or

openssl base64 <ENTER> [type input] <CTRL+D>

edited Sep 09 '14 at 13:55

Zeus

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answered Apr 21 '10 at 06:12

Tempire

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The "echo" solution adds a LF (line feed) char to the end of the input string, though. Better use: echo -n 'input' – SuperTempel Jul 17 '12 at 15:17
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And even a bit more succinct `openssl base64 <<< input` – Garrett Fogerlie Jun 06 '13 at 16:57
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Or just use `base64` without `openssl`. Either way, I need to press Ctrl+D twice. And beware, @Garret: in Bash, with or without `openssl`, `openssl base64 <<< superuser` and `openssl base64 <<< "superuser"` **erroneously** yield `c3VwZXJ1c2VyCg==`, as the "here string" then still includes a line feed! ([Apparently](https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-bash/2015-02/msg00096.html) not only in Bash, but also in zsh, ksh and yash. See `hexdump <<< superuser`. The Base64 result should be `c3VwZXJ1c2Vy`.) – Arjan Jun 03 '15 at 20:37
@Arjan I'd hesitate to use the word "erroneously" - as you pointed out, the here-string includes a line feed, but for good reason - http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/20157/why-does-a-bash-here-string-add-a-trailing-newline-char . `echo -n` is preferred if you don't need the newline. It's certainly something to be aware of. – Steve Folly Jun 05 '15 at 07:33
@Steve, indeed, it's not `openssl base64` nor Bash that are to blame. But it surely is not the expected outcome when encoding the word `input`, so I wanted to ensure the "erroneously" is seen by future readers ;-) – Arjan Jun 05 '15 at 07:51
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You could use `printf` in place of `echo -n` – Jason S Sep 05 '16 at 06:08

score 94 · Answer 3 · edited May 25 '15 at 17:06

94

Try using:

base64 -i <in-file> -o <outfile>

It should be available by default on OS X.

edited May 25 '15 at 17:06

kenorb

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answered Feb 27 '15 at 20:13

Derreck Dean

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Add `--decode` to reverse the process from base64 to normal. – luckydonald Nov 02 '18 at 14:05
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This is better for encoding for SVG because it creates one line. This is cleaner than the output from `openssl base64`. Thanks! – Shanimal Apr 18 '19 at 01:35
I didn't want to use files so you can do `echo -n "something" | base64` – Mike Harrison Feb 03 '22 at 22:51

score 84 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 01 '17 at 05:33

84

On macOS I always use:

echo -n "STRING" | base64

-n is to avoid a new line character on the end of the line.

answered Aug 01 '17 at 05:33

patrickS

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This also works on Windows if you're running Cmder. – craftworkgames May 27 '20 at 02:03
This works for me in mac – Ripudaman Singh Apr 05 '21 at 11:52

score 63 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 17 '16 at 02:48

63

base64 command is available by default on my OS X 10.9.4.

You can use base64 <<< string and base64 -D <<< string to encode and decode a string in the terminal, or base64 -in file and base64 -D -in file to encode and decode a file.

answered Mar 17 '16 at 02:48

WKPlus

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Do you have an example? I get `Invalid characer in input stream` when using `<<<`...I have tried with `"`, `'` and nothing around the string. – Jonas Sep 20 '16 at 11:46
@Jonas What shell are you in? You can use this in bash and zsh. – WKPlus Sep 21 '16 at 12:42
Ah, nevermind, it works! – Jonas Sep 22 '16 at 08:46
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Please note `base64 <<< cat` is equivalent to `echo cat|base64`, not `echo -n cat|base64`. Basically the automatic linefeed will be added to the base64 encoded string, and that might not be what you want. – Bill Apr 12 '20 at 03:29

kenorb · Answer 6 · 2017-08-19T14:56:23.520

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Since Python is provided with OS X by default, you can use it as below:

$ echo FOO | python -m base64
Rk9PCg==
$ echo Rk9PCg== | python -m base64 -d
FOO

Or install coreutils via Brew (brew install coreutils) which will provide base64 command:

$ echo FOO | base64
Rk9PCg==
$ echo Rk9PCg== | base64 -d
FOO

edited Aug 19 '17 at 14:56

answered May 25 '15 at 17:19

kenorb

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score 8 · Answer 7 · answered Jul 12 '16 at 15:39

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You can also pipe it right to the clipboard (at least on mac):

openssl base64 -in [filename] | pbcopy

answered Jul 12 '16 at 15:39

Steve

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golfing: `base64 < [filename] | pbcopy` – totels Aug 11 '16 at 19:57
Nice idea! `xclip -sel clip` would be the equivalent to `pbcopy` in X11. – Besworks May 20 '22 at 00:01

ccpizza · Answer 8 · 2023-08-19T07:43:48.837

Python

Python comes preinstalled on all macs nowadays.

In Terminal run python (or ipython).

Encode a file:

 base64data = open('myfile.jpg','rb').read().encode('base64')
 open('myfile.txt','w').write(base64data)

Decode a file:

data = open('myfile.txt').read().decode('base64')
open('myfile.jpg','wb').write(data)

OpenSSL

## encode to base64 (on OSX use `-output`)
openssl base64 -in myfile.jpg -output myfile.jpg.b64

## encode to base64 (on Linux use `-out`)
openssl base64 -in myfile.jpg -out myfile.jpg.b64


## decode from base64 (on OSX `-output` should be used)
openssl base64 -d -in myfile.jpg.b64 -output myfile.jpg

## decode from base64 (on Linux `-out` should be used)
openssl base64 -d -in myfile.jpg.b64 -out myfile.jpg

Omitting the -out/-output... filename will print to stdout.

base64

Another ootb utility present both in OSX and Ubuntu:

## encode to base64
base64 < myfile.jpg > myfile.jpg.b64

## decode from base64 (OSX) (note the uppercase 'D')
base64 -D < myfile.jpg.b64 > myfile.jpg

## decode from base64 (Linux) (note the lowercase 'd')
base64 -d < myfile.jpg.b64 > myfile.jpg

score 6 · Answer 9 · answered Sep 05 '12 at 07:43

In terms of speed, I would use openssl followed by perl, followed by uuencode. In terms of portability, I would use uuencode followed by Perl followed by openssl (If you care about reusing the code on as many other UNIX like stock platforms as possible). Be careful though because not all UNIX variants support the -m switch (iirc AIX does, HP/UX does, Solaris doesn't).

$ time perl -MMIME::Base64 -e 'undef $/;while(<>){print encode_base64($_);}' \
> out.jpg 1>filename.b64
real    0m0.025s

$ time uuencode -m -o filename.b64 out.jpg filename_when_uudecoded.txt
real    0m0.051s

$  time openssl base64 -in out.jpg -out filename.b64 
real    0m0.017s

Use the -m switch to uuencode file_in.txt per base64 as specified by RFC1521 and write it to filename.b64 (with filename_when_uudecoded.txt as the default filename when decoded):

uuencode -m -o filename.b64 file_in.txt filename_when_uudecoded.txt

STDIN example:

cat file_in.txt | uuencode -m -o filename.b64 filename_when_uudecoded.txt

solimant · Answer 10 · 2022-04-20T16:04:20.093

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In addition to Steve Folly's answer above, when encoding in stdin mode, to avoid passing extra newlines, press CTRL+D twice to end input without any additional newlines.
Output will show right after the same line.

For example:

$ openssl base64 Enter
inputCTRL+DCTRL+DaW5wdXQ=
$

Alternatively, you could use printf:

$ printf 'input' | openssl base64
aW5wdXQ=
$

edited Apr 20 '22 at 16:04

answered Jul 27 '16 at 18:14

solimant

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You meant to say encoding, right? – nethero Apr 19 '22 at 15:08
@nethero - yes, corrected. – solimant Apr 20 '22 at 16:05

score 3 · Answer 11 · edited Apr 04 '13 at 20:33

3

uuencode -m [-o output_file] [file] name

Where name is the name to display in the encoded header.

Example:

cat docbook-xsl.css | uuencode -m docbook-xsl.css

or

uuencode -m -o docbook-xsl.css.b64 docbook-xsl.css docbook-xsl.css

edited Apr 04 '13 at 20:33

Indrek

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answered Apr 04 '13 at 20:12

user214207

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`uuencode` is not the encoding as `base64` – ccpizza Nov 17 '16 at 07:27

score 2 · Answer 12 · answered Jul 27 '14 at 05:16

2

For some reason, echo -n <data> | openssl base64 added a newline in the middle of my base64 data. I assume it was because my base64 data was really long.

Using echo -n <data> | base64 to encode and echo -n <base64-ed data> | base64 -D to decode worked fine.

answered Jul 27 '14 at 05:16

Heath Borders

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nb: on my nix, i had to use -d echo -n c29tZXVzZXI6c29tZXBhc3N3b3Jk | base64 -d someuser:somepassword – mlo55 Apr 14 '16 at 00:07

score 2 · Answer 13 · answered Mar 27 '15 at 13:09

2

A simple NodeJS version:

node -e "process.stdout.write(new Buffer(process.argv[1]).toString('base64'))" "Hello world!"

answered Mar 27 '15 at 13:09

mauvm

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I don't think this is a better answer as `openssl` (and now `base64`) come with the OS. – Josh Mar 27 '15 at 15:01
At the risk of splitting hairs — and, I’m aware that this criticism applies to a couple of the other answers, as well — the question asked how to encode ***a file*** or ***stdin***. If I’m not mistaken, your answer shows only how to encode a string. – G-Man Says 'Reinstate Monica' Mar 27 '15 at 19:00

heavyd · Answer 14 · 2015-05-25T17:26:34.177

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recode should do the trick for you

recode ../b64 < file.txt > file.b64

recode is available for OS X via MacPorts.

edited May 25 '15 at 17:26

answered Mar 17 '10 at 00:00

heavyd

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There's nothing built in? – Josh Mar 17 '10 at 00:24
@Josh - there is - openssl – Steve Folly Mar 17 '10 at 00:25
MacPorts does not come with any OS X distribution. There are plenty of other options that do. For instance just `base64` command. – Jason S Sep 05 '16 at 06:05

score 1 · Answer 15 · answered Mar 17 '10 at 04:24

There is Perl plus MIME::Base64:

perl -MMIME::Base64 -e 'undef $/;while(<>){print encode_base64($_);}'

This comes pre-installed. You can specify separate files on the command line (or supply the data on standard input); each file is separately encoded. You can also do:

perl -i.txt -MMIME::Base64 -e 'undef $/;while(<>){print encode_base64($_);}' file1

This backs up file1 to file1.txt, and writes the Base-64 encoded output over the original file.

score 1 · Answer 16 · answered Jul 08 '19 at 16:00

Cross-platform solutions

We compiled a list of cross-platform shell commands to encode a file as base64. The following commands take an input file (named deploy.key in examples) and convert it to base64 without any newline wrapping. The base64 output is printed to the terminal via stdout.

# For systems with openssl
openssl base64 -A -in=deploy.key

# For systems with Python (2 or 3) installed
python -c "import base64; print(base64.standard_b64encode(open('deploy.key', 'rb').read()).decode())"

# For Windows or Linux systems that have the GNU coreutils base64 command
base64 --wrap=1000000 deploy.key

# For macOS systems
base64 --break=1000000 deploy.key

To redirect the output to a file, append > base64-encoded.txt (using a file name of your choosing).

These commands were prototyped as part of this pull request where we wanted cross-platform shell commands to base64 encode an SSH private key to remove newlines.

score 1 · Answer 17 · answered Jun 30 '22 at 17:17

There are many great answers already and mine does basically the same thing except the secret is never shown in the terminal.

I created these two aliases to encode a string from my clipboard and the encoded string is copied to my clipboard. The same applies to decoding:

alias decode='pbpaste | base64 --decode | pbcopy'
alias encode='pbpaste | base64 | pbcopy'

score 0 · Answer 18 · answered Apr 18 '16 at 22:13

0

If you are base64 encoding a font file, you can do this:

base64 my-webfont.ttf > my-webfont.b64.ttf.txt

I use this on a Mac (10.10) all the time.

Note: There will be no linebreaks.

answered Apr 18 '16 at 22:13

ObiHill

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score 0 · Answer 19 · answered Jun 22 '23 at 09:52

0

On Mac, you can simply encode and decode the current clipboard contents to/from base64 with:

Encode to base64:

pbpaste | base64

Decode from base64:

pbpaste | base64 --decode

answered Jun 22 '23 at 09:52

David Thomas

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score -1 · Answer 20 · answered Aug 03 '22 at 05:46

-1

you can do this:

echo -n  "Hello, world" | base64

you will get SGVsbG8sIHdvcmxk .

answered Aug 03 '22 at 05:46

xiaoD

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what new information does this add to the question compared to other answers? – phuclv Jun 22 '23 at 10:36

How to encode base64 via command line?

20 Answers20

Python

OpenSSL

base64

Cross-platform solutions

Linked

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