NAME
    MIME::Base64 - Encoding and decoding of base64 strings

SYNOPSIS
     use MIME::Base64;

     $encoded = encode_base64('Aladdin:open sesame');
     $decoded = decode_base64($encoded);

DESCRIPTION
    This module provides functions to encode and decode strings into and
    from the base64 encoding specified in RFC 2045 - *MIME (Multipurpose
    Internet Mail Extensions)*. The base64 encoding is designed to represent
    arbitrary sequences of octets in a form that need not be humanly
    readable. A 65-character subset ([A-Za-z0-9+/=]) of US-ASCII is used,
    enabling 6 bits to be represented per printable character.

    The following primary functions are provided:

    encode_base64( $bytes )
    encode_base64( $bytes, $eol );
        Encode data by calling the encode_base64() function. The first
        argument is the byte string to encode. The second argument is the
        line-ending sequence to use. It is optional and defaults to "\n".
        The returned encoded string is broken into lines of no more than 76
        characters each and it will end with $eol unless it is empty. Pass
        an empty string as second argument if you do not want the encoded
        string to be broken into lines.

        The function will croak with "Wide character in subroutine entry" if
        $bytes contains characters with code above 255. The base64 encoding
        is only defined for single-byte characters. Use the Encode module to
        select the byte encoding you want.

    decode_base64( $str )
        Decode a base64 string by calling the decode_base64() function. This
        function takes a single argument which is the string to decode and
        returns the decoded data.

        Any character not part of the 65-character base64 subset is silently
        ignored. Characters occurring after a '=' padding character are
        never decoded.

    If you prefer not to import these routines into your namespace, you can
    call them as:

        use MIME::Base64 ();
        $encoded = MIME::Base64::encode($decoded);
        $decoded = MIME::Base64::decode($encoded);

    Additional functions not exported by default:

    encode_base64url( $bytes )
    decode_base64url( $str )
        Encode and decode according to the base64 scheme for "URL
        applications" [1]. This is a variant of the base64 encoding which
        does not use padding, does not break the string into multiple lines
        and use the characters "-" and "_" instead of "+" and "/" to avoid
        using reserved URL characters.

    encoded_base64_length( $bytes )
    encoded_base64_length( $bytes, $eol )
        Returns the length that the encoded string would have without
        actually encoding it. This will return the same value as
        "length(encode_base64($bytes))", but should be more efficient.

    decoded_base64_length( $str )
        Returns the length that the decoded string would have without
        actually decoding it. This will return the same value as
        "length(decode_base64($str))", but should be more efficient.

EXAMPLES
    If you want to encode a large file, you should encode it in chunks that
    are a multiple of 57 bytes. This ensures that the base64 lines line up
    and that you do not end up with padding in the middle. 57 bytes of data
    fills one complete base64 line (76 == 57*4/3):

       use MIME::Base64 qw(encode_base64);

       open(FILE, "/var/log/wtmp") or die "$!";
       while (read(FILE, $buf, 60*57)) {
           print encode_base64($buf);
       }

    or if you know you have enough memory

       use MIME::Base64 qw(encode_base64);
       local($/) = undef;  # slurp
       print encode_base64();

    The same approach as a command line:

       perl -MMIME::Base64 -0777 -ne 'print encode_base64($_)'  and Joerg Reichelt  and
    code posted to comp.lang.perl <3pd2lp$6gf@wsinti07.win.tue.nl> by Hans
    Mulder 

    The XS implementation uses code from metamail. Copyright 1991 Bell
    Communications Research, Inc. (Bellcore)

SEE ALSO
    MIME::QuotedPrint

    [1]