OS X: Base64 encode via command line

Question

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

Answer 1

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

Answer 2

Openssl can be used more succinctly:

echo 'input' | openssl base64

or

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

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

recode should do the trick for you

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

Here is the darwinports page for recode if its not already available.