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(elisp)Base 64

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Base 64 Encoding
================

   Base 64 code is used in email to encode a sequence of 8-bit bytes as
a longer sequence of ASCII graphic characters.  It is defined in
Internet RFC(1)2045.  This section describes the functions for
converting to and from this code.

 - Function: base64-encode-region beg end &optional no-line-break
     This function converts the region from BEG to END into base 64
     code.  It returns the length of the encoded text.  An error is
     signaled if a character in the region is multibyte, i.e. in a
     multibyte buffer the region must contain only characters from the
     charsets `ascii', `eight-bit-control' and `eight-bit-graphic'.

     Normally, this function inserts newline characters into the encoded
     text, to avoid overlong lines.  However, if the optional argument
     NO-LINE-BREAK is non-`nil', these newlines are not added, so the
     output is just one long line.

 - Function: base64-encode-string string &optional no-line-break
     This function converts the string STRING into base 64 code.  It
     returns a string containing the encoded text.  As for
     `base64-encode-region', an error is signaled if a character in the
     string is multibyte.

     Normally, this function inserts newline characters into the encoded
     text, to avoid overlong lines.  However, if the optional argument
     NO-LINE-BREAK is non-`nil', these newlines are not added, so the
     result string is just one long line.

 - Function: base64-decode-region beg end
     This function converts the region from BEG to END from base 64
     code into the corresponding decoded text.  It returns the length of
     the decoded text.

     The decoding functions ignore newline characters in the encoded
     text.

 - Function: base64-decode-string string
     This function converts the string STRING from base 64 code into
     the corresponding decoded text.  It returns a string containing the
     decoded text.

     The decoding functions ignore newline characters in the encoded
     text.

   ---------- Footnotes ----------

   (1) An RFC, an acronym for "Request for Comments", is a numbered
Internet informational document describing a standard.  RFCs are
usually written by technical experts acting on their own initiative,
and are traditionally written in a pragmatic, experience-driven manner.