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In Unix, how do I use the MacUtils to encode or decode a document in MacBinary or BinHex?

Using the MacUtils, a suite of freeware utilities, allows you to create and decode MacBinary and BinHex files from the Unix command line prompt.

To decode a BinHexed file, enter at the Unix prompt:

hexbin [options] file.hqx

Replace file.hqx with the file you wish to decode and [options] with one or more of the following options:

-3 Decode the BinHex file. Put the data fork in a file with the extension .data , the resource fork in a file with the extension .rsrc , and Finder information in a file with the extension .info . With the exception of the file extension, the names of all three files will be identical (e.g., file.data , file.rsrc , and file.info ).
-f Identical in behavior to  -3 , except that it will not create empty fork files. So, if a file doesn't have a resource fork, hexbin will not create a .rsrc file.
-r With this option selected, hexbin will only decode resource forks. Thus, if a file has a data fork, the program will ignore it.
-d With this option selected, hexbin will only decode data forks. Thus, if a file has a resource fork, the program will ignore it.
-u or -U With this option selected, hexbin will decode only the data fork of a file and will exchange all carriage return characters with line feeds. This option should only be used with text files. Using the  -u  option creates a file with the extension .text while using the  -U  option creates a file with no extension.
-b This option tells hexbin to convert the file into MacBinary format, saving it into a file with the .bin extension. This is the default, so if you don't specify any options, this is the action hexbin performs.
-s Identical to  -b , except that instead of saving the MacBinary output to a file, it sends it to standard output. This option is best used in conjunction with a pipe.
-l or -v Lists files that are being extracted. The two options are similar, except that  -v  gives more information.
-i Works the same as  -l , except no extraction is actually performed.
-n [name] Replace [name] with the name you wish to give the decoded file.

To decode a MacBinary file, enter at the Unix prompt:

macunpack [options] file.bin

Replace file.bin with the file you wish to decode. The options for macunpack are identical to those for hexbin.

To create a BinHex file, enter at the Unix prompt:

binhex [options] file > file.hqx

Replace file and file.hqx with, respectively, the file you wish to encode and the name you wish to give the resulting BinHexed file. This command has the following options:

-r With this option selected, binhex encodes file as a resource fork.
-d With this option selected, binhex encodes file as a data fork.
-u or -U This option is similar to  -d  except it should only be used to encode text files. It exchanges line feeds for carriage returns.
-c [creator] Replace [creator] with the file creator code you wish to assign to the document. If you do not specify a file creator, the resulting BinHexed file's creator will be MACA with the  -d  and  -u  options and RSED with the  -r  option.
-t [type] Replace [type] with the file type code you wish to assign to the document. If you do not specify a file type, the resulting BinHexed file's type will be TEXT with the  -d  and  -u  options and RSRC with the  -r  option.
-l Writes information about the file being encoded
-i Works like  -l , except no actual encoding is performed

If you wish to encode the forks of a previously decoded file back into a BinHexed Mac OS file, replace file in the example above with the Finder information file (the file with the .info extension). You do not use the  -r ,  -d , or  -u  options when you do this.

Creating a MacBinary file is a very similar process. The only difference is that you pipe the output of the binhex command into hexbin rather than redirecting it to a file. So, at the Unix prompt, enter:

binhex [options] file | hexbin

This will create a MacBinary file with the same name as file except it will have a .bin extension.

At Indiana University, for personal or departmental Linux or Unix systems support, see At IU, how do I get support for Linux or Unix?

This is document aewr in domain all.
Last modified on August 22, 2008.

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