
"base64" --- Base16, Base32, Base64, Base85 Data Encodings
**********************************************************

This module provides functions for encoding binary data to printable
ASCII characters and decoding such encodings back to binary data. It
provides encoding and decoding functions for the encodings specified
in **RFC 3548**, which defines the Base16, Base32, and Base64
algorithms, and for the de-facto standard Ascii85 and Base85
encodings.

The **RFC 3548** encodings are suitable for encoding binary data so
that it can safely sent by email, used as parts of URLs, or included
as part of an HTTP POST request.  The encoding algorithm is not the
same as the **uuencode** program.

There are two **RFC 3548** interfaces provided by this module.  The
modern interface supports encoding and decoding ASCII byte string
objects using all three **RFC 3548** defined alphabets (normal, URL-
safe, and filesystem-safe). Additionally, the decoding functions of
the modern interface also accept Unicode strings containing only ASCII
characters. The legacy interface provides for encoding and decoding to
and from file-like objects as well as byte strings, but only using the
Base64 standard alphabet.

Changed in version 3.3: ASCII-only Unicode strings are now accepted by
the decoding functions of the modern interface.

Changed in version 3.4: Any *bytes-like object*s are now accepted by
all encoding and decoding functions in this module.  Ascii85/Base85
support added.

The modern interface provides:

base64.b64encode(s, altchars=None)

   Encode a byte string using Base64.

   *s* is the string to encode.  Optional *altchars* must be a string
   of at least length 2 (additional characters are ignored) which
   specifies an alternative alphabet for the "+" and "/" characters.
   This allows an application to e.g. generate URL or filesystem safe
   Base64 strings.  The default is "None", for which the standard
   Base64 alphabet is used.

   The encoded byte string is returned.

base64.b64decode(s, altchars=None, validate=False)

   Decode a Base64 encoded byte string.

   *s* is the byte string to decode.  Optional *altchars* must be a
   string of at least length 2 (additional characters are ignored)
   which specifies the alternative alphabet used instead of the "+"
   and "/" characters.

   The decoded string is returned.  A "binascii.Error" exception is
   raised if *s* is incorrectly padded.

   If *validate* is "False" (the default), non-base64-alphabet
   characters are discarded prior to the padding check.  If *validate*
   is "True", non-base64-alphabet characters in the input result in a
   "binascii.Error".

base64.standard_b64encode(s)

   Encode byte string *s* using the standard Base64 alphabet.

base64.standard_b64decode(s)

   Decode byte string *s* using the standard Base64 alphabet.

base64.urlsafe_b64encode(s)

   Encode byte string *s* using a URL-safe alphabet, which substitutes
   "-" instead of "+" and "_" instead of "/" in the standard Base64
   alphabet.  The result can still contain "=".

base64.urlsafe_b64decode(s)

   Decode byte string *s* using a URL-safe alphabet, which substitutes
   "-" instead of "+" and "_" instead of "/" in the standard Base64
   alphabet.

base64.b32encode(s)

   Encode a byte string using Base32.  *s* is the string to encode.
   The encoded string is returned.

base64.b32decode(s, casefold=False, map01=None)

   Decode a Base32 encoded byte string.

   *s* is the byte string to decode.  Optional *casefold* is a flag
   specifying whether a lowercase alphabet is acceptable as input.
   For security purposes, the default is "False".

   **RFC 3548** allows for optional mapping of the digit 0 (zero) to
   the letter O (oh), and for optional mapping of the digit 1 (one) to
   either the letter I (eye) or letter L (el).  The optional argument
   *map01* when not "None", specifies which letter the digit 1 should
   be mapped to (when *map01* is not "None", the digit 0 is always
   mapped to the letter O).  For security purposes the default is
   "None", so that 0 and 1 are not allowed in the input.

   The decoded byte string is returned.  A "binascii.Error" is raised
   if *s* is incorrectly padded or if there are non-alphabet
   characters present in the string.

base64.b16encode(s)

   Encode a byte string using Base16.

   *s* is the string to encode.  The encoded byte string is returned.

base64.b16decode(s, casefold=False)

   Decode a Base16 encoded byte string.

   *s* is the string to decode.  Optional *casefold* is a flag
   specifying whether a lowercase alphabet is acceptable as input.
   For security purposes, the default is "False".

   The decoded byte string is returned.  A "TypeError" is raised if
   *s* were incorrectly padded or if there are non-alphabet characters
   present in the string.

base64.a85encode(s, *, foldspaces=False, wrapcol=0, pad=False, adobe=False)

   Encode a byte string using Ascii85.

   *s* is the string to encode. The encoded byte string is returned.

   *foldspaces* is an optional flag that uses the special short
   sequence 'y' instead of 4 consecutive spaces (ASCII 0x20) as
   supported by 'btoa'. This feature is not supported by the
   "standard" Ascii85 encoding.

   *wrapcol* controls whether the output should have newline ("'\n'")
   characters added to it. If this is non-zero, each output line will
   be at most this many characters long.

   *pad* controls whether the input string is padded to a multiple of
   4 before encoding. Note that the "btoa" implementation always pads.

   *adobe* controls whether the encoded byte sequence is framed with
   "<~" and "~>", which is used by the Adobe implementation.

   New in version 3.4.

base64.a85decode(s, *, foldspaces=False, adobe=False, ignorechars=b' \t\n\r\v')

   Decode an Ascii85 encoded byte string.

   *s* is the byte string to decode.

   *foldspaces* is a flag that specifies whether the 'y' short
   sequence should be accepted as shorthand for 4 consecutive spaces
   (ASCII 0x20). This feature is not supported by the "standard"
   Ascii85 encoding.

   *adobe* controls whether the input sequence is in Adobe Ascii85
   format (i.e. is framed with <~ and ~>).

   *ignorechars* should be a byte string containing characters to
   ignore from the input. This should only contain whitespace
   characters, and by default contains all whitespace characters in
   ASCII.

   New in version 3.4.

base64.b85encode(s, pad=False)

   Encode a byte string using base85, as used in e.g. git-style binary
   diffs.

   If *pad* is true, the input is padded with "\0" so its length is a
   multiple of 4 characters before encoding.

   New in version 3.4.

base64.b85decode(b)

   Decode base85-encoded byte string.  Padding is implicitly removed,
   if necessary.

   New in version 3.4.

Note: Both Base85 and Ascii85 have an expansion factor of 5 to 4 (5
  Base85 or Ascii85 characters can encode 4 binary bytes), while the
  better- known Base64 has an expansion factor of 6 to 4.  They are
  therefore more efficient when space expensive.  They differ by
  details such as the character map used for encoding.

The legacy interface:

base64.decode(input, output)

   Decode the contents of the binary *input* file and write the
   resulting binary data to the *output* file. *input* and *output*
   must be *file objects*. *input* will be read until "input.read()"
   returns an empty bytes object.

base64.decodebytes(s)
base64.decodestring(s)

   Decode the byte string *s*, which must contain one or more lines of
   base64 encoded data, and return a byte string containing the
   resulting binary data. "decodestring" is a deprecated alias.

   New in version 3.1.

base64.encode(input, output)

   Encode the contents of the binary *input* file and write the
   resulting base64 encoded data to the *output* file. *input* and
   *output* must be *file objects*. *input* will be read until
   "input.read()" returns an empty bytes object. "encode()" returns
   the encoded data plus a trailing newline character ("b'\n'").

base64.encodebytes(s)
base64.encodestring(s)

   Encode the byte string *s*, which can contain arbitrary binary
   data, and return a byte string containing one or more lines of
   base64-encoded data. "encodebytes()" returns a string containing
   one or more lines of base64-encoded data always including an extra
   trailing newline ("b'\n'"). "encodestring" is a deprecated alias.

An example usage of the module:

>>> import base64
>>> encoded = base64.b64encode(b'data to be encoded')
>>> encoded
b'ZGF0YSB0byBiZSBlbmNvZGVk'
>>> data = base64.b64decode(encoded)
>>> data
b'data to be encoded'

See also:

  Module "binascii"
     Support module containing ASCII-to-binary and binary-to-ASCII
     conversions.

  **RFC 1521** - MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) Part
  One: Mechanisms for Specifying and Describing the Format of Internet
  Message Bodies
     Section 5.2, "Base64 Content-Transfer-Encoding," provides the
     definition of the base64 encoding.
