xqxdecode

xqxdecode [file]

file
    The input file to decode. If no file is specified, xqxdecode reads from standard input.

The xqxdecode command decodes files that have been encoded using the QX/QM encoding scheme. This encoding was commonly used on Macintosh systems to represent binary data as text, allowing it to be transferred through systems that only supported text-based data. It's primarily useful for handling legacy Macintosh files. It reads the QX/QM encoded input from a file specified on the command line, or from standard input if no filename is provided, and writes the decoded binary data to standard output. xqxdecode automatically detects the encoding type (QX or QM) and handles the decoding process accordingly. Understanding of byte order is not usually needed, the command does it on its own. Note that using standard input with pipes might prevent some features of the detection to work correctly, and it's generally recommended to specify the file name as the input.

xqxdecode is particularly useful when dealing with older Macintosh files that have been archived or transferred using QX/QM encoding. The output of xqxdecode is typically binary data which may need further processing depending on the original content of the encoded file. Some files are archived and/or encoded. In this case you may need to uncompress and then decode to get back the binary information

uuencode(1), uudecode(1), base64(1)