base64

base64 Source Code in C

Introduction

This little utility implements the Base64 Content-Transfer-Encoding standard described in RFC1113 (http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1113.html). This is the coding scheme used by MIME to allow binary data to be transferred by SMTP mail.

Here is the source code in question: b64.c

The b64.c code was updated 2012-08-04 to version 0.12R. Only cosmetic changes have taken place since its initial release in 2001. This is now 'production stable', even by the author's standards, as evidenced by the removal of the beta tag :)

The sourceforge project page is here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/base64/

Inspiration

I was attempting to look at a mime attachment in a badly formed e-mail one day. I needed to convert the Base64 stream to something I could examine. This seemed a trivial problem, but I was not able to find source that was simple to compile correctly and would actually work. I had been working on a project where code similar to this was in use. I decided that I would create a file similar to what I was looking for and make it available to others.

Hosting on SourceForge

Hosting on SourceForge gave me a chance to work with their system and (with the luck I was hoping for) allowed the source to take on a life of its own. The code is available in one form or another in many places now, but if you can't get it here and need it, look me up!

Design Goals

Specifically:
This code is a stand-alone utility to perform base64 encoding/decoding. It should be genuinely useful when the need arises and it meets a need that is likely to occur for some users. Code acts as sample code to show the author's design and coding style.

Generally:
This program is designed to survive: Everything you need is in a single source file. It compiles cleanly using a vanilla ANSI C compiler. It does its job correctly with a minimum of fuss. The code is not overly clever, not overly simplistic and not overly verbose. Access is 'cut and paste' from a web page. Terms of use are reasonable.

Hidden Agenda

I was hoping that this little source file wouled have all its bugs isolated and corrected in a single round of testing so that the beta code version 0.00.00B could actually be released as version 0.00.00R and stay there. It is a real long shot for code to be error, but having reviewed and unit-tested the code, I thought it was a possibility. It is, after all, a relatively simple utility.

In the eleven years between posting the code and this writing, where it is finally being released, by me, as release level code, the code has seen wide use in a large variety of places. As of this uploaded version (0.12.00R), no changes have taken place to the code beyond cosmetic changes. The file itself has changed little. Although I *did* get feedback over the years with 'bug' reports, they were all mistaken reports by programmers who had attempted to use internal functions incorrectly. So ... it never was 'broken'.

Even though there was no dramatic 'reveal' of a bug, the use this has seen has validated it far better than the original testing. Although absence of proof is famously not proof of absence, a decade of use without a verifiable bug is a good indication that it is 'good enough'.

Thanks for the help:

I am grateful for the many people who have compiled and run unit tests over the years. The code has survived all major operating systems and ports to sibling (say, C++) and cousin (say, Java) languages. It is safe to say that it can be compiled and run on just about any platform that supports a C compiler that is reasonably close to an ANSI standard.

Again, the source code is here: b64.c