GNU bug report logs - #26372
Base64 inserts carriage return

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Goulven Guillard <lecotegougdelaforce <at> free.fr>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: Base64 inserts carriage return
Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2017 12:39:43 +0200

Hi,

It seems `base64` inserts a carriage return ("Cg==") when encoding a 
string :

$ echo foobar|base64
Zm9vYmFyCg==

If this is the desired behaviour, it should at least be documented since 
it is not obvious (and BTW different from e.g. PHP base64_encode).

Confirmed with coreutils 8.23-4 under Debian and coreutils 2.24-8.fc23 
under Fedora.

Regards,

Goulven Guillard.

Message #8 received at 26372 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Assaf Gordon <assafgordon <at> gmail.com>
To: Goulven Guillard <lecotegougdelaforce <at> free.fr>, 26372 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#26372: Base64 inserts carriage return
Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2017 11:42:34 -0400

tag 26372 notabug
close 26372
stop

Hello,

On 04/05/2017 06:39 AM, Goulven Guillard wrote:
> It seems `base64` inserts a carriage return ("Cg==") when encoding a
> string :
> 
> $ echo foobar|base64
> Zm9vYmFyCg==

Not exactly - it is "echo" which adds the newline and base64 simply
encodes all its input.

Observe the following:

  $ echo foobar | od -c
  0000000   f   o   o   b   a   r  \n
  0000007

"printf" can be used for finer control over
your printed strings - it will not add newline
unless you request it:

  $ printf foobar | base64
  Zm9vYmFy
  $ printf 'foobar\n' | base64
  Zm9vYmFyCg==

As such I'm closing this bug report, but discussion can continue
by replying to this thread.

regards,
 - assaf

Message #15 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Goulven Guillard <lecotegougdelaforce <at> free.fr>
To: bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: Re: Base64 inserts newline [was "Base64 inserts carriage return"]
Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2017 13:35:29 +0200

Le 05/04/2017 à 12:39, Goulven Guillard a écrit :
> It seems `base64` inserts a carriage return ("Cg==") when encoding a
> string :
>
> $ echo foobar|base64
> Zm9vYmFyCg==

I just figured it was not a carriage return ("\r") but a simple newline 
("\n").  I was misleaded because for some reason my PHP form translates 
"\n" into "\r\n" during the POST submission.

Anyway, it doesn't change much the issue.

Regards,

Goulven Guillard.

Message #18 received at 26372 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Assaf Gordon <assafgordon <at> gmail.com>
To: Goulven Guillard <lecotegougdelaforce <at> free.fr>, 26372 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#26372: Base64 inserts newline [was "Base64 inserts carriage
 return"]
Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2017 11:55:25 -0400

Hello,

On 04/05/2017 07:35 AM, Goulven Guillard wrote:
> I just figured it was not a carriage return ("\r") but a simple newline
> ("\n").  I was misleaded because for some reason my PHP form translates
> "\n" into "\r\n" during the POST submission.

While PHP and HTTP are outside the scope of GNU coreutils,
it's worth noting that the HTTP standard (which include POST
submissions) mandates "\r\n" (CR,LF) as line-endings in forms and in
headers, e.g.:

in HTTP headers:
https://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec4.html

In FORMS:
"Line breaks, as in multi-line text field values,
 are represented as CR LF pairs, i.e. `%0D%0A'."
from:  https://www.w3.org/MarkUp/html-spec/html-spec_8.html#SEC8.2.1

> Anyway, it doesn't change much the issue.

It doesn't, and the issue is still in "echo", not in "base64" :)

regards,
 - assaf

Message #21 received at 26372 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Goulven Guillard <lecotegougdelaforce <at> free.fr>
To: Assaf Gordon <assafgordon <at> gmail.com>, 26372 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#26372: Base64 inserts newline [was "Base64 inserts carriage
 return"]
Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2017 10:39:37 +0200

Le 05/04/2017 à 17:55, Assaf Gordon a écrit :
> It doesn't, and the issue is still in "echo", not in "base64" :)

As well as in vim default configuration, which fortunately I figured 
before to complain again (use binary mode and ":set noeol" if you don't 
want EOL to be added…).

I guess I'll have to pipe to `tr -d '\n'` to get rid of them.

Many thanks for the explanations (especially about HTTP, this will save 
me quite some painful googling…) and demonstration of `od`.

Regards,

Goulven.

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