Chapter 9: Advanced e-mail (4 of 4) -- SENDING FILES BY E-MAIL

     The  uuencode and uudecode  programs will also come in handy if you
ever want to send your own files to somebody else.
     If both you and your intended recipient communicate via Unix- based
host systems, then it's pretty easy, because almost all Unix host systems
will have encoder/decoder programs online.
     First,  upload  the file you want to send to your friend to your
host site.  Ask your system administrator how to upload a file to your
name or "home" directory.  Then type

                uuencode file file > file.uu

and hit enter. "File" is the name of the file you want to prepare for
mailing, and yes, you have to type the name twice!  The > is a Unix
command that tells the system to call the "encoded" file "file.uu" (you
could actually call it anything you want).
     Now to get it into a mail message.  The quick and dirty way is to
type

                mail friend

where "friend" is your friend's address.  At the subject line, tell her
the name of the enclosed file.  When you get the blank line, type

                ~r file.uu

or whatever you called the file, and hit enter. (on some systems, the ~
may not work; if so, ask your system administrator what to use).  This
inserts the file into your mail message.  Hit control-D, and your file is
on its way!
     On the other end, when your friend goes into his mailbox,  she
should transfer it to her home directory.  Then your friend should type

                uudecode file.name

and hit enter.  This creates a new file in her name directory with
whatever name you originally gave it.  She can then download it to her
own computer.  Before she can actually use it, though, she'll have to
open it up with a text processor and delete the mail header that has been
"stamped" on it.  If you use a mailer program that automatically appends
a "signature," tell her about that so she can delete that as well.
     But what if your friend only connects with a non-Unix system, such
as CompuServe or MCIMail?  There are programs available for MS- DOS,
Apple and Amiga computers that will encode and decode files.  Of course,
since you can't send one of these programs to them via e-mail (how would
they un-encode it?), you'll have to mail or give them a diskette with the
program on it first.   Then, they can get their message, run it through a
text editor to delete the header, and finally decode the file. If they
want to send you files in return, they'll also want an encoder
     Amiga versions of the programs uuencode and uudecode are available on
 Aminet .
     For MS-DOS machines, you'll want to get uunecode.com and
uudecode.com.  Both can be found through anonymous ftp at
wuarchive.wustl.edu in the /mirrors/msdos/starter directory. The MS- DOS
version is as easy to use as the Unix one: Just type

                uudecode filename.ext

and hit enter.
     Mac users should get a program called uutool, which can be found in
the info-mac/util directory on sumex-aim.stanford.edu.

     Once again, be careful with large files.  Although large sites
connected directly to the Internet can probably handle mega-files, many
smaller systems cannot. Some commercial systems, such as CompuServe and
MCIMail limit the size of mail messages their users can receive.  Fidonet
doesn't even allow encoded messages.  In general, a file size of 30,000
or so bytes is a safe upper limit for non-Internet systems.
     One other thing you can do through e-mail is consult with the
 Usenet  Oracle.  You can ask the Oracle anything at all and get back an
answer (whether you like the answer is another question).
    First, you'll want to get instructions on how to address the Oracle
(he, or she, or it, is very particular about such things and likes being
addressed in august, solemn and particularly sycophantic tones).  Start
an e-mail message to

                oracle@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu

     In the "subject:" line, type

                help

and hit enter.  You don't actually have to say anything in the message
itself -- at least not yet.  Hit control-D to send off your request for
help.  Within a few hours, the Oracle will mail you back detailed
instructions.  It's a fairly long file, so before you start reading it,
turn on your communications software's logging function, to save it to
your computer (or save the message to a file on your host system's home
directory and then  download  the file).  After you've digested it, you
can compose your question to the Oracle.  Mail it to the above address,
only this time with a subject line that describes your question.  Expect
an answer within a couple of days. And don't be surprised if you also
find a question in your mailbox -- the Oracle extracts payment by making
seekers of knowledge answer questions as well!