base64 tool?

[Simon Josefsson]

Is a base64 encode/decode tool suitable for coreutils?

I typically use `M-: (base64-encode-string "foo")' in Emacs, but I
have found I often want a command line tool as well.  And `echo
foo|base64' is easier to type.

There is a base64 module in gnulib that I think would be suitable for
this.  It should probably not read in the entire file in memory,
though.

I'm thinking:

Usage: base64 [OPTION] [FILE]...
Encode binary data using printable characters.
With no FILE, or when FILE is -, read standard input.

Optional arguments to long options are optional for short options too.
  -d, --decode            decode data
  -w, --wrap[=COLS]       wrap encoded lines after COLS character, default 76.
      --ignore-garbage    when decoding, ignore non-alphabet characters

      --help     display this help and exit
      --version  output version information and exit

The data is encoded as described for the base64 alphabet in RFC 3548.
Decoding require compliant input by default, use --ignore-garbage to
attempt to recover from non-alphabet characters (such as newlines) in
the encoded stream.

Report bugs to <address@hidden>.