1 

     2 :mod:`binhex` --- Encode and decode binhex4 files

     3 =================================================

     4 

     5 .. module:: binhex

     6    :synopsis: Encode and decode files in binhex4 format.

     7 

     8 

     9 This module encodes and decodes files in binhex4 format, a format allowing

    10 representation of Macintosh files in ASCII.  On the Macintosh, both forks of a

    11 file and the finder information are encoded (or decoded), on other platforms

    12 only the data fork is handled.

    13 

    14 .. warning::

    15 

    16    In 3.0, special Macintosh support is removed.

    17 

    18 

    19 The :mod:`binhex` module defines the following functions:

    20 

    21 

    22 .. function:: binhex(input, output)

    23 

    24    Convert a binary file with filename *input* to binhex file *output*. The

    25    *output* parameter can either be a filename or a file-like object (any object

    26    supporting a :meth:`write` and :meth:`close` method).

    27 

    28 

    29 .. function:: hexbin(input[, output])

    30 

    31    Decode a binhex file *input*. *input* may be a filename or a file-like object

    32    supporting :meth:`read` and :meth:`close` methods. The resulting file is written

    33    to a file named *output*, unless the argument is omitted in which case the

    34    output filename is read from the binhex file.

    35 

    36 The following exception is also defined:

    37 

    38 

    39 .. exception:: Error

    40 

    41    Exception raised when something can't be encoded using the binhex format (for

    42    example, a filename is too long to fit in the filename field), or when input is

    43    not properly encoded binhex data.

    44 

    45 

    46 .. seealso::

    47 

    48    Module :mod:`binascii`

    49       Support module containing ASCII-to-binary and binary-to-ASCII conversions.

    50 

    51 

    52 .. _binhex-notes:

    53 

    54 Notes

    55 -----

    56 

    57 There is an alternative, more powerful interface to the coder and decoder, see

    58 the source for details.

    59 

    60 If you code or decode textfiles on non-Macintosh platforms they will still use

    61 the old Macintosh newline convention (carriage-return as end of line).

    62 

    63 As of this writing, :func:`hexbin` appears to not work in all cases.

    64