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1:mod:`binascii` --- Convert between binary and ASCII
2====================================================
3
4.. module:: binascii
5   :synopsis: Tools for converting between binary and various ASCII-encoded binary
6              representations.
7
8.. index::
9   module: uu
10   module: base64
11   module: binhex
12
13--------------
14
15The :mod:`binascii` module contains a number of methods to convert between
16binary and various ASCII-encoded binary representations. Normally, you will not
17use these functions directly but use wrapper modules like :mod:`uu`,
18:mod:`base64`, or :mod:`binhex` instead. The :mod:`binascii` module contains
19low-level functions written in C for greater speed that are used by the
20higher-level modules.
21
22.. note::
23
24   ``a2b_*`` functions accept Unicode strings containing only ASCII characters.
25   Other functions only accept :term:`bytes-like objects <bytes-like object>` (such as
26   :class:`bytes`, :class:`bytearray` and other objects that support the buffer
27   protocol).
28
29   .. versionchanged:: 3.3
30      ASCII-only unicode strings are now accepted by the ``a2b_*`` functions.
31
32
33The :mod:`binascii` module defines the following functions:
34
35
36.. function:: a2b_uu(string)
37
38   Convert a single line of uuencoded data back to binary and return the binary
39   data. Lines normally contain 45 (binary) bytes, except for the last line. Line
40   data may be followed by whitespace.
41
42
43.. function:: b2a_uu(data, *, backtick=False)
44
45   Convert binary data to a line of ASCII characters, the return value is the
46   converted line, including a newline char. The length of *data* should be at most
47   45. If *backtick* is true, zeros are represented by ``'`'`` instead of spaces.
48
49   .. versionchanged:: 3.7
50      Added the *backtick* parameter.
51
52
53.. function:: a2b_base64(string)
54
55   Convert a block of base64 data back to binary and return the binary data. More
56   than one line may be passed at a time.
57
58
59.. function:: b2a_base64(data, *, newline=True)
60
61   Convert binary data to a line of ASCII characters in base64 coding. The return
62   value is the converted line, including a newline char if *newline* is
63   true.  The output of this function conforms to :rfc:`3548`.
64
65   .. versionchanged:: 3.6
66      Added the *newline* parameter.
67
68
69.. function:: a2b_qp(data, header=False)
70
71   Convert a block of quoted-printable data back to binary and return the binary
72   data. More than one line may be passed at a time. If the optional argument
73   *header* is present and true, underscores will be decoded as spaces.
74
75
76.. function:: b2a_qp(data, quotetabs=False, istext=True, header=False)
77
78   Convert binary data to a line(s) of ASCII characters in quoted-printable
79   encoding.  The return value is the converted line(s). If the optional argument
80   *quotetabs* is present and true, all tabs and spaces will be encoded.   If the
81   optional argument *istext* is present and true, newlines are not encoded but
82   trailing whitespace will be encoded. If the optional argument *header* is
83   present and true, spaces will be encoded as underscores per :rfc:`1522`. If the
84   optional argument *header* is present and false, newline characters will be
85   encoded as well; otherwise linefeed conversion might corrupt the binary data
86   stream.
87
88
89.. function:: a2b_hqx(string)
90
91   Convert binhex4 formatted ASCII data to binary, without doing RLE-decompression.
92   The string should contain a complete number of binary bytes, or (in case of the
93   last portion of the binhex4 data) have the remaining bits zero.
94
95   .. deprecated:: 3.9
96
97
98.. function:: rledecode_hqx(data)
99
100   Perform RLE-decompression on the data, as per the binhex4 standard. The
101   algorithm uses ``0x90`` after a byte as a repeat indicator, followed by a count.
102   A count of ``0`` specifies a byte value of ``0x90``. The routine returns the
103   decompressed data, unless data input data ends in an orphaned repeat indicator,
104   in which case the :exc:`Incomplete` exception is raised.
105
106   .. versionchanged:: 3.2
107      Accept only bytestring or bytearray objects as input.
108
109   .. deprecated:: 3.9
110
111
112.. function:: rlecode_hqx(data)
113
114   Perform binhex4 style RLE-compression on *data* and return the result.
115
116   .. deprecated:: 3.9
117
118
119.. function:: b2a_hqx(data)
120
121   Perform hexbin4 binary-to-ASCII translation and return the resulting string. The
122   argument should already be RLE-coded, and have a length divisible by 3 (except
123   possibly the last fragment).
124
125   .. deprecated:: 3.9
126
127
128.. function:: crc_hqx(data, value)
129
130   Compute a 16-bit CRC value of *data*, starting with *value* as the
131   initial CRC, and return the result.  This uses the CRC-CCITT polynomial
132   *x*:sup:`16` + *x*:sup:`12` + *x*:sup:`5` + 1, often represented as
133   0x1021.  This CRC is used in the binhex4 format.
134
135
136.. function:: crc32(data[, value])
137
138   Compute CRC-32, the 32-bit checksum of *data*, starting with an
139   initial CRC of *value*.  The default initial CRC is zero.  The algorithm
140   is consistent with the ZIP file checksum.  Since the algorithm is designed for
141   use as a checksum algorithm, it is not suitable for use as a general hash
142   algorithm.  Use as follows::
143
144      print(binascii.crc32(b"hello world"))
145      # Or, in two pieces:
146      crc = binascii.crc32(b"hello")
147      crc = binascii.crc32(b" world", crc)
148      print('crc32 = {:#010x}'.format(crc))
149
150   .. versionchanged:: 3.0
151      The result is always unsigned.
152      To generate the same numeric value across all Python versions and
153      platforms, use ``crc32(data) & 0xffffffff``.
154
155
156.. function:: b2a_hex(data[, sep[, bytes_per_sep=1]])
157              hexlify(data[, sep[, bytes_per_sep=1]])
158
159   Return the hexadecimal representation of the binary *data*.  Every byte of
160   *data* is converted into the corresponding 2-digit hex representation.  The
161   returned bytes object is therefore twice as long as the length of *data*.
162
163   Similar functionality (but returning a text string) is also conveniently
164   accessible using the :meth:`bytes.hex` method.
165
166   If *sep* is specified, it must be a single character str or bytes object.
167   It will be inserted in the output after every *bytes_per_sep* input bytes.
168   Separator placement is counted from the right end of the output by default,
169   if you wish to count from the left, supply a negative *bytes_per_sep* value.
170
171      >>> import binascii
172      >>> binascii.b2a_hex(b'\xb9\x01\xef')
173      b'b901ef'
174      >>> binascii.hexlify(b'\xb9\x01\xef', '-')
175      b'b9-01-ef'
176      >>> binascii.b2a_hex(b'\xb9\x01\xef', b'_', 2)
177      b'b9_01ef'
178      >>> binascii.b2a_hex(b'\xb9\x01\xef', b' ', -2)
179      b'b901 ef'
180
181   .. versionchanged:: 3.8
182      The *sep* and *bytes_per_sep* parameters were added.
183
184.. function:: a2b_hex(hexstr)
185              unhexlify(hexstr)
186
187   Return the binary data represented by the hexadecimal string *hexstr*.  This
188   function is the inverse of :func:`b2a_hex`. *hexstr* must contain an even number
189   of hexadecimal digits (which can be upper or lower case), otherwise an
190   :exc:`Error` exception is raised.
191
192   Similar functionality (accepting only text string arguments, but more
193   liberal towards whitespace) is also accessible using the
194   :meth:`bytes.fromhex` class method.
195
196.. exception:: Error
197
198   Exception raised on errors. These are usually programming errors.
199
200
201.. exception:: Incomplete
202
203   Exception raised on incomplete data. These are usually not programming errors,
204   but may be handled by reading a little more data and trying again.
205
206
207.. seealso::
208
209   Module :mod:`base64`
210      Support for RFC compliant base64-style encoding in base 16, 32, 64,
211      and 85.
212
213   Module :mod:`binhex`
214      Support for the binhex format used on the Macintosh.
215
216   Module :mod:`uu`
217      Support for UU encoding used on Unix.
218
219   Module :mod:`quopri`
220      Support for quoted-printable encoding used in MIME email messages.
221