Mailing Jars

Jar files are binary files and binary files cannot be directly sent through email. There are two common ways to send binary files correctly. (Directly mailing a binary via mail < BinaryFile, will munge the file as mail is not 8 bit clean.) (Jar files are really zip files which as you know from using ftp, they need to be transmitted in binary mode.)

• Use attachments: Many gui mail readers support adding attachments to a mail message. This actually encodes the file in a way that it will survive the mail. Many mail readers correctly handled the receiving of attachments. Elm doesn't send attachments, but does receive them correctly. Mutt is a terminal (non-gui) reader that can send attachments.
• Use uuencode to translate the file into a form that will survive the mail and then send the resulting file. For example, the session below uuencodes the file proj1.jar and puts it into the file FileToMail. When it is decoded with uudecode, the resulting file will be named YourName.jar.

  	uuencode proj1.jar YourName.jar > FileToMail
  	mail TheGoodDoctor < FileToMail