yq/usage/base64.md

Base64

Encode and decode to and from Base64.

Base64 assumes RFC4648 encoding. Encoding and decoding both assume that the content is a UTF-8 string and not binary content.

See below for examples

Decode base64: simple

Decoded data is assumed to be a string.

Given a sample.txt file of:

YSBzcGVjaWFsIHN0cmluZw==

then

yq -p=base64 -oy '.' sample.txt

will output

a special string

Decode base64: UTF-8

Base64 decoding supports UTF-8 encoded strings.

Given a sample.txt file of:

V29ya3Mgd2l0aCBVVEYtMTYg8J+Yig==

then

yq -p=base64 -oy '.' sample.txt

will output

Works with UTF-16 😊

Decode with extra spaces

Extra leading/trailing whitespace is stripped

Given a sample.txt file of:

 YSBzcGVjaWFsIHN0cmluZw==  

then

yq -p=base64 -oy '.' sample.txt

will output

a special string

Encode base64: string

Given a sample.yml file of:

"a special string"

then

yq -o=base64 '.' sample.yml

will output

YSBzcGVjaWFsIHN0cmluZw==```

## Encode base64: string from document
Extract a string field and encode it to base64.

Given a sample.yml file of:
```yaml
coolData: "a special string"

then

yq -o=base64 '.coolData' sample.yml

will output

YSBzcGVjaWFsIHN0cmluZw==```