MUNPACK(1)							    MUNPACK(1)



NAME
       munpack - unpack messages in MIME or split-uuencode format

SYNOPSIS
       munpack [ -f ] [ -q ] [ -t ] [ -C directory ] [ filename ...  ]

DESCRIPTION
       The  munpack program reads each RFC-822 message filename and writes all
       non-text MIME parts or split-uuencoded files as files.  If no  filename
       argument is given, munpack reads from standard input.

       If  the message suggests a file name to use for the imbedded part, that
       name is cleaned of potential problem characters and used for the output
       file.   If the suggested filename includes subdirectories, they will be
       created as necessary.  If the message does not suggest a file name, the
       names "part1", "part2", etc are used in sequence.

       If the imbedded part was preceded with textual information, that infor
       mation is also written to a file.  The file is named the  same  as  the
       imbedded part, with any filename extension replaced with ".desc".

OPTIONS
       -f     Force  overwriting  of  existing files.  If a message suggests a
	      file name of an existing file, the  file	will  be  overwritten.
	      Without  this  flag,  munpack  appends ".1", ".2", etc to find a
	      nonexistent file.

       -q     Be quiet.  Suppresses messages about saving partial messages and
	      about messages with no interesting information.

       -t     Also  write  the text MIME parts of multipart messages as files.
	      By default, text parts that do not have a filename parameter  do
	      not  get unpacked.  This option effectively disables the ".desc"
	      file feature for MIME messages.

       -C directory
	      Change the current directory to  directory  before  reading  any
	      files.  This is useful when invoking munpack from a mail or news
	      reader.

DECODING MIME
       To decode a MIME message, first save it to a text file.	 If  possible,
       save  it with all headers included.  Munpack can decode some MIME files
       when the headers are missing  or  incomplete,  other  files  it	cannot
       decode without having the information in the headers.  In general, mes
       sages which have a statement at the beginning that  they  are  in  MIME
       format  can  be	decoded without the headers.  Messages which have been
       split into multiple parts generally require all headers in order to  be
       reassembled and decoded.

       Some  LAN-based mail systems and some mail providers (including America
       Online, as of the writing of this document) place the mail  headers  at
       the  bottom  of	the message, instead of at the top of the message.  If
       you are having problems decoding a MIME message on such a  system,  you
       need  to convert the mail back into the standard format by removing the
       systems nonstandard headers and moving the standard  Internet  headers
       at the top of the message (separated from the message body with a blank
       line).

       There must be exactly one message per file.  Munpack cannot  deal  with
       multiple  messages in a single file, to decode things correctly it must
       know when one message ends and the next one begins.

       To decode a message, run the command:

	      munpack file

       where "file" is the name of the file containing the message.  More than
       one  filename  may be specified, munpack will try to decode the message
       in each file.  For more information on ways to  run  munpack,  see  the
       section "OPTIONS" above.

ENVIRONMENT
       TMPDIR Directory to store temporary files.  Default is /var/tmp.

FILES
       $TMPDIR/m-prts-$USER/
	      Directory used to store partial messages awaiting reassembly.



								    MUNPACK(1)