Ubuntu – How to decode a base64 string from the command line

bashcommand line

I would like to write a bash script to decode a base64 string. For example I type decode QWxhZGRpbjpvcGVuIHNlc2FtZQ== and it prints Aladdin:open sesame and returns to the prompt.

So far I have tried a simple bash file containing python -m base64 -d $1 but this command expects a filename not a string. Is there another non-interactive command (not necessarily in a Python module) that I can run from the command line to achieve this, without having to install any extra packages? (Or if I do, something super-minimal.)

Best Answer

Just use the base64 program from the coreutils package:

echo QWxhZGRpbjpvcGVuIHNlc2FtZQ== | base64 --decode

Or, to include the newline character

echo `echo QWxhZGRpbjpvcGVuIHNlc2FtZQ== | base64 --decode`

output (includes newline):

Aladdin:open sesame
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