Duplicate tip
This tip is very similar to the following:
These tips need to be merged – see the merge guidelines.
created 2006 · complexity intermediate · author TonyLiu · version 6.0
Although this tip is very useful for me, but I think it is somehow complex for needing a outter command tool. The most important things today I do with the internet is receiving and sending emails.
But sometimes I just got some base64 raw string like aGFwcHkgdmltbWluZyA=.
Here is how to use a system command to read it in Vim directly.
You need a program like decode64.exe to encode/decode strings. You can can download it from http://iknowuknow2.bokee.com/inc/encode64.zip (unfortunately I tested it under WIN2K/2003 only).
Put the decode64.exe/base64dll.dll somewhere in your %path% enviroment variable.
You need write some script in your vimrc:
vnoremap ;mme "ey:call CalcEncode64(1)<CR>
vnoremap ;mmd "ey:call CalcEncode64(0)<CR>
function! CalcEncode64(pattern) " #region
let has_equal = 0
let l:rege=@e
let l:regk=@k
let l:regl=@l
" 1=encode 0=decode
let l:elen = strlen(@e) " TOTAL length
let l:rightmark=strpart(@e, l:elen-4, 3)
if l:rightmark == "==="
let @e = strpart(@e,0,l:elen-4)
let has_equal = 1
endif
if a:pattern == 1
let @k = @e
elseif a:pattern == 0
let @k = substitute (@e, "\n", "", "g")
else
return ""
endif
let l:nsize = 1200 " nsize must be multiples of 4 (byte, for base64 code 4 byte is an unit)
let l:len = strlen(@k) " TOTAL length
let l:vleft=l:len/l:nsize " the .n block
let l:vright=l:len/l:nsize " the .n block total
let l:answerstr = ""
while 0< l:vleft
let l:answerstr = l:answerstr . s:normalExecode(l:vleft,l:nsize,l:len,l:vright,a:pattern)
let l:vleft = l:vleft-1
endwhile
" last block < nsize byte
let l:answerstr = l:answerstr . s:lastExecode(l:vleft,l:nsize,l:len,l:vright,a:pattern)
let @k=l:answerstr
if has_equal == 1
:normal `>"kp
else
echo "answer = ".l:answerstr
endif
let @l=l:regl
let @k=l:regk
let @e=l:rege
endfunction " #endregion
function! s:lastExecode(vleft,nsize,len,vright,pattern) " #region
let l:answer=""
let l:nstart=a:nsize*a:vright
let @l=strpart(@k, l:nstart, a:len-a:nsize*a:vright)
let l:answer = s:ExeDecode(a:vleft,a:nsize,a:len,a:vright,a:pattern)
return l:answer
endfunction " #endregion
function! s:normalExecode(vleft,nsize,len,vright,pattern) " #region
let l:nstart=(a:vright-a:vleft)*a:nsize
let @l=strpart(@k, l:nstart, a:nsize)
let l:answer = s:ExeDecode(a:vleft,a:nsize,a:len,a:vright,a:pattern)
return l:answer
endfunction " #endregion
function! s:ExeDecode(vleft,nsize,len,vright,pattern) " #region
" 1=encode 0=decode
" TODO: when encode,the string must NOT contains any char of pipe '|'
" which conflicts whith the windows shell command, I really dont know
" how to deal with it.
if a:pattern == 1
let @l = substitute (@l, "\n", "", "g")
let @l = substitute (@l, "\r", "", "g")
let l:answer = system("echo " . @l . " \| ENCODE64.exe ")
let @*="echo " . @l . " \| ENCODE64.exe "
elseif a:pattern == 0
"let l:answer = system("echo " . @l . " \| DECODE64.exe -D")
let l:answer = system("echo " . @l . " \| ENCODE64.exe -D")
else
return ""
endif
return l:answer
endfunction " #endregion
Now open a new gvim instance and copy and paste aGFwcHkgdmltbWluZyA= into it. Use virtual mode to select it, then press ;mmd
You can see the output text at the bottom of the window: answer = happy vimming
Sometimes the raw base64 string is encoded from Unicode original string. If you want to read it please type:
:set enc=utf8
first. See :help 'enc'.
Comments[]
TO DO
It's not really acceptable for the Vim Tips wiki to link to unsupported executables with no source. Who knows what the code does? Besides, this tip is far too long and complex when all it does is to run an unknown executable with a number of shortcomings (see the comments above and the readme with the zip file).
Maybe you would like to install Ruby some time.
:ruby require "base64" :.rubydo $_=Base64.decode64 $_
or with Perl
:perl require MIME::Base64 :.perldo $_=MIME::Base64::decode($_)