Base 64

On The Command Line

To decode messages which are in Base 64 simply copy the content of the message into a text file. For example, lets decode the base 64 listed below.

TWFuIGlzIGRpc3Rpbmd1aXNoZWQsIG5vdCBvbmx5IGJ5IGhpcyByZWFzb24sIGJ1dCBieSB0aGlz
IHNpbmd1bGFyIHBhc3Npb24gZnJvbSBvdGhlciBhbmltYWxzLCB3aGljaCBpcyBhIGx1c3Qgb2Yg
dGhlIG1pbmQsIHRoYXQgYnkgYSBwZXJzZXZlcmFuY2Ugb2YgZGVsaWdodCBpbiB0aGUgY29udGlu
dWVkIGFuZCBpbmRlZmF0aWdhYmxlIGdlbmVyYXRpb24gb2Yga25vd2xlZGdlLCBleGNlZWRzIHRo
ZSBzaG9ydCB2ZWhlbWVuY2Ugb2YgYW55IGNhcm5hbCBwbGVhc3VyZS4=

To do so copy this text into a file named text.txt. Then cat that file and pipe the output through the base64 decoder.

cat text.txt | base64 -d

And tahdah! The message appears,

Man is distinguished, not only by his reason, but by this singular passion from other animals, which is a 
lust of the mind, that by a perseverance of delight in the continued and indefatigable generation of 
knowledge, exceeds the short vehemence of any carnal pleasure.

To encode a message as base 64 simply run base64 on a file.

File as is,
cat file
This is a text file

File in base64
cat file | base64
VGhpcyBpcyBhIHRleHQgZmlsZQo=

For more information about how to use the base64 command in the terminal run,

base64 --help

Or read the wikipedia page about the encoding here.

With Python3

Encode

>>> import base64
>>> message="blah"
>>> message_bytes = message.encode('utf8')
>>> base64_bytes = base64.b64encode(message_bytes)
>>> base64_message = base64_bytes.decode('utf8')
>>> print(base64_message)
YmxhaA==

Decode

>>> import base64
>>> message="YmxhaA=="
>>> base64.b64decode(message)
b'blah'