What is a UU file? Learn about UU files here

A UU file is an encoded file, not a compressed file. By UUEncoding a file, it is converted from binary to text - 7-bit ASCII to be precise.

UU file details

A UU file (or sometimes also called a UUE or ENC file) is a text file that actually contains binary data inside, which is normally not viewable in a text editor.

UUEncoding is done to be able to transfer data across networks using protocols or methods that do not support binary data, e.g. by email. If you attach files to your emails, your email client will automatically encode the files so they are represented as text even though they may be pictures or sound files. The receiver then automatically decodes them into their original format.

UUEncoding is not widely used anymore as it has been replaced by new encoding mechanisms like Mime and yEnc. There are also sometimes problems with UUEncoded data being corrupted when sent through certain older systems using the EBCDIC character set (as opposed to ASCII used on PC systems).

Opening UU files

If you have a UU file, a UUE file or an ENC file on your computer and want to open it, then you will need a tool like BitZipper.

Technical details

If you are looking for technical details and the complete history of the .UU file format, please refer to this Wikipedia article.