On 2001.07.10, in <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
"Eugene Lee" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 11, 2001 at 06:41:05AM +0700, Efata wrote:
> :
> : I have fetch email from my friend with attachment file 2.8 MB. And I read
> : this email with mutt and I view attachment and save it. But after I save the
> : size change only 2M. It is right or not?
>
> This is normal. Attachments are often encoded to prevent data corruption
> when sent via email. But this encoding process often inflates the size
> of attachments by 30-40%. So with you, an inflated size of 2.8 MB and an
> actual size of 2 MB is quite normal.
This is typically (probably always) a base-64 encoding, meaning that
every 3 bytes are encoded as 4, so your attachment inflates by exactly
33%. (The original file is 75% the size of the encoded attachment.)
% echo 2.8 .75 \* p | dc
2.10
Your detached file should be about 2.1 MB.
--
-D. [EMAIL PROTECTED] NSIT University of Chicago
