megatron, unhex, unbin, unsingle, hqx2bin, single2bin, macbinary — Macintosh file format transformer
megatron is used to transform files from BinHex, MacBinary, AppleSingle, or netatalk style AppleDouble formats into MacBinary or netatalk style AppleDouble formats. The netatalk style AppleDouble format is the file format used by afpd, the netatalk Apple Filing Protocol (AppleShare) server. BinHex, MacBinary, and AppleSingle are commonly used formats for transferring Macintosh files between machines via email or file transfer protocols. megatron uses its name to determine what type of transformation is being asked of it.
If megatron is called as unhex , unbin or unsingle, it tries to convert file(s) from BinHex, MacBinary, or AppleSingle into AppleDouble format. BinHex is the format most often used to send Macintosh files by e-mail. Usually these files have an extension of ".hqx". MacBinary is the format most often used by terminal emulators "on the fly" when transferring Macintosh files in binary mode. MacBinary files often have an extension of ".bin". Some Macintosh LAN-based email packages use uuencoded AppleSingle format to "attach" or "enclose" files in email. AppleSingle files don't have a standard filename extension.
If megatron is called as hqx2bin, single2bin, or macbinary, it will try to convert the file(s) from BinHex, AppleSingle, or AppleDouble into MacBinary. This last translation may be useful in moving Macintosh files from your afpd server to some other machine when you can't copy them from the server using a Macintosh for some reason.
If megatron is called with any other name, it uses the default translation, namely unhex.
If no source file is given, or if sourcefile is `-', and if the conversion is from a BinHex or MacBinary file, megatron will read from standard input.
The filename used to store any output file is the filename that is encoded in the source file. MacBinary files are created with a ".bin" extension. In the case of conflicts, the old file is overwritten!
