From b75adccd0af3a45ac63bc003af4fe6945d6cd6e4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: R David Murray Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2015 18:04:14 -0500 Subject: [PATCH] #25495: Clarify b2a_base64 documentation vis 57 bytes. --- Doc/library/binascii.rst | 8 +++++--- 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/Doc/library/binascii.rst b/Doc/library/binascii.rst index 0f8a3dec6be..5eb7c4b8def 100644 --- a/Doc/library/binascii.rst +++ b/Doc/library/binascii.rst @@ -45,8 +45,10 @@ The :mod:`binascii` module defines the following functions: .. function:: b2a_base64(data) Convert binary data to a line of ASCII characters in base64 coding. The return - value is the converted line, including a newline char. The length of *data* - should be at most 57 to adhere to the base64 standard. + value is the converted line, including a newline char. The newline is + added because the original use case for this function was to feed it a + series of 57 byte input lines to get output lines that conform to the + MIME-base64 standard. Otherwise the output conforms to :rfc:`3548`. .. function:: a2b_qp(string[, header]) @@ -165,7 +167,7 @@ The :mod:`binascii` module defines the following functions: .. seealso:: Module :mod:`base64` - Support for base64 encoding used in MIME email messages. + Support for RFC compliant base64-style encoding in base 16, 32, and 64. Module :mod:`binhex` Support for the binhex format used on the Macintosh.