.TH MEGATRON 1 "8 Jan 1992" "netatalk 1.2"
.SH NAME
megatron, unhex, unbin, unsingle, hqx2bin, single2bin, macbinary \- Macintosh file format transformer
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B megatron
[
.I sourcefile...
]
.LP
.B unbin
[
.I sourcefile...
]
.LP
.B unhex
[
.I sourcefile...
]
.LP
.B unsingle
[
.I sourcefile...
]
.LP
.B hqx2bin
[
.I sourcefile...
]
.LP
.B single2bin
[
.I sourcefile...
]
.LP
.B macbinary
[
.I sourcefile...
]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B megatron
is used to transform files from BinHex, MacBinary, AppleSingle, or 
.B netatalk
style AppleDouble formats into MacBinary or
.B netatalk 
style AppleDouble formats.  The
.B netatalk
style AppleDouble format is the file format used by
.B afpd,
the
.B 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.
.B megatron
uses its name to determine what type of tranformation is being asked of
it.
.LP
If
.B megatron
is called as
.B unhex, unbin,
or
.B 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.
.LP
If
.B megatron
is called as
.B hqx2bin, single2bin,
or
.B 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
.B afpd
server to some other machine when you can't copy them from the server
using a Macintosh for some reason.
.LP
If
.B megatron
is called with any other name, it uses the default translation, namely
.B unhex.
.LP
If no source file is given, or if
.I sourcefile
is
.RB ` - ',
and if the conversion is from a BinHex or MacBinary file,
.B megatron
will read from standard input.
.LP
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!
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR afpd (8)