Copy base64 version of file to your clipboard

Oftentimes we want to include files as a base-64'd data URI, rather than a path to the resource itself.

Build tools like Grunt can automate this process – but occasionally you'll want/need to process individual files.

My old workflow often involved converting the file online, or converting via command line and then manually removing the newline characters… so I decided to make it quick and painless.

The Bash Function

Just add this function to your .bashrc:

function b64() {
  cat $1 | base64 | pbcopy;
}

And now you can b64 filename in any directory, and its base64'd contents will be copied to your clipboard.

Enjoy!

Notes

Nick Douma thoughtfully suggested that I use base64 instead of openssl, as it's more widely supported on *nix systems.

Previously the function looked like this…

function b64() {
  openssl base64 -in $1 | tr -d "\n" | pbcopy;
}

My openssl implementation also required that I strip newline characters from the output – however with base64 there is no such need.