pybase64

The pybase64 library uses the same API as Python's standard base64 module (the modern interface introduced in Python 2.4), making it a drop-in replacement for easy integration.

For maximum performance during decoding, it is recommended to use pybase64.b64decode with validate=True whenever possible.

import pybase64

# Standard encoding/decoding with altchars
print(pybase64.b64encode(b'>>>foo???', altchars='_:'))
# b'Pj4_Zm9vPz8:'
print(pybase64.b64decode(b'Pj4_Zm9vPz8:', altchars='_:', validate=True))
# b'>>>foo???'

Install the pybase64 package using pip to get a fast base64 implementation based on libbase64.

pip install pybase64

You can programmatically retrieve metadata about the library using:

• get_version(): Returns the current version of pybase64.
• get_license_text(): Returns the license text associated with the project.

The core API provides functions for standard Base64 encoding and decoding. Use b64encode and b64decode for standard operations, or their specialized variants for specific return types:

• b64encode(data): Encodes bytes to Base64 bytes.
• b64encode_as_string(data): Encodes bytes to a Base64 string.
• b64decode(data): Decodes Base64 bytes/string back to bytes.
• b64decode_as_bytearray(data): Decodes Base64 data into a bytearray object.

The Helpers API provides explicit methods for standard and URL-safe Base64 encoding/decoding:

• standard_b64encode(data): Performs standard Base64 encoding.
• standard_b64decode(data): Performs standard Base64 decoding.
• urlsafe_b64encode(data): Performs URL-safe Base64 encoding (using - and _ instead of + and /).
• urlsafe_b64decode(data): Performs URL-safe Base64 decoding.

In addition to the standard b64encode/b64decode methods, pybase64 provides explicit helpers for standard and URL-safe base64 operations.

Standard Helpers

• standard_b64encode(s)
• standard_b64decode(s)

URL-safe Helpers

• urlsafe_b64encode(s)
• urlsafe_b64decode(s)

Use standard_b64encode and standard_b64decode for standard base64 operations without needing to manually specify altchars.

import pybase64

print(pybase64.standard_b64encode(b'>>>foo???'))
# b'Pj4+Zm9vPz8/'
print(pybase64.standard_b64decode(b'Pj4+Zm9vPz8/'))
# b'>>>foo???'

Use urlsafe_b64encode and urlsafe_b64decode for base64 encoding that is safe for use in URLs.

import pybase64

print(pybase64.urlsafe_b64encode(b'>>>foo???'))
# b'Pj4-Zm9vPz8_'
print(pybase64.urlsafe_b64decode(b'Pj4-Zm9vPz8_'))
# b'>>>foo???'

The pybase64 package provides a command-line interface with subcommands for encoding, decoding, and benchmarking.

# General usage pattern
pybase64 {benchmark,encode,decode} [options]

# Example: view help
pybase64 --help

# Example: view version
pybase64 -V

Use get_license_text() to return the pybase64 license information as a str. This includes the license information for the underlying libbase64 library.

import pybase64

print(pybase64.get_license_text())