How to make nntplib author name human readable?

Question

python NNTPLib is giving me author name such as ,

"=?Utf-8?B?RGVubmlzIEJhc2hhbQ==?= < someone@someforum.com >"

(Quotes for clarity).

How do i encode this text in human readable format?

Answer 1

The double equals at the end was a dead giveaway. Base 64 uses that for padding strings that do not have an even multiple of 4 bytes.

In python:

print "RGVubmlzIEJhc2hhbQ==".decode('base_64')

In PHP:

<?php echo base64_decode("RGVubmlzIEJhc2hhbQ=="); ?>

Enjoy.

PS... Dennis Basham