How can i make base64 encode a file multiple times and output it in a file?(bash)

Question

Currently this is my working code. How do I make this better with some output file and file appending. Example output the base64 encode text to sample1.txt, sample2.txt and so on..

Any help is much appreciated.

#!/bin/bash

state=$(<myfiletoencode)
for i in {1..5}; do
   state=$(<<<"$state")
done
echo "$state"

Answer 1

If I understood you correctly, you want to have

base64 file > sample1.txt 
base64 file | base64 > sample2.txt
base64 file | base64 | base64 > sample3.txt
...

Since you want to have a file for each step, you don't need variables. Just encode the last file to generate the next one:

#!/bin/bash
ln myfiletoencode sample0.txt
for i in {1..5}; do
   base64 "sample$((i-1)).txt" > "sample$i.txt"
done
rm sample0.txt

Keep in mind that equivalent base64 encodings can be formatted differently. You can add linebreaks whenever you like. Example:

$ seq 23 | base64
MQoyCjMKNAo1CjYKNwo4CjkKMTAKMTEKMTIKMTMKMTQKMTUKMTYKMTcKMTgKMTkKMjAKMjEKMjIK
MjMK
$ seq 23 | base64 -w0
MQoyCjMKNAo1CjYKNwo4CjkKMTAKMTEKMTIKMTMKMTQKMTUKMTYKMTcKMTgKMTkKMjAKMjEKMjIKMjMK

When you encode this encoding again you get different encodings depending on the formatting (note the different length and suffix wpNak1LCg== != 01qTUs=):

$ seq 23 | base64 | base64
TVFveUNqTUtOQW8xQ2pZS053bzRDamtLTVRBS01URUtNVElLTVRNS01UUUtNVFVLTVRZS01UY0tN
VGdLTVRrS01qQUtNakVLTWpJSwpNak1LCg==
$ seq 23 | base64 -w0 | base64
TVFveUNqTUtOQW8xQ2pZS053bzRDamtLTVRBS01URUtNVElLTVRNS01UUUtNVFVLTVRZS01UY0tN
VGdLTVRrS01qQUtNakVLTWpJS01qTUs=

Therefore I'd suggest do disable all linebreaks in the output using base64 -w0.