For specific examples, see the EXAMPLES sections below.
This documentation is displayed if exiftool is run without an input FILE when one is expected.
To write or delete metadata, tag values are assigned using the -TAG=[VALUE] syntax, or the -geotag option. To copy or move metadata, the -tagsFromFile feature is used. By default the original files are preserved with "_original" appended to their names --- be sure to verify that the new files are OK before erasing the originals. Once in write mode, exiftool will ignore any read-specific options.
Note: If FILE is a directory name then only supported file types in the directory are processed (in write mode only writable types are processed). However, files may be specified by name, or the -ext option may be used to force processing of files with any extension.
Below is a list of file types and meta information formats currently supported by ExifTool (r = read, w = write, c = create):
File Types ------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+------------ 3FR r | EIP r | LA r | OTF r | RW2 r/w 3G2 r/w | EPS r/w | LNK r | PAC r | RWL r/w 3GP r/w | ERF r/w | M2TS r | PAGES r | RWZ r ACR r | EXE r | M4A/V r/w | PBM r/w | RM r AFM r | EXIF r/w/c | MEF r/w | PCD r | SO r AI r/w | EXR r | MIE r/w/c | PDF r/w | SR2 r/w AIFF r | EXV r/w/c | MIFF r | PEF r/w | SRF r APE r | F4A/V r/w | MKA r | PFA r | SRW r/w ARW r/w | FFF r/w | MKS r | PFB r | SVG r ASF r | FLA r | MKV r | PFM r | SWF r AVI r | FLAC r | MNG r/w | PGF r | THM r/w BMP r | FLV r | MODD r | PGM r/w | TIFF r/w BTF r | FPF r | MOS r/w | PLIST r | TORRENT r CHM r | FPX r | MOV r/w | PICT r | TTC r COS r | GIF r/w | MP3 r | PMP r | TTF r CR2 r/w | GZ r | MP4 r/w | PNG r/w | VRD r/w/c CRW r/w | HDP r/w | MPC r | PPM r/w | VSD r CS1 r/w | HDR r | MPG r | PPT r | WAV r DCM r | HTML r | MPO r/w | PPTX r | WDP r/w DCP r/w | ICC r/w/c | MQV r/w | PS r/w | WEBP r DCR r | IDML r | MRW r/w | PSB r/w | WEBM r DFONT r | IIQ r/w | MXF r | PSD r/w | WMA r DIVX r | IND r/w | NEF r/w | PSP r | WMV r DJVU r | INX r | NRW r/w | QTIF r/w | WV r DLL r | ITC r | NUMBERS r | RA r | X3F r/w DNG r/w | J2C r | ODP r | RAF r/w | XCF r DOC r | JNG r/w | ODS r | RAM r | XLS r DOCX r | JP2 r/w | ODT r | RAR r | XLSX r DPX r | JPEG r/w | OFR r | RAW r/w | XMP r/w/c DV r | K25 r | OGG r | RIFF r | ZIP r DVB r/w | KDC r | OGV r | RSRC r | DYLIB r | KEY r | ORF r/w | RTF r | Meta Information ----------------------+----------------------+--------------------- EXIF r/w/c | CIFF r/w | Ricoh RMETA r GPS r/w/c | AFCP r/w | Picture Info r IPTC r/w/c | Kodak Meta r/w | Adobe APP14 r XMP r/w/c | FotoStation r/w | MPF r MakerNotes r/w/c | PhotoMechanic r/w | Stim r Photoshop IRB r/w/c | JPEG 2000 r | DPX r ICC Profile r/w/c | DICOM r | APE r MIE r/w/c | Flash r | Vorbis r JFIF r/w/c | FlashPix r | SPIFF r Ducky APP12 r/w/c | QuickTime r | DjVu r PDF r/w/c | Matroska r | M2TS r PNG r/w/c | MXF r | PE/COFF r Canon VRD r/w/c | PrintIM r | AVCHD r Nikon Capture r/w/c | FLAC r | ZIP r GeoTIFF r/w/c | ID3 r | (and more)
-TAG or --TAG Extract or exclude specified tag -TAG[+-]=[VALUE] Write new value for tag -TAG[+-]<=DATFILE Write tag value from contents of file -TAG[+-]<SRCTAG Copy tag value (see -tagsFromFile) -tagsFromFile SRCFILE Copy tag values from file -x TAG (-exclude) Exclude specified tag
Input-output text formatting
-args (-argFormat) Format metadata as exiftool arguments -b (-binary) Output metadata in binary format -c FMT (-coordFormat) Set format for GPS coordinates -charset [[TYPE=]CHARSET] Specify encoding for special characters -csv[=CSVFILE] Export/import tags in CSV format -d FMT (-dateFormat) Set format for date/time values -D (-decimal) Show tag ID numbers in decimal -E, -ex (-escape(HTML|XML)) Escape values for HTML (-E) or XML (-ex) -f (-forcePrint) Force printing of all specified tags -g[NUM...] (-groupHeadings) Organize output by tag group -G[NUM...] (-groupNames) Print group name for each tag -h (-htmlFormat) Use HMTL formatting for output -H (-hex) Show tag ID number in hexadecimal -htmlDump[OFFSET] Generate HTML-format binary dump -j[=JSONFILE] (-json) Export/import tags in JSON format -l (-long) Use long 2-line output format -L (-latin) Use Windows Latin1 encoding -lang [LANG] Set current language -listItem INDEX Extract specific item from a list -n (--printConv) Read/write numerical tag values -p FMTFILE (-printFormat) Print output in specified format -php Export tags as a PHP Array -s[NUM] (-short) Short output format -S (-veryShort) Very short output format -sep STR (-separator) Set separator string for list items -sort Sort output alphabetically -struct Enable output of structured information -t (-tab) Output in tab-delimited list format -T (-table) Output in tabular format -v[NUM] (-verbose) Print verbose messages -w[+|!] EXT (-textOut) Write (or overwrite!) output text files -W[+|!] FMT (-tagOut) Write output text file for each tag -Wext EXT (-tagOutExt) Write only specified file types with -W -X (-xmlFormat) Use RDF/XML output format
Processing control
-a (-duplicates) Allow duplicate tags to be extracted -e (--composite) Do not calculate composite tags -ee (-extractEmbedded) Extract information from embedded files -ext EXT (-extension) Process files with specified extension -F[OFFSET] (-fixBase) Fix the base for maker notes offsets -fast[NUM] Increase speed for slow devices -fileOrder [-]TAG Set file processing order -i DIR (-ignore) Ignore specified directory name -if EXPR Conditionally process files -m (-ignoreMinorErrors) Ignore minor errors and warnings -o OUTFILE (-out) Set output file or directory name -overwrite_original Overwrite original by renaming tmp file -overwrite_original_in_place Overwrite original by copying tmp file -P (-preserve) Preserve date/time of original file -password PASSWD Password for processing protected files -progress Show file progress count -q (-quiet) Quiet processing -r (-recurse) Recursively process subdirectories -scanForXMP Brute force XMP scan -u (-unknown) Extract unknown tags -U (-unknown2) Extract unknown binary tags too -wm MODE (-writeMode) Set tag write/create mode -z (-zip) Read/write compressed information
Special features
-geotag TRKFILE Geotag images from specified GPS log -globalTimeShift SHIFT Shift all formatted date/time values -use MODULE Add features from plug-in module
Utilities
-delete_original[!] Delete "_original" backups -restore_original Restore from "_original" backups
Other options
-@ ARGFILE Read command-line arguments from file -k (-pause) Pause before terminating -list[w|f|wf|g[NUM]|d|x] List various exiftool capabilities -ver Print exiftool version number
Advanced options
-api OPT[=VAL] Set ExifTool API option -common_args Define common arguments -config CFGFILE Specify configuration file name -echo[NUM] TEXT Echo text to stdout or stderr -execute[NUM] Execute multiple commands on one line -srcfile FMT Set different source file name -stay_open FLAG Keep reading -@ argfile even after EOF
A special tag name of "All" may be used to indicate all meta information. This is particularly useful when a group name is specified to extract all information in a group (but beware that unless the -a option is also used, some tags in the group may be suppressed by same-named tags in other groups). The wildcard characters "?" and "*" may be used in a tag name to match any single character and zero or more characters respectively. These may not be used in a group name, with the exception that a group name of "*" (or "All") may be used to extract all instances of a tag (as if -a was used). Note that arguments containing wildcards must be quoted on the command line of most systems to prevent shell globbing.
A "#" may be appended to the tag name to disable the print conversion on a per-tag basis (see the -n option). This may also be used when writing or copying tags.
If no tags are specified, all available information is extracted (as if "-All" had been specified).
Note: Descriptions, not tag names, are shown by default when extracting information. Use the -s option to see the tag names instead.
TAG may contain one or more leading family 0, 1 or 2 group names, prefixed by optional family numbers, and separated colons. If no group name is specified, the tag is created in the preferred group, and updated in any other location where a same-named tag already exists. The preferred group is the first group in the following list where TAG is valid: 1) EXIF, 2) IPTC, 3) XMP.
The wildcards "*" and "?" may be used in tag names to assign the same value to multiple tags. When specified with wildcards, ``unsafe'' tags are not written. A tag name of "All" is eqivalent to "*" (except that it doesn't require quoting, while arguments with wildcards do on systems with shell globbing), and is often used when deleting all metadata (ie. "-All=") or an entire group (ie. "-GROUP:All=", see note 4 below). Note that not all groups are deletable, and that the JPEG APP14 ``Adobe'' group is not removed by default with "-All=" because it may affect the appearance of the image. However, this will remove color space information, so the colors may be affected (but this may be avoided by copying back the tags defined by the ColorSpaceTags shortcut). Use the -listd option for a complete list of deletable groups, and see note 5 below regarding the ``APP'' groups. Also, within an image some groups may be contained within others, and these groups are removed if the containing group is deleted:
JPEG Image:
- Deleting EXIF or IFD0 also deletes ExifIFD, GlobParamIFD,
GPS, IFD1, InteropIFD, MakerNotes, PrintIM and SubIFD.
- Deleting ExifIFD also deletes InteropIFD and MakerNotes.
- Deleting Photoshop also deletes IPTC.
TIFF Image:
- Deleting EXIF only removes ExifIFD which also deletes
InteropIFD and MakerNotes.
Notes:
1) Many tag values may be assigned in a single command. If two assignments affect the same tag, the latter takes precedence (except for list-type tags, where both values are written).
2) In general, MakerNotes tags are considered ``Permanent'', and may be edited but not created or deleted individually. This avoids many potential problems including the inevitable compatibility problems with OEM software which may be very inflexible about the information it expects to find in the maker notes.
3) Changes to PDF files are reversible because the original information is never actually deleted from the file. So ExifTool alone may not be used to securely edit metadata in PDF files.
4) Specifying "-GROUP:all=" deletes the entire group as a block only if a single family 0 or 1 group is specified. Otherwise all deletable tags in the specified group(s) are removed individually, and in this case is it possible to exclude individual tags from a mass delete. For example, "-time:all --Exif:Time:All" removes all deletable Time tags except those in the EXIF. This difference also applies if family 2 is specified when deleting all groups. For example, "-2all:all=" deletes tags individually, while "-all:all=" deletes entire blocks.
5) The ``APP'' group names (``APP0'' through ``APP15'') are used to delete JPEG application segments which are not associated with another deletable group. For example, specifying "-APP14:All=" will NOT delete the APP14 ``Adobe'' segment because this is accomplished with "-Adobe:All".
Special feature: Integer values may be specified in hexadecimal with a leading "0x", and simple rational values may be specified as fractions.
By default, this option will update any existing and writable same-named tags in the output FILE, but will create new tags only in their preferred groups. This allows some information to be automatically transferred to the appropriate group when copying between images of different formats. However, if a group name is specified for a tag then the information is written only to this group (unless redirected to another group, see below). If "All" is used as a group name, then each tag is written to the same family 1 group it had in the source file (ie. the same specific location in the metadata), but a different family may be specified by adding a leading family number to the group name (ie. "-0All:all").
SRCFILE may be the same as FILE to move information around within a single file. In this case, "@" may be used to represent the source file (ie. "-tagsFromFile @"), permitting this feature to be used for batch processing multiple files. Specified tags are then copied from each file in turn as it is rewritten. For advanced batch use, the source file name may also be specified using a FMT string in which %d, %f and %e represent the directory, file name and extension of FILE. See -w option for FMT string examples.
A powerful redirection feature allows a destination tag to be specified for each copied tag. With this feature, information may be written to a tag with a different name or group. This is done using "'-SRCTAG>DSTTAG'`` or '''-DSTTAG<SRCTAG'" on the command line after -tagsFromFile, and causes the value of SRCTAG to be copied from SRCFILE and written to DSTTAG in FILE. Note that this argument must be quoted to prevent shell redirection, and there is no "=" sign as when assigning new values. Source and/or destination tags may be prefixed by a group name and/or suffixed by "#". Wildcards are allowed in both the source and destination tag names. A destination group and/or tag name of "All" or "*" writes to the same family 1 group and/or tag name as the source. If no destination group is specified, the information is written to the preferred group. Whitespace around the ">" or "<" is ignored. As a convenience, "-tagsFromFile @" is assumed for any redirected tags which are specified without a prior -tagsFromFile option. Copied tags may also be added or deleted from a list with arguments of the form "'-SRCTAG+>DSTTAG'`` or '''-SRCTAG->DSTTAG'".
An extension of the redirection feature allows strings involving tag names to be used on the right hand side of the "<" symbol with the syntax "'-DSTTAG<STR'", where tag names in STR are prefixed with a "$" symbol. See the -p option for more details about this syntax. Strings starting with a "=" sign must insert a single space after the "<" to avoid confusion with the "<=" operator which sets the tag value from the contents of a file. A single space at the start of the string is removed if it exists, but all other whitespace in the string is preserved.
See ``COPYING EXAMPLES'' for examples using -tagsFromFile.
Notes:
1) Some tags (generally tags which may affect the appearance of the image) are considered ``unsafe'' to write, and are only copied if specified explicitly (ie. no wildcards). See the tag name documentation for more details about ``unsafe'' tags.
2) Be aware of the difference between excluding a tag from being copied (--TAG), and deleting a tag (-TAG=). Excluding a tag prevents it from being copied to the destination image, but deleting will remove a pre-existing tag from the image.
3) The maker note information is copied as a block, so it isn't affected like other information by subsequent tag assignments on the command line. Also, since the PreviewImage referenced from the maker notes may be rather large, it is not copied, and must be transferred separately if desired.
4) The order of operations is to copy all specified tags at the point of the -tagsFromFile option in the command line. Any tag assignment to the right of the -tagsFromFile option is made after all tags are copied. For example, new tag values are set in the order One, Two, Three then Four with this command:
exiftool -One=1 -tagsFromFile s.jpg -Two -Four=4 -Three d.jpg
This is significant in the case where an overlap exists between the copied and assigned tags because later operations may override earlier ones.
5) The normal behaviour of copied tags differs subtly from that of assigned tags for list-type tags. When copying to a list, each copied tag overrides any previous operations on the list. While this avoids duplicate list items when copying groups of tags from a file containing redundant information, it also prevents values of different tags from being copied into the same list when this is the intent. So a -addTagsFromFile option is provided which allows copying of multiple tags into the same list. ie)
exiftool -addtagsfromfile @ '-subject<make' '-subject<model' ...
Other than this difference, the -tagsFromFile and -addTagsFromFile options are equivalent.
6) The -a option (allow duplicate tags) is always in effect when reading tags from SRCFILE.
7) Structured tags are copied by default when copying tags. See the -struct option for details.
Note that trailing spaces are removed from extracted values for most output text formats. The exceptions are "-b", "-csv", "-j" and "-X".
exiftool -args -G1 --filename --directory src.jpg > out.args
exiftool -@ out.args dst.jpg
Note: Be careful when copying information with this technique since it is easy to write tags which are normally considered ``unsafe''. For instance, the FileName and Directory tags are excluded in the example above to avoid renaming and moving the destination file. Also note that the second command above will produce warning messages for any tags which are not writable.
FMT Output
------------------- ------------------
"%d deg %d' %.2f"\" 54 deg 59' 22.80" (default for reading)
"%d %d %.8f" 54 59 22.80000000 (default for copying)
"%d deg %.4f min" 54 deg 59.3800 min
"%.6f degrees" 54.989667 degrees
Notes:
1) To avoid loss of precision, the default coordinate format is different when copying tags using the -tagsFromFile option.
2) If the hemisphere is known, a reference direction (N, S, E or W) is appended to each printed coordinate, but adding a "+" to the format specifier (ie. "%+.6f") prints a signed coordinate instead.
3) This print formatting may be disabled with the -n option to extract coordinates as signed decimal degrees.
CHARSET Alias(es) Description
---------- --------------- ----------------------------------
UTF8 cp65001, UTF-8 UTF-8 characters (default)
Latin cp1252, Latin1 Windows Latin1 (West European)
Latin2 cp1250 Windows Latin2 (Central European)
Cyrillic cp1251, Russian Windows Cyrillic
Greek cp1253 Windows Greek
Turkish cp1254 Windows Turkish
Hebrew cp1255 Windows Hebrew
Arabic cp1256 Windows Arabic
Baltic cp1257 Windows Baltic
Vietnam cp1258 Windows Vietnamese
Thai cp874 Windows Thai
MacRoman cp10000, Roman Macintosh Roman
MacLatin2 cp10029 Macintosh Latin2 (Central Europe)
MacCyrillic cp10007 Macintosh Cyrillic
MacGreek cp10006 Macintosh Greek
MacTurkish cp10081 Macintosh Turkish
MacRomanian cp10010 Macintosh Romanian
MacIceland cp10079 Macintosh Icelandic
MacCroatian cp10082 Macintosh Croatian
Other values of TYPE listed below are used to specify the internal encoding of various meta information formats.
TYPE Description Default
--------- ------------------------------------------- -------
EXIF Internal encoding of EXIF "ASCII" strings (none)
ID3 Internal encoding of ID3v1 information Latin
IPTC Internal IPTC encoding to assume when Latin
IPTC:CodedCharacterSet is not defined
Photoshop Internal encoding of Photoshop IRB strings Latin
QuickTime Internal encoding of QuickTime strings MacRoman
See <http://owl.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/faq.html#Q10> for more information about coded character sets.
# generate CSV file with common tags from all images in a directory
exiftool -common -csv dir > out.csv
# update metadata for all images in a directory from CSV file
exiftool -csv=a.csv dir
Empty values are ignored when importing. Also, FileName and Directory columns are ignored if they exist (ie. ExifTool will not attempt to write these tags with a CSV import). To force a tag to be deleted, use the -f option and set the value to ``-'' in the CSV file (or to the MissingTagValue if this API option was used). Multiple databases may be imported in a single command.
When exporting a CSV file, the -g or -G option to add group names to the tag headings. If the -a option is used to allow duplicate tag names, the duplicate tags are only included in the CSV output if the column headings are unique. Adding the -G4 option ensures a unique column heading for each tag. When exporting specific tags, the CSV columns are arranged in the same order as the specified tags provided the column headings exactly match the specified tag names, otherwise the columns are sorted in alphabetical order.
List-type tags are stored as simple strings in a CSV file, but the -sep option may be used to split them back into separate items when importing.
Special feature: -csv+=CSVFILE may be used to add items to existing lists. This affects only list-type tags. Also applies to the -j option.
Note that this option is fundamentally different than all other output format options because it requires information from all input files to be buffered in memory before the output is written. This may result in excessive memory usage when processing a very large number of files with a single command. Also, it makes this option incompatible with the -w option.
If JSONFILE is specified, the file is imported and the tag definitions from the file are used to set tag values on a per-file basis. The special ``SourceFile'' entry in each JSON object associates the information with a specific target file (see the -csv option for details). The imported JSON file must have the same format as the exported JSON files with the exception that the -g option is not compatible with the import file format (use -G instead). Additionally, tag names in the input JSON file may be suffixed with a "#" to disable print conversion.
By default, ExifTool uses UTF-8 encoding for special characters, but the the -L or -charset option may be used to invoke other encodings.
Currently, the language support is not complete, but users are welcome to help improve this by submitting their own translations. To submit a set of translations, first use the -listx option and redirect the output to a file to generate an XML tag database, then add entries for other languages, zip this file, and email it to phil at owl.phy.queensu.ca for inclusion in ExifTool.
> exiftool -Orientation -S a.jpg
Orientation: Rotate 90 CW
> exiftool -Orientation -S -n a.jpg
Orientation: 6
The print conversion may also be disabled on a per-tag basis by suffixing the tag name with a "#" character:
> exiftool -Orientation# -Orientation -S a.jpg
Orientation: 6
Orientation: Rotate 90 CW
These techniques may also be used to disable the inverse print conversion when writing. For example, the following commands all have the same effect:
> exiftool -Orientation='Rotate 90 CW' a.jpg
> exiftool -Orientation=6 -n a.jpg
> exiftool -Orientation#=6 a.jpg
# this is a comment line
#[HEAD]-- Generated by ExifTool $exifToolVersion --
File: $FileName - $DateTimeOriginal
(f/$Aperture, ${ShutterSpeed}s, ISO $EXIF:ISO)
#[TAIL]-- end --
with this command:
exiftool -p test.fmt a.jpg b.jpg
produces output like this:
-- Generated by ExifTool 9.53 --
File: a.jpg - 2003:10:31 15:44:19
(f/5.6, 1/60s, ISO 100)
File: b.jpg - 2006:05:23 11:57:38
(f/8.0, 1/13s, ISO 100)
-- end --
When -ee (-extractEmbedded) is combined with -p, embedded documents are effectively processed as separate input files.
If a specified tag does not exist, a minor warning is issued and the line with the missing tag is not printed. However, the -f option may be used to set the value of missing tags to '-' (but this may be configured via the MissingTagValue API option), or the -m option may be used to ignore minor warnings and leave the missing values empty.
An advanced formatting feature allows an arbitrary Perl expression to be applied to the value of any tag by placing it inside the braces after a semicolon following the tag name. The expression has access to the value of this tag through the default input variable ($_), and the full API through the current ExifTool object ($self). It may contain any valid Perl code, including translation ("tr///") and substitution ("s///") operations, but note that braces within the expression must be balanced. The example below prints the camera Make with spaces translated to underlines, and multiple consecutive underlines replaced by a single underline:
exiftool -p '${make;tr/ /_/;s/__+/_/g}' image.jpg
A default expression of "tr(/\\?*:|"<>\0)()d" is assumed if the expression is empty, which removes the characters / \ ? * : | < > and null from the printed value.
<?php
eval('$array=' . `exiftool -php -q image.jpg`);
print_r($array);
?>
-s1 or -s - print tag names instead of descriptions
-s2 or -s -s - no extra spaces to column-align values
-s3 or -s -s -s - print values only (no tag names)
Also effective when combined with -t, -h, -X or -listx options.
Note that an empty separator ("") is allowed, and will join items with no separator when reading, or split the value into individual characters when writing.
-w %d%f.txt # same effect as "-w txt"
-w dir/%f_%e.out # write files to "dir" as "FILE_EXT.out"
-w dir2/%d%f.txt # write to "dir2", keeping dir structure
-w a%c.txt # write to "a.txt" or "a1.txt" or "a2.txt"...
Existing files will not be overwritten unless an exclamation point is added to the option name (ie. -w! or -textOut!), or a plus sign to append to the existing file (ie. -w+ or -textOut+). Both may be used (ie. -w+! or -textOut+!) to overwrite output files that didn't exist before the command was run, and append the output from multiple source files. For example, to write one output file for all source files in each directory:
exiftool -filename -createdate -T -w+! %d/out.txt -r DIR
Notes:
1) In a Windows BAT file the "%" character is represented by "%%", so an argument like "%d%f.txt" is written as "%%d%%f.txt".
2) If the argument for -w does not contain a format code (%d, %f or %e), then it is interpreted as a file extension. Therefore it is not possible to specify a simple filename as an argument, so creating a single output file from multiple source files is typically done by shell redirection, ie)
exiftool FILE1 FILE2 ... > out.txt
But if necessary, an empty format code may be used to force the argument to be interpreted as a format string, and the same result may be obtained without the use of shell redirection:
exiftool -w+! %0fout.txt FILE1 FILE2 ...
Advanced features:
A substring of the original file name, directory or extension may be taken by specifying a field width immediately following the '%' character. If the width is negative, the substring is taken from the end. The substring position (characters to ignore at the start or end of the string) may be given by a second optional value after a decimal point. For example:
Input File Name Format Specifier Output File Name
---------------- ---------------- ----------------
Picture-123.jpg %7f.txt Picture.txt
Picture-123.jpg %-.4f.out Picture.out
Picture-123.jpg %7f.%-3f Picture.123
Picture-123a.jpg Meta%-3.1f.txt Meta123.txt
For %d, the field width/position specifiers may be applied to the directory levels instead of substring position by using a colon instead of a decimal point in the format specifier. For example:
Source Dir Format Result Notes
------------ ------ ---------- ------------------
pics/2012/02 %2:d pics/2012/ take top 2 levels
pics/2012/02 %-:1d pics/2012/ up one directory level
pics/2012/02 %:1d 2012/02/ ignore top level
pics/2012/02 %1:1d 2012/ take 1 level after top
/Users/phil %:2d phil/ ignore top 2 levels
(Note that the root directory counts as one level when an absolute path is used as in the last example above.)
For %c, these modifiers have a different effects. If a field width is given, the copy number is padded with zeros to the specified width. A leading '-' adds a dash before the copy number, and a '+' adds an underline. By default, the copy number is omitted from the first file of a given name, but this can be changed by adding a decimal point to the modifier. For example:
-w A%-cZ.txt # AZ.txt, A-1Z.txt, A-2Z.txt ...
-w B%5c.txt # B.txt, B00001.txt, B00002.txt ...
-w C%.c.txt # C0.txt, C1.txt, C2.txt ...
-w D%-.c.txt # D-0.txt, D-1.txt, D-2.txt ...
-w E%-.4c.txt # E-0000.txt, E-0001.txt, E-0002.txt ...
-w F%-.4nc.txt # F-0001.txt, F-0002.txt, F-0003.txt ...
-w G%+c.txt # G.txt, G_1.txt G_2.txt ...
-w H%-lc.txt # H.txt, H-b.txt, H-c.txt ...
A special feature allows the copy number to be incremented for each processed file by using %C (upper case) instead of %c. This allows a sequential number to be added to output file names, even if the names are different. For %C, a copy number of zero is not omitted as it is with %c. The number before the decimal place gives the starting index, the number after the decimal place gives the field width. The following examples show the output filenames when used with the command "exiftool rose.jpg star.jpg jet.jpg ...":
-w %C%f.txt # 0rose.txt, 1star.txt, 2jet.txt
-w %f-%10C.txt # rose-10.txt, star-11.txt, jet-12.txt
-w %.3C-%f.txt # 000-rose.txt, 001-star.txt, 002-jet.txt
-w %57.4C%f.txt # 0057rose.txt, 0058star.txt, 0059jet.txt
All format codes may be modified by 'l' or 'u' to specify lower or upper case respectively (ie. %le for a lower case file extension). When used to modify %c or %C, the numbers are changed to an alphabetical base (see example H above). Also, %c may be modified by 'n' to count using natural numbers starting from 1, instead of 0 (see example F above).
This same FMT syntax is used with the -o and -tagsFromFile options, although %c is only valid for output file names.
1) With -W, a new output file is created for each extracted tag.
2) -W supports three additional format codes: %t, %g and %s represent the tag name, group name, and suggested extension for the output file (based on the format of the data). The %g code may be followed by a single digit to specify the group family number (ie. %g1), otherwise family 0 is assumed. The substring width/position/case specifiers may be used with these format codes in exactly the same way as with %f and %e.
3) The argument for -W is interpreted as a file name if it contains no format codes. (For -w, this would be a file extension.) This change allows a simple file name to be specified, which, when combined with the append feature, provides a method to write metadata from multiple source files to a single output file without the need for shell redirection.
4) Adding the -v option to -W generates a list of the tags and output file names instead of giving a verbose dump of the entire file. (Unless appending all output to one file for each source file by using -W+ with an output file FMT that does not contain %t, $g or %s.)
5) Individual list items are stored in separate files when -W is combined with -b, but note that for separate files to be created %c must be used in FMT to give the files unique names.
Note: This output is NOT the same as XMP because it uses dynamically-generated property names corresponding to the ExifTool tag names, and not the standard XMP properties. To write XMP instead, use the -o option with an XMP extension for the output file.
exiftool -ext .JPG DIR # process only JPG files
exiftool --ext cr2 --ext dng DIR # supported files but CR2/DNG
exiftool --ext . DIR # ignore if no extension
exiftool -ext "*" DIR # process all files
exiftool -ext "*" --ext xml DIR # process all but XML files
The extension may be "*" as in the last two examples above to force processing files with any extension (not just supported files).
Using this option has two main advantages over specifying "*.EXT" on the command line: 1) It applies to files in subdirectories when combined with the -r option. 2) The -ext option is case-insensitive, which is useful when processing files on case-sensitive filesystems.
exiftool -F -exif:resolutionunit=inches image.jpg
exiftool -fileOrder DateTimeOriginal DIR
Additional -fileOrder options may be added for secondary sort keys. Floating point values are sorted numerically, and all other values are sorted alphabetically. The sort order may be reversed by prefixing the tag name with a "-" (ie. "-fileOrder -createdate"). A "#" may be appended to the tag name to disable print conversion for the sorted values. Note that the -fileOrder option has a large performance impact since it involves an additional processing pass of each file.
# extract shutterspeed from all Canon images in a directory
exiftool -shutterspeed -if '$make eq "Canon"' dir
# add one hour to all images created on or after Apr. 2, 2006
exiftool -alldates+=1 -if '$CreateDate ge "2006:04:02"' dir
# set EXIF ISO value if possible, unless it is set already
exiftool '-exif:iso<iso' -if 'not $exif:iso' dir
# find images containing a specific keyword (case insensitive)
exiftool -if '$keywords =~ /harvey/i' -filename dir
Notes:
1) The -n and -b options also apply to tags used in EXPR.
2) Some binary data blocks are not extracted unless specified explicitly. These tags are not available for use in the -if condition unless they are also specified on the command line. The alternative is to use the $GROUP:all syntax. (ie. Use $exif:all instead of $exif in EXPR to test for the existence of EXIF tags.)
3) Tags in the string are interpolated the same way as with -p before the expression is evaluated. In this interpolation, $/ is converted to a newline and $$ represents a single "$" symbol (so Perl variables, if used, require a double "$").
4) The condition may only test tags from the file being processed. To process one file based on tags from another, two steps are required. For example, to process XMP sidecar files in directory "DIR" based on tags from the associated NEF:
exiftool -if EXPR -p '$directory/$filename' -ext nef DIR > nef.txt
exiftool -@ nef.txt -srcfile %d%f.xmp ...
OUTFILE may be "-" to write to stdout. The output file name may also be specified using a FMT string in which %d, %f and %e represent the directory, file name and extension of FILE. Also, %c may be used to add a copy number. See the -w option for FMT string examples.
The output file is taken to be a directory name if it already exists as a directory or if the name ends with '/'. Output directories are created if necessary. Existing files will not be overwritten. Combining the -overwrite_original option with -o causes the original source file to be erased after the output file is successfully written.
A special feature of this option allows the creation of certain types of files from scratch, or with the metadata from another type of file. The following file types may be created using this technique:
XMP, ICC/ICM, MIE, VRD, EXIF
The output file type is determined by the extension of OUTFILE (specified as "-.EXT" when writing to stdout). The output file is then created from a combination of information in FILE (as if the -tagsFromFile option was used), and tag values assigned on the command line. If no FILE is specified, the output file may be created from scratch using only tags assigned on the command line.
w - Write existing tags
c - Create new tags
g - create new Groups as necessary
The level of the group is the SubDirectory level in the metadata structure. For XMP or IPTC this is the full XMP/IPTC block (the family 0 group), but for EXIF this is the individual IFD (the family 1 group).
exiftool -geotag track.log image.jpg
exiftool -geotag "-Geotime<DateTimeOriginal" image.jpg
When the "Geotime" value is converted to UTC, the local system timezone is assumed unless the date/time value contains a timezone. Writing "Geotime" causes the following tags to be written (provided they can be calculated from the track log, and they are supported by the destination metadata format): GPSLatitude, GPSLatitudeRef, GPSLongitude, GPSLongitudeRef, GPSAltitude, GPSAltitudeRef, GPSDateStamp, GPSTimeStamp, GPSDateTime, GPSTrack, GPSTrackRef, GPSSpeed, GPSSpeedRef, GPSImgDirection, GPSImgDirectionRef, GPSPitch and GPSRoll. By default, tags are created in EXIF, and updated in XMP only if they already exist. However, "EXIF:Geotime" or "XMP:Geotime" may be specified to write only EXIF or XMP tags respectively. Note that GPSPitch and GPSRoll are non-standard, and require user-defined tags in order to be written.
The "Geosync" tag may be used to specify a time correction which is applied to each "Geotime" value for synchronization with GPS time. For example, the following command compensates for image times which are 1 minute and 20 seconds behind GPS:
exiftool -geosync=+1:20 -geotag a.log DIR
"Geosync" must be set before "Geotime" (if specified) to be effective. Advanced "Geosync" features allow a linear time drift correction and synchronization from previously geotagged images. See ``geotag.html'' in the full ExifTool distribution for more information.
Multiple -geotag options may be used to concatinate GPS track log data. Also, a single -geotag option may be used to load multiple track log files by using wildcards in the TRKFILE name, but note that in this case TRKFILE must be quoted on most systems (with the notable exception of Windows) to prevent filename expansion. For example:
exiftool -geotag "TRACKDIR/*.log" IMAGEDIR
Currently supported track file formats are GPX, NMEA RMC/GGA/GLL, KML, IGC, Garmin XML and TCX, Magellan PMGNTRK, Honeywell PTNTHPR, and Winplus Beacon text files. See ``GEOTAGGING EXAMPLES'' for examples. Also see ``geotag.html'' in the full ExifTool distribution and the Image::ExifTool Options for more details and for information about geotag configuration options.
# return all date/times, shifted back by 1 hour
exiftool -globalTimeShift -1 -time:all a.jpg
# set the file name from the shifted CreateDate (-1 day) for
# all images in a directory
exiftool "-filename<createdate" -globaltimeshift "-0:0:1 0:0:0" \
-d %Y%m%d-%H%M%S.%%e dir
exiftool -restore_original -ext jpg DIR
The -delete_original option deletes the "_original" copies of all files specified on the command line. Without a trailing "!" this option prompts for confirmation before continuing. For example, the following command deletes "a.jpg_original" if it exists, after asking ``Are you sure?'':
exiftool -delete_original a.jpg
These options may not be used with other options to read or write tag values in the same command, but may be combined with options such -ext, -if, -r, -q and -v.
For example, the following ARGFILE will set the value of Copyright to ``Copyright YYYY, Phil Harvey'', where ``YYYY'' is the year of CreateDate:
-d
%Y
-copyright<Copyright $createdate, Phil Harvey
-list # list all tag names
-list -EXIF:All # list all EXIF tags
-list -xmp:time:all # list all XMP tags relating to time
-listw -XMP-dc:All # list all writable XMP-dc tags
-listf # list all supported file extensions
-listr # list all recognized file extensions
-listwf # list all writable file extensions
-listg1 # list all groups in family 1
-listd # list all deletable groups
-listx -EXIF:All # list database of EXIF tags in XML format
-listx -XMP:All -s # list short XML database of XMP tags
When combined with -listx, the -s option shortens the output by omitting the descriptions and values (as in the last example above), and -f adds a 'flags' attribute if applicable. The flags are formatted as a comma-separated list of the following possible values: Avoid, Binary, List, Mandatory, Permanent, Protected, Unknown and Unsafe (see the Tag Name documentation). For XMP List tags, the list type (Alt, Bag or Seq) is added to the flags, and flattened structure tags are indicated by a Flattened flag.
Note that none of the -list options require an input FILE.
Among other things, the advanced options allow complex processing to be performed from a single command without the need for additional scripting. This may be particularly useful for implementations such as Windows drag-and-drop applications. These options may also be used to improve performance in multi-pass processing by reducing the overhead required to load exiftool for each invocation.
If than one -srcfile option is specified, the files are tested in order and the first existing source file is processed. If none of the source files already exist, then exiftool uses the first -srcfile specified.
A FMT of "@" may be used to represent the original FILE, which may be useful when specifying multiple -srcfile options (ie. to fall back to processing the original FILE if no sidecar exists).
1) Execute "exiftool -stay_open True -@ ARGFILE", where ARGFILE is the name of an existing (possibly empty) argument file or "-" to pipe arguments from the standard input.
2) Write exiftool command-line arguments to ARGFILE, one argument per line (see the -@ option for details).
3) Write "-execute\n" to ARGFILE, where "\n" represents a newline sequence. (Note: You may need to flush your write buffers here if using buffered output.) Exiftool will then execute the command with the arguments received up to this point, send a ``{ready}'' message to stdout when done (unless the -q or -T option is used), and continue trying to read arguments for the next command from ARGFILE. To aid in command/response synchronization, any number appended to the "-execute" option is echoed in the ``{ready}'' message. For example, "-execute613" results in ``{ready613}''.
4) Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each command.
5) Write "-stay_open\nFalse\n" to ARGFILE when done. This will cause exiftool to process any remaining command-line arguments then exit normally.
The input ARGFILE may be changed at any time before step 5 above by writing the following lines to the currently open ARGFILE:
-stay_open
True
-@
NEWARGFILE
This causes ARGFILE to be closed, and NEWARGFILE to be kept open. (Without the -stay_open here, exiftool would have returned to reading arguments from ARGFILE after reaching the end of NEWARGFILE.)
Note: When writing arguments to a disk file there is a delay of up to 0.01 seconds after writing "-execute\n" before exiftool starts processing the command. This delay may be avoided by sending a CONT signal to the exiftool process immediately after writing "-execute\n". (There is no associated delay when writing arguments via a pipe with "-@ -", so the signal is not necessary when using this technique.)
This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.