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Exiftool Pod Documentation

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115 views39 pages

Exiftool Pod Documentation

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nvtxf82656

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-- ExifTool 12.

10 -- 1
EXIFTOOL(1) User Contributed Perl Documentation EXIFTOOL(1)

NAME
exiftool - Read and write meta information in files

SYNOPSIS
Reading
exiftool [_
O_P_
T_IO
__N_
S] [-_
T_A_
G...] [--_
T_A_
G...] _
F_I_
L_E...

Writing
exiftool [_
O_P_
T_I_
O_N_
S] -_
T_A_
G[+-<]=[_
V_A_
L_U_
E]... _
F_I_
L_E...

Copying
exiftool [_
O_P_
T_I_
ON__
S] -tagsFromFile _
S_R_
C_F_
I_L_
E [-_
S_R_
C_TA
__G[>_
D_
S_T_
T_A_
G]...] _
F_I_
L_E...

Other
exiftool [ -ver | -list[w
w|f
f|r
r|w
wf|g
g[_
N_U_
M]|d
d|x
x] ]

For specific examples, see the EXAMPLES sections below.

This documentation is displayed if exiftool is run without an input

F_
_ I_
LE_ when one is expected.

DESCRIPTION
A command-line interface to Image::ExifTool, used for reading and
writing meta information in a variety of file types. _F_
I_L_
E is one or
more source file names, directory names, or "-" for the standard input.
Metadata is read from source files and printed in readable form to the
console (or written to output text files with -w).

To write or delete metadata, tag values are assigned using

-_
T_A_
G=[_
V_A_
L_U_
E], and/or the -geotag, -csv= or -json= options. 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 F__
I_L_
E 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.
Hidden files in the directory are also processed. Adding the -r option
causes subdirectories to be processed recursively, but subdirectories
with names beginning with "." are skipped unless -r. is used.

Below is a list of file types and meta information formats currently

supported by ExifTool (r = read, w = write, c = create):

OPTIONS
Case is not significant for any command-line option (including tag and
group names), except for single-character options when the
corresponding upper-case option exists. Many single-character options
have equivalent long-name versions (shown in brackets), and some
options have inverses which are invoked with a leading double-dash.
Unrecognized options are interpreted as tag names (for this reason,
multiple single-character options may NOT be combined into one
argument). Contrary to standard practice, options may appear after
source file names on the exiftool command line.

Option Overview
Tag operations

-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
-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 3
-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,-ec (-escape(HTML|XML|C))Escape tag values for HTML, XML or C
-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 HTML formatting for output
-H (-hex) Show tag ID numbers 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) No print conversion
-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 generate 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 when extracting metadata
-fileOrder[NUM] [-]TAG Set file processing order
-i DIR (-ignore) Ignore specified directory name
-if[NUM] 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 file modification date/time
-password PASSWD Password for processing protected files
-progress[:[TITLE]] 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 mode for writing/creating tags
-z (-zip) Read/write compressed information

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
-- End of options

Special features

-geotag TRKFILE Geotag images from specified GPS log

-globalTimeShift SHIFT Shift all formatted date/time values
-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 4
-use MODULE Add features from plug-in module

Utilities

-delete_original[!] Delete "_original" backups

-restore_original Restore from "_original" backups

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
-efile[NUM][!] ERRFILE Save names of files with errors
-execute[NUM] Execute multiple commands on one line
-srcfile FMT Process a different source file
-stay_open FLAG Keep reading -@ argfile even after EOF
-userParam PARAM[[^]=[VAL]] Set user parameter (API UserParam opt)

Option Details
T_
_ a_
g _
o_pe
__r_
a_t_
i_o_
n_s

-_
T_A_
G Extract information for the specified tag (eg. "-CreateDate").
Multiple tags may be specified in a single command. A tag name is
the handle by which a piece of information is referenced. See
Image::ExifTool::TagNames for documentation on available tag
names. A tag name may include leading group names separated by
colons (eg. "-EXIF:CreateDate", or "-Doc1:XMP:Creator"), and each
group name may be prefixed by a digit to specify family number
(eg. "-1IPTC:City"). Use the -listg option to list available
group names by family.

A special tag name of "All" may be used to indicate all meta

information (ie. -All). 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.

--_
T_A_
G
Exclude specified tag from extracted information. Same as the -x
option. Group names and wildcards are permitted as described
above for -TAG. Once excluded from the output, a tag may not be
re-included by a subsequent option. May also be used following a
-tagsFromFile option to exclude tags from being copied (when
redirecting to another tag, it is the source tag that should be
excluded), or to exclude groups from being deleted when deleting
all information (eg. "-all= --exif:all" deletes all but EXIF
information). But note that this will not exclude individual tags
from a group delete (unless a family 2 group is specified, see
note 4 below). Instead, individual tags may be recovered using
the -tagsFromFile option (eg. "-all= -tagsfromfile @ -artist").
-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 5
-_
T_A_
G[+-^]=
=[_
V_A_
LU__
E]
Write a new value for the specified tag (eg. "-comment=wow"), or
delete the tag if no V
__A_
L_U_
E is given (eg. "-comment="). "+=" and
"-=" are used to add or remove existing entries from a list, or to
shift date/time values (see Image::ExifTool::Shift.pl and note 6
below for more details). "+=" may also be used to increment
numerical values (or decrement if _ V_
A_L_
U_E is negative), and "-=" may
be used to conditionally delete or replace a tag (see "WRITING
EXAMPLES" for examples). "^=" is used to write an empty string
instead of deleting the tag when no _ V_
A_L_
U_E is given, but otherwise
it is equivalent to "=".

_
T_A_
G may contain one or more leading family 0, 1, 2 or 7 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 _T_
A_G 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 equivalent
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
(eg. "-XMP-dc: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, color space information is
removed, 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, for which 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 by ExifTool are reversible (by deleting

the update with "-PDF-update:all=") 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.
-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 6
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".

6) When shifting a value, the shift is applied to the original

value of the tag, overriding any other values previously assigned
to the tag on the same command line. To shift a date/time value
and copy it to another tag in the same operation, use the
-globalTimeShift option.

Special feature: Integer values may be specified in hexadecimal

with a leading "0x", and simple rational values may be specified
as fractions.

-_
T_A_
G<=_
D_A_
TF__
I_L_
E or -_
T_A_
G<=_
F_M_
T
Set the value of a tag from the contents of file _ D_
A_T_
F_I_
L_E. The
file name may also be given by a _ F_M_
T string where %d, %f and %e
represent the directory, file name and extension of the original
F_
_ I_
L_E (see the -w option for more details). Note that quotes are
required around this argument to prevent shell redirection since
it contains a "<" symbol. If _ D_
A_T_
F_I_
L_E/_
F_M_
T is not provided, the
effect is the same as "-TAG=", and the tag is simply deleted.
"+<=" or "-<=" may also be used to add or delete specific list
entries, or to shift date/time values.

-tagsFromFile _
S_R_
C_F_
I_L_
E or _
F_M_
T
Copy tag values from _ S_
R_C_
F_I_
L_E to F
__I_
L_E. Tag names on the command
line after this option specify the tags to be copied, or excluded
from the copy. Wildcards are permitted in these tag names. If no
tags are specified, then all possible tags (see note 1 below) from
the source file are copied to same-named tags in the preferred
location of the output file (the same as specifying "-all"). More
than one -tagsFromFile option may be used to copy tags from
multiple files.

By default, this option will update any existing and writable

same-named tags in the output _ F_
I_L_
E, 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 the specified tag(s) are written to
the same family 1 group they had in the source file (ie. the same
specific location, like ExifIFD or XMP-dc). For example, the
common operation of copying all writable tags to the same specific
locations in the output _
F_I_
L_E is achieved by adding "-all:all". A
different family may be specified by adding a leading family
number to the group name (eg. "-0all:all" preserves the same
general location, like EXIF or XMP).

__
S R_
C_FI
__L_
E may be the same as _
F_I_
L_E 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 _ F_
M_T
string in which %d, %f and %e represent the directory, file name
and extension of _ F_
I_L_
E. (eg. the current _ F_
I_L_
E would be represented
by "%d%f.%e", with the same effect as "@"). See the -w option for
F_
_ MT
_ 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
-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 7
using "'-_ D_
S_T_
TA__
G<_
S_R_
C_T_
A_G'" or "'-_ S_
R_C_
T_A_
G>_D_S_
T_TA
__G'" on the command line
after -tagsFromFile, and causes the value of _ S_
R_C_
T_A_
G to be copied
from S __R_
C_F_
I_LE
_ and written to _ D_
S_T_
T_A_
G in _ F_I_
L_E. Has no effect unless
S_
_ R_
C_T_
A_G exists in _ S_
R_C_
F_I_
L_E. 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 "'-_ S_
R_C_
T_A_
G+<_D_S_
T_T_
A_G'" or "'-_ S_R_
C_T_
A_G-<_
D_S_
T_T_
A_G'"
(but see Note 5 below).

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 "'-_
D_
S_T_
T_A_
G<_
S_T_
R'", where tag names in _
S_T_
R are prefixed
with a "$" symbol. See the -p option and the "Advanced formatting
feature" section 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 note 8 below about using the redirection
feature with list-type stags, shortcuts or when using wildcards in
tag names.

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 (--_
T_AG
_), and deleting a tag (-_
T_A_
G=). 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, and individual makernote tags may not be
excluded from a block copy. 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 from that of

assigned tags for list-type tags and conditional replacements
because each copy operation on a tag overrides any previous
operations. 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
-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 8
same list when this is the intent. So a -addTagsFromFile option
is provided which allows copying of multiple tags into the same
list. eg)

exiftool -addtagsfromfile @ '-subject<make' '-subject<model' ...

Similarly, -addTagsFromFile must be used when conditionally

replacing a tag to prevent overriding earlier conditions.

Other than these differences, the -tagsFromFile and

-addTagsFromFile options are equivalent.

6) The -a option (allow duplicate tags) is always in effect when

copying tags from _
S_R_
C_F_
I_L_
E, but the highest priority tag is always
copied last so it takes precedence.

7) Structured tags are copied by default when copying tags. See

the -struct option for details.

8) With the redirection feature, copying a tag directly (ie.

"'-_
D_S_
T_T_
A_G<_
S_R_
CT__
A_G'") is not the same as interpolating its value
inside a string (ie. "'-_ D_
S_T_
T_A_
G<$_
S_R_
C_T_
A_G'") for list-type tags,
shortcut tags, tag names containing wildcards, or UserParam
variables. When copying directly, the values of each matching
source tag are copied individually to the destination tag (as if
they were separate assignments). However, when interpolated
inside a string, list items and the values of shortcut tags are
concatenated (with a separator set by the -sep option), and
wildcards are not allowed. Also, UserParam variables are
available only when interpolated in a string. Another difference
is that a minor warning is generated if a tag doesn't exist when
interpolating its value in a string (with "$"), but isn't when
copying the tag directly.

Finally, the behaviour is different when a destination tag or

group of "All" is used. When copying directly, a destination
group and/or tag name of "All" writes to the same family 1 group
and/or tag name as the source. But when interpolated in a string,
the identity of the source tags are lost and the value is written
to all possible groups/tags. For example, the string form must be
used in the following command since the intent is to set the value
of all existing date/time tags from "CreateDate":

exiftool "-time:all<$createdate" -wm w FILE

-x _
T_A_
G (-
-exclude)
Exclude the specified tag. There may be multiple -x options.
This has the same effect as --_T_
A_G on the command line. See the
--_
TA__
G documentation above for a complete description.

I_
_ n_
pu__
t_-_
o_ut
__p_
u_t _
t_e_
x_t f
__o_
r_m_
a_t_
t_i_
n_g

Note that trailing spaces are removed from extracted values for most
output text formats. The exceptions are "-b", "-csv", "-j" and "-X".

-args (-
-argFormat)
Output information in the form of exiftool arguments, suitable for
use with the -@ option when writing. May be combined with the -G
option to include group names. This feature may be used to
effectively copy tags between images, but allows the metadata to
be altered by editing the intermediate file ("out.args" in this
example):

exiftool -args -G1 --filename --directory src.jpg > out.args

exiftool -@ out.args -sep ", " 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
-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 9
destination file. Also note that the second command above will
produce warning messages for any tags which are not writable.

As well, the -sep option should be used as in the second command

above to maintain separate list items when writing metadata back
to image files, and the -struct option may be used when extracting
to preserve structured XMP information.

-b (-
-binary)
Output requested metadata in binary format without tag names or
descriptions. This option is mainly used for extracting embedded
images or other binary data, but it may also be useful for some
text strings since control characters (such as newlines) are not
replaced by '.' as they are in the default output. By default,
list items are separated by a newline when extracted with the -b
option, but this may be changed (see the -sep option for details).
May be combined with "-j", "-php" or "-X" to extract binary data
in JSON, PHP or XML format, but note that "unsafe" tags must be
specified explicitly to be extracted as binary in these formats.

-c _
F_M_
T (-
-coordFormat)
Set the print format for GPS coordinates. _F_
M_T uses the same
syntax as a "printf" format string. The specifiers correspond to
degrees, minutes and seconds in that order, but minutes and
seconds are optional. For example, the following table gives the
output for the same coordinate using various formats:

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 (eg. "%+.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 [[_ T_Y_

PE_=]_CH__
A_R_
S_E_
T]
If _ T_
Y_P_
E is "ExifTool" or not specified, this option sets the
ExifTool character encoding for output tag values when reading and
input values when writing, with a default of "UTF8". If no
C_
_ H_
AR__
S_E_
T is given, a list of available character sets is returned.
Valid _ C_H_
A_R_
S_E_
T values are:

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
DOSLatinUS cp437 DOS Latin US
DOSLatin1 cp850 DOS Latin1
DOSCyrillic cp866 DOS Cyrillic
MacRoman cp10000, Roman Macintosh Roman
-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 10
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

__
T Y_
P_E may be "FileName" to specify the encoding of file names on
the command line (ie. _ F_
I_L_
E arguments). In Windows, this triggers
use of wide-character i/o routines, thus providing support for
Unicode file names. See the "WINDOWS UNICODE FILE NAMES" section
below for details.

Other values of _
T_Y_
P_E 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
RIFF Internal encoding of RIFF strings 0

See <https://exiftool.org/faq.html#Q10> for more information about

coded character sets, and the Image::ExifTool Options for more
details about the -charset settings.

-csv[[+]=_
C_S_
V_F_
I_LE
_]
Export information in CSV format, or import information if _C_
S_V_F_
I_L_
E
is specified. When importing, the CSV file must be in exactly the
same format as the exported file. The first row of the C__
S_V_
F_I_
L_E
must be the ExifTool tag names (with optional group names) for
each column of the file, and values must be separated by commas.
A special "SourceFile" column specifies the files associated with
each row of information (and a SourceFile of "*" may be used to
define default tags to be imported for all files which are
combined with any tags specified for the specific SourceFile
processed). The following examples demonstrate basic use of this
option:

# 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 (unless the -f option is

used and the API MissingTagValue is set to an empty string, in
which case the tag is deleted). 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 adds 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. The -b option may be added to
output binary data, encoded in base64 if necessary (indicated by
ASCII "base64:" as the first 7 bytes of the value). Values may
also be encoded in base64 if the -charset option is used and the
value contains invalid characters.

When exporting specific tags, the CSV columns are arranged in the
-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 11
same order as the specified tags provided the column headings
exactly match the specified tag names, otherwise the columns are
sorted in alphabetical order.

When importing from a CSV file, only files specified on the

command line are processed. Any extra entries in the CSV file are
ignored.

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+=_

C_S_
V_F_
I_L_
E 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. When processing a large
number of files, it is recommended to either use the JSON (-
-j) or
XML (-
-X) output format, or use -p to generate a fixed-column CSV
file instead of using the -csv option.

-d _
F_M_
T (-
-dateFormat)
Set the format for date/time tag values. The F __
M_T string may
contain formatting codes beginning with a percent character ("%")
to represent the various components of a date/time value. The
specifics of the F
__M_
T syntax are system dependent -- consult the
"strftime" man page on your system for details. The default
format is equivalent to "%Y:%m:%d %H:%M:%S". This option has no
effect on date-only or time-only tags and ignores timezone
information if present. Only one -d option may be used per
command. Requires POSIX::strptime or Time::Piece for the
inversion conversion when writing.

-D (-
-decimal)
Show tag ID number in decimal when extracting information.

-E, -ex, -ec (-

-escapeHTML, -escapeXML, -escapeC)
Escape characters in output tag values for HTML (-
-E), XML (-
-ex) or
C (-
-ec). For HTML, all characters with Unicode code points above
U+007F are escaped as well as the following 5 characters: &
(&) ' (') " (") > (>) and < (<). For XML, only
these 5 characters are escaped. The -E option is implied with -h,
and -ex is implied with -X. For C, all control characters and the
backslash are escaped. The inverse conversion is applied when
writing tags.

-f (-
-forcePrint)
Force printing of tags even if their values are not found. This
option only applies when specific tags are requested on the
command line (ie. not with wildcards or by "-all"). With this
option, a dash ("-") is printed for the value of any missing tag,
but the dash may be changed via the API MissingTagValue option.
May also be used to add a 'flags' attribute to the -listx output,
or to allow tags to be deleted when writing with the -csv=_
C_S_
V_F_
I_L_
E
feature.

-g[_
N_U_
M][:_
N_U_
M...] (-
-groupHeadings)
Organize output by tag group. _N_
U_M specifies a group family
number, and may be 0 (general location), 1 (specific location), 2
(category), 3 (document number), 4 (instance number), 5 (metadata
path), 6 (EXIF/TIFF format) or 7 (tag ID). -g0 is assumed if a
family number is not specified. May be combined with other
options to add group names to the output. Multiple families may
be specified by separating them with colons. By default the
resulting group name is simplified by removing any leading "Main:"
-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 12
and collapsing adjacent identical group names, but this can be
avoided by placing a colon before the first family number (eg.
-g:3:1). Use the -listg option to list group names for a
specified family. The SavePath and SaveFormat API options are
automatically enabled if the respective family 5 or 6 group names
are requested. See the API GetGroup documentation for more
information.

-G[_
N_U_
M][:_N_
U_M...] (-
-groupNames)
Same as -g but print group name for each tag. -G0 is assumed if
N_
_ UM
_ is not specified. May be combined with a number of other
options to add group names to the output. Note that _N_
U_M may be
added wherever -G is mentioned in the documentation. See the -g
option above for details.

-h (-
-htmlFormat)
Use HTML table formatting for output. Implies the -E option. The
formatting options -D, -H, -g, -G, -l and -s may be used in
combination with -h to influence the HTML format.

-H (-
-hex)
Show tag ID number in hexadecimal when extracting information.

-htmlDump[_
O_F_
FS__
E_T]
Generate a dynamic web page containing a hex dump of the EXIF
information. This can be a very powerful tool for low-level
analysis of EXIF information. The -htmlDump option is also
invoked if the -v and -h options are used together. The verbose
level controls the maximum length of the blocks dumped. An _O_F_
F_S_
E_T
may be given to specify the base for displayed offsets. If not
provided, the EXIF/TIFF base offset is used. Use -htmlDump0 for
absolute offsets. Currently only EXIF/TIFF and JPEG information
is dumped, but the -u option can be used to give a raw hex dump of
other file formats.

-j[[+]=_
J_
S_O_
N_F_
I_L_
E] (-
-json)
Use JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) formatting for console
output, or import JSON file if _
J_S_
O_N_
F_I_
L_E is specified. This option
may be combined with -g to organize the output into objects by
group, or -G to add group names to each tag. List-type tags with
multiple items are output as JSON arrays unless -sep is used. By
default XMP structures are flattened into individual tags in the
JSON output, but the original structure may be preserved with the
-struct option (this also causes all list-type XMP tags to be
output as JSON arrays, otherwise single-item lists would be output
as simple strings). The -a option is implied if the -g or -G
options are used, otherwise it is ignored and tags with identical
JSON names are suppressed. (-
-g4 may be used to ensure that all
tags have unique JSON names.) Adding the -D or -H option changes
tag values to JSON objects with "val" and "id" fields, and adding
-l adds a "desc" field, and a "num" field if the numerical value
is different from the converted "val". The -b option may be added
to output binary data, encoded in base64 if necessary (indicated
by ASCII "base64:" as the first 7 bytes of the value), and -t may
be added to include tag table information (see -t for details).
The JSON output is UTF-8 regardless of any -L or -charset option
setting, but the UTF-8 validation is disabled if a character set
other than UTF-8 is specified.

If _
J_SO
__N_
F_I_
L_E 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. An object
with a missing SourceFile or a SourceFile of "*" defines default
tags for all target files which are combined with any tags
specified for the specific SourceFile processed. 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
-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 13
conversion.

Unlike CSV import, empty values are not ignored, and will cause an
empty value to be written if supported by the specific metadata
type. Tags are deleted by using the -f option and setting the tag
value to "-" (or to the MissingTagValue setting if this API option
was used). Importing with -j+=_J_
S_O_
N_F_
I_L_
E causes new values to be
added to existing lists.

-l (-
-long)
Use long 2-line Canon-style output format. Adds a description and
unconverted value (if it is different from the converted value) to
the XML, JSON or PHP output when -X, -j or -php is used. May also
be combined with -listf, -listr or -listwf to add descriptions of
the file types.

-L (-
-latin)
Use Windows Latin1 encoding (cp1252) for output tag values instead
of the default UTF-8. When writing, -L specifies that input text
values are Latin1 instead of UTF-8. Equivalent to "-charset
latin".

-lang [_L_A_
N_G]
Set current language for tag descriptions and converted values.
L_
_ A_
N_G is "de", "fr", "ja", etc. Use -lang with no other arguments
to get a list of available languages. The default language is
"en" if -lang is not specified. Note that tag/group names are
always English, independent of the -lang setting, and translation
of warning/error messages has not yet been implemented. May also
be combined with -listx to output descriptions in one language
only.

By default, ExifTool uses UTF-8 encoding for special characters,

but the the -L or -charset option may be used to invoke other
encodings. Note that ExifTool uses Unicode::LineBreak if
available to help preserve the column alignment of the plain text
output for languages with a variable-width character set.

Currently, the language support is not complete, but users are

welcome to help improve this by submitting their own translations.
To submit a translation, follow these steps (you must have Perl
installed for this):

1. Download and unpack the latest Image-ExifTool full

distribution.

2. 'cd' into the Image-ExifTool directory.

3. Run this command to make an XML file of the desired tags (eg.
EXIF):

./exiftool -listx -exif:all > out.xml

4. Copy this text into a file called 'import.pl' in the exiftool

directory:

push @INC, 'lib';

require Image::ExifTool::TagInfoXML;
my $file = shift or die "Expected XML file name\n";
$Image::ExifTool::TagInfoXML::makeMissing = shift;
Image::ExifTool::TagInfoXML::BuildLangModules($file,8);

5. Run the 'import.pl' script to Import the XML file, generating

the 'MISSING' entries for your language (eg. Russian):

perl import.pl out.xml ru

6. Edit the generated language module

lib/Image/ExifTool/Lang/ru.pm, and search and replace all
'MISSING' strings in the file with your translations.
-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 14

7. Email the module ('ru.pm' in this example) to philharvey66 at

gmail.com

8. Thank you!!

-listItem I
__N_
D_EX
_
For list-type tags, this causes only the item with the specified
index to be extracted. _I_
N_D_
E_X is 0 for the first item in the list.
Negative indices may also be used to reference items from the end
of the list. Has no effect on single-valued tags. Also applies
to tag values when copying from a tag, and in -if conditions.

-n (-
--printConv)
Disable print conversion for all tags. By default, extracted
values are converted to a more human-readable format, but the -n
option disables this conversion, revealing the machine-readable
values. For example:

> 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

-p _
F_M_
TF__
I_L_
E or _
S_T_
R (-
-printFormat)
Print output in the format specified by the given file or string.
The argument is interpreted as a string unless a file of that name
exists, in which case the string is loaded from the contents of
the file. Tag names in the format file or string begin with a "$"
symbol and may contain leading group names and/or a trailing "#"
(to disable print conversion). Case is not significant. Braces
"{}" may be used around the tag name to separate it from
subsequent text. Use $$ to represent a "$" symbol, and $/ for a
newline.

Multiple -p options may be used, each contributing a line (or

more) of text to the output. Lines beginning with "#[HEAD]" and
"#[TAIL]" are output before the first processed file and after the
last processed file respectively. Lines beginning with "#[SECT]"
and "#[ENDS]" are output before and after each section of files.
A section is defined as a group of consecutive files with the same
section header (eg. files are grouped by directory if "#[SECT]"
contains $directory). Lines beginning with "#[BODY]" and lines
not beginning with "#" are output for each processed file. Lines
beginning with "#[IF]" are not output, but all BODY lines are
skipped if any tag on an IF line doesn't exist. Other lines
beginning with "#" are ignored. For example, this format file:

# 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 12.10 -- 15

exiftool -p test.fmt a.jpg b.jpg

produces output like this:

-- Generated by ExifTool 12.10 --

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 --

The values of List-type tags with multiple items and Shortcut tags
representing multiple tags are joined according the the -sep
option setting when interpolated in the string.

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. Alternatively, -q -q may be used to simply
suppress the warning messages.

The "Advanced formatting feature" may be used to modify the values

of individual tags with the -p option.

-php Format output as a PHP Array. The -g, -G, -D, -H, -l, -sep and
-struct options combine with -php, and duplicate tags are handled
in the same way as with the -json option. As well, the -b option
may be added to output binary data, and -t may be added to include
tag table information (see -t for details). Here is a simple
example showing how this could be used in a PHP script:

<?php
eval('$array=' . `exiftool -php -q image.jpg`);
print_r($array);
?>

-s[_
N_U_
M] (-
-short)
Short output format. Prints tag names instead of descriptions.
Add _
N_UM
_ or up to 3 -s options for even shorter formats:

-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.

-S (-
-veryShort)
Very short format. The same as -s2 or two -s options. Tag names
are printed instead of descriptions, and no extra spaces are added
to column-align values.

-sep S
__T_
R (-
-separator)
Specify separator string for items in list-type tags. When
reading, the default is to join list items with ", ". When
writing, this option causes values assigned to list-type tags to
be split into individual items at each substring matching _ S_
T_R
(otherwise they are not split by default). Space characters in
S_
_ T_
R match zero or more whitespace characters in the value.

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.

For pure binary output (-

-b used without -j, -php or -X), the first
-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 16
-sep option specifies a list-item separator, and a second -sep
option specifies a terminator for the end of the list (or after
each value if not a list). In these strings, "\n", "\r" and "\t"
may be used to represent a newline, carriage return and tab
respectively. By default, binary list items are separated by a
newline, and no terminator is added.

-sort, --sort
Sort output by tag description, or by tag name if the -s option is
used. When sorting by description, the sort order will depend on
the -lang option setting. Without the -sort option, tags appear
in the order they were specified on the command line, or if not
specified, the order they were extracted from the file. By
default, tags are organized by groups when combined with the -g or
-G option, but this grouping may be disabled with --sort.

-struct, --struct
Output structured XMP information instead of flattening to
individual tags. This option works well when combined with the
XML (-
-X) and JSON (-
-j) output formats. For other output formats,
XMP structures and lists are serialized into the same format as
when writing structured information (see
<https://exiftool.org/struct.html> for details). When copying,
structured tags are copied by default unless --struct is used to
disable this feature (although flattened tags may still be copied
by specifying them individually unless -struct is used). These
options have no effect when assigning new values since both
flattened and structured tags may always be used when writing.

-t (-
-tab)
Output a tab-delimited list of description/values (useful for
database import). May be combined with -s to print tag names
instead of descriptions, or -S to print tag values only, tab-
delimited on a single line. The -t option may be combined with
-j, -php or -X to add tag table information ("table", tag "id",
and "index" for cases where multiple conditional tags exist with
the same ID).

-T (-
-table)
Output tag values in table form. Equivalent to -t -S -q -f.

-v[_
N_U_
M] (-
-verbose)
Print verbose messages. N__
U_M specifies the level of verbosity in
the range 0-5, with higher numbers being more verbose. If _ N_
U_M is
not given, then each -v option increases the level of verbosity by
1. With any level greater than 0, most other options are ignored
and normal console output is suppressed unless specific tags are
extracted. Using -v0 causes the console output buffer to be
flushed after each line (which may be useful to avoid delays when
piping exiftool output), and prints the name of each processed
file when writing. Also see the -progress option.

-w[+|!] E
__X_
T or _
F_M_
T (-
-textOut)
Write console output to files with names ending in E __
X_T, one for
each source file. The output file name is obtained by replacing
the source file extension (including the '.') with the specified
extension (and a '.' is added to the start of E__
X_T if it doesn't
already contain one). Alternatively, a _F_
M_T string may be used to
give more control over the output file name and directory. In the
format string, %d, %f and %e represent the directory, filename and
extension of the source file, and %c represents a copy number
which is automatically incremented if the file already exists. %d
includes the trailing '/' if necessary, but %e does not include
the leading '.'. For example:

-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"...
-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 17
Existing files will not be changed unless an exclamation point is
added to the option name (ie. -w! or -textOut!) to overwrite the
file, or a plus sign (ie. -w+ or -textOut+) to append to the
existing file. 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

Capitalized format codes %D, %F, %E and %C provide slightly

different alternatives to the lower case versions. %D does not
include the trailing '/', %F is the full filename including
extension, %E includes the leading '.', and %C increments the
count for each processed file (see below).

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 valid format code

(eg. %f), then it is interpreted as a file extension. It is not
possible to specify a simple filename as an argument -- 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

(Note that special characters may have a width of greater than

one.)

For %d and %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
pics/2012/02 %-1:D 02 bottom level folder name
/Users/phil %:2d phil/ ignore top 2 levels

(Note that the root directory counts as one level when an absolute
-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 18
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 ...
-w I.%.3uc.txt # I.AAA.txt, I.AAB.txt, I.AAC.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. A leading '-' causes the number to be
reset at the start of each new directory, and '+' has no effect.
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 and %C may be
modified by 'n' to count using natural numbers starting from 1,
instead of 0 (see example F above).

This same _
F_M_
T syntax is used with the -o and -tagsFromFile
options, although %c and %C are only valid for output file names.

-W[+|!] F
__MT
_ (-
-tagOut)
This enhanced version of the -w option allows a separate output
file to be created for each extracted tag. See the -w option
documentation above for details of the basic functionality.
Listed here are the differences between -W and -w:

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 (eg. %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. For example,
the following pairs of commands give the same result:

# overwriting existing text file

-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 19
exiftool test.jpg > out.txt # shell redirection
exiftool test.jpg -W+! out.txt # equivalent -W option

# append to existing text file

exiftool test.jpg >> out.txt # shell redirection
exiftool test.jpg -W+ out.txt # equivalent -W option

4) Adding the -v option to -W sends a list of the tags and output

file names to the console 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 _
F_M_
T 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 or %C must be used in _
F_M_
T to give the files unique names.

-Wext E
__X_
T, --Wext _
E_X_
T (-
-tagOutExt)
This option is used to specify the type of output file(s) written
by the -W option. An output file is written only if the suggested
extension matches _ E_X_
T. Multiple -Wext options may be used to
write more than one type of file. Use --Wext to write all but the
specified type(s).

-X (-
-xmlFormat)
Use ExifTool-specific RDF/XML formatting for console output.
Implies the -a option, so duplicate tags are extracted. The
formatting options -b, -D, -H, -l, -s, -sep, -struct and -t may be
used in combination with -X to affect the output, but note that
the tag ID (-
-D, -H and -t), binary data (-
-b) and structured output
(-
-struct) options are not effective for the short output (-
-s).
Another restriction of -s is that only one tag with a given group
and name may appear in the output. Note that the tag ID options
(-
-D, -H and -t) will produce non-standard RDF/XML unless the -l
option is also used.

By default, -X outputs flattened tags, so -struct should be added

if required to preserve XMP structures. List-type tags with
multiple values are formatted as an RDF Bag, but they are combined
into a single string when -s or -sep is used. Using -L changes
the XML encoding from "UTF-8" to "windows-1252". Other -charset
settings change the encoding only if there is a corresponding
standard XML character set. The -b option causes binary data
values to be written, encoded in base64 if necessary. The -t
option adds tag table information to the output (see -t for
details).

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.

P_
_ ro
__c_
es__
s_i_
n_g _
c_on
__t_
r_o_
l

-a, --a (-
-duplicates, --duplicates)
Allow (-
-a) or suppress (-
--a) duplicate tag names to be extracted.
By default, duplicate tags are suppressed when reading unless the
-ee or -X options are used or the Duplicates option is enabled in
the configuration file. This option has an affect when writing
only to allow duplicate Warning messages to be shown. Duplicate
tags are always extracted when copying.

-e (-
--composite)
Extract existing tags only -- don't generate composite tags.

-ee (-
-extractEmbedded)
Extract information from embedded documents in EPS files, embedded
EPS information and JPEG and Jpeg2000 images in PDF files,
embedded MPF images in JPEG and MPO files, streaming metadata in
-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 20
AVCHD videos, and the resource fork of Mac OS files. Implies the
-a option. Use -g3 or -G3 to identify the originating document
for extracted information. Embedded documents containing sub-
documents are indicated with dashes in the family 3 group name.
(eg. "Doc2-3" is the 3rd sub-document of the 2nd embedded
document.) Note that this option may increase processing time
substantially, especially for PDF files with many embedded images
or videos with streaming metadata.

When used with -ee, the -p option is evaluated for each embedded
document as if it were a separate input file. This allows, for
example, generation of GPS track logs from timed metadata in
videos. See <https://exiftool.org/geotag.html#Inverse> for
examples.

-ext[+] _
EX__
T, --ext _
E_X_
T (-
-extension)
Process only files with (- -ext) or without (-
--ext) a specified
extension. There may be multiple -ext and --ext options. A plus
sign may be added (ie. -ext+) to add the specified extension to
the normally processed files. EXT may begin with a leading '.',
which is ignored. Case is not significant. "*" may be used to
process files with any extension (or none at all), as in the last
three examples:

exiftool -ext JPG DIR # process only JPG files

exiftool --ext cr2 --ext dng DIR # supported files but CR2/DNG
exiftool -ext+ txt DIR # supported files plus TXT
exiftool -ext "*" DIR # process all files
exiftool -ext "*" --ext xml DIR # process all but XML files
exiftool -ext "*" --ext . DIR # all but those with no ext

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.

Note that all files specified on the command line will be

processed regardless of extension unless the -ext option is used.

-F[_
O_F_
FS__
E_T] (-
-fixBase)
Fix the base for maker notes offsets. A common problem with some
image editors is that offsets in the maker notes are not adjusted
properly when the file is modified. This may cause the wrong
values to be extracted for some maker note entries when reading
the edited file. This option allows an integer _O_
F_F_
S_E_
T to be
specified for adjusting the maker notes base offset. If no _ O_
F_F_
S_E_
T
is given, ExifTool takes its best guess at the correct base. Note
that exiftool will automatically fix the offsets for images which
store original offset information (eg. newer Canon models).
Offsets are fixed permanently if -F is used when writing EXIF to
an image. eg)

exiftool -F -exif:resolutionunit=inches image.jpg

-fast[_
N_U_
M]
Increase speed of extracting information. With -fast (or -fast1),
ExifTool will not scan to the end of a JPEG image to check for an
AFCP or PreviewImage trailer, or past the first comment in GIF
images or the audio/video data in WAV/AVI files to search for
additional metadata. These speed benefits are small when reading
images directly from disk, but can be substantial if piping images
through a network connection. For more substantial speed
benefits, -fast2 also causes exiftool to avoid extracting any EXIF
MakerNote information. -fast3 avoids extracting metadata from the
file, and returns only pseudo System tags, but still reads the
file header to obtain an educated guess at FileType. -fast4
doesn't even read the file header, and returns only System tags
and a FileType based on the file extension. Has no effect when
writing.
-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 21

Note that a separate -fast setting may be used for evaluation of a

-if condition, or when ordering files with the -fileOrder option.
See the -if and -fileOrder options for details.

-fileOrder[_
N_UM
_] [-]_T_
A_G
Set file processing order according to the sorted value of the
specified _T_
A_G. For example, to process files in order of date:

exiftool -fileOrder DateTimeOriginal DIR

Additional -fileOrder options may be added for secondary sort

keys. Numbers are sorted numerically, and all other values are
sorted alphabetically. Files missing the specified tag are sorted
last. The sort order may be reversed by prefixing the tag name
with a "-" (eg. "-fileOrder -createdate"). Print conversion of
the sorted values is disabled with the -n option, or a "#"
appended to the tag name. Other formatting options (eg. -d) have
no effect on the sorted values. Note that the -fileOrder option
can have a large performance impact since it involves an
additional processing pass of each file, but this impact may be
reduced by specifying a _N_
U_M for the -fast level used during the
metadata-extraction phase. For example, -fileOrder4 may be used
if _
T_A_
G is a pseudo System tag. If multiple -fileOrder options are
used, the extraction is done at the lowest -fast level. Note that
files are sorted across directory boundaries if multiple input
directories are specified.

-i _
D_I_
R (-
-ignore)
Ignore specified directory name. _D_
I_R may be either an individual
folder name, or a full path. If a full path is specified, it must
match the Directory tag exactly to be ignored. Use multiple -i
options to ignore more than one directory name. A special _ D_
I_R
value of "SYMLINKS" (case sensitive) may be specified to ignore
symbolic links when the -r option is used.

-if[_
N_U_
M] _ E_
X_P_
R
Specify a condition to be evaluated before processing each F __
I_L_
E.
E_
_ X_
P_R is a Perl-like logic expression containing tag names prefixed
by "$" symbols. It is evaluated with the tags from each _ F_
I_L_
E in
turn, and the file is processed only if the expression returns
true. Unlike Perl variable names, tag names are not case
sensitive and may contain a hyphen. As well, tag names may have a
leading group names separated by colons, and/or a trailing "#"
character to disable print conversion. The expression $GROUP:all
evaluates to 1 if any tag exists in the specified "GROUP", or 0
otherwise (see note 2 below). When multiple -if options are used,
all conditions must be satisfied to process the file. Returns an
exit status of 2 if all files fail the condition. Below are a few
examples:

# 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

Adding _
N_U_
M to the -if option causes a separate processing pass to
be executed for evaluating _E_
X_P_
R at a -fast level given by N __
U_M (see
the -fast option documentation for details). Without _ N_
U_M, only
one processing pass is done at the level specified by the -fast
option. For example, using -if4 is possible if E __
X_P_
R uses only
pseudo System tags, and may significantly speed processing if
enough files fail the condition.
-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 22

The expression has access to the current ExifTool object through

$self, and the following special functions are available to allow
short-circuiting of the file processing. Both functions have a
return value of 1. Case is significant for function names.

End() - end processing after this file

EndDir() - end processing of files in this directory (not
compatible with the B<-fileOrder> option)

Notes:

1) The -n and -b options also apply to tags used in _

E_X_
P_R.

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. (eg. Use $exif:all
instead of $exif in _
E_X_
P_R 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 ...

5) The -a option has no effect on the evaluation of the

expression, and the values of duplicate tags are accessible only
by specifying a group name (such as a family 4 instance number,
eg. $Copy1:TAG, $Copy2:TAG, etc).

6) A special "OK" UserParam is available to test the success of

the previous command when -execute was used, and may be used like
any other tag in the condition (ie. "$OK").

-m (-
-ignoreMinorErrors)
Ignore minor errors and warnings. This enables writing to files
with minor errors and disables some validation checks which could
result in minor warnings. Generally, minor errors/warnings
indicate a problem which usually won't result in loss of metadata
if ignored. However, there are exceptions, so ExifTool leaves it
up to you to make the final decision. Minor errors and warnings
are indicated by "[minor]" at the start of the message. Warnings
which affect processing when ignored are indicated by "[Minor]"
(with a capital "M"). Note that this causes missing values in
-tagsFromFile, -p and -if strings to be set to an empty string
rather than an undefined value.

-o _
O_U_
TF__
I_L_
E or _
F_M_
T (-
-out)
Set the output file or directory name when writing information.
Without this option, when any "real" tags are written the original
file is renamed to "FILE_original" and output is written to _
F_I_
L_E.
When writing only FileName and/or Directory "pseudo" tags, -o
causes the file to be copied instead of moved, but directories
specified for either of these tags take precedence over that
specified by the -o option.

O_
_ UT
__F_
IL__
E may be "-" to write to stdout. The output file name may
also be specified using a F __
M_T string in which %d, %f and %e
represent the directory, file name and extension of _ F_
I_L_
E. Also,
%c may be used to add a copy number. See the -w option for _ F_
M_T
string examples.
-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 23
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, EXIF, EXV, MIE, ICC/ICM, VRD, DR4

The output file type is determined by the extension of _ O_

U_T_
F_I_
L_E
(specified as "-.EXT" when writing to stdout). The output file is
then created from a combination of information in _F_
I_L_
E (as if the
-tagsFromFile option was used), and tag values assigned on the
command line. If no _F_
I_L_
E is specified, the output file may be
created from scratch using only tags assigned on the command line.

-overwrite_original
Overwrite the original F
__I_
L_E (instead of preserving it by adding
"_original" to the file name) when writing information to an
image. Caution: This option should only be used if you already
have separate backup copies of your image files. The overwrite is
implemented by renaming a temporary file to replace the original.
This deletes the original file and replaces it with the edited
version in a single operation. When combined with -o, this option
causes the original file to be deleted if the output file was
successfully written (ie. the file is moved instead of copied).

-overwrite_original_in_place
Similar to -overwrite_original except that an extra step is added
to allow the original file attributes to be preserved. For
example, on a Mac this causes the original file creation date,
type, creator, label color, icon, Finder tags, other extended
attributes and hard links to the file to be preserved (but note
that the Mac OS resource fork is always preserved unless
specifically deleted with "-rsrc:all="). This is implemented by
opening the original file in update mode and replacing its data
with a copy of a temporary file before deleting the temporary.
The extra step results in slower performance, so the
-overwrite_original option should be used instead unless
necessary.

Note that this option reverts to the behaviour of the

-overwrite_original option when also writing the FileName and/or
Directory tags.

-P (-
-preserve)
Preserve the filesystem modification date/time ("FileModifyDate")
of the original file when writing. Note that some filesystems
store a creation date (ie. "FileCreateDate" on Windows and Mac
systems) which is not affected by this option. This creation date
is preserved on Windows systems where Win32API::File and
Win32::API are available regardless of this setting. For other
systems, the -overwrite_original_in_place option may be used if
necessary to preserve the creation date. The -P option is
superseded by any value written to the FileModifyDate tag.

-password _
P_A_
S_S_
W_D
Specify password to allow processing of password-protected PDF
documents. If a password is required but not given, a warning is
issued and the document is not processed. This option is ignored
if a password is not required.

-progress[:[_
T_I_
T_L_
E]]
Show the progress when processing files. Without a colon, the
-progress option adds a progress count in brackets after the name
-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 24
of each processed file, giving the current file number and the
total number of files to be processed. Implies the -v0 option,
causing the names of processed files to also be printed when
writing. When combined with the -if option, the total count
includes all files before the condition is applied, but files that
fail the condition will not have their names printed.

If followed by a colon (ie. -progress:), the console window title

is set according to the specified _ T_
I_T_
L_E string. If no _
T_I_
T_L_
E is
given, a default _
T_I_
T_L_
E string of "ExifTool %p%%" is assumed. In
the string, %f represents the file name, %p is the progress as a
percent, %r is the progress as a ratio, %##b is a progress bar of
width "##" (20 characters if "##" is omitted), and %% is a %
character. May be combined with the normal -progress option to
also show the progress count in console messages. (Note: For this
feature to function correctly on Mac/Linux, stderr must go to the
console.)

-q (-
-quiet)
Quiet processing. One -q suppresses normal informational
messages, and a second -q suppresses warnings as well. Error
messages can not be suppressed, although minor errors may be
downgraded to warnings with the -m option, which may then be
suppressed with "-q -q".

-r[.] (--recurse)
Recursively process files in subdirectories. Only meaningful if
F_
_ I_
L_E is a directory name. Subdirectories with names beginning
with "." are not processed unless "." is added to the option name
(ie. -r. or -recurse.). By default, exiftool will also follow
symbolic links to directories if supported by the system, but this
may be disabled with "-i SYMLINKS" (see the -i option for
details). Combine this with -ext options to control the types of
files processed.

-scanForXMP
Scan all files (even unsupported formats) for XMP information
unless found already. When combined with the -fast option, only
unsupported file types are scanned. Warning: It can be time
consuming to scan large files.

-u (-
-unknown)
Extract values of unknown tags. Add another -u to also extract
unknown information from binary data blocks. This option applies
to tags with numerical tag ID's, and causes tag names like
"Exif_0xc5d9" to be generated for unknown information. It has no
effect on information types which have human-readable tag ID's
(such as XMP), since unknown tags are extracted automatically from
these formats.

-U (-
-unknown2)
Extract values of unknown tags as well as unknown information from
some binary data blocks. This is the same as two -u options.

-wm M
__OD
__E (-
-writeMode)
Set mode for writing/creating tags. M__
O_D_
E is a string of one or
more characters from the list below. The default write mode is
"wcg".

w - Write existing tags

c - Create new tags
g - create new Groups as necessary

For example, use "-wm cg" to only create new tags (and avoid
editing existing ones).

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 12.10 -- 25

-z (-
-zip)
When reading, causes information to be extracted from .gz and .bz2
compressed images (only one image per archive; requires gzip and
bzip2 to be available). When writing, causes compressed
information to be written if supported by the metadata format (eg.
compressed textual metadata in PNG), disables the recommended
padding in embedded XMP (saving 2424 bytes when writing XMP in a
file), and writes XMP in shorthand format -- the equivalent of
setting the API Compress=1 and Compact="NoPadding,Shorthand".

O_
_ t_
h_e_
r _
o_p_
t_i_
o_n_
s

-@ _
A_R_
GF__
I_LE
_
Read command-line arguments from the specified file. The file
contains one argument per line (NOT one option per line -- some
options require additional arguments, and all arguments must be
placed on separate lines). Blank lines and lines beginning with
"#" are ignored (unless they start with "#[CSTR]", in which case
the rest of the line is treated as a C string, allowing standard C
escape sequences such as "\n" for a newline). White space at the
start of a line is removed. Normal shell processing of arguments
is not performed, which among other things means that arguments
should not be quoted and spaces are treated as any other
character. _AR
__G_
F_I_
L_E may exist relative to either the current
directory or the exiftool directory unless an absolute pathname is
given.

For example, the following _

A_R_
G_F_
I_L_
E 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

Arguments in _A_
R_G_
F_I_
L_E behave exactly the same as if they were
entered at the location of the -@ option on the command line, with
the exception that the -config and -common_args options may not be
used in an _
A_R_
G_F_
I_L_
E.

-k (-
-pause)
Pause with the message "-- press any key --" or "-- press RETURN
--" (depending on your system) before terminating. This option is
used to prevent the command window from closing when run as a
Windows drag and drop application.

-list, -listw, -listf, -listr, -listwf, -listg[_

N_U_
M], -listd, -listx
Print a list of all valid tag names (-
-list), all writable tag
names (-
-listw), all supported file extensions (--listf), all
recognized file extensions (-
-listr), all writable file extensions
(-
-listwf), all tag groups [in a specified family] (--listg[_
N_U_
M]),
all deletable tag groups (-
-listd), or an XML database of tag
details including language translations (-
-listx). The -list,
-listw and -listx options may be followed by an additional
argument of the form "-GROUP:All" to list only tags in a specific
group, where "GROUP" is one or more family 0-2 group names
(excepting EXIF IFD groups) separated by colons. With -listg, _ N_U_
M
may be given to specify the group family, otherwise family 0 is
assumed. The -l option may be combined with -listf, -listr or
-listwf to add file descriptions to the list. The -lang option
may be combined with -listx to output descriptions in a single
language. Here are some examples:

-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
-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 26
-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 _

F_I_
L_E.

-ver Print exiftool version number. The -v option may be added to

print addition system information (see the README file of the full
distribution for more details about optional libraries), or -v2 to
also list the Perl include directories.

-- Indicates the end of options. Any remaining arguments are treated

as file names, even if they begin with a dash ("-").

S_
_ pe
__c_
ia__
l _
f_e_
a_t_
ur__
e_s

-geotag T
__R_
K_F_
I_L_
E
Geotag images from the specified GPS track log file. Using the
-geotag option is equivalent to writing a value to the "Geotag"
tag. The GPS position is interpolated from the track at a time
specified by the value written to the "Geotime" tag. If "Geotime"
is not specified, the value is copied from "DateTimeOriginal#"
(the "#" is added to copy the unformatted value, avoiding
potential conflicts with the -d option). For example, the
following two commands are equivalent:

exiftool -geotag trk.log image.jpg

exiftool -geotag trk.log "-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, GPSRoll,
AmbientTemperature and CameraElevationAngle. 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

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 concatenate GPS track log

data. Also, a single -geotag option may be used to load multiple
-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 27
track log files by using wildcards in the _ T_
R_K_
F_I_
L_E name, but note
that in this case _
T_R_
K_F_
I_L_
E 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,
Bramor gEO, Winplus Beacon TXT, and GPS/IMU CSV 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.

-globalTimeShift S
__H_
I_F_
T
Shift all formatted date/time values by the specified amount when
reading. Does not apply to unformatted (--n) output. _S_
H_I_
F_T takes
the same form as the date/time shift when writing (see
Image::ExifTool::Shift.pl for details), with a negative shift
being indicated with a minus sign ("-") at the start of the _ S_
H_I_
F_T
string. For example:

# 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

-use M
__O_
D_U_
L_E
Add features from specified plug-in _
M_O_
D_U_
L_E. Currently, the MWG
module is the only plug-in module distributed with exiftool. This
module adds read/write support for tags as recommended by the
Metadata Working Group. As a convenience, "-use MWG" is assumed
if the "MWG" group is specified for any tag on the command line.
See the MWG Tags documentation for more details. Note that this
option is not reversible, and remains in effect until the
application terminates, even across the "-execute" option.

U_
_ ti
__l_
it__
i_e_
s

-restore_original
-delete_original[!]
These utility options automate the maintenance of the "_original"
files created by exiftool. They have no effect on files without
an "_original" copy. The -restore_original option restores the
specified files from their original copies by renaming the
"_original" files to replace the edited versions. For example,
the following command restores the originals of all JPG images in
directory "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.

A_
_ d_
v_an
__c_
ed_ _
o_p_
t_i_
o_ns
_

Among other things, the advanced options allow complex processing to be

-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 28
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.

-api O
__P_
T_[_
[_^_
]_=_
[V__
A_L_
]_]
Set ExifTool API option. _ O_
P_T is an API option name. The option
value is set to 1 if _=_
V_A_
L is omitted. If _ V_
A_L is omitted, the
option value is set to undef if "=" is used, or an empty string
with "^=". See Image::ExifTool Options for a list of available
API options. This overrides API options set via the config file.

-common_args
Specifies that all arguments following this option are common to
all executed commands when -execute is used. This and the -config
option are the only options that may not be used inside a -@
A_
_ R_
G_F_
I_LE
_. Note that by definition this option and its arguments
MUST come after all other options on the command line.

-config _
CF__
G_FI
__L_
E
Load specified configuration file instead of the default
".ExifTool_config". If used, this option must come before all
other arguments on the command line and applies to all -execute'd
commands. The C__
F_G_
F_I_
L_E must exist relative to the current working
directory or the exiftool application directory unless an absolute
path is specified. Loading of the default config file may be
disabled by setting _ C_F_
G_F_
I_L_
E to an empty string (ie. ""). See
<https://exiftool.org/config.html> and config_files/example.config
in the full ExifTool distribution for details about the
configuration file syntax.

-echo[_
N_U_
M] _
TE__
X_T
Echo _T_
E_X_
T to stdout (--echo or -echo1) or stderr (--echo2). Text is
output as the command line is parsed, before the processing of any
input files. N __
U_M may also be 3 or 4 to output text (to stdout or
stderr respectively) after processing is complete. For -echo3 and
-echo4, "${status}" may be used in the _ T_
E_X_
T string to represent
the numerical exit status of the command (see "EXIT STATUS").

-efile[_
N_UM
_][!] _
E_R_
R_F_
IL__
E
Save the names of files giving errors (_ N_
U_M missing or 1), files
that were unchanged (_ N_
U_M is 2), files that fail the -if condition
(_
N_U_
M is 4), or any combination thereof (by summing _ N_
U_M, eg.
-efile3 is the same has having both -efile and -efile2 options
with the same _ E_R_
R_F_
I_L_
E). By default, file names are appended to
any existing _ E_
R_R_
F_I_
L_E, but _E_
R_R_
F_I_
L_E is overwritten if an exclamation
point is added to the option (eg. -efile!). Saves the name of the
file specified by the -srcfile option if applicable.

-execute[_
N_U_
M]
Execute command for all arguments up to this point on the command
line (plus any arguments specified by -common_args). The result
is as if the commands were executed as separate command lines
(with the exception of the -config and -use options which remain
in effect for subsequent commands). Allows multiple commands to
be executed from a single command line. _ N_
U_M is an optional number
that is echoed in the "{ready}" message when using the -stay_open
feature. If a N__
U_M is specified, the -q option no longer
suppresses the output "{readyNUM}" message.

-srcfile _ F_
M_T
Specify a different source file to be processed based on the name
of the original _ F_
I_L_
E. This may be useful in some special
situations for processing related preview images or sidecar files.
See the -w option for a description of the _ F_
M_T syntax. Note that
file name F __
M_T strings for all options are based on the original
F_
_ I_
L_E specified from the command line, not the name of the source
file specified by -srcfile.
-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 29
For example, to copy metadata from NEF files to the corresponding
JPG previews in a directory where other JPG images may exist:

exiftool -ext nef -tagsfromfile @ -srcfile %d%f.jpg dir

If more 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 _
F_M_
T of "@" may be used to represent the original _F_
I_L_
E, which may
be useful when specifying multiple -srcfile options (eg. to fall
back to processing the original _F_
I_L_
E if no sidecar exists).

When this option is used, two special UserParam tags

(OriginalFileName and OriginalDirectory) are generated to allow
access to the original _
F_I_
L_E name and directory.

-stay_open F __
L_A_
G
If _F_L_
A_G is 1 or "True", causes exiftool keep reading from the -@
A_
_ RG
__F_
IL__
E even after reaching the end of file. This feature allows
calling applications to pre-load exiftool, thus avoiding the
overhead of loading exiftool for each command. The procedure is
as follows:

1) Execute "exiftool -stay_open True -@ ARGFILE", where A

__R_
G_F_
I_L_
E 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 _

A_R_
G_F_
I_L_
E, one argument
per line (see the -@ option for details).

3) Write "-execute\n" to _ A_
R_G_
F_I_
L_E, 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
A_
_ R_
G_F_
I_LE
_. 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}".
When this number is added, -q no longer suppresses the "{ready}"
message. (Also, see the -echo3 and -echo4 options for additional
ways to pass signals back to your application.)

4) Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each command.

5) Write "-stay_open\nFalse\n" to _
A_R_
G_F_
I_L_
E when done. This will
cause exiftool to process any remaining command-line arguments
then exit normally.

The input _
AR__
G_F_
I_L_
E may be changed at any time before step 5 above
by writing the following lines to the currently open _ A_
R_G_
F_I_
L_E:

-stay_open
True
-@
NEWARGFILE

This causes _ A_
RG__
F_I_
L_E to be closed, and _ N_
E_W_
A_R_
G_F_
I_L_
E to be kept open.
(Without the -stay_open here, exiftool would have returned to
reading arguments from _ A_
R_G_
F_I_
L_E after reaching the end of
N_
_ E_
W_AR
__G_
F_I_
L_E.)

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
-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 30
when using this technique.)

-userParam _P_A_
RA__
M_[_
[_^_
]_=_
[_V_
A_L_
]_]
Set user parameter. _ P_A_
R_A_
M is an arbitrary user parameter name.
This is an interface to the API UserParam option (see the
Image::ExifTool Options documentation), and provides a method to
access user-defined parameters in arguments to the -if and -p
options as if they were any other tag. Appending a hash tag ("#")
to _
P_A_
RA__
M also causes the parameter to be extracted as a normal tag
(in the UserParam group). Similar to the -api option, the
parameter value is set to 1 if _ =_
V_A_
L is omitted, undef if just _ V_
A_L
is omitted with "=", or an empty string if _ V_
A_L is omitted with
"^=".

exiftool -p '$test from $filename' -userparam test=Hello FILE

A_
_ dv
__a_
nc__
e_d _
fo__
r_m_
a_t_
t_i_
n_g _
f_e_
a_t_
u_r_
e

An advanced formatting feature allows modification of the value of any

tag interpolated within a -if or -p option argument, or a -tagsFromFile
redirection string. Tag names within these strings are prefixed by a
"$" symbol, and an arbitrary Perl expression may be applied to the tag
value by placing braces around the tag name and inserting the
expression after the name, separated by a semicolon (ie.
"${TAG;EXPR}"). The expression acts on the value of the tag through
the default input variable ($_), and has access to the full ExifTool
API through the current ExifTool object ($self) and the tag key ($tag).
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

An "@" may be added after the tag name to make the expression act on
individual list items for list-type tags, simplifying list processing.
Set $_ to undef to remove an item from the list. As an example, the
following command returns all subjects not containing the string "xxx":

exiftool -p '${subject@;$_=undef if /xxx/}' image.jpg

A default expression of "tr(/\\?*:|"<>\0)()d" is assumed if the

expression is empty (ie. "${TAG;}"). This removes the characters / \ ?
* : | < > and null from the printed value. (These characters are
illegal in Windows file names, so this feature is useful if tag values
are used in file names.)

Helper functions

"DateFmt"

Simplifies reformatting of individual date/time values. This function

acts on a standard EXIF-formatted date/time value in $_ and formats it
according to the specified format string (see the -d option). To avoid
trying to reformat an already-formatted date/time value, a "#" must be
added to the tag name (as in the example below) if the -d option is
also used. For example:

exiftool -p '${createdate#;DateFmt("%Y-%m-%d_%H%M%S")}' a.jpg

"ShiftTime"

Shifts EXIF-formatted date/time string by a specified amount. Start

with a leading minus sign to shift backwards in time. See
Image::ExifTool::Shift.pl for details about shift syntax. For example,
to shift a date/time value back by one year:

exiftool -p '${createdate;ShiftTime("-1:0:0 0")}' a.jpg

-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 31
"NoDups"

Removes duplicate items from a list with a separator specified by the

-sep option. This function is most useful when copying list-type tags.
For example, the following command may be used to remove duplicate
Keywords:

exiftool -sep '##' '-keywords<${keywords;NoDups}' a.jpg

The -sep option is necessary to split the string back into individual
list items when writing to a list-type tag.

An optional flag argument may be set to 1 to cause "NoDups" to return

undef if no duplicates existed, thus preventing the file from being
rewritten unnecessarily:

exiftool -sep '##' '-keywords<${keywords;NoDups(1)}' a.jpg

Note that function names are case sensitive.

WINDOWS UNICODE FILE NAMES

In Windows, command-line arguments are specified using the current code
page and are recoded automatically to the system code page. This
recoding is not done for arguments in ExifTool arg files, so by default
filenames in arg files use the system code page. Unfortunately, these
code pages are not complete character sets, so not all file names may
be represented.

ExifTool 9.79 and later allow the file name encoding to be specified
with "-charset filename=CHARSET", where "CHARSET" is the name of a
valid ExifTool character set, preferably "UTF8" (see the -charset
option for a complete list). Setting this triggers the use of Windows
wide-character i/o routines, thus providing support for most Unicode
file names (see note 4). But note that it is not trivial to pass
properly encoded file names on the Windows command line (see
<https://exiftool.org/faq.html#Q18> for details), so placing them in a
UTF-8 encoded -@ argfile and using "-charset filename=utf8" is
recommended if possible.

A warning is issued if a specified filename contains special characters

and the filename character set was not provided. However, the warning
may be disabled by setting "-charset filename=""", and ExifTool may
still function correctly if the system code page matches the character
set used for the file names.

When a directory name is provided, the file name encoding need not be
specified (unless the directory name contains special characters), and
ExifTool will automatically use wide-character routines to scan the
directory.

The filename character set applies to the _

F_I_
L_E arguments as well as
filename arguments of -@, -geotag, -o, -p, -srcfile, -tagsFromFile,
-csv=, -j= and -_
T_A_
G<=. However, it does not apply to the -config
filename, which always uses the system character set. The "-charset
filename=" option must come before the -@ option to be effective, but
the order doesn't matter with respect to other options.

Notes:

1) FileName and Directory tag values still use the same encoding as
other tag values, and are converted to/from the filename character set
when writing/reading if specified.

2) Unicode support is not yet implemented for other Windows-based

systems like Cygwin.

3) See "WRITING READ-ONLY FILES" below for a note about editing read-
only files with Unicode names.

4) Unicode file names with surrogate pairs (code points over U+FFFF)
-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 32
still cause problems.

WRITING READ-ONLY FILES

In general, ExifTool may be used to write metadata to read-only files
provided that the user has write permission in the directory. However,
there are three cases where file write permission is also required:

1) When using the -overwrite_original_in_place option.

2) When writing only pseudo System tags (eg. FileModifyDate).

3) On Windows if the file has Unicode characters in its name, and a)

the -overwrite_original option is used, or b) the "_original" backup
already exists.

Hidden files in Windows behave as read-only files when attempting to

write any real tags to the file -- an error is generated when using the
-overwrite_original_in_place, otherwise writing should be successful
and the hidden attribute will be removed. But the -if option may be
used to avoid processing hidden files (provided Win32API::File is
available):

exiftool -if "$fileattributes !˜ /Hidden/" ...

READING EXAMPLES
Note: Beware when cutting and pasting these examples into your
terminal! Some characters such as single and double quotes and hyphens
may have been changed into similar-looking yet functionally-different
characters by the text formatter used to display this documentation.
Also note that Windows users must use double quotes instead of single
quotes as below around arguments containing special characters.

exiftool -a -u -g1 a.jpg

Print all meta information in an image, including duplicate and
unknown tags, sorted by group (for family 1). For performance
reasons, this command may not extract all available metadata.
(Metadata in embedded documents, metadata extracted by external
utilities, and metadata requiring excessive processing time may
not be extracted). Add "-ee" and "-api RequestAll=3" to the
command to extract absolutely everything available.

exiftool -common dir

Print common meta information for all images in "dir". "-common"
is a shortcut tag representing common EXIF meta information.

exiftool -T -createdate -aperture -shutterspeed -iso dir > out.txt

List specified meta information in tab-delimited column form for
all images in "dir" to an output text file named "out.txt".

exiftool -s -ImageSize -ExposureTime b.jpg

Print ImageSize and ExposureTime tag names and values.

exiftool -l -canon c.jpg d.jpg

Print standard Canon information from two image files.

exiftool -r -w .txt -common pictures

Recursively extract common meta information from files in
"pictures" directory, writing text output to ".txt" files with the
same names.

exiftool -b -ThumbnailImage image.jpg > thumbnail.jpg

Save thumbnail image from "image.jpg" to a file called
"thumbnail.jpg".

exiftool -b -JpgFromRaw -w _JFR.JPG -ext NEF -r .

Recursively extract JPG image from all Nikon NEF files in the
current directory, adding "_JFR.JPG" for the name of the output
JPG files.

exiftool -a -b -W %d%f_%t%-c.%s -preview:all dir

-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 33
Extract all types of preview images (ThumbnailImage, PreviewImage,
JpgFromRaw, etc.) from files in directory "dir", adding the tag
name to the output preview image file names.

exiftool -d '%r %a, %B %e, %Y' -DateTimeOriginal -S -s -ext jpg .

Print formatted date/time for all JPG files in the current
directory.

exiftool -IFD1:XResolution -IFD1:YResolution image.jpg

Extract image resolution from EXIF IFD1 information (thumbnail
image IFD).

exiftool '-resolution' image.jpg

Extract all tags with names containing the word "Resolution" from
an image.

exiftool -xmp:author:all -a image.jpg

Extract all author-related XMP information from an image.

exiftool -xmp -b a.jpg > out.xmp

Extract complete XMP data record intact from "a.jpg" and write it
to "out.xmp" using the special "XMP" tag (see the Extra tags in
Image::ExifTool::TagNames).

exiftool -p '$filename has date $dateTimeOriginal' -q -f dir

Print one line of output containing the file name and
DateTimeOriginal for each image in directory "dir".

exiftool -ee -p '$gpslatitude, $gpslongitude, $gpstimestamp' a.m2ts

Extract all GPS positions from an AVCHD video.

exiftool -icc_profile -b -w icc image.jpg

Save complete ICC_Profile from an image to an output file with the
same name and an extension of ".icc".

exiftool -htmldump -w tmp/%f_%e.html t/images

Generate HTML pages from a hex dump of EXIF information in all
images from the "t/images" directory. The output HTML files are
written to the "tmp" directory (which is created if it didn't
exist), with names of the form 'FILENAME_EXT.html'.

exiftool -a -b -ee -embeddedimage -W Image_%.3g3.%s file.pdf

Extract embedded JPG and JP2 images from a PDF file. The output
images will have file names like "Image_#.jpg" or "Image_#.jp2",
where "#" is the ExifTool family 3 embedded document number for
the image.

WRITING EXAMPLES
Note that quotes are necessary around arguments which contain certain
special characters such as ">", "<" or any white space. These quoting
techniques are shell dependent, but the examples below will work for
most Unix shells. With the Windows cmd shell however, double quotes
should be used (eg. -Comment="This is a new comment").

exiftool -Comment='This is a new comment' dst.jpg

Write new comment to a JPG image (replaces any existing comment).

exiftool -comment= -o newdir -ext jpg .

Remove comment from all JPG images in the current directory,
writing the modified images to a new directory.

exiftool -keywords=EXIF -keywords=editor dst.jpg

Replace existing keyword list with two new keywords ("EXIF" and
"editor").

exiftool -Keywords+=word -o newfile.jpg src.jpg

Copy a source image to a new file, and add a keyword ("word") to
the current list of keywords.

exiftool -exposurecompensation+=-0.5 a.jpg

-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 34
Decrement the value of ExposureCompensation by 0.5 EV. Note that
+= with a negative value is used for decrementing because the -=
operator is used for conditional deletion (see next example).

exiftool -credit-=xxx dir

Delete Credit information from all files in a directory where the
Credit value was "xxx".

exiftool -xmp:description-de='kühl' -E dst.jpg

Write alternate language for XMP:Description, using HTML character
escaping to input special characters.

exiftool -all= dst.jpg

Delete all meta information from an image. Note: You should NOT
do this to RAW images (except DNG) since proprietary RAW image
formats often contain information in the makernotes that is
necessary for converting the image.

exiftool -all= -comment='lonely' dst.jpg

Delete all meta information from an image and add a comment back
in. (Note that the order is important: "-comment='lonely' -all="
would also delete the new comment.)

exiftool -all= --jfif:all dst.jpg

Delete all meta information except JFIF group from an image.

exiftool -Photoshop:All= dst.jpg

Delete Photoshop meta information from an image (note that the
Photoshop information also includes IPTC).

exiftool -r -XMP-crss:all= DIR

Recursively delete all XMP-crss information from images in a
directory.

exiftool '-ThumbnailImage<=thumb.jpg' dst.jpg

Set the thumbnail image from specified file (Note: The quotes are
necessary to prevent shell redirection).

exiftool '-JpgFromRaw<=%d%f_JFR.JPG' -ext NEF -r .

Recursively write JPEG images with filenames ending in "_JFR.JPG"
to the JpgFromRaw tag of like-named files with extension ".NEF" in
the current directory. (This is the inverse of the "-JpgFromRaw"
command of the "READING EXAMPLES" section above.)

exiftool -DateTimeOriginal-='0:0:0 1:30:0' dir

Adjust original date/time of all images in directory "dir" by
subtracting one hour and 30 minutes. (This is equivalent to
"-DateTimeOriginal-=1.5". See Image::ExifTool::Shift.pl for
details.)

exiftool -createdate+=3 -modifydate+=3 a.jpg b.jpg

Add 3 hours to the CreateDate and ModifyDate timestamps of two
images.

exiftool -AllDates+=1:30 -if '$make eq "Canon"' dir

Shift the values of DateTimeOriginal, CreateDate and ModifyDate
forward by 1 hour and 30 minutes for all Canon images in a
directory. (The AllDates tag is provided as a shortcut for these
three tags, allowing them to be accessed via a single tag.)

exiftool -xmp:city=Kingston image1.jpg image2.nef

Write a tag to the XMP group of two images. (Without the "xmp:"
this tag would get written to the IPTC group since "City" exists
in both, and IPTC is preferred by default.)

exiftool -LightSource-='Unknown (0)' dst.tiff

Delete "LightSource" tag only if it is unknown with a value of 0.

exiftool -whitebalance-=auto -WhiteBalance=tung dst.jpg

Set "WhiteBalance" to "Tungsten" only if it was previously "Auto".
-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 35

exiftool -comment-= -comment='new comment' a.jpg

Write a new comment only if the image doesn't have one already.

exiftool -o %d%f.xmp dir

Create XMP meta information data files for all images in "dir".

exiftool -o test.xmp -owner=Phil -title='XMP File'

Create an XMP data file only from tags defined on the command
line.

exiftool '-ICC_Profile<=%d%f.icc' image.jpg

Write ICC_Profile to an image from a ".icc" file of the same name.

exiftool -hierarchicalkeywords='{keyword=one,children={keyword=B}}'
Write structured XMP information. See
<https://exiftool.org/struct.html> for more details.

exiftool -trailer:all= image.jpg

Delete any trailer found after the end of image (EOI) in a JPEG
file. A number of digital cameras store a large PreviewImage
after the JPEG EOI, and the file size may be reduced significantly
by deleting this trailer. See the JPEG Tags documentation for a
list of recognized JPEG trailers.

COPYING EXAMPLES
These examples demonstrate the ability to copy tag values between
files.

exiftool -tagsFromFile src.cr2 dst.jpg

Copy the values of all writable tags from "src.cr2" to "dst.jpg",
writing the information to same-named tags in the preferred
groups.

exiftool -TagsFromFile src.jpg -all:all dst.jpg

Copy the values of all writable tags from "src.jpg" to "dst.jpg",
preserving the original tag groups.

exiftool -all= -tagsfromfile src.jpg -exif:all dst.jpg

Erase all meta information from "dst.jpg" image, then copy EXIF
tags from "src.jpg".

exiftool -exif:all= -tagsfromfile @ -all:all -unsafe bad.jpg

Rebuild all EXIF meta information from scratch in an image. This
technique can be used in JPEG images to repair corrupted EXIF
information which otherwise could not be written due to errors.
The "Unsafe" tag is a shortcut for unsafe EXIF tags in JPEG images
which are not normally copied. See the tag name documentation for
more details about unsafe tags.

exiftool -Tagsfromfile a.jpg out.xmp

Copy meta information from "a.jpg" to an XMP data file. If the
XMP data file "out.xmp" already exists, it will be updated with
the new information. Otherwise the XMP data file will be created.
Only metadata-only files may be created like this (files
containing images may be edited but not created). See "WRITING
EXAMPLES" above for another technique to generate XMP files.

exiftool -tagsFromFile a.jpg -XMP:All= -ThumbnailImage= -m b.jpg

Copy all meta information from "a.jpg" to "b.jpg", deleting all
XMP information and the thumbnail image from the destination.

exiftool -TagsFromFile src.jpg -title -author=Phil dst.jpg

Copy title from one image to another and set a new author name.

exiftool -TagsFromFile a.jpg -ISO -TagsFromFile b.jpg -comment dst.jpg

Copy ISO from one image and Comment from another image to a
destination image.

exiftool -tagsfromfile src.jpg -exif:all --subifd:all dst.jpg

-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 36
Copy only the EXIF information from one image to another,
excluding SubIFD tags.

exiftool '-FileModifyDate<DateTimeOriginal' dir

Use the original date from the meta information to set the same
file's filesystem modification date for all images in a directory.
(Note that "-TagsFromFile @" is assumed if no other -TagsFromFile
is specified when redirecting information as in this example.)

exiftool -TagsFromFile src.jpg '-xmp:all<all' dst.jpg

Copy all possible information from "src.jpg" and write in XMP
format to "dst.jpg".

exiftool '-Description<${FileName;s/\.[^.]*$//}' dir

Set the image Description from the file name after removing the
extension. This example uses the "Advanced formatting feature" to
perform a substitution operation to remove the last dot and
subsequent characters from the file name.

exiftool -@ iptc2xmp.args -iptc:all= a.jpg

Translate IPTC information to XMP with appropriate tag name
conversions, and delete the original IPTC information from an
image. This example uses iptc2xmp.args, which is a file included
with the ExifTool distribution that contains the required
arguments to convert IPTC information to XMP format. Also
included with the distribution are xmp2iptc.args (which performs
the inverse conversion) and a few more .args files for other
conversions between EXIF, IPTC and XMP.

exiftool -tagsfromfile %d%f.CR2 -r -ext JPG dir

Recursively rewrite all "JPG" images in "dir" with information
copied from the corresponding "CR2" images in the same
directories.

exiftool '-keywords+<make' image.jpg

Add camera make to list of keywords.

exiftool '-comment<ISO=$exif:iso Exposure=${shutterspeed}' dir

Set the Comment tag of all images in "dir" from the values of the
EXIF:ISO and ShutterSpeed tags. The resulting comment will be in
the form "ISO=100 Exposure=1/60".

exiftool -TagsFromFile src.jpg -icc_profile dst.jpg

Copy ICC_Profile from one image to another.

exiftool -TagsFromFile src.jpg -all:all dst.mie

Copy all meta information in its original form from a JPEG image
to a MIE file. The MIE file will be created if it doesn't exist.
This technique can be used to store the metadata of an image so it
can be inserted back into the image (with the inverse command)
later in a workflow.

exiftool -o dst.mie -all:all src.jpg

This command performs exactly the same task as the command above,
except that the -o option will not write to an output file that
already exists.

exiftool -b -jpgfromraw -w %d%f_%ue.jpg -execute -b -previewimage -w

%d%f_%ue.jpg -execute -tagsfromfile @ -srcfile %d%f_%ue.jpg
-overwrite_original -common_args --ext jpg DIR
[Advanced] Extract JpgFromRaw or PreviewImage from all but JPG
files in DIR, saving them with file names like "image_EXT.jpg",
then add all meta information from the original files to the
extracted images. Here, the command line is broken into three
sections (separated by -execute options), and each is executed as
if it were a separate command. The -common_args option causes the
"--ext jpg DIR" arguments to be applied to all three commands, and
the -srcfile option allows the extracted JPG image to be the
source file for the third command (whereas the RAW files are the
source files for the other two commands).
-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 37

RENAMING EXAMPLES
By writing the "FileName" and "Directory" tags, files are renamed
and/or moved to new directories. This can be particularly useful and
powerful for organizing files by date when combined with the -d option.
New directories are created as necessary, but existing files will not
be overwritten. The format codes %d, %f and %e may be used in the new
file name to represent the directory, name and extension of the
original file, and %c may be used to add a copy number if the file
already exists (see the -w option for details). Note that if used
within a date format string, an extra '%' must be added to pass these
codes through the date/time parser. (And further note that in a
Windows batch file, all '%' characters must also be escaped, so in this
extreme case '%%%%f' is necessary to pass a simple '%f' through the two
levels of parsing.) See <https://exiftool.org/filename.html> for
additional documentation and examples.

exiftool -filename=new.jpg dir/old.jpg

Rename "old.jpg" to "new.jpg" in directory "dir".

exiftool -directory=%e dir

Move all files from directory "dir" into directories named by the
original file extensions.

exiftool '-Directory<DateTimeOriginal' -d %Y/%m/%d dir

Move all files in "dir" into a directory hierarchy based on year,
month and day of "DateTimeOriginal". eg) This command would move
the file "dir/image.jpg" with a "DateTimeOriginal" of "2005:10:12
16:05:56" to "2005/10/12/image.jpg".

exiftool -o . '-Directory<DateTimeOriginal' -d %Y/%m/%d dir

Same effect as above except files are copied instead of moved.

exiftool '-filename<%f_${model;}.%e' dir

Rename all files in "dir" by adding the camera model name to the
file name. The semicolon after the tag name inside the braces
causes characters which are invalid in Windows file names to be
deleted from the tag value (see the "Advanced formatting feature"
for an explanation).

exiftool '-FileName<CreateDate' -d %Y%m%d_%H%M%S%%-c.%%e dir

Rename all images in "dir" according to the "CreateDate" date and
time, adding a copy number with leading '-' if the file already
exists ("%-c"), and preserving the original file extension (%e).
Note the extra '%' necessary to escape the filename codes (%c and
%e) in the date format string.

exiftool -r '-FileName<CreateDate' -d %Y-%m-%d/%H%M_%%f.%%e dir

Both the directory and the filename may be changed together via
the "FileName" tag if the new "FileName" contains a '/'. The
example above recursively renames all images in a directory by
adding a "CreateDate" timestamp to the start of the filename, then
moves them into new directories named by date.

exiftool '-FileName<${CreateDate}_$filenumber.jpg' -d %Y%m%d -ext jpg .

Set the filename of all JPG images in the current directory from
the CreateDate and FileNumber tags, in the form
"20060507_118-1861.jpg".

GEOTAGGING EXAMPLES
ExifTool implements geotagging via 3 special tags: Geotag (which for
convenience is also implemented as an exiftool option), Geosync and
Geotime. The examples below highlight some geotagging features. See
<https://exiftool.org/geotag.html> for additional documentation.

exiftool -geotag track.log a.jpg

Geotag an image ("a.jpg") from position information in a GPS track
log ("track.log"). Since the "Geotime" tag is not specified, the
value of DateTimeOriginal is used for geotagging. Local system
time is assumed unless DateTimeOriginal contains a timezone.
-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 38

exiftool -geotag t.log -geotime='2009:04:02 13:41:12-05:00' a.jpg

Geotag an image with the GPS position for a specific time.

exiftool -geotag log.gpx '-xmp:geotime<createdate' dir

Geotag all images in directory "dir" with XMP tags instead of EXIF
tags, based on the image CreateDate.

exiftool -geotag a.log -geosync=-20 dir

Geotag images in directory "dir", accounting for image timestamps
which were 20 seconds ahead of GPS.

exiftool -geotag a.log -geosync=1.jpg -geosync=2.jpg dir

Geotag images using time synchronization from two previously
geotagged images (1.jpg and 2.jpg), synchronizing the image and
GPS times using a linear time drift correction.

exiftool -geotag a.log '-geotime<${createdate}+01:00' dir

Geotag images in "dir" using CreateDate with the specified
timezone. If CreateDate already contained a timezone, then the
timezone specified on the command line is ignored.

exiftool -geotag= a.jpg

Delete GPS tags which may have been added by the geotag feature.
Note that this does not remove all GPS tags -- to do this instead
use "-gps:all=".

exiftool -xmp:geotag= a.jpg

Delete XMP GPS tags which were added by the geotag feature.

exiftool -xmp:geotag=track.log a.jpg

Geotag an image with XMP tags, using the time from
DateTimeOriginal.

exiftool -geotag a.log -geotag b.log -r dir

Combine multiple track logs and geotag an entire directory tree of
images.

exiftool -geotag 'tracks/*.log' -r dir

Read all track logs from the "tracks" directory.

exiftool -p gpx.fmt -d %Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ dir > out.gpx

Generate a GPX track log from all images in directory "dir". This
example uses the "gpx.fmt" file included in the full ExifTool
distribution package and assumes that the images in "dir" have all
been previously geotagged.

PIPING EXAMPLES
cat a.jpg | exiftool -
Extract information from stdin.

exiftool image.jpg -thumbnailimage -b | exiftool -

Extract information from an embedded thumbnail image.

cat a.jpg | exiftool -iptc:keywords+=fantastic - > b.jpg

Add an IPTC keyword in a pipeline, saving output to a new file.

curl -s http://a.domain.com/bigfile.jpg | exiftool -fast -

Extract information from an image over the internet using the cURL
utility. The -fast option prevents exiftool from scanning for
trailer information, so only the meta information header is
transferred.

exiftool a.jpg -thumbnailimage -b | exiftool -comment=wow - | exiftool

a.jpg -thumbnailimage'<=-'
Add a comment to an embedded thumbnail image. (Why anyone would
want to do this I don't know, but I've included this as an example
to illustrate the flexibility of ExifTool.)

EXIT STATUS
-- ExifTool 12.10 -- 39
The exiftool application exits with a status of 0 on success, or 1 if
an error occurred, or 2 if all files failed the -if condition (for any
of the commands if -execute was used).

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under

the same terms as Perl itself.

SEE ALSO
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perl v5.18.4 2020-11-12 EXIFTOOL(1)

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