NAME

exiftool - Read and write meta information in files

SYNOPSIS

exiftool [OPTIONS] [-TAG...] [--TAG...] FILE...

exiftool [OPTIONS] -TAG[+-<]=[VALUE]... FILE...

exiftool [OPTIONS] -tagsFromFile SRCFILE [-SRCTAG[>DSTTAG]...] FILE...

exiftool [ -ver | -list[w|f|wf|g[NUM]|d|x] ]

For specific examples, see the EXAMPLES sections below.

DESCRIPTION

A command-line interface to Image::ExifTool, used for reading and writing meta information in image, audio and video files. FILE is a source file name, directory name, or - for the standard input. Information is read from the source file and output in readable form to the console (or written to an output text file with the -w option).

To write or copy information, new tag values are specified with the -TAG=[VALUE] syntax or the -tagsFromFile or -geotag options. This causes FILE to be rewritten, and by default the original file is preserved with _original appended to the file name. (Be sure to verify that the new file is OK before erasing the original.) Once in write mode, exiftool will ignore any read-specific options.

Below is a list of file types and meta information formats currently supported by ExifTool (r = read, w = write, c = create):

              File Types                 |    Meta Information
---------------------------------------  |  --------------------
3FR   r       GZ    r       PEF   r/w    |  EXIF           r/w/c
3G2   r       HDP   r/w     PGM   r/w    |  GPS            r/w/c
3GP   r       HTML  r       PICT  r      |  IPTC           r/w/c
ACR   r       ICC   r/w/c   PNG   r/w    |  XMP            r/w/c
AI    r/w     IIQ   r       PPM   r/w    |  MakerNotes     r/w/c
AIFF  r       IND   r/w     PPT   r      |  Photoshop IRB  r/w/c
APE   r       ITC   r       PPTX  r      |  ICC Profile    r/w/c
ARW   r       JNG   r/w     PS    r/w    |  MIE            r/w/c
ASF   r       JP2   r/w     PSD   r/w    |  JFIF           r/w/c
AVI   r       JPEG  r/w     QTIF  r      |  Ducky APP12    r/w/c
BMP   r       K25   r       RA    r      |  PDF            r/w/c
BTF   r       KDC   r       RAF   r/w    |  CIFF           r/w
COS   r       KEY   r       RAM   r      |  AFCP           r/w
CR2   r/w     LNK   r       RAW   r/w    |  JPEG 2000      r
CRW   r/w     M2TS  r       RIFF  r      |  DICOM          r
CS1   r/w     M4A/V r       RW2   r/w    |  Flash          r
DCM   r       MEF   r/w     RWL   r/w    |  FlashPix       r
DCP   r/w     MIE   r/w/c   RWZ   r      |  QuickTime      r
DCR   r       MIFF  r       RM    r      |  GeoTIFF        r
DIVX  r       MNG   r/w     SO    r      |  PrintIM        r
DJVU  r       MOS   r/w     SR2   r      |  ID3            r
DLL   r       MOV   r       SRF   r      |  Kodak Meta     r
DNG   r/w     MP3   r       SVG   r      |  Ricoh RMETA    r
DOC   r       MP4   r       SWF   r      |  Picture Info   r
DOCX  r       MPC   r       THM   r/w    |  Adobe APP14    r
DVB   r       MPG   r       TIFF  r/w    |  MPF            r
DYLIB r       MPO   r/w     VRD   r/w/c  |  Stim           r
EIP   r       MQV   r       WAV   r      |  APE            r
EPS   r/w     MRW   r/w     WDP   r/w    |  Vorbis         r
ERF   r/w     NEF   r/w     WMA   r      |  SPIFF          r
EXE   r       NRW   r/w     WMV   r      |  DjVu           r
EXIF  r/w/c   NUMBERS r     X3F   r      |  M2TS           r
F4A/V r       OGG   r       XLS   r      |  PE/COFF        r
FLAC  r       ORF   r/w     XLSX  r      |  AVCHD          r
FLV   r       PAGES r       XMP   r/w/c  |  ZIP            r
FPX   r       PBM   r/w     ZIP   r      |  (and more)
GIF   r/w     PDF   r/w

Note: If FILE is a directory name, then only file types with recognized extensions are processed when reading, and only writable types are processed when any tag is written. However, a filename may be specified or the -ext option may be used to force processing of files with any extension.

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 is defined. 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. Note that multiple single-character options may NOT be combined into one argument because this would be interpreted as a tag name.

Option Summary

-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)

-@ ARGFILE                       Read command-line arguments from file
-a          (-duplicates)        Allow duplicate tag names in output
-b          (-binary)            Output data in binary format
-c FMT      (-coordFormat)       Set format for GPS coordinates
-charset [[TYPE=]CHARSET]        Specify encoding for special characters
-d FMT      (-dateFormat)        Set format for date/time values
-D          (-decimal)           Show tag ID numbers in decimal
-e          (--composite)        Do not calculate composite tags
-E, -ex     (-escape(HTML|XML))  Escape values for HTML (-E) or XML (-ex)
-ee         (-extractEmbedded)   Extract information from embedded files
-ext EXT    (-extension)         Process files with specified extension
-f          (-forcePrint)        Force printing of all specified tags
-F[OFFSET]  (-fixBase)           Fix the base for maker notes offsets
-fast                            Increase speed for slow devices
-g[NUM...]  (-groupHeadings)     Organize output by tag group
-G[NUM...]  (-groupNames)        Print group name for each tag
-geotag TRKFILE                  Geotag images from specified GPS log
-h          (-htmlFormat)        Use HMTL formatting for output
-H          (-hex)               Show tag ID number in hexadecimal
-htmlDump[OFFSET]                Generate HTML-format binary dump
-i DIR      (-ignore)            Ignore specified directory name
-if EXPR                         Conditionally process files
-j          (-json)              Use JSON output format
-k          (-pause)             Pause before terminating
-l          (-long)              Use long 2-line output format
-L          (-latin)             Use Windows Latin1 encoding
-lang [LANG]                     Set current language
-list[w|f|wf|g[NUM]|d|x]         List various exiftool attributes
-m          (-ignoreMinorErrors) Ignore minor errors and warnings
-n          (--printConv)        Disable print conversion
-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 FMTFILE  (-printFormat)       Print output in specified format
-P          (-preserve)          Preserve date/time of original file
-q          (-quiet)             Quiet processing
-r          (-recurse)           Recursively process subdirectories
-s          (-short)             Short output format
-S          (-veryShort)         Very short output format
-scanForXMP                      Brute force XMP scan
-sep STR    (-separator)         Set separator string for list items
-struct                          Use structured XML or JSON output
-t          (-tab)               Output in tab-delimited list format
-T          (-table)             Output in tabular format
-tagsFromFile SRCFILE            Copy tag values from file
-u          (-unknown)           Extract unknown tags
-U          (-unknown2)          Extract unknown binary tags too
-use MODULE                      Add features from plug-in module
-v[NUM]     (-verbose)           Print verbose messages
-ver                             Print exiftool version number
-w EXT      (-textOut)           Write console output to file
-x TAG      (-exclude)           Exclude specified tag
-X          (-xmlFormat)         Use RDF/XML output format
-z          (-zip)               Read/write compressed information

-common_args                     Define common arguments
-config CFGFILE                  Specify configuration file name
-execute                         Execute multiple commands on one line
-srcfile FMT                     Set different source file name

Option Details

-TAG

Extract information for specified tag (ie. -CreateDate). 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 (ie. -EXIF:CreateDate, or -Doc1:XMP:Creator), and each group name may be prefixed by a digit to specify family number (ie. -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. This is particularly useful when a group name is specified to extract all information in a group. (* is a synonym for All, but must be quoted if used on the command line 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.

Note: Descriptions, not tag names, are shown by default when extracting information. Use the -s option to see the tag names instead.

--TAG

Exclude specified tag from extracted information. Same as the -x option. May also be used following a -tagsFromFile option to exclude tags from being copied, or to exclude groups from being deleted when deleting all information (ie. -all= --exif:all deletes all but EXIF information). But note that this will not exclude individual tags from a group delete. Instead, the tags must be recovered using the -tagsFromFile option (ie. -all= -tagsfromfile @ -artist).

-TAG[+-]=[VALUE]

Write a new value for the specified tag (ie. -comment=wow), or delete the tag if no VALUE is given (ie. -comment=). += and -= are used to add or remove existing entries from a list, or to shift date/time values (see Image::ExifTool::Shift.pl for details), and -= may be used to conditionally remove or replace a tag (see "WRITING EXAMPLES" for examples).

TAG may contain a leading family 0 or 1 group name separated by a colon. If no group name is specified, the tag is created in the preferred group, and updated in any other location where the tag already exists. The preferred group is the first group in the following list where TAG is valid: 1) EXIF, 2) IPTC, 3) XMP.

The special All tag may be used in this syntax only if a VALUE is NOT given. This causes all meta information to be deleted (or all information in a group if -GROUP:All= is used). Note that not all groups are deletable. Use the -listd option for a complete list of deletable 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.

Note: MakerNotes tags 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.

-TAG<=DATFILE or -TAG<=FMT

Set the value of a tag from the contents of file DATFILE. The file name may also be given by a FMT string where %d, %f and %e represent the directory, file name and extension of the original FILE (see the -w option for more details). Note that quotes are required around this argument to prevent shell redirection since it contains a < symbol. +<= or -<= may also be used to add or delete specific list entries, or to shift date/time values.

-@ ARGFILE

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 which must be placed on separate lines). Blank lines and lines beginning with # and are ignored. Normal shell processing of arguments is not performed, which among other things means that arguments should not be quoted. ARGFILE may exist relative to either the current directory or the exiftool directory unless an absolute pathname is given.

For example, the following ARGFILE will set the value of Copyright to "Copyright YYYY, Phil Harvey", where "YYYY" is the year of CreateDate:

-d
%Y
-copyright<Copyright $createdate, Phil Harvey

-a, --a (-duplicates, --duplicates)

Allow (-a) or suppress (--a) duplicate tag names in the output. By default, duplicate tags are suppressed unless the -ee or -X options are used or the Duplicates option is enabled in the configuration file.

-b (-binary)

Output requested data 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. Also valid in combination with the -X option.

-c FMT (-coordFormat)

Set the print format for GPS coordinates. FMT uses the same syntax as the 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

Note: To avoid loss of precision, the default coordinate format is different when copying tags using the -tagsFromFile option.

-charset [[TYPE=]CHARSET]

If TYPE is ExifTool or not specified, this option sets the ExifTool character encoding for output tag values when reading and input values when writing. The default ExifTool encoding is UTF8. If TYPE is IPTC, this sets the internal IPTC encoding to use when IPTC:CodedCharacterSet is not defined. The default IPTC charset is Latin. If no CHARSET is given, a list of available character sets is returned. Valid CHARSET values are:

 CHARSET       Alias(es)                Description
----------  ---------------  ----------------------------------
UTF8        cp65001, UTF-8   UTF-8 characters
Latin       cp1252, Latin1   Windows Latin1 (West European)
Latin2      cp1250           Windows Latin2 (Central European)
Cyrillic    cp1251, Russian  Windows Cyrillic
Greek       cp1253           Windows Greek
Turkish     cp1254           Windows Turkish
Hebrew      cp1255           Windows Hebrew
Arabic      cp1256           Windows Arabic
Baltic      cp1257           Windows Baltic
Vietnam     cp1258           Windows Vietnamese
Thai        cp874            Windows Thai
MacRoman    cp10000, Roman   Macintosh Roman
MacLatin2   cp10029          Macintosh Latin 2 (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

-d FMT (-dateFormat)

Set the format for date/time tag values. Consult strftime man page for FMT syntax. 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. The inverse operation (ie. un-formatting a date/time value) is currently not applied when writing a date/time tag.

-D (-decimal)

Show tag ID number in decimal.

-e (--composite)

Print existing tags only -- don't calculate composite tags.

-E, -ex (-escapeHTML, -escapeXML)

Escape characters in output values for HTML (-E) or XML (-ex). 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. The inverse conversion is applied when writing tags.

-ee (-extractEmbedded)

Extract information from embedded documents in EPS and PDF files, and embedded MPF images in JPEG and MPO 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. (ie. Doc2-3 is the 3rd sub-document of the 2nd embedded document.)

-ext EXT, --ext EXT (-extension)

Process only files with (-ext) or without (--ext) a specified extension. There may be multiple -ext and --ext options. Extensions may begin with a leading '.', and case is not significant. For example:

exiftool -ext .JPG DIR            # process only JPG files
exiftool --ext crw --ext dng DIR  # process all but CRW and DNG
exiftool --ext . DIR              # ignore if no extension

-f (-forcePrint)

Force printing of tags even if their values are not found. This option only applies when tag names are specified. May also be used to add a 'flags' attribute to the -listx output.

-F[OFFSET] (-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 OFFSET to be specified for adjusting the maker notes base offset. If no OFFSET 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 (ie. newer Canon models). Offsets are fixed permanently if -F is used when writing EXIF to an image. ie)

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

-fast

Increase speed of extracting information from JPEG images. With this option, ExifTool will not scan to the end of a JPEG image to check for an AFCP or PreviewImage trailer, or past the audio/video data in WAV/AVI files to search for appended metadata. The speed benefits are small when reading images directly from disk, but can be substantial if piping images through a network connection.

-g[NUM][:NUM...] (-groupHeadings)

Organize output by tag group. NUM specifies a group family number, and may be 0 (general location), 1 (specific location), 2 (category), 3 (document number) or 4 (instance number). Multiple families may be specified by separating them with colons. By default the resulting group name is simplified by removing any leading Main: and collapsing adjacent identical group names, but this can avoided by placing a colon before the first family number (ie. -g:3:1). If NUM is not specified, -g0 is assumed. Use the -listg option to list group names for a specified family.

-G[NUM][:NUM...] (-groupNames)

Same as -g but print group name for each tag.

-geotag TRKFILE

Geotag images from the specified GPS track log file. Using the -geotag option is equivalent to writing a value to the Geotag tag. After the -geotag option has been specified, the value of the Geotime tag is written to define a date/time for the position interpolation. If Geotime is not specified, the value is copied from DateTimeOriginal. For example, the following two commands are equivalent:

exiftool -geotag track.log image.jpg
exiftool -geotag "-Geotime<DateTimeOriginal" image.jpg

When the Geotime value is converted to UTC, the local system timezone is assumed unless the date/time value contains a timezone. Writing Geotime causes the following 8 EXIF tags to be created: GPSLatitude, GPSLatitudeRef, GPSLongitude, GPSLongitudeRef, GPSAltitude, GPSAltitudeRef, GPSDateStamp and GPSTimeStamp. Alternately XMP:Geotime may be written to create the following 5 XMP tags: GPSLatitude, GPSLongitude, GPSAltitude, GPSAltitudeRef and GPSDateTime.

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

Multiple -geotag options may be used to concatinate GPS track log data. Also, a single -geotag option may be used to load multiple track log files by using wildcards in the TRKFILE name, but note that in this case TRKFILE must be quoted on most systems (with the notable exception of Windows) to prevent filename expansion. For example:

exiftool -geotag "TRACKDIR/*.log" IMAGEDIR

Currently supported track file formats are GPX, NMEA RMC/GGA/GLL, KML, IGC, Garmin XML and TCX, and Magellan PMGNTRK. 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.

-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.

-htmlDump[OFFSET]

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 OFFSET 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.

-i DIR (-ignore)

Ignore specified directory name. May be multiple -i options.

-if EXPR

Specify a condition to be evaluated before processing each FILE. EXPR is a Perl-like expression containing tag names prefixed by $ symbols. It is evaluated with the tags from each FILE 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 name separated by a colon, and/or a trailing # character to disable print conversion. When multiple -if options are used, all conditions must be satisfied to process the file. Returns an exit status of 1 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

-j (-json)

Use JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) formatting for console output. 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, while without this option single-item lists are output as simple strings). The -a option is implied if the -g or -G options are used, otherwise it is ignored and duplicate tags are suppressed. The -b, -L and -charset options have no effect on the JSON output.

-k (-pause)

Pause with the message -- press any key -- before terminating. This option is used to prevent the command window from closing when run as a Windows drag and drop application.

-l (-long)

Use long 2-line Canon-style output format. Adds a description and unconverted value to the XML output when -X is used.

-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 [LANG]

Set current language for tag descriptions and converted values. LANG 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.

By default, ExifTool uses UTF-8 encoding for special characters, but the the -L or -charset option may be used to invoke other encodings.

Currently, the language support is not complete, but users are welcome to help improve this by submitting their own translations. To submit a set of translations, first use the -listx option and redirect the output to a file to generate an XML tag database, then add entries for other languages, zip this file, and email it to phil at owl.phy.queensu.ca for inclusion in ExifTool.

-list, -listw, -listf, -listwf, -listg[NUM], -listd, -listx

Print a list of all valid tag names (-list), all writable tag names (-listw), all recognized file extensions (-listf), all writable file extensions (-listwf), all tag groups [in a specified family] (-listg[NUM]), all deletable tag groups (-listd), or an XML database of tag details (-listx). The -list, -listw and -listx options may be followed by an additional argument of the form -GROUP:All to list all 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, NUM may be given to specify the group family, otherwise family 0 is assumed. The -s and -f options may be used with -listx to shorten the output by omitting the descriptions and values, and to add a 'flags' attribute. 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 recognized file extensions
-listwf             # list all writable file extensions
-listg1             # list all groups in family 1
-listd              # list all deletable groups
-listx -EXIF:All    # list database of EXIF tags in XML format
-listx -XMP:All -s  # list short XML database of XMP tags

Note that none of the -list options require an input FILE.

-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.

-n (--printConv)

Read and write values as numbers instead of words. By default, extracted values are converted to a more human-readable format for printing, but the -n option disables this print conversion for all tags. 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

-o OUTFILE or FMT (-out)

Set the output file or directory name when writing information. (Without this option, the original file is renamed to FILE_original and output is sent to FILE.) The output file name may also be specified using a FMT string in which %d, %f and %e represent the directory, file name and extension of FILE. Also, %c may be used to add a copy number. See the -w option for FMT string examples.

The output file is taken to be a directory name if it already exists as a directory or if the name ends with '/'. Output directories are created if necessary. Existing files will not be overwritten. Combining the -overwrite_original option with -o causes the original source file to be erased after the output file is successfully written.

A special feature of this option allows it to be used to create certain types of files from scratch. Currently, this can only be done with XMP, ICC/ICM, MIE, VRD and EXIF files. The file is created from a combination of information in FILE and tag values assigned on the command line. This is done by specifying a file extension of '.XMP', '.ICC' or '.ICM' for OUTFILE. The output file may be created even if no FILE is specified, provided some appropriate tag values are specified on the command line.

-overwrite_original

Overwrite the original FILE (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. When combined with the -o option, causes the original file to be deleted if the output file was successfully written.

-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, ownership, permissions, type, creator and icon to be preserved. This is implemented by copying the contents of a temporary file over the original, then deleting the temporary file. The extra step results in slower performance, so the -overwrite_original option should be used instead unless necessary.

-p FMTFILE or STR (-printFormat)

Print output in the format specified by the given file or string (and ignore other format options). Tag names in the format file or string begin with a $ symbol and may contain an optional group name. Case is not significant. Braces {} may be used around the tag name to separate it from subsequent text. Use $$ to represent a $ symbol. $/ may be used for a newline. In the file, lines beginning with # are ignored. For example, this format file:

# this is a comment line
File $FileName was created on $DateTimeOriginal
(f/$Aperture, ${ShutterSpeed}s, ISO $EXIF:ISO)

produces output like this:

File test.jpg was created on 2003:10:31 15:44:19
(f/5.6, 1/60s, ISO 100)

If a tag does not exist, the output value is set to '-' if the -f option is used. Otherwise a minor warning is issued and the line with the missing tag is not printed. However, if the -m option is used, minor warnings are ignored and the line is printed with an empty tag value.

-P (-preserve)

Preserve the filesystem modification date/time of the original file (FileModifyDate) when writing. Note that some filesystems (ie. Mac and Windows) store a creation date which is not preserved by this option. For these systems, the -overwrite_original_in_place option may be used to preserve the creation date.

-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.

-r (-recurse)

Recursively process files in subdirectories. Only meaningful if FILE is a directory name.

-s (-short)

Short output format. Prints tag names instead of descriptions. Add up to 3 -s options for even shorter formats:

-s        - print tag names instead of descriptions
-s -s     - no extra spaces to column-align values
-s -s -s  - print values only

Also effective when combined with -t, -h, -X or -listx options.

-S (-veryShort)

Very short format. The same as two -s options. Extra spaces used to column-align values are not printed.

-scanForXMP

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

-sep STR (-separator)

Specify separator string for items in List-type tags. When reading, the default is ", ". When writing, this option causes values assigned to list-type tags to be split into individual items at each substring matching specified separator. Space characters in the separator string match zero or more whitespace characters.

-struct

Output structured information instead of flattening to individual tags. Effective only for XML and JSON output formats (-X and -j) when extracting XMP information.

-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 also be used to add tag table information to the -X option output.

-T (-table)

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

-tagsFromFile SRCFILE or FMT

Copy tag values from SRCFILE to FILE. Tag names on the command line after this option specify the tags to be copied, or excluded from the copy. If no tags are specified, then all tags from the source file are copied. More than one -tagsFromFile option may be used to copy tags from multiple files.

By default, this option will commute information between same-named tags in different groups and write each tag to the preferred group. This allows information to be automatically translated when copying between images of different formats. However, if a group name is specified for a tag then the information is written to the original group (unless redirected to another group, see below). This works even if All is used as a group name, so -All:All is used to specify that all information be copied to the same group in the destination file.

SRCFILE may be the same as FILE to move information around within a 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 (see note 3 below). Specified tags are then copied from each file in turn as it is rewritten. For advanced batch use, the source file name may also be specified using a FMT string in which %d, %f and %e represent the directory, file name and extension of FILE. See -w option for FMT string examples.

A powerful redirection feature allows a destination tag to be specified for each extracted tag. With this feature, information may be written to a tag with a different name or group. This is done using "'-SRCTAG>DSTTAG'" on the command line after -tagsFromFile ("'-DSTTAG<SRCTAG'" also works). Note that this argument must be quoted to prevent shell redirection, and there is no = sign as when assigning new values. Both source and destination tags may be prefixed by a group name, and All or * may be used as a tag or group name. If no destination group is specified, the information is written to the preferred group. As a convenience, -tagsFromFile @ is assumed for any redirected tags which are specified without a prior -tagsFromFile option. Copied tags may also be added or deleted from a list with arguments of the form "'-SRCTAG+>DSTTAG'" or "'-SRCTAG->DSTTAG'".

An extension of the redirection feature allows strings involving tag names to be used on the right hand side of the < symbol with the syntax "'-DSTTAG<STR'", where tag names in STR are prefixed with a $ symbol. See the -p option for more details about this syntax. Strings starting with a = sign must insert a single space after the < to avoid confusion with the <= syntax which would otherwise attempt to set 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 is preserved.

See "COPYING EXAMPLES" for examples using -tagsFromFile.

Notes:

1) Be aware of the difference between excluding a tag from being copied (--TAG), and deleting a tag (-TAG=). Excluding a tag prevents it from being copied to the destination image, but deleting will remove a pre-existing tag from the image.

2) The maker note information is copied as a block, so it isn't affected like other information by subsequent tag assignments on the command line. Also, since the PreviewImage referenced from the maker notes may be rather large, it is not copied, and must be transferred separately if desired.

3) When performing complex batch processing, it is important to note that the order of operations is different for tags copied in batch mode. In general, tags are copied from batch-mode files after all other command-line arguments have been applied. For example, the following two commands are not equivalent:

# (not batch mode):  Sets xmp:title to 'NEW'
exiftool -tagsfromfile a.jpg -xmp:title -xmp:title=NEW a.jpg

# (batch mode):  Preserves original title if it exists
exiftool -tagsfromfile @ -xmp:title -xmp:title=NEW a.jpg

4) The normal behaviour of copied tags differs subtly from that of assigned tags for List-type tags. When copying to a list, each copied tag overrides any previous operations on the list. While this avoids duplicate list items when copying groups of tags from a file containing redundant information, it also prevents values of different tags from being copied into the same list when this is the intent. So a -addTagsFromFile option is provided which allows copying of multiple tags into the same list. ie)

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

Other than this difference, the -tagsFromFile and -addTagsFromFile options are equivalent.

-u (-unknown)

Extract values of unknown tags. Add another -u to also extract unknown information from binary data blocks.

-U (-unknown2)

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

-use MODULE

Add features from specified plug-in MODULE. 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. To save typing, -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.

-v[NUM] (-verbose)

Print verbose messages. NUM specifies the level of verbosity in the range 0-5, with higher numbers being more verbose. If NUM is not given, then each -v option increases the level of verbosity by 1. Using -v overrides most other options and suppresses normal console output unless specific tags are being extracted. -v0 is used when writing to print only the processed file names, and the "Nothing changed" message for files that were not modified.

-ver

Print exiftool version number.

-w EXT or FMT (-textOut)

Write console output to a file with name ending in EXT 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 EXT if it doesn't already contain one). Alternatively, a FMT 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"...

Existing files will not be overwritten, and output directories are created automatically if necessary.

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) It is not possible to specify a simple filename as an argument for -w. Instead, this simple case is accomplished using shell redirection:

exiftool FILE > out.txt

Advanced features: A substring of the original file name, directory or extension may be taken by specifying a field width immediately following the '%' character. If the width is negative, the substring is taken from the end. The substring position (characters to ignore at the start or end of the string) may be given by a second optional value after a decimal point. For example:

Input File Name     Format Specifier    Output File Name
----------------    ----------------    ----------------
Picture-123.jpg     %7f.txt             Picture.txt
Picture-123.jpg     %-.4f.out           Picture.out
Picture-123.jpg     %7f.%-3f            Picture.123
Picture-123a.jpg    Meta%-3.1f.txt      Meta123.txt

For %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, a copy number of zero is omitted, but this can be changed by adding a decimal point to the modifier. For example:

-w A%-cZ.txt      # AZ.txt, A-1Z.txt, A-2Z.txt ...
-w B%5c.txt       # B.txt, B00001.txt, B00002.txt ...
-w C%.c.txt       # C0.txt, C1.txt, C2.txt ...
-w D%-.c.txt      # D-0.txt, D-1.txt, D-2.txt ...
-w E%-.4c.txt     # E-0000.txt, E-0001.txt, E-0002.txt ...
-w F%-.4nc.txt    # F-0001.txt, F-0002.txt, F-0003.txt ...
-w G%+c.txt       # G.txt, G_1.txt G_2.txt ...
-w H%-lc.txt      # H.txt, H-b.txt, H-c.txt ...

A special feature allows the copy number to be incremented for each processed file by using %C (upper case) instead of %c. This allows a sequential number to be added to output file names, even if the names are different. For %C, the number before the decimal place gives the starting index, and the number after the decimal place gives the field width. The following examples show the output filenames when used with the command exiftool rose.jpg star.jpg jet.jpg ...:

-w %C%f.txt       # 0rose.txt, 1star.txt, 2jet.txt
-w %f-%10C.txt    # rose-10.txt, star-11.txt, jet-12.txt
-w %.3C-%f.txt    # 000-rose.txt, 001-star.txt, 002-jet.txt
-w %57.4C%f.txt   # 0057rose.txt, 0058star.txt, 0059jet.txt

All format codes may be modified by 'l' or 'u' to specify lower or upper case respectively (ie. %le for a lower case file extension). When used to modify %c or %C, the numbers are changed to an alphabetical base (see example H above). Also, %c may be modified by 'n' to count using natural numbers starting from 1, instead of 0 (see example F).

This same FMT syntax is used with the -o and -tagsFromFile options, although %c is only valid for output file names.

-x TAG (-exclude)

Exclude the specified tag. There may be multiple -x options. This has the same effect as --TAG on the command line. May also be used following a -tagsFromFile option to exclude tags from being copied.

-X (-xmlFormat)

Use 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, 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 causes tag table information (table name, decimal tag id, and index for cases where multiple conditional tags exist with the same ID) to be included in the output.

-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 installed on the system.) When writing, causes compressed information to be written if supported by the image format. (ie. The PNG format supports compressed text.)

Advanced Options

Among other things, the advanced options allow complex processing to be performed from a single command without the need for additional scripting. This may be particularly useful for implementations such as Windows drag-and-drop applications. These options may also be used to improve performance in multi-pass processing by reducing the overhead required to load exiftool for each invocation.

-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 -@ ARGFILE.
-config CFGFILE: Load specified configuration file instead of the default ".ExifTool_config". If used, this option must come before all other arguments on the command line. The CFGFILE name must include the full path specification, or may be set to an empty string ("") to disable loading of the config file. See the sample configuration file and "config.html" in the full ExifTool distribution for more information about the ExifTool configuration file.
-execute: Execute command for all arguments up to this point on the command line. Allows multiple commands to be executed from a single command line.
-srcfile FMT: Specify a different source file to be processed based on the name of the original file. 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 FMT syntax. Note that file name FMT strings for all options are based on the original file name specified on the command line, not the name of the source file specified by -srcfile.

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 but functionally-different characters by the text formatter used to display this documentation.

exiftool -a -u -g1 a.jpg: Print all meta information in an image, including duplicate and unknown tags, sorted by group (for family 1).
exiftool -common dir: Print common meta information for all images in dir.
exiftool -T -createdate -aperture -shutterspeed -iso dir > out.txt: List 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 into files with the same names but with a .txt extension.
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 -b -ThumbnailImage image.jpg > thumbnail.jpg: Save thumbnail image from image.jpg to a file called thumbnail.jpg.
exiftool -b -PreviewImage 118_1834.JPG > preview.jpg: Extract preview image from JPG file and write it to preview.jpg.
exiftool -b -JpgFromRaw -w _JFR.JPG -ext CRW -r .: Recursively extract JPG image from all Canon CRW files in the current directory, adding _JFR.JPG for the name of the output JPG files.
exiftool -d '%r %a, %B %e, %Y' -DateTimeOriginal -S -s *.jpg: Print formatted date/time for all JPG files in a directory.
exiftool -IFD1:XResolution -IFD1:YResolution image.jpg: Extract image resolution from EXIF IFD1 information (thumbnail image IFD).
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 -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'.

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 (ie. -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 *.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 -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 neccessary to prevent shell redirection).
exiftool '-JpgFromRaw<=%d%f_JFR.JPG' -ext CRW -r .: Recursively write JPEG images with filenames ending in _JFR.JPG to the JpgFromRaw tag of like-named files with extension .CRW 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 -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 -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.crw dst.jpg: Copy the values of all writable tags from src.crw to dst.jpg, writing the information to 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 XMP, ICC and MIE files may be created like this (other file types 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: Copy only the EXIF information from one image to another, excluding SubIFD tags.
exiftool '-DateTimeOriginal>FileModifyDate' 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 '-all>xmp:all' dst.jpg: Copy all possible information from src.jpg and write in XMP format to dst.jpg.
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 is xmp2iptc.args, which performs the inverse conversion.
exiftool -tagsfromfile %d%f.CRW -r -ext JPG dir: Recursively rewrite all JPG images in dir with information copied from the corresponding CRW images in the same directories.
exiftool '-make+>keywords' 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 -if '$jpgfromraw' -b -jpgfromraw -w %d%f_%ue.jpg -execute -if '$previewimage' -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).

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.)

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. ie) 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 '-filename<%f_${focallength}.%e' dir: Rename all files in dir by adding FocalLength to the file name.
exiftool '-FileName<CreateDate' -d %Y%m%d_%H%M%S%%-c.%%e dir: Rename all images in dir according to the CreateDate date and time, adding a copy number with leading '-' if the file already exists (%-c), and preserving the original file extension (%e). Note the extra '%' necessary to escape the filename codes (%c and %e) in the date format string.
exiftool -r '-FileName<CreateDate' -d %Y-%m-%d/%H%M_%%f.%%e dir: Both the directory and the filename may be changed together via the FileName tag if the new FileName contains a '/'. The example above recursively renames all images in a directory by adding a CreateDate timestamp to the start of the filename, then moves them into new directories named by date.
exiftool '-FileName<${CreateDate}_$filenumber.jpg' -d %Y%m%d *.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 -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 -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. (Note that the Geotag tag must be assigned before Geotime for the GPS data to be available when Geotime is set.)
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. (In this case, the order of the arguments doesn't matter because tags with values copied from other tags are always set after constant values.)
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 '-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.
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.

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.
wget -qO - http://a.domain.com/bigfile.jpg | exiftool -fast -: Extract information from an image over the internet using the GNU wget 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.)

BUGS

ExifTool does not handle information stored in the resource fork on Macintosh filesystems.

AUTHOR

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

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