1EXIFTOOL(1)           User Contributed Perl Documentation          EXIFTOOL(1)
2
3
4

NAME

6       exiftool - Read and write meta information in files
7

SYNOPSIS

9   Reading
10       exiftool [OPTIONS] [-TAG...] [--TAG...] FILE...
11
12   Writing
13       exiftool [OPTIONS] -TAG[+-<]=[VALUE]... FILE...
14
15   Copying
16       exiftool [OPTIONS] -tagsFromFile SRCFILE [-SRCTAG[>DSTTAG]...] FILE...
17
18   Other
19       exiftool [ -ver | -list[w|f|r|wf|g[NUM]|d|x] ]
20
21       For specific examples, see the EXAMPLES sections below.
22
23       This documentation is displayed if exiftool is run without an input
24       FILE when one is expected.
25

DESCRIPTION

27       A command-line interface to Image::ExifTool, used for reading and
28       writing meta information in a variety of file types.  FILE is one or
29       more source file names, directory names, or "-" for the standard input.
30       Metadata is read from source files and printed in readable form to the
31       console (or written to output text files with -w).
32
33       To write or delete metadata, tag values are assigned using
34       -TAG=[VALUE], and/or the -geotag, -csv= or -json= options.  To copy or
35       move metadata, the -tagsFromFile feature is used.  By default the
36       original files are preserved with "_original" appended to their names
37       -- be sure to verify that the new files are OK before erasing the
38       originals.  Once in write mode, exiftool will ignore any read-specific
39       options.
40
41       Note:  If FILE is a directory name then only supported file types in
42       the directory are processed (in write mode only writable types are
43       processed).  However, files may be specified by name, or the -ext
44       option may be used to force processing of files with any extension.
45       Hidden files in the directory are also processed.  Adding the -r option
46       causes subdirectories to be processed recursively, but those with names
47       beginning with "." are skipped unless -r. is used.
48
49       Below is a list of file types and meta information formats currently
50       supported by ExifTool (r = read, w = write, c = create):
51
52         File Types
53         ------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+------------
54         3FR   r     | DSS   r     | JNG   r/w   | ODS   r     | RIFF  r
55         3G2   r/w   | DV    r     | JP2   r/w   | ODT   r     | RSRC  r
56         3GP   r/w   | DVB   r/w   | JPEG  r/w   | OFR   r     | RTF   r
57         A     r     | DVR-MS r    | JSON  r     | OGG   r     | RW2   r/w
58         AA    r     | DYLIB r     | K25   r     | OGV   r     | RWL   r/w
59         AAE   r     | EIP   r     | KDC   r     | OPUS  r     | RWZ   r
60         AAX   r/w   | EPS   r/w   | KEY   r     | ORF   r/w   | RM    r
61         ACR   r     | EPUB  r     | LA    r     | OTF   r     | SEQ   r
62         AFM   r     | ERF   r/w   | LFP   r     | PAC   r     | SKETCH r
63         AI    r/w   | EXE   r     | LNK   r     | PAGES r     | SO    r
64         AIFF  r     | EXIF  r/w/c | LRV   r/w   | PBM   r/w   | SR2   r/w
65         APE   r     | EXR   r     | M2TS  r     | PCD   r     | SRF   r
66         ARQ   r/w   | EXV   r/w/c | M4A/V r/w   | PCX   r     | SRW   r/w
67         ARW   r/w   | F4A/V r/w   | MAX   r     | PDB   r     | SVG   r
68         ASF   r     | FFF   r/w   | MEF   r/w   | PDF   r/w   | SWF   r
69         AVI   r     | FLA   r     | MIE   r/w/c | PEF   r/w   | THM   r/w
70         AZW   r     | FLAC  r     | MIFF  r     | PFA   r     | TIFF  r/w
71         BMP   r     | FLIF  r/w   | MKA   r     | PFB   r     | TORRENT r
72         BPG   r     | FLV   r     | MKS   r     | PFM   r     | TTC   r
73         BTF   r     | FPF   r     | MKV   r     | PGF   r     | TTF   r
74         CHM   r     | FPX   r     | MNG   r/w   | PGM   r/w   | VCF   r
75         COS   r     | GIF   r/w   | MOBI  r     | PLIST r     | VRD   r/w/c
76         CR2   r/w   | GPR   r/w   | MODD  r     | PICT  r     | VSD   r
77         CR3   r/w   | GZ    r     | MOI   r     | PMP   r     | WAV   r
78         CRM   r/w   | HDP   r/w   | MOS   r/w   | PNG   r/w   | WDP   r/w
79         CRW   r/w   | HDR   r     | MOV   r/w   | PPM   r/w   | WEBP  r
80         CS1   r/w   | HEIC  r     | MP3   r     | PPT   r     | WEBM  r
81         DCM   r     | HEIF  r     | MP4   r/w   | PPTX  r     | WMA   r
82         DCP   r/w   | HTML  r     | MPC   r     | PS    r/w   | WMV   r
83         DCR   r     | ICC   r/w/c | MPG   r     | PSB   r/w   | WTV   r
84         DFONT r     | ICS   r     | MPO   r/w   | PSD   r/w   | WV    r
85         DIVX  r     | IDML  r     | MQV   r/w   | PSP   r     | X3F   r/w
86         DJVU  r     | IIQ   r/w   | MRW   r/w   | QTIF  r/w   | XCF   r
87         DLL   r     | IND   r/w   | MXF   r     | R3D   r     | XLS   r
88         DNG   r/w   | INSV  r     | NEF   r/w   | RA    r     | XLSX  r
89         DOC   r     | INX   r     | NRW   r/w   | RAF   r/w   | XMP   r/w/c
90         DOCX  r     | ISO   r     | NUMBERS r   | RAM   r     | ZIP   r
91         DPX   r     | ITC   r     | O     r     | RAR   r     |
92         DR4   r/w/c | J2C   r     | ODP   r     | RAW   r/w   |
93
94         Meta Information
95         ----------------------+----------------------+---------------------
96         EXIF           r/w/c  |  CIFF           r/w  |  Ricoh RMETA    r
97         GPS            r/w/c  |  AFCP           r/w  |  Picture Info   r
98         IPTC           r/w/c  |  Kodak Meta     r/w  |  Adobe APP14    r
99         XMP            r/w/c  |  FotoStation    r/w  |  MPF            r
100         MakerNotes     r/w/c  |  PhotoMechanic  r/w  |  Stim           r
101         Photoshop IRB  r/w/c  |  JPEG 2000      r    |  DPX            r
102         ICC Profile    r/w/c  |  DICOM          r    |  APE            r
103         MIE            r/w/c  |  Flash          r    |  Vorbis         r
104         JFIF           r/w/c  |  FlashPix       r    |  SPIFF          r
105         Ducky APP12    r/w/c  |  QuickTime      r    |  DjVu           r
106         PDF            r/w/c  |  Matroska       r    |  M2TS           r
107         PNG            r/w/c  |  MXF            r    |  PE/COFF        r
108         Canon VRD      r/w/c  |  PrintIM        r    |  AVCHD          r
109         Nikon Capture  r/w/c  |  FLAC           r    |  ZIP            r
110         GeoTIFF        r/w/c  |  ID3            r    |  (and more)
111

OPTIONS

113       Case is not significant for any command-line option (including tag and
114       group names), except for single-character options when the
115       corresponding upper-case option exists.  Many single-character options
116       have equivalent long-name versions (shown in brackets), and some
117       options have inverses which are invoked with a leading double-dash.
118       Unrecognized options are interpreted as tag names (for this reason,
119       multiple single-character options may NOT be combined into one
120       argument).  Contrary to standard practice, options may appear after
121       source file names on the exiftool command line.
122
123   Option Summary
124       Tag operations
125
126         -TAG or --TAG                    Extract or exclude specified tag
127         -TAG[+-^]=[VALUE]                Write new value for tag
128         -TAG[+-]<=DATFILE                Write tag value from contents of file
129         -TAG[+-]<SRCTAG                  Copy tag value (see -tagsFromFile)
130
131         -tagsFromFile SRCFILE            Copy tag values from file
132         -x TAG      (-exclude)           Exclude specified tag
133
134       Input-output text formatting
135
136         -args       (-argFormat)         Format metadata as exiftool arguments
137         -b          (-binary)            Output metadata in binary format
138         -c FMT      (-coordFormat)       Set format for GPS coordinates
139         -charset [[TYPE=]CHARSET]        Specify encoding for special characters
140         -csv[[+]=CSVFILE]                Export/import tags in CSV format
141         -d FMT      (-dateFormat)        Set format for date/time values
142         -D          (-decimal)           Show tag ID numbers in decimal
143         -E, -ex     (-escape(HTML|XML))  Escape values for HTML (-E) or XML (-ex)
144         -f          (-forcePrint)        Force printing of all specified tags
145         -g[NUM...]  (-groupHeadings)     Organize output by tag group
146         -G[NUM...]  (-groupNames)        Print group name for each tag
147         -h          (-htmlFormat)        Use HMTL formatting for output
148         -H          (-hex)               Show tag ID numbers in hexadecimal
149         -htmlDump[OFFSET]                Generate HTML-format binary dump
150         -j[[+]=JSONFILE] (-json)         Export/import tags in JSON format
151         -l          (-long)              Use long 2-line output format
152         -L          (-latin)             Use Windows Latin1 encoding
153         -lang [LANG]                     Set current language
154         -listItem INDEX                  Extract specific item from a list
155         -n          (--printConv)        No print conversion
156         -p FMTFILE  (-printFormat)       Print output in specified format
157         -php                             Export tags as a PHP Array
158         -s[NUM]     (-short)             Short output format
159         -S          (-veryShort)         Very short output format
160         -sep STR    (-separator)         Set separator string for list items
161         -sort                            Sort output alphabetically
162         -struct                          Enable output of structured information
163         -t          (-tab)               Output in tab-delimited list format
164         -T          (-table)             Output in tabular format
165         -v[NUM]     (-verbose)           Print verbose messages
166         -w[+|!] EXT (-textOut)           Write (or overwrite!) output text files
167         -W[+|!] FMT (-tagOut)            Write output text file for each tag
168         -Wext EXT   (-tagOutExt)         Write only specified file types with -W
169         -X          (-xmlFormat)         Use RDF/XML output format
170
171       Processing control
172
173         -a          (-duplicates)        Allow duplicate tags to be extracted
174         -e          (--composite)        Do not calculate composite tags
175         -ee         (-extractEmbedded)   Extract information from embedded files
176         -ext[+] EXT (-extension)         Process files with specified extension
177         -F[OFFSET]  (-fixBase)           Fix the base for maker notes offsets
178         -fast[NUM]                       Increase speed for slow devices
179         -fileOrder [-]TAG                Set file processing order
180         -i DIR      (-ignore)            Ignore specified directory name
181         -if[NUM] EXPR                    Conditionally process files
182         -m          (-ignoreMinorErrors) Ignore minor errors and warnings
183         -o OUTFILE  (-out)               Set output file or directory name
184         -overwrite_original              Overwrite original by renaming tmp file
185         -overwrite_original_in_place     Overwrite original by copying tmp file
186         -P          (-preserve)          Preserve file modification date/time
187         -password PASSWD                 Password for processing protected files
188         -progress[:[TITLE]]              Show file progress count
189         -q          (-quiet)             Quiet processing
190         -r[.]       (-recurse)           Recursively process subdirectories
191         -scanForXMP                      Brute force XMP scan
192         -u          (-unknown)           Extract unknown tags
193         -U          (-unknown2)          Extract unknown binary tags too
194         -wm MODE    (-writeMode)         Set mode for writing/creating tags
195         -z          (-zip)               Read/write compressed information
196
197       Other options
198
199         -@ ARGFILE                       Read command-line arguments from file
200         -k          (-pause)             Pause before terminating
201         -list[w|f|wf|g[NUM]|d|x]         List various exiftool capabilities
202         -ver                             Print exiftool version number
203
204       Special features
205
206         -geotag TRKFILE                  Geotag images from specified GPS log
207         -globalTimeShift SHIFT           Shift all formatted date/time values
208         -use MODULE                      Add features from plug-in module
209
210       Utilities
211
212         -delete_original[!]              Delete "_original" backups
213         -restore_original                Restore from "_original" backups
214
215       Advanced options
216
217         -api OPT[[^]=[VAL]]              Set ExifTool API option
218         -common_args                     Define common arguments
219         -config CFGFILE                  Specify configuration file name
220         -echo[NUM] TEXT                  Echo text to stdout or stderr
221         -execute[NUM]                    Execute multiple commands on one line
222         -srcfile FMT                     Process a different source file
223         -stay_open FLAG                  Keep reading -@ argfile even after EOF
224         -userParam PARAM[[^]=[VAL]]      Set user parameter (API UserParam opt)
225
226   Option Details
227       Tag operations
228
229       -TAG Extract information for the specified tag (eg. "-CreateDate").
230            Multiple tags may be specified in a single command.  A tag name is
231            the handle by which a piece of information is referenced.  See
232            Image::ExifTool::TagNames for documentation on available tag
233            names.  A tag name may include leading group names separated by
234            colons (eg. "-EXIF:CreateDate", or "-Doc1:XMP:Creator"), and each
235            group name may be prefixed by a digit to specify family number
236            (eg.  "-1IPTC:City").  Use the -listg option to list available
237            group names by family.
238
239            A special tag name of "All" may be used to indicate all meta
240            information (ie. -All). This is particularly useful when a group
241            name is specified to extract all information in a group (but
242            beware that unless the -a option is also used, some tags in the
243            group may be suppressed by same-named tags in other groups).  The
244            wildcard characters "?" and "*" may be used in a tag name to match
245            any single character and zero or more characters respectively.
246             These may not be used in a group name, with the exception that a
247            group name of "*" (or "All") may be used to extract all instances
248            of a tag (as if -a was used). Note that arguments containing
249            wildcards must be quoted on the command line of most systems to
250            prevent shell globbing.
251
252            A "#" may be appended to the tag name to disable the print
253            conversion on a per-tag basis (see the -n option).  This may also
254            be used when writing or copying tags.
255
256            If no tags are specified, all available information is extracted
257            (as if "-All" had been specified).
258
259            Note:  Descriptions, not tag names, are shown by default when
260            extracting information.  Use the -s option to see the tag names
261            instead.
262
263       --TAG
264            Exclude specified tag from extracted information.  Same as the -x
265            option.  Group names and wildcards are permitted as described
266            above for -TAG.  Once excluded from the output, a tag may not be
267            re-included by a subsequent option.  May also be used following a
268            -tagsFromFile option to exclude tags from being copied (when
269            redirecting to another tag, it is the source tag that should be
270            excluded), or to exclude groups from being deleted when deleting
271            all information (eg. "-all= --exif:all" deletes all but EXIF
272            information).  But note that this will not exclude individual tags
273            from a group delete (unless a family 2 group is specified, see
274            note 4 below).  Instead, individual tags may be recovered using
275            the -tagsFromFile option (eg. "-all= -tagsfromfile @ -artist").
276
277       -TAG[+-^]=[VALUE]
278            Write a new value for the specified tag (eg. "-comment=wow"), or
279            delete the tag if no VALUE is given (eg. "-comment=").  "+=" and
280            "-=" are used to add or remove existing entries from a list, or to
281            shift date/time values (see Image::ExifTool::Shift.pl and note 6
282            below for more details).  "+=" may also be used to increment
283            numerical values (or decrement if VALUE is negative), and "-=" may
284            be used to conditionally delete or replace a tag (see "WRITING
285            EXAMPLES" for examples).  "^=" is used to write an empty string
286            instead of deleting the tag when no VALUE is given, but otherwise
287            it is equivalent to "=".
288
289            TAG may contain one or more leading family 0, 1 or 2 group names,
290            prefixed by optional family numbers, and separated colons.  If no
291            group name is specified, the tag is created in the preferred
292            group, and updated in any other location where a same-named tag
293            already exists.  The preferred group is the first group in the
294            following list where TAG is valid: 1) EXIF, 2) IPTC, 3) XMP.
295
296            The wildcards "*" and "?" may be used in tag names to assign the
297            same value to multiple tags.  When specified with wildcards,
298            "unsafe" tags are not written.  A tag name of "All" is equivalent
299            to "*" (except that it doesn't require quoting, while arguments
300            with wildcards do on systems with shell globbing), and is often
301            used when deleting all metadata (ie. "-All=") or an entire group
302            (eg. "-XMP-dc:All=", see note 4 below).  Note that not all groups
303            are deletable, and that the JPEG APP14 "Adobe" group is not
304            removed by default with "-All=" because it may affect the
305            appearance of the image.  However, color space information is
306            removed, so the colors may be affected (but this may be avoided by
307            copying back the tags defined by the ColorSpaceTags shortcut).
308            Use the -listd option for a complete list of deletable groups, and
309            see note 5 below regarding the "APP" groups.  Also, within an
310            image some groups may be contained within others, and these groups
311            are removed if the containing group is deleted:
312
313              JPEG Image:
314              - Deleting EXIF or IFD0 also deletes ExifIFD, GlobParamIFD,
315                GPS, IFD1, InteropIFD, MakerNotes, PrintIM and SubIFD.
316              - Deleting ExifIFD also deletes InteropIFD and MakerNotes.
317              - Deleting Photoshop also deletes IPTC.
318
319              TIFF Image:
320              - Deleting EXIF only removes ExifIFD which also deletes
321                InteropIFD and MakerNotes.
322
323            Notes:
324
325            1) Many tag values may be assigned in a single command.  If two
326            assignments affect the same tag, the latter takes precedence
327            (except for list-type tags, for which both values are written).
328
329            2) In general, MakerNotes tags are considered "Permanent", and may
330            be edited but not created or deleted individually.  This avoids
331            many potential problems, including the inevitable compatibility
332            problems with OEM software which may be very inflexible about the
333            information it expects to find in the maker notes.
334
335            3) Changes to PDF files by ExifTool are reversible (by deleting
336            the update with "-PDF-update:all=") because the original
337            information is never actually deleted from the file.  So ExifTool
338            alone may not be used to securely edit metadata in PDF files.
339
340            4) Specifying "-GROUP:all=" deletes the entire group as a block
341            only if a single family 0 or 1 group is specified.  Otherwise all
342            deletable tags in the specified group(s) are removed individually,
343            and in this case is it possible to exclude individual tags from a
344            mass delete.  For example, "-time:all --Exif:Time:All" removes all
345            deletable Time tags except those in the EXIF.  This difference
346            also applies if family 2 is specified when deleting all groups.
347            For example, "-2all:all=" deletes tags individually, while
348            "-all:all=" deletes entire blocks.
349
350            5) The "APP" group names ("APP0" through "APP15") are used to
351            delete JPEG application segments which are not associated with
352            another deletable group.  For example, specifying "-APP14:All="
353            will NOT delete the APP14 "Adobe" segment because this is
354            accomplished with "-Adobe:All".
355
356            6) When shifting a value, the shift is applied to the original
357            value of the tag, overriding any other values previously assigned
358            to the tag on the same command line.  To shift a date/time value
359            and copy it to another tag in the same operation, use the
360            -globalTimeShift option.
361
362            Special feature:  Integer values may be specified in hexadecimal
363            with a leading "0x", and simple rational values may be specified
364            as fractions.
365
366       -TAG<=DATFILE or -TAG<=FMT
367            Set the value of a tag from the contents of file DATFILE.  The
368            file name may also be given by a FMT string where %d, %f and %e
369            represent the directory, file name and extension of the original
370            FILE (see the -w option for more details).  Note that quotes are
371            required around this argument to prevent shell redirection since
372            it contains a "<" symbol.  If DATFILE/FMT is not provided, the
373            effect is the same as "-TAG=", and the tag is simply deleted.
374            "+<=" or "-<=" may also be used to add or delete specific list
375            entries, or to shift date/time values.
376
377       -tagsFromFile SRCFILE or FMT
378            Copy tag values from SRCFILE to FILE.  Tag names on the command
379            line after this option specify the tags to be copied, or excluded
380            from the copy.  Wildcards are permitted in these tag names.  If no
381            tags are specified, then all possible tags (see note 1 below) from
382            the source file are copied to same-named tags in the preferred
383            location of the output file (the same as specifying "-all").  More
384            than one -tagsFromFile option may be used to copy tags from
385            multiple files.
386
387            By default, this option will update any existing and writable
388            same-named tags in the output FILE, but will create new tags only
389            in their preferred groups.  This allows some information to be
390            automatically transferred to the appropriate group when copying
391            between images of different formats. However, if a group name is
392            specified for a tag then the information is written only to this
393            group (unless redirected to another group, see below).  If "All"
394            is used as a group name, then the specified tag(s) are written to
395            the same family 1 group they had in the source file (ie. the same
396            specific location, like ExifIFD or XMP-dc).  For example, the
397            common operation of copying all writable tags to the same specific
398            locations in the output FILE is achieved by adding "-all:all".  A
399            different family may be specified by adding a leading family
400            number to the group name (eg. "-0all:all" preserves the same
401            general location, like EXIF or XMP).
402
403            SRCFILE may be the same as FILE to move information around within
404            a single file.  In this case, "@" may be used to represent the
405            source file (ie. "-tagsFromFile @"), permitting this feature to be
406            used for batch processing multiple files.  Specified tags are then
407            copied from each file in turn as it is rewritten.  For advanced
408            batch use, the source file name may also be specified using a FMT
409            string in which %d, %f and %e represent the directory, file name
410            and extension of FILE.  (eg. the current FILE would be represented
411            by "%d%f.%e", with the same effect as "@").  See the -w option for
412            FMT string examples.
413
414            A powerful redirection feature allows a destination tag to be
415            specified for each copied tag.  With this feature, information may
416            be written to a tag with a different name or group.  This is done
417            using "'-DSTTAG<SRCTAG'" or "'-SRCTAG>DSTTAG'" on the command line
418            after -tagsFromFile, and causes the value of SRCTAG to be copied
419            from SRCFILE and written to DSTTAG in FILE.  Has no effect unless
420            SRCTAG exists in SRCFILE.  Note that this argument must be quoted
421            to prevent shell redirection, and there is no "=" sign as when
422            assigning new values.  Source and/or destination tags may be
423            prefixed by a group name and/or suffixed by "#".  Wildcards are
424            allowed in both the source and destination tag names.  A
425            destination group and/or tag name of "All" or "*" writes to the
426            same family 1 group and/or tag name as the source.  If no
427            destination group is specified, the information is written to the
428            preferred group.  Whitespace around the ">" or "<" is ignored. As
429            a convenience, "-tagsFromFile @" is assumed for any redirected
430            tags which are specified without a prior -tagsFromFile option.
431            Copied tags may also be added or deleted from a list with
432            arguments of the form "'-SRCTAG+<DSTTAG'" or "'-SRCTAG-<DSTTAG'"
433            (but see Note 5 below).
434
435            An extension of the redirection feature allows strings involving
436            tag names to be used on the right hand side of the "<" symbol with
437            the syntax "'-DSTTAG<STR'", where tag names in STR are prefixed
438            with a "$" symbol.  See the -p option and the "Advanced formatting
439            feature" section for more details about this syntax.  Strings
440            starting with a "=" sign must insert a single space after the "<"
441            to avoid confusion with the "<=" operator which sets the tag value
442            from the contents of a file.  A single space at the start of the
443            string is removed if it exists, but all other whitespace in the
444            string is preserved.  See note 8 below about using the redirection
445            feature with list-type stags, shortcuts or when using wildcards in
446            tag names.
447
448            See "COPYING EXAMPLES" for examples using -tagsFromFile.
449
450            Notes:
451
452            1) Some tags (generally tags which may affect the appearance of
453            the image) are considered "unsafe" to write, and are only copied
454            if specified explicitly (ie. no wildcards).  See the tag name
455            documentation for more details about "unsafe" tags.
456
457            2) Be aware of the difference between excluding a tag from being
458            copied (--TAG), and deleting a tag (-TAG=).  Excluding a tag
459            prevents it from being copied to the destination image, but
460            deleting will remove a pre-existing tag from the image.
461
462            3) The maker note information is copied as a block, so it isn't
463            affected like other information by subsequent tag assignments on
464            the command line, and individual makernote tags may not be
465            excluded from a block copy.  Also, since the PreviewImage
466            referenced from the maker notes may be rather large, it is not
467            copied, and must be transferred separately if desired.
468
469            4) The order of operations is to copy all specified tags at the
470            point of the -tagsFromFile option in the command line.  Any tag
471            assignment to the right of the -tagsFromFile option is made after
472            all tags are copied.  For example, new tag values are set in the
473            order One, Two, Three then Four with this command:
474
475                exiftool -One=1 -tagsFromFile s.jpg -Two -Four=4 -Three d.jpg
476
477            This is significant in the case where an overlap exists between
478            the copied and assigned tags because later operations may override
479            earlier ones.
480
481            5) The normal behaviour of copied tags differs from that of
482            assigned tags for list-type tags and conditional replacements
483            because each copy operation on a tag overrides any previous
484            operations.  While this avoids duplicate list items when copying
485            groups of tags from a file containing redundant information, it
486            also prevents values of different tags from being copied into the
487            same list when this is the intent.  So a -addTagsFromFile option
488            is provided which allows copying of multiple tags into the same
489            list.  eg)
490
491                exiftool -addtagsfromfile @ '-subject<make' '-subject<model' ...
492
493            Similarly, -addTagsFromFile must be used when conditionally
494            replacing a tag to prevent overriding earlier conditions.
495
496            Other than these differences, the -tagsFromFile and
497            -addTagsFromFile options are equivalent.
498
499            6) The -a option (allow duplicate tags) is always in effect when
500            copying tags from SRCFILE.
501
502            7) Structured tags are copied by default when copying tags.  See
503            the -struct option for details.
504
505            8) With the redirection feature, copying a tag directly (ie.
506            "'-DSTTAG<SRCTAG'") is not the same as interpolating its value
507            inside a string (ie. "'-DSTTAG<$SRCTAG'") for list-type tags,
508            shortcut tags, or tag names containing wildcards.  When copying
509            directly, the values of each matching source tag are copied
510            individually to the destination tag (as if they were separate
511            assignments).  However, when interpolated inside a string, list
512            items and the values of shortcut tags are concatenated (with a
513            separator set by the -sep option), and wildcards are not allowed.
514            Also, UserParam variables are available only when interpolated in
515            a string.
516
517       -x TAG (-exclude)
518            Exclude the specified tag.  There may be multiple -x options.
519            This has the same effect as --TAG on the command line.  See the
520            --TAG documentation above for a complete description.
521
522       Input-output text formatting
523
524       Note that trailing spaces are removed from extracted values for most
525       output text formats.  The exceptions are "-b", "-csv", "-j" and "-X".
526
527       -args (-argFormat)
528            Output information in the form of exiftool arguments, suitable for
529            use with the -@ option when writing.  May be combined with the -G
530            option to include group names.  This feature may be used to
531            effectively copy tags between images, but allows the metadata to
532            be altered by editing the intermediate file ("out.args" in this
533            example):
534
535                exiftool -args -G1 --filename --directory src.jpg > out.args
536                exiftool -@ out.args -sep ", " dst.jpg
537
538            Note:  Be careful when copying information with this technique
539            since it is easy to write tags which are normally considered
540            "unsafe".  For instance, the FileName and Directory tags are
541            excluded in the example above to avoid renaming and moving the
542            destination file.  Also note that the second command above will
543            produce warning messages for any tags which are not writable.
544
545            As well, the -sep option should be used as in the second command
546            above to maintain separate list items when writing metadata back
547            to image files, and the -struct option may be used when extracting
548            to preserve structured XMP information.
549
550       -b (-binary)
551            Output requested metadata in binary format without tag names or
552            descriptions.  This option is mainly used for extracting embedded
553            images or other binary data, but it may also be useful for some
554            text strings since control characters (such as newlines) are not
555            replaced by '.' as they are in the default output.  By default,
556            list items are separated by a newline when extracted with the -b
557            option, but this may be changed (see the -sep option for details).
558            May be combined with "-j", "-php" or "-X" to extract binary data
559            in JSON, PHP or XML format, but note that "unsafe" tags must be
560            specified explicitly to be extracted as binary in these formats.
561
562       -c FMT (-coordFormat)
563            Set the print format for GPS coordinates.  FMT uses the same
564            syntax as a "printf" format string.  The specifiers correspond to
565            degrees, minutes and seconds in that order, but minutes and
566            seconds are optional.  For example, the following table gives the
567            output for the same coordinate using various formats:
568
569                        FMT                  Output
570                -------------------    ------------------
571                "%d deg %d' %.2f"\"    54 deg 59' 22.80"  (default for reading)
572                "%d %d %.8f"           54 59 22.80000000  (default for copying)
573                "%d deg %.4f min"      54 deg 59.3800 min
574                "%.6f degrees"         54.989667 degrees
575
576            Notes:
577
578            1) To avoid loss of precision, the default coordinate format is
579            different when copying tags using the -tagsFromFile option.
580
581            2) If the hemisphere is known, a reference direction (N, S, E or
582            W) is appended to each printed coordinate, but adding a "+" to the
583            format specifier (eg. "%+.6f") prints a signed coordinate instead.
584
585            3) This print formatting may be disabled with the -n option to
586            extract coordinates as signed decimal degrees.
587
588       -charset [[TYPE=]CHARSET]
589            If TYPE is "ExifTool" or not specified, this option sets the
590            ExifTool character encoding for output tag values when reading and
591            input values when writing, with a default of "UTF8".  If no
592            CHARSET is given, a list of available character sets is returned.
593            Valid CHARSET values are:
594
595                CHARSET     Alias(es)        Description
596                ----------  ---------------  ----------------------------------
597                UTF8        cp65001, UTF-8   UTF-8 characters (default)
598                Latin       cp1252, Latin1   Windows Latin1 (West European)
599                Latin2      cp1250           Windows Latin2 (Central European)
600                Cyrillic    cp1251, Russian  Windows Cyrillic
601                Greek       cp1253           Windows Greek
602                Turkish     cp1254           Windows Turkish
603                Hebrew      cp1255           Windows Hebrew
604                Arabic      cp1256           Windows Arabic
605                Baltic      cp1257           Windows Baltic
606                Vietnam     cp1258           Windows Vietnamese
607                Thai        cp874            Windows Thai
608                DOSLatinUS  cp437            DOS Latin US
609                DOSLatin1   cp850            DOS Latin1
610                MacRoman    cp10000, Roman   Macintosh Roman
611                MacLatin2   cp10029          Macintosh Latin2 (Central Europe)
612                MacCyrillic cp10007          Macintosh Cyrillic
613                MacGreek    cp10006          Macintosh Greek
614                MacTurkish  cp10081          Macintosh Turkish
615                MacRomanian cp10010          Macintosh Romanian
616                MacIceland  cp10079          Macintosh Icelandic
617                MacCroatian cp10082          Macintosh Croatian
618
619            TYPE may be "FileName" to specify the encoding of file names on
620            the command line (ie. FILE arguments).  In Windows, this triggers
621            use of wide-character i/o routines, thus providing support for
622            Unicode file names.  See the "WINDOWS UNICODE FILE NAMES" section
623            below for details.
624
625            Other values of TYPE listed below are used to specify the internal
626            encoding of various meta information formats.
627
628                TYPE       Description                                  Default
629                ---------  -------------------------------------------  -------
630                EXIF       Internal encoding of EXIF "ASCII" strings    (none)
631                ID3        Internal encoding of ID3v1 information       Latin
632                IPTC       Internal IPTC encoding to assume when        Latin
633                            IPTC:CodedCharacterSet is not defined
634                Photoshop  Internal encoding of Photoshop IRB strings   Latin
635                QuickTime  Internal encoding of QuickTime strings       MacRoman
636                RIFF       Internal encoding of RIFF strings            0
637
638            See <http://owl.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/faq.html#Q10> for
639            more information about coded character sets, and the
640            Image::ExifTool Options for more details about the -charset
641            settings.
642
643       -csv[[+]=CSVFILE]
644            Export information in CSV format, or import information if CSVFILE
645            is specified.  When importing, the CSV file must be in exactly the
646            same format as the exported file.  The first row of the CSVFILE
647            must be the ExifTool tag names (with optional group names) for
648            each column of the file, and values must be separated by commas.
649            A special "SourceFile" column specifies the files associated with
650            each row of information (and a SourceFile of "*" may be used to
651            define default tags to be imported for all files which are
652            combined with any tags specified for the specific SourceFile
653            processed).  The following examples demonstrate basic use of this
654            option:
655
656                # generate CSV file with common tags from all images in a directory
657                exiftool -common -csv dir > out.csv
658
659                # update metadata for all images in a directory from CSV file
660                exiftool -csv=a.csv dir
661
662            Empty values are ignored when importing (unless the -f option is
663            used and the API MissingTagValue is set to an empty string, in
664            which case the tag is deleted).  Also, FileName and Directory
665            columns are ignored if they exist (ie. ExifTool will not attempt
666            to write these tags with a CSV import).  To force a tag to be
667            deleted, use the -f option and set the value to "-" in the CSV
668            file (or to the MissingTagValue if this API option was used).
669            Multiple databases may be imported in a single command.
670
671            When exporting a CSV file, the -g or -G option adds group names to
672            the tag headings.  If the -a option is used to allow duplicate tag
673            names, the duplicate tags are only included in the CSV output if
674            the column headings are unique.  Adding the -G4 option ensures a
675            unique column heading for each tag.  The -b option may be added to
676            output binary data, encoded in base64 if necessary (indicated by
677            "base64:" as the first 7 bytes of the value).  Values may also be
678            encoded in base64 if the -charset option is used and the value
679            contains invalid characters.
680
681            When exporting specific tags, the CSV columns are arranged in the
682            same order as the specified tags provided the column headings
683            exactly match the specified tag names, otherwise the columns are
684            sorted in alphabetical order.
685
686            When importing from a CSV file, only files specified on the
687            command line are processed.  Any extra entries in the CSV file are
688            ignored.
689
690            List-type tags are stored as simple strings in a CSV file, but the
691            -sep option may be used to split them back into separate items
692            when importing.
693
694            Special feature:  -csv+=CSVFILE may be used to add items to
695            existing lists.  This affects only list-type tags.  Also applies
696            to the -j option.
697
698            Note that this option is fundamentally different than all other
699            output format options because it requires information from all
700            input files to be buffered in memory before the output is written.
701            This may result in excessive memory usage when processing a very
702            large number of files with a single command.  Also, it makes this
703            option incompatible with the -w option.
704
705       -d FMT (-dateFormat)
706            Set the format for date/time tag values.  The FMT string may
707            contain formatting codes beginning with a percent character ("%")
708            to represent the various components of a date/time value.  The
709            specifics of the FMT syntax are system dependent -- consult the
710            "strftime" man page on your system for details.  The default
711            format is equivalent to "%Y:%m:%d %H:%M:%S".  This option has no
712            effect on date-only or time-only tags and ignores timezone
713            information if present.  Only one -d option may be used per
714            command.  Requires POSIX::strptime or Time::Piece for the
715            inversion conversion when writing.
716
717       -D (-decimal)
718            Show tag ID number in decimal when extracting information.
719
720       -E, -ex (-escapeHTML, -escapeXML)
721            Escape characters in output values for HTML (-E) or XML (-ex).
722            For HTML, all characters with Unicode code points above U+007F are
723            escaped as well as the following 5 characters: & (&amp;) ' (&#39;)
724            " (&quot;) > (&gt;) and < (&lt;).  For XML, only these 5
725            characters are escaped.  The -E option is implied with -h, and -ex
726            is implied with -X.  The inverse conversion is applied when
727            writing tags.
728
729       -f (-forcePrint)
730            Force printing of tags even if their values are not found.  This
731            option only applies when specific tags are requested on the
732            command line (ie. not with wildcards or by "-all").  With this
733            option, a dash ("-") is printed for the value of any missing tag,
734            but the dash may be changed via the API MissingTagValue option.
735            May also be used to add a 'flags' attribute to the -listx output,
736            or to allow tags to be deleted when writing with the -csv=CSVFILE
737            feature.
738
739       -g[NUM][:NUM...] (-groupHeadings)
740            Organize output by tag group.  NUM specifies a group family
741            number, and may be 0 (general location), 1 (specific location), 2
742            (category), 3 (document number) or 4 (instance number).  -g0 is
743            assumed if a family number is not specified, and family numbers
744            may be added wherever -g is mentioned in the documentation.
745            Multiple families may be specified by separating them with colons.
746            By default the resulting group name is simplified by removing any
747            leading "Main:" and collapsing adjacent identical group names, but
748            this can be avoided by placing a colon before the first family
749            number (eg. -g:3:1).  Use the -listg option to list group names
750            for a specified family.
751
752       -G[NUM][:NUM...] (-groupNames)
753            Same as -g but print group name for each tag.  -G0 is assumed if
754            NUM is not specified.  May be combined with a number of other
755            options to add group names to the output.  Note that NUM may be
756            added wherever -G is mentioned in the documentation.  See the -g
757            option above for details.
758
759       -h (-htmlFormat)
760            Use HTML table formatting for output.  Implies the -E option.  The
761            formatting options -D, -H, -g, -G, -l and -s may be used in
762            combination with -h to influence the HTML format.
763
764       -H (-hex)
765            Show tag ID number in hexadecimal when extracting information.
766
767       -htmlDump[OFFSET]
768            Generate a dynamic web page containing a hex dump of the EXIF
769            information.  This can be a very powerful tool for low-level
770            analysis of EXIF information.  The -htmlDump option is also
771            invoked if the -v and -h options are used together.  The verbose
772            level controls the maximum length of the blocks dumped.  An OFFSET
773            may be given to specify the base for displayed offsets.  If not
774            provided, the EXIF/TIFF base offset is used.  Use -htmlDump0 for
775            absolute offsets.  Currently only EXIF/TIFF and JPEG information
776            is dumped, but the -u option can be used to give a raw hex dump of
777            other file formats.
778
779       -j[[+]=JSONFILE] (-json)
780            Use JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) formatting for console
781            output, or import JSON file if JSONFILE is specified.  This option
782            may be combined with -g to organize the output into objects by
783            group, or -G to add group names to each tag.  List-type tags with
784            multiple items are output as JSON arrays unless -sep is used.  By
785            default XMP structures are flattened into individual tags in the
786            JSON output, but the original structure may be preserved with the
787            -struct option (this also causes all list-type XMP tags to be
788            output as JSON arrays, otherwise single-item lists would be output
789            as simple strings).  The -a option is implied if the -g or -G
790            options are used, otherwise it is ignored and tags with identical
791            JSON names are suppressed. (-g4 may be used to ensure that all
792            tags have unique JSON names.)  Adding the -D or -H option changes
793            tag values to JSON objects with "val" and "id" fields, and adding
794            -l adds a "desc" field, and a "num" field if the numerical value
795            is different from the converted "val".  The -b option may be added
796            to output binary data, encoded in base64 if necessary (indicated
797            by "base64:" as the first 7 bytes of the value), and -t may be
798            added to include tag table information (see -t for details).  The
799            JSON output is UTF-8 regardless of any -L or -charset option
800            setting, but the UTF-8 validation is disabled if a character set
801            other than UTF-8 is specified.
802
803            If JSONFILE is specified, the file is imported and the tag
804            definitions from the file are used to set tag values on a per-file
805            basis.  The special "SourceFile" entry in each JSON object
806            associates the information with a specific target file.  An object
807            with a missing SourceFile or a SourceFile of "*" defines default
808            tags for all target files which are combined with any tags
809            specified for the specific SourceFile processed.  The imported
810            JSON file must have the same format as the exported JSON files
811            with the exception that the -g option is not compatible with the
812            import file format (use -G instead).  Additionally, tag names in
813            the input JSON file may be suffixed with a "#" to disable print
814            conversion.
815
816            Unlike CSV import, empty values are not ignored, and will cause an
817            empty value to be written if supported by the specific metadata
818            type.  Tags are deleted by using the -f option and setting the tag
819            value to "-" (or to the MissingTagValue setting if this API option
820            was used).  Importing with -j+=JSONFILE causes new values to be
821            added to existing lists.
822
823       -l (-long)
824            Use long 2-line Canon-style output format.  Adds a description and
825            unconverted value (if it is different from the converted value) to
826            the XML, JSON or PHP output when -X, -j or -php is used.  May also
827            be combined with -listf, -listr or -listwf to add descriptions of
828            the file types.
829
830       -L (-latin)
831            Use Windows Latin1 encoding (cp1252) for output tag values instead
832            of the default UTF-8.  When writing, -L specifies that input text
833            values are Latin1 instead of UTF-8.  Equivalent to "-charset
834            latin".
835
836       -lang [LANG]
837            Set current language for tag descriptions and converted values.
838            LANG is "de", "fr", "ja", etc.  Use -lang with no other arguments
839            to get a list of available languages.  The default language is
840            "en" if -lang is not specified.  Note that tag/group names are
841            always English, independent of the -lang setting, and translation
842            of warning/error messages has not yet been implemented.  May also
843            be combined with -listx to output descriptions in one language
844            only.
845
846            By default, ExifTool uses UTF-8 encoding for special characters,
847            but the the -L or -charset option may be used to invoke other
848            encodings.
849
850            Currently, the language support is not complete, but users are
851            welcome to help improve this by submitting their own translations.
852            To submit a set of translations, first use the -listx option and
853            redirect the output to a file to generate an XML tag database,
854            then add entries for other languages, zip this file, and email it
855            to phil at owl.phy.queensu.ca for inclusion in ExifTool.
856
857            Note:  ExifTool uses Unicode::LineBreak if available to help
858            preserve the column alignment of the plain text output for
859            languages with a variable-width character set.
860
861       -listItem INDEX
862            For list-type tags, this causes only the item with the specified
863            index to be extracted.  INDEX is 0 for the first item in the list.
864            Negative indices may also be used to reference items from the end
865            of the list.  Has no effect on single-valued tags.  Also applies
866            to tag values when copying from a tag, and in -if conditions.
867
868       -n (--printConv)
869            Disable print conversion for all tags.  By default, extracted
870            values are converted to a more human-readable format, but the -n
871            option disables this conversion, revealing the machine-readable
872            values.  For example:
873
874                > exiftool -Orientation -S a.jpg
875                Orientation: Rotate 90 CW
876                > exiftool -Orientation -S -n a.jpg
877                Orientation: 6
878
879            The print conversion may also be disabled on a per-tag basis by
880            suffixing the tag name with a "#" character:
881
882                > exiftool -Orientation# -Orientation -S a.jpg
883                Orientation: 6
884                Orientation: Rotate 90 CW
885
886            These techniques may also be used to disable the inverse print
887            conversion when writing.  For example, the following commands all
888            have the same effect:
889
890                > exiftool -Orientation='Rotate 90 CW' a.jpg
891                > exiftool -Orientation=6 -n a.jpg
892                > exiftool -Orientation#=6 a.jpg
893
894       -p FMTFILE or STR (-printFormat)
895            Print output in the format specified by the given file or string.
896            The argument is interpreted as a string unless a file of that name
897            exists, in which case the string is loaded from the contents of
898            the file.  Tag names in the format file or string begin with a "$"
899            symbol and may contain a leading group names and/or a trailing
900            "#".  Case is not significant.  Braces "{}" may be used around the
901            tag name to separate it from subsequent text.  Use $$ to represent
902            a "$" symbol, and $/ for a newline.
903
904            Multiple -p options may be used, each contributing a line (or
905            more) of text to the output.  Lines beginning with "#[HEAD]" and
906            "#[TAIL]" are output before the first processed file and after the
907            last processed file respectively.  Lines beginning with "#[SECT]"
908            and "#[ENDS]" are output around each section of files.  A section
909            is defined as a group of consecutive files with the same section
910            header (eg. files are grouped by directory if "#[SECT]" contains
911            $directory).  Lines beginning with "#[BODY]" and lines not
912            beginning with "#" are output for each processed file.  Lines
913            beginning with "#[IF]" are not output, but all BODY lines are
914            skipped if any tag on an IF line doesn't exist.  Other lines
915            beginning with "#" are ignored.  For example, this format file:
916
917                # this is a comment line
918                #[HEAD]-- Generated by ExifTool $exifToolVersion --
919                File: $FileName - $DateTimeOriginal
920                (f/$Aperture, ${ShutterSpeed}s, ISO $EXIF:ISO)
921                #[TAIL]-- end --
922
923            with this command:
924
925                exiftool -p test.fmt a.jpg b.jpg
926
927            produces output like this:
928
929                -- Generated by ExifTool 11.30 --
930                File: a.jpg - 2003:10:31 15:44:19
931                (f/5.6, 1/60s, ISO 100)
932                File: b.jpg - 2006:05:23 11:57:38
933                (f/8.0, 1/13s, ISO 100)
934                -- end --
935
936            The values of List-type tags with multiple items and Shortcut tags
937            representing multiple tags are joined according the the -sep
938            option setting when interpolated in the string.
939
940            When -ee (-extractEmbedded) is combined with -p, embedded
941            documents are effectively processed as separate input files.
942
943            If a specified tag does not exist, a minor warning is issued and
944            the line with the missing tag is not printed.  However, the -f
945            option may be used to set the value of missing tags to '-' (but
946            this may be configured via the MissingTagValue API option), or the
947            -m option may be used to ignore minor warnings and leave the
948            missing values empty.
949
950            The "Advanced formatting feature" may be used to modify the values
951            of individual tags with the -p option.
952
953       -php Format output as a PHP Array.  The -g, -G, -D, -H, -l, -sep and
954            -struct options combine with -php, and duplicate tags are handled
955            in the same way as with the -json option.  As well, the -b option
956            may be added to output binary data, and -t may be added to include
957            tag table information (see -t for details).  Here is a simple
958            example showing how this could be used in a PHP script:
959
960                <?php
961                eval('$array=' . `exiftool -php -q image.jpg`);
962                print_r($array);
963                ?>
964
965       -s[NUM] (-short)
966            Short output format.  Prints tag names instead of descriptions.
967            Add NUM or up to 3 -s options for even shorter formats:
968
969                -s1 or -s        - print tag names instead of descriptions
970                -s2 or -s -s     - no extra spaces to column-align values
971                -s3 or -s -s -s  - print values only (no tag names)
972
973            Also effective when combined with -t, -h, -X or -listx options.
974
975       -S (-veryShort)
976            Very short format.  The same as -s2 or two -s options.  Tag names
977            are printed instead of descriptions, and no extra spaces are added
978            to column-align values.
979
980       -sep STR (-separator)
981            Specify separator string for items in list-type tags.  When
982            reading, the default is to join list items with ", ".  When
983            writing, this option causes values assigned to list-type tags to
984            be split into individual items at each substring matching STR
985            (otherwise they are not split by default).  Space characters in
986            STR match zero or more whitespace characters in the value.
987
988            Note that an empty separator ("") is allowed, and will join items
989            with no separator when reading, or split the value into individual
990            characters when writing.
991
992            For pure binary output (-b used without -j, -php or -X), the first
993            -sep option specifies a list-item separator, and subsequent -sep
994            options specify a terminator added to the end of the list (or
995            after each value if not a list).  In these strings, "\n", "\r" and
996            "\t" may be used to represent a newline, carriage return and tab
997            respectively.  By default, binary list items are separated by a
998            newline, and no terminator is added.
999
1000       -sort, --sort
1001            Sort output by tag description, or by tag name if the -s option is
1002            used.  When sorting by description, the sort order will depend on
1003            the -lang option setting.  Without the -sort option, tags appear
1004            in the order they were specified on the command line, or if not
1005            specified, the order they were extracted from the file.  By
1006            default, tags are organized by groups when combined with the -g or
1007            -G option, but this grouping may be disabled with --sort.
1008
1009       -struct, --struct
1010            Output structured XMP information instead of flattening to
1011            individual tags.  This option works well when combined with the
1012            XML (-X) and JSON (-j) output formats.  For other output formats,
1013            XMP structures and lists are serialized into the same format as
1014            when writing structured information (see
1015            <http://owl.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/struct.html> for
1016            details).  When copying, structured tags are copied by default
1017            unless --struct is used to disable this feature (although
1018            flattened tags may still be copied by specifying them individually
1019            unless -struct is used).  These options have no effect when
1020            assigning new values since both flattened and structured tags may
1021            always be used when writing.
1022
1023       -t (-tab)
1024            Output a tab-delimited list of description/values (useful for
1025            database import).  May be combined with -s to print tag names
1026            instead of descriptions, or -S to print tag values only, tab-
1027            delimited on a single line.  The -t option may be combined with
1028            -j, -php or -X to add tag table information ("table", tag "id",
1029            and "index" for cases where multiple conditional tags exist with
1030            the same ID).
1031
1032       -T (-table)
1033            Output tag values in table form.  Equivalent to -t -S -q -f.
1034
1035       -v[NUM] (-verbose)
1036            Print verbose messages.  NUM specifies the level of verbosity in
1037            the range 0-5, with higher numbers being more verbose.  If NUM is
1038            not given, then each -v option increases the level of verbosity by
1039            1.  With any level greater than 0, most other options are ignored
1040            and normal console output is suppressed unless specific tags are
1041            extracted.  Using -v0 causes the console output buffer to be
1042            flushed after each line (which may be useful to avoid delays when
1043            piping exiftool output), and prints the name of each processed
1044            file when writing.  Also see the -progress option.
1045
1046       -w[+|!] EXT or FMT (-textOut)
1047            Write console output to files with names ending in EXT, one for
1048            each source file.  The output file name is obtained by replacing
1049            the source file extension (including the '.') with the specified
1050            extension (and a '.' is added to the start of EXT if it doesn't
1051            already contain one).  Alternatively, a FMT string may be used to
1052            give more control over the output file name and directory.  In the
1053            format string, %d, %f and %e represent the directory, filename and
1054            extension of the source file, and %c represents a copy number
1055            which is automatically incremented if the file already exists.  %d
1056            includes the trailing '/' if necessary, but %e does not include
1057            the leading '.'.  For example:
1058
1059                -w %d%f.txt       # same effect as "-w txt"
1060                -w dir/%f_%e.out  # write files to "dir" as "FILE_EXT.out"
1061                -w dir2/%d%f.txt  # write to "dir2", keeping dir structure
1062                -w a%c.txt        # write to "a.txt" or "a1.txt" or "a2.txt"...
1063
1064            Existing files will not be changed unless an exclamation point is
1065            added to the option name (ie. -w! or -textOut!) to overwrite the
1066            file, or a plus sign (ie. -w+ or -textOut+) to append to the
1067            existing file.  Both may be used (ie. -w+! or -textOut+!) to
1068            overwrite output files that didn't exist before the command was
1069            run, and append the output from multiple source files.  For
1070            example, to write one output file for all source files in each
1071            directory:
1072
1073                exiftool -filename -createdate -T -w+! %d/out.txt -r DIR
1074
1075            Capitalized format codes %D, %F, %E and %C provide slightly
1076            different alternatives to the lower case versions.  %D does not
1077            include the trailing '/', %F is the full filename including
1078            extension, %E includes the leading '.', and %C increments the
1079            count for each processed file (see below).
1080
1081            Notes:
1082
1083            1) In a Windows BAT file the "%" character is represented by "%%",
1084            so an argument like "%d%f.txt" is written as "%%d%%f.txt".
1085
1086            2) If the argument for -w does not contain a valid format code
1087            (eg. %f), then it is interpreted as a file extension.  It is not
1088            possible to specify a simple filename as an argument -- creating a
1089            single output file from multiple source files is typically done by
1090            shell redirection, ie)
1091
1092                exiftool FILE1 FILE2 ... > out.txt
1093
1094            But if necessary, an empty format code may be used to force the
1095            argument to be interpreted as a format string, and the same result
1096            may be obtained without the use of shell redirection:
1097
1098                exiftool -w+! %0fout.txt FILE1 FILE2 ...
1099
1100            Advanced features:
1101
1102            A substring of the original file name, directory or extension may
1103            be taken by specifying a field width immediately following the '%'
1104            character.  If the width is negative, the substring is taken from
1105            the end.  The substring position (characters to ignore at the
1106            start or end of the string) may be given by a second optional
1107            value after a decimal point.  For example:
1108
1109                Input File Name     Format Specifier    Output File Name
1110                ----------------    ----------------    ----------------
1111                Picture-123.jpg     %7f.txt             Picture.txt
1112                Picture-123.jpg     %-.4f.out           Picture.out
1113                Picture-123.jpg     %7f.%-3f            Picture.123
1114                Picture-123a.jpg    Meta%-3.1f.txt      Meta123.txt
1115
1116            (Note that special characters may have a width of greater than
1117            one.)
1118
1119            For %d and %D, the field width/position specifiers may be applied
1120            to the directory levels instead of substring position by using a
1121            colon instead of a decimal point in the format specifier.  For
1122            example:
1123
1124                Source Dir     Format   Result       Notes
1125                ------------   ------   ----------   ------------------
1126                pics/2012/02   %2:d     pics/2012/   take top 2 levels
1127                pics/2012/02   %-:1d    pics/2012/   up one directory level
1128                pics/2012/02   %:1d     2012/02/     ignore top level
1129                pics/2012/02   %1:1d    2012/        take 1 level after top
1130                pics/2012/02   %-1:D    02           bottom level folder name
1131                /Users/phil    %:2d     phil/        ignore top 2 levels
1132
1133            (Note that the root directory counts as one level when an absolute
1134            path is used as in the last example above.)
1135
1136            For %c, these modifiers have a different effects.  If a field
1137            width is given, the copy number is padded with zeros to the
1138            specified width.  A leading '-' adds a dash before the copy
1139            number, and a '+' adds an underline.  By default, the copy number
1140            is omitted from the first file of a given name, but this can be
1141            changed by adding a decimal point to the modifier.  For example:
1142
1143                -w A%-cZ.txt      # AZ.txt, A-1Z.txt, A-2Z.txt ...
1144                -w B%5c.txt       # B.txt, B00001.txt, B00002.txt ...
1145                -w C%.c.txt       # C0.txt, C1.txt, C2.txt ...
1146                -w D%-.c.txt      # D-0.txt, D-1.txt, D-2.txt ...
1147                -w E%-.4c.txt     # E-0000.txt, E-0001.txt, E-0002.txt ...
1148                -w F%-.4nc.txt    # F-0001.txt, F-0002.txt, F-0003.txt ...
1149                -w G%+c.txt       # G.txt, G_1.txt G_2.txt ...
1150                -w H%-lc.txt      # H.txt, H-b.txt, H-c.txt ...
1151                -w I.%.3uc.txt    # I.AAA.txt, I.AAB.txt, I.AAC.txt ...
1152
1153            A special feature allows the copy number to be incremented for
1154            each processed file by using %C (upper case) instead of %c.  This
1155            allows a sequential number to be added to output file names, even
1156            if the names are different.  For %C, a copy number of zero is not
1157            omitted as it is with %c.  A leading '-' causes the number to be
1158            reset at the start of each new directory, and '+' has no effect.
1159            The number before the decimal place gives the starting index, the
1160            number after the decimal place gives the field width.  The
1161            following examples show the output filenames when used with the
1162            command "exiftool rose.jpg star.jpg jet.jpg ...":
1163
1164                -w %C%f.txt       # 0rose.txt, 1star.txt, 2jet.txt
1165                -w %f-%10C.txt    # rose-10.txt, star-11.txt, jet-12.txt
1166                -w %.3C-%f.txt    # 000-rose.txt, 001-star.txt, 002-jet.txt
1167                -w %57.4C%f.txt   # 0057rose.txt, 0058star.txt, 0059jet.txt
1168
1169            All format codes may be modified by 'l' or 'u' to specify lower or
1170            upper case respectively (ie. %le for a lower case file extension).
1171            When used to modify %c or %C, the numbers are changed to an
1172            alphabetical base (see example H above).  Also, %c and %C may be
1173            modified by 'n' to count using natural numbers starting from 1,
1174            instead of 0 (see example F above).
1175
1176            This same FMT syntax is used with the -o and -tagsFromFile
1177            options, although %c and %C are only valid for output file names.
1178
1179       -W[+|!] FMT (-tagOut)
1180            This enhanced version of the -w option allows a separate output
1181            file to be created for each extracted tag.  See the -w option
1182            documentation above for details of the basic functionality.
1183            Listed here are the differences between -W and -w:
1184
1185            1) With -W, a new output file is created for each extracted tag.
1186
1187            2) -W supports three additional format codes:  %t, %g and %s
1188            represent the tag name, group name, and suggested extension for
1189            the output file (based on the format of the data).  The %g code
1190            may be followed by a single digit to specify the group family
1191            number (eg. %g1), otherwise family 0 is assumed.  The substring
1192            width/position/case specifiers may be used with these format codes
1193            in exactly the same way as with %f and %e.
1194
1195            3) The argument for -W is interpreted as a file name if it
1196            contains no format codes.  (For -w, this would be a file
1197            extension.)  This change allows a simple file name to be
1198            specified, which, when combined with the append feature, provides
1199            a method to write metadata from multiple source files to a single
1200            output file without the need for shell redirection.  For example,
1201            the following pairs of commands give the same result:
1202
1203                # overwriting existing text file
1204                exiftool test.jpg > out.txt     # shell redirection
1205                exiftool test.jpg -W+! out.txt  # equivalent -W option
1206
1207                # append to existing text file
1208                exiftool test.jpg >> out.txt    # shell redirection
1209                exiftool test.jpg -W+ out.txt   # equivalent -W option
1210
1211            4) Adding the -v option to -W sends a list of the tags and output
1212            file names to the console instead of giving a verbose dump of the
1213            entire file.  (Unless appending all output to one file for each
1214            source file by using -W+ with an output file FMT that does not
1215            contain %t, $g or %s.)
1216
1217            5) Individual list items are stored in separate files when -W is
1218            combined with -b, but note that for separate files to be created
1219            %c or %C must be used in FMT to give the files unique names.
1220
1221       -Wext EXT, --Wext EXT (-tagOutExt)
1222            This option is used to specify the type of output file(s) written
1223            by the -W option.  An output file is written only if the suggested
1224            extension matches EXT.  Multiple -Wext options may be used to
1225            write more than one type of file.  Use --Wext to write all but the
1226            specified type(s).
1227
1228       -X (-xmlFormat)
1229            Use ExifTool-specific RDF/XML formatting for console output.
1230            Implies the -a option, so duplicate tags are extracted.  The
1231            formatting options -b, -D, -H, -l, -s, -sep, -struct and -t may be
1232            used in combination with -X to affect the output, but note that
1233            the tag ID (-D, -H and -t), binary data (-b) and structured output
1234            (-struct) options are not effective for the short output (-s).
1235            Another restriction of -s is that only one tag with a given group
1236            and name may appear in the output.  Note that the tag ID options
1237            (-D, -H and -t) will produce non-standard RDF/XML unless the -l
1238            option is also used.
1239
1240            By default, -X outputs flattened tags, so -struct should be added
1241            if required to preserve XMP structures.  List-type tags with
1242            multiple values are formatted as an RDF Bag, but they are combined
1243            into a single string when -s or -sep is used.  Using -L changes
1244            the XML encoding from "UTF-8" to "windows-1252".  Other -charset
1245            settings change the encoding only if there is a corresponding
1246            standard XML character set.  The -b option causes binary data
1247            values to be written, encoded in base64 if necessary.  The -t
1248            option adds tag table information to the output (see -t for
1249            details).
1250
1251            Note:  This output is NOT the same as XMP because it uses
1252            dynamically-generated property names corresponding to the ExifTool
1253            tag names, and not the standard XMP properties.  To write XMP
1254            instead, use the -o option with an XMP extension for the output
1255            file.
1256
1257       Processing control
1258
1259       -a, --a (-duplicates, --duplicates)
1260            Allow (-a) or suppress (--a) duplicate tag names to be extracted.
1261            By default, duplicate tags are suppressed unless the -ee or -X
1262            options are used or the Duplicates option is enabled in the
1263            configuration file.  This option also has an affect when writing
1264            to allow duplicate Warning messages to be shown.
1265
1266       -e (--composite)
1267            Extract existing tags only -- don't calculate composite tags.
1268
1269       -ee (-extractEmbedded)
1270            Extract information from embedded documents in EPS files, embedded
1271            EPS information and JPEG and Jpeg2000 images in PDF files,
1272            embedded MPF images in JPEG and MPO files, streaming metadata in
1273            AVCHD videos, and the resource fork of Mac OS files.  Implies the
1274            -a option.  Use -g3 or -G3 to identify the originating document
1275            for extracted information.  Embedded documents containing sub-
1276            documents are indicated with dashes in the family 3 group name.
1277            (eg. "Doc2-3" is the 3rd sub-document of the 2nd embedded
1278            document.) Note that this option may increase processing time
1279            substantially, especially for PDF files with many embedded images
1280            or videos with streaming metadata.
1281
1282            When used with -ee, the -p option is evaluated for each embedded
1283            document as if it were a separate input file.  This allows, for
1284            example, generation of GPS track logs from timed metadata in
1285            videos.  See
1286            <http://owl.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/geotag.html#Inverse> for
1287            examples.
1288
1289       -ext[+] EXT, --ext EXT (-extension)
1290            Process only files with (-ext) or without (--ext) a specified
1291            extension.  There may be multiple -ext and --ext options.  A plus
1292            sign may be added (ie. -ext+) to add the specified extension to
1293            the normally processed files.  EXT may begin with a leading '.',
1294            which is ignored.  Case is not significant.  "*" may be used to
1295            process files with any extension (or none at all), as in the last
1296            three examples:
1297
1298                exiftool -ext JPG DIR             # process only JPG files
1299                exiftool --ext cr2 --ext dng DIR  # supported files but CR2/DNG
1300                exiftool -ext+ txt DIR            # supported files plus TXT
1301                exiftool -ext "*" DIR             # process all files
1302                exiftool -ext "*" --ext xml DIR   # process all but XML files
1303                exiftool -ext "*" --ext . DIR     # all but those with no ext
1304
1305            Using this option has two main advantages over specifying "*.EXT"
1306            on the command line:  1) It applies to files in subdirectories
1307            when combined with the -r option.  2) The -ext option is case-
1308            insensitive, which is useful when processing files on case-
1309            sensitive filesystems.
1310
1311            Note that all files specified on the command line will be
1312            processed regardless of extension unless the -ext option is used.
1313
1314       -F[OFFSET] (-fixBase)
1315            Fix the base for maker notes offsets.  A common problem with some
1316            image editors is that offsets in the maker notes are not adjusted
1317            properly when the file is modified.  This may cause the wrong
1318            values to be extracted for some maker note entries when reading
1319            the edited file.  This option allows an integer OFFSET to be
1320            specified for adjusting the maker notes base offset.  If no OFFSET
1321            is given, ExifTool takes its best guess at the correct base.  Note
1322            that exiftool will automatically fix the offsets for images which
1323            store original offset information (eg. newer Canon models).
1324            Offsets are fixed permanently if -F is used when writing EXIF to
1325            an image. eg)
1326
1327                exiftool -F -exif:resolutionunit=inches image.jpg
1328
1329       -fast[NUM]
1330            Increase speed of extracting information.  With this option,
1331            ExifTool will not scan to the end of a JPEG image to check for an
1332            AFCP or PreviewImage trailer, or past the first comment in GIF
1333            images or the audio/video data in WAV/AVI files to search for
1334            additional metadata.  These speed benefits are small when reading
1335            images directly from disk, but can be substantial if piping images
1336            through a network connection.  For more substantial speed
1337            benefits, -fast2 also causes exiftool to avoid extracting any EXIF
1338            MakerNote information.  -fast3 avoids extracting metadata from the
1339            file, and returns only pseudo System tags, but still reads the
1340            file header to obtain an educated guess at FileType.  -fast4
1341            doesn't even read the file header, and determines FileType based
1342            only on the file extension.  Has no effect when writing.
1343
1344       -fileOrder [-]TAG
1345            Set file processing order according to the sorted value of the
1346            specified TAG.  For example, to process files in order of date:
1347
1348                exiftool -fileOrder DateTimeOriginal DIR
1349
1350            Additional -fileOrder options may be added for secondary sort
1351            keys.  Numbers are sorted numerically, and all other values are
1352            sorted alphabetically.  The sort order may be reversed by
1353            prefixing the tag name with a "-" (eg. "-fileOrder -createdate").
1354            Print conversion of the sorted values is disabled with the -n
1355            option, or a "#" appended to the tag name.  Other formatting
1356            options (eg. -d) have no effect on the sorted values.  Note that
1357            the -fileOrder option has a large performance impact since it
1358            involves an additional processing pass of each file.
1359
1360       -i DIR (-ignore)
1361            Ignore specified directory name.  DIR may be either an individual
1362            folder name, or a full path.  If a full path is specified, it must
1363            match the Directory tag exactly to be ignored.  Use multiple -i
1364            options to ignore more than one directory name.  A special DIR
1365            value of "SYMLINKS" (case sensitive) may be specified to ignore
1366            symbolic links when the -r option is used.
1367
1368       -if[NUM] EXPR
1369            Specify a condition to be evaluated before processing each FILE.
1370            EXPR is a Perl-like logic expression containing tag names prefixed
1371            by "$" symbols.  It is evaluated with the tags from each FILE in
1372            turn, and the file is processed only if the expression returns
1373            true.  Unlike Perl variable names, tag names are not case
1374            sensitive and may contain a hyphen.  As well, tag names may have a
1375            leading group names separated by colons, and/or a trailing "#"
1376            character to disable print conversion.  The expression $GROUP:all
1377            evaluates to 1 if any tag exists in the specified "GROUP", or 0
1378            otherwise (see note 2 below).  When multiple -if options are used,
1379            all conditions must be satisfied to process the file.  Returns an
1380            exit status of 2 if all files fail the condition.  Below are a few
1381            examples:
1382
1383                # extract shutterspeed from all Canon images in a directory
1384                exiftool -shutterspeed -if '$make eq "Canon"' dir
1385
1386                # add one hour to all images created on or after Apr. 2, 2006
1387                exiftool -alldates+=1 -if '$CreateDate ge "2006:04:02"' dir
1388
1389                # set EXIF ISO value if possible, unless it is set already
1390                exiftool '-exif:iso<iso' -if 'not $exif:iso' dir
1391
1392                # find images containing a specific keyword (case insensitive)
1393                exiftool -if '$keywords =~ /harvey/i' -filename dir
1394
1395            Adding NUM to the -if option causes a separate processing pass to
1396            be executed for evaluating EXPR at a -fast level given by NUM (see
1397            the -fast option documentation for details).  Without NUM, only
1398            one processing pass is done at the level specified by the -fast
1399            option.  For example, using -if4 is possible if EXPR uses only
1400            pseudo System tags, and may significantly speed processing if
1401            enough files fail the condition.
1402
1403            Notes:
1404
1405            1) The -n and -b options also apply to tags used in EXPR.
1406
1407            2) Some binary data blocks are not extracted unless specified
1408            explicitly.  These tags are not available for use in the -if
1409            condition unless they are also specified on the command line.  The
1410            alternative is to use the $GROUP:all syntax. (eg. Use $exif:all
1411            instead of $exif in EXPR to test for the existence of EXIF tags.)
1412
1413            3) Tags in the string are interpolated the same way as with -p
1414            before the expression is evaluated.  In this interpolation, $/ is
1415            converted to a newline and $$ represents a single "$" symbol (so
1416            Perl variables, if used, require a double "$").
1417
1418            4) The condition may only test tags from the file being processed.
1419            To process one file based on tags from another, two steps are
1420            required.  For example, to process XMP sidecar files in directory
1421            "DIR" based on tags from the associated NEF:
1422
1423                exiftool -if EXPR -p '$directory/$filename' -ext nef DIR > nef.txt
1424                exiftool -@ nef.txt -srcfile %d%f.xmp ...
1425
1426            5) The -a option has no effect on the evaluation of the
1427            expression, and the values of duplicate tags are accessible only
1428            by specifying a group name (such as a family 4 instance number,
1429            eg. $Copy1:TAG, $Copy2:TAG, etc).
1430
1431            6) A special "OK" UserParam is available to test the success of
1432            the previous command when -execute was used, and may be used like
1433            any other tag in the condition (ie. "$OK").
1434
1435       -m (-ignoreMinorErrors)
1436            Ignore minor errors and warnings.  This enables writing to files
1437            with minor errors and disables some validation checks which could
1438            result in minor warnings.  Generally, minor errors/warnings
1439            indicate a problem which usually won't result in loss of metadata
1440            if ignored.  However, there are exceptions, so ExifTool leaves it
1441            up to you to make the final decision.  Minor errors and warnings
1442            are indicated by "[minor]" at the start of the message.  Warnings
1443            which affect processing when ignored are indicated by "[Minor]"
1444            (with a capital "M").  Note that this causes missing values in
1445            -tagsFromFile, -p and -if strings to be set to an empty string
1446            rather than an undefined value.
1447
1448       -o OUTFILE or FMT (-out)
1449            Set the output file or directory name when writing information.
1450            Without this option, when any "real" tags are written the original
1451            file is renamed to "FILE_original" and output is written to FILE.
1452            When writing only FileName and/or Directory "pseudo" tags, -o
1453            causes the file to be copied instead of moved, but directories
1454            specified for either of these tags take precedence over that
1455            specified by the -o option.
1456
1457            OUTFILE may be "-" to write to stdout.  The output file name may
1458            also be specified using a FMT string in which %d, %f and %e
1459            represent the directory, file name and extension of FILE.  Also,
1460            %c may be used to add a copy number. See the -w option for FMT
1461            string examples.
1462
1463            The output file is taken to be a directory name if it already
1464            exists as a directory or if the name ends with '/'.  Output
1465            directories are created if necessary.  Existing files will not be
1466            overwritten.  Combining the -overwrite_original option with -o
1467            causes the original source file to be erased after the output file
1468            is successfully written.
1469
1470            A special feature of this option allows the creation of certain
1471            types of files from scratch, or with the metadata from another
1472            type of file.  The following file types may be created using this
1473            technique:
1474
1475                XMP, EXIF, EXV, MIE, ICC/ICM, VRD, DR4
1476
1477            The output file type is determined by the extension of OUTFILE
1478            (specified as "-.EXT" when writing to stdout).  The output file is
1479            then created from a combination of information in FILE (as if the
1480            -tagsFromFile option was used), and tag values assigned on the
1481            command line.  If no FILE is specified, the output file may be
1482            created from scratch using only tags assigned on the command line.
1483
1484       -overwrite_original
1485            Overwrite the original FILE (instead of preserving it by adding
1486            "_original" to the file name) when writing information to an
1487            image.  Caution: This option should only be used if you already
1488            have separate backup copies of your image files.  The overwrite is
1489            implemented by renaming a temporary file to replace the original.
1490            This deletes the original file and replaces it with the edited
1491            version in a single operation.  When combined with -o, this option
1492            causes the original file to be deleted if the output file was
1493            successfully written (ie. the file is moved instead of copied).
1494
1495       -overwrite_original_in_place
1496            Similar to -overwrite_original except that an extra step is added
1497            to allow the original file attributes to be preserved.  For
1498            example, on a Mac this causes the original file creation date,
1499            type, creator, label color, icon, Finder tags, other extended
1500            attributes and hard links to the file to be preserved (but note
1501            that the Mac OS resource fork is always preserved unless
1502            specifically deleted with "-rsrc:all=").  This is implemented by
1503            opening the original file in update mode and replacing its data
1504            with a copy of a temporary file before deleting the temporary.
1505            The extra step results in slower performance, so the
1506            -overwrite_original option should be used instead unless
1507            necessary.
1508
1509       -P (-preserve)
1510            Preserve the filesystem modification date/time ("FileModifyDate")
1511            of the original file when writing.  Note that some filesystems
1512            store a creation date (Windows "FileCreateDate" or Mac
1513            "MDItemFSCreationDate") which is not affected by this option.  The
1514            creation date is preserved on Windows systems where Win32API::File
1515            and Win32::API are available regardless of this setting.  For
1516            other systems, the -overwrite_original_in_place option may be used
1517            if necessary to preserve the creation date.  This option is
1518            superseded by any value written to the FileModifyDate tag.
1519
1520       -password PASSWD
1521            Specify password to allow processing of password-protected PDF
1522            documents.  If a password is required but not given, a warning is
1523            issued and the document is not processed.  This option is ignored
1524            if a password is not required.
1525
1526       -progress[:[TITLE]]
1527            Show the progress when processing files.  Without a colon, the
1528            -progress option adds a progress count in brackets after the name
1529            of each processed file, giving the current file number and the
1530            total number of files to be processed.  Implies the -v0 option,
1531            causing the names of processed files to also be printed when
1532            writing.  When combined with the -if option, the total count
1533            includes all files before the condition is applied, but files that
1534            fail the condition will not have their names printed.
1535
1536            If followed by a colon (ie. -progress:), the console window title
1537            is set according to the specified TITLE string.  If no TITLE is
1538            given, a default TITLE string of "ExifTool %p%%" is assumed.  In
1539            the string, %f represents the file name, %p is the progress as a
1540            percent, %r is the progress as a ratio, %##b is a progress bar of
1541            width "##" (20 characters if "##" is omitted), and %% is a %
1542            character.  May be combined with the normal -progress option to
1543            also show the progress count in console messages.  (Note: For this
1544            feature to function correctly on Mac/Linux, stderr must go to the
1545            console.)
1546
1547       -q (-quiet)
1548            Quiet processing.  One -q suppresses normal informational
1549            messages, and a second -q suppresses warnings as well.  Error
1550            messages can not be suppressed, although minor errors may be
1551            downgraded to warnings with the -m option, which may then be
1552            suppressed with "-q -q".
1553
1554       -r[.] (-recurse)
1555            Recursively process files in subdirectories.  Only meaningful if
1556            FILE is a directory name.  Subdirectories with names beginning
1557            with "." are not processed unless "." is added to the option name
1558            (ie. -r. or -recurse.).  By default, exiftool will also follow
1559            symbolic links to directories if supported by the system, but this
1560            may be disabled with "-i SYMLINKS" (see the -i option for
1561            details).  Combine this with -ext options to control the types of
1562            files processed.
1563
1564       -scanForXMP
1565            Scan all files (even unsupported formats) for XMP information
1566            unless found already.  When combined with the -fast option, only
1567            unsupported file types are scanned.  Warning: It can be time
1568            consuming to scan large files.
1569
1570       -u (-unknown)
1571            Extract values of unknown tags.  Add another -u to also extract
1572            unknown information from binary data blocks.  This option applies
1573            to tags with numerical tag ID's, and causes tag names like
1574            "Exif_0xc5d9" to be generated for unknown information.  It has no
1575            effect on information types which have human-readable tag ID's
1576            (such as XMP), since unknown tags are extracted automatically from
1577            these formats.
1578
1579       -U (-unknown2)
1580            Extract values of unknown tags as well as unknown information from
1581            some binary data blocks.  This is the same as two -u options.
1582
1583       -wm MODE (-writeMode)
1584            Set mode for writing/creating tags.  MODE is a string of one or
1585            more characters from the list below.  The default write mode is
1586            "wcg".
1587
1588                w - Write existing tags
1589                c - Create new tags
1590                g - create new Groups as necessary
1591
1592            For example, use "-wm cg" to only create new tags (and avoid
1593            editing existing ones).
1594
1595            The level of the group is the SubDirectory level in the metadata
1596            structure.  For XMP or IPTC this is the full XMP/IPTC block (the
1597            family 0 group), but for EXIF this is the individual IFD (the
1598            family 1 group).
1599
1600       -z (-zip)
1601            When reading, causes information to be extracted from .gz and .bz2
1602            compressed images (only one image per archive; requires gzip and
1603            bzip2 to be available).  When writing, causes compressed
1604            information to be written if supported by the metadata format (eg.
1605            compressed textual metadata in PNG), disables the recommended
1606            padding in embedded XMP (saving 2424 bytes when writing XMP in a
1607            file), and writes XMP in shorthand format -- the equivalent of
1608            setting the API Compress, Compact and XMPShorthand options to 1.
1609
1610       Other options
1611
1612       -@ ARGFILE
1613            Read command-line arguments from the specified file.  The file
1614            contains one argument per line (NOT one option per line -- some
1615            options require additional arguments, and all arguments must be
1616            placed on separate lines).  Blank lines and lines beginning with
1617            "#" are ignored (unless they start with "#[CSTR]", in which case
1618            the rest of the line is treated as a C string, allowing standard C
1619            escape sequences such as "\n" for a newline).  White space at the
1620            start of a line is removed.  Normal shell processing of arguments
1621            is not performed, which among other things means that arguments
1622            should not be quoted and spaces are treated as any other
1623            character.  ARGFILE may exist relative to either the current
1624            directory or the exiftool directory unless an absolute pathname is
1625            given.
1626
1627            For example, the following ARGFILE will set the value of Copyright
1628            to "Copyright YYYY, Phil Harvey", where "YYYY" is the year of
1629            CreateDate:
1630
1631                -d
1632                %Y
1633                -copyright<Copyright $createdate, Phil Harvey
1634
1635            Arguments in ARGFILE behave exactly the same as if they were
1636            entered at the location of the -@ option on the command line, with
1637            the exception that the -config and -common_args options may not be
1638            used in an ARGFILE.
1639
1640       -k (-pause)
1641            Pause with the message "-- press any key --" or "-- press RETURN
1642            --" (depending on your system) before terminating.  This option is
1643            used to prevent the command window from closing when run as a
1644            Windows drag and drop application.
1645
1646       -list, -listw, -listf, -listr, -listwf, -listg[NUM], -listd, -listx
1647            Print a list of all valid tag names (-list), all writable tag
1648            names (-listw), all supported file extensions (-listf), all
1649            recognized file extensions (-listr), all writable file extensions
1650            (-listwf), all tag groups [in a specified family] (-listg[NUM]),
1651            all deletable tag groups (-listd), or an XML database of tag
1652            details including language translations (-listx).  The -list,
1653            -listw and -listx options may be followed by an additional
1654            argument of the form "-GROUP:All" to list only tags in a specific
1655            group, where "GROUP" is one or more family 0-2 group names
1656            (excepting EXIF IFD groups) separated by colons.  With -listg, NUM
1657            may be given to specify the group family, otherwise family 0 is
1658            assumed.  The -l option may be combined with -listf, -listr or
1659            -listwf to add file descriptions to the list.  The -lang option
1660            may be combined with -listx to output descriptions in a single
1661            language.  Here are some examples:
1662
1663                -list               # list all tag names
1664                -list -EXIF:All     # list all EXIF tags
1665                -list -xmp:time:all # list all XMP tags relating to time
1666                -listw -XMP-dc:All  # list all writable XMP-dc tags
1667                -listf              # list all supported file extensions
1668                -listr              # list all recognized file extensions
1669                -listwf             # list all writable file extensions
1670                -listg1             # list all groups in family 1
1671                -listd              # list all deletable groups
1672                -listx -EXIF:All    # list database of EXIF tags in XML format
1673                -listx -XMP:All -s  # list short XML database of XMP tags
1674
1675            When combined with -listx, the -s option shortens the output by
1676            omitting the descriptions and values (as in the last example
1677            above), and -f adds a 'flags' attribute if applicable.  The flags
1678            are formatted as a comma-separated list of the following possible
1679            values:  Avoid, Binary, List, Mandatory, Permanent, Protected,
1680            Unknown and Unsafe (see the Tag Name documentation).  For XMP List
1681            tags, the list type (Alt, Bag or Seq) is added to the flags, and
1682            flattened structure tags are indicated by a Flattened flag.
1683
1684            Note that none of the -list options require an input FILE.
1685
1686       -ver Print exiftool version number.  The -v option may be added to
1687            print addition system information (see the README file of the full
1688            distribution for more details about optional libraries), or -v2 to
1689            also list the Perl include directories.
1690
1691       Special features
1692
1693       -geotag TRKFILE
1694            Geotag images from the specified GPS track log file.  Using the
1695            -geotag option is equivalent to writing a value to the "Geotag"
1696            tag.  After the -geotag option has been specified, the value of
1697            the "Geotime" tag is written to define a date/time for the
1698            position interpolation.  If "Geotime" is not specified, the value
1699            is copied from "DateTimeOriginal#" (the "#" is added to copy the
1700            unformatted value, avoiding potential conflicts with the -d
1701            option).  For example, the following two commands are equivalent:
1702
1703                exiftool -geotag trk.log image.jpg
1704                exiftool -geotag trk.log "-Geotime<DateTimeOriginal#" image.jpg
1705
1706            When the "Geotime" value is converted to UTC, the local system
1707            timezone is assumed unless the date/time value contains a
1708            timezone.  Writing "Geotime" causes the following tags to be
1709            written (provided they can be calculated from the track log, and
1710            they are supported by the destination metadata format):
1711            GPSLatitude, GPSLatitudeRef, GPSLongitude, GPSLongitudeRef,
1712            GPSAltitude, GPSAltitudeRef, GPSDateStamp, GPSTimeStamp,
1713            GPSDateTime, GPSTrack, GPSTrackRef, GPSSpeed, GPSSpeedRef,
1714            GPSImgDirection, GPSImgDirectionRef, GPSPitch and GPSRoll.  By
1715            default, tags are created in EXIF, and updated in XMP only if they
1716            already exist.  However, "EXIF:Geotime" or "XMP:Geotime" may be
1717            specified to write only EXIF or XMP tags respectively.  Note that
1718            GPSPitch and GPSRoll are non-standard, and require user-defined
1719            tags in order to be written.
1720
1721            The "Geosync" tag may be used to specify a time correction which
1722            is applied to each "Geotime" value for synchronization with GPS
1723            time.  For example, the following command compensates for image
1724            times which are 1 minute and 20 seconds behind GPS:
1725
1726                exiftool -geosync=+1:20 -geotag a.log DIR
1727
1728            "Geosync" must be set before "Geotime" (if specified) to be
1729            effective.  Advanced "Geosync" features allow a linear time drift
1730            correction and synchronization from previously geotagged images.
1731            See "geotag.html" in the full ExifTool distribution for more
1732            information.
1733
1734            Multiple -geotag options may be used to concatenate GPS track log
1735            data.  Also, a single -geotag option may be used to load multiple
1736            track log files by using wildcards in the TRKFILE name, but note
1737            that in this case TRKFILE must be quoted on most systems (with the
1738            notable exception of Windows) to prevent filename expansion.  For
1739            example:
1740
1741                exiftool -geotag "TRACKDIR/*.log" IMAGEDIR
1742
1743            Currently supported track file formats are GPX, NMEA RMC/GGA/GLL,
1744            KML, IGC, Garmin XML and TCX, Magellan PMGNTRK, Honeywell PTNTHPR,
1745            Winplus Beacon text, and Bramor gEO log files.  See "GEOTAGGING
1746            EXAMPLES" for examples.  Also see "geotag.html" in the full
1747            ExifTool distribution and the Image::ExifTool Options for more
1748            details and for information about geotag configuration options.
1749
1750       -globalTimeShift SHIFT
1751            Shift all formatted date/time values by the specified amount when
1752            reading.  Does not apply to unformatted (-n) output.  SHIFT takes
1753            the same form as the date/time shift when writing (see
1754            Image::ExifTool::Shift.pl for details), with a negative shift
1755            being indicated with a minus sign ("-") at the start of the SHIFT
1756            string.  For example:
1757
1758                # return all date/times, shifted back by 1 hour
1759                exiftool -globalTimeShift -1 -time:all a.jpg
1760
1761                # set the file name from the shifted CreateDate (-1 day) for
1762                # all images in a directory
1763                exiftool "-filename<createdate" -globaltimeshift "-0:0:1 0:0:0" \
1764                    -d %Y%m%d-%H%M%S.%%e dir
1765
1766       -use MODULE
1767            Add features from specified plug-in MODULE.  Currently, the MWG
1768            module is the only plug-in module distributed with exiftool.  This
1769            module adds read/write support for tags as recommended by the
1770            Metadata Working Group.  To save typing, "-use MWG" is assumed if
1771            the "MWG" group is specified for any tag on the command line.  See
1772            the MWG Tags documentation for more details.  Note that this
1773            option is not reversible, and remains in effect until the
1774            application terminates, even across the "-execute" option.
1775
1776       Utilities
1777
1778       -restore_original
1779       -delete_original[!]
1780            These utility options automate the maintenance of the "_original"
1781            files created by exiftool.  They have no effect on files without
1782            an "_original" copy.  The -restore_original option restores the
1783            specified files from their original copies by renaming the
1784            "_original" files to replace the edited versions.  For example,
1785            the following command restores the originals of all JPG images in
1786            directory "DIR":
1787
1788                exiftool -restore_original -ext jpg DIR
1789
1790            The -delete_original option deletes the "_original" copies of all
1791            files specified on the command line.  Without a trailing "!" this
1792            option prompts for confirmation before continuing.  For example,
1793            the following command deletes "a.jpg_original" if it exists, after
1794            asking "Are you sure?":
1795
1796                exiftool -delete_original a.jpg
1797
1798            These options may not be used with other options to read or write
1799            tag values in the same command, but may be combined with options
1800            such -ext, -if, -r, -q and -v.
1801
1802       Advanced options
1803
1804       Among other things, the advanced options allow complex processing to be
1805       performed from a single command without the need for additional
1806       scripting.  This may be particularly useful for implementations such as
1807       Windows drag-and-drop applications.  These options may also be used to
1808       improve performance in multi-pass processing by reducing the overhead
1809       required to load exiftool for each invocation.
1810
1811       -api OPT[[^]=[VAL]]
1812            Set ExifTool API option.  OPT is an API option name.  The option
1813            value is set to 1 if =VAL is omitted.  If VAL is omitted, the
1814            option value is set to undef if "=" is used, or an empty string
1815            with "^=".  See Image::ExifTool Options for a list of available
1816            API options.  This overrides API options set via the config file.
1817
1818       -common_args
1819            Specifies that all arguments following this option are common to
1820            all executed commands when -execute is used.  This and the -config
1821            option are the only options that may not be used inside a -@
1822            ARGFILE.  Note that by definition this option and its arguments
1823            MUST come after all other options on the command line.
1824
1825       -config CFGFILE
1826            Load specified configuration file instead of the default
1827            ".ExifTool_config".  If used, this option must come before all
1828            other arguments on the command line and applies to all -execute'd
1829            commands.  The CFGFILE must exist relative to the current working
1830            directory or the exiftool application directory unless an absolute
1831            path is specified.  Loading of the default config file may be
1832            disabled by setting CFGFILE to an empty string (ie.  "").  See
1833            <http://owl.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/config.html> and
1834            config_files/example.config in the full ExifTool distribution for
1835            details about the configuration file syntax.
1836
1837       -echo[NUM] TEXT
1838            Echo TEXT to stdout (-echo or -echo1) or stderr (-echo2).  Text is
1839            output as the command line is parsed, before the processing of any
1840            input files.  NUM may also be 3 or 4 to output text (to stdout or
1841            stderr respectively) after processing is complete.
1842
1843       -execute[NUM]
1844            Execute command for all arguments up to this point on the command
1845            line (plus any arguments specified by -common_args).  The result
1846            is as if the commands were executed as separate command lines
1847            (with the exception of the -config and -use options which remain
1848            in effect for subsequent commands).  Allows multiple commands to
1849            be executed from a single command line.  NUM is an optional number
1850            that is echoed in the "{ready}" message when using the -stay_open
1851            feature.
1852
1853       -srcfile FMT
1854            Specify a different source file to be processed based on the name
1855            of the original FILE.  This may be useful in some special
1856            situations for processing related preview images or sidecar files.
1857            See the -w option for a description of the FMT syntax.  Note that
1858            file name FMT strings for all options are based on the original
1859            FILE specified from the command line, not the name of the source
1860            file specified by -srcfile.
1861
1862            For example, to copy metadata from NEF files to the corresponding
1863            JPG previews in a directory where other JPG images may exist:
1864
1865                exiftool -ext nef -tagsfromfile @ -srcfile %d%f.jpg dir
1866
1867            If than one -srcfile option is specified, the files are tested in
1868            order and the first existing source file is processed.  If none of
1869            the source files already exist, then exiftool uses the first
1870            -srcfile specified.
1871
1872            A FMT of "@" may be used to represent the original FILE, which may
1873            be useful when specifying multiple -srcfile options (eg. to fall
1874            back to processing the original FILE if no sidecar exists).
1875
1876       -stay_open FLAG
1877            If FLAG is 1 or "True", causes exiftool keep reading from the -@
1878            ARGFILE even after reaching the end of file.  This feature allows
1879            calling applications to pre-load exiftool, thus avoiding the
1880            overhead of loading exiftool for each command.  The procedure is
1881            as follows:
1882
1883            1) Execute "exiftool -stay_open True -@ ARGFILE", where ARGFILE is
1884            the name of an existing (possibly empty) argument file or "-" to
1885            pipe arguments from the standard input.
1886
1887            2) Write exiftool command-line arguments to ARGFILE, one argument
1888            per line (see the -@ option for details).
1889
1890            3) Write "-execute\n" to ARGFILE, where "\n" represents a newline
1891            sequence.  (Note: You may need to flush your write buffers here if
1892            using buffered output.)  Exiftool will then execute the command
1893            with the arguments received up to this point, send a "{ready}"
1894            message to stdout when done (unless the -q or -T option is used),
1895            and continue trying to read arguments for the next command from
1896            ARGFILE.  To aid in command/response synchronization, any number
1897            appended to the "-execute" option is echoed in the "{ready}"
1898            message.  For example, "-execute613" results in "{ready613}".
1899
1900            4) Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each command.
1901
1902            5) Write "-stay_open\nFalse\n" to ARGFILE when done.  This will
1903            cause exiftool to process any remaining command-line arguments
1904            then exit normally.
1905
1906            The input ARGFILE may be changed at any time before step 5 above
1907            by writing the following lines to the currently open ARGFILE:
1908
1909                -stay_open
1910                True
1911                -@
1912                NEWARGFILE
1913
1914            This causes ARGFILE to be closed, and NEWARGFILE to be kept open.
1915            (Without the -stay_open here, exiftool would have returned to
1916            reading arguments from ARGFILE after reaching the end of
1917            NEWARGFILE.)
1918
1919            Note:  When writing arguments to a disk file there is a delay of
1920            up to 0.01 seconds after writing "-execute\n" before exiftool
1921            starts processing the command.  This delay may be avoided by
1922            sending a CONT signal to the exiftool process immediately after
1923            writing "-execute\n".  (There is no associated delay when writing
1924            arguments via a pipe with "-@ -", so the signal is not necessary
1925            when using this technique.)
1926
1927       -userParam PARAM[[^]=[VAL]]
1928            Set user parameter.  PARAM is an arbitrary user parameter name.
1929            This is an interface to the API UserParam option (see the
1930            Image::ExifTool Options documentation), and provides a method to
1931            access user-defined parameters from inside tag name expressions
1932            (as if it were any other tag, see example below), and from
1933            PrintConv/ValueConv logic (via the ExifTool Options function).
1934            Similar to the -api option, the parameter value is set to 1 if
1935            =VAL is omitted, undef if just VAL is omitted with "=", or an
1936            empty string if VAL is omitted with "^=".
1937
1938                exiftool -p '$test from $filename' -userparam test=Hello FILE
1939
1940       Advanced formatting feature
1941
1942       An advanced formatting feature allows modification of the value of any
1943       tag interpolated within a -if or -p option argument, or a -tagsFromFile
1944       redirection string.  Tag names within these strings are prefixed by a
1945       "$" symbol, and an arbitrary Perl expression may be applied to the tag
1946       value by placing braces around the tag name and inserting the
1947       expression after the name, separated by a semicolon (ie.
1948       "${TAG;EXPR}").  The expression acts on the value of the tag through
1949       the default input variable ($_), and has access to the full ExifTool
1950       API through the current ExifTool object ($self).  It may contain any
1951       valid Perl code, including translation ("tr///") and substitution
1952       ("s///") operations, but note that braces within the expression must be
1953       balanced.  The example below prints the camera Make with spaces
1954       translated to underlines, and multiple consecutive underlines replaced
1955       by a single underline:
1956
1957           exiftool -p '${make;tr/ /_/;s/__+/_/g}' image.jpg
1958
1959       An "@" may be added after the tag name to make the expression act on
1960       individual list items for list-type tags, simplifying list processing.
1961       Set $_ to undef to remove an item from the list.  As an example, the
1962       following command returns all subjects not containing the string "xxx":
1963
1964           exiftool -p '${subject@;$_=undef if /xxx/}' image.jpg
1965
1966       A default expression of "tr(/\\?*:|"<>\0)()d" is assumed if the
1967       expression is empty (ie. "${TAG;}").  This removes the characters / \ ?
1968       * : | < > and null from the printed value.  (These characters are
1969       illegal in Windows file names, so this feature is useful if tag values
1970       are used in file names.)
1971
1972       Helper functions
1973
1974       ExifTool provides a "DateFmt" utility to simplify reformatting of
1975       individual date/time values.  The function acts on a standard EXIF-
1976       formatted date/time value in $_ and formats it according to the
1977       specified format string (see the -d option).  To avoid trying to
1978       reformat an already formatted date/time value, a "#" must be added to
1979       the tag name (as in the example below) if the -d option is also used.
1980       For example:
1981
1982           exiftool -p '${createdate#;DateFmt("%Y-%m-%d_%H%M%S")}' a.jpg
1983
1984       A "NoDups" utility is also provided to remove duplicate items from a
1985       list with a separator specified by the -sep option.  This function is
1986       most useful when copying list-type tags.  For example, the following
1987       command may be used to remove duplicate Keywords:
1988
1989           exiftool -sep '##' '-keywords<${keywords;NoDups}' a.jpg
1990
1991       The -sep option is necessary to split the string back into individual
1992       list items when writing to a list-type tag.
1993
1994       An optional flag argument may be set to 1 to cause "NoDups" to return
1995       undef if no duplicates existed, thus preventing the file from being
1996       rewritten unnecessarily:
1997
1998           exiftool -sep '##' '-keywords<${keywords;NoDups(1)}' a.jpg
1999
2000       Note that function names are case sensitive.
2001

WINDOWS UNICODE FILE NAMES

2003       In Windows, command-line arguments are specified using the current code
2004       page and are recoded automatically to the system code page.  This
2005       recoding is not done for arguments in ExifTool arg files, so by default
2006       filenames in arg files use the system code page.  Unfortunately, these
2007       code pages are not complete character sets, so not all file names may
2008       be represented.
2009
2010       ExifTool 9.79 and later allow the file name encoding to be specified
2011       with "-charset filename=CHARSET", where "CHARSET" is the name of a
2012       valid ExifTool character set, preferably "UTF8" (see the -charset
2013       option for a complete list).  Setting this triggers the use of Windows
2014       wide-character i/o routines, thus providing support for most Unicode
2015       file names (see note 4).  But note that it is not trivial to pass
2016       properly encoded file names on the Windows command line (see
2017       <http://owl.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/faq.html#Q18> for details),
2018       so placing them in a UTF-8 encoded -@ argfile and using "-charset
2019       filename=utf8" is recommended if possible.
2020
2021       A warning is issued if a specified filename contains special characters
2022       and the filename character set was not provided.  However, the warning
2023       may be disabled by setting "-charset filename=""", and ExifTool may
2024       still function correctly if the system code page matches the character
2025       set used for the file names.
2026
2027       When a directory name is provided, the file name encoding need not be
2028       specified (unless the directory name contains special characters), and
2029       ExifTool will automatically use wide-character routines to scan the
2030       directory.
2031
2032       The filename character set applies to the FILE arguments as well as
2033       filename arguments of -@, -geotag, -o, -p, -srcfile, -tagsFromFile,
2034       -csv=, -j= and -TAG<=.  However, it does not apply to the -config
2035       filename, which always uses the system character set.  The "-charset
2036       filename=" option must come before the -@ option to be effective, but
2037       the order doesn't matter with respect to other options.
2038
2039       Notes:
2040
2041       1) FileName and Directory tag values still use the same encoding as
2042       other tag values, and are converted to/from the filename character set
2043       when writing/reading if specified.
2044
2045       2) Unicode support is not yet implemented for other Windows-based
2046       systems like Cygwin.
2047
2048       3) See "WRITING READ-ONLY FILES" below for a note about editing read-
2049       only files with Unicode names.
2050
2051       4) Unicode file names with surrogate pairs (code points over U+FFFF)
2052       still cause problems.
2053

WRITING READ-ONLY FILES

2055       In general, ExifTool may be used to write metadata to read-only files
2056       provided that the user has write permission in the directory.  However,
2057       there are three cases where file write permission is also required:
2058
2059       1) When using the -overwrite_original_in_place option.
2060
2061       2) When writing only pseudo System tags (eg. FileModifyDate).
2062
2063       3) On Windows if the file has Unicode characters in its name, and a)
2064       the -overwrite_original option is used, or b) the "_original" backup
2065       already exists.
2066

READING EXAMPLES

2068       Note: Beware when cutting and pasting these examples into your
2069       terminal!  Some characters such as single and double quotes and hyphens
2070       may have been changed into similar-looking yet functionally-different
2071       characters by the text formatter used to display this documentation.
2072       Also note that Windows users must use double quotes instead of single
2073       quotes as below around arguments containing special characters.
2074
2075       exiftool -a -u -g1 a.jpg
2076            Print all meta information in an image, including duplicate and
2077            unknown tags, sorted by group (for family 1).  For performance
2078            reasons, this command may not extract all available metadata.
2079            (Metadata in embedded documents, metadata extracted by external
2080            utilities, and metadata requiring excessive processing time may
2081            not be extracted).  Add "-ee" and "-api RequestAll=3" to the
2082            command to extract absolutely everything available.
2083
2084       exiftool -common dir
2085            Print common meta information for all images in "dir".  "-common"
2086            is a shortcut tag representing common EXIF meta information.
2087
2088       exiftool -T -createdate -aperture -shutterspeed -iso dir > out.txt
2089            List specified meta information in tab-delimited column form for
2090            all images in "dir" to an output text file named "out.txt".
2091
2092       exiftool -s -ImageSize -ExposureTime b.jpg
2093            Print ImageSize and ExposureTime tag names and values.
2094
2095       exiftool -l -canon c.jpg d.jpg
2096            Print standard Canon information from two image files.
2097
2098       exiftool -r -w .txt -common pictures
2099            Recursively extract common meta information from files in
2100            "pictures" directory, writing text output to ".txt" files with the
2101            same names.
2102
2103       exiftool -b -ThumbnailImage image.jpg > thumbnail.jpg
2104            Save thumbnail image from "image.jpg" to a file called
2105            "thumbnail.jpg".
2106
2107       exiftool -b -JpgFromRaw -w _JFR.JPG -ext NEF -r .
2108            Recursively extract JPG image from all Nikon NEF files in the
2109            current directory, adding "_JFR.JPG" for the name of the output
2110            JPG files.
2111
2112       exiftool -a -b -W %d%f_%t%-c.%s -preview:all dir
2113            Extract all types of preview images (ThumbnailImage, PreviewImage,
2114            JpgFromRaw, etc.) from files in directory "dir", adding the tag
2115            name to the output preview image file names.
2116
2117       exiftool -d '%r %a, %B %e, %Y' -DateTimeOriginal -S -s -ext jpg .
2118            Print formatted date/time for all JPG files in the current
2119            directory.
2120
2121       exiftool -IFD1:XResolution -IFD1:YResolution image.jpg
2122            Extract image resolution from EXIF IFD1 information (thumbnail
2123            image IFD).
2124
2125       exiftool '-*resolution*' image.jpg
2126            Extract all tags with names containing the word "Resolution" from
2127            an image.
2128
2129       exiftool -xmp:author:all -a image.jpg
2130            Extract all author-related XMP information from an image.
2131
2132       exiftool -xmp -b a.jpg > out.xmp
2133            Extract complete XMP data record intact from "a.jpg" and write it
2134            to "out.xmp" using the special "XMP" tag (see the Extra tags in
2135            Image::ExifTool::TagNames).
2136
2137       exiftool -p '$filename has date $dateTimeOriginal' -q -f dir
2138            Print one line of output containing the file name and
2139            DateTimeOriginal for each image in directory "dir".
2140
2141       exiftool -ee -p '$gpslatitude, $gpslongitude, $gpstimestamp' a.m2ts
2142            Extract all GPS positions from an AVCHD video.
2143
2144       exiftool -icc_profile -b -w icc image.jpg
2145            Save complete ICC_Profile from an image to an output file with the
2146            same name and an extension of ".icc".
2147
2148       exiftool -htmldump -w tmp/%f_%e.html t/images
2149            Generate HTML pages from a hex dump of EXIF information in all
2150            images from the "t/images" directory.  The output HTML files are
2151            written to the "tmp" directory (which is created if it didn't
2152            exist), with names of the form 'FILENAME_EXT.html'.
2153
2154       exiftool -a -b -ee -embeddedimage -W Image_%.3g3.%s file.pdf
2155            Extract embedded JPG and JP2 images from a PDF file.  The output
2156            images will have file names like "Image_#.jpg" or "Image_#.jp2",
2157            where "#" is the ExifTool family 3 embedded document number for
2158            the image.
2159

WRITING EXAMPLES

2161       Note that quotes are necessary around arguments which contain certain
2162       special characters such as ">", "<" or any white space.  These quoting
2163       techniques are shell dependent, but the examples below will work for
2164       most Unix shells.  With the Windows cmd shell however, double quotes
2165       should be used (eg. -Comment="This is a new comment").
2166
2167       exiftool -Comment='This is a new comment' dst.jpg
2168            Write new comment to a JPG image (replaces any existing comment).
2169
2170       exiftool -comment= -o newdir -ext jpg .
2171            Remove comment from all JPG images in the current directory,
2172            writing the modified images to a new directory.
2173
2174       exiftool -keywords=EXIF -keywords=editor dst.jpg
2175            Replace existing keyword list with two new keywords ("EXIF" and
2176            "editor").
2177
2178       exiftool -Keywords+=word -o newfile.jpg src.jpg
2179            Copy a source image to a new file, and add a keyword ("word") to
2180            the current list of keywords.
2181
2182       exiftool -exposurecompensation+=-0.5 a.jpg
2183            Decrement the value of ExposureCompensation by 0.5 EV.  Note that
2184            += with a negative value is used for decrementing because the -=
2185            operator is used for conditional deletion (see next example).
2186
2187       exiftool -credit-=xxx dir
2188            Delete Credit information from all files in a directory where the
2189            Credit value was "xxx".
2190
2191       exiftool -xmp:description-de='k&uuml;hl' -E dst.jpg
2192            Write alternate language for XMP:Description, using HTML character
2193            escaping to input special characters.
2194
2195       exiftool -all= dst.jpg
2196            Delete all meta information from an image.  Note: You should NOT
2197            do this to RAW images (except DNG) since proprietary RAW image
2198            formats often contain information in the makernotes that is
2199            necessary for converting the image.
2200
2201       exiftool -all= -comment='lonely' dst.jpg
2202            Delete all meta information from an image and add a comment back
2203            in.  (Note that the order is important: "-comment='lonely' -all="
2204            would also delete the new comment.)
2205
2206       exiftool -all= --jfif:all dst.jpg
2207            Delete all meta information except JFIF group from an image.
2208
2209       exiftool -Photoshop:All= dst.jpg
2210            Delete Photoshop meta information from an image (note that the
2211            Photoshop information also includes IPTC).
2212
2213       exiftool -r -XMP-crss:all= DIR
2214            Recursively delete all XMP-crss information from images in a
2215            directory.
2216
2217       exiftool '-ThumbnailImage<=thumb.jpg' dst.jpg
2218            Set the thumbnail image from specified file (Note: The quotes are
2219            necessary to prevent shell redirection).
2220
2221       exiftool '-JpgFromRaw<=%d%f_JFR.JPG' -ext NEF -r .
2222            Recursively write JPEG images with filenames ending in "_JFR.JPG"
2223            to the JpgFromRaw tag of like-named files with extension ".NEF" in
2224            the current directory.  (This is the inverse of the "-JpgFromRaw"
2225            command of the "READING EXAMPLES" section above.)
2226
2227       exiftool -DateTimeOriginal-='0:0:0 1:30:0' dir
2228            Adjust original date/time of all images in directory "dir" by
2229            subtracting one hour and 30 minutes.  (This is equivalent to
2230            "-DateTimeOriginal-=1.5".  See Image::ExifTool::Shift.pl for
2231            details.)
2232
2233       exiftool -createdate+=3 -modifydate+=3 a.jpg b.jpg
2234            Add 3 hours to the CreateDate and ModifyDate timestamps of two
2235            images.
2236
2237       exiftool -AllDates+=1:30 -if '$make eq "Canon"' dir
2238            Shift the values of DateTimeOriginal, CreateDate and ModifyDate
2239            forward by 1 hour and 30 minutes for all Canon images in a
2240            directory.  (The AllDates tag is provided as a shortcut for these
2241            three tags, allowing them to be accessed via a single tag.)
2242
2243       exiftool -xmp:city=Kingston image1.jpg image2.nef
2244            Write a tag to the XMP group of two images.  (Without the "xmp:"
2245            this tag would get written to the IPTC group since "City" exists
2246            in both, and IPTC is preferred by default.)
2247
2248       exiftool -LightSource-='Unknown (0)' dst.tiff
2249            Delete "LightSource" tag only if it is unknown with a value of 0.
2250
2251       exiftool -whitebalance-=auto -WhiteBalance=tung dst.jpg
2252            Set "WhiteBalance" to "Tungsten" only if it was previously "Auto".
2253
2254       exiftool -comment-= -comment='new comment' a.jpg
2255            Write a new comment only if the image doesn't have one already.
2256
2257       exiftool -o %d%f.xmp dir
2258            Create XMP meta information data files for all images in "dir".
2259
2260       exiftool -o test.xmp -owner=Phil -title='XMP File'
2261            Create an XMP data file only from tags defined on the command
2262            line.
2263
2264       exiftool '-ICC_Profile<=%d%f.icc' image.jpg
2265            Write ICC_Profile to an image from a ".icc" file of the same name.
2266
2267       exiftool -hierarchicalkeywords='{keyword=one,children={keyword=B}}'
2268            Write structured XMP information.  See
2269            <http://owl.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/struct.html> for more
2270            details.
2271
2272       exiftool -trailer:all= image.jpg
2273            Delete any trailer found after the end of image (EOI) in a JPEG
2274            file.  A number of digital cameras store a large PreviewImage
2275            after the JPEG EOI, and the file size may be reduced significantly
2276            by deleting this trailer.  See the JPEG Tags documentation for a
2277            list of recognized JPEG trailers.
2278

COPYING EXAMPLES

2280       These examples demonstrate the ability to copy tag values between
2281       files.
2282
2283       exiftool -tagsFromFile src.cr2 dst.jpg
2284            Copy the values of all writable tags from "src.cr2" to "dst.jpg",
2285            writing the information to same-named tags in the preferred
2286            groups.
2287
2288       exiftool -TagsFromFile src.jpg -all:all dst.jpg
2289            Copy the values of all writable tags from "src.jpg" to "dst.jpg",
2290            preserving the original tag groups.
2291
2292       exiftool -all= -tagsfromfile src.jpg -exif:all dst.jpg
2293            Erase all meta information from "dst.jpg" image, then copy EXIF
2294            tags from "src.jpg".
2295
2296       exiftool -exif:all= -tagsfromfile @ -all:all -unsafe bad.jpg
2297            Rebuild all EXIF meta information from scratch in an image.  This
2298            technique can be used in JPEG images to repair corrupted EXIF
2299            information which otherwise could not be written due to errors.
2300            The "Unsafe" tag is a shortcut for unsafe EXIF tags in JPEG images
2301            which are not normally copied.  See the tag name documentation for
2302            more details about unsafe tags.
2303
2304       exiftool -Tagsfromfile a.jpg out.xmp
2305            Copy meta information from "a.jpg" to an XMP data file.  If the
2306            XMP data file "out.xmp" already exists, it will be updated with
2307            the new information.  Otherwise the XMP data file will be created.
2308            Only metadata-only files may be created like this (files
2309            containing images may be edited but not created).  See "WRITING
2310            EXAMPLES" above for another technique to generate XMP files.
2311
2312       exiftool -tagsFromFile a.jpg -XMP:All= -ThumbnailImage= -m b.jpg
2313            Copy all meta information from "a.jpg" to "b.jpg", deleting all
2314            XMP information and the thumbnail image from the destination.
2315
2316       exiftool -TagsFromFile src.jpg -title -author=Phil dst.jpg
2317            Copy title from one image to another and set a new author name.
2318
2319       exiftool -TagsFromFile a.jpg -ISO -TagsFromFile b.jpg -comment dst.jpg
2320            Copy ISO from one image and Comment from another image to a
2321            destination image.
2322
2323       exiftool -tagsfromfile src.jpg -exif:all --subifd:all dst.jpg
2324            Copy only the EXIF information from one image to another,
2325            excluding SubIFD tags.
2326
2327       exiftool '-FileModifyDate<DateTimeOriginal' dir
2328            Use the original date from the meta information to set the same
2329            file's filesystem modification date for all images in a directory.
2330            (Note that "-TagsFromFile @" is assumed if no other -TagsFromFile
2331            is specified when redirecting information as in this example.)
2332
2333       exiftool -TagsFromFile src.jpg '-xmp:all<all' dst.jpg
2334            Copy all possible information from "src.jpg" and write in XMP
2335            format to "dst.jpg".
2336
2337       exiftool '-Description<${FileName;s/\.[^.]*$//}' dir
2338            Set the image Description from the file name after removing the
2339            extension.  This example uses the "Advanced formatting feature" to
2340            perform a substitution operation to remove the last dot and
2341            subsequent characters from the file name.
2342
2343       exiftool -@ iptc2xmp.args -iptc:all= a.jpg
2344            Translate IPTC information to XMP with appropriate tag name
2345            conversions, and delete the original IPTC information from an
2346            image.  This example uses iptc2xmp.args, which is a file included
2347            with the ExifTool distribution that contains the required
2348            arguments to convert IPTC information to XMP format.  Also
2349            included with the distribution are xmp2iptc.args (which performs
2350            the inverse conversion) and a few more .args files for other
2351            conversions between EXIF, IPTC and XMP.
2352
2353       exiftool -tagsfromfile %d%f.CR2 -r -ext JPG dir
2354            Recursively rewrite all "JPG" images in "dir" with information
2355            copied from the corresponding "CR2" images in the same
2356            directories.
2357
2358       exiftool '-keywords+<make' image.jpg
2359            Add camera make to list of keywords.
2360
2361       exiftool '-comment<ISO=$exif:iso Exposure=${shutterspeed}' dir
2362            Set the Comment tag of all images in "dir" from the values of the
2363            EXIF:ISO and ShutterSpeed tags.  The resulting comment will be in
2364            the form "ISO=100 Exposure=1/60".
2365
2366       exiftool -TagsFromFile src.jpg -icc_profile dst.jpg
2367            Copy ICC_Profile from one image to another.
2368
2369       exiftool -TagsFromFile src.jpg -all:all dst.mie
2370            Copy all meta information in its original form from a JPEG image
2371            to a MIE file.  The MIE file will be created if it doesn't exist.
2372            This technique can be used to store the metadata of an image so it
2373            can be inserted back into the image (with the inverse command)
2374            later in a workflow.
2375
2376       exiftool -o dst.mie -all:all src.jpg
2377            This command performs exactly the same task as the command above,
2378            except that the -o option will not write to an output file that
2379            already exists.
2380
2381       exiftool -b -jpgfromraw -w %d%f_%ue.jpg -execute -b -previewimage -w
2382       %d%f_%ue.jpg -execute -tagsfromfile @ -srcfile %d%f_%ue.jpg
2383       -overwrite_original -common_args --ext jpg DIR
2384            [Advanced] Extract JpgFromRaw or PreviewImage from all but JPG
2385            files in DIR, saving them with file names like "image_EXT.jpg",
2386            then add all meta information from the original files to the
2387            extracted images.  Here, the command line is broken into three
2388            sections (separated by -execute options), and each is executed as
2389            if it were a separate command.  The -common_args option causes the
2390            "--ext jpg DIR" arguments to be applied to all three commands, and
2391            the -srcfile option allows the extracted JPG image to be the
2392            source file for the third command (whereas the RAW files are the
2393            source files for the other two commands).
2394

RENAMING EXAMPLES

2396       By writing the "FileName" and "Directory" tags, files are renamed
2397       and/or moved to new directories.  This can be particularly useful and
2398       powerful for organizing files by date when combined with the -d option.
2399       New directories are created as necessary, but existing files will not
2400       be overwritten.  The format codes %d, %f and %e may be used in the new
2401       file name to represent the directory, name and extension of the
2402       original file, and %c may be used to add a copy number if the file
2403       already exists (see the -w option for details).  Note that if used
2404       within a date format string, an extra '%' must be added to pass these
2405       codes through the date/time parser.  (And further note that in a
2406       Windows batch file, all '%' characters must also be escaped, so in this
2407       extreme case '%%%%f' is necessary to pass a simple '%f' through the two
2408       levels of parsing.)  See
2409       <http://owl.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/filename.html> for additional
2410       documentation and examples.
2411
2412       exiftool -filename=new.jpg dir/old.jpg
2413            Rename "old.jpg" to "new.jpg" in directory "dir".
2414
2415       exiftool -directory=%e dir
2416            Move all files from directory "dir" into directories named by the
2417            original file extensions.
2418
2419       exiftool '-Directory<DateTimeOriginal' -d %Y/%m/%d dir
2420            Move all files in "dir" into a directory hierarchy based on year,
2421            month and day of "DateTimeOriginal".  eg) This command would move
2422            the file "dir/image.jpg" with a "DateTimeOriginal" of "2005:10:12
2423            16:05:56" to "2005/10/12/image.jpg".
2424
2425       exiftool -o . '-Directory<DateTimeOriginal' -d %Y/%m/%d dir
2426            Same effect as above except files are copied instead of moved.
2427
2428       exiftool '-filename<%f_${model;}.%e' dir
2429            Rename all files in "dir" by adding the camera model name to the
2430            file name.  The semicolon after the tag name inside the braces
2431            causes characters which are invalid in Windows file names to be
2432            deleted from the tag value (see the "Advanced formatting feature"
2433            for an explanation).
2434
2435       exiftool '-FileName<CreateDate' -d %Y%m%d_%H%M%S%%-c.%%e dir
2436            Rename all images in "dir" according to the "CreateDate" date and
2437            time, adding a copy number with leading '-' if the file already
2438            exists ("%-c"), and preserving the original file extension (%e).
2439            Note the extra '%' necessary to escape the filename codes (%c and
2440            %e) in the date format string.
2441
2442       exiftool -r '-FileName<CreateDate' -d %Y-%m-%d/%H%M_%%f.%%e dir
2443            Both the directory and the filename may be changed together via
2444            the "FileName" tag if the new "FileName" contains a '/'.  The
2445            example above recursively renames all images in a directory by
2446            adding a "CreateDate" timestamp to the start of the filename, then
2447            moves them into new directories named by date.
2448
2449       exiftool '-FileName<${CreateDate}_$filenumber.jpg' -d %Y%m%d -ext jpg .
2450            Set the filename of all JPG images in the current directory from
2451            the CreateDate and FileNumber tags, in the form
2452            "20060507_118-1861.jpg".
2453

GEOTAGGING EXAMPLES

2455       ExifTool implements geotagging via 3 special tags: Geotag (which for
2456       convenience is also implemented as an exiftool option), Geosync and
2457       Geotime.  The examples below highlight some geotagging features.  See
2458       <http://owl.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/geotag.html> for additional
2459       documentation.
2460
2461       exiftool -geotag track.log a.jpg
2462            Geotag an image ("a.jpg") from position information in a GPS track
2463            log ("track.log").  Since the "Geotime" tag is not specified, the
2464            value of DateTimeOriginal is used for geotagging.  Local system
2465            time is assumed unless DateTimeOriginal contains a timezone.
2466
2467       exiftool -geotag t.log -geotime='2009:04:02 13:41:12-05:00' a.jpg
2468            Geotag an image with the GPS position for a specific time.
2469
2470       exiftool -geotag log.gpx '-xmp:geotime<createdate' dir
2471            Geotag all images in directory "dir" with XMP tags instead of EXIF
2472            tags, based on the image CreateDate.
2473
2474       exiftool -geotag a.log -geosync=-20 dir
2475            Geotag images in directory "dir", accounting for image timestamps
2476            which were 20 seconds ahead of GPS.
2477
2478       exiftool -geotag a.log -geosync=1.jpg -geosync=2.jpg dir
2479            Geotag images using time synchronization from two previously
2480            geotagged images (1.jpg and 2.jpg), synchronizing the image and
2481            GPS times using a linear time drift correction.
2482
2483       exiftool -geotag a.log '-geotime<${createdate}+01:00' dir
2484            Geotag images in "dir" using CreateDate with the specified
2485            timezone.  If CreateDate already contained a timezone, then the
2486            timezone specified on the command line is ignored.
2487
2488       exiftool -geotag= a.jpg
2489            Delete GPS tags which may have been added by the geotag feature.
2490            Note that this does not remove all GPS tags -- to do this instead
2491            use "-gps:all=".
2492
2493       exiftool -xmp:geotag= a.jpg
2494            Delete XMP GPS tags which were added by the geotag feature.
2495
2496       exiftool -xmp:geotag=track.log a.jpg
2497            Geotag an image with XMP tags, using the time from
2498            DateTimeOriginal.
2499
2500       exiftool -geotag a.log -geotag b.log -r dir
2501            Combine multiple track logs and geotag an entire directory tree of
2502            images.
2503
2504       exiftool -geotag 'tracks/*.log' -r dir
2505            Read all track logs from the "tracks" directory.
2506
2507       exiftool -p gpx.fmt -d %Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ dir > out.gpx
2508            Generate a GPX track log from all images in directory "dir".  This
2509            example uses the "gpx.fmt" file included in the full ExifTool
2510            distribution package and assumes that the images in "dir" have all
2511            been previously geotagged.
2512

PIPING EXAMPLES

2514       cat a.jpg | exiftool -
2515            Extract information from stdin.
2516
2517       exiftool image.jpg -thumbnailimage -b | exiftool -
2518            Extract information from an embedded thumbnail image.
2519
2520       cat a.jpg | exiftool -iptc:keywords+=fantastic - > b.jpg
2521            Add an IPTC keyword in a pipeline, saving output to a new file.
2522
2523       curl -s http://a.domain.com/bigfile.jpg | exiftool -fast -
2524            Extract information from an image over the internet using the cURL
2525            utility.  The -fast option prevents exiftool from scanning for
2526            trailer information, so only the meta information header is
2527            transferred.
2528
2529       exiftool a.jpg -thumbnailimage -b | exiftool -comment=wow - | exiftool
2530       a.jpg -thumbnailimage'<=-'
2531            Add a comment to an embedded thumbnail image.  (Why anyone would
2532            want to do this I don't know, but I've included this as an example
2533            to illustrate the flexibility of ExifTool.)
2534

EXIT STATUS

2536       The exiftool application exits with a status of 0 on success, or 1 if
2537       an error occurred, or 2 if all files failed the -if condition (for any
2538       of the commands if -execute was used).
2539

AUTHOR

2541       Copyright 2003-2019, Phil Harvey
2542
2543       This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
2544       the same terms as Perl itself.
2545

SEE ALSO

2547       Image::ExifTool(3pm), Image::ExifTool::TagNames(3pm),
2548       Image::ExifTool::Shortcuts(3pm), Image::ExifTool::Shift.pl
2549
2550
2551
2552perl v5.28.1                      2019-03-01                       EXIFTOOL(1)
Impressum