1EXIFTOOL(1) User Contributed Perl Documentation EXIFTOOL(1)
2
6 exiftool - Read and write meta information in files
7
9 Reading
10 exiftool [OPTIONS] [-TAG...] [--TAG...] FILE...
11 Writing
13 exiftool [OPTIONS] -TAG[+-<]=[VALUE]... FILE...
14 Copying
16 exiftool [OPTIONS] -tagsFromFile SRCFILE [-SRCTAG[>DSTTAG]...] FILE...
17 Other
19 exiftool [ -ver | -list[w|f|r|wf|g[NUM]|d|x] ]
20 For specific examples, see the EXAMPLES sections below.
22 This documentation is displayed if exiftool is run without an input
24 FILE when one is expected.
25
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 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 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 subdirectories
47 with names beginning with "." are skipped unless -r. is used.
48 Below is a list of file types and meta information formats currently
50 supported by ExifTool (r = read, w = write, c = create):
51 File Types
53 ------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+------------
54 360 r/w | DR4 r/w/c | JNG r/w | ODP r | RIFF r
55 3FR r | DSS r | JP2 r/w | ODS r | RSRC r
56 3G2 r/w | DV r | JPEG r/w | ODT r | RTF r
57 3GP r/w | DVB r/w | JSON r | OFR r | RW2 r/w
58 A r | DVR-MS r | JXL r | OGG r | RWL r/w
59 AA r | DYLIB r | K25 r | OGV r | RWZ r
60 AAE r | EIP r | KDC r | ONP r | RM r
61 AAX r/w | EPS r/w | KEY r | OPUS r | SEQ r
62 ACR r | EPUB r | LA r | ORF r/w | SKETCH r
63 AFM r | ERF r/w | LFP r | ORI r/w | SO r
64 AI r/w | EXE r | LIF r | OTF r | SR2 r/w
65 AIFF r | EXIF r/w/c | LNK r | PAC r | SRF r
66 APE r | EXR r | LRV r/w | PAGES r | SRW r/w
67 ARQ r/w | EXV r/w/c | M2TS r | PBM r/w | SVG r
68 ARW r/w | F4A/V r/w | M4A/V r/w | PCD r | SWF r
69 ASF r | FFF r/w | MACOS r | PCX r | THM r/w
70 AVI r | FITS r | MAX r | PDB r | TIFF r/w
71 AVIF r/w | FLA r | MEF r/w | PDF r/w | TORRENT r
72 AZW r | FLAC r | MIE r/w/ | PEF r/w | TTC r
73 BMP r | FLIF r/w | MIFF r c | PFA r | TTF r
74 BPG r | FLV r | MKA r | PFB r | TXT r
75 BTF r | FPF r | MKS r | PFM r | VCF r
76 CHM r | FPX r | MKV r | PGF r | VRD r/w/c
77 COS r | GIF r/w | MNG r/w | PGM r/w | VSD r
78 CR2 r/w | GPR r/w | MOBI r | PLIST r | WAV r
79 CR3 r/w | GZ r | MODD r | PICT r | WDP r/w
80 CRM r/w | HDP r/w | MOI r | PMP r | WEBP r
81 CRW r/w | HDR r | MOS r/w | PNG r/w | WEBM r
82 CS1 r/w | HEIC r/w | MOV r/w | PPM r/w | WMA r
83 CSV r | HEIF r/w | MP3 r | PPT r | WMV r
84 CZI r | HTML r | MP4 r/w | PPTX r | WTV r
85 DCM r | ICC r/w/c | MPC r | PS r/w | WV r
86 DCP r/w | ICS r | MPG r | PSB r/w | X3F r/w
87 DCR r | IDML r | MPO r/w | PSD r/w | XCF r
88 DFONT r | IIQ r/w | MQV r/w | PSP r | XLS r
89 DIVX r | IND r/w | MRC r | QTIF r/w | XLSX r
90 DJVU r | INSP r/w | MRW r/w | R3D r | XMP r/w/c
91 DLL r | INSV r | MXF r | RA r | ZIP r
92 DNG r/w | INX r | NEF r/w | RAF r/w |
93 DOC r | ISO r | NRW r/w | RAM r |
94 DOCX r | ITC r | NUMBERS r | RAR r |
95 DPX r | J2C r | O r | RAW r/w |
96 Meta Information
98 ----------------------+----------------------+---------------------
99 EXIF r/w/c | CIFF r/w | Ricoh RMETA r
100 GPS r/w/c | AFCP r/w | Picture Info r
101 IPTC r/w/c | Kodak Meta r/w | Adobe APP14 r
102 XMP r/w/c | FotoStation r/w | MPF r
103 MakerNotes r/w/c | PhotoMechanic r/w | Stim r
104 Photoshop IRB r/w/c | JPEG 2000 r | DPX r
105 ICC Profile r/w/c | DICOM r | APE r
106 MIE r/w/c | Flash r | Vorbis r
107 JFIF r/w/c | FlashPix r | SPIFF r
108 Ducky APP12 r/w/c | QuickTime r | DjVu r
109 PDF r/w/c | Matroska r | M2TS r
110 PNG r/w/c | MXF r | PE/COFF r
111 Canon VRD r/w/c | PrintIM r | AVCHD r
112 Nikon Capture r/w/c | FLAC r | ZIP r
113 GeoTIFF r/w/c | ID3 r | (and more)
114
116 Case is not significant for any command-line option (including tag and
117 group names), except for single-character options when the
118 corresponding upper-case option exists. Many single-character options
119 have equivalent long-name versions (shown in brackets), and some
120 options have inverses which are invoked with a leading double-dash.
121 Unrecognized options are interpreted as tag names (for this reason,
122 multiple single-character options may NOT be combined into one
123 argument). Contrary to standard practice, options may appear after
124 source file names on the exiftool command line.
125 Option Overview
127 Tag operations
128 -TAG or --TAG Extract or exclude specified tag
130 -TAG[+-^]=[VALUE] Write new value for tag
131 -TAG[+-]<=DATFILE Write tag value from contents of file
132 -TAG[+-]<SRCTAG Copy tag value (see -tagsFromFile)
133 -tagsFromFile SRCFILE Copy tag values from file
135 -x TAG (-exclude) Exclude specified tag
136 Input-output text formatting
138 -args (-argFormat) Format metadata as exiftool arguments
140 -b (-binary) Output metadata in binary format
141 -c FMT (-coordFormat) Set format for GPS coordinates
142 -charset [[TYPE=]CHARSET] Specify encoding for special characters
143 -csv[[+]=CSVFILE] Export/import tags in CSV format
144 -csvDelim STR Set delimiter for CSV file
145 -d FMT (-dateFormat) Set format for date/time values
146 -D (-decimal) Show tag ID numbers in decimal
147 -E,-ex,-ec (-escape(HTML|XML|C))Escape tag values for HTML, XML or C
148 -f (-forcePrint) Force printing of all specified tags
149 -g[NUM...] (-groupHeadings) Organize output by tag group
150 -G[NUM...] (-groupNames) Print group name for each tag
151 -h (-htmlFormat) Use HTML formatting for output
152 -H (-hex) Show tag ID numbers in hexadecimal
153 -htmlDump[OFFSET] Generate HTML-format binary dump
154 -j[[+]=JSONFILE] (-json) Export/import tags in JSON format
155 -l (-long) Use long 2-line output format
156 -L (-latin) Use Windows Latin1 encoding
157 -lang [LANG] Set current language
158 -listItem INDEX Extract specific item from a list
159 -n (--printConv) No print conversion
160 -p FMTFILE (-printFormat) Print output in specified format
161 -php Export tags as a PHP Array
162 -s[NUM] (-short) Short output format
163 -S (-veryShort) Very short output format
164 -sep STR (-separator) Set separator string for list items
165 -sort Sort output alphabetically
166 -struct Enable output of structured information
167 -t (-tab) Output in tab-delimited list format
168 -T (-table) Output in tabular format
169 -v[NUM] (-verbose) Print verbose messages
170 -w[+|!] EXT (-textOut) Write (or overwrite!) output text files
171 -W[+|!] FMT (-tagOut) Write output text file for each tag
172 -Wext EXT (-tagOutExt) Write only specified file types with -W
173 -X (-xmlFormat) Use RDF/XML output format
174 Processing control
176 -a (-duplicates) Allow duplicate tags to be extracted
178 -e (--composite) Do not generate composite tags
179 -ee[NUM] (-extractEmbedded) Extract information from embedded files
180 -ext[+] EXT (-extension) Process files with specified extension
181 -F[OFFSET] (-fixBase) Fix the base for maker notes offsets
182 -fast[NUM] Increase speed when extracting metadata
183 -fileOrder[NUM] [-]TAG Set file processing order
184 -i DIR (-ignore) Ignore specified directory name
185 -if[NUM] EXPR Conditionally process files
186 -m (-ignoreMinorErrors) Ignore minor errors and warnings
187 -o OUTFILE (-out) Set output file or directory name
188 -overwrite_original Overwrite original by renaming tmp file
189 -overwrite_original_in_place Overwrite original by copying tmp file
190 -P (-preserve) Preserve file modification date/time
191 -password PASSWD Password for processing protected files
192 -progress[:[TITLE]] Show file progress count
193 -q (-quiet) Quiet processing
194 -r[.] (-recurse) Recursively process subdirectories
195 -scanForXMP Brute force XMP scan
196 -u (-unknown) Extract unknown tags
197 -U (-unknown2) Extract unknown binary tags too
198 -wm MODE (-writeMode) Set mode for writing/creating tags
199 -z (-zip) Read/write compressed information
200 Other options
202 -@ ARGFILE Read command-line arguments from file
204 -k (-pause) Pause before terminating
205 -list[w|f|wf|g[NUM]|d|x] List various exiftool capabilities
206 -ver Print exiftool version number
207 -- End of options
208 Special features
210 -geotag TRKFILE Geotag images from specified GPS log
212 -globalTimeShift SHIFT Shift all formatted date/time values
213 -use MODULE Add features from plug-in module
214 Utilities
216 -delete_original[!] Delete "_original" backups
218 -restore_original Restore from "_original" backups
219 Advanced options
221 -api OPT[[^]=[VAL]] Set ExifTool API option
223 -common_args Define common arguments
224 -config CFGFILE Specify configuration file name
225 -echo[NUM] TEXT Echo text to stdout or stderr
226 -efile[NUM][!] ERRFILE Save names of files with errors
227 -execute[NUM] Execute multiple commands on one line
228 -list_dir List directories, not their contents
229 -srcfile FMT Process a different source file
230 -stay_open FLAG Keep reading -@ argfile even after EOF
231 -userParam PARAM[[^]=[VAL]] Set user parameter (API UserParam opt)
232 Option Details
234 Tag operations
235 -TAG Extract information for the specified tag (eg. "-CreateDate").
237 Multiple tags may be specified in a single command. A tag name is
238 the handle by which a piece of information is referenced. See
239 Image::ExifTool::TagNames for documentation on available tag
240 names. A tag name may include leading group names separated by
241 colons (eg. "-EXIF:CreateDate", or "-Doc1:XMP:Creator"), and each
242 group name may be prefixed by a digit to specify family number
243 (eg. "-1IPTC:City"). Use the -listg option to list available
244 group names by family.
245 A special tag name of "All" may be used to indicate all meta
247 information (ie. -All). This is particularly useful when a group
248 name is specified to extract all information in a group (but
249 beware that unless the -a option is also used, some tags in the
250 group may be suppressed by same-named tags in other groups). The
251 wildcard characters "?" and "*" may be used in a tag name to match
252 any single character and zero or more characters respectively.
253 These may not be used in a group name, with the exception that a
254 group name of "*" (or "All") may be used to extract all instances
255 of a tag (as if -a was used). Note that arguments containing
256 wildcards must be quoted on the command line of most systems to
257 prevent shell globbing.
258 A "#" may be appended to the tag name to disable the print
260 conversion on a per-tag basis (see the -n option). This may also
261 be used when writing or copying tags.
262 If no tags are specified, all available information is extracted
264 (as if "-All" had been specified).
265 Note: Descriptions, not tag names, are shown by default when
267 extracting information. Use the -s option to see the tag names
268 instead.
269 --TAG
271 Exclude specified tag from extracted information. Same as the -x
272 option. Group names and wildcards are permitted as described
273 above for -TAG. Once excluded from the output, a tag may not be
274 re-included by a subsequent option. May also be used following a
275 -tagsFromFile option to exclude tags from being copied (when
276 redirecting to another tag, it is the source tag that should be
277 excluded), or to exclude groups from being deleted when deleting
278 all information (eg. "-all= --exif:all" deletes all but EXIF
279 information). But note that this will not exclude individual tags
280 from a group delete (unless a family 2 group is specified, see
281 note 4 below). Instead, individual tags may be recovered using
282 the -tagsFromFile option (eg. "-all= -tagsfromfile @ -artist").
283 -TAG[+-^]=[VALUE]
285 Write a new value for the specified tag (eg. "-comment=wow"), or
286 delete the tag if no VALUE is given (eg. "-comment="). "+=" and
287 "-=" are used to add or remove existing entries from a list, or to
288 shift date/time values (see Image::ExifTool::Shift.pl and note 6
289 below for more details). "+=" may also be used to increment
290 numerical values (or decrement if VALUE is negative), and "-=" may
291 be used to conditionally delete or replace a tag (see "WRITING
292 EXAMPLES" for examples). "^=" is used to write an empty string
293 instead of deleting the tag when no VALUE is given, but otherwise
294 it is equivalent to "=".
295 TAG may contain one or more leading family 0, 1, 2 or 7 group
297 names, prefixed by optional family numbers, and separated colons.
298 If no group name is specified, the tag is created in the preferred
299 group, and updated in any other location where a same-named tag
300 already exists. The preferred group is the first group in the
301 following list where TAG is valid: 1) EXIF, 2) IPTC, 3) XMP.
302 The wildcards "*" and "?" may be used in tag names to assign the
304 same value to multiple tags. When specified with wildcards,
305 "unsafe" tags are not written. A tag name of "All" is equivalent
306 to "*" (except that it doesn't require quoting, while arguments
307 with wildcards do on systems with shell globbing), and is often
308 used when deleting all metadata (ie. "-All=") or an entire group
309 (eg. "-XMP-dc:All=", see note 4 below). Note that not all groups
310 are deletable, and that the JPEG APP14 "Adobe" group is not
311 removed by default with "-All=" because it may affect the
312 appearance of the image. However, color space information is
313 removed, so the colors may be affected (but this may be avoided by
314 copying back the tags defined by the ColorSpaceTags shortcut).
315 Use the -listd option for a complete list of deletable groups, and
316 see note 5 below regarding the "APP" groups. Also, within an
317 image some groups may be contained within others, and these groups
318 are removed if the containing group is deleted:
319 JPEG Image:
321 - Deleting EXIF or IFD0 also deletes ExifIFD, GlobParamIFD,
322 GPS, IFD1, InteropIFD, MakerNotes, PrintIM and SubIFD.
323 - Deleting ExifIFD also deletes InteropIFD and MakerNotes.
324 - Deleting Photoshop also deletes IPTC.
325 TIFF Image:
327 - Deleting EXIF only removes ExifIFD which also deletes
328 InteropIFD and MakerNotes.
329 Notes:
331 1) Many tag values may be assigned in a single command. If two
333 assignments affect the same tag, the latter takes precedence
334 (except for list-type tags, for which both values are written).
335 2) In general, MakerNotes tags are considered "Permanent", and may
337 be edited but not created or deleted individually. This avoids
338 many potential problems, including the inevitable compatibility
339 problems with OEM software which may be very inflexible about the
340 information it expects to find in the maker notes.
341 3) Changes to PDF files by ExifTool are reversible (by deleting
343 the update with "-PDF-update:all=") because the original
344 information is never actually deleted from the file. So ExifTool
345 alone may not be used to securely edit metadata in PDF files.
346 4) Specifying "-GROUP:all=" deletes the entire group as a block
348 only if a single family 0 or 1 group is specified. Otherwise all
349 deletable tags in the specified group(s) are removed individually,
350 and in this case is it possible to exclude individual tags from a
351 mass delete. For example, "-time:all --Exif:Time:All" removes all
352 deletable Time tags except those in the EXIF. This difference
353 also applies if family 2 is specified when deleting all groups.
354 For example, "-2all:all=" deletes tags individually, while
355 "-all:all=" deletes entire blocks.
356 5) The "APP" group names ("APP0" through "APP15") are used to
358 delete JPEG application segments which are not associated with
359 another deletable group. For example, specifying "-APP14:All="
360 will NOT delete the APP14 "Adobe" segment because this is
361 accomplished with "-Adobe:All".
362 6) When shifting a value, the shift is applied to the original
364 value of the tag, overriding any other values previously assigned
365 to the tag on the same command line. To shift a date/time value
366 and copy it to another tag in the same operation, use the
367 -globalTimeShift option.
368 Special feature: Integer values may be specified in hexadecimal
370 with a leading "0x", and simple rational values may be specified
371 as fractions.
372 -TAG<=DATFILE or -TAG<=FMT
374 Set the value of a tag from the contents of file DATFILE. The
375 file name may also be given by a FMT string where %d, %f and %e
376 represent the directory, file name and extension of the original
377 FILE (see the -w option for more details). Note that quotes are
378 required around this argument to prevent shell redirection since
379 it contains a "<" symbol. If DATFILE/FMT is not provided, the
380 effect is the same as "-TAG=", and the tag is simply deleted.
381 "+<=" or "-<=" may also be used to add or delete specific list
382 entries, or to shift date/time values.
383 -tagsFromFile SRCFILE or FMT
385 Copy tag values from SRCFILE to FILE. Tag names on the command
386 line after this option specify the tags to be copied, or excluded
387 from the copy. Wildcards are permitted in these tag names. If no
388 tags are specified, then all possible tags (see note 1 below) from
389 the source file are copied to same-named tags in the preferred
390 location of the output file (the same as specifying "-all"). More
391 than one -tagsFromFile option may be used to copy tags from
392 multiple files.
393 By default, this option will update any existing and writable
395 same-named tags in the output FILE, but will create new tags only
396 in their preferred groups. This allows some information to be
397 automatically transferred to the appropriate group when copying
398 between images of different formats. However, if a group name is
399 specified for a tag then the information is written only to this
400 group (unless redirected to another group, see below). If "All"
401 is used as a group name, then the specified tag(s) are written to
402 the same family 1 group they had in the source file (ie. the same
403 specific location, like ExifIFD or XMP-dc). For example, the
404 common operation of copying all writable tags to the same specific
405 locations in the output FILE is achieved by adding "-all:all". A
406 different family may be specified by adding a leading family
407 number to the group name (eg. "-0all:all" preserves the same
408 general location, like EXIF or XMP).
409 SRCFILE may be the same as FILE to move information around within
411 a single file. In this case, "@" may be used to represent the
412 source file (ie. "-tagsFromFile @"), permitting this feature to be
413 used for batch processing multiple files. Specified tags are then
414 copied from each file in turn as it is rewritten. For advanced
415 batch use, the source file name may also be specified using a FMT
416 string in which %d, %f and %e represent the directory, file name
417 and extension of FILE. (eg. the current FILE would be represented
418 by "%d%f.%e", with the same effect as "@"). See the -w option for
419 FMT string examples.
420 A powerful redirection feature allows a destination tag to be
422 specified for each copied tag. With this feature, information may
423 be written to a tag with a different name or group. This is done
424 using "'-DSTTAG<SRCTAG'" or "'-SRCTAG>DSTTAG'" on the command line
425 after -tagsFromFile, and causes the value of SRCTAG to be copied
426 from SRCFILE and written to DSTTAG in FILE. Has no effect unless
427 SRCTAG exists in SRCFILE. Note that this argument must be quoted
428 to prevent shell redirection, and there is no "=" sign as when
429 assigning new values. Source and/or destination tags may be
430 prefixed by a group name and/or suffixed by "#". Wildcards are
431 allowed in both the source and destination tag names. A
432 destination group and/or tag name of "All" or "*" writes to the
433 same family 1 group and/or tag name as the source. If no
434 destination group is specified, the information is written to the
435 preferred group. Whitespace around the ">" or "<" is ignored. As
436 a convenience, "-tagsFromFile @" is assumed for any redirected
437 tags which are specified without a prior -tagsFromFile option.
438 Copied tags may also be added or deleted from a list with
439 arguments of the form "'-SRCTAG+<DSTTAG'" or "'-SRCTAG-<DSTTAG'"
440 (but see Note 5 below).
441 An extension of the redirection feature allows strings involving
443 tag names to be used on the right hand side of the "<" symbol with
444 the syntax "'-DSTTAG<STR'", where tag names in STR are prefixed
445 with a "$" symbol. See the -p option and the "Advanced formatting
446 feature" section for more details about this syntax. Strings
447 starting with a "=" sign must insert a single space after the "<"
448 to avoid confusion with the "<=" operator which sets the tag value
449 from the contents of a file. A single space at the start of the
450 string is removed if it exists, but all other whitespace in the
451 string is preserved. See note 8 below about using the redirection
452 feature with list-type stags, shortcuts or when using wildcards in
453 tag names.
454 See "COPYING EXAMPLES" for examples using -tagsFromFile.
456 Notes:
458 1) Some tags (generally tags which may affect the appearance of
460 the image) are considered "unsafe" to write, and are only copied
461 if specified explicitly (ie. no wildcards). See the tag name
462 documentation for more details about "unsafe" tags.
463 2) Be aware of the difference between excluding a tag from being
465 copied (--TAG), and deleting a tag (-TAG=). Excluding a tag
466 prevents it from being copied to the destination image, but
467 deleting will remove a pre-existing tag from the image.
468 3) The maker note information is copied as a block, so it isn't
470 affected like other information by subsequent tag assignments on
471 the command line, and individual makernote tags may not be
472 excluded from a block copy. Also, since the PreviewImage
473 referenced from the maker notes may be rather large, it is not
474 copied, and must be transferred separately if desired.
475 4) The order of operations is to copy all specified tags at the
477 point of the -tagsFromFile option in the command line. Any tag
478 assignment to the right of the -tagsFromFile option is made after
479 all tags are copied. For example, new tag values are set in the
480 order One, Two, Three then Four with this command:
481 exiftool -One=1 -tagsFromFile s.jpg -Two -Four=4 -Three d.jpg
483 This is significant in the case where an overlap exists between
485 the copied and assigned tags because later operations may override
486 earlier ones.
487 5) The normal behaviour of copied tags differs from that of
489 assigned tags for list-type tags and conditional replacements
490 because each copy operation on a tag overrides any previous
491 operations. While this avoids duplicate list items when copying
492 groups of tags from a file containing redundant information, it
493 also prevents values of different tags from being copied into the
494 same list when this is the intent. So a -addTagsFromFile option
495 is provided which allows copying of multiple tags into the same
496 list. eg)
497 exiftool -addtagsfromfile @ '-subject<make' '-subject<model' ...
499 Similarly, -addTagsFromFile must be used when conditionally
501 replacing a tag to prevent overriding earlier conditions.
502 Other than these differences, the -tagsFromFile and
504 -addTagsFromFile options are equivalent.
505 6) The -a option (allow duplicate tags) is always in effect when
507 copying tags from SRCFILE, but the highest priority tag is always
508 copied last so it takes precedence.
509 7) Structured tags are copied by default when copying tags. See
511 the -struct option for details.
512 8) With the redirection feature, copying a tag directly (ie.
514 "'-DSTTAG<SRCTAG'") is not the same as interpolating its value
515 inside a string (ie. "'-DSTTAG<$SRCTAG'") for list-type tags,
516 shortcut tags, tag names containing wildcards, or UserParam
517 variables. When copying directly, the values of each matching
518 source tag are copied individually to the destination tag (as if
519 they were separate assignments). However, when interpolated
520 inside a string, list items and the values of shortcut tags are
521 concatenated (with a separator set by the -sep option), and
522 wildcards are not allowed. Also, UserParam variables are
523 available only when interpolated in a string. Another difference
524 is that a minor warning is generated if a tag doesn't exist when
525 interpolating its value in a string (with "$"), but isn't when
526 copying the tag directly.
527 Finally, the behaviour is different when a destination tag or
529 group of "All" is used. When copying directly, a destination
530 group and/or tag name of "All" writes to the same family 1 group
531 and/or tag name as the source. But when interpolated in a string,
532 the identity of the source tags are lost and the value is written
533 to all possible groups/tags. For example, the string form must be
534 used in the following command since the intent is to set the value
535 of all existing date/time tags from "CreateDate":
536 exiftool '-time:all<$createdate' -wm w FILE
538 -x TAG (-exclude)
540 Exclude the specified tag. There may be multiple -x options.
541 This has the same effect as --TAG on the command line. See the
542 --TAG documentation above for a complete description.
543 Input-output text formatting
545 Note that trailing spaces are removed from extracted values for most
547 output text formats. The exceptions are -b, -csv, -j and -X.
548 -args (-argFormat)
550 Output information in the form of exiftool arguments, suitable for
551 use with the -@ option when writing. May be combined with the -G
552 option to include group names. This feature may be used to
553 effectively copy tags between images, but allows the metadata to
554 be altered by editing the intermediate file ("out.args" in this
555 example):
556 exiftool -args -G1 --filename --directory src.jpg > out.args
558 exiftool -@ out.args -sep ', ' dst.jpg
559 Note: Be careful when copying information with this technique
561 since it is easy to write tags which are normally considered
562 "unsafe". For instance, the FileName and Directory tags are
563 excluded in the example above to avoid renaming and moving the
564 destination file. Also note that the second command above will
565 produce warning messages for any tags which are not writable.
566 As well, the -sep option should be used as in the second command
568 above to maintain separate list items when writing metadata back
569 to image files, and the -struct option may be used when extracting
570 to preserve structured XMP information.
571 -b, --b (-binary, --binary)
573 Output requested metadata in binary format without tag names or
574 descriptions (-b or -binary). This option is mainly used for
575 extracting embedded images or other binary data, but it may also
576 be useful for some text strings since control characters (such as
577 newlines) are not replaced by '.' as they are in the default
578 output. By default, list items are separated by a newline when
579 extracted with the -b option, but this may be changed (see the
580 -sep option for details). May be combined with -j, -php or -X to
581 extract binary data in JSON, PHP or XML format, but note that
582 "unsafe" tags must be specified explicitly to be extracted as
583 binary in these formats.
584 With a leading double dash (--b or --binary), tags which contain
586 binary data are suppressed in the output when reading.
587 -c FMT (-coordFormat)
589 Set the print format for GPS coordinates. FMT uses the same
590 syntax as a "printf" format string. The specifiers correspond to
591 degrees, minutes and seconds in that order, but minutes and
592 seconds are optional. For example, the following table gives the
593 output for the same coordinate using various formats:
594 FMT Output
596 ------------------- ------------------
597 "%d deg %d' %.2f"\" 54 deg 59' 22.80" (default for reading)
598 "%d %d %.8f" 54 59 22.80000000 (default for copying)
599 "%d deg %.4f min" 54 deg 59.3800 min
600 "%.6f degrees" 54.989667 degrees
601 Notes:
603 1) To avoid loss of precision, the default coordinate format is
605 different when copying tags using the -tagsFromFile option.
606 2) If the hemisphere is known, a reference direction (N, S, E or
608 W) is appended to each printed coordinate, but adding a "+" to the
609 format specifier (eg. "%+.6f") prints a signed coordinate instead.
610 3) This print formatting may be disabled with the -n option to
612 extract coordinates as signed decimal degrees.
613 -charset [[TYPE=]CHARSET]
615 If TYPE is "ExifTool" or not specified, this option sets the
616 ExifTool character encoding for output tag values when reading and
617 input values when writing, with a default of "UTF8". If no
618 CHARSET is given, a list of available character sets is returned.
619 Valid CHARSET values are:
620 CHARSET Alias(es) Description
622 ---------- --------------- ----------------------------------
623 UTF8 cp65001, UTF-8 UTF-8 characters (default)
624 Latin cp1252, Latin1 Windows Latin1 (West European)
625 Latin2 cp1250 Windows Latin2 (Central European)
626 Cyrillic cp1251, Russian Windows Cyrillic
627 Greek cp1253 Windows Greek
628 Turkish cp1254 Windows Turkish
629 Hebrew cp1255 Windows Hebrew
630 Arabic cp1256 Windows Arabic
631 Baltic cp1257 Windows Baltic
632 Vietnam cp1258 Windows Vietnamese
633 Thai cp874 Windows Thai
634 DOSLatinUS cp437 DOS Latin US
635 DOSLatin1 cp850 DOS Latin1
636 DOSCyrillic cp866 DOS Cyrillic
637 MacRoman cp10000, Roman Macintosh Roman
638 MacLatin2 cp10029 Macintosh Latin2 (Central Europe)
639 MacCyrillic cp10007 Macintosh Cyrillic
640 MacGreek cp10006 Macintosh Greek
641 MacTurkish cp10081 Macintosh Turkish
642 MacRomanian cp10010 Macintosh Romanian
643 MacIceland cp10079 Macintosh Icelandic
644 MacCroatian cp10082 Macintosh Croatian
645 TYPE may be "FileName" to specify the encoding of file names on
647 the command line (ie. FILE arguments). In Windows, this triggers
648 use of wide-character i/o routines, thus providing support for
649 Unicode file names. See the "WINDOWS UNICODE FILE NAMES" section
650 below for details.
651 Other values of TYPE listed below are used to specify the internal
653 encoding of various meta information formats.
654 TYPE Description Default
656 --------- ------------------------------------------- -------
657 EXIF Internal encoding of EXIF "ASCII" strings (none)
658 ID3 Internal encoding of ID3v1 information Latin
659 IPTC Internal IPTC encoding to assume when Latin
660 IPTC:CodedCharacterSet is not defined
661 Photoshop Internal encoding of Photoshop IRB strings Latin
662 QuickTime Internal encoding of QuickTime strings MacRoman
663 RIFF Internal encoding of RIFF strings 0
664 See <https://exiftool.org/faq.html#Q10> for more information about
666 coded character sets, and the Image::ExifTool Options for more
667 details about the -charset settings.
668 -csv[[+]=CSVFILE]
670 Export information in CSV format, or import information if CSVFILE
671 is specified. When importing, the CSV file must be in exactly the
672 same format as the exported file. The first row of the CSVFILE
673 must be the ExifTool tag names (with optional group names) for
674 each column of the file, and values must be separated by commas.
675 A special "SourceFile" column specifies the files associated with
676 each row of information (and a SourceFile of "*" may be used to
677 define default tags to be imported for all files which are
678 combined with any tags specified for the specific SourceFile
679 processed). The -csvDelim option may be used to change the
680 input/output field delimiter if something other than a comma is
681 required.
682 The following examples demonstrate basic use of the -csv option:
684 # generate CSV file with common tags from all images in a directory
686 exiftool -common -csv dir > out.csv
687 # update metadata for all images in a directory from CSV file
689 exiftool -csv=a.csv dir
690 Empty values are ignored when importing (unless the -f option is
692 used and the API MissingTagValue is set to an empty string, in
693 which case the tag is deleted). Also, FileName and Directory
694 columns are ignored if they exist (ie. ExifTool will not attempt
695 to write these tags with a CSV import). To force a tag to be
696 deleted, use the -f option and set the value to "-" in the CSV
697 file (or to the MissingTagValue if this API option was used).
698 Multiple databases may be imported in a single command.
699 When exporting a CSV file, the -g or -G option adds group names to
701 the tag headings. If the -a option is used to allow duplicate tag
702 names, the duplicate tags are only included in the CSV output if
703 the column headings are unique. Adding the -G4 option ensures a
704 unique column heading for each tag. The -b option may be added to
705 output binary data, encoded in base64 if necessary (indicated by
706 ASCII "base64:" as the first 7 bytes of the value). Values may
707 also be encoded in base64 if the -charset option is used and the
708 value contains invalid characters.
709 When exporting specific tags, the CSV columns are arranged in the
711 same order as the specified tags provided the column headings
712 exactly match the specified tag names, otherwise the columns are
713 sorted in alphabetical order.
714 When importing from a CSV file, only files specified on the
716 command line are processed. Any extra entries in the CSV file are
717 ignored.
718 List-type tags are stored as simple strings in a CSV file, but the
720 -sep option may be used to split them back into separate items
721 when importing.
722 Special feature: -csv+=CSVFILE may be used to add items to
724 existing lists. This affects only list-type tags. Also applies
725 to the -j option.
726 Note that this option is fundamentally different than all other
728 output format options because it requires information from all
729 input files to be buffered in memory before the output is written.
730 This may result in excessive memory usage when processing a very
731 large number of files with a single command. Also, it makes this
732 option incompatible with the -w option. When processing a large
733 number of files, it is recommended to either use the JSON (-j) or
734 XML (-X) output format, or use -p to generate a fixed-column CSV
735 file instead of using the -csv option.
736 -csvDelim STR
738 Set the delimiter for separating CSV entries for CSV file
739 input/output via the -csv option. STR may contain "\t", "\n",
740 "\r" and "\\" to represent TAB, LF, CR and '\' respectively. A
741 double quote is not allowed in the delimiter. Default is ','.
742 -d FMT (-dateFormat)
744 Set the format for date/time tag values. The FMT string may
745 contain formatting codes beginning with a percent character ("%")
746 to represent the various components of a date/time value. The
747 specifics of the FMT syntax are system dependent -- consult the
748 "strftime" man page on your system for details. The default
749 format is equivalent to "%Y:%m:%d %H:%M:%S". This option has no
750 effect on date-only or time-only tags and ignores timezone
751 information if present. Only one -d option may be used per
752 command. Requires POSIX::strptime or Time::Piece for the
753 inversion conversion when writing.
754 -D (-decimal)
756 Show tag ID number in decimal when extracting information.
757 -E, -ex, -ec (-escapeHTML, -escapeXML, -escapeC)
759 Escape characters in output tag values for HTML (-E), XML (-ex) or
760 C (-ec). For HTML, all characters with Unicode code points above
761 U+007F are escaped as well as the following 5 characters: &
762 (&) ' (') " (") > (>) and < (<). For XML, only
763 these 5 characters are escaped. The -E option is implied with -h,
764 and -ex is implied with -X. For C, all control characters and the
765 backslash are escaped. The inverse conversion is applied when
766 writing tags.
767 -f (-forcePrint)
769 Force printing of tags even if their values are not found. This
770 option only applies when specific tags are requested on the
771 command line (ie. not with wildcards or by "-all"). With this
772 option, a dash ("-") is printed for the value of any missing tag,
773 but the dash may be changed via the API MissingTagValue option.
774 May also be used to add a 'flags' attribute to the -listx output,
775 or to allow tags to be deleted when writing with the -csv=CSVFILE
776 feature.
777 -g[NUM][:NUM...] (-groupHeadings)
779 Organize output by tag group. NUM specifies a group family
780 number, and may be 0 (general location), 1 (specific location), 2
781 (category), 3 (document number), 4 (instance number), 5 (metadata
782 path), 6 (EXIF/TIFF format) or 7 (tag ID). -g0 is assumed if a
783 family number is not specified. May be combined with other
784 options to add group names to the output. Multiple families may
785 be specified by separating them with colons. By default the
786 resulting group name is simplified by removing any leading "Main:"
787 and collapsing adjacent identical group names, but this can be
788 avoided by placing a colon before the first family number (eg.
789 -g:3:1). Use the -listg option to list group names for a
790 specified family. The SavePath and SaveFormat API options are
791 automatically enabled if the respective family 5 or 6 group names
792 are requested. See the API GetGroup documentation for more
793 information.
794 -G[NUM][:NUM...] (-groupNames)
796 Same as -g but print group name for each tag. -G0 is assumed if
797 NUM is not specified. May be combined with a number of other
798 options to add group names to the output. Note that NUM may be
799 added wherever -G is mentioned in the documentation. See the -g
800 option above for details.
801 -h (-htmlFormat)
803 Use HTML table formatting for output. Implies the -E option. The
804 formatting options -D, -H, -g, -G, -l and -s may be used in
805 combination with -h to influence the HTML format.
806 -H (-hex)
808 Show tag ID number in hexadecimal when extracting information.
809 -htmlDump[OFFSET]
811 Generate a dynamic web page containing a hex dump of the EXIF
812 information. This can be a very powerful tool for low-level
813 analysis of EXIF information. The -htmlDump option is also
814 invoked if the -v and -h options are used together. The verbose
815 level controls the maximum length of the blocks dumped. An OFFSET
816 may be given to specify the base for displayed offsets. If not
817 provided, the EXIF/TIFF base offset is used. Use -htmlDump0 for
818 absolute offsets. Currently only EXIF/TIFF and JPEG information
819 is dumped, but the -u option can be used to give a raw hex dump of
820 other file formats.
821 -j[[+]=JSONFILE] (-json)
823 Use JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) formatting for console
824 output, or import JSON file if JSONFILE is specified. This option
825 may be combined with -g to organize the output into objects by
826 group, or -G to add group names to each tag. List-type tags with
827 multiple items are output as JSON arrays unless -sep is used. By
828 default XMP structures are flattened into individual tags in the
829 JSON output, but the original structure may be preserved with the
830 -struct option (this also causes all list-type XMP tags to be
831 output as JSON arrays, otherwise single-item lists would be output
832 as simple strings). The -a option is implied when -json is used,
833 but entries with identical JSON names are suppressed in the
834 output. (-G4 may be used to ensure that all tags have unique JSON
835 names.) Adding the -D or -H option changes tag values to JSON
836 objects with "val" and "id" fields, and adding -l adds a "desc"
837 field, and a "num" field if the numerical value is different from
838 the converted "val". The -b option may be added to output binary
839 data, encoded in base64 if necessary (indicated by ASCII "base64:"
840 as the first 7 bytes of the value), and -t may be added to include
841 tag table information (see -t for details). The JSON output is
842 UTF-8 regardless of any -L or -charset option setting, but the
843 UTF-8 validation is disabled if a character set other than UTF-8
844 is specified.
845 If JSONFILE is specified, the file is imported and the tag
847 definitions from the file are used to set tag values on a per-file
848 basis. The special "SourceFile" entry in each JSON object
849 associates the information with a specific target file. An object
850 with a missing SourceFile or a SourceFile of "*" defines default
851 tags for all target files which are combined with any tags
852 specified for the specific SourceFile processed. The imported
853 JSON file must have the same format as the exported JSON files
854 with the exception that the -g option is not compatible with the
855 import file format (use -G instead). Additionally, tag names in
856 the input JSON file may be suffixed with a "#" to disable print
857 conversion.
858 Unlike CSV import, empty values are not ignored, and will cause an
860 empty value to be written if supported by the specific metadata
861 type. Tags are deleted by using the -f option and setting the tag
862 value to "-" (or to the MissingTagValue setting if this API option
863 was used). Importing with -j+=JSONFILE causes new values to be
864 added to existing lists.
865 -l (-long)
867 Use long 2-line Canon-style output format. Adds a description and
868 unconverted value (if it is different from the converted value) to
869 the XML, JSON or PHP output when -X, -j or -php is used. May also
870 be combined with -listf, -listr or -listwf to add descriptions of
871 the file types.
872 -L (-latin)
874 Use Windows Latin1 encoding (cp1252) for output tag values instead
875 of the default UTF-8. When writing, -L specifies that input text
876 values are Latin1 instead of UTF-8. Equivalent to "-charset
877 latin".
878 -lang [LANG]
880 Set current language for tag descriptions and converted values.
881 LANG is "de", "fr", "ja", etc. Use -lang with no other arguments
882 to get a list of available languages. The default language is
883 "en" if -lang is not specified. Note that tag/group names are
884 always English, independent of the -lang setting, and translation
885 of warning/error messages has not yet been implemented. May also
886 be combined with -listx to output descriptions in one language
887 only.
888 By default, ExifTool uses UTF-8 encoding for special characters,
890 but the the -L or -charset option may be used to invoke other
891 encodings. Note that ExifTool uses Unicode::LineBreak if
892 available to help preserve the column alignment of the plain text
893 output for languages with a variable-width character set.
894 Currently, the language support is not complete, but users are
896 welcome to help improve this by submitting their own translations.
897 To submit a translation, follow these steps (you must have Perl
898 installed for this):
899 1. Download and unpack the latest Image-ExifTool full
901 distribution.
902 2. 'cd' into the Image-ExifTool directory.
904 3. Run this command to make an XML file of the desired tags (eg.
906 EXIF):
907 ./exiftool -listx -exif:all > out.xml
909 4. Copy this text into a file called 'import.pl' in the exiftool
911 directory:
912 push @INC, 'lib';
914 require Image::ExifTool::TagInfoXML;
915 my $file = shift or die "Expected XML file name\n";
916 $Image::ExifTool::TagInfoXML::makeMissing = shift;
917 Image::ExifTool::TagInfoXML::BuildLangModules($file,8);
918 5. Run the 'import.pl' script to Import the XML file, generating
920 the 'MISSING' entries for your language (eg. Russian):
921 perl import.pl out.xml ru
923 6. Edit the generated language module
925 lib/Image/ExifTool/Lang/ru.pm, and search and replace all
926 'MISSING' strings in the file with your translations.
927 7. Email the module ('ru.pm' in this example) to philharvey66 at
929 gmail.com
930 8. Thank you!!
932 -listItem INDEX
934 For list-type tags, this causes only the item with the specified
935 index to be extracted. INDEX is 0 for the first item in the list.
936 Negative indices may also be used to reference items from the end
937 of the list. Has no effect on single-valued tags. Also applies
938 to tag values when copying from a tag, and in -if conditions.
939 -n (--printConv)
941 Disable print conversion for all tags. By default, extracted
942 values are converted to a more human-readable format, but the -n
943 option disables this conversion, revealing the machine-readable
944 values. For example:
945 > exiftool -Orientation -S a.jpg
947 Orientation: Rotate 90 CW
948 > exiftool -Orientation -S -n a.jpg
949 Orientation: 6
950 The print conversion may also be disabled on a per-tag basis by
952 suffixing the tag name with a "#" character:
953 > exiftool -Orientation# -Orientation -S a.jpg
955 Orientation: 6
956 Orientation: Rotate 90 CW
957 These techniques may also be used to disable the inverse print
959 conversion when writing. For example, the following commands all
960 have the same effect:
961 > exiftool -Orientation='Rotate 90 CW' a.jpg
963 > exiftool -Orientation=6 -n a.jpg
964 > exiftool -Orientation#=6 a.jpg
965 -p FMTFILE or STR (-printFormat)
967 Print output in the format specified by the given file or string.
968 The argument is interpreted as a string unless a file of that name
969 exists, in which case the string is loaded from the contents of
970 the file. Tag names in the format file or string begin with a "$"
971 symbol and may contain leading group names and/or a trailing "#"
972 (to disable print conversion). Case is not significant. Braces
973 "{}" may be used around the tag name to separate it from
974 subsequent text. Use $$ to represent a "$" symbol, and $/ for a
975 newline.
976 Multiple -p options may be used, each contributing a line (or
978 more) of text to the output. Lines beginning with "#[HEAD]" and
979 "#[TAIL]" are output before the first processed file and after the
980 last processed file respectively. Lines beginning with "#[SECT]"
981 and "#[ENDS]" are output before and after each section of files.
982 A section is defined as a group of consecutive files with the same
983 section header (eg. files are grouped by directory if "#[SECT]"
984 contains $directory). Lines beginning with "#[BODY]" and lines
985 not beginning with "#" are output for each processed file. Lines
986 beginning with "#[IF]" are not output, but all BODY lines are
987 skipped if any tag on an IF line doesn't exist. Other lines
988 beginning with "#" are ignored. For example, this format file:
989 # this is a comment line
991 #[HEAD]-- Generated by ExifTool $exifToolVersion --
992 File: $FileName - $DateTimeOriginal
993 (f/$Aperture, ${ShutterSpeed}s, ISO $EXIF:ISO)
994 #[TAIL]-- end --
995 with this command:
997 exiftool -p test.fmt a.jpg b.jpg
999 produces output like this:
1001 -- Generated by ExifTool 12.30 --
1003 File: a.jpg - 2003:10:31 15:44:19
1004 (f/5.6, 1/60s, ISO 100)
1005 File: b.jpg - 2006:05:23 11:57:38
1006 (f/8.0, 1/13s, ISO 100)
1007 -- end --
1008 The values of List-type tags with multiple items and Shortcut tags
1010 representing multiple tags are joined according the the -sep
1011 option setting when interpolated in the string.
1012 When -ee (-extractEmbedded) is combined with -p, embedded
1014 documents are effectively processed as separate input files.
1015 If a specified tag does not exist, a minor warning is issued and
1017 the line with the missing tag is not printed. However, the -f
1018 option may be used to set the value of missing tags to '-' (but
1019 this may be configured via the MissingTagValue API option), or the
1020 -m option may be used to ignore minor warnings and leave the
1021 missing values empty. Alternatively, -q -q may be used to simply
1022 suppress the warning messages.
1023 The "Advanced formatting feature" may be used to modify the values
1025 of individual tags with the -p option.
1026 -php Format output as a PHP Array. The -g, -G, -D, -H, -l, -sep and
1028 -struct options combine with -php, and duplicate tags are handled
1029 in the same way as with the -json option. As well, the -b option
1030 may be added to output binary data, and -t may be added to include
1031 tag table information (see -t for details). Here is a simple
1032 example showing how this could be used in a PHP script:
1033 <?php
1035 eval('$array=' . `exiftool -php -q image.jpg`);
1036 print_r($array);
1037 ?>
1038 -s[NUM] (-short)
1040 Short output format. Prints tag names instead of descriptions.
1041 Add NUM or up to 3 -s options for even shorter formats:
1042 -s1 or -s - print tag names instead of descriptions
1044 -s2 or -s -s - no extra spaces to column-align values
1045 -s3 or -s -s -s - print values only (no tag names)
1046 Also effective when combined with -t, -h, -X or -listx options.
1048 -S (-veryShort)
1050 Very short format. The same as -s2 or two -s options. Tag names
1051 are printed instead of descriptions, and no extra spaces are added
1052 to column-align values.
1053 -sep STR (-separator)
1055 Specify separator string for items in list-type tags. When
1056 reading, the default is to join list items with ", ". When
1057 writing, this option causes values assigned to list-type tags to
1058 be split into individual items at each substring matching STR
1059 (otherwise they are not split by default). Space characters in
1060 STR match zero or more whitespace characters in the value.
1061 Note that an empty separator ("") is allowed, and will join items
1063 with no separator when reading, or split the value into individual
1064 characters when writing.
1065 For pure binary output (-b used without -j, -php or -X), the first
1067 -sep option specifies a list-item separator, and a second -sep
1068 option specifies a terminator for the end of the list (or after
1069 each value if not a list). In these strings, "\n", "\r" and "\t"
1070 may be used to represent a newline, carriage return and tab
1071 respectively. By default, binary list items are separated by a
1072 newline, and no terminator is added.
1073 -sort, --sort
1075 Sort output by tag description, or by tag name if the -s option is
1076 used. When sorting by description, the sort order will depend on
1077 the -lang option setting. Without the -sort option, tags appear
1078 in the order they were specified on the command line, or if not
1079 specified, the order they were extracted from the file. By
1080 default, tags are organized by groups when combined with the -g or
1081 -G option, but this grouping may be disabled with --sort.
1082 -struct, --struct
1084 Output structured XMP information instead of flattening to
1085 individual tags. This option works well when combined with the
1086 XML (-X) and JSON (-j) output formats. For other output formats,
1087 XMP structures and lists are serialized into the same format as
1088 when writing structured information (see
1089 <https://exiftool.org/struct.html> for details). When copying,
1090 structured tags are copied by default unless --struct is used to
1091 disable this feature (although flattened tags may still be copied
1092 by specifying them individually unless -struct is used). These
1093 options have no effect when assigning new values since both
1094 flattened and structured tags may always be used when writing.
1095 -t (-tab)
1097 Output a tab-delimited list of description/values (useful for
1098 database import). May be combined with -s to print tag names
1099 instead of descriptions, or -S to print tag values only, tab-
1100 delimited on a single line. The -t option may be combined with
1101 -j, -php or -X to add tag table information ("table", tag "id",
1102 and "index" for cases where multiple conditional tags exist with
1103 the same ID).
1104 -T (-table)
1106 Output tag values in table form. Equivalent to -t -S -q -f.
1107 -v[NUM] (-verbose)
1109 Print verbose messages. NUM specifies the level of verbosity in
1110 the range 0-5, with higher numbers being more verbose. If NUM is
1111 not given, then each -v option increases the level of verbosity by
1112 1. With any level greater than 0, most other options are ignored
1113 and normal console output is suppressed unless specific tags are
1114 extracted. Using -v0 causes the console output buffer to be
1115 flushed after each line (which may be useful to avoid delays when
1116 piping exiftool output), and prints the name of each processed
1117 file when writing. Also see the -progress option.
1118 -w[+|!] EXT or FMT (-textOut)
1120 Write console output to files with names ending in EXT, one for
1121 each source file. The output file name is obtained by replacing
1122 the source file extension (including the '.') with the specified
1123 extension (and a '.' is added to the start of EXT if it doesn't
1124 already contain one). Alternatively, a FMT string may be used to
1125 give more control over the output file name and directory. In the
1126 format string, %d, %f and %e represent the directory, filename and
1127 extension of the source file, and %c represents a copy number
1128 which is automatically incremented if the file already exists. %d
1129 includes the trailing '/' if necessary, but %e does not include
1130 the leading '.'. For example:
1131 -w %d%f.txt # same effect as "-w txt"
1133 -w dir/%f_%e.out # write files to "dir" as "FILE_EXT.out"
1134 -w dir2/%d%f.txt # write to "dir2", keeping dir structure
1135 -w a%c.txt # write to "a.txt" or "a1.txt" or "a2.txt"...
1136 Existing files will not be changed unless an exclamation point is
1138 added to the option name (ie. -w! or -textOut!) to overwrite the
1139 file, or a plus sign (ie. -w+ or -textOut+) to append to the
1140 existing file. Both may be used (ie. -w+! or -textOut+!) to
1141 overwrite output files that didn't exist before the command was
1142 run, and append the output from multiple source files. For
1143 example, to write one output file for all source files in each
1144 directory:
1145 exiftool -filename -createdate -T -w+! %d/out.txt -r DIR
1147 Capitalized format codes %D, %F, %E and %C provide slightly
1149 different alternatives to the lower case versions. %D does not
1150 include the trailing '/', %F is the full filename including
1151 extension, %E includes the leading '.', and %C increments the
1152 count for each processed file (see below).
1153 Notes:
1155 1) In a Windows BAT file the "%" character is represented by "%%",
1157 so an argument like "%d%f.txt" is written as "%%d%%f.txt".
1158 2) If the argument for -w does not contain a valid format code
1160 (eg. %f), then it is interpreted as a file extension, but there
1161 are three different ways to create a single output file from
1162 multiple source files:
1163 # 1. Shell redirection
1165 exiftool FILE1 FILE2 ... > out.txt
1166 # 2. With the -w option and a zero-width format code
1168 exiftool -w+! %0fout.txt FILE1 FILE2 ...
1169 # 3. With the -W option (see the -W option below)
1171 exiftool -W+! out.txt FILE1 FILE2 ...
1172 Advanced features:
1174 A substring of the original file name, directory or extension may
1176 be taken by specifying a field width immediately following the '%'
1177 character. If the width is negative, the substring is taken from
1178 the end. The substring position (characters to ignore at the
1179 start or end of the string) may be given by a second optional
1180 value after a decimal point. For example:
1181 Input File Name Format Specifier Output File Name
1183 ---------------- ---------------- ----------------
1184 Picture-123.jpg %7f.txt Picture.txt
1185 Picture-123.jpg %-.4f.out Picture.out
1186 Picture-123.jpg %7f.%-3f Picture.123
1187 Picture-123a.jpg Meta%-3.1f.txt Meta123.txt
1188 (Note that special characters may have a width of greater than
1190 one.)
1191 For %d and %D, the field width/position specifiers may be applied
1193 to the directory levels instead of substring position by using a
1194 colon instead of a decimal point in the format specifier. For
1195 example:
1196 Source Dir Format Result Notes
1198 ------------ ------ ---------- ------------------
1199 pics/2012/02 %2:d pics/2012/ take top 2 levels
1200 pics/2012/02 %-:1d pics/2012/ up one directory level
1201 pics/2012/02 %:1d 2012/02/ ignore top level
1202 pics/2012/02 %1:1d 2012/ take 1 level after top
1203 pics/2012/02 %-1:D 02 bottom level folder name
1204 /Users/phil %:2d phil/ ignore top 2 levels
1205 (Note that the root directory counts as one level when an absolute
1207 path is used as in the last example above.)
1208 For %c, these modifiers have a different effects. If a field
1210 width is given, the copy number is padded with zeros to the
1211 specified width. A leading '-' adds a dash before the copy
1212 number, and a '+' adds an underline. By default, the copy number
1213 is omitted from the first file of a given name, but this can be
1214 changed by adding a decimal point to the modifier. For example:
1215 -w A%-cZ.txt # AZ.txt, A-1Z.txt, A-2Z.txt ...
1217 -w B%5c.txt # B.txt, B00001.txt, B00002.txt ...
1218 -w C%.c.txt # C0.txt, C1.txt, C2.txt ...
1219 -w D%-.c.txt # D-0.txt, D-1.txt, D-2.txt ...
1220 -w E%-.4c.txt # E-0000.txt, E-0001.txt, E-0002.txt ...
1221 -w F%-.4nc.txt # F-0001.txt, F-0002.txt, F-0003.txt ...
1222 -w G%+c.txt # G.txt, G_1.txt G_2.txt ...
1223 -w H%-lc.txt # H.txt, H-b.txt, H-c.txt ...
1224 -w I.%.3uc.txt # I.AAA.txt, I.AAB.txt, I.AAC.txt ...
1225 A special feature allows the copy number to be incremented for
1227 each processed file by using %C (upper case) instead of %c. This
1228 allows a sequential number to be added to output file names, even
1229 if the names are different. For %C, a copy number of zero is not
1230 omitted as it is with %c. A leading '-' causes the number to be
1231 reset at the start of each new directory, and '+' has no effect.
1232 The number before the decimal place gives the starting index, the
1233 number after the decimal place gives the field width. The
1234 following examples show the output filenames when used with the
1235 command "exiftool rose.jpg star.jpg jet.jpg ...":
1236 -w %C%f.txt # 0rose.txt, 1star.txt, 2jet.txt
1238 -w %f-%10C.txt # rose-10.txt, star-11.txt, jet-12.txt
1239 -w %.3C-%f.txt # 000-rose.txt, 001-star.txt, 002-jet.txt
1240 -w %57.4C%f.txt # 0057rose.txt, 0058star.txt, 0059jet.txt
1241 All format codes may be modified by 'l' or 'u' to specify lower or
1243 upper case respectively (ie. %le for a lower case file extension).
1244 When used to modify %c or %C, the numbers are changed to an
1245 alphabetical base (see example H above). Also, %c and %C may be
1246 modified by 'n' to count using natural numbers starting from 1,
1247 instead of 0 (see example F above).
1248 This same FMT syntax is used with the -o and -tagsFromFile
1250 options, although %c and %C are only valid for output file names.
1251 -W[+|!] FMT (-tagOut)
1253 This enhanced version of the -w option allows a separate output
1254 file to be created for each extracted tag. See the -w option
1255 documentation above for details of the basic functionality.
1256 Listed here are the differences between -W and -w:
1257 1) With -W, a new output file is created for each extracted tag.
1259 2) -W supports three additional format codes: %t, %g and %s
1261 represent the tag name, group name, and suggested extension for
1262 the output file (based on the format of the data). The %g code
1263 may be followed by a single digit to specify the group family
1264 number (eg. %g1), otherwise family 0 is assumed. The substring
1265 width/position/case specifiers may be used with these format codes
1266 in exactly the same way as with %f and %e.
1267 3) The argument for -W is interpreted as a file name if it
1269 contains no format codes. (For -w, this would be a file
1270 extension.) This change allows a simple file name to be
1271 specified, which, when combined with the append feature, provides
1272 a method to write metadata from multiple source files to a single
1273 output file without the need for shell redirection. For example,
1274 the following pairs of commands give the same result:
1275 # overwriting existing text file
1277 exiftool test.jpg > out.txt # shell redirection
1278 exiftool test.jpg -W+! out.txt # equivalent -W option
1279 # append to existing text file
1281 exiftool test.jpg >> out.txt # shell redirection
1282 exiftool test.jpg -W+ out.txt # equivalent -W option
1283 4) Adding the -v option to -W sends a list of the tags and output
1285 file names to the console instead of giving a verbose dump of the
1286 entire file. (Unless appending all output to one file for each
1287 source file by using -W+ with an output file FMT that does not
1288 contain %t, $g or %s.)
1289 5) Individual list items are stored in separate files when -W is
1291 combined with -b, but note that for separate files to be created
1292 %c or %C must be used in FMT to give the files unique names.
1293 -Wext EXT, --Wext EXT (-tagOutExt)
1295 This option is used to specify the type of output file(s) written
1296 by the -W option. An output file is written only if the suggested
1297 extension matches EXT. Multiple -Wext options may be used to
1298 write more than one type of file. Use --Wext to write all but the
1299 specified type(s).
1300 -X (-xmlFormat)
1302 Use ExifTool-specific RDF/XML formatting for console output.
1303 Implies the -a option, so duplicate tags are extracted. The
1304 formatting options -b, -D, -H, -l, -s, -sep, -struct and -t may be
1305 used in combination with -X to affect the output, but note that
1306 the tag ID (-D, -H and -t), binary data (-b) and structured output
1307 (-struct) options are not effective for the short output (-s).
1308 Another restriction of -s is that only one tag with a given group
1309 and name may appear in the output. Note that the tag ID options
1310 (-D, -H and -t) will produce non-standard RDF/XML unless the -l
1311 option is also used.
1312 By default, -X outputs flattened tags, so -struct should be added
1314 if required to preserve XMP structures. List-type tags with
1315 multiple values are formatted as an RDF Bag, but they are combined
1316 into a single string when -s or -sep is used. Using -L changes
1317 the XML encoding from "UTF-8" to "windows-1252". Other -charset
1318 settings change the encoding only if there is a corresponding
1319 standard XML character set. The -b option causes binary data
1320 values to be written, encoded in base64 if necessary. The -t
1321 option adds tag table information to the output (see -t for
1322 details).
1323 Note: This output is NOT the same as XMP because it uses
1325 dynamically-generated property names corresponding to the ExifTool
1326 tag names, and not the standard XMP properties. To write XMP
1327 instead, use the -o option with an XMP extension for the output
1328 file.
1329 Processing control
1331 -a, --a (-duplicates, --duplicates)
1333 Allow (-a) or suppress (--a) duplicate tag names to be extracted.
1334 By default, duplicate tags are suppressed when reading unless the
1335 -ee or -X options are used or the Duplicates option is enabled in
1336 the configuration file. This option has an affect when writing
1337 only to allow duplicate Warning messages to be shown. Duplicate
1338 tags are always extracted when copying.
1339 -e (--composite)
1341 Extract existing tags only -- don't generate composite tags.
1342 -ee[NUM] (-extractEmbedded)
1344 Extract information from embedded documents in EPS files, embedded
1345 EPS information and JPEG and Jpeg2000 images in PDF files,
1346 embedded MPF images in JPEG and MPO files, streaming metadata in
1347 AVCHD videos, and the resource fork of Mac OS files. Implies the
1348 -a option. Use -g3 or -G3 to identify the originating document
1349 for extracted information. Embedded documents containing sub-
1350 documents are indicated with dashes in the family 3 group name.
1351 (eg. "Doc2-3" is the 3rd sub-document of the 2nd embedded
1352 document.) Note that this option may increase processing time
1353 substantially, especially for PDF files with many embedded images
1354 or videos with streaming metadata.
1355 When used with -ee, the -p option is evaluated for each embedded
1357 document as if it were a separate input file. This allows, for
1358 example, generation of GPS track logs from timed metadata in
1359 videos. See <https://exiftool.org/geotag.html#Inverse> for
1360 examples.
1361 Setting NUM to 2 causes the H264 video stream in MP4 videos to be
1363 parsed until the first Supplemental Enhancement Information (SEI)
1364 message is decoded, or 3 to parse the entire H624 stream and
1365 decode all SEI information. For M2TS videos, a setting of 3
1366 causes the entire file to be parsed in search of unlisted programs
1367 which may contain timed GPS.
1368 -ext[+] EXT, --ext EXT (-extension)
1370 Process only files with (-ext) or without (--ext) a specified
1371 extension. There may be multiple -ext and --ext options. A plus
1372 sign may be added (ie. -ext+) to add the specified extension to
1373 the normally processed files. EXT may begin with a leading '.',
1374 which is ignored. Case is not significant. "*" may be used to
1375 process files with any extension (or none at all), as in the last
1376 three examples:
1377 exiftool -ext JPG DIR # process only JPG files
1379 exiftool --ext cr2 --ext dng DIR # supported files but CR2/DNG
1380 exiftool -ext+ txt DIR # supported files plus TXT
1381 exiftool -ext "*" DIR # process all files
1382 exiftool -ext "*" --ext xml DIR # process all but XML files
1383 exiftool -ext "*" --ext . DIR # all but those with no ext
1384 Using this option has two main advantages over specifying "*.EXT"
1386 on the command line: 1) It applies to files in subdirectories
1387 when combined with the -r option. 2) The -ext option is case-
1388 insensitive, which is useful when processing files on case-
1389 sensitive filesystems.
1390 Note that all files specified on the command line will be
1392 processed regardless of extension unless the -ext option is used.
1393 -F[OFFSET] (-fixBase)
1395 Fix the base for maker notes offsets. A common problem with some
1396 image editors is that offsets in the maker notes are not adjusted
1397 properly when the file is modified. This may cause the wrong
1398 values to be extracted for some maker note entries when reading
1399 the edited file. This option allows an integer OFFSET to be
1400 specified for adjusting the maker notes base offset. If no OFFSET
1401 is given, ExifTool takes its best guess at the correct base. Note
1402 that exiftool will automatically fix the offsets for images which
1403 store original offset information (eg. newer Canon models).
1404 Offsets are fixed permanently if -F is used when writing EXIF to
1405 an image. eg)
1406 exiftool -F -exif:resolutionunit=inches image.jpg
1408 -fast[NUM]
1410 Increase speed of extracting information. With -fast (or -fast1),
1411 ExifTool will not scan to the end of a JPEG image to check for an
1412 AFCP or PreviewImage trailer, or past the first comment in GIF
1413 images or the audio/video data in WAV/AVI files to search for
1414 additional metadata. These speed benefits are small when reading
1415 images directly from disk, but can be substantial if piping images
1416 through a network connection. For more substantial speed
1417 benefits, -fast2 also causes exiftool to avoid extracting any EXIF
1418 MakerNote information. -fast3 avoids extracting metadata from the
1419 file, and returns only pseudo System tags, but still reads the
1420 file header to obtain an educated guess at FileType. -fast4
1421 doesn't even read the file header, and returns only System tags
1422 and a FileType based on the file extension. -fast5 also disables
1423 generation of the Composite tags (like -e). Has no effect when
1424 writing.
1425 Note that a separate -fast setting may be used for evaluation of a
1427 -if condition, or when ordering files with the -fileOrder option.
1428 See the -if and -fileOrder options for details.
1429 -fileOrder[NUM] [-]TAG
1431 Set file processing order according to the sorted value of the
1432 specified TAG. For example, to process files in order of date:
1433 exiftool -fileOrder DateTimeOriginal DIR
1435 Additional -fileOrder options may be added for secondary sort
1437 keys. Numbers are sorted numerically, and all other values are
1438 sorted alphabetically. Files missing the specified tag are sorted
1439 last. The sort order may be reversed by prefixing the tag name
1440 with a "-" (eg. "-fileOrder -createdate"). Print conversion of
1441 the sorted values is disabled with the -n option, or a "#"
1442 appended to the tag name. Other formatting options (eg. -d) have
1443 no effect on the sorted values. Note that the -fileOrder option
1444 can have a large performance impact since it involves an
1445 additional processing pass of each file, but this impact may be
1446 reduced by specifying a NUM for the -fast level used during the
1447 metadata-extraction phase. For example, -fileOrder4 may be used
1448 if TAG is a pseudo System tag. If multiple -fileOrder options are
1449 used, the extraction is done at the lowest -fast level. Note that
1450 files are sorted across directory boundaries if multiple input
1451 directories are specified.
1452 -i DIR (-ignore)
1454 Ignore specified directory name. DIR may be either an individual
1455 folder name, or a full path. If a full path is specified, it must
1456 match the Directory tag exactly to be ignored. Use multiple -i
1457 options to ignore more than one directory name. A special DIR
1458 value of "SYMLINKS" (case sensitive) may be specified to avoid
1459 recursing into directories which are symbolic links when the -r
1460 option is used. As well, a value of "HIDDEN" (case sensitive) may
1461 be used to ignore files with names that start with a "." (ie.
1462 hidden files on Unix systems) when scanning a directory.
1463 -if[NUM] EXPR
1465 Specify a condition to be evaluated before processing each FILE.
1466 EXPR is a Perl-like logic expression containing tag names prefixed
1467 by "$" symbols. It is evaluated with the tags from each FILE in
1468 turn, and the file is processed only if the expression returns
1469 true. Unlike Perl variable names, tag names are not case
1470 sensitive and may contain a hyphen. As well, tag names may have a
1471 leading group names separated by colons, and/or a trailing "#"
1472 character to disable print conversion. The expression $GROUP:all
1473 evaluates to 1 if any tag exists in the specified "GROUP", or 0
1474 otherwise (see note 2 below). When multiple -if options are used,
1475 all conditions must be satisfied to process the file. Returns an
1476 exit status of 2 if all files fail the condition. Below are a few
1477 examples:
1478 # extract shutterspeed from all Canon images in a directory
1480 exiftool -shutterspeed -if '$make eq "Canon"' dir
1481 # add one hour to all images created on or after Apr. 2, 2006
1483 exiftool -alldates+=1 -if '$CreateDate ge "2006:04:02"' dir
1484 # set EXIF ISO value if possible, unless it is set already
1486 exiftool '-exif:iso<iso' -if 'not $exif:iso' dir
1487 # find images containing a specific keyword (case insensitive)
1489 exiftool -if '$keywords =~ /harvey/i' -filename dir
1490 Adding NUM to the -if option causes a separate processing pass to
1492 be executed for evaluating EXPR at a -fast level given by NUM (see
1493 the -fast option documentation for details). Without NUM, only
1494 one processing pass is done at the level specified by the -fast
1495 option. For example, using -if5 is possible if EXPR uses only
1496 pseudo System tags, and may significantly speed processing if
1497 enough files fail the condition.
1498 The expression has access to the current ExifTool object through
1500 $self, and the following special functions are available to allow
1501 short-circuiting of the file processing. Both functions have a
1502 return value of 1. Case is significant for function names.
1503 End() - end processing after this file
1505 EndDir() - end processing of files in this directory (not
1506 compatible with the B<-fileOrder> option)
1507 Notes:
1509 1) The -n and -b options also apply to tags used in EXPR.
1511 2) Some binary data blocks are not extracted unless specified
1513 explicitly. These tags are not available for use in the -if
1514 condition unless they are also specified on the command line. The
1515 alternative is to use the $GROUP:all syntax. (eg. Use $exif:all
1516 instead of $exif in EXPR to test for the existence of EXIF tags.)
1517 3) Tags in the string are interpolated the same way as with -p
1519 before the expression is evaluated. In this interpolation, $/ is
1520 converted to a newline and $$ represents a single "$" symbol (so
1521 Perl variables, if used, require a double "$").
1522 4) The condition may only test tags from the file being processed.
1524 To process one file based on tags from another, two steps are
1525 required. For example, to process XMP sidecar files in directory
1526 "DIR" based on tags from the associated NEF:
1527 exiftool -if EXPR -p '$directory/$filename' -ext nef DIR > nef.txt
1529 exiftool -@ nef.txt -srcfile %d%f.xmp ...
1530 5) The -a option has no effect on the evaluation of the
1532 expression, and the values of duplicate tags are accessible only
1533 by specifying a group name (such as a family 4 instance number,
1534 eg. $Copy1:TAG, $Copy2:TAG, etc).
1535 6) A special "OK" UserParam is available to test the success of
1537 the previous command when -execute was used, and may be used like
1538 any other tag in the condition (ie. "$OK").
1539 -m (-ignoreMinorErrors)
1541 Ignore minor errors and warnings. This enables writing to files
1542 with minor errors and disables some validation checks which could
1543 result in minor warnings. Generally, minor errors/warnings
1544 indicate a problem which usually won't result in loss of metadata
1545 if ignored. However, there are exceptions, so ExifTool leaves it
1546 up to you to make the final decision. Minor errors and warnings
1547 are indicated by "[minor]" at the start of the message. Warnings
1548 which affect processing when ignored are indicated by "[Minor]"
1549 (with a capital "M"). Note that this causes missing values in
1550 -tagsFromFile, -p and -if strings to be set to an empty string
1551 rather than an undefined value.
1552 -o OUTFILE or FMT (-out)
1554 Set the output file or directory name when writing information.
1555 Without this option, when any "real" tags are written the original
1556 file is renamed to "FILE_original" and output is written to FILE.
1557 When writing only FileName and/or Directory "pseudo" tags, -o
1558 causes the file to be copied instead of moved, but directories
1559 specified for either of these tags take precedence over that
1560 specified by the -o option.
1561 OUTFILE may be "-" to write to stdout. The output file name may
1563 also be specified using a FMT string in which %d, %f and %e
1564 represent the directory, file name and extension of FILE. Also,
1565 %c may be used to add a copy number. See the -w option for FMT
1566 string examples.
1567 The output file is taken to be a directory name if it already
1569 exists as a directory or if the name ends with '/'. Output
1570 directories are created if necessary. Existing files will not be
1571 overwritten. Combining the -overwrite_original option with -o
1572 causes the original source file to be erased after the output file
1573 is successfully written.
1574 A special feature of this option allows the creation of certain
1576 types of files from scratch, or with the metadata from another
1577 type of file. The following file types may be created using this
1578 technique:
1579 XMP, EXIF, EXV, MIE, ICC/ICM, VRD, DR4
1581 The output file type is determined by the extension of OUTFILE
1583 (specified as "-.EXT" when writing to stdout). The output file is
1584 then created from a combination of information in FILE (as if the
1585 -tagsFromFile option was used), and tag values assigned on the
1586 command line. If no FILE is specified, the output file may be
1587 created from scratch using only tags assigned on the command line.
1588 -overwrite_original
1590 Overwrite the original FILE (instead of preserving it by adding
1591 "_original" to the file name) when writing information to an
1592 image. Caution: This option should only be used if you already
1593 have separate backup copies of your image files. The overwrite is
1594 implemented by renaming a temporary file to replace the original.
1595 This deletes the original file and replaces it with the edited
1596 version in a single operation. When combined with -o, this option
1597 causes the original file to be deleted if the output file was
1598 successfully written (ie. the file is moved instead of copied).
1599 -overwrite_original_in_place
1601 Similar to -overwrite_original except that an extra step is added
1602 to allow the original file attributes to be preserved. For
1603 example, on a Mac this causes the original file creation date,
1604 type, creator, label color, icon, Finder tags, other extended
1605 attributes and hard links to the file to be preserved (but note
1606 that the Mac OS resource fork is always preserved unless
1607 specifically deleted with "-rsrc:all="). This is implemented by
1608 opening the original file in update mode and replacing its data
1609 with a copy of a temporary file before deleting the temporary.
1610 The extra step results in slower performance, so the
1611 -overwrite_original option should be used instead unless
1612 necessary.
1613 Note that this option reverts to the behaviour of the
1615 -overwrite_original option when also writing the FileName and/or
1616 Directory tags.
1617 -P (-preserve)
1619 Preserve the filesystem modification date/time ("FileModifyDate")
1620 of the original file when writing. Note that some filesystems
1621 store a creation date (ie. "FileCreateDate" on Windows and Mac
1622 systems) which is not affected by this option. This creation date
1623 is preserved on Windows systems where Win32API::File and
1624 Win32::API are available regardless of this setting. For other
1625 systems, the -overwrite_original_in_place option may be used if
1626 necessary to preserve the creation date. The -P option is
1627 superseded by any value written to the FileModifyDate tag.
1628 -password PASSWD
1630 Specify password to allow processing of password-protected PDF
1631 documents. If a password is required but not given, a warning is
1632 issued and the document is not processed. This option is ignored
1633 if a password is not required.
1634 -progress[:[TITLE]]
1636 Show the progress when processing files. Without a colon, the
1637 -progress option adds a progress count in brackets after the name
1638 of each processed file, giving the current file number and the
1639 total number of files to be processed. Implies the -v0 option,
1640 causing the names of processed files to also be printed when
1641 writing. When combined with the -if option, the total count
1642 includes all files before the condition is applied, but files that
1643 fail the condition will not have their names printed.
1644 If followed by a colon (ie. -progress:), the console window title
1646 is set according to the specified TITLE string. If no TITLE is
1647 given, a default TITLE string of "ExifTool %p%%" is assumed. In
1648 the string, %f represents the file name, %p is the progress as a
1649 percent, %r is the progress as a ratio, %##b is a progress bar of
1650 width "##" (20 characters if "##" is omitted), and %% is a %
1651 character. May be combined with the normal -progress option to
1652 also show the progress count in console messages. (Note: For this
1653 feature to function correctly on Mac/Linux, stderr must go to the
1654 console.)
1655 -q (-quiet)
1657 Quiet processing. One -q suppresses normal informational
1658 messages, and a second -q suppresses warnings as well. Error
1659 messages can not be suppressed, although minor errors may be
1660 downgraded to warnings with the -m option, which may then be
1661 suppressed with "-q -q".
1662 -r[.] (-recurse)
1664 Recursively process files in subdirectories. Only meaningful if
1665 FILE is a directory name. Subdirectories with names beginning
1666 with "." are not processed unless "." is added to the option name
1667 (ie. -r. or -recurse.). By default, exiftool will also follow
1668 symbolic links to directories if supported by the system, but this
1669 may be disabled with "-i SYMLINKS" (see the -i option for
1670 details). Combine this with -ext options to control the types of
1671 files processed.
1672 -scanForXMP
1674 Scan all files (even unsupported formats) for XMP information
1675 unless found already. When combined with the -fast option, only
1676 unsupported file types are scanned. Warning: It can be time
1677 consuming to scan large files.
1678 -u (-unknown)
1680 Extract values of unknown tags. Add another -u to also extract
1681 unknown information from binary data blocks. This option applies
1682 to tags with numerical tag ID's, and causes tag names like
1683 "Exif_0xc5d9" to be generated for unknown information. It has no
1684 effect on information types which have human-readable tag ID's
1685 (such as XMP), since unknown tags are extracted automatically from
1686 these formats.
1687 -U (-unknown2)
1689 Extract values of unknown tags as well as unknown information from
1690 some binary data blocks. This is the same as two -u options.
1691 -wm MODE (-writeMode)
1693 Set mode for writing/creating tags. MODE is a string of one or
1694 more characters from the list below. The default write mode is
1695 "wcg".
1696 w - Write existing tags
1698 c - Create new tags
1699 g - create new Groups as necessary
1700 For example, use "-wm cg" to only create new tags (and avoid
1702 editing existing ones).
1703 The level of the group is the SubDirectory level in the metadata
1705 structure. For XMP or IPTC this is the full XMP/IPTC block (the
1706 family 0 group), but for EXIF this is the individual IFD (the
1707 family 1 group).
1708 -z (-zip)
1710 When reading, causes information to be extracted from .gz and .bz2
1711 compressed images (only one image per archive; requires gzip and
1712 bzip2 to be available). When writing, causes compressed
1713 information to be written if supported by the metadata format (eg.
1714 compressed textual metadata in PNG), disables the recommended
1715 padding in embedded XMP (saving 2424 bytes when writing XMP in a
1716 file), and writes XMP in shorthand format -- the equivalent of
1717 setting the API Compress=1 and Compact="NoPadding,Shorthand".
1718 Other options
1720 -@ ARGFILE
1722 Read command-line arguments from the specified file. The file
1723 contains one argument per line (NOT one option per line -- some
1724 options require additional arguments, and all arguments must be
1725 placed on separate lines). Blank lines and lines beginning with
1726 "#" are ignored (unless they start with "#[CSTR]", in which case
1727 the rest of the line is treated as a C string, allowing standard C
1728 escape sequences such as "\n" for a newline). White space at the
1729 start of a line is removed. Normal shell processing of arguments
1730 is not performed, which among other things means that arguments
1731 should not be quoted and spaces are treated as any other
1732 character. ARGFILE may exist relative to either the current
1733 directory or the exiftool directory unless an absolute pathname is
1734 given.
1735 For example, the following ARGFILE will set the value of Copyright
1737 to "Copyright YYYY, Phil Harvey", where "YYYY" is the year of
1738 CreateDate:
1739 -d
1741 %Y
1742 -copyright<Copyright $createdate, Phil Harvey
1743 Arguments in ARGFILE behave exactly the same as if they were
1745 entered at the location of the -@ option on the command line, with
1746 the exception that the -config and -common_args options may not be
1747 used in an ARGFILE.
1748 -k (-pause)
1750 Pause with the message "-- press any key --" or "-- press RETURN
1751 --" (depending on your system) before terminating. This option is
1752 used to prevent the command window from closing when run as a
1753 Windows drag and drop application.
1754 -list, -listw, -listf, -listr, -listwf, -listg[NUM], -listd, -listx
1756 Print a list of all valid tag names (-list), all writable tag
1757 names (-listw), all supported file extensions (-listf), all
1758 recognized file extensions (-listr), all writable file extensions
1759 (-listwf), all tag groups [in a specified family] (-listg[NUM]),
1760 all deletable tag groups (-listd), or an XML database of tag
1761 details including language translations (-listx). The -list,
1762 -listw and -listx options may be followed by an additional
1763 argument of the form "-GROUP:All" to list only tags in a specific
1764 group, where "GROUP" is one or more family 0-2 group names
1765 (excepting EXIF IFD groups) separated by colons. With -listg, NUM
1766 may be given to specify the group family, otherwise family 0 is
1767 assumed. The -l option may be combined with -listf, -listr or
1768 -listwf to add file descriptions to the list. The -lang option
1769 may be combined with -listx to output descriptions in a single
1770 language. Here are some examples:
1771 -list # list all tag names
1773 -list -EXIF:All # list all EXIF tags
1774 -list -xmp:time:all # list all XMP tags relating to time
1775 -listw -XMP-dc:All # list all writable XMP-dc tags
1776 -listf # list all supported file extensions
1777 -listr # list all recognized file extensions
1778 -listwf # list all writable file extensions
1779 -listg1 # list all groups in family 1
1780 -listd # list all deletable groups
1781 -listx -EXIF:All # list database of EXIF tags in XML format
1782 -listx -XMP:All -s # list short XML database of XMP tags
1783 When combined with -listx, the -s option shortens the output by
1785 omitting the descriptions and values (as in the last example
1786 above), and -f adds a 'flags' attribute if applicable. The flags
1787 are formatted as a comma-separated list of the following possible
1788 values: Avoid, Binary, List, Mandatory, Permanent, Protected,
1789 Unknown and Unsafe (see the Tag Name documentation). For XMP List
1790 tags, the list type (Alt, Bag or Seq) is added to the flags, and
1791 flattened structure tags are indicated by a Flattened flag.
1792 Note that none of the -list options require an input FILE.
1794 -ver Print exiftool version number. The -v option may be added to
1796 print addition system information (see the README file of the full
1797 distribution for more details about optional libraries), or -v2 to
1798 also list the Perl include directories.
1799 -- Indicates the end of options. Any remaining arguments are treated
1801 as file names, even if they begin with a dash ("-").
1802 Special features
1804 -geotag TRKFILE
1806 Geotag images from the specified GPS track log file. Using the
1807 -geotag option is equivalent to writing a value to the "Geotag"
1808 tag. The GPS position is interpolated from the track at a time
1809 specified by the value written to the "Geotime" tag. If "Geotime"
1810 is not specified, the value is copied from "DateTimeOriginal#"
1811 (the "#" is added to copy the unformatted value, avoiding
1812 potential conflicts with the -d option). For example, the
1813 following two commands are equivalent:
1814 exiftool -geotag trk.log image.jpg
1816 exiftool -geotag trk.log "-Geotime<DateTimeOriginal#" image.jpg
1817 When the "Geotime" value is converted to UTC, the local system
1819 timezone is assumed unless the date/time value contains a
1820 timezone. Writing "Geotime" causes the following tags to be
1821 written (provided they can be calculated from the track log, and
1822 they are supported by the destination metadata format):
1823 GPSLatitude, GPSLatitudeRef, GPSLongitude, GPSLongitudeRef,
1824 GPSAltitude, GPSAltitudeRef, GPSDateStamp, GPSTimeStamp,
1825 GPSDateTime, GPSTrack, GPSTrackRef, GPSSpeed, GPSSpeedRef,
1826 GPSImgDirection, GPSImgDirectionRef, GPSPitch, GPSRoll,
1827 AmbientTemperature and CameraElevationAngle. By default, tags are
1828 created in EXIF, and updated in XMP only if they already exist.
1829 However, "EXIF:Geotime" or "XMP:Geotime" may be specified to write
1830 only EXIF or XMP tags respectively. Note that GPSPitch and
1831 GPSRoll are non-standard, and require user-defined tags in order
1832 to be written.
1833 The "Geosync" tag may be used to specify a time correction which
1835 is applied to each "Geotime" value for synchronization with GPS
1836 time. For example, the following command compensates for image
1837 times which are 1 minute and 20 seconds behind GPS:
1838 exiftool -geosync=+1:20 -geotag a.log DIR
1840 Advanced "Geosync" features allow a linear time drift correction
1842 and synchronization from previously geotagged images. See
1843 "geotag.html" in the full ExifTool distribution for more
1844 information.
1845 Multiple -geotag options may be used to concatenate GPS track log
1847 data. Also, a single -geotag option may be used to load multiple
1848 track log files by using wildcards in the TRKFILE name, but note
1849 that in this case TRKFILE must be quoted on most systems (with the
1850 notable exception of Windows) to prevent filename expansion. For
1851 example:
1852 exiftool -geotag "TRACKDIR/*.log" IMAGEDIR
1854 Currently supported track file formats are GPX, NMEA RMC/GGA/GLL,
1856 KML, IGC, Garmin XML and TCX, Magellan PMGNTRK, Honeywell PTNTHPR,
1857 Bramor gEO, Winplus Beacon TXT, and GPS/IMU CSV files. See
1858 "GEOTAGGING EXAMPLES" for examples. Also see "geotag.html" in the
1859 full ExifTool distribution and the Image::ExifTool Options for
1860 more details and for information about geotag configuration
1861 options.
1862 -globalTimeShift SHIFT
1864 Shift all formatted date/time values by the specified amount when
1865 reading. Does not apply to unformatted (-n) output. SHIFT takes
1866 the same form as the date/time shift when writing (see
1867 Image::ExifTool::Shift.pl for details), with a negative shift
1868 being indicated with a minus sign ("-") at the start of the SHIFT
1869 string. For example:
1870 # return all date/times, shifted back by 1 hour
1872 exiftool -globalTimeShift -1 -time:all a.jpg
1873 # set the file name from the shifted CreateDate (-1 day) for
1875 # all images in a directory
1876 exiftool "-filename<createdate" -globaltimeshift "-0:0:1 0:0:0" \
1877 -d %Y%m%d-%H%M%S.%%e dir
1878 -use MODULE
1880 Add features from specified plug-in MODULE. Currently, the MWG
1881 module is the only plug-in module distributed with exiftool. This
1882 module adds read/write support for tags as recommended by the
1883 Metadata Working Group. As a convenience, "-use MWG" is assumed
1884 if the "MWG" group is specified for any tag on the command line.
1885 See the MWG Tags documentation for more details. Note that this
1886 option is not reversible, and remains in effect until the
1887 application terminates, even across the -execute option.
1888 Utilities
1890 -restore_original
1892 -delete_original[!]
1893 These utility options automate the maintenance of the "_original"
1894 files created by exiftool. They have no effect on files without
1895 an "_original" copy. The -restore_original option restores the
1896 specified files from their original copies by renaming the
1897 "_original" files to replace the edited versions. For example,
1898 the following command restores the originals of all JPG images in
1899 directory "DIR":
1900 exiftool -restore_original -ext jpg DIR
1902 The -delete_original option deletes the "_original" copies of all
1904 files specified on the command line. Without a trailing "!" this
1905 option prompts for confirmation before continuing. For example,
1906 the following command deletes "a.jpg_original" if it exists, after
1907 asking "Are you sure?":
1908 exiftool -delete_original a.jpg
1910 These options may not be used with other options to read or write
1912 tag values in the same command, but may be combined with options
1913 such -ext, -if, -r, -q and -v.
1914 Advanced options
1916 Among other things, the advanced options allow complex processing to be
1918 performed from a single command without the need for additional
1919 scripting. This may be particularly useful for implementations such as
1920 Windows drag-and-drop applications. These options may also be used to
1921 improve performance in multi-pass processing by reducing the overhead
1922 required to load exiftool for each invocation.
1923 -api OPT[[^]=[VAL]]
1925 Set ExifTool API option. OPT is an API option name. The option
1926 value is set to 1 if =VAL is omitted. If VAL is omitted, the
1927 option value is set to undef if "=" is used, or an empty string
1928 with "^=". See Image::ExifTool Options for a list of available
1929 API options. This overrides API options set via the config file.
1930 -common_args
1932 Specifies that all arguments following this option are common to
1933 all executed commands when -execute is used. This and the -config
1934 option are the only options that may not be used inside a -@
1935 ARGFILE. Note that by definition this option and its arguments
1936 MUST come after all other options on the command line.
1937 -config CFGFILE
1939 Load specified configuration file instead of the default
1940 ".ExifTool_config". If used, this option must come before all
1941 other arguments on the command line and applies to all -execute'd
1942 commands. The CFGFILE must exist relative to the current working
1943 directory or the exiftool application directory unless an absolute
1944 path is specified. Loading of the default config file may be
1945 disabled by setting CFGFILE to an empty string (ie. ""). See
1946 <https://exiftool.org/config.html> and config_files/example.config
1947 in the full ExifTool distribution for details about the
1948 configuration file syntax.
1949 -echo[NUM] TEXT
1951 Echo TEXT to stdout (-echo or -echo1) or stderr (-echo2). Text is
1952 output as the command line is parsed, before the processing of any
1953 input files. NUM may also be 3 or 4 to output text (to stdout or
1954 stderr respectively) after processing is complete. For -echo3 and
1955 -echo4, "${status}" may be used in the TEXT string to represent
1956 the numerical exit status of the command (see "EXIT STATUS").
1957 -efile[NUM][!] ERRFILE
1959 Save the names of files giving errors (NUM missing or 1), files
1960 that were unchanged (NUM is 2), files that fail the -if condition
1961 (NUM is 4), or any combination thereof by summing NUM (eg. -efile3
1962 is the same has having both -efile and -efile2 options with the
1963 same ERRFILE). By default, file names are appended to any
1964 existing ERRFILE, but ERRFILE is overwritten if an exclamation
1965 point is added to the option (eg. -efile!). Saves the name of the
1966 file specified by the -srcfile option if applicable.
1967 -execute[NUM]
1969 Execute command for all arguments up to this point on the command
1970 line (plus any arguments specified by -common_args). The result
1971 is as if the commands were executed as separate command lines
1972 (with the exception of the -config and -use options which remain
1973 in effect for subsequent commands). Allows multiple commands to
1974 be executed from a single command line. NUM is an optional number
1975 that is echoed in the "{ready}" message when using the -stay_open
1976 feature. If a NUM is specified, the -q option no longer
1977 suppresses the output "{readyNUM}" message.
1978 -list_dir
1980 List directories themselves instead of their contents. This
1981 option effectively causes directories to be treated as normal
1982 files when reading and writing. For example, with this option the
1983 output of the "ls -la" command on Mac/Linux may be approximated by
1984 this exiftool command:
1985 exiftool -list_dir -T -ls-l -api systemtags -fast5 .* *
1987 (The -T option formats the output in tab-separated columns, -ls-l
1989 is a shortcut tag, the API SystemTags option is required to
1990 extract some necessary tags, and the -fast5 option is added for
1991 speed since only system tags are being extracted.)
1992 -srcfile FMT
1994 Specify a different source file to be processed based on the name
1995 of the original FILE. This may be useful in some special
1996 situations for processing related preview images or sidecar files.
1997 See the -w option for a description of the FMT syntax. Note that
1998 file name FMT strings for all options are based on the original
1999 FILE specified from the command line, not the name of the source
2000 file specified by -srcfile.
2001 For example, to copy metadata from NEF files to the corresponding
2003 JPG previews in a directory where other JPG images may exist:
2004 exiftool -ext nef -tagsfromfile @ -srcfile %d%f.jpg dir
2006 If more than one -srcfile option is specified, the files are
2008 tested in order and the first existing source file is processed.
2009 If none of the source files already exist, then exiftool uses the
2010 first -srcfile specified.
2011 A FMT of "@" may be used to represent the original FILE, which may
2013 be useful when specifying multiple -srcfile options (eg. to fall
2014 back to processing the original FILE if no sidecar exists).
2015 When this option is used, two special UserParam tags
2017 (OriginalFileName and OriginalDirectory) are generated to allow
2018 access to the original FILE name and directory.
2019 -stay_open FLAG
2021 If FLAG is 1 or "True" (case insensitive), causes exiftool keep
2022 reading from the -@ ARGFILE even after reaching the end of file.
2023 This feature allows calling applications to pre-load exiftool,
2024 thus avoiding the overhead of loading exiftool for each command.
2025 The procedure is as follows:
2026 1) Execute "exiftool -stay_open True -@ ARGFILE", where ARGFILE is
2028 the name of an existing (possibly empty) argument file or "-" to
2029 pipe arguments from the standard input.
2030 2) Write exiftool command-line arguments to ARGFILE, one argument
2032 per line (see the -@ option for details).
2033 3) Write "-execute\n" to ARGFILE, where "\n" represents a newline
2035 sequence. (Note: You may need to flush your write buffers here if
2036 using buffered output.) ExifTool will then execute the command
2037 with the arguments received up to this point, send a "{ready}"
2038 message to stdout when done (unless the -q or -T option is used),
2039 and continue trying to read arguments for the next command from
2040 ARGFILE. To aid in command/response synchronization, any number
2041 appended to the -execute option is echoed in the "{ready}"
2042 message. For example, "-execute613" results in "{ready613}".
2043 When this number is added, -q no longer suppresses the "{ready}"
2044 message. (Also, see the -echo3 and -echo4 options for additional
2045 ways to pass signals back to your application.)
2046 4) Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each command.
2048 5) Write "-stay_open\nFalse\n" (or "-stay_open\n0\n") to ARGFILE
2050 when done. This will cause exiftool to process any remaining
2051 command-line arguments then exit normally.
2052 The input ARGFILE may be changed at any time before step 5 above
2054 by writing the following lines to the currently open ARGFILE:
2055 -stay_open
2057 True
2058 -@
2059 NEWARGFILE
2060 This causes ARGFILE to be closed, and NEWARGFILE to be kept open.
2062 (Without the -stay_open here, exiftool would have returned to
2063 reading arguments from ARGFILE after reaching the end of
2064 NEWARGFILE.)
2065 Note: When writing arguments to a disk file there is a delay of
2067 up to 0.01 seconds after writing "-execute\n" before exiftool
2068 starts processing the command. This delay may be avoided by
2069 sending a CONT signal to the exiftool process immediately after
2070 writing "-execute\n". (There is no associated delay when writing
2071 arguments via a pipe with "-@ -", so the signal is not necessary
2072 when using this technique.)
2073 -userParam PARAM[[^]=[VAL]]
2075 Set user parameter. PARAM is an arbitrary user parameter name.
2076 This is an interface to the API UserParam option (see the
2077 Image::ExifTool Options documentation), and provides a method to
2078 access user-defined parameters in arguments to the -if and -p
2079 options as if they were any other tag. Appending a hash tag ("#")
2080 to PARAM (eg. "-userParam MyTag#=yes") also causes the parameter
2081 to be extracted as a normal tag in the UserParam group. Similar
2082 to the -api option, the parameter value is set to 1 if =VAL is
2083 omitted, undef if just VAL is omitted with "=", or an empty string
2084 if VAL is omitted with "^=".
2085 exiftool -p '$test from $filename' -userparam test=Hello FILE
2087 Advanced formatting feature
2089 An advanced formatting feature allows modification of the value of any
2091 tag interpolated within a -if or -p option argument, or a -tagsFromFile
2092 redirection string. Tag names within these strings are prefixed by a
2093 "$" symbol, and an arbitrary Perl expression may be applied to the tag
2094 value by placing braces around the tag name and inserting the
2095 expression after the name, separated by a semicolon (ie.
2096 "${TAG;EXPR}"). The expression acts on the value of the tag through
2097 the default input variable ($_), and has access to the full ExifTool
2098 API through the current ExifTool object ($self) and the tag key ($tag).
2099 It may contain any valid Perl code, including translation ("tr///") and
2100 substitution ("s///") operations, but note that braces within the
2101 expression must be balanced. The example below prints the camera Make
2102 with spaces translated to underlines, and multiple consecutive
2103 underlines replaced by a single underline:
2104 exiftool -p '${make;tr/ /_/;s/__+/_/g}' image.jpg
2106 An "@" may be added after the tag name to make the expression act on
2108 individual list items for list-type tags, simplifying list processing.
2109 Set $_ to undef to remove an item from the list. As an example, the
2110 following command returns all subjects not containing the string "xxx":
2111 exiftool -p '${subject@;$_=undef if /xxx/}' image.jpg
2113 A default expression of "tr(/\\?*:|"<>\0)()d" is assumed if the
2115 expression is empty (ie. "${TAG;}"). This removes the characters / \ ?
2116 * : | < > and null from the printed value. (These characters are
2117 illegal in Windows file names, so this feature is useful if tag values
2118 are used in file names.)
2119 Helper functions
2121 "DateFmt"
2123 Simplifies reformatting of individual date/time values. This function
2125 acts on a standard EXIF-formatted date/time value in $_ and formats it
2126 according to the specified format string (see the -d option). To avoid
2127 trying to reformat an already-formatted date/time value, a "#" must be
2128 added to the tag name (as in the example below) if the -d option is
2129 also used. For example:
2130 exiftool -p '${createdate#;DateFmt("%Y-%m-%d_%H%M%S")}' a.jpg
2132 "ShiftTime"
2134 Shifts EXIF-formatted date/time string by a specified amount. Start
2136 with a leading minus sign to shift backwards in time. See
2137 Image::ExifTool::Shift.pl for details about shift syntax. For example,
2138 to shift a date/time value back by one year:
2139 exiftool -p '${createdate;ShiftTime("-1:0:0 0")}' a.jpg
2141 "NoDups"
2143 Removes duplicate items from a list with a separator specified by the
2145 -sep option. This function is most useful when copying list-type tags.
2146 For example, the following command may be used to remove duplicate
2147 Keywords:
2148 exiftool -sep '##' '-keywords<${keywords;NoDups}' a.jpg
2150 The -sep option is necessary to split the string back into individual
2152 list items when writing to a list-type tag.
2153 An optional flag argument may be set to 1 to cause "NoDups" to set $_
2155 to undef if no duplicates existed, thus preventing the file from being
2156 rewritten unnecessarily:
2157 exiftool -sep '##' '-keywords<${keywords;NoDups(1)}' a.jpg
2159 Note that function names are case sensitive.
2161
2163 In Windows, command-line arguments are specified using the current code
2164 page and are recoded automatically to the system code page. This
2165 recoding is not done for arguments in ExifTool arg files, so by default
2166 filenames in arg files use the system code page. Unfortunately, these
2167 code pages are not complete character sets, so not all file names may
2168 be represented.
2169 ExifTool 9.79 and later allow the file name encoding to be specified
2171 with "-charset filename=CHARSET", where "CHARSET" is the name of a
2172 valid ExifTool character set, preferably "UTF8" (see the -charset
2173 option for a complete list). Setting this triggers the use of Windows
2174 wide-character i/o routines, thus providing support for most Unicode
2175 file names (see note 4). But note that it is not trivial to pass
2176 properly encoded file names on the Windows command line (see
2177 <https://exiftool.org/faq.html#Q18> for details), so placing them in a
2178 UTF-8 encoded -@ argfile and using "-charset filename=utf8" is
2179 recommended if possible.
2180 A warning is issued if a specified filename contains special characters
2182 and the filename character set was not provided. However, the warning
2183 may be disabled by setting "-charset filename=""", and ExifTool may
2184 still function correctly if the system code page matches the character
2185 set used for the file names.
2186 When a directory name is provided, the file name encoding need not be
2188 specified (unless the directory name contains special characters), and
2189 ExifTool will automatically use wide-character routines to scan the
2190 directory.
2191 The filename character set applies to the FILE arguments as well as
2193 filename arguments of -@, -geotag, -o, -p, -srcfile, -tagsFromFile,
2194 -csv=, -j= and -TAG<=. However, it does not apply to the -config
2195 filename, which always uses the system character set. The "-charset
2196 filename=" option must come before the -@ option to be effective, but
2197 the order doesn't matter with respect to other options.
2198 Notes:
2200 1) FileName and Directory tag values still use the same encoding as
2202 other tag values, and are converted to/from the filename character set
2203 when writing/reading if specified.
2204 2) Unicode support is not yet implemented for other Windows-based
2206 systems like Cygwin.
2207 3) See "WRITING READ-ONLY FILES" below for a note about editing read-
2209 only files with Unicode names.
2210 4) Unicode file names with surrogate pairs (code points over U+FFFF)
2212 still cause problems.
2213
2215 In general, ExifTool may be used to write metadata to read-only files
2216 provided that the user has write permission in the directory. However,
2217 there are three cases where file write permission is also required:
2218 1) When using the -overwrite_original_in_place option.
2220 2) When writing only pseudo System tags (eg. FileModifyDate).
2222 3) On Windows if the file has Unicode characters in its name, and a)
2224 the -overwrite_original option is used, or b) the "_original" backup
2225 already exists.
2226 Hidden files in Windows behave as read-only files when attempting to
2228 write any real tags to the file -- an error is generated when using the
2229 -overwrite_original_in_place, otherwise writing should be successful
2230 and the hidden attribute will be removed. But the -if option may be
2231 used to avoid processing hidden files (provided Win32API::File is
2232 available):
2233 exiftool -if "$fileattributes !~ /Hidden/" ...
2235
2237 Note: Beware when cutting and pasting these examples into your
2238 terminal! Some characters such as single and double quotes and hyphens
2239 may have been changed into similar-looking yet functionally-different
2240 characters by the text formatter used to display this documentation.
2241 Also note that Windows users must use double quotes instead of single
2242 quotes as below around arguments containing special characters.
2243 exiftool -a -u -g1 a.jpg
2245 Print all meta information in an image, including duplicate and
2246 unknown tags, sorted by group (for family 1). For performance
2247 reasons, this command may not extract all available metadata.
2248 (Metadata in embedded documents, metadata extracted by external
2249 utilities, and metadata requiring excessive processing time may
2250 not be extracted). Add "-ee3" and "-api RequestAll=3" to the
2251 command to extract absolutely everything available.
2252 exiftool -common dir
2254 Print common meta information for all images in "dir". "-common"
2255 is a shortcut tag representing common EXIF meta information.
2256 exiftool -T -createdate -aperture -shutterspeed -iso dir > out.txt
2258 List specified meta information in tab-delimited column form for
2259 all images in "dir" to an output text file named "out.txt".
2260 exiftool -s -ImageSize -ExposureTime b.jpg
2262 Print ImageSize and ExposureTime tag names and values.
2263 exiftool -l -canon c.jpg d.jpg
2265 Print standard Canon information from two image files.
2266 exiftool -r -w .txt -common pictures
2268 Recursively extract common meta information from files in
2269 "pictures" directory, writing text output to ".txt" files with the
2270 same names.
2271 exiftool -b -ThumbnailImage image.jpg > thumbnail.jpg
2273 Save thumbnail image from "image.jpg" to a file called
2274 "thumbnail.jpg".
2275 exiftool -b -JpgFromRaw -w _JFR.JPG -ext NEF -r .
2277 Recursively extract JPG image from all Nikon NEF files in the
2278 current directory, adding "_JFR.JPG" for the name of the output
2279 JPG files.
2280 exiftool -a -b -W %d%f_%t%-c.%s -preview:all dir
2282 Extract all types of preview images (ThumbnailImage, PreviewImage,
2283 JpgFromRaw, etc.) from files in directory "dir", adding the tag
2284 name to the output preview image file names.
2285 exiftool -d '%r %a, %B %e, %Y' -DateTimeOriginal -S -s -ext jpg .
2287 Print formatted date/time for all JPG files in the current
2288 directory.
2289 exiftool -IFD1:XResolution -IFD1:YResolution image.jpg
2291 Extract image resolution from EXIF IFD1 information (thumbnail
2292 image IFD).
2293 exiftool '-*resolution*' image.jpg
2295 Extract all tags with names containing the word "Resolution" from
2296 an image.
2297 exiftool -xmp:author:all -a image.jpg
2299 Extract all author-related XMP information from an image.
2300 exiftool -xmp -b a.jpg > out.xmp
2302 Extract complete XMP data record intact from "a.jpg" and write it
2303 to "out.xmp" using the special "XMP" tag (see the Extra tags in
2304 Image::ExifTool::TagNames).
2305 exiftool -p '$filename has date $dateTimeOriginal' -q -f dir
2307 Print one line of output containing the file name and
2308 DateTimeOriginal for each image in directory "dir".
2309 exiftool -ee3 -p '$gpslatitude, $gpslongitude, $gpstimestamp' a.m2ts
2311 Extract all GPS positions from an AVCHD video.
2312 exiftool -icc_profile -b -w icc image.jpg
2314 Save complete ICC_Profile from an image to an output file with the
2315 same name and an extension of ".icc".
2316 exiftool -htmldump -w tmp/%f_%e.html t/images
2318 Generate HTML pages from a hex dump of EXIF information in all
2319 images from the "t/images" directory. The output HTML files are
2320 written to the "tmp" directory (which is created if it didn't
2321 exist), with names of the form 'FILENAME_EXT.html'.
2322 exiftool -a -b -ee -embeddedimage -W Image_%.3g3.%s file.pdf
2324 Extract embedded JPG and JP2 images from a PDF file. The output
2325 images will have file names like "Image_#.jpg" or "Image_#.jp2",
2326 where "#" is the ExifTool family 3 embedded document number for
2327 the image.
2328
2330 Note that quotes are necessary around arguments which contain certain
2331 special characters such as ">", "<" or any white space. These quoting
2332 techniques are shell dependent, but the examples below will work for
2333 most Unix shells. With the Windows cmd shell however, double quotes
2334 should be used (eg. -Comment="This is a new comment").
2335 exiftool -Comment='This is a new comment' dst.jpg
2337 Write new comment to a JPG image (replaces any existing comment).
2338 exiftool -comment= -o newdir -ext jpg .
2340 Remove comment from all JPG images in the current directory,
2341 writing the modified images to a new directory.
2342 exiftool -keywords=EXIF -keywords=editor dst.jpg
2344 Replace existing keyword list with two new keywords ("EXIF" and
2345 "editor").
2346 exiftool -Keywords+=word -o newfile.jpg src.jpg
2348 Copy a source image to a new file, and add a keyword ("word") to
2349 the current list of keywords.
2350 exiftool -exposurecompensation+=-0.5 a.jpg
2352 Decrement the value of ExposureCompensation by 0.5 EV. Note that
2353 += with a negative value is used for decrementing because the -=
2354 operator is used for conditional deletion (see next example).
2355 exiftool -credit-=xxx dir
2357 Delete Credit information from all files in a directory where the
2358 Credit value was "xxx".
2359 exiftool -xmp:description-de='kühl' -E dst.jpg
2361 Write alternate language for XMP:Description, using HTML character
2362 escaping to input special characters.
2363 exiftool -all= dst.jpg
2365 Delete all meta information from an image. Note: You should NOT
2366 do this to RAW images (except DNG) since proprietary RAW image
2367 formats often contain information in the makernotes that is
2368 necessary for converting the image.
2369 exiftool -all= -comment='lonely' dst.jpg
2371 Delete all meta information from an image and add a comment back
2372 in. (Note that the order is important: "-comment='lonely' -all="
2373 would also delete the new comment.)
2374 exiftool -all= --jfif:all dst.jpg
2376 Delete all meta information except JFIF group from an image.
2377 exiftool -Photoshop:All= dst.jpg
2379 Delete Photoshop meta information from an image (note that the
2380 Photoshop information also includes IPTC).
2381 exiftool -r -XMP-crss:all= DIR
2383 Recursively delete all XMP-crss information from images in a
2384 directory.
2385 exiftool '-ThumbnailImage<=thumb.jpg' dst.jpg
2387 Set the thumbnail image from specified file (Note: The quotes are
2388 necessary to prevent shell redirection).
2389 exiftool '-JpgFromRaw<=%d%f_JFR.JPG' -ext NEF -r .
2391 Recursively write JPEG images with filenames ending in "_JFR.JPG"
2392 to the JpgFromRaw tag of like-named files with extension ".NEF" in
2393 the current directory. (This is the inverse of the "-JpgFromRaw"
2394 command of the "READING EXAMPLES" section above.)
2395 exiftool -DateTimeOriginal-='0:0:0 1:30:0' dir
2397 Adjust original date/time of all images in directory "dir" by
2398 subtracting one hour and 30 minutes. (This is equivalent to
2399 "-DateTimeOriginal-=1.5". See Image::ExifTool::Shift.pl for
2400 details.)
2401 exiftool -createdate+=3 -modifydate+=3 a.jpg b.jpg
2403 Add 3 hours to the CreateDate and ModifyDate timestamps of two
2404 images.
2405 exiftool -AllDates+=1:30 -if '$make eq "Canon"' dir
2407 Shift the values of DateTimeOriginal, CreateDate and ModifyDate
2408 forward by 1 hour and 30 minutes for all Canon images in a
2409 directory. (The AllDates tag is provided as a shortcut for these
2410 three tags, allowing them to be accessed via a single tag.)
2411 exiftool -xmp:city=Kingston image1.jpg image2.nef
2413 Write a tag to the XMP group of two images. (Without the "xmp:"
2414 this tag would get written to the IPTC group since "City" exists
2415 in both, and IPTC is preferred by default.)
2416 exiftool -LightSource-='Unknown (0)' dst.tiff
2418 Delete "LightSource" tag only if it is unknown with a value of 0.
2419 exiftool -whitebalance-=auto -WhiteBalance=tung dst.jpg
2421 Set "WhiteBalance" to "Tungsten" only if it was previously "Auto".
2422 exiftool -comment-= -comment='new comment' a.jpg
2424 Write a new comment only if the image doesn't have one already.
2425 exiftool -o %d%f.xmp dir
2427 Create XMP meta information data files for all images in "dir".
2428 exiftool -o test.xmp -owner=Phil -title='XMP File'
2430 Create an XMP data file only from tags defined on the command
2431 line.
2432 exiftool '-ICC_Profile<=%d%f.icc' image.jpg
2434 Write ICC_Profile to an image from a ".icc" file of the same name.
2435 exiftool -hierarchicalkeywords='{keyword=one,children={keyword=B}}'
2437 Write structured XMP information. See
2438 <https://exiftool.org/struct.html> for more details.
2439 exiftool -trailer:all= image.jpg
2441 Delete any trailer found after the end of image (EOI) in a JPEG
2442 file. A number of digital cameras store a large PreviewImage
2443 after the JPEG EOI, and the file size may be reduced significantly
2444 by deleting this trailer. See the JPEG Tags documentation for a
2445 list of recognized JPEG trailers.
2446
2448 These examples demonstrate the ability to copy tag values between
2449 files.
2450 exiftool -tagsFromFile src.cr2 dst.jpg
2452 Copy the values of all writable tags from "src.cr2" to "dst.jpg",
2453 writing the information to same-named tags in the preferred
2454 groups.
2455 exiftool -TagsFromFile src.jpg -all:all dst.jpg
2457 Copy the values of all writable tags from "src.jpg" to "dst.jpg",
2458 preserving the original tag groups.
2459 exiftool -all= -tagsfromfile src.jpg -exif:all dst.jpg
2461 Erase all meta information from "dst.jpg" image, then copy EXIF
2462 tags from "src.jpg".
2463 exiftool -exif:all= -tagsfromfile @ -all:all -unsafe bad.jpg
2465 Rebuild all EXIF meta information from scratch in an image. This
2466 technique can be used in JPEG images to repair corrupted EXIF
2467 information which otherwise could not be written due to errors.
2468 The "Unsafe" tag is a shortcut for unsafe EXIF tags in JPEG images
2469 which are not normally copied. See the tag name documentation for
2470 more details about unsafe tags.
2471 exiftool -Tagsfromfile a.jpg out.xmp
2473 Copy meta information from "a.jpg" to an XMP data file. If the
2474 XMP data file "out.xmp" already exists, it will be updated with
2475 the new information. Otherwise the XMP data file will be created.
2476 Only metadata-only files may be created like this (files
2477 containing images may be edited but not created). See "WRITING
2478 EXAMPLES" above for another technique to generate XMP files.
2479 exiftool -tagsFromFile a.jpg -XMP:All= -ThumbnailImage= -m b.jpg
2481 Copy all meta information from "a.jpg" to "b.jpg", deleting all
2482 XMP information and the thumbnail image from the destination.
2483 exiftool -TagsFromFile src.jpg -title -author=Phil dst.jpg
2485 Copy title from one image to another and set a new author name.
2486 exiftool -TagsFromFile a.jpg -ISO -TagsFromFile b.jpg -comment dst.jpg
2488 Copy ISO from one image and Comment from another image to a
2489 destination image.
2490 exiftool -tagsfromfile src.jpg -exif:all --subifd:all dst.jpg
2492 Copy only the EXIF information from one image to another,
2493 excluding SubIFD tags.
2494 exiftool '-FileModifyDate<DateTimeOriginal' dir
2496 Use the original date from the meta information to set the same
2497 file's filesystem modification date for all images in a directory.
2498 (Note that "-TagsFromFile @" is assumed if no other -TagsFromFile
2499 is specified when redirecting information as in this example.)
2500 exiftool -TagsFromFile src.jpg '-xmp:all<all' dst.jpg
2502 Copy all possible information from "src.jpg" and write in XMP
2503 format to "dst.jpg".
2504 exiftool '-Description<${FileName;s/\.[^.]*$//}' dir
2506 Set the image Description from the file name after removing the
2507 extension. This example uses the "Advanced formatting feature" to
2508 perform a substitution operation to remove the last dot and
2509 subsequent characters from the file name.
2510 exiftool -@ iptc2xmp.args -iptc:all= a.jpg
2512 Translate IPTC information to XMP with appropriate tag name
2513 conversions, and delete the original IPTC information from an
2514 image. This example uses iptc2xmp.args, which is a file included
2515 with the ExifTool distribution that contains the required
2516 arguments to convert IPTC information to XMP format. Also
2517 included with the distribution are xmp2iptc.args (which performs
2518 the inverse conversion) and a few more .args files for other
2519 conversions between EXIF, IPTC and XMP.
2520 exiftool -tagsfromfile %d%f.CR2 -r -ext JPG dir
2522 Recursively rewrite all "JPG" images in "dir" with information
2523 copied from the corresponding "CR2" images in the same
2524 directories.
2525 exiftool '-keywords+<make' image.jpg
2527 Add camera make to list of keywords.
2528 exiftool '-comment<ISO=$exif:iso Exposure=${shutterspeed}' dir
2530 Set the Comment tag of all images in "dir" from the values of the
2531 EXIF:ISO and ShutterSpeed tags. The resulting comment will be in
2532 the form "ISO=100 Exposure=1/60".
2533 exiftool -TagsFromFile src.jpg -icc_profile dst.jpg
2535 Copy ICC_Profile from one image to another.
2536 exiftool -TagsFromFile src.jpg -all:all dst.mie
2538 Copy all meta information in its original form from a JPEG image
2539 to a MIE file. The MIE file will be created if it doesn't exist.
2540 This technique can be used to store the metadata of an image so it
2541 can be inserted back into the image (with the inverse command)
2542 later in a workflow.
2543 exiftool -o dst.mie -all:all src.jpg
2545 This command performs exactly the same task as the command above,
2546 except that the -o option will not write to an output file that
2547 already exists.
2548 exiftool -b -jpgfromraw -w %d%f_%ue.jpg -execute -b -previewimage -w
2550 %d%f_%ue.jpg -execute -tagsfromfile @ -srcfile %d%f_%ue.jpg
2551 -overwrite_original -common_args --ext jpg DIR
2552 [Advanced] Extract JpgFromRaw or PreviewImage from all but JPG
2553 files in DIR, saving them with file names like "image_EXT.jpg",
2554 then add all meta information from the original files to the
2555 extracted images. Here, the command line is broken into three
2556 sections (separated by -execute options), and each is executed as
2557 if it were a separate command. The -common_args option causes the
2558 "--ext jpg DIR" arguments to be applied to all three commands, and
2559 the -srcfile option allows the extracted JPG image to be the
2560 source file for the third command (whereas the RAW files are the
2561 source files for the other two commands).
2562
2564 By writing the "FileName" and "Directory" tags, files are renamed
2565 and/or moved to new directories. This can be particularly useful and
2566 powerful for organizing files by date when combined with the -d option.
2567 New directories are created as necessary, but existing files will not
2568 be overwritten. The format codes %d, %f and %e may be used in the new
2569 file name to represent the directory, name and extension of the
2570 original file, and %c may be used to add a copy number if the file
2571 already exists (see the -w option for details). Note that if used
2572 within a date format string, an extra '%' must be added to pass these
2573 codes through the date/time parser. (And further note that in a
2574 Windows batch file, all '%' characters must also be escaped, so in this
2575 extreme case '%%%%f' is necessary to pass a simple '%f' through the two
2576 levels of parsing.) See <https://exiftool.org/filename.html> for
2577 additional documentation and examples.
2578 exiftool -filename=new.jpg dir/old.jpg
2580 Rename "old.jpg" to "new.jpg" in directory "dir".
2581 exiftool -directory=%e dir
2583 Move all files from directory "dir" into directories named by the
2584 original file extensions.
2585 exiftool '-Directory<DateTimeOriginal' -d %Y/%m/%d dir
2587 Move all files in "dir" into a directory hierarchy based on year,
2588 month and day of "DateTimeOriginal". eg) This command would move
2589 the file "dir/image.jpg" with a "DateTimeOriginal" of "2005:10:12
2590 16:05:56" to "2005/10/12/image.jpg".
2591 exiftool -o . '-Directory<DateTimeOriginal' -d %Y/%m/%d dir
2593 Same effect as above except files are copied instead of moved.
2594 exiftool '-filename<%f_${model;}.%e' dir
2596 Rename all files in "dir" by adding the camera model name to the
2597 file name. The semicolon after the tag name inside the braces
2598 causes characters which are invalid in Windows file names to be
2599 deleted from the tag value (see the "Advanced formatting feature"
2600 for an explanation).
2601 exiftool '-FileName<CreateDate' -d %Y%m%d_%H%M%S%%-c.%%e dir
2603 Rename all images in "dir" according to the "CreateDate" date and
2604 time, adding a copy number with leading '-' if the file already
2605 exists ("%-c"), and preserving the original file extension (%e).
2606 Note the extra '%' necessary to escape the filename codes (%c and
2607 %e) in the date format string.
2608 exiftool -r '-FileName<CreateDate' -d %Y-%m-%d/%H%M_%%f.%%e dir
2610 Both the directory and the filename may be changed together via
2611 the "FileName" tag if the new "FileName" contains a '/'. The
2612 example above recursively renames all images in a directory by
2613 adding a "CreateDate" timestamp to the start of the filename, then
2614 moves them into new directories named by date.
2615 exiftool '-FileName<${CreateDate}_$filenumber.jpg' -d %Y%m%d -ext jpg .
2617 Set the filename of all JPG images in the current directory from
2618 the CreateDate and FileNumber tags, in the form
2619 "20060507_118-1861.jpg".
2620
2622 ExifTool implements geotagging via 3 special tags: Geotag (which for
2623 convenience is also implemented as an exiftool option), Geosync and
2624 Geotime. The examples below highlight some geotagging features. See
2625 <https://exiftool.org/geotag.html> for additional documentation.
2626 exiftool -geotag track.log a.jpg
2628 Geotag an image ("a.jpg") from position information in a GPS track
2629 log ("track.log"). Since the "Geotime" tag is not specified, the
2630 value of DateTimeOriginal is used for geotagging. Local system
2631 time is assumed unless DateTimeOriginal contains a timezone.
2632 exiftool -geotag t.log -geotime='2009:04:02 13:41:12-05:00' a.jpg
2634 Geotag an image with the GPS position for a specific time.
2635 exiftool -geotag log.gpx '-xmp:geotime<createdate' dir
2637 Geotag all images in directory "dir" with XMP tags instead of EXIF
2638 tags, based on the image CreateDate.
2639 exiftool -geotag a.log -geosync=-20 dir
2641 Geotag images in directory "dir", accounting for image timestamps
2642 which were 20 seconds ahead of GPS.
2643 exiftool -geotag a.log -geosync=1.jpg -geosync=2.jpg dir
2645 Geotag images using time synchronization from two previously
2646 geotagged images (1.jpg and 2.jpg), synchronizing the image and
2647 GPS times using a linear time drift correction.
2648 exiftool -geotag a.log '-geotime<${createdate}+01:00' dir
2650 Geotag images in "dir" using CreateDate with the specified
2651 timezone. If CreateDate already contained a timezone, then the
2652 timezone specified on the command line is ignored.
2653 exiftool -geotag= a.jpg
2655 Delete GPS tags which may have been added by the geotag feature.
2656 Note that this does not remove all GPS tags -- to do this instead
2657 use "-gps:all=".
2658 exiftool -xmp:geotag= a.jpg
2660 Delete XMP GPS tags which were added by the geotag feature.
2661 exiftool -xmp:geotag=track.log a.jpg
2663 Geotag an image with XMP tags, using the time from
2664 DateTimeOriginal.
2665 exiftool -geotag a.log -geotag b.log -r dir
2667 Combine multiple track logs and geotag an entire directory tree of
2668 images.
2669 exiftool -geotag 'tracks/*.log' -r dir
2671 Read all track logs from the "tracks" directory.
2672 exiftool -p gpx.fmt -d %Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ dir > out.gpx
2674 Generate a GPX track log from all images in directory "dir". This
2675 example uses the "gpx.fmt" file included in the full ExifTool
2676 distribution package and assumes that the images in "dir" have all
2677 been previously geotagged.
2678
2680 cat a.jpg | exiftool -
2681 Extract information from stdin.
2682 exiftool image.jpg -thumbnailimage -b | exiftool -
2684 Extract information from an embedded thumbnail image.
2685 cat a.jpg | exiftool -iptc:keywords+=fantastic - > b.jpg
2687 Add an IPTC keyword in a pipeline, saving output to a new file.
2688 curl -s http://a.domain.com/bigfile.jpg | exiftool -fast -
2690 Extract information from an image over the internet using the cURL
2691 utility. The -fast option prevents exiftool from scanning for
2692 trailer information, so only the meta information header is
2693 transferred.
2694 exiftool a.jpg -thumbnailimage -b | exiftool -comment=wow - | exiftool
2696 a.jpg -thumbnailimage'<=-'
2697 Add a comment to an embedded thumbnail image. (Why anyone would
2698 want to do this I don't know, but I've included this as an example
2699 to illustrate the flexibility of ExifTool.)
2700
2702 Interrupting exiftool with a CTRL-C or SIGINT will not result in
2703 partially written files or temporary files remaining on the hard disk.
2704 The exiftool application traps SIGINT and defers it until the end of
2705 critical processes if necessary, then does a proper cleanup before
2706 exiting.
2707
2709 The exiftool application exits with a status of 0 on success, or 1 if
2710 an error occurred, or 2 if all files failed the -if condition (for any
2711 of the commands if -execute was used).
2712
2714 Copyright 2003-2021, Phil Harvey
2715 This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
2717 the same terms as Perl itself.
2718
2720 Image::ExifTool(3pm), Image::ExifTool::TagNames(3pm),
2721 Image::ExifTool::Shortcuts(3pm), Image::ExifTool::Shift.pl
2722perl v5.34.0 2021-08-24 EXIFTOOL(1)
