exiv2

Sommaire

NAME

exiv2 - Exif/IPTC metadata manipulation tool

SYNOPSIS

exiv2 [options] [action] file ...

DESCRIPTION

exiv2 is a program to read and write Exif and IPTC image metadata and image comments. Supported image formats are JPEG, Canon CRW and Canon THM. Read-only support is currently available for PNG and TIFF format and includes TIFF-based RAW formats such as Adobe DNG, Canon CR2, Fujifilm RAF, Minolta MRW, Nikon NEF, Pentax PEF, Sony ARW and Sony SR2.

ACTIONS

The action argument is only required if it is not clear from the options which action is implied.
pr | print
Print image metadata. This is the default action, i.e., the command exiv2 image.jpg will print a summary of the image Exif metadata.
ex | extract
Extract metadata to *.exv and thumbnail image files. Modification commands can be applied on-the-fly.
in | insert
Insert metadata from corresponding *.exv files. Use option -S .suf to change the suffix of the input files. Since files of any supported format can be used as input files, this command can be used to copy the metadata between files of different formats. Modification commands can be applied on-the-fly.
rm | delete
Delete image metadata from the files.
ad | adjust
Adjust Exif timestamps by the given time. Requires option -a time.
mo | modify
Apply commands to modify (add, set, delete) the Exif/IPTC metadata of image files. Requires option -c, -m or -M.
mv | rename
Rename files and/or set file timestamps according to the Exif create timestamp. Uses the value of tag Exif.Photo.DateTimeOriginal or, if not present, Exif.Image.DateTime to determine the timestamp. The filename format can be set with -r fmt, timestamp options are -t and -T.
fi | fixiso
Copy the ISO setting from any of the proprietary Nikon makernote ISO tags to the regular Exif ISO tag, Exif.Photo.ISOSpeedRatings. Overwrites an existing Exif ISO tag.

OPTIONS

-h
Display help and exit.
-V
Show the program version and exit.
-v
Be verbose during the program run.
-b
Show large binary values (default is to suppress them).
-u
Don't show unknown tags.
-k
Preserve file timestamps when updating files (keep). Can be used with all options which update files. The flag is ignored by read-only options.
-t
Set the file timestamp according to the Exif create timestamp in addition to renaming the file (overrides -k). This option is only used with the 'rename' action.
-T
Only set the file timestamp according to the Exif create timestamp, do not rename the file (overrides -k). This option is only used with the 'rename' action. Note: On Windows you may have to set the TZ environment variable for this option to work correctly.
-f
Do not prompt before overwriting existing files (force overwrite).
-F
Do not prompt before renaming files (Force rename). Appends '_1' ('_2', ...) to the name of the new file.
-a time
Time adjustment in the format [-]HH[:MM[:SS]]. This option is only used with the 'adjust' action. Examples: 1 adds one hour, 1:01 adds one hour and one minute, -0:00:30 subtracts 30 seconds.
-p mode
Print mode for the 'print' action. Possible modes are:
s : print a summary of the Exif metadata (the default)
t : interpreted (translated) Exif data (shortcut for -Pkyct)
v : plain Exif data values (shortcut for -Pxgnycv)
h : hexdump of the Exif data (shortcut for -Pxgnycsh)
i : IPTC data values
c : JPEG comment
-P cols
Print columns for the Exif taglist ('print' action), allows detailed control of the print output. Valid are:
x : print a column with the tag value
g : group name
k : key
l : tag label
n : tag name
y : type
c : number of components (count)
s : size in bytes
v : plain data value
t : interpreted (translated) data
h : hexdump of the data
-d tgt
Delete target(s) for the 'delete' action. Possible targets are:
a : all supported metadata (the default)
e : Exif section
t : Exif thumbnail only
i : IPTC data
c : JPEG comment
-i tgt
Insert target(s) for the 'insert' action. Possible targets are the same as those for the -d option. Only JPEG thumbnails can be inserted (not TIFF thumbnails), they need to be named file-thumb.jpg.
-e tgt
Extract target(s) for the 'extract' action. Possible targets are the same as those for the -d option.
-r fmt
Filename format for the 'rename' action. The format string follows strftime(3) and supports the following keywords:
:basename: - original filename without extension
:dirname: - name of the directory holding the original file
:parentname: - name of parent directory
Default filename format is %Y%m%d_%H%M%S.
-c txt
JPEG comment string to set in the image ('modify' action). This option can also be used with the 'extract' and 'insert' actions to modify metadata on-the-fly.
-m file
Command file for the 'modify' action. This option can also be used with the 'extract' and 'insert' actions to modify metadata on-the-fly.
-M cmd
Command line for the 'modify' action. This option can also be used with the 'extract' and 'insert' actions to modify metadata on-the-fly. The format for the commands is the same as that of the lines of a command file.
-l dir
Location (directory) for files to be inserted or extracted.
-S .suf
Use suffix .suf for source files in 'insert' action.

COMMANDS

Commands for the 'modify' action can be read from a command file, e.g., 

   exiv2 -m cmd.txt image.jpg

or given on the command line, as in


   exiv2 -M"add Iptc.Application2.Credit String Mr. Smith" image.jpg

Note the quotes. Multiple -m and -M options can be combined.

When writing Exif/IPTC metadata, exiv2 enforces only a correct metadata structure. It is possible to write tags with types and values different from those specified in the standards, duplicate Exif tags, undefined tags, or incomplete metadata. While exiv2 is able to read all metadata that it can write, other programs may have difficulties with images that contain non standard-conforming metadata.

Command format

The format of a command is 

set | add | del key [[type] value]
set
Set the value of an existing tag with a matching key or add the tag.
add
Add a tag (unless key is a non-repeatable IPTC key; nothing prevents you from adding duplicate Exif tags).
del
Delete all occurrences of a tag (requires only a key).
key
Exiv2 Exif or IPTC key.
type
Byte | Ascii | Short | Long | Rational | Undefined | SShort | SLong | SRational | Comment for Exif keys, and
String | Date | Time | Short | Undefined for IPTC keys.

A default type is used if none is explicitely given. The default is determined based on key.

value
The remaining text on the line is the value. It can optionally be enclosed in single quotes ('value') or double quotes ("value").

The format of Exif Comment values includes an optional charset specification at the beginning:

[charset=Ascii|Jis|Unicode|Undefined ]comment

Undefined is used by default if the value doesn't start with a charset definition.

The format for IPTC Date values is YYYY-MM-DD (year, month, day), that for IPTC Time values is HH:MM:SS+|-HH:MM, where HH:MM:SS refers to local hour, minute and seconds and +|-HH:MM refers to hours and minutes ahead or behind Universal Coordinated Time (+|- means either a + or a - sign is required).

Command file format

Empty lines and lines starting with # in a command file are ignored (comments). Remaining lines are commands as described above.

EXAMPLES

exiv2 *.jpg
Prints a summary of the Exif information for all JPEG files in the directory.
exiv2 -pi image.jpg
Prints the IPTC metadata of the image.
exiv2 rename img_1234.jpg
Renames img_1234.jpg (taken on 13-Nov-05 at 22:58:31) to 20051113_225831.jpg
exiv2 -r':basename:_%Y%m' rename img_1234.jpg
Renames img_1234.jpg to img_1234_200511.jpg
exiv2 ex img1.jpg img2.jpg
Extracts metadata from the two files into files img1.exv and img2.exv.
exiv2 -et img1.jpg img2.jpg
Extracts the Exif thumbnails from the two files into img1-thumb.jpg and img2-thumb.jpg.
exiv2 -it img1.jpg img2.jpg
Inserts (copies) metadata from img1.exv to img1.jpg and from img2.exv to img2.jpg.
exiv2 -M"set Exif.Photo.UserComment charset=Ascii New Exif comment" image.jpg Sets the Exif comment to an ASCII string.
exiv2 -M"set Exif.GPSInfo.GPSLatitude 4/1 15/1 33/1" \ -M"set Exif.GPSInfo.GPSLatitudeRef N" image.jpg Sets the latitude to 4 degrees, 15 minutes and 33 seconds north. The Exif standard stipulates that the GPSLatitude tag consists of three Rational numbers for the degrees, minutes and seconds of the latitude and GPSLatitudeRef contains either 'N' or 'S' for north or south latitude respectively.
exiv2 insert -l/tmp -S.CRW /data/*.JPG Copy all metadata from CRW files in the /tmp directory to JPG files with corresponding basenames in the /data directory. Note that this copies metadata as is, without any modifications to adapt it to the requirements of the target format. Some tags copied like this may not make sense in the target image.

SEE ALSO

http://www.exiv2.org/sample.html#modify
Sample command file.
http://www.exiv2.org/metadata.html
Taglists with key and default type values.

AUTHORS

exiv2 was written by Andreas HUGGEL <ahuggel@gmx.net>.

This manual page was originally written by KELEMEN Peter <fuji@debian.org>, for the Debian project.