Read and write meta information in files
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-f (-forcePrint)
Force printing of tags even if their values are not found. This option only applies when tag names
are specified. May also be used to add a 'flags' attribute to the -listx output, or to allow tags
to be deleted with the -csv option.
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-i DIR (-ignore)
Ignore specified directory name. Use multiple -i options to ignore more than one directory name. A
special DIR value of "SYMLINKS" (case sensitive) may be specified to ignore symbolic links when the
-r option is used.
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-l (-long)
Use long 2-line Canon-style output format. Adds a description and unconverted value to the XML
output when -X is used.
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-e (--composite)
Extract existing tags only -- don't calculate composite tags.
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-n (--printConv)
Read and write values as numbers instead of words. By default, extracted values are converted to a
more human-readable format for printing, but the -n option disables this print conversion for all
tags. For example:
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-a (-duplicates) Allow duplicate tags to be extracted
-e (--composite) Do not calculate composite tags
-ee (-extractEmbedded) Extract information from embedded files
-ext EXT (-extension) Process files with specified extension
-F[OFFSET] (-fixBase) Fix the base for maker notes offsets
-fast[NUM] Increase speed for slow devices
-fileOrder [-]TAG Set file processing order
-i DIR (-ignore) Ignore specified directory name
-if EXPR Conditionally process files
-m (-ignoreMinorErrors) Ignore minor errors and warnings
-o OUTFILE (-out) Set output file or directory name
-overwrite_original Overwrite original by renaming tmp file
-overwrite_original_in_place Overwrite original by copying tmp file
-P (-preserve) Preserve date/time of original file
-password PASSWD Password for processing protected files
-q (-quiet) Quiet processing
-r (-recurse) Recursively process subdirectories
-scanForXMP Brute force XMP scan
-u (-unknown) Extract unknown tags
-U (-unknown2) Extract unknown binary tags too
-z (-zip) Read/write compressed information
Special features
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-m (-ignoreMinorErrors)
Ignore minor errors and warnings. This enables writing to files with minor errors and disables some
validation checks which could result in minor warnings. Generally, minor errors/warnings indicate a
problem which usually won't result in loss of metadata if ignored. However, there are exceptions,
so ExifTool leaves it up to you to make the final decision.
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-p FMTFILE or STR (-printFormat)
Print output in the format specified by the given file or string (and ignore other format options).
Tag names in the format file or string begin with a "$" symbol and may contain a leading group name
and/or a trailing "#". Case is not significant. Braces "{}" may be used around the tag name to
separate it from subsequent text. Use $$ to represent a "$" symbol, and $/ for a newline. Multiple
-p options may be used, each contributing a line of text to the output. Lines beginning with
"#[HEAD]" and "#[TAIL]" are output only for the first and last processed files respectively. Lines
beginning with "#[BODY]" and lines not beginning with "#" are output for each processed file. Other
lines beginning with "#" are ignored. For example, this format file:
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-s[NUM] (-short)
Short output format. Prints tag names instead of descriptions. Add NUM or up to 3 -s options for
even shorter formats:
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-t (-tab)
Output a tab-delimited list of description/values (useful for database import). May be combined
with -s to print tag names instead of descriptions, or -S to print tag values only, tab-delimited on
a single line. The -t option may also be used to add tag table information to the -X option output.
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-u (-unknown)
Extract values of unknown tags. Add another -u to also extract unknown information from binary data
blocks. This option applies to tags with numerical tag ID's, and causes tag names like
"Exif_0xc5d9" to be generated for unknown information. It has no effect on information types which
have human-readable tag ID's (such as XMP), since unknown tags are extracted automatically from
these formats.
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-d FMT (-dateFormat)
Set the format for date/time tag values. The specifics of the FMT syntax are system dependent --
consult the "strftime" man page on your system for details. The default format is equivalent to
"%Y:%m:%d %H:%M:%S". This option has no effect on date-only or time-only tags and ignores timezone
information if present. Only one -d option may be used per command. The inverse operation (ie. un-
formatting a date/time value) is currently not applied when writing a date/time tag.
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-o OUTFILE or FMT (-out)
Set the output file or directory name when writing information. (Without this option, the original
file is renamed to "FILE_original" and output is sent to FILE.) OUTFILE may be "-" to write to
stdout. The output file name may also be specified using a FMT string in which %d, %f and %e
represent the directory, file name and extension of FILE. Also, %c may be used to add a copy
number. See the -w option for FMT string examples.
The output file is taken to be a directory name if it already exists as a directory or if the name
ends with '/'. Output directories are created if necessary. Existing files will not be
overwritten. Combining the -overwrite_original option with -o causes the original source file to be
erased after the output file is successfully written.
A special feature of this option allows the creation of certain types of files from scratch.
Currently, this can be done with XMP, ICC/ICM, MIE, VRD and EXIF files by specifying the appropriate
extension for OUTFILE. The file is then created from a combination of information in FILE (as if
the -tagsFromFile option was used), and tag values assigned on the command line. If no FILE is
specified, the output file may be created from scratch using only tags assigned on the command line.
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-T (-table)
Output tag values in table form. Equivalent to -t -S -q -f.
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