Linux, Debian, How to completely WIPE all exif data from all image types?

[altershmooz]

Greetings Exiftool Community! Thank you for doing what you do!

I come to you with a humble request for some vital knowledge that seems to have eluded my grasp across multiple search engines and many long hours, and some coffee.

To place it upon the table very simply, I need to know how to get rid of all my exif data from many different images ranging from .jpg's, to .png's, to .webm's and of course also .gif's

I have many different folders of many different images but I have had alot of trouble discovering a "guide for total dumb dumbs" that describes in exact detail which command in terminal allows me to do this.


too long, didn't read version:

1. what to type into terminal to begin using exiftool
2. what to type into the terminal to tell exiftool to
A: completely remove all exif data from multiple different image types across many folders
or
B: completely remove all exif data from multiple different image types in only one folder ( if that is simpler )

I really hope that I'm not being unacceptable by the standards of this community, I have bumped into many xenophobic forums in the past and been torn to pieces for asking questions... So I hope that asking this question ( that I'm surprized more people haven't been asking before me ) in the "noob" section of the forums is acceptable.

Thank you so much for taking the moment and effort to assist me.

[StarGeek]

At the very basic:
ExifTool -all= FILEorDIR

ExifTool doesn't currently support writing metadata in webm files, I believe, which is required to clear metadata.  But I don't believe many webm files have metadata.  Gifs and pngs can have some metadata, but again, rarely do.  ExifTool only has limited support for metadata in other types of video files.

[altershmooz]

At the very basic:
ExifTool -all= FILEorDIR

ExifTool doesn't currently support writing metadata in webm files, I believe, which is required to clear metadata.  But I don't believe many webm files have metadata.  Gifs and pngs can have some metadata, but again, rarely do.  ExifTool only has limited support for metadata in other types of video files.

so if my folder with many other folders inside of it all each containing several different formats of multiple different images, both .jpg .gif .png and much much more, is called "FOLDER1" and I type into the terminal  ExifTool -all= FOLDER1 it will turn absolutely all my images into exact copies of themselves without damaging them, yet they will have no exif data anymore?

I'm just trying to be really careful so I don't break anything.

[StarGeek]

You might want to take some time and read over the documentation and the main page.   

If you have any camera RAW type files (Nikon NEF or Canon CR2, for example), then you don't want to run that command on them.  Some of the metadata is required for proper rendering of the image.  For example, in this post from a few months ago, a user removed the makernotes from their images and could no longer load the images. 

In tiff and tiff based files (such as the NEF and CR2 files), even -all= does not remove everything, because the image itself is inside the EXIF block, so you can't remove the EXIF block.

Most video files are not part of the default filetypes that are edited even when exiftool can edit them.  They have to be specifically added with the -ext option.

Those are just a few examples.   There's no guarantee that something won't break when you take a shotgun approach to a bunch of mixed filetypes.  You really should take time to test things out and make sure you have a backup of everything first.  You should have no real problems with the above command on the jpg, gif, and png files, but your "much much more" is more problematic.

But as to your first question, you have to add the -r option to recurse into subdirectories.  The -ext option will limit the files that are processed to certain types, in case you have some filetypes that shouldn't be processed.  Also, ExifTool will normally create backups of each file it processes with "_original" added to the file name.  Take a look at the -overwrite_original -restore_original, and -delete_original options in the docs.

[altershmooz]

You might want to take some time and read over the documentation and the main page.   

to be honest, I did. I feel like I'm on a roller coaster and my head is spinning so much that I don't know how I haven't thrown up yet. this is very complicated stuff and I have no idea how to even begin to get into the smallest understanding of any of it. this is what it feels to "linux" but I rather try this this this much, than use the evil nazi microsoft windows or google or EA or ubisoft or monsanto typical garbage.

anyway... thank you very much for your help, even though I don't understand any of it. It really does mean alot to me so I do thank you because you do really care and tried with me.

I somehow found "MAT" metadata anonymisation toolkit that has an easy to use GUI front end. I also have a feeling you might want to check it out because it has some overlap in the grey areas of support from exiftool, so I hope it also helps you and everyone further.

I leave with a cup of coffee in one hand, and a head full of confusion, but not regret.


peace, thanks, and love.