I've been through the documents (https://exiftool.org/config.html, https://exiftool.org/ExifTool.html#Options), and I still don't understand how to change command line options via the .ExifTool_config file.
Specifically, I want -ignoreMinorErrors, -overwrite_original_in_place†, -preserve, and -recurse turned on as the default.
Is this possible? Or should I just make a shell alias with those options enabled?
Thanks!
† I use hard links a lot, so I need to make sure that exifTool doesn't break those links.
The options listed under Options (https://exiftool.org/ExifTool.html#Options) can be set as shown at the bottom of the example config file. As far as I can recall, other command line options don't have a way to set as default, though Phil may correct me on that.
From your list, it looks like only IgnoreMinorErrors (https://exiftool.org/ExifTool.html#IgnoreMinorErrors) can be set by the config file. You would do so like this
%Image::ExifTool::UserDefined::Options = (
IgnoreMinorErrors=> 1,
);Edit: Previous post from Phil, most likely applies to your other options as well
Quote from: Phil Harvey on July 04, 2019, 11:05:16 AMUnfortunately -overwrite_original is an application-level option only. It doesn't have an equivalent API option that you can set via the config file.
Quote from: StarGeek on February 21, 2024, 01:13:13 AMAs far as I can recall, other command line options don't have a way to set as default
Correct.
But I'll look into adding this capability to the config file.
- Phil
It turns out that this was easy to implement. This feature will appear in version 12.78, allowing you to set user-defined command-line arguments like this in the config file:
# Specify default exiftool command-line arguments
# (inserted before all other options except -config)
@Image::ExifTool::UserDefined::Arguments = (
'-echo', '**** Using my default arguments ****',
'-ignoreMinorErrors',
'-overwrite_original_in_place',
'-preserve',
'-recurse',
);
Note that these user-defined arguments will be inserted first on the command line (but after the -config option if used), which means that they will only apply to the first execute'd command if the -execute option is used. Edit: I thought it made more sense to apply to all execute'd commands, so I have changed it to work this way instead.
Personally, I'm going to use this new feature to ignore files with names starting with ".":
@Image::ExifTool::UserDefined::Arguments = (
'-i', 'HIDDEN',
);
- Phil