ExifTool Forum

I am writing a GUI wrapper in Scala/Swing for exiftool, the metadata is being displayed in 4 tabs labelled exif/iptc/xmp/gps. For extraction I use 4 invocations of exiftool:
exiftool -exif:all <file>
exiftool -iptc:all <file>
exiftool -xmp:all <file>
exiftool -gps:all <file>I know it is inefficient but this way I get the four tag groups separately for sorting them in different tabs.
exiftool <file>is more efficient but I would have to manually parse all tags to determine when the next tag group starts. Is there a clever way to do it with one invocation resulting with a marker (or blank line) between sections that I overlook? Or a tag that is guaranteed to be the first one in the next group?

Thanks!

Found it - the -g option is what I was looking for.

One thing to watch for is FAQ #3 (https://exiftool.org/faq.html#Q3)

QuoteWhen duplicate tags exist, only one is extracted unless the -a option is used. Beware that options like -EXIF:all select all EXIF tags from the extracted tags, so EXIF tags hidden by duplicate tags in other locations will not appear in the output for -EXIF:all. For example, the command

exiftool -gps:all image.jpg

will NOT necessarily extract all EXIF GPS tags because some may have been suppressed by same-named tags in other groups. To be sure all EXIF GPS tags are extracted, the -a option must be used:

exiftool -a -gps:all image.jpg

Example of this. The file contains both IPTC:Headline and XMP:Headline, as shown by the first command. The second command lists all XMP tags. The third command lists the IPTC tags, but because the -a (-duplicates) option (https://exiftool.org/exiftool_pod.html#a---a--duplicates---duplicates) isn't used, the IPTC:Headline is suppressed.
C:\>exiftool -G -a -s -Headline y:\!temp\Test4.jpg
[IPTC]          Headline                        : iptc:headline
[XMP]           Headline                        : xmp:headline
                     : xmp:headline

C:\>exiftool -G1 -s -XMP:All y:\!temp\Test4.jpg
[XMP-x]         XMPToolkit                      : Image::ExifTool 13.13
[XMP-photoshop] Headline                        : xmp:headline

C:\>exiftool -G1 -s -iptc:All y:\!temp\Test4.jpg
[IPTC]          ApplicationRecordVersion        : 4

Quote from: pejax on January 21, 2025, 04:03:47 PMIs there a clever way to do it with one invocation resulting with a marker (or blank line) between sections that I overlook? Or a tag that is guaranteed to be the first one in the next group?

You can use the -g (-groupHeadings) option (https://exiftool.org/exiftool_pod.html#g-NUM-:NUM...--groupHeadings)

Example:
C:\>exiftool -g -a -s y:\!temp\Test4.jpg
---- ExifTool ----
ExifToolVersion                 : 13.13
---- File ----
FileName                        : Test4.jpg
Directory                       : y:/!temp
FileSize                        : 451 kB
FileModifyDate                  : 2025:01:20 08:54:04-08:00
FileAccessDate                  : 2025:01:20 14:37:16-08:00
FileCreateDate                  : 2024:11:23 07:49:15-08:00
FilePermissions                 : -rw-rw-rw-
FileType                        : JPEG
FileTypeExtension               : jpg
MIMEType                        : image/jpeg
ExifByteOrder                   : Big-endian (Motorola, MM)
ImageWidth                      : 1749
ImageHeight                     : 1205
EncodingProcess                 : Baseline DCT, Huffman coding
BitsPerSample                   : 8
ColorComponents                 : 3
YCbCrSubSampling                : YCbCr4:2:0 (2 2)
---- EXIF ----
XResolution                     : 72
YResolution                     : 72
ResolutionUnit                  : inches
YCbCrPositioning                : Centered
XPKeywords                      : Dad   
---- XMP ----
XMPToolkit                      : Image::ExifTool 13.12
Subject                         : Dad   

Cool - thanks for pointing out the -a option.