ExifTool Forum

Prefix: I don't know much about exif (in the sense of the 'object properties', etc., XMP, how it's
used, contexts, and so on) so that colours the text below. I understand data. And I understand that
exiftool allows me to expose the data so I can investigate the object properties.

Is it possible to 'self-batch' exiftool. i.e. I would like to run exiftool on a .jpg that I've set
all the properties on, having it create a batch (.cmd) script that I can then feed back into
%comspec% / exiftool to set the same properties on another .jpg. Yes, I'm on windows. e.g.

exiftool <arg> templatedir/template.jpg >doit.cmd
for %a in (*.jpg) do doit %a

or, more likely:

exiftool <arg> templatedir/template.jpg >doit.exiftooldata.txt
for %a in (*.jpg) do exiftool -@ doit.exiftooldata.txt %a

i.e. the initial resulting output being human readable (.txt file) so I can edit it (say, with
notepad) to strip out all the appropriate stuff that wouldn't apply to every other file I plan to
apply it to. An .mie file isn't sufficient, it must be textual.

Is this sort of construct possible?

I get that I'm probably not going to get the one parameter with args per line that I would like,
that not being the format of the @ input file. It being easier to see nouns, verbs, and adjectives
all on one line, rather than having to scan down to figure out how many lines apply to this first
one. Sort of like reading braces in code, I guess.

if (a>b) c=a; a=b; [being easier to read, but not always appropriate, than]
if (a>b)
{
  c=a;
  a=b;
} [being easier to read, than]
if (a>b) {
  c=a;
  a=b;
}

Further, could exiftool's text output have an option to list each line with the entire tag? e.g. -X
shows the entire tag 'path' (?). It would facilitate editing this output file. Currently, many
lines, say, have 'resolution' and either I have to scan to see what group it's applying to, or
can't see what group it's applying to at all. (e.g. with/out -g)

Finally, if there are restrictions to a tag, could they also be listed in the exiftool output. (I
don't know that there are, according to the spec. I get that application implementations may
self-impose a limit. It's the spec that I'm interested in, here.] Currently if the data is binary,
that is well delineated (and an option to not list such tags would be welcome [, again, reducing
the number of lines under consideration in editing this output file.] I'm thinking, for example, if
a copyright tag has a maximum length, the length being shown in the output line, e.g.
copyright(15), would be useful.

- and if there are such limits, the man page explicitly indicating that exiftool will truncate
input, would be welcome. Or whatever it does do.

Referring back to my prefix above, exiftool allows me to start to grok the nature of the beast, and
"what's in there" so I can determine what is of interest to me or I care about. I haven't yet
gotten as far as understanding the ramifications of each tag line or its properties, but I'm
working on that.

Hopefully I've conveyed where I'm trying to get (self-batching exiftool). Am I thinking correctly /
is there a (better) way to travel this road?

Thanks for any thoughts.

exiftool -X image.jpg > out.xml
 [edit out.xml in your text editor]
 exiftool -tagsfromfile out.xml -iptc:all -xmp:all DIR

exiftool -listx -iptc:all -f

"it would be nice to see self-documented the
max. length of a tag (assuming exiftool truncates), and have documented that
exiftool does so, if it does."

"And hopefully you appreciate the intent behind
having the tag on each normal output line specify the full tag path."

"I'm guessing there's no mandated interpretations/properties for tags? e.g.
string length. We're all at the mercy of a particular application's
implementation? EXIF, XMP, IPTC, let alone custom tags, you're somewhat at
the mercy of the world. Some app. wanting to store a bit of non-standard
information important to it, inherently makes it incompatible with other
apps., causing ripples of disfunction. <sigh>"

"Thank you for the code sample, that by far gets me where I'm trying to go,
nicely. XML output isn't as human readable as the normal output, but it's a
whole lot better than an .mie output file, for text editing. Hopefully you
can appreciate the desire of an output format/file that can be used as an
input format/file."

"In your code sample, you use
exiftool -tagsfromfile out.xml -iptc:all -xmp:all DIR
What am I missing? If you've edited your file to contain only the tags you
want generally set on multiple files, why would you not use:
exiftool -tagsfromfile out.xml DIR"

"Thank you for: exiftool -listx -iptc:all -f

Is IPTC a super-set of all tags? Containing all Exif, XMP, etc., tags, or is
it only that the non-IPTC tags don't have such a dictionary associated with
them?"