Hi there
I am "sorting" a source directory hierarchy into a destination date-ordered hierarchy but, as can happen, the source hierarchy contains duplicate files. Consequently, when these files are copied, I get an (expected) error to the console, but the command continues anyway.
Error: './f:32.jpg' already exists - /Volumes/Joanna C/DCIM/Cours/Exposition/f:32.jpg
Is there any way to inhibit this console message?
Error messages can not be silenced. You need to redirect the STDOUT and STDERR in your app to capture these.
Take a look at my C++ wrapper (http://owl.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/cpp_exiftool/) for an example of how this is done in C++.
- Phil
Aaarrgghhhhh!!!!
I haven't touched C++ in anger for over 25 years ;D
Nevertheless, I did find the Swift equivalent, thanks to your code.
The only problem I have now is trying to get STDOUT and STDERR to respond after I've finished intercepting them.
Although it is quite nice to have an empty console display ::)
Rather than suppress the error messages, is there a switch that will automatically add a version number to the file name?
I tried /Users/joannacarter/Pictures/%Y/%m/%d/%%f%%c in exiftool -r -ext JPG -o . '-Directory<DateTimeOriginal' -d /Users/joannacarter/Pictures/%Y/%m/%d /Volumes/Joanna\ C/DCIM/ but that really messed things up :o
??? ???
The %c is what you want. You add it to the format string when setting the FileName.
- Phil
To be clear, you can't use it with -Directory to work properly, you have to use -Filename and set the full filename, including the extension .%e or %E
Hmmm. I still seem to be missing something. I am still getting errors like:
Error: './JNA_0001.jpg' already exists - /Volumes/Joanna C/DCIM/Projections/2018/juin/JNA_0001.jpgHere is the command line I am creating:
exiftool -preserve -extension jpg -recurse -ignoreMinorErrors -q -q -extension jpg -out . -FileName<DateTimeOriginal -d /Users/joannacarter/Pictures/%Y/%m/%d/%%f%%-c.%%e /Volumes/Joanna C/DCIM/And there is only ever one file with the original name
Might this have something to do with this from the -w docs?
QuoteThis same FMT syntax is used with the -o and -TagsFromFile options, although %c is only valid for output file names
You need to add quotes around "-FileName<DateTimeOriginal".
- Phil
???
Unless I start playing around with %c, everything else works fine, even without the quotes. Don't forget this is not being typed into the terminal.
exiftool -preserve -extension jpg -recurse -ignoreMinorErrors -q -q -extension jpg -out . -FileName<DateTimeOriginal -d /Users/joannacarter/Pictures/%Y/%m/%d/%%f.%%le /Volumes/Joanna C/DCIM/ works fine, apart from kicking up:
Error: './f:32.jpg' already exists - /Volumes/Joanna C/DCIM/Cours/Exposition/f:32.jpg
However, if I change the command in the hope of avoiding the "already exists" errors by appending a "copy number":
exiftool -preserve -extension jpg -recurse -ignoreMinorErrors -q -q -extension jpg -out . -FileName<DateTimeOriginal -d /Users/joannacarter/Pictures/%Y/%m/%d/%%f%%-c.%%le /Volumes/Joanna C/DCIM/
... nothing changes. The file names are all exactly the same as without the %%-c and the errors are still produced.
Try it from the command line. I did and it worked as expected. The error is somehow in your running of the command from Swift.
- Phil
Sorry Phil but I'm not getting the same results here.
Copying the command from my code to Terminal, surrounding -FileName<DateTimeOriginal with single quotes and escaping the space in the source directory gives me:
exiftool -preserve -extension jpg -recurse -ignoreMinorErrors -q -q -extension jpg -out . '-FileName<DateTimeOriginal' -d /Users/joannacarter/Pictures/%Y/%m/%d/%%f%%-c.%%le /Volumes/Joanna\ C/DCIM/
Running that gives me exactly the same "already exists" errors and lack of copy numbers as running it from my app :-[
I must clarify that, apart from that, the command does exactly what I want it to do, whether from the Terminal or from my app.
When you are trying it, does your source hierarchy contain duplicate files in different sub-directories?
> exiftool a.jpg -datetimeoriginal
Date/Time Original : 2018:08:27 07:31:40
> exiftool -preserve -extension jpg -recurse -ignoreMinorErrors -q -q -extension jpg -out . '-FileName<DateTimeOriginal' -d tmp/Pictures/%Y/%m/%d/%%f%%-c.%%le -v a.jpg
======== a.jpg
Setting new values from a.jpg
'a.jpg' --> 'tmp/Pictures/2018/08/27/a.jpg'
Created directory tmp/Pictures
Created directory tmp/Pictures/2018
Created directory tmp/Pictures/2018/08
Created directory tmp/Pictures/2018/08/27
Rewriting a.jpg...
Nothing changed in a.jpg
> exiftool -preserve -extension jpg -recurse -ignoreMinorErrors -q -q -extension jpg -out . '-FileName<DateTimeOriginal' -d tmp/Pictures/%Y/%m/%d/%%f%%-c.%%le -v a.jpg
======== a.jpg
Setting new values from a.jpg
'a.jpg' --> 'tmp/Pictures/2018/08/27/a-1.jpg'
Rewriting a.jpg...
Nothing changed in a.jpg
Note that the second time I ran the command it added "-1" to the file name.
Can you replicate this?
If I cd to the source directory, and try your first command
/Users/joannacarter/Développement/PhotoBrowser/PhotoBrowser/Resources/exif/exiftool a.jpg -datetimeoriginal
I get absolutely nothing, not even an error.
If I then copy your "full" command and simply change the destination directory:
/Users/joannacarter/Développement/PhotoBrowser/PhotoBrowser/Resources/exif/exiftool -preserve -extension jpg -recurse -ignoreMinorErrors -q -q -extension jpg -out . '-FileName<DateTimeOriginal' -d /Users/joannacarter/Pictures/destination/%Y/%m/%d/%%f%%-c.%%le -v a.jpg
... I get the following output:
======== a.jpg
Setting new values from a.jpg
Error: './a.jpg' already exists - a.jpg
Directory structure is:
/Users/
-joannacarter/
--Pictures/
---source/ (cd to here before running command
---destination/
Anything to do with not having ExifTool installed in its default location, only in my app's project?
Quote from: Joanna Carter on August 27, 2018, 11:46:09 AM
If I cd to the source directory, and try your first command
I get absolutely nothing, not even an error.
OK. That's the problem. The
%c only applies to the DateTimeOriginal value. If there is no DateTimeOriginal, then
'-FileName<DateTimeOriginal' does nothing and the
%c in the date/time string isn't used. What did you intend to happen to files without a DateTimeOriginal?
- Phil
I suppose I expected all files to have a DateTimeOriginal :-\
OK. Now I get it ::)
When I try "the" command on files that do have a DateTimeOriginal, everything is wonderful - the world is a lovely place 8)
So, obviously (?), if a file doesn't have DateTimeOriginal, it doesn't get processed at all and I get that file exists error.
The question is, having examined the EXIF in a few of those files and found they have been essentially stripped bare, is there anything I can do to conditionally fall back to the Finder date created?
Or do I just say that only files with DateTimeOriginal can be processed, or can I do a single command to detect that and set it to the Finder date/time?
Questions, questions, questions - why do I always end up doing stuff that pushes the boundaries? :P ::)
And the answer is, I can use the FileCreateDate tag!!!
This seems to be the same as DateTimeOriginal for RAW files, which is the primary target of this command for what I want to do.
Finally, I think we can mark this issue as solved. Many thanks for all your help.
Great. But missing dates are a common problem, and FileCreateDate isn't always reliable, so I would suggest using it only as a fallback. ie) doing this:
exiftool ... '-FileName<FileCreateDate' '-FileName<DateTimeOriginal' ...
Then DateTimeOriginal will get used if it exists, otherwise it will use FileCreateDate.
- Phil
Interesting. So, bearing in mind the "arrow" between the date and the "directory/fileName" is from right to left, therefore the "priority" flows from right to left?
I think I'm finally getting the hang of this 8)
So, finally, here's how to create that command in my Swift wrapper:
public static func copyAndOrganiseFilesByDate(from sourceURL: URL, to destinationURL: URL) throws
{
let arguments: [Argument] = [.preserveFileModificationDateTime,
.recurse,
.ignoreMinorErrors,
.quietWarnings,
.extension("jpg", exclude: false),
.outputFlag,
.currentDirectory,
.fileNameFromTag(System.fileCreateDate),
.fileNameFromTag(Exif.dateTimeOriginal),
.dateFormatFlag,
.fileNameWithFormat(url: destinationURL, dateFormatSpecifiers: [.year, .month, .day], fileNameFormatSpecifiers: [.fileName, .copyNumber, .lowercaseExtension]),
.directory(sourceURL)]
do
{
try execute(with: arguments)
}
catch
{
throw Error.couldNotCopyAndOrganiseFiles
}
}
With seems like a lot of typing but, with code completion, it's barely more than the command line ;D
Quote from: Joanna Carter on August 27, 2018, 04:51:12 PM
Interesting. So, bearing in mind the "arrow" between the date and the "directory/fileName" is from right to left, therefore the "priority" flows from right to left?
Not quite. In general, arguments are evaluated left to right (https://exiftool.org/faq.html#Q22), which does give the right argument priority, but the "arrow" may go either way:
"-FileName<FileCreateDate" is the same as
"-FileCreateDate>FileName"- Phil
When I get an 'already exists' error, is there a way to move the duplicate file to a specified directory?
No. The thing to do is add some form of "%c" when writing the file name so that the duplicate gets a number added to it (I like "%-c" personally, to put a "-" before the number).
Then all the files will get written and you can figure out what to do with the duplicates afterwards.
- Phil