ExifTool Forum

ExifTool => The "exiftool" Application => Topic started by: raldo on May 29, 2013, 05:32:29 PM

Title: Metadata file difference.
Post by: raldo on May 29, 2013, 05:32:29 PM
Can anyone point me to a way of diffing between two folders?

I'd like to verify the changes made by Picasa on files after saving converted WLPG data to files.
Title: Re: Metadata file difference.
Post by: Phil Harvey on May 29, 2013, 07:12:47 PM
I do this:

exiftool -a -G1 DIR1 > t1.txt
exiftool -a -G1 DIR2 > t2.txt
diff t1.txt t2.txt


Mac/Linux have a "diff" utility built-in, and I'm sure you can find one for Windows.

- Phil
Title: Re: Metadata file difference.
Post by: raldo on May 30, 2013, 07:47:17 AM
Thanks, Phil, that was what I was looking for!
Title: Re: Metadata file difference.
Post by: StarGeek on May 30, 2013, 03:32:19 PM
So did you figure out if Picasa was changing other metadata?

I had heard that Picasa might corrupt some metadata in the past and there were a few times when I hit a wrong key and Picasa added stuff, but I couldn't quite figure out what it had changed even though the file size was significantly different.  I never took time to do some serious testing, though.
Title: Re: Metadata file difference.
Post by: raldo on May 31, 2013, 05:26:29 PM
Quote from: StarGeek on May 30, 2013, 03:32:19 PM
So did you figure out if Picasa was changing other metadata?

That's a good question. The major issue, AFAIK, is with makernotes. Does anyone know exactly what tags they are? Those are what Geoff Coupe blogged about some time back. I'm still trying to decode some of the diffs...

One issue I'm having is with how Exiftool outputs the text when the above commands are executed. Currently, the tags are moved around. Maybe that's because they're ordered like that in the file. An ordered list (region, then tags) would make this job easier.


Title: Re: Metadata file difference.
Post by: raldo on June 01, 2013, 01:17:20 AM
I've added two attachments. They're ta dumps before and after picasa. (location and names changed)

It seems as if the [canon] section was bad before Picasa operated on the Image. But Picasa removed [Canon] altogether.
Title: Re: Metadata file difference.
Post by: Phil Harvey on June 01, 2013, 06:43:53 AM
Quote from: raldo on May 31, 2013, 05:26:29 PM
One issue I'm having is with how Exiftool outputs the text when the above commands are executed. Currently, the tags are moved around. Maybe that's because they're ordered like that in the file. An ordered list (region, then tags) would make this job easier.

Try adding the -sort option.

- Phil