Unintentionally added metadata fields

[banana123]

Hi,
when trying to add date fields to an image without them, i noticed exiftool adds more fields i didnt mean to add.
In the attached picture you can see all the added fields,
I added 'EXIF:DateTimeOriginal', 'EXIF:CreateDate', "EXIF:ModifyDate",
the rest of the fields added by exiftool..
Any good reason?
Thanks!

[StarGeek]

From the EXIF Tags page

Mandatory tags (indicated by a colon after the Writable type) may be added automatically with default values when creating a new IFD, and the IFD is removed automatically when deleting tags if only default-valued mandatory tags remain.

Certain tags are required by the EXIF spec and exiftool will add them automatically. You can suppress these tags by adding the -api NoMandatory option and making sure you are using exiftool Version 12.71 (Dec. 21, 2023) or higher.

[banana123]

From the EXIF Tags page

Mandatory tags (indicated by a colon after the Writable type) may be added automatically with default values when creating a new IFD, and the IFD is removed automatically when deleting tags if only default-valued mandatory tags remain.

Certain tags are required by the EXIF spec and exiftool will add them automatically. You can suppress these tags by adding the -api NoMandatory option and making sure you are using exiftool Version 12.71 (Dec. 21, 2023) or higher.

Great, thanks!!
Do you support 'exiftool' python package (PyExifTool)?
Will it work with it?

[Phil Harvey]

PyExifTool is supported by a different author, however even if it doesn't support additional command-line options, you should be able to set API options in an ExifTool config file.

- Phil

[banana123]

Tried to look on the example config file in the exiftool dir,
i only want to add the -api noMandatory,
could you please give me an example config file with that line?

[StarGeek]

Near the bottom of the example config is the
# Specify default ExifTool API options
section.  If all you need is to add -api NoMandatory option, then your config file would look like this

Code Select Expand

# Specify default ExifTool API options
# (see the Options function documentation for available options)
%Image::ExifTool::UserDefined::Options = (
    NoMandatory => 1,
);
If you already have a more complete config file, you would just add the middle line to the API options section.

But with PYExiftool, you would add it like any other parameters.  Using a couple of examples from the PyExiftool docs, it would probably be

Code Select Expand

execute("-DateTimeOriginal=2021:01:02 03:04:05", "-api","NoMandatory=1", "rose.jpg")or

Code Select Expand

execute(*["-api","NoMandatory=1","-P", "-DateTimeOriginal=2021:01:02 03:04:05", "-MakerNotes=", "spaces in filename.jpg"])
I don't know Python, so I can't be 100% sure, but it looks like it's basically setting each parameter separately, as would be needed for use with the -stay_open option, which is what the wrapper uses. Also see FAQ #29, "My options don't work in a -@ ARGFILE".

[banana123]

That worked great,
I used the "-api", "NoMandatory=1" inside the execute args list

Thanks!