Search through all fields

[hc]

Hi 
 
Trying to find way to search through all fields of all groups. 
Actually first idea was to use OS' search tool with "file contents" option, but it ignores images. 
So I tested 

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$ exiftool -ImageDescription IMG_20230612_171812_HDR.jpg 
Image Description               : red oak
and

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$ exiftool -if '$ImageDescription =~ /(bzzzz|Oak)/i' -p '$directory/$filename' IMG_20230612_171812_HDR.jpg 
./IMG_20230612_171812_HDR.jpg
That is one single field.  Is it possible to do something like this:

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$ exiftool -if '$all:all =~ /(bzzzz|Oak)/i' -p '$directory/$filename' .

[StarGeek]

No, I don't believe there's a way to simply do this.

The best that I can think of is to create a shortcut tag that contains the most likely fields you are going to search through.  For example, I have a shortcut called "CommonStringTags" which contains 34 of the most common simple string tags I deal with.  I can use that to check if any of those tags are equal to a specific value.

Example:

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C:\>exiftool -G1 -a -s -ImageDescription y:\!temp\Test4.jpg
[IFD0]          ImageDescription                : red oak

C:\>exiftool -G1 -a -s -if "$CommonStringTags=~/OAK/i" -filename y:\!temp\Test4.jpg
[System]        FileName                        : Test4.jpg

C:\>exiftool -P -overwrite_original -ImageDescription=test y:\!temp\Test4.jpg
    1 image files updated

C:\>exiftool -G1 -a -s -if "$CommonStringTags=~/OAK/i" -filename y:\!temp\Test4.jpg
    1 files failed condition
A simplified version added to the example config file would look like this

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# Shortcut tags are used when extracting information to simplify
# commonly used commands.  They can be used to represent groups
# of tags, or to provide an alias for a tag name.
%Image::ExifTool::UserDefined::Shortcuts = (
    MyShortcut => ['exif:createdate','exposuretime','aperture'],
    MyAlias => 'FocalLengthIn35mmFormat',
    CommonStringTags => ['ImageDescription','Description','Caption-Abstract'],
);

[Phil Harvey]

Interesting question.

The API Filter option acts on all tags, so you could set a UserParam in the filter and test this in the -if statement:

exiftool -api filter='/(bzzzz|Oak)/i and $self->Options(UserParam=>"MyVar=1")' -if '$myvar' -p '$directory/$filename' -r DIR

This seems to work when I test it here.

- Phil

[StarGeek]

It doesn't seem to work here

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C:\>exiftool -G1 -a -s -ImageDescription  y:\!temp\Test3.jpg y:\!temp\Test4.jpg
======== y:/!temp/Test3.jpg
[IFD0]          ImageDescription                : red oak
======== y:/!temp/Test4.jpg
[IFD0]          ImageDescription                : something else
    2 image files read

C:\>exiftool -api filter="/(bzzzz|Oak)/i and $self->Options(UserParam=>'MyVar=1')" -if "$myvar" -ImageDescription  y:\!temp\Test3.jpg y:\!temp\Test4.jpg
======== y:/!temp/Test3.jpg
Image Description               : red oak
======== y:/!temp/Test4.jpg
Image Description               : something else
    2 image files read

[Phil Harvey]

Is there any other metadata in Test4.jpg that matches "bzzzz" or "oak" ?

- Phil

[StarGeek]

I always clear the data with -All= when testing.  I ran it again, using a non-existent config file to remove the possibility of one of my user-defined tags having a matching entry.

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C:\>exiftool -P -overwrite_original -all= -ImageDescription="red oak" y:\!temp\Test3.jpg
    1 image files updated

C:\>exiftool -P -overwrite_original -all= -ImageDescription="something else" y:\!temp\Test4.jpg
    1 image files updated

C:\>exiftool -G1 -a -s -ImageDescription  y:\!temp\Test3.jpg y:\!temp\Test4.jpg
======== y:/!temp/Test3.jpg
[IFD0]          ImageDescription                : red oak
======== y:/!temp/Test4.jpg
[IFD0]          ImageDescription                : something else
    2 image files read

C:\>exiftool -config null -G1 -a -s y:\!temp\Test3.jpg y:\!temp\Test4.jpg
Config file not found
======== y:/!temp/Test3.jpg
[ExifTool]      ExifToolVersion                 : 12.63
[System]        FileName                        : Test3.jpg
[System]        Directory                       : y:/!temp
[System]        FileSize                        : 661 kB
[System]        FileModifyDate                  : 2023:03:02 12:00:00-08:00
[System]        FileAccessDate                  : 2023:06:15 08:23:58-07:00
[System]        FileCreateDate                  : 2023:03:02 12:00:00-08:00
[System]        FilePermissions                 : -rw-rw-rw-
[File]          FileType                        : JPEG
[File]          FileTypeExtension               : jpg
[File]          MIMEType                        : image/jpeg
[File]          ExifByteOrder                   : Big-endian (Motorola, MM)
[File]          ImageWidth                      : 1920
[File]          ImageHeight                     : 1080
[File]          EncodingProcess                 : Baseline DCT, Huffman coding
[File]          BitsPerSample                   : 8
[File]          ColorComponents                 : 3
[File]          YCbCrSubSampling                : YCbCr4:2:0 (2 2)
[IFD0]          ImageDescription                : red oak
[IFD0]          XResolution                     : 72
[IFD0]          YResolution                     : 72
[IFD0]          ResolutionUnit                  : inches
[IFD0]          YCbCrPositioning                : Centered
[Composite]     ImageSize                       : 1920x1080
[Composite]     Megapixels                      : 2.1
======== y:/!temp/Test4.jpg
[ExifTool]      ExifToolVersion                 : 12.63
[System]        FileName                        : Test4.jpg
[System]        Directory                       : y:/!temp
[System]        FileSize                        : 446 kB
[System]        FileModifyDate                  : 2023:06:01 14:22:50-07:00
[System]        FileAccessDate                  : 2023:06:15 08:24:13-07:00
[System]        FileCreateDate                  : 2023:04:16 12:00:00-07:00
[System]        FilePermissions                 : -rw-rw-rw-
[File]          FileType                        : JPEG
[File]          FileTypeExtension               : jpg
[File]          MIMEType                        : image/jpeg
[File]          ExifByteOrder                   : Big-endian (Motorola, MM)
[File]          ImageWidth                      : 1749
[File]          ImageHeight                     : 1205
[File]          EncodingProcess                 : Baseline DCT, Huffman coding
[File]          BitsPerSample                   : 8
[File]          ColorComponents                 : 3
[File]          YCbCrSubSampling                : YCbCr4:2:0 (2 2)
[IFD0]          ImageDescription                : something else
[IFD0]          XResolution                     : 72
[IFD0]          YResolution                     : 72
[IFD0]          ResolutionUnit                  : inches
[IFD0]          YCbCrPositioning                : Centered
[Composite]     ImageSize                       : 1749x1205
[Composite]     Megapixels                      : 2.1
    2 image files read

C:\>exiftool -config null -api filter="/(bzzzz|Oak)/i and $self->Options(UserParam=>'MyVar=1')" -if "$myvar" -ImageDescription  y:\!temp\Test3.jpg y:\!temp\Test4.jpg
Config file not found
======== y:/!temp/Test3.jpg
Image Description               : red oak
======== y:/!temp/Test4.jpg
Image Description               : something else
    2 image files read

[Phil Harvey]

Thanks StarGeek.  I get the same result with your example commands.

Oh, silly me.  I previously just tested it on 1 file, but with multiple files the UserParam isn't getting reset for the next file.

I thought I was smart by using a UserParam, but I should have just set an Exiftool member variable (which gets reset after each file if it contains a lower-case letter).  The following command should work, but (unfortunately) it now relies on this undocumented ExifTool feature.

exiftool -config "" -api filter='/(bzzzz|Oak)/i and $$self{MyVar}=1' -if '$$self{MyVar}' -p '$directory/$filename' -r DIR

- Phil

P.S. -config "" defeats the config file and avoids the warning message.