running exiftool in Mac OS X

[Archive]

[Originally posted by pedroparamo on 2006-12-27 16:25:49-08]

Hi Phil,

I think I've got everything straight, but I can't seem to get exiftool to work.  I want to get the exif info of a file in a folder on my desktop "test/60512F-01.CR2".  When I run (from the terminal window, in the home directory)

exiftool -h -test/60512F-01.CR2

I get the following error

-bash: exiftool: command not found

Does it matter which directory I am in when I run exiftool?

Thanks.

Pedro

[Archive]

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2006-12-27 17:21:24-08]

Hi Pedro,

You need to either type the exiftool directory each time, ie)

Code:

~/Desktop/Image-ExifTool-6.66/exiftool  -h ~/Desktop/test/60512F-01.CR2

or add the exiftool directory to your PATH.  Since you are using bash, it can
be done like this:

Code:

echo "export PATH=${PATH}:/Users/USERNAME/Desktop/Image-ExifTool-6.66" >> ~/.bashrc

where "USERNAME" is your user name.  (Just cut and paste the above line as a command
in your terminal window, substituting USERNAME appropriately.)  Then you must open
a new Terminal window for the new PATH to take effect.

Note that both of these examples assume that
exiftool is in a directory called "Image-ExifTool-6.66".  If it is somewhere else
just change this to the proper directory name.

(Also, in these examples I have used "~", which is a shorthand for your home directory
"/Users/USERNAME" that can be used in commands and filenames.)

- Phil

[Archive]

[Originally posted by pedroparamo on 2006-12-27 20:02:04-08]

Phil,

Now I'm a bit confused and I'm not sure where my exiftool is located.  My home directory looks like this:

.                       .lpoptions              Documents
..                      .rnd                    Library
.ActivePerl             .sversionrc             Movies
.CFUserTextEncoding     Applications            Music
.DS_Store               CPA Archive             Pictures
.Trash                  CPA iView Cat Reader    Public
.Xauthority             Canon_60152F-01.CR2     Sites
.bash_history           Canon_60512f-01.CR2     exiftool
.cshrc                  Desktop                 ppm4.log

ExifTool-6.66 is located in my /usr/local/bin:

yubana147:~ home$ cd /usr/local/bin
yubana147:/usr/local/bin home$ ls -a
.                       fondu                   tobin
..                      frombin                 ufond
Image-ExifTool-6.66     ps2pdf
dfont2res               showfond

Does this look correct?

I added the exiftool directory to my PATH as per your instructions.  Should I now be able to run exiftool from my home directory by just typing commands?  Or do I need to type

exiftool -h ~/Desktop/test/60512F-01.CR2

Thanks for your patience.

Pedro

[Archive]

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2006-12-27 22:33:00-08]

Hi Pedro,

If you have the directory "/usr/local/bin/Image-ExifTool-6.66" in your
PATH, then you're good to go with command lines that begin with
just "exiftool".  So typing

Code:

exiftool -h ~/Desktop/test/60512F-01.CR2

should do the job.  FYI: You can verify your PATH by typing

Code:

printenv PATH

but it sounds like you should be good to go.

- Phil

[Archive]

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2006-12-27 23:57:58-08]

Here are a couple more command-line tricks that may be useful to you:

In OS X, you can use the "open FILE" command at the command line,
and it will do the same thing as if you had double-clicked on the file.
For example, typing this:

Code:

exiftool -h ~/Desktop/test/60512F-01.CR2 > out.html
open out.html

Creates an output HTML file called "out.html" from information in the
specified image, then opens "out.html" in your default browser (probably
Safari).

Another tip is that you can use the TAB key to avoid a lot of typing.  This
tip applies to any system, including OS X, Unix and Windows.  The TAB
will complete any unambiguous partial command or file name, so usually
it is only necessary to type the first few characters of each word. For instance,
in the above example, what I would actually type is more like this:

Code:

exift[TAB] -h ~/De[TAB]605[TAB] > out.html
open out.[TAB]

where "[TAB]" represents a press of the TAB key.

I sort of take all this stuff for granted now, but I thought it might be useful
to mention because you may not know about these tricks yet.

- Phil

[Archive]

[Originally posted by pedroparamo on 2007-01-03 16:47:32-08]

Thanks Phil.

Unfortunately I still can't get ExifTool to work.  I think that it's either in the wrong place and/or I did not add it to my PATH correctly.

My PATH is:

yubana147:~ home$ printenv PATH
/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin

In my home directory--the initial directory which I am in when I open a terminal session contains the following:

yubana147:~ home$ ls -a
.                       .lpoptions              Library
..                      .rnd                    Movies
.ActivePerl             .sversionrc             Music
.CFUserTextEncoding     Applications            Pictures
.DS_Store               CPA Archive             Public
.Trash                  CPA iView Cat Reader    Sites
.Xauthority             Canon_60152F-01.CR2     exiftool
.bash_history           Canon_60512f-01.CR2     ppm4.log
.bashrc                 Desktop
.cshrc                  Documents

I'm not sure what the exiftool file in my home directory is for?  If I change to my /usr/local/bin there is a folder called Image-ExifTool-6.66:

yubana147:~ home$ cd /usr/local/bin
yubana147:/usr/local/bin home$ ls -a
.                       fondu                   tobin
..                      frombin                 ufond
Image-ExifTool-6.66     ps2pdf
dfont2res               showfond
yubana147:/usr/local/bin home$

The Image-ExifTool-6.66 folder contains the following:

 yubana147:/usr/local/bin home$ cd /usr/local/bin/Image-ExifTool-6.66
yubana147:/usr/local/bin/Image-ExifTool-6.66 home$ ls -a
.                               exiftool
..                              html
Changes                         iptc2xmp.args
ExifTool_config                 lib
MANIFEST                        perl-Image-ExifTool.spec
META.yml                        t
Makefile.PL                     xmp2iptc.args
README

What is my ExifTool directory?  (To clarify, my USERNAME is the login name I use to login to my computer, right?)

yubana147:~ home$ exiftool -h ~/Desktop/test/60512F-01.CR2
-bash: exiftool: command not found
 
I tried adding the exiftool directory to my path using the directory
/Users/Peter/Desktop/Image-ExifTool-6.66

And that did not work.  I also tried using the directory
/Users/Peter/sbin/Image-ExifTool-6.66

But that didn't work either.

Can you tell what the problem is?

Thanks again for all your help and patience.

Pedro

[Archive]

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2007-01-03 17:14:37-08]

Hi Pedro,

Here are some answers for your questions:

1) The exiftool file in your home directory is extraneous and can be deleted.

2) Your USERNAME is the name you log in with, but my example was assuming
that you had ExifTool in your Desktop directory (/Users/USERNAME/Desktop).
But instead, your ExifTool directory is actually /usr/local/bin/Image-ExifTool-6.66

To set your PATH to include this directory, cut and paste the following in a Terminal
window:

Code:

echo "export PATH=${PATH}:/usr/local/bin/Image-ExifTool-6.66" >> ~/.bashrc

then open a new terminal window.  Your PATH (given by "printenv PATH") should then
be:

Code:

/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin/Image-ExifTool-6.66

So the last entry in your path is "/usr/local/bin/Image-ExifTool-6.66".  This is the
directory that contains "exiftool" and it's libraries.  If this works, then you should be
able to run exiftool by just typing "exiftool".

If you have any more questions, please email me (philharvey66 at gmail.com).
I don't think it would be useful for others to continue this discussion in the forum.

Thanks.

- Phil