Force output of every EXIF field, values or not?

[ChopOMatic]

Hi Phil,

Is it possible to force output of every EXIF field exiftool is capable of extracting, even if some of the files being processed don't have values for every field?

I'm doing a comparison of two batches of images. A lot of them have X number of populated exif fields, while others have Y populated fields. I'd rather end up with a CSV that has every single EXIF field.

Thanks!

[ChopOMatic]

BTW, I should've said "every metadata field exiftool is capable of extracting" and not just EXIF. 

[Hayo Baan]

You an force exiftool to output all specified tags, even if they don't exist, with the -f option. This option, however, will not output all possible tags (that would be an immense number...), just the ones you specified. I suggest you create a list of tags you'd like to see and work with that. You can list the tags exiftool is capable of extracting with the various list options.

Hope this helps,
Hayo

[Phil Harvey]

The number of pre-defined tags is currently around 19000, but ExifTool also extracts tags that are not pre-defined from some metadata types.  So it is not possible to do what you ask.

- Phil