How to default command line options with .ExifTool_config?

[Jan.Steinman]

I've been through the documents (https://exiftool.org/config.html, https://exiftool.org/ExifTool.html#Options), and I still don't understand how to change command line options via the .ExifTool_config file.

Specifically, I want -ignoreMinorErrors, -overwrite_original_in_place†, -preserve, and -recurse turned on as the default.

Is this possible? Or should I just make a shell alias with those options enabled?

Thanks!

† I use hard links a lot, so I need to make sure that exifTool doesn't break those links.

[StarGeek]

The options listed under Options can be set as shown at the bottom of the example config file.  As far as I can recall, other command line options don't have a way to set as default, though Phil may correct me on that.

From your list, it looks like only IgnoreMinorErrors can be set by the config file.  You would do so like this

Code Select Expand

%Image::ExifTool::UserDefined::Options = (
    IgnoreMinorErrors=> 1,
);
Edit: Previous post from Phil, most likely applies to your other options as well

Unfortunately -overwrite_original is an application-level option only.  It doesn't have an equivalent API option that you can set via the config file.

[Phil Harvey]

As far as I can recall, other command line options don't have a way to set as default

Correct.

But I'll look into adding this capability to the config file.

- Phil

[Phil Harvey]

It turns out that this was easy to implement.  This feature will appear in version 12.78, allowing you to set user-defined command-line arguments like this in the config file:

Code Select Expand

# Specify default exiftool command-line arguments
# (inserted before all other options except -config)
@Image::ExifTool::UserDefined::Arguments = (
'-echo', '**** Using my default arguments ****',
'-ignoreMinorErrors',
'-overwrite_original_in_place',
'-preserve',
'-recurse',
);
Note that these user-defined arguments will be inserted first on the command line (but after the -config option if used), which means that they will only apply to the first execute'd command if the -execute option is used.  Edit: I thought it made more sense to apply to all execute'd commands, so I have changed it to work this way instead.

Personally, I'm going to use this new feature to ignore files with names starting with ".":

Code Select Expand

@Image::ExifTool::UserDefined::Arguments = (
'-i', 'HIDDEN',
);
- Phil