Feature Request: Large File Support by default

[unkn0wn]

In Linux Ubuntu 24.04 by using a command like

Code Select Expand

exiftool -All= test.mp4 results in Error: End of processing at large atom (LargeFileSupport not enabled) if the file is bigger than 4 Gigabyte.

Using a command like

Code Select Expand

exiftool -api largefilesupport=1 -All= test.mp4 solves the problem. But i would like exiftool to support big files by default, especially when working with reg. expressions. and big amounts of datafiles    All people i know using exiftool do not know why it is not a default setting.

[StarGeek]

See this post.

You can set it to be always on using the Options section of an .exiftool_config file. See the example.config file and add a line to the Options section

Code Select Expand

     LargeFileSupport => 1,
Edit: I actually gave an example in the post directly above the one I linked above.

[Phil Harvey]

I think there have been enough people requesting this change, so...

ExifTool 12.88 will make LargeFileSupport 2 by default, and issue a warning when a large atom is encountered.  Set this to 1 to avoid the warning.  LargeFileSupport settings of 0 and 1 will behave the same as older versions.

- Phil

[wywh]

ExifTool 12.88 will make LargeFileSupport 2 by default, and issue a warning when a large atom is encountered.  Set this to 1 to avoid the warning.  LargeFileSupport settings of 0 and 1 will behave the same as older versions.

In exiftool 13.21 -api LargeFileSupport=1 seems to be the default which successfully writes large movies (here 2 is listed as the default, though). Leaving -api LargeFileSupport OFF behaves the same so I might drop -api LargeFileSupport off from now on. At least in my setup it works that way. Do older OSs behave differently?

Setting 2 issues a warning (7.5 GB movie):

Code Select Expand

exiftool -m -P -overwrite_original -api LargeFileSupport=2 -Keys:Description='Description' movie.mp4
Warning: Processing large atom (LargeFileSupport is 2) - movie.mp4
    1 image files updated
Setting 0 works AFAIR like in the old versions:

Code Select Expand

exiftool -m -P -overwrite_original -api LargeFileSupport=0 -Keys:Description='Description' movie.mp4
Error: End of processing at large atom (LargeFileSupport not enabled) - movie.mp4
    0 image files updated
    1 files weren't updated due to errors
- Matti

[Phil Harvey]

Good point.  1 is the current default.  I'll update the documentation accordingly.

I think I meant to change it to 2, but it got released with 1 as default.  The change log does say 1.

- Phil