subsets of ExifTool?

[Archive]

[Originally posted by richardhb on 2010-03-19 07:30:18.599682-07]

Hi ExifTool is great, but I only need to read the keywords and the thumbnail (if any), and write keywords. Is there anything like a subset of the tools?

tia

rhb

[Archive]

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2010-03-19 08:10:15.748694-07]

The answer is no, but why do you want a subset?
The only thing I can imagine is that you can't spare
the 8 MB of hard disk space required to install the
full exiftool.

- Phil

[Archive]

[Originally posted by richardhb on 2010-03-19 09:00:44.36653-07]

I guess you're right.
But.

What I'm really concerned about is that writing lists of keywords to sets of files (this is being done on Mac---10.6) seems slow, and my powers-that-be insist that the _original files be moved to the trash (which doesn't help with the speed) maybe I'll have to bite the bullet and get into the perl myself (sigh)

Thanks

It is a great set of routines.

rhb

[Archive]

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2010-03-19 09:06:18.171344-07]

Use the -overwrite_original option to avoid the "_original"
copies.  To speed things up, make sure your writing is all done in
a single operation (ie. avoid copying tags and using the -if
option because these will cause the file to be accessed twice,
once for reading and then again for writing).

- Phil

[Archive]

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2010-03-19 09:07:47.022296-07]

Oh yes, and write as many files as you can at once to avoid
to overhead of loading exiftool for each file.

- Phil

[Archive]

[Originally posted by richardhb on 2010-03-19 10:30:28.132087-07]

Thanks, those are a couple of good suggestions.

I assume you can just list the files one after another with spaces between?

How many files can it handle like that?

[Archive]

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2010-03-19 10:41:08.634203-07]

I have processed many thousands of files in a single command.
Although I usually specify a directory name, the individual file
names may be specified if necessary.  ExifTool has no limits on the
number of files, and I know of no command-line length limitation
in Mac OS (unlike Windows).

- Phil

[Archive]

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2010-03-19 10:57:53.652069-07]

I forgot to answer your question about spaces between the filenames:

Yes, each filename may be a separate argument on the command
line with spaces between, or on a separate line in an argument
file for use with the -@ option.

- Phil

[Archive]

[Originally posted by richardhb on 2010-03-22 04:17:41.086959-07]

Thanks, all this is great.

One other thing, is it possible to trap for errors doing multiples? I didn't see anything in the site about it.

I really appreciate all your help with this

rhb

[Archive]

[Originally posted by exiftool on 2010-03-22 04:30:32.236739-07]

I don't understand exactly what you mean by "trap for errors".
If there is an error processing a file exiftool will send a
message to STDERR, which you can capture an use to
determine which files weren't processed and why.

- Phil

[Archive]

[Originally posted by richardhb on 2010-03-22 08:44:35.25596-07]

Phil,

      Actually it looks as though you did exactly understand it, in spite of me :-)

I've got all of it working now

Thanks for all your help

rhb