Using sidecar files instead of image files

[Malus]

Hi!

I know that most people don't like them, but for performance and security reasons I prefer to read/write sidecar files (xmp) instead of my original RAW files (CR2 and NEF).

To do so I can type exiftool -tagsfromfile myfile.nef -all myfile.xmp at first and after that use the xmp file only. I 'm aware that this also adds some redundancy.

Is it possible to force exiftool to always accept the image file name as parameter but do all reading/writing with the sidecar file?

Can Exiftool notice if a sidecar file exists and create one automatically if it doesn't exist?

Or do I need to I need to use some kind of script as workaround?

I hope you catch the ideas behind this 

Malus

[Phil Harvey]

Hi Malus,

ExifTool only works on the files you tell it to, and it doesn't look for a sidecar file.  It is up to you to specify the sidecar file in the command if this is what you want to use.  But ExifTool does have the ability to create XMP files from scratch, so it will create one if it doesn't already exist when writing.

- Phil

[Malus]

Now I don't need to search trough ExifTool docs and can concentrate on creating my own script to do this.

Thank very much for the quick response, Malus

[Alan Clifford]

I do this for storing a datetimeoriginal with timezone and gps data for movies.  The script that creates my website for instance, pulls information out of the sidecar file.