Does ExifTool have the equivalent of a REM command-line option?

Started by mpegleg, June 18, 2019, 02:41:18 AM

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mpegleg

May sound weird I know. Why would you need an ExifTool "Do Nothing" "NO OP" "NULL" command?

Well,... I love using ExifMixer and it allows one to spread the ExifTool command-line options out on separate lines, like thus:


-m
-r
-overwrite_original
-command="Whatever you want it to be"



so...

It would make it easy for me to test new options, by using some kind of REM command (like in a Windows batch file) and allow commenting the commands out temporarily.

ie. I could have a "selected parameter set" (That's what ExifMixer calls the chain of saved commands)

in a set such as:


-m
-r
-overwrite_original
-command="Whatever you want it to be"
REM  the following command probably won't be executed, but I do so wish... :/
-makeme "a cup of coffee"
REM  No. Didn't think so :(
REM  -a_really_fabulous_tag="Testing 1 2 3"


Please excuse my lighthearted example, but it would seriously be very useful to me.

Hmmm. Not knowing anything about Perl, I just Googled "Perl comment"

Would this work?: /*

I'm going to try now...
EDIT: Nope  :'( Bad idea! Kids, don't try that at home. That caused havoc! :o

ps. If that's not possible to implement, I'll ask the author of ExifMixer if he could perhaps implement it in his GUI.
After all, it's probably more applicable to have the GUI parse the REM type command.

Just thought I'd ask. :)
OS: Windows 11 Pro

mpegleg

Hmmm. I will need confirmation on this, but I "think" I found the answer?! At least it seems to work.

Use -#This is a test   <-- with no space after the -#

The commands after the -# seemed to be completely ignored, and it "seemed" to do nothing. No error messages, no abuse, no alarm bells, no BSODs, etc. I guess that's a positive sign. :-\

All the other commands in the parameter set worked as expected.
OS: Windows 11 Pro

Hayo Baan

The hash is indeed the comment character (in Perl). However, as you found, everything after it is ignored.

Looking at your post, I think you should look into using an argument file (see the -@ option); that will allow you to place your commands and arguments on separate lines and include comments as well!
Hayo Baan – Photography
Web: www.hayobaan.nl

mpegleg

Thanks Hayo. That's going to be very useful.

--------------------
...an argument file.
OK. But isn't that pretty much what ExifMixer is attempting to do anyway, with it's saved parameter and preset collections? I don't know if you've ever used it, but it seems to me that it might be attempting to duplicate that in a simpler more graphic way, with comments.
OS: Windows 11 Pro

Hayo Baan

Had a quick look at the description of exifmixer and as far as I can tell it really is just a GUI for specifying/building the exiftool command-line args. It doesn't seem to use an arg file (the actual command run is shown verbatim). The comments are just some additional thing the tool allows to be set (it's not included in the exiftool command). Using an arg file will actually give you more freedom than that since you can mix commands with comments; no need to keep the separated.
Hayo Baan – Photography
Web: www.hayobaan.nl

mpegleg

OK. You've got me intrigued. I'll take a look at the arg file concept.

It may possibly be more than I'll ever need, as I'm pretty much set now. My Exif needs are very basic. I just needed a way of labelling my photos with the Exif data to caption them, and then stream and display them on the big TV screen. That's been fully accomplished now, thanks to all you guys. I'm very happy and grateful.

-Paul :)

-------------------------------------------------------
Although I can understand a "little" of this:

lol. I had to laugh (or was that cry and groan) when I read this: Not very N00b friendly :P

It's in Phil's documentation, -z (-zip):

Try reading this out loud "fast" as though you were reading it to you Mum or Dad (not that you would, but)...:

-z (-zip)
When reading, causes information to be extracted from .gz and .bz2 compressed images (only one image per archive; requires gzip and bzip2 to be available). When writing, causes compressed information to be written if supported by the metadata format (eg. compressed textual metadata in PNG), disables the recommended padding in embedded XMP (saving 2424 bytes when writing XMP in a file), and writes XMP in shorthand format -- the equivalent of setting the API Compress, Compact and XMPShorthand options to 1.

OMG. *falls dead*

I think there also needs to be a n00b friendly "for Dummies" documentation page created that strips out all the more-in-depth techo stuff like this, and simplifies it to just the basics. Any n00b reading that would quickly exit the page; run & lie down; turn on Netflix, and cry. :'( I did.

ps. That was in jest of course, although it would be very useful for beginners, like me, who are just getting into the ExifTool world, and aren't well versed in Perl, etc..
OS: Windows 11 Pro

Hayo Baan

Quote from: mpegleg on June 18, 2019, 07:39:06 AM
OK. You've got me intrigued. I'll take a look at the arg file concept.

It may possibly be more than I'll ever need, as I'm pretty much set now. My Exif needs are very basic. I just needed a way of labelling my photos with the Exif data to caption them, and then stream and display them on the big TV screen. That's been fully accomplished now, thanks to all you guys. I'm very happy and grateful.

The arg file concept itself isn't that hard (I think); look at it as just a text file containing the things you'd otherwise have put on the command-line (but now on separate lines).

Quote from: mpegleg on June 18, 2019, 07:39:06 AM
Although I can understand a "little" of this:

lol. I had to laugh (or was that cry and groan) when I read this: Not very N00b friendly :P

It's in Phil's documentation, just above the -@ ARGFILE info:

Try reading this out loud "fast" as though you were reading it to you Mum or Dad (not that you would, but)...:

-z (-zip)
When reading, causes information to be extracted from .gz and .bz2 compressed images (only one image per archive; requires gzip and bzip2 to be available). When writing, causes compressed information to be written if supported by the metadata format (eg. compressed textual metadata in PNG), disables the recommended padding in embedded XMP (saving 2424 bytes when writing XMP in a file), and writes XMP in shorthand format -- the equivalent of setting the API Compress, Compact and XMPShorthand options to 1.

OMG. *falls dead*

I think there also needs to be a n00b friendly "for Dummies" documentation page created that strips out all the more-in-depth techo stuff like this, and simplifies it to just the basics. Any n00b reading that would quickly exit the page; run & lie down; turn on Netflix, and cry. :'( I did.

Ha ha, yeah, some of the stuff that's possible is not for the inexperienced scripters amongst us ;)
Hayo Baan – Photography
Web: www.hayobaan.nl

mpegleg

Yes, but in all seriousness you do get my point don't you?. Us n00bs also have to look and read through that techo stuff just to get to the simple stuff that many like myself need.

Yet that's why most of us n00bs give up reading that, and end up asking basic questions on the forum, (in other words, to get it simplified down) only to be referenced back to that very same highly technical doco page.

It'd be great to have an "ExifTool for Dummies" doco page too, with many, many basic "example-use" commands clearly listed. Once you'd mastered that, you'd then move onto the "ExifTool for Geeks" doco page. :P

Anyway... it's just a suggestion. I'm sure there are many creative photographers out there who are not programmers, yet they would love to master the use of such a powerful tool as ExifTool, yet are put off straight away by the seemingly vast complexities involved it reading through the entire syntax documentation guide.


EDIT:
Hmmm. Upon re-reading that, that seemed like a bit of a rant. Sorry. It wasn't meant to be. :)

I'm more than happy having learnt what I have so far, (little that it is), but wow... it sure was a tough uphill ride.


EDIT:
Ooooh. So there already is an ExifTool for Dummies page. Great!

https://exiftool.org/dummies.html

Guess where I'm off to....



Gosh. That. was er, how do I say politely... quite... "brief" :-\  Obviously still very much a "work in progress".
OS: Windows 11 Pro

StarGeek

Quote from: mpegleg on June 18, 2019, 08:26:47 AM
Gosh. That. was er, how do I say politely... quite... "brief" :-\  Obviously still very much a "work in progress".

Part of the problem is there are so many other subject that fall under the category of exiftool that are massive in and of themselves.  First off, working with the command line.  Many people don't even want to deal with learning how to use it and that's understandable.  Just figuring out why you can't just type FILE123.jpg and have windows automatically know where that file is.  The concept of directories itself confuses a lot of people.  I have a friend who uses his laptop for Karaoke and I cringe looking at how he dumps his files any old place.

Then there's metadata.  Trying to explain to people that not all metadata is EXIF data and how "Date Taken" isn't an actual embedded tag has been madness and is why I often tell people who don't care about the details to just go download Adobe Bridge because it's free and be done with it.

And then, as you've discovered, there's RegEx and Perl which really unlocks the power of exiftool.  And then there's dealing with linux people  and PowerShell people who are so entrenched in piping things through grep and looping through directories that their minds just seem to melt when I give them a command that's 100 times faster because all that stuff is already built into exiftool.

I've been playing with this tool for nearly a decade (registered here for 8 years) and there are still things I don't quite grasp or get wrong.  There isn't really an easy way to explain everything .
* Did you read FAQ #3 and use the command listed there?
* Please use the Code button for exiftool code/output.
 
* Please include your OS, Exiftool version, and type of file you're processing (MP4, JPG, etc).

mpegleg

Yes StarGeek. The more I think about it the worse I feel about my "kind of rant". Sorry.

As you say, it's so complex that it can take decades to learn most of the complexities of the whole area of Exif metadata.

Just a few week's ago, I was just as guilty regarding most of the n00b's way of thinking about Exif metadata as you've just mentioned, and I've been using Windows pcs for years! I've never really had a need to learn about it until I decided that my family photo collection stretching back decades, was an absolute chaotic mess, and I couldn't find anything. I was aware that I needed to get it organised now.

Like you mention, most people are naive, and don't know, nor care about, how or where all their data is stored. Microsoft's Windows, due to the inherent way it has obviously evolved over the years is obviously to blame for a lot of the mess regarding the application of document, and media tagging. They haven't been at all consistent in how they apply it, and their internal search system leaves so much to desire, that we have to turn to alternatives to achieve what the operating system should already be able to so confidently do. Search rules! Google certainly knows that.


I also understand how difficult it would be to write a "Dummies Guide to ExifTool", yet I think, judging on how I learnt just some basic stuff over the last week or so here, with you all helping with my questions,... just having a page full of practical examples, of the most typical applications of using the tags, would be so helpful.

Taking my (horrendously long) thread  for example, where I was trying to learn how to simply rename my photos with tag, directory, and filename data, now seems relatively obvious to me after all the help you guys provided. Yet having for example, a page that had that final code (and of course it will never be final, because there are always alternative examples), but to see it in a couple of lines would be wonderful...  and I wouldn't have needed to ask all those questions. (Well I probably would have anyway, a little while later, but maybe that's just me). :P


In small steps... (perhaps geared for Windows users for example) ... I'd suggest starting with a page full of practical examples. Not too much explaining how all the magic works. (That's all magic fairy dust anyway).

EG.

The following code will take parts of the your Windows directory foldername and filename, and create a Windows tag that can be viewed in the Comments column of Windows Explorer File Manager like this:



...Place the full code example here... eg. -exiftool -XPComment=...


The important thing is... you wouldn't need to explain too much. You could just say... If you want to learn more about the magic that makes this code work, please see here... with a link to the most relevant doco page, and/or forum thread.

Noobs (like myself) at first don't want to know all the details, the how's & whys of what makes the code tick. They just want a practical example snippet of code that they can stuff into their command box; press Enter and wacko... there is the Comment column showing that tag. Naturally you'd have to give a brief rundown about the command box, and how to enter the code, but that could be placed on a separate referenced page.

A page initially just showing some basic "practical examples" with lots of screenshots would be so useful,... and most importantly... lot's of variations of the same theme (eg. showing different date formats:

Jill blowing out the candles [Jill's 10th Birthday Party. March 6, 2018]
Jill blowing out the candles [Mar. 2018 - Jill's 10th Birthday Party]
[Jill's 10th Birthday Party] Jill blowing out the candles - 6 Mar 2018]
Mar 6, 2018 - Jill's 10th Birthday Party - Jill blowing out the candles
...
All with the specific code shown for each variation.

I think you see what I'm getting at.

Naturally I understand that my particular requirements are so minuscule in all the vast possibilities of what ExifTool is capable of doing, but by having lots of practical examples, with the full code on the one page would be brilliant.

Cheers,
Paul

Ps. As a (probably poor example because of all the cultural differences)... if I wanted to quickly know how to use apostrophe's in a sentence, I'd jump straight to the practical examples demonstrating ownership:

Examples:
the class's hours
Mr. Jones' golf clubs
the canvas's size
Texas' weather

Then, I'd work backwards and read the "technical" info on the rules and syntax, etc. (Actually... no I wouldn't)  :D
OS: Windows 11 Pro

mpegleg

I don't know why, (and yes it's unrelated to the thread) but this all unfortunately reminds me of an incredibly sad, but "True" tale.

I, as a young student lad here in oz, many, many moons ago, used to work part-time in an Electronics/Computer store in a big busy suburban shopping mall.

Well, one sunny day a friendly older gentleman walked in (he must have been around 80yrs), with a laptop he'd bought from us a few months back, asking politely... "G'day. My 'puter ain't workin' no more. She's up the creek. It was sayin' somethin' 'bout the Harder drive is "corrupting" or somethin' like that. Sounded real scary! Can ya fix it please?"

Manager: "No wuckin' furries, mate. We'll have it ready in 'bout 2 hours. Leave it with us, go finish off the remainder of ya shoppin', and we'll see ya real soon. Take it easy. Cheers mate."

So, I was busy with other customers and didn't get to see what he was doing out the back.

2 hours later... customer returns smiling and says... "So, all fixed??"

Manager: "Yep. Too easy. We just did a full system restore for ya, and she's as good as new." :D

Customer: "Great! So I can see all my Europe photos again? I've just come back from my final 3 month Europe Holiday of a lifetime, and all my brilliant memories are on that 'puter, and I can't wait to show 'em all off to me family and friends."

Manager: "Umm. You've got 'em all backed up haven't ya?"

*crickets chirping*

Manager (in a quiet, but urgent voice) to me: "Paul. I've got a V E R Y important errand to make, can you please take over." (It wasn't a question but a demand!) and before I had a chance to say anything, he'd all but disappeared out the front door.

So, I was left to explain to that customer that no, the manager did a full system restore, which means that "everything", and I mean "e v e r-y-thing" is gone.

I'll never forget the look on that poor customer's face. It was tragic. :'(

Moral of story: Don't assume stuff. Always, ALWAYS make sure the person understands the consequences of what a complete system pc restore will do.

I never did understand why that Manager didn't ask and check beforehand if there was anything important on his laptop. :-\ His intentions were good, but his actions were dire. Sadly there must be many similar cases where this kind of thing happens.  :(



EDIT: I lol'ed at myself just now. I was making some toast in the toaster. When I went back to it I noticed that it was only half done, and the toaster itself seemed completely dead. So I thought and assumed that I was going to have to buy a new toaster. Damn.

Anyway, then I thought. Hang on... Nah, let's not assume that there's something wrong with the toaster. So I checked, and sure enough, the power-board strip had simply overloaded, as I had been boiling the kettle at the same time. A simple press of the power-board reset button, and "Click!" Problem solved.
OS: Windows 11 Pro

StarGeek

Quote from: mpegleg on June 18, 2019, 09:37:44 PM
Yes StarGeek. The more I think about it the worse I feel about my "kind of rant". Sorry.

No need to be sorry, it gave me a chance to go on my own bit of a rant :)

QuoteAs you say, it's so complex that it can take decades to learn most of the complexities of the whole area of Exif data.
*cough*metadata*cough*
;)

Quote... how I learnt just some basic stuff over the last week or so here, with you all helping with my questions

Just interjecting here that I've enjoyed your questions, though I did harbor suspicions that we might be helping you with computer science  homework :D

Quote... just having a page full of practical examples, of the most typical applications of using the tags, would be so helpful.

While there are plenty of examples in the docs and this forum, this is something I've debated with myself about doing.  There are plenty of very similar questions that continually pop up here, as well as on StackExchange (where I get my exiftool puzzle hit when it's slow here) that the thought of a more detailed and specialized FAQ does cross my mind.  But so many of the cases are dependent upon things that are specific to that individual problem.  And I end up not doing anything.

QuoteIn small steps... (perhaps geared for Windows users for example) ... I'd suggest starting with a page full of practical examples. Not too much explaining how all the magic works. (That's all magic fairy dust anyway).

But here's the thing.  RegEx has to be very precise.  The example of the trailing space in your original problem.  The first solution to that worked fine... until it didn't.  And that type of thing can get compounded until the situation is worse than when it started.  There are more than a few times where I thought I had something just right, until it wasn't. 

And this is what I mean when I think of doing something like that and realize how much background knowledge I have already and how hard it is to impart that onto someone new to the whole thing.  And it just ends up either being easier to point to a previous post or the FAQ or just lay out how to do in a new post. 
* Did you read FAQ #3 and use the command listed there?
* Please use the Code button for exiftool code/output.
 
* Please include your OS, Exiftool version, and type of file you're processing (MP4, JPG, etc).

mpegleg

Quote from: StarGeek on June 19, 2019, 01:37:15 AM
*cough*metadata*cough*
;)

*fixed!  :)


Quote
Just interjecting here that I've enjoyed your questions, though I did harbor suspicions that we might be helping you with computer science  homework :D


lol. That's funny. As I was going about writing those questions, I really "was" worried that you all might think that I was just a kid trying to do a shortcut, to get all the answers to a homework exercise. I didn't even hint at that at the time, because I was sure that more than likely it would just confirm your suspicions!  ;D

But no, it all genuine questions. As I've mentioned before, I am attempting a big project to try and get years of family snaps organized. Finally it's all coming together. I've also got many very old scanned family pics that need dating and organizing. That's an even bigger job! :-\

As for your comments about where to start imparting years of knowledge onto a n00b. I totally get it.

My father, who is amazing, yet is almost 90, and who thinks in a totally different era, pre-computers, and all modern tech, and has very limited knowledge of them, yelled back at me the other day..., "What's a shift key!?" :o

So yeah... where does one even start?!
OS: Windows 11 Pro

mpegleg

Quick question StarGeek, if you don't mind me asking.

I see a lot of mention of using Adobe Bridge in this forum. I don't really know what it does, and was considering installing it just to find out, but am worried that it may complicate my already very limited knowledge of METAdata.

Do you think I'd need it, with the basic stuff that I'm dong as mentioned in my posts? I doubt I'll use it as an organisational tool, as I've pretty much got that covered now. Yet, the bits about using it with PNG files, for example, which I do have a lot of, might be handy. I think?! Maybe. Don't know. I just wouldn't want it to stuff anything up with my current other metadata tags... and would I really need it if I'm not having any current issues with them?

ie. By downloading and installing it, is anything really going to change drastically in my system. I guess what I'm saying is... I don't totally trust Adobe. It's already filled so many of my photos with indecipherable tag info, that I don't need, that I am a bit hesitant.

ps. Just in case it's related to the install of Adobe Bridge, I only use the cut-down version of PhotoShop. ie. Photoshop Elements, (don't laugh! >:( ) It does all I need!
OS: Windows 11 Pro

Hayo Baan

Hi Paul,

Quote from: mpegleg on June 19, 2019, 02:10:40 AM
I see a lot of mention of using Adobe Bridge in this forum. I don't really know what it does, and was considering installing it just to find out, but am worried that it may complicate my already very limited knowledge of METAdata.

Adobe Bridge is basically just an image browser with (a.o.) excellent integration with Photoshop and Camera Raw and the ability to view and edit metadata (not in any way comparable to the capabilities of exiftool, of course). I don't think you can install it for free if you don't own/subscribe to Adobe CC though.
Hayo Baan – Photography
Web: www.hayobaan.nl

mpegleg

Ah ok. Thanks. I saw the message splashed on the Adobe site saying that it was free. They obviously have a funny definition of "free". It's got strings attached. No, I don't subscribe to CC. It would be a waste for me at present, so I guess I won't bother with the Bridge. Probably don't really need it anyway. My life is too complicated as it is.

Thanks for your advice.

-Paul
OS: Windows 11 Pro

StarGeek

Quote from: Hayo Baan on June 19, 2019, 06:47:05 AM
Adobe Bridge is basically just an image browser with (a.o.) excellent integration with Photoshop and Camera Raw and the ability to view and edit metadata (not in any way comparable to the capabilities of exiftool, of course).

Well said.  The question got me thinking about what it actually was and to be honest, I never seriously used to beyond testing things to really get to know what it was.

QuoteI don't think you can install it for free if you don't own/subscribe to Adobe CC though.

It actually has been free on it's own for quite a while, though these days it might require creating an adobe account.  I'm not sure.  I've had it installed for a while now.  I don't think it starts the whole Adobe CC background stuff, I don't see running in task manager when I start it, but I could be wrong.
* Did you read FAQ #3 and use the command listed there?
* Please use the Code button for exiftool code/output.
 
* Please include your OS, Exiftool version, and type of file you're processing (MP4, JPG, etc).

mpegleg

StarGeek. Yeah, it sounds like it's not worth installing Adobe Bridge for my minimal use. I already have too many progs on my pc. I don't even remember what most of them they do, let alone why I installed them in the first place.

I do have an Adobe account. Not that I really use it. You are forced to have one these days if you have ANY sort of Adobe product, and that includes Photoshop Elements too. (Except Adobe Acrobat Reader of course).

OS: Windows 11 Pro

mpegleg

Forgive my use of some of these irrelevant off-topic posts, but I don't think it would be useful to start a new topic for each (probably seemingly, blindingly obvious) simple newbie question.

I'm reading through many topics, and any examples I see that I don't really fully understand, I'm testing them out to see "what blows up" what it does. I learn by example, not by mounds of cryptic text.

I saw this example used [here], and [here]:

exiftool -o . "-Directory<DateTimeOriginal" -d %Y/%m/%d dir

and was wondering (with Windows 10 OS) what the "." does after the -o option? (At first I thought it was just a typo), but it's certainly very important, but startling as it may seem... my forum search of "." wasn't too successful. :P

As one of our most noteworthy and controversial Politicians here in Australia was fond of sternly saying: "Please Explain." :) (but she never asked with a smiley face!)

Feel free to hyperlink me.
OS: Windows 11 Pro

mpegleg

OS: Windows 11 Pro

StarGeek

Quote from: mpegleg on June 25, 2019, 09:43:45 PM
exiftool -o . "-Directory<DateTimeOriginal" -d %Y/%m/%d dir

and was wondering (with Windows 10 OS) what the "." does after the -o option? (At first I thought it was just a typo), but it's certainly very important, but startling as it may seem... my forum search of "." wasn't too successful. :P

The dot represents the current directory (see Wikipedia, Absolute and relative paths).  The -o (outfile) option requires a second parameter, the file path/name of the file to write to.  But if you use either the Directory or Filename pseudo-tags, then any directory specified there will take precedent over the -o options (see last sentence of the first paragraph of the -o (outfile) option).

Quote from: mpegleg on June 25, 2019, 10:05:52 PM
Ah. I found the reference. No need to explain!

Tough, I already typed all that out, I'm posting it anyway! 

;) 

* Did you read FAQ #3 and use the command listed there?
* Please use the Code button for exiftool code/output.
 
* Please include your OS, Exiftool version, and type of file you're processing (MP4, JPG, etc).

mpegleg

OS: Windows 11 Pro

mpegleg

Another quickie, if I may?

It's an "Advanced Tag name" (so straight away I hear you all groaning) called HardLink, on this page

Note: If there's a way of directly hyperlinking to that "Hardlink" word on that page please let me know. I love very direct hyperlinks.

I'm not quite sure of the syntax, as to whether I need to internally pipe it with the "<" operator, or just do this:

exiftool -HardLink image.jpg  <-- EDIT: Note I did this on my mapped NAS UNIX based drive, in case that makes a difference.

which seemed to do both nothing, (no error messages) and something at the same time, but nothing blew up, and there were no explosions. At least not yet.

So I'm wondering, what, if anything it did, and what is the correct syntax to make use of it? Examples please.

I couldn't see any documentation on the syntax use. (Probably intentional - ie. keep n00bs like me away from it). FAIL

I do use Windows symlinks (symbolic links), so I understand the concept of the those, "if" that's what it's actually doing.


EDIT: I just saw that there is a SymLink advanced tag as well, so that duplicates the standard symlinks. Even so, how do you use them in an ExifTool command? It seems to me that there are all these quite useful advanced tag names available, yet there are no practical examples of how to really make use of them. Yes, I do understand that they are mainly used in 3rd party application software using ExifTool, but even so, it would be great to see some standalone usage examples. Is it because none of them require any arguments?
OS: Windows 11 Pro

StarGeek

Quote from: mpegleg on June 25, 2019, 11:28:16 PM
Note: If there's a way of directly hyperlinking to that "Hardlink" word on that page please let me know. I love very direct hyperlinks.

Nope, no direct anchors to specific tags on the tag pages, just to groups. 

I also love direct links, that's why I use this addon.

QuoteI'm not quite sure of the syntax, as to whether I need to internally pipe it with the "<" operator, or just do this:

exiftool -HardLink image.jpg  <-- EDIT: Note I did this on my mapped NAS UNIX based drive, in case that makes a difference.

You need to set -HardLink equal to something, e.g. exiftool -HardLink="/new/directory/%F" -r /path/to/lots/of/subdirectories/  Example post where hardlinks are used to make a "temp" directory of all the files in a csv file that doesn't have to full paths.  Symlinks should be the same, you set it equal to the new file name.  Not completely sure since I've never used them.

See this MS page which details what hardlinks can do and the limitations.

Previous post discussing hard/symlinks.
* Did you read FAQ #3 and use the command listed there?
* Please use the Code button for exiftool code/output.
 
* Please include your OS, Exiftool version, and type of file you're processing (MP4, JPG, etc).

mpegleg

Once again, thanks StarGeek.

Some good info and links there. Enough to get me understanding the concepts, and possibly even the possibility of an alternative to having to worry about flaky "Hidden" file attributes, for my photo originals.
OS: Windows 11 Pro

mpegleg

Warning: SymLink not supported in Windows

Awww. That's disappointing. I sometimes use Windows soft symlinks via Link Shell Extension.
OS: Windows 11 Pro

obetz

Quote from: mpegleg on June 25, 2019, 09:43:45 PM
Forgive my use of some of these irrelevant off-topic posts, but I don't think it would be useful to start a new topic for each (probably seemingly, blindingly obvious) simple newbie question.

what about selecting a non-misleading (IOW neutral) subject for these posts then, e.g. something with "misc" or "chat"? Create a new if it gets longer than two or three pages.

You might consider not to add new topics to this thread since it has a specific subject.

Quote from: mpegleg on June 26, 2019, 02:16:15 AM
Warning: SymLink not supported in Windows

Awww. That's disappointing. I sometimes use Windows soft symlinks via Link Shell Extension.

Although Windows resp. NTFS supports symlinks since nearly two decades now, it has drawbacks:

  • "out of the box", you need elevated rights (or Win 10 "developer mode" since few years) to create a symlink. Most users don't know ho to change system policies to allow normal users to create them.
  • The makers of Perl don't seem to take Windows seriously. There is no built-in support for symlinks and the user contributions working around this might be not as mature as they should.

You can use scripts working on ExifTool output to create symlinks with mklink or other tools.

mpegleg

Thanks Oliver. I'll add a new misc topic now, as I can see that if I stick around these parts for a while, I'm going to have many misc n00b questions.

Quote from: obetz on June 26, 2019, 07:15:46 AM
You can use scripts working on ExifTool output to create symlinks with mklink or other tools.

Do you have any possible links of script examples for me to check out, otherwise I'll try doing a forum search for them.

Cheers,
-Paul
OS: Windows 11 Pro

mpegleg

Quote from: StarGeek on June 26, 2019, 12:41:40 AM
I also love direct links, that's why I use this addon.

Thanks StarGeek. I've made use of that "Display #Anchors" Chrome extension already! Top Tip. :)
OS: Windows 11 Pro