Exclude Alias's from Dataset

[Chris S]

Is there a way to bypass aliases when searching for metadata?

For example, the code below will give me all PSD and PNG files, including those that are alias's (FileType=Alias; FileTypeExtention=alias). How could I amend this to exclude the aliases?

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exiftool -ext psd -ext png [tags][dir]

[Phil Harvey]

One way would be to add this to the command:

-if3 "$filetype ne 'Alias'"

(I'm thinking that the fast 3 level is the highest you can go and still properly identify an alias file.)

- Phil

[Chris S]

Can you help me escape this properly with AppleScript's do shell script? I've tried the two cases below but both still return the alias.

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do shell script "//usr/local/bin/exiftool -if3 \"$filetype ne 'Alias'\" -filename " & folder_path


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set the_cmd to quoted form of "$filetype ne 'Alias'"
do shell script "//usr/local/bin/exiftool -if3 " & the_cmd & " -filename " & folder_path

[Phil Harvey]

As per my signature, on Mac you need single quotes around the "$".  I'm not sure what "quoted form" is doing, but the command should look like this in the end:

/usr/local/bin/exiftool -if3 '$filetype ne "Alias"' ...

- Phil

[Chris S]

Embarrassing. Thank you for that tip/reminder. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to recognize the alias as it's still being returned. Thought it was maybe I was escaping incorrectly but it's not working as expected directly from the Terminal... the PSB here is actually an Alias.

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> exiftool -if3 '$filetype ne "Alias"' -filename [DIR]
======== ...
File Name                       : This is a TIFF.tif
======== ...
File Name                       : This is an alias.psb
    1 directories scanned
    2 image files read

[Phil Harvey]

You'll have to run some tests to see what the FileType is:

exiftool -filetype DIR

- Phil

Edit: I ran the test myself.  (Lucky for you I'm on MacOS myself.)  The type is "ALIAS", not "Alias", so this needs to be changed in your command.

[Chris S]

Ah ha... looks like it's case sensitive. Filetype is ALIAS. Changing it to all uppercase in the code correctly excluded the alias this time. Thank you!

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> exiftool -if3 '$filetype ne "ALIAS"' -filename [DIR]
======== ...This is a TIFF.tif
File Name                       : This is a TIFF.tif
    1 directories scanned
    1 files failed condition
    1 image files read