Running in Powershell function with exiftool if condition.

[QGtKMlLz]

I have been having so much trouble with running exiftool correctly while creating a large powershell script for the last few months. I can only get it to run my command line appropriately Invoke-Expression.

Code Select Expand

My command:
    $formattedPaths = $metaFilePath | ForEach-Object { "'" + $_.Replace("'", "''") + "'" }
    # Join the paths into a single string, separated by spaces
    $joinedPaths = [String]::Join(' ', $formattedPaths)

    $commandString = "exiftool.exe -fast2 -charset UTF8 -if 'defined `$$firstMetaDataField' $joinedPaths -p ''"
    Invoke-Expression $commandString
My $firstMetaDataField PS var is a field like $ARTIST. Initially it was multiple fields but was having different troubles with feeding that through a variable too.

I am just looking for files passed and files failed (in this case using -p '' to filter the full field list output so just 'files failed' 'files read' are output for PS to read).

Has anyone run into this while working on Powershell code?

[StarGeek]

I'm  sorry, but I can't help with Powershell.  It has to many idiosyncrasies compared to every other shell and just works so badly with basic exiftool commands.

[QGtKMlLz]

I seem to have slightly narrowed it down more to the the single-quote use causing issue.

I have tried the below ways, and most of the time powershell seems to break the file path or present it to exiftool incorrectly and each spaced block get a "file not found" error.

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$args = "-c exiftool.exe -fast2 -charset UTF8 -if 'defined $$firstMetaDataField' $joinedPaths -p ''"
Start-Process -FilePath 'powershell' -ArgumentList $args -Wait -NoNewWindow

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$proc = New-Object System.Diagnostics.Process
$proc.StartInfo.FileName = "exiftool.exe"
$proc.StartInfo.Arguments = "-fast2 -charset UTF8 -if 'defined `$$firstMetaDataField' $joinedPaths -p ''"
$proc.Start()
$proc.WaitForExit()

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$runspace = [runspacefactory]::CreateRunspace()
$runspace.Open()
$powershell = [powershell]::Create().AddScript({
    & "exiftool.exe" -fast2 -charset UTF8 -if "defined `$$firstMetaDataField" $using:joinedPaths -p ''
})
$powershell.Runspace = $runspace
$powershell.BeginInvoke()

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Invoke-Command -ScriptBlock {
    & "exiftool.exe" -fast2 -charset UTF8 -if "defined `$$firstMetaDataField" $using:joinedPaths -p ''
}

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# Prepare the arguments as a single string first
$argString = "-fast2 -charset UTF8 -if 'defined $$firstMetaDataField' $joinedPaths -p ''"

# Tokenize the arguments string into an array
$argArray = $argString -split ' '

# Prepare ProcessStartInfo
$processStartInfo = New-Object System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo
$processStartInfo.FileName = "exiftool.exe"
$processStartInfo.Arguments = $argArray
$processStartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = $true
$processStartInfo.UseShellExecute = $false

# Start the process
$process = New-Object System.Diagnostics.Process
$process.StartInfo = $processStartInfo
$process.Start() | Out-Null

# Capture and display the output
$output = $process.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd()
$process.WaitForExit()
$output


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# Create a ProcessStartInfo object
$processStartInfo = New-Object System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo

# Set the FileName to the executable's path
$processStartInfo.FileName = "exiftool.exe"

# Create an array of arguments to pass
$argsArray = @("-fast2", "-charset", "UTF8", "-if", "'defined `$$firstMetaDataField'", "$joinedPaths", "-p", "''")

# Convert the array to a single string, separating each element by a space
$processStartInfo.Arguments = [string]::Join(" ", $argsArray)

# Set additional properties
$processStartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = $true
$processStartInfo.UseShellExecute = $false

# Create a new Process object and set its StartInfo property
$process = New-Object System.Diagnostics.Process
$process.StartInfo = $processStartInfo

# Start the process
$process.Start() | Out-Null

# Read the standard output of the process
$output = $process.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd()

# Wait for the process to exit
$process.WaitForExit()

# Output the result
$output


[QGtKMlLz]

Solved:  Somehow with all the variation test in .ps1 and direct in console I thought I was running into the requirement that -if conditions had to be surrounded by single-quotes. I had ran into the that issue while running but other factors must have influenced it; I was told Powershell is very restrictive when single-quotes are used.

Here is a working high-performance powershell function for the record in case anyone needs it/runs into a similar issue with Powershell.

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function HasMetadataFields ([Array]$metaFilePath) {
    # Enclose each file path with single quotes
    $formattedPaths = $metaFilePath | ForEach-Object { "`"" + $_.Replace("`"", "`"`"") + "`"" }
    # Join the paths into a single string, separated by spaces
    $joinedPaths = [String]::Join(' ', $formattedPaths)

    #.Net System.IO Approach for High-Performance
    $procStartInfo = [System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo]::new()
    $procStartInfo.FileName = "exiftool.exe"
    $procStartInfo.Arguments = "-charset UTF8 -if ""defined `$$firstMetaDataField"" -fast2 -s3 -p'' $joinedPaths"
    [Console]::WriteLine("$($Cyan)$($procStartInfo.Arguments)$($Reset)")
    $procStartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = $true
    $proc = [System.Diagnostics.Process]::Start($procStartInfo)

    # Set the priority
    $proc.PriorityClass = [System.Diagnostics.ProcessPriorityClass]::Realtime

    #Run and Write to Console
    $output = $proc.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd()


    # Parse number of failed and total files
    # Evaluate output from exiftool.exe and if failed is greater-than 'read' s the if-statement will return a $false to the script.
    $failedConditionCount    = ([regex]::Match($output, '(\d+) files failed condition')).Groups[1].Value
    $imageFilesReadCount = ([regex]::Match($output, '(\d+) image files read')).Groups[1].Value

    if (!$failedConditionCount) { $consoleFailedCount = 0 }

    [Console]::WriteLine("Read Count: $($imageFilesReadCount) and failed count: $($consoleFailedCount)")

    # If there are any empty lines, some files are missing metadata fields, return $false
    if ($failedConditionCount -ne $null -and $imageFilesReadCount -ne $null -and $failedConditionCount -gt $imageFilesReadCount) {
        # Some Metadata is missing in metadata fields
        [Console]::WriteLine("HasMetaData is: False    but the count is: $($imageFilesReadCount)")
        return $false
    }
    else {
        [Console]::WriteLine("HasMetaData is: True    but the count is: $($imageFilesReadCount)")
        return $true
    }
}