libimage-exiftool-perl/html/ExifTool.html

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<h1 class='up'>The Image::ExifTool Perl Library Module</h1>
<h2>Description</h2>
<p>The Image::ExifTool library provides a set of Perl modules to read and
write meta information in a wide variety of image, audio, video and document
files. This document details the public methods of the ExifTool API.</p>
<hr><h2><a name="Methods">Methods</a></h2>
<p>All ExifTool features are accessed through the methods of the public
interface listed below. Other Image::ExifTool methods and modules should not be
accessed directly because their interface may change with future versions.</p>
<p>The ExifTool methods should never die or issue a warning to STDERR if called
with the proper arguments (with the exception of
<a href="#SetNewValue">SetNewValue</a> which may send an error message to
STDERR, but only when called in scalar context). Error and warning messages
that occur during processing are stored in the values of the Error and Warning
tags, and are accessible via the <a href="#GetValue">GetValue</a> method to
retrieve a single Error or Warning message, or <a href="#GetInfo">GetInfo</a> to
retrieve any number of them.</p>
<p>The ExifTool methods are not thread safe.</p>
<table><tr><td valign=top>
<ul>
<li><a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a></li>
<li><a href="#new">new</a></li>
<li><a href="#Options">Options</a></li>
<li><a href="#ClearOptions">ClearOptions</a></li>
<li><a href="#ExtractInfo">ExtractInfo</a></li>
<li><a href="#GetInfo">GetInfo</a></li>
<li><a href="#WriteInfo">WriteInfo</a></li>
<li><a href="#GetTagList">GetTagList</a></li>
<li><a href="#GetFoundTags">GetFoundTags</a></li>
<li><a href="#GetRequestedTags">GetRequestedTags</a></li>
<li><a href="#GetValue">GetValue</a></li>
<li><a href="#SetNewValue">SetNewValue</a></li>
<li><a href="#GetNewValue">GetNewValue</a></li>
</ul>
</td><td valign=top>
<ul>
<li><a href="#SetNewValuesFromFile">SetNewValuesFromFile</a></li>
<li><a href="#CountNewValues">CountNewValues</a></li>
<li><a href="#SaveNewValues">SaveNewValues</a></li>
<li><a href="#RestoreNewValues">RestoreNewValues</a></li>
<li><a href="#SetAlternateFile">SetAlternateFile</a></li>
<li><a href="#SetFileModifyDate">SetFileModifyDate</a></li>
<li><a href="#SetFileName">SetFileName</a></li>
<li><a href="#SetNewGroups">SetNewGroups</a></li>
<li><a href="#GetNewGroups">GetNewGroups</a></li>
<li><a href="#GetTagID">GetTagID</a></li>
<li><a href="#GetDescription">GetDescription</a></li>
<li><a href="#GetGroup">GetGroup</a></li>
<li><a href="#GetGroups">GetGroups</a></li>
</ul>
</td><td valign=top>
<ul>
<li><a href="#BuildCompositeTags">BuildCompositeTags</a></li>
<li><a href="#AvailableOptions">AvailableOptions</a></li>
<li><a href="#GetTagName">GetTagName</a></li>
<li><a href="#GetShortcuts">GetShortcuts</a></li>
<li><a href="#GetAllTags">GetAllTags</a></li>
<li><a href="#GetWritableTags">GetWritableTags</a></li>
<li><a href="#GetAllGroups">GetAllGroups</a></li>
<li><a href="#GetDeleteGroups">GetDeleteGroups</a></li>
<li><a href="#GetFileType">GetFileType</a></li>
<li><a href="#CanWrite">CanWrite</a></li>
<li><a href="#CanCreate">CanCreate</a></li>
<li><a href="#AddUserDefinedTags">AddUserDefinedTags</a></li>
</ul>
</td></tr></table>
<hr><h2><a name="UsingExifTool">Using ExifTool</a></h2>
<p>The ExifTool module may be used by simply calling the
<a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a> function:</p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
use Image::ExifTool qw(:Public);
my $info = <a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a>('image.jpg');
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<p>or in a more object-oriented fashion, by creating an ExifTool object:</p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
use Image::ExifTool;
my $exifTool = Image::ExifTool-&gt;<a href="#new">new</a>;
my $info = $exifTool-&gt;<a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a>('image.jpg');
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<p>The object-oriented method allows more flexibility, but is slightly more
complicated. You choose the method that you prefer.</p>
<p>The $info value returned by <a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a> in the above
examples is a reference to a hash containing the tag/value pairs. Here is a
simplified example which prints out this information:</p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
foreach (keys %$info) {
print "$_ =&gt; $$info{$_}\n";
}
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<p>See <a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a> for a more detailed description of the
info hash entries.</p>
<p>And the technique for writing meta information is equally simple:</p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
use Image::ExifTool;
my $exifTool = Image::ExifTool-&gt;<a href="#new">new</a>;
$exifTool-&gt;<a href="#SetNewValue">SetNewValue</a>(Author =&gt; 'Phil Harvey');
$exifTool-&gt;<a href="#WriteInfo">WriteInfo</a>('image.jpg','modified_image.jpg');
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="Config">Configuration</a></h2>
<p>User-defined tags can be added via the ExifTool configuration file, or by
defining the %Image::ExifTool::UserDefined hash before calling any ExifTool
functions. See "<a href="config.html">ExifTool_config</a>" in the ExifTool
distribution for more details.</p>
<p>By default ExifTool looks for a configuration file named ".ExifTool_config"
first in your home directory, then in the directory of the application script,
but a different directory may be specified by setting the EXIFTOOL_HOME
environment variable, or a different file may be specified by setting the
ExifTool "<code>configFile</code>" variable before using Image::ExifTool. For
example:</p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
BEGIN { $Image::ExifTool::configFile = '/Users/phil/myconfig.cfg' }
use Image::ExifTool;
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<p>The configuration feature may also be disabled by setting
"<code>configFile</code>" to an empty string:</p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
BEGIN { $Image::ExifTool::configFile = '' }
use Image::ExifTool;
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a></h2>
<p>Read image file and return meta information. This is the one-step function for
retrieving meta information from an image. Internally,
<a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a> calls <a href="#ExtractInfo">ExtractInfo</a>
to extract data from the image, <a href="#GetInfo">GetInfo</a> to generate the
information hash, and <a href="#GetTagList">GetTagList</a> for the returned tag
list.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>ImageInfo($;@)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td><b>0)</b> [<i>optional</i>] ExifTool object reference
<br><b>1)</b> File name, file reference or scalar reference
<br><b>2-N)</b> [<i>optional</i>] list of tag names to find (or tag list reference or
options hash reference, see below)
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>Reference to hash of tag-key/value pairs</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p><b>Examples:</b></p>
<blockquote>Non object-oriented example showing use of options and returning tag list:
<table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
use Image::ExifTool qw(ImageInfo);
my @ioTagList;
my $info;
$info = <b>ImageInfo</b>('image.jpg', \@ioTagList, {Sort =&gt; 'Group0'});
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote>Object-oriented example to read from a file that is already open:
<table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
my $exifTool = Image::ExifTool-&gt;<a href="#new">new</a>;
$info = $exifTool-&gt;<b>ImageInfo</b>(\*FILE_PT, 'Aperture', 'ShutterSpeed', 'ISO');
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote>Extract information from an image in memory:
<table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
$info = $exifTool-&gt;<b>ImageInfo</b>(\$imageData);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote>Extract information from an embedded thumbnail image:
<table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
$info = <b>ImageInfo</b>('image.jpg', 'thumbnailimage');
my $thumbInfo = <b>ImageInfo</b>($$info{ThumbnailImage});
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote>Using an ExifTool object to set the options before calling
<a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a>:
<table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
my $filename = shift || die "Please specify filename\n";
my @ioTagList = qw(filename imagesize xmp:creator exif:* -ifd1:*);
$exifTool-&gt;<a href="#Options">Options</a>(Unknown =&gt; 1, DateFormat =&gt; '%H:%M:%S %a. %b. %e, %Y');
$info = $exifTool-&gt;<b>ImageInfo</b>($filename, \@ioTagList);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<p><b>Function Arguments:</b></p>
<p><a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a> is very flexible about the arguments
passed to it, and interprets them based on their type. It may be called with
one or more arguments. The one required argument is either a SCALAR (the image
file name), a file reference (a reference to the image file) or a SCALAR
reference (a reference to the image in memory). Other arguments are optional.
The order of the arguments is not significant, except that the first SCALAR is
taken to be the file name unless a file reference or scalar reference comes
earlier in the argument list.</p>
<p>Below is a more detailed explanation of how the <a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a>
function arguments are interpreted.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td valign=top><b>ExifTool&nbsp;ref</b></td><td>
<a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a> may be called with an ExifTool object if
desired. Advantages of using the object-oriented form are that options may be
set before calling <a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a>, and the object may be
used afterward to access member functions. Must be the first argument if used.
</td></tr><tr><td valign=top><b>SCALAR</b></td><td>
The first scalar argument is taken to be the file name unless an earlier
argument specified the image data via a file reference (file ref) or data
reference (SCALAR ref). The remaining scalar arguments are names of tags for
requested information. All tags are returned if no tags are specified.
<br>&nbsp;<br>
Tag names are case-insensitive and may be prefixed by optional group names
separated by colons. A group name may begin with a family number (eg.
'<code>1IPTC:Keywords</code>'), to restrict matches to a specific family. In the
tag name, a '<code>?</code>' matches any single character and a '<code>*</code>'
matches zero or more characters. Thus '<code>GROUP:*</code>' represents all
tags in a specific group. Wildcards may not be used in group names, with the
exception that a group name of '<code>*</code>' may be used to extract all
available instances of a tag regardless of the
<a href="#Duplicates">Duplicates</a> setting (eg. '<code>*:WhiteBalance</code>').
Multiple groups may be specified (eg. '<code>EXIF:Time:*</code>' extracts all
EXIF Time tags). And finally, a leading '<code>-</code>' indicates a tag to be
excluded (eg. '<code>-IFD1:*</code>'), or a trailing '<code>#</code>' causes the
ValueConv value to be returned for this tag.
<br>&nbsp;<br>
Note that keys in the returned information hash and elements of the returned tag
list are not necessarily the same as these tag names because group names are
removed, the case may be changed, and an instance number may be added. For this
reason it is best to use either the keys of the returned hash or the elements of
the returned tag list when accessing the tag values.
<br>&nbsp;<br>
See the <a href="TagNames/index.html">TagNames</a> documentation for a
complete list of ExifTool tag names.
</td></tr><tr><td valign=top><b>File&nbsp;ref</b></td><td>
A reference to an open image file. If you use this method (or a SCALAR
reference) to access information in an image, the FileName and Directory tags
will not be returned. (Also, the FileSize, FileModifyDate, FilePermissions and
FileAttributes tags will not be returned unless it is a plain file.) Image
processing begins at the current file position, and on return the file position
is unspecified. May be either a standard filehandle or a reference to a
File::RandomAccess object.
<br>&nbsp;<br>
[Advanced: To allow a non-rewindable stream (eg. a network socket) to be
re-read after processing with ExifTool, first wrap the file reference in a
File::RandomAccess object, then pass this object to
<a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a>. The File::RandomAccess object will buffer
the file if necessary, and may be used to re-read the file after
<a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a> returns.]
</td></tr><tr><td valign=top><b>SCALAR&nbsp;ref</b></td><td>
A reference to image data in memory.
</td></tr><tr><td valign=top><b>ARRAY&nbsp;ref</b></td><td>
Reference to a list of tag names. On entry, any elements in the list are added
to the list of requested tags. On return, this list is updated to contain an
ordered list of tag keys for the returned information.
<br>&nbsp;<br>
There will be 1:1 correspondence between the requested tags and the returned
tag keys only if the <a href="#Duplicates">Duplicates</a> option is 0 and
<a href="#Sort">Sort</a> is 'Input'. (With
<a href="#Duplicates">Duplicates</a> enabled, there may be more entries in the
returned list of tag keys, and with other <a href="#Sort">Sort</a> settings the
entries may not be in the same order as requested.) If a requested tag doesn't
exist, a tag key is still generated, but the tag value is undefined.
<br>&nbsp;<br>
<b>Note:</b> Do not reuse this list in subsequent calls to
<a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a> because it returns tag keys, not names, and
the list will grow for each call resulting in increasingly slower
performance.
</td></tr><tr><td valign=top><b>HASH&nbsp;ref</b></td><td>
Reference to a hash containing the options settings valid for this call only.
See <a href="#Options">Options</a> documentation below for a list of available
options. Options specified as arguments to <a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a>
take precedence over <a href="#Options">Options</a> settings.
</td></tr></table></blockquote>
<p><b>Return Value:</b></p>
<p><a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a> returns a reference to a hash of
tag-key/value pairs. The tag keys are identifiers -- essentially case-sensitive
tag names with an appended instance number if multiple tags with the same name
were extracted from the image. Many of the ExifTool functions require a tag key
as an argument. Use <a href="#GetTagName">GetTagName</a> to get the tag name
for a given tag key. Note that the case of the tag names may not be the same as
requested.</p>
<p>Values of the returned hash are usually simple scalars, but a scalar
reference is used to indicate binary data and an array reference may be used to
indicate a list. Also, a hash reference may be returned if the
<a href="#Struct">Struct</a> option is used. Lists of values are joined by
commas into a single string only if the PrintConv option is enabled and the
ListJoin option is enabled (which are the defaults). Note that binary values
are not necessarily extracted unless specifically requested, or the Binary
option is enabled and the tag is not specifically excluded. If not extracted the
value is a reference to a string of the form "<code>Binary data #####
bytes</code>".</p>
<p>Here is a simple example to print out the information returned by
<a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a>:</p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
foreach (keys %$info) {
my $val = $$info{$_};
if (ref $val eq 'ARRAY') {
$val = join(', ', @$val);
} elsif (ref $val eq 'SCALAR') {
$val = '(Binary data)';
}
printf("%-24s : %s\n", $_, $val);
}
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<p>which gives output like this (PrintConv enabled):</p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
WhiteBalance : Auto
FNumber : 3.5
InteroperabilityOffset : 936
XResolution : 72
ISO : 100
ThumbnailImage : (Binary data)
FlashOn : On
Make : FUJIFILM
ShutterSpeedValue : 1/64
ExposureCompensation : 0
Sharpness : Soft
ResolutionUnit : inches
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<p><b>Notes:</b></p>
<p>ExifTool returns all values as byte strings of encoded characters. Perl wide
characters are not used. See <a href="faq.html#Q10">FAQ number 10</a> for
details about the encodings. By default, most returned strings are encoded in
UTF-8. For these, Encode::decode_utf8() may be used to convert to a sequence of
logical Perl characters.</p>
<p>As well as tags representing information extracted from the image, the
following <a href="TagNames/Extra.html">Extra tags</a> generated by ExifTool may
be returned:</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>ExifToolVersion</b></td><td>The ExifTool version number</td></tr>
<tr><td><b>Error</b></td><td>An error message if the image could not be processed</td></tr>
<tr><td><b>Warning</b></td><td>A warning message if problems were encountered
while processing the image</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="new">new</a></h2>
<p>Create a new ExifTool object.</p>
<p><b>Example:</b></p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
my $exifTool = Image::ExifTool-&gt;<b>new</b>;
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<p>One ExifTool object may be used to process many files, so creating multiple
ExifTool objects usually is not necessary.</p>
<p>Note that ExifTool uses AUTOLOAD to load non-member methods, so any class
using Image::ExifTool as a base class must define an AUTOLOAD which calls
Image::ExifTool::DoAutoLoad(). ie)</p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
sub AUTOLOAD
{
Image::ExifTool::DoAutoLoad($AUTOLOAD, @_);
}
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<hr><table bgcolor='#aaffaa' width='100%' cellpadding=8><tr><td><center><b>
The following functions require an ExifTool object as the first argument
</b></center></td></tr></table>
<hr><h2><a name='options'></a><a name="Options">Options</a></h2>
<p>Get/set ExifTool options. This function can be called to set the default
options for an ExifTool object. Options set this way are in effect for all
function calls but may be overridden by options passed as arguments to some
functions. Option names are not case sensitive, but option values are.</p>
<p>The default option values may be changed by defining a
%Image::ExifTool::UserDefined::Options hash. See the
<a href="config.html">ExifTool_config file</a> in the full ExifTool distribution
for examples. Unless otherwise noted, a default of undef has the same
effect as a value of 0 for options with numerical values.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>Options($$;@)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td><b>0)</b> ExifTool object reference
<br><b>1)</b> Parameter name (case-insensitive, see table below)
<br><b>2)</b> [<i>optional</i>] Option value if specified (may be undef to clear option)
<br><b>3-N)</b> [<i>optional</i>] Additional parameter/value pairs
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>Previous value of last specified parameter</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p><b>Available options:</b></p>
<p><i>Note that these API options may be also be used in the
<a href="exiftool_pod.html">exiftool application</a> via the command-line
<b>-api</b> option.</i></p>
<blockquote>
<table class='norm'>
<tr><th colspan=4 bgcolor='#dddddd'><font size='+1'>ExifTool Options</font></th></tr>
<tr><th>Option</th><th>Description</th><th>Values</th><th>Default</th></tr>
<tr id="Binary"><td>Binary</td><td>Flag to extract the value data for all binary tags.
Tag values representing large binary data blocks (eg. ThumbnailImage)
are not necessarily extracted unless this option is set or the tag is
specifically requested by name.</td>
<td align=center>0 or 1</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="ByteUnit"><td>ByteUnit</td><td>Units for print conversion of FileSize and other byte values.</td>
<td align=center><table class=clear>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>SI</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>SI units (1000 bytes = 1 kB)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>Binary</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Binary units (1024 bytes = 1 KiB)</td></tr>
</table></td><td align=center>'SI'</td></tr>
<tr id="BlockExtract"><td>BlockExtract</td><td>Flag to extract some directories
(mentioned in the <a href="TagNames/index.html">Tag Name documentation</a>) as a block.</td>
<td align=center><table class=clear>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>0</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Extract as block only if tag specified by name</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>1</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Extract as block, and extract contained tags</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>2</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Extract as block without contained tags</td></tr>
</table></td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="ByteOrder"><td>ByteOrder</td><td>The byte order for newly created EXIF segments when
writing. Note that if EXIF information already exists, the existing order is
maintained. If ByteOrder is not defined, then the order of the maker notes is
used (if they are being copied), otherwise big-endian ('MM') order is assumed.
This can also be set via the <a href="TagNames/Extra.html">ExifByteOrder tag</a>,
but the ByteOrder option takes precedence if both are set.</td>
<td align=center>'MM','II' or undef</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="Charset"><td>Charset</td><td>Character set for encoding character
strings passed to/from ExifTool containing code points above U+007F. Note
that this option affects some types of information when reading/writing the
file and other types when getting/setting tag values, so it must be defined
for both types of access. Charset values listed to the right have aliases
which are given in brackets. Case is not significant. See
<a href="faq.html#Q10">FAQ #10</a> for more information about character sets.</td>
<td align=center><table class=clear>
<tr><td valign=top align=right>UTF8</td><td>(cp65001, UTF-8)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right>Latin</td><td>(cp1252, Latin1)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right>Latin2</td><td>(cp1250)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right>Cyrillic</td><td>(cp1251, Russian)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right>Greek</td><td>(cp1253)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right>Turkish</td><td>(cp1254)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right>Hebrew</td><td>(cp1255)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right>Arabic</td><td>(cp1256)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right>Baltic</td><td>(cp1257)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right>Vietnam</td><td>(cp1258)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right>Thai</td><td>(cp874)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right>DOSLatinUS</td><td>(cp437)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right>DOSLatin1</td><td>(cp850)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right>DOSCyrillic</td><td>(cp866)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right>MacRoman</td><td>(cp10000, Mac, Roman)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right>MacLatin2</td><td>(cp10029)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right>MacCyrillic</td><td>(cp10007)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right>MacGreek</td><td>(cp10006)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right>MacTurkish</td><td>(cp10081)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right>MacRomanian</td><td>(cp10010)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right>MacIceland</td><td>(cp10079)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right>MacCroatian</td><td>(cp10082)</td></tr>
</table></td><td align=center>'UTF8'</td></tr>
<tr id="CharsetEXIF"><td>CharsetEXIF</td><td>Internal encoding to use for stored
EXIF "ASCII" string values. May also be set to undef to pass through EXIF
"ASCII" values without recoding. Set to "UTF8" to conform with the MWG
recommendation.</td>
<td align=center><i>(see <a href="#Charset">Charset</a> option)</i><br>or undef</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="CharsetFileName"><td>CharsetFileName</td><td>External character set
used when specifying file names. When set in Windows, this triggers use of
Windows Unicode file library routines (requires Win32API::File). May also
be set to an empty string to avoid "encoding not specified" warnings on Windows.</td>
<td align=center><i>(see <a href="#Charset">Charset</a> option)</i><br>or undef</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="CharsetID3"><td>CharsetID3</td><td>Internal encoding to assume for ID3v1 strings. By
the specification ID3v1 strings should be encoded in ISO 8859-1 (essentially
'Latin'), but some applications may use local encoding instead. This option
allows different encodings to be specified.</td>
<td align=center><i>(see <a href="#Charset">Charset</a> option)</i></td><td align=center>'Latin'</td></tr>
<tr id="CharsetIPTC"><td>CharsetIPTC</td><td>Fallback internal IPTC character set to assume if IPTC information
contains no CodedCharacterSet tag.</td>
<td align=center><i>(see <a href="#Charset">Charset</a> option)</i></td><td align=center>'Latin'</td></tr>
<tr id="CharsetPhotoshop"><td>CharsetPhotoshop</td><td>Internal encoding to assume for Photoshop IRB resource names.</td>
<td align=center><i>(see <a href="#Charset">Charset</a> option)</i></td><td align=center>'Latin'</td></tr>
<tr id="CharsetQuickTime"><td>CharsetQuickTime</td><td>Internal encoding to assume for QuickTime
strings stored with an unspecified encoding.</td>
<td align=center><i>(see <a href="#Charset">Charset</a> option)</i></td><td align=center>'MacRoman'</td></tr>
<tr id="CharsetRIFF"><td>CharsetRIFF</td><td>Internal encoding to assume for strings in RIFF
metadata (eg. AVI and WAV files). The default value of 0 assumes 'Latin' encoding unless otherwise
specified by the RIFF CSET chunk. Set to undef to pass through strings without recoding.</td>
<td align=center><i>(see <a href="#Charset">Charset</a> option)</i><br>or 0 or undef</td><td align=center>0</td></tr>
<tr id="Compact"><td>Compact</td><td>Comma-delimited list of settings for writing compact XMP.
Note that 'NoPadding' effects only embedded XMP since padding is never written for
stand-alone XMP files. Also note that 'OneDesc' is not recommended when writing
XMP larger than 64 KiB to a JPG file because it interferes with ExifTool's technique
of splitting off large rdf:Description elements into the extended XMP. Case is not
significant for any of these options. Some options have aliases (shown in brackets).</td>
<td align=center><table class=clear>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>NoPadding</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Avoid 2 KiB of recommended padding at end of XMP (NoPad)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>NoIndent</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Avoid spaces to indent lines for readability (NoSpace, NoSpaces)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>NoNewline</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Avoid unnecessary newlines (NoNewlines)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>Shorthand</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Use XMP Shorthand format</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>OneDesc</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Combine XMP properties into a single rdf:Description (OneDescr)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>AllSpace</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>'NoPadding,NoIndent,NoNewline'</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>AllFormat</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>'Shorthand,OneDesc'</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>All</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>'AllSpace,AllFormat'</td></tr>
</table></td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="Composite"><td>Composite</td><td>Flag to generate Composite tags when extracting information.</td>
<td align=center>0 or 1</td><td align=center>1</td></tr>
<tr id="Compress"><td>Compress</td><td>Flag to write new values in compressed
format if possible. Has no effect unless the relevant compression library is
available. Valid when writing metadata to PNG, JXL or MIE images. Setting this
to zero causes JXL metadata to be rewritten as uncompressed when edited.</td>
<td align=center>0, 1 or undef</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="CoordFormat"><td>CoordFormat</td><td>Specify output format for GPS coordinates.</td>
<td>A printf-style format string with specifiers
for degrees, minutes and seconds in that order, however minutes and seconds
may be omitted. If the hemisphere is known, a reference direction (N, S, E
or W) is appended to each printed coordinate, but adding a '<code>+</code>'
to the first format specifier (eg. <code>'%+.6f'</code>) prints a signed
coordinate instead. The default for reading is equivalent to a format string
of <code>q{%d&nbsp;deg&nbsp;%d'&nbsp;%.2f"}</code>, but to avoid a loss
of precision the default for copying tags with
<a href="#SetNewValuesFromFile">SetNewValuesFromFile</a> is
<code>q{%d&nbsp;%d&nbsp;%.8f}</code>.
</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="DateFormat"><td>DateFormat</td><td>Output format for date/time values. If date can not
be converted, value is left unchanged unless the <a href="#StrictDate">StrictDate</a>
option is set. Timezones are ignored. The inversion conversion (ie. when calling
<a href="#SetNewValue">SetNewValue</a>) is performed only if POSIX::strptime
or Time::Piece is installed.</td><td>See strftime manpage for details.
The default setting of undef causes date/time values to remain in standard EXIF
format (similar to a DateFormat of <code>"%Y:%m:%d %H:%M:%S"</code>).</td>
<td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="Duplicates"><td>Duplicates</td><td>Flag to return values from
tags with duplicate names when extracting information. Forced to 1
when copying tags with <a href="#SetNewValuesFromFile">SetNewValuesFromFile</a>.</td>
<td align=center>0 or 1</td><td align=center>1</td></tr>
<tr id="Escape"><td>Escape</td>
<td>Escape special characters in extracted values for
HTML or XML. Also unescapes HTML or XML character entities in input values
passed to <a href="#SetNewValue">SetNewValue</a>.</td> <td
align=center>HTML, XML or undef</td>
<td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="Exclude"><td>Exclude</td>
<td>Exclude specified tags when extracting information. Note that this
option is applied after all of the tags have already been loaded into
memory (so different tags may be excluded in subsequent calls to
<a href="#GetInfo">GetInfo</a>). See the <a href="#IgnoreTags">IgnoreTags</a>
option to save memory by not loading the tags in the first place.</td>
<td>Tag name or reference to a list of tag names to
exclude. Case is not significant. Tags may also be excluded by preceding
their name with a '-' in the arguments to ImageInfo.</td>
<td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="ExtendedXMP"><td>ExtendedXMP</td><td>This setting affects the
reading and editing of extended XMP in JPEG images. According to the XMP
specification, extended XMP is only valid if it has the GUID specified by
the <a href="TagNames/XMP.html#xmpNote">HasExtendedXMP tag</a>. ExifTool
9.95 and earlier would read extended XMP regardless of GUID, but with the
addition of this option in version 9.96 the default behaviour was changed to
conform with the XMP specification (to read only extended XMP with the
proper GUID). This option should be set to 2 to emulate pre-9.96 behaviour
and read all extended XMP. It may also be set to a GUID to read a specific
extended XMP, or 0 to ignore extended XMP entirely.</td>
<td align=center><table class=clear>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>0</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Ignore extended XMP</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>1</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Valid GUID only</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>2</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Any GUID</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><i>guid</i>&nbsp;=</td><td>Specific GUID</td></tr>
</table></td><td align=center>1</td></tr>
<tr id="ExtractEmbedded"><td>ExtractEmbedded</td>
<td>Flag to extract information from embedded documents in EPS files,
embedded EPS information and JPEG and Jpeg2000 images in PDF files, embedded
MPF images in JPEG and MPO files, metadata after the first Cluster in MKV
files, timed metadata in videos, all frames of a multipart EXR image, and
the resource fork of Mac OS files. A setting of 2 also causes the H264
video stream in MP4 files to be parsed until the first SEI message is
decoded, or 3 to parse the entire H264 stream in MP4 videos and the entire
M2TS file to look for any unlisted program containing GPS metadata.</td>
<td align=center>0, 1, 2 or 3</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="FastScan"><td>FastScan</td>
<td>Flag to increase speed when reading files by avoiding extraction of some
types of metadata. With this option set to 1, ExifTool will not scan to the
end of a JPEG image to check for an AFCP, CanonVRD, FotoStation,
PhotoMechanic, MIE or PreviewImage trailer. This also stops the parsing
after the first comment in GIF images, and at the audio/video data of
RIFF-format files (AVI, WAV, etc), so any trailing metadata (eg. XMP written
by some utilities) may be missed. Also disables input buffering for some
types of files to reduce memory usage when reading from a non-seekable
stream, and bypasses CRC validation for speed when writing PNG files. When
combined with the ScanForXMP option, prevents scanning for XMP in recognized
file types. With a value of 2, ExifTool will also avoid extracting any EXIF
MakerNote information, and will stop processing at the IDAT chunk of PNG
images and the mdat atom in QuickTime-format files. (By the PNG
specification, metadata is allowed after IDAT, but ExifTool always writes it
before because some utilities will ignore it otherwise.) When set to 3 or
higher, only pseudo system tags and FileType are generated. For 3, the file
header is read to provide an educated guess at FileType. For 4, the file is
not read at all and FileType is determined based on the file's extension.
For 5, generation of Composite tags is also disabled (like setting
<a href="#Composite">Composite</a> to 0).</td>
<td align=center>0, 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="Filter"><td>Filter</td>
<td>Perl expression used to filter all returned tag values. Applies to
PrintConv values only. List items are filtered individually.</td>
<td>Expression to act on the value of the Perl default variable ($_),
changing the value of this variable as required. The current ExifTool
object may be accessed through $self. The value is not changed if $_ is
set to undef.</td>
<td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="FilterW"><td>FilterW</td>
<td>Perl expression used to filter PrintConv values when writing.</td>
<td>Expression to act on the value of the Perl default variable ($_),
changing the value of this variable as required. The current ExifTool
object may be accessed through $self. The tag is not written if $_ is
set to undef.</td>
<td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="FixBase"><td>FixBase</td>
<td>Fix maker notes base offset. Allows values to be extracted from maker notes
which have been corrupted by editing with 3rd party software.</td>
<td>An integer specifying a value to be added to the
maker notes base offset, or the empty string ('') for ExifTool to take its
best guess at the correct base.</td>
<td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="GeoMaxIntSecs"><td>GeoMaxIntSecs</td>
<td>Maximum interpolation time in seconds for
geotagging. Geotagging is treated as an extrapolation if the Geotime value
lies between two fixes in the same track which are separated by a number of
seconds greater than this. Otherwise, the coordinates are calculated as a
linear interpolation between the nearest fixes on either side of the Geotime
value. Set to 0 to disable interpolation and use the coordinates of the
nearest fix instead (provided it is within GeoMaxExtSecs, otherwise
geotagging fails).</td>
<td align=center>A floating point number</td>
<td align=center>1800</td></tr>
<tr id="GeoMaxExtSecs"><td>GeoMaxExtSecs</td>
<td>Maximum extrapolation time in seconds for
geotagging. Geotagging fails if the Geotime value lies outside a GPS track
by a number of seconds greater than this. Otherwise, for an extrapolation
the coordinates of the nearest fix are taken (ie. it is assumed that
you weren't moving during this period).</td>
<td align=center>A floating point number</td>
<td align=center>1800</td></tr>
<tr id="GeoMaxHDOP"><td>GeoMaxHDOP</td>
<td>Maximum Horizontal (2D) Dilution Of Precision
for geotagging. GPS fixes are ignored if the HDOP is greater than this.</td>
<td align=center>A floating point number, or undef</td>
<td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="GeoMaxPDOP"><td>GeoMaxPDOP</td>
<td>Maximum Position (3D) Dilution Of Precision for
geotagging. GPS fixes are ignored if the PDOP is greater than this.</td>
<td align=center>A floating point number, or undef</td>
<td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="GeoMinSats"><td>GeoMinSats</td>
<td>Minimum number of satellites for geotagging.
GPS fixes are ignored if the number of acquired satellites is less than this.</td>
<td align=center>A positive integer, or undef</td>
<td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="GeoSpeedRef"><td>GeoSpeedRef</td>
<td>Reference units for writing GPSSpeed when geotagging.</td>
<td align=center><table class=clear>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>K</b>,&nbsp;<b>k</b>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<b>km/h</b></td><td>=&nbsp;km/h</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>M</b>,&nbsp;<b>m</b>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<b>mph</b></td><td>=&nbsp;mph</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><i>(anything else)</i></td><td>=&nbsp;knots</td></tr>
</table></td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="GlobalTimeShift"><td>GlobalTimeShift</td>
<td>Time shift to apply to all extracted
date/time PrintConv values. Does not affect ValueConv values.</td>
<td align=center>Date/time shift string with leading '-' for negative shifts<br>(see <a href="Shift.html">Image::ExifTool::Shift.pl</a>)</td>
<td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="GroupNum"><td>Group#</td><td>Extract tags only for specified groups in family #
(Group0 assumed if # not given).</td>
<td>Group name or reference to list of group names.
Group name may begin with '-' to exclude a group. Case IS significant.
See <a href="#GetGroup">GetGroup</a> for a description of group families,
and <a href="#GetAllGroups">GetAllGroups</a> for a list of available groups.</td>
<td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="HexTagIDs"><td>HexTagIDs</td><td>Use hexadecimal instead of decimal for the family 7
group names of tags with numerical ID's.</td>
<td align=center>0 or 1</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="HtmlDump"><td>HtmlDump</td><td>Dump information in hex to a dynamic HTML web page.
Option value sets a limit on the maximum block size. Output file is
specified by the TextOut option.</td>
<td align=center><table class=clear>
<tr><td valign=top align=center><b>0</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>No HTML dump</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=center><b>1</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>1 KB size limit</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=center><b>2</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>16 KB size limit</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=center><b>3</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Full dump</td></tr>
</table></td><td align=center>0</td></tr>
<tr id="HtmlDumpBase"><td>HtmlDumpBase</td><td>Base for HTML dump
offsets. If not defined, the EXIF/TIFF base offset is used.</td>
<td align=center><table class=clear>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>0</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Absolute offsets</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><i>non&#8209;zero</i>&nbsp;=</td><td>Relative offsets</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>undef</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>EXIF/TIFF offsets</td></tr>
</table></td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="IgnoreMinorErrors"><td>IgnoreMinorErrors</td><td>Flag to ignore minor errors. Causes minor
errors to be downgraded to warnings, and minor warnings to be ignored. This
option is provided mainly to allow writing of files when minor errors occur,
but by ignoring some minor warnings the behaviour of ExifTool may be changed
to allow some questionable operations to proceed (such as extracting
thumbnail and preview images even if they don't have a recognizable header).
Minor errors/warnings are denoted by "[minor]" at the start of the message,
or "[Minor]" (with a capital "M") for warnings that affect processing when
ignored.</td>
<td align=center>0 or 1</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="IgnoreTags"><td>IgnoreTags</td><td>List of tag names to ignore when reading.
This may help in situations where memory is limited because the ignored tag values
are not stored in memory. The tag names are case insensitive and group names
and wildcards are not allowed. A special tag name of "All" may be used to ignore
all tags except those specified by the <a href="#RequestTags">RequestTags option</a>.</td>
<td>List reference, delimited string of names (any delimiter is allowed), or undef to
clear the previous IgnoreTags list.</td>
<td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="ImageHashType"><td>ImageHashType</td><td>Sets type of hash
algorithm used for the ImageDataHash tag calculation.</td>
<td align=center>'MD5', 'SHA256' or 'SHA512'</td><td align=center>'MD5'</td></tr>
<tr id="Lang"><td>Lang</td><td>Localized language for ExifTool tag descriptions, etc. If the
specified language isn't available, the option is not changed. May be set to
undef to select the built-in default language.</td>
<td align=left>Image::ExifTool::Lang module name (eg. 'fr', 'zh_cn'), or 'en' or undef for the default language.</td>
<td align=center>'en'</td></tr>
<tr id="LargeFileSupport"><td>LargeFileSupport</td><td>Flag to indicate that 64-bit file offsets are supported on this system.</td>
<td align=center>0 or 1</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="LimitLongValues"><td>LimitLongValues</td><td>When extracting some values for
some specific tags (usually Unknown tags), the PrintConv values are length-limited
and the value is truncated with an ellipsis ("[...]") if it exceeds a specified
length. This option specifies the length limit for these tags. A setting of 4 or
less disables the limit (because the ellipsis string is longer than this).</td>
<td align=center>Any integer</td><td align=center>60</td></tr>
<!-- deprecated in ExifTool 10.54; use "ListJoin" instead
<tr id="List"><td>List</td><td>Flag to extract lists of PrintConv values into arrays instead of combining
them into a string of values.</td><td align=center>0 or 1</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
-->
<tr id="ListItem"><td>ListItem</td><td>Return only a specific item from
list-type values. A value of 0 returns the first item in each list, 1 returns
the second item, etc. Negative indices may also be used, with -1 representing the
last item in the list. Applies only to the top-level list of nested lists.</td>
<td align=center>An integer, or undef</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="ListJoin"><td>ListJoin</td><td>Separator used to join the PrintConv value of
multi-item List-type tags into a single string. If not defined, multi-item lists
are returned as a list reference. Does not affect ValueConv values.</td>
<td align=center>Any string, or undef</td><td align=center>', '</td></tr>
<!-- deprecated in ExifTool 10.54; use "ListJoin" instead
<tr id="ListSep"><td>ListSep</td><td>Separator string used to join lists of PrintConv values when
List option is not set.</td><td align=center>Any string</td><td align=center>', '</td></tr>
-->
<tr id="ListSplit"><td>ListSplit</td><td>Regular expression used to split values of list-type tags
into individual items when writing. (eg. Use <code>',\\s*'</code> to split a comma-separated
list.) Split when writing either PrintConv or ValueConv values.</td>
<td align=center>A regular expression pattern, or undef</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="MakerNotes"><td>MakerNotes</td><td>Option to extract MakerNotes and other writable
subdirectories (such as PrintIM) as a data block. Normally when the MakerNotes
are extracted they are rebuilt to include data outside the boundaries of the
original maker note data block, but a value of 2 disables this feature.</td>
<td><table class=clear>
<tr><td valign=top align=center><b>0</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Don't extract writable subdirectories</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=center><b>1</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Extract and rebuild makernotes into self-contained block</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=center><b>2</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Extract without rebuilding makernotes</td></tr>
</table></td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="MDItemTags"><td>MDItemTags</td><td>Flag to extract the OS X
metadata item tags (see the "mdls" man page and the
<a href="TagNames/MacOS.html#MDItem">MacOS MDItem Tags documentation</a> for more information).</td>
<td align=center>0 or 1</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="MissingTagValue"><td>MissingTagValue</td><td>Value for missing tags
interpolated in tag name expressions (or tags where the advanced formatting
expression returns undef). If not set, a minor error is issued for missing
values, or the value is set to '' if IgnoreMinorErrors is set.</td>
<td align=center>Any string, or undef</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="NoDups"><td>NoDups</td><td>Flag to remove duplicate items from queued values for
List-type tags when writing. This applies only to queued values, and doesn't resolve
duplicates with existing values in the file when adding to an existing list.</td>
<td align=center>0 or 1</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="NoMandatory"><td>NoMandatory</td><td>Flag to bypass writing of mandatory EXIF tags.</td>
<td align=center>0 or 1</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="NoMultiExif"><td>NoMultiExif</td><td>Raise error when attempting to write multi-segment
EXIF in a JPEG image.</td><td align=center>0 or 1</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="NoPDFList"><td>NoPDFList</td><td>Flag to avoid splitting PDF list-type tag
values into separate items.</td>
<td align=center>0 or 1</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="NoWarning"><td>NoWarning[+]</td><td>Regular expression to suppress matching
warning messages. For example, a value of "^Ignored" suppresses all
warnings that begin with the word "Ignored". Has no other effect on
processing, unlike <a href="#IgnoreMinorErrors">IgnoreMinorErrors</a> for
some warnings. Start the expression with "(?i)" for case-insensitive
matching. Use NoWarning+ to add to existing expressions.</td>
<td align=center>A regular expression pattern, or undef</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="Password"><td>Password</td><td>Password for reading/writing
password-protected PDF documents. Ignored if a password is not required. Character encoding of
the password is determined by the value of the Charset option at processing time.</td>
<td align=center>Any string</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="PrintConv"><td>PrintConv</td><td>Flag to enable print conversion. Also enables inverse print
conversion for writing.</td><td align=center>0 or 1</td><td align=center>1</td></tr>
<tr id="QuickTimeHandler"><td>QuickTimeHandler</td><td>Flag set to add an 'mdir'
<a href="TagNames/QuickTime.html#Handler">Handler</a> to a newly created
Meta box when adding QuickTime ItemList tags. Adobe Bridge does not add this
Handler, but it is commonly found in samples from other software, and it has been
reported that Apple QuickTime Player and Photos.apps will ignore ItemList tags
if this is missing.</td>
<td align=center>0 or 1</td>
<td align=center>1</td></tr>
<tr id="QuickTimePad"><td>QuickTimePad</td><td>Flag to preserve the padding of
some QuickTime atoms when writing. QuickTime-based Canon CR3 files pad
the values of container atoms with null bytes. This padding is removed by
default when the file is rewritten, but setting this option to 1 adds
padding to preserve the original atom size if the new atom would be smaller
than the original.</td>
<td align=center>0 or 1</td>
<td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="QuickTimeUTC"><td>QuickTimeUTC</td><td>Flag set to assume that QuickTime
date/time values are stored as UTC, causing conversion to local time when they are
extracted and from local time when written. According to the QuickTime
specification date/time values should be UTC, but many digital cameras store
local time instead (presumably because they don't know the time zone), so
the default is to not convert these times (except for Canon CR3 files, which
always use UTC times). This option also disables the autodetection of
incorrect time-zero offsets in QuickTime date/time values, and enforces a
time zero of 1904 as per the QuickTime specification.</td>
<td align=center>0 or 1</td>
<td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="RequestAll"><td>RequestAll</td><td>Flag to request all tags to be extracted.
This causes some tags to be generated which normally would not be unless specifically
requested (by passing the tag name to <a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a> or
<a href="#ExtractInfo">ExtractInfo</a>). May be set to 2 or 3 to enable generation
of some additional tags as mentioned in the <a href="TagNames/index.html">Tag Name documentation</a>.</td>
<td align=center>0, 1, 2 or 3</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="RequestTags"><td>RequestTags</td><td>List of additional tag and/or group names
to request in the next call to <a href="#ExtractInfo">ExtractInfo</a>. This option is
useful only for tags/groups which aren't extracted unless specifically requested. Groups
are requested by adding a colon after the name (eg. "MacOS:"). Names are converted to lower
case as they are added to the list.</td><td>List reference, delimited string of names
(any delimiter is allowed), or undef to clear the previous RequestTags list.</td>
<td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="SaveFormat"><td>SaveFormat</td><td>Flag to save EXIF/TIFF format type as the
family 6 group name when extracting information. Without this option set, the
family 6 group names are not generated. See <a href="#GetGroup">GetGroup</a>
for more details.
</td><td align=center>0 or 1</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="SavePath"><td>SavePath</td><td>Flag to save the metadata path as the family 5 group
name when extracting information. Without this option set, the family 5 group names
are not generated. See <a href="#GetGroup">GetGroup</a> for more details.
</td><td align=center>0 or 1</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="ScanForXMP"><td>ScanForXMP</td><td>Flag to scan all files (even unrecognized
formats) for XMP information unless XMP was already found in the file. When combined with
the FastScan option, only unrecognized file types are scanned for XMP.
</td><td align=center>0 or 1</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="Sort"><td>Sort</td><td>Specifies order to sort tags in the returned tag list.</td>
<td><table class=clear>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>Input</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Sort in same order as input tag arguments</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>File</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Sort in order that tags were found in the file</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>Tag</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Sort alphabetically by tag name</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>Descr</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Sort by tag description (with current Lang setting)</td></tr>
<tr valign=top><td valign=top align=right><b>Group#</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Sort by tag group,
where # is zero or more family numbers separated by colons. If # is not specified,
Group0 is assumed. See <a href="#GetGroup">GetGroup</a> for a description of group
families.</td></tr>
</table></td><td align=center>'Input'</td></tr>
<tr id="Sort2"><td>Sort2</td><td>Secondary sort order used for tags within each group when Sort is 'Group'.</td>
<td><table class=clear>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>File</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Sort in order that tags were found in the file</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>Tag</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Sort alphabetically by tag name</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>Descr</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Sort by tag description (with current Lang setting)</td></tr>
</table></td><td align=center>'File'</td></tr>
<tr id="StrictDate"><td>StrictDate</td><td>Flag to return undefined value for
any date which can't be converted when the DateFormat option is used. When
set to 1 while writing a PrintConv date/time value with the DateFormat
option set, the value is written only if POSIX::strptime or Time::Piece is
available and can successfully convert the value. For PNG CreationTime, a
setting of 1 has the additional effect of causing the date/time to be
reformatted according to PNG 1.2 recommendation (RFC-1123) when writing, and
a warning to be issued for any non-standard value when reading (but note
that Windows may not recognize PNG date/time values in standard format).</td>
<td><table class=clear>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>undef</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Same as 0 for reading/writing or 1 for copying</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>0</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Return bad date/time values unchanged</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>1</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Return undef if date/time value can't be converted</td></tr>
</table></td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="Struct"><td>Struct</td><td>Flag to return XMP structures as HASH references
instead of flattening into individual tags. This setting has no effect
when writing since both flattened and structured tags may always be written.
See the <a href="struct.html">Structured Information documentation</a> for
more details about structured information.</td>
<td><table class=clear>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>undef</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Same as 0 for reading and 2 for copying</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>0</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Read/copy flattened tags</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>1</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Read/copy structures</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>2</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Read/copy both flattened and structured tags,
but flag flattened tags as "unsafe" for copying</td></tr>
</table></td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="StructFormat"><td>StructFormat</td><td>Format for serialized structures when reading/writing.
<a href="struct.html">Read here</a> for more details about structured information.</td>
<td><table class=clear>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>undef</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>ExifTool format</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>JSON</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>JSON format</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>JSONQ</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>JSON with quoted numbers</td></tr>
</table></td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="SystemTags"><td>SystemTags</td><td>Flag to extract the
following additional File System tags: FileAttributes, FileDeviceNumber,
FileInodeNumber, FileHardLinks, FileUserID, FileGroupID, FileDeviceID,
FileBlockSize and FileBlockCount.</td>
<td align=center>0 or 1</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="TextOut"><td>TextOut</td><td>Output file for Verbose and HtmlDump options.</td>
<td align=center>File reference</td><td align=center>\*STDOUT</td></tr>
<tr id="TimeZone"><td>TimeZone</td><td>Time zone for local date/time values. (Requires POSIX::tzset,
which may not be available in Windows. A work-around in Windows is to
<code>set TZ=&lt;zone&gt;</code> before running ExifTool.)</td>
<td>Any valid TZ string, or undef to use the system time zone</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="Unknown"><td>Unknown</td><td>Control extraction of unknown tags.</td>
<td><table class=clear>
<tr><td valign=top align=center><b>0</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Unknown tags not extracted</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=center><b>1</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Unknown tags are extracted from EXIF
(and other tagged-format) directories</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=center><b>2</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Unknown tags also extracted from binary data blocks</td></tr>
</table></td><td align=center>0</td></tr>
<tr id="UserParam"><td>UserParam</td><td>Special option to set/get user-defined parameters.
Useful to allow external input into tag name expressions and ValueConv logic.
<i>PARAM</i> is the user-defined parameter name (case insensitive). These parameters
may be accessed in tag name expressions by prefixing the parameter name with a dollar
sign just like normal tags, or via the API by calling <code>Options('UserParam','PARAM')</code>.
Appending a hash tag (<code>#</code>) to the parameter name also causes the parameter
to be extracted as a normal tag (in the UserParam group). If called without
additional arguments, <code>Options('UserParam')</code> returns a reference to the
hash of all user parameters (with lower-case names).
</td>
<td><table class=clear>
<tr><td valign=top><i>PARAM</i></td><td valign=top>-</td><td>Get parameter</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><i>PARAM=</i></td><td valign=top>-</td><td>Clear parameter</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><i>PARAM^=</i></td><td valign=top>-</td><td>Set parameter to empty string</td></tr></table>
<table class=clear>
<tr><td valign=top><i>PARAM=VALUE</i></td><td valign=top>-</td><td>Set parameter</td></tr>
</table><table class=clear>
<tr><td valign=top><i>hash&nbsp;ref</i></td><td valign=top>-</td><td>Set UserParam hash</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>undef</b></td><td valign=top>-</td><td>Clear UserParam hash</td></tr>
</table>
</td><td align=center>{ }</td></tr>
<tr id="Validate"><td>Validate</td><td>Flag to perform extra metadata validation checks
when reading, causing extra warnings to be generated if problems are found.</td>
<td align=center>0 or 1</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="Verbose"><td>Verbose</td><td>Print verbose messages to file specified by TextOut option.
<a href="verbose.html">Click here</a> for example outputs.</td>
<td><table class=clear>
<tr><td valign=top align=center><b>0</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>No verbose messages</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=center><b>1</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Print tag names and raw values</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=center><b>2</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Add additional tag details</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=center><b>3</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Add hex dump of tag data (with length limits)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=center><b>4</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Remove length limit on dump of tag values</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=center><b>5</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Remove length limit on dump of JPEG segments</td></tr>
</table></td><td align=center>0</td></tr>
<tr id="WindowsWideFile"><td>WindowsWideFile</td><td>Force the use of wide-character
Windows I/O functions when the <a href="#CharsetFileName">CharsetFileName option</a>
is used. This may be necessary when files are on a network drive and the current
directory name contains Unicode characters. By default, the wide-character functions
are used only if the specified file path contains Unicode characters.</td>
<td align=center>0 or 1</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="WriteMode"><td>WriteMode</td><td>Set tag write/create mode. The level of the group
differs for different types of metadata. For XMP or IPTC this is the full XMP/IPTC block
(the family 0 group), but for EXIF this is the individual IFD (the family 1 group).
The 'w' and 'c' modes are tested only when <a href="#SetNewValue">SetNewValue</a>
is called, but the 'g' mode is also tested in <a href="#WriteInfo">WriteInfo</a>.</td>
<td>A string with one or more of these characters:<table class=clear>
<tr><td valign=top align=center><b>w</b>&nbsp;=</td><td><b>W</b>rite existing tags</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=center><b>c</b>&nbsp;=</td><td><b>C</b>reate new tags</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=center><b>g</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Create new <b>g</b>roups <sup>&dagger;</sup></td></tr>
</table></td><td align=center>'wcg'</td></tr>
<tr id="XAttrTags"><td>XAttrTags</td><td>Flag to extract the OS X
extended attribute tags (see the "xattr" man page and the
<a href="TagNames/MacOS.html#XAttr">MacOS XAttr Tags documentation</a> for more information).</td>
<td align=center>0 or 1</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr id="XMPAutoConv"><td>XMPAutoConv</td><td>Flag to enable automatic conversion
when reading unknown XMP tags with values that look like rational numbers or dates.</td>
<td align=center>0 or 1</td>
<td align=center>1</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table><tr><td valign=top><sup>&dagger;</sup></td><td>The level of
the group differs for different types of metadata. For XMP or IPTC this is the
full XMP/IPTC block (the family 0 group), but for EXIF this is the individual
IFD (the family 1 group).</td></tr></table></blockquote>
<p><b>Examples:</b></p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># exclude the 'OwnerName' tag from returned information</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>Options</b>(Exclude =&gt; 'OwnerName');
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># only get information in EXIF or MakerNotes groups</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>Options</b>(Group0 =&gt; ['EXIF', 'MakerNotes']);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># ignore information from IFD1</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>Options</b>(Group1 =&gt; '-IFD1');
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># sort by groups in family 2, and extract unknown tags</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>Options</b>(Sort =&gt; 'Group2', Unknown =&gt; 1);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># reset DateFormat option</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>Options</b>(DateFormat =&gt; undef);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># do not extract duplicate tag names</span>
$oldSetting = $exifTool-&gt;<b>Options</b>(Duplicates =&gt; 0);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># get current Verbose setting</span>
$isVerbose = $exifTool-&gt;<b>Options</b>('Verbose');
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># set a user parameter</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>Options</b>(UserParam => 'MyParam=some value');
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="ClearOptions">ClearOptions</a></h2>
<p>Reset all options to their default values. Loads user-defined default
option values from the %Image::ExifTool::UserDefined::Options hash in
the .ExifTool_config file if it exists.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>ClearOptions()</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td><b>0)</b> ExifTool object reference
</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="ExtractInfo">ExtractInfo</a></h2>
<p>Extract all meta information from an image.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>ExtractInfo($;@)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td><b>0)</b> ExifTool object reference
<br><b>1-N)</b> Same as <a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a> except that a list of tag
keys is not returned if an ARRAY reference is given.
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>1 if this was a recognized file format, 0 otherwise</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p><b>Example:</b></p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
$success = $exifTool-&gt;<b>ExtractInfo</b>('image.jpg', \%options);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<p>The following options are effective in the call to <a href="#ExtractInfo">ExtractInfo</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
Binary, Charset, CharsetEXIF, CharsetFileName, CharsetID3, CharsetIPTC,
CharsetPhotoshop, CharsetQuickTime, CharsetRIFF, Composite, ExtendedXMP,
ExtractEmbedded, FastScan, FixBase, HtmlDump, HtmlDumpBase,
IgnoreMinorErrors, Lang, LargeFileSupport, MakerNotes, MDItemTags,
NoPDFList, Password, QuickTimeUTC (enforced 1904 time zero), RequestAll,
RequestTags, SaveFormat, SavePath, ScanForXMP, Struct, TextOut, Unknown,
Verbose, WindowsWideFile, XAttrTags and XMPAutoConv.
</blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="GetInfo">GetInfo</a></h2>
<p><a href="#GetInfo">GetInfo</a> is called to return meta information
after it has been extracted from the image by a previous call to
<a href="#ExtractInfo">ExtractInfo</a> or <a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a>.
This function may be called repeatedly after a single call to
<a href="#ExtractInfo">ExtractInfo</a> or <a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a>.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>GetInfo($;@)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td><b>0)</b> ExifTool object reference
<br><b>1-N)</b> Same as <a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a> except that an image
can not be specified
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>Reference to information hash, the same as with
<a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a></td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p><b>Examples:</b></p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># get image width and height only</span>
$info = $exifTool-&gt;<b>GetInfo</b>('ImageWidth', 'ImageHeight');
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># get all Error and Warning messages</span>
$info = $exifTool-&gt;<b>GetInfo</b>('Error', 'Warning');
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># get information for all tags in list (list updated with tags found)</span>
$info = $exifTool-&gt;<b>GetInfo</b>(\@ioTagList);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># get all information in Author or Location groups</span>
$info = $exifTool-&gt;<b>GetInfo</b>({Group2 =&gt; ['Author', 'Location']});
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<p>The following options are effective in the call to <a href="#GetInfo">GetInfo</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
Charset, CoordFormat, DateFormat, Duplicates, Escape, Exclude, Filter, Group#,
GlobalTimeShift, Lang, ListItem, ListJoin, PrintConv, QuickTimeUTC (conversion
to local time), Sort (if a tag list reference is given) and StrictDate.
</blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="WriteInfo">WriteInfo</a></h2>
<p>Write meta information to a file. The specified source file is rewritten to
the same-type destination file with new information as specified by previous
calls to <a href="#SetNewValue">SetNewValue</a>. The necessary segments and/or
directories are created in the destination file as required to store the
specified information. May be called repeatedly to write the same information
to additional files without the need to call <a href="#SetNewValue">SetNewValue</a>
again.</p>
<p>ExifTool queues all new values that are assigned via calls to
<a href="#SetNewValue">SetNewValue</a>, then applies them to any number of files
through one or more calls to <a href="#WriteInfo">WriteInfo</a>. These queued
values may be accessed through <a href="#GetNewValue">GetNewValue</a>, and are
completely separate from metadata extracted from files via
<a href="#ExtractInfo">ExtractInfo</a> or <a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a>
and accessed through <a href="#GetInfo">GetInfo</a> or
<a href="#GetValue">GetValue</a>.</p>
<p>To be clear, it is <b>NOT</b> necessary to call <a href="#ExtractInfo">ExtractInfo</a>
or <a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a> before <a href="#WriteInfo">WriteInfo</a>.
<a href="#WriteInfo">WriteInfo</a> changes only metadata specified by previous
calls to <a href="#SetNewValue">SetNewValue</a>.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>WriteInfo($$;$$)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td><b>0)</b> ExifTool object reference
<br><b>1)</b> Source file name, file reference, scalar reference, or undef to
create a file from scratch. A reference to a File::RandomAccess object is
also allowed as a source, but in this case the destination is not optional.
<br><b>2)</b> [<i>optional</i>] Destination file name, file reference, scalar
reference to write to memory, or undef to overwrite the original file. May
be '-' to write to stdout.
<br><b>3)</b> [<i>optional</i>] Destination file type. Ignored if a source
is defined.
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>1 if file was written OK, 2 if file was written
but no changes made, 0 on file write error.
</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p>The source file name may be undefined to create a file from scratch
(currently only XMP, MIE, ICC, VRD, DR4, EXV and EXIF files can be created
in this way -- see <a href="#CanCreate">CanCreate</a> for details).
If undefined, the destination file type is required unless the type can be
determined from the extension of the destination file name.</p>
<p>If a destination file name is given, the specified file must not exist
because an existing destination file will not be overwritten. Any new
values for FileName, Directory or HardLink are ignored when a destination
file name is specified.</p>
<p>The destination file name may be undefined to overwrite the original file
(make sure you have backups!). In this case, if a source file name is
provided, a temporary file is created and renamed to replace the source file
if no errors occurred while writing. Otherwise, if a source file reference
or scalar reference is used, the image is first written to memory then
copied back to replace the original if there were no errors.</p>
<p>On Mac OS systems, the file resource fork is preserved if this routine
is called with a source file name.</p>
<p><b>Examples:</b></p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># add information to a source file, writing output to new file</span>
my $result = $exifTool-&gt;<b>WriteInfo</b>($srcfile, $dstfile);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># create XMP data file from scratch</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>WriteInfo</b>(undef, $dstfile, 'XMP');
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># overwrite file (you do have backups, right?)</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>WriteInfo</b>($srcfile);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># retrieve error and warning messages</span>
$errorMessage = $exifTool-&gt;<a href="#GetValue">GetValue</a>('Error');
$warningMessage = $exifTool-&gt;<a href="#GetValue">GetValue</a>('Warning');
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<p>If an error code is returned, an Error tag is set and GetValue('Error') can
be called to obtain the error description. A Warning tag may be set even if
this routine is successful. Calling WriteInfo clears any pre-existing Error
and Warning tags.</p>
<p>The following ExifTool options are effective in the call to
<a href="#WriteInfo">WriteInfo</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
ByteOrder, Charset, CharsetEXIF, CharsetFileName, CharsetIPTC, Compact,
Compress, FixBase, IgnoreMinorErrors, NoMultiExif, NoPDFList, Password,
QuickTimeHandler, QuickTimePad, Verbose, WindowsWideFile and WriteMode.
</blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="GetTagList">GetTagList</a></h2>
<p>Get a sorted list of tags from the specified information hash or tag list.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>GetTagList($;$$$)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td><b>0)</b> ExifTool object reference
<br><b>1)</b> [<i>optional</i>] Reference to info hash or tag list
<br><b>2)</b> [<i>optional</i>] Sort order ('Input', 'File', 'Tag', 'Descr' or 'Group#')
<br><b>3)</b> [<i>optional</i>] Secondary sort order ('File', 'Tag' or 'Descr')
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>List of tag keys in specified order</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p><b>Example:</b></p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
@tags = $exifTool-&gt;<b>GetTagList</b>($info, 'Group0');
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<p>If the information hash or tag list reference is not provided, then the list
of found tags from the last call to <a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a>,
<a href="#ExtractInfo">ExtractInfo</a> or <a href="#GetInfo">GetInfo</a>
is used instead, and the result is the same as if
<a href="#GetFoundTags">GetFoundTags</a> was called. If sort order is not
specified, the sort order is taken from the current options settings.</p>
<hr><h2><a name="GetFoundTags">GetFoundTags</a></h2>
<p>Get list of found tags in specified sort order. The found tags are the
tags for the information obtained from the most recent call to
<a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a>, <a href="#ExtractInfo">ExtractInfo</a>
or <a href="#GetInfo">GetInfo</a> for this object.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>GetFoundTags($;$$)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td><b>0)</b> ExifTool object reference
<br><b>1)</b> [<i>optional</i>] Sort order ('Input', 'File', 'Tag', 'Descr' or 'Group#')
<br><b>2)</b> [<i>optional</i>] Secondary sort order ('File', 'Tag' or 'Descr')
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>List of tag keys in the specified order</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p><b>Example:</b></p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
my @tags = $exifTool-&gt;<b>GetFoundTags</b>('File');
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="GetRequestedTags">GetRequestedTags</a></h2>
<p>Get list of requested tags. These are the tags that were specified
in the arguments of the most recent call to <a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a>,
<a href="#ExtractInfo">ExtractInfo</a> or <a href="#GetInfo">GetInfo</a>,
including tags specified via a tag list reference. They are returned
in the same order that they were specified. Shortcut tags are expanded
in the list.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>GetRequestedTags($)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td><b>0)</b> ExifTool object reference
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>List of tag keys for requested tags
(empty if no tags specifically requested)</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p><b>Example:</b></p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
my @requestedTags = $exifTool-&gt;<b>GetRequestedTags</b>();
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="GetValue">GetValue</a></h2>
<p>Get the value of a specified tag. The returned value is either the
human-readable (PrintConv) value, the converted machine-readable (ValueConv)
value, the original raw (Raw) value, or the original rational (Rational) value
for rational formats. If the value type is not specified, the PrintConv value
is returned if the PrintConv option is set, otherwise the ValueConv value is
returned. The PrintConv values are the same as the values returned by
<a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a> and <a href="#GetInfo">GetInfo</a> in the
tag/value hash unless the PrintConv option is disabled.</p>
<p>Tags which represent lists of multiple values (as may happen with
'<code>Keywords</code>' for example) are handled specially. In scalar context,
the returned PrintConv value for these tags is either a string of values or
a list reference (depending on the ListJoin option setting), and the ValueConv
value is always a list reference. But in list context,
<a href="#GetValue">GetValue</a> always returns the list itself.</p>
<p>Note that <a href="#GetInfo">GetValue</a> requires a case-sensitive tag key
as an argument. To retrieve tag information based on a case-insensitive tag name
(with an optional group specifier), use <a href="#GetInfo">GetInfo</a>
instead.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>GetValue($$;$)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td><b>0)</b> ExifTool object reference
<br><b>1)</b> Tag key, or case-sensitive tag name with optional group prefix(es)
<br><b>2)</b> [<i>optional</i>] Value type, 'PrintConv', 'ValueConv', 'Both',
'Raw' or 'Rational'
<br>&nbsp;<br>The default value type is 'PrintConv' if the PrintConv option
is set, otherwise the default is 'ValueConv'. A value type of 'Both'
returns both ValueConv and PrintConv values as a list. 'Rational' returns
the raw rational value as a string fraction for rational types, or undef for
other types.
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>
The value of the specified tag. If the tag represents a list of multiple values
and the ListJoin option is enabled then PrintConv returns a string of values,
otherwise a reference to the list is returned in scalar context. The list
itself is returned in list context. (Unless 'Both' values are requested, in
which case two list references are returned, regardless of context.) Values may
also be scalar references to binary data, or hash references if the
<a href="#Struct">Struct</a> option is set.<br>&nbsp;<br> Note: It is possible
for <a href="#GetValue">GetValue</a> to return an undefined ValueConv or
PrintConv value (or an empty list in list context) even if the tag exists, since
it is possible for these conversions to yield undefined values. And the
Rational value will be undefined for any non-rational tag. The Raw value should
always exist if the tag exists.
</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p><b>Examples:</b></p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># PrintConv example</span>
my $val = $exifTool-&gt;<b>GetValue</b>($tag);
if (ref $val eq 'SCALAR') {
print "$tag = (unprintable value)\n";
} else {
print "$tag = $val\n";
}
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># ValueConv example</span>
my $val = $exifTool-&gt;<b>GetValue</b>($tag, 'ValueConv');
if (ref $val eq 'ARRAY') {
print "$tag is a list of values\n";
} elsif (ref $val eq 'SCALAR') {
print "$tag represents binary data\n";
} else {
print "$tag is a simple scalar\n";
}
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># list example</span>
my @keywords = $exifTool-&gt;<b>GetValue</b>('Keywords', 'ValueConv');
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<p>The following options are in effect when <a href="#GetValue">GetValue</a> is
called:</p>
<blockquote>
Charset, CoordFormat, DateFormat, Escape, Filter, GlobalTimeShift, Lang,
ListItem, ListJoin, PrintConv, QuickTimeUTC (conversion to local time),
StrictDate and TimeZone.
</blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="SetNewValue">SetNewValue</a></h2>
<p>Set the new value for a tag. The routine may be called multiple times to set
the values of many tags before using <a href="#WriteInfo">WriteInfo</a> to write
the new values to an image. These values remain queued for writing to subsequent
files until <a href="#SetNewValue">SetNewValue</a> is called without arguments
to reset the queued values.</p>
<p>For list-type tags (like <code>Keywords</code>), either call repeatedly with
the same tag name for each value, or call with a reference to the list of values.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>SetNewValue($;$$%)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td><b>0)</b> ExifTool object reference
<br><b>1)</b> [<i>optional</i>] Tag key or tag name, or undef to clear all new
values. The tag name may be prefixed one or more family 0, 1 or 2 group
names with optional leading family numbers, separated by colons (eg.
'<code>EXIF:Artist</code>', '<code>XMP:Time:*</code>'), which is equivalent
to using a Group option argument. Also, a '<code>#</code>' may be appended
to the tag name (eg. '<code>EXIF:Orientation#</code>'), with the same effect
as setting Type to 'ValueConv'. Wildcards ('<code>*</code>' and
'<code>?</code>') may be used in the tag name to assign or delete multiple
tags simultaneously. A tag name of '<code>*</code>' is special when deleting
information, and will delete an entire group even if some individual tags in
the group are not writable, but only if a single family 0 or 1 group name is
specified (otherwise, the tags are deleted individually). Use
<a href="#GetDeleteGroups">GetDeleteGroups</a> to get a list of deletable group
names, and see the <a href="TagNames/index.html">TagNames documentation</a>
for a complete list of ExifTool tag names.
<br><b>2)</b> [<i>optional</i>] New value for tag. Undefined to delete tag
from file. May be a scalar, scalar reference, list reference to set a list
of values, or hash reference for a structure. Integer values may be
specified as a hexadecimal string (with a leading '0x'), and simple
rational values may be specified in fractional form (eg. '4/10'). Structure
tags may be specified either as a hash reference or a serialized string
(see the last two examples below).
<br><b>3-N)</b> [<i>optional</i>] SetNewValue option/value pairs (see below).
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>Scalar context: The number of tags set, and
errors are printed to STDERR.
<br>List context: The number of tags set, and the error string (undefined if no error).
</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><th colspan=4 bgcolor='#dddddd'>SetNewValue Options</th></tr>
<tr><th>Option</th><th>Description</th><th width='30%'>Values</th><th>Default</th></tr>
<tr><td>AddValue</td><td>Add value to existing list <b>in a file</b> rather than
overwriting the existing values</td>
<td><table class=clear>
<tr><td valign=top align=center><b>0</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Overwrite existing value(s)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=center><b>1</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Add to existing list, or warn for non-list tags</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=center><b>2</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Add to existing list, or overwrite non-list tags</td></tr>
</table></td><td align=center>0</td></tr>
<tr><td>DelValue</td><td>Delete existing tag from a file if it has the specified
value. For list-type tags this deletes a specified item from the list. For
non-list tags this may be used to conditionally replace a tag by providing a
new value in a separate call to <a href="#SetNewValue">SetNewValue</a> (see
examples below). For structured tags, the entire structure is deleted/replaced
only if all of the specified fields match the existing structure.</td>
<td align=center>0 or 1</td><td align=center>0</td></tr>
<tr><td>EditGroup</td><td>Create tags in existing groups only. Don't create new group.
Effectively removes the 'g' from the ExifTool WriteMode option for this tag only.</td>
<td align=center>0 or 1</td><td align=center>0</td></tr>
<tr><td>EditOnly</td><td>Edit tag only if it already exists. Don't create new tag.
Effectively removes the 'c' from the ExifTool WriteMode option for this tag only.</td>
<td align=center>0 or 1</td><td align=center>0</td></tr>
<tr><td>Group</td><td>Specifies group name where tag should be written. This
option is superseded by any group specified in the tag name. If not
specified, tag is written to highest priority group as specified by
<a href="#SetNewGroups">SetNewGroups</a>. Case is not significant</td>
<td align=center>One or more family 0, 1 or 2 groups with optional leading
family number, separated by colons</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr><td>NoFlat</td><td>Treat flattened tags as 'unsafe'</td><td align=center>0 or 1</td><td align=center>0</td></tr>
<tr><td>NoShortcut</td><td>Disables default behaviour of looking up tag in
shortcuts if not found otherwise.</td><td align=center>0 or 1</td><td align=center>0</td></tr>
<tr><td>Protected</td><td>Allow unsafe and protected tags to be written</td>
<td>Bitmask of tag protection levels to write:
<table class=clear>
<tr><td valign=top align=center><b>0x01</b>&nbsp;=</td>
<td>Write '<a href="TagNames/index.html">unsafe</a>' tags (ie. tags not copied
automatically via <a href="#SetNewValuesFromFile">SetNewValuesFromFile</a>)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=center><b>0x02</b>&nbsp;=</td>
<td>Write '<a href="TagNames/index.html">protected</a>' tags (internal use only)</td></tr>
</table></td><td align=center>0</td></tr>
<tr><td>ProtectSaved</td><td>Avoid setting new values which were saved after the Nth
call to <a href="#SaveNewValues">SaveNewValues</a>. Has no effect on unsaved values,
or values saved before the Nth call.</td><td align=center>N</td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr><td>Replace</td><td>Replace previous new values for this tag (ie. replace the values
set in previous calls to <a href="#SetNewValue">SetNewValue</a>). This option
is most commonly used to replace previously-set new values for list-type tags.</td>
<td><table class=clear>
<tr><td valign=top align=center><b>0</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Set new value normally (adds to new values for list-type tags)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=center><b>1</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Reset any previous new values before setting new value</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=center><b>2</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Reset previous new values only (new value argument is ignored)</td></tr>
</table></td><td align=center>0</td></tr>
<tr><td>Shift</td><td>Shift the tag by the specified value. Currently only date/time tags
and tags with numerical values may be shifted. Value is added if Shift is 1, or subtracted
if Shift is -1. See <a href="Shift.html">Image::ExifTool::Shift.pl</a> for details time shift formats.</td>
<td><table class=clear>
<tr><td valign=top align=left colspan=2><b>undef</b>&nbsp;= No shift</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>0</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Shift if shiftable:<br>
Positive if AddValue set, or<br>
Negative if DelValue set and<br>
tag is date/time</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>1</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Positive shift</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top align=right><b>-1</b>&nbsp;=</td><td>Negative shift</td></tr>
</table></td><td align=center>undef</td></tr>
<tr><td>Type</td><td>The type of value being set</td>
<td>PrintConv, ValueConv or Raw (default depends on <a href="#PrintConv">PrintConv</a> Option)</td>
<td align=center>PrintConv or ValueConv</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p><b>Examples:</b></p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># set a new value for a tag (errors go to STDERR)</span>
$success = $exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValue</b>($tag, $value);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># set a new value and capture any error message</span>
($success, $errStr) = $exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValue</b>($tag, $value);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># delete information for specified tag if it exists in image
# (also resets AddValue and DelValue options for this tag)</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValue</b>($tag);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># reset all values from previous calls to SetNewValue()</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValue</b>();
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># delete a specific keyword</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValue</b>('Keywords', $word, DelValue =&gt; 1);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># set keywords (a list-type tag) with two new values</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValue</b>(Keywords =&gt; 'word1');
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValue</b>(Keywords =&gt; 'word2');
<span class=com># equivalent, but set both in one call using an array reference</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValue</b>(Keywords =&gt; ['word1','word2']);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># add a keyword without replacing existing keywords in the file</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValue</b>(Keywords =&gt; $word, AddValue =&gt; 1);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># conditionally add or replace a tag if it didn't exist before
# or had a specified value ("old value")</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValue</b>(Description =&gt; '', DelValue =&gt; 1);
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValue</b>(Description =&gt; 'old value', DelValue =&gt; 1);
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValue</b>(Description =&gt; 'new value');
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># set a tag in a specific group</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValue</b>(Headline =&gt; $val, Group =&gt; 'XMP');
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValue</b>('XMP:Headline' =&gt; $val); <span class=com># (equivalent)</span>
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># shift original date/time back by 2.5 hours</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValue</b>(DateTimeOriginal =&gt; '2:30', Shift =&gt; -1);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># write a tag only if it had a specific value
# (the order of the following calls is not significant)</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValue</b>(Title =&gt; $oldVal, DelValue =&gt; 1);
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValue</b>(Title =&gt; $newVal);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># write tag by numerical value</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValue</b>(Orientation =&gt; 6, Type =&gt; 'ValueConv');
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValue</b>('Orientation#' =&gt; 6); <span class=com># (equivalent)</span>
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># delete all but EXIF tags</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValue</b>('*'); <span class=com># delete all...</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValue</b>('EXIF:*', undef, Replace =&gt; 2); <span class=com># ...but EXIF</span>
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td>
<pre><span class=com># write structured information as a HASH reference</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValue</b>('XMP:Flash' =&gt; { mode=>'on', fired=>'true', return=>'not' });</pre>
</td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td>
<pre><span class=com># write structured information as a serialized string</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValue</b>('XMP:Flash' =&gt; '{mode=on,fired=true,return=not}');</pre>
</td></tr></table>(see <a href="struct.html#Serialize">struct.html</a> for a
description of the structure serialization technique)</blockquote>
<p><b>Notes:</b></p>
<p>When deleting groups of tags, the Replace option may be used to exclude
specific groups from a mass delete. However, this technique may not be used to
exclude individual tags from a group delete (unless a family 2 group was
specified in the delete). Instead, use
<a href="#SetNewValuesFromFile">SetNewValuesFromFile</a> to recover the values
of individual tags after deleting a group.</p>
<p>When deleting all tags from a JPEG image, the APP14 "Adobe" information is
not deleted by default because doing so may affect the appearance of the image.
However, this information may be deleted by specifying it explicitly, either by
group (with '<code>Adobe:*</code>') or as a block (with '<code>Adobe</code>').</p>
<p>The following ExifTool options are effective in the call to
<a href="#SetNewValue">SetNewValue</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
Charset, DateFormat, Escape, IgnoreMinorErrors, Lang, ListJoin, ListSplit,
PrintConv, QuickTimeUTC, StrictDate, TimeZone, Verbose and WriteMode.
</blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="GetNewValue">GetNewValue</a><a name="GetNewValues"></a></h2>
<p>Get the new Raw value for a tag. This is the value set by
<a href="#SetNewValue">SetNewValue</a> that is queued to be written to
file. List-type tags may return multiple values in list context.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>GetNewValue($$)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td><b>0)</b> ExifTool object reference
<br><b>1)</b> Tag name (case sensitive, may be prefixed by family 0, 1 or 7
group names, separated by colons)
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>List of new Raw tag values, or first value in
list when called in scalar context. The list may be empty either if the tag
isn't being written, or if it is being deleted (ie. if
<a href="#SetNewValue">SetNewValue</a> was called without a value).
</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p><b>Examples:</b></p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
my $rawVal = $exifTool-&gt;<b>GetNewValue</b>($tag);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
my @rawVals = $exifTool-&gt;<b>GetNewValue</b>($tag);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<p><b>Notes:</b></p>
<p>The API NoDups option applies when this routine is called, and removes
duplicate items from values returned for List-type tags.</p>
<hr><h2><a name="SetNewValuesFromFile">SetNewValuesFromFile</a></h2>
<p>A very powerful routine that sets new values for tags from information found
in a specified file.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>SetNewValuesFromFile($$;@)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td><b>0)</b> ExifTool object reference
<br><b>1)</b> File name, file reference, or scalar reference
<br><b>2-N)</b> [<i>optional</i>] List of tag names to set or options hash
references. All writable tags are set if none are specified. The tag names
are not case sensitive, and may be prefixed by one or more family 0, 1, 2
or 7 group names with optional leading family numbers, separated by colons (eg.
'<code>exif:iso</code>'). A leading '<code>-</code>' indicates tags to be
excluded (eg. '<code>-comment</code>'), or a trailing '<code>#</code>' causes
the ValueConv value to be copied (same as setting the Type option to
'ValueConv' for this tag only). A leading '<code>+</code>' sets the Replace
option to 0 on a per-tag basis (see Options below). Wildcards ('<code>*</code>'
and '<code>?</code>') may be used in the tag name. A tag name of
'<code>*</code>' is commonly used when a group is specified to copy all tags in
the group (eg. '<code>XMP:*</code>').<br>&nbsp;<br>
A special feature allows tag names of the form '<code>DSTTAG&lt;SRCTAG</code>'
(or '<code>SRCTAG&gt;DSTTAG</code>') to be specified to copy information to a
tag with a different name or a specified group. Both '<code>SRCTAG</code>' and
'<code>DSTTAG</code>' may contain wildcards and/or be prefixed by a group name
(eg. '<code>fileModifyDate&lt;modifyDate</code>' or '<code>xmp:*&lt;*</code>'),
and/or suffixed by a '<code>#</code>' to disable print conversion. Copied tags
may also be added or deleted from a list with arguments of the form
'<code>DSTTAG+&lt;SRCTAG</code>' or '<code>DSTTAG-&lt;SRCTAG</code>'. Tags are
evaluated in order, so exclusions apply only to tags included earlier in the
list. An extension of this feature allows the tag value to be set from a
string containing tag names with leading '<code>$</code>' symbols (eg.
'<code>Comment&lt;the file is $filename</code>'). Braces '<code>{}</code>' may
be used around a tag name to separate it from subsequent text, and a
'<code>$$</code>' is used to to represent a '<code>$</code>' symbol. The
behaviour for missing tags in expressions is defined by the
<a href="#MissingTagValue">MissingTagValue</a> option. The tag value may be
modified via changes to the default input variable (<code>$_</code>) in a Perl
expression placed inside the braces and after a semicolon following the tag
name (see the last example below). A <code>@</code> may be added after the tag
name (before the semicolon) to make the expression act on individual list items
instead of the concatenated string for list-type tags. The expression has
access to the full ExifTool API through the current ExifTool object
(<code>$self</code>) and the tag key (<code>$tag</code>). Braces within the
expression must be balanced.<br>&nbsp;<br>
Multiple options hash references may be passed to set different options for
different tags. Options apply to subsequent tags in the argument list.
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>A hash of information that was set
successfully. May include Warning or Error entries if there were problems
reading the input file.
</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p>By default, this routine will commute information between same-named tags in
different groups, allowing information to be translated between images with
different formats. This behaviour may be modified by specifying a group name
for extracted tags (even if '<code>*</code>' is used as a group name), in which
case the information is written to the original group, unless redirected to a
different group. When '<code>*</code>' is used for a group name, by default the
family 1 group of the original tag is preserved, but a different family may be
specified with a leading family number. (For example, specifying
'<code>*:*</code>' copies all information while preserving the original family 1
groups, while '<code>0*:*</code>' preserves the family 0 group.)</p>
<p><b>SetNewValuesFromFile Options:</b></p>
<p>The options are the same was for <a href="#SetNewValue">SetNewValue</a>, and
are passed directly to <a href="#SetNewValue">SetNewValue</a> internally,
with a few exceptions:</p>
<ul>
<li>The Replace option defaults to 1 instead of 0 as with
<a href="#SetNewValue">SetNewValue</a>, however the tag name argument may be
prefixed with '+' to set the Replace option to 0 for this argument only.</li>
<li>The AddValue or DelValue option is set for individual tags if '+&gt;' or
'-&gt;' (or '+&lt;' or '-&lt;') are used.</li>
<li>The Group option is set for tags where a group name is given.</li>
<li>The Protected flag is set to 1 for individually specified tags.</li>
<li>The Type option also applies to extracted tags.</li>
</ul>
<p><b>Examples:</b></p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># set new values from all information in a file...</span>
my $info = $exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValuesFromFile</b>($srcFile);
<span class=com># ...then write these values to another image</span>
my $result = $exifTool-&gt;<a href="#WriteInfo">WriteInfo</a>($file2, $outFile);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># set all new values, preserving original groups</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValuesFromFile</b>($srcFile, '*:*');
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># set specific information</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValuesFromFile</b>($srcFile, $tag1, $tag2...);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># set new value from a different tag in specific group</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValuesFromFile</b>($src, 'XMP-dc:Subject&lt;IPTC:Keywords');
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># add all IPTC keywords to XMP subject list</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValuesFromFile</b>($src, 'XMP-dc:Subject+&lt;IPTC:Keywords');
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># set new value from a string involving other tags</span>
$exifTool-><b>SetNewValuesFromFile</b>($file,
'Comment&lt;ISO=$ISO Aperture=$aperture Exposure=$shutterSpeed');
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># set keywords list from the values of multiple tags</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValuesFromFile</b>($file, { Replace =&gt; 0 },
'keywords&lt;xmp:subject', 'keywords&lt;filename');
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># copy all EXIF information, preserving the original IFD
# (without '*.*&lt;' tags would be copied to the preferred EXIF IFD)</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValuesFromFile</b>($file, '*:*&lt;EXIF:*');
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># copy all tags with names starting with "gps" (note: this is
# different than "gps:*" because it will also copy XMP GPS tags)</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValuesFromFile</b>($file, 'gps*');
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># set FileName from Model, translating questionable characters to underlines</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewValuesFromFile</b>($file, 'filename&lt;${model;tr(/\\\\?*:|"&lt;&gt;)(_)}.jpg');
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<p><b>Notes:</b></p>
<p>The PrintConv option applies to this routine, but it normally should be left
on to provide more reliable transfer of information between groups.</p>
<p>If a preview image exists, it is not copied. The preview image must be
transferred separately if desired, in a separate call to
<a href="#WriteInfo">WriteInfo</a></p>
<p>When simply copying all information between files of the same type, it is
usually desirable to preserve the original groups by specifying
'<code>*:*</code>' for the tags to set.</p>
<p>The <a href="#Duplicates">Duplicates</a> option is always in effect for tags
extracted from the source file using this routine.</p>
<p>The <a href="#Struct">Struct</a> option is enabled by default for tags
extracted by this routine. This allows the hierarchy of complex structures to
be preserved when copying, but the Struct option may be set to 0 to override
this behaviour and copy as flattened tags instead.</p>
<hr><h2><a name="CountNewValues">CountNewValues</a></h2>
<p>Return the total number of new values set.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>CountNewValues($)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td><b>0)</b> ExifTool object reference
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>In scalar context, returns the total number
of tags with new values set. In list context, also returns the number of
"pseudo" tag values which have been set. "Pseudo" tags are tags like FileName
and FileModifyDate which are not contained within the file and can be changed
without rewriting the file.</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p><b>Examples:</b></p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
my $numSet = $exifTool-&gt;<b>CountNewValues</b>();
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
my ($numSet, $numPseudo) = $exifTool-&gt;<b>CountNewValues</b>();
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="SaveNewValues">SaveNewValues</a></h2>
<p>Save state of new values to be later restored by <a href="#RestoreNewValues">RestoreNewValues</a>.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>SaveNewValues($)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td><b>0)</b> ExifTool object reference
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>Count of the number of times this routine has
been called (N) since the last time the new values were reset.</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p><b>Example:</b></p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SaveNewValues</b>(); <span class=com># save state of new values</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<a href="#SetNewValue">SetNewValue</a>(ISO =&gt; 100); <span class=com># set new value for ISO</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<a href="#WriteInfo">WriteInfo</a>($src, $dst1); <span class=com># write ISO plus any previous new values</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>RestoreNewValues</b>(); <span class=com># restore previous new values</span>
$exifTool-&gt;<a href="#WriteInfo">WriteInfo</a>($src, $dst2); <span class=com># write previous new values only</span>
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="RestoreNewValues">RestoreNewValues</a></h2>
<p>Restore new values to the settings that existed when
<a href="#SaveNewValues">SaveNewValues</a> was last called. May be called
repeatedly after a single call to <a href="#SaveNewValues">SaveNewValues</a>.
See <a href="#SaveNewValues">SaveNewValues</a> above for an example.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>RestoreNewValues($)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td><b>0)</b> ExifTool object reference
</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="SetAlternateFile">SetAlternateFile</a></h2>
<p>Specify alternate file from which to read metadata. Tags from the alternate
file are available after <a href="#ExtractInfo">ExtractInfo</a> is called or
during a call to <a href="#SetNewValuesFromFile">SetNewValuesFromFile</a> by
using a family 8 group name (eg. '<code>File1</code>' in the example below).</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>SetAlternateFile($$$)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td><b>0)</b> ExifTool object reference
<br><b>1)</b> Case insensitive family 8 group name ('File1', 'File2' or 'File3', etc)
<br><b>2)</b> Name of alternate input file, or undef to reset
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>1 on success, or 0 if the group name is invalid.
</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p><b>Example:</b></p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SetAlternateFile</b>(File1 =&gt; 'images/test1.jpg');
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="SetFileModifyDate">SetFileModifyDate</a></h2>
<p>Write the filesystem modification or creation time from the new value of the
FileModifyDate or FileCreateDate tag.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>SetFileModifyDate($$;$$)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td><b>0)</b> ExifTool object reference
<br><b>1)</b> File name
<br><b>2)</b> [<i>optional</i>] Base time if applying shift (in days before $^T)
<br><b>3)</b> [<i>optional</i>] Tag to write: 'FileModifyDate' (default), or 'FileCreateDate'
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>1 if the time was changed, 0 if nothing was
done, or -1 if there was an error setting the time.
</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p><b>Example:</b></p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
$exifTool-&gt;<a href="#SetNewValue">SetNewValue</a>(FileModifyDate =&gt; '2000:01:02 03:04:05', Protected => 1);
my $result = $exifTool-&gt;<b>SetFileModifyDate</b>($file);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<p><b>Notes:</b></p>
<p>Equivalent to, but more efficient than calling <a href="#WriteInfo">WriteInfo</a>
when only the FileModifyDate or FileCreateDate tag has been set. If a timezone is not
specified, local time is assumed. When shifting, the time of the original
file is used unless the optional base time is specified.</p>
<p>The ability to write FileCreateDate is currently restricted to Windows systems only.</p>
<hr><h2><a name="SetFileName">SetFileName</a></h2>
<p>Set the file name and directory, or create a hard link to the file. If not
specified, the new file name is derived from the new values of the FileName and
Directory tags, or from the HardLink or SymLink tag if creating a link. If the
FileName tag contains a '<code>/</code>', then the file is renamed into a new
directory. If FileName ends with '<code>/</code>', then it is taken as a
directory name and the file is moved into the new directory. The new value for
the Directory tag takes precedence over any directory specified in FileName.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>SetFileName($$;$$)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td><b>0)</b> ExifTool object reference
<br><b>1)</b> Current file name
<br><b>2)</b> [<i>optional</i>] New file name
<br><b>3)</b> [<i>optional</i>] 'HardLink' or 'SymLink' to create a hard or
symbolic link instead of renaming the file, or 'Test' to test renaming feature
by printing the old and new names instead of changing anything.
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>1 on success, 0 if nothing was done,
or -1 if there was an error renaming the file or creating the link.
</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p><b>Examples:</b></p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
my $result = $exifTool-&gt;<b>SetFileName</b>($file);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
my $result = $exifTool-&gt;<b>SetFileName</b>($file, $newName);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<p><b>Notes:</b></p>
<p>Will not overwrite existing files. New directories are created as
necessary. If the file is successfully renamed, the new file name may be
accessed via <code>$$exifTool{NewName}</code>.</p>
<hr><h2><a name="SetNewGroups">SetNewGroups</a></h2>
<p>Set the order of the preferred groups when adding new information. In
subsequent calls to <a href="#SetNewValue">SetNewValue</a>, new information
will be created in the first valid group of this list. This has an impact
only if the group is not specified when calling
<a href="#SetNewValue">SetNewValue</a>, and if the tag name exists in more than
one group. The default order is EXIF, IPTC, XMP, MakerNotes, QuickTime,
Photoshop, ICC_Profile, CanonVRD, Adobe. Any family 0 group name may be used.
Case is not significant.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>SetNewGroups($;@)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td><b>0)</b> ExifTool object reference
<br><b>1-N)</b> Groups in order of priority. If no groups are specified, the
priorities are reset to the defaults.
</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p><b>Example:</b></p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
$exifTool-&gt;<b>SetNewGroups</b>('XMP','EXIF','IPTC');
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="GetNewGroups">GetNewGroups</a></h2>
<p>Get current group priority list.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>GetNewGroups($)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td><b>0)</b> ExifTool object reference
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>List of group names in order of write
priority. Highest priority first.
</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p><b>Example:</b></p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
@groups = $exifTool-&gt;<b>GetNewGroups</b>();
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="GetTagID">GetTagID</a></h2>
<p>Get the ID for the specified tag. The ID is the IFD tag number in EXIF
information, the property name in XMP information, or the data offset in a
binary data block. For some tags, such as Composite tags where there is no ID,
an empty string is returned. In list context, also returns a language code for
the tag if available and different from the default language (eg. with
alternate language entries for XMP "lang-alt" tags).</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>GetTagID($$)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td><b>0)</b> ExifTool object reference
<br><b>1)</b> Tag key
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>In scalar context, returns the tag ID or '' if
there is no ID for this tag.<br>In list context, returns the tag ID (or '') and the
language code (or undef).</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p><b>Examples:</b></p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
my $id = $exifTool-&gt;<b>GetTagID</b>($tag);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
my ($id, $lang) = $exifTool-&gt;<b>GetTagID</b>($tag);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="GetDescription">GetDescription</a></h2>
<p>Get description for specified tag. This function will always return a defined
value. In the case where the description doesn't exist, one is generated from
the tag name.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>GetDescription($$)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td><b>0)</b> ExifTool object reference
<br><b>1)</b> Tag key
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>Tag description</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="GetGroup">GetGroup</a></h2>
<p>Get group name(s) for a specified tag.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>GetGroup($$;$)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td><b>0)</b> ExifTool object reference
<br><b>1)</b> Tag key
<br><b>2)</b> [<i>optional</i>] Group family number, or string of numbers
separated by colons
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>Group name (or '' if tag has no
group). If no group family is specified, returns the name of group in family 0
when called in scalar context, or the names of groups for all families in list
context. Returns a string of group names separated by colons if the input group
family contains a colon. The string is simplified to remove a leading 'Main:'
and adjacent identical group names unless the family string begins with a colon.
</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p>The following families of groups are available:</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><th>Family</th><th>Description</th><th>Examples</th></tr>
<tr><td align=center>0</td><td>Information Type</td> <td>EXIF, XMP, IPTC</td></tr>
<tr><td align=center>1</td><td>Specific Location</td><td>IFD0, XMP-dc</td></tr>
<tr><td align=center>2</td><td>Category</td> <td>Author, Time</td></tr>
<tr><td align=center>3</td><td>Document Number</td> <td>Main, Doc1, Doc3-2</td></tr>
<tr><td align=center>4</td><td>Instance Number</td> <td>Copy1, Copy2, Copy3...</td></tr>
<tr><td align=center>5</td><td>Metadata Path</td> <td>eg. JPEG-APP1-IFD0-ExifIFD</td></tr>
<tr><td align=center>6</td><td>EXIF/TIFF Format</td> <td>int8u, int32u, undef, string</td></tr>
<tr><td align=center>7</td><td>Tag ID</td> <td>ID-271, ID-rights, ID-a9aut</td></tr>
<tr><td align=center>8</td><td>Alternate File</td> <td>File1, File2, File3...</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p>Families 0 and 1 are based on the file structure, and are similar except that
family 1 is more specific and sub-divides some groups to give more detail about
the specific location where the information was found. For example, the EXIF
group is split up based on the specific IFD (Image File Directory), the
MakerNotes group is divided into groups for each manufacturer, and the XMP group
is separated based on the XMP namespace prefix. Note that only common XMP
namespaces are listed in the <a href="#GetAllGroups">GetAllGroups</a>
documentation, but additional namespaces may be present in some XMP data. Also
note that the '<code>XMP-xmp</code>...' group names may appear in the older form
'<code>XMP-xap</code>...' since these names evolved as the XMP standard was
developed. The ICC_Profile group is broken down to give information about the
specific ICC_Profile tag from which multiple values were extracted. As well,
information extracted from the ICC_Profile header is separated into the
ICC-header group.</p>
<p>Family 2 classifies information based on the logical category to which the
information refers.</p>
<p>Family 3 gives the document number for tags extracted from embedded documents,
or 'Main' for tags from the main document. (See the
<a href="#ExtractEmbedded">ExtractEmbedded</a> option for extracting tags from embedded
documents.) Nested sub-documents (if they exist) are indicated by numbers
separated with dashes in the group name, to an arbitrary depth. (eg.
'<code>Doc2-3-1</code>' is the 1<sup>st</sup> sub-sub-document of the
3<sup>rd</sup> sub-document of the 2<sup>nd</sup> embedded document of the main
file.) Document numbers are also used to differentiate samples for
timed metadata in videos.</p>
<p>Family 4 provides a method for differentiating tags when multiple tags exist
with the same name in the same location. The primary instance of a tag (the tag
extracted when the Duplicates option is disabled and no group is specified) has
no family 4 group name, but additional instances have family 4 group names
of '<code>Copy1</code>', '<code>Copy2</code>', '<code>Copy3</code>', etc. For
convenience, the primary tag may also be accessed using a group name of
'<code>Copy0</code>'.</p>
<p>Family 5 and gives the complete path for the metadata in the file. Generated
only if the <a href="#SavePath">SavePath</a> option is used when extracting.</p>
<p>Family 6 is currently used only for EXIF/TIFF metadata, and gives the format
type of the extracted value. Generated only if the
<a href="#SaveFormat">SaveFormat</a> option is used when extracting.</p>
<p>Family 7 is used for tag ID's. The group names are the actual tag ID's with
a leading "ID-" string. Non-numerical tag ID's have characters other than
[-_A-Za-z0-9] converted to hex. Numerical tag ID's are returned in hex if the
<a href="#HexTagIDs">HexTagIDs</a> option is set, otherwise decimal is used.
When specifying a family 7 group name, numerical ID's may be in hex (with
leading "0x") or decimal, and non-numerical ID's may or may not have characters
other than [-_A-Za-z0-9] converted to hex. Note that unlike other group names,
the tag ID's in family 7 group names are case sensitive (but the leading "ID-"
is not).</p>
<p>Family 8 is used to specify tags loaded from alternate input files defined
in calls to <a href="#SetAlternateFile">SetAlternateFile</a>.</p>
<p>See <a href="#GetAllGroups">GetAllGroups</a> for lists of group names.</p>
<p><b>Examples:</b></p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># return family 0 group name (eg. 'EXIF')</span>
$group = $exifTool-&gt;<b>GetGroup</b>($tag, 0);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># return all groups (eg. qw{EXIF IFD0 Author Main})</span>
@groups = $exifTool-&gt;<b>GetGroup</b>($tag);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># return groups as a string (eg. 'Main:IFD0:Author')</span>
$group = $exifTool-&gt;<b>GetGroup</b>($tag, ':3:1:2');
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
<span class=com># return groups as a simplified string (eg. 'IFD0:Author')</span>
$group = $exifTool-&gt;<b>GetGroup</b>($tag, '3:1:2');
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="GetGroups">GetGroups</a></h2>
<p>Get list of group names for all tags in specified information hash.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>GetGroups($;$$)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td><b>0)</b> ExifTool object reference
<br><b>1)</b> [<i>optional</i>] Information hash reference (default is all extracted info)
<br><b>2)</b> [<i>optional</i>] Group family number (default 0)
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>
List of group names in alphabetical order.
If information hash is not specified, the group names are returned for
all extracted information. See <a href="#GetAllGroups">GetAllGroups</a> for
a list of groups in each family.
</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p><b>Examples:</b></p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
my @groups = $exifTool-&gt;<b>GetGroups</b>($info, $family);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<blockquote>Example of one way to print information organized by group
<table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
my $exifTool = Image::ExifTool-&gt;<a href="#new">new</a>;
$exifTool-&gt;<a href="#ExtractInfo">ExtractInfo</a>('t/images/ExifTool.jpg');
my $family = 1;
my @groups = $exifTool-&gt;<b>GetGroups</b>($family);
my $group;
foreach $group (@groups) {
print "---- $group ----\n";
my $info = $exifTool-&gt;<a href="#GetInfo">GetInfo</a>({"Group$family" =&gt; $group});
foreach ($exifTool-&gt;<a href="#GetTagList">GetTagList</a>($info)) {
print "$_ : $$info{$_}\n";
}
}
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="BuildCompositeTags">BuildCompositeTags</a></h2>
<p>Builds composite tags from required tags. The composite tags are convenience
tags which are derived from the values of other tags. This routine is called
automatically by <a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a> if the Composite option is set.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>BuildCompositeTags($)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td><b>0)</b> ExifTool object reference
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>(none)</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p><b>Notes:</b></p>
<ol>
<li>Tag values are calculated in alphabetical order unless a tag Require's
or Desire's another composite tag, in which case the calculation is
deferred until after the other tag is calculated.</li>
<li>Composite tags may need to read data from the image for their value to be
determined, and for these <a href="#BuildCompositeTags">BuildCompositeTags</a>
must be called while the image is available. This is only a problem if
<a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a> is called with a filename (as opposed to a
file reference or scalar reference) since in this case the file is closed before
<a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a> returns. Here the Composite option may be
used so that <a href="#BuildCompositeTags">BuildCompositeTags</a> is called from
within <a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a>, before the file is closed.</li>
</ol>
<hr><table bgcolor='#ffaaaa' width='100%' cellpadding=8><tr><td><center><b>
The following functions access only static data and are not called with an
ExifTool object
</b></center></td></tr></table>
<p>The names of all the following functions, plus
<a href="#ImageInfo">ImageInfo</a>, may be imported into the current namespace
with the "Public" tag. When this is done, the functions can be accessed without
the need to prefix the function name with "<code>Image::ExifTool::</code>". For
example:</p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
use Image::ExifTool ':Public';
$tagName = <a href="#GetTagName">GetTagName</a>($tag);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="AvailableOptions">AvailableOptions</a></h2>
<p>Get a list of available API options. (See <a href="#Options">Options method</a>
for option details.)</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>AvailableOptions()</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td>(none)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>Reference to list of available options.
Each entry in the list is a list reference with 3 items: 0=Option name, 1=Default value,
2=Description</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p><b>Example:</b></p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
my $opts = Image::ExifTool::<b>AvailableOptions</b>();
foreach (@$opts) {
my ($optionName, $defaultValue, $description) = @$_;
...
}
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="GetTagName">GetTagName</a></h2>
<p>Get name of tag from tag identifier. This is a convenience function that
strips the embedded instance number, if it exists, from the tag key.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>GetTagName($)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td><b>0)</b> Tag key
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>Tag name</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p><b>Example:</b></p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
$tagName = Image::ExifTool::<b>GetTagName</b>($tag);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="GetShortcuts">GetShortcuts</a></h2>
<p>Get list of tag shortcut names.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>GetShortcuts()</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td>(none)
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>List of shortcuts</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="GetAllTags">GetAllTags</a></h2>
<p>Get list of all available tag names.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>GetAllTags(;$)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td><b>0)</b> [<i>optional</i>] Group name,
or string of group names separated by colons
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>A list of all available tags in alphabetical
order, or all tags in a specified group or intersection of groups. The
group name is case insensitive, and any group in families 0-2 may be used
except for EXIF family 1 groups (ie. the specific IFD).
</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="GetWritableTags">GetWritableTags</a></h2>
<p>Get list of all writable tag names.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>GetWritableTags(;$)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td><b>0)</b> [<i>optional</i>] Group name,
or string of group names separated by colons
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>A list of all writable tags in alphabetical
order. These are the tags for which values may be set through
<a href="#SetNewValue">SetNewValue</a>. If a group name is given, returns
only writable tags in specified group(s). The group name is case insensitive,
and any group in families 0-2 may be used except for EXIF family 1 groups (ie.
the specific IFD).
</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="GetAllGroups">GetAllGroups</a></h2>
<p>Get list of all group names in specified family.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>GetAllGroups($)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td><b>0)</b> Group family number (0-7)
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td>
<td>A list of all groups in the specified family in alphabetical order</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p>Here is a complete list of groups for each family:</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><th>Family</th><th>Group Names</th></tr>
<tr><td><b>0 (Information&nbsp;Type)</b></td>
<td>AAC, AFCP, AIFF, APE, APP0, APP1, APP11, APP12, APP13, APP14, APP15, APP2,
APP3, APP4, APP5, APP6, APP7, APP8, APP9, ASF, Audible, Canon, CanonVRD,
Composite, DICOM, DNG, DV, DjVu, Ducky, EXE, EXIF, ExifTool, FITS, FLAC,
FLIR, File, Flash, FlashPix, Font, FotoStation, GIF, GIMP, GeoTiff, GoPro,
H264, HTML, ICC_Profile, ID3, IPTC, ISO, ITC, JFIF, JPEG, JSON, JUMBF,
Jpeg2000, LNK, Leaf, Lytro, M2TS, MIE, MIFF, MISB, MNG, MOI, MPC, MPEG, MPF,
MXF, MakerNotes, Matroska, Meta, Ogg, OpenEXR, Opus, PDF, PICT, PLIST, PNG,
PSP, Palm, PanasonicRaw, Parrot, PhotoCD, PhotoMechanic, Photoshop,
PostScript, PrintIM, QuickTime, RAF, RIFF, RSRC, RTF, Radiance, Rawzor,
Real, Red, SVG, SigmaRaw, Sony, Stim, Theora, Torrent, Trailer, VCard,
Vorbis, WTV, XML, XMP, ZIP
</td></tr>
<tr><td><b>1&nbsp;(Specific&nbsp;Location)</b></td>
<td>AAC, AC3, AFCP, AIFF, APE, ASF, AVI1, Adobe, AdobeCM, AdobeDNG, Apple,
Audible, CBOR, CIFF, CameraIFD, Canon, CanonCustom, CanonDR4, CanonRaw,
CanonVRD, Casio, Chapter#, Composite, DICOM, DJI, DNG, DV, DjVu, DjVu-Meta,
Ducky, EPPIM, EXE, EXIF, ExifIFD, ExifTool, FITS, FLAC, FLIR, File, Flash,
FlashPix, Font, FotoStation, FujiFilm, FujiIFD, GE, GIF, GIMP, GPS,
GSpherical, Garmin, GeoTiff, GlobParamIFD, GoPro, GraphConv, H264, HP, HTC,
HTML, HTML-dc, HTML-ncc, HTML-office, HTML-prod, HTML-vw96, HTTP-equiv,
ICC-chrm, ICC-clrt, ICC-header, ICC-meas, ICC-meta, ICC-view, ICC_Profile,
ICC_Profile#, ID3, ID3v1, ID3v1_Enh, ID3v2_2, ID3v2_3, ID3v2_4, IFD0, IFD1,
IPTC, IPTC#, ISO, ITC, InfiRay, Insta360, InteropIFD, ItemList, JFIF, JFXX,
JPEG, JPEG-HDR, JPS, JSON, JUMBF, JVC, Jpeg2000, KDC_IFD, Keys, Kodak,
KodakBordersIFD, KodakEffectsIFD, KodakIFD, KyoceraRaw, LNK, Leaf,
LeafSubIFD, Leica, Lyrics3, Lytro, M-RAW, M2TS, MAC, MIE-Audio, MIE-Camera,
MIE-Canon, MIE-Doc, MIE-Extender, MIE-Flash, MIE-GPS, MIE-Geo, MIE-Image,
MIE-Lens, MIE-Main, MIE-MakerNotes, MIE-Meta, MIE-Orient, MIE-Preview,
MIE-Thumbnail, MIE-UTM, MIE-Unknown, MIE-Video, MIFF, MISB, MNG, MOBI, MOI,
MPC, MPEG, MPF0, MPImage, MS-DOC, MXF, MacOS, MakerNotes, MakerUnknown,
Matroska, MediaJukebox, Meta, MetaIFD, Microsoft, Minolta, MinoltaRaw,
Motorola, NITF, Nikon, NikonCapture, NikonCustom, NikonScan, NikonSettings,
NineEdits, Nintendo, Ocad, Ogg, Olympus, OpenEXR, Opus, PDF, PICT, PNG,
PNG-cICP, PNG-pHYs, PSP, Palm, Panasonic, PanasonicRaw, Parrot, Pentax,
PhaseOne, PhotoCD, PhotoMechanic, Photoshop, PictureInfo, PostScript,
PreviewIFD, PrintIM, ProfileIFD, Qualcomm, QuickTime, RAF, RAF2, RIFF,
RMETA, RSRC, RTF, Radiance, Rawzor, Real, Real-CONT, Real-MDPR, Real-PROP,
Real-RA3, Real-RA4, Real-RA5, Real-RJMD, Reconyx, Red, Ricoh, SPIFF, SR2,
SR2DataIFD, SR2SubIFD, SRF#, SVG, Samsung, Sanyo, Scalado, Sigma, SigmaRaw,
Sony, SonyIDC, Stim, SubIFD, System, Theora, Torrent, Track#, UserData,
VCalendar, VCard, VNote, Version0, Vorbis, WTV, XML, XMP, XMP-DICOM,
XMP-Device, XMP-GAudio, XMP-GCamera, XMP-GCreations, XMP-GDepth, XMP-GFocus,
XMP-GImage, XMP-GPano, XMP-GSpherical, XMP-LImage, XMP-MP, XMP-MP1,
XMP-PixelLive, XMP-aas, XMP-acdsee, XMP-album, XMP-apple-fi, XMP-ast,
XMP-aux, XMP-cc, XMP-cell, XMP-crd, XMP-creatorAtom, XMP-crs, XMP-dc,
XMP-dex, XMP-digiKam, XMP-drone-dji, XMP-dwc, XMP-et, XMP-exif, XMP-exifEX,
XMP-expressionmedia, XMP-extensis, XMP-fpv, XMP-getty, XMP-hdr, XMP-hdrgm,
XMP-ics, XMP-iptcCore, XMP-iptcExt, XMP-lr, XMP-mediapro, XMP-microsoft,
XMP-mwg-coll, XMP-mwg-kw, XMP-mwg-rs, XMP-nine, XMP-panorama, XMP-pdf,
XMP-pdfx, XMP-photomech, XMP-photoshop, XMP-plus, XMP-pmi, XMP-prism,
XMP-prl, XMP-prm, XMP-pur, XMP-rdf, XMP-sdc, XMP-swf, XMP-tiff, XMP-x,
XMP-xmp, XMP-xmpBJ, XMP-xmpDM, XMP-xmpDSA, XMP-xmpMM, XMP-xmpNote,
XMP-xmpPLUS, XMP-xmpRights, XMP-xmpTPg, ZIP, iTunes
</td></tr>
<tr><td><b>2&nbsp;(Category)</b></td>
<td>Audio, Author, Camera, Device, Document, ExifTool, Image, Location, Other,
Preview, Printing, Time, Unknown, Video
</td></tr>
<tr><td><b>3&nbsp;(Document&nbsp;Number)</b></td>
<td>Doc#, Main
</td></tr>
<tr><td><b>4&nbsp;(Instance&nbsp;Number)</b></td>
<td>Copy#
</td></tr>
<tr><td><b>5&nbsp;(Metadata&nbsp;Path)</b></td>
<td>eg. JPEG-APP1-IFD0-ExifIFD
</td></tr>
<tr><td><b>6&nbsp;(EXIF/TIFF&nbsp;Format)</b></td>
<td>int8u, string, int16u, int32u, rational64u, int8s, undef, int16s, int32s,
rational64s, float, double, ifd, unicode, complex, int64u, int64s, ifd64</td></tr>
<tr><td><b>7&nbsp;(Tag&nbsp;ID)</b></td>
<td>ID-xxx (Where xxx is the tag ID. Numerical ID's are returned in hex with a
leading "0x" if the HexTagIDs option is set, or decimal otherwise. Characters
in non-numerical ID's which are not valid in a group name are returned as 2
hex digits.)</td></tr>
<tr><td><b>8&nbsp;(Alternate&nbsp;File)</b></td>
<td>File#
</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p>Note: This function may also be called as an ExifTool member function to
allow the HexTagIDs option to be set when retrieving family 7 group names.</p>
<p><b>Example:</b></p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
@groupList = Image::ExifTool::<b>GetAllGroups</b>($family);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="GetDeleteGroups">GetDeleteGroups</a></h2>
<p>Get list of all deletable group names.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>GetDelGroups()</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td>
<td>None
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>A list of deletable group names in
alphabetical order.
</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p>Below is a current list of deletable group names.</p>
<blockquote>Adobe, AFCP, APP0, APP1, APP10, APP11, APP12, APP13, APP14, APP15, APP2,
APP3, APP4, APP5, APP6, APP7, APP8, APP9, Audio, Author, Camera, CanonVRD,
CIFF, Document, Ducky, EXIF, ExifIFD, ExifTool, File, FlashPix, FotoStation,
GlobParamIFD, GPS, ICC_Profile, IFD0, IFD1, Image, Insta360, InteropIFD,
IPTC, ItemList, JFIF, Jpeg2000, Keys, Location, MakerNotes, Meta, MetaIFD,
Microsoft, MIE, MPF, NikonCapture, Other, PDF, PDF-update, PhotoMechanic,
Photoshop, PNG, PNG-pHYs, Preview, PrintIM, Printing, QuickTime, RMETA,
RSRC, SubIFD, Time, Trailer, UserData, Video, XML, XML-*, XMP, XMP-*</blockquote>
<p>To schedule a group for deletion, call <a href="#SetNewValue">SetNewValue</a>
with a tag name like '<code>EXIF:*</code>' and an undefined tag value.</p>
<p>Deleting a family 0 or 1 group will delete the entire corresponding block of
metadata, but deleting a family 2 group (eg. Audio, Author, Camera, etc.)
deletes the individual tags belonging to that category.</p>
<p>The '<code>Trailer</code>' group allows all trailers in JPEG and TIFF-format
images to be deleted at once, including unknown trailers. Note that the JPEG
"APP" groups are special, and are used only to delete application segments which
are not associated with another deletable group. For example, deleting
'<code>APP14:*</code>' will delete other APP14 segments, but not the APP14
"Adobe" segment.</p>
<p><b>Example:</b></p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
my @delGroups = Image::ExifTool::<b>GetDelGroups</b>();
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="GetFileType">GetFileType</a></h2>
<p>Get type of file given file name.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>GetFileType(;$$)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td>
<td><b>0)</b> [<i>optional</i>] File name or extension
<br><b>1)</b> [<i>optional</i>] Flag to return a description instead of a type.
Default is undef. Set to 0 to also return return types of recognized but
unsupported files (otherwise undef is returned for unsupported files), or 1 to
return file descriptions.
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>A string, based on the file extension, which
indicates the basic format of the file. Note that some files may be based on
other formats (like many RAW image formats are based on TIFF). In list context,
may return more than one file type if the file may be based on different
formats. Returns undef if files with this extension are not yet supported by
ExifTool. Returns a list of extensions for all supported file types if no input
extension is specified (or all recognized file types if the description flag is
set to 0). Returns a more detailed description of the specific file format when
the description flag is set.</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p><b>Examples:</b></p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
my $type = Image::ExifTool::<b>GetFileType</b>($filename);
my $desc = Image::ExifTool::<b>GetFileType</b>($filename, 1);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="CanWrite">CanWrite</a></h2>
<p>Can the specified file be written?</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>CanWrite($)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td>
<td><b>0)</b> File name or extension</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>True if ExifTool supports writing files of
this type (based on the file extension).</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p><b>Example:</b></p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
my $writable = Image::ExifTool::<b>CanWrite</b>($filename);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="CanCreate">CanCreate</a></h2>
<p>Can the specified file be created?</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>CanCreate($)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td>
<td><b>0)</b> File name or extension</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>True if ExifTool can create files with this
extension from scratch.<br>Currently, this can only be done with XMP, MIE, ICC,
VRD, DR4, EXV and EXIF files.</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p><b>Example:</b></p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
my $creatable = Image::ExifTool::<b>CanCreate</b>($filename);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<hr><h2><a name="AddUserDefinedTags">AddUserDefinedTags</a></h2>
<p>Add user-defined tags to an existing tag table at run time. This differs from
the usual technique of creating user-defined tags via the
%Image::ExifTool::UserDefined hash (see the
<a href="config.html">sample config file</a>), because it allows tags to be added
after a tag table has been initialized.</p>
<blockquote><table class='norm'>
<tr><td><b>Prototype</b></td><td>AddUserDefinedTags($%)</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Inputs</b></td><td><b>0)</b> Destination tag table name
<br><b>1-N)</b> Pairs of tag ID / tag information hash references for the new tags
</td></tr>
<tr><td valign=top><b>Returns</b></td><td>The number of tags added</td></tr>
</table></blockquote>
<p><b>Example:</b></p>
<blockquote><table class='box'><tr><td><pre>
use Image::ExifTool ':Public';
my %tags = (
TestTagID1 => { Name => 'TestTagName1' },
TestTagID2 => { Name => 'TestTagName2' },
);
my $num = <b>AddUserDefinedTags</b>('Image::ExifTool::PDF::Info', %tags);
</pre></td></tr></table></blockquote>
<p><b>Notes:</b></p>
<p>Pre-existing tags with the same ID will be replaced in the destination table.
See lib/Image/ExifTool/README in the full distribution for full details on the
elements of the tag information hash.</p>
<hr>
<p class='lf'><a href="index.html">&lt;-- Back to ExifTool home page</a></p>
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