Class exiftool.ExifToolHelper

Inheritance diagram of exiftool.ExifToolHelper

This class extends the low-level exiftool.ExifTool class with ‘wrapper’/’helper’ functionality

It keeps low-level core functionality with the base class but extends helper functions in a separate class

param bool auto_start:

Will automatically start the exiftool process on first command run, defaults to True

param bool check_execute:

Will check the exit status (return code) of all commands. This catches some invalid commands passed to exiftool subprocess, defaults to True. See check_execute for more info.

param bool check_tag_names:

Will check the tag names provided to methods which work directly with tag names. This catches unintended uses and bugs, default to True. See check_tag_names for more info.

param kwargs:

All other parameters are passed directly to the super-class constructor: exiftool.ExifTool.__init__()

exiftool.ExifToolHelper.__init__(auto_start=True, check_execute=True, check_tag_names=True, **kwargs)
Parameters:

  • auto_start (bool) – Will automatically start the exiftool process on first command run, defaults to True

  • check_execute (bool) – Will check the exit status (return code) of all commands. This catches some invalid commands passed to exiftool subprocess, defaults to True. See check_execute for more info.

  • check_tag_names (bool) – Will check the tag names provided to methods which work directly with tag names. This catches unintended uses and bugs, default to True. See check_tag_names for more info.

  • kwargs – All other parameters are passed directly to the super-class constructor: exiftool.ExifTool.__init__()

Return type:

None

property exiftool.ExifToolHelper.auto_start

Read-only property. Gets the current setting passed into the constructor as to whether auto_start is enabled or not.

(There’s really no point to having this a read-write property, but allowing a read can be helpful at runtime to detect expected behavior.)

Return type:

bool

property exiftool.ExifToolHelper.check_execute

Flag to enable/disable checking exit status (return code) on execute

If enabled, will raise exiftool.exceptions.ExifToolExecuteError if a non-zero exit status is returned during execute()

Warning

While this property is provided to give callers an option to enable/disable error checking, it is generally NOT recommended to disable check_execute.

If disabled, exiftool will fail silently, and hard-to-catch bugs may arise.

That said, there may be some use cases where continue-on-error behavior is desired. (Example: dump all exif in a directory with files which don’t all have the same tags, exiftool returns exit code 1 for unknown files, but results are valid for other files with those tags)

Getter:

Returns current setting

Setter:

Enable or Disable the check

Note

This settings can be changed any time and will only affect subsequent calls

Type:

bool

Return type:

bool

property exiftool.ExifToolHelper.check_tag_names

Flag to enable/disable checking of tag names

If enabled, will raise exiftool.exceptions.ExifToolTagNameError if an invalid tag name is detected.

Warning

ExifToolHelper only checks the validity of the Tag NAME based on a simple regex pattern.

  • It does not validate whether the tag name is actually valid on the file type(s) you’re accessing.

  • It does not validate whether the tag you passed in that “looks like” a tag is actually an option

  • It does support a “#” at the end of the tag name to disable print conversion

Please refer to ExifTool Tag Names documentation for a complete list of valid tags recognized by ExifTool.

Warning

While this property is provided to give callers an option to enable/disable tag names checking, it is generally NOT recommended to disable check_tag_names.

If disabled, you could accidentally edit a file when you meant to read it.

Example: get_tags("a.jpg", "tag=value") will call execute_json("-tag=value", "a.jpg") which will inadvertently write to a.jpg instead of reading it!

That said, if PH’s exiftool changes its tag name regex and tag names are being erroneously rejected because of this flag, disabling this could be used as a workaround (more importantly, if this is happening, please file an issue!).

Getter:

Returns current setting

Setter:

Enable or Disable the check

Note

This settings can be changed any time and will only affect subsequent calls

Type:

bool

Return type:

bool

exiftool.ExifToolHelper.execute(*params, **kwargs)

Override the exiftool.ExifTool.execute() method

Adds logic to auto-start if not running, if auto_start == True

Adds logic to str() any parameter which is not a str or bytes. (This allows passing in objects like Path _without_ casting before passing it in.)

Raises:

ExifToolExecuteError – If check_execute == True, and exit status was non-zero

Parameters:

params (Any) –

Return type:

Union[str, bytes]

exiftool.ExifToolHelper.get_metadata(files, params=None)

Return all metadata for the given files.

Note

This is a convenience method.

The implementation calls get_tags() with tags=None

Parameters:

  • files (Union[str, List]) – Files parameter matches get_tags()

  • params (list or None) – Optional parameters to send to exiftool

Returns:

The return value will have the format described in the documentation of get_tags().

Return type:

List

exiftool.ExifToolHelper.get_tags(files, tags, params=None)

Return only specified tags for the given files.

Parameters:

  • files (Any or List(Any) - see Note) –

    File(s) to be worked on.

    • If a non-iterable is provided, it will get tags for a single item (str(non-iterable))

    • If an iterable is provided, the list is passed into execute_json() verbatim.

    Note

    Any files/params which are not bytes/str will be casted to a str in execute().

    Warning

    Currently, filenames are NOT checked for existence! That is left up to the caller.

    Warning

    Wildcard strings are valid and passed verbatim to exiftool.

    However, exiftool’s wildcard matching/globbing may be different than Python’s matching/globbing, which may cause unexpected behavior if you’re using one and comparing the result to the other. Read ExifTool Common Mistakes - Over-use of Wildcards in File Names for some related info.

  • tags (str, list, or None) –

    Tag(s) to read. If tags is None, or [], method will returns all tags

    Note

    The tag names may include group names, as usual in the format <group>:<tag>.

  • params (Any, List[Any], or None) – Optional parameter(s) to send to exiftool

Returns:

The format of the return value is the same as for exiftool.ExifTool.execute_json().

Raises:
Return type:

List

exiftool.ExifToolHelper.run()

override the exiftool.ExifTool.run() method

Will not attempt to run if already running (so no warning about ‘ExifTool already running’ will trigger)

Return type:

None

exiftool.ExifToolHelper.set_tags(files, tags, params=None)

Writes the values of the specified tags for the given file(s).

Parameters:

  • files (Any or List(Any) - see Note) –

    File(s) to be worked on.

    • If a non-iterable is provided, it will get tags for a single item (str(non-iterable))

    • If an iterable is provided, the list is passed into execute_json() verbatim.

    Note

    Any files/params which are not bytes/str will be casted to a str in execute().

    Warning

    Currently, filenames are NOT checked for existence! That is left up to the caller.

    Warning

    Wildcard strings are valid and passed verbatim to exiftool.

    However, exiftool’s wildcard matching/globbing may be different than Python’s matching/globbing, which may cause unexpected behavior if you’re using one and comparing the result to the other. Read ExifTool Common Mistakes - Over-use of Wildcards in File Names for some related info.

  • tags (dict) –

    Tag(s) to write.

    Dictionary keys = tags, values = tag values (str or list)

    • If a value is a str, will set key=value

    • If a value is a list, will iterate over list and set each individual value to the same tag (

    Note

    The tag names may include group names, as usual in the format <group>:<tag>.

    Note

    Value of the dict can be a list, in which case, the tag will be passed with each item in the list, in the order given

    This allows setting things like -Keywords=a -Keywords=b -Keywords=c by passing in tags={"Keywords": ['a', 'b', 'c']}

  • params (str, list, or None) – Optional parameter(s) to send to exiftool

Returns:

The format of the return value is the same as for execute().

Raises:
exiftool.ExifToolHelper.terminate(**opts)

Overrides the exiftool.ExifTool.terminate() method.

Will not attempt to terminate if not running (so no warning about ‘ExifTool not running’ will trigger)

Parameters:

opts – passed directly to the parent call exiftool.ExifTool.terminate()

Return type:

None