Provided by: exiv2_0.27.2-8ubuntu2.7_amd64 
NAME
exiv2 - Image metadata manipulation tool
SYNOPSIS
exiv2 [options] [action] file ...
DESCRIPTION
exiv2 is a program to read and write Exif, IPTC, XMP metadata and image comments and can read many vendor
makernote tags. The program optionally converts between Exif tags, XMP properties and IPTC datasets as
recommended by the Exif Standard, the IPTC Standard, the XMP specification and Metadata Working Group
guidelines.
The following image formats are supported:
Type Exif IPTC XMP Image Comments ICC Profile
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
JPEG R/W R/W R/W R/W R/W
EXV R/W R/W R/W R/W R/W
CR2 R/W R/W R/W - R/W
CRW R/W - - R/W -
MRW Read Read Read - -
TIFF R/W R/W R/W - R/W
WEBP R/W - R/W - R/W
DNG R/W R/W R/W - R/W
NEF R/W R/W R/W - R/W
PEF R/W R/W R/W - R/W
ARW Read Read Read - -
RW2 Read Read Read - -
SR2 Read Read Read - -
SRW R/W R/W R/W - -
ORF R/W R/W R/W - -
PNG R/W R/W R/W R/W R/W
PGF R/W R/W R/W R/W R/W
RAF Read Read Read - -
EPS - - R/W - -
XMP - - R/W - -
GIF - - - - -
PSD R/W R/W R/W - -
TGA - - - - -
BMP - - - - -
JP2 R/W R/W R/W - R/W
• Support for GIF, TGA and BMP images is minimal: the image format is recognized, a MIME type assigned to
it and the height and width of the image are determined.
• Reading other TIFF-like RAW image formats, which are not listed in the table, may also work.
ACTIONS
The action argument is only required if it is not clear from the options which action is implied.
pr | print
Print image metadata. This is the default action, i.e., the command exiv2 image.jpg will print a
summary of the image Exif metadata.
ex | extract
Extract metadata to *.exv, XMP sidecar (*.xmp) and thumbnail image files. Modification commands
can be applied on-the-fly.
in | insert
Insert metadata from corresponding *.exv, XMP sidecar (*.xmp) and thumbnail files. Use option -S
.suf to change the suffix of the input files. Since files of any supported format can be used as
input files, this command can be used to copy the metadata between files of different formats.
Modification commands can be applied on-the-fly.
rm | delete
Delete image metadata from the files.
ad | adjust
Adjust Exif timestamps by the given time. Requires at least one of the options -a time, -Y yrs, -O
mon or -D day.
mo | modify
Apply commands to modify (add, set, delete) the Exif, IPTC and XMP metadata of image files.
Requires option -c, -m or -M.
mv | rename
Rename files and/or set file timestamps according to the Exif create timestamp. Uses the value of
tag Exif.Photo.DateTimeOriginal or, if not present, Exif.Image.DateTime to determine the
timestamp. The filename format can be set with -r fmt, timestamp options are -t and -T.
fi | fixiso
Copy the ISO setting from one of the proprietary Nikon or Canon makernote ISO tags to the regular
Exif ISO tag, Exif.Photo.ISOSpeedRatings. Does not overwrite an existing standard Exif ISO tag.
fc | fixcom
Fix the character encoding of Exif Unicode user comments. Decodes the comment using the auto-
detected or specified character encoding and writes it back in UCS-2. Use option -n to specify the
current encoding of the comment if necessary.
COMMAND SUMMARY
exiv2 [ opt [arg] ]+ [ act ] file ...
option [arg] long option description
-a tim --adjust Modify time stamps. [+|-]HH[:MM[:SS[.mmm]]]
-b --binary Show large binary values (default is to suppress them).
-c txt --comment JPEG comment string to set in the image ('modify' action). ...
-d tgt --delete Delete target(s) for the 'delete' action. ...
-D +-n --days Time adjustment by a positive or negative number of days ...
-e tgt --extract Extract target(s) for the 'extract' action.
-f --force Do not prompt before overwriting existing files ...
-F --Force Do not prompt before renaming files (Force rename) ...
-g key --grep Only output info for this Exiv2 key
-h --help Display help and exit.
-i tgt --insert Insert target(s) for the 'insert' action. ...
-k --keep Preserve file timestamps when updating files
-K key --key Report key. Similar to -g (grep) however key must match exactly.
-l dir --location Location (directory) for files to be inserted or extracted.
-m file --modify read commands from cmd-file
-M cmd --Modify Command line for the 'modify' action. ...
-n enc --encode Charset to decode Exif Unicode user comments. See: man 3 iconv_open
-O +-n --months Time adjustment by a positive or negative number of months, ...
-p mod --print Print report (common reports)
-P flg --Print Print report (fine grained control)
-q --quiet Silence warnings and error messages from the Exiv2 library ...
-Q lvl --log Set the log-level to 'd'(ebug), 'i'(nfo), 'w'(arning), 'e'(rror)
-r fmt --rename Filename format for the 'rename' action. ...
-S suf --suffix Use suffix .suf for source files for insert command.
-t --timestamp Set the file timestamp according to the Exif create timestamp ...
-T --Timestamp Only set the file timestamp according to Exif create timestamp ...
-u --unknown Show unknown tags ...
-v --verbose verbose
-V --version Show the program version and exit.
-Y +-n --years Time adjustment by a positive or negative number of years ...
act pr | ex | in | rm | ad | mo | mv | fi | fc
print, extract, insert, delete, adjust, modify, rename, fixiso, fixcom
cmd See "Commands" below.
flg E | I | X | x | g | k | l | n | y | c | s | v | t | h
Exif, IPTC, XMP, num, grp, key, label, name, type, count, size, vanilla, translated, hex
fmt Default format is %Y%m%d_%H%M%S.
lvl d | i | i | w | e
debug, info, warning, error
mod s | a | e | t | v | h | i | x | c | p | i | C | R | S | X
summary, all, exif, translated, vanilla, hex, iptc, xmp, comment, preview,
ICC Profile, Recursive Structure, Simple Structure, raw XMP
tgt a | c | e | i | p | t | x | C | X | XX | -
all, comment, exif, iptc, preview, thumb, xmp, ICC Profile, SideCar, RawXMP, stdin/out
OPTIONS
-h Display help and exit.
-V Show the program version and exit.
When -V is combined with -v (Verbose version), build information is printed to standard output
along with a list of shared libraries which have been loaded into memory. Verbose version is
supported on Windows (MSVC, Cygwin and MinGW builds), MacOSX and Linux and is provided for test
and debugging.
-v Be verbose during the program run.
-q Silence warnings and error messages from the Exiv2 library during the program run (quiet). Note
that options -v and -q can be used at the same time.
-Q lvl Set the log-level to 'd'(ebug), 'i'(nfo), 'w'(arning), 'e'(rror) or 'm'(ute). The default log-
level is 'w'. -Qm is equivalent to -q. All log messages are written to standard error.
-b Show large binary values (default is to suppress them).
-u Show unknown tags (default is to suppress tags which don't have a name).
-g key Only keys which match the given key (grep).
Multiple -g options can be used to filter info to less keys. Example: exiv2 -v -V -g webready -g
time. The default exiv2 command prints a "summary report" which is quite short. When you use -g
without a -pmod option, you do not get a summary report and in effect you get -g pattern -pa image
...
$ bin/exiv2 -g Date http://clanmills.com/Stonehenge.jpg
Exif.Image.DateTime Ascii 20 2015:07:16 20:25:28
Exif.Photo.DateTimeOriginal Ascii 20 2015:07:16 15:38:54
Exif.Photo.DateTimeDigitized Ascii 20 2015:07:16 15:38:54
Exif.NikonWt.DateDisplayFormat Byte 1 Y/M/D
Exif.GPSInfo.GPSDateStamp Ascii 11 2015:07:16
Xmp.xmp.ModifyDate XmpText 25 2015-07-16T20:25:28+01:00
You may use -pmod filters to further filter output. For example:
$ bin/exiv2 -px -g Date http://clanmills.com/Stonehenge.jpg
Xmp.xmp.ModifyDate XmpText 25 2015-07-16T20:25:28+01:00
The option -g (--grep) applies to keys and not values.
The key may finish with the optional modifier /i to indicate case insensitive.
-K key Only report data for given key.
Multiple -K options can be used to report more than a single key.
exiv2 -K Exif.Photo.DateTimeDigitized -K Exif.Photo.DateTimeOriginal -pt R.jpg
Exif.Photo.DateTimeOriginal Ascii 20 2011:09:18 16:25:48
Exif.Photo.DateTimeDigitized Ascii 20 2011:09:18 16:25:48
-n enc Charset to use to decode Exif Unicode user comments. enc is a name understood by iconv_open(3),
e.g., 'UTF-8'.
-k Preserve file timestamps when updating files (keep). Can be used with all options which update
files. The flag is ignored by read-only options.
-t Set the file timestamp according to the Exif create timestamp in addition to renaming the file
(overrides -k). This option is only used with the 'rename' action.
-T Only set the file timestamp according to the Exif create timestamp, do not rename the file
(overrides -k). This option is only used with the 'rename' action. Note: On Windows you may have
to set the TZ environment variable for this option to work correctly.
-f,-F These options are used by the commands 'rename' and 'extract' to determine the file overwrite
policy. These options are usually combined with -v/--verbose to provide additional status output.
The options --force and --Force apply to the 'rename' command. The 'extract' command treats
--force and --Force as permission to overwrite.
The default behaviour is to prompt the user.
-f = Do not prompt before overwriting existing files.
-F = Do not prompt before renaming files. Appends '_1' ('_2', ...) to the name of the new file.
For example:
$ curl --silent -O http://clanmills.com/Stonehenge.jpg
$ exiv2 --verbose --Force rename Stonehenge.jpg
File 1/1: Stonehenge.jpg
Renaming file to ./20150716_153854.jpg
$ curl --silent -O http://clanmills.com/Stonehenge.jpg
$ exiv2 --verbose --Force rename Stonehenge.jpg
File 1/1: Stonehenge.jpg
Renaming file to ./20150716_153854_1.jpg
The 'rename' command will only overwrite files when the option --force is used. The option
--Force is provided to avoid unintentional loss of valuable image files.
The 'extract' command will overwrite files when either --force or --Force is used. Overwriting
extracted files will not cause the loss of image files.
-r fmt Filename format for the 'rename' action. The format string follows strftime(3) and supports the
following keywords:
:basename: original filename without extension
:dirname: name of the directory holding the original file
:parentname: name of parent directory
Default filename format is %Y%m%d_%H%M%S.
-a time
Time adjustment in the format [-]HH[:MM[:SS]]. This option is only used with the 'adjust' action.
Examples: 1 adds one hour, 1:01 adds one hour and one minute, -0:00:30 subtracts 30 seconds.
-Y yrs Time adjustment by a positive or negative number of years, for the 'adjust' action.
-O mon Time adjustment by a positive or negative number of months, for the 'adjust' action.
-D day Time adjustment by a positive or negative number of days, for the 'adjust' action.
-p mode
Print mode for the 'print' action. Possible modes are:
s : print a summary of the Exif metadata (the default)
a : print Exif, IPTC and XMP metadata (shortcut for -Pkyct)
e : print Exif metadata (shortcut for -PEkycv)
t : interpreted (translated) Exif tags (-PEkyct)
v : plain Exif tag values (-PExgnycv)
h : hexdump of the Exif data (-PExgnycsh)
i : IPTC datasets (-PIkyct)
x : XMP properties (-PXkyct)
c : JPEG comment
p : list available image previews, sorted by preview image size in pixels
C : print image ICC Profile (jpg, png, tiff, webp, cr2, jp2 only)
R : print image structure recursively (jpg, png, tiff, webp, cr2, jp2 only)
S : print image structure information (jpg, png, tiff, webp, cr2, jp2 only)
X : print "raw" XMP (jpg, png, tiff, webp, cr2, jp2 only)
-P flgs
Print flags for fine control of the tag list ('print' action). Allows control of the type of
metadata as well as data columns included in the print output. Valid flags are:
E : include Exif tags in the list
I : IPTC datasets
X : XMP properties
x : print a column with the tag number
g : group name
k : key
l : tag label
n : tag name
y : type
c : number of components (count)
s : size in bytes
v : plain data value (vanilla values)
V : plain data value AND the word 'set ' (for use with exiv2 -m-)
t : interpreted (translated) human readable data
h : hexdump of the data
-d tgt Delete target(s) for the 'delete' action. Possible targets are:
a : all supported metadata (the default)
e : Exif section
t : Exif thumbnail only
i : IPTC data
x : XMP packet
c : JPEG comment
C : ICC Profile
I : All IPTC data
-i tgt Insert target(s) for the 'insert' action. Possible targets are the same as those for the -d
option, plus an optional modifier:
X : Insert metadata from an XMP sidecar file <file>.xmp. The remaining insert targets determine
what metadata to insert from the sidecar file. Possible are Exif, IPTC and XMP and the default is
all of these. Note that the inserted XMP properties include those converted to Exif and IPTC.
XX: Insert "raw" XMP metadata from a sidecar (see option -pX)
- : Read from stdin. This option is intended for "filter" operations such as:
$ exiv2 -e{tgt}- filename | xmllint .... | exiv2 -i{tgt}- filename
Only JPEG thumbnails can be inserted (not TIFF thumbnails), and must be named file-thumb.jpg.
-e tgt Extract target(s) for the 'extract' action. Possible targets are the same as those for the -d
option, plus a target to extract preview images and a modifier to generate an XMP sidecar file:
p[<n>[,<m> ...]] : Extract preview images. The optional comma separated list of preview image
numbers is used to determine which preview images to extract. The available preview images and
their numbers are displayed with the 'print' option -pp.
C : Extract embedded ICC profile to <file>.icc
X : Extract metadata to an XMP sidecar file <file>.xmp. The remaining extract targets determine
what metadata to extract to the sidecar file. Possible are Exif, IPTC and XMP and the default is
all of these.
XX: Extract "raw" XMP metadata to a sidecar (see -pX)
You may not use modify commands with the -eXX option and only XMP is written to the sidecar.
- : Output to stdout (see -i tgt for an example of this feature)
-c txt JPEG comment string to set in the image ('modify' action). This option can also be used with the
'extract' and 'insert' actions to modify metadata on-the-fly.
-m file
Command file for the 'modify' action. This option can also be used with the 'extract' and 'insert'
actions to modify metadata on-the-fly. -m- represents standard-input.
-M cmd Command line for the 'modify' action. This option can also be used with the 'extract' and 'insert'
actions to modify metadata on-the-fly. The format for the commands is the same as that of the
lines of a command file.
-l dir Location (directory) for files to be inserted or extracted.
-S .suf
Use suffix .suf for source files in 'insert' action.
COMMANDS
Commands for the 'modify' action can be read from a command file, e.g.,
exiv2 -m cmd.txt image.jpg
or given on the command line, as in
exiv2 -M"add Iptc.Application2.Credit String Mr. Smith" image.jpg
Note the quotes. Multiple -m and -M options can be combined, and a non-standard XMP namespace registered.
exiv2 -M"reg myprefix http://ns.myprefix.me/" -M"add Xmp.myprefix.Whom Mr. Smith" -M"set Exif.Image.Artist Mr. Smith" image.jpg
When writing Exif, IPTC and XMP metadata, exiv2 enforces only a correct metadata structure. It is
possible to write tags with types and values different from those specified in the standards, duplicate
Exif tags, undefined tags, or incomplete metadata. While exiv2 is able to read all metadata that it can
write, other programs may have difficulties with images that contain non standard-conforming metadata.
Command format
The format of a command is
set | add | del key [[type] value]
set Set the value of an existing tag with a matching key or add the tag.
add Add a tag (unless key is a non-repeatable IPTC key; nothing prevents you from adding duplicate
Exif tags).
del Delete all occurrences of a tag (requires only a key).
key Exiv2 Exif, IPTC or XMP key.
type Byte | Ascii | Short | Long | Rational | Undefined | SShort | SLong | SRational | Comment for Exif
keys,
String | Date | Time | Short | Undefined for IPTC keys, and
XmpText | XmpAlt | XmpBag | XmpSeq | LangAlt for XMP keys.
A default type is used if none is explicitly given. The default is determined based on key.
value The remaining text on the line is the value. It can optionally be enclosed in single quotes
('value') or double quotes ("value").
The value is optional. Not providing any value is equivalent to an empty value ("") and is mainly
useful to create an XMP array property, e.g., a bag.
The format of Exif Comment values includes an optional charset specification at the beginning:
[charset=Ascii|Jis|Unicode|Undefined ]comment
Undefined is used by default if the value doesn't start with a charset definition.
The format for an IPTC Date value is:
YYYY-MM-DD (year, month, day)
The format for an IPTC Time value is:
HH:MM:SS (hours, minutes, seconds)
and may optionally be followed by:
-HH:MM or +HH:MM (hours, minutes ahead/behind UTC)
The format of Rational (and SRational) is one of:
integer | integer/integer | Fnumber | number
Rational Examples:
$ exiv2 "-Mset Exif.Photo.MaxApertureValue 557429/62500" X.jpg
$ exiv2 "-Mset Exif.Photo.MaxApertureValue F5.6" X.jpg
The Rational format Fnumber is for the convenience of setting aperture values. Aperture values
are stored in Exif is an APEX value which can be evaluated by the expression:
apex-value = log(Fnumber) * 2.0 / log(2.0)
number = exp(apex-value * log(2.0) / 2.0)
The Rational format Fnumber is valid for any Rational, even when the key is not an Aperture. More
information about APEX value is available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APEX_system
The format of XMP LangAlt values includes an optional language qualifier:
lang="language-code" text
lang="x-default" is used if the value doesn't start with a language qualifier.
$ exiv2 -M'set Xmp.dc.title lang="de-DE" Euros' X.jpg
$ exiv2 -M'set Xmp.dc.title lang="en-GB" Pounds' X.jpg
$ exiv2 -M'set Xmp.dc.title lang="en-US" In God We Trust' X.jpg
$ exiv2 -M'set Xmp.dc.title All others pay cash' X.jpg
To remove a language specification, set the value to '' (empty string)
exiv2 -M'set Xmp.dc.title lang="en-US"' X.jpg
To remove all language specifications, delete the key:
$ exiv2 -M'del Xmp.dc.title' X.jpg
To register additional XMP namespaces, combine the command with:
reg prefix namespace
Command file format
Empty lines and lines starting with # in a command file are ignored (comments). Remaining lines are
commands as described above.
CONFIGURATION FILE
Exiv2 can read an optional configuration file ~/.exiv2 on Unix systems and %USERPROFILE%\exiv2.ini on
Windows (using a Visual Studio build). Cygwin and MinGW/msys2 follow the unix convention and use
~/.exiv2 You can fine the location of the configuration file with the command:
$ exiv2 --verbose --version --grep config_path
exiv2 0.27.0.1
config_path=/Users/rmills/.exiv2
The purpose of the configuration file is to define your own lenses for recognition by Exiv2. The
configuration file is in Windows .ini format and has sections for each of the major camera manufactures
canon,nikon,pentax,minolta,olympus and sony. The lens metadata is stored as a integer called the lensID.
You can change the lens name associated with any lensID.
$ cat ~/.exiv2
[nikon]
146=Robin's Sigma Lens <--- The name of your lens
You obtain the lensID for your camera with the command:
$ exiv2 -pv --grep lens/i http://clanmills.com/Stonehenge.jpg
0x0083 Nikon3 LensType Byte 1 14
0x0084 Nikon3 Lens Rational 4 180/10 2500/10 35/10 63/10
0x008b Nikon3 LensFStops Undefined 4 55 1 12 0
0x000c NikonLd3 LensIDNumber Byte 1 146 <--- This number
0x000d NikonLd3 LensFStops Byte 1 55
EXAMPLES
exiv2 *.jpg
Prints a summary of the Exif information for all JPEG files in the directory. The summary report
is rather brief and presentation does not use the Family.Group.Tag convention.
If you use --grep pattern, the default becomes -pa. See -g/grep above.
$ exiv2 -g Date http://clanmills.com/Stonehenge.jpg
exiv2 -pi image.jpg
Prints the IPTC metadata of the image.
exiv2 rename img_1234.jpg
Renames img_1234.jpg (taken on 13-Nov-05 at 22:58:31) to 20051113_225831.jpg
exiv2 -r':basename:_%Y%m' rename img_1234.jpg
Renames img_1234.jpg to img_1234_200511.jpg
exiv2 -et img1.jpg img2.jpg
Extracts the Exif thumbnails from the two files into img1-thumb.jpg and img2-thumb.jpg.
exiv2 -it img1.jpg img2.jpg
Inserts (copies) metadata from img1.exv to img1.jpg and from img2.exv to img2.jpg.
exiv2 -ep1,2 image.jpg
Extracts previews 1 and 2 from the image to the files image-preview1.jpg and image-preview2.jpg.
exiv2 -eiX image.jpg
Extracts IPTC datasets into an XMP sidecar file image.xmp and in the process converts them to
"IPTC Core" XMP schema.
exiv2 -iixX image.jpg
Inserts IPTC and XMP metadata from an XMP sidecar file image.xmp into image.jpg. The resulting
IPTC datasets are converted from the "IPTC Core" XMP schema properties in the sidecar file to the
older IPTC IIM4 format. The inserted XMP properties include those in the "IPTC Core" XMP schema.
exiv2 -M"set Exif.Photo.UserComment charset=Ascii New Exif comment" image.jpg
Sets the Exif comment to an ASCII string.
exiv2 -M"set Exif.GPSInfo.GPSLatitude 4/1 15/1 33/1" \ -M"set Exif.GPSInfo.GPSLatitudeRef N" image.jpg
Sets the latitude to 4 degrees, 15 minutes and 33 seconds north. The Exif standard stipulates that
the GPSLatitude tag consists of three Rational numbers for the degrees, minutes and seconds of the
latitude and GPSLatitudeRef contains either 'N' or 'S' for north or south latitude respectively.
exiv2 insert -l/tmp -S.CRW /data/*.JPG
Copy all metadata from CRW files in the /tmp directory to JPG files with corresponding basenames
in the /data directory. Note that this copies metadata as is, without any modifications to adapt
it to the requirements of the target format. Some tags copied like this may not make sense in the
target image.
SEE ALSO
https://exiv2.org/sample.html#modify
Sample command files.
https://exiv2.org/metadata.html
Taglists with key and default type values.
AUTHORS
exiv2 was written by Andreas Huggel and others. The Exiv2 project web site is https://exiv2.org. The
code is hosted on GitHub at https://github.com/exiv2/exiv2
This manual page was originally created for the Debian project by KELEMEN Peter <fuji@debian.org>.
May 22, 2019 EXIV2(1)