revelo

Read technical metadata from any media file — pure Rust, no system dependencies.

A from-scratch Rust port of MediaInfoLib with optional ExifTool-grade EXIF/maker-note depth. Detects 180+ formats, decodes EXIF/IPTC/XMP tags, and handles maker-notes from 14 camera vendors.

No ./Configure, no system libraries, no Perl runtime. Zero unsafe code.

Part of the revelo project — see the project README for the full picture.

Install

[dependencies]
revelo = "0.4"

Or via Cargo:

cargo add revelo

For ExifTool-grade maker-note depth across 14 camera vendors, opt into the exiftool-tables feature:

[dependencies]
revelo = { version = "0.4", features = ["exiftool-tables"] }

License note: the default build is BSD-2-Clause. The exiftool-tables feature pulls in tables derived from ExifTool, so a binary or library built with it is subject to GPL/Artistic terms. See Licensing below.

Quick start

fn main() {
    // Parse from a file path
    let meta = revelo::Metadata::from_file("video.mp4").unwrap();

    // Container/codec fields (format, duration, bitrate, …)
    for (key, value) in meta.general() {
        println!("{key} = {value}");
    }

    // First video stream
    for (key, value) in meta.video() {
        println!("{key} = {value}");
    }

    // First audio stream
    for (key, value) in meta.audio() {
        println!("{key} = {value}");
    }
}

fn main() {
    // Parse from an in-memory buffer (e.g. downloaded bytes)
    let bytes = std::fs::read("photo.jpg").unwrap();
    let meta = revelo::Metadata::from_bytes(&bytes).unwrap();

    for (key, value) in meta.exif() {
        println!("{key} = {value}");
    }
    for (key, value) in meta.iptc() {
        println!("{key} = {value}");
    }
    for (key, value) in meta.xmp() {
        println!("{key} = {value}");
    }
}

API surface

`Metadata` — the main type

Method	Returns	Description
`Metadata::from_file(path)`	`Option<Metadata>`	Parse a file by path
`Metadata::from_bytes(buf)`	`Option<Metadata>`	Parse an in-memory byte slice
`meta.streams()`	`&StreamCollection`	Raw stream collection for advanced queries
`meta.into_streams()`	`StreamCollection`	Consume and return the underlying streams

Stream accessors

Each method returns an Iterator<Item = (&str, &str)> of (field_name, value) pairs.

Method	Stream kind	Typical use
`meta.general()`	General	Format, duration, file size, overall bitrate
`meta.video()`	Video	Codec, resolution, frame rate, HDR signalling
`meta.audio()`	Audio	Codec, channels, sample rate, language
`meta.text()`	Text	Subtitle/caption tracks
`meta.image()`	Image	Still-image metadata
`meta.exif()`	Exif	EXIF tags (camera settings, GPS, timestamps)
`meta.iptc()`	Iptc	IPTC press-photo metadata
`meta.xmp()`	Xmp	XMP/RDF metadata

All accessors refer to the first stream of that kind (index 0). For files with multiple video or audio tracks, use meta.streams() directly and call streams.stream(StreamKind::Video, index) for each index.

`MediaFile<'a>` — low-level engine

MediaFile (a type alias for revelo_core::FileAnalyze) is the byte-level parsing engine. It is re-exported for callers that need to feed raw FileAnalyze state into downstream crates (revelo-dispatcher, revelo-parsers-tag, etc.). Most users should prefer Metadata.

What it extracts

Containers & codecs — MP4/MOV, Matroska/WebM, MPEG-TS, AVI, WAV, and 180+ formats total, with codec details from AVC/HEVC/AV1/VP9 and AAC/AC-3/DTS/FLAC/Opus.
Photo metadata — EXIF, GPS, IPTC, XMP, ICC, C2PA, and (with exiftool-tables) deep maker-notes for Canon, Nikon, Fujifilm, Olympus, Sony, Panasonic, and more.
HDR signalling — HDR10+, Dolby Vision, HLG/PQ, plus Dolby Atmos / AC-4 and IAMF audio.

Re-exported crates

revelo re-exports its three underlying crates for callers that need direct access:

Re-export	Crate	Purpose
`revelo::revelo_core`	`revelo-core`	Stream model, `FileAnalyze`, `StreamCollection`, `StreamKind`
`revelo::revelo_dispatcher`	`revelo-dispatcher`	Format detection and parser dispatch
`revelo::revelo_parsers_tag`	`revelo-parsers-tag`	EXIF/IPTC/XMP/ICC/C2PA tag parsing

License

Core (default build): BSD-2-Clause — see LICENSE.
exiftool-tables feature: pulls in revelo-exiftool-tables, which is GPL-1.0-or-later OR Artistic-1.0-Perl (tables derived from ExifTool, © Phil Harvey). A binary or library built with this feature inherits those terms.

revelo 0.4.5