Crate exiftool

ExifTool

A Rust wrapper library for Phil Harvey’s ExifTool command-line application.

This library allows you to interact with ExifTool, enabling reading and writing metadata tags for a wide variety of file types (images, videos, audio, documents).

It maintains a long-running ExifTool process in stay-open mode for efficiency when processing multiple files or commands.

Basic Usage

use exiftool::{ExifTool, ExifToolError};
use std::path::Path;

fn main() -> Result<(), ExifToolError> {
    let mut exiftool = ExifTool::new()?; // Starts the background ExifTool process
    let image_path = Path::new("path/to/your/image.jpg");

    // Read a specific tag as a JSON Value
    let author_value = exiftool.json_tag(image_path, "Author")?;
    if let Some(author) = author_value.as_str() {
        println!("Author: {}", author);
    }

    // Read all metadata as a JSON Value (grouped by category)
    let metadata_json = exiftool.json(image_path, &["-g1"])?;
    println!("Metadata JSON: {}", metadata_json);

    // Write a tag
    exiftool.write_tag(image_path, "UserComment", "This is a test comment", &["-overwrite_original"])?;

    // Read binary data (e.g., thumbnail)
    let thumbnail_bytes = exiftool.read_tag_binary(image_path, "ThumbnailImage")?;
    println!("Read {} bytes for thumbnail", thumbnail_bytes.len());

    // Remember ExifTool process closes when `exiftool` variable goes out of scope (Drop).
    Ok(())
}

use exiftool::{ExifTool, ExifToolError};
use std::path::Path;
use serde::Deserialize;

#[derive(Deserialize, Debug)]
struct ImageMetadata {
    #[serde(rename = "FileName")]
    file_name: String,
    #[serde(rename = "ImageWidth")]
    width: u32,
    #[serde(rename = "ImageHeight")]
    height: u32,
}

fn main() -> Result<(), ExifToolError> {
    let mut exiftool = ExifTool::new()?;
    let image_path = Path::new("path/to/your/image.jpg");

    // Read specific tags and deserialize into a struct
    let partial_meta: ImageMetadata = exiftool.read_tags(
        image_path,
        &["FileName", "ImageWidth", "ImageHeight"]
    )?;
    println!("Partial Metadata: {:?}", partial_meta);

    // Read all metadata (grouped) and deserialize
    // Note: Requires a struct matching ExifTool's -g/-G output structure
    // let full_meta: YourFullMetadataStruct = exiftool.read_metadata(image_path, &["-g1"])?;
    // println!("Full Metadata: {:?}", full_meta);

    // Read a single tag and deserialize
    let author: String = exiftool.read_tag(image_path, "Author")?;
    println!("Author: {}", author);

    Ok(())
}

Modules

g2

parse_fn

Structs

ExifTool

Interacts with a persistent exiftool command-line process.

Enums

ExifToolError

Errors that can occur when interacting with ExifTool.