Struct ExifTool 

pub struct ExifTool { /* private fields */ }

The main ExifTool engine — read, write, and edit metadata.

Reading metadata

use exiftool_rs::ExifTool;

let et = ExifTool::new();

// Full tag structs
let tags = et.extract_info("photo.jpg").unwrap();
for tag in &tags {
    println!("[{}] {}: {}", tag.group.family0, tag.name, tag.print_value);
}

// Simple name→value map
let info = et.image_info("photo.jpg").unwrap();
println!("Camera: {}", info.get("Model").unwrap_or(&String::new()));

Writing metadata

use exiftool_rs::ExifTool;

let mut et = ExifTool::new();
et.set_new_value("Artist", Some("John Doe"));
et.set_new_value("Copyright", Some("2024"));
et.write_info("input.jpg", "output.jpg").unwrap();

Implementations

impl ExifTool

pub fn new() -> Self

Create a new ExifTool instance with default options.

pub fn with_options(options: Options) -> Self

Create a new ExifTool instance with custom options.

pub fn options_mut(&mut self) -> &mut Options

Get a mutable reference to the options.

pub fn options(&self) -> &Options

Get a reference to the options.

pub fn set_new_value(&mut self, tag: &str, value: Option<&str>)

Queue a new tag value for writing.

Call this one or more times, then call write_info() to apply changes.

Arguments

• tag - Tag name, optionally prefixed with group (e.g., “Artist”, “XMP:Title”, “EXIF:Copyright”)
• value - New value, or None to delete the tag

Example

use exiftool_rs::ExifTool;
let mut et = ExifTool::new();
et.set_new_value("Artist", Some("John Doe"));
et.set_new_value("Copyright", Some("2024 John Doe"));
et.set_new_value("XMP:Title", Some("My Photo"));
et.write_info("photo.jpg", "photo_out.jpg").unwrap();

pub fn clear_new_values(&mut self)

Clear all queued new values.

pub fn set_new_values_from_file<P: AsRef<Path>>( &mut self, src_path: P, tags_to_copy: Option<&[&str]>, ) -> Result<u32>

Copy tags from a source file, queuing them as new values.

Reads all tags from src_path and queues them for writing. Optionally filter by tag names.

pub fn set_file_name_from_tag<P: AsRef<Path>>( &self, path: P, tag_name: &str, template: &str, ) -> Result<String>

Set a file’s name based on a tag value.

pub fn write_info<P: AsRef<Path>, Q: AsRef<Path>>( &self, src_path: P, dst_path: Q, ) -> Result<u32>

Write queued changes to a file.

If dst_path is the same as src_path, the file is modified in-place (via a temporary file).

pub fn writable_tags(file_type: FileType) -> Option<HashSet<&'static str>>

Returns the set of tag names (lowercase) that are writable for a given file type. Returns None if any tag is writable (open-ended formats like PNG, FLAC, MKV). Returns Some(empty set) if the format has no writer.

pub fn image_info<P: AsRef<Path>>(&self, path: P) -> Result<ImageInfo>

Extract metadata from a file and return a simple name→value map.

This is the high-level one-shot API, equivalent to ExifTool’s ImageInfo().

pub fn extract_info<P: AsRef<Path>>(&self, path: P) -> Result<Vec<Tag>>

Extract all metadata tags from a file.

Returns the full Tag structs with groups, raw values, etc.

pub fn extract_info_from_bytes( &self, data: &[u8], path: &Path, ) -> Result<Vec<Tag>>

Extract metadata from in-memory data.

Trait Implementations

impl Default for ExifTool

fn default() -> Self

Returns the “default value” for a type.