Installing ExifTool

See the appropriate section below with instructions for installing ExifTool on your specific platform:

Also see these instructions for help running ExifTool.

Windows

In Windows, there is a choice of two different versions of ExifTool to install. The Perl distribution requires Perl to be installed on your system. (A good, free Perl interpreter can be downloaded from activeperl.com.)

If you don't already have Perl, it is easier to install the stand-alone ExifTool executable, but note that the stand-alone version doesn't include the HTML documentation or some other files of the full distribution.

Stand-Alone Executable

  1. Download the Windows Executable from the ExifTool home page.
    (The file you download will have a name like "exiftool-#.##.zip".)
  2. Extract "exiftool(-k).exe" from the ".zip" file, and place it on your Desktop.
    (Double-click on "exiftool-#.##.zip" to open the archive, then drag "exiftool(‑k).exe" to your Desktop.)

You can now double-click on "exiftool(-k).exe" to read the application documentation, or drag-and-drop files and folders to run exiftool on selected files.

To install exiftool for use from the command line, continue with the following steps:

  1. Rename "exiftool(-k).exe" to "exiftool.exe".
  2. Move "exiftool.exe" to the "C:\WINDOWS" directory (or any other directory in your PATH).

You can now run exiftool by typing "exiftool" at the command prompt.

Full Perl Distribution

You must have Perl installed to use this version. (A free version of Perl can be downloaded from activeperl.com.)

  1. Download the Image-ExifTool distribution from the ExifTool home page
    (The file you download will have a name like "Image-ExifTool-#.##.tar.gz".)
  2. Extract the ExifTool files from the archive.
    (The archive is a gzipped tar file, and can be opened with various Windows utilities, including WinZip.)
  3. Copy "exiftool" and the "lib" directory from the exiftool distribution to "C:\WINDOWS".
  4. Rename "exiftool" to "exiftool.pl" in the "C:\WINDOWS" directory.

Now, if you have made the proper Windows associations for the ".pl" extension (an option in the ActivePerl installation), you can run exiftool by typing "exiftool.pl" at the "cmd.exe" prompt. Otherwise you should type "perl c:\windows\exiftool.pl".

Macintosh OS X

If you have installed the BSDSDK package from the Xcode Developer Tools, you should follow the install procedure for Unix platforms in the next section instead of the steps below. The Unix install has the advantage of making the ExifTool library available for your Perl scripts, as well as installing the man pages and POD documentation.

Otherwise, you have a choice of two packages to install: The OS X package, or the full Perl distribution. Both of the procedures below install the ExifTool files in the same location. Installing the OS X package is easier, but the full distribution includes HTML documentation and some other files not included in the OS X package. Both versions run natively on PPC and Intel Macs.

OS X Package

  1. Download the ExifTool OS X Package from the ExifTool home page.
    (The file you download will have a name like "ExifTool-#.##.dmg".)
  2. Install as a normal OS X package.
    (Open the disk image, double-click on the install package, and follow the instructions.)

You can now run exiftool by typing "exiftool" in a Terminal window.

Full Perl Distribution

  1. Download the Image-ExifTool distribution from the ExifTool home page to your Desktop.
    (The file you download will have a name like "Image-ExifTool-#.##.tar.gz".)
  2. Launch the Terminal application from the Utilities folder in your Applications folder.
  3. In the Terminal window, type the following: 
        cd ~/Desktop
    tar -xzf Image-ExifTool-#.##.tar.gz
    cd Image-ExifTool-#.##
    sudo cp -r exiftool lib /usr/bin
    where "#.##" is the version number of the ExifTool you downloaded.
    (Note: The last step above will require you to enter your password.)

You can now run exiftool by typing "exiftool" in a Terminal window.

(Note: The OS X installations above place exiftool and its "lib" directory in /usr/bin, while the standard Unix "make install" described below puts exiftool in /usr/bin and the individual libraries in /Library/Perl/#.#.#, where "#.#.#" is the Perl version. If both sets of libraries exist, /usr/bin/lib takes precedence for exiftool, but /Library/Perl/#.## is the default for any other Perl scripts.)

Unix Platforms

  1. Download the Image-ExifTool distribution from the ExifTool home page
    (The file you download will have a name like "Image-ExifTool-#.##.tar.gz".)
  2. Change to the download directory (with "cd DIR"), and type the following: 
        tar -xzf Image-ExifTool-#.##.tar.gz
    cd Image-ExifTool-#.##
    perl Makefile.PL
    make test
    sudo make install
    where "#.##" is the version number of the ExifTool you downloaded.
    (Note: The last step above will require you to enter your password. The "make test" step is not required, but useful because it runs a full suite of tests to validate that ExifTool is working properly on your system.)

You can now run exiftool by typing "exiftool". Also, you can consult the ExifTool documentation with commands like:

perldoc exiftool
perldoc Image::ExifTool
perldoc Image::ExifTool::TagNames

or

man exiftool
man Image::ExifTool
man Image::ExifTool::TagNames

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