How to Install ExifTool on Linux Mint

This article will discuss how to install ExifTool on Linux Mint in detail. ExifTool gives you a platform-independent metadata editing tool. So keep reading if you wish to find out more. 

ExifTool is a platform-independent command line and graphical user interface (GUI) tool for reading, writing, and editing meta information about images and media files. The tool is available for most operating systems, such as Windows, Linux, and macOS. 

To inspect, edit, and add additional metadata fields to image files, you can use Exiftool. The metadata from image files can also be extracted using it and saved in a different file.

In this article, we will start with a brief introduction to the tool, then the steps for installation of the tool are discussed. The primary usage of the tool is provided, along with a discussion on the various formats in which output can be exported. Finally, we also discuss the uninstallation of the tool.

Introduction to ExifTool

Exiftool is a widely used tool in Linux for obtaining metadata of images and media files. It is a tool for reading, writing, and manipulating various file formats such as images, audio, video, and portable document formats (PDF). Following is the relevant information about the images and media files:

• Extension of file
• Permissions related to file
• The creation and modification date/ time of a file
• Resolution of the image
• Multipurpose internet mail extension (MIME) type
• Width and height of the image
• Megapixel
• Encoding process

How to Install ExifTool on Linux Mint

We will discuss the steps for the installation of the ExifTool. The tool doesn’t actually need to be installed to run. However, the benefit of the installation is that it resolves PATH issues, and the documentation and API libraries will be available. 

There are two tools installation approaches, and the first one allows you to perform the installation from the repository. On the other hand, the second one lets you manually install ExifTool. 

Installation from Repository

The ExifTool can be installed from the repository using the steps mentioned below. 

Update your system

The first step is to update your system to resolve all the dependencies. You can run the following command to update your system:

$ sudo apt-get update

Run the installation command

After updating the repository, the installation can be performed using the following command:

$ sudo apt-get install libimage-exiftool-perl

This will install the tool. Now, you can run the tool with the steps mentioned in the next section.

Manual installation

The end user can perform the manual installation using the steps mentioned below.

Download the tool from the website

The ExifTool is available at the following uniform resource locator (URL). Download the tool first.

Open the terminal window and move to the directory

Open the terminal windows and move to the download directory by using the following command:

$cd ~/Downloads

Extract the folder

Using the gzip tool, unpack the distribution as follows:

$gzip -dc Image-ExifTool-12.49.tar.gz | tar -xf -

Move to the extracted folder by typing the following command:

$cd Image-ExifTool-12.49

Test and install

Now test and install the ExifTool by using the following command:

$perl Makefile.PL

$make test

$sudo make install

Running the ExifTool

You can run the ExifTool by typing the following on the terminal:

$exiftool

Usage of the tool

We can now use the ExifTool to display the metadata information of an image. To perform it, run the following command:

$ exiftool Sample.jpeg

This will display the following information. Which includes the type of the image, file size, modification date/time, multipurpose internet mail extension (MIME) type, resolution, width, and height of the picture, etc.

Listing the data into different formats in ExifTool

You can export the metadata to the hypertext markup language (HTML) format by using the following command:

$ exiftool -h file.png >output.html

Also, you can export in comma-separated values (CSV) format by using the following command:

$ exiftool -csv /home/khan/Downloads

To list only specific metadata only, such as image width only, use the following format:

$ exiftool image.png | grep "Image Width"

Changing the metadata

You can change the metadata of an image by using the following command:

$ exiftool -overwrite_original -rights="2022 Writers Inc." khan.doc

Consulting the documentation

For more information, you can consult the ExifTool documentation via the following commands:

$perldoc exiftool 

perldoc Image::ExifTool

perldoc Image::ExifTool::TagNames

Alternatively, you can use the following commands:

man exiftool

man Image::ExifTool

man Image::ExifTool::TagNames

Uninstallation of ExifTool

Should you like to remove the ExifTool, you can use the following command if you have installed it from the repository:

$ sudo apt-get purge --autoremove libimage-exiftool-perl

You can also run the following command to install the tool:

$sudo make uninstall

In this article, we have discussed the ExifTool in detail, which is a nifty command-line application designed for seamless reading, writing, and manipulation of metadata. All the while supporting a wide range of formats. 

We discussed the importance of this tool, the basic information about the media files and images provided by the tool, and the steps required to install and uninstall it. This includes installing it from the repository and manually. 

We also discussed how to display the images. More information about the tool can be obtained by consulting the manual or documentation.

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