Install ExifTool on Raspberry Pi

ExifTool is a command line tool that allows to read, write and update metadata of media files such as images, video, audio, and PDF. The list of all the supported file types can be found in official website. ExifTool is a cross-platform tool that is written using Perl programming language.

This tutorial shows how to install ExifTool on Raspberry Pi.

Connect to Raspberry Pi via SSH. Update the package lists and install ExifTool by using the following commands:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y libimage-exiftool-perl

We can check version of ExifTool:

exiftool -ver

Download image from the Internet for testing purpose:

wget -O test.jpg https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ianare/exif-samples/master/jpg/exif-org/nikon-e950.jpg

To get all metadata of media file, execute the exiftool command and provide the path of a file as argument:

exiftool test.jpg

Use -common option to get the most common metadata of media file.

exiftool -common test.jpg

An example of output:

File Name                       : test.jpg
File Size                       : 160 kB
Camera Model Name               : E950
Date/Time Original              : 2001:04:06 11:51:40
Image Size                      : 800x600
Quality                         : 12
Focal Length                    : 12.8 mm
Shutter Speed                   : 1/77
Aperture                        : 5.5
ISO                             : 80
White Balance                   : 0
Flash                           : No Flash

If you want to completely remove ExifTool and related dependencies, run the following command:

sudo apt purge --autoremove -y libimage-exiftool-perl