python-exiv2 0.2.3

Introduction

There are several other ways to access libexiv2 from within Python. The first one I used was pyexiv2 (old). After its development ceased I moved on to using gexiv2 and PyGObject. This works well, providing a Metadata object with high level functions such as set_tag_string and set_tag_multiple to get and set metadata values.

A more recent development is pyexiv2 (new). This new project is potentially very useful, providing a simple interface with functions to read and modify metadata using Python dict parameters.

For more complicated metadata operations I think a lower level interface is required, which is where this project comes in.

This project is at an early stage of development. It is already usable, but please email jim@jim-easterbrook.me.uk if it doesn’t work for you. Here is an example of what it can do:

Python 3.6.12 (default, Dec 02 2020, 09:44:23) [GCC] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import exiv2
>>> image = exiv2.ImageFactory.open('IMG_0211.JPG')
>>> image.readMetadata()
>>> data = image.exifData()
>>> data['Exif.Image.Artist']._print()
'Jim Easterbrook'
>>>

Documentation

The libexiv2 library is well documented for C++ users, in Doxygen format. Recent versions of SWIG can convert this documentation to pydoc format in the Python interface:

$ pydoc3 exiv2.Image.exifData

Help on method_descriptor in exiv2.Image:

exiv2.Image.exifData = exifData(...)
    Returns an ExifData instance containing currently buffered
        Exif data.

    The contained Exif data may have been read from the image by
    a previous call to readMetadata() or added directly. The Exif
    data in the returned instance will be written to the image when
    writeMetadata() is called.

    :rtype: :py:class:`ExifData`
    :return: modifiable ExifData instance containing Exif values

Assignment

libexiv2 stores metadata values in a generalised container whose type can be set by the type of a value assigned to it, for example:

exifData["Exif.Image.SamplesPerPixel"] = uint16_t(162);

This forces the Exif.Image.SamplesPerPixel value to be an unsigned short. Python doesn’t have such specific integer types, so if you want to set the type you need to create an exiv2 value of the appropriate type and assign that:

exifData["Exif.Image.SamplesPerPixel"] = exiv2.UShortValue(162)

This allows you to set the value to any type, just like in C++, but the Python interface warns you if you set a type that isn’t the default for that tag. Otherwise you can set the value to any Python object and let libexiv2 convert the string representation of that object to the appropriate type:

exifData["Exif.Image.SamplesPerPixel"] = 162

Iterators

Several libexiv2 classes use C++ iterators to expose private data, for example the ExifData class has a private member of std::list<Exifdatum> type. The classes have public begin and end methods that return std::list iterators. In C++ you can dereference one of these iterators to access the Exifdatum object, but Python doesn’t have a dereference operator.

This Python interface converts the std::list iterator to a Python object that has a curr method to return the list value. It is quite easy to use:

Python 3.6.12 (default, Dec 02 2020, 09:44:23) [GCC] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import exiv2
>>> image = exiv2.ImageFactory.open('IMG_0211.JPG')
>>> image.readMetadata()
>>> data = image.exifData()
>>> b = data.begin()
>>> b.curr().key()
'Exif.Image.ProcessingSoftware'
>>>

The Python iterators also have a next method that increments the iterator as well as returning the list value. This can be used to iterate over the data in a very C++ like style:

>>> data = image.exifData()
>>> b = data.begin()
>>> e = data.end()
>>> while b != e:
...     b.next().key()
...
'Exif.Image.ProcessingSoftware'
'Exif.Image.ImageDescription'
[skip 227 lines]
'Exif.Thumbnail.JPEGInterchangeFormat'
'Exif.Thumbnail.JPEGInterchangeFormatLength'
>>>

You can also iterate in a more Pythonic style:

>>> data = image.exifData()
>>> for item in data:
...     item.key()
...
'Exif.Image.ProcessingSoftware'
'Exif.Image.ImageDescription'
[skip 227 lines]
'Exif.Thumbnail.JPEGInterchangeFormat'
'Exif.Thumbnail.JPEGInterchangeFormatLength'
>>>

I think this is much better.

Warning: segmentation faults

It is easy to crash python-exiv2 if you delete objects which contain data that another object is pointing to. For example, deleting an Image after extracting its metadata can cause a segfault when the metadata is accessed. Ideally the Python interface to libexiv2 would use Python objects’ reference counts to ensure this doesn’t happen, preventing the deletion of the Image object until all references to it have been deleted. Unfortunately I haven’t found a sensible way to do this in the Python interface, so some care is needed when using it.

Error handling

libexiv2 has a multilevel warning system a bit like Python’s standard logger. The Python interface redirects all Exiv2 messages to Python logging with an appropriate log level.

Installation

C:\Users\Jim>"c:\Program Files\Python38\python.exe" -m pip install python-exiv2

sudo pip3 install python-exiv2

pip3 install --user python-exiv2

Building python-exiv2

If you want customise your installation of python-exiv2 you can build it yourself. Download and unpack a source archive from PyPI or GitHub, then switch to the python-exiv2 directory. The setup.py script used to install python-exiv2 will use the libexiv2 installed by your operating system if it can find it. This usually requires the “development headers” package to be installed. In this case you just need to build python-exiv2 and install it as follows:

pip wheel -v .
sudo pip3 install python_exiv2-0.2.3-cp36-cp36m-linux_x86_64.whl

(The name of the wheel file will depend on the python-exiv2 version, your Python version, and the system architecture.)

If you want to use your own downloaded copy of libexiv2 then a few more steps are required. First you need to copy some files using the copy_libexiv2.py script. This has two parameters: the exiv2 directory and the exiv2 version. For example:

python3 utils/copy_libexiv2.py ../exiv2-0.27.4-Linux64 0.27.4

This copies the exiv2 header files and runtime library to the directory libexiv2_0.27.4/linux/. Now you can run pip as before. Note that pip will still use the system installed version of libexiv2 if it can find it. Uninstalling the “development headers” package will prevent this.

When you try to import exiv2 into Python it’s possible you might get an error like OSError: /lib64/libm.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.29' not found (required by /usr/lib64/python3.6/site-packages/exiv2/libexiv2.so.0.27.4). This happens if the downloaded copy of libexiv2 was built for a newer version of the GNU C library than is installed on your computer. In this case the only option is to build libexiv2 from source.

Download the exiv2 source archive, then follow the build instructions in README.md, but make sure you install to a local directory rather than /usr/local:

$ mkdir build && cd build
$ cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=../local_install
$ cmake --build .
$ make install

Then, back in your python-exiv2 directory, copy sources from the newly created local directory:

python3 utils/copy_libexiv2.py ../exiv2-0.27.4-Source/local_install 0.27.4

Then run pip as before.

Problems?

I think it’s a bit early in the project to be using the “issues” page. Please email jim@jim-easterbrook.me.uk if you find any problems (or solutions!).