python-exiv2 0.5.1

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. Here is an example of its 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()
>>> 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:

// C or C++
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:

# Python
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:

# Python
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 access to all the Exifdatum object’s methods. For example:

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.key()
'Exif.Image.ProcessingSoftware'
>>>

The Python objects 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.key()
...     next(b)
...
'Exif.Image.ProcessingSoftware'
<Swig Object of type 'ExifDataIterator *' at 0x7f2cbf6c2fb8>
'Exif.Image.ImageDescription'
<Swig Object of type 'ExifDataIterator *' at 0x7f2cbf6c2fb8>
[skip 227 line pairs]
'Exif.Thumbnail.JPEGInterchangeFormat'
<Swig Object of type 'ExifDataIterator *' at 0x7f2cbf6c2fb8>
'Exif.Thumbnail.JPEGInterchangeFormatLength'
<Swig Object of type 'ExifDataIterator *' at 0x7f2cbf6c2fb8>
>>>

The <Swig Object of type 'ExifDataIterator *' at 0x7f2cbf6c2fb8> lines are the Python interpreter showing the return value of next(b). You can also iterate in a more Pythonic style:

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

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. The exiv2.LogMsg.setLevel function can be used to control what severity of messages are logged.

Installation

Python “wheels” are available for Windows (Python 3.5 to 3.9) and Linux (Python 3.6 to 3.10). These include the libexiv2 library and should not need any other software to be installed. They can be installed with Python’s pip package. For example, on Windows:

C:\Users\Jim>pip install python-exiv2

or on Linux:

$ sudo pip3 install python-exiv2

You can install for a single user with the --user option:

$ pip3 install --user python-exiv2

If the available wheels are not compatible with your operating system then pip will download the python-exiv2 source and attempt to compile it. For more information, and details of how to compile python-exiv2 and libexiv2, see INSTALL.rst.

Problems?

Please email jim@jim-easterbrook.me.uk if you find any problems (or solutions!).