Software Update: ExifTool 12.19

Phil Harvey has released version 12.19 of ExifTool. ExifTool is a free and cross-platform program that allows the metadata of a large number of files can be managed and edited. It works from the command line, but there are third-party solutions available that allow it to be used with a graphical user interface. New versions appear regularly, but most releases are made available under the beta flag. This update is also referred to as a development version, the last stable release is version 12.16. Since version 12.17, the following changes and improvements have been made:

Version 12.19

• Added -list_dir option
• Added the “ls-l” Shortcut tag
• Extract Comment and History from FITS files
• Enhanced FilePermissions to include device type (similar to “ls -l”)
• Changed the name of Apple ContentIdentifier tag to MediaGroupUUID (thanks Neal Krawetz)
• Fixed a potential “substr outside of string” runtime error when reading corrupted EXIF
• Fixed edge case where NikonScanIFD may not be copied properly when copying MakerNotes to another file
• API Changes:
  • Added ability to read/write System tags of directories
  • Enhanced GetAllGroups() to support family 7 and take optional ExifTool reference
  • Changed QuickTimeHandler option default to 1

Version 12.18

• Added a new SonyModelID
• Decode a number of Sony tags for the ILCE-1 (thanks Jos Roost)
• Decode a couple of new Canon tags (thanks LibRaw)
• Patched to read differently formatted UserData:Keywords as written by iPhone
• Patched to tolerate out-of-order Nikon MakerNote IFD entries when obtaining tags necessary for decryption
• Fixed a few possible Condition warnings for some NikonSettings tags