## The IPTC Command-Line Utility

The IPTC Command-Line Utility — how to modify IPTC data from the command-line

## The IPTC Command-Line Utility

libiptcdata ships with a companion utility, iptc, which provides a command-line interface for viewing and modifying the IPTC data of a JPEG file. Its usage is as follows:

    Utility for viewing and modifying the contents of IPTC metadata in images

    Usage: iptc [OPTIONS] [FILE]...

    Examples:
      iptc image.jpg       # display the IPTC metadata contained in image.jpg
      iptc -m Caption -v "Foo" *.jpg
                           # set caption "Foo" in all jpegs of the curr. dir.
      iptc -a Keywords -v "vacation" *.jpg
      iptc -a 2:25 -v "vacation" *.jpg
                           # either command adds keyword "vacation" to all jpegs
      iptc -d Keywords:1 image.jpg
                           # removes keyword number 1 (the 2nd) from image.jpg
      iptc -d Keywords:all image.jpg
                           # removes all keywords from image.jpg

    Operations:
      -a, --add=TAG        add new tag with identifier TAG
      -m, --modify=TAG     modify tag with identifier TAG (add if not present)
      -v, --value=VALUE    value for added/modified tag
      -d, --delete=TAG     delete tag with identifier TAG
      -p, --print=TAG      print value of tag with identifier TAG

    Options:
      -q, --quiet          produce less verbose output
      -b, --backup         backup any modified files
          --no-sort        do not sort tags before saving

    Informative output:
      -l, --list           list the names of all known tags (i.e. Caption, etc.)
      -L, --list-desc=TAG  print the name and description of TAG
          --help           print this help, then exit
          --version        print iptc program version number, then exit

The program returns success whenever at least one operation succeeds on at least one file. The program returns failure when no operation succeeds on any file. Thus, if you intend to use it in a script and need to know whether each operation succeeds, only one operation should be performed at a time so the return value is meaningful for that operation.

iptc also serves as an easy way to test the features of the libiptcdata library, although the library itself has many more features than iptc exposes. Lastly, the source code of iptc also serves as a reference for writing other applications that use libiptcdata.