How best to rename all JPEGs in a folder by EXIF date & time stamp

[rocksockdoc]

In the Windows world where I came from, Irfanview freeware easily renamed a large folder of JPEG photos by EXIF time & date stamps, appending a unique number if the time and date stamps were the same.

Is there an equivalent rename-by-EXIF information batch command in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid?

For example, change (based solely on EXIF information):

• FROM:
  
  • DSC_0001.JPG
  
  
• TO:
  
  • 20110224_09:34:56am.JPG
  
  

[rocksockdoc]

Nobody?

[YesWeCan]

Well. There is a command line program called exif that might be worth looking into.
I gave up on easy methods and ended up writing a Java program to do it.

[rocksockdoc]

There is a command line program called exif that might be worth looking into

Thanks for the idea. It failed, but, I do appreciate the assistance (especially since I had not known about "exif" as a program).

I installed "exif" along with "exiftran" which I already had.

Both seem to do the same thing, which is spit out EXIF information.

But, neither will rename a file based on the EXIF time and date.

So, it looks like I too will need to write a program to convert that information to a program for changing file names of directories of photographs.

Sigh. You'd think we're not the first Ubuntu people to want this capability of naming photographs based on the time and date taken since this is a common feature in Windows freeware.

Here is how I obtained the help for "/usr/bin/exif", for example:

$ man exif | col -b > /tmp/exif.man
$ vi !$

  exif(1)            command line front-end to libexif           exif(1)
 NAME
        exif - shows EXIF information in JPEG files
 SYNOPSIS
        exif [ OPTION ] [ file... ]

 DESCRIPTION
        exif  is  a small command-line utility to show and change EXIF informa‐
        tion in JPEG files.
 

        Most digital cameras produce EXIF files,  which    are  JPEG  files  with
        extra  tags that contain information about the image. The exif command-
        line utility allows you to read EXIF information from  and  write  EXIF
        information to those files.  exif internally uses the libexif library.
 

        Each  input file given on the command line is acted upon in turn, using
        all the options given. Execution will be  aborted  immediately  if  one
        file is not readable or does not contain EXIF tags.
 

        As  EXIF  tags  are read, any unknown ones are discarded and known ones
        are automatically converted into the correct  format,  if  they    aren't
        already.   Corrupted  MakerNote    tags  are  also removed, but no format
        changes are made.
 

 OPTIONS
        -v, --version
           Display the exif version number.
 

        -i, --ids
           Show ID numbers instead of tag names.
 

        -t, --tag=TAG
           Select only this TAG.  TAG is the tag title, the short tag name,
           or  the  tag  number (hexadecimal numbers are prefixed with 0x),
           from the IFD specified with --ifd.  The tag title  is  dependent
           on  the current locale, whereas name and number are locale-inde‐
           pendent.
 

        --ifd=IFD
           Select a tag or tags from this IFD.  Valid IFDs  are  "0",  "1",
           "EXIF", "GPS", and "Interoperability".  Defaults to "0".
 

        -l, --list-tags
           List  all  known    EXIF tags and IFDs.  A JPEG image must be pro‐
           vided, and those tags which appear in the file are shown with an
           asterisk in the corresponding position in the list.
 

        -|, --show-mnote
           Show  the  contents  of the MakerNote tag.  The contents of this
           tag are nonstandard (and often undocumented) and    may  therefore
           not be recognized, or if they are recognized they may not neces‐
           sarily be interpreted correctly.
 

        --remove
           Remove the tag or (if no tag is specified) the entire IFD.
 

        -s, --show-description
           Show description of tag.    The --tag option must also be given.
 

        -e, --extract-thumbnail
           Extract the thumbnail, writing the thumbnail image to  the  file
           specified with --output.
 

        -r, --remove-thumbnail
           Remove  the  thumbnail  from the image, writing the new image to
           the file specified with --output.
 

        -n, --insert-thumbnail=FILE
           Insert FILE as thumbnail.  No attempt is made to ensure that the
           contents of FILE are in a valid thumbnail format.
 

        --no-fixup
           Do not attempt to fix EXIF specification violations when reading
           tags.  exif will remove illegal or unknown tags, add some manda‐
           tory tags using default values, and change the data type of tags
           to match that required by the specification.
 

        -o, --output=FILE
           Write output image to FILE.  If this option is not given and  an
           image  file  must  be  written, the name used is the same as the
           input file with the suffix ".modified.jpeg".
 

        --set-value=VALUE
           Set the data for the tag    specified  with  --tag    and  --ifd  to
           VALUE.   Compound  values  consisting of multiple components are
           separated with spaces.
 

        -c, --create-exif
           Create EXIF data if it does not exist
 

        -m, --machine-readable
           Produce output in  a  machine-readable  (tab-delimited)  format.
           The  --xml-output  and  --machine-readable  options are mutually
           exclusive.
 

        -w, --width=N
           Set the maximum width of the output  to  N  characters  (default
           80). This does not apply to some output formats (e.g. XML).
 

        -x, --xml-output
           Produce output in an XML format (when possible).    The --xml-out‐
           put and --machine-readable options are mutually exclusive.
 

        -d, --debug
           Show debugging messages. Also, when processing a file that  con‐
           tains corrupted data, this option causes exif to attempt to con‐
           tinue processing. Normally, corrupted data causes an abort.
 

    Help options
        -?, --help
           Show help message.
 

        --usage
           Display brief usage message.
 

 EXAMPLES
        Display all recognized EXIF tags in an image and the tag contents, with
        bad tags fixed:
 

           exif image.jpg
 

        Display a table listing all known EXIF tags and whether each one exists
        in the given image:
 

           exif --list-tags --no-fixup image.jpg
 

        Extract the thumbnail into the file thumbnail.jpg:
 

           exif --extract-thumbnail --output=thumbnail.jpg image.jpg
 

        Display a list of the numeric values of    only  the  EXIF  tags  in  the
        thumbnail IFD (IFD 1) and the tag values:
 

           exif --ids --ifd=1 --no-fixup image.jpg
 

        Display    the  meaning  of tag 0x9209 in the "EXIF" IFD according to the
        EXIF specification:
 

           exif --show-description --ifd=EXIF --tag=0x9209
 

        Add an Orientation tag with value "bottom - left" to an existing image:
 

           exif   --output=new.jpg    --ifd=0   --tag=0x0112     --set-value=4
           --no-fixup image.jpg
 

        Add  a  YCbCr Sub-Sampling tag with value 2,1 (a.k.a YCbCr 4:2:2) to an
        existing image and fix the existing tags, if necessary:
 

           exif     --output=new.jpg     --tag=YCbCrSubSampling     --ifd=0
           --set-value='2 1' image.jpg
 

 AUTHOR
        exif  was  written  by  Lutz  Mueller  <lutz@users.sourceforge.net> and
        numerous contributors.  This man page is Copyright ©  2002-2009    Thomas
        Pircher and others.
 

 SEE ALSO
        http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/libexif
 

 

 

 exif 0.6.19              2009-11-12                   exif(1)

Here is how I obtained the help for "/usr/bin/exiftran", for example:

$ man exif | col -b > /tmp/exiftran.man
$ vi !$

exiftran(1)                               exiftran(1)

 NAME
       exiftran - transform digital camera jpeg images
 

 SYNOPSIS
       exiftran [ options ] file(s)
 

 DESCRIPTION
       exiftran  is  a    command  line  utility to transform digital image jpeg
       images.    It can do lossless rotations like jpegtran, but  unlike  jpeg
       nail.  It can process multiple images at once.
 

 TRANSFORM OPTIONS
       -a     automatic (using exif orientation tag)
 

       -9     rotate by 90 degrees clockwise
 

       -1     rotate by 180 degrees clockwise
 

       -2     rotate by 270 degrees clockwise
 

       -f     flip vertical
 

       -F     flip horizontal
 

       -t     transpose
 

       -T     transverse
 

       -nt    Don't rotate exif thumbnail.
 

       -ni    Don't rotate jpeg image. You might  need    this  or  or  the  -nt
           option  to  fixup things in case you rotated the image with some
           utility which ignores the exif thumbnail. Just generating a  new
           thumbnail with -g is another way to fix it.
 

       -no    Don't  update the orientation tag.  By default exiftran sets the
           orientation to "1" (no transformation  needed)  to  avoid  other
           exif-aware  applications try to rotate the already-rotated image
           again.
 

 OTHER OPTIONS
       -h     print a short help text
 

       -d     Dump exif data for the file(s).
 

       -c <text>
           Set jpeg comment tag to <text>.
 

       -g     (re)generate EXIF thumbnail.
 

       -o <file>
           Specify output file.  Only one input file  is  allowed  in  this
           mode.
 

       -i     Enable  inplace editing of the images.  Exiftran allows multiple
           input files then.  You must specify either this option or a out
       CHANTABILITY  or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General
       Public License for more details.
 

       You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
       with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
       675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
                 (c) 2003,04 Gerd Knorr           exiftran(1)

[asmoore82]

pyRenamer can do this.

sudo apt-get install pyrenamer

You have to pick the pictures location in the upper left pane.
Then click the Image tab in the lower pane.

For the replacement pattern, use something like "{imagedate}_{imagetime}".
Using the "Preview" button is highly recommended .

…
So, it looks like I too will need to write a program to convert that information
…
Sigh. You'd think we're not the first Ubuntu people to want this capability…

Surely you had plans to release this as open source and iron out
the inevitable bugs reported by the community, yes?

[BadgerKid]

I wasn't aware of pyrenamer, so maybe that solves your needs, OP. I can understand not wanting to "reinvent the wheel" if you don't have to, but another option would be to write your own custom script.

Another thought: the command 'exiftags' also contains the timestamp information.

[jahst]

know this is a bit old post.. but the answer is exiv2.

http://linux.die.net/man/1/exiv2

"
Examples

exiv2 *.jpg
Prints a summary of the Exif information for all JPEG files in the directory.
exiv2 -pi image.jpg
Prints the IPTC metadata of the image.
exiv2 rename img_1234.jpg
Renames img_1234.jpg (taken on 13-Nov-05 at 22:58:31) to 20051113_225831.jpg
exiv2 -r':basename:_%Y%m' rename img_1234.jpg
Renames img_1234.jpg to img_1234_200511.jpg

"

I wrote a script a few years ago to batch rename all my files by date and time very quickly... works like a charm for me. A simple bash loop can rename all your photos .. like 1000 .. in a minute or two.

I'd recommend you work on copies first.

[d3v1150m471c]

 for i in `ls | grep jpg`; do a=${i/.jpg/.$(date +%T).jpg} && mv "$i" "$a"; done

why install something when you can handle it with bash

man sed
man grep
man date
# do above for more info

[jahst]

Well, because as far as I can tell your script renames them to the current system date/time.. not the exif date of the photo which is what the poster wanted. If you have a way to do this in bash alone, please share.


Consider this scenario... it happened to me many times.
On vacation some place with 3 different cameras from 3 people...etc.

Cameras typically name files using their own conventions.. NCDC, GEDC, etc.

Therefore, when you put all the photo from the 3 cameras in the same folder, they are organized by Camera name not time taken. Renaming them by exif will nicely merge them all in the correct order.. so for example, you dont see Nikon Camera breakfast, lunch, dinner photos then see them all over again for the GE camera.


Sorted by exif would look like this.

08:17:30 Nikon Breakfast
08:18:32 GE Breakfast
13:46:22 GE Lunch
13:59:55 Nikon Lunch

It's much cleaner and less repetitive.

Here's the basic code I use.. try yours then mine, especially under the scenarios given above, and see the difference.

for i in $(ls *.JPG); do exiv2 -r '%Y%m%d.%H%M%S.:basename:' rename $i; done

[jensjk]

gthumb will do the job for you easily