With the Verbose option enabled, ExifTool prints a verbose log to the console as it extracts the meta information from a file, or writes information to a file.
The -v option of the exiftool application allows control of the Verbose setting. A number between 0 and 5 may be specified with the -v option to set a specific Verbose level. For example, -v2 sets Verbose = 2. Without a number, -v increments the current Verbose level by one. Multiple -v options are allowed, so the following two examples give the same result:
Below are example outputs for different Verbose settings when extracting information.
Prints tag names and extracted values. These are the raw values straight from the file, before any conversions are applied. Also printed are details of the file and directory structure:
Prints all of the information from Verbose = 1, plus additional information about the tag ID, data size and format:
Adds a hex dump of the binary data associated with each tag. The hex offsets are relative to the start of the file, unlike the default HtmlDump output where offsets are relative to the start of the TIFF header (the native base for TIFF/EXIF offsets). If the data is very long, only the first few lines of the dump are printed:
ExifToolVersion = 10.00 FileName = Canon.jpg Directory = t/images FileSize = 2697 FileModifyDate = 1159902631 FileAccessDate = 1439991933 FileInodeChangeDate = 1439903472 FilePermissions = 33188 FileType = JPEG FileTypeExtension = JPG MIMEType = image/jpeg JPEG APP1 (2442 bytes): 0006: 45 78 69 66 00 00 49 49 2a 00 08 00 00 00 09 00 [Exif..II*.......] 0016: 0f 01 02 00 06 00 00 00 7a 00 00 00 10 01 02 00 [........z.......] 0026: 18 00 00 00 80 00 00 00 12 01 03 00 01 00 00 00 [................] 0036: 01 00 00 00 1a 01 05 00 01 00 00 00 98 00 00 00 [................] 0046: 1b 01 05 00 01 00 00 00 a0 00 00 00 28 01 03 00 [............(...] 0056: 01 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 32 01 02 00 14 00 00 00 [........2.......] 0066: a8 00 00 00 13 02 03 00 01 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 [................] [snip 2330 bytes] ExifByteOrder = II + [IFD0 directory with 9 entries] | 0) Make = Canon | - Tag 0x010f (6 bytes, string[6]): | 0086: 43 61 6e 6f 6e 00 [Canon.] | 1) Model = Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL | - Tag 0x0110 (24 bytes, string[24]): | 008c: 43 61 6e 6f 6e 20 45 4f 53 20 44 49 47 49 54 41 [Canon EOS DIGITA] | 009c: 4c 20 52 45 42 45 4c 00 [L REBEL.] | 2) Orientation = 1 | - Tag 0x0112 (2 bytes, int16u[1]): | 0036: 01 00 [..] | 3) XResolution = 180 (180/1) | - Tag 0x011a (8 bytes, rational64u[1]): | 00a4: b4 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 [........] | 4) YResolution = 180 (180/1) | - Tag 0x011b (8 bytes, rational64u[1]): | 00ac: b4 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 [........] | 5) ResolutionUnit = 2 | - Tag 0x0128 (2 bytes, int16u[1]): | 005a: 02 00 [..] | 6) ModifyDate = 2003:12:04 06:46:52 | - Tag 0x0132 (20 bytes, string[20]): | 00b4: 32 30 30 33 3a 31 32 3a 30 34 20 30 36 3a 34 36 [2003:12:04 06:46] | 00c4: 3a 35 32 00 [:52.] | 7) YCbCrPositioning = 1 | - Tag 0x0213 (2 bytes, int16u[1]): | 0072: 01 00 [..] | 8) ExifOffset (SubDirectory) --> | - Tag 0x8769 (4 bytes, int32u[1]): | 007e: bc 00 00 00 [....] | + [ExifIFD directory with 31 entries] | | 0) ExposureTime = 4 (4/1) | | - Tag 0x829a (8 bytes, rational64u[1]): | | 0242: 04 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 [........] | | 1) FNumber = 14 (14/1) | | - Tag 0x829d (8 bytes, rational64u[1]): | | 024a: 0e 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 [........] | | 2) ISO = 100 | | - Tag 0x8827 (2 bytes, int16u[1]): | | 00ea: 64 00 [d.] | | 3) ExifVersion = 0221 | | - Tag 0x9000 (4 bytes, undef[4]): | | 00f6: 30 32 32 31 [0221] | | 4) DateTimeOriginal = 2003:12:04 06:46:52 | | - Tag 0x9003 (20 bytes, string[20]): | | 0252: 32 30 30 33 3a 31 32 3a 30 34 20 30 36 3a 34 36 [2003:12:04 06:46] | | 0262: 3a 35 32 00 [:52.] [etc...]
These Verbose levels give similar output to Verbose = 3, except that with level 4 there is no limit on the length of data dumps of tag values, and with level 5 the limit is also removed for dumps of JPEG segments. Note that the output may be very long at these levels.