`exiv2 -m file` / `exiv2 -M` cannot handle whitespaces value about exiv2

[iblazhko]

In case this may be useful to someone having the same issue: as a workaround, I am piping exiv2 -PVk output through sed to trim trailing whitespaces, result can be processed by exiv2 -m-:

exiv2 -PVk \
  -K Exif.Image.DateTime \
  -K Exif.Image.Make \
  -K Exif.Image.Model \
  -K Exif.Photo.LensMake \
  -K Exif.Photo.LensModel \
  source.jpg \
| sed -e 's/[[:space:]]*$//' \
| exiv2 -m- target.jpg

[kamiccolo]

I was about to state, that it may not be a bug, but rather a feature. But found this on the manual:

In the file, any blank lines or additional white space is ignored and any lines beginning with a # are comments.

Also, from the same manual:

value The remaining text on the line is the value, and can optionally be enclosed in quotes (see Quotations with 'modify' commands). For Ascii, XmpAlt, XmpBag, XmpSeq and XmpText, the value is optional which is equivalent to an empty value ("")

So, it's seams like expected behavior is not to differentiate between the following of examples You've provided:

exiv2 -M "set Exif.Photo.LensMake Ascii " image.jpg

exiv2 -M "set Exif.Photo.LensMake Ascii" image.jpg

Relevant (I guess) parts of the source:

1. https://github.com/Exiv2/exiv2/blob/main/app/exiv2.cpp#L1234-L1257 (reading the lines)
2. https://github.com/Exiv2/exiv2/blob/main/app/exiv2.cpp#L1302-L1426 (parsing the line)
3. https://github.com/Exiv2/exiv2/blob/main/app/exiv2.cpp#L1363-L1405 (parsing the value, I guess the culprit is here)

[iblazhko]

Thanks for confirming my assumptions.

Whatever the parsing rules are, I think it is a fair expectation that exiv2 -m should be able to consume what exiv2 -Pvk produces.