Exif Data Removal Tool Command

Does anyone know of the best way to easy remove all Exif Data on files from single to multi files, .jpeg, .tiff, .pdf etc?

I used to use;
$ exiftool -all=
however this command doesnt seem to work on QubesOS Terminal for some reason and i would love to use a fully open source offline very private and secure way to do this job if possible please if anyone knows of such a way please kindly let me know?

Your question is not specific to Qubes OS, it’s related to either Fedora or Debian, depending on your templates. If you use Debian you can look what Tails uses to remove metadata:

https://tails.net/doc/sensitive_documents/metadata/index.en.html

Thanx for your reply, however unfortunately i dont find mat2 in the Template Repos.

I disagree as Fedora and/or Debian Templates are QubesOS specific as i understand, in that the said Templates dont go online thus i would need a repo or something already in the repo as far as i can see and this is what makes it QubesOS specific as if it was just a normal OS such as Fedora or Deb then i can simply go online and download easy what i need but that certainly does not seem to the case here on Qubes Templates unless you state otherwise? thanx

mat2 is a python script, so you could use pipx to install it in a isolated python env and could update it via pipx upgrade-all:

~ pipx install git+https://0xacab.org/jvoisin/mat2.git

cheers

Unfortunately i dont understand what to do with that information, to complex for me, please kindly simplify it for a newbie? thanx

With pipx (https://pipx.pypa.io) you can run Python Applications in isolated environments, if you have installed it in one of your cubes via shell.
That is one solution.

sudo dnf install pipx
pipx ensurepath

With the command I posted first, you can install mat2 via pipx directly as application from the GIT repository of the developer and it should be available in your shell.

Just one solution :slight_smile:

But you also should check your cubes template, if you are using Debian or Fedora and if mat2 is available in the repository.

I rant those commands which seemed to work fine, then i closed Term and re-opened and typed the above command but it not work for some reason, would you so happen to know why maybe?
[user@fedora-40 ~]$ sudo su
bash-5.2# pipx install git+https://0xacab.org/jvoisin/mat2.git
WARNING: Retrying (Retry(total=4, connect=None, read=None, redirect=None, status=None)) after connection broken by ‘NewConnectionError(’<pip._vendor.urllib3.connection.HTTPSConnection object at 0x7c6a7a881d00>: Failed to establish a new connection: [Errno -3] Temporary failure in name resolution’)‘: /simple/pip/
WARNING: Retrying (Retry(total=3, connect=None, read=None, redirect=None, status=None)) after connection broken by ‘NewConnectionError(’<pip._vendor.urllib3.connection.HTTPSConnection object at 0x7c6a7a521160>: Failed to establish a new connection: [Errno -3] Temporary failure in name resolution’)‘: /simple/pip/
WARNING: Retrying (Retry(total=2, connect=None, read=None, redirect=None, status=None)) after connection broken by ‘NewConnectionError(’<pip._vendor.urllib3.connection.HTTPSConnection object at 0x7c6a7a521af0>: Failed to establish a new connection: [Errno -3] Temporary failure in name resolution’)‘: /simple/pip/
WARNING: Retrying (Retry(total=1, connect=None, read=None, redirect=None, status=None)) after connection broken by ‘NewConnectionError(’<pip._vendor.urllib3.connection.HTTPSConnection object at 0x7c6a7a521cd0>: Failed to establish a new connection: [Errno -3] Temporary failure in name resolution’)‘: /simple/pip/
WARNING: Retrying (Retry(total=0, connect=None, read=None, redirect=None, status=None)) after connection broken by ‘NewConnectionError(’<pip._vendor.urllib3.connection.HTTPSConnection object at 0x7c6a7a521ee0>: Failed to establish a new connection: [Errno -3] Temporary failure in name resolution’)': /simple/pip/
ERROR: Could not find a version that satisfies the requirement pip>=23.1 (from versions: none)
ERROR: No matching distribution found for pip>=23.1
Failed to upgrade shared libraries
‘/root/.local/share/pipx/shared/bin/python -m pip --no-input --disable-pip-version-check install --force-reinstall -q --upgrade pip >= 23.1’ failed
bash-5.2# ~ pipx install git+https://0xacab.org/jvoisin/mat2.git
bash: /root: Is a directory
bash-5.2#

Is there any reason why you are running the command via sudo root? Please try it again as normal user as pipx creates a venv for your current user and you dont need root for that, please also check the documentation: How to install software | Qubes OS

Did you try to install it from the Fedora repository?

sudo dnf install mat2
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I think you’re looking for an application from one of these two distinct OS, not about Qubes OS. Once you’ve chosen a program, tried to install it and (hopefully not) failed, come back with a post and I will be willing to help.

i just thought thats what i was suppose to do idk any better, when do i run as sudo and when not to?

wowzer, i tried that and it worked easy, thank you very much, now im going to test out the commands in the CLI, thanks again x :heart:

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in case it helps, I have made a breakdown of the various methods of installing software in Qubes:

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Please kindly tell me why when i use mat2 to strip exif data does the cleaned copy go up in size much more than the un-cleaned file please as the files going up to big to send via email?

I have no idea and this question is unrelated to Qubes OS and it’d be better to ask this in some general Linux forum instead of Qubes OS specific forum so you’ll have better chances to get the answer.
I think the best way would be to ask the mat2 developers directly here:

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Thanx :heart: