Changelog

Note: This project was renamed from exiftool-rs to oxidex. Historical entries below use the old name.

All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.

The format is based on Keep a Changelog, and this project adheres to Semantic Versioning.

Unreleased

Added

• Weekly ExifTool tag sync: New CI workflow (sync-exiftool-tags.yml) automatically checks ExifTool master branch every Sunday and creates [BETA] PRs when updates are available
• Documentation improvements:
  • Added missing sidebar pages (tag-domains, contributing/testing, contributing/development)
  • Added Camera RAW format documentation
  • Added performance historical data section

Changed

• CI/CD optimizations: Consolidated 7 CI jobs into 4, added Rust caching for 40-60% faster builds
• Documentation sync: Benchmark metadata now auto-updates on each deployment

Removed

• Removed test.yml workflow (redundant with ci.yml)
• Removed VitePress build artifacts from repository (now built by CI only)

Fixed

• Fixed sidebar links pointing to non-existent documentation pages
• Fixed panic strategy conflict in CI doc tests

1.2.1 - 2025-11-19

Added

• CI/CD Automation: GitHub Pages changelog now updates automatically when a release is created
  • New update-docs job in release workflow extracts changelog entry from main branch
  • Automatically commits and pushes to gh-pages branch after successful release
  • Eliminates manual documentation updates for releases

1.2.0 - 2025-11-19

Changed

• CI/CD Infrastructure: Migrated release workflow from GitHub-hosted runners to self-hosted runners
  • Moved create-release job from ubuntu-latest to arc-runner-set
  • Migrated Windows builds from windows-latest to arc-runner-set with MinGW cross-compilation
  • Changed Windows target from x86_64-pc-windows-msvc to x86_64-pc-windows-gnu
  • Configured cross-compilation linker for Windows builds from Linux
  • All release artifacts now built on self-hosted infrastructure except macOS (warp-macos-15-arm64-6x)

1.1.0 - 2025-11-17

Added

• Phase 1: Video/Audio Format Support - Complete parser implementation for 12 new multimedia formats
  • Video Formats (5):
    • MKV (Matroska) - Container metadata extraction
    • WebM - Web-optimized Matroska variant
    • FLV - Flash Video format
    • AVI - RIFF-based video container
    • MTS/M2TS - AVCHD/Blu-ray MPEG transport streams
  • Audio Formats (7):
    • MP3 - ID3v2 tag parsing
    • FLAC - Native metadata blocks
    • AAC - ADTS header parsing
    • WAV - RIFF INFO chunks
    • OGG Vorbis - Vorbis comments
    • Opus - Ogg Opus metadata
    • APE - Monkey's Audio format
  • Features:
    • ExifTool tag namespace parity (Matroska, FLV, RIFF, ID3, FLAC, AAC, Vorbis, Opus, APE)
    • Comprehensive integration tests for all formats (requires ExifTool)
    • Full benchmark suite (audio_benchmarks.rs, video_benchmarks.rs)
    • Format detection support for all 12 new types
  • Performance: Pure Rust parsing with memory-mapped I/O
• Canon MakerNotes Phase 1: Basic Canon-specific metadata extraction from EXIF MakerNote tags
  • Supported Tags:
    • Canon:ImageType - Image type identifier (e.g., "IMG:EOS R5")
    • Canon:FirmwareVersion - Camera firmware version
    • Canon:OwnerName - Camera owner name
    • Canon:SerialNumber - Camera serial number
    • Canon:CanonModelID - Canon-specific model identifier
    • Canon:FileNumber - Internal file number assigned by camera
  • Implementation Details:
    • Parses Canon MakerNote IFD structure (TIFF-based format)
    • Supports both little-endian and big-endian byte orders
    • Handles both inline values (≤4 bytes) and offset-based values (>4 bytes)
    • Gracefully handles missing or invalid MakerNote data
  • Phase 2 Preview: Complex array tags (CameraSettings, ShotInfo, AFInfo, LensInfo) planned for next phase
  • Files Added:
    • src/parsers/tiff/makernotes/mod.rs - MakerNotes module structure
    • src/parsers/tiff/makernotes/canon.rs - Canon MakerNote parser with comprehensive documentation
  • Integration: Canon MakerNotes are automatically extracted from JPEG EXIF data when present
• Canon MakerNotes Phase 2: Complex array tag support for camera settings and shot information
  • CameraSettings Array (tag 0x0001) - 8 tags:
    • Canon:MacroMode - Macro mode setting (Macro, Normal)
    • Canon:Quality - Image quality (Economy, Normal, Fine, Superfine, RAW, CRAW)
    • Canon:FlashMode - Flash mode (Off, Auto, On, Red-eye Reduction, etc.)
    • Canon:DriveMode - Drive mode (Single, Continuous, Movie, etc.)
    • Canon:FocusMode - Focus mode (One-shot AF, AI Servo AF, Manual, etc.)
    • Canon:ISO - ISO speed setting
    • Canon:MeteringMode - Metering mode (Evaluative, Partial, Center-weighted)
    • Canon:ExposureMode - Exposure mode (Program, Av, Tv, Manual, Bulb, etc.)
  • ShotInfo Array (tag 0x0004) - 6 tags:
    • Canon:AutoISO - Auto ISO value
    • Canon:BaseISO - Base ISO value
    • Canon:MeasuredEV - Measured exposure value
    • Canon:TargetAperture - Target aperture value
    • Canon:TargetShutterSpeed - Target shutter speed
    • Canon:SubjectDistance - Subject distance in mm
  • FocalLength Array (tag 0x0002) - 2 tags:
    • Canon:FocalType - Focal length type
    • Canon:FocalLength - Focal length in mm
  • Implementation Details:
    • Added extract_i16_array() helper for Canon's integer array tags
    • Supports both inline (≤2 values) and offset-based (>2 values) arrays
    • Value decoders convert numeric codes to human-readable strings
    • Based on ExifTool Canon.pm reference implementation
    • All values gracefully handle missing/invalid data
  • Files Modified:
    • src/parsers/tiff/makernotes/canon.rs (+400 lines of tests and implementation)
• CI/CD: New cross-compile job in CI workflow that tests both ARM64 (aarch64-unknown-linux-musl) and x86_64 (x86_64-unknown-linux-musl) Linux builds using the cross tool with QEMU emulation support

Changed

• BREAKING: Project renamed from exiftool-rs to oxidex
  • Binary renamed: exiftool-rs → oxidex
  • Library renamed: exiftool_rs → oxidex
  • All crates renamed: exiftool-tags* → oxidex-tags*
  • Install with: cargo install oxidex
  • GitHub repository: swack-tools/oxidex
• Dependency Upgrades: Updated all major dependencies to latest versions for improved performance and security
  • criterion 0.5 → 0.7 - Modern benchmarking framework with improved measurement accuracy
  • indicatif 0.17 → 0.18 - Enhanced progress bar library with better terminal compatibility
  • nom 7.1 → 8.0 - Binary parser combinator with refined error handling and improved performance
  • quick-xml 0.31 → 0.38 - XML parser for XMP metadata with enhanced API and better namespace support
  • bincode 1.3 → 2.0 - Binary serialization across all tag workspace crates with new encoding API
  • Breaking Changes Addressed:
    • Bincode: Migrated from serialize/deserialize to encode/decode API across 6 workspace crates
    • Bincode: Regenerated all tag database binary files with new format
    • Nom: Updated parser error types and combinator APIs
    • Quick-xml: Migrated Reader and Event APIs to 0.38 interface
  • Verification:
    • All 800+ unit tests passing
    • Benchmarks compile successfully (note: criterion::black_box deprecation warnings present)
    • CLI tested and verified with JPEG, PNG, PDF, and TIFF formats
    • Clean build from scratch successful

Fixed

• CI/CD: Fixed ARM64 cross-compilation in GitHub Actions by implementing QEMU emulation. Previously, attempting to run ARM64 Docker images (ghcr.io/cross-rs/aarch64-unknown-linux-musl) on x86_64 runners resulted in "exec format error". The fix adds docker/setup-qemu-action and docker/setup-buildx-action to enable multi-platform builds on x86_64 runners.

1.0.0 - 2025-10-30

Added

Core Features

• Multi-format metadata extraction supporting 50+ file formats:
  • JPEG (EXIF, JFIF, XMP, IPTC, Photoshop)
  • PNG (eXIf, tEXt, zTXt, iTXt chunks)
  • TIFF (multi-page support, sub-IFDs)
  • PDF (Info dictionary, XMP metadata)
  • MP4/QuickTime (atoms and metadata tracks)
  • RAW formats and camera maker notes
• Comprehensive tag database with 700+ metadata tags automatically generated from ExifTool source
• Format families support: EXIF (244 tags), GPS (32 tags), IPTC (122 tags), QuickTime (143 tags), RIFF (46 tags), ICC_Profile (42 tags), Photoshop (35 tags), PNG (30 tags), JPEG (30 tags), XMP, and more

CLI Application

• Full CLI implementation with backward compatibility for 90% of common ExifTool usage patterns
• Batch processing with parallel execution using Rayon for multi-core performance
• Recursive directory traversal with -r flag for processing entire folder structures
• Flexible output formats: human-readable, JSON, CSV
• File preservation options: backup originals, preserve timestamps
• Advanced metadata operations:
  • Read and display metadata (exiftool-rs file.jpg)
  • Write and modify metadata (exiftool-rs -Artist="Name" file.jpg)
  • Copy metadata between files (-TagsFromFile support)
  • Date/time shifting for batch timestamp corrections
  • File renaming based on metadata patterns

Library API

• Clean Rust library API with hexagonal architecture design
• Zero-copy parsing for efficient memory usage
• Type-safe metadata operations with comprehensive tag validation
• Extensible parser system for adding new format support
• Memory-mapped I/O for handling large files efficiently

Cross-Language Integration

• C FFI bindings (staticlib and cdylib crate types) for integration with C/C++, Python, Node.js, and other languages
• Auto-generated C headers using cbindgen with CI verification
• Python ctypes bindings with comprehensive examples and documentation
• FFI safety guarantees with proper error handling across language boundaries

Build & Distribution

• Automated tag database generation from ExifTool Perl source during build
• Cross-compilation support for Linux (x86_64, ARM64), macOS (Intel, Apple Silicon), Windows (x86_64)
• Automated release pipeline with GitHub Actions building binaries on git tag push
• Package formats:
  • Debian packages (.deb) for Ubuntu/Debian
  • RPM packages for Fedora/RHEL/CentOS
  • Homebrew formula for macOS
  • Static binaries (musl libc) with no runtime dependencies
• Release profile optimizations: LTO, codegen-units=1, strip=true for maximum performance

Testing & Quality

• Comprehensive test suite with 100+ integration tests
• Automated ExifTool comparison tests validating parity with Perl ExifTool
• 102-image test corpus covering diverse real-world scenarios
• Continuous fuzzing infrastructure for PDF and MP4 parsers with libFuzzer
• Performance benchmarks using Criterion and hyperfine
• CI/CD pipeline with automated testing, linting, and formatting checks

Documentation

• Comprehensive user guide (mdBook) with GitHub Pages deployment at docs/book/:
  • Installation instructions for all platforms
  • CLI usage guide with examples
  • Library API documentation with code samples
  • FFI integration guide for C and Python
  • Supported formats and tag reference
  • Architecture overview and design rationale
• API documentation: Rust library API reference and C FFI API specification
• Migration guide from Perl ExifTool with compatibility notes

Performance

OxiDex delivers exceptional performance improvements over Perl ExifTool (version 13.36) on Apple M4 hardware:

Operation	Perl ExifTool	OxiDex	Speedup
Single JPEG read	37.5ms ± 0.5ms	2.3ms ± 0.1ms	16.1x faster
Batch processing (1000 files)	916.4ms ± 8.0ms	14.1ms ± 0.3ms	64.9x faster
Write operation (modify EXIF)	96.8ms ± 1.3ms	7.3ms ± 0.6ms	13.3x faster
Format detection	39.3ms ± 0.4ms	2.8ms ± 0.1ms	14.2x faster

Key optimizations:

• Zero-cost abstractions and compiled code eliminate interpreter overhead
• Parallel processing with Rayon leverages all CPU cores for batch operations
• Memory-mapped I/O and efficient binary manipulation
• SIMD-friendly data layouts for future vectorization

Security

• Memory safety guaranteed by Rust's ownership system (zero buffer overflows, use-after-free, or data races)
• Continuous fuzzing with libFuzzer detecting crashes, hangs, and undefined behavior
• Safe parser design with explicit bounds checking and error propagation
• No unsafe code in critical parsing paths (FFI layer uses minimal unsafe with safety invariants)

Known Limitations

These features are planned for future releases (v1.1+):

• Array type validation: ValueType::Array not yet supported in validation system (src/core/validation.rs:167)
  • Current impact: Array-valued metadata can bypass type checking
  • Workaround: Manual validation for array-valued tags
• TIFF writer limitations: Float, Struct, and Array tag values not yet implemented in TIFF writer (src/writers/tiff_writer.rs:474-477)
  • Current impact: These value types are silently skipped during TIFF write operations
  • Workaround: Use supported types (Integer, Text, Binary, Rational)
• Rational round-trip parsing: TIFF parser may convert Rational values to Integer/Binary when type information is unavailable (tests/integration/write_operations_tests.rs:362)
  • Current impact: Rational value precision may be lost in some round-trip scenarios
  • Workaround: Ensure EXIF type information is present

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