Bug#1023889: libimage-exiftool-perl: exiftool ignores GPSLongitudeRef option

[Phil Harvey]

Hi Andreas,

Here is the relevant change:

July 21, 2022 - Version 12.44
  - Made Composite GPSLatitude and GPSLongitude writable for setting GPS
    coordinates and reference directions with one assignment

I'm sorry this had an adverse affect on your workflow, but the solutions are simple:

Either 1) Write only EXIF tags (works for any version):

 -exif:GPSLatitudeRef='N' -exif:GPSLatitude='64 deg 8'' 51.464"'  -exif:GPSLongitudeRef='W' -exif:GPSLongitude='21 deg 55'' 59.700"'

or 2) Write the reference directions after the latitude/longitude (works for any version):

  -GPSLatitude='64 deg 8'' 51.464"' -GPSLatitudeRef='N' -GPSLongitude='21 deg 55'' 59.700"' -GPSLongitudeRef='W'

or 3) write the reference directions together with the coordinates (only works for 12.44 or later):

  -GPSLatitude='64 deg 8'' 51.464"N'  -GPSLongitude='21 deg 55'' 59.700"W' 

	- Phil

> On Nov 12, 2022, at 1:45 AM, Andreas Tille <tille at debian.org> wrote:
> 
> Package: libimage-exiftool-perl
> Version: 12.49+dfsg-1
> Severity: important
> 
> Hi,
> 
> since some time I'm tagging my scans from analog images with geoinformation
> by using scripts calling exiftool.  Here is an example line for one of my
> images:
> 
> exiftool -overwrite_original -quiet -GPSLatitudeRef='N' -GPSLatitude='64 deg 8'' 51.464"'  -GPSLongitudeRef='W' -GPSLongitude='21 deg 55'' 59.700"' 20010712_210000_mediafix_img_0254*.jpg*
> 
> Since this is in Iceland it has -GPSLongitudeRef='W' set and this worked
> at least until
>   Date:   Sat Jun 13 22:14:57 2020 +0200
> according to my GPS log.  Since I'm using testing this was probably
> 
> libimage-exiftool-perl (11.99-1) unstable; urgency=medium
> 
>  * Import upstream version 11.99.
> 
> -- gregor herrmann <gregoa at debian.org>  Fri, 15 May 2020 17:50:20 +0200
> 
> At that time the result of the line above was:
> 
> $ exiftool 20010712_210000_mediafix_img_0254o_.jpg  | grep GPS
> GPS Version ID                  : 2.3.0.0
> GPS Latitude Ref                : North
> GPS Longitude Ref               : West
> GPS Latitude                    : 64 deg 8' 51.46" N
> GPS Longitude                   : 21 deg 55' 59.70" W
> GPS Position                    : 64 deg 8' 51.46" N, 21 deg 55' 59.70" W
> 
> If I redo the very same command line above I get:
> 
> $ exiftool 20010712_210000_mediafix_img_0254o_.jpg  | grep GPS
> GPS Version ID                  : 2.3.0.0
> GPS Latitude Ref                : North
> GPS Longitude Ref               : East
> GPS Latitude                    : 64 deg 8' 51.46" N
> GPS Longitude                   : 21 deg 55' 59.70" E
> GPS Position                    : 64 deg 8' 51.46" N, 21 deg 55' 59.70" E
> 
> So the image is not *West* any more but rather *East* no - so all my
> images would be moved if I would rerun my scripts (which I'm doing from
> time to time when I might add new coordinates).
> 
> I did some web search on that matter and found
> 
>   https://exiftool.org/forum/index.php?topic=10163.0
> 
> but this is talking about versions 19.4x and I'm very sure I was
> successfully working with some 11.[89]x version.  So this is IMHO a
> regression.
> 
> Either there could be some fix for the code to get the old behaviour
> back or at least the documentation should be fixed about the
> GPSLongitudeRef option.  In the latter case I can search-and-replace
> my scripts.
> 
> I'm just reporting the issue in the Debian BTW.  I'd volunteer to
> contact upstream about this if you are busy with other stuff in
> the Perl team.  Just drop me a note if you want me to do so.
> 
> Kind regards
>   Andreas.
> 
> 
> -- System Information:
> Debian Release: bookworm/sid
>  APT prefers testing
>  APT policy: (501, 'testing'), (50, 'buildd-unstable'), (50, 'unstable'), (5, 'experimental')
> Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
> 
> Kernel: Linux 6.0.0-3-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
> Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE not set
> Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
> Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
> LSM: AppArmor: enabled
> 
> Versions of packages libimage-exiftool-perl depends on:
> ii  perl  5.36.0-4
> 
> Versions of packages libimage-exiftool-perl recommends:
> ii  libarchive-zip-perl        1.68-1
> ii  libunicode-linebreak-perl  0.0.20190101-1+b5
> 
> Versions of packages libimage-exiftool-perl suggests:
> ii  libposix-strptime-perl  0.13-2+b1
> 
> -- no debconf information
>