Image::...::MacOS(3)

💖 Image::ExifTool::MacOS 💖

okay bestie, so this is a page from the User Contributed Perl Documentation and it's literally called Image::...::MacOS in the header, which is the whole vibe. it's the Image::ExifTool::MacOS module and it's all about reading and writing MacOS system tags. slay.

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✨ NAME ✨

Image::ExifTool::MacOS — Read/write MacOS system tags 🍎

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

so like, plot twist, there's no big dramatic synopsis here:

This module is used by Image::ExifTool

that's it. that's the whole synopsis. it's giving "I'm a supporting character and I know it" 💅

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so here's the tea. this module holds all the definitions that Image::ExifTool needs to pull out MDItem* and XAttr* tags on MacOS systems — and it does that using the mdls and xattr utilities respectively. two little tools, two little tag families, no cap.

it also reads metadata directly from the MacOS ._ sidecar files — you know, the ones some filesystems use to stash file attributes. so it's not just asking the utilities nicely, it's also going straight to the source. main character energy fr fr.

and for the writable tags? those get written using xattr, setfile or osascript. three whole ways to write. obsessed. 🔥

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Copyright 2003-2026, Phil Harvey (philharvey66 at gmail.com)

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• "MacOS Tags" in Image::ExifTool::TagNames
• Image::ExifTool(3pm)

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and that's the whole page bestie, go read the actual docs, iykyk 🫶

this lil icon was brought to you by perl v5.42.1, dated 2026-03-31, from the User Contributed Perl Documentation 💖✨🎀