imgst

imgst is a command-line tool for processing and metadata removal from image files (currently JPEG).

It recursively scans a directory, removes metadata such as EXIF, and writes the cleaned files into a separate output directory while preserving the folder structure.

Why

When publishing images on websites or sharing them publicly, embedded metadata (EXIF) may leak sensitive information:

GPS coordinates
Device information (camera model, serial)
Date and time the photo was taken
Thumbnails containing past edits
Optional personal identifiers

Images uploaded from mobile devices frequently include location metadata, which can expose private home or workplace addresses.

Additionally, metadata increases file size, affecting storage and page load performance.

Safer and lighter images

By stripping metadata:

No privacy-leaking metadata remains
Storage and bandwidth usage shrink
Website performance improves

Features

Recursive directory scanning with ignore rules (.gitignore, .ignore)
JPEG EXIF metadata removal (web-image-meta)
Preserves the directory hierarchy
Parallel processing for performance
Dry-run mode shows what would be processed without modifying files
Optional statistics (--stats) including total space savings
Logging with adjustable verbosity (-v, RUST_LOG)

Requirements

Rust toolchain (Rust 1.89 or newer recommended)

To install Rust:

curl https://sh.rustup.rs -sSf | sh

Verify installation:

rustc --version
cargo --version

Building

Clone the repository and build the binary:

Official: ssh://anon@ijanc.org/imgst
Mirror Sourcehut: git@git.sr.ht:~ijanc/imgst
Mirror Github: git@github.com:ijanc/imgst.git

git clone ssh://anon@ijanc.org/imgst
cd imgst
cargo build --release

The binary will be located at:

target/release/imgst

You can add it to your PATH or move it to /usr/local/bin.

cargo install --path .

Command Overview

imgst currently supports one primary operation:

Metadata Cleaning

Recursively removes metadata from image files and writes the result to a separate output folder:

imgst --input ./photos --output ./public/photos

Preserves folder structure:

photos/
 └── albums/
     └── party/
         └── img_001.jpg

public/photos/
 └── albums/
     └── party/
         └── img_001.jpg  <-- cleaned

Dry-run mode

Shows what would be processed but does not write anything:

imgst -i ./photos -o ./out --dry-run -v

Statistics mode

Display space savings after completion:

imgst -i ./photos -o ./out --stats

Example output:

Stats:
  Original total : 9.83 GB
  Clean total    : 8.97 GB
  Saved          : 860 MB (8.7%)

Logging and verbosity

imgst uses standard Rust logging (env_logger).

Default level: INFO

Use -v to enable DEBUG:

imgst -v -i ./photos -o ./out

Or configure directly:

RUST_LOG=debug imgst ...

License

Licensed under the ISC license
(see LICENSE or https://opensource.org/licenses/ISC)