drewnoakes/metadata-extractor

Treat \0 as terminator in IPTC strings

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#122 opened on Sep 4, 2015

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Description

The below image, when passed through exiftool, reads the IPTC Source as "Getty Images North America".

When read with the IptcDirectory we're getting "Getty Images ����". On closer inspection it looks something more like: "Getty Images\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0003\u0000\u0000\u0000\u0005\u0000\u0000\u0000\n����".

The null character is often used to denote the end of a string - is this being respected? Or not as it's not part of the standard?

getty-borked

Contributor guide

Tech stack
java
Domain
databackend
Issue type
bug
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-3 hours
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
needs investigation
Prerequisites
Java programmingunderstanding of null terminated stringsbasic knowledge of IPTC metadata
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
30
Research direction
Investigate how the IptcDirectory reads IPTC strings, particularly for null characters. Compare the behavior with exiftool to identify where the null handling differs. Review the relevant Java code in the metadata extractor repository, focusing on string parsing in IptcDirectory or related classes. Consider whether the null character should be treated as a terminator and if any standards specify this.