How It Works

cleanimg operates in two distinct modes:

1. Erase Mode (erase)

Destructively overwrites the original file in-place.

• How it works: It strips all EXIF metadata tags directly from the file on disk without loading the entire image into memory.

2. Remove Mode (remove)

Safely creates a clean copy without altering the original file.

• How it works: It loads the image into an internal representation, strips the EXIF metadata, and saves it as a new, clean image.

Building

Requirements

• A POSIX compliant Operating System with mmap() support.

• A C Compiler. (C11 or later)

• Clone this repository or download the latest release (recommended)

From Latest Release (Recommended)

1. Download the latest release and unpack the tarball.
2. Build the project:

mkdir build && cd build   # Optional out-of-tree build
../configure              # Use ./configure if you skipped the build directory
make

The compiled executable will be available at src/cleanimg (or build/src/cleanimg).

From Source (Clone)

1. Clone and prepare the repository:

git clone https://github.com/ottavm/cleanimg.git
cd cleanimg
autoreconf -fi

2. Build the project:

mkdir build && cd build   # Optional out-of-tree build
../configure              # Use ./configure if you skipped the build directory
make

Installing / Uninstalling

Run these commands from inside your build directory:

sudo make install
# sudo make uninstall # To uninstall

Feel free to contribute!