As a new member on this forum, I don’t know how many of you use or, possibly, even depend on Exiv2, nor how many are aware that the current Exiv2 maintainer, Robin Mills, has announced that he will retire soon.
From the current activity on Github wrt Exiv2, it is clear that metadata in images is expanding with new formats appearing and support for these is needed, now more than before.
Because of this, what is urgently needed, if Exiv2 is important to this community, is that someone else take on the challenge of being the next maintainer.
As I understand Robin’s announcement, he is willing to mentor anyone willing to step into this role.
For more details on Exiv2 itself, you might want to look through his compendium of Exiv2 at: IMaEA
If you want to get more details about the current state, I am sure he will be very happy to answer any questions.
He can be reached at: clanmills (Robin Mills) · GitHub
The regulars here know Robin well, so this isn’t entirely new. That does not diminish the need for a good successor of course…
Have the other two maintainers stepped down? Are you one of the two maintainers @pixeler?
No, I am not one of the maintainers, just a minor interested user without the skills or background to maintain such a library.
AFAIK, there are two fellows who have on occasion helped out with the Github work and are likely still involved in helping Robin, but it is my understanding that they are not in a position, time wise, to take on the job. Though, no doubt, they too might be available for mentoring.
For more details on this issue it might be best to pursue this question at Exiv2 Issues · Exiv2/exiv2 · GitHub.
The retirement has been announced there, but I see no response in that forum, which is why I raised the issue here
Many of us here are involved with exiv2 already, as pretty much all our applications use it.
Well, then, it would seriously be in all of those users interest to find a successor to maintain your investment
For myself, it would be inconvenient if Exiv2 died or stalled with Robin’s retirement, but I would manage. No one but myself is interested in or depends on my little app. In fact, Exiv2lib does nearly all I need pretty well.
But for some of the major apps, it would seem to me, picking up long after the project dies, maintaining a dozen forks or more, or even rewriting both the apps and a new library are the only alternatives to finding the time to keep Exiv2 going and flourishing with some of the newer feature and formats supported as well as the existing ones.
I, for one, would expect more use of and emphasis on metadata down the road.
I will finish the book by the end of December. I leave the project ready for the future. The code, documentation, build, test and release process are all in good order. The number of contributors is steadily growing. The project needs a maintainer/manager and I am willing to mentor and encourage anyone who volunteers.
https://clanmills.com/exiv2/book/
What a response. Nobody using or depending on exiv2??
You are free to step up as well.
A lot of the people that could do it are already maintaining or contributing to projects. They are smart enough to recognize what maintaining a project means, what it involves, and whether they are able to invest that much of themselves in it. The thought of doing it briefly crossed my mind and then the adult part of my brain kicked in and reminded me that I have enough projects on my plate. If I had tried to add it to my plate I probably would have done a bad job because there’s not enough of me to go around, and I think a bad maintainer is probably worse than no maintainer.
@paperdigits Robin & I have had that conversation 
@wpferguson see my answer above. Your comment says all I could say, & better than I could.
Still, - although I don’t know how much either of you depends on exiv2 - it would help Robin sleep better, I would expect/assume if there was some (preferably/hopefully reassuring) response, rather than dead silence
Your response trying to shame us into maintainership is not motivating. I don’t think it is the right approach to finding someone.
I am well aware of how open source software comes about & is supported. If noone can take on the job directly and with temporary support and guidance from Robin during the transition period, so be it.
Recognizing that reality, a few words of appreciation for Robin’s years of effort is all I was expecting/hoping for.
My apologies to everyone offended, if my wording was not clear enough on that point.
I was incredibly fortunate that during my entire time as a leader of a project I co-founded with others, I made a point of mentoring others. I also slowly wound down my involvement over the years to let others take up the reins. As a result that project is doing well without me despite me being long retired.
I would not be suited to maintainership of anything at this point because I can’t make the time committments. If my employer’s attitude towards FOSS changes to the point where we are permitted to contribute things on company time, that might change for some future project - but I wouldn’t be able to make the business case for exiv2. (Simply put - all of my FOSS work on image processing is for personal projects. Anything I would get paid to become the maintainer of would be something related to industrial fieldbus protocols or LiDAR data processing.)
The deed is done. The die is cast. I am retired. I dealt with the last of the open issues on the 0.27-maintenance branch today. And that’s the end of the road. On Friday I’m off to Cornwall for a week’s vacation with the grand-kids and their parents.
I’ve had very nice emails from Dan, Luis, Kev and Arnold this week, and some users and folks with whom I’ve had dealings over the years.
In the New Year, I’ll get the book finished: IMaEA
The book is written around a metadata parser called tvisitor (modelled on TiffVisitor in Exiv2). In a single file of about 3000 lines of code, it reads Exif, XMP, IPTC, ICC metadata, thumbnails and image comments in the 18 image formats supported by Exiv2. It also supports BigTiff and ISOBMFF (.cr3, .avif, .jp2 and .heic). I’ve assembled a test image archive of more than 10,000 images from raw.Pixls.us, ExifTool, RAWSAMPLES.ch and the Exiv2 test suite. My aim is to read 99.9% of the images (9990/10,000).
If LGM happens next year, I’ll turn up with printed copies of the book. This is not something you’ll want to read to your kids at bed-time, as it is mostly white knuckle brutal C++. You may wish to read the book if you are an insomniac.
I leave Exiv2 with no open issues on the 0.27-maintenance branch. We haven’t had a CVE in more than a year. The code, documentation, release process and web-site are in the best possible shape. The contributor count is steadily increasing.
What will happen to Exiv2? Well, I don’t know. However I will assist and encourage somebody who wants to manage this valuable technology.
@clanmills enjoy your retirement and the grand kids. Thank you for all you’ve done and for leaving the project in good shape for whoever steps up.
P.S. I’ve peeked at the book. I look forward to seeing the finished product.
My apologies if my comment was interpreted as implying that you didn’t do enough - you’ve done even more than I did when I wound down my involvement in my project.
I was mainly talking more about why it’s so hard to get someone new to step up as a maintainer. The world is likely full of horribly burned out ex-maintainers.
@Entropy512 I took your message to be very supportive, Andy.
The achilles heel of open-source is finding maintainers who can endure the endless stream of criticism and abuse from a few members of the community. Have a read at my introduction to Project Management: IMaEA. Enjoy - a 5 minute read.
Oh, so-well-written, Robin…
I’ve considered jumping into the fray, either exiv2 or lensfun. But I’m only half-retired, indeed, dialing into a day-job meeting in about 20 minutes, and I just can’t jump the hurdle to take on all the angst you describe in #11 along with that.
Kudos to you for doing it for the past years…