# Image::ExifTool::MIE - phpMan

## NAME
    [Image::ExifTool::MIE] - Read/write MIE meta information

## SYNOPSIS
    This module is used by [Image::ExifTool]

## DESCRIPTION
    This module contains routines required by [Image::ExifTool] to read and
    write information in MIE files.

WHAT IS MIE?
    MIE stands for "Meta Information Encapsulation". The MIE format is an
    extensible, dedicated meta information format which supports storage of
    binary as well as textual meta information. MIE can be used to
    encapsulate meta information from many sources and bundle it together
    with any type of file.

  Features
    Below is very subjective score card comparing the features of a number
    of common file and meta information formats, and comparing them to MIE.
    The following features are rated for each format with a score of 0 to
    10:

      1) Extensible (can incorporate user-defined information).
      2) Meaningful tag ID's (hint to meaning of unknown information).
      3) Sequential read/write ability (streamable).
      4) Hierarchical information structure.
      5) Easy to implement reader/writer/editor.
      6) Order of information well defined.
      7) Large data lengths supported: >64kB (+5) and >4GB (+5).
      8) Localized text strings.
      9) Multiple documents in a single file.
     10) Compact format doesn't squander disk space or bandwidth.
     11) Compressed meta information supported.
     12) Relocatable data elements (ie. no fixed offsets).
     13) Binary meta information (+7) with variable byte order (+3).
     14) Mandatory tags not required (an unnecessary complication).
     15) Append information to end of file without editing.

                              Feature number                   Total
         Format  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9 10 11 12 13 14 15   Score
         ------ ---------------------------------------------  -----
         MIE    10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10    150
         PDF    10 10  0 10  0  0 10  0 10 10 10  0  7 10 10     97
         PNG    10 10 10  0  8  0  5 10  0 10 10 10  0 10  0     93
         XMP    10 10 10 10  2  0 10 10 10  0  0 10  0 10  0     92
         AIFF    0  5 10 10 10  0  5  0  0 10  0 10  7 10  0     77
         RIFF    0  5 10 10 10  0  5  0  0 10  0 10  7 10  0     77
         JPEG   10  0 10  0 10  0  0  0  0 10  0 10  7 10  0     67
         EPS    10 10 10  0  0  0 10  0 10  0  0  5  0 10  0     65
         CIFF    0  0  0 10 10  0  5  0  0 10  0 10 10 10  0     65
         TIFF    0  0  0 10  5 10  5  0 10 10  0  0 10  0  0     60
         EXIF    0  0  0 10  5 10  0  0  0 10  0  0 10  0  0     45
         IPTC    0  0 10  0  8  0  0  0  0 10  0 10  7  0  0     45

    By design, MIE ranks highest by a significant margin. Other formats with
    reasonable scores are PDF, PNG and XMP, but each has significant weak
    points. What may be surprising is that TIFF, EXIF and IPTC rank so low.

    As well as scoring high in all these features, the MIE format has the
    unique ability to encapsulate any other type of file, and provides a
    non-invasive method of adding meta information to a file. The meta
    information is logically separated from the original file data, which is
    extremely important because meta information is routinely lost when
    files are edited.

    Also, the MIE format supports multiple files by simple concatenation,
    enabling all kinds of wonderful features such as linear databases, edit
    histories or non-intrusive file updates. This ability can also be
    leveraged to allow MIE-format trailers to be added to some other file
    types.

MIE 1.1 FORMAT SPECIFICATION (2007-01-21)
  File Structure
    A MIE file consists of a series of MIE elements. A MIE element may
    contain either data or a group of MIE elements, providing a hierarchical
    format for storing data. Each MIE element is identified by a
    human-readable tag name, and may store data from zero to 2^64-1 bytes in
    length.

  File Signature
    The first element in the MIE file must be an uncompressed MIE group
    element with a tag name of "0MIE". This restriction allows the first 8
    bytes of a MIE file to be used to identify a MIE format file. The
    following table lists the two possible initial byte sequences for a
    MIE-format file (the first for big-endian, and the second for
    little-endian byte ordering):

        Byte Number:      0    1    2    3    4    5    6    7

        C Characters:     ~ \x10 \x04    ?    0    M    I    E
            or            ~ \x18 \x04    ?    0    M    I    E

        Hexadecimal:     7e   10   04    ?   30   4d   49   45
            or           7e   18   04    ?   30   4d   49   45

        Decimal:        126   16    4    ?   48   77   73   69
            or          126   24    4    ?   48   77   73   69

    Note that byte 1 may have one of the two possible values (0x10 or 0x18),
    and byte 3 may have any value (0x00 to 0xff).

  Element Structure
        1 byte  SyncByte = 0x7e (decimal 126, character '~')
        1 byte  FormatCode (see below)
        1 byte  TagLength (T)
        1 byte  DataLength (gives D if DataLength < 253)
        T bytes TagName (T given by TagLength)
        2 bytes DataLength2 [exists only if DataLength == 255 (0xff)]
        4 bytes DataLength4 [exists only if DataLength == 254 (0xfe)]
        8 bytes DataLength8 [exists only if DataLength == 253 (0xfd)]
        D bytes DataBlock (D given by DataLength)

    The minimum element length is 4 bytes (for a group terminator). The
    maximum DataBlock size is 2^64-1 bytes. TagLength and DataLength are
    unsigned integers, and the byte ordering for multi-byte DataLength
    fields is specified by the containing MIE group element. The SyncByte is
    byte aligned, so no padding is added to align on an N-byte boundary.

   FormatCode
    The format code is a bitmask that defines the format of the data:

        7654 3210
        ++++ ----  FormatType
        ---- +---  TypeModifier
        ---- -+--  Compressed
        ---- --++  FormatSize

    FormatType (bitmask 0xf0):
            0x00 - other (or unknown) data
            0x10 - MIE group
            0x20 - text string
            0x30 - list of null-separated text strings
            0x40 - integer
            0x50 - rational
            0x60 - fixed point
            0x70 - floating point
            0x80 - free space

    TypeModifier (bitmask 0x08):
        Modifies the meaning of certain FormatTypes (0x00-0x60):

            0x08 - other data sensitive to MIE group byte order
            0x18 - MIE group with little-endian byte ordering
            0x28 - UTF encoded text string
            0x38 - UTF encoded text string list
            0x48 - signed integer
            0x58 - signed rational (denominator is always unsigned)
            0x68 - signed fixed-point

    Compressed (bitmask 0x04):
        If this bit is set, the data block is compressed using Zlib deflate.
        An entire MIE group may be compressed, with the exception of
        file-level groups.

    FormatSize (bitmask 0x03):
        Gives the byte size of each data element:

            0x00 - 8 bits  (1 byte)
            0x01 - 16 bits (2 bytes)
            0x02 - 32 bits (4 bytes)
            0x03 - 64 bits (8 bytes)

        The number of bytes in a single value for this format is given by
        2**FormatSize (or 1 << FormatSize). The number of values is the data
        length divided by this number of bytes. It is an error if the data
        length is not an even multiple of the format size in bytes.

    The following is a list of all currently defined MIE FormatCode values
    for uncompressed data (add 0x04 to each value for compressed data):

        0x00 - other data (insensitive to MIE group byte order) (1)
        0x01 - other 16-bit data (may be byte swapped)
        0x02 - other 32-bit data (may be byte swapped)
        0x03 - other 64-bit data (may be byte swapped)
        0x08 - other data (sensitive to MIE group byte order) (1)
        0x10 - MIE group with big-endian values (1)
        0x18 - MIE group with little-endian values (1)
        0x20 - ASCII (ISO 8859-1) string (2,3)
        0x28 - UTF-8 string (2,3,4)
        0x29 - UTF-16 string (2,3,4)
        0x2a - UTF-32 string (2,3,4)
        0x30 - ASCII (ISO 8859-1) string list (3,5)
        0x38 - UTF-8 string list (3,4,5)
        0x39 - UTF-16 string list (3,4,5)
        0x3a - UTF-32 string list (3,4,5)
        0x40 - unsigned 8-bit integer
        0x41 - unsigned 16-bit integer
        0x42 - unsigned 32-bit integer
        0x43 - unsigned 64-bit integer (6)
        0x48 - signed 8-bit integer
        0x49 - signed 16-bit integer
        0x4a - signed 32-bit integer
        0x4b - signed 64-bit integer (6)
        0x52 - unsigned 32-bit rational (16-bit numerator then denominator) (7)
        0x53 - unsigned 64-bit rational (32-bit numerator then denominator) (7)
        0x5a - signed 32-bit rational (denominator is unsigned) (7)
        0x5b - signed 64-bit rational (denominator is unsigned) (7)
        0x61 - unsigned 16-bit fixed-point (high 8 bits is integer part) (8)
        0x62 - unsigned 32-bit fixed-point (high 16 bits is integer part) (8)
        0x69 - signed 16-bit fixed-point (high 8 bits is signed integer) (8)
        0x6a - signed 32-bit fixed-point (high 16 bits is signed integer) (8)
        0x72 - 32-bit IEEE float (not recommended for portability reasons)
        0x73 - 64-bit IEEE double (not recommended for portability reasons) (6)
        0x80 - free space (value data does not contain useful information)

    Notes:

    1.  The byte ordering specified by the MIE group TypeModifier applies to
        the MIE group element as well as all elements within the group. Data
        for all FormatCodes except 0x08 (other data, sensitive to byte
        order) may be transferred between MIE groups with different byte
        order by byte swapping the uncompressed data according to the
        specified data format. The following list illustrates the
        byte-swapping pattern, based on FormatSize, for all format types
        except rational (FormatType 0x50).

              FormatSize              Change in Byte Sequence
            --------------      -----------------------------------
            0x00 (8 bits)       0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 --> 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 (no change)
            0x01 (16 bits)      0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 --> 1 0 3 2 5 4 7 6
            0x02 (32 bits)      0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 --> 3 2 1 0 7 6 5 4
            0x03 (64 bits)      0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 --> 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

        Rational values consist of two integers, so they are swapped as the
        next lower FormatSize. For example, a 32-bit rational (FormatSize
        0x02, and FormatCode 0x52 or 0x5a) is swapped as two 16-bit values
        (ie. as if it had FormatSize 0x01).

    2.  The TagName of a string element may have an 6-character suffix to
        indicate a specific locale. (eg. "Title-en_US", or
        "Keywords-de_DE").

    3.  Text strings are not normally null terminated, however they may be
        padded with one or more null characters to the end of the data block
        to allow strings to be edited within fixed-length data blocks.
        Newlines in the text are indicated by a single LF (0x0a) character.

    4.  UTF strings must not begin with a byte order mark (BOM) since the
        byte order and byte size are specified by the MIE format. If a BOM
        is found, it should be treated as a zero-width non-breaking space.

    5.  A list of text strings separated by null characters. These lists
        must not be null padded or null terminated, since this would be
        interpreted as additional zero-length strings. For ASCII and UTF-8
        strings, the null character is a single zero (0x00) byte. For UTF-16
        or UTF-32 strings, the null character is 2 or 4 zero bytes
        respectively.

    6.  64-bit integers and doubles are subject to the specified byte
        ordering for both 32-bit words and bytes within these words. For
        instance, the high order byte is always the first byte if
        big-endian, and the eighth byte if little-endian. This means that
        some swapping is always necessary for these values on systems where
        the byte order differs from the word order (eg. some ARM systems),
        regardless of the endian-ness of the stored values.

    7.  Rational values are treated as two separate integers. The numerator
        always comes first regardless of the byte ordering. In a signed
        rational value, only the numerator is signed. The denominator of all
        rational values is unsigned (eg. a signed 64-bit rational of
        0x80000000/0x80000000 evaluates to -1, not +1).

    8.  32-bit fixed point values are converted to floating point by
        treating them as an integer and dividing by an appropriate value.
        eg)

            16-bit fixed value = 16-bit integer value / 256.0
            32-bit fixed value = 32-bit integer value / 65536.0

   TagLength
    Gives the length of the TagName string. Any value between 0 and 255 is
    valid, but the TagLength of 0 is valid only for the MIE group
    terminator.

   DataLength
    DataLength is an unsigned byte that gives the number of bytes in the
    data block. A value between 0 and 252 gives the data length directly,
    and numbers from 253 to 255 are reserved for extended DataLength codes.
    Codes of 255, 254 and 253 indicate that the element contains an
    additional 2, 4 or 8 byte unsigned integer representing the data length.

        0-252      - length of data block
        255 (0xff) - use DataLength2
        254 (0xfe) - use DataLength4
        253 (0xfd) - use DataLength8

    A DataLength of zero is valid for any element except a compressed MIE
    group. A zero DataLength for an uncompressed MIE group indicates that
    the group length is unknown. For other elements, a zero length indicates
    there is no associated data. A terminator element must have a DataLength
    of 0, 6 or 10, and may not use an extended DataLength.

   TagName
    The TagName string is 0 to 255 bytes long, and is composed of the ASCII
    characters A-Z, a-z, 0-9 and underline ('_'). Also, a dash ('-') is used
    to separate the language/country code in the TagName of a localized text
    string, and a units string (possibly containing other ASCII characters)
    may be appear in brackets at the end of the TagName. The TagName string
    is NOT null terminated. A MIE element with a tag string of zero length
    is reserved for the group terminator.

    MIE elements are sorted alphabetically by TagName within each group.
    Multiple elements with the same TagName are allowed, even within the
    same group.

    TagNames should be meaningful. Case is significant. Words should be
    lowercase with an uppercase first character, and acronyms should be all
    upper case. The underline ("_") is provided to allow separation of two
    acronyms or two numbers, but it shouldn't be used unless necessary. No
    separation is necessary between an acronym and a word (eg.
    "ISOSetting").

    All TagNames should start with an uppercase letter. An exception to this
    rule allows tags to begin with a digit (0-9) if they must come before
    other tags in the sort order, or a lowercase letter (a-z) if they must
    come after. For instance, the '0Type' element begins with a digit so it
    comes before, and the 'data' element begins with a lowercase letter so
    that it comes after meta information tags in the main "0MIE" group.

    Tag names for localized text strings have an 6-character suffix with the
    following format: The first character is a dash ('-'), followed by a
    2-character lower case ISO 639-1 language code, then an underline ('_'),
    and ending with a 2-character upper case ISO 3166-1 alpha 2 country
    code. (eg. "-en_US", "-en_GB", "-de_DE" or "-fr_FR". Note that "GB", and
    not "UK" is the code for Great Britain, although "UK" should be
    recognized for compatibility reasons.) The suffix is included when
    sorting the tags alphabetically, so the default locale (with no tag-name
    suffix) always comes first. If the country is unknown or not applicable,
    a country code of "XX" should be used.

    Tags with numerical values may allow units of measurement to be
    specified. The units string is stored in brackets at the end of the tag
    name, and is composed of zero or more ASCII characters in the range 0x21
    to 0x7d, excluding the bracket characters 0x28 and 0x29. (eg.
    "Resolution(/cm)" or "SpecificHeat(J/kg.K)".) See
    [Image::ExifTool::MIEUnits] for details. Unit strings are not localized,
    and may not be used in combination with localized text strings.

    Sets of tags which would require a common prefix should be added in a
    separate MIE group instead of adding the prefix to all tag names. For
    example, instead of these TagName's:

        ExternalFlashType
        ExternalFlashSerialNumber
        ExternalFlashFired

    one would instead designate a separate "ExternalFlash" MIE group to
    contain the following elements:

        Type
        SerialNumber
        Fired

   DataLength2/4/8
    These extended DataLength fields exist only if DataLength is 255, 254 or
    253, and are respectively 2, 4 or 8 byte unsigned integers giving the
    data block length. One of these values must be used if the data block is
    larger than 252 bytes, but they may be used if desired for smaller
    blocks too (although this may add a few unnecessary bytes to the MIE
    element).

   DataBlock
    The data value for the MIE element. The format of the data is given by
    the FormatCode. For MIE group elements, the data includes all contained
    elements and the group terminator.

  MIE groups
    All MIE data elements must be contained within a group. A group begins
    with a MIE group element, and ends with a group terminator. Groups may
    be nested in a hierarchy to arbitrary depth.

    A MIE group element is identified by a format code of 0x10 (big endian
    byte ordering) or 0x18 (little endian). The group terminator is
    distinguished by a zero TagLength (it is the only element allowed to
    have a zero TagLength), and has a FormatCode of 0x00.

    The MIE group element is permitted to have a zero DataLength only if the
    data is uncompressed. This special value indicates that the group length
    is unknown (otherwise the minimum value for DataLength is 4,
    corresponding the the minimum group size which includes a terminator of
    at least 4 bytes). If DataLength is zero, all elements in the group must
    be parsed until the group terminator is found. If non-zero, DataLength
    includes the length of all elements contained within the group,
    including the group terminator. Use of a non-zero DataLength is
    encouraged because it allows readers quickly skip over entire MIE
    groups. For compressed groups DataLength must be non-zero, and is the
    length of the compressed group data (which includes the compressed group
    terminator).

   Group Terminator
    The group terminator has a FormatCode and TagLength of zero. The
    terminator DataLength must be 0, 6 or 10 bytes, and extended DataLength
    codes may not be used. With a zero DataLength, the byte sequence for a
    terminator is "7e 00 00 00" (hex). With a DataLength of 6 or 10 bytes,
    the terminator data block contains information about the length and byte
    ordering of the preceding group. This additional information is
    recommended for file-level groups, and is used in multi-document MIE
    files and MIE trailers to allow the file to be scanned backwards from
    the end. (This may also allow some documents to be recovered if part of
    the file is corrupted.) The structure of this optional terminator data
    block is as follows:

        4 or 8 bytes  GroupLength (unsigned integer)
        1 byte        ByteOrder (0x10 or 0x18, same as MIE group)
        1 byte        GroupLengthSize (0x04 or 0x08)

    The ByteOrder and GroupLengthSize values give the byte ordering and size
    of the GroupLength integer. The GroupLength value is the total length of
    the entire MIE group ending with this terminator, including the opening
    MIE group element and the terminator itself.

   File-level MIE groups
    File-level MIE groups may NOT be compressed.

    All elements in a MIE file are contained within a special group with a
    TagName of "0MIE". The purpose of the "OMIE" group is to provide a
    unique signature at the start of the file, and to encapsulate
    information allowing files to be easily combined. The "0MIE" group must
    be terminated like any other group, but it is recommended that the
    terminator of a file-level group include the optional data block
    (defined above) to provide information about the group length and byte
    order.

    It is valid to have more than one "0MIE" group at the file level,
    allowing multiple documents in a single MIE file. Furthermore, the MIE
    structure enables multi-document files to be generated by simply
    concatenating two or more MIE files.

  Scanning Backwards through a MIE File
    The steps below give an algorithm to quickly locate the last document in
    a MIE file:

    1.  Read the last 10 bytes of the file. (Note that a valid MIE file may
        be as short as 12 bytes long, but a file this length contains only
        an an empty MIE group.)

    2.  If the last byte of the file is zero, then it is not possible to
        scan backward through the file, so the file must be scanned from the
        beginning. Otherwise, proceed to the next step.

    3.  If the last byte is 4 or 8, the terminator contains information
        about the byte ordering and length of the group. Otherwise, stop
        here because this isn't a valid MIE file.

    4.  The next-to-last byte must be either 0x10 indicating big-endian byte
        ordering or 0x18 for little-endian ordering, otherwise this isn't a
        valid MIE file.

    5.  The value of the preceding 4 or 8 bytes gives the length of the
        complete file-level MIE group (GroupLength). This length includes
        both the leading MIE group element and the terminator element
        itself. The value is an unsigned integer with a byte length given in
        step 3), and a byte order from step 4). From the current file
        position (at the end of the data read in step 1), seek backward by
        this number of bytes to find the start of the MIE group element for
        this document.

    This algorithm may be repeated again beginning at this point in the file
    to locate the next-to-last document, etc.

    The table below lists all 5 valid patterns for the last 14 bytes of a
    file-level MIE group, with all numbers in hex. The comments indicate the
    length and byte ordering of GroupLength (xx) if available:

      ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? 7e 00 00 00  - (no GroupLength)
      ?? ?? ?? ?? 7e 00 00 06 xx xx xx xx 10 04  - 4 bytes, big endian
      ?? ?? ?? ?? 7e 00 00 06 xx xx xx xx 18 04  - 4 bytes, little endian
      7e 00 00 0a xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx 10 08  - 8 bytes, big endian
      7e 00 00 0a xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx 18 08  - 8 bytes, little endian

  Trailer Signature
    The MIE format may be used for trailer information appended to other
    types of files. When this is done, a signature must appear at the end of
    the main MIE group to uniquely identify the MIE format trailer. To
    achieve this, a "zmie" trailer signature is written as the last element
    in the main "0MIE" group. This element has a FormatCode of 0, a
    TagLength of 4, a DataLength of 0, and a TagName of "zmie". With this
    signature, the hex byte sequence "7e 00 04 00 7a 6d 69 65" appears
    immediately before the final group terminator, and the last 22 bytes of
    the trailer correspond to one of the following 4 patterns (where the
    trailer length is given by "xx", as above):

      ?? ?? ?? ?? 7e 00 04 00 7a 6d 69 65 7e 00 00 06 xx xx xx xx 10 04
      ?? ?? ?? ?? 7e 00 04 00 7a 6d 69 65 7e 00 00 06 xx xx xx xx 18 04
      7e 00 04 00 7a 6d 69 65 7e 00 00 0a xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx 10 08
      7e 00 04 00 7a 6d 69 65 7e 00 00 0a xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx 18 08

    Note that the zero-DataLength terminator may not be used here because
    the trailer length must be known for seeking backwards from the end of
    the file.

    Multiple trailers may be appended to the same file using this technique.

  MIE Data Values
    MIE data values for a given tag are usually not restricted to a specific
    FormatCode. Any value may be represented in any appropriate format,
    including numbers represented in string (ASCII or UTF) form.

    It is preferred that closely related values with the same format are
    written to a single tag instead of using multiple tags. This improves
    localization of like values and decreases MIE element overhead. For
    instance, instead of separate ImageWidth and ImageHeight tags, a single
    ImageSize tag is defined.

    Tags which may take on a discrete set of values should have meaningful
    values if possible. This improves the extensibility of the format and
    allows a more reasonable interpretation of unrecognized values.

   Numerical Representation
    Integer and floating point numbers may be represented in binary or
    string form. In string form, integers are a series of digits with an
    optional leading sign (eg. "[+|-]DDDDDD"), and multiple values are
    separated by a single space character (eg. "23 128 -32"). Floating point
    numbers are similar but may also contain a decimal point and/or a signed
    exponent with a leading 'e' character (eg.
    "[+|-]DD[.DDDDDD][e(+|-)EEE]"). The string "inf" is used to represent
    infinity. One advantage of numerical strings is that they can have an
    arbitrarily high precision because the possible number of significant
    digits is virtually unlimited.

    Note that numerical values may have associated units of measurement
    which are specified in the "TagName" string.

   Date/Time Format
    All MIE dates are strings in the form "YYYY:mm:dd HH:MM:SS.ss+HH:MM".
    The fractional seconds (".ss") are optional, and if included may contain
    any number of significant digits (unlike all other fields which are a
    fixed number of digits and must be padded with leading zeros if
    necessary). The timezone ("+HH:MM" or "-HH:MM") is recommended but not
    required. If not given, the local system timezone is assumed.

  MIME Type
    The basic MIME type for a MIE file is "application/x-mie", however the
    specific MIME type depends on the type of subfile, and is obtained by
    adding "x-mie-" to the MIME type of the subfile. For example, with a
    subfile of type "image/jpeg", the MIE file MIME type is
    "image/x-mie-jpeg". But note that the "x-" is not duplicated if the
    subfile MIME type already starts with "x-". So a subfile with MIME type
    "image/x-raw" is contained within a MIE file of type "image/x-mie-raw",
    not "image/x-mie-x-raw". In the case of multiple documents in a MIE
    file, the MIME type is taken from the first document. Regardless of the
    subfile type, all MIE-format files should have a filename extension of
    ".MIE".

  Levels of Support
    Basic MIE reader/writer applications may choose not to provide support
    for some advanced features of the MIE format. Features which may not be
    supported by all software are:

    Compression
        Software not supporting compression must ignore compressed elements
        and groups, but should be able to process the remaining information.

    Large data lengths
        Some software may limit the maximum size of a MIE group or element.
        Historically, a limit of 2GB may be imposed by some systems.
        However, 8-byte data lengths should be supported by all applications
        provided the value doesn't exceed the system limit. (eg. For systems
        with a 2GB limit, 8-byte data lengths should be supported if the
        upper 17 bits are all zero.) If a data length above the system limit
        is encountered, it may be necessary for the application to stop
        processing if it can not seek to the next element in the file.

## EXAMPLES
    This section gives examples for working with MIE information using
    ExifTool.

  Encapsulating Information with Data in a MIE File
    The following command encapsulates any file recognized by ExifTool
    inside a MIE file, and initializes MIE tags from information within the
    file:

        exiftool -o new.mie -tagsfromfile FILE '-mie:all<all' \
            '-subfilename<filename' '-subfiletype<filetype' \
            '-subfilemimetype<mimetype' '-subfiledata<=FILE'

    where "FILE" is the name of the file.

    For unrecognized files, this command may be used:

        exiftool -o new.mie -subfilename=FILE -subfiletype=TYPE \
            -subfilemimetype=MIME '-subfiledata<=FILE'

    where "TYPE" and "MIME" represent the source file type and MIME type
    respectively.

  Adding a MIE Trailer to a File
    The MIE format may also be used to store information in a trailer
    appended to another type of file. Beware that trailers may not be
    compatible with all file formats, but JPEG and TIFF are two formats
    where additional trailer information doesn't create any problems for
    normal parsing of the file. Also note that this technique has the
    disadvantage that trailer information is commonly lost if the file is
    subsequently edited by other software.

    Creating a MIE trailer with ExifTool is a two-step process since
    ExifTool can't currently be used to add a MIE trailer directly. The
    example below illustrates the steps for adding a MIE trailer with a
    small preview image ("small.jpg") to a destination JPEG image
    ("dst.jpg").

    Step 1) Create a MIE file with a TrailerSignature containing the desired
    information:

        exiftool -o new.mie -trailersignature=1 -tagsfromfile small.jpg \
            '-previewimagetype<filetype' '-previewimagesize<imagesize' \
            '-previewimagename<filename' '-previewimage<=small.jpg'

    Step 2) Append the MIE information to another file. In Unix, this can be
    done with the 'cat' command:

        cat new.mie >> dst.jpg

    Once added, ExifTool may be used to edit or delete a MIE trailer in a
    JPEG or TIFF image.

  Multiple MIE Documents in a Single File
    The MIE specification allows multiple MIE documents (or trailers) to
    exist in a single file. A file like this may be created by simply
    concatenating MIE documents. ExifTool may be used to access information
    in a specific document by adding a copy number to the MIE group name.
    For example:

        # write the Author tag in the second MIE document
        exiftool -mie2:author=phil test.mie

        # delete the first MIE document from a file
        exiftool -mie1:all= test.mie

  Units of Measurement
    Some MIE tags allow values to be specified in different units of
    measurement. In the MIE file format these units are combined with the
    tag name, but when using ExifTool they are specified in brackets after
    the value:

        exiftool -mie:gpsaltitude='7500(ft)' test.mie

    If no units are provided, the default units are written.

  Localized Text
    Localized text values are accessed by adding a language/country code to
    the tag name. For example:

        exiftool -comment-en_us='this is a comment' test.mie

## REVISIONS
      2010-04-05 - Fixed "Format Size" Note 7 to give the correct number of bits
                   in the example rational value
      2007-01-21 - Specified LF character (0x0a) for text newline sequence
      2007-01-19 - Specified ISO 8859-1 character set for extended ASCII codes
      2007-01-01 - Improved wording of Step 5 for scanning backwards in MIE file
      2006-12-30 - Added EXAMPLES section and note about UTF BOM
      2006-12-20 - MIE 1.1:  Changed meaning of TypeModifier bit (0x08) for
                   unknown data (FormatType 0x00), and documented byte swapping
      2006-12-14 - MIE 1.0:  Added Data Values and Numerical Representations
                   sections, and added ability to specify units in tag names
      2006-11-09 - Added Levels of Support section
      2006-11-03 - Added Trailer Signature
      2005-11-18 - Original specification created

## AUTHOR
    Copyright 2003-2022, 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. The MIE format itself is also
    copyright Phil Harvey, and is covered by the same free-use license.

## REFERENCES
    <<https://exiftool.org/MIE1.1-20070121.pdf>>

## SEE ALSO
    "MIE Tags" in [Image::ExifTool::TagNames], [Image::ExifTool::MIEUnits],
    Image::[ExifTool(3pm)]

