Timeshifter

This is a commandline tool for shifting date/time values to given timezones and prepare them for further processing.

Initial intention was to fix timestamps in EXIF data of images. Therefore Timeshifter is designed to integrate smoothly with ExifTool.

For a complete example on how I use it see Fixing timestamps in EXIF.

All command line parameters are decribed in Timeshifter CLI.

Download / Installation

Just download timeshifter-<version>.jar from the latest release. There's no special installation necessary.

You just have to have Java Runtime Environment (>= Java 8) installed.

Short examples

Most of the examples using a data file called example.csv. You could find it at the bottom of this page.

Timezone taken from given data

Input from file

java -jar timeshifter.jar -i example.csv -ils 1

is printing the following to stdout (same as input but with two additional columns containing the shifted date with and without timezone information)

NewImages/DSC00034.jpg,2019:03:09 17:58:00Z,2019:03:09 18:57:30+01:00,2019:03:09 18:58:00+01:00,2019:03:09 18:58:00
NewImages/DSC00035.jpg,2019:03:10 13:59:36Z,2019:03:10 14:59:06+01:00,2019:03:10 14:59:36+01:00,2019:03:10 14:59:36

Input from stdin

If you have some other application that is producing the data of the input file and is able to write them to stdout it's possible to redirect the output of this application directly into timeshifter.

echo example.csv | java -jar timeshifter.jar -ils 1

Timezone given on command line

java -jar timeshifter.jar -i example.csv -ils 1 -oso +03:00

is printing the following to stdout

NewImages/DSC00034.jpg,2019:03:09 17:58:00Z,2019:03:09 18:57:30+01:00,2019:03:09 20:58:00+03:00,2019:03:09 20:58:00
NewImages/DSC00035.jpg,2019:03:10 13:59:36Z,2019:03:10 14:59:06+01:00,2019:03:10 16:59:36+03:00,2019:03:10 16:59:36

Change output timestamp format

java -jar timeshifter.jar -i example.csv -ils 1 -osf "dd. MMMM yyyy HH:mm:ss XXX"

is printing the following to stdout using default locale (here DE_de)

NewImages/DSC00034.jpg,2019:03:09 17:58:00Z,2019:03:09 18:57:30+01:00,09. März 2019 18:58:00 +01:00,09. März 2019 18:58:00
NewImages/DSC00035.jpg,2019:03:10 13:59:36Z,2019:03:10 14:59:06+01:00,10. März 2019 14:59:36 +01:00,10. März 2019 14:59:36

With standard Java parameters you could use another locale

java -Duser.country=CA -Duser.language=fr -jar timeshifter.jar -i example.csv -ils 1 -osf "dd. MMMM yyyy HH:mm:ss XXX"

NewImages/DSC00034.jpg,2019:03:09 17:58:00Z,2019:03:09 18:57:30+01:00,09. mars 2019 18:58:00 +01:00,09. mars 2019 18:58:00
NewImages/DSC00035.jpg,2019:03:10 13:59:36Z,2019:03:10 14:59:06+01:00,10. mars 2019 14:59:36 +01:00,10. mars 2019 14:59:36

Change output line format

Using command line parameters

java -jar timeshifter.jar -i example.csv -ils 1 -ohf "<ul>%n" -olf "<li><a href="%1$s">Image %1$s</a> taken on %4$s</li>%n" -off "</ul>"

Be aware that you have to double % and " inside the parameters if you use this command inside a Windows Command Shell script.

<ul>
<li><a href="NewImages/DSC00034.jpg">Image NewImages/DSC00034.jpg</a> taken on 2019:03:09 18:58:00+01:00</li>
<li><a href="NewImages/DSC00035.jpg">Image NewImages/DSC00035.jpg</a> taken on 2019:03:10 14:59:36+01:00</li>
</ul>

Using parameter file

You could store all the parameters in a separate parameter file and pass this to Timeshifter.

java -jar timeshifter.jar @exampleHtml.param

uses exampleHtml.param

-i
example.csv

-ils
1

-ohf
<ul>%n

-olf
<li><a href="%1$s">Image %1$s</a> taken on %4$s</li>%n

-off
</ul>

to produce the same output as above.

For a more complex example on this have a look at Fixing timestamps in EXIF.

example.csv

Assume for the examples above that a file example.csv exists in the current folder like the following:

SourceFile,GPSDateTime,DateTimeDigitized
NewImages/DSC00034.jpg,2019:03:09 17:58:00Z,2019:03:09 18:57:30+01:00
NewImages/DSC00035.jpg,2019:03:10 13:59:36Z,2019:03:10 14:59:06+01:00