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2008.12.17 20:54 "Deleting tags from a directory", by Frank Warmerdam

Folks,

I have a client who needs to be able to remove a colormap from an existing
TIFF file.  This reveals a problem that has vexed me a number of times before
when trying to update TIFF files "in place".  There does not appear to be
any mechanism to delete a tag from an existing directory.

I propose, in libtiff4 to add a TIFFUnsetField() function which will remove
a tag from the current directory if present.  It would be implemented like
this:

/*
  * Clear the contents of the field in the internal structure.
  */
int
TIFFUnsetField(TIFF* tif, uint32 tag)
{
     const TIFFField *fip =  TIFFFieldWithTag(tif, tag);
     TIFFDirectory* td = &tif->tif_dir;

     if( !fip )
         return 0;

     if( fip->field_bit != FIELD_CUSTOM )
         TIFFClrFieldBit(tif, fip->field_bit);
     else
     {
         TIFFTagValue *tv;
         int i;

         for (i = 0; i < td->td_customValueCount; i++) {

             tv = td->td_customValues + i;
             if( tv->info->field_tag == tag )
                 break;
         }

         if( i < td->td_customValueCount )
         {
             _TIFFfree(tv->value);
             for( ; i < td->td_customValueCount-1; i++) {
                 td->td_customValues[i] = td->td_customValues[i+1];
             }
             td->td_customValueCount--;
         }
     }

     tif->tif_flags |= TIFF_DIRTYDIRECT;

     return (1);
}

Does anyone know of any problems with this change?  Is there already a
way for applications to remove tags I'm not aware of?  So far, I have
only tested the above a wee bit.  The following sample program demonstrates
turning a paletted file into unpaletted form:
#include "tiffio.h"

int main()

{
     TIFF *hTIFF;

     hTIFF = TIFFOpen( "cm.tif", "r+" );

     if( TIFFSetField( hTIFF, TIFFTAG_PHOTOMETRIC, PHOTOMETRIC_MINISBLACK ) )
         printf( "Set photometric successful.\n" );
     else
         printf( "Set photometric failed.\n" );


     if( TIFFUnsetField( hTIFF, TIFFTAG_COLORMAP ) )
         printf( "clear colormap successful.\n" );
     else
         printf( "clear colormap failed.\n" );

     TIFFClose( hTIFF );
}



Best regards,
-- 
---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam@pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | Geospatial Programmer for Rent