---
name: "tracker3-extract"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "tracker-extract"
version: "3.4.3-1"
release: "Debian 12 (Bookworm)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/tracker3-extract"
---

# tracker3-extract(1)

Extract metadata from a file.

## NAME

tracker3-extract - Extract metadata from a file.

## SYNOPSYS

**tracker3 extract** *FILE*

## DESCRIPTION

**tracker3 extract** reads the file provided and extracts any metadata it can from this file, then displays the metadata on standard output.

The metadata is displayed as a SPARQL update command, that can be run against a SPARQL endpoint to update its copy of the metadata.

The actual extraction is done by a separate process. This is done to isolate the calling process from any memory leaks or crashes in the libraries Tracker uses to extract metadata.

For more information see the libtracker-extract reference documentation.

## OPTIONS

- **-o, --output-format=\<***FORMAT***\>**

  Choose which format to use to output results. Supported formats are *sparql*, *turtle* and *json-ld*.

## EXAMPLES

Using command line to extract metadata from a file

$ tracker3 extract /path/to/some/file.mp3

## ENVIRONMENT

**G\_MESSAGES\_DEBUG**

Controls verbose log output from GLib-based code. Use G\_MESSAGES\_DEBUG=Tracker to see only Tracker-related logs, or G\_MESSAGES\_DEBUG=all to see everything.

**TRACKER\_DEBUG**

Enables more specialized debug output. Pass a comma-separated list of one or more keywords:

config

extractor configuration

statistics

show statistics about how many files were processed

status

log the status messages that are published over D-Bus

## SEE ALSO

[**tracker3-sparql**(1)](/tracker3-sparql/1.md), [**tracker3-status**(1)](/tracker3-status/1.md), [**tracker3-info**(1)](/tracker3-info/1.md).

• **/usr/lib/tracker-1.0/extract-modules/**

• **/usr/share/tracker/extract-rules/**