Do I need any of this to just use the tool?

No. scrubpony -n photo.jpg and scrubpony -r -d ~/clean ~/Pictures cover most of it. The guides exist for the moments people actually ask about: what -i costs, when --strict is worth it, and how to check the pixel claim.

Do the guides match the released version?

They track the version named in the footer. Where behaviour changes between releases, the guide is updated with it.

Guides

Short guides, real tasks.

Every one of these walks a single task from first command to done. No theory dumps — the concepts live in the glossary when you want them, and every flag is in the documentation.

Start here 2

Start

See what is in your photos

A dry run reads the file, writes nothing, and prints every decision with its reason.

1 minute

Start

Scrub a folder before uploading

Mirror a tree into a clean copy, leaving every original exactly as it was.

1 minute

Working on a library 2

Use

Scrub photos in place

Atomic replacement, with three costs worth knowing before you start.

2 minutes

Automate

Check photos in CI or a pre-commit hook

--check changes nothing and puts the verdict in the exit code.

3 minutes

Trust but verify 2

Verify

Verify the pixels did not change

Four independent checks, and one you can do with nothing but a hex viewer.

2 minutes

Choose

Decide whether you need --strict

It drops ICC, JFIF and Adobe too — and it costs you colour.

2 minutes

Get ScrubPony

Strips identifying metadata out of your photos — JPEG, PNG, WebP and HEIC — without touching a pixel. A C99 command line tool for macOS and Linux, and a native Android app on the same core.

Build it in 30 seconds — Install ScrubPony Read the source on GitHub