"-auto-orient" bug in mogrify and convert

[dsearles]

I'm trying to resolve a problem with "-auto-orient" in IM 6.3.7-5 and I think I've isolated it to a single line of code in "magick/property.c" (~line 1096) which reads "property+=5;". This line was removed in IM 6.3.8-1 but the source in the repository does not document why. By commenting out the line in IM 6.3.7-5, "-auto-orient" works correctly again.

While I'd prefer to move up to the latest IM 6.3.8-6, I have a significant installed user base which requires me to do tons of regression testing before replacing the IM functionality. I am currently using IM 6.3.7-5 in the field and the "-auto-orient" fails ONLY on Windows, it works fine on MacOS. Are the Windows sources different from the sources used to build the MacOS universal binary distribution? If not, why does "-auto-orient" work on MacOS but not on Windows? The problem is clearly related to the parsing of EXIF information as the "exif:Orientation" property is returned as "0" (undefined).

My dilema is that I'd like to use the simple short term fix of commenting out the offending line in IM 6.3.7-5 and rebuild the Windows distribution only (since the MacOS distro seems to work correctly). This would allow me to fix the problem in the field and then I could take a more methodical approach to regression testing IM 6.3.8-6.

Can anyone speak to the removal of this line of code in "magick/property.c" which can offer me some reassurance that commenting out this one line will not break lots of other stuff? Very much appreciated!

[magick]

You discovered a transient bug. The bug is fixed in the latest releases of ImageMagick.