Manage Parasites
Introduction
A comprehensive parasite management tool for Script-Fu that lets you inspect, add, and remove parasites across all three scopes (global, image, and item). Parasites are GIMP’s mechanism for attaching custom data—think of them as key-value pairs that can store plug-in settings, metadata, or any other information that needs to persist.
The standalone version includes all library functions inlined (~1,100 lines), making it a complete working example and a reusable library for your own scripts.
Key Features:
- List parasites with nine precision options (from single items to everything)
- Remove parasites with matching granular control
- Remove specific parasites by name (searches all scopes)
- Add new parasites with automatic scope prefixing
- Control persistence mode (session vs. persist between sessions)
- Comprehensive library functions for parasite operations
manage-parasites.zip
Installation
Plug-in Menu Location
Tools -> Manage Parasites
Parasite Scopes
Parasites exist in three scopes:
- Global - Attached to GIMP itself, available across all images and sessions
- Image - Attached to a specific image, saved with the XCF file
- Item - Attached to individual layers, channels, or paths
Nine Precision Options
Both List Parasites and Remove Parasites support the same nine options:
- None - Do nothing
- Global - Only global parasites
- Active Image - Only the current image’s parasites
- Active Item - Only the active layer’s parasites
- Active Image (all layers) - All layer parasites on current image
- Active Image + Item + Global - Everything on current image plus global
- All Open Images - Image parasites across all open images
- All Open Images (all layers) - All layer parasites across all images
- Everything - Absolutely everything (global + all images + all items)
Additional Operations
- Remove Specific by Name - Searches all scopes and removes matching parasites
- Add Parasite - Creates new parasites with automatic scope prefixing
- Persist Mode - Toggle between session-only and persistent storage
Common Use Cases
- Store plug-in preferences globally for reuse across sessions
- Track image processing history with metadata attached to images
- Mark special layers for automated processing or exclusion
- Debug plug-in data by listing what’s attached where
- Clean up orphaned parasites from development or testing