Can I programatically manipulate Lightroom's "rejected" flag in images?

Question

Can I use a tool like `exif2` or `exiftool` to programatically inspect and manipulate the flag used for "Rejected" in Lightroom? I can't find a field that seems to correspond to it. If not, is there another OSX/Linux/Unix tool that could do that?

Answer 1

As far as I know, no.

Lightroom's flags (pick/reject) are not stored in (image) metadata. They're available in the catalog only. Star ratings and color labels (XMP "label" field) are stored in metadata though -so maybe you could work your way around this restriction with a color label.