Raphaël G. Git Repositories - youtubedl/blob - README.txt

   1 youtube-dl - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms
   2
   3 SYNOPSIS
   4 ========
   5
   6 youtube-dl OPTIONS URL [URL...]
   7
   8 INSTALLATION
   9 ============
  10
  11 To install it right away for all UNIX users (Linux, OS X, etc.), type:
  12
  13     sudo curl https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
  14     sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
  15
  16 If you do not have curl, you can alternatively use a recent wget:
  17
  18     sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
  19     sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
  20
  21 Windows users can download a .exe file and place it in their home
  22 directory or any other location on their PATH.
  23
  24 Alternatively, refer to the developer instructions below for how to
  25 check out and work with the git repository. For further options,
  26 including PGP signatures, see
  27 https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html .
  28
  29 DESCRIPTION
  30 ===========
  31
  32 youtube-dl is a small command-line program to download videos from
  33 YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter,
  34 version 2.6, 2.7, or 3.3+, and it is not platform specific. It should
  35 work on your Unix box, on Windows or on Mac OS X. It is released to the
  36 public domain, which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it
  37 however you like.
  38
  39 OPTIONS
  40 =======
  41
  42     -h, --help                       print this help text and exit
  43     --version                        print program version and exit
  44     -U, --update                     update this program to latest version. Make
  45                                      sure that you have sufficient permissions
  46                                      (run with sudo if needed)
  47     -i, --ignore-errors              continue on download errors, for example to
  48                                      skip unavailable videos in a playlist
  49     --abort-on-error                 Abort downloading of further videos (in the
  50                                      playlist or the command line) if an error
  51                                      occurs
  52     --dump-user-agent                display the current browser identification
  53     --list-extractors                List all supported extractors and the URLs
  54                                      they would handle
  55     --extractor-descriptions         Output descriptions of all supported
  56                                      extractors
  57     --proxy URL                      Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy. Pass in
  58                                      an empty string (--proxy "") for direct
  59                                      connection
  60     --socket-timeout None            Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
  61     --default-search PREFIX          Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
  62                                      example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
  63                                      from google videos for  youtube-dl "large
  64                                      apple". Use the value "auto" to let
  65                                      youtube-dl guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
  66                                      warning when guessing). "error" just throws
  67                                      an error. The default value "fixup_error"
  68                                      repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
  69                                      this is not possible instead of searching.
  70     --ignore-config                  Do not read configuration files. When given
  71                                      in the global configuration file /etc
  72                                      /youtube-dl.conf: do not read the user
  73                                      configuration in ~/.config/youtube-dl.conf
  74                                      (%APPDATA%/youtube-dl/config.txt on
  75                                      Windows)
  76
  77 Video Selection:
  78 ----------------
  79
  80     --playlist-start NUMBER          playlist video to start at (default is 1)
  81     --playlist-end NUMBER            playlist video to end at (default is last)
  82     --match-title REGEX              download only matching titles (regex or
  83                                      caseless sub-string)
  84     --reject-title REGEX             skip download for matching titles (regex or
  85                                      caseless sub-string)
  86     --max-downloads NUMBER           Abort after downloading NUMBER files
  87     --min-filesize SIZE              Do not download any videos smaller than
  88                                      SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
  89     --max-filesize SIZE              Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
  90                                      (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
  91     --date DATE                      download only videos uploaded in this date
  92     --datebefore DATE                download only videos uploaded on or before
  93                                      this date (i.e. inclusive)
  94     --dateafter DATE                 download only videos uploaded on or after
  95                                      this date (i.e. inclusive)
  96     --min-views COUNT                Do not download any videos with less than
  97                                      COUNT views
  98     --max-views COUNT                Do not download any videos with more than
  99                                      COUNT views
 100     --no-playlist                    download only the currently playing video
 101     --age-limit YEARS                download only videos suitable for the given
 102                                      age
 103     --download-archive FILE          Download only videos not listed in the
 104                                      archive file. Record the IDs of all
 105                                      downloaded videos in it.
 106     --include-ads                    Download advertisements as well
 107                                      (experimental)
 108     --youtube-include-dash-manifest  Try to download the DASH manifest on
 109                                      YouTube videos (experimental)
 110
 111 Download Options:
 112 -----------------
 113
 114     -r, --rate-limit LIMIT           maximum download rate in bytes per second
 115                                      (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
 116     -R, --retries RETRIES            number of retries (default is 10)
 117     --buffer-size SIZE               size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
 118                                      (default is 1024)
 119     --no-resize-buffer               do not automatically adjust the buffer
 120                                      size. By default, the buffer size is
 121                                      automatically resized from an initial value
 122                                      of SIZE.
 123
 124 Filesystem Options:
 125 -------------------
 126
 127     -a, --batch-file FILE            file containing URLs to download ('-' for
 128                                      stdin)
 129     --id                             use only video ID in file name
 130     -A, --auto-number                number downloaded files starting from 00000
 131     -o, --output TEMPLATE            output filename template. Use %(title)s to
 132                                      get the title, %(uploader)s for the
 133                                      uploader name, %(uploader_id)s for the
 134                                      uploader nickname if different,
 135                                      %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
 136                                      incremented number, %(ext)s for the
 137                                      filename extension, %(format)s for the
 138                                      format description (like "22 - 1280x720" or
 139                                      "HD"), %(format_id)s for the unique id of
 140                                      the format (like Youtube's itags: "137"),
 141                                      %(upload_date)s for the upload date
 142                                      (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
 143                                      (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the
 144                                      video id, %(playlist)s for the playlist the
 145                                      video is in, %(playlist_index)s for the
 146                                      position in the playlist and %% for a
 147                                      literal percent. %(height)s and %(width)s
 148                                      for the width and height of the video
 149                                      format. %(resolution)s for a textual
 150                                      description of the resolution of the video
 151                                      format. Use - to output to stdout. Can also
 152                                      be used to download to a different
 153                                      directory, for example with -o '/my/downloa
 154                                      ds/%(uploader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
 155     --autonumber-size NUMBER         Specifies the number of digits in
 156                                      %(autonumber)s when it is present in output
 157                                      filename template or --auto-number option
 158                                      is given
 159     --restrict-filenames             Restrict filenames to only ASCII
 160                                      characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
 161                                      filenames
 162     -t, --title                      [deprecated] use title in file name
 163                                      (default)
 164     -l, --literal                    [deprecated] alias of --title
 165     -w, --no-overwrites              do not overwrite files
 166     -c, --continue                   force resume of partially downloaded files.
 167                                      By default, youtube-dl will resume
 168                                      downloads if possible.
 169     --no-continue                    do not resume partially downloaded files
 170                                      (restart from beginning)
 171     --no-part                        do not use .part files
 172     --no-mtime                       do not use the Last-modified header to set
 173                                      the file modification time
 174     --write-description              write video description to a .description
 175                                      file
 176     --write-info-json                write video metadata to a .info.json file
 177     --write-annotations              write video annotations to a .annotation
 178                                      file
 179     --write-thumbnail                write thumbnail image to disk
 180     --load-info FILE                 json file containing the video information
 181                                      (created with the "--write-json" option)
 182     --cookies FILE                   file to read cookies from and dump cookie
 183                                      jar in
 184     --cache-dir DIR                  Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
 185                                      can store some downloaded information
 186                                      permanently. By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME
 187                                      /youtube-dl or ~/.cache/youtube-dl . At the
 188                                      moment, only YouTube player files (for
 189                                      videos with obfuscated signatures) are
 190                                      cached, but that may change.
 191     --no-cache-dir                   Disable filesystem caching
 192     --rm-cache-dir                   Delete all filesystem cache files
 193
 194 Verbosity / Simulation Options:
 195 -------------------------------
 196
 197     -q, --quiet                      activates quiet mode
 198     --no-warnings                    Ignore warnings
 199     -s, --simulate                   do not download the video and do not write
 200                                      anything to disk
 201     --skip-download                  do not download the video
 202     -g, --get-url                    simulate, quiet but print URL
 203     -e, --get-title                  simulate, quiet but print title
 204     --get-id                         simulate, quiet but print id
 205     --get-thumbnail                  simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
 206     --get-description                simulate, quiet but print video description
 207     --get-duration                   simulate, quiet but print video length
 208     --get-filename                   simulate, quiet but print output filename
 209     --get-format                     simulate, quiet but print output format
 210     -j, --dump-json                  simulate, quiet but print JSON information.
 211                                      See --output for a description of available
 212                                      keys.
 213     --newline                        output progress bar as new lines
 214     --no-progress                    do not print progress bar
 215     --console-title                  display progress in console titlebar
 216     -v, --verbose                    print various debugging information
 217     --dump-intermediate-pages        print downloaded pages to debug problems
 218                                      (very verbose)
 219     --write-pages                    Write downloaded intermediary pages to
 220                                      files in the current directory to debug
 221                                      problems
 222     --print-traffic                  Display sent and read HTTP traffic
 223
 224 Workarounds:
 225 ------------
 226
 227     --encoding ENCODING              Force the specified encoding (experimental)
 228     --no-check-certificate           Suppress HTTPS certificate validation.
 229     --prefer-insecure                Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
 230                                      information about the video. (Currently
 231                                      supported only for YouTube)
 232     --user-agent UA                  specify a custom user agent
 233     --referer REF                    specify a custom referer, use if the video
 234                                      access is restricted to one domain
 235     --add-header FIELD:VALUE         specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
 236                                      separated by a colon ':'. You can use this
 237                                      option multiple times
 238     --bidi-workaround                Work around terminals that lack
 239                                      bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
 240                                      or fribidi executable in PATH
 241
 242 Video Format Options:
 243 ---------------------
 244
 245     -f, --format FORMAT              video format code, specify the order of
 246                                      preference using slashes: "-f 22/17/18".
 247                                      "-f mp4" and "-f flv" are also supported.
 248                                      You can also use the special names "best",
 249                                      "bestvideo", "bestaudio", "worst",
 250                                      "worstvideo" and "worstaudio". By default,
 251                                      youtube-dl will pick the best quality.
 252     --all-formats                    download all available video formats
 253     --prefer-free-formats            prefer free video formats unless a specific
 254                                      one is requested
 255     --max-quality FORMAT             highest quality format to download
 256     -F, --list-formats               list all available formats
 257
 258 Subtitle Options:
 259 -----------------
 260
 261     --write-sub                      write subtitle file
 262     --write-auto-sub                 write automatic subtitle file (youtube
 263                                      only)
 264     --all-subs                       downloads all the available subtitles of
 265                                      the video
 266     --list-subs                      lists all available subtitles for the video
 267     --sub-format FORMAT              subtitle format (default=srt) ([sbv/vtt]
 268                                      youtube only)
 269     --sub-lang LANGS                 languages of the subtitles to download
 270                                      (optional) separated by commas, use IETF
 271                                      language tags like 'en,pt'
 272
 273 Authentication Options:
 274 -----------------------
 275
 276     -u, --username USERNAME          account username
 277     -p, --password PASSWORD          account password
 278     -n, --netrc                      use .netrc authentication data
 279     --video-password PASSWORD        video password (vimeo, smotri)
 280
 281 Post-processing Options:
 282 ------------------------
 283
 284     -x, --extract-audio              convert video files to audio-only files
 285                                      (requires ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or
 286                                      avprobe)
 287     --audio-format FORMAT            "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a",
 288                                      "opus", or "wav"; best by default
 289     --audio-quality QUALITY          ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification,
 290                                      insert a value between 0 (better) and 9
 291                                      (worse) for VBR or a specific bitrate like
 292                                      128K (default 5)
 293     --recode-video FORMAT            Encode the video to another format if
 294                                      necessary (currently supported:
 295                                      mp4|flv|ogg|webm|mkv)
 296     -k, --keep-video                 keeps the video file on disk after the
 297                                      post-processing; the video is erased by
 298                                      default
 299     --no-post-overwrites             do not overwrite post-processed files; the
 300                                      post-processed files are overwritten by
 301                                      default
 302     --embed-subs                     embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4
 303                                      videos)
 304     --embed-thumbnail                embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
 305     --add-metadata                   write metadata to the video file
 306     --xattrs                         write metadata to the video file's xattrs
 307                                      (using dublin core and xdg standards)
 308     --prefer-avconv                  Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running the
 309                                      postprocessors (default)
 310     --prefer-ffmpeg                  Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running the
 311                                      postprocessors
 312
 313 CONFIGURATION
 314 =============
 315
 316 You can configure youtube-dl by placing default arguments (such as
 317 --extract-audio --no-mtime to always extract the audio and not copy the
 318 mtime) into /etc/youtube-dl.conf and/or ~/.config/youtube-dl/config. On
 319 Windows, the configuration file locations are
 320 %APPDATA%\youtube-dl\config.txt and C:\Users\<Yourname>\youtube-dl.conf.
 321
 322 OUTPUT TEMPLATE
 323 ===============
 324
 325 The -o option allows users to indicate a template for the output file
 326 names. The basic usage is not to set any template arguments when
 327 downloading a single file, like in
 328 youtube-dl -o funny_video.flv "http://some/video". However, it may
 329 contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each
 330 video. The special sequences have the format %(NAME)s. To clarify, that
 331 is a percent symbol followed by a name in parenthesis, followed by a
 332 lowercase S. Allowed names are:
 333
 334 -   id: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier.
 335 -   url: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL.
 336 -   uploader: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the
 337     person who uploaded the video.
 338 -   upload_date: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date in
 339     YYYYMMDD format.
 340 -   title: The sequence will be replaced by the video title.
 341 -   ext: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension
 342     (like flv or mp4).
 343 -   epoch: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when creating
 344     the file.
 345 -   autonumber: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number
 346     that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.
 347 -   playlist: The name or the id of the playlist that contains the
 348     video.
 349 -   playlist_index: The index of the video in the playlist, a five-digit
 350     number.
 351
 352 The current default template is %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s.
 353
 354 In some cases, you don't want special characters such as 中, spaces, or
 355 &, such as when transferring the downloaded filename to a Windows system
 356 or the filename through an 8bit-unsafe channel. In these cases, add the
 357 --restrict-filenames flag to get a shorter title:
 358
 359     $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
 360     youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4    # All kinds of weird characters
 361     $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
 362     youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4          # A simple file name
 363
 364 VIDEO SELECTION
 365 ===============
 366
 367 Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options --date,
 368 --datebefore or --dateafter, they accept dates in two formats:
 369
 370 -   Absolute dates: Dates in the format YYYYMMDD.
 371 -   Relative dates: Dates in the format
 372     (now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?
 373
 374 Examples:
 375
 376     # Download only the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
 377     $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-6months
 378
 379     # Download only the videos uploaded on January 1, 1970
 380     $ youtube-dl --date 19700101
 381
 382     $ # will only download the videos uploaded in the 200x decade
 383     $ youtube-dl --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20091231
 384
 385 FAQ
 386 ===
 387
 388 Can you please put the -b option back?
 389
 390 Most people asking this question are not aware that youtube-dl now
 391 defaults to downloading the highest available quality as reported by
 392 YouTube, which will be 1080p or 720p in some cases, so you no longer
 393 need the -b option. For some specific videos, maybe YouTube does not
 394 report them to be available in a specific high quality format you're
 395 interested in. In that case, simply request it with the -f option and
 396 youtube-dl will try to download it.
 397
 398 I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
 399
 400 Apparently YouTube requires you to pass a CAPTCHA test if you download
 401 too much. We're considering to provide a way to let you solve the
 402 CAPTCHA, but at the moment, your best course of action is pointing a
 403 webbrowser to the youtube URL, solving the CAPTCHA, and restart
 404 youtube-dl.
 405
 406 I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
 407
 408 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as vlc or
 409 mplayer.
 410
 411 The links provided by youtube-dl -g are not working anymore
 412
 413 The URLs youtube-dl outputs require the downloader to have the correct
 414 cookies. Use the --cookies option to write the required cookies into a
 415 file, and advise your downloader to read cookies from that file. Some
 416 sites also require a common user agent to be used, use --dump-user-agent
 417 to see the one in use by youtube-dl.
 418
 419 ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
 420
 421 youtube has switched to a new video info format in July 2011 which is
 422 not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl
 423 with sudo youtube-dl --update.
 424
 425 ERROR: unable to download video
 426
 427 youtube requires an additional signature since September 2012 which is
 428 not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl
 429 with sudo youtube-dl --update.
 430
 431 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character
 432
 433 The error
 434
 435     File "youtube-dl", line 2
 436     SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\x93' ...
 437
 438 means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to
 439 Python 2.6 or 2.7.
 440
 441 What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
 442
 443 Since June 2012 (#342) youtube-dl is packed as an executable zipfile,
 444 simply unzip it (might need renaming to youtube-dl.zip first on some
 445 systems) or clone the git repository, as laid out above. If you modify
 446 the code, you can run it by executing the __main__.py file. To recompile
 447 the executable, run make youtube-dl.
 448
 449 The exe throws a Runtime error from Visual C++
 450
 451 To run the exe you need to install first the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008
 452 Redistributable Package.
 453
 454 DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS
 455 ======================
 456
 457 Most users do not need to build youtube-dl and can download the builds
 458 or get them from their distribution.
 459
 460 To run youtube-dl as a developer, you don't need to build anything
 461 either. Simply execute
 462
 463     python -m youtube_dl
 464
 465 To run the test, simply invoke your favorite test runner, or execute a
 466 test file directly; any of the following work:
 467
 468     python -m unittest discover
 469     python test/test_download.py
 470     nosetests
 471
 472 If you want to create a build of youtube-dl yourself, you'll need
 473
 474 -   python
 475 -   make
 476 -   pandoc
 477 -   zip
 478 -   nosetests
 479
 480 Adding support for a new site
 481
 482 If you want to add support for a new site, you can follow this quick
 483 list (assuming your service is called yourextractor):
 484
 485 1.  Fork this repository
 486 2.  Check out the source code with
 487     git clone git@github.com:YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/youtube-dl.git
 488 3.  Start a new git branch with
 489     cd youtube-dl; git checkout -b yourextractor
 490 4.  Start with this simple template and save it to
 491     youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py:
 492
 493         # coding: utf-8
 494         from __future__ import unicode_literals
 495
 496         import re
 497
 498         from .common import InfoExtractor
 499
 500
 501         class YourExtractorIE(InfoExtractor):
 502             _VALID_URL = r'https?://(?:www\.)?yourextractor\.com/watch/(?P<id>[0-9]+)'
 503             _TEST = {
 504                 'url': 'http://yourextractor.com/watch/42',
 505                 'md5': 'TODO: md5 sum of the first 10KiB of the video file',
 506                 'info_dict': {
 507                     'id': '42',
 508                     'ext': 'mp4',
 509                     'title': 'Video title goes here',
 510                     # TODO more properties, either as:
 511                     # * A value
 512                     # * MD5 checksum; start the string with md5:
 513                     # * A regular expression; start the string with re:
 514                     # * Any Python type (for example int or float)
 515                 }
 516             }
 517
 518             def _real_extract(self, url):
 519                 mobj = re.match(self._VALID_URL, url)
 520                 video_id = mobj.group('id')
 521
 522                 # TODO more code goes here, for example ...
 523                 webpage = self._download_webpage(url, video_id)
 524                 title = self._html_search_regex(r'<h1>(.*?)</h1>', webpage, 'title')
 525
 526                 return {
 527                     'id': video_id,
 528                     'title': title,
 529                     # TODO more properties (see youtube_dl/extractor/common.py)
 530                 }
 531
 532 5.  Add an import in youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py.
 533 6.  Run python test/test_download.py TestDownload.test_YourExtractor.
 534     This should fail at first, but you can continually re-run it until
 535     you're done.
 536 7.  Have a look at youtube_dl/common/extractor/common.py for possible
 537     helper methods and a detailed description of what your extractor
 538     should return. Add tests and code for as many as you want.
 539 8.  If you can, check the code with pyflakes (a good idea) and pep8
 540     (optional, ignore E501).
 541 9.  When the tests pass, add the new files and commit them and push the
 542     result, like this:
 543
 544         $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py
 545         $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py
 546         $ git commit -m '[yourextractor] Add new extractor'
 547         $ git push origin yourextractor
 548
 549 10. Finally, create a pull request. We'll then review and merge it.
 550
 551 In any case, thank you very much for your contributions!
 552
 553 BUGS
 554 ====
 555
 556 Bugs and suggestions should be reported at:
 557 https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues . Unless you were prompted so
 558 or there is another pertinent reason (e.g. GitHub fails to accept the
 559 bug report), please do not send bug reports via personal email.
 560
 561 Please include the full output of the command when run with --verbose.
 562 The output (including the first lines) contain important debugging
 563 information. Issues without the full output are often not reproducible
 564 and therefore do not get solved in short order, if ever.
 565
 566 For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.
 567
 568 When you submit a request, please re-read it once to avoid a couple of
 569 mistakes (you can and should use this as a checklist):
 570
 571 Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?
 572
 573 We often get issue reports that we cannot really decipher. While in most
 574 cases we eventually get the required information after asking back
 575 multiple times, this poses an unnecessary drain on our resources. Many
 576 contributors, including myself, are also not native speakers, so we may
 577 misread some parts.
 578
 579 So please elaborate on what feature you are requesting, or what bug you
 580 want to be fixed. Make sure that it's obvious
 581
 582 -   What the problem is
 583 -   How it could be fixed
 584 -   How your proposed solution would look like
 585
 586 If your report is shorter than two lines, it is almost certainly missing
 587 some of these, which makes it hard for us to respond to it. We're often
 588 too polite to close the issue outright, but the missing info makes
 589 misinterpretation likely. As a commiter myself, I often get frustrated
 590 by these issues, since the only possible way for me to move forward on
 591 them is to ask for clarification over and over.
 592
 593 For bug reports, this means that your report should contain the complete
 594 output of youtube-dl when called with the -v flag. The error message you
 595 get for (most) bugs even says so, but you would not believe how many of
 596 our bug reports do not contain this information.
 597
 598 Site support requests must contain an example URL. An example URL is a
 599 URL you might want to download, like
 600 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc . There should be an obvious
 601 video present. Except under very special circumstances, the main page of
 602 a video service (e.g. http://www.youtube.com/ ) is not an example URL.
 603
 604 Are you using the latest version?
 605
 606 Before reporting any issue, type youtube-dl -U. This should report that
 607 you're up-to-date. About 20% of the reports we receive are already
 608 fixed, but people are using outdated versions. This goes for feature
 609 requests as well.
 610
 611 Is the issue already documented?
 612
 613 Make sure that someone has not already opened the issue you're trying to
 614 open. Search at the top of the window or at
 615 https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/search?type=Issues . If there is an
 616 issue, feel free to write something along the lines of "This affects me
 617 as well, with version 2015.01.01. Here is some more information on the
 618 issue: ...". While some issues may be old, a new post into them often
 619 spurs rapid activity.
 620
 621 Why are existing options not enough?
 622
 623 Before requesting a new feature, please have a quick peek at the list of
 624 supported options. Many feature requests are for features that actually
 625 exist already! Please, absolutely do show off your work in the issue
 626 report and detail how the existing similar options do not solve your
 627 problem.
 628
 629 Is there enough context in your bug report?
 630
 631 People want to solve problems, and often think they do us a favor by
 632 breaking down their larger problems (e.g. wanting to skip already
 633 downloaded files) to a specific request (e.g. requesting us to look
 634 whether the file exists before downloading the info page). However, what
 635 often happens is that they break down the problem into two steps: One
 636 simple, and one impossible (or extremely complicated one).
 637
 638 We are then presented with a very complicated request when the original
 639 problem could be solved far easier, e.g. by recording the downloaded
 640 video IDs in a separate file. To avoid this, you must include the
 641 greater context where it is non-obvious. In particular, every feature
 642 request that does not consist of adding support for a new site should
 643 contain a use case scenario that explains in what situation the missing
 644 feature would be useful.
 645
 646 Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?
 647
 648 Some of our users seem to think there is a limit of issues they can or
 649 should open. There is no limit of issues they can or should open. While
 650 it may seem appealing to be able to dump all your issues into one
 651 ticket, that means that someone who solves one of your issues cannot
 652 mark the issue as closed. Typically, reporting a bunch of issues leads
 653 to the ticket lingering since nobody wants to attack that behemoth,
 654 until someone mercifully splits the issue into multiple ones.
 655
 656 In particular, every site support request issue should only pertain to
 657 services at one site (generally under a common domain, but always using
 658 the same backend technology). Do not request support for vimeo user
 659 videos, Whitehouse podcasts, and Google Plus pages in the same issue.
 660 Also, make sure that you don't post bug reports alongside feature
 661 requests. As a rule of thumb, a feature request does not include outputs
 662 of youtube-dl that are not immediately related to the feature at hand.
 663 Do not post reports of a network error alongside the request for a new
 664 video service.
 665
 666 Is anyone going to need the feature?
 667
 668 Only post features that you (or an incapicated friend you can personally
 669 talk to) require. Do not post features because they seem like a good
 670 idea. If they are really useful, they will be requested by someone who
 671 requires them.
 672
 673 Is your question about youtube-dl?
 674
 675 It may sound strange, but some bug reports we receive are completely
 676 unrelated to youtube-dl and relate to a different or even the reporter's
 677 own application. Please make sure that you are actually using
 678 youtube-dl. If you are using a UI for youtube-dl, report the bug to the
 679 maintainer of the actual application providing the UI. On the other
 680 hand, if your UI for youtube-dl fails in some way you believe is related
 681 to youtube-dl, by all means, go ahead and report the bug.
 682
 683 COPYRIGHT
 684 =========
 685
 686 youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
 687
 688 This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton
 689 (https://github.com/dbbolton) and is likewise released into the public
 690 domain.
 691