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1 .\" Automatically generated by Pandoc 2.1.3
2 .\"
3 .TH "YOUTUBE\-DL" "1" "" "" ""
4 .hy
5 .SH NAME
6 .PP
7 youtube\-dl \- download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms
8 .SH SYNOPSIS
9 .PP
10 \f[B]youtube\-dl\f[] [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
11 .SH DESCRIPTION
12 .PP
13 \f[B]youtube\-dl\f[] is a command\-line program to download videos from
14 YouTube.com and a few more sites.
15 It requires the Python interpreter, version 2.6, 2.7, or 3.2+, and it is
16 not platform specific.
17 It should work on your Unix box, on Windows or on macOS.
18 It is released to the public domain, which means you can modify it,
19 redistribute it or use it however you like.
20 .SH OPTIONS
21 .TP
22 .B \-h, \-\-help
23 Print this help text and exit
24 .RS
25 .RE
26 .TP
27 .B \-\-version
28 Print program version and exit
29 .RS
30 .RE
31 .TP
32 .B \-U, \-\-update
33 Update this program to latest version.
34 Make sure that you have sufficient permissions (run with sudo if needed)
35 .RS
36 .RE
37 .TP
38 .B \-i, \-\-ignore\-errors
39 Continue on download errors, for example to skip unavailable videos in a
40 playlist
41 .RS
42 .RE
43 .TP
44 .B \-\-abort\-on\-error
45 Abort downloading of further videos (in the playlist or the command
46 line) if an error occurs
47 .RS
48 .RE
49 .TP
50 .B \-\-dump\-user\-agent
51 Display the current browser identification
52 .RS
53 .RE
54 .TP
55 .B \-\-list\-extractors
56 List all supported extractors
57 .RS
58 .RE
59 .TP
60 .B \-\-extractor\-descriptions
61 Output descriptions of all supported extractors
62 .RS
63 .RE
64 .TP
65 .B \-\-force\-generic\-extractor
66 Force extraction to use the generic extractor
67 .RS
68 .RE
69 .TP
70 .B \-\-default\-search \f[I]PREFIX\f[]
71 Use this prefix for unqualified URLs.
72 For example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos from google videos for
73 youtube\-dl "large apple".
74 Use the value "auto" to let youtube\-dl guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
75 warning when guessing).
76 "error" just throws an error.
77 The default value "fixup_error" repairs broken URLs, but emits an error
78 if this is not possible instead of searching.
79 .RS
80 .RE
81 .TP
82 .B \-\-ignore\-config
83 Do not read configuration files.
84 When given in the global configuration file /etc/youtube\-dl.conf: Do
85 not read the user configuration in ~/.config/youtube\- dl/config
86 (%APPDATA%/youtube\-dl/config.txt on Windows)
87 .RS
88 .RE
89 .TP
90 .B \-\-config\-location \f[I]PATH\f[]
91 Location of the configuration file; either the path to the config or its
92 containing directory.
93 .RS
94 .RE
95 .TP
96 .B \-\-flat\-playlist
97 Do not extract the videos of a playlist, only list them.
98 .RS
99 .RE
100 .TP
101 .B \-\-mark\-watched
102 Mark videos watched (YouTube only)
103 .RS
104 .RE
105 .TP
106 .B \-\-no\-mark\-watched
107 Do not mark videos watched (YouTube only)
108 .RS
109 .RE
110 .TP
111 .B \-\-no\-color
112 Do not emit color codes in output
113 .RS
114 .RE
115 .SS Network Options:
116 .TP
117 .B \-\-proxy \f[I]URL\f[]
118 Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy.
119 To enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme.
120 For example socks5://127.0.0.1:1080/.
121 Pass in an empty string (\-\-proxy "") for direct connection
122 .RS
123 .RE
124 .TP
125 .B \-\-socket\-timeout \f[I]SECONDS\f[]
126 Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
127 .RS
128 .RE
129 .TP
130 .B \-\-source\-address \f[I]IP\f[]
131 Client\-side IP address to bind to
132 .RS
133 .RE
134 .TP
135 .B \-4, \-\-force\-ipv4
136 Make all connections via IPv4
137 .RS
138 .RE
139 .TP
140 .B \-6, \-\-force\-ipv6
141 Make all connections via IPv6
142 .RS
143 .RE
144 .SS Geo Restriction:
145 .TP
146 .B \-\-geo\-verification\-proxy \f[I]URL\f[]
147 Use this proxy to verify the IP address for some geo\-restricted sites.
148 The default proxy specified by \-\-proxy (or none, if the option is not
149 present) is used for the actual downloading.
150 .RS
151 .RE
152 .TP
153 .B \-\-geo\-bypass
154 Bypass geographic restriction via faking X\-Forwarded\-For HTTP header
155 .RS
156 .RE
157 .TP
158 .B \-\-no\-geo\-bypass
159 Do not bypass geographic restriction via faking X\-Forwarded\-For HTTP
160 header
161 .RS
162 .RE
163 .TP
164 .B \-\-geo\-bypass\-country \f[I]CODE\f[]
165 Force bypass geographic restriction with explicitly provided two\-letter
166 ISO 3166\-2 country code
167 .RS
168 .RE
169 .TP
170 .B \-\-geo\-bypass\-ip\-block \f[I]IP_BLOCK\f[]
171 Force bypass geographic restriction with explicitly provided IP block in
172 CIDR notation
173 .RS
174 .RE
175 .SS Video Selection:
176 .TP
177 .B \-\-playlist\-start \f[I]NUMBER\f[]
178 Playlist video to start at (default is 1)
179 .RS
180 .RE
181 .TP
182 .B \-\-playlist\-end \f[I]NUMBER\f[]
183 Playlist video to end at (default is last)
184 .RS
185 .RE
186 .TP
187 .B \-\-playlist\-items \f[I]ITEM_SPEC\f[]
188 Playlist video items to download.
189 Specify indices of the videos in the playlist separated by commas like:
190 "\-\-playlist\-items 1,2,5,8" if you want to download videos indexed 1,
191 2, 5, 8 in the playlist.
192 You can specify range: "\-\-playlist\-items 1\-3,7,10\-13", it will
193 download the videos at index 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13.
194 .RS
195 .RE
196 .TP
197 .B \-\-match\-title \f[I]REGEX\f[]
198 Download only matching titles (regex or caseless sub\-string)
199 .RS
200 .RE
201 .TP
202 .B \-\-reject\-title \f[I]REGEX\f[]
203 Skip download for matching titles (regex or caseless sub\-string)
204 .RS
205 .RE
206 .TP
207 .B \-\-max\-downloads \f[I]NUMBER\f[]
208 Abort after downloading NUMBER files
209 .RS
210 .RE
211 .TP
212 .B \-\-min\-filesize \f[I]SIZE\f[]
213 Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE (e.g.
214 50k or 44.6m)
215 .RS
216 .RE
217 .TP
218 .B \-\-max\-filesize \f[I]SIZE\f[]
219 Do not download any videos larger than SIZE (e.g.
220 50k or 44.6m)
221 .RS
222 .RE
223 .TP
224 .B \-\-date \f[I]DATE\f[]
225 Download only videos uploaded in this date
226 .RS
227 .RE
228 .TP
229 .B \-\-datebefore \f[I]DATE\f[]
230 Download only videos uploaded on or before this date (i.e.
231 inclusive)
232 .RS
233 .RE
234 .TP
235 .B \-\-dateafter \f[I]DATE\f[]
236 Download only videos uploaded on or after this date (i.e.
237 inclusive)
238 .RS
239 .RE
240 .TP
241 .B \-\-min\-views \f[I]COUNT\f[]
242 Do not download any videos with less than COUNT views
243 .RS
244 .RE
245 .TP
246 .B \-\-max\-views \f[I]COUNT\f[]
247 Do not download any videos with more than COUNT views
248 .RS
249 .RE
250 .TP
251 .B \-\-match\-filter \f[I]FILTER\f[]
252 Generic video filter.
253 Specify any key (see the "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a list of available keys)
254 to match if the key is present, !key to check if the key is not present,
255 key > NUMBER (like "comment_count > 12", also works with >=, <, <=, !=,
256 =) to compare against a number, key = \[aq]LITERAL\[aq] (like "uploader
257 = \[aq]Mike Smith\[aq]", also works with !=) to match against a string
258 literal and & to require multiple matches.
259 Values which are not known are excluded unless you put a question mark
260 (?) after the operator.
261 For example, to only match videos that have been liked more than 100
262 times and disliked less than 50 times (or the dislike functionality is
263 not available at the given service), but who also have a description,
264 use \-\-match\-filter "like_count > 100 & dislike_count <?
265 50 & description" .
266 .RS
267 .RE
268 .TP
269 .B \-\-no\-playlist
270 Download only the video, if the URL refers to a video and a playlist.
271 .RS
272 .RE
273 .TP
274 .B \-\-yes\-playlist
275 Download the playlist, if the URL refers to a video and a playlist.
276 .RS
277 .RE
278 .TP
279 .B \-\-age\-limit \f[I]YEARS\f[]
280 Download only videos suitable for the given age
281 .RS
282 .RE
283 .TP
284 .B \-\-download\-archive \f[I]FILE\f[]
285 Download only videos not listed in the archive file.
286 Record the IDs of all downloaded videos in it.
287 .RS
288 .RE
289 .TP
290 .B \-\-include\-ads
291 Download advertisements as well (experimental)
292 .RS
293 .RE
294 .SS Download Options:
295 .TP
296 .B \-r, \-\-limit\-rate \f[I]RATE\f[]
297 Maximum download rate in bytes per second (e.g.
298 50K or 4.2M)
299 .RS
300 .RE
301 .TP
302 .B \-R, \-\-retries \f[I]RETRIES\f[]
303 Number of retries (default is 10), or "infinite".
304 .RS
305 .RE
306 .TP
307 .B \-\-fragment\-retries \f[I]RETRIES\f[]
308 Number of retries for a fragment (default is 10), or "infinite" (DASH,
309 hlsnative and ISM)
310 .RS
311 .RE
312 .TP
313 .B \-\-skip\-unavailable\-fragments
314 Skip unavailable fragments (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
315 .RS
316 .RE
317 .TP
318 .B \-\-abort\-on\-unavailable\-fragment
319 Abort downloading when some fragment is not available
320 .RS
321 .RE
322 .TP
323 .B \-\-keep\-fragments
324 Keep downloaded fragments on disk after downloading is finished;
325 fragments are erased by default
326 .RS
327 .RE
328 .TP
329 .B \-\-buffer\-size \f[I]SIZE\f[]
330 Size of download buffer (e.g.
331 1024 or 16K) (default is 1024)
332 .RS
333 .RE
334 .TP
335 .B \-\-no\-resize\-buffer
336 Do not automatically adjust the buffer size.
337 By default, the buffer size is automatically resized from an initial
338 value of SIZE.
339 .RS
340 .RE
341 .TP
342 .B \-\-http\-chunk\-size \f[I]SIZE\f[]
343 Size of a chunk for chunk\-based HTTP downloading (e.g.
344 10485760 or 10M) (default is disabled).
345 May be useful for bypassing bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
346 (experimental)
347 .RS
348 .RE
349 .TP
350 .B \-\-playlist\-reverse
351 Download playlist videos in reverse order
352 .RS
353 .RE
354 .TP
355 .B \-\-playlist\-random
356 Download playlist videos in random order
357 .RS
358 .RE
359 .TP
360 .B \-\-xattr\-set\-filesize
361 Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with expected file size
362 .RS
363 .RE
364 .TP
365 .B \-\-hls\-prefer\-native
366 Use the native HLS downloader instead of ffmpeg
367 .RS
368 .RE
369 .TP
370 .B \-\-hls\-prefer\-ffmpeg
371 Use ffmpeg instead of the native HLS downloader
372 .RS
373 .RE
374 .TP
375 .B \-\-hls\-use\-mpegts
376 Use the mpegts container for HLS videos, allowing to play the video
377 while downloading (some players may not be able to play it)
378 .RS
379 .RE
380 .TP
381 .B \-\-external\-downloader \f[I]COMMAND\f[]
382 Use the specified external downloader.
383 Currently supports aria2c,avconv,axel,curl,ffmpeg,httpie,wget
384 .RS
385 .RE
386 .TP
387 .B \-\-external\-downloader\-args \f[I]ARGS\f[]
388 Give these arguments to the external downloader
389 .RS
390 .RE
391 .SS Filesystem Options:
392 .TP
393 .B \-a, \-\-batch\-file \f[I]FILE\f[]
394 File containing URLs to download (\[aq]\-\[aq] for stdin), one URL per
395 line.
396 Lines starting with \[aq]#\[aq], \[aq];\[aq] or \[aq]]\[aq] are
397 considered as comments and ignored.
398 .RS
399 .RE
400 .TP
401 .B \-\-id
402 Use only video ID in file name
403 .RS
404 .RE
405 .TP
406 .B \-o, \-\-output \f[I]TEMPLATE\f[]
407 Output filename template, see the "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for all the info
408 .RS
409 .RE
410 .TP
411 .B \-\-autonumber\-start \f[I]NUMBER\f[]
412 Specify the start value for %(autonumber)s (default is 1)
413 .RS
414 .RE
415 .TP
416 .B \-\-restrict\-filenames
417 Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
418 filenames
419 .RS
420 .RE
421 .TP
422 .B \-w, \-\-no\-overwrites
423 Do not overwrite files
424 .RS
425 .RE
426 .TP
427 .B \-c, \-\-continue
428 Force resume of partially downloaded files.
429 By default, youtube\-dl will resume downloads if possible.
430 .RS
431 .RE
432 .TP
433 .B \-\-no\-continue
434 Do not resume partially downloaded files (restart from beginning)
435 .RS
436 .RE
437 .TP
438 .B \-\-no\-part
439 Do not use .part files \- write directly into output file
440 .RS
441 .RE
442 .TP
443 .B \-\-no\-mtime
444 Do not use the Last\-modified header to set the file modification time
445 .RS
446 .RE
447 .TP
448 .B \-\-write\-description
449 Write video description to a .description file
450 .RS
451 .RE
452 .TP
453 .B \-\-write\-info\-json
454 Write video metadata to a .info.json file
455 .RS
456 .RE
457 .TP
458 .B \-\-write\-annotations
459 Write video annotations to a .annotations.xml file
460 .RS
461 .RE
462 .TP
463 .B \-\-load\-info\-json \f[I]FILE\f[]
464 JSON file containing the video information (created with the
465 "\-\-write\-info\-json" option)
466 .RS
467 .RE
468 .TP
469 .B \-\-cookies \f[I]FILE\f[]
470 File to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in
471 .RS
472 .RE
473 .TP
474 .B \-\-cache\-dir \f[I]DIR\f[]
475 Location in the filesystem where youtube\-dl can store some downloaded
476 information permanently.
477 By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube\-dl or ~/.cache/youtube\-dl .
478 At the moment, only YouTube player files (for videos with obfuscated
479 signatures) are cached, but that may change.
480 .RS
481 .RE
482 .TP
483 .B \-\-no\-cache\-dir
484 Disable filesystem caching
485 .RS
486 .RE
487 .TP
488 .B \-\-rm\-cache\-dir
489 Delete all filesystem cache files
490 .RS
491 .RE
492 .SS Thumbnail images:
493 .TP
494 .B \-\-write\-thumbnail
495 Write thumbnail image to disk
496 .RS
497 .RE
498 .TP
499 .B \-\-write\-all\-thumbnails
500 Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
501 .RS
502 .RE
503 .TP
504 .B \-\-list\-thumbnails
505 Simulate and list all available thumbnail formats
506 .RS
507 .RE
508 .SS Verbosity / Simulation Options:
509 .TP
510 .B \-q, \-\-quiet
511 Activate quiet mode
512 .RS
513 .RE
514 .TP
515 .B \-\-no\-warnings
516 Ignore warnings
517 .RS
518 .RE
519 .TP
520 .B \-s, \-\-simulate
521 Do not download the video and do not write anything to disk
522 .RS
523 .RE
524 .TP
525 .B \-\-skip\-download
526 Do not download the video
527 .RS
528 .RE
529 .TP
530 .B \-g, \-\-get\-url
531 Simulate, quiet but print URL
532 .RS
533 .RE
534 .TP
535 .B \-e, \-\-get\-title
536 Simulate, quiet but print title
537 .RS
538 .RE
539 .TP
540 .B \-\-get\-id
541 Simulate, quiet but print id
542 .RS
543 .RE
544 .TP
545 .B \-\-get\-thumbnail
546 Simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
547 .RS
548 .RE
549 .TP
550 .B \-\-get\-description
551 Simulate, quiet but print video description
552 .RS
553 .RE
554 .TP
555 .B \-\-get\-duration
556 Simulate, quiet but print video length
557 .RS
558 .RE
559 .TP
560 .B \-\-get\-filename
561 Simulate, quiet but print output filename
562 .RS
563 .RE
564 .TP
565 .B \-\-get\-format
566 Simulate, quiet but print output format
567 .RS
568 .RE
569 .TP
570 .B \-j, \-\-dump\-json
571 Simulate, quiet but print JSON information.
572 See the "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a description of available keys.
573 .RS
574 .RE
575 .TP
576 .B \-J, \-\-dump\-single\-json
577 Simulate, quiet but print JSON information for each command\-line
578 argument.
579 If the URL refers to a playlist, dump the whole playlist information in
580 a single line.
581 .RS
582 .RE
583 .TP
584 .B \-\-print\-json
585 Be quiet and print the video information as JSON (video is still being
586 downloaded).
587 .RS
588 .RE
589 .TP
590 .B \-\-newline
591 Output progress bar as new lines
592 .RS
593 .RE
594 .TP
595 .B \-\-no\-progress
596 Do not print progress bar
597 .RS
598 .RE
599 .TP
600 .B \-\-console\-title
601 Display progress in console titlebar
602 .RS
603 .RE
604 .TP
605 .B \-v, \-\-verbose
606 Print various debugging information
607 .RS
608 .RE
609 .TP
610 .B \-\-dump\-pages
611 Print downloaded pages encoded using base64 to debug problems (very
612 verbose)
613 .RS
614 .RE
615 .TP
616 .B \-\-write\-pages
617 Write downloaded intermediary pages to files in the current directory to
618 debug problems
619 .RS
620 .RE
621 .TP
622 .B \-\-print\-traffic
623 Display sent and read HTTP traffic
624 .RS
625 .RE
626 .TP
627 .B \-C, \-\-call\-home
628 Contact the youtube\-dl server for debugging
629 .RS
630 .RE
631 .TP
632 .B \-\-no\-call\-home
633 Do NOT contact the youtube\-dl server for debugging
634 .RS
635 .RE
636 .SS Workarounds:
637 .TP
638 .B \-\-encoding \f[I]ENCODING\f[]
639 Force the specified encoding (experimental)
640 .RS
641 .RE
642 .TP
643 .B \-\-no\-check\-certificate
644 Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
645 .RS
646 .RE
647 .TP
648 .B \-\-prefer\-insecure
649 Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve information about the video.
650 (Currently supported only for YouTube)
651 .RS
652 .RE
653 .TP
654 .B \-\-user\-agent \f[I]UA\f[]
655 Specify a custom user agent
656 .RS
657 .RE
658 .TP
659 .B \-\-referer \f[I]URL\f[]
660 Specify a custom referer, use if the video access is restricted to one
661 domain
662 .RS
663 .RE
664 .TP
665 .B \-\-add\-header \f[I]FIELD:VALUE\f[]
666 Specify a custom HTTP header and its value, separated by a colon
667 \[aq]:\[aq].
668 You can use this option multiple times
669 .RS
670 .RE
671 .TP
672 .B \-\-bidi\-workaround
673 Work around terminals that lack bidirectional text support.
674 Requires bidiv or fribidi executable in PATH
675 .RS
676 .RE
677 .TP
678 .B \-\-sleep\-interval \f[I]SECONDS\f[]
679 Number of seconds to sleep before each download when used alone or a
680 lower bound of a range for randomized sleep before each download
681 (minimum possible number of seconds to sleep) when used along with
682 \-\-max\-sleep\-interval.
683 .RS
684 .RE
685 .TP
686 .B \-\-max\-sleep\-interval \f[I]SECONDS\f[]
687 Upper bound of a range for randomized sleep before each download
688 (maximum possible number of seconds to sleep).
689 Must only be used along with \-\-min\-sleep\-interval.
690 .RS
691 .RE
692 .SS Video Format Options:
693 .TP
694 .B \-f, \-\-format \f[I]FORMAT\f[]
695 Video format code, see the "FORMAT SELECTION" for all the info
696 .RS
697 .RE
698 .TP
699 .B \-\-all\-formats
700 Download all available video formats
701 .RS
702 .RE
703 .TP
704 .B \-\-prefer\-free\-formats
705 Prefer free video formats unless a specific one is requested
706 .RS
707 .RE
708 .TP
709 .B \-F, \-\-list\-formats
710 List all available formats of requested videos
711 .RS
712 .RE
713 .TP
714 .B \-\-youtube\-skip\-dash\-manifest
715 Do not download the DASH manifests and related data on YouTube videos
716 .RS
717 .RE
718 .TP
719 .B \-\-merge\-output\-format \f[I]FORMAT\f[]
720 If a merge is required (e.g.
721 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given container format.
722 One of mkv, mp4, ogg, webm, flv.
723 Ignored if no merge is required
724 .RS
725 .RE
726 .SS Subtitle Options:
727 .TP
728 .B \-\-write\-sub
729 Write subtitle file
730 .RS
731 .RE
732 .TP
733 .B \-\-write\-auto\-sub
734 Write automatically generated subtitle file (YouTube only)
735 .RS
736 .RE
737 .TP
738 .B \-\-all\-subs
739 Download all the available subtitles of the video
740 .RS
741 .RE
742 .TP
743 .B \-\-list\-subs
744 List all available subtitles for the video
745 .RS
746 .RE
747 .TP
748 .B \-\-sub\-format \f[I]FORMAT\f[]
749 Subtitle format, accepts formats preference, for example: "srt" or
750 "ass/srt/best"
751 .RS
752 .RE
753 .TP
754 .B \-\-sub\-lang \f[I]LANGS\f[]
755 Languages of the subtitles to download (optional) separated by commas,
756 use \-\-list\- subs for available language tags
757 .RS
758 .RE
759 .SS Authentication Options:
760 .TP
761 .B \-u, \-\-username \f[I]USERNAME\f[]
762 Login with this account ID
763 .RS
764 .RE
765 .TP
766 .B \-p, \-\-password \f[I]PASSWORD\f[]
767 Account password.
768 If this option is left out, youtube\-dl will ask interactively.
769 .RS
770 .RE
771 .TP
772 .B \-2, \-\-twofactor \f[I]TWOFACTOR\f[]
773 Two\-factor authentication code
774 .RS
775 .RE
776 .TP
777 .B \-n, \-\-netrc
778 Use .netrc authentication data
779 .RS
780 .RE
781 .TP
782 .B \-\-video\-password \f[I]PASSWORD\f[]
783 Video password (vimeo, smotri, youku)
784 .RS
785 .RE
786 .SS Adobe Pass Options:
787 .TP
788 .B \-\-ap\-mso \f[I]MSO\f[]
789 Adobe Pass multiple\-system operator (TV provider) identifier, use
790 \-\-ap\-list\-mso for a list of available MSOs
791 .RS
792 .RE
793 .TP
794 .B \-\-ap\-username \f[I]USERNAME\f[]
795 Multiple\-system operator account login
796 .RS
797 .RE
798 .TP
799 .B \-\-ap\-password \f[I]PASSWORD\f[]
800 Multiple\-system operator account password.
801 If this option is left out, youtube\-dl will ask interactively.
802 .RS
803 .RE
804 .TP
805 .B \-\-ap\-list\-mso
806 List all supported multiple\-system operators
807 .RS
808 .RE
809 .SS Post\-processing Options:
810 .TP
811 .B \-x, \-\-extract\-audio
812 Convert video files to audio\-only files (requires ffmpeg or avconv and
813 ffprobe or avprobe)
814 .RS
815 .RE
816 .TP
817 .B \-\-audio\-format \f[I]FORMAT\f[]
818 Specify audio format: "best", "aac", "flac", "mp3", "m4a", "opus",
819 "vorbis", or "wav"; "best" by default; No effect without \-x
820 .RS
821 .RE
822 .TP
823 .B \-\-audio\-quality \f[I]QUALITY\f[]
824 Specify ffmpeg/avconv audio quality, insert a value between 0 (better)
825 and 9 (worse) for VBR or a specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
826 .RS
827 .RE
828 .TP
829 .B \-\-recode\-video \f[I]FORMAT\f[]
830 Encode the video to another format if necessary (currently supported:
831 mp4|flv|ogg|webm|mkv|avi)
832 .RS
833 .RE
834 .TP
835 .B \-\-postprocessor\-args \f[I]ARGS\f[]
836 Give these arguments to the postprocessor
837 .RS
838 .RE
839 .TP
840 .B \-k, \-\-keep\-video
841 Keep the video file on disk after the post\- processing; the video is
842 erased by default
843 .RS
844 .RE
845 .TP
846 .B \-\-no\-post\-overwrites
847 Do not overwrite post\-processed files; the post\-processed files are
848 overwritten by default
849 .RS
850 .RE
851 .TP
852 .B \-\-embed\-subs
853 Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4, webm and mkv videos)
854 .RS
855 .RE
856 .TP
857 .B \-\-embed\-thumbnail
858 Embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
859 .RS
860 .RE
861 .TP
862 .B \-\-add\-metadata
863 Write metadata to the video file
864 .RS
865 .RE
866 .TP
867 .B \-\-metadata\-from\-title \f[I]FORMAT\f[]
868 Parse additional metadata like song title / artist from the video title.
869 The format syntax is the same as \-\-output.
870 Regular expression with named capture groups may also be used.
871 The parsed parameters replace existing values.
872 Example: \-\-metadata\-from\- title "%(artist)s \- %(title)s" matches a
873 title like "Coldplay \- Paradise".
874 Example (regex): \-\-metadata\-from\-title "(?P.+?) \- (?P
875 .RS
876 \&.+)"
877 .RE
878 .TP
879 .B \-\-xattrs
880 Write metadata to the video file\[aq]s xattrs (using dublin core and xdg
881 standards)
882 .RS
883 .RE
884 .TP
885 .B \-\-fixup \f[I]POLICY\f[]
886 Automatically correct known faults of the file.
887 One of never (do nothing), warn (only emit a warning), detect_or_warn
888 (the default; fix file if we can, warn otherwise)
889 .RS
890 .RE
891 .TP
892 .B \-\-prefer\-avconv
893 Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running the postprocessors
894 .RS
895 .RE
896 .TP
897 .B \-\-prefer\-ffmpeg
898 Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running the postprocessors (default)
899 .RS
900 .RE
901 .TP
902 .B \-\-ffmpeg\-location \f[I]PATH\f[]
903 Location of the ffmpeg/avconv binary; either the path to the binary or
904 its containing directory.
905 .RS
906 .RE
907 .TP
908 .B \-\-exec \f[I]CMD\f[]
909 Execute a command on the file after downloading, similar to find\[aq]s
910 \-exec syntax.
911 Example: \-\-exec \[aq]adb push {} /sdcard/Music/ && rm {}\[aq]
912 .RS
913 .RE
914 .TP
915 .B \-\-convert\-subs \f[I]FORMAT\f[]
916 Convert the subtitles to other format (currently supported:
917 srt|ass|vtt|lrc)
918 .RS
919 .RE
920 .SH CONFIGURATION
921 .PP
922 You can configure youtube\-dl by placing any supported command line
923 option to a configuration file.
924 On Linux and macOS, the system wide configuration file is located at
925 \f[C]/etc/youtube\-dl.conf\f[] and the user wide configuration file at
926 \f[C]~/.config/youtube\-dl/config\f[].
927 On Windows, the user wide configuration file locations are
928 \f[C]%APPDATA%\\youtube\-dl\\config.txt\f[] or
929 \f[C]C:\\Users\\<user\ name>\\youtube\-dl.conf\f[].
930 Note that by default configuration file may not exist so you may need to
931 create it yourself.
932 .PP
933 For example, with the following configuration file youtube\-dl will
934 always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all
935 videos under \f[C]Movies\f[] directory in your home directory:
936 .IP
937 .nf
938 \f[C]
939 #\ Lines\ starting\ with\ #\ are\ comments
940
941 #\ Always\ extract\ audio
942 \-x
943
944 #\ Do\ not\ copy\ the\ mtime
945 \-\-no\-mtime
946
947 #\ Use\ this\ proxy
948 \-\-proxy\ 127.0.0.1:3128
949
950 #\ Save\ all\ videos\ under\ Movies\ directory\ in\ your\ home\ directory
951 \-o\ ~/Movies/%(title)s.%(ext)s
952 \f[]
953 .fi
954 .PP
955 Note that options in configuration file are just the same options aka
956 switches used in regular command line calls thus there \f[B]must be no
957 whitespace\f[] after \f[C]\-\f[] or \f[C]\-\-\f[], e.g.
958 \f[C]\-o\f[] or \f[C]\-\-proxy\f[] but not \f[C]\-\ o\f[] or
959 \f[C]\-\-\ proxy\f[].
960 .PP
961 You can use \f[C]\-\-ignore\-config\f[] if you want to disable the
962 configuration file for a particular youtube\-dl run.
963 .PP
964 You can also use \f[C]\-\-config\-location\f[] if you want to use custom
965 configuration file for a particular youtube\-dl run.
966 .SS Authentication with \f[C]\&.netrc\f[] file
967 .PP
968 You may also want to configure automatic credentials storage for
969 extractors that support authentication (by providing login and password
970 with \f[C]\-\-username\f[] and \f[C]\-\-password\f[]) in order not to
971 pass credentials as command line arguments on every youtube\-dl
972 execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in the shell command
973 history.
974 You can achieve this using a \f[C]\&.netrc\f[]
975 file (https://stackoverflow.com/tags/.netrc/info) on a per extractor
976 basis.
977 For that you will need to create a \f[C]\&.netrc\f[] file in your
978 \f[C]$HOME\f[] and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:
979 .IP
980 .nf
981 \f[C]
982 touch\ $HOME/.netrc
983 chmod\ a\-rwx,u+rw\ $HOME/.netrc
984 \f[]
985 .fi
986 .PP
987 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following
988 format, where \f[I]extractor\f[] is the name of the extractor in
989 lowercase:
990 .IP
991 .nf
992 \f[C]
993 machine\ <extractor>\ login\ <login>\ password\ <password>
994 \f[]
995 .fi
996 .PP
997 For example:
998 .IP
999 .nf
1000 \f[C]
1001 machine\ youtube\ login\ myaccount\@gmail.com\ password\ my_youtube_password
1002 machine\ twitch\ login\ my_twitch_account_name\ password\ my_twitch_password
1003 \f[]
1004 .fi
1005 .PP
1006 To activate authentication with the \f[C]\&.netrc\f[] file you should
1007 pass \f[C]\-\-netrc\f[] to youtube\-dl or place it in the configuration
1008 file.
1009 .PP
1010 On Windows you may also need to setup the \f[C]%HOME%\f[] environment
1011 variable manually.
1012 For example:
1013 .IP
1014 .nf
1015 \f[C]
1016 set\ HOME=%USERPROFILE%
1017 \f[]
1018 .fi
1019 .SH OUTPUT TEMPLATE
1020 .PP
1021 The \f[C]\-o\f[] option allows users to indicate a template for the
1022 output file names.
1023 .PP
1024 \f[B]tl;dr:\f[] navigate me to examples.
1025 .PP
1026 The basic usage is not to set any template arguments when downloading a
1027 single file, like in
1028 \f[C]youtube\-dl\ \-o\ funny_video.flv\ "https://some/video"\f[].
1029 However, it may contain special sequences that will be replaced when
1030 downloading each video.
1031 The special sequences may be formatted according to python string
1032 formatting
1033 operations (https://docs.python.org/2/library/stdtypes.html#string-formatting).
1034 For example, \f[C]%(NAME)s\f[] or \f[C]%(NAME)05d\f[].
1035 To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses,
1036 followed by formatting operations.
1037 Allowed names along with sequence type are:
1038 .IP \[bu] 2
1039 \f[C]id\f[] (string): Video identifier
1040 .IP \[bu] 2
1041 \f[C]title\f[] (string): Video title
1042 .IP \[bu] 2
1043 \f[C]url\f[] (string): Video URL
1044 .IP \[bu] 2
1045 \f[C]ext\f[] (string): Video filename extension
1046 .IP \[bu] 2
1047 \f[C]alt_title\f[] (string): A secondary title of the video
1048 .IP \[bu] 2
1049 \f[C]display_id\f[] (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1050 .IP \[bu] 2
1051 \f[C]uploader\f[] (string): Full name of the video uploader
1052 .IP \[bu] 2
1053 \f[C]license\f[] (string): License name the video is licensed under
1054 .IP \[bu] 2
1055 \f[C]creator\f[] (string): The creator of the video
1056 .IP \[bu] 2
1057 \f[C]release_date\f[] (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was
1058 released
1059 .IP \[bu] 2
1060 \f[C]timestamp\f[] (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video
1061 became available
1062 .IP \[bu] 2
1063 \f[C]upload_date\f[] (string): Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)
1064 .IP \[bu] 2
1065 \f[C]uploader_id\f[] (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1066 .IP \[bu] 2
1067 \f[C]channel\f[] (string): Full name of the channel the video is
1068 uploaded on
1069 .IP \[bu] 2
1070 \f[C]channel_id\f[] (string): Id of the channel
1071 .IP \[bu] 2
1072 \f[C]location\f[] (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1073 .IP \[bu] 2
1074 \f[C]duration\f[] (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
1075 .IP \[bu] 2
1076 \f[C]view_count\f[] (numeric): How many users have watched the video on
1077 the platform
1078 .IP \[bu] 2
1079 \f[C]like_count\f[] (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1080 .IP \[bu] 2
1081 \f[C]dislike_count\f[] (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the
1082 video
1083 .IP \[bu] 2
1084 \f[C]repost_count\f[] (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1085 .IP \[bu] 2
1086 \f[C]average_rating\f[] (numeric): Average rating give by users, the
1087 scale used depends on the webpage
1088 .IP \[bu] 2
1089 \f[C]comment_count\f[] (numeric): Number of comments on the video
1090 .IP \[bu] 2
1091 \f[C]age_limit\f[] (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
1092 .IP \[bu] 2
1093 \f[C]is_live\f[] (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a
1094 fixed\-length video
1095 .IP \[bu] 2
1096 \f[C]start_time\f[] (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction
1097 should start, as specified in the URL
1098 .IP \[bu] 2
1099 \f[C]end_time\f[] (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction
1100 should end, as specified in the URL
1101 .IP \[bu] 2
1102 \f[C]format\f[] (string): A human\-readable description of the format
1103 .IP \[bu] 2
1104 \f[C]format_id\f[] (string): Format code specified by
1105 \f[C]\-\-format\f[]
1106 .IP \[bu] 2
1107 \f[C]format_note\f[] (string): Additional info about the format
1108 .IP \[bu] 2
1109 \f[C]width\f[] (numeric): Width of the video
1110 .IP \[bu] 2
1111 \f[C]height\f[] (numeric): Height of the video
1112 .IP \[bu] 2
1113 \f[C]resolution\f[] (string): Textual description of width and height
1114 .IP \[bu] 2
1115 \f[C]tbr\f[] (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1116 .IP \[bu] 2
1117 \f[C]abr\f[] (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1118 .IP \[bu] 2
1119 \f[C]acodec\f[] (string): Name of the audio codec in use
1120 .IP \[bu] 2
1121 \f[C]asr\f[] (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1122 .IP \[bu] 2
1123 \f[C]vbr\f[] (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1124 .IP \[bu] 2
1125 \f[C]fps\f[] (numeric): Frame rate
1126 .IP \[bu] 2
1127 \f[C]vcodec\f[] (string): Name of the video codec in use
1128 .IP \[bu] 2
1129 \f[C]container\f[] (string): Name of the container format
1130 .IP \[bu] 2
1131 \f[C]filesize\f[] (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
1132 .IP \[bu] 2
1133 \f[C]filesize_approx\f[] (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
1134 .IP \[bu] 2
1135 \f[C]protocol\f[] (string): The protocol that will be used for the
1136 actual download
1137 .IP \[bu] 2
1138 \f[C]extractor\f[] (string): Name of the extractor
1139 .IP \[bu] 2
1140 \f[C]extractor_key\f[] (string): Key name of the extractor
1141 .IP \[bu] 2
1142 \f[C]epoch\f[] (numeric): Unix epoch when creating the file
1143 .IP \[bu] 2
1144 \f[C]autonumber\f[] (numeric): Five\-digit number that will be increased
1145 with each download, starting at zero
1146 .IP \[bu] 2
1147 \f[C]playlist\f[] (string): Name or id of the playlist that contains the
1148 video
1149 .IP \[bu] 2
1150 \f[C]playlist_index\f[] (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist
1151 padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
1152 .IP \[bu] 2
1153 \f[C]playlist_id\f[] (string): Playlist identifier
1154 .IP \[bu] 2
1155 \f[C]playlist_title\f[] (string): Playlist title
1156 .IP \[bu] 2
1157 \f[C]playlist_uploader\f[] (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1158 .IP \[bu] 2
1159 \f[C]playlist_uploader_id\f[] (string): Nickname or id of the playlist
1160 uploader
1161 .PP
1162 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1163 .IP \[bu] 2
1164 \f[C]chapter\f[] (string): Name or title of the chapter the video
1165 belongs to
1166 .IP \[bu] 2
1167 \f[C]chapter_number\f[] (numeric): Number of the chapter the video
1168 belongs to
1169 .IP \[bu] 2
1170 \f[C]chapter_id\f[] (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1171 .PP
1172 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1173 .IP \[bu] 2
1174 \f[C]series\f[] (string): Title of the series or programme the video
1175 episode belongs to
1176 .IP \[bu] 2
1177 \f[C]season\f[] (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs
1178 to
1179 .IP \[bu] 2
1180 \f[C]season_number\f[] (numeric): Number of the season the video episode
1181 belongs to
1182 .IP \[bu] 2
1183 \f[C]season_id\f[] (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs
1184 to
1185 .IP \[bu] 2
1186 \f[C]episode\f[] (string): Title of the video episode
1187 .IP \[bu] 2
1188 \f[C]episode_number\f[] (numeric): Number of the video episode within a
1189 season
1190 .IP \[bu] 2
1191 \f[C]episode_id\f[] (string): Id of the video episode
1192 .PP
1193 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1194 .IP \[bu] 2
1195 \f[C]track\f[] (string): Title of the track
1196 .IP \[bu] 2
1197 \f[C]track_number\f[] (numeric): Number of the track within an album or
1198 a disc
1199 .IP \[bu] 2
1200 \f[C]track_id\f[] (string): Id of the track
1201 .IP \[bu] 2
1202 \f[C]artist\f[] (string): Artist(s) of the track
1203 .IP \[bu] 2
1204 \f[C]genre\f[] (string): Genre(s) of the track
1205 .IP \[bu] 2
1206 \f[C]album\f[] (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1207 .IP \[bu] 2
1208 \f[C]album_type\f[] (string): Type of the album
1209 .IP \[bu] 2
1210 \f[C]album_artist\f[] (string): List of all artists appeared on the
1211 album
1212 .IP \[bu] 2
1213 \f[C]disc_number\f[] (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical
1214 medium the track belongs to
1215 .IP \[bu] 2
1216 \f[C]release_year\f[] (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1217 .PP
1218 Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will
1219 be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name.
1220 Note that some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since
1221 they depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor.
1222 Such sequences will be replaced with \f[C]NA\f[].
1223 .PP
1224 For example for \f[C]\-o\ %(title)s\-%(id)s.%(ext)s\f[] and an mp4 video
1225 with title \f[C]youtube\-dl\ test\ video\f[] and id
1226 \f[C]BaW_jenozKcj\f[], this will result in a
1227 \f[C]youtube\-dl\ test\ video\-BaW_jenozKcj.mp4\f[] file created in the
1228 current directory.
1229 .PP
1230 For numeric sequences you can use numeric related formatting, for
1231 example, \f[C]%(view_count)05d\f[] will result in a string with view
1232 count padded with zeros up to 5 characters, like in \f[C]00042\f[].
1233 .PP
1234 Output templates can also contain arbitrary hierarchical path, e.g.
1235 \f[C]\-o\ \[aq]%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s\ \-\ %(title)s.%(ext)s\[aq]\f[]
1236 which will result in downloading each video in a directory corresponding
1237 to this path template.
1238 Any missing directory will be automatically created for you.
1239 .PP
1240 To use percent literals in an output template use \f[C]%%\f[].
1241 To output to stdout use \f[C]\-o\ \-\f[].
1242 .PP
1243 The current default template is \f[C]%(title)s\-%(id)s.%(ext)s\f[].
1244 .PP
1245 In some cases, you don\[aq]t want special characters such as äø­, spaces,
1246 or &, such as when transferring the downloaded filename to a Windows
1247 system or the filename through an 8bit\-unsafe channel.
1248 In these cases, add the \f[C]\-\-restrict\-filenames\f[] flag to get a
1249 shorter title:
1250 .SS Output template and Windows batch files
1251 .PP
1252 If you are using an output template inside a Windows batch file then you
1253 must escape plain percent characters (\f[C]%\f[]) by doubling, so that
1254 \f[C]\-o\ "%(title)s\-%(id)s.%(ext)s"\f[] should become
1255 \f[C]\-o\ "%%(title)s\-%%(id)s.%%(ext)s"\f[].
1256 However you should not touch \f[C]%\f[]\[aq]s that are not plain
1257 characters, e.g.
1258 environment variables for expansion should stay intact:
1259 \f[C]\-o\ "C:\\%HOMEPATH%\\Desktop\\%%(title)s.%%(ext)s"\f[].
1260 .SS Output template examples
1261 .PP
1262 Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of
1263 single.
1264 .IP
1265 .nf
1266 \f[C]
1267 $\ youtube\-dl\ \-\-get\-filename\ \-o\ \[aq]%(title)s.%(ext)s\[aq]\ BaW_jenozKc
1268 youtube\-dl\ test\ video\ \[aq]\[aq]_Ƥā†­š•.mp4\ \ \ \ #\ All\ kinds\ of\ weird\ characters
1269
1270 $\ youtube\-dl\ \-\-get\-filename\ \-o\ \[aq]%(title)s.%(ext)s\[aq]\ BaW_jenozKc\ \-\-restrict\-filenames
1271 youtube\-dl_test_video_.mp4\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ #\ A\ simple\ file\ name
1272
1273 #\ Download\ YouTube\ playlist\ videos\ in\ separate\ directory\ indexed\ by\ video\ order\ in\ a\ playlist
1274 $\ youtube\-dl\ \-o\ \[aq]%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s\ \-\ %(title)s.%(ext)s\[aq]\ https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
1275
1276 #\ Download\ all\ playlists\ of\ YouTube\ channel/user\ keeping\ each\ playlist\ in\ separate\ directory:
1277 $\ youtube\-dl\ \-o\ \[aq]%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s\ \-\ %(title)s.%(ext)s\[aq]\ https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists
1278
1279 #\ Download\ Udemy\ course\ keeping\ each\ chapter\ in\ separate\ directory\ under\ MyVideos\ directory\ in\ your\ home
1280 $\ youtube\-dl\ \-u\ user\ \-p\ password\ \-o\ \[aq]~/MyVideos/%(playlist)s/%(chapter_number)s\ \-\ %(chapter)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s\[aq]\ https://www.udemy.com/java\-tutorial/
1281
1282 #\ Download\ entire\ series\ season\ keeping\ each\ series\ and\ each\ season\ in\ separate\ directory\ under\ C:/MyVideos
1283 $\ youtube\-dl\ \-o\ "C:/MyVideos/%(series)s/%(season_number)s\ \-\ %(season)s/%(episode_number)s\ \-\ %(episode)s.%(ext)s"\ https://videomore.ru/kino_v_detalayah/5_sezon/367617
1284
1285 #\ Stream\ the\ video\ being\ downloaded\ to\ stdout
1286 $\ youtube\-dl\ \-o\ \-\ BaW_jenozKc
1287 \f[]
1288 .fi
1289 .SH FORMAT SELECTION
1290 .PP
1291 By default youtube\-dl tries to download the best available quality,
1292 i.e.
1293 if you want the best quality you \f[B]don\[aq]t need\f[] to pass any
1294 special options, youtube\-dl will guess it for you by \f[B]default\f[].
1295 .PP
1296 But sometimes you may want to download in a different format, for
1297 example when you are on a slow or intermittent connection.
1298 The key mechanism for achieving this is so\-called \f[I]format
1299 selection\f[] based on which you can explicitly specify desired format,
1300 select formats based on some criterion or criteria, setup precedence and
1301 much more.
1302 .PP
1303 The general syntax for format selection is \f[C]\-\-format\ FORMAT\f[]
1304 or shorter \f[C]\-f\ FORMAT\f[] where \f[C]FORMAT\f[] is a \f[I]selector
1305 expression\f[], i.e.
1306 an expression that describes format or formats you would like to
1307 download.
1308 .PP
1309 \f[B]tl;dr:\f[] navigate me to examples.
1310 .PP
1311 The simplest case is requesting a specific format, for example with
1312 \f[C]\-f\ 22\f[] you can download the format with format code equal to
1313 22.
1314 You can get the list of available format codes for particular video
1315 using \f[C]\-\-list\-formats\f[] or \f[C]\-F\f[].
1316 Note that these format codes are extractor specific.
1317 .PP
1318 You can also use a file extension (currently \f[C]3gp\f[], \f[C]aac\f[],
1319 \f[C]flv\f[], \f[C]m4a\f[], \f[C]mp3\f[], \f[C]mp4\f[], \f[C]ogg\f[],
1320 \f[C]wav\f[], \f[C]webm\f[] are supported) to download the best quality
1321 format of a particular file extension served as a single file, e.g.
1322 \f[C]\-f\ webm\f[] will download the best quality format with the
1323 \f[C]webm\f[] extension served as a single file.
1324 .PP
1325 You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1326 .IP \[bu] 2
1327 \f[C]best\f[]: Select the best quality format represented by a single
1328 file with video and audio.
1329 .IP \[bu] 2
1330 \f[C]worst\f[]: Select the worst quality format represented by a single
1331 file with video and audio.
1332 .IP \[bu] 2
1333 \f[C]bestvideo\f[]: Select the best quality video\-only format (e.g.
1334 DASH video).
1335 May not be available.
1336 .IP \[bu] 2
1337 \f[C]worstvideo\f[]: Select the worst quality video\-only format.
1338 May not be available.
1339 .IP \[bu] 2
1340 \f[C]bestaudio\f[]: Select the best quality audio only\-format.
1341 May not be available.
1342 .IP \[bu] 2
1343 \f[C]worstaudio\f[]: Select the worst quality audio only\-format.
1344 May not be available.
1345 .PP
1346 For example, to download the worst quality video\-only format you can
1347 use \f[C]\-f\ worstvideo\f[].
1348 .PP
1349 If you want to download multiple videos and they don\[aq]t have the same
1350 formats available, you can specify the order of preference using
1351 slashes.
1352 Note that slash is left\-associative, i.e.
1353 formats on the left hand side are preferred, for example
1354 \f[C]\-f\ 22/17/18\f[] will download format 22 if it\[aq]s available,
1355 otherwise it will download format 17 if it\[aq]s available, otherwise it
1356 will download format 18 if it\[aq]s available, otherwise it will
1357 complain that no suitable formats are available for download.
1358 .PP
1359 If you want to download several formats of the same video use a comma as
1360 a separator, e.g.
1361 \f[C]\-f\ 22,17,18\f[] will download all these three formats, of course
1362 if they are available.
1363 Or a more sophisticated example combined with the precedence feature:
1364 \f[C]\-f\ 136/137/mp4/bestvideo,140/m4a/bestaudio\f[].
1365 .PP
1366 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in
1367 brackets, as in \f[C]\-f\ "best[height=720]"\f[] (or
1368 \f[C]\-f\ "[filesize>10M]"\f[]).
1369 .PP
1370 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons
1371 \f[C]<\f[], \f[C]<=\f[], \f[C]>\f[], \f[C]>=\f[], \f[C]=\f[] (equals),
1372 \f[C]!=\f[] (not equals):
1373 .IP \[bu] 2
1374 \f[C]filesize\f[]: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1375 .IP \[bu] 2
1376 \f[C]width\f[]: Width of the video, if known
1377 .IP \[bu] 2
1378 \f[C]height\f[]: Height of the video, if known
1379 .IP \[bu] 2
1380 \f[C]tbr\f[]: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1381 .IP \[bu] 2
1382 \f[C]abr\f[]: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1383 .IP \[bu] 2
1384 \f[C]vbr\f[]: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1385 .IP \[bu] 2
1386 \f[C]asr\f[]: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1387 .IP \[bu] 2
1388 \f[C]fps\f[]: Frame rate
1389 .PP
1390 Also filtering work for comparisons \f[C]=\f[] (equals), \f[C]^=\f[]
1391 (starts with), \f[C]$=\f[] (ends with), \f[C]*=\f[] (contains) and
1392 following string meta fields:
1393 .IP \[bu] 2
1394 \f[C]ext\f[]: File extension
1395 .IP \[bu] 2
1396 \f[C]acodec\f[]: Name of the audio codec in use
1397 .IP \[bu] 2
1398 \f[C]vcodec\f[]: Name of the video codec in use
1399 .IP \[bu] 2
1400 \f[C]container\f[]: Name of the container format
1401 .IP \[bu] 2
1402 \f[C]protocol\f[]: The protocol that will be used for the actual
1403 download, lower\-case (\f[C]http\f[], \f[C]https\f[], \f[C]rtsp\f[],
1404 \f[C]rtmp\f[], \f[C]rtmpe\f[], \f[C]mms\f[], \f[C]f4m\f[], \f[C]ism\f[],
1405 \f[C]http_dash_segments\f[], \f[C]m3u8\f[], or \f[C]m3u8_native\f[])
1406 .IP \[bu] 2
1407 \f[C]format_id\f[]: A short description of the format
1408 .PP
1409 Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation \f[C]!\f[] in order
1410 to produce an opposite comparison, e.g.
1411 \f[C]!*=\f[] (does not contain).
1412 .PP
1413 Note that none of the aforementioned meta fields are guaranteed to be
1414 present since this solely depends on the metadata obtained by particular
1415 extractor, i.e.
1416 the metadata offered by the video hoster.
1417 .PP
1418 Formats for which the value is not known are excluded unless you put a
1419 question mark (\f[C]?\f[]) after the operator.
1420 You can combine format filters, so
1421 \f[C]\-f\ "[height\ <=?\ 720][tbr>500]"\f[] selects up to 720p videos
1422 (or videos where the height is not known) with a bitrate of at least 500
1423 KBit/s.
1424 .PP
1425 You can merge the video and audio of two formats into a single file
1426 using \f[C]\-f\ <video\-format>+<audio\-format>\f[] (requires ffmpeg or
1427 avconv installed), for example \f[C]\-f\ bestvideo+bestaudio\f[] will
1428 download the best video\-only format, the best audio\-only format and
1429 mux them together with ffmpeg/avconv.
1430 .PP
1431 Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses, for example if
1432 you want to download the best mp4 and webm formats with a height lower
1433 than 480 you can use \f[C]\-f\ \[aq](mp4,webm)[height<480]\[aq]\f[].
1434 .PP
1435 Since the end of April 2015 and version 2015.04.26, youtube\-dl uses
1436 \f[C]\-f\ bestvideo+bestaudio/best\f[] as the default format selection
1437 (see #5447 (https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/5447),
1438 #5456 (https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/5456)).
1439 If ffmpeg or avconv are installed this results in downloading
1440 \f[C]bestvideo\f[] and \f[C]bestaudio\f[] separately and muxing them
1441 together into a single file giving the best overall quality available.
1442 Otherwise it falls back to \f[C]best\f[] and results in downloading the
1443 best available quality served as a single file.
1444 \f[C]best\f[] is also needed for videos that don\[aq]t come from YouTube
1445 because they don\[aq]t provide the audio and video in two different
1446 files.
1447 If you want to only download some DASH formats (for example if you are
1448 not interested in getting videos with a resolution higher than 1080p),
1449 you can add \f[C]\-f\ bestvideo[height<=?1080]+bestaudio/best\f[] to
1450 your configuration file.
1451 Note that if you use youtube\-dl to stream to \f[C]stdout\f[] (and most
1452 likely to pipe it to your media player then), i.e.
1453 you explicitly specify output template as \f[C]\-o\ \-\f[], youtube\-dl
1454 still uses \f[C]\-f\ best\f[] format selection in order to start content
1455 delivery immediately to your player and not to wait until
1456 \f[C]bestvideo\f[] and \f[C]bestaudio\f[] are downloaded and muxed.
1457 .PP
1458 If you want to preserve the old format selection behavior (prior to
1459 youtube\-dl 2015.04.26), i.e.
1460 you want to download the best available quality media served as a single
1461 file, you should explicitly specify your choice with \f[C]\-f\ best\f[].
1462 You may want to add it to the configuration file in order not to type it
1463 every time you run youtube\-dl.
1464 .SS Format selection examples
1465 .PP
1466 Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of
1467 single.
1468 .IP
1469 .nf
1470 \f[C]
1471 #\ Download\ best\ mp4\ format\ available\ or\ any\ other\ best\ if\ no\ mp4\ available
1472 $\ youtube\-dl\ \-f\ \[aq]bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/best[ext=mp4]/best\[aq]
1473
1474 #\ Download\ best\ format\ available\ but\ no\ better\ than\ 480p
1475 $\ youtube\-dl\ \-f\ \[aq]bestvideo[height<=480]+bestaudio/best[height<=480]\[aq]
1476
1477 #\ Download\ best\ video\ only\ format\ but\ no\ bigger\ than\ 50\ MB
1478 $\ youtube\-dl\ \-f\ \[aq]best[filesize<50M]\[aq]
1479
1480 #\ Download\ best\ format\ available\ via\ direct\ link\ over\ HTTP/HTTPS\ protocol
1481 $\ youtube\-dl\ \-f\ \[aq](bestvideo+bestaudio/best)[protocol^=http]\[aq]
1482
1483 #\ Download\ the\ best\ video\ format\ and\ the\ best\ audio\ format\ without\ merging\ them
1484 $\ youtube\-dl\ \-f\ \[aq]bestvideo,bestaudio\[aq]\ \-o\ \[aq]%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s\[aq]
1485 \f[]
1486 .fi
1487 .PP
1488 Note that in the last example, an output template is recommended as
1489 bestvideo and bestaudio may have the same file name.
1490 .SH VIDEO SELECTION
1491 .PP
1492 Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options
1493 \f[C]\-\-date\f[], \f[C]\-\-datebefore\f[] or \f[C]\-\-dateafter\f[].
1494 They accept dates in two formats:
1495 .IP \[bu] 2
1496 Absolute dates: Dates in the format \f[C]YYYYMMDD\f[].
1497 .IP \[bu] 2
1498 Relative dates: Dates in the format
1499 \f[C](now|today)[+\-][0\-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?\f[]
1500 .PP
1501 Examples:
1502 .IP
1503 .nf
1504 \f[C]
1505 #\ Download\ only\ the\ videos\ uploaded\ in\ the\ last\ 6\ months
1506 $\ youtube\-dl\ \-\-dateafter\ now\-6months
1507
1508 #\ Download\ only\ the\ videos\ uploaded\ on\ January\ 1,\ 1970
1509 $\ youtube\-dl\ \-\-date\ 19700101
1510
1511 $\ #\ Download\ only\ the\ videos\ uploaded\ in\ the\ 200x\ decade
1512 $\ youtube\-dl\ \-\-dateafter\ 20000101\ \-\-datebefore\ 20091231
1513 \f[]
1514 .fi
1515 .SH FAQ
1516 .SS How do I update youtube\-dl?
1517 .PP
1518 If you\[aq]ve followed our manual installation
1519 instructions (https://ytdl-org.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html), you
1520 can simply run \f[C]youtube\-dl\ \-U\f[] (or, on Linux,
1521 \f[C]sudo\ youtube\-dl\ \-U\f[]).
1522 .PP
1523 If you have used pip, a simple
1524 \f[C]sudo\ pip\ install\ \-U\ youtube\-dl\f[] is sufficient to update.
1525 .PP
1526 If you have installed youtube\-dl using a package manager like
1527 \f[I]apt\-get\f[] or \f[I]yum\f[], use the standard system update
1528 mechanism to update.
1529 Note that distribution packages are often outdated.
1530 As a rule of thumb, youtube\-dl releases at least once a month, and
1531 often weekly or even daily.
1532 Simply go to https://yt\-dl.org to find out the current version.
1533 Unfortunately, there is nothing we youtube\-dl developers can do if your
1534 distribution serves a really outdated version.
1535 You can (and should) complain to your distribution in their bugtracker
1536 or support forum.
1537 .PP
1538 As a last resort, you can also uninstall the version installed by your
1539 package manager and follow our manual installation instructions.
1540 For that, remove the distribution\[aq]s package, with a line like
1541 .IP
1542 .nf
1543 \f[C]
1544 sudo\ apt\-get\ remove\ \-y\ youtube\-dl
1545 \f[]
1546 .fi
1547 .PP
1548 Afterwards, simply follow our manual installation
1549 instructions (https://ytdl-org.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html):
1550 .IP
1551 .nf
1552 \f[C]
1553 sudo\ wget\ https://yt\-dl.org/latest/youtube\-dl\ \-O\ /usr/local/bin/youtube\-dl
1554 sudo\ chmod\ a+x\ /usr/local/bin/youtube\-dl
1555 hash\ \-r
1556 \f[]
1557 .fi
1558 .PP
1559 Again, from then on you\[aq]ll be able to update with
1560 \f[C]sudo\ youtube\-dl\ \-U\f[].
1561 .SS youtube\-dl is extremely slow to start on Windows
1562 .PP
1563 Add a file exclusion for \f[C]youtube\-dl.exe\f[] in Windows Defender
1564 settings.
1565 .SS I\[aq]m getting an error
1566 \f[C]Unable\ to\ extract\ OpenGraph\ title\f[] on YouTube playlists
1567 .PP
1568 YouTube changed their playlist format in March 2014 and later on, so
1569 you\[aq]ll need at least youtube\-dl 2014.07.25 to download all YouTube
1570 videos.
1571 .PP
1572 If you have installed youtube\-dl with a package manager, pip, setup.py
1573 or a tarball, please use that to update.
1574 Note that Ubuntu packages do not seem to get updated anymore.
1575 Since we are not affiliated with Ubuntu, there is little we can do.
1576 Feel free to report
1577 bugs (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/youtube-dl/+filebug) to
1578 the Ubuntu packaging
1579 people (mailto:ubuntu-motu@lists.ubuntu.com?subject=outdated%20version%20of%20youtube-dl)
1580 \- all they have to do is update the package to a somewhat recent
1581 version.
1582 See above for a way to update.
1583 .SS I\[aq]m getting an error when trying to use output template:
1584 \f[C]error:\ using\ output\ template\ conflicts\ with\ using\ title,\ video\ ID\ or\ auto\ number\f[]
1585 .PP
1586 Make sure you are not using \f[C]\-o\f[] with any of these options
1587 \f[C]\-t\f[], \f[C]\-\-title\f[], \f[C]\-\-id\f[], \f[C]\-A\f[] or
1588 \f[C]\-\-auto\-number\f[] set in command line or in a configuration
1589 file.
1590 Remove the latter if any.
1591 .SS Do I always have to pass \f[C]\-citw\f[]?
1592 .PP
1593 By default, youtube\-dl intends to have the best options (incidentally,
1594 if you have a convincing case that these should be different, please
1595 file an issue where you explain that (https://yt-dl.org/bug)).
1596 Therefore, it is unnecessary and sometimes harmful to copy long option
1597 strings from webpages.
1598 In particular, the only option out of \f[C]\-citw\f[] that is regularly
1599 useful is \f[C]\-i\f[].
1600 .SS Can you please put the \f[C]\-b\f[] option back?
1601 .PP
1602 Most people asking this question are not aware that youtube\-dl now
1603 defaults to downloading the highest available quality as reported by
1604 YouTube, which will be 1080p or 720p in some cases, so you no longer
1605 need the \f[C]\-b\f[] option.
1606 For some specific videos, maybe YouTube does not report them to be
1607 available in a specific high quality format you\[aq]re interested in.
1608 In that case, simply request it with the \f[C]\-f\f[] option and
1609 youtube\-dl will try to download it.
1610 .SS I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What\[aq]s
1611 this?
1612 .PP
1613 Apparently YouTube requires you to pass a CAPTCHA test if you download
1614 too much.
1615 We\[aq]re considering to provide a way to let you solve the
1616 CAPTCHA (https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/154), but at the
1617 moment, your best course of action is pointing a web browser to the
1618 youtube URL, solving the CAPTCHA, and restart youtube\-dl.
1619 .SS Do I need any other programs?
1620 .PP
1621 youtube\-dl works fine on its own on most sites.
1622 However, if you want to convert video/audio, you\[aq]ll need
1623 avconv (https://libav.org/) or ffmpeg (https://www.ffmpeg.org/).
1624 On some sites \- most notably YouTube \- videos can be retrieved in a
1625 higher quality format without sound.
1626 youtube\-dl will detect whether avconv/ffmpeg is present and
1627 automatically pick the best option.
1628 .PP
1629 Videos or video formats streamed via RTMP protocol can only be
1630 downloaded when rtmpdump (https://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu/) is installed.
1631 Downloading MMS and RTSP videos requires either
1632 mplayer (https://mplayerhq.hu/) or mpv (https://mpv.io/) to be
1633 installed.
1634 .SS I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
1635 .PP
1636 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as
1637 mpv (https://mpv.io/), vlc (https://www.videolan.org/) or
1638 mplayer (https://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
1639 .SS I extracted a video URL with \f[C]\-g\f[], but it does not play on
1640 another machine / in my web browser.
1641 .PP
1642 It depends a lot on the service.
1643 In many cases, requests for the video (to download/play it) must come
1644 from the same IP address and with the same cookies and/or HTTP headers.
1645 Use the \f[C]\-\-cookies\f[] option to write the required cookies into a
1646 file, and advise your downloader to read cookies from that file.
1647 Some sites also require a common user agent to be used, use
1648 \f[C]\-\-dump\-user\-agent\f[] to see the one in use by youtube\-dl.
1649 You can also get necessary cookies and HTTP headers from JSON output
1650 obtained with \f[C]\-\-dump\-json\f[].
1651 .PP
1652 It may be beneficial to use IPv6; in some cases, the restrictions are
1653 only applied to IPv4.
1654 Some services (sometimes only for a subset of videos) do not restrict
1655 the video URL by IP address, cookie, or user\-agent, but these are the
1656 exception rather than the rule.
1657 .PP
1658 Please bear in mind that some URL protocols are \f[B]not\f[] supported
1659 by browsers out of the box, including RTMP.
1660 If you are using \f[C]\-g\f[], your own downloader must support these as
1661 well.
1662 .PP
1663 If you want to play the video on a machine that is not running
1664 youtube\-dl, you can relay the video content from the machine that runs
1665 youtube\-dl.
1666 You can use \f[C]\-o\ \-\f[] to let youtube\-dl stream a video to
1667 stdout, or simply allow the player to download the files written by
1668 youtube\-dl in turn.
1669 .SS ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
1670 .PP
1671 YouTube has switched to a new video info format in July 2011 which is
1672 not supported by old versions of youtube\-dl.
1673 See above for how to update youtube\-dl.
1674 .SS ERROR: unable to download video
1675 .PP
1676 YouTube requires an additional signature since September 2012 which is
1677 not supported by old versions of youtube\-dl.
1678 See above for how to update youtube\-dl.
1679 .SS Video URL contains an ampersand and I\[aq]m getting some strange
1680 output \f[C][1]\ 2839\f[] or
1681 \f[C]\[aq]v\[aq]\ is\ not\ recognized\ as\ an\ internal\ or\ external\ command\f[]
1682 .PP
1683 That\[aq]s actually the output from your shell.
1684 Since ampersand is one of the special shell characters it\[aq]s
1685 interpreted by the shell preventing you from passing the whole URL to
1686 youtube\-dl.
1687 To disable your shell from interpreting the ampersands (or any other
1688 special characters) you have to either put the whole URL in quotes or
1689 escape them with a backslash (which approach will work depends on your
1690 shell).
1691 .PP
1692 For example if your URL is
1693 https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc you should end up with
1694 following command:
1695 .PP
1696 \f[C]youtube\-dl\ \[aq]https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc\[aq]\f[]
1697 .PP
1698 or
1699 .PP
1700 \f[C]youtube\-dl\ https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4\\&v=BaW_jenozKc\f[]
1701 .PP
1702 For Windows you have to use the double quotes:
1703 .PP
1704 \f[C]youtube\-dl\ "https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc"\f[]
1705 .SS ExtractorError: Could not find JS function u\[aq]OF\[aq]
1706 .PP
1707 In February 2015, the new YouTube player contained a character sequence
1708 in a string that was misinterpreted by old versions of youtube\-dl.
1709 See above for how to update youtube\-dl.
1710 .SS HTTP Error 429: Too Many Requests or 402: Payment Required
1711 .PP
1712 These two error codes indicate that the service is blocking your IP
1713 address because of overuse.
1714 Contact the service and ask them to unblock your IP address, or \- if
1715 you have acquired a whitelisted IP address already \- use the
1716 \f[C]\-\-proxy\f[] or \f[C]\-\-source\-address\f[] options to select
1717 another IP address.
1718 .SS SyntaxError: Non\-ASCII character
1719 .PP
1720 The error
1721 .IP
1722 .nf
1723 \f[C]
1724 File\ "youtube\-dl",\ line\ 2
1725 SyntaxError:\ Non\-ASCII\ character\ \[aq]\\x93\[aq]\ ...
1726 \f[]
1727 .fi
1728 .PP
1729 means you\[aq]re using an outdated version of Python.
1730 Please update to Python 2.6 or 2.7.
1731 .SS What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
1732 .PP
1733 Since June 2012
1734 (#342 (https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/342)) youtube\-dl
1735 is packed as an executable zipfile, simply unzip it (might need renaming
1736 to \f[C]youtube\-dl.zip\f[] first on some systems) or clone the git
1737 repository, as laid out above.
1738 If you modify the code, you can run it by executing the
1739 \f[C]__main__.py\f[] file.
1740 To recompile the executable, run \f[C]make\ youtube\-dl\f[].
1741 .SS The exe throws an error due to missing \f[C]MSVCR100.dll\f[]
1742 .PP
1743 To run the exe you need to install first the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010
1744 Redistributable Package
1745 (x86) (https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/download/details.aspx?id=5555).
1746 .SS On Windows, how should I set up ffmpeg and youtube\-dl? Where should
1747 I put the exe files?
1748 .PP
1749 If you put youtube\-dl and ffmpeg in the same directory that you\[aq]re
1750 running the command from, it will work, but that\[aq]s rather
1751 cumbersome.
1752 .PP
1753 To make a different directory work \- either for ffmpeg, or for
1754 youtube\-dl, or for both \- simply create the directory (say,
1755 \f[C]C:\\bin\f[], or \f[C]C:\\Users\\<User\ name>\\bin\f[]), put all the
1756 executables directly in there, and then set your PATH environment
1757 variable (https://www.java.com/en/download/help/path.xml) to include
1758 that directory.
1759 .PP
1760 From then on, after restarting your shell, you will be able to access
1761 both youtube\-dl and ffmpeg (and youtube\-dl will be able to find
1762 ffmpeg) by simply typing \f[C]youtube\-dl\f[] or \f[C]ffmpeg\f[], no
1763 matter what directory you\[aq]re in.
1764 .SS How do I put downloads into a specific folder?
1765 .PP
1766 Use the \f[C]\-o\f[] to specify an output template, for example
1767 \f[C]\-o\ "/home/user/videos/%(title)s\-%(id)s.%(ext)s"\f[].
1768 If you want this for all of your downloads, put the option into your
1769 configuration file.
1770 .SS How do I download a video starting with a \f[C]\-\f[]?
1771 .PP
1772 Either prepend \f[C]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\f[] or separate the
1773 ID from the options with \f[C]\-\-\f[]:
1774 .IP
1775 .nf
1776 \f[C]
1777 youtube\-dl\ \-\-\ \-wNyEUrxzFU
1778 youtube\-dl\ "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\-wNyEUrxzFU"
1779 \f[]
1780 .fi
1781 .SS How do I pass cookies to youtube\-dl?
1782 .PP
1783 Use the \f[C]\-\-cookies\f[] option, for example
1784 \f[C]\-\-cookies\ /path/to/cookies/file.txt\f[].
1785 .PP
1786 In order to extract cookies from browser use any conforming browser
1787 extension for exporting cookies.
1788 For example,
1789 cookies.txt (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cookiestxt/njabckikapfpffapmjgojcnbfjonfjfg)
1790 (for Chrome) or
1791 cookies.txt (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cookies-txt/)
1792 (for Firefox).
1793 .PP
1794 Note that the cookies file must be in Mozilla/Netscape format and the
1795 first line of the cookies file must be either
1796 \f[C]#\ HTTP\ Cookie\ File\f[] or
1797 \f[C]#\ Netscape\ HTTP\ Cookie\ File\f[].
1798 Make sure you have correct newline
1799 format (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newline) in the cookies file and
1800 convert newlines if necessary to correspond with your OS, namely
1801 \f[C]CRLF\f[] (\f[C]\\r\\n\f[]) for Windows and \f[C]LF\f[]
1802 (\f[C]\\n\f[]) for Unix and Unix\-like systems (Linux, macOS, etc.).
1803 \f[C]HTTP\ Error\ 400:\ Bad\ Request\f[] when using \f[C]\-\-cookies\f[]
1804 is a good sign of invalid newline format.
1805 .PP
1806 Passing cookies to youtube\-dl is a good way to workaround login when a
1807 particular extractor does not implement it explicitly.
1808 Another use case is working around
1809 CAPTCHA (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAPTCHA) some websites require
1810 you to solve in particular cases in order to get access (e.g.
1811 YouTube, CloudFlare).
1812 .SS How do I stream directly to media player?
1813 .PP
1814 You will first need to tell youtube\-dl to stream media to stdout with
1815 \f[C]\-o\ \-\f[], and also tell your media player to read from stdin (it
1816 must be capable of this for streaming) and then pipe former to latter.
1817 For example, streaming to vlc (https://www.videolan.org/) can be
1818 achieved with:
1819 .IP
1820 .nf
1821 \f[C]
1822 youtube\-dl\ \-o\ \-\ "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKcj"\ |\ vlc\ \-
1823 \f[]
1824 .fi
1825 .SS How do I download only new videos from a playlist?
1826 .PP
1827 Use download\-archive feature.
1828 With this feature you should initially download the complete playlist
1829 with \f[C]\-\-download\-archive\ /path/to/download/archive/file.txt\f[]
1830 that will record identifiers of all the videos in a special file.
1831 Each subsequent run with the same \f[C]\-\-download\-archive\f[] will
1832 download only new videos and skip all videos that have been downloaded
1833 before.
1834 Note that only successful downloads are recorded in the file.
1835 .PP
1836 For example, at first,
1837 .IP
1838 .nf
1839 \f[C]
1840 youtube\-dl\ \-\-download\-archive\ archive.txt\ "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1841 \f[]
1842 .fi
1843 .PP
1844 will download the complete \f[C]PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re\f[]
1845 playlist and create a file \f[C]archive.txt\f[].
1846 Each subsequent run will only download new videos if any:
1847 .IP
1848 .nf
1849 \f[C]
1850 youtube\-dl\ \-\-download\-archive\ archive.txt\ "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1851 \f[]
1852 .fi
1853 .SS Should I add \f[C]\-\-hls\-prefer\-native\f[] into my config?
1854 .PP
1855 When youtube\-dl detects an HLS video, it can download it either with
1856 the built\-in downloader or ffmpeg.
1857 Since many HLS streams are slightly invalid and ffmpeg/youtube\-dl each
1858 handle some invalid cases better than the other, there is an option to
1859 switch the downloader if needed.
1860 .PP
1861 When youtube\-dl knows that one particular downloader works better for a
1862 given website, that downloader will be picked.
1863 Otherwise, youtube\-dl will pick the best downloader for general
1864 compatibility, which at the moment happens to be ffmpeg.
1865 This choice may change in future versions of youtube\-dl, with
1866 improvements of the built\-in downloader and/or ffmpeg.
1867 .PP
1868 In particular, the generic extractor (used when your website is not in
1869 the list of supported sites by
1870 youtube\-dl (https://ytdl-org.github.io/youtube-dl/supportedsites.html)
1871 cannot mandate one specific downloader.
1872 .PP
1873 If you put either \f[C]\-\-hls\-prefer\-native\f[] or
1874 \f[C]\-\-hls\-prefer\-ffmpeg\f[] into your configuration, a different
1875 subset of videos will fail to download correctly.
1876 Instead, it is much better to file an issue (https://yt-dl.org/bug) or a
1877 pull request which details why the native or the ffmpeg HLS downloader
1878 is a better choice for your use case.
1879 .SS Can you add support for this anime video site, or site which shows
1880 current movies for free?
1881 .PP
1882 As a matter of policy (as well as legality), youtube\-dl does not
1883 include support for services that specialize in infringing copyright.
1884 As a rule of thumb, if you cannot easily find a video that the service
1885 is quite obviously allowed to distribute (i.e.
1886 that has been uploaded by the creator, the creator\[aq]s distributor, or
1887 is published under a free license), the service is probably unfit for
1888 inclusion to youtube\-dl.
1889 .PP
1890 A note on the service that they don\[aq]t host the infringing content,
1891 but just link to those who do, is evidence that the service should
1892 \f[B]not\f[] be included into youtube\-dl.
1893 The same goes for any DMCA note when the whole front page of the service
1894 is filled with videos they are not allowed to distribute.
1895 A "fair use" note is equally unconvincing if the service shows
1896 copyright\-protected videos in full without authorization.
1897 .PP
1898 Support requests for services that \f[B]do\f[] purchase the rights to
1899 distribute their content are perfectly fine though.
1900 If in doubt, you can simply include a source that mentions the
1901 legitimate purchase of content.
1902 .SS How can I speed up work on my issue?
1903 .PP
1904 (Also known as: Help, my important issue not being solved!) The
1905 youtube\-dl core developer team is quite small.
1906 While we do our best to solve as many issues as possible, sometimes that
1907 can take quite a while.
1908 To speed up your issue, here\[aq]s what you can do:
1909 .PP
1910 First of all, please do report the issue at our issue
1911 tracker (https://yt-dl.org/bugs).
1912 That allows us to coordinate all efforts by users and developers, and
1913 serves as a unified point.
1914 Unfortunately, the youtube\-dl project has grown too large to use
1915 personal email as an effective communication channel.
1916 .PP
1917 Please read the bug reporting instructions below.
1918 A lot of bugs lack all the necessary information.
1919 If you can, offer proxy, VPN, or shell access to the youtube\-dl
1920 developers.
1921 If you are able to, test the issue from multiple computers in multiple
1922 countries to exclude local censorship or misconfiguration issues.
1923 .PP
1924 If nobody is interested in solving your issue, you are welcome to take
1925 matters into your own hands and submit a pull request (or coerce/pay
1926 somebody else to do so).
1927 .PP
1928 Feel free to bump the issue from time to time by writing a small comment
1929 ("Issue is still present in youtube\-dl version ...from France, but
1930 fixed from Belgium"), but please not more than once a month.
1931 Please do not declare your issue as \f[C]important\f[] or
1932 \f[C]urgent\f[].
1933 .SS How can I detect whether a given URL is supported by youtube\-dl?
1934 .PP
1935 For one, have a look at the list of supported
1936 sites (docs/supportedsites.md).
1937 Note that it can sometimes happen that the site changes its URL scheme
1938 (say, from https://example.com/video/1234567 to
1939 https://example.com/v/1234567 ) and youtube\-dl reports an URL of a
1940 service in that list as unsupported.
1941 In that case, simply report a bug.
1942 .PP
1943 It is \f[I]not\f[] possible to detect whether a URL is supported or not.
1944 That\[aq]s because youtube\-dl contains a generic extractor which
1945 matches \f[B]all\f[] URLs.
1946 You may be tempted to disable, exclude, or remove the generic extractor,
1947 but the generic extractor not only allows users to extract videos from
1948 lots of websites that embed a video from another service, but may also
1949 be used to extract video from a service that it\[aq]s hosting itself.
1950 Therefore, we neither recommend nor support disabling, excluding, or
1951 removing the generic extractor.
1952 .PP
1953 If you want to find out whether a given URL is supported, simply call
1954 youtube\-dl with it.
1955 If you get no videos back, chances are the URL is either not referring
1956 to a video or unsupported.
1957 You can find out which by examining the output (if you run youtube\-dl
1958 on the console) or catching an \f[C]UnsupportedError\f[] exception if
1959 you run it from a Python program.
1960 .SH Why do I need to go through that much red tape when filing bugs?
1961 .PP
1962 Before we had the issue template, despite our extensive bug reporting
1963 instructions, about 80% of the issue reports we got were useless, for
1964 instance because people used ancient versions hundreds of releases old,
1965 because of simple syntactic errors (not in youtube\-dl but in general
1966 shell usage), because the problem was already reported multiple times
1967 before, because people did not actually read an error message, even if
1968 it said "please install ffmpeg", because people did not mention the URL
1969 they were trying to download and many more simple, easy\-to\-avoid
1970 problems, many of whom were totally unrelated to youtube\-dl.
1971 .PP
1972 youtube\-dl is an open\-source project manned by too few volunteers, so
1973 we\[aq]d rather spend time fixing bugs where we are certain none of
1974 those simple problems apply, and where we can be reasonably confident to
1975 be able to reproduce the issue without asking the reporter repeatedly.
1976 As such, the output of \f[C]youtube\-dl\ \-v\ YOUR_URL_HERE\f[] is
1977 really all that\[aq]s required to file an issue.
1978 The issue template also guides you through some basic steps you can do,
1979 such as checking that your version of youtube\-dl is current.
1980 .SH DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS
1981 .PP
1982 Most users do not need to build youtube\-dl and can download the
1983 builds (https://ytdl-org.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html) or get them
1984 from their distribution.
1985 .PP
1986 To run youtube\-dl as a developer, you don\[aq]t need to build anything
1987 either.
1988 Simply execute
1989 .IP
1990 .nf
1991 \f[C]
1992 python\ \-m\ youtube_dl
1993 \f[]
1994 .fi
1995 .PP
1996 To run the test, simply invoke your favorite test runner, or execute a
1997 test file directly; any of the following work:
1998 .IP
1999 .nf
2000 \f[C]
2001 python\ \-m\ unittest\ discover
2002 python\ test/test_download.py
2003 nosetests
2004 \f[]
2005 .fi
2006 .PP
2007 See item 6 of new extractor tutorial for how to run extractor specific
2008 test cases.
2009 .PP
2010 If you want to create a build of youtube\-dl yourself, you\[aq]ll need
2011 .IP \[bu] 2
2012 python
2013 .IP \[bu] 2
2014 make (only GNU make is supported)
2015 .IP \[bu] 2
2016 pandoc
2017 .IP \[bu] 2
2018 zip
2019 .IP \[bu] 2
2020 nosetests
2021 .SS Adding support for a new site
2022 .PP
2023 If you want to add support for a new site, first of all \f[B]make
2024 sure\f[] this site is \f[B]not dedicated to copyright
2025 infringement (README.md#can-you-add-support-for-this-anime-video-site-or-site-which-shows-current-movies-for-free)\f[].
2026 youtube\-dl does \f[B]not support\f[] such sites thus pull requests
2027 adding support for them \f[B]will be rejected\f[].
2028 .PP
2029 After you have ensured this site is distributing its content legally,
2030 you can follow this quick list (assuming your service is called
2031 \f[C]yourextractor\f[]):
2032 .IP " 1." 4
2033 Fork this repository (https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/fork)
2034 .IP " 2." 4
2035 Check out the source code with:
2036 .RS 4
2037 .IP
2038 .nf
2039 \f[C]
2040 \ git\ clone\ git\@github.com:YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/youtube\-dl.git
2041 \f[]
2042 .fi
2043 .RE
2044 .IP " 3." 4
2045 Start a new git branch with
2046 .RS 4
2047 .IP
2048 .nf
2049 \f[C]
2050 \ cd\ youtube\-dl
2051 \ git\ checkout\ \-b\ yourextractor
2052 \f[]
2053 .fi
2054 .RE
2055 .IP " 4." 4
2056 Start with this simple template and save it to
2057 \f[C]youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py\f[]:
2058 .RS 4
2059 .IP
2060 .nf
2061 \f[C]
2062 #\ coding:\ utf\-8
2063 from\ __future__\ import\ unicode_literals
2064
2065 from\ .common\ import\ InfoExtractor
2066
2067
2068 class\ YourExtractorIE(InfoExtractor):
2069 \ \ \ \ _VALID_URL\ =\ r\[aq]https?://(?:www\\.)?yourextractor\\.com/watch/(?P<id>[0\-9]+)\[aq]
2070 \ \ \ \ _TEST\ =\ {
2071 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \[aq]url\[aq]:\ \[aq]https://yourextractor.com/watch/42\[aq],
2072 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \[aq]md5\[aq]:\ \[aq]TODO:\ md5\ sum\ of\ the\ first\ 10241\ bytes\ of\ the\ video\ file\ (use\ \-\-test)\[aq],
2073 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \[aq]info_dict\[aq]:\ {
2074 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \[aq]id\[aq]:\ \[aq]42\[aq],
2075 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \[aq]ext\[aq]:\ \[aq]mp4\[aq],
2076 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \[aq]title\[aq]:\ \[aq]Video\ title\ goes\ here\[aq],
2077 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \[aq]thumbnail\[aq]:\ r\[aq]re:^https?://.*\\.jpg$\[aq],
2078 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ #\ TODO\ more\ properties,\ either\ as:
2079 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ #\ *\ A\ value
2080 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ #\ *\ MD5\ checksum;\ start\ the\ string\ with\ md5:
2081 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ #\ *\ A\ regular\ expression;\ start\ the\ string\ with\ re:
2082 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ #\ *\ Any\ Python\ type\ (for\ example\ int\ or\ float)
2083 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ }
2084 \ \ \ \ }
2085
2086 \ \ \ \ def\ _real_extract(self,\ url):
2087 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ video_id\ =\ self._match_id(url)
2088 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ webpage\ =\ self._download_webpage(url,\ video_id)
2089
2090 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ #\ TODO\ more\ code\ goes\ here,\ for\ example\ ...
2091 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ title\ =\ self._html_search_regex(r\[aq]<h1>(.+?)</h1>\[aq],\ webpage,\ \[aq]title\[aq])
2092
2093 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ return\ {
2094 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \[aq]id\[aq]:\ video_id,
2095 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \[aq]title\[aq]:\ title,
2096 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \[aq]description\[aq]:\ self._og_search_description(webpage),
2097 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \[aq]uploader\[aq]:\ self._search_regex(r\[aq]<div[^>]+id="uploader"[^>]*>([^<]+)<\[aq],\ webpage,\ \[aq]uploader\[aq],\ fatal=False),
2098 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ #\ TODO\ more\ properties\ (see\ youtube_dl/extractor/common.py)
2099 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ }
2100 \f[]
2101 .fi
2102 .RE
2103 .IP " 5." 4
2104 Add an import in
2105 \f[C]youtube_dl/extractor/extractors.py\f[] (https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/extractors.py).
2106 .IP " 6." 4
2107 Run
2108 \f[C]python\ test/test_download.py\ TestDownload.test_YourExtractor\f[].
2109 This \f[I]should fail\f[] at first, but you can continually re\-run it
2110 until you\[aq]re done.
2111 If you decide to add more than one test, then rename \f[C]_TEST\f[] to
2112 \f[C]_TESTS\f[] and make it into a list of dictionaries.
2113 The tests will then be named \f[C]TestDownload.test_YourExtractor\f[],
2114 \f[C]TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_1\f[],
2115 \f[C]TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_2\f[], etc.
2116 Note that tests with \f[C]only_matching\f[] key in test\[aq]s dict are
2117 not counted in.
2118 .IP " 7." 4
2119 Have a look at
2120 \f[C]youtube_dl/extractor/common.py\f[] (https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py)
2121 for possible helper methods and a detailed description of what your
2122 extractor should and may
2123 return (https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/blob/7f41a598b3fba1bcab2817de64a08941200aa3c8/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py#L94-L303).
2124 Add tests and code for as many as you want.
2125 .IP " 8." 4
2126 Make sure your code follows youtube\-dl coding conventions and check the
2127 code with
2128 flake8 (http://flake8.pycqa.org/en/latest/index.html#quickstart):
2129 .RS 4
2130 .IP
2131 .nf
2132 \f[C]
2133 \ $\ flake8\ youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py
2134 \f[]
2135 .fi
2136 .RE
2137 .IP " 9." 4
2138 Make sure your code works under all Python (https://www.python.org/)
2139 versions claimed supported by youtube\-dl, namely 2.6, 2.7, and 3.2+.
2140 .IP "10." 4
2141 When the tests pass, add (https://git-scm.com/docs/git-add) the new
2142 files and commit (https://git-scm.com/docs/git-commit) them and
2143 push (https://git-scm.com/docs/git-push) the result, like this:
2144 .RS 4
2145 .IP
2146 .nf
2147 \f[C]
2148 $\ git\ add\ youtube_dl/extractor/extractors.py
2149 $\ git\ add\ youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py
2150 $\ git\ commit\ \-m\ \[aq][yourextractor]\ Add\ new\ extractor\[aq]
2151 $\ git\ push\ origin\ yourextractor
2152 \f[]
2153 .fi
2154 .RE
2155 .IP "11." 4
2156 Finally, create a pull
2157 request (https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-pull-request).
2158 We\[aq]ll then review and merge it.
2159 .PP
2160 In any case, thank you very much for your contributions!
2161 .SS youtube\-dl coding conventions
2162 .PP
2163 This section introduces a guide lines for writing idiomatic, robust and
2164 future\-proof extractor code.
2165 .PP
2166 Extractors are very fragile by nature since they depend on the layout of
2167 the source data provided by 3rd party media hosters out of your control
2168 and this layout tends to change.
2169 As an extractor implementer your task is not only to write code that
2170 will extract media links and metadata correctly but also to minimize
2171 dependency on the source\[aq]s layout and even to make the code foresee
2172 potential future changes and be ready for that.
2173 This is important because it will allow the extractor not to break on
2174 minor layout changes thus keeping old youtube\-dl versions working.
2175 Even though this breakage issue is easily fixed by emitting a new
2176 version of youtube\-dl with a fix incorporated, all the previous
2177 versions become broken in all repositories and distros\[aq] packages
2178 that may not be so prompt in fetching the update from us.
2179 Needless to say, some non rolling release distros may never receive an
2180 update at all.
2181 .SS Mandatory and optional metafields
2182 .PP
2183 For extraction to work youtube\-dl relies on metadata your extractor
2184 extracts and provides to youtube\-dl expressed by an information
2185 dictionary (https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/blob/7f41a598b3fba1bcab2817de64a08941200aa3c8/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py#L94-L303)
2186 or simply \f[I]info dict\f[].
2187 Only the following meta fields in the \f[I]info dict\f[] are considered
2188 mandatory for a successful extraction process by youtube\-dl:
2189 .IP \[bu] 2
2190 \f[C]id\f[] (media identifier)
2191 .IP \[bu] 2
2192 \f[C]title\f[] (media title)
2193 .IP \[bu] 2
2194 \f[C]url\f[] (media download URL) or \f[C]formats\f[]
2195 .PP
2196 In fact only the last option is technically mandatory (i.e.
2197 if you can\[aq]t figure out the download location of the media the
2198 extraction does not make any sense).
2199 But by convention youtube\-dl also treats \f[C]id\f[] and \f[C]title\f[]
2200 as mandatory.
2201 Thus the aforementioned metafields are the critical data that the
2202 extraction does not make any sense without and if any of them fail to be
2203 extracted then the extractor is considered completely broken.
2204 .PP
2205 Any
2206 field (https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/blob/7f41a598b3fba1bcab2817de64a08941200aa3c8/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py#L188-L303)
2207 apart from the aforementioned ones are considered \f[B]optional\f[].
2208 That means that extraction should be \f[B]tolerant\f[] to situations
2209 when sources for these fields can potentially be unavailable (even if
2210 they are always available at the moment) and \f[B]future\-proof\f[] in
2211 order not to break the extraction of general purpose mandatory fields.
2212 .SS Example
2213 .PP
2214 Say you have some source dictionary \f[C]meta\f[] that you\[aq]ve
2215 fetched as JSON with HTTP request and it has a key \f[C]summary\f[]:
2216 .IP
2217 .nf
2218 \f[C]
2219 meta\ =\ self._download_json(url,\ video_id)
2220 \f[]
2221 .fi
2222 .PP
2223 Assume at this point \f[C]meta\f[]\[aq]s layout is:
2224 .IP
2225 .nf
2226 \f[C]
2227 {
2228 \ \ \ \ ...
2229 \ \ \ \ "summary":\ "some\ fancy\ summary\ text",
2230 \ \ \ \ ...
2231 }
2232 \f[]
2233 .fi
2234 .PP
2235 Assume you want to extract \f[C]summary\f[] and put it into the
2236 resulting info dict as \f[C]description\f[].
2237 Since \f[C]description\f[] is an optional meta field you should be ready
2238 that this key may be missing from the \f[C]meta\f[] dict, so that you
2239 should extract it like:
2240 .IP
2241 .nf
2242 \f[C]
2243 description\ =\ meta.get(\[aq]summary\[aq])\ \ #\ correct
2244 \f[]
2245 .fi
2246 .PP
2247 and not like:
2248 .IP
2249 .nf
2250 \f[C]
2251 description\ =\ meta[\[aq]summary\[aq]]\ \ #\ incorrect
2252 \f[]
2253 .fi
2254 .PP
2255 The latter will break extraction process with \f[C]KeyError\f[] if
2256 \f[C]summary\f[] disappears from \f[C]meta\f[] at some later time but
2257 with the former approach extraction will just go ahead with
2258 \f[C]description\f[] set to \f[C]None\f[] which is perfectly fine
2259 (remember \f[C]None\f[] is equivalent to the absence of data).
2260 .PP
2261 Similarly, you should pass \f[C]fatal=False\f[] when extracting optional
2262 data from a webpage with \f[C]_search_regex\f[],
2263 \f[C]_html_search_regex\f[] or similar methods, for instance:
2264 .IP
2265 .nf
2266 \f[C]
2267 description\ =\ self._search_regex(
2268 \ \ \ \ r\[aq]<span[^>]+id="title"[^>]*>([^<]+)<\[aq],
2269 \ \ \ \ webpage,\ \[aq]description\[aq],\ fatal=False)
2270 \f[]
2271 .fi
2272 .PP
2273 With \f[C]fatal\f[] set to \f[C]False\f[] if \f[C]_search_regex\f[]
2274 fails to extract \f[C]description\f[] it will emit a warning and
2275 continue extraction.
2276 .PP
2277 You can also pass \f[C]default=<some\ fallback\ value>\f[], for example:
2278 .IP
2279 .nf
2280 \f[C]
2281 description\ =\ self._search_regex(
2282 \ \ \ \ r\[aq]<span[^>]+id="title"[^>]*>([^<]+)<\[aq],
2283 \ \ \ \ webpage,\ \[aq]description\[aq],\ default=None)
2284 \f[]
2285 .fi
2286 .PP
2287 On failure this code will silently continue the extraction with
2288 \f[C]description\f[] set to \f[C]None\f[].
2289 That is useful for metafields that may or may not be present.
2290 .SS Provide fallbacks
2291 .PP
2292 When extracting metadata try to do so from multiple sources.
2293 For example if \f[C]title\f[] is present in several places, try
2294 extracting from at least some of them.
2295 This makes it more future\-proof in case some of the sources become
2296 unavailable.
2297 .SS Example
2298 .PP
2299 Say \f[C]meta\f[] from the previous example has a \f[C]title\f[] and you
2300 are about to extract it.
2301 Since \f[C]title\f[] is a mandatory meta field you should end up with
2302 something like:
2303 .IP
2304 .nf
2305 \f[C]
2306 title\ =\ meta[\[aq]title\[aq]]
2307 \f[]
2308 .fi
2309 .PP
2310 If \f[C]title\f[] disappears from \f[C]meta\f[] in future due to some
2311 changes on the hoster\[aq]s side the extraction would fail since
2312 \f[C]title\f[] is mandatory.
2313 That\[aq]s expected.
2314 .PP
2315 Assume that you have some another source you can extract \f[C]title\f[]
2316 from, for example \f[C]og:title\f[] HTML meta of a \f[C]webpage\f[].
2317 In this case you can provide a fallback scenario:
2318 .IP
2319 .nf
2320 \f[C]
2321 title\ =\ meta.get(\[aq]title\[aq])\ or\ self._og_search_title(webpage)
2322 \f[]
2323 .fi
2324 .PP
2325 This code will try to extract from \f[C]meta\f[] first and if it fails
2326 it will try extracting \f[C]og:title\f[] from a \f[C]webpage\f[].
2327 .SS Regular expressions
2328 .SS Don\[aq]t capture groups you don\[aq]t use
2329 .PP
2330 Capturing group must be an indication that it\[aq]s used somewhere in
2331 the code.
2332 Any group that is not used must be non capturing.
2333 .SS Example
2334 .PP
2335 Don\[aq]t capture id attribute name here since you can\[aq]t use it for
2336 anything anyway.
2337 .PP
2338 Correct:
2339 .IP
2340 .nf
2341 \f[C]
2342 r\[aq](?:id|ID)=(?P<id>\\d+)\[aq]
2343 \f[]
2344 .fi
2345 .PP
2346 Incorrect:
2347 .IP
2348 .nf
2349 \f[C]
2350 r\[aq](id|ID)=(?P<id>\\d+)\[aq]
2351 \f[]
2352 .fi
2353 .SS Make regular expressions relaxed and flexible
2354 .PP
2355 When using regular expressions try to write them fuzzy, relaxed and
2356 flexible, skipping insignificant parts that are more likely to change,
2357 allowing both single and double quotes for quoted values and so on.
2358 .SS Example
2359 .PP
2360 Say you need to extract \f[C]title\f[] from the following HTML code:
2361 .IP
2362 .nf
2363 \f[C]
2364 <span\ style="position:\ absolute;\ left:\ 910px;\ width:\ 90px;\ float:\ right;\ z\-index:\ 9999;"\ class="title">some\ fancy\ title</span>
2365 \f[]
2366 .fi
2367 .PP
2368 The code for that task should look similar to:
2369 .IP
2370 .nf
2371 \f[C]
2372 title\ =\ self._search_regex(
2373 \ \ \ \ r\[aq]<span[^>]+class="title"[^>]*>([^<]+)\[aq],\ webpage,\ \[aq]title\[aq])
2374 \f[]
2375 .fi
2376 .PP
2377 Or even better:
2378 .IP
2379 .nf
2380 \f[C]
2381 title\ =\ self._search_regex(
2382 \ \ \ \ r\[aq]<span[^>]+class=(["\\\[aq]])title\\1[^>]*>(?P<title>[^<]+)\[aq],
2383 \ \ \ \ webpage,\ \[aq]title\[aq],\ group=\[aq]title\[aq])
2384 \f[]
2385 .fi
2386 .PP
2387 Note how you tolerate potential changes in the \f[C]style\f[]
2388 attribute\[aq]s value or switch from using double quotes to single for
2389 \f[C]class\f[] attribute:
2390 .PP
2391 The code definitely should not look like:
2392 .IP
2393 .nf
2394 \f[C]
2395 title\ =\ self._search_regex(
2396 \ \ \ \ r\[aq]<span\ style="position:\ absolute;\ left:\ 910px;\ width:\ 90px;\ float:\ right;\ z\-index:\ 9999;"\ class="title">(.*?)</span>\[aq],
2397 \ \ \ \ webpage,\ \[aq]title\[aq],\ group=\[aq]title\[aq])
2398 \f[]
2399 .fi
2400 .SS Long lines policy
2401 .PP
2402 There is a soft limit to keep lines of code under 80 characters long.
2403 This means it should be respected if possible and if it does not make
2404 readability and code maintenance worse.
2405 .PP
2406 For example, you should \f[B]never\f[] split long string literals like
2407 URLs or some other often copied entities over multiple lines to fit this
2408 limit:
2409 .PP
2410 Correct:
2411 .IP
2412 .nf
2413 \f[C]
2414 \[aq]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqZTN594JQw&list=PLMYEtVRpaqY00V9W81Cwmzp6N6vZqfUKD4\[aq]
2415 \f[]
2416 .fi
2417 .PP
2418 Incorrect:
2419 .IP
2420 .nf
2421 \f[C]
2422 \[aq]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqZTN594JQw&list=\[aq]
2423 \[aq]PLMYEtVRpaqY00V9W81Cwmzp6N6vZqfUKD4\[aq]
2424 \f[]
2425 .fi
2426 .SS Inline values
2427 .PP
2428 Extracting variables is acceptable for reducing code duplication and
2429 improving readability of complex expressions.
2430 However, you should avoid extracting variables used only once and moving
2431 them to opposite parts of the extractor file, which makes reading the
2432 linear flow difficult.
2433 .SS Example
2434 .PP
2435 Correct:
2436 .IP
2437 .nf
2438 \f[C]
2439 title\ =\ self._html_search_regex(r\[aq]<title>([^<]+)</title>\[aq],\ webpage,\ \[aq]title\[aq])
2440 \f[]
2441 .fi
2442 .PP
2443 Incorrect:
2444 .IP
2445 .nf
2446 \f[C]
2447 TITLE_RE\ =\ r\[aq]<title>([^<]+)</title>\[aq]
2448 #\ ...some\ lines\ of\ code...
2449 title\ =\ self._html_search_regex(TITLE_RE,\ webpage,\ \[aq]title\[aq])
2450 \f[]
2451 .fi
2452 .SS Collapse fallbacks
2453 .PP
2454 Multiple fallback values can quickly become unwieldy.
2455 Collapse multiple fallback values into a single expression via a list of
2456 patterns.
2457 .SS Example
2458 .PP
2459 Good:
2460 .IP
2461 .nf
2462 \f[C]
2463 description\ =\ self._html_search_meta(
2464 \ \ \ \ [\[aq]og:description\[aq],\ \[aq]description\[aq],\ \[aq]twitter:description\[aq]],
2465 \ \ \ \ webpage,\ \[aq]description\[aq],\ default=None)
2466 \f[]
2467 .fi
2468 .PP
2469 Unwieldy:
2470 .IP
2471 .nf
2472 \f[C]
2473 description\ =\ (
2474 \ \ \ \ self._og_search_description(webpage,\ default=None)
2475 \ \ \ \ or\ self._html_search_meta(\[aq]description\[aq],\ webpage,\ default=None)
2476 \ \ \ \ or\ self._html_search_meta(\[aq]twitter:description\[aq],\ webpage,\ default=None))
2477 \f[]
2478 .fi
2479 .PP
2480 Methods supporting list of patterns are: \f[C]_search_regex\f[],
2481 \f[C]_html_search_regex\f[], \f[C]_og_search_property\f[],
2482 \f[C]_html_search_meta\f[].
2483 .SS Trailing parentheses
2484 .PP
2485 Always move trailing parentheses after the last argument.
2486 .SS Example
2487 .PP
2488 Correct:
2489 .IP
2490 .nf
2491 \f[C]
2492 \ \ \ \ lambda\ x:\ x[\[aq]ResultSet\[aq]][\[aq]Result\[aq]][0][\[aq]VideoUrlSet\[aq]][\[aq]VideoUrl\[aq]],
2493 \ \ \ \ list)
2494 \f[]
2495 .fi
2496 .PP
2497 Incorrect:
2498 .IP
2499 .nf
2500 \f[C]
2501 \ \ \ \ lambda\ x:\ x[\[aq]ResultSet\[aq]][\[aq]Result\[aq]][0][\[aq]VideoUrlSet\[aq]][\[aq]VideoUrl\[aq]],
2502 \ \ \ \ list,
2503 )
2504 \f[]
2505 .fi
2506 .SS Use convenience conversion and parsing functions
2507 .PP
2508 Wrap all extracted numeric data into safe functions from
2509 \f[C]youtube_dl/utils.py\f[] (https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/utils.py):
2510 \f[C]int_or_none\f[], \f[C]float_or_none\f[].
2511 Use them for string to number conversions as well.
2512 .PP
2513 Use \f[C]url_or_none\f[] for safe URL processing.
2514 .PP
2515 Use \f[C]try_get\f[] for safe metadata extraction from parsed JSON.
2516 .PP
2517 Use \f[C]unified_strdate\f[] for uniform \f[C]upload_date\f[] or any
2518 \f[C]YYYYMMDD\f[] meta field extraction, \f[C]unified_timestamp\f[] for
2519 uniform \f[C]timestamp\f[] extraction, \f[C]parse_filesize\f[] for
2520 \f[C]filesize\f[] extraction, \f[C]parse_count\f[] for count meta fields
2521 extraction, \f[C]parse_resolution\f[], \f[C]parse_duration\f[] for
2522 \f[C]duration\f[] extraction, \f[C]parse_age_limit\f[] for
2523 \f[C]age_limit\f[] extraction.
2524 .PP
2525 Explore
2526 \f[C]youtube_dl/utils.py\f[] (https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/utils.py)
2527 for more useful convenience functions.
2528 .SS More examples
2529 .SS Safely extract optional description from parsed JSON
2530 .IP
2531 .nf
2532 \f[C]
2533 description\ =\ try_get(response,\ lambda\ x:\ x[\[aq]result\[aq]][\[aq]video\[aq]][0][\[aq]summary\[aq]],\ compat_str)
2534 \f[]
2535 .fi
2536 .SS Safely extract more optional metadata
2537 .IP
2538 .nf
2539 \f[C]
2540 video\ =\ try_get(response,\ lambda\ x:\ x[\[aq]result\[aq]][\[aq]video\[aq]][0],\ dict)\ or\ {}
2541 description\ =\ video.get(\[aq]summary\[aq])
2542 duration\ =\ float_or_none(video.get(\[aq]durationMs\[aq]),\ scale=1000)
2543 view_count\ =\ int_or_none(video.get(\[aq]views\[aq]))
2544 \f[]
2545 .fi
2546 .SH EMBEDDING YOUTUBE\-DL
2547 .PP
2548 youtube\-dl makes the best effort to be a good command\-line program,
2549 and thus should be callable from any programming language.
2550 If you encounter any problems parsing its output, feel free to create a
2551 report (https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/new).
2552 .PP
2553 From a Python program, you can embed youtube\-dl in a more powerful
2554 fashion, like this:
2555 .IP
2556 .nf
2557 \f[C]
2558 from\ __future__\ import\ unicode_literals
2559 import\ youtube_dl
2560
2561 ydl_opts\ =\ {}
2562 with\ youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts)\ as\ ydl:
2563 \ \ \ \ ydl.download([\[aq]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc\[aq]])
2564 \f[]
2565 .fi
2566 .PP
2567 Most likely, you\[aq]ll want to use various options.
2568 For a list of options available, have a look at
2569 \f[C]youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py\f[] (https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/blob/3e4cedf9e8cd3157df2457df7274d0c842421945/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py#L137-L312).
2570 For a start, if you want to intercept youtube\-dl\[aq]s output, set a
2571 \f[C]logger\f[] object.
2572 .PP
2573 Here\[aq]s a more complete example of a program that outputs only errors
2574 (and a short message after the download is finished), and
2575 downloads/converts the video to an mp3 file:
2576 .IP
2577 .nf
2578 \f[C]
2579 from\ __future__\ import\ unicode_literals
2580 import\ youtube_dl
2581
2582
2583 class\ MyLogger(object):
2584 \ \ \ \ def\ debug(self,\ msg):
2585 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ pass
2586
2587 \ \ \ \ def\ warning(self,\ msg):
2588 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ pass
2589
2590 \ \ \ \ def\ error(self,\ msg):
2591 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ print(msg)
2592
2593
2594 def\ my_hook(d):
2595 \ \ \ \ if\ d[\[aq]status\[aq]]\ ==\ \[aq]finished\[aq]:
2596 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ print(\[aq]Done\ downloading,\ now\ converting\ ...\[aq])
2597
2598
2599 ydl_opts\ =\ {
2600 \ \ \ \ \[aq]format\[aq]:\ \[aq]bestaudio/best\[aq],
2601 \ \ \ \ \[aq]postprocessors\[aq]:\ [{
2602 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \[aq]key\[aq]:\ \[aq]FFmpegExtractAudio\[aq],
2603 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \[aq]preferredcodec\[aq]:\ \[aq]mp3\[aq],
2604 \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \[aq]preferredquality\[aq]:\ \[aq]192\[aq],
2605 \ \ \ \ }],
2606 \ \ \ \ \[aq]logger\[aq]:\ MyLogger(),
2607 \ \ \ \ \[aq]progress_hooks\[aq]:\ [my_hook],
2608 }
2609 with\ youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts)\ as\ ydl:
2610 \ \ \ \ ydl.download([\[aq]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc\[aq]])
2611 \f[]
2612 .fi
2613 .SH BUGS
2614 .PP
2615 Bugs and suggestions should be reported at:
2616 <https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues>.
2617 Unless you were prompted to or there is another pertinent reason (e.g.
2618 GitHub fails to accept the bug report), please do not send bug reports
2619 via personal email.
2620 For discussions, join us in the IRC channel
2621 #youtube\-dl (irc://chat.freenode.net/#youtube-dl) on freenode
2622 (webchat (https://webchat.freenode.net/?randomnick=1&channels=youtube-dl)).
2623 .PP
2624 \f[B]Please include the full output of youtube\-dl when run with
2625 \f[BC]\-v\f[B]\f[], i.e.
2626 \f[B]add\f[] \f[C]\-v\f[] flag to \f[B]your command line\f[], copy the
2627 \f[B]whole\f[] output and post it in the issue body wrapped in ``` for
2628 better formatting.
2629 It should look similar to this:
2630 .IP
2631 .nf
2632 \f[C]
2633 $\ youtube\-dl\ \-v\ <your\ command\ line>
2634 [debug]\ System\ config:\ []
2635 [debug]\ User\ config:\ []
2636 [debug]\ Command\-line\ args:\ [u\[aq]\-v\[aq],\ u\[aq]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKcj\[aq]]
2637 [debug]\ Encodings:\ locale\ cp1251,\ fs\ mbcs,\ out\ cp866,\ pref\ cp1251
2638 [debug]\ youtube\-dl\ version\ 2015.12.06
2639 [debug]\ Git\ HEAD:\ 135392e
2640 [debug]\ Python\ version\ 2.6.6\ \-\ Windows\-2003Server\-5.2.3790\-SP2
2641 [debug]\ exe\ versions:\ ffmpeg\ N\-75573\-g1d0487f,\ ffprobe\ N\-75573\-g1d0487f,\ rtmpdump\ 2.4
2642 [debug]\ Proxy\ map:\ {}
2643 \&...
2644 \f[]
2645 .fi
2646 .PP
2647 \f[B]Do not post screenshots of verbose logs; only plain text is
2648 acceptable.\f[]
2649 .PP
2650 The output (including the first lines) contains important debugging
2651 information.
2652 Issues without the full output are often not reproducible and therefore
2653 do not get solved in short order, if ever.
2654 .PP
2655 Please re\-read your issue once again to avoid a couple of common
2656 mistakes (you can and should use this as a checklist):
2657 .SS Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?
2658 .PP
2659 We often get issue reports that we cannot really decipher.
2660 While in most cases we eventually get the required information after
2661 asking back multiple times, this poses an unnecessary drain on our
2662 resources.
2663 Many contributors, including myself, are also not native speakers, so we
2664 may misread some parts.
2665 .PP
2666 So please elaborate on what feature you are requesting, or what bug you
2667 want to be fixed.
2668 Make sure that it\[aq]s obvious
2669 .IP \[bu] 2
2670 What the problem is
2671 .IP \[bu] 2
2672 How it could be fixed
2673 .IP \[bu] 2
2674 How your proposed solution would look like
2675 .PP
2676 If your report is shorter than two lines, it is almost certainly missing
2677 some of these, which makes it hard for us to respond to it.
2678 We\[aq]re often too polite to close the issue outright, but the missing
2679 info makes misinterpretation likely.
2680 As a committer myself, I often get frustrated by these issues, since the
2681 only possible way for me to move forward on them is to ask for
2682 clarification over and over.
2683 .PP
2684 For bug reports, this means that your report should contain the
2685 \f[I]complete\f[] output of youtube\-dl when called with the
2686 \f[C]\-v\f[] flag.
2687 The error message you get for (most) bugs even says so, but you would
2688 not believe how many of our bug reports do not contain this information.
2689 .PP
2690 If your server has multiple IPs or you suspect censorship, adding
2691 \f[C]\-\-call\-home\f[] may be a good idea to get more diagnostics.
2692 If the error is \f[C]ERROR:\ Unable\ to\ extract\ ...\f[] and you cannot
2693 reproduce it from multiple countries, add \f[C]\-\-dump\-pages\f[]
2694 (warning: this will yield a rather large output, redirect it to the file
2695 \f[C]log.txt\f[] by adding \f[C]>log.txt\ 2>&1\f[] to your
2696 command\-line) or upload the \f[C]\&.dump\f[] files you get when you add
2697 \f[C]\-\-write\-pages\f[] somewhere (https://gist.github.com/).
2698 .PP
2699 \f[B]Site support requests must contain an example URL\f[].
2700 An example URL is a URL you might want to download, like
2701 \f[C]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc\f[].
2702 There should be an obvious video present.
2703 Except under very special circumstances, the main page of a video
2704 service (e.g.
2705 \f[C]https://www.youtube.com/\f[]) is \f[I]not\f[] an example URL.
2706 .SS Are you using the latest version?
2707 .PP
2708 Before reporting any issue, type \f[C]youtube\-dl\ \-U\f[].
2709 This should report that you\[aq]re up\-to\-date.
2710 About 20% of the reports we receive are already fixed, but people are
2711 using outdated versions.
2712 This goes for feature requests as well.
2713 .SS Is the issue already documented?
2714 .PP
2715 Make sure that someone has not already opened the issue you\[aq]re
2716 trying to open.
2717 Search at the top of the window or browse the GitHub
2718 Issues (https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/search?type=Issues) of
2719 this repository.
2720 If there is an issue, feel free to write something along the lines of
2721 "This affects me as well, with version 2015.01.01.
2722 Here is some more information on the issue: ...".
2723 While some issues may be old, a new post into them often spurs rapid
2724 activity.
2725 .SS Why are existing options not enough?
2726 .PP
2727 Before requesting a new feature, please have a quick peek at the list of
2728 supported
2729 options (https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/blob/master/README.md#options).
2730 Many feature requests are for features that actually exist already!
2731 Please, absolutely do show off your work in the issue report and detail
2732 how the existing similar options do \f[I]not\f[] solve your problem.
2733 .SS Is there enough context in your bug report?
2734 .PP
2735 People want to solve problems, and often think they do us a favor by
2736 breaking down their larger problems (e.g.
2737 wanting to skip already downloaded files) to a specific request (e.g.
2738 requesting us to look whether the file exists before downloading the
2739 info page).
2740 However, what often happens is that they break down the problem into two
2741 steps: One simple, and one impossible (or extremely complicated one).
2742 .PP
2743 We are then presented with a very complicated request when the original
2744 problem could be solved far easier, e.g.
2745 by recording the downloaded video IDs in a separate file.
2746 To avoid this, you must include the greater context where it is
2747 non\-obvious.
2748 In particular, every feature request that does not consist of adding
2749 support for a new site should contain a use case scenario that explains
2750 in what situation the missing feature would be useful.
2751 .SS Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?
2752 .PP
2753 Some of our users seem to think there is a limit of issues they can or
2754 should open.
2755 There is no limit of issues they can or should open.
2756 While it may seem appealing to be able to dump all your issues into one
2757 ticket, that means that someone who solves one of your issues cannot
2758 mark the issue as closed.
2759 Typically, reporting a bunch of issues leads to the ticket lingering
2760 since nobody wants to attack that behemoth, until someone mercifully
2761 splits the issue into multiple ones.
2762 .PP
2763 In particular, every site support request issue should only pertain to
2764 services at one site (generally under a common domain, but always using
2765 the same backend technology).
2766 Do not request support for vimeo user videos, White house podcasts, and
2767 Google Plus pages in the same issue.
2768 Also, make sure that you don\[aq]t post bug reports alongside feature
2769 requests.
2770 As a rule of thumb, a feature request does not include outputs of
2771 youtube\-dl that are not immediately related to the feature at hand.
2772 Do not post reports of a network error alongside the request for a new
2773 video service.
2774 .SS Is anyone going to need the feature?
2775 .PP
2776 Only post features that you (or an incapacitated friend you can
2777 personally talk to) require.
2778 Do not post features because they seem like a good idea.
2779 If they are really useful, they will be requested by someone who
2780 requires them.
2781 .SS Is your question about youtube\-dl?
2782 .PP
2783 It may sound strange, but some bug reports we receive are completely
2784 unrelated to youtube\-dl and relate to a different, or even the
2785 reporter\[aq]s own, application.
2786 Please make sure that you are actually using youtube\-dl.
2787 If you are using a UI for youtube\-dl, report the bug to the maintainer
2788 of the actual application providing the UI.
2789 On the other hand, if your UI for youtube\-dl fails in some way you
2790 believe is related to youtube\-dl, by all means, go ahead and report the
2791 bug.
2792 .SH COPYRIGHT
2793 .PP
2794 youtube\-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
2795 .PP
2796 This README file was originally written by Daniel
2797 Bolton (https://github.com/dbbolton) and is likewise released into the
2798 public domain.