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1 NAME
2 ====
3
4 youtube-dl - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms
5
6 SYNOPSIS
7 ========
8
9 youtube-dl OPTIONS URL [URL...]
10
11 DESCRIPTION
12 ===========
13
14 youtube-dl is a small command-line program to download videos from
15 YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter,
16 version 2.6, 2.7, or 3.3+, and it is not platform specific. It should
17 work on your Unix box, on Windows or on Mac OS X. It is released to the
18 public domain, which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it
19 however you like.
20
21 OPTIONS
22 =======
23
24 -h, --help print this help text and exit
25 --version print program version and exit
26 -U, --update update this program to latest version. Make sure
27 that you have sufficient permissions (run with
28 sudo if needed)
29 -i, --ignore-errors continue on download errors
30 --dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
31 --user-agent UA specify a custom user agent
32 --referer REF specify a custom referer, use if the video access
33 is restricted to one domain
34 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs they
35 would handle
36 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported extractors
37 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy
38 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation.
39
40 Video Selection:
41 ----------------
42
43 --playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is 1)
44 --playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
45 --match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or caseless
46 sub-string)
47 --reject-title REGEX skip download for matching titles (regex or
48 caseless sub-string)
49 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
50 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE
51 (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
52 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE (e.g.
53 50k or 44.6m)
54 --date DATE download only videos uploaded in this date
55 --datebefore DATE download only videos uploaded before this date
56 --dateafter DATE download only videos uploaded after this date
57
58 Download Options:
59 -----------------
60
61 -r, --rate-limit LIMIT maximum download rate (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
62 -R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is 10)
63 --buffer-size SIZE size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16k)
64 (default is 1024)
65 --no-resize-buffer do not automatically adjust the buffer size. By
66 default, the buffer size is automatically resized
67 from an initial value of SIZE.
68
69 Filesystem Options:
70 -------------------
71
72 -t, --title use title in file name (default)
73 --id use only video ID in file name
74 -l, --literal [deprecated] alias of --title
75 -A, --auto-number number downloaded files starting from 00000
76 -o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(title)s to get
77 the title, %(uploader)s for the uploader name,
78 %(uploader_id)s for the uploader nickname if
79 different, %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
80 incremented number, %(ext)s for the filename
81 extension, %(upload_date)s for the upload date
82 (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
83 (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the video id
84 , %(playlist)s for the playlist the video is in,
85 %(playlist_index)s for the position in the
86 playlist and %% for a literal percent. Use - to
87 output to stdout. Can also be used to download to
88 a different directory, for example with -o '/my/d
89 ownloads/%(uploader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
90 --autonumber-size NUMBER Specifies the number of digits in %(autonumber)s
91 when it is present in output filename template or
92 --autonumber option is given
93 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters, and
94 avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
95 -a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)
96 -w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
97 -c, --continue resume partially downloaded files
98 --no-continue do not resume partially downloaded files (restart
99 from beginning)
100 --cookies FILE file to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in
101 --no-part do not use .part files
102 --no-mtime do not use the Last-modified header to set the
103 file modification time
104 --write-description write video description to a .description file
105 --write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
106 --write-thumbnail write thumbnail image to disk
107
108 Verbosity / Simulation Options:
109 -------------------------------
110
111 -q, --quiet activates quiet mode
112 -s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write
113 anything to disk
114 --skip-download do not download the video
115 -g, --get-url simulate, quiet but print URL
116 -e, --get-title simulate, quiet but print title
117 --get-id simulate, quiet but print id
118 --get-thumbnail simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
119 --get-description simulate, quiet but print video description
120 --get-filename simulate, quiet but print output filename
121 --get-format simulate, quiet but print output format
122 --newline output progress bar as new lines
123 --no-progress do not print progress bar
124 --console-title display progress in console titlebar
125 -v, --verbose print various debugging information
126 --dump-intermediate-pages print downloaded pages to debug problems(very
127 verbose)
128
129 Video Format Options:
130 ---------------------
131
132 -f, --format FORMAT video format code, specifiy the order of
133 preference using slashes: "-f 22/17/18"
134 --all-formats download all available video formats
135 --prefer-free-formats prefer free video formats unless a specific one
136 is requested
137 --max-quality FORMAT highest quality format to download
138 -F, --list-formats list all available formats (currently youtube
139 only)
140
141 Subtitle Options:
142 -----------------
143
144 --write-sub write subtitle file (currently youtube only)
145 --write-auto-sub write automatic subtitle file (currently youtube
146 only)
147 --only-sub [deprecated] alias of --skip-download
148 --all-subs downloads all the available subtitles of the
149 video
150 --list-subs lists all available subtitles for the video
151 --sub-format FORMAT subtitle format (default=srt) ([sbv/vtt] youtube
152 only)
153 --sub-lang LANGS languages of the subtitles to download (optional)
154 separated by commas, use IETF language tags like
155 'en,pt'
156
157 Authentication Options:
158 -----------------------
159
160 -u, --username USERNAME account username
161 -p, --password PASSWORD account password
162 -n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
163 --video-password PASSWORD video password (vimeo only)
164
165 Post-processing Options:
166 ------------------------
167
168 -x, --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files (requires
169 ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)
170 --audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", or
171 "wav"; best by default
172 --audio-quality QUALITY ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification, insert
173 a value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse) for VBR
174 or a specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
175 --recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if necessary
176 (currently supported: mp4|flv|ogg|webm)
177 -k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the post-
178 processing; the video is erased by default
179 --no-post-overwrites do not overwrite post-processed files; the post-
180 processed files are overwritten by default
181 --embed-subs embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4
182 videos)
183
184 CONFIGURATION
185 =============
186
187 You can configure youtube-dl by placing default arguments (such as
188 --extract-audio --no-mtime to always extract the audio and not copy the
189 mtime) into /etc/youtube-dl.conf and/or ~/.config/youtube-dl.conf.
190
191 OUTPUT TEMPLATE
192 ===============
193
194 The -o option allows users to indicate a template for the output file
195 names. The basic usage is not to set any template arguments when
196 downloading a single file, like in
197 youtube-dl -o funny_video.flv "http://some/video". However, it may
198 contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each
199 video. The special sequences have the format %(NAME)s. To clarify, that
200 is a percent symbol followed by a name in parenthesis, followed by a
201 lowercase S. Allowed names are:
202
203 - id: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier.
204 - url: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL.
205 - uploader: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the
206 person who uploaded the video.
207 - upload_date: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date in
208 YYYYMMDD format.
209 - title: The sequence will be replaced by the video title.
210 - ext: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension
211 (like flv or mp4).
212 - epoch: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when creating
213 the file.
214 - autonumber: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number
215 that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.
216 - playlist: The name or the id of the playlist that contains the
217 video.
218 - playlist_index: The index of the video in the playlist, a five-digit
219 number.
220
221 The current default template is %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s.
222
223 In some cases, you don't want special characters such as 中, spaces, or
224 &, such as when transferring the downloaded filename to a Windows system
225 or the filename through an 8bit-unsafe channel. In these cases, add the
226 --restrict-filenames flag to get a shorter title:
227
228 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
229 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
230 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
231 youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
232
233 VIDEO SELECTION
234 ===============
235
236 Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options --date,
237 --datebefore or --dateafter, they accept dates in two formats:
238
239 - Absolute dates: Dates in the format YYYYMMDD.
240 - Relative dates: Dates in the format
241 (now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?
242
243 Examples:
244
245 $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-6months #will only download the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
246 $ youtube-dl --date 19700101 #will only download the videos uploaded in January 1, 1970
247 $ youtube-dl --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20100101 #will only download the videos uploaded between 2000 and 2010
248
249 FAQ
250 ===
251
252 Can you please put the -b option back?
253
254 Most people asking this question are not aware that youtube-dl now
255 defaults to downloading the highest available quality as reported by
256 YouTube, which will be 1080p or 720p in some cases, so you no longer
257 need the -b option. For some specific videos, maybe YouTube does not
258 report them to be available in a specific high quality format you're
259 interested in. In that case, simply request it with the -f option and
260 youtube-dl will try to download it.
261
262 I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
263
264 Apparently YouTube requires you to pass a CAPTCHA test if you download
265 too much. We're considering to provide a way to let you solve the
266 CAPTCHA, but at the moment, your best course of action is pointing a
267 webbrowser to the youtube URL, solving the CAPTCHA, and restart
268 youtube-dl.
269
270 I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
271
272 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as vlc or
273 mplayer.
274
275 The links provided by youtube-dl -g are not working anymore
276
277 The URLs youtube-dl outputs require the downloader to have the correct
278 cookies. Use the --cookies option to write the required cookies into a
279 file, and advise your downloader to read cookies from that file. Some
280 sites also require a common user agent to be used, use --dump-user-agent
281 to see the one in use by youtube-dl.
282
283 ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
284
285 youtube has switched to a new video info format in July 2011 which is
286 not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl
287 with sudo youtube-dl --update.
288
289 ERROR: unable to download video
290
291 youtube requires an additional signature since September 2012 which is
292 not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl
293 with sudo youtube-dl --update.
294
295 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character
296
297 The error
298
299 File "youtube-dl", line 2
300 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\x93' ...
301
302 means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to
303 Python 2.6 or 2.7.
304
305 What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
306
307 Since June 2012 (#342) youtube-dl is packed as an executable zipfile,
308 simply unzip it (might need renaming to youtube-dl.zip first on some
309 systems) or clone the git repository, as laid out above. If you modify
310 the code, you can run it by executing the __main__.py file. To recompile
311 the executable, run make youtube-dl.
312
313 The exe throws a Runtime error from Visual C++
314
315 To run the exe you need to install first the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008
316 Redistributable Package.
317
318 COPYRIGHT
319 =========
320
321 youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
322
323 This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton
324 (https://github.com/dbbolton) and is likewise released into the public
325 domain.
326
327 BUGS
328 ====
329
330 Bugs and suggestions should be reported at:
331 https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues
332
333 Please include:
334
335 - Your exact command line, like
336 youtube-dl -t "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHlDtZ6Oc3s&feature=channel_video_title".
337 A common mistake is not to escape the &. Putting URLs in quotes
338 should solve this problem.
339 - If possible re-run the command with --verbose, and include the full
340 output, it is really helpful to us.
341 - The output of youtube-dl --version
342 - The output of python --version
343 - The name and version of your Operating System ("Ubuntu 11.04 x64" or
344 "Windows 7 x64" is usually enough).
345
346 For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.