]> Raphaël G. Git Repositories - youtubedl/blob - README.txt
Imported Upstream version 2013.10.01
[youtubedl] / README.txt
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, for example to to
30 skip unavailable videos in a playlist
31 --dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
32 --user-agent UA specify a custom user agent
33 --referer REF specify a custom referer, use if the video access
34 is restricted to one domain
35 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs they
36 would handle
37 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported extractors
38 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy
39 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation.
40 --cache-dir None Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl can
41 store downloaded information permanently.
42 ~/.youtube-dl/cache by default
43 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
44
45 Video Selection:
46 ----------------
47
48 --playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is 1)
49 --playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
50 --match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or caseless
51 sub-string)
52 --reject-title REGEX skip download for matching titles (regex or
53 caseless sub-string)
54 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
55 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE
56 (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
57 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE (e.g.
58 50k or 44.6m)
59 --date DATE download only videos uploaded in this date
60 --datebefore DATE download only videos uploaded before this date
61 --dateafter DATE download only videos uploaded after this date
62
63 Download Options:
64 -----------------
65
66 -r, --rate-limit LIMIT maximum download rate (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
67 -R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is 10)
68 --buffer-size SIZE size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16k)
69 (default is 1024)
70 --no-resize-buffer do not automatically adjust the buffer size. By
71 default, the buffer size is automatically resized
72 from an initial value of SIZE.
73
74 Filesystem Options:
75 -------------------
76
77 -t, --title use title in file name (default)
78 --id use only video ID in file name
79 -l, --literal [deprecated] alias of --title
80 -A, --auto-number number downloaded files starting from 00000
81 -o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(title)s to get
82 the title, %(uploader)s for the uploader name,
83 %(uploader_id)s for the uploader nickname if
84 different, %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
85 incremented number, %(ext)s for the filename
86 extension, %(upload_date)s for the upload date
87 (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
88 (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the video id
89 , %(playlist)s for the playlist the video is in,
90 %(playlist_index)s for the position in the
91 playlist and %% for a literal percent. Use - to
92 output to stdout. Can also be used to download to
93 a different directory, for example with -o '/my/d
94 ownloads/%(uploader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
95 --autonumber-size NUMBER Specifies the number of digits in %(autonumber)s
96 when it is present in output filename template or
97 --autonumber option is given
98 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters, and
99 avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
100 -a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)
101 -w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
102 -c, --continue resume partially downloaded files
103 --no-continue do not resume partially downloaded files (restart
104 from beginning)
105 --cookies FILE file to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in
106 --no-part do not use .part files
107 --no-mtime do not use the Last-modified header to set the
108 file modification time
109 --write-description write video description to a .description file
110 --write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
111 --write-thumbnail write thumbnail image to disk
112
113 Verbosity / Simulation Options:
114 -------------------------------
115
116 -q, --quiet activates quiet mode
117 -s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write
118 anything to disk
119 --skip-download do not download the video
120 -g, --get-url simulate, quiet but print URL
121 -e, --get-title simulate, quiet but print title
122 --get-id simulate, quiet but print id
123 --get-thumbnail simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
124 --get-description simulate, quiet but print video description
125 --get-filename simulate, quiet but print output filename
126 --get-format simulate, quiet but print output format
127 --newline output progress bar as new lines
128 --no-progress do not print progress bar
129 --console-title display progress in console titlebar
130 -v, --verbose print various debugging information
131 --dump-intermediate-pages print downloaded pages to debug problems(very
132 verbose)
133
134 Video Format Options:
135 ---------------------
136
137 -f, --format FORMAT video format code, specifiy the order of
138 preference using slashes: "-f 22/17/18". "-f mp4"
139 and "-f flv" are also supported
140 --all-formats download all available video formats
141 --prefer-free-formats prefer free video formats unless a specific one
142 is requested
143 --max-quality FORMAT highest quality format to download
144 -F, --list-formats list all available formats (currently youtube
145 only)
146
147 Subtitle Options:
148 -----------------
149
150 --write-sub write subtitle file
151 --write-auto-sub write automatic subtitle file (youtube only)
152 --all-subs downloads all the available subtitles of the
153 video
154 --list-subs lists all available subtitles for the video
155 --sub-format FORMAT subtitle format (default=srt) ([sbv/vtt] youtube
156 only)
157 --sub-lang LANGS languages of the subtitles to download (optional)
158 separated by commas, use IETF language tags like
159 'en,pt'
160
161 Authentication Options:
162 -----------------------
163
164 -u, --username USERNAME account username
165 -p, --password PASSWORD account password
166 -n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
167 --video-password PASSWORD video password (vimeo only)
168
169 Post-processing Options:
170 ------------------------
171
172 -x, --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files (requires
173 ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)
174 --audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", or
175 "wav"; best by default
176 --audio-quality QUALITY ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification, insert
177 a value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse) for VBR
178 or a specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
179 --recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if necessary
180 (currently supported: mp4|flv|ogg|webm)
181 -k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the post-
182 processing; the video is erased by default
183 --no-post-overwrites do not overwrite post-processed files; the post-
184 processed files are overwritten by default
185 --embed-subs embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4
186 videos)
187
188 CONFIGURATION
189 =============
190
191 You can configure youtube-dl by placing default arguments (such as
192 --extract-audio --no-mtime to always extract the audio and not copy the
193 mtime) into /etc/youtube-dl.conf and/or ~/.config/youtube-dl.conf.
194
195 OUTPUT TEMPLATE
196 ===============
197
198 The -o option allows users to indicate a template for the output file
199 names. The basic usage is not to set any template arguments when
200 downloading a single file, like in
201 youtube-dl -o funny_video.flv "http://some/video". However, it may
202 contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each
203 video. The special sequences have the format %(NAME)s. To clarify, that
204 is a percent symbol followed by a name in parenthesis, followed by a
205 lowercase S. Allowed names are:
206
207 - id: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier.
208 - url: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL.
209 - uploader: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the
210 person who uploaded the video.
211 - upload_date: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date in
212 YYYYMMDD format.
213 - title: The sequence will be replaced by the video title.
214 - ext: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension
215 (like flv or mp4).
216 - epoch: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when creating
217 the file.
218 - autonumber: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number
219 that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.
220 - playlist: The name or the id of the playlist that contains the
221 video.
222 - playlist_index: The index of the video in the playlist, a five-digit
223 number.
224
225 The current default template is %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s.
226
227 In some cases, you don't want special characters such as 中, spaces, or
228 &, such as when transferring the downloaded filename to a Windows system
229 or the filename through an 8bit-unsafe channel. In these cases, add the
230 --restrict-filenames flag to get a shorter title:
231
232 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
233 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
234 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
235 youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
236
237 VIDEO SELECTION
238 ===============
239
240 Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options --date,
241 --datebefore or --dateafter, they accept dates in two formats:
242
243 - Absolute dates: Dates in the format YYYYMMDD.
244 - Relative dates: Dates in the format
245 (now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?
246
247 Examples:
248
249 $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-6months #will only download the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
250 $ youtube-dl --date 19700101 #will only download the videos uploaded in January 1, 1970
251 $ youtube-dl --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20100101 #will only download the videos uploaded between 2000 and 2010
252
253 FAQ
254 ===
255
256 Can you please put the -b option back?
257
258 Most people asking this question are not aware that youtube-dl now
259 defaults to downloading the highest available quality as reported by
260 YouTube, which will be 1080p or 720p in some cases, so you no longer
261 need the -b option. For some specific videos, maybe YouTube does not
262 report them to be available in a specific high quality format you're
263 interested in. In that case, simply request it with the -f option and
264 youtube-dl will try to download it.
265
266 I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
267
268 Apparently YouTube requires you to pass a CAPTCHA test if you download
269 too much. We're considering to provide a way to let you solve the
270 CAPTCHA, but at the moment, your best course of action is pointing a
271 webbrowser to the youtube URL, solving the CAPTCHA, and restart
272 youtube-dl.
273
274 I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
275
276 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as vlc or
277 mplayer.
278
279 The links provided by youtube-dl -g are not working anymore
280
281 The URLs youtube-dl outputs require the downloader to have the correct
282 cookies. Use the --cookies option to write the required cookies into a
283 file, and advise your downloader to read cookies from that file. Some
284 sites also require a common user agent to be used, use --dump-user-agent
285 to see the one in use by youtube-dl.
286
287 ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
288
289 youtube has switched to a new video info format in July 2011 which is
290 not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl
291 with sudo youtube-dl --update.
292
293 ERROR: unable to download video
294
295 youtube requires an additional signature since September 2012 which is
296 not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl
297 with sudo youtube-dl --update.
298
299 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character
300
301 The error
302
303 File "youtube-dl", line 2
304 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\x93' ...
305
306 means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to
307 Python 2.6 or 2.7.
308
309 What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
310
311 Since June 2012 (#342) youtube-dl is packed as an executable zipfile,
312 simply unzip it (might need renaming to youtube-dl.zip first on some
313 systems) or clone the git repository, as laid out above. If you modify
314 the code, you can run it by executing the __main__.py file. To recompile
315 the executable, run make youtube-dl.
316
317 The exe throws a Runtime error from Visual C++
318
319 To run the exe you need to install first the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008
320 Redistributable Package.
321
322 COPYRIGHT
323 =========
324
325 youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
326
327 This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton
328 (https://github.com/dbbolton) and is likewise released into the public
329 domain.
330
331 BUGS
332 ====
333
334 Bugs and suggestions should be reported at:
335 https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues
336
337 Please include:
338
339 - Your exact command line, like
340 youtube-dl -t "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHlDtZ6Oc3s&feature=channel_video_title".
341 A common mistake is not to escape the &. Putting URLs in quotes
342 should solve this problem.
343 - If possible re-run the command with --verbose, and include the full
344 output, it is really helpful to us.
345 - The output of youtube-dl --version
346 - The output of python --version
347 - The name and version of your Operating System ("Ubuntu 11.04 x64" or
348 "Windows 7 x64" is usually enough).
349
350 For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.