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1 youtube-dl - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms
2
3 - [INSTALLATION](#installation)
4 - [DESCRIPTION](#description)
5 - [OPTIONS](#options)
6 - [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
7 - [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
8 - [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
9 - [VIDEO SELECTION](#video-selection)
10 - [FAQ](#faq)
11 - [DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS](#developer-instructions)
12 - [EMBEDDING YOUTUBE-DL](#embedding-youtube-dl)
13 - [BUGS](#bugs)
14 - [COPYRIGHT](#copyright)
15
16 # INSTALLATION
17
18 To install it right away for all UNIX users (Linux, OS X, etc.), type:
19
20 sudo curl -L https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
21 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
22
23 If you do not have curl, you can alternatively use a recent wget:
24
25 sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
26 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
27
28 Windows users can [download an .exe file](https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl.exe) and place it in any location on their [PATH](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PATH_%28variable%29) except for `%SYSTEMROOT%\System32` (e.g. **do not** put in `C:\Windows\System32`).
29
30 You can also use pip:
31
32 sudo -H pip install --upgrade youtube-dl
33
34 This command will update youtube-dl if you have already installed it. See the [pypi page](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/youtube_dl) for more information.
35
36 OS X users can install youtube-dl with [Homebrew](http://brew.sh/):
37
38 brew install youtube-dl
39
40 Or with [MacPorts](https://www.macports.org/):
41
42 sudo port install youtube-dl
43
44 Alternatively, refer to the [developer instructions](#developer-instructions) for how to check out and work with the git repository. For further options, including PGP signatures, see the [youtube-dl Download Page](https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html).
45
46 # DESCRIPTION
47 **youtube-dl** is a command-line program to download videos from YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version 2.6, 2.7, or 3.2+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on your Unix box, on Windows or on Mac OS X. It is released to the public domain, which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
48
49 youtube-dl [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
50
51 # OPTIONS
52 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
53 --version Print program version and exit
54 -U, --update Update this program to latest version. Make
55 sure that you have sufficient permissions
56 (run with sudo if needed)
57 -i, --ignore-errors Continue on download errors, for example to
58 skip unavailable videos in a playlist
59 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos (in the
60 playlist or the command line) if an error
61 occurs
62 --dump-user-agent Display the current browser identification
63 --list-extractors List all supported extractors
64 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
65 extractors
66 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic
67 extractor
68 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
69 example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
70 from google videos for youtube-dl "large
71 apple". Use the value "auto" to let
72 youtube-dl guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
73 warning when guessing). "error" just throws
74 an error. The default value "fixup_error"
75 repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
76 this is not possible instead of searching.
77 --ignore-config Do not read configuration files. When given
78 in the global configuration file
79 /etc/youtube-dl.conf: Do not read the user
80 configuration in ~/.config/youtube-
81 dl/config (%APPDATA%/youtube-dl/config.txt
82 on Windows)
83 --config-location PATH Location of the configuration file; either
84 the path to the config or its containing
85 directory.
86 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
87 only list them.
88 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (YouTube only)
89 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (YouTube only)
90 --no-color Do not emit color codes in output
91
92 ## Network Options:
93 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy.
94 To enable experimental SOCKS proxy, specify
95 a proper scheme. For example
96 socks5://127.0.0.1:1080/. Pass in an empty
97 string (--proxy "") for direct connection
98 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
99 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
100 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
101 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
102
103 ## Geo Restriction:
104 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
105 some geo-restricted sites. The default
106 proxy specified by --proxy (or none, if the
107 options is not present) is used for the
108 actual downloading.
109 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
110 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header (experimental)
111 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
112 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
113 (experimental)
114 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
115 explicitly provided two-letter ISO 3166-2
116 country code (experimental)
117
118 ## Video Selection:
119 --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is 1)
120 --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
121 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify
122 indices of the videos in the playlist
123 separated by commas like: "--playlist-items
124 1,2,5,8" if you want to download videos
125 indexed 1, 2, 5, 8 in the playlist. You can
126 specify range: "--playlist-items
127 1-3,7,10-13", it will download the videos
128 at index 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13.
129 --match-title REGEX Download only matching titles (regex or
130 caseless sub-string)
131 --reject-title REGEX Skip download for matching titles (regex or
132 caseless sub-string)
133 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
134 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
135 SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
136 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
137 (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
138 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded in this date
139 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
140 this date (i.e. inclusive)
141 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
142 this date (i.e. inclusive)
143 --min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less than
144 COUNT views
145 --max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than
146 COUNT views
147 --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Specify any key (see
148 help for -o for a list of available keys)
149 to match if the key is present, !key to
150 check if the key is not present, key >
151 NUMBER (like "comment_count > 12", also
152 works with >=, <, <=, !=, =) to compare
153 against a number, key = 'LITERAL' (like
154 "uploader = 'Mike Smith'", also works with
155 !=) to match against a string literal and &
156 to require multiple matches. Values which
157 are not known are excluded unless you put a
158 question mark (?) after the operator. For
159 example, to only match videos that have
160 been liked more than 100 times and disliked
161 less than 50 times (or the dislike
162 functionality is not available at the given
163 service), but who also have a description,
164 use --match-filter "like_count > 100 &
165 dislike_count <? 50 & description" .
166 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
167 to a video and a playlist.
168 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
169 a video and a playlist.
170 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
171 age
172 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
173 archive file. Record the IDs of all
174 downloaded videos in it.
175 --include-ads Download advertisements as well
176 (experimental)
177
178 ## Download Options:
179 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
180 (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
181 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
182 "infinite".
183 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default
184 is 10), or "infinite" (DASH and hlsnative
185 only)
186 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments (DASH and
187 hlsnative only)
188 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading when some fragment is not
189 available
190 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
191 (default is 1024)
192 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer
193 size. By default, the buffer size is
194 automatically resized from an initial value
195 of SIZE.
196 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
197 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
198 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
199 expected file size (experimental)
200 --hls-prefer-native Use the native HLS downloader instead of
201 ffmpeg
202 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg Use ffmpeg instead of the native HLS
203 downloader
204 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos,
205 allowing to play the video while
206 downloading (some players may not be able
207 to play it)
208 --external-downloader COMMAND Use the specified external downloader.
209 Currently supports
210 aria2c,avconv,axel,curl,ffmpeg,httpie,wget
211 --external-downloader-args ARGS Give these arguments to the external
212 downloader
213
214 ## Filesystem Options:
215 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ('-' for
216 stdin)
217 --id Use only video ID in file name
218 -o, --output TEMPLATE Output filename template, see the "OUTPUT
219 TEMPLATE" for all the info
220 --autonumber-start NUMBER Specify the start value for %(autonumber)s
221 (default is 1)
222 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
223 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
224 filenames
225 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite files
226 -c, --continue Force resume of partially downloaded files.
227 By default, youtube-dl will resume
228 downloads if possible.
229 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded files
230 (restart from beginning)
231 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly
232 into output file
233 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
234 the file modification time
235 --write-description Write video description to a .description
236 file
237 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
238 --write-annotations Write video annotations to a
239 .annotations.xml file
240 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
241 (created with the "--write-info-json"
242 option)
243 --cookies FILE File to read cookies from and dump cookie
244 jar in
245 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
246 can store some downloaded information
247 permanently. By default
248 $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl or
249 ~/.cache/youtube-dl . At the moment, only
250 YouTube player files (for videos with
251 obfuscated signatures) are cached, but that
252 may change.
253 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
254 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
255
256 ## Thumbnail images:
257 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
258 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
259 --list-thumbnails Simulate and list all available thumbnail
260 formats
261
262 ## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
263 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode
264 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
265 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
266 anything to disk
267 --skip-download Do not download the video
268 -g, --get-url Simulate, quiet but print URL
269 -e, --get-title Simulate, quiet but print title
270 --get-id Simulate, quiet but print id
271 --get-thumbnail Simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
272 --get-description Simulate, quiet but print video description
273 --get-duration Simulate, quiet but print video length
274 --get-filename Simulate, quiet but print output filename
275 --get-format Simulate, quiet but print output format
276 -j, --dump-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information.
277 See --output for a description of available
278 keys.
279 -J, --dump-single-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information
280 for each command-line argument. If the URL
281 refers to a playlist, dump the whole
282 playlist information in a single line.
283 --print-json Be quiet and print the video information as
284 JSON (video is still being downloaded).
285 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
286 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
287 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
288 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
289 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
290 to debug problems (very verbose)
291 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
292 files in the current directory to debug
293 problems
294 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
295 -C, --call-home Contact the youtube-dl server for debugging
296 --no-call-home Do NOT contact the youtube-dl server for
297 debugging
298
299 ## Workarounds:
300 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
301 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
302 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
303 information about the video. (Currently
304 supported only for YouTube)
305 --user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
306 --referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the video
307 access is restricted to one domain
308 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
309 separated by a colon ':'. You can use this
310 option multiple times
311 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
312 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
313 or fribidi executable in PATH
314 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
315 download when used alone or a lower bound
316 of a range for randomized sleep before each
317 download (minimum possible number of
318 seconds to sleep) when used along with
319 --max-sleep-interval.
320 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Upper bound of a range for randomized sleep
321 before each download (maximum possible
322 number of seconds to sleep). Must only be
323 used along with --min-sleep-interval.
324
325 ## Video Format Options:
326 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see the "FORMAT
327 SELECTION" for all the info
328 --all-formats Download all available video formats
329 --prefer-free-formats Prefer free video formats unless a specific
330 one is requested
331 -F, --list-formats List all available formats of requested
332 videos
333 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest Do not download the DASH manifests and
334 related data on YouTube videos
335 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
336 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
337 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
338 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
339
340 ## Subtitle Options:
341 --write-sub Write subtitle file
342 --write-auto-sub Write automatically generated subtitle file
343 (YouTube only)
344 --all-subs Download all the available subtitles of the
345 video
346 --list-subs List all available subtitles for the video
347 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats
348 preference, for example: "srt" or
349 "ass/srt/best"
350 --sub-lang LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download
351 (optional) separated by commas, use --list-
352 subs for available language tags
353
354 ## Authentication Options:
355 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
356 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
357 out, youtube-dl will ask interactively.
358 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
359 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
360 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, smotri, youku)
361
362 ## Adobe Pass Options:
363 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
364 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
365 a list of available MSOs
366 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
367 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
368 If this option is left out, youtube-dl will
369 ask interactively.
370 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system
371 operators
372
373 ## Post-processing Options:
374 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
375 (requires ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or
376 avprobe)
377 --audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format: "best", "aac",
378 "flac", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", "vorbis", or
379 "wav"; "best" by default; No effect without
380 -x
381 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg/avconv audio quality, insert
382 a value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse)
383 for VBR or a specific bitrate like 128K
384 (default 5)
385 --recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if
386 necessary (currently supported:
387 mp4|flv|ogg|webm|mkv|avi)
388 --postprocessor-args ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessor
389 -k, --keep-video Keep the video file on disk after the post-
390 processing; the video is erased by default
391 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files; the
392 post-processed files are overwritten by
393 default
394 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
395 webm and mkv videos)
396 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
397 --add-metadata Write metadata to the video file
398 --metadata-from-title FORMAT Parse additional metadata like song title /
399 artist from the video title. The format
400 syntax is the same as --output, the parsed
401 parameters replace existing values.
402 Additional templates: %(album)s,
403 %(artist)s. Example: --metadata-from-title
404 "%(artist)s - %(title)s" matches a title
405 like "Coldplay - Paradise"
406 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
407 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
408 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
409 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
410 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
411 default; fix file if we can, warn
412 otherwise)
413 --prefer-avconv Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running the
414 postprocessors (default)
415 --prefer-ffmpeg Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running the
416 postprocessors
417 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg/avconv binary;
418 either the path to the binary or its
419 containing directory.
420 --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
421 downloading, similar to find's -exec
422 syntax. Example: --exec 'adb push {}
423 /sdcard/Music/ && rm {}'
424 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to other format
425 (currently supported: srt|ass|vtt)
426
427 # CONFIGURATION
428
429 You can configure youtube-dl by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. On Linux and OS X, the system wide configuration file is located at `/etc/youtube-dl.conf` and the user wide configuration file at `~/.config/youtube-dl/config`. On Windows, the user wide configuration file locations are `%APPDATA%\youtube-dl\config.txt` or `C:\Users\<user name>\youtube-dl.conf`. Note that by default configuration file may not exist so you may need to create it yourself.
430
431 For example, with the following configuration file youtube-dl will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under `Movies` directory in your home directory:
432 ```
433 # Lines starting with # are comments
434
435 # Always extract audio
436 -x
437
438 # Do not copy the mtime
439 --no-mtime
440
441 # Use this proxy
442 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
443
444 # Save all videos under Movies directory in your home directory
445 -o ~/Movies/%(title)s.%(ext)s
446 ```
447
448 Note that options in configuration file are just the same options aka switches used in regular command line calls thus there **must be no whitespace** after `-` or `--`, e.g. `-o` or `--proxy` but not `- o` or `-- proxy`.
449
450 You can use `--ignore-config` if you want to disable the configuration file for a particular youtube-dl run.
451
452 You can also use `--config-location` if you want to use custom configuration file for a particular youtube-dl run.
453
454 ### Authentication with `.netrc` file
455
456 You may also want to configure automatic credentials storage for extractors that support authentication (by providing login and password with `--username` and `--password`) in order not to pass credentials as command line arguments on every youtube-dl execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in the shell command history. You can achieve this using a [`.netrc` file](http://stackoverflow.com/tags/.netrc/info) on a per extractor basis. For that you will need to create a `.netrc` file in your `$HOME` and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:
457 ```
458 touch $HOME/.netrc
459 chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
460 ```
461 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
462 ```
463 machine <extractor> login <login> password <password>
464 ```
465 For example:
466 ```
467 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
468 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
469 ```
470 To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to youtube-dl or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
471
472 On Windows you may also need to setup the `%HOME%` environment variable manually.
473
474 # OUTPUT TEMPLATE
475
476 The `-o` option allows users to indicate a template for the output file names.
477
478 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
479
480 The basic usage is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in `youtube-dl -o funny_video.flv "http://some/video"`. However, it may contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences may be formatted according to [python string formatting operations](https://docs.python.org/2/library/stdtypes.html#string-formatting). For example, `%(NAME)s` or `%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by a formatting operations. Allowed names along with sequence type are:
481
482 - `id` (string): Video identifier
483 - `title` (string): Video title
484 - `url` (string): Video URL
485 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
486 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
487 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
488 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
489 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
490 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
491 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released
492 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
493 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)
494 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
495 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
496 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
497 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
498 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
499 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
500 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
501 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
502 - `comment_count` (numeric): Number of comments on the video
503 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
504 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
505 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by `--format`
506 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
507 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
508 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
509 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
510 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
511 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
512 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
513 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
514 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
515 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
516 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
517 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
518 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
519 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
520 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
521 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
522 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
523 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch when creating the file
524 - `autonumber` (numeric): Five-digit number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero
525 - `playlist` (string): Name or id of the playlist that contains the video
526 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
527 - `playlist_id` (string): Playlist identifier
528 - `playlist_title` (string): Playlist title
529
530
531 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
532 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
533 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
534 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
535
536 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
537 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
538 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
539 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
540 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
541 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
542 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
543 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
544
545 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
546 - `track` (string): Title of the track
547 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
548 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
549 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
550 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
551 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
552 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
553 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
554 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
555 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
556
557 Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. Note that some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor. Such sequences will be replaced with `NA`.
558
559 For example for `-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an mp4 video with title `youtube-dl test video` and id `BaW_jenozKcj`, this will result in a `youtube-dl test video-BaW_jenozKcj.mp4` file created in the current directory.
560
561 For numeric sequences you can use numeric related formatting, for example, `%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to 5 characters, like in `00042`.
562
563 Output templates can also contain arbitrary hierarchical path, e.g. `-o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s'` which will result in downloading each video in a directory corresponding to this path template. Any missing directory will be automatically created for you.
564
565 To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
566
567 The current default template is `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`.
568
569 In some cases, you don't want special characters such as äø­, spaces, or &, such as when transferring the downloaded filename to a Windows system or the filename through an 8bit-unsafe channel. In these cases, add the `--restrict-filenames` flag to get a shorter title:
570
571 #### Output template and Windows batch files
572
573 If you are using an output template inside a Windows batch file then you must escape plain percent characters (`%`) by doubling, so that `-o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"` should become `-o "%%(title)s-%%(id)s.%%(ext)s"`. However you should not touch `%`'s that are not plain characters, e.g. environment variables for expansion should stay intact: `-o "C:\%HOMEPATH%\Desktop\%%(title)s.%%(ext)s"`.
574
575 #### Output template examples
576
577 Note on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
578
579 ```bash
580 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc
581 youtube-dl test video ''_Ƥā†­š•.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
582
583 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
584 youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
585
586 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
587 $ youtube-dl -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
588
589 # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
590 $ youtube-dl -o '%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists
591
592 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
593 $ youtube-dl -u user -p password -o '~/MyVideos/%(playlist)s/%(chapter_number)s - %(chapter)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.udemy.com/java-tutorial/
594
595 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
596 $ youtube-dl -o "C:/MyVideos/%(series)s/%(season_number)s - %(season)s/%(episode_number)s - %(episode)s.%(ext)s" http://videomore.ru/kino_v_detalayah/5_sezon/367617
597
598 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
599 $ youtube-dl -o - BaW_jenozKc
600 ```
601
602 # FORMAT SELECTION
603
604 By default youtube-dl tries to download the best available quality, i.e. if you want the best quality you **don't need** to pass any special options, youtube-dl will guess it for you by **default**.
605
606 But sometimes you may want to download in a different format, for example when you are on a slow or intermittent connection. The key mechanism for achieving this is so-called *format selection* based on which you can explicitly specify desired format, select formats based on some criterion or criteria, setup precedence and much more.
607
608 The general syntax for format selection is `--format FORMAT` or shorter `-f FORMAT` where `FORMAT` is a *selector expression*, i.e. an expression that describes format or formats you would like to download.
609
610 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
611
612 The simplest case is requesting a specific format, for example with `-f 22` you can download the format with format code equal to 22. You can get the list of available format codes for particular video using `--list-formats` or `-F`. Note that these format codes are extractor specific.
613
614 You can also use a file extension (currently `3gp`, `aac`, `flv`, `m4a`, `mp3`, `mp4`, `ogg`, `wav`, `webm` are supported) to download the best quality format of a particular file extension served as a single file, e.g. `-f webm` will download the best quality format with the `webm` extension served as a single file.
615
616 You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
617 - `best`: Select the best quality format represented by a single file with video and audio.
618 - `worst`: Select the worst quality format represented by a single file with video and audio.
619 - `bestvideo`: Select the best quality video-only format (e.g. DASH video). May not be available.
620 - `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. May not be available.
621 - `bestaudio`: Select the best quality audio only-format. May not be available.
622 - `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio only-format. May not be available.
623
624 For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use `-f worstvideo`.
625
626 If you want to download multiple videos and they don't have the same formats available, you can specify the order of preference using slashes. Note that slash is left-associative, i.e. formats on the left hand side are preferred, for example `-f 22/17/18` will download format 22 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 17 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 18 if it's available, otherwise it will complain that no suitable formats are available for download.
627
628 If you want to download several formats of the same video use a comma as a separator, e.g. `-f 22,17,18` will download all these three formats, of course if they are available. Or a more sophisticated example combined with the precedence feature: `-f 136/137/mp4/bestvideo,140/m4a/bestaudio`.
629
630 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
631
632 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
633 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
634 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
635 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
636 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
637 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
638 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
639 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
640 - `fps`: Frame rate
641
642 Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals), `^=` (begins with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains) and following string meta fields:
643 - `ext`: File extension
644 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
645 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
646 - `container`: Name of the container format
647 - `protocol`: The protocol that will be used for the actual download, lower-case (`http`, `https`, `rtsp`, `rtmp`, `rtmpe`, `mms`, `f4m`, `ism`, `m3u8`, or `m3u8_native`)
648 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
649
650 Note that none of the aforementioned meta fields are guaranteed to be present since this solely depends on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, i.e. the metadata offered by the video hoster.
651
652 Formats for which the value is not known are excluded unless you put a question mark (`?`) after the operator. You can combine format filters, so `-f "[height <=? 720][tbr>500]"` selects up to 720p videos (or videos where the height is not known) with a bitrate of at least 500 KBit/s.
653
654 You can merge the video and audio of two formats into a single file using `-f <video-format>+<audio-format>` (requires ffmpeg or avconv installed), for example `-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg/avconv.
655
656 Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses, for example if you want to download the best mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480 you can use `-f '(mp4,webm)[height<480]'`.
657
658 Since the end of April 2015 and version 2015.04.26, youtube-dl uses `-f bestvideo+bestaudio/best` as the default format selection (see [#5447](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/5447), [#5456](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/5456)). If ffmpeg or avconv are installed this results in downloading `bestvideo` and `bestaudio` separately and muxing them together into a single file giving the best overall quality available. Otherwise it falls back to `best` and results in downloading the best available quality served as a single file. `best` is also needed for videos that don't come from YouTube because they don't provide the audio and video in two different files. If you want to only download some DASH formats (for example if you are not interested in getting videos with a resolution higher than 1080p), you can add `-f bestvideo[height<=?1080]+bestaudio/best` to your configuration file. Note that if you use youtube-dl to stream to `stdout` (and most likely to pipe it to your media player then), i.e. you explicitly specify output template as `-o -`, youtube-dl still uses `-f best` format selection in order to start content delivery immediately to your player and not to wait until `bestvideo` and `bestaudio` are downloaded and muxed.
659
660 If you want to preserve the old format selection behavior (prior to youtube-dl 2015.04.26), i.e. you want to download the best available quality media served as a single file, you should explicitly specify your choice with `-f best`. You may want to add it to the [configuration file](#configuration) in order not to type it every time you run youtube-dl.
661
662 #### Format selection examples
663
664 Note on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
665
666 ```bash
667 # Download best mp4 format available or any other best if no mp4 available
668 $ youtube-dl -f 'bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/best[ext=mp4]/best'
669
670 # Download best format available but not better that 480p
671 $ youtube-dl -f 'bestvideo[height<=480]+bestaudio/best[height<=480]'
672
673 # Download best video only format but no bigger than 50 MB
674 $ youtube-dl -f 'best[filesize<50M]'
675
676 # Download best format available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol
677 $ youtube-dl -f '(bestvideo+bestaudio/best)[protocol^=http]'
678
679 # Download the best video format and the best audio format without merging them
680 $ youtube-dl -f 'bestvideo,bestaudio' -o '%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s'
681 ```
682 Note that in the last example, an output template is recommended as bestvideo and bestaudio may have the same file name.
683
684
685 # VIDEO SELECTION
686
687 Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options `--date`, `--datebefore` or `--dateafter`. They accept dates in two formats:
688
689 - Absolute dates: Dates in the format `YYYYMMDD`.
690 - Relative dates: Dates in the format `(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?`
691
692 Examples:
693
694 ```bash
695 # Download only the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
696 $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-6months
697
698 # Download only the videos uploaded on January 1, 1970
699 $ youtube-dl --date 19700101
700
701 $ # Download only the videos uploaded in the 200x decade
702 $ youtube-dl --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20091231
703 ```
704
705 # FAQ
706
707 ### How do I update youtube-dl?
708
709 If you've followed [our manual installation instructions](http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html), you can simply run `youtube-dl -U` (or, on Linux, `sudo youtube-dl -U`).
710
711 If you have used pip, a simple `sudo pip install -U youtube-dl` is sufficient to update.
712
713 If you have installed youtube-dl using a package manager like *apt-get* or *yum*, use the standard system update mechanism to update. Note that distribution packages are often outdated. As a rule of thumb, youtube-dl releases at least once a month, and often weekly or even daily. Simply go to http://yt-dl.org/ to find out the current version. Unfortunately, there is nothing we youtube-dl developers can do if your distribution serves a really outdated version. You can (and should) complain to your distribution in their bugtracker or support forum.
714
715 As a last resort, you can also uninstall the version installed by your package manager and follow our manual installation instructions. For that, remove the distribution's package, with a line like
716
717 sudo apt-get remove -y youtube-dl
718
719 Afterwards, simply follow [our manual installation instructions](http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html):
720
721 ```
722 sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
723 sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
724 hash -r
725 ```
726
727 Again, from then on you'll be able to update with `sudo youtube-dl -U`.
728
729 ### youtube-dl is extremely slow to start on Windows
730
731 Add a file exclusion for `youtube-dl.exe` in Windows Defender settings.
732
733 ### I'm getting an error `Unable to extract OpenGraph title` on YouTube playlists
734
735 YouTube changed their playlist format in March 2014 and later on, so you'll need at least youtube-dl 2014.07.25 to download all YouTube videos.
736
737 If you have installed youtube-dl with a package manager, pip, setup.py or a tarball, please use that to update. Note that Ubuntu packages do not seem to get updated anymore. Since we are not affiliated with Ubuntu, there is little we can do. Feel free to [report bugs](https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/youtube-dl/+filebug) to the [Ubuntu packaging people](mailto:ubuntu-motu@lists.ubuntu.com?subject=outdated%20version%20of%20youtube-dl) - all they have to do is update the package to a somewhat recent version. See above for a way to update.
738
739 ### I'm getting an error when trying to use output template: `error: using output template conflicts with using title, video ID or auto number`
740
741 Make sure you are not using `-o` with any of these options `-t`, `--title`, `--id`, `-A` or `--auto-number` set in command line or in a configuration file. Remove the latter if any.
742
743 ### Do I always have to pass `-citw`?
744
745 By default, youtube-dl intends to have the best options (incidentally, if you have a convincing case that these should be different, [please file an issue where you explain that](https://yt-dl.org/bug)). Therefore, it is unnecessary and sometimes harmful to copy long option strings from webpages. In particular, the only option out of `-citw` that is regularly useful is `-i`.
746
747 ### Can you please put the `-b` option back?
748
749 Most people asking this question are not aware that youtube-dl now defaults to downloading the highest available quality as reported by YouTube, which will be 1080p or 720p in some cases, so you no longer need the `-b` option. For some specific videos, maybe YouTube does not report them to be available in a specific high quality format you're interested in. In that case, simply request it with the `-f` option and youtube-dl will try to download it.
750
751 ### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
752
753 Apparently YouTube requires you to pass a CAPTCHA test if you download too much. We're [considering to provide a way to let you solve the CAPTCHA](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/154), but at the moment, your best course of action is pointing a web browser to the youtube URL, solving the CAPTCHA, and restart youtube-dl.
754
755 ### Do I need any other programs?
756
757 youtube-dl works fine on its own on most sites. However, if you want to convert video/audio, you'll need [avconv](https://libav.org/) or [ffmpeg](https://www.ffmpeg.org/). On some sites - most notably YouTube - videos can be retrieved in a higher quality format without sound. youtube-dl will detect whether avconv/ffmpeg is present and automatically pick the best option.
758
759 Videos or video formats streamed via RTMP protocol can only be downloaded when [rtmpdump](https://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu/) is installed. Downloading MMS and RTSP videos requires either [mplayer](http://mplayerhq.hu/) or [mpv](https://mpv.io/) to be installed.
760
761 ### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
762
763 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as [mpv](https://mpv.io/), [vlc](http://www.videolan.org/) or [mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
764
765 ### I extracted a video URL with `-g`, but it does not play on another machine / in my web browser.
766
767 It depends a lot on the service. In many cases, requests for the video (to download/play it) must come from the same IP address and with the same cookies and/or HTTP headers. Use the `--cookies` option to write the required cookies into a file, and advise your downloader to read cookies from that file. Some sites also require a common user agent to be used, use `--dump-user-agent` to see the one in use by youtube-dl. You can also get necessary cookies and HTTP headers from JSON output obtained with `--dump-json`.
768
769 It may be beneficial to use IPv6; in some cases, the restrictions are only applied to IPv4. Some services (sometimes only for a subset of videos) do not restrict the video URL by IP address, cookie, or user-agent, but these are the exception rather than the rule.
770
771 Please bear in mind that some URL protocols are **not** supported by browsers out of the box, including RTMP. If you are using `-g`, your own downloader must support these as well.
772
773 If you want to play the video on a machine that is not running youtube-dl, you can relay the video content from the machine that runs youtube-dl. You can use `-o -` to let youtube-dl stream a video to stdout, or simply allow the player to download the files written by youtube-dl in turn.
774
775 ### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
776
777 YouTube has switched to a new video info format in July 2011 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. See [above](#how-do-i-update-youtube-dl) for how to update youtube-dl.
778
779 ### ERROR: unable to download video
780
781 YouTube requires an additional signature since September 2012 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. See [above](#how-do-i-update-youtube-dl) for how to update youtube-dl.
782
783 ### Video URL contains an ampersand and I'm getting some strange output `[1] 2839` or `'v' is not recognized as an internal or external command`
784
785 That's actually the output from your shell. Since ampersand is one of the special shell characters it's interpreted by the shell preventing you from passing the whole URL to youtube-dl. To disable your shell from interpreting the ampersands (or any other special characters) you have to either put the whole URL in quotes or escape them with a backslash (which approach will work depends on your shell).
786
787 For example if your URL is https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc you should end up with following command:
788
789 ```youtube-dl 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc'```
790
791 or
792
793 ```youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4\&v=BaW_jenozKc```
794
795 For Windows you have to use the double quotes:
796
797 ```youtube-dl "https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc"```
798
799 ### ExtractorError: Could not find JS function u'OF'
800
801 In February 2015, the new YouTube player contained a character sequence in a string that was misinterpreted by old versions of youtube-dl. See [above](#how-do-i-update-youtube-dl) for how to update youtube-dl.
802
803 ### HTTP Error 429: Too Many Requests or 402: Payment Required
804
805 These two error codes indicate that the service is blocking your IP address because of overuse. Contact the service and ask them to unblock your IP address, or - if you have acquired a whitelisted IP address already - use the [`--proxy` or `--source-address` options](#network-options) to select another IP address.
806
807 ### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character
808
809 The error
810
811 File "youtube-dl", line 2
812 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\x93' ...
813
814 means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python 2.6 or 2.7.
815
816 ### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
817
818 Since June 2012 ([#342](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/342)) youtube-dl is packed as an executable zipfile, simply unzip it (might need renaming to `youtube-dl.zip` first on some systems) or clone the git repository, as laid out above. If you modify the code, you can run it by executing the `__main__.py` file. To recompile the executable, run `make youtube-dl`.
819
820 ### The exe throws an error due to missing `MSVCR100.dll`
821
822 To run the exe you need to install first the [Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x86)](https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/download/details.aspx?id=5555).
823
824 ### On Windows, how should I set up ffmpeg and youtube-dl? Where should I put the exe files?
825
826 If you put youtube-dl and ffmpeg in the same directory that you're running the command from, it will work, but that's rather cumbersome.
827
828 To make a different directory work - either for ffmpeg, or for youtube-dl, or for both - simply create the directory (say, `C:\bin`, or `C:\Users\<User name>\bin`), put all the executables directly in there, and then [set your PATH environment variable](https://www.java.com/en/download/help/path.xml) to include that directory.
829
830 From then on, after restarting your shell, you will be able to access both youtube-dl and ffmpeg (and youtube-dl will be able to find ffmpeg) by simply typing `youtube-dl` or `ffmpeg`, no matter what directory you're in.
831
832 ### How do I put downloads into a specific folder?
833
834 Use the `-o` to specify an [output template](#output-template), for example `-o "/home/user/videos/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"`. If you want this for all of your downloads, put the option into your [configuration file](#configuration).
835
836 ### How do I download a video starting with a `-`?
837
838 Either prepend `http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=` or separate the ID from the options with `--`:
839
840 youtube-dl -- -wNyEUrxzFU
841 youtube-dl "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wNyEUrxzFU"
842
843 ### How do I pass cookies to youtube-dl?
844
845 Use the `--cookies` option, for example `--cookies /path/to/cookies/file.txt`.
846
847 In order to extract cookies from browser use any conforming browser extension for exporting cookies. For example, [cookies.txt](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cookiestxt/njabckikapfpffapmjgojcnbfjonfjfg) (for Chrome) or [Export Cookies](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/export-cookies/) (for Firefox).
848
849 Note that the cookies file must be in Mozilla/Netscape format and the first line of the cookies file must be either `# HTTP Cookie File` or `# Netscape HTTP Cookie File`. Make sure you have correct [newline format](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newline) in the cookies file and convert newlines if necessary to correspond with your OS, namely `CRLF` (`\r\n`) for Windows and `LF` (`\n`) for Unix and Unix-like systems (Linux, Mac OS, etc.). `HTTP Error 400: Bad Request` when using `--cookies` is a good sign of invalid newline format.
850
851 Passing cookies to youtube-dl is a good way to workaround login when a particular extractor does not implement it explicitly. Another use case is working around [CAPTCHA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAPTCHA) some websites require you to solve in particular cases in order to get access (e.g. YouTube, CloudFlare).
852
853 ### How do I stream directly to media player?
854
855 You will first need to tell youtube-dl to stream media to stdout with `-o -`, and also tell your media player to read from stdin (it must be capable of this for streaming) and then pipe former to latter. For example, streaming to [vlc](http://www.videolan.org/) can be achieved with:
856
857 youtube-dl -o - "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKcj" | vlc -
858
859 ### How do I download only new videos from a playlist?
860
861 Use download-archive feature. With this feature you should initially download the complete playlist with `--download-archive /path/to/download/archive/file.txt` that will record identifiers of all the videos in a special file. Each subsequent run with the same `--download-archive` will download only new videos and skip all videos that have been downloaded before. Note that only successful downloads are recorded in the file.
862
863 For example, at first,
864
865 youtube-dl --download-archive archive.txt "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
866
867 will download the complete `PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re` playlist and create a file `archive.txt`. Each subsequent run will only download new videos if any:
868
869 youtube-dl --download-archive archive.txt "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
870
871 ### Should I add `--hls-prefer-native` into my config?
872
873 When youtube-dl detects an HLS video, it can download it either with the built-in downloader or ffmpeg. Since many HLS streams are slightly invalid and ffmpeg/youtube-dl each handle some invalid cases better than the other, there is an option to switch the downloader if needed.
874
875 When youtube-dl knows that one particular downloader works better for a given website, that downloader will be picked. Otherwise, youtube-dl will pick the best downloader for general compatibility, which at the moment happens to be ffmpeg. This choice may change in future versions of youtube-dl, with improvements of the built-in downloader and/or ffmpeg.
876
877 In particular, the generic extractor (used when your website is not in the [list of supported sites by youtube-dl](http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/supportedsites.html) cannot mandate one specific downloader.
878
879 If you put either `--hls-prefer-native` or `--hls-prefer-ffmpeg` into your configuration, a different subset of videos will fail to download correctly. Instead, it is much better to [file an issue](https://yt-dl.org/bug) or a pull request which details why the native or the ffmpeg HLS downloader is a better choice for your use case.
880
881 ### Can you add support for this anime video site, or site which shows current movies for free?
882
883 As a matter of policy (as well as legality), youtube-dl does not include support for services that specialize in infringing copyright. As a rule of thumb, if you cannot easily find a video that the service is quite obviously allowed to distribute (i.e. that has been uploaded by the creator, the creator's distributor, or is published under a free license), the service is probably unfit for inclusion to youtube-dl.
884
885 A note on the service that they don't host the infringing content, but just link to those who do, is evidence that the service should **not** be included into youtube-dl. The same goes for any DMCA note when the whole front page of the service is filled with videos they are not allowed to distribute. A "fair use" note is equally unconvincing if the service shows copyright-protected videos in full without authorization.
886
887 Support requests for services that **do** purchase the rights to distribute their content are perfectly fine though. If in doubt, you can simply include a source that mentions the legitimate purchase of content.
888
889 ### How can I speed up work on my issue?
890
891 (Also known as: Help, my important issue not being solved!) The youtube-dl core developer team is quite small. While we do our best to solve as many issues as possible, sometimes that can take quite a while. To speed up your issue, here's what you can do:
892
893 First of all, please do report the issue [at our issue tracker](https://yt-dl.org/bugs). That allows us to coordinate all efforts by users and developers, and serves as a unified point. Unfortunately, the youtube-dl project has grown too large to use personal email as an effective communication channel.
894
895 Please read the [bug reporting instructions](#bugs) below. A lot of bugs lack all the necessary information. If you can, offer proxy, VPN, or shell access to the youtube-dl developers. If you are able to, test the issue from multiple computers in multiple countries to exclude local censorship or misconfiguration issues.
896
897 If nobody is interested in solving your issue, you are welcome to take matters into your own hands and submit a pull request (or coerce/pay somebody else to do so).
898
899 Feel free to bump the issue from time to time by writing a small comment ("Issue is still present in youtube-dl version ...from France, but fixed from Belgium"), but please not more than once a month. Please do not declare your issue as `important` or `urgent`.
900
901 ### How can I detect whether a given URL is supported by youtube-dl?
902
903 For one, have a look at the [list of supported sites](docs/supportedsites.md). Note that it can sometimes happen that the site changes its URL scheme (say, from http://example.com/video/1234567 to http://example.com/v/1234567 ) and youtube-dl reports an URL of a service in that list as unsupported. In that case, simply report a bug.
904
905 It is *not* possible to detect whether a URL is supported or not. That's because youtube-dl contains a generic extractor which matches **all** URLs. You may be tempted to disable, exclude, or remove the generic extractor, but the generic extractor not only allows users to extract videos from lots of websites that embed a video from another service, but may also be used to extract video from a service that it's hosting itself. Therefore, we neither recommend nor support disabling, excluding, or removing the generic extractor.
906
907 If you want to find out whether a given URL is supported, simply call youtube-dl with it. If you get no videos back, chances are the URL is either not referring to a video or unsupported. You can find out which by examining the output (if you run youtube-dl on the console) or catching an `UnsupportedError` exception if you run it from a Python program.
908
909 # Why do I need to go through that much red tape when filing bugs?
910
911 Before we had the issue template, despite our extensive [bug reporting instructions](#bugs), about 80% of the issue reports we got were useless, for instance because people used ancient versions hundreds of releases old, because of simple syntactic errors (not in youtube-dl but in general shell usage), because the problem was already reported multiple times before, because people did not actually read an error message, even if it said "please install ffmpeg", because people did not mention the URL they were trying to download and many more simple, easy-to-avoid problems, many of whom were totally unrelated to youtube-dl.
912
913 youtube-dl is an open-source project manned by too few volunteers, so we'd rather spend time fixing bugs where we are certain none of those simple problems apply, and where we can be reasonably confident to be able to reproduce the issue without asking the reporter repeatedly. As such, the output of `youtube-dl -v YOUR_URL_HERE` is really all that's required to file an issue. The issue template also guides you through some basic steps you can do, such as checking that your version of youtube-dl is current.
914
915 # DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS
916
917 Most users do not need to build youtube-dl and can [download the builds](http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html) or get them from their distribution.
918
919 To run youtube-dl as a developer, you don't need to build anything either. Simply execute
920
921 python -m youtube_dl
922
923 To run the test, simply invoke your favorite test runner, or execute a test file directly; any of the following work:
924
925 python -m unittest discover
926 python test/test_download.py
927 nosetests
928
929 If you want to create a build of youtube-dl yourself, you'll need
930
931 * python
932 * make (only GNU make is supported)
933 * pandoc
934 * zip
935 * nosetests
936
937 ### Adding support for a new site
938
939 If you want to add support for a new site, first of all **make sure** this site is **not dedicated to [copyright infringement](README.md#can-you-add-support-for-this-anime-video-site-or-site-which-shows-current-movies-for-free)**. youtube-dl does **not support** such sites thus pull requests adding support for them **will be rejected**.
940
941 After you have ensured this site is distributing its content legally, you can follow this quick list (assuming your service is called `yourextractor`):
942
943 1. [Fork this repository](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/fork)
944 2. Check out the source code with:
945
946 git clone git@github.com:YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/youtube-dl.git
947
948 3. Start a new git branch with
949
950 cd youtube-dl
951 git checkout -b yourextractor
952
953 4. Start with this simple template and save it to `youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py`:
954
955 ```python
956 # coding: utf-8
957 from __future__ import unicode_literals
958
959 from .common import InfoExtractor
960
961
962 class YourExtractorIE(InfoExtractor):
963 _VALID_URL = r'https?://(?:www\.)?yourextractor\.com/watch/(?P<id>[0-9]+)'
964 _TEST = {
965 'url': 'http://yourextractor.com/watch/42',
966 'md5': 'TODO: md5 sum of the first 10241 bytes of the video file (use --test)',
967 'info_dict': {
968 'id': '42',
969 'ext': 'mp4',
970 'title': 'Video title goes here',
971 'thumbnail': r're:^https?://.*\.jpg$',
972 # TODO more properties, either as:
973 # * A value
974 # * MD5 checksum; start the string with md5:
975 # * A regular expression; start the string with re:
976 # * Any Python type (for example int or float)
977 }
978 }
979
980 def _real_extract(self, url):
981 video_id = self._match_id(url)
982 webpage = self._download_webpage(url, video_id)
983
984 # TODO more code goes here, for example ...
985 title = self._html_search_regex(r'<h1>(.+?)</h1>', webpage, 'title')
986
987 return {
988 'id': video_id,
989 'title': title,
990 'description': self._og_search_description(webpage),
991 'uploader': self._search_regex(r'<div[^>]+id="uploader"[^>]*>([^<]+)<', webpage, 'uploader', fatal=False),
992 # TODO more properties (see youtube_dl/extractor/common.py)
993 }
994 ```
995 5. Add an import in [`youtube_dl/extractor/extractors.py`](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/extractors.py).
996 6. Run `python test/test_download.py TestDownload.test_YourExtractor`. This *should fail* at first, but you can continually re-run it until you're done. If you decide to add more than one test, then rename ``_TEST`` to ``_TESTS`` and make it into a list of dictionaries. The tests will then be named `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor`, `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_1`, `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_2`, etc.
997 7. Have a look at [`youtube_dl/extractor/common.py`](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py) for possible helper methods and a [detailed description of what your extractor should and may return](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py#L74-L252). Add tests and code for as many as you want.
998 8. Make sure your code follows [youtube-dl coding conventions](#youtube-dl-coding-conventions) and check the code with [flake8](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/flake8). Also make sure your code works under all [Python](http://www.python.org/) versions claimed supported by youtube-dl, namely 2.6, 2.7, and 3.2+.
999 9. When the tests pass, [add](http://git-scm.com/docs/git-add) the new files and [commit](http://git-scm.com/docs/git-commit) them and [push](http://git-scm.com/docs/git-push) the result, like this:
1000
1001 $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/extractors.py
1002 $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py
1003 $ git commit -m '[yourextractor] Add new extractor'
1004 $ git push origin yourextractor
1005
1006 10. Finally, [create a pull request](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-pull-request). We'll then review and merge it.
1007
1008 In any case, thank you very much for your contributions!
1009
1010 ## youtube-dl coding conventions
1011
1012 This section introduces a guide lines for writing idiomatic, robust and future-proof extractor code.
1013
1014 Extractors are very fragile by nature since they depend on the layout of the source data provided by 3rd party media hosters out of your control and this layout tends to change. As an extractor implementer your task is not only to write code that will extract media links and metadata correctly but also to minimize dependency on the source's layout and even to make the code foresee potential future changes and be ready for that. This is important because it will allow the extractor not to break on minor layout changes thus keeping old youtube-dl versions working. Even though this breakage issue is easily fixed by emitting a new version of youtube-dl with a fix incorporated, all the previous versions become broken in all repositories and distros' packages that may not be so prompt in fetching the update from us. Needless to say, some non rolling release distros may never receive an update at all.
1015
1016 ### Mandatory and optional metafields
1017
1018 For extraction to work youtube-dl relies on metadata your extractor extracts and provides to youtube-dl expressed by an [information dictionary](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py#L75-L257) or simply *info dict*. Only the following meta fields in the *info dict* are considered mandatory for a successful extraction process by youtube-dl:
1019
1020 - `id` (media identifier)
1021 - `title` (media title)
1022 - `url` (media download URL) or `formats`
1023
1024 In fact only the last option is technically mandatory (i.e. if you can't figure out the download location of the media the extraction does not make any sense). But by convention youtube-dl also treats `id` and `title` as mandatory. Thus the aforementioned metafields are the critical data that the extraction does not make any sense without and if any of them fail to be extracted then the extractor is considered completely broken.
1025
1026 [Any field](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py#L149-L257) apart from the aforementioned ones are considered **optional**. That means that extraction should be **tolerant** to situations when sources for these fields can potentially be unavailable (even if they are always available at the moment) and **future-proof** in order not to break the extraction of general purpose mandatory fields.
1027
1028 #### Example
1029
1030 Say you have some source dictionary `meta` that you've fetched as JSON with HTTP request and it has a key `summary`:
1031
1032 ```python
1033 meta = self._download_json(url, video_id)
1034 ```
1035
1036 Assume at this point `meta`'s layout is:
1037
1038 ```python
1039 {
1040 ...
1041 "summary": "some fancy summary text",
1042 ...
1043 }
1044 ```
1045
1046 Assume you want to extract `summary` and put it into the resulting info dict as `description`. Since `description` is an optional meta field you should be ready that this key may be missing from the `meta` dict, so that you should extract it like:
1047
1048 ```python
1049 description = meta.get('summary') # correct
1050 ```
1051
1052 and not like:
1053
1054 ```python
1055 description = meta['summary'] # incorrect
1056 ```
1057
1058 The latter will break extraction process with `KeyError` if `summary` disappears from `meta` at some later time but with the former approach extraction will just go ahead with `description` set to `None` which is perfectly fine (remember `None` is equivalent to the absence of data).
1059
1060 Similarly, you should pass `fatal=False` when extracting optional data from a webpage with `_search_regex`, `_html_search_regex` or similar methods, for instance:
1061
1062 ```python
1063 description = self._search_regex(
1064 r'<span[^>]+id="title"[^>]*>([^<]+)<',
1065 webpage, 'description', fatal=False)
1066 ```
1067
1068 With `fatal` set to `False` if `_search_regex` fails to extract `description` it will emit a warning and continue extraction.
1069
1070 You can also pass `default=<some fallback value>`, for example:
1071
1072 ```python
1073 description = self._search_regex(
1074 r'<span[^>]+id="title"[^>]*>([^<]+)<',
1075 webpage, 'description', default=None)
1076 ```
1077
1078 On failure this code will silently continue the extraction with `description` set to `None`. That is useful for metafields that may or may not be present.
1079
1080 ### Provide fallbacks
1081
1082 When extracting metadata try to do so from multiple sources. For example if `title` is present in several places, try extracting from at least some of them. This makes it more future-proof in case some of the sources become unavailable.
1083
1084 #### Example
1085
1086 Say `meta` from the previous example has a `title` and you are about to extract it. Since `title` is a mandatory meta field you should end up with something like:
1087
1088 ```python
1089 title = meta['title']
1090 ```
1091
1092 If `title` disappears from `meta` in future due to some changes on the hoster's side the extraction would fail since `title` is mandatory. That's expected.
1093
1094 Assume that you have some another source you can extract `title` from, for example `og:title` HTML meta of a `webpage`. In this case you can provide a fallback scenario:
1095
1096 ```python
1097 title = meta.get('title') or self._og_search_title(webpage)
1098 ```
1099
1100 This code will try to extract from `meta` first and if it fails it will try extracting `og:title` from a `webpage`.
1101
1102 ### Make regular expressions flexible
1103
1104 When using regular expressions try to write them fuzzy and flexible.
1105
1106 #### Example
1107
1108 Say you need to extract `title` from the following HTML code:
1109
1110 ```html
1111 <span style="position: absolute; left: 910px; width: 90px; float: right; z-index: 9999;" class="title">some fancy title</span>
1112 ```
1113
1114 The code for that task should look similar to:
1115
1116 ```python
1117 title = self._search_regex(
1118 r'<span[^>]+class="title"[^>]*>([^<]+)', webpage, 'title')
1119 ```
1120
1121 Or even better:
1122
1123 ```python
1124 title = self._search_regex(
1125 r'<span[^>]+class=(["\'])title\1[^>]*>(?P<title>[^<]+)',
1126 webpage, 'title', group='title')
1127 ```
1128
1129 Note how you tolerate potential changes in the `style` attribute's value or switch from using double quotes to single for `class` attribute:
1130
1131 The code definitely should not look like:
1132
1133 ```python
1134 title = self._search_regex(
1135 r'<span style="position: absolute; left: 910px; width: 90px; float: right; z-index: 9999;" class="title">(.*?)</span>',
1136 webpage, 'title', group='title')
1137 ```
1138
1139 ### Use safe conversion functions
1140
1141 Wrap all extracted numeric data into safe functions from `utils`: `int_or_none`, `float_or_none`. Use them for string to number conversions as well.
1142
1143 # EMBEDDING YOUTUBE-DL
1144
1145 youtube-dl makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language. If you encounter any problems parsing its output, feel free to [create a report](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/new).
1146
1147 From a Python program, you can embed youtube-dl in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1148
1149 ```python
1150 from __future__ import unicode_literals
1151 import youtube_dl
1152
1153 ydl_opts = {}
1154 with youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1155 ydl.download(['http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
1156 ```
1157
1158 Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of options available, have a look at [`youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py`](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py#L129-L279). For a start, if you want to intercept youtube-dl's output, set a `logger` object.
1159
1160 Here's a more complete example of a program that outputs only errors (and a short message after the download is finished), and downloads/converts the video to an mp3 file:
1161
1162 ```python
1163 from __future__ import unicode_literals
1164 import youtube_dl
1165
1166
1167 class MyLogger(object):
1168 def debug(self, msg):
1169 pass
1170
1171 def warning(self, msg):
1172 pass
1173
1174 def error(self, msg):
1175 print(msg)
1176
1177
1178 def my_hook(d):
1179 if d['status'] == 'finished':
1180 print('Done downloading, now converting ...')
1181
1182
1183 ydl_opts = {
1184 'format': 'bestaudio/best',
1185 'postprocessors': [{
1186 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
1187 'preferredcodec': 'mp3',
1188 'preferredquality': '192',
1189 }],
1190 'logger': MyLogger(),
1191 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
1192 }
1193 with youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1194 ydl.download(['http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
1195 ```
1196
1197 # BUGS
1198
1199 Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: <https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues>. Unless you were prompted to or there is another pertinent reason (e.g. GitHub fails to accept the bug report), please do not send bug reports via personal email. For discussions, join us in the IRC channel [#youtube-dl](irc://chat.freenode.net/#youtube-dl) on freenode ([webchat](http://webchat.freenode.net/?randomnick=1&channels=youtube-dl)).
1200
1201 **Please include the full output of youtube-dl when run with `-v`**, i.e. **add** `-v` flag to **your command line**, copy the **whole** output and post it in the issue body wrapped in \`\`\` for better formatting. It should look similar to this:
1202 ```
1203 $ youtube-dl -v <your command line>
1204 [debug] System config: []
1205 [debug] User config: []
1206 [debug] Command-line args: [u'-v', u'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKcj']
1207 [debug] Encodings: locale cp1251, fs mbcs, out cp866, pref cp1251
1208 [debug] youtube-dl version 2015.12.06
1209 [debug] Git HEAD: 135392e
1210 [debug] Python version 2.6.6 - Windows-2003Server-5.2.3790-SP2
1211 [debug] exe versions: ffmpeg N-75573-g1d0487f, ffprobe N-75573-g1d0487f, rtmpdump 2.4
1212 [debug] Proxy map: {}
1213 ...
1214 ```
1215 **Do not post screenshots of verbose logs; only plain text is acceptable.**
1216
1217 The output (including the first lines) contains important debugging information. Issues without the full output are often not reproducible and therefore do not get solved in short order, if ever.
1218
1219 Please re-read your issue once again to avoid a couple of common mistakes (you can and should use this as a checklist):
1220
1221 ### Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?
1222
1223 We often get issue reports that we cannot really decipher. While in most cases we eventually get the required information after asking back multiple times, this poses an unnecessary drain on our resources. Many contributors, including myself, are also not native speakers, so we may misread some parts.
1224
1225 So please elaborate on what feature you are requesting, or what bug you want to be fixed. Make sure that it's obvious
1226
1227 - What the problem is
1228 - How it could be fixed
1229 - How your proposed solution would look like
1230
1231 If your report is shorter than two lines, it is almost certainly missing some of these, which makes it hard for us to respond to it. We're often too polite to close the issue outright, but the missing info makes misinterpretation likely. As a committer myself, I often get frustrated by these issues, since the only possible way for me to move forward on them is to ask for clarification over and over.
1232
1233 For bug reports, this means that your report should contain the *complete* output of youtube-dl when called with the `-v` flag. The error message you get for (most) bugs even says so, but you would not believe how many of our bug reports do not contain this information.
1234
1235 If your server has multiple IPs or you suspect censorship, adding `--call-home` may be a good idea to get more diagnostics. If the error is `ERROR: Unable to extract ...` and you cannot reproduce it from multiple countries, add `--dump-pages` (warning: this will yield a rather large output, redirect it to the file `log.txt` by adding `>log.txt 2>&1` to your command-line) or upload the `.dump` files you get when you add `--write-pages` [somewhere](https://gist.github.com/).
1236
1237 **Site support requests must contain an example URL**. An example URL is a URL you might want to download, like `http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc`. There should be an obvious video present. Except under very special circumstances, the main page of a video service (e.g. `http://www.youtube.com/`) is *not* an example URL.
1238
1239 ### Are you using the latest version?
1240
1241 Before reporting any issue, type `youtube-dl -U`. This should report that you're up-to-date. About 20% of the reports we receive are already fixed, but people are using outdated versions. This goes for feature requests as well.
1242
1243 ### Is the issue already documented?
1244
1245 Make sure that someone has not already opened the issue you're trying to open. Search at the top of the window or browse the [GitHub Issues](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/search?type=Issues) of this repository. If there is an issue, feel free to write something along the lines of "This affects me as well, with version 2015.01.01. Here is some more information on the issue: ...". While some issues may be old, a new post into them often spurs rapid activity.
1246
1247 ### Why are existing options not enough?
1248
1249 Before requesting a new feature, please have a quick peek at [the list of supported options](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/README.md#options). Many feature requests are for features that actually exist already! Please, absolutely do show off your work in the issue report and detail how the existing similar options do *not* solve your problem.
1250
1251 ### Is there enough context in your bug report?
1252
1253 People want to solve problems, and often think they do us a favor by breaking down their larger problems (e.g. wanting to skip already downloaded files) to a specific request (e.g. requesting us to look whether the file exists before downloading the info page). However, what often happens is that they break down the problem into two steps: One simple, and one impossible (or extremely complicated one).
1254
1255 We are then presented with a very complicated request when the original problem could be solved far easier, e.g. by recording the downloaded video IDs in a separate file. To avoid this, you must include the greater context where it is non-obvious. In particular, every feature request that does not consist of adding support for a new site should contain a use case scenario that explains in what situation the missing feature would be useful.
1256
1257 ### Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?
1258
1259 Some of our users seem to think there is a limit of issues they can or should open. There is no limit of issues they can or should open. While it may seem appealing to be able to dump all your issues into one ticket, that means that someone who solves one of your issues cannot mark the issue as closed. Typically, reporting a bunch of issues leads to the ticket lingering since nobody wants to attack that behemoth, until someone mercifully splits the issue into multiple ones.
1260
1261 In particular, every site support request issue should only pertain to services at one site (generally under a common domain, but always using the same backend technology). Do not request support for vimeo user videos, White house podcasts, and Google Plus pages in the same issue. Also, make sure that you don't post bug reports alongside feature requests. As a rule of thumb, a feature request does not include outputs of youtube-dl that are not immediately related to the feature at hand. Do not post reports of a network error alongside the request for a new video service.
1262
1263 ### Is anyone going to need the feature?
1264
1265 Only post features that you (or an incapacitated friend you can personally talk to) require. Do not post features because they seem like a good idea. If they are really useful, they will be requested by someone who requires them.
1266
1267 ### Is your question about youtube-dl?
1268
1269 It may sound strange, but some bug reports we receive are completely unrelated to youtube-dl and relate to a different, or even the reporter's own, application. Please make sure that you are actually using youtube-dl. If you are using a UI for youtube-dl, report the bug to the maintainer of the actual application providing the UI. On the other hand, if your UI for youtube-dl fails in some way you believe is related to youtube-dl, by all means, go ahead and report the bug.
1270
1271 # COPYRIGHT
1272
1273 youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
1274
1275 This README file was originally written by [Daniel Bolton](https://github.com/dbbolton) and is likewise released into the public domain.