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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 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
103 some geo-restricted sites. The default
104 proxy specified by --proxy (or none, if the
105 options is not present) is used for the
106 actual downloading.
107
108 ## Video Selection:
109 --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is 1)
110 --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
111 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify
112 indices of the videos in the playlist
113 separated by commas like: "--playlist-items
114 1,2,5,8" if you want to download videos
115 indexed 1, 2, 5, 8 in the playlist. You can
116 specify range: "--playlist-items
117 1-3,7,10-13", it will download the videos
118 at index 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13.
119 --match-title REGEX Download only matching titles (regex or
120 caseless sub-string)
121 --reject-title REGEX Skip download for matching titles (regex or
122 caseless sub-string)
123 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
124 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
125 SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
126 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
127 (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
128 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded in this date
129 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
130 this date (i.e. inclusive)
131 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
132 this date (i.e. inclusive)
133 --min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less than
134 COUNT views
135 --max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than
136 COUNT views
137 --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Specify any key (see
138 help for -o for a list of available keys)
139 to match if the key is present, !key to
140 check if the key is not present,key >
141 NUMBER (like "comment_count > 12", also
142 works with >=, <, <=, !=, =) to compare
143 against a number, and & to require multiple
144 matches. Values which are not known are
145 excluded unless you put a question mark (?)
146 after the operator.For example, to only
147 match videos that have been liked more than
148 100 times and disliked less than 50 times
149 (or the dislike functionality is not
150 available at the given service), but who
151 also have a description, use --match-filter
152 "like_count > 100 & dislike_count <? 50 &
153 description" .
154 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
155 to a video and a playlist.
156 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
157 a video and a playlist.
158 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
159 age
160 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
161 archive file. Record the IDs of all
162 downloaded videos in it.
163 --include-ads Download advertisements as well
164 (experimental)
165
166 ## Download Options:
167 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
168 (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
169 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
170 "infinite".
171 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default
172 is 10), or "infinite" (DASH and hlsnative
173 only)
174 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments (DASH and
175 hlsnative only)
176 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading when some fragment is not
177 available
178 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
179 (default is 1024)
180 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer
181 size. By default, the buffer size is
182 automatically resized from an initial value
183 of SIZE.
184 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
185 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
186 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
187 expected file size (experimental)
188 --hls-prefer-native Use the native HLS downloader instead of
189 ffmpeg
190 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg Use ffmpeg instead of the native HLS
191 downloader
192 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos,
193 allowing to play the video while
194 downloading (some players may not be able
195 to play it)
196 --external-downloader COMMAND Use the specified external downloader.
197 Currently supports
198 aria2c,avconv,axel,curl,ffmpeg,httpie,wget
199 --external-downloader-args ARGS Give these arguments to the external
200 downloader
201
202 ## Filesystem Options:
203 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ('-' for
204 stdin)
205 --id Use only video ID in file name
206 -o, --output TEMPLATE Output filename template, see the "OUTPUT
207 TEMPLATE" for all the info
208 --autonumber-size NUMBER Specify the number of digits in
209 %(autonumber)s when it is present in output
210 filename template or --auto-number option
211 is given (default is 5)
212 --autonumber-start NUMBER Specify the start value for %(autonumber)s
213 (default is 1)
214 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
215 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
216 filenames
217 -A, --auto-number [deprecated; use -o
218 "%(autonumber)s-%(title)s.%(ext)s" ] Number
219 downloaded files starting from 00000
220 -t, --title [deprecated] Use title in file name
221 (default)
222 -l, --literal [deprecated] Alias of --title
223 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite files
224 -c, --continue Force resume of partially downloaded files.
225 By default, youtube-dl will resume
226 downloads if possible.
227 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded files
228 (restart from beginning)
229 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly
230 into output file
231 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
232 the file modification time
233 --write-description Write video description to a .description
234 file
235 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
236 --write-annotations Write video annotations to a
237 .annotations.xml file
238 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
239 (created with the "--write-info-json"
240 option)
241 --cookies FILE File to read cookies from and dump cookie
242 jar in
243 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
244 can store some downloaded information
245 permanently. By default
246 $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl or
247 ~/.cache/youtube-dl . At the moment, only
248 YouTube player files (for videos with
249 obfuscated signatures) are cached, but that
250 may change.
251 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
252 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
253
254 ## Thumbnail images:
255 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
256 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
257 --list-thumbnails Simulate and list all available thumbnail
258 formats
259
260 ## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
261 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode
262 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
263 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
264 anything to disk
265 --skip-download Do not download the video
266 -g, --get-url Simulate, quiet but print URL
267 -e, --get-title Simulate, quiet but print title
268 --get-id Simulate, quiet but print id
269 --get-thumbnail Simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
270 --get-description Simulate, quiet but print video description
271 --get-duration Simulate, quiet but print video length
272 --get-filename Simulate, quiet but print output filename
273 --get-format Simulate, quiet but print output format
274 -j, --dump-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information.
275 See --output for a description of available
276 keys.
277 -J, --dump-single-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information
278 for each command-line argument. If the URL
279 refers to a playlist, dump the whole
280 playlist information in a single line.
281 --print-json Be quiet and print the video information as
282 JSON (video is still being downloaded).
283 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
284 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
285 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
286 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
287 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
288 to debug problems (very verbose)
289 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
290 files in the current directory to debug
291 problems
292 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
293 -C, --call-home Contact the youtube-dl server for debugging
294 --no-call-home Do NOT contact the youtube-dl server for
295 debugging
296
297 ## Workarounds:
298 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
299 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
300 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
301 information about the video. (Currently
302 supported only for YouTube)
303 --user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
304 --referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the video
305 access is restricted to one domain
306 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
307 separated by a colon ':'. You can use this
308 option multiple times
309 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
310 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
311 or fribidi executable in PATH
312 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
313 download when used alone or a lower bound
314 of a range for randomized sleep before each
315 download (minimum possible number of
316 seconds to sleep) when used along with
317 --max-sleep-interval.
318 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Upper bound of a range for randomized sleep
319 before each download (maximum possible
320 number of seconds to sleep). Must only be
321 used along with --min-sleep-interval.
322
323 ## Video Format Options:
324 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see the "FORMAT
325 SELECTION" for all the info
326 --all-formats Download all available video formats
327 --prefer-free-formats Prefer free video formats unless a specific
328 one is requested
329 -F, --list-formats List all available formats of requested
330 videos
331 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest Do not download the DASH manifests and
332 related data on YouTube videos
333 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
334 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
335 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
336 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
337
338 ## Subtitle Options:
339 --write-sub Write subtitle file
340 --write-auto-sub Write automatically generated subtitle file
341 (YouTube only)
342 --all-subs Download all the available subtitles of the
343 video
344 --list-subs List all available subtitles for the video
345 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats
346 preference, for example: "srt" or
347 "ass/srt/best"
348 --sub-lang LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download
349 (optional) separated by commas, use --list-
350 subs for available language tags
351
352 ## Authentication Options:
353 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
354 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
355 out, youtube-dl will ask interactively.
356 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
357 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
358 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, smotri, youku)
359
360 ## Adobe Pass Options:
361 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
362 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
363 a list of available MSOs
364 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
365 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
366 If this option is left out, youtube-dl will
367 ask interactively.
368 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system
369 operators
370
371 ## Post-processing Options:
372 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
373 (requires ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or
374 avprobe)
375 --audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format: "best", "aac",
376 "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", or "wav";
377 "best" by default; No effect without -x
378 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg/avconv audio quality, insert
379 a value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse)
380 for VBR or a specific bitrate like 128K
381 (default 5)
382 --recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if
383 necessary (currently supported:
384 mp4|flv|ogg|webm|mkv|avi)
385 --postprocessor-args ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessor
386 -k, --keep-video Keep the video file on disk after the post-
387 processing; the video is erased by default
388 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files; the
389 post-processed files are overwritten by
390 default
391 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
392 webm and mkv videos)
393 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
394 --add-metadata Write metadata to the video file
395 --metadata-from-title FORMAT Parse additional metadata like song title /
396 artist from the video title. The format
397 syntax is the same as --output, the parsed
398 parameters replace existing values.
399 Additional templates: %(album)s,
400 %(artist)s. Example: --metadata-from-title
401 "%(artist)s - %(title)s" matches a title
402 like "Coldplay - Paradise"
403 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
404 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
405 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
406 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
407 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
408 default; fix file if we can, warn
409 otherwise)
410 --prefer-avconv Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running the
411 postprocessors (default)
412 --prefer-ffmpeg Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running the
413 postprocessors
414 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg/avconv binary;
415 either the path to the binary or its
416 containing directory.
417 --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
418 downloading, similar to find's -exec
419 syntax. Example: --exec 'adb push {}
420 /sdcard/Music/ && rm {}'
421 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to other format
422 (currently supported: srt|ass|vtt)
423
424 # CONFIGURATION
425
426 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.
427
428 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:
429 ```
430 # Lines starting with # are comments
431
432 # Always extract audio
433 -x
434
435 # Do not copy the mtime
436 --no-mtime
437
438 # Use this proxy
439 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
440
441 # Save all videos under Movies directory in your home directory
442 -o ~/Movies/%(title)s.%(ext)s
443 ```
444
445 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`.
446
447 You can use `--ignore-config` if you want to disable the configuration file for a particular youtube-dl run.
448
449 You can also use `--config-location` if you want to use custom configuration file for a particular youtube-dl run.
450
451 ### Authentication with `.netrc` file
452
453 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:
454 ```
455 touch $HOME/.netrc
456 chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
457 ```
458 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
459 ```
460 machine <extractor> login <login> password <password>
461 ```
462 For example:
463 ```
464 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
465 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
466 ```
467 To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to youtube-dl or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
468
469 On Windows you may also need to setup the `%HOME%` environment variable manually.
470
471 # OUTPUT TEMPLATE
472
473 The `-o` option allows users to indicate a template for the output file names.
474
475 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
476
477 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 have the format `%(NAME)s`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by a lowercase S. Allowed names are:
478
479 - `id`: Video identifier
480 - `title`: Video title
481 - `url`: Video URL
482 - `ext`: Video filename extension
483 - `alt_title`: A secondary title of the video
484 - `display_id`: An alternative identifier for the video
485 - `uploader`: Full name of the video uploader
486 - `license`: License name the video is licensed under
487 - `creator`: The creator of the video
488 - `release_date`: The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released
489 - `timestamp`: UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
490 - `upload_date`: Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)
491 - `uploader_id`: Nickname or id of the video uploader
492 - `location`: Physical location where the video was filmed
493 - `duration`: Length of the video in seconds
494 - `view_count`: How many users have watched the video on the platform
495 - `like_count`: Number of positive ratings of the video
496 - `dislike_count`: Number of negative ratings of the video
497 - `repost_count`: Number of reposts of the video
498 - `average_rating`: Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
499 - `comment_count`: Number of comments on the video
500 - `age_limit`: Age restriction for the video (years)
501 - `format`: A human-readable description of the format
502 - `format_id`: Format code specified by `--format`
503 - `format_note`: Additional info about the format
504 - `width`: Width of the video
505 - `height`: Height of the video
506 - `resolution`: Textual description of width and height
507 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
508 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
509 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
510 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
511 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
512 - `fps`: Frame rate
513 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
514 - `container`: Name of the container format
515 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
516 - `filesize_approx`: An estimate for the number of bytes
517 - `protocol`: The protocol that will be used for the actual download
518 - `extractor`: Name of the extractor
519 - `extractor_key`: Key name of the extractor
520 - `epoch`: Unix epoch when creating the file
521 - `autonumber`: Five-digit number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero
522 - `playlist`: Name or id of the playlist that contains the video
523 - `playlist_index`: Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
524 - `playlist_id`: Playlist identifier
525 - `playlist_title`: Playlist title
526
527
528 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
529 - `chapter`: Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
530 - `chapter_number`: Number of the chapter the video belongs to
531 - `chapter_id`: Id of the chapter the video belongs to
532
533 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
534 - `series`: Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
535 - `season`: Title of the season the video episode belongs to
536 - `season_number`: Number of the season the video episode belongs to
537 - `season_id`: Id of the season the video episode belongs to
538 - `episode`: Title of the video episode
539 - `episode_number`: Number of the video episode within a season
540 - `episode_id`: Id of the video episode
541
542 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
543 - `track`: Title of the track
544 - `track_number`: Number of the track within an album or a disc
545 - `track_id`: Id of the track
546 - `artist`: Artist(s) of the track
547 - `genre`: Genre(s) of the track
548 - `album`: Title of the album the track belongs to
549 - `album_type`: Type of the album
550 - `album_artist`: List of all artists appeared on the album
551 - `disc_number`: Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
552 - `release_year`: Year (YYYY) when the album was released
553
554 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`.
555
556 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.
557
558 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.
559
560 To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
561
562 The current default template is `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`.
563
564 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:
565
566 #### Output template and Windows batch files
567
568 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"`.
569
570 #### Output template examples
571
572 Note on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
573
574 ```bash
575 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc
576 youtube-dl test video ''_Ƥā†­š•.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
577
578 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
579 youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
580
581 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
582 $ youtube-dl -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
583
584 # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
585 $ youtube-dl -o '%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists
586
587 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
588 $ 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/
589
590 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
591 $ 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
592
593 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
594 $ youtube-dl -o - BaW_jenozKc
595 ```
596
597 # FORMAT SELECTION
598
599 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**.
600
601 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.
602
603 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.
604
605 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
606
607 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.
608
609 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.
610
611 You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
612 - `best`: Select the best quality format represented by a single file with video and audio.
613 - `worst`: Select the worst quality format represented by a single file with video and audio.
614 - `bestvideo`: Select the best quality video-only format (e.g. DASH video). May not be available.
615 - `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. May not be available.
616 - `bestaudio`: Select the best quality audio only-format. May not be available.
617 - `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio only-format. May not be available.
618
619 For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use `-f worstvideo`.
620
621 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.
622
623 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`.
624
625 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
626
627 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
628 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
629 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
630 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
631 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
632 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
633 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
634 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
635 - `fps`: Frame rate
636
637 Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals), `^=` (begins with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains) and following string meta fields:
638 - `ext`: File extension
639 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
640 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
641 - `container`: Name of the container format
642 - `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`)
643 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
644
645 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.
646
647 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.
648
649 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.
650
651 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]'`.
652
653 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.
654
655 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.
656
657 #### Format selection examples
658
659 Note on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
660
661 ```bash
662 # Download best mp4 format available or any other best if no mp4 available
663 $ youtube-dl -f 'bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/best[ext=mp4]/best'
664
665 # Download best format available but not better that 480p
666 $ youtube-dl -f 'bestvideo[height<=480]+bestaudio/best[height<=480]'
667
668 # Download best video only format but no bigger than 50 MB
669 $ youtube-dl -f 'best[filesize<50M]'
670
671 # Download best format available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol
672 $ youtube-dl -f '(bestvideo+bestaudio/best)[protocol^=http]'
673
674 # Download the best video format and the best audio format without merging them
675 $ youtube-dl -f 'bestvideo,bestaudio' -o '%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s'
676 ```
677 Note that in the last example, an output template is recommended as bestvideo and bestaudio may have the same file name.
678
679
680 # VIDEO SELECTION
681
682 Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options `--date`, `--datebefore` or `--dateafter`. They accept dates in two formats:
683
684 - Absolute dates: Dates in the format `YYYYMMDD`.
685 - Relative dates: Dates in the format `(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?`
686
687 Examples:
688
689 ```bash
690 # Download only the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
691 $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-6months
692
693 # Download only the videos uploaded on January 1, 1970
694 $ youtube-dl --date 19700101
695
696 $ # Download only the videos uploaded in the 200x decade
697 $ youtube-dl --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20091231
698 ```
699
700 # FAQ
701
702 ### How do I update youtube-dl?
703
704 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`).
705
706 If you have used pip, a simple `sudo pip install -U youtube-dl` is sufficient to update.
707
708 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.
709
710 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
711
712 sudo apt-get remove -y youtube-dl
713
714 Afterwards, simply follow [our manual installation instructions](http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html):
715
716 ```
717 sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
718 sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
719 hash -r
720 ```
721
722 Again, from then on you'll be able to update with `sudo youtube-dl -U`.
723
724 ### youtube-dl is extremely slow to start on Windows
725
726 Add a file exclusion for `youtube-dl.exe` in Windows Defender settings.
727
728 ### I'm getting an error `Unable to extract OpenGraph title` on YouTube playlists
729
730 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.
731
732 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.
733
734 ### I'm getting an error when trying to use output template: `error: using output template conflicts with using title, video ID or auto number`
735
736 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.
737
738 ### Do I always have to pass `-citw`?
739
740 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`.
741
742 ### Can you please put the `-b` option back?
743
744 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.
745
746 ### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
747
748 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.
749
750 ### Do I need any other programs?
751
752 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.
753
754 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.
755
756 ### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
757
758 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/).
759
760 ### I extracted a video URL with `-g`, but it does not play on another machine / in my web browser.
761
762 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`.
763
764 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.
765
766 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.
767
768 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.
769
770 ### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
771
772 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.
773
774 ### ERROR: unable to download video
775
776 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.
777
778 ### 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`
779
780 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).
781
782 For example if your URL is https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc you should end up with following command:
783
784 ```youtube-dl 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc'```
785
786 or
787
788 ```youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4\&v=BaW_jenozKc```
789
790 For Windows you have to use the double quotes:
791
792 ```youtube-dl "https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc"```
793
794 ### ExtractorError: Could not find JS function u'OF'
795
796 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.
797
798 ### HTTP Error 429: Too Many Requests or 402: Payment Required
799
800 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.
801
802 ### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character
803
804 The error
805
806 File "youtube-dl", line 2
807 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\x93' ...
808
809 means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python 2.6 or 2.7.
810
811 ### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
812
813 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`.
814
815 ### The exe throws an error due to missing `MSVCR100.dll`
816
817 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).
818
819 ### On Windows, how should I set up ffmpeg and youtube-dl? Where should I put the exe files?
820
821 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.
822
823 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.
824
825 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.
826
827 ### How do I put downloads into a specific folder?
828
829 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).
830
831 ### How do I download a video starting with a `-`?
832
833 Either prepend `http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=` or separate the ID from the options with `--`:
834
835 youtube-dl -- -wNyEUrxzFU
836 youtube-dl "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wNyEUrxzFU"
837
838 ### How do I pass cookies to youtube-dl?
839
840 Use the `--cookies` option, for example `--cookies /path/to/cookies/file.txt`.
841
842 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).
843
844 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.
845
846 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).
847
848 ### How do I stream directly to media player?
849
850 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:
851
852 youtube-dl -o - "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKcj" | vlc -
853
854 ### How do I download only new videos from a playlist?
855
856 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.
857
858 For example, at first,
859
860 youtube-dl --download-archive archive.txt "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
861
862 will download the complete `PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re` playlist and create a file `archive.txt`. Each subsequent run will only download new videos if any:
863
864 youtube-dl --download-archive archive.txt "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
865
866 ### Should I add `--hls-prefer-native` into my config?
867
868 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.
869
870 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.
871
872 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.
873
874 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.
875
876 ### Can you add support for this anime video site, or site which shows current movies for free?
877
878 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.
879
880 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.
881
882 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.
883
884 ### How can I speed up work on my issue?
885
886 (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:
887
888 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.
889
890 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.
891
892 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).
893
894 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`.
895
896 ### How can I detect whether a given URL is supported by youtube-dl?
897
898 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.
899
900 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.
901
902 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.
903
904 # Why do I need to go through that much red tape when filing bugs?
905
906 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.
907
908 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.
909
910 # DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS
911
912 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.
913
914 To run youtube-dl as a developer, you don't need to build anything either. Simply execute
915
916 python -m youtube_dl
917
918 To run the test, simply invoke your favorite test runner, or execute a test file directly; any of the following work:
919
920 python -m unittest discover
921 python test/test_download.py
922 nosetests
923
924 If you want to create a build of youtube-dl yourself, you'll need
925
926 * python
927 * make (only GNU make is supported)
928 * pandoc
929 * zip
930 * nosetests
931
932 ### Adding support for a new site
933
934 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**.
935
936 After you have ensured this site is distributing its content legally, you can follow this quick list (assuming your service is called `yourextractor`):
937
938 1. [Fork this repository](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/fork)
939 2. Check out the source code with:
940
941 git clone git@github.com:YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/youtube-dl.git
942
943 3. Start a new git branch with
944
945 cd youtube-dl
946 git checkout -b yourextractor
947
948 4. Start with this simple template and save it to `youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py`:
949
950 ```python
951 # coding: utf-8
952 from __future__ import unicode_literals
953
954 from .common import InfoExtractor
955
956
957 class YourExtractorIE(InfoExtractor):
958 _VALID_URL = r'https?://(?:www\.)?yourextractor\.com/watch/(?P<id>[0-9]+)'
959 _TEST = {
960 'url': 'http://yourextractor.com/watch/42',
961 'md5': 'TODO: md5 sum of the first 10241 bytes of the video file (use --test)',
962 'info_dict': {
963 'id': '42',
964 'ext': 'mp4',
965 'title': 'Video title goes here',
966 'thumbnail': r're:^https?://.*\.jpg$',
967 # TODO more properties, either as:
968 # * A value
969 # * MD5 checksum; start the string with md5:
970 # * A regular expression; start the string with re:
971 # * Any Python type (for example int or float)
972 }
973 }
974
975 def _real_extract(self, url):
976 video_id = self._match_id(url)
977 webpage = self._download_webpage(url, video_id)
978
979 # TODO more code goes here, for example ...
980 title = self._html_search_regex(r'<h1>(.+?)</h1>', webpage, 'title')
981
982 return {
983 'id': video_id,
984 'title': title,
985 'description': self._og_search_description(webpage),
986 'uploader': self._search_regex(r'<div[^>]+id="uploader"[^>]*>([^<]+)<', webpage, 'uploader', fatal=False),
987 # TODO more properties (see youtube_dl/extractor/common.py)
988 }
989 ```
990 5. Add an import in [`youtube_dl/extractor/extractors.py`](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/extractors.py).
991 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.
992 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.
993 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+.
994 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:
995
996 $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/extractors.py
997 $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py
998 $ git commit -m '[yourextractor] Add new extractor'
999 $ git push origin yourextractor
1000
1001 10. Finally, [create a pull request](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-pull-request). We'll then review and merge it.
1002
1003 In any case, thank you very much for your contributions!
1004
1005 ## youtube-dl coding conventions
1006
1007 This section introduces a guide lines for writing idiomatic, robust and future-proof extractor code.
1008
1009 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.
1010
1011 ### Mandatory and optional metafields
1012
1013 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:
1014
1015 - `id` (media identifier)
1016 - `title` (media title)
1017 - `url` (media download URL) or `formats`
1018
1019 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.
1020
1021 [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.
1022
1023 #### Example
1024
1025 Say you have some source dictionary `meta` that you've fetched as JSON with HTTP request and it has a key `summary`:
1026
1027 ```python
1028 meta = self._download_json(url, video_id)
1029 ```
1030
1031 Assume at this point `meta`'s layout is:
1032
1033 ```python
1034 {
1035 ...
1036 "summary": "some fancy summary text",
1037 ...
1038 }
1039 ```
1040
1041 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:
1042
1043 ```python
1044 description = meta.get('summary') # correct
1045 ```
1046
1047 and not like:
1048
1049 ```python
1050 description = meta['summary'] # incorrect
1051 ```
1052
1053 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).
1054
1055 Similarly, you should pass `fatal=False` when extracting optional data from a webpage with `_search_regex`, `_html_search_regex` or similar methods, for instance:
1056
1057 ```python
1058 description = self._search_regex(
1059 r'<span[^>]+id="title"[^>]*>([^<]+)<',
1060 webpage, 'description', fatal=False)
1061 ```
1062
1063 With `fatal` set to `False` if `_search_regex` fails to extract `description` it will emit a warning and continue extraction.
1064
1065 You can also pass `default=<some fallback value>`, for example:
1066
1067 ```python
1068 description = self._search_regex(
1069 r'<span[^>]+id="title"[^>]*>([^<]+)<',
1070 webpage, 'description', default=None)
1071 ```
1072
1073 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.
1074
1075 ### Provide fallbacks
1076
1077 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.
1078
1079 #### Example
1080
1081 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:
1082
1083 ```python
1084 title = meta['title']
1085 ```
1086
1087 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.
1088
1089 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:
1090
1091 ```python
1092 title = meta.get('title') or self._og_search_title(webpage)
1093 ```
1094
1095 This code will try to extract from `meta` first and if it fails it will try extracting `og:title` from a `webpage`.
1096
1097 ### Make regular expressions flexible
1098
1099 When using regular expressions try to write them fuzzy and flexible.
1100
1101 #### Example
1102
1103 Say you need to extract `title` from the following HTML code:
1104
1105 ```html
1106 <span style="position: absolute; left: 910px; width: 90px; float: right; z-index: 9999;" class="title">some fancy title</span>
1107 ```
1108
1109 The code for that task should look similar to:
1110
1111 ```python
1112 title = self._search_regex(
1113 r'<span[^>]+class="title"[^>]*>([^<]+)', webpage, 'title')
1114 ```
1115
1116 Or even better:
1117
1118 ```python
1119 title = self._search_regex(
1120 r'<span[^>]+class=(["\'])title\1[^>]*>(?P<title>[^<]+)',
1121 webpage, 'title', group='title')
1122 ```
1123
1124 Note how you tolerate potential changes in the `style` attribute's value or switch from using double quotes to single for `class` attribute:
1125
1126 The code definitely should not look like:
1127
1128 ```python
1129 title = self._search_regex(
1130 r'<span style="position: absolute; left: 910px; width: 90px; float: right; z-index: 9999;" class="title">(.*?)</span>',
1131 webpage, 'title', group='title')
1132 ```
1133
1134 ### Use safe conversion functions
1135
1136 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.
1137
1138 # EMBEDDING YOUTUBE-DL
1139
1140 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).
1141
1142 From a Python program, you can embed youtube-dl in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1143
1144 ```python
1145 from __future__ import unicode_literals
1146 import youtube_dl
1147
1148 ydl_opts = {}
1149 with youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1150 ydl.download(['http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
1151 ```
1152
1153 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.
1154
1155 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:
1156
1157 ```python
1158 from __future__ import unicode_literals
1159 import youtube_dl
1160
1161
1162 class MyLogger(object):
1163 def debug(self, msg):
1164 pass
1165
1166 def warning(self, msg):
1167 pass
1168
1169 def error(self, msg):
1170 print(msg)
1171
1172
1173 def my_hook(d):
1174 if d['status'] == 'finished':
1175 print('Done downloading, now converting ...')
1176
1177
1178 ydl_opts = {
1179 'format': 'bestaudio/best',
1180 'postprocessors': [{
1181 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
1182 'preferredcodec': 'mp3',
1183 'preferredquality': '192',
1184 }],
1185 'logger': MyLogger(),
1186 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
1187 }
1188 with youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1189 ydl.download(['http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
1190 ```
1191
1192 # BUGS
1193
1194 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)).
1195
1196 **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:
1197 ```
1198 $ youtube-dl -v <your command line>
1199 [debug] System config: []
1200 [debug] User config: []
1201 [debug] Command-line args: [u'-v', u'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKcj']
1202 [debug] Encodings: locale cp1251, fs mbcs, out cp866, pref cp1251
1203 [debug] youtube-dl version 2015.12.06
1204 [debug] Git HEAD: 135392e
1205 [debug] Python version 2.6.6 - Windows-2003Server-5.2.3790-SP2
1206 [debug] exe versions: ffmpeg N-75573-g1d0487f, ffprobe N-75573-g1d0487f, rtmpdump 2.4
1207 [debug] Proxy map: {}
1208 ...
1209 ```
1210 **Do not post screenshots of verbose logs; only plain text is acceptable.**
1211
1212 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.
1213
1214 Please re-read your issue once again to avoid a couple of common mistakes (you can and should use this as a checklist):
1215
1216 ### Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?
1217
1218 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.
1219
1220 So please elaborate on what feature you are requesting, or what bug you want to be fixed. Make sure that it's obvious
1221
1222 - What the problem is
1223 - How it could be fixed
1224 - How your proposed solution would look like
1225
1226 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.
1227
1228 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.
1229
1230 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/).
1231
1232 **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.
1233
1234 ### Are you using the latest version?
1235
1236 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.
1237
1238 ### Is the issue already documented?
1239
1240 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.
1241
1242 ### Why are existing options not enough?
1243
1244 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.
1245
1246 ### Is there enough context in your bug report?
1247
1248 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).
1249
1250 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.
1251
1252 ### Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?
1253
1254 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.
1255
1256 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.
1257
1258 ### Is anyone going to need the feature?
1259
1260 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.
1261
1262 ### Is your question about youtube-dl?
1263
1264 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.
1265
1266 # COPYRIGHT
1267
1268 youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
1269
1270 This README file was originally written by [Daniel Bolton](https://github.com/dbbolton) and is likewise released into the public domain.