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