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1 % YOUTUBE-DL(1)
2
3 # NAME
4 youtube-dl - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms
5
6 # SYNOPSIS
7 **youtube-dl** [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
8
9 # DESCRIPTION
10 **youtube-dl** is a small command-line program to download videos from
11 YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version
12 2.6, 2.7, or 3.3+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on
13 your Unix box, on Windows or on Mac OS X. It is released to the public domain,
14 which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
15
16 # OPTIONS
17 -h, --help print this help text and exit
18 --version print program version and exit
19 -U, --update update this program to latest version. Make sure
20 that you have sufficient permissions (run with
21 sudo if needed)
22 -i, --ignore-errors continue on download errors, for example to to
23 skip unavailable videos in a playlist
24 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos (in the
25 playlist or the command line) if an error occurs
26 --dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
27 --user-agent UA specify a custom user agent
28 --referer REF specify a custom referer, use if the video access
29 is restricted to one domain
30 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs they
31 would handle
32 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported extractors
33 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy
34 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation.
35 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl can
36 store downloaded information permanently. By
37 default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl or ~/.cache
38 /youtube-dl .
39 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
40
41 ## Video Selection:
42 --playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is 1)
43 --playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
44 --match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or caseless
45 sub-string)
46 --reject-title REGEX skip download for matching titles (regex or
47 caseless sub-string)
48 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
49 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE
50 (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
51 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE (e.g.
52 50k or 44.6m)
53 --date DATE download only videos uploaded in this date
54 --datebefore DATE download only videos uploaded before this date
55 --dateafter DATE download only videos uploaded after this date
56 --no-playlist download only the currently playing video
57 --age-limit YEARS download only videos suitable for the given age
58 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not present in the archive
59 file. Record all downloaded videos in it.
60
61 ## Download Options:
62 -r, --rate-limit LIMIT maximum download rate in bytes per second (e.g.
63 50K or 4.2M)
64 -R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is 10)
65 --buffer-size SIZE size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
66 (default is 1024)
67 --no-resize-buffer do not automatically adjust the buffer size. By
68 default, the buffer size is automatically resized
69 from an initial value of SIZE.
70
71 ## Filesystem Options:
72 -t, --title use title in file name (default)
73 --id use only video ID in file name
74 -l, --literal [deprecated] alias of --title
75 -A, --auto-number number downloaded files starting from 00000
76 -o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(title)s to get
77 the title, %(uploader)s for the uploader name,
78 %(uploader_id)s for the uploader nickname if
79 different, %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
80 incremented number, %(ext)s for the filename
81 extension, %(format)s for the format description
82 (like "22 - 1280x720" or "HD")%(upload_date)s for
83 the upload date (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the
84 provider (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the
85 video id , %(playlist)s for the playlist the
86 video is in, %(playlist_index)s for the position
87 in the playlist and %% for a literal percent. Use
88 - to output to stdout. Can also be used to
89 download to a different directory, for example
90 with -o '/my/downloads/%(uploader)s/%(title)s-%(i
91 d)s.%(ext)s' .
92 --autonumber-size NUMBER Specifies the number of digits in %(autonumber)s
93 when it is present in output filename template or
94 --autonumber option is given
95 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters, and
96 avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
97 -a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)
98 -w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
99 -c, --continue resume partially downloaded files
100 --no-continue do not resume partially downloaded files (restart
101 from beginning)
102 --cookies FILE file to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in
103 --no-part do not use .part files
104 --no-mtime do not use the Last-modified header to set the
105 file modification time
106 --write-description write video description to a .description file
107 --write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
108 --write-annotations write video annotations to a .annotation file
109 --write-thumbnail write thumbnail image to disk
110
111 ## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
112 -q, --quiet activates quiet mode
113 -s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write
114 anything to disk
115 --skip-download do not download the video
116 -g, --get-url simulate, quiet but print URL
117 -e, --get-title simulate, quiet but print title
118 --get-id simulate, quiet but print id
119 --get-thumbnail simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
120 --get-description simulate, quiet but print video description
121 --get-filename simulate, quiet but print output filename
122 --get-format simulate, quiet but print output format
123 --newline output progress bar as new lines
124 --no-progress do not print progress bar
125 --console-title display progress in console titlebar
126 -v, --verbose print various debugging information
127 --dump-intermediate-pages print downloaded pages to debug problems(very
128 verbose)
129
130 ## Video Format Options:
131 -f, --format FORMAT video format code, specifiy the order of
132 preference using slashes: "-f 22/17/18". "-f mp4"
133 and "-f flv" are also supported
134 --all-formats download all available video formats
135 --prefer-free-formats prefer free video formats unless a specific one
136 is requested
137 --max-quality FORMAT highest quality format to download
138 -F, --list-formats list all available formats (currently youtube
139 only)
140
141 ## Subtitle Options:
142 --write-sub write subtitle file
143 --write-auto-sub write automatic subtitle file (youtube only)
144 --all-subs downloads all the available subtitles of the
145 video
146 --list-subs lists all available subtitles for the video
147 --sub-format FORMAT subtitle format (default=srt) ([sbv/vtt] youtube
148 only)
149 --sub-lang LANGS languages of the subtitles to download (optional)
150 separated by commas, use IETF language tags like
151 'en,pt'
152
153 ## Authentication Options:
154 -u, --username USERNAME account username
155 -p, --password PASSWORD account password
156 -n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
157 --video-password PASSWORD video password (vimeo only)
158
159 ## Post-processing Options:
160 -x, --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files (requires
161 ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)
162 --audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", or
163 "wav"; best by default
164 --audio-quality QUALITY ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification, insert
165 a value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse) for VBR
166 or a specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
167 --recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if necessary
168 (currently supported: mp4|flv|ogg|webm)
169 -k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the post-
170 processing; the video is erased by default
171 --no-post-overwrites do not overwrite post-processed files; the post-
172 processed files are overwritten by default
173 --embed-subs embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4
174 videos)
175 --add-metadata add metadata to the files
176
177 # CONFIGURATION
178
179 You can configure youtube-dl by placing default arguments (such as `--extract-audio --no-mtime` to always extract the audio and not copy the mtime) into `/etc/youtube-dl.conf` and/or `~/.config/youtube-dl.conf`.
180
181 # OUTPUT TEMPLATE
182
183 The `-o` option allows users to indicate a template for the output file names. 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 parenthesis, followed by a lowercase S. Allowed names are:
184
185 - `id`: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier.
186 - `url`: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL.
187 - `uploader`: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the person who uploaded the video.
188 - `upload_date`: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date in YYYYMMDD format.
189 - `title`: The sequence will be replaced by the video title.
190 - `ext`: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension (like flv or mp4).
191 - `epoch`: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when creating the file.
192 - `autonumber`: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.
193 - `playlist`: The name or the id of the playlist that contains the video.
194 - `playlist_index`: The index of the video in the playlist, a five-digit number.
195
196 The current default template is `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`.
197
198 In some cases, you don't want special characters such as 中, 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:
199
200 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
201 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
202 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
203 youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
204
205 # VIDEO SELECTION
206
207 Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options `--date`, `--datebefore` or `--dateafter`, they accept dates in two formats:
208
209 - Absolute dates: Dates in the format `YYYYMMDD`.
210 - Relative dates: Dates in the format `(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?`
211
212 Examples:
213
214 $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-6months #will only download the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
215 $ youtube-dl --date 19700101 #will only download the videos uploaded in January 1, 1970
216 $ youtube-dl --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20100101 #will only download the videos uploaded between 2000 and 2010
217
218 # FAQ
219
220 ### Can you please put the -b option back?
221
222 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.
223
224 ### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
225
226 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 webbrowser to the youtube URL, solving the CAPTCHA, and restart youtube-dl.
227
228 ### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
229
230 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as [vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or [mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
231
232 ### The links provided by youtube-dl -g are not working anymore
233
234 The URLs youtube-dl outputs require the downloader to have the correct cookies. 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.
235
236 ### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
237
238 youtube has switched to a new video info format in July 2011 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl with `sudo youtube-dl --update`.
239
240 ### ERROR: unable to download video ###
241
242 youtube requires an additional signature since September 2012 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl with `sudo youtube-dl --update`.
243
244 ### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character ###
245
246 The error
247
248 File "youtube-dl", line 2
249 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\x93' ...
250
251 means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python 2.6 or 2.7.
252
253 ### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
254
255 Since June 2012 (#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`.
256
257 ### The exe throws a *Runtime error from Visual C++*
258
259 To run the exe you need to install first the [Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package](http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29).
260
261 # COPYRIGHT
262
263 youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
264
265 This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton (<https://github.com/dbbolton>) and is likewise released into the public domain.
266
267 # BUGS
268
269 Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: <https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues>
270
271 Please include:
272
273 * Your exact command line, like `youtube-dl -t "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHlDtZ6Oc3s&feature=channel_video_title"`. A common mistake is not to escape the `&`. Putting URLs in quotes should solve this problem.
274 * If possible re-run the command with `--verbose`, and include the full output, it is really helpful to us.
275 * The output of `youtube-dl --version`
276 * The output of `python --version`
277 * The name and version of your Operating System ("Ubuntu 11.04 x64" or "Windows 7 x64" is usually enough).
278
279 For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.