Raphaël G. Git Repositories - youtubedl/blob - README.txt

   1 youtube-dl - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms
   2
   3 SYNOPSIS
   4 ========
   5
   6 youtube-dl OPTIONS URL [URL...]
   7
   8 INSTALLATION
   9 ============
  10
  11 To install it right away for all UNIX users (Linux, OS X, etc.), type:
  12
  13     sudo curl https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
  14     sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
  15
  16 If you do not have curl, you can alternatively use a recent wget:
  17
  18     sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/downloads/2014.05.13/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
  19     sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
  20
  21 Windows users can download a .exe file and place it in their home
  22 directory or any other location on their PATH.
  23
  24 Alternatively, refer to the developer instructions below for how to
  25 check out and work with the git repository. For further options,
  26 including PGP signatures, see
  27 https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html .
  28
  29 DESCRIPTION
  30 ===========
  31
  32 youtube-dl is a small command-line program to download videos from
  33 YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter,
  34 version 2.6, 2.7, or 3.3+, and it is not platform specific. It should
  35 work on your Unix box, on Windows or on Mac OS X. It is released to the
  36 public domain, which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it
  37 however you like.
  38
  39 OPTIONS
  40 =======
  41
  42     -h, --help                       print this help text and exit
  43     --version                        print program version and exit
  44     -U, --update                     update this program to latest version. Make
  45                                      sure that you have sufficient permissions
  46                                      (run with sudo if needed)
  47     -i, --ignore-errors              continue on download errors, for example to
  48                                      skip unavailable videos in a playlist
  49     --abort-on-error                 Abort downloading of further videos (in the
  50                                      playlist or the command line) if an error
  51                                      occurs
  52     --dump-user-agent                display the current browser identification
  53     --user-agent UA                  specify a custom user agent
  54     --referer REF                    specify a custom referer, use if the video
  55                                      access is restricted to one domain
  56     --add-header FIELD:VALUE         specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
  57                                      separated by a colon ':'. You can use this
  58                                      option multiple times
  59     --list-extractors                List all supported extractors and the URLs
  60                                      they would handle
  61     --extractor-descriptions         Output descriptions of all supported
  62                                      extractors
  63     --proxy URL                      Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy. Pass in
  64                                      an empty string (--proxy "") for direct
  65                                      connection
  66     --no-check-certificate           Suppress HTTPS certificate validation.
  67     --prefer-insecure                Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
  68                                      information about the video. (Currently
  69                                      supported only for YouTube)
  70     --cache-dir DIR                  Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
  71                                      can store some downloaded information
  72                                      permanently. By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME
  73                                      /youtube-dl or ~/.cache/youtube-dl . At the
  74                                      moment, only YouTube player files (for
  75                                      videos with obfuscated signatures) are
  76                                      cached, but that may change.
  77     --no-cache-dir                   Disable filesystem caching
  78     --socket-timeout None            Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
  79     --bidi-workaround                Work around terminals that lack
  80                                      bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
  81                                      or fribidi executable in PATH
  82     --default-search PREFIX          Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
  83                                      example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
  84                                      from google videos for  youtube-dl "large
  85                                      apple". By default (with value "auto")
  86                                      youtube-dl guesses.
  87     --ignore-config                  Do not read configuration files. When given
  88                                      in the global configuration file /etc
  89                                      /youtube-dl.conf: do not read the user
  90                                      configuration in ~/.config/youtube-dl.conf
  91                                      (%APPDATA%/youtube-dl/config.txt on
  92                                      Windows)
  93     --encoding ENCODING              Force the specified encoding (experimental)
  94
  95 Video Selection:
  96 ----------------
  97
  98     --playlist-start NUMBER          playlist video to start at (default is 1)
  99     --playlist-end NUMBER            playlist video to end at (default is last)
 100     --match-title REGEX              download only matching titles (regex or
 101                                      caseless sub-string)
 102     --reject-title REGEX             skip download for matching titles (regex or
 103                                      caseless sub-string)
 104     --max-downloads NUMBER           Abort after downloading NUMBER files
 105     --min-filesize SIZE              Do not download any videos smaller than
 106                                      SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
 107     --max-filesize SIZE              Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
 108                                      (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
 109     --date DATE                      download only videos uploaded in this date
 110     --datebefore DATE                download only videos uploaded on or before
 111                                      this date (i.e. inclusive)
 112     --dateafter DATE                 download only videos uploaded on or after
 113                                      this date (i.e. inclusive)
 114     --min-views COUNT                Do not download any videos with less than
 115                                      COUNT views
 116     --max-views COUNT                Do not download any videos with more than
 117                                      COUNT views
 118     --no-playlist                    download only the currently playing video
 119     --age-limit YEARS                download only videos suitable for the given
 120                                      age
 121     --download-archive FILE          Download only videos not listed in the
 122                                      archive file. Record the IDs of all
 123                                      downloaded videos in it.
 124     --include-ads                    Download advertisements as well
 125                                      (experimental)
 126     --youtube-include-dash-manifest  Try to download the DASH manifest on
 127                                      YouTube videos (experimental)
 128
 129 Download Options:
 130 -----------------
 131
 132     -r, --rate-limit LIMIT           maximum download rate in bytes per second
 133                                      (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
 134     -R, --retries RETRIES            number of retries (default is 10)
 135     --buffer-size SIZE               size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
 136                                      (default is 1024)
 137     --no-resize-buffer               do not automatically adjust the buffer
 138                                      size. By default, the buffer size is
 139                                      automatically resized from an initial value
 140                                      of SIZE.
 141
 142 Filesystem Options:
 143 -------------------
 144
 145     -t, --title                      use title in file name (default)
 146     --id                             use only video ID in file name
 147     -l, --literal                    [deprecated] alias of --title
 148     -A, --auto-number                number downloaded files starting from 00000
 149     -o, --output TEMPLATE            output filename template. Use %(title)s to
 150                                      get the title, %(uploader)s for the
 151                                      uploader name, %(uploader_id)s for the
 152                                      uploader nickname if different,
 153                                      %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
 154                                      incremented number, %(ext)s for the
 155                                      filename extension, %(format)s for the
 156                                      format description (like "22 - 1280x720" or
 157                                      "HD"), %(format_id)s for the unique id of
 158                                      the format (like Youtube's itags: "137"),
 159                                      %(upload_date)s for the upload date
 160                                      (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
 161                                      (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the
 162                                      video id, %(playlist)s for the playlist the
 163                                      video is in, %(playlist_index)s for the
 164                                      position in the playlist and %% for a
 165                                      literal percent. %(height)s and %(width)s
 166                                      for the width and height of the video
 167                                      format. %(resolution)s for a textual
 168                                      description of the resolution of the video
 169                                      format. Use - to output to stdout. Can also
 170                                      be used to download to a different
 171                                      directory, for example with -o '/my/downloa
 172                                      ds/%(uploader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
 173     --autonumber-size NUMBER         Specifies the number of digits in
 174                                      %(autonumber)s when it is present in output
 175                                      filename template or --auto-number option
 176                                      is given
 177     --restrict-filenames             Restrict filenames to only ASCII
 178                                      characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
 179                                      filenames
 180     -a, --batch-file FILE            file containing URLs to download ('-' for
 181                                      stdin)
 182     --load-info FILE                 json file containing the video information
 183                                      (created with the "--write-json" option)
 184     -w, --no-overwrites              do not overwrite files
 185     -c, --continue                   force resume of partially downloaded files.
 186                                      By default, youtube-dl will resume
 187                                      downloads if possible.
 188     --no-continue                    do not resume partially downloaded files
 189                                      (restart from beginning)
 190     --cookies FILE                   file to read cookies from and dump cookie
 191                                      jar in
 192     --no-part                        do not use .part files
 193     --no-mtime                       do not use the Last-modified header to set
 194                                      the file modification time
 195     --write-description              write video description to a .description
 196                                      file
 197     --write-info-json                write video metadata to a .info.json file
 198     --write-annotations              write video annotations to a .annotation
 199                                      file
 200     --write-thumbnail                write thumbnail image to disk
 201
 202 Verbosity / Simulation Options:
 203 -------------------------------
 204
 205     -q, --quiet                      activates quiet mode
 206     --no-warnings                    Ignore warnings
 207     -s, --simulate                   do not download the video and do not write
 208                                      anything to disk
 209     --skip-download                  do not download the video
 210     -g, --get-url                    simulate, quiet but print URL
 211     -e, --get-title                  simulate, quiet but print title
 212     --get-id                         simulate, quiet but print id
 213     --get-thumbnail                  simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
 214     --get-description                simulate, quiet but print video description
 215     --get-duration                   simulate, quiet but print video length
 216     --get-filename                   simulate, quiet but print output filename
 217     --get-format                     simulate, quiet but print output format
 218     -j, --dump-json                  simulate, quiet but print JSON information.
 219                                      See --output for a description of available
 220                                      keys.
 221     --newline                        output progress bar as new lines
 222     --no-progress                    do not print progress bar
 223     --console-title                  display progress in console titlebar
 224     -v, --verbose                    print various debugging information
 225     --dump-intermediate-pages        print downloaded pages to debug problems
 226                                      (very verbose)
 227     --write-pages                    Write downloaded intermediary pages to
 228                                      files in the current directory to debug
 229                                      problems
 230     --print-traffic                  Display sent and read HTTP traffic
 231
 232 Video Format Options:
 233 ---------------------
 234
 235     -f, --format FORMAT              video format code, specify the order of
 236                                      preference using slashes: "-f 22/17/18".
 237                                      "-f mp4" and "-f flv" are also supported.
 238                                      You can also use the special names "best",
 239                                      "bestvideo", "bestaudio", "worst",
 240                                      "worstvideo" and "worstaudio". By default,
 241                                      youtube-dl will pick the best quality.
 242     --all-formats                    download all available video formats
 243     --prefer-free-formats            prefer free video formats unless a specific
 244                                      one is requested
 245     --max-quality FORMAT             highest quality format to download
 246     -F, --list-formats               list all available formats
 247
 248 Subtitle Options:
 249 -----------------
 250
 251     --write-sub                      write subtitle file
 252     --write-auto-sub                 write automatic subtitle file (youtube
 253                                      only)
 254     --all-subs                       downloads all the available subtitles of
 255                                      the video
 256     --list-subs                      lists all available subtitles for the video
 257     --sub-format FORMAT              subtitle format (default=srt) ([sbv/vtt]
 258                                      youtube only)
 259     --sub-lang LANGS                 languages of the subtitles to download
 260                                      (optional) separated by commas, use IETF
 261                                      language tags like 'en,pt'
 262
 263 Authentication Options:
 264 -----------------------
 265
 266     -u, --username USERNAME          account username
 267     -p, --password PASSWORD          account password
 268     -n, --netrc                      use .netrc authentication data
 269     --video-password PASSWORD        video password (vimeo, smotri)
 270
 271 Post-processing Options:
 272 ------------------------
 273
 274     -x, --extract-audio              convert video files to audio-only files
 275                                      (requires ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or
 276                                      avprobe)
 277     --audio-format FORMAT            "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a",
 278                                      "opus", or "wav"; best by default
 279     --audio-quality QUALITY          ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification,
 280                                      insert a value between 0 (better) and 9
 281                                      (worse) for VBR or a specific bitrate like
 282                                      128K (default 5)
 283     --recode-video FORMAT            Encode the video to another format if
 284                                      necessary (currently supported:
 285                                      mp4|flv|ogg|webm)
 286     -k, --keep-video                 keeps the video file on disk after the
 287                                      post-processing; the video is erased by
 288                                      default
 289     --no-post-overwrites             do not overwrite post-processed files; the
 290                                      post-processed files are overwritten by
 291                                      default
 292     --embed-subs                     embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4
 293                                      videos)
 294     --embed-thumbnail                embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
 295     --add-metadata                   write metadata to the video file
 296     --xattrs                         write metadata to the video file's xattrs
 297                                      (using dublin core and xdg standards)
 298     --prefer-avconv                  Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running the
 299                                      postprocessors (default)
 300     --prefer-ffmpeg                  Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running the
 301                                      postprocessors
 302
 303 CONFIGURATION
 304 =============
 305
 306 You can configure youtube-dl by placing default arguments (such as
 307 --extract-audio --no-mtime to always extract the audio and not copy the
 308 mtime) into /etc/youtube-dl.conf and/or ~/.config/youtube-dl/config. On
 309 Windows, the configuration file locations are
 310 %APPDATA%\youtube-dl\config.txt and C:\Users\<Yourname>\youtube-dl.conf.
 311
 312 OUTPUT TEMPLATE
 313 ===============
 314
 315 The -o option allows users to indicate a template for the output file
 316 names. The basic usage is not to set any template arguments when
 317 downloading a single file, like in
 318 youtube-dl -o funny_video.flv "http://some/video". However, it may
 319 contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each
 320 video. The special sequences have the format %(NAME)s. To clarify, that
 321 is a percent symbol followed by a name in parenthesis, followed by a
 322 lowercase S. Allowed names are:
 323
 324 -   id: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier.
 325 -   url: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL.
 326 -   uploader: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the
 327     person who uploaded the video.
 328 -   upload_date: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date in
 329     YYYYMMDD format.
 330 -   title: The sequence will be replaced by the video title.
 331 -   ext: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension
 332     (like flv or mp4).
 333 -   epoch: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when creating
 334     the file.
 335 -   autonumber: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number
 336     that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.
 337 -   playlist: The name or the id of the playlist that contains the
 338     video.
 339 -   playlist_index: The index of the video in the playlist, a five-digit
 340     number.
 341
 342 The current default template is %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s.
 343
 344 In some cases, you don't want special characters such as 中, spaces, or
 345 &, such as when transferring the downloaded filename to a Windows system
 346 or the filename through an 8bit-unsafe channel. In these cases, add the
 347 --restrict-filenames flag to get a shorter title:
 348
 349     $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
 350     youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4    # All kinds of weird characters
 351     $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
 352     youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4          # A simple file name
 353
 354 VIDEO SELECTION
 355 ===============
 356
 357 Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options --date,
 358 --datebefore or --dateafter, they accept dates in two formats:
 359
 360 -   Absolute dates: Dates in the format YYYYMMDD.
 361 -   Relative dates: Dates in the format
 362     (now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?
 363
 364 Examples:
 365
 366     # Download only the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
 367     $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-6months
 368
 369     # Download only the videos uploaded on January 1, 1970
 370     $ youtube-dl --date 19700101
 371
 372     $ # will only download the videos uploaded in the 200x decade
 373     $ youtube-dl --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20091231
 374
 375 FAQ
 376 ===
 377
 378 Can you please put the -b option back?
 379
 380 Most people asking this question are not aware that youtube-dl now
 381 defaults to downloading the highest available quality as reported by
 382 YouTube, which will be 1080p or 720p in some cases, so you no longer
 383 need the -b option. For some specific videos, maybe YouTube does not
 384 report them to be available in a specific high quality format you're
 385 interested in. In that case, simply request it with the -f option and
 386 youtube-dl will try to download it.
 387
 388 I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
 389
 390 Apparently YouTube requires you to pass a CAPTCHA test if you download
 391 too much. We're considering to provide a way to let you solve the
 392 CAPTCHA, but at the moment, your best course of action is pointing a
 393 webbrowser to the youtube URL, solving the CAPTCHA, and restart
 394 youtube-dl.
 395
 396 I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
 397
 398 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as vlc or
 399 mplayer.
 400
 401 The links provided by youtube-dl -g are not working anymore
 402
 403 The URLs youtube-dl outputs require the downloader to have the correct
 404 cookies. Use the --cookies option to write the required cookies into a
 405 file, and advise your downloader to read cookies from that file. Some
 406 sites also require a common user agent to be used, use --dump-user-agent
 407 to see the one in use by youtube-dl.
 408
 409 ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
 410
 411 youtube has switched to a new video info format in July 2011 which is
 412 not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl
 413 with sudo youtube-dl --update.
 414
 415 ERROR: unable to download video
 416
 417 youtube requires an additional signature since September 2012 which is
 418 not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl
 419 with sudo youtube-dl --update.
 420
 421 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character
 422
 423 The error
 424
 425     File "youtube-dl", line 2
 426     SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\x93' ...
 427
 428 means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to
 429 Python 2.6 or 2.7.
 430
 431 What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
 432
 433 Since June 2012 (#342) youtube-dl is packed as an executable zipfile,
 434 simply unzip it (might need renaming to youtube-dl.zip first on some
 435 systems) or clone the git repository, as laid out above. If you modify
 436 the code, you can run it by executing the __main__.py file. To recompile
 437 the executable, run make youtube-dl.
 438
 439 The exe throws a Runtime error from Visual C++
 440
 441 To run the exe you need to install first the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008
 442 Redistributable Package.
 443
 444 DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS
 445 ======================
 446
 447 Most users do not need to build youtube-dl and can download the builds
 448 or get them from their distribution.
 449
 450 To run youtube-dl as a developer, you don't need to build anything
 451 either. Simply execute
 452
 453     python -m youtube_dl
 454
 455 To run the test, simply invoke your favorite test runner, or execute a
 456 test file directly; any of the following work:
 457
 458     python -m unittest discover
 459     python test/test_download.py
 460     nosetests
 461
 462 If you want to create a build of youtube-dl yourself, you'll need
 463
 464 -   python
 465 -   make
 466 -   pandoc
 467 -   zip
 468 -   nosetests
 469
 470 Adding support for a new site
 471
 472 If you want to add support for a new site, you can follow this quick
 473 list (assuming your service is called yourextractor):
 474
 475 1.  Fork this repository
 476 2.  Check out the source code with
 477     git clone git@github.com:YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/youtube-dl.git
 478 3.  Start a new git branch with
 479     cd youtube-dl; git checkout -b yourextractor
 480 4.  Start with this simple template and save it to
 481     youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py:
 482
 483         # coding: utf-8
 484         from __future__ import unicode_literals
 485
 486         import re
 487
 488         from .common import InfoExtractor
 489
 490
 491         class YourExtractorIE(InfoExtractor):
 492             _VALID_URL = r'https?://(?:www\.)?yourextractor\.com/watch/(?P<id>[0-9]+)'
 493             _TEST = {
 494                 'url': 'http://yourextractor.com/watch/42',
 495                 'md5': 'TODO: md5 sum of the first 10KiB of the video file',
 496                 'info_dict': {
 497                     'id': '42',
 498                     'ext': 'mp4',
 499                     'title': 'Video title goes here',
 500                     # TODO more properties, either as:
 501                     # * A value
 502                     # * MD5 checksum; start the string with md5:
 503                     # * A regular expression; start the string with re:
 504                     # * Any Python type (for example int or float)
 505                 }
 506             }
 507
 508             def _real_extract(self, url):
 509                 mobj = re.match(self._VALID_URL, url)
 510                 video_id = mobj.group('id')
 511
 512                 # TODO more code goes here, for example ...
 513                 webpage = self._download_webpage(url, video_id)
 514                 title = self._html_search_regex(r'<h1>(.*?)</h1>', webpage, 'title')
 515
 516                 return {
 517                     'id': video_id,
 518                     'title': title,
 519                     # TODO more properties (see youtube_dl/extractor/common.py)
 520                 }
 521
 522 5.  Add an import in youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py.
 523 6.  Run python test/test_download.py TestDownload.test_YourExtractor.
 524     This should fail at first, but you can continually re-run it until
 525     you're done.
 526 7.  Have a look at youtube_dl/common/extractor/common.py for possible
 527     helper methods and a detailed description of what your extractor
 528     should return. Add tests and code for as many as you want.
 529 8.  If you can, check the code with pyflakes (a good idea) and pep8
 530     (optional, ignore E501).
 531 9.  When the tests pass, add the new files and commit them and push the
 532     result, like this:
 533
 534         $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py
 535         $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py
 536         $ git commit -m '[yourextractor] Add new extractor'
 537         $ git push origin yourextractor
 538
 539 10. Finally, create a pull request. We'll then review and merge it.
 540
 541 In any case, thank you very much for your contributions!
 542
 543 BUGS
 544 ====
 545
 546 Bugs and suggestions should be reported at:
 547 https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues . Unless you were prompted so
 548 or there is another pertinent reason (e.g. GitHub fails to accept the
 549 bug report), please do not send bug reports via personal email.
 550
 551 Please include the full output of the command when run with --verbose.
 552 The output (including the first lines) contain important debugging
 553 information. Issues without the full output are often not reproducible
 554 and therefore do not get solved in short order, if ever.
 555
 556 For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.
 557
 558 When you submit a request, please re-read it once to avoid a couple of
 559 mistakes (you can and should use this as a checklist):
 560
 561 Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?
 562
 563 We often get issue reports that we cannot really decipher. While in most
 564 cases we eventually get the required information after asking back
 565 multiple times, this poses an unnecessary drain on our resources. Many
 566 contributors, including myself, are also not native speakers, so we may
 567 misread some parts.
 568
 569 So please elaborate on what feature you are requesting, or what bug you
 570 want to be fixed. Make sure that it's obvious
 571
 572 -   What the problem is
 573 -   How it could be fixed
 574 -   How your proposed solution would look like
 575
 576 If your report is shorter than two lines, it is almost certainly missing
 577 some of these, which makes it hard for us to respond to it. We're often
 578 too polite to close the issue outright, but the missing info makes
 579 misinterpretation likely. As a commiter myself, I often get frustrated
 580 by these issues, since the only possible way for me to move forward on
 581 them is to ask for clarification over and over.
 582
 583 For bug reports, this means that your report should contain the complete
 584 output of youtube-dl when called with the -v flag. The error message you
 585 get for (most) bugs even says so, but you would not believe how many of
 586 our bug reports do not contain this information.
 587
 588 Site support requests must contain an example URL. An example URL is a
 589 URL you might want to download, like
 590 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc . There should be an obvious
 591 video present. Except under very special circumstances, the main page of
 592 a video service (e.g. http://www.youtube.com/ ) is not an example URL.
 593
 594 Are you using the latest version?
 595
 596 Before reporting any issue, type youtube-dl -U. This should report that
 597 you're up-to-date. About 20% of the reports we receive are already
 598 fixed, but people are using outdated versions. This goes for feature
 599 requests as well.
 600
 601 Is the issue already documented?
 602
 603 Make sure that someone has not already opened the issue you're trying to
 604 open. Search at the top of the window or at
 605 https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/search?type=Issues . If there is an
 606 issue, feel free to write something along the lines of "This affects me
 607 as well, with version 2015.01.01. Here is some more information on the
 608 issue: ...". While some issues may be old, a new post into them often
 609 spurs rapid activity.
 610
 611 Why are existing options not enough?
 612
 613 Before requesting a new feature, please have a quick peek at the list of
 614 supported options. Many feature requests are for features that actually
 615 exist already! Please, absolutely do show off your work in the issue
 616 report and detail how the existing similar options do not solve your
 617 problem.
 618
 619 Is there enough context in your bug report?
 620
 621 People want to solve problems, and often think they do us a favor by
 622 breaking down their larger problems (e.g. wanting to skip already
 623 downloaded files) to a specific request (e.g. requesting us to look
 624 whether the file exists before downloading the info page). However, what
 625 often happens is that they break down the problem into two steps: One
 626 simple, and one impossible (or extremely complicated one).
 627
 628 We are then presented with a very complicated request when the original
 629 problem could be solved far easier, e.g. by recording the downloaded
 630 video IDs in a separate file. To avoid this, you must include the
 631 greater context where it is non-obvious. In particular, every feature
 632 request that does not consist of adding support for a new site should
 633 contain a use case scenario that explains in what situation the missing
 634 feature would be useful.
 635
 636 Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?
 637
 638 Some of our users seem to think there is a limit of issues they can or
 639 should open. There is no limit of issues they can or should open. While
 640 it may seem appealing to be able to dump all your issues into one
 641 ticket, that means that someone who solves one of your issues cannot
 642 mark the issue as closed. Typically, reporting a bunch of issues leads
 643 to the ticket lingering since nobody wants to attack that behemoth,
 644 until someone mercifully splits the issue into multiple ones.
 645
 646 In particular, every site support request issue should only pertain to
 647 services at one site (generally under a common domain, but always using
 648 the same backend technology). Do not request support for vimeo user
 649 videos, Whitehouse podcasts, and Google Plus pages in the same issue.
 650 Also, make sure that you don't post bug reports alongside feature
 651 requests. As a rule of thumb, a feature request does not include outputs
 652 of youtube-dl that are not immediately related to the feature at hand.
 653 Do not post reports of a network error alongside the request for a new
 654 video service.
 655
 656 Is anyone going to need the feature?
 657
 658 Only post features that you (or an incapicated friend you can personally
 659 talk to) require. Do not post features because they seem like a good
 660 idea. If they are really useful, they will be requested by someone who
 661 requires them.
 662
 663 Is your question about youtube-dl?
 664
 665 It may sound strange, but some bug reports we receive are completely
 666 unrelated to youtube-dl and relate to a different or even the reporter's
 667 own application. Please make sure that you are actually using
 668 youtube-dl. If you are using a UI for youtube-dl, report the bug to the
 669 maintainer of the actual application providing the UI. On the other
 670 hand, if your UI for youtube-dl fails in some way you believe is related
 671 to youtube-dl, by all means, go ahead and report the bug.
 672
 673 COPYRIGHT
 674 =========
 675
 676 youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
 677
 678 This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton
 679 (https://github.com/dbbolton) and is likewise released into the public
 680 domain.