[youtubedl] / youtube-dl.1

.TH "YOUTUBE\-DL" "1" "" "" ""
.SH NAME
.PP
youtube\-dl \- download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms
.SH SYNOPSIS
.PP
\f[B]youtube\-dl\f[] [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
\f[B]youtube\-dl\f[] is a small 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.
.SH OPTIONS
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
\-h,\ \-\-help\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Print\ this\ help\ text\ and\ exit
\-\-version\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Print\ program\ version\ and\ exit
\-U,\ \-\-update\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Update\ this\ program\ to\ latest\ version.\ Make\ sure\ that\ you\ have\ sufficient\ permissions\ (run\ with\ sudo\ if\ needed)
\-i,\ \-\-ignore\-errors\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Continue\ on\ download\ errors,\ for\ example\ to\ skip\ unavailable\ videos\ in\ a\ playlist
\-\-abort\-on\-error\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Abort\ downloading\ of\ further\ videos\ (in\ the\ playlist\ or\ the\ command\ line)\ if\ an\ error\ occurs
\-\-dump\-user\-agent\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Display\ the\ current\ browser\ identification
\-\-list\-extractors\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ List\ all\ supported\ extractors
\-\-extractor\-descriptions\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Output\ descriptions\ of\ all\ supported\ extractors
\-\-force\-generic\-extractor\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Force\ extraction\ to\ use\ the\ generic\ extractor
\-\-default\-search\ PREFIX\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Use\ this\ prefix\ for\ unqualified\ URLs.\ For\ example\ "gvsearch2:"\ downloads\ two\ videos\ from\ google\ videos\ for\ youtube\-dl\ "large\ apple".
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Use\ the\ value\ "auto"\ to\ let\ youtube\-dl\ guess\ ("auto_warning"\ to\ emit\ a\ warning\ when\ guessing).\ "error"\ just\ throws\ an\ error.\ The
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ default\ value\ "fixup_error"\ repairs\ broken\ URLs,\ but\ emits\ an\ error\ if\ this\ is\ not\ possible\ instead\ of\ searching.
\-\-ignore\-config\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Do\ not\ read\ configuration\ files.\ When\ given\ in\ the\ global\ configuration\ file\ /etc/youtube\-dl.conf:\ Do\ not\ read\ the\ user\ configuration
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ in\ ~/.config/youtube\-dl/config\ (%APPDATA%/youtube\-dl/config.txt\ on\ Windows)
\-\-flat\-playlist\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Do\ not\ extract\ the\ videos\ of\ a\ playlist,\ only\ list\ them.
\-\-no\-color\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Do\ not\ emit\ color\ codes\ in\ output
\f[]
.fi
.SS Network Options:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
\-\-proxy\ URL\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Use\ the\ specified\ HTTP/HTTPS\ proxy.\ Pass\ in\ an\ empty\ string\ (\-\-proxy\ "")\ for\ direct\ connection
\-\-socket\-timeout\ SECONDS\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Time\ to\ wait\ before\ giving\ up,\ in\ seconds
\-\-source\-address\ IP\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Client\-side\ IP\ address\ to\ bind\ to\ (experimental)
\-4,\ \-\-force\-ipv4\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Make\ all\ connections\ via\ IPv4\ (experimental)
\-6,\ \-\-force\-ipv6\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Make\ all\ connections\ via\ IPv6\ (experimental)
\-\-cn\-verification\-proxy\ URL\ \ \ \ \ \ Use\ this\ proxy\ to\ verify\ the\ IP\ address\ for\ some\ Chinese\ sites.\ The\ default\ proxy\ specified\ by\ \-\-proxy\ (or\ none,\ if\ the\ options\ is
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ not\ present)\ is\ used\ for\ the\ actual\ downloading.\ (experimental)
\f[]
.fi
.SS Video Selection:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
\-\-playlist\-start\ NUMBER\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Playlist\ video\ to\ start\ at\ (default\ is\ 1)
\-\-playlist\-end\ NUMBER\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Playlist\ video\ to\ end\ at\ (default\ is\ last)
\-\-playlist\-items\ ITEM_SPEC\ \ \ \ \ \ \ Playlist\ video\ items\ to\ download.\ Specify\ indices\ of\ the\ videos\ in\ the\ playlist\ separated\ by\ commas\ like:\ "\-\-playlist\-items\ 1,2,5,8"
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ if\ you\ want\ to\ download\ videos\ indexed\ 1,\ 2,\ 5,\ 8\ in\ the\ playlist.\ You\ can\ specify\ range:\ "\-\-playlist\-items\ 1\-3,7,10\-13",\ it\ will
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ download\ the\ videos\ at\ index\ 1,\ 2,\ 3,\ 7,\ 10,\ 11,\ 12\ and\ 13.
\-\-match\-title\ REGEX\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Download\ only\ matching\ titles\ (regex\ or\ caseless\ sub\-string)
\-\-reject\-title\ REGEX\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Skip\ download\ for\ matching\ titles\ (regex\ or\ caseless\ sub\-string)
\-\-max\-downloads\ NUMBER\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Abort\ after\ downloading\ NUMBER\ files
\-\-min\-filesize\ SIZE\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Do\ not\ download\ any\ videos\ smaller\ than\ SIZE\ (e.g.\ 50k\ or\ 44.6m)
\-\-max\-filesize\ SIZE\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Do\ not\ download\ any\ videos\ larger\ than\ SIZE\ (e.g.\ 50k\ or\ 44.6m)
\-\-date\ DATE\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Download\ only\ videos\ uploaded\ in\ this\ date
\-\-datebefore\ DATE\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Download\ only\ videos\ uploaded\ on\ or\ before\ this\ date\ (i.e.\ inclusive)
\-\-dateafter\ DATE\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Download\ only\ videos\ uploaded\ on\ or\ after\ this\ date\ (i.e.\ inclusive)
\-\-min\-views\ COUNT\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Do\ not\ download\ any\ videos\ with\ less\ than\ COUNT\ views
\-\-max\-views\ COUNT\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Do\ not\ download\ any\ videos\ with\ more\ than\ COUNT\ views
\-\-match\-filter\ FILTER\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Generic\ video\ filter\ (experimental).\ Specify\ any\ key\ (see\ help\ for\ \-o\ for\ a\ list\ of\ available\ keys)\ to\ match\ if\ the\ key\ is\ present,
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ !key\ to\ check\ if\ the\ key\ is\ not\ present,key\ >\ NUMBER\ (like\ "comment_count\ >\ 12",\ also\ works\ with\ >=,\ <,\ <=,\ !=,\ =)\ to\ compare\ against
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ a\ number,\ and\ &\ to\ require\ multiple\ matches.\ Values\ which\ are\ not\ known\ are\ excluded\ unless\ you\ put\ a\ question\ mark\ (?)\ after\ the
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ operator.For\ example,\ to\ only\ match\ videos\ that\ have\ been\ liked\ more\ than\ 100\ times\ and\ disliked\ less\ than\ 50\ times\ (or\ the\ dislike
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ functionality\ is\ not\ available\ at\ the\ given\ service),\ but\ who\ also\ have\ a\ description,\ use\ \ \-\-match\-filter\ "like_count\ >\ 100\ &
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ dislike_count\ <?\ 50\ &\ description"\ .
\-\-no\-playlist\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Download\ only\ the\ video,\ if\ the\ URL\ refers\ to\ a\ video\ and\ a\ playlist.
\-\-yes\-playlist\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Download\ the\ playlist,\ if\ the\ URL\ refers\ to\ a\ video\ and\ a\ playlist.
\-\-age\-limit\ YEARS\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Download\ only\ videos\ suitable\ for\ the\ given\ age
\-\-download\-archive\ FILE\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Download\ only\ videos\ not\ listed\ in\ the\ archive\ file.\ Record\ the\ IDs\ of\ all\ downloaded\ videos\ in\ it.
\-\-include\-ads\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Download\ advertisements\ as\ well\ (experimental)
\f[]
.fi
.SS Download Options:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
\-r,\ \-\-rate\-limit\ LIMIT\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Maximum\ download\ rate\ in\ bytes\ per\ second\ (e.g.\ 50K\ or\ 4.2M)
\-R,\ \-\-retries\ RETRIES\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Number\ of\ retries\ (default\ is\ 10),\ or\ "infinite".
\-\-buffer\-size\ SIZE\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Size\ of\ download\ buffer\ (e.g.\ 1024\ or\ 16K)\ (default\ is\ 1024)
\-\-no\-resize\-buffer\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Do\ not\ automatically\ adjust\ the\ buffer\ size.\ By\ default,\ the\ buffer\ size\ is\ automatically\ resized\ from\ an\ initial\ value\ of\ SIZE.
\-\-playlist\-reverse\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Download\ playlist\ videos\ in\ reverse\ order
\-\-xattr\-set\-filesize\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Set\ file\ xattribute\ ytdl.filesize\ with\ expected\ filesize\ (experimental)
\-\-hls\-prefer\-native\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Use\ the\ native\ HLS\ downloader\ instead\ of\ ffmpeg\ (experimental)
\-\-external\-downloader\ COMMAND\ \ \ \ Use\ the\ specified\ external\ downloader.\ Currently\ supports\ aria2c,curl,httpie,wget
\-\-external\-downloader\-args\ ARGS\ \ Give\ these\ arguments\ to\ the\ external\ downloader
\f[]
.fi
.SS Filesystem Options:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
\-a,\ \-\-batch\-file\ FILE\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ File\ containing\ URLs\ to\ download\ (\[aq]\-\[aq]\ for\ stdin)
\-\-id\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Use\ only\ video\ ID\ in\ file\ name
\-o,\ \-\-output\ TEMPLATE\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Output\ filename\ template.\ Use\ %(title)s\ to\ get\ the\ title,\ %(uploader)s\ for\ the\ uploader\ name,\ %(uploader_id)s\ for\ the\ uploader
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ nickname\ if\ different,\ %(autonumber)s\ to\ get\ an\ automatically\ incremented\ number,\ %(ext)s\ for\ the\ filename\ extension,\ %(format)s\ for
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ the\ format\ description\ (like\ "22\ \-\ 1280x720"\ or\ "HD"),\ %(format_id)s\ for\ the\ unique\ id\ of\ the\ format\ (like\ YouTube\[aq]s\ itags:\ "137"),
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ %(upload_date)s\ for\ the\ upload\ date\ (YYYYMMDD),\ %(extractor)s\ for\ the\ provider\ (youtube,\ metacafe,\ etc),\ %(id)s\ for\ the\ video\ id,
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ %(playlist_title)s,\ %(playlist_id)s,\ or\ %(playlist)s\ (=title\ if\ present,\ ID\ otherwise)\ for\ the\ playlist\ the\ video\ is\ in,
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ %(playlist_index)s\ for\ the\ position\ in\ the\ playlist.\ %(height)s\ and\ %(width)s\ for\ the\ width\ and\ height\ of\ the\ video\ format.
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ %(resolution)s\ for\ a\ textual\ description\ of\ the\ resolution\ of\ the\ video\ format.\ %%\ for\ a\ literal\ percent.\ Use\ \-\ to\ output\ to\ stdout.
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Can\ also\ be\ used\ to\ download\ to\ a\ different\ directory,\ for\ example\ with\ \-o\ \[aq]/my/downloads/%(uploader)s/%(title)s\-%(id)s.%(ext)s\[aq]\ .
\-\-autonumber\-size\ NUMBER\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Specify\ the\ number\ of\ digits\ in\ %(autonumber)s\ when\ it\ is\ present\ in\ output\ filename\ template\ or\ \-\-auto\-number\ option\ is\ given
\-\-restrict\-filenames\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Restrict\ filenames\ to\ only\ ASCII\ characters,\ and\ avoid\ "&"\ and\ spaces\ in\ filenames
\-A,\ \-\-auto\-number\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ [deprecated;\ use\ \ \-o\ "%(autonumber)s\-%(title)s.%(ext)s"\ ]\ Number\ downloaded\ files\ starting\ from\ 00000
\-t,\ \-\-title\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ [deprecated]\ Use\ title\ in\ file\ name\ (default)
\-l,\ \-\-literal\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ [deprecated]\ Alias\ of\ \-\-title
\-w,\ \-\-no\-overwrites\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Do\ not\ overwrite\ files
\-c,\ \-\-continue\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Force\ resume\ of\ partially\ downloaded\ files.\ By\ default,\ youtube\-dl\ will\ resume\ downloads\ if\ possible.
\-\-no\-continue\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Do\ not\ resume\ partially\ downloaded\ files\ (restart\ from\ beginning)
\-\-no\-part\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Do\ not\ use\ .part\ files\ \-\ write\ directly\ into\ output\ file
\-\-no\-mtime\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Do\ not\ use\ the\ Last\-modified\ header\ to\ set\ the\ file\ modification\ time
\-\-write\-description\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Write\ video\ description\ to\ a\ .description\ file
\-\-write\-info\-json\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Write\ video\ metadata\ to\ a\ .info.json\ file
\-\-write\-annotations\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Write\ video\ annotations\ to\ a\ .annotations.xml\ file
\-\-load\-info\ FILE\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ JSON\ file\ containing\ the\ video\ information\ (created\ with\ the\ "\-\-write\-info\-json"\ option)
\-\-cookies\ FILE\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ File\ to\ read\ cookies\ from\ and\ dump\ cookie\ jar\ in
\-\-cache\-dir\ DIR\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Location\ in\ the\ filesystem\ where\ youtube\-dl\ can\ store\ some\ downloaded\ information\ permanently.\ By\ default\ $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube\-dl
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ or\ ~/.cache/youtube\-dl\ .\ At\ the\ moment,\ only\ YouTube\ player\ files\ (for\ videos\ with\ obfuscated\ signatures)\ are\ cached,\ but\ that\ may
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ change.
\-\-no\-cache\-dir\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Disable\ filesystem\ caching
\-\-rm\-cache\-dir\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Delete\ all\ filesystem\ cache\ files
\f[]
.fi
.SS Thumbnail images:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
\-\-write\-thumbnail\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Write\ thumbnail\ image\ to\ disk
\-\-write\-all\-thumbnails\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Write\ all\ thumbnail\ image\ formats\ to\ disk
\-\-list\-thumbnails\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Simulate\ and\ list\ all\ available\ thumbnail\ formats
\f[]
.fi
.SS Verbosity / Simulation Options:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
\-q,\ \-\-quiet\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Activate\ quiet\ mode
\-\-no\-warnings\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Ignore\ warnings
\-s,\ \-\-simulate\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Do\ not\ download\ the\ video\ and\ do\ not\ write\ anything\ to\ disk
\-\-skip\-download\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Do\ not\ download\ the\ video
\-g,\ \-\-get\-url\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Simulate,\ quiet\ but\ print\ URL
\-e,\ \-\-get\-title\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Simulate,\ quiet\ but\ print\ title
\-\-get\-id\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Simulate,\ quiet\ but\ print\ id
\-\-get\-thumbnail\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Simulate,\ quiet\ but\ print\ thumbnail\ URL
\-\-get\-description\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Simulate,\ quiet\ but\ print\ video\ description
\-\-get\-duration\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Simulate,\ quiet\ but\ print\ video\ length
\-\-get\-filename\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Simulate,\ quiet\ but\ print\ output\ filename
\-\-get\-format\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Simulate,\ quiet\ but\ print\ output\ format
\-j,\ \-\-dump\-json\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Simulate,\ quiet\ but\ print\ JSON\ information.\ See\ \-\-output\ for\ a\ description\ of\ available\ keys.
\-J,\ \-\-dump\-single\-json\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Simulate,\ quiet\ but\ print\ JSON\ information\ for\ each\ command\-line\ argument.\ If\ the\ URL\ refers\ to\ a\ playlist,\ dump\ the\ whole\ playlist
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ information\ in\ a\ single\ line.
\-\-print\-json\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Be\ quiet\ and\ print\ the\ video\ information\ as\ JSON\ (video\ is\ still\ being\ downloaded).
\-\-newline\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Output\ progress\ bar\ as\ new\ lines
\-\-no\-progress\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Do\ not\ print\ progress\ bar
\-\-console\-title\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Display\ progress\ in\ console\ titlebar
\-v,\ \-\-verbose\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Print\ various\ debugging\ information
\-\-dump\-pages\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Print\ downloaded\ pages\ encoded\ using\ base64\ to\ debug\ problems\ (very\ verbose)
\-\-write\-pages\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Write\ downloaded\ intermediary\ pages\ to\ files\ in\ the\ current\ directory\ to\ debug\ problems
\-\-print\-traffic\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Display\ sent\ and\ read\ HTTP\ traffic
\-C,\ \-\-call\-home\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Contact\ the\ youtube\-dl\ server\ for\ debugging
\-\-no\-call\-home\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Do\ NOT\ contact\ the\ youtube\-dl\ server\ for\ debugging
\f[]
.fi
.SS Workarounds:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
\-\-encoding\ ENCODING\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Force\ the\ specified\ encoding\ (experimental)
\-\-no\-check\-certificate\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Suppress\ HTTPS\ certificate\ validation
\-\-prefer\-insecure\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Use\ an\ unencrypted\ connection\ to\ retrieve\ information\ about\ the\ video.\ (Currently\ supported\ only\ for\ YouTube)
\-\-user\-agent\ UA\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Specify\ a\ custom\ user\ agent
\-\-referer\ URL\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Specify\ a\ custom\ referer,\ use\ if\ the\ video\ access\ is\ restricted\ to\ one\ domain
\-\-add\-header\ FIELD:VALUE\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Specify\ a\ custom\ HTTP\ header\ and\ its\ value,\ separated\ by\ a\ colon\ \[aq]:\[aq].\ You\ can\ use\ this\ option\ multiple\ times
\-\-bidi\-workaround\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Work\ around\ terminals\ that\ lack\ bidirectional\ text\ support.\ Requires\ bidiv\ or\ fribidi\ executable\ in\ PATH
\-\-sleep\-interval\ SECONDS\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Number\ of\ seconds\ to\ sleep\ before\ each\ download.
\f[]
.fi
.SS Video Format Options:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
\-f,\ \-\-format\ FORMAT\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Video\ format\ code,\ see\ the\ "FORMAT\ SELECTION"\ for\ all\ the\ info
\-\-all\-formats\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Download\ all\ available\ video\ formats
\-\-prefer\-free\-formats\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Prefer\ free\ video\ formats\ unless\ a\ specific\ one\ is\ requested
\-F,\ \-\-list\-formats\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ List\ all\ available\ formats
\-\-youtube\-skip\-dash\-manifest\ \ \ \ \ Do\ not\ download\ the\ DASH\ manifests\ and\ related\ data\ on\ YouTube\ videos
\-\-merge\-output\-format\ FORMAT\ \ \ \ \ If\ a\ merge\ is\ required\ (e.g.\ bestvideo+bestaudio),\ output\ to\ given\ container\ format.\ One\ of\ mkv,\ mp4,\ ogg,\ webm,\ flv.\ Ignored\ if\ no
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ merge\ is\ required
\f[]
.fi
.SS Subtitle Options:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
\-\-write\-sub\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Write\ subtitle\ file
\-\-write\-auto\-sub\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Write\ automatic\ subtitle\ file\ (YouTube\ only)
\-\-all\-subs\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Download\ all\ the\ available\ subtitles\ of\ the\ video
\-\-list\-subs\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ List\ all\ available\ subtitles\ for\ the\ video
\-\-sub\-format\ FORMAT\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Subtitle\ format,\ accepts\ formats\ preference,\ for\ example:\ "srt"\ or\ "ass/srt/best"
\-\-sub\-lang\ LANGS\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Languages\ of\ the\ subtitles\ to\ download\ (optional)\ separated\ by\ commas,\ use\ IETF\ language\ tags\ like\ \[aq]en,pt\[aq]
\f[]
.fi
.SS Authentication Options:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
\-u,\ \-\-username\ USERNAME\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Login\ with\ this\ account\ ID
\-p,\ \-\-password\ PASSWORD\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Account\ password.\ If\ this\ option\ is\ left\ out,\ youtube\-dl\ will\ ask\ interactively.
\-2,\ \-\-twofactor\ TWOFACTOR\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Two\-factor\ auth\ code
\-n,\ \-\-netrc\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Use\ .netrc\ authentication\ data
\-\-video\-password\ PASSWORD\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Video\ password\ (vimeo,\ smotri)
\f[]
.fi
.SS Post\-processing Options:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
\-x,\ \-\-extract\-audio\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Convert\ video\ files\ to\ audio\-only\ files\ (requires\ ffmpeg\ or\ avconv\ and\ ffprobe\ or\ avprobe)
\-\-audio\-format\ FORMAT\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Specify\ audio\ format:\ "best",\ "aac",\ "vorbis",\ "mp3",\ "m4a",\ "opus",\ or\ "wav";\ "best"\ by\ default
\-\-audio\-quality\ QUALITY\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Specify\ ffmpeg/avconv\ audio\ quality,\ insert\ a\ value\ between\ 0\ (better)\ and\ 9\ (worse)\ for\ VBR\ or\ a\ specific\ bitrate\ like\ 128K\ (default
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ 5)
\-\-recode\-video\ FORMAT\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Encode\ the\ video\ to\ another\ format\ if\ necessary\ (currently\ supported:\ mp4|flv|ogg|webm|mkv|avi)
\-\-postprocessor\-args\ ARGS\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Give\ these\ arguments\ to\ the\ postprocessor
\-k,\ \-\-keep\-video\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Keep\ the\ video\ file\ on\ disk\ after\ the\ post\-processing;\ the\ video\ is\ erased\ by\ default
\-\-no\-post\-overwrites\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Do\ not\ overwrite\ post\-processed\ files;\ the\ post\-processed\ files\ are\ overwritten\ by\ default
\-\-embed\-subs\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Embed\ subtitles\ in\ the\ video\ (only\ for\ mkv\ and\ mp4\ videos)
\-\-embed\-thumbnail\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Embed\ thumbnail\ in\ the\ audio\ as\ cover\ art
\-\-add\-metadata\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Write\ metadata\ to\ the\ video\ file
\-\-metadata\-from\-title\ FORMAT\ \ \ \ \ Parse\ additional\ metadata\ like\ song\ title\ /\ artist\ from\ the\ video\ title.\ The\ format\ syntax\ is\ the\ same\ as\ \-\-output,\ the\ parsed
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ parameters\ replace\ existing\ values.\ Additional\ templates:\ %(album)s,\ %(artist)s.\ Example:\ \-\-metadata\-from\-title\ "%(artist)s\ \-
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ %(title)s"\ matches\ a\ title\ like\ "Coldplay\ \-\ Paradise"
\-\-xattrs\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Write\ metadata\ to\ the\ video\ file\[aq]s\ xattrs\ (using\ dublin\ core\ and\ xdg\ standards)
\-\-fixup\ POLICY\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Automatically\ correct\ known\ faults\ of\ the\ file.\ One\ of\ never\ (do\ nothing),\ warn\ (only\ emit\ a\ warning),\ detect_or_warn\ (the\ default;
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ fix\ file\ if\ we\ can,\ warn\ otherwise)
\-\-prefer\-avconv\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Prefer\ avconv\ over\ ffmpeg\ for\ running\ the\ postprocessors\ (default)
\-\-prefer\-ffmpeg\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Prefer\ ffmpeg\ over\ avconv\ for\ running\ the\ postprocessors
\-\-ffmpeg\-location\ PATH\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Location\ of\ the\ ffmpeg/avconv\ binary;\ either\ the\ path\ to\ the\ binary\ or\ its\ containing\ directory.
\-\-exec\ CMD\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Execute\ a\ command\ on\ the\ file\ after\ downloading,\ similar\ to\ find\[aq]s\ \-exec\ syntax.\ Example:\ \-\-exec\ \[aq]adb\ push\ {}\ /sdcard/Music/\ &&\ rm
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ {}\[aq]
\-\-convert\-subtitles\ FORMAT\ \ \ \ \ \ \ Convert\ the\ subtitles\ to\ other\ format\ (currently\ supported:\ srt|ass|vtt)
\f[]
.fi
.SH CONFIGURATION
.PP
You can configure youtube\-dl by placing default arguments (such as
\f[C]\-\-extract\-audio\ \-\-no\-mtime\f[] to always extract the audio
and not copy the mtime) into \f[C]/etc/youtube\-dl.conf\f[] and/or
\f[C]~/.config/youtube\-dl/config\f[].
On Windows, the configuration file locations are
\f[C]%APPDATA%\\youtube\-dl\\config.txt\f[] and
\f[C]C:\\Users\\<user\ name>\\youtube\-dl.conf\f[].
.SS Authentication with \f[C]\&.netrc\f[] file
.PP
You may also want to configure automatic credentials storage for
extractors that support authentication (by providing login and password
with \f[C]\-\-username\f[] and \f[C]\-\-password\f[]) in order not to
pass credentials as command line arguments on every youtube\-dl
execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in shell command
history.
You can achieve this using \f[C]\&.netrc\f[]
file (http://stackoverflow.com/tags/.netrc/info) on per extractor basis.
For that you will need to create \f[C]\&.netrc\f[] file in your
\f[C]$HOME\f[] and restrict permissions to read/write by you only:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
touch\ $HOME/.netrc
chmod\ a\-rwx,u+rw\ $HOME/.netrc
\f[]
.fi
.PP
After that you can add credentials for extractor in the following
format, where \f[I]extractor\f[] is the name of extractor in lowercase:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
machine\ <extractor>\ login\ <login>\ password\ <password>
\f[]
.fi
.PP
For example:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
machine\ youtube\ login\ myaccount\@gmail.com\ password\ my_youtube_password
machine\ twitch\ login\ my_twitch_account_name\ password\ my_twitch_password
\f[]
.fi
.PP
To activate authentication with \f[C]\&.netrc\f[] file you should pass
\f[C]\-\-netrc\f[] to youtube\-dl or to place it in configuration
file (#configuration).
.PP
On Windows you may also need to setup \f[C]%HOME%\f[] environment
variable manually.
.SH OUTPUT TEMPLATE
.PP
The \f[C]\-o\f[] 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
\f[C]youtube\-dl\ \-o\ funny_video.flv\ "http://some/video"\f[].
However, it may contain special sequences that will be replaced when
downloading each video.
The special sequences have the format \f[C]%(NAME)s\f[].
To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parenthesis,
followed by a lowercase S.
Allowed names are:
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]id\f[]: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier.
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]url\f[]: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL.
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]uploader\f[]: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the
person who uploaded the video.
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]upload_date\f[]: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date
in YYYYMMDD format.
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]title\f[]: The sequence will be replaced by the video title.
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]ext\f[]: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension
(like flv or mp4).
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]epoch\f[]: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when
creating the file.
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]autonumber\f[]: The sequence will be replaced by a five\-digit
number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]playlist\f[]: The name or the id of the playlist that contains the
video.
.IP \[bu] 2
\f[C]playlist_index\f[]: The index of the video in the playlist, a
five\-digit number.
.PP
The current default template is \f[C]%(title)s\-%(id)s.%(ext)s\f[].
.PP
In some cases, you don\[aq]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 \f[C]\-\-restrict\-filenames\f[] flag to get a
shorter title:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$\ youtube\-dl\ \-\-get\-filename\ \-o\ "%(title)s.%(ext)s"\ BaW_jenozKc
youtube\-dl\ test\ video\ \[aq]\[aq]_ä↭𝕐.mp4\ \ \ \ #\ All\ kinds\ of\ weird\ characters
$\ youtube\-dl\ \-\-get\-filename\ \-o\ "%(title)s.%(ext)s"\ BaW_jenozKc\ \-\-restrict\-filenames
youtube\-dl_test_video_.mp4\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ #\ A\ simple\ file\ name
\f[]
.fi
.SH FORMAT SELECTION
.PP
By default youtube\-dl tries to download the best quality, but sometimes
you may want to download other format.
The simplest case is requesting a specific format, for example
\f[C]\-f\ 22\f[].
You can get the list of available formats using
\f[C]\-\-list\-formats\f[], you can also use a file extension (currently
it supports aac, m4a, mp3, mp4, ogg, wav, webm) or the special names
\f[C]best\f[], \f[C]bestvideo\f[], \f[C]bestaudio\f[] and
\f[C]worst\f[].
.PP
If you want to download multiple videos and they don\[aq]t have the same
formats available, you can specify the order of preference using
slashes, as in \f[C]\-f\ 22/17/18\f[].
You can also filter the video results by putting a condition in
brackets, as in \f[C]\-f\ "best[height=720]"\f[] (or
\f[C]\-f\ "[filesize>10M]"\f[]).
This works for filesize, height, width, tbr, abr, vbr, asr, and fps and
the comparisons <, <=, >, >=, =, != and for ext, acodec, vcodec,
container, and protocol and the comparisons =, != .
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[C]\-f\ "[height\ <=?\ 720][tbr>500]"\f[] selects up to 720p videos
(or videos where the height is not known) with a bitrate of at least 500
KBit/s.
Use commas to download multiple formats, such as
\f[C]\-f\ 136/137/mp4/bestvideo,140/m4a/bestaudio\f[].
You can merge the video and audio of two formats into a single file
using \f[C]\-f\ <video\-format>+<audio\-format>\f[] (requires ffmpeg or
avconv), for example \f[C]\-f\ bestvideo+bestaudio\f[].
.PP
Since the end of April 2015 and version 2015.04.26 youtube\-dl uses
\f[C]\-f\ bestvideo+bestaudio/best\f[] as default format selection (see
#5447, #5456).
If ffmpeg or avconv are installed this results in downloading
\f[C]bestvideo\f[] and \f[C]bestaudio\f[] separately and muxing them
together into a single file giving the best overall quality available.
Otherwise it falls back to \f[C]best\f[] and results in downloading best
available quality served as a single file.
\f[C]best\f[] is also needed for videos that don\[aq]t come from YouTube
because they don\[aq]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[C]\-f\ bestvideo[height<=?1080]+bestaudio/best\f[] to
your configuration file.
Note that if you use youtube\-dl to stream to \f[C]stdout\f[] (and most
likely to pipe it to your media player then), i.e.
you explicitly specify output template as \f[C]\-o\ \-\f[], youtube\-dl
still uses \f[C]\-f\ best\f[] format selection in order to start content
delivery immediately to your player and not to wait until
\f[C]bestvideo\f[] and \f[C]bestaudio\f[] are downloaded and muxed.
.PP
If you want to preserve the old format selection behavior (prior to
youtube\-dl 2015.04.26), i.e.
you want to download best available quality media served as a single
file, you should explicitly specify your choice with \f[C]\-f\ best\f[].
You may want to add it to the configuration file (#configuration) in
order not to type it every time you run youtube\-dl.
.SH VIDEO SELECTION
.PP
Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options
\f[C]\-\-date\f[], \f[C]\-\-datebefore\f[] or \f[C]\-\-dateafter\f[],
they accept dates in two formats:
.IP \[bu] 2
Absolute dates: Dates in the format \f[C]YYYYMMDD\f[].
.IP \[bu] 2
Relative dates: Dates in the format
\f[C](now|today)[+\-][0\-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?\f[]
.PP
Examples:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
#\ Download\ only\ the\ videos\ uploaded\ in\ the\ last\ 6\ months
$\ youtube\-dl\ \-\-dateafter\ now\-6months

#\ Download\ only\ the\ videos\ uploaded\ on\ January\ 1,\ 1970
$\ youtube\-dl\ \-\-date\ 19700101

$\ #\ will\ only\ download\ the\ videos\ uploaded\ in\ the\ 200x\ decade
$\ youtube\-dl\ \-\-dateafter\ 20000101\ \-\-datebefore\ 20091231
\f[]
.fi
.SH FAQ
.SS How do I update youtube\-dl?
.PP
If you\[aq]ve followed our manual installation
instructions (http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html), you can
simply run \f[C]youtube\-dl\ \-U\f[] (or, on Linux,
\f[C]sudo\ youtube\-dl\ \-U\f[]).
.PP
If you have used pip, a simple
\f[C]sudo\ pip\ install\ \-U\ youtube\-dl\f[] is sufficient to update.
.PP
If you have installed youtube\-dl using a package manager like
\f[I]apt\-get\f[] or \f[I]yum\f[], 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
distributions serves a really outdated version.
You can (and should) complain to your distribution in their bugtracker
or support forum.
.PP
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\[aq]s package, with a line like
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
sudo\ apt\-get\ remove\ \-y\ youtube\-dl
\f[]
.fi
.PP
Afterwards, simply follow our manual installation
instructions (http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html):
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
sudo\ wget\ https://yt\-dl.org/latest/youtube\-dl\ \-O\ /usr/local/bin/youtube\-dl
sudo\ chmod\ a+x\ /usr/local/bin/youtube\-dl
hash\ \-r
\f[]
.fi
.PP
Again, from then on you\[aq]ll be able to update with
\f[C]sudo\ youtube\-dl\ \-U\f[].
.SS I\[aq]m getting an error
\f[C]Unable\ to\ extract\ OpenGraph\ title\f[] on YouTube playlists
.PP
YouTube changed their playlist format in March 2014 and later on, so
you\[aq]ll need at least youtube\-dl 2014.07.25 to download all YouTube
videos.
.PP
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
guys (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.
.SS Do I always have to pass \f[C]\-citw\f[]?
.PP
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 \f[C]\-citw\f[] that is regularly
useful is \f[C]\-i\f[].
.SS Can you please put the \-b option back?
.PP
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 \f[C]\-b\f[] option.
For some specific videos, maybe YouTube does not report them to be
available in a specific high quality format you\[aq]re interested in.
In that case, simply request it with the \f[C]\-f\f[] option and
youtube\-dl will try to download it.
.SS I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What\[aq]s
this?
.PP
Apparently YouTube requires you to pass a CAPTCHA test if you download
too much.
We\[aq]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.
.SS I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
.PP
Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as
vlc (http://www.videolan.org) or mplayer (http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
.SS I extracted a video URL with \-g, but it does not play on another
machine / in my webbrowser.
.PP
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.
Use the \f[C]\-\-cookies\f[] 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
\f[C]\-\-dump\-user\-agent\f[] to see the one in use by youtube\-dl.
.PP
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.
.PP
Please bear in mind that some URL protocols are \f[B]not\f[] supported
by browsers out of the box, including RTMP.
If you are using \-g, your own downloader must support these as well.
.PP
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 \f[C]\-o\ \-\f[] to let youtube\-dl stream a video to
stdout, or simply allow the player to download the files written by
youtube\-dl in turn.
.SS ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
.PP
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.
.SS ERROR: unable to download video
.PP
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.
.SS Video URL contains an ampersand and I\[aq]m getting some strange
output \f[C][1]\ 2839\f[] or
\f[C]\[aq]v\[aq]\ is\ not\ recognized\ as\ an\ internal\ or\ external\ command\f[]
.PP
That\[aq]s actually the output from your shell.
Since ampersand is one of the special shell characters it\[aq]s
interpreted by 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).
.PP
For example if your URL is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc you should end up with
following command:
.PP
\f[C]youtube\-dl\ \[aq]https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc\[aq]\f[]
.PP
or
.PP
\f[C]youtube\-dl\ https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4\\&v=BaW_jenozKc\f[]
.PP
For Windows you have to use the double quotes:
.PP
\f[C]youtube\-dl\ "https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc"\f[]
.SS ExtractorError: Could not find JS function u\[aq]OF\[aq]
.PP
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.
.SS HTTP Error 429: Too Many Requests or 402: Payment Required
.PP
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
\f[C]\-\-proxy\f[] or \f[C]\-\-source\-address\f[]
options (#network-options) to select another IP address.
.SS SyntaxError: Non\-ASCII character
.PP
The error
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
File\ "youtube\-dl",\ line\ 2
SyntaxError:\ Non\-ASCII\ character\ \[aq]\\x93\[aq]\ ...
\f[]
.fi
.PP
means you\[aq]re using an outdated version of Python.
Please update to Python 2.6 or 2.7.
.SS What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
.PP
Since June 2012 (#342) youtube\-dl is packed as an executable zipfile,
simply unzip it (might need renaming to \f[C]youtube\-dl.zip\f[] 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
\f[C]__main__.py\f[] file.
To recompile the executable, run \f[C]make\ youtube\-dl\f[].
.SS The exe throws a \f[I]Runtime error from Visual C++\f[]
.PP
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).
.SS On Windows, how should I set up ffmpeg and youtube\-dl? Where should
I put the exe files?
.PP
If you put youtube\-dl and ffmpeg in the same directory that you\[aq]re
running the command from, it will work, but that\[aq]s rather
cumbersome.
.PP
To make a different directory work \- either for ffmpeg, or for
youtube\-dl, or for both \- simply create the directory (say,
\f[C]C:\\bin\f[], or \f[C]C:\\Users\\<User\ name>\\bin\f[]), 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.
.PP
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 \f[C]youtube\-dl\f[] or \f[C]ffmpeg\f[], no
matter what directory you\[aq]re in.
.SS How do I put downloads into a specific folder?
.PP
Use the \f[C]\-o\f[] to specify an output template (#output-template),
for example \f[C]\-o\ "/home/user/videos/%(title)s\-%(id)s.%(ext)s"\f[].
If you want this for all of your downloads, put the option into your
configuration file (#configuration).
.SS How do I download a video starting with a \f[C]\-\f[] ?
.PP
Either prepend \f[C]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\f[] or separate the
ID from the options with \f[C]\-\-\f[]:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
youtube\-dl\ \-\-\ \-wNyEUrxzFU
youtube\-dl\ "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\-wNyEUrxzFU"
\f[]
.fi
.SS Can you add support for this anime video site, or site which shows
current movies for free?
.PP
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\[aq]s distributor, or
is published under a free license), the service is probably unfit for
inclusion to youtube\-dl.
.PP
A note on the service that they don\[aq]t host the infringing content,
but just link to those who do, is evidence that the service should
\f[B]not\f[] 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.
.PP
Support requests for services that \f[B]do\f[] 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.
.SS How can I speed up work on my issue?
.PP
(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\[aq]s what you can do:
.PP
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.
.PP
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.
.PP
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).
.PP
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 \f[C]important\f[] or
\f[C]urgent\f[].
.SS How can I detect whether a given URL is supported by youtube\-dl?
.PP
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.
.PP
It is \f[I]not\f[] possible to detect whether a URL is supported or not.
That\[aq]s because youtube\-dl contains a generic extractor which
matches \f[B]all\f[] 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\[aq]s hosting itself.
Therefore, we neither recommend nor support disabling, excluding, or
removing the generic extractor.
.PP
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 \f[C]UnsupportedError\f[] exception if
you run it from a Python program.
.SH DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS
.PP
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.
.PP
To run youtube\-dl as a developer, you don\[aq]t need to build anything
either.
Simply execute
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
python\ \-m\ youtube_dl
\f[]
.fi
.PP
To run the test, simply invoke your favorite test runner, or execute a
test file directly; any of the following work:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
python\ \-m\ unittest\ discover
python\ test/test_download.py
nosetests
\f[]
.fi
.PP
If you want to create a build of youtube\-dl yourself, you\[aq]ll need
.IP \[bu] 2
python
.IP \[bu] 2
make
.IP \[bu] 2
pandoc
.IP \[bu] 2
zip
.IP \[bu] 2
nosetests
.SS Adding support for a new site
.PP
If you want to add support for a new site, you can follow this quick
list (assuming your service is called \f[C]yourextractor\f[]):
.IP " 1." 4
Fork this repository (https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/fork)
.IP " 2." 4
Check out the source code with
\f[C]git\ clone\ git\@github.com:YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/youtube\-dl.git\f[]
.IP " 3." 4
Start a new git branch with
\f[C]cd\ youtube\-dl;\ git\ checkout\ \-b\ yourextractor\f[]
.IP " 4." 4
Start with this simple template and save it to
\f[C]youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py\f[]:
.RS 4
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
#\ coding:\ utf\-8
from\ __future__\ import\ unicode_literals

from\ .common\ import\ InfoExtractor


class\ YourExtractorIE(InfoExtractor):
\ \ \ \ _VALID_URL\ =\ r\[aq]https?://(?:www\\.)?yourextractor\\.com/watch/(?P<id>[0\-9]+)\[aq]
\ \ \ \ _TEST\ =\ {
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \[aq]url\[aq]:\ \[aq]http://yourextractor.com/watch/42\[aq],
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \[aq]md5\[aq]:\ \[aq]TODO:\ md5\ sum\ of\ the\ first\ 10241\ bytes\ of\ the\ video\ file\ (use\ \-\-test)\[aq],
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \[aq]info_dict\[aq]:\ {
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \[aq]id\[aq]:\ \[aq]42\[aq],
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \[aq]ext\[aq]:\ \[aq]mp4\[aq],
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \[aq]title\[aq]:\ \[aq]Video\ title\ goes\ here\[aq],
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \[aq]thumbnail\[aq]:\ \[aq]re:^https?://.*\\.jpg$\[aq],
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ #\ TODO\ more\ properties,\ either\ as:
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ #\ *\ A\ value
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ #\ *\ MD5\ checksum;\ start\ the\ string\ with\ md5:
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ #\ *\ A\ regular\ expression;\ start\ the\ string\ with\ re:
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ #\ *\ Any\ Python\ type\ (for\ example\ int\ or\ float)
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ }
\ \ \ \ }

\ \ \ \ def\ _real_extract(self,\ url):
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ video_id\ =\ self._match_id(url)
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ webpage\ =\ self._download_webpage(url,\ video_id)

\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ #\ TODO\ more\ code\ goes\ here,\ for\ example\ ...
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ title\ =\ self._html_search_regex(r\[aq]<h1>(.*?)</h1>\[aq],\ webpage,\ \[aq]title\[aq])

\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ return\ {
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \[aq]id\[aq]:\ video_id,
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \[aq]title\[aq]:\ title,
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \[aq]description\[aq]:\ self._og_search_description(webpage),
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ #\ TODO\ more\ properties\ (see\ youtube_dl/extractor/common.py)
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ }
\f[]
.fi
.RE
.IP " 5." 4
Add an import in
\f[C]youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py\f[] (https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py).
.IP " 6." 4
Run
\f[C]python\ test/test_download.py\ TestDownload.test_YourExtractor\f[].
This \f[I]should fail\f[] at first, but you can continually re\-run it
until you\[aq]re done.
If you decide to add more than one test, then rename \f[C]_TEST\f[] to
\f[C]_TESTS\f[] and make it into a list of dictionaries.
The tests will be then be named
\f[C]TestDownload.test_YourExtractor\f[],
\f[C]TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_1\f[],
\f[C]TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_2\f[], etc.
.IP " 7." 4
Have a look at
\f[C]youtube_dl/common/extractor/common.py\f[] (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
return (https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py#L38).
Add tests and code for as many as you want.
.IP " 8." 4
If you can, check the code with
flake8 (https://pypi.python.org/pypi/flake8).
.IP " 9." 4
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:
.RS 4
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
$\ git\ add\ youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py
$\ git\ add\ youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py
$\ git\ commit\ \-m\ \[aq][yourextractor]\ Add\ new\ extractor\[aq]
$\ git\ push\ origin\ yourextractor
\f[]
.fi
.RE
.IP "10." 4
Finally, create a pull
request (https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-pull-request).
We\[aq]ll then review and merge it.
.PP
In any case, thank you very much for your contributions!
.SH EMBEDDING YOUTUBE\-DL
.PP
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).
.PP
From a Python program, you can embed youtube\-dl in a more powerful
fashion, like this:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
from\ __future__\ import\ unicode_literals
import\ youtube_dl

ydl_opts\ =\ {}
with\ youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts)\ as\ ydl:
\ \ \ \ ydl.download([\[aq]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc\[aq]])
\f[]
.fi
.PP
Most likely, you\[aq]ll want to use various options.
For a list of what can be done, have a look at
youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py (https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py#L69).
For a start, if you want to intercept youtube\-dl\[aq]s output, set a
\f[C]logger\f[] object.
.PP
Here\[aq]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:
.IP
.nf
\f[C]
from\ __future__\ import\ unicode_literals
import\ youtube_dl


class\ MyLogger(object):
\ \ \ \ def\ debug(self,\ msg):
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ pass

\ \ \ \ def\ warning(self,\ msg):
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ pass

\ \ \ \ def\ error(self,\ msg):
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ print(msg)


def\ my_hook(d):
\ \ \ \ if\ d[\[aq]status\[aq]]\ ==\ \[aq]finished\[aq]:
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ print(\[aq]Done\ downloading,\ now\ converting\ ...\[aq])


ydl_opts\ =\ {
\ \ \ \ \[aq]format\[aq]:\ \[aq]bestaudio/best\[aq],
\ \ \ \ \[aq]postprocessors\[aq]:\ [{
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \[aq]key\[aq]:\ \[aq]FFmpegExtractAudio\[aq],
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \[aq]preferredcodec\[aq]:\ \[aq]mp3\[aq],
\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \[aq]preferredquality\[aq]:\ \[aq]192\[aq],
\ \ \ \ }],
\ \ \ \ \[aq]logger\[aq]:\ MyLogger(),
\ \ \ \ \[aq]progress_hooks\[aq]:\ [my_hook],
}
with\ youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts)\ as\ ydl:
\ \ \ \ ydl.download([\[aq]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc\[aq]])
\f[]
.fi
.SH BUGS
.PP
Bugs and suggestions should be reported at:
<https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues> .
Unless you were prompted so 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 on freenode.
.PP
\f[B]Please include the full output of youtube\-dl when run with
\f[C]\-v\f[]\f[].
.PP
The output (including the first lines) contain important debugging
information.
Issues without the full output are often not reproducible and therefore
do not get solved in short order, if ever.
.PP
Please re\-read your issue once again to avoid a couple of common
mistakes (you can and should use this as a checklist):
.SS Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?
.PP
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.
.PP
So please elaborate on what feature you are requesting, or what bug you
want to be fixed.
Make sure that it\[aq]s obvious
.IP \[bu] 2
What the problem is
.IP \[bu] 2
How it could be fixed
.IP \[bu] 2
How your proposed solution would look like
.PP
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\[aq]re often too polite to close the issue outright, but the missing
info makes misinterpretation likely.
As a commiter 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.
.PP
For bug reports, this means that your report should contain the
\f[I]complete\f[] 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.
.PP
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 \f[C]ERROR:\ Unable\ to\ extract\ ...\f[] and you cannot
reproduce it from multiple countries, add \f[C]\-\-dump\-pages\f[]
(warning: this will yield a rather large output, redirect it to the file
\f[C]log.txt\f[] by adding \f[C]>log.txt\ 2>&1\f[] to your
command\-line) or upload the \f[C]\&.dump\f[] files you get when you add
\f[C]\-\-write\-pages\f[] somewhere (https://gist.github.com/).
.PP
\f[B]Site support requests must contain an example URL\f[].
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 \f[I]not\f[] an example URL.
.SS Are you using the latest version?
.PP
Before reporting any issue, type youtube\-dl \-U.
This should report that you\[aq]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.
.SS Is the issue already documented?
.PP
Make sure that someone has not already opened the issue you\[aq]re
trying to open.
Search at the top of the window or at
https://github.com/rg3/youtube\-dl/search?type=Issues .
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.
.SS Why are existing options not enough?
.PP
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#synopsis).
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 \f[I]not\f[] solve your problem.
.SS Is there enough context in your bug report?
.PP
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).
.PP
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.
.SS Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?
.PP
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.
.PP
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, Whitehouse podcasts, and
Google Plus pages in the same issue.
Also, make sure that you don\[aq]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.
.SS Is anyone going to need the feature?
.PP
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.
.SS Is your question about youtube\-dl?
.PP
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\[aq]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.
.SH COPYRIGHT
.PP
youtube\-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
.PP
This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton
(<https://github.com/dbbolton>) and is likewise released into the public
domain.