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". Use the value "auto" to let
  86                                      youtube-dl guess. The default value "error"
  87                                      just throws an error.
  88     --ignore-config                  Do not read configuration files. When given
  89                                      in the global configuration file /etc
  90                                      /youtube-dl.conf: do not read the user
  91                                      configuration in ~/.config/youtube-dl.conf
  92                                      (%APPDATA%/youtube-dl/config.txt on
  93                                      Windows)
  94     --encoding ENCODING              Force the specified encoding (experimental)
  95
  96 Video Selection:
  97 ----------------
  98
  99     --playlist-start NUMBER          playlist video to start at (default is 1)
 100     --playlist-end NUMBER            playlist video to end at (default is last)
 101     --match-title REGEX              download only matching titles (regex or
 102                                      caseless sub-string)
 103     --reject-title REGEX             skip download for matching titles (regex or
 104                                      caseless sub-string)
 105     --max-downloads NUMBER           Abort after downloading NUMBER files
 106     --min-filesize SIZE              Do not download any videos smaller than
 107                                      SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
 108     --max-filesize SIZE              Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
 109                                      (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
 110     --date DATE                      download only videos uploaded in this date
 111     --datebefore DATE                download only videos uploaded on or before
 112                                      this date (i.e. inclusive)
 113     --dateafter DATE                 download only videos uploaded on or after
 114                                      this date (i.e. inclusive)
 115     --min-views COUNT                Do not download any videos with less than
 116                                      COUNT views
 117     --max-views COUNT                Do not download any videos with more than
 118                                      COUNT views
 119     --no-playlist                    download only the currently playing video
 120     --age-limit YEARS                download only videos suitable for the given
 121                                      age
 122     --download-archive FILE          Download only videos not listed in the
 123                                      archive file. Record the IDs of all
 124                                      downloaded videos in it.
 125     --include-ads                    Download advertisements as well
 126                                      (experimental)
 127     --youtube-include-dash-manifest  Try to download the DASH manifest on
 128                                      YouTube videos (experimental)
 129
 130 Download Options:
 131 -----------------
 132
 133     -r, --rate-limit LIMIT           maximum download rate in bytes per second
 134                                      (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
 135     -R, --retries RETRIES            number of retries (default is 10)
 136     --buffer-size SIZE               size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
 137                                      (default is 1024)
 138     --no-resize-buffer               do not automatically adjust the buffer
 139                                      size. By default, the buffer size is
 140                                      automatically resized from an initial value
 141                                      of SIZE.
 142
 143 Filesystem Options:
 144 -------------------
 145
 146     -t, --title                      use title in file name (default)
 147     --id                             use only video ID in file name
 148     -l, --literal                    [deprecated] alias of --title
 149     -A, --auto-number                number downloaded files starting from 00000
 150     -o, --output TEMPLATE            output filename template. Use %(title)s to
 151                                      get the title, %(uploader)s for the
 152                                      uploader name, %(uploader_id)s for the
 153                                      uploader nickname if different,
 154                                      %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
 155                                      incremented number, %(ext)s for the
 156                                      filename extension, %(format)s for the
 157                                      format description (like "22 - 1280x720" or
 158                                      "HD"), %(format_id)s for the unique id of
 159                                      the format (like Youtube's itags: "137"),
 160                                      %(upload_date)s for the upload date
 161                                      (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
 162                                      (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the
 163                                      video id, %(playlist)s for the playlist the
 164                                      video is in, %(playlist_index)s for the
 165                                      position in the playlist and %% for a
 166                                      literal percent. %(height)s and %(width)s
 167                                      for the width and height of the video
 168                                      format. %(resolution)s for a textual
 169                                      description of the resolution of the video
 170                                      format. Use - to output to stdout. Can also
 171                                      be used to download to a different
 172                                      directory, for example with -o '/my/downloa
 173                                      ds/%(uploader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
 174     --autonumber-size NUMBER         Specifies the number of digits in
 175                                      %(autonumber)s when it is present in output
 176                                      filename template or --auto-number option
 177                                      is given
 178     --restrict-filenames             Restrict filenames to only ASCII
 179                                      characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
 180                                      filenames
 181     -a, --batch-file FILE            file containing URLs to download ('-' for
 182                                      stdin)
 183     --load-info FILE                 json file containing the video information
 184                                      (created with the "--write-json" option)
 185     -w, --no-overwrites              do not overwrite files
 186     -c, --continue                   force resume of partially downloaded files.
 187                                      By default, youtube-dl will resume
 188                                      downloads if possible.
 189     --no-continue                    do not resume partially downloaded files
 190                                      (restart from beginning)
 191     --cookies FILE                   file to read cookies from and dump cookie
 192                                      jar in
 193     --no-part                        do not use .part files
 194     --no-mtime                       do not use the Last-modified header to set
 195                                      the file modification time
 196     --write-description              write video description to a .description
 197                                      file
 198     --write-info-json                write video metadata to a .info.json file
 199     --write-annotations              write video annotations to a .annotation
 200                                      file
 201     --write-thumbnail                write thumbnail image to disk
 202
 203 Verbosity / Simulation Options:
 204 -------------------------------
 205
 206     -q, --quiet                      activates quiet mode
 207     --no-warnings                    Ignore warnings
 208     -s, --simulate                   do not download the video and do not write
 209                                      anything to disk
 210     --skip-download                  do not download the video
 211     -g, --get-url                    simulate, quiet but print URL
 212     -e, --get-title                  simulate, quiet but print title
 213     --get-id                         simulate, quiet but print id
 214     --get-thumbnail                  simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
 215     --get-description                simulate, quiet but print video description
 216     --get-duration                   simulate, quiet but print video length
 217     --get-filename                   simulate, quiet but print output filename
 218     --get-format                     simulate, quiet but print output format
 219     -j, --dump-json                  simulate, quiet but print JSON information.
 220                                      See --output for a description of available
 221                                      keys.
 222     --newline                        output progress bar as new lines
 223     --no-progress                    do not print progress bar
 224     --console-title                  display progress in console titlebar
 225     -v, --verbose                    print various debugging information
 226     --dump-intermediate-pages        print downloaded pages to debug problems
 227                                      (very verbose)
 228     --write-pages                    Write downloaded intermediary pages to
 229                                      files in the current directory to debug
 230                                      problems
 231     --print-traffic                  Display sent and read HTTP traffic
 232
 233 Video Format Options:
 234 ---------------------
 235
 236     -f, --format FORMAT              video format code, specify the order of
 237                                      preference using slashes: "-f 22/17/18".
 238                                      "-f mp4" and "-f flv" are also supported.
 239                                      You can also use the special names "best",
 240                                      "bestvideo", "bestaudio", "worst",
 241                                      "worstvideo" and "worstaudio". By default,
 242                                      youtube-dl will pick the best quality.
 243     --all-formats                    download all available video formats
 244     --prefer-free-formats            prefer free video formats unless a specific
 245                                      one is requested
 246     --max-quality FORMAT             highest quality format to download
 247     -F, --list-formats               list all available formats
 248
 249 Subtitle Options:
 250 -----------------
 251
 252     --write-sub                      write subtitle file
 253     --write-auto-sub                 write automatic subtitle file (youtube
 254                                      only)
 255     --all-subs                       downloads all the available subtitles of
 256                                      the video
 257     --list-subs                      lists all available subtitles for the video
 258     --sub-format FORMAT              subtitle format (default=srt) ([sbv/vtt]
 259                                      youtube only)
 260     --sub-lang LANGS                 languages of the subtitles to download
 261                                      (optional) separated by commas, use IETF
 262                                      language tags like 'en,pt'
 263
 264 Authentication Options:
 265 -----------------------
 266
 267     -u, --username USERNAME          account username
 268     -p, --password PASSWORD          account password
 269     -n, --netrc                      use .netrc authentication data
 270     --video-password PASSWORD        video password (vimeo, smotri)
 271
 272 Post-processing Options:
 273 ------------------------
 274
 275     -x, --extract-audio              convert video files to audio-only files
 276                                      (requires ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or
 277                                      avprobe)
 278     --audio-format FORMAT            "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a",
 279                                      "opus", or "wav"; best by default
 280     --audio-quality QUALITY          ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification,
 281                                      insert a value between 0 (better) and 9
 282                                      (worse) for VBR or a specific bitrate like
 283                                      128K (default 5)
 284     --recode-video FORMAT            Encode the video to another format if
 285                                      necessary (currently supported:
 286                                      mp4|flv|ogg|webm)
 287     -k, --keep-video                 keeps the video file on disk after the
 288                                      post-processing; the video is erased by
 289                                      default
 290     --no-post-overwrites             do not overwrite post-processed files; the
 291                                      post-processed files are overwritten by
 292                                      default
 293     --embed-subs                     embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4
 294                                      videos)
 295     --embed-thumbnail                embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
 296     --add-metadata                   write metadata to the video file
 297     --xattrs                         write metadata to the video file's xattrs
 298                                      (using dublin core and xdg standards)
 299     --prefer-avconv                  Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running the
 300                                      postprocessors (default)
 301     --prefer-ffmpeg                  Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running the
 302                                      postprocessors
 303
 304 CONFIGURATION
 305 =============
 306
 307 You can configure youtube-dl by placing default arguments (such as
 308 --extract-audio --no-mtime to always extract the audio and not copy the
 309 mtime) into /etc/youtube-dl.conf and/or ~/.config/youtube-dl/config. On
 310 Windows, the configuration file locations are
 311 %APPDATA%\youtube-dl\config.txt and C:\Users\<Yourname>\youtube-dl.conf.
 312
 313 OUTPUT TEMPLATE
 314 ===============
 315
 316 The -o option allows users to indicate a template for the output file
 317 names. The basic usage is not to set any template arguments when
 318 downloading a single file, like in
 319 youtube-dl -o funny_video.flv "http://some/video". However, it may
 320 contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each
 321 video. The special sequences have the format %(NAME)s. To clarify, that
 322 is a percent symbol followed by a name in parenthesis, followed by a
 323 lowercase S. Allowed names are:
 324
 325 -   id: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier.
 326 -   url: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL.
 327 -   uploader: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the
 328     person who uploaded the video.
 329 -   upload_date: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date in
 330     YYYYMMDD format.
 331 -   title: The sequence will be replaced by the video title.
 332 -   ext: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension
 333     (like flv or mp4).
 334 -   epoch: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when creating
 335     the file.
 336 -   autonumber: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number
 337     that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.
 338 -   playlist: The name or the id of the playlist that contains the
 339     video.
 340 -   playlist_index: The index of the video in the playlist, a five-digit
 341     number.
 342
 343 The current default template is %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s.
 344
 345 In some cases, you don't want special characters such as 中, spaces, or
 346 &, such as when transferring the downloaded filename to a Windows system
 347 or the filename through an 8bit-unsafe channel. In these cases, add the
 348 --restrict-filenames flag to get a shorter title:
 349
 350     $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
 351     youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4    # All kinds of weird characters
 352     $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
 353     youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4          # A simple file name
 354
 355 VIDEO SELECTION
 356 ===============
 357
 358 Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options --date,
 359 --datebefore or --dateafter, they accept dates in two formats:
 360
 361 -   Absolute dates: Dates in the format YYYYMMDD.
 362 -   Relative dates: Dates in the format
 363     (now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?
 364
 365 Examples:
 366
 367     # Download only the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
 368     $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-6months
 369
 370     # Download only the videos uploaded on January 1, 1970
 371     $ youtube-dl --date 19700101
 372
 373     $ # will only download the videos uploaded in the 200x decade
 374     $ youtube-dl --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20091231
 375
 376 FAQ
 377 ===
 378
 379 Can you please put the -b option back?
 380
 381 Most people asking this question are not aware that youtube-dl now
 382 defaults to downloading the highest available quality as reported by
 383 YouTube, which will be 1080p or 720p in some cases, so you no longer
 384 need the -b option. For some specific videos, maybe YouTube does not
 385 report them to be available in a specific high quality format you're
 386 interested in. In that case, simply request it with the -f option and
 387 youtube-dl will try to download it.
 388
 389 I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
 390
 391 Apparently YouTube requires you to pass a CAPTCHA test if you download
 392 too much. We're considering to provide a way to let you solve the
 393 CAPTCHA, but at the moment, your best course of action is pointing a
 394 webbrowser to the youtube URL, solving the CAPTCHA, and restart
 395 youtube-dl.
 396
 397 I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
 398
 399 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as vlc or
 400 mplayer.
 401
 402 The links provided by youtube-dl -g are not working anymore
 403
 404 The URLs youtube-dl outputs require the downloader to have the correct
 405 cookies. Use the --cookies option to write the required cookies into a
 406 file, and advise your downloader to read cookies from that file. Some
 407 sites also require a common user agent to be used, use --dump-user-agent
 408 to see the one in use by youtube-dl.
 409
 410 ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
 411
 412 youtube has switched to a new video info format in July 2011 which is
 413 not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl
 414 with sudo youtube-dl --update.
 415
 416 ERROR: unable to download video
 417
 418 youtube requires an additional signature since September 2012 which is
 419 not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl
 420 with sudo youtube-dl --update.
 421
 422 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character
 423
 424 The error
 425
 426     File "youtube-dl", line 2
 427     SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\x93' ...
 428
 429 means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to
 430 Python 2.6 or 2.7.
 431
 432 What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
 433
 434 Since June 2012 (#342) youtube-dl is packed as an executable zipfile,
 435 simply unzip it (might need renaming to youtube-dl.zip first on some
 436 systems) or clone the git repository, as laid out above. If you modify
 437 the code, you can run it by executing the __main__.py file. To recompile
 438 the executable, run make youtube-dl.
 439
 440 The exe throws a Runtime error from Visual C++
 441
 442 To run the exe you need to install first the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008
 443 Redistributable Package.
 444
 445 DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS
 446 ======================
 447
 448 Most users do not need to build youtube-dl and can download the builds
 449 or get them from their distribution.
 450
 451 To run youtube-dl as a developer, you don't need to build anything
 452 either. Simply execute
 453
 454     python -m youtube_dl
 455
 456 To run the test, simply invoke your favorite test runner, or execute a
 457 test file directly; any of the following work:
 458
 459     python -m unittest discover
 460     python test/test_download.py
 461     nosetests
 462
 463 If you want to create a build of youtube-dl yourself, you'll need
 464
 465 -   python
 466 -   make
 467 -   pandoc
 468 -   zip
 469 -   nosetests
 470
 471 Adding support for a new site
 472
 473 If you want to add support for a new site, you can follow this quick
 474 list (assuming your service is called yourextractor):
 475
 476 1.  Fork this repository
 477 2.  Check out the source code with
 478     git clone git@github.com:YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/youtube-dl.git
 479 3.  Start a new git branch with
 480     cd youtube-dl; git checkout -b yourextractor
 481 4.  Start with this simple template and save it to
 482     youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py:
 483
 484         # coding: utf-8
 485         from __future__ import unicode_literals
 486
 487         import re
 488
 489         from .common import InfoExtractor
 490
 491
 492         class YourExtractorIE(InfoExtractor):
 493             _VALID_URL = r'https?://(?:www\.)?yourextractor\.com/watch/(?P<id>[0-9]+)'
 494             _TEST = {
 495                 'url': 'http://yourextractor.com/watch/42',
 496                 'md5': 'TODO: md5 sum of the first 10KiB of the video file',
 497                 'info_dict': {
 498                     'id': '42',
 499                     'ext': 'mp4',
 500                     'title': 'Video title goes here',
 501                     # TODO more properties, either as:
 502                     # * A value
 503                     # * MD5 checksum; start the string with md5:
 504                     # * A regular expression; start the string with re:
 505                     # * Any Python type (for example int or float)
 506                 }
 507             }
 508
 509             def _real_extract(self, url):
 510                 mobj = re.match(self._VALID_URL, url)
 511                 video_id = mobj.group('id')
 512
 513                 # TODO more code goes here, for example ...
 514                 webpage = self._download_webpage(url, video_id)
 515                 title = self._html_search_regex(r'<h1>(.*?)</h1>', webpage, 'title')
 516
 517                 return {
 518                     'id': video_id,
 519                     'title': title,
 520                     # TODO more properties (see youtube_dl/extractor/common.py)
 521                 }
 522
 523 5.  Add an import in youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py.
 524 6.  Run python test/test_download.py TestDownload.test_YourExtractor.
 525     This should fail at first, but you can continually re-run it until
 526     you're done.
 527 7.  Have a look at youtube_dl/common/extractor/common.py for possible
 528     helper methods and a detailed description of what your extractor
 529     should return. Add tests and code for as many as you want.
 530 8.  If you can, check the code with pyflakes (a good idea) and pep8
 531     (optional, ignore E501).
 532 9.  When the tests pass, add the new files and commit them and push the
 533     result, like this:
 534
 535         $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py
 536         $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py
 537         $ git commit -m '[yourextractor] Add new extractor'
 538         $ git push origin yourextractor
 539
 540 10. Finally, create a pull request. We'll then review and merge it.
 541
 542 In any case, thank you very much for your contributions!
 543
 544 BUGS
 545 ====
 546
 547 Bugs and suggestions should be reported at:
 548 https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues . Unless you were prompted so
 549 or there is another pertinent reason (e.g. GitHub fails to accept the
 550 bug report), please do not send bug reports via personal email.
 551
 552 Please include the full output of the command when run with --verbose.
 553 The output (including the first lines) contain important debugging
 554 information. Issues without the full output are often not reproducible
 555 and therefore do not get solved in short order, if ever.
 556
 557 For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.
 558
 559 When you submit a request, please re-read it once to avoid a couple of
 560 mistakes (you can and should use this as a checklist):
 561
 562 Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?
 563
 564 We often get issue reports that we cannot really decipher. While in most
 565 cases we eventually get the required information after asking back
 566 multiple times, this poses an unnecessary drain on our resources. Many
 567 contributors, including myself, are also not native speakers, so we may
 568 misread some parts.
 569
 570 So please elaborate on what feature you are requesting, or what bug you
 571 want to be fixed. Make sure that it's obvious
 572
 573 -   What the problem is
 574 -   How it could be fixed
 575 -   How your proposed solution would look like
 576
 577 If your report is shorter than two lines, it is almost certainly missing
 578 some of these, which makes it hard for us to respond to it. We're often
 579 too polite to close the issue outright, but the missing info makes
 580 misinterpretation likely. As a commiter myself, I often get frustrated
 581 by these issues, since the only possible way for me to move forward on
 582 them is to ask for clarification over and over.
 583
 584 For bug reports, this means that your report should contain the complete
 585 output of youtube-dl when called with the -v flag. The error message you
 586 get for (most) bugs even says so, but you would not believe how many of
 587 our bug reports do not contain this information.
 588
 589 Site support requests must contain an example URL. An example URL is a
 590 URL you might want to download, like
 591 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc . There should be an obvious
 592 video present. Except under very special circumstances, the main page of
 593 a video service (e.g. http://www.youtube.com/ ) is not an example URL.
 594
 595 Are you using the latest version?
 596
 597 Before reporting any issue, type youtube-dl -U. This should report that
 598 you're up-to-date. About 20% of the reports we receive are already
 599 fixed, but people are using outdated versions. This goes for feature
 600 requests as well.
 601
 602 Is the issue already documented?
 603
 604 Make sure that someone has not already opened the issue you're trying to
 605 open. Search at the top of the window or at
 606 https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/search?type=Issues . If there is an
 607 issue, feel free to write something along the lines of "This affects me
 608 as well, with version 2015.01.01. Here is some more information on the
 609 issue: ...". While some issues may be old, a new post into them often
 610 spurs rapid activity.
 611
 612 Why are existing options not enough?
 613
 614 Before requesting a new feature, please have a quick peek at the list of
 615 supported options. Many feature requests are for features that actually
 616 exist already! Please, absolutely do show off your work in the issue
 617 report and detail how the existing similar options do not solve your
 618 problem.
 619
 620 Is there enough context in your bug report?
 621
 622 People want to solve problems, and often think they do us a favor by
 623 breaking down their larger problems (e.g. wanting to skip already
 624 downloaded files) to a specific request (e.g. requesting us to look
 625 whether the file exists before downloading the info page). However, what
 626 often happens is that they break down the problem into two steps: One
 627 simple, and one impossible (or extremely complicated one).
 628
 629 We are then presented with a very complicated request when the original
 630 problem could be solved far easier, e.g. by recording the downloaded
 631 video IDs in a separate file. To avoid this, you must include the
 632 greater context where it is non-obvious. In particular, every feature
 633 request that does not consist of adding support for a new site should
 634 contain a use case scenario that explains in what situation the missing
 635 feature would be useful.
 636
 637 Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?
 638
 639 Some of our users seem to think there is a limit of issues they can or
 640 should open. There is no limit of issues they can or should open. While
 641 it may seem appealing to be able to dump all your issues into one
 642 ticket, that means that someone who solves one of your issues cannot
 643 mark the issue as closed. Typically, reporting a bunch of issues leads
 644 to the ticket lingering since nobody wants to attack that behemoth,
 645 until someone mercifully splits the issue into multiple ones.
 646
 647 In particular, every site support request issue should only pertain to
 648 services at one site (generally under a common domain, but always using
 649 the same backend technology). Do not request support for vimeo user
 650 videos, Whitehouse podcasts, and Google Plus pages in the same issue.
 651 Also, make sure that you don't post bug reports alongside feature
 652 requests. As a rule of thumb, a feature request does not include outputs
 653 of youtube-dl that are not immediately related to the feature at hand.
 654 Do not post reports of a network error alongside the request for a new
 655 video service.
 656
 657 Is anyone going to need the feature?
 658
 659 Only post features that you (or an incapicated friend you can personally
 660 talk to) require. Do not post features because they seem like a good
 661 idea. If they are really useful, they will be requested by someone who
 662 requires them.
 663
 664 Is your question about youtube-dl?
 665
 666 It may sound strange, but some bug reports we receive are completely
 667 unrelated to youtube-dl and relate to a different or even the reporter's
 668 own application. Please make sure that you are actually using
 669 youtube-dl. If you are using a UI for youtube-dl, report the bug to the
 670 maintainer of the actual application providing the UI. On the other
 671 hand, if your UI for youtube-dl fails in some way you believe is related
 672 to youtube-dl, by all means, go ahead and report the bug.
 673
 674 COPYRIGHT
 675 =========
 676
 677 youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
 678
 679 This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton
 680 (https://github.com/dbbolton) and is likewise released into the public
 681 domain.
 682