4 youtube-dl [options] url [url...]
7 **youtube-dl** is a small command-line program to download videos from
8 YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version
9 2.x (x being at least 5), and it is not platform specific. It should work in
10 your Unix box, in Windows or in Mac OS X. It is released to the public domain,
11 which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
14 -h, --help print this help text and exit
15 -v, --version print program version and exit
16 -U, --update update this program to latest version
17 -i, --ignore-errors continue on download errors
18 -r, --rate-limit LIMIT download rate limit (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
19 -R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is 10)
20 --dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
21 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs they
25 --playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is 1)
26 --playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
27 --match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or caseless
29 --reject-title REGEX skip download for matching titles (regex or
32 ### Filesystem Options:
33 -t, --title use title in file name
34 -l, --literal use literal title in file name
35 -A, --auto-number number downloaded files starting from 00000
36 -o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(stitle)s to get the
37 title, %(uploader)s for the uploader name,
38 %(autonumber)s to get an automatically incremented
39 number, %(ext)s for the filename extension, and %%
41 -a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)
42 -w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
43 -c, --continue resume partially downloaded files
44 --no-continue do not resume partially downloaded files (restart
46 --cookies FILE file to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in
47 --no-part do not use .part files
48 --no-mtime do not use the Last-modified header to set the file
50 --write-description write video description to a .description file
51 --write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
53 ### Verbosity / Simulation Options:
54 -q, --quiet activates quiet mode
55 -s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write anything
57 --skip-download do not download the video
58 -g, --get-url simulate, quiet but print URL
59 -e, --get-title simulate, quiet but print title
60 --get-thumbnail simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
61 --get-description simulate, quiet but print video description
62 --get-filename simulate, quiet but print output filename
63 --get-format simulate, quiet but print output format
64 --no-progress do not print progress bar
65 --console-title display progress in console titlebar
67 ### Video Format Options:
68 -f, --format FORMAT video format code
69 --all-formats download all available video formats
70 --max-quality FORMAT highest quality format to download
72 ### Authentication Options:
73 -u, --username USERNAME account username
74 -p, --password PASSWORD account password
75 -n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
77 ### Post-processing Options:
78 --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files (requires
80 --audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis" or "mp3"; best by default
81 --audio-quality QUALITY ffmpeg audio bitrate specification, 128k by default
82 -k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the post-
83 processing; the video is erased by default
87 ### Can you please put the -b option back?
89 Most people asking this question are not aware that youtube-dl now defaults to downloading the highest available quality as reported by YouTube, which will be 1080p or 720p in some cases, so you no longer need the -b option. For some specific videos, maybe YouTube does not report them to be available in a specific high quality format you''re interested in. In that case, simply request it with the -f option and youtube-dl will try to download it.
91 ### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
93 Apparently YouTube requires you to pass a CAPTCHA test if you download too much. We''re [considering to provide a way to let you solve the CAPTCHA](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/154), but at the moment, your best course of action is pointing a webbrowser to the youtube URL, solving the CAPTCHA, and restart youtube-dl.
95 ### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
97 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as [vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or [mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
99 ### The links provided by youtube-dl -g are not working anymore
101 The URLs youtube-dl outputs require the downloader to have the correct cookies. Use the `--cookies` option to write the required cookies into a file, and advise your downloader to read cookies from that file.
103 ### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
105 youtube has switched to a new video info format in July 2011 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl with `sudo youtube-dl --update`.
109 youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
111 This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton (<https://github.com/dbbolton>) and is likewise released into the public domain.
115 Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: <https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues>
119 * Your exact command line, like `youtube-dl -t "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHlDtZ6Oc3s&feature=channel_video_title"`. A common mistake is not to escape the `&`. Putting URLs in quotes should solve this problem.
120 * The output of `youtube-dl --version`
121 * The output of `python --version`
122 * The name and version of your Operating System ("Ubuntu 11.04 x64" or "Windows 7 x64" is usually enough).