Prepare for release.

[youtubedl] / README.txt

diff --git a/README.txt b/README.txt
index 3ba6f53d508a59e82b0046557c3b08f7374068eb..5e2e5f75822e4fabc02b9cca3a16e0e80f2672a4 100644 (file)
--- a/README.txt
+++ b/README.txt
@@ -1,9 +1,15 @@
 youtube-dl - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms
 
 youtube-dl - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms
 

-SYNOPSIS
-========
-
-youtube-dl OPTIONS URL [URL...]
+-   INSTALLATION
+-   DESCRIPTION
+-   OPTIONS
+-   CONFIGURATION
+-   OUTPUT TEMPLATE
+-   VIDEO SELECTION
+-   FAQ
+-   DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS
+-   BUGS
+-   COPYRIGHT

 
 INSTALLATION
 ============
 
 INSTALLATION
 ============


@@ -39,11 +45,13 @@ DESCRIPTION
 
 youtube-dl is a small command-line program to download videos from
 YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter,
 
 youtube-dl 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 3.3+, and it is not platform specific. It should
+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.
 
 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.
 

+    youtube-dl [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
+

 OPTIONS
 =======
 
 OPTIONS
 =======
 


@@ -62,10 +70,6 @@ OPTIONS
                                      they would handle
     --extractor-descriptions         Output descriptions of all supported
                                      extractors
                                      they would handle
     --extractor-descriptions         Output descriptions of all supported
                                      extractors

-    --proxy URL                      Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy. Pass in
-                                     an empty string (--proxy "") for direct
-                                     connection
-    --socket-timeout None            Time to wait before giving up, in seconds

     --default-search PREFIX          Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
                                      example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
                                      from google videos for  youtube-dl "large
     --default-search PREFIX          Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
                                      example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
                                      from google videos for  youtube-dl "large


@@ -77,13 +81,27 @@ OPTIONS
                                      this is not possible instead of searching.
     --ignore-config                  Do not read configuration files. When given
                                      in the global configuration file /etc
                                      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.conf
-                                     (%APPDATA%/youtube-dl/config.txt on
-                                     Windows)
+                                     /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.
 
     --flat-playlist                  Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
                                      only list them.
 

+Network Options:
+----------------
+
+    --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)
+

 Video Selection:
 ----------------
 
 Video Selection:
 ----------------
 


@@ -107,7 +125,8 @@ Video Selection:
                                      COUNT views
     --max-views COUNT                Do not download any videos with more than
                                      COUNT views
                                      COUNT views
     --max-views COUNT                Do not download any videos with more than
                                      COUNT views

-    --no-playlist                    download only the currently playing video
+    --no-playlist                    If the URL refers to a video and a
+                                     playlist, download only the video.

     --age-limit YEARS                download only videos suitable for the given
                                      age
     --download-archive FILE          Download only videos not listed in the
     --age-limit YEARS                download only videos suitable for the given
                                      age
     --download-archive FILE          Download only videos not listed in the


@@ -128,6 +147,7 @@ Download Options:
                                      size. By default, the buffer size is
                                      automatically resized from an initial value
                                      of SIZE.
                                      size. By default, the buffer size is
                                      automatically resized from an initial value
                                      of SIZE.

+    --playlist-reverse               Download playlist videos in reverse order

 
 Filesystem Options:
 -------------------
 
 Filesystem Options:
 -------------------


@@ -135,7 +155,6 @@ Filesystem Options:
     -a, --batch-file FILE            file containing URLs to download ('-' for
                                      stdin)
     --id                             use only video ID in file name
     -a, --batch-file FILE            file containing URLs to download ('-' for
                                      stdin)
     --id                             use only video ID in file name

-    -A, --auto-number                number downloaded files starting from 00000

     -o, --output TEMPLATE            output filename template. Use %(title)s to
                                      get the title, %(uploader)s for the
                                      uploader name, %(uploader_id)s for the
     -o, --output TEMPLATE            output filename template. Use %(title)s to
                                      get the title, %(uploader)s for the
                                      uploader name, %(uploader_id)s for the


@@ -169,6 +188,9 @@ Filesystem Options:
     --restrict-filenames             Restrict filenames to only ASCII
                                      characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
                                      filenames
     --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
     -t, --title                      [deprecated] use title in file name
                                      (default)
     -l, --literal                    [deprecated] alias of --title


@@ -225,6 +247,8 @@ Verbosity / Simulation Options:
                                      for each command-line argument. If the URL
                                      refers to a playlist, dump the whole
                                      playlist information in a single line.
                                      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
     --newline                        output progress bar as new lines
     --no-progress                    do not print progress bar
     --console-title                  display progress in console titlebar


@@ -235,6 +259,10 @@ Verbosity / Simulation Options:
                                      files in the current directory to debug
                                      problems
     --print-traffic                  Display sent and read HTTP traffic
                                      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.

 
 Workarounds:
 ------------
 
 Workarounds:
 ------------


@@ -258,14 +286,15 @@ Video Format Options:
 ---------------------
 
     -f, --format FORMAT              video format code, specify the order of
 ---------------------
 
     -f, --format FORMAT              video format code, specify the order of

-                                     preference using slashes: -f 22/17/18 .  -f
-                                     mp4 , -f m4a and  -f flv  are also
-                                     supported. You can also use the special
-                                     names "best", "bestvideo", "bestaudio",
-                                     "worst", "worstvideo" and "worstaudio". By
-                                     default, youtube-dl will pick the best
-                                     quality. Use commas to download multiple
-                                     audio formats, such as -f
+                                     preference using slashes, as in -f 22/17/18
+                                     .  Instead of format codes, you can select
+                                     by extension for the extensions aac, m4a,
+                                     mp3, mp4, ogg, wav, webm. You can also use
+                                     the special names "best", "bestvideo",
+                                     "bestaudio", "worst".  By default, youtube-
+                                     dl will pick the best quality. Use commas
+                                     to download multiple audio formats, such as
+                                     -f

                                      136/137/mp4/bestvideo,140/m4a/bestaudio.
                                      You can merge the video and audio of two
                                      formats into a single file using -f <video-
                                      136/137/mp4/bestvideo,140/m4a/bestaudio.
                                      You can merge the video and audio of two
                                      formats into a single file using -f <video-


@@ -279,6 +308,10 @@ Video Format Options:
     -F, --list-formats               list all available formats
     --youtube-skip-dash-manifest     Do not download the DASH manifest on
                                      YouTube videos
     -F, --list-formats               list all available formats
     --youtube-skip-dash-manifest     Do not download the DASH manifest 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

 
 Subtitle Options:
 -----------------
 
 Subtitle Options:
 -----------------


@@ -331,6 +364,11 @@ Post-processing Options:
     --add-metadata                   write metadata to the video file
     --xattrs                         write metadata to the video file's xattrs
                                      (using dublin core and xdg standards)
     --add-metadata                   write metadata to the video file
     --xattrs                         write metadata to the video file's xattrs
                                      (using dublin core and xdg standards)

+    --fixup POLICY                   (experimental) Automatically correct known
+                                     faults of the file. One of never (do
+                                     nothing), warn (only emit a warning),
+                                     detect_or_warn(check whether we can do
+                                     anything about it, warn otherwise

     --prefer-avconv                  Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running the
                                      postprocessors (default)
     --prefer-ffmpeg                  Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running the
     --prefer-avconv                  Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running the
                                      postprocessors (default)
     --prefer-ffmpeg                  Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running the


@@ -347,7 +385,8 @@ You can configure youtube-dl by placing default arguments (such as
 --extract-audio --no-mtime to always extract the audio and not copy the
 mtime) into /etc/youtube-dl.conf and/or ~/.config/youtube-dl/config. On
 Windows, the configuration file locations are
 --extract-audio --no-mtime to always extract the audio and not copy the
 mtime) into /etc/youtube-dl.conf and/or ~/.config/youtube-dl/config. On
 Windows, the configuration file locations are

-%APPDATA%\youtube-dl\config.txt and C:\Users\<Yourname>\youtube-dl.conf.
+%APPDATA%\youtube-dl\config.txt and
+C:\Users\<user name>\youtube-dl.conf.

 
 OUTPUT TEMPLATE
 ===============
 
 OUTPUT TEMPLATE
 ===============


@@ -496,13 +535,29 @@ I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as vlc or
 mplayer.
 
 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as vlc or
 mplayer.
 

-The links provided by youtube-dl -g are not working anymore
+I extracted a video URL with -g, but it does not play on another machine / in my webbrowser.
+
+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 --cookies option to write the required cookies
+into a file, and advise your downloader to read cookies from that file.
+Some sites also require a common user agent to be used, use
+--dump-user-agent to see the one in use by youtube-dl.
+
+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.
+
+Please bear in mind that some URL protocols are not supported by
+browsers out of the box, including RTMP. If you are using -g, your own
+downloader must support these as well.

 
 

-The URLs youtube-dl outputs require the downloader to have the correct
-cookies. Use the --cookies option to write the required cookies into a
-file, and advise your downloader to read cookies from that file. Some
-sites also require a common user agent to be used, use --dump-user-agent
-to see the one in use by youtube-dl.
+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 -o - to let youtube-dl stream a video to stdout,
+or simply allow the player to download the files written by youtube-dl
+in turn.

 
 ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
 
 
 ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
 


@@ -539,6 +594,45 @@ The exe throws a Runtime error from Visual C++
 To run the exe you need to install first the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008
 Redistributable Package.
 
 To run the exe you need to install first the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008
 Redistributable Package.
 

+On Windows, how should I set up ffmpeg and youtube-dl? Where should I put the exe files?
+
+If you put youtube-dl and ffmpeg in the same directory that you're
+running the command from, it will work, but that's rather cumbersome.
+
+To make a different directory work - either for ffmpeg, or for
+youtube-dl, or for both - simply create the directory (say, C:\bin, or
+C:\Users\<User name>\bin), put all the executables directly in there,
+and then set your PATH environment variable to include that directory.
+
+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 youtube-dl or ffmpeg, no matter what directory you're
+in.
+
+How can I detect whether a given URL is supported by youtube-dl?
+
+For one, have a look at the list of supported sites. Note that it can
+sometimes happen that the site changes its URL scheme (say, from
+http://example.com/v/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.
+
+It is not possible to detect whether a URL is supported or not. That's
+because youtube-dl contains a generic extractor which matches all 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's hosting itself.
+Therefore, we neither recommend nor support disabling, excluding, or
+removing the generic extractor.
+
+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 UnsupportedError exception if you run it from a Python
+program.
+

 DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS
 ======================
 
 DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS
 ======================
 


@@ -605,14 +699,15 @@ list (assuming your service is called yourextractor):
 
         def _real_extract(self, url):
             video_id = self._match_id(url)
 
         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 ...
 
             # TODO more code goes here, for example ...

-            webpage = self._download_webpage(url, video_id)

             title = self._html_search_regex(r'<h1>(.*?)</h1>', webpage, 'title')
 
             return {
                 'id': video_id,
                 'title': title,
             title = self._html_search_regex(r'<h1>(.*?)</h1>', webpage, 'title')
 
             return {
                 'id': video_id,
                 'title': title,

+                'description': self._og_search_description(webpage),

                 # TODO more properties (see youtube_dl/extractor/common.py)
             }
     ```
                 # TODO more properties (see youtube_dl/extractor/common.py)
             }
     ```


@@ -652,32 +747,72 @@ any problems parsing its output, feel free to create a report.
 From a Python program, you can embed youtube-dl in a more powerful
 fashion, like this:
 
 From a Python program, you can embed youtube-dl in a more powerful
 fashion, like this:
 

-    import youtube_dl
+``` {.python}
+import youtube_dl

 
 

-    ydl_opts = {}
-    with youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
-        ydl.download(['http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
+ydl_opts = {}
+with youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
+    ydl.download(['http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
+```

 
 Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of what can
 be done, have a look at youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py. For a start, if you
 want to intercept youtube-dl's output, set a logger object.
 
 
 Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of what can
 be done, have a look at youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py. For a start, if you
 want to intercept youtube-dl's output, set a logger object.
 

+Here'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:
+
+``` {.python}
+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['status'] == 'finished':
+        print('Done downloading, now converting ...')
+
+
+ydl_opts = {
+    'format': 'bestaudio/best',
+    'postprocessors': [{
+        'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
+        'preferredcodec': 'mp3',
+        'preferredquality': '192',
+    }],
+    'logger': MyLogger(),
+    'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
+}
+with youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
+    ydl.download(['http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
+```
+

 BUGS
 ====
 
 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
 BUGS
 ====
 
 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.
+bug report), please do not send bug reports via personal email. For
+discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.
+
+Please include the full output of youtube-dl when run with -v.

 
 

-Please include the full output of the command when run with --verbose.

 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.
 
 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.
 

-For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.
-
-When you submit a request, please re-read it once to avoid a couple of
+Please re-read your issue once again to avoid a couple of common

 mistakes (you can and should use this as a checklist):
 
 Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?
 mistakes (you can and should use this as a checklist):
 
 Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?