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
============
public domain, which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it
however you like.
+ youtube-dl [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
+
OPTIONS
=======
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
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.
+ --no-color Do not emit color codes in output.
+
+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:
----------------
--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
+ seperated 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
COUNT views
--max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than
COUNT views
+ --match-filter FILTER (Experimental) Generic video filter.
+ 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 If the URL refers to a video and a
playlist, download only the video.
+ --yes-playlist If the URL refers to a video and a
+ playlist, download the playlist.
--age-limit YEARS download only videos suitable for the given
age
--download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
-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)
+ -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 (experimental) set file xattribute
+ ytdl.filesize with expected filesize
+ --hls-prefer-native (experimental) Use the native HLS
+ downloader instead of ffmpeg.
+ --external-downloader COMMAND (experimental) Use the specified external
+ downloader. Currently supports
+ aria2c,curl,wget
Filesystem Options:
-------------------
-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
--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
--write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
--write-annotations write video annotations to a .annotation
file
- --write-thumbnail write thumbnail image to disk
--load-info FILE json file containing the video information
(created with the "--write-json" option)
--cookies FILE file to read cookies from and dump cookie
--no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
--rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
+Thumbnail images:
+-----------------
+
+ --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
+
Verbosity / Simulation Options:
-------------------------------
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
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:
------------
--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.
Video Format Options:
---------------------
-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". You can filter the
+ video results by putting a condition in
+ brackets, as in -f "best[height=720]" (or
+ -f "[filesize>10M]"). 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 "[height
+ <=? 720][tbr>500]" selects up to 720p
+ videos (or videos where the height is not
+ known) with a bitrate of at least 500
+ KBit/s. 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-
-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:
-----------------
--all-subs downloads all the available subtitles of
the video
--list-subs lists all available subtitles for the video
- --sub-format FORMAT subtitle format (default=srt) ([sbv/vtt]
- youtube only)
+ --sub-format FORMAT subtitle format, accepts formats
+ preference, for example: "ass/srt/best"
--sub-lang LANGS languages of the subtitles to download
(optional) separated by commas, use IETF
language tags like 'en,pt'
-----------------------
-u, --username USERNAME login with this account ID
- -p, --password PASSWORD account password
+ -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)
--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 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's -exec
syntax. Example: --exec 'adb push {}
/sdcard/Music/ && rm {}'
+ --convert-subtitles FORMAT Convert the subtitles to other format
+ (currently supported: srt|ass|vtt)
CONFIGURATION
=============
--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
===============
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
-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.
+YouTube has switched to a new video info format in July 2011 which is
+not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. See above for how to update
+youtube-dl.
ERROR: unable to download video
-youtube requires an additional signature since September 2012 which is
-not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl
-with sudo youtube-dl --update.
+YouTube requires an additional signature since September 2012 which is
+not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. See above for how to update
+youtube-dl.
+
+ExtractorError: Could not find JS function u'OF'
+
+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 for how to update youtube-dl.
SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character
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 do I put downloads into a specific folder?
+
+Use the -o to specify an output template, for example
+-o "/home/user/videos/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s". If you want this for
+all of your downloads, put the option into your configuration file.
+
+How do I download a video starting with a - ?
+
+Either prepend http://www.youtube.com/watch?v= or separate the ID from
+the options with --:
+
+ youtube-dl -- -wNyEUrxzFU
+ youtube-dl "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wNyEUrxzFU"
+
+Can you add support for this anime video site, or site which shows current movies for free?
+
+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's distributor, or is published under a free
+license), the service is probably unfit for inclusion to youtube-dl.
+
+A note on the service that they don't host the infringing content, but
+just link to those who do, is evidence that the service should not 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.
+
+Support requests for services that do 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.
+
+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/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.
+
+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
======================
7. Have a look at youtube_dl/common/extractor/common.py for possible
helper methods and a detailed description of what your extractor
should return. Add tests and code for as many as you want.
-8. If you can, check the code with pyflakes (a good idea) and pep8
- (optional, ignore E501).
+8. If you can, check the code with flake8.
9. When the tests pass, add the new files and commit them and push the
result, 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.
+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
-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.
-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?
Is anyone going to need the feature?
-Only post features that you (or an incapicated 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.
+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.
Is your question about youtube-dl?