youtube-dl - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms
-# SYNOPSIS
-**youtube-dl** [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
+- [INSTALLATION](#installation)
+- [DESCRIPTION](#description)
+- [OPTIONS](#options)
+- [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
+- [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
+- [VIDEO SELECTION](#video-selection)
+- [FAQ](#faq)
+- [DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS](#developer-instructions)
+- [BUGS](#bugs)
+- [COPYRIGHT](#copyright)
# INSTALLATION
If you do not have curl, you can alternatively use a recent wget:
- sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/downloads/2014.05.13/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
+ sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
Windows users can [download a .exe file](https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl.exe) and place it in their home directory or any other location on their [PATH](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PATH_%28variable%29).
+OS X users can install **youtube-dl** with [Homebrew](http://brew.sh/).
+
+ brew install youtube-dl
+
+You can also use pip:
+
+ sudo pip install youtube-dl
+
Alternatively, refer to the developer instructions below for how to check out and work with the git repository. For further options, including PGP signatures, see https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html .
# 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, version
-2.6, 2.7, or 3.3+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on
+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.
+ youtube-dl [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
+
# OPTIONS
-h, --help print this help text and exit
--version print program version and exit
playlist or the command line) if an error
occurs
--dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
- --user-agent UA specify a custom user agent
- --referer REF 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 ':'. You can use this
- option multiple times
--list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs
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
- --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation.
- --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
- information about the video. (Currently
- supported only for YouTube)
- --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
- --socket-timeout None Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
- --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
- bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
- or fribidi executable in PATH
--default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
from google videos for youtube-dl "large
- apple". By default (with value "auto")
- youtube-dl guesses.
+ 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.conf
- (%APPDATA%/youtube-dl/config.txt on
- Windows)
- --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
+ /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
- --no-playlist download only the currently playing video
+ --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
downloaded videos in it.
--include-ads Download advertisements as well
(experimental)
- --youtube-include-dash-manifest Try to download the DASH manifest on
- YouTube videos (experimental)
## Download Options:
-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:
- -t, --title use title in file name (default)
+ -a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for
+ stdin)
--id use only video ID in file name
- -l, --literal [deprecated] alias of --title
- -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
%(upload_date)s for the upload date
(YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
(youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the
- video id, %(playlist)s for the playlist 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 and %% for a
- literal percent. %(height)s and %(width)s
- for the width and height of the video
- format. %(resolution)s for a textual
+ 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. Use - to output to stdout. Can also
- be used to download to a different
- directory, for example with -o '/my/downloa
- ds/%(uploader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
+ format. %% for a literal percent. Use - to
+ output to stdout. Can also be used to
+ download to a different directory, for
+ example with -o '/my/downloads/%(uploader)s
+ /%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
--autonumber-size NUMBER Specifies the number of digits in
%(autonumber)s when it is present in output
filename template or --auto-number option
--restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
filenames
- -a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for
- stdin)
- --load-info FILE json file containing the video information
- (created with the "--write-json" option)
+ -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)
- --cookies FILE file to read cookies from and dump cookie
- jar in
- --no-part do not use .part files
+ --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
--write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
--write-annotations write video annotations to a .annotation
file
+ --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
+ 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
+
+## 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:
-q, --quiet activates quiet mode
-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
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:
+ --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 ':'. 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.
## Video Format Options:
-f, --format FORMAT video format code, specify the order of
- preference using slashes: "-f 22/17/18".
- "-f mp4" 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.
+ 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-
+ format>+<audio-format> (requires ffmpeg or
+ avconv), for example -f
+ bestvideo+bestaudio.
--all-formats download all available video formats
--prefer-free-formats prefer free video formats unless a specific
one is requested
--max-quality FORMAT highest quality format to download
-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:
--write-sub write subtitle file
--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'
## Authentication Options:
- -u, --username USERNAME account username
- -p, --password PASSWORD account password
+ -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)
(requires ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or
avprobe)
--audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a",
- "opus", or "wav"; best by default
+ "opus", or "wav"; "best" by default
--audio-quality QUALITY ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification,
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)
+ mp4|flv|ogg|webm|mkv)
-k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the
post-processing; the video is erased by
default
--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
-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 `%APPDATA%\youtube-dl\config.txt` and `C:\Users\<Yourname>\youtube-dl.conf`.
+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 `%APPDATA%\youtube-dl\config.txt` and `C:\Users\<user name>\youtube-dl.conf`.
# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
In some cases, you don'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 `--restrict-filenames` flag to get a shorter title:
- $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
- youtube-dl test video ''_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
+```bash
+$ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
+youtube-dl test video ''_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
+```
# VIDEO SELECTION
Examples:
- # Download only the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
- $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-6months
+```bash
+# 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
+# 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
+$ # will only download the videos uploaded in the 200x decade
+$ youtube-dl --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20091231
+```
# FAQ
+### How do I update youtube-dl?
+
+If you've followed [our manual installation instructions](http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html), you can simply run `youtube-dl -U` (or, on Linux, `sudo youtube-dl -U`).
+
+If you have used pip, a simple `sudo pip install -U youtube-dl` is sufficient to update.
+
+If you have installed youtube-dl using a package manager like *apt-get* or *yum*, 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.
+
+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's package, with a line like
+
+ sudo apt-get remove -y youtube-dl
+
+Afterwards, simply follow [our manual installation instructions](http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html):
+
+```
+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
+```
+
+Again, from then on you'll be able to update with `sudo youtube-dl -U`.
+
+### I'm getting an error `Unable to extract OpenGraph title` on YouTube playlists
+
+YouTube changed their playlist format in March 2014 and later on, so you'll need at least youtube-dl 2014.07.25 to download all YouTube videos.
+
+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.
+
+### Do I always have to pass in `--max-quality FORMAT`, or `-citw`?
+
+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, `--max-quality` *limits* the video quality (so if you want the best quality, do NOT pass it in), and the only option out of `-citw` that is regularly useful is `-i`.
+
### Can you please put the -b option back?
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.
Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as [vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or [mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
-### 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.
-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.
+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.
+
+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](#how-do-i-update-youtube-dl) 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](#how-do-i-update-youtube-dl) 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](#how-do-i-update-youtube-dl) 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](http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29).
+### 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](https://www.java.com/en/download/help/path.xml) 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](#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](#configuration).
+
+### 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](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.
+
+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
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.
2. Check out the source code with `git clone git@github.com:YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/youtube-dl.git`
3. Start a new git branch with `cd youtube-dl; git checkout -b yourextractor`
4. Start with this simple template and save it to `youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py`:
-
- # coding: utf-8
- from __future__ import unicode_literals
-
- import re
-
- from .common import InfoExtractor
-
-
- class YourExtractorIE(InfoExtractor):
- _VALID_URL = r'https?://(?:www\.)?yourextractor\.com/watch/(?P<id>[0-9]+)'
- _TEST = {
- 'url': 'http://yourextractor.com/watch/42',
- 'md5': 'TODO: md5 sum of the first 10KiB of the video file',
- 'info_dict': {
- 'id': '42',
- 'ext': 'mp4',
- 'title': 'Video title goes here',
- # 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)
- }
+ ```python
+ # coding: utf-8
+ from __future__ import unicode_literals
+
+ from .common import InfoExtractor
+
+
+ class YourExtractorIE(InfoExtractor):
+ _VALID_URL = r'https?://(?:www\.)?yourextractor\.com/watch/(?P<id>[0-9]+)'
+ _TEST = {
+ 'url': 'http://yourextractor.com/watch/42',
+ 'md5': 'TODO: md5 sum of the first 10241 bytes of the video file (use --test)',
+ 'info_dict': {
+ 'id': '42',
+ 'ext': 'mp4',
+ 'title': 'Video title goes here',
+ 'thumbnail': 're:^https?://.*\.jpg$',
+ # 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):
- mobj = re.match(self._VALID_URL, url)
- video_id = mobj.group('id')
-
- # 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,
- # TODO more properties (see youtube_dl/extractor/common.py)
- }
+ 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'<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)
+ }
+ ```
5. Add an import in [`youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py`](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py).
-6. Run `python test/test_download.py TestDownload.test_YourExtractor`. This *should fail* at first, but you can continually re-run it until you're done.
+6. Run `python test/test_download.py TestDownload.test_YourExtractor`. This *should fail* at first, but you can continually re-run it until you're done. If you decide to add more than one test, then rename ``_TEST`` to ``_TESTS`` and make it into a list of dictionaries. The tests will be then be named `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor`, `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_1`, `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_2`, etc.
7. Have a look at [`youtube_dl/common/extractor/common.py`](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.
-8. If you can, check the code with [pyflakes](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pyflakes) (a good idea) and [pep8](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pep8) (optional, ignore E501).
-9. When the tests pass, [add](https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-add.html) the new files and [commit](https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-commit.html) them and [push](https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-push.html) the result, like this:
+8. If you can, check the code with [flake8](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/flake8).
+9. 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:
$ git add youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py
$ git add youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py
In any case, thank you very much for your contributions!
+# EMBEDDING YOUTUBE-DL
+
+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).
+
+From a Python program, you can embed youtube-dl in a more powerful fashion, like this:
+
+```python
+import youtube_dl
+
+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](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py#L69). 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.
+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.
-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.
+**Please include the full output of youtube-dl when run with `-v`**.
-For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.
+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.
-When you submit a request, please re-read it once to avoid a couple of mistakes (you can and should use this as a checklist):
+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?