-NAME
-====
-
youtube-dl - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms
-SYNOPSIS
-========
+- INSTALLATION
+- DESCRIPTION
+- OPTIONS
+- CONFIGURATION
+- OUTPUT TEMPLATE
+- VIDEO SELECTION
+- FAQ
+- DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS
+- BUGS
+- COPYRIGHT
+
+INSTALLATION
+============
+
+To install it right away for all UNIX users (Linux, OS X, etc.), type:
+
+ sudo curl https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
+ sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
+
+If you do not have curl, you can alternatively use a recent wget:
+
+ 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 and place it in their home
+directory or any other location on their PATH.
+
+OS X users can install youtube-dl with Homebrew.
+
+ brew install youtube-dl
+
+You can also use pip:
-youtube-dl OPTIONS URL [URL...]
+ 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
+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.
+ youtube-dl [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
+
OPTIONS
=======
- -h, --help print this help text and exit
- --version print program version and exit
- -U, --update update this program to latest version
- -i, --ignore-errors continue on download errors
- -r, --rate-limit LIMIT maximum download rate (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
- -R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is 10)
- --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.
- --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
- --list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs they
- would handle
- --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy
- --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation.
+ -h, --help print this help text and exit
+ --version print program version and exit
+ -U, --update update this program to latest version. Make
+ sure that you have sufficient permissions
+ (run with sudo if needed)
+ -i, --ignore-errors continue on download errors, for example to
+ skip unavailable videos in a playlist
+ --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos (in the
+ playlist or the command line) if an error
+ occurs
+ --dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
+ --list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs
+ they would handle
+ --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
+ extractors
+ --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
+ example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
+ from google videos for youtube-dl "large
+ 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/config (%APPDATA%/youtube-dl/config.txt
+ on Windows)
+ --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:
----------------
- --playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is 1)
- --playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
- --match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or caseless
- sub-string)
- --reject-title REGEX skip download for matching titles (regex or
- caseless sub-string)
- --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
- --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE
- (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
- --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE (e.g.
- 50k or 44.6m)
- --date DATE download only videos uploaded in this date
- --datebefore DATE download only videos uploaded before this date
- --dateafter DATE download only videos uploaded after this date
+ --playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is 1)
+ --playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
+ --match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or
+ caseless sub-string)
+ --reject-title REGEX skip download for matching titles (regex or
+ caseless sub-string)
+ --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
+ --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
+ SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
+ --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
+ (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
+ --date DATE download only videos uploaded in this date
+ --datebefore DATE download only videos uploaded on or before
+ this date (i.e. inclusive)
+ --dateafter DATE download only videos uploaded on or after
+ this date (i.e. inclusive)
+ --min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less than
+ COUNT views
+ --max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than
+ COUNT views
+ --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
+ archive file. Record the IDs of all
+ downloaded videos in it.
+ --include-ads Download advertisements as well
+ (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)
+ --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
Filesystem Options:
-------------------
- -t, --title use title in file name (default)
- --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 uploader nickname if
- different, %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
- incremented number, %(ext)s for the filename
- extension, %(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 is in,
- %(playlist_index)s for the position in the
- playlist and %% for a literal percent. Use - to
- output to stdout. Can also be used to download to
- a different directory, for example with -o '/my/d
- ownloads/%(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
- --autonumber option is given
- --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)
- -w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
- -c, --continue resume partially downloaded files
- --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-mtime do not use the Last-modified header to set the
- file modification time
- --write-description write video description to a .description file
- --write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
- --write-thumbnail write thumbnail image to disk
+ -a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for
+ stdin)
+ --id use only video ID in file name
+ -o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(title)s to
+ get the title, %(uploader)s for the
+ uploader name, %(uploader_id)s for the
+ uploader nickname if different,
+ %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
+ incremented number, %(ext)s for the
+ filename extension, %(format)s for the
+ format description (like "22 - 1280x720" or
+ "HD"), %(format_id)s for the unique id of
+ the format (like Youtube's itags: "137"),
+ %(upload_date)s for the upload date
+ (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
+ (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for 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. %(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. %% 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
+ is given
+ --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
+ -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)
+ --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
+ file
+ --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
+ 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
Verbosity / Simulation Options:
-------------------------------
- -q, --quiet activates quiet mode
- -s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write
- anything to disk
- --skip-download do not download the video
- -g, --get-url simulate, quiet but print URL
- -e, --get-title simulate, quiet but print title
- --get-id simulate, quiet but print id
- --get-thumbnail simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
- --get-description simulate, quiet but print video description
- --get-filename simulate, quiet but print output filename
- --get-format simulate, quiet but print output format
- --newline output progress bar as new lines
- --no-progress do not print progress bar
- --console-title display progress in console titlebar
- -v, --verbose print various debugging information
- --dump-intermediate-pages print downloaded pages to debug problems(very
- verbose)
+ -q, --quiet activates quiet mode
+ --no-warnings Ignore warnings
+ -s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write
+ anything to disk
+ --skip-download do not download the video
+ -g, --get-url simulate, quiet but print URL
+ -e, --get-title simulate, quiet but print title
+ --get-id simulate, quiet but print id
+ --get-thumbnail simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
+ --get-description simulate, quiet but print video description
+ --get-duration simulate, quiet but print video length
+ --get-filename simulate, quiet but print output filename
+ --get-format simulate, quiet but print output format
+ -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
+ -v, --verbose print various debugging information
+ --dump-intermediate-pages print downloaded pages to debug problems
+ (very verbose)
+ --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
+ 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
Video Format Options:
---------------------
- -f, --format FORMAT video format code, specifiy the order of
- preference using slashes: "-f 22/17/18"
- --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 (currently youtube
- only)
- --write-sub write subtitle file (currently youtube only)
- --only-sub [deprecated] alias of --skip-download
- --all-subs downloads all the available subtitles of the
- video (currently youtube only)
- --list-subs lists all available subtitles for the video
- (currently youtube only)
- --sub-format FORMAT subtitle format [srt/sbv] (default=srt)
- (currently youtube only)
- --sub-lang LANG language of the subtitles to download (optional)
- use IETF language tags like 'en'
+ -f, --format FORMAT video format code, specify the order of
+ 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-
+ 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
+ --write-auto-sub write automatic subtitle file (youtube
+ only)
+ --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-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
- -n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
- --video-password PASSWORD video password (vimeo only)
+ -u, --username USERNAME login with this account ID
+ -p, --password PASSWORD account password
+ -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR two-factor auth code
+ -n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
+ --video-password PASSWORD video password (vimeo, smotri)
Post-processing Options:
------------------------
- -x, --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files (requires
- ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)
- --audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", "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)
- -k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the post-
- processing; the video is erased by default
- --no-post-overwrites do not overwrite post-processed files; the post-
- processed files are overwritten by default
+ -x, --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files
+ (requires ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or
+ avprobe)
+ --audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a",
+ "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|mkv)
+ -k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the
+ post-processing; the video is erased by
+ default
+ --no-post-overwrites do not overwrite post-processed files; the
+ post-processed files are overwritten by
+ default
+ --embed-subs embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4
+ videos)
+ --embed-thumbnail embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
+ --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
+ postprocessors
+ --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
+ downloading, similar to find's -exec
+ syntax. Example: --exec 'adb push {}
+ /sdcard/Music/ && rm {}'
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.conf.
+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
===============
- playlist_index: The index of the video in the playlist, a five-digit
number.
-The current default template is %(id)s.%(ext)s, but that will be
-switchted to %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s (which can be requested with -t at
-the moment).
+The current default template is %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s.
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:
- $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-6months #will only download the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
- $ youtube-dl --date 19700101 #will only download the videos uploaded in January 1, 1970
- $ youtube-dl --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20100101 #will only download the videos uploaded between 2000 and 2010
+``` {.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
+
+$ # 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, 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:
+
+ 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 to the
+Ubuntu packaging guys - 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). 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
+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.
I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
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
+too much. We're considering to provide a way to let you solve the
CAPTCHA, but at the moment, your best course of action is pointing a
webbrowser to the youtube URL, solving the CAPTCHA, and restart
youtube-dl.
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.
-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
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
+======================
+
+Most users do not need to build youtube-dl and can download the builds
+or get them from their distribution.
+
+To run youtube-dl as a developer, you don't need to build anything
+either. Simply execute
+
+ python -m youtube_dl
+
+To run the test, simply invoke your favorite test runner, or execute a
+test file directly; any of the following work:
+
+ python -m unittest discover
+ python test/test_download.py
+ nosetests
+
+If you want to create a build of youtube-dl yourself, you'll need
+
+- python
+- make
+- pandoc
+- zip
+- nosetests
+
+Adding support for a new site
+
+If you want to add support for a new site, you can follow this quick
+list (assuming your service is called yourextractor):
+
+1. Fork this repository
+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:
+
+ ``` {.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):
+ 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.
+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 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).
+9. When the tests pass, add the new files and commit them and push the
+ result, like this:
+
+ $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py
+ $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py
+ $ git commit -m '[yourextractor] Add new extractor'
+ $ git push origin yourextractor
+
+10. Finally, create a pull request. We'll then review and merge it.
+
+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.
+
+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. 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. For
+discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.
+
+Please include the full output of youtube-dl when run with -v.
+
+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 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?
+
+We often get issue reports that we cannot really decipher. While in most
+cases we eventually get the required information after asking back
+multiple times, this poses an unnecessary drain on our resources. Many
+contributors, including myself, are also not native speakers, so we may
+misread some parts.
+
+So please elaborate on what feature you are requesting, or what bug you
+want to be fixed. Make sure that it's obvious
+
+- What the problem is
+- How it could be fixed
+- How your proposed solution would look like
+
+If your report is shorter than two lines, it is almost certainly missing
+some of these, which makes it hard for us to respond to it. We're often
+too polite to close the issue outright, but the missing info makes
+misinterpretation likely. As a commiter myself, I often get frustrated
+by these issues, since the only possible way for me to move forward on
+them is to ask for clarification over and over.
+
+For bug reports, this means that your report should contain the complete
+output of youtube-dl when called with the -v flag. The error message you
+get for (most) bugs even says so, but you would not believe how many of
+our bug reports do not contain this information.
+
+Site support requests must contain an example URL. An example URL is a
+URL you might want to download, like
+http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc . There should be an obvious
+video present. Except under very special circumstances, the main page of
+a video service (e.g. http://www.youtube.com/ ) is not an example URL.
+
+Are you using the latest version?
+
+Before reporting any issue, type youtube-dl -U. This should report that
+you're up-to-date. About 20% of the reports we receive are already
+fixed, but people are using outdated versions. This goes for feature
+requests as well.
+
+Is the issue already documented?
+
+Make sure that someone has not already opened the issue you're trying to
+open. Search at the top of the window or at
+https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/search?type=Issues . If there is an
+issue, feel free to write something along the lines of "This affects me
+as well, with version 2015.01.01. Here is some more information on the
+issue: ...". While some issues may be old, a new post into them often
+spurs rapid activity.
+
+Why are existing options not enough?
+
+Before requesting a new feature, please have a quick peek at the list of
+supported options. Many feature requests are for features that actually
+exist already! Please, absolutely do show off your work in the issue
+report and detail how the existing similar options do not solve your
+problem.
+
+Is there enough context in your bug report?
+
+People want to solve problems, and often think they do us a favor by
+breaking down their larger problems (e.g. wanting to skip already
+downloaded files) to a specific request (e.g. requesting us to look
+whether the file exists before downloading the info page). However, what
+often happens is that they break down the problem into two steps: One
+simple, and one impossible (or extremely complicated one).
+
+We are then presented with a very complicated request when the original
+problem could be solved far easier, e.g. by recording the downloaded
+video IDs in a separate file. To avoid this, you must include the
+greater context where it is non-obvious. In particular, every feature
+request that does not consist of adding support for a new site should
+contain a use case scenario that explains in what situation the missing
+feature would be useful.
+
+Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?
+
+Some of our users seem to think there is a limit of issues they can or
+should open. There is no limit of issues they can or should open. While
+it may seem appealing to be able to dump all your issues into one
+ticket, that means that someone who solves one of your issues cannot
+mark the issue as closed. Typically, reporting a bunch of issues leads
+to the ticket lingering since nobody wants to attack that behemoth,
+until someone mercifully splits the issue into multiple ones.
+
+In particular, every site support request issue should only pertain to
+services at one site (generally under a common domain, but always using
+the same backend technology). Do not request support for vimeo user
+videos, Whitehouse podcasts, and Google Plus pages in the same issue.
+Also, make sure that you don't post bug reports alongside feature
+requests. As a rule of thumb, a feature request does not include outputs
+of youtube-dl that are not immediately related to the feature at hand.
+Do not post reports of a network error alongside the request for a new
+video service.
+
+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.
+
+Is your question about youtube-dl?
+
+It may sound strange, but some bug reports we receive are completely
+unrelated to youtube-dl and relate to a different or even the reporter's
+own application. Please make sure that you are actually using
+youtube-dl. If you are using a UI for youtube-dl, report the bug to the
+maintainer of the actual application providing the UI. On the other
+hand, if your UI for youtube-dl fails in some way you believe is related
+to youtube-dl, by all means, go ahead and report the bug.
+
COPYRIGHT
=========
(https://github.com/dbbolton) and is likewise released into the public
domain.
-BUGS
-====
-
-Bugs and suggestions should be reported at:
-https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues
-
-Please include:
-
-- 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.
-- If possible re-run the command with --verbose, and include the full
- output, it is really helpful to us.
-- The output of youtube-dl --version
-- The output of python --version
-- The name and version of your Operating System ("Ubuntu 11.04 x64" or
- "Windows 7 x64" is usually enough).
-
-For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.