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 curl -L https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
sudo chmod a+rx /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+rx /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).
+Windows users can [download an .exe file](https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl.exe) and place it in any location on their [PATH](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PATH_%28variable%29) except for `%SYSTEMROOT%\System32` (e.g. **do not** put in `C:\Windows\System32`).
-OS X users can install **youtube-dl** with [Homebrew](http://brew.sh/).
+You can also use pip:
+
+ sudo pip install --upgrade youtube-dl
+
+This command will update youtube-dl if you have already installed it. See the [pypi page](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/youtube_dl) for more information.
+
+OS X users can install youtube-dl with [Homebrew](http://brew.sh/):
brew install youtube-dl
-You can also use pip:
+Or with [MacPorts](https://www.macports.org/):
- sudo pip install youtube-dl
+ sudo port install youtube-dl
Alternatively, refer to the [developer instructions](#developer-instructions) for how to check out and work with the git repository. For further options, including PGP signatures, see the [youtube-dl Download Page](https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html).
# DESCRIPTION
-**youtube-dl** is a small command-line program to download videos from
+**youtube-dl** is a 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 3.2+, 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,
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
+ 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.
+ --mark-watched Mark videos watched (YouTube only)
+ --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (YouTube only)
--no-color Do not emit color codes in output
+ --abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading when some fragment is not
+ available
## Network Options:
- --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy. Pass in
- an empty string (--proxy "") for direct
- connection
+ --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy.
+ To enable experimental SOCKS proxy, specify
+ a proper scheme. For example
+ socks5://127.0.0.1:1080/. 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)
(experimental)
-6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
(experimental)
- --cn-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
- some Chinese sites. The default proxy
- specified by --proxy (or none, if the
+ --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
+ some geo-restricted sites. The default
+ proxy specified by --proxy (or none, if the
options is not present) is used for the
actual downloading. (experimental)
(experimental)
## Download Options:
- -r, --rate-limit LIMIT Maximum download rate in bytes per second
+ -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
(e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
-R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
"infinite".
+ --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default
+ is 10), or "infinite" (DASH and hlsnative
+ only)
+ --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments (DASH and
+ hlsnative only)
--buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
(default is 1024)
--no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer
--xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
expected filesize (experimental)
--hls-prefer-native Use the native HLS downloader instead of
- ffmpeg (experimental)
+ ffmpeg
+ --hls-prefer-ffmpeg Use ffmpeg instead of the native HLS
+ downloader
--hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos,
allowing to play the video while
downloading (some players may not be able
to play it)
--external-downloader COMMAND Use the specified external downloader.
Currently supports
- aria2c,axel,curl,httpie,wget
+ aria2c,avconv,axel,curl,ffmpeg,httpie,wget
--external-downloader-args ARGS Give these arguments to the external
downloader
-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' .
+ -o, --output TEMPLATE Output filename template, see the "OUTPUT
+ TEMPLATE" for all the info
--autonumber-size NUMBER Specify the number of digits in
%(autonumber)s when it is present in output
filename template or --auto-number option
--write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
--write-annotations Write video annotations to a
.annotations.xml file
- --load-info FILE JSON file containing the video information
+ --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
(created with the "--write-info-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.
+ 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
bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
or fribidi executable in PATH
--sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
- download.
+ download when used alone or a lower bound
+ of a range for randomized sleep before each
+ download (minimum possible number of
+ seconds to sleep) when used along with
+ --max-sleep-interval.
+ --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Upper bound of a range for randomized sleep
+ before each download (maximum possible
+ number of seconds to sleep). Must only be
+ used along with --min-sleep-interval.
## Video Format Options:
-f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see the "FORMAT
-n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
--video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, smotri, youku)
+## Adobe Pass Options:
+ --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
+ provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
+ a list of available MSOs
+ --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
+ --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
+ If this option is left out, youtube-dl will
+ ask interactively.
+ --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system
+ operators
+
## Post-processing Options:
-x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
(requires ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or
--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 mkv
- and mp4 videos)
+ --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
+ webm and mkv videos)
--embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
--add-metadata Write metadata to the video file
--metadata-from-title FORMAT Parse additional metadata like song title /
# CONFIGURATION
-You can configure youtube-dl by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. On Linux, the system wide configuration file is located at `/etc/youtube-dl.conf` and the user wide configuration file at `~/.config/youtube-dl/config`. On Windows, the user wide configuration file locations are `%APPDATA%\youtube-dl\config.txt` or `C:\Users\<user name>\youtube-dl.conf`. For example, with the following configuration file youtube-dl will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime and use a proxy:
+You can configure youtube-dl by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. On Linux and OS X, the system wide configuration file is located at `/etc/youtube-dl.conf` and the user wide configuration file at `~/.config/youtube-dl/config`. On Windows, the user wide configuration file locations are `%APPDATA%\youtube-dl\config.txt` or `C:\Users\<user name>\youtube-dl.conf`. Note that by default configuration file may not exist so you may need to create it yourself.
+
+For example, with the following configuration file youtube-dl will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under `Movies` directory in your home directory:
```
---extract-audio
+# Lines starting with # are comments
+
+# Always extract audio
+-x
+
+# Do not copy the mtime
--no-mtime
+
+# Use this proxy
--proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
+
+# Save all videos under Movies directory in your home directory
+-o ~/Movies/%(title)s.%(ext)s
```
+Note that options in configuration file are just the same options aka switches used in regular command line calls thus there **must be no whitespace** after `-` or `--`, e.g. `-o` or `--proxy` but not `- o` or `-- proxy`.
+
You can use `--ignore-config` if you want to disable the configuration file for a particular youtube-dl run.
### Authentication with `.netrc` file
-You may also want to configure automatic credentials storage for extractors that support authentication (by providing login and password with `--username` and `--password`) in order not to pass credentials as command line arguments on every youtube-dl execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in the shell command history. You can achieve this using a [`.netrc` file](http://stackoverflow.com/tags/.netrc/info) on per extractor basis. For that you will need to create a`.netrc` file in your `$HOME` and restrict permissions to read/write by you only:
+You may also want to configure automatic credentials storage for extractors that support authentication (by providing login and password with `--username` and `--password`) in order not to pass credentials as command line arguments on every youtube-dl execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in the shell command history. You can achieve this using a [`.netrc` file](http://stackoverflow.com/tags/.netrc/info) on a per extractor basis. For that you will need to create a `.netrc` file in your `$HOME` and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:
```
touch $HOME/.netrc
chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
```
-After that you can add credentials for extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of extractor in lowercase:
+After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
```
machine <extractor> login <login> password <password>
```
# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
-The `-o` option allows users to indicate a template for the output file names. The basic usage is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in `youtube-dl -o funny_video.flv "http://some/video"`. However, it may contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences have the format `%(NAME)s`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by a lowercase S. Allowed names are:
+The `-o` option allows users to indicate a template for the output file names.
+
+**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
+
+The basic usage is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in `youtube-dl -o funny_video.flv "http://some/video"`. However, it may contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences have the format `%(NAME)s`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by a lowercase S. Allowed names are:
- `id`: Video identifier
- `title`: Video title
- `alt_title`: A secondary title of the video
- `display_id`: An alternative identifier for the video
- `uploader`: Full name of the video uploader
- - `creator`: The main artist who created the video
+ - `license`: License name the video is licensed under
+ - `creator`: The creator of the video
- `release_date`: The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released
- `timestamp`: UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
- `upload_date`: Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)
- `autonumber`: Five-digit number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero
- `playlist`: Name or id of the playlist that contains the video
- `playlist_index`: Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
+ - `playlist_id`: Playlist identifier
+ - `playlist_title`: Playlist title
+
Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
- `chapter`: Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
- `episode_number`: Number of the video episode within a season
- `episode_id`: Id of the video episode
-Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. Note that some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, such sequences will be replaced with `NA`.
+Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
+ - `track`: Title of the track
+ - `track_number`: Number of the track within an album or a disc
+ - `track_id`: Id of the track
+ - `artist`: Artist(s) of the track
+ - `genre`: Genre(s) of the track
+ - `album`: Title of the album the track belongs to
+ - `album_type`: Type of the album
+ - `album_artist`: List of all artists appeared on the album
+ - `disc_number`: Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
+ - `release_year`: Year (YYYY) when the album was released
+
+Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. Note that some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor. Such sequences will be replaced with `NA`.
-For example for `-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and mp4 video with title `youtube-dl test video` and id `BaW_jenozKcj` this will result in a `youtube-dl test video-BaW_jenozKcj.mp4` file created in the current directory.
+For example for `-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an mp4 video with title `youtube-dl test video` and id `BaW_jenozKcj`, this will result in a `youtube-dl test video-BaW_jenozKcj.mp4` file created in the current directory.
-Output template can also contain arbitrary hierarchical path, e.g. `-o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s'` that will result in downloading each video in a directory corresponding to this path template. Any missing directory will be automatically created for you.
+Output templates can also contain arbitrary hierarchical path, e.g. `-o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s'` which will result in downloading each video in a directory corresponding to this path template. Any missing directory will be automatically created for you.
-To specify percent literal in output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
+To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
The current default template is `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`.
In some cases, you don't want special characters such as äø, 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:
-Examples (note on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single):
+#### Output template and Windows batch files
+
+If you are using an output template inside a Windows batch file then you must escape plain percent characters (`%`) by doubling, so that `-o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"` should become `-o "%%(title)s-%%(id)s.%%(ext)s"`. However you should not touch `%`'s that are not plain characters, e.g. environment variables for expansion should stay intact: `-o "C:\%HOMEPATH%\Desktop\%%(title)s.%%(ext)s"`.
+
+#### Output template examples
+
+Note on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
```bash
$ youtube-dl --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc
# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
$ youtube-dl -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
+# Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
+$ youtube-dl -o '%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists
+
# Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
$ youtube-dl -u user -p password -o '~/MyVideos/%(playlist)s/%(chapter_number)s - %(chapter)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.udemy.com/java-tutorial/
By default youtube-dl tries to download the best available quality, i.e. if you want the best quality you **don't need** to pass any special options, youtube-dl will guess it for you by **default**.
-But sometimes you may want to download in a different format, for example when you are on a slow or intermittent connection. The key mechanism for achieving this is so called *format selection* based on which you can explicitly specify desired format, select formats based on some criterion or criteria, setup precedence and much more.
+But sometimes you may want to download in a different format, for example when you are on a slow or intermittent connection. The key mechanism for achieving this is so-called *format selection* based on which you can explicitly specify desired format, select formats based on some criterion or criteria, setup precedence and much more.
The general syntax for format selection is `--format FORMAT` or shorter `-f FORMAT` where `FORMAT` is a *selector expression*, i.e. an expression that describes format or formats you would like to download.
+**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
+
The simplest case is requesting a specific format, for example with `-f 22` you can download the format with format code equal to 22. You can get the list of available format codes for particular video using `--list-formats` or `-F`. Note that these format codes are extractor specific.
-You can also use a file extension (currently `3gp`, `aac`, `flv`, `m4a`, `mp3`, `mp4`, `ogg`, `wav`, `webm` are supported) to download best quality format of particular file extension served as a single file, e.g. `-f webm` will download best quality format with `webm` extension served as a single file.
+You can also use a file extension (currently `3gp`, `aac`, `flv`, `m4a`, `mp3`, `mp4`, `ogg`, `wav`, `webm` are supported) to download the best quality format of a particular file extension served as a single file, e.g. `-f webm` will download the best quality format with the `webm` extension served as a single file.
-You can also use special names to select particular edge case format:
- - `best`: Select best quality format represented by single file with video and audio
- - `worst`: Select worst quality format represented by single file with video and audio
- - `bestvideo`: Select best quality video only format (e.g. DASH video), may not be available
- - `worstvideo`: Select worst quality video only format, may not be available
- - `bestaudio`: Select best quality audio only format, may not be available
- - `worstaudio`: Select worst quality audio only format, may not be available
+You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
+ - `best`: Select the best quality format represented by a single file with video and audio.
+ - `worst`: Select the worst quality format represented by a single file with video and audio.
+ - `bestvideo`: Select the best quality video-only format (e.g. DASH video). May not be available.
+ - `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. May not be available.
+ - `bestaudio`: Select the best quality audio only-format. May not be available.
+ - `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio only-format. May not be available.
-For example, to download worst quality video only format you can use `-f worstvideo`.
+For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use `-f worstvideo`.
If you want to download multiple videos and they don't have the same formats available, you can specify the order of preference using slashes. Note that slash is left-associative, i.e. formats on the left hand side are preferred, for example `-f 22/17/18` will download format 22 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 17 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 18 if it's available, otherwise it will complain that no suitable formats are available for download.
-If you want to download several formats of the same video use comma as a separator, e.g. `-f 22,17,18` will download all these three formats, of course if they are available. Or more sophisticated example combined with precedence feature `-f 136/137/mp4/bestvideo,140/m4a/bestaudio`.
+If you want to download several formats of the same video use a comma as a separator, e.g. `-f 22,17,18` will download all these three formats, of course if they are available. Or a more sophisticated example combined with the precedence feature: `-f 136/137/mp4/bestvideo,140/m4a/bestaudio`.
You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
- `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
- `container`: Name of the container format
- `protocol`: The protocol that will be used for the actual download, lower-case. `http`, `https`, `rtsp`, `rtmp`, `rtmpe`, `m3u8`, or `m3u8_native`
+ - `format_id`: A short description of the format
-Note that none of the aforementioned meta fields are guaranteed to be present since this solely depends on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, i.e. the metadata offered by video hoster.
+Note that none of the aforementioned meta fields are guaranteed to be present since this solely depends on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, i.e. the metadata offered by the video hoster.
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.
-You can merge the video and audio of two formats into a single file using `-f <video-format>+<audio-format>` (requires ffmpeg or avconv installed), for example `-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download best video only format, best audio only format and mux them together with ffmpeg/avconv.
+You can merge the video and audio of two formats into a single file using `-f <video-format>+<audio-format>` (requires ffmpeg or avconv installed), for example `-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg/avconv.
Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses, for example if you want to download the best mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480 you can use `-f '(mp4,webm)[height<480]'`.
-Since the end of April 2015 and version 2015.04.26 youtube-dl uses `-f bestvideo+bestaudio/best` as default format selection (see #5447, #5456). If ffmpeg or avconv are installed this results in downloading `bestvideo` and `bestaudio` separately and muxing them together into a single file giving the best overall quality available. Otherwise it falls back to `best` and results in downloading the best available quality served as a single file. `best` is also needed for videos that don't come from YouTube because they don't provide the audio and video in two different files. If you want to only download some DASH formats (for example if you are not interested in getting videos with a resolution higher than 1080p), you can add `-f bestvideo[height<=?1080]+bestaudio/best` to your configuration file. Note that if you use youtube-dl to stream to `stdout` (and most likely to pipe it to your media player then), i.e. you explicitly specify output template as `-o -`, youtube-dl still uses `-f best` format selection in order to start content delivery immediately to your player and not to wait until `bestvideo` and `bestaudio` are downloaded and muxed.
+Since the end of April 2015 and version 2015.04.26, youtube-dl uses `-f bestvideo+bestaudio/best` as the default format selection (see [#5447](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/5447), [#5456](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/5456)). If ffmpeg or avconv are installed this results in downloading `bestvideo` and `bestaudio` separately and muxing them together into a single file giving the best overall quality available. Otherwise it falls back to `best` and results in downloading the best available quality served as a single file. `best` is also needed for videos that don't come from YouTube because they don't provide the audio and video in two different files. If you want to only download some DASH formats (for example if you are not interested in getting videos with a resolution higher than 1080p), you can add `-f bestvideo[height<=?1080]+bestaudio/best` to your configuration file. Note that if you use youtube-dl to stream to `stdout` (and most likely to pipe it to your media player then), i.e. you explicitly specify output template as `-o -`, youtube-dl still uses `-f best` format selection in order to start content delivery immediately to your player and not to wait until `bestvideo` and `bestaudio` are downloaded and muxed.
If you want to preserve the old format selection behavior (prior to youtube-dl 2015.04.26), i.e. you want to download the best available quality media served as a single file, you should explicitly specify your choice with `-f best`. You may want to add it to the [configuration file](#configuration) in order not to type it every time you run youtube-dl.
-Examples (note on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single):
+#### Format selection examples
+
+Note on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
+
```bash
# Download best mp4 format available or any other best if no mp4 available
$ youtube-dl -f 'bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/best[ext=mp4]/best'
# Download best format available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol
$ youtube-dl -f '(bestvideo+bestaudio/best)[protocol^=http]'
+
+# Download the best video format and the best audio format without merging them
+$ youtube-dl -f 'bestvideo,bestaudio' -o '%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s'
```
+Note that in the last example, an output template is recommended as bestvideo and bestaudio may have the same file name.
# VIDEO SELECTION
Again, from then on you'll be able to update with `sudo youtube-dl -U`.
+### youtube-dl is extremely slow to start on Windows
+
+Add a file exclusion for `youtube-dl.exe` in Windows Defender settings.
+
### 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.
+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 people](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.
+
+### I'm getting an error when trying to use output template: `error: using output template conflicts with using title, video ID or auto number`
+
+Make sure you are not using `-o` with any of these options `-t`, `--title`, `--id`, `-A` or `--auto-number` set in command line or in a configuration file. Remove the latter if any.
### Do I always have to pass `-citw`?
### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
-Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as [vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or [mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
+Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as [mpv](https://mpv.io/), [vlc](http://www.videolan.org/) or [mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
### 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 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 and/or HTTP headers. 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. You can also get necessary cookies and HTTP headers from JSON output obtained with `--dump-json`.
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.
### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
-Since June 2012 (#342) youtube-dl is packed as an executable zipfile, simply unzip it (might need renaming to `youtube-dl.zip` first on some systems) or clone the git repository, as laid out above. If you modify the code, you can run it by executing the `__main__.py` file. To recompile the executable, run `make youtube-dl`.
+Since June 2012 ([#342](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/342)) youtube-dl is packed as an executable zipfile, simply unzip it (might need renaming to `youtube-dl.zip` first on some systems) or clone the git repository, as laid out above. If you modify the code, you can run it by executing the `__main__.py` file. To recompile the executable, run `make youtube-dl`.
-### The exe throws a *Runtime error from Visual C++*
+### The exe throws an error due to missing `MSVCR100.dll`
-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).
+To run the exe you need to install first the [Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x86)](https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/download/details.aspx?id=5555).
### On Windows, how should I set up ffmpeg and youtube-dl? Where should I put the exe files?
### How do I pass cookies to youtube-dl?
-Use the `--cookies` option, for example `--cookies /path/to/cookies/file.txt`. Note that the cookies file must be in Mozilla/Netscape format and the first line of the cookies file must be either `# HTTP Cookie File` or `# Netscape HTTP Cookie File`. Make sure you have correct [newline format](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newline) in the cookies file and convert newlines if necessary to correspond with your OS, namely `CRLF` (`\r\n`) for Windows, `LF` (`\n`) for Linux and `CR` (`\r`) for Mac OS. `HTTP Error 400: Bad Request` when using `--cookies` is a good sign of invalid newline format.
+Use the `--cookies` option, for example `--cookies /path/to/cookies/file.txt`.
+
+In order to extract cookies from browser use any conforming browser extension for exporting cookies. For example, [cookies.txt](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cookiestxt/njabckikapfpffapmjgojcnbfjonfjfg) (for Chrome) or [Export Cookies](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/export-cookies/) (for Firefox).
+
+Note that the cookies file must be in Mozilla/Netscape format and the first line of the cookies file must be either `# HTTP Cookie File` or `# Netscape HTTP Cookie File`. Make sure you have correct [newline format](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newline) in the cookies file and convert newlines if necessary to correspond with your OS, namely `CRLF` (`\r\n`) for Windows, `LF` (`\n`) for Linux and `CR` (`\r`) for Mac OS. `HTTP Error 400: Bad Request` when using `--cookies` is a good sign of invalid newline format.
Passing cookies to youtube-dl is a good way to workaround login when a particular extractor does not implement it explicitly. Another use case is working around [CAPTCHA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAPTCHA) some websites require you to solve in particular cases in order to get access (e.g. YouTube, CloudFlare).
+### How do I stream directly to media player?
+
+You will first need to tell youtube-dl to stream media to stdout with `-o -`, and also tell your media player to read from stdin (it must be capable of this for streaming) and then pipe former to latter. For example, streaming to [vlc](http://www.videolan.org/) can be achieved with:
+
+ youtube-dl -o - "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKcj" | vlc -
+
+### How do I download only new videos from a playlist?
+
+Use download-archive feature. With this feature you should initially download the complete playlist with `--download-archive /path/to/download/archive/file.txt` that will record identifiers of all the videos in a special file. Each subsequent run with the same `--download-archive` will download only new videos and skip all videos that have been downloaded before. Note that only successful downloads are recorded in the file.
+
+For example, at first,
+
+ youtube-dl --download-archive archive.txt "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
+
+will download the complete `PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re` playlist and create a file `archive.txt`. Each subsequent run will only download new videos if any:
+
+ youtube-dl --download-archive archive.txt "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
+
+### Should I add `--hls-prefer-native` into my config?
+
+When youtube-dl detects an HLS video, it can download it either with the built-in downloader or ffmpeg. Since many HLS streams are slightly invalid and ffmpeg/youtube-dl each handle some invalid cases better than the other, there is an option to switch the downloader if needed.
+
+When youtube-dl knows that one particular downloader works better for a given website, that downloader will be picked. Otherwise, youtube-dl will pick the best downloader for general compatibility, which at the moment happens to be ffmpeg. This choice may change in future versions of youtube-dl, with improvements of the built-in downloader and/or ffmpeg.
+
+In particular, the generic extractor (used when your website is not in the [list of supported sites by youtube-dl](http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/supportedsites.html) cannot mandate one specific downloader.
+
+If you put either `--hls-prefer-native` or `--hls-prefer-ffmpeg` into your configuration, a different subset of videos will fail to download correctly. Instead, it is much better to [file an issue](https://yt-dl.org/bug) or a pull request which details why the native or the ffmpeg HLS downloader is a better choice for your use case.
+
### 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.
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.
+# Why do I need to go through that much red tape when filing bugs?
+
+Before we had the issue template, despite our extensive [bug reporting instructions](#bugs), about 80% of the issue reports we got were useless, for instance because people used ancient versions hundreds of releases old, because of simple syntactic errors (not in youtube-dl but in general shell usage), because the problem was already reported multiple times before, because people did not actually read an error message, even if it said "please install ffmpeg", because people did not mention the URL they were trying to download and many more simple, easy-to-avoid problems, many of whom were totally unrelated to youtube-dl.
+
+youtube-dl is an open-source project manned by too few volunteers, so we'd rather spend time fixing bugs where we are certain none of those simple problems apply, and where we can be reasonably confident to be able to reproduce the issue without asking the reporter repeatedly. As such, the output of `youtube-dl -v YOUR_URL_HERE` is really all that's required to file an issue. The issue template also guides you through some basic steps you can do, such as checking that your version of youtube-dl is current.
+
# 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.
If you want to create a build of youtube-dl yourself, you'll need
* python
-* make
+* make (only GNU make is supported)
* 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`):
+If you want to add support for a new site, first of all **make sure** this site is **not dedicated to [copyright infringement](README.md#can-you-add-support-for-this-anime-video-site-or-site-which-shows-current-movies-for-free)**. youtube-dl does **not support** such sites thus pull requests adding support for them **will be rejected**.
+
+After you have ensured this site is distributing it's content legally, you can follow this quick list (assuming your service is called `yourextractor`):
1. [Fork this repository](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/fork)
-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`
+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
# 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).
+5. Add an import in [`youtube_dl/extractor/extractors.py`](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/extractors.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 then be named `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor`, `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_1`, `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_2`, etc.
-7. Have a look at [`youtube_dl/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 and may return](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py#L62-L200). Add tests and code for as many as you want.
-8. If you can, check the code with [flake8](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/flake8).
+7. Have a look at [`youtube_dl/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 and may return](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py#L74-L252). Add tests and code for as many as you want.
+8. Make sure your code follows [youtube-dl coding conventions](#youtube-dl-coding-conventions) and check the code with [flake8](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/flake8). Also make sure your code works under all [Python](http://www.python.org/) versions claimed supported by youtube-dl, namely 2.6, 2.7, and 3.2+.
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/extractors.py
$ git add youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py
$ git commit -m '[yourextractor] Add new extractor'
$ git push origin yourextractor
In any case, thank you very much for your contributions!
+## youtube-dl coding conventions
+
+This section introduces a guide lines for writing idiomatic, robust and future-proof extractor code.
+
+Extractors are very fragile by nature since they depend on the layout of the source data provided by 3rd party media hosters out of your control and this layout tends to change. As an extractor implementer your task is not only to write code that will extract media links and metadata correctly but also to minimize dependency on the source's layout and even to make the code foresee potential future changes and be ready for that. This is important because it will allow the extractor not to break on minor layout changes thus keeping old youtube-dl versions working. Even though this breakage issue is easily fixed by emitting a new version of youtube-dl with a fix incorporated, all the previous versions become broken in all repositories and distros' packages that may not be so prompt in fetching the update from us. Needless to say, some non rolling release distros may never receive an update at all.
+
+### Mandatory and optional metafields
+
+For extraction to work youtube-dl relies on metadata your extractor extracts and provides to youtube-dl expressed by an [information dictionary](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py#L75-L257) or simply *info dict*. Only the following meta fields in the *info dict* are considered mandatory for a successful extraction process by youtube-dl:
+
+ - `id` (media identifier)
+ - `title` (media title)
+ - `url` (media download URL) or `formats`
+
+In fact only the last option is technically mandatory (i.e. if you can't figure out the download location of the media the extraction does not make any sense). But by convention youtube-dl also treats `id` and `title` as mandatory. Thus the aforementioned metafields are the critical data that the extraction does not make any sense without and if any of them fail to be extracted then the extractor is considered completely broken.
+
+[Any field](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py#L149-L257) apart from the aforementioned ones are considered **optional**. That means that extraction should be **tolerant** to situations when sources for these fields can potentially be unavailable (even if they are always available at the moment) and **future-proof** in order not to break the extraction of general purpose mandatory fields.
+
+#### Example
+
+Say you have some source dictionary `meta` that you've fetched as JSON with HTTP request and it has a key `summary`:
+
+```python
+meta = self._download_json(url, video_id)
+```
+
+Assume at this point `meta`'s layout is:
+
+```python
+{
+ ...
+ "summary": "some fancy summary text",
+ ...
+}
+```
+
+Assume you want to extract `summary` and put it into the resulting info dict as `description`. Since `description` is an optional metafield you should be ready that this key may be missing from the `meta` dict, so that you should extract it like:
+
+```python
+description = meta.get('summary') # correct
+```
+
+and not like:
+
+```python
+description = meta['summary'] # incorrect
+```
+
+The latter will break extraction process with `KeyError` if `summary` disappears from `meta` at some later time but with the former approach extraction will just go ahead with `description` set to `None` which is perfectly fine (remember `None` is equivalent to the absence of data).
+
+Similarly, you should pass `fatal=False` when extracting optional data from a webpage with `_search_regex`, `_html_search_regex` or similar methods, for instance:
+
+```python
+description = self._search_regex(
+ r'<span[^>]+id="title"[^>]*>([^<]+)<',
+ webpage, 'description', fatal=False)
+```
+
+With `fatal` set to `False` if `_search_regex` fails to extract `description` it will emit a warning and continue extraction.
+
+You can also pass `default=<some fallback value>`, for example:
+
+```python
+description = self._search_regex(
+ r'<span[^>]+id="title"[^>]*>([^<]+)<',
+ webpage, 'description', default=None)
+```
+
+On failure this code will silently continue the extraction with `description` set to `None`. That is useful for metafields that may or may not be present.
+
+### Provide fallbacks
+
+When extracting metadata try to do so from multiple sources. For example if `title` is present in several places, try extracting from at least some of them. This makes it more future-proof in case some of the sources become unavailable.
+
+#### Example
+
+Say `meta` from the previous example has a `title` and you are about to extract it. Since `title` is a mandatory meta field you should end up with something like:
+
+```python
+title = meta['title']
+```
+
+If `title` disappears from `meta` in future due to some changes on the hoster's side the extraction would fail since `title` is mandatory. That's expected.
+
+Assume that you have some another source you can extract `title` from, for example `og:title` HTML meta of a `webpage`. In this case you can provide a fallback scenario:
+
+```python
+title = meta.get('title') or self._og_search_title(webpage)
+```
+
+This code will try to extract from `meta` first and if it fails it will try extracting `og:title` from a `webpage`.
+
+### Make regular expressions flexible
+
+When using regular expressions try to write them fuzzy and flexible.
+
+#### Example
+
+Say you need to extract `title` from the following HTML code:
+
+```html
+<span style="position: absolute; left: 910px; width: 90px; float: right; z-index: 9999;" class="title">some fancy title</span>
+```
+
+The code for that task should look similar to:
+
+```python
+title = self._search_regex(
+ r'<span[^>]+class="title"[^>]*>([^<]+)', webpage, 'title')
+```
+
+Or even better:
+
+```python
+title = self._search_regex(
+ r'<span[^>]+class=(["\'])title\1[^>]*>(?P<title>[^<]+)',
+ webpage, 'title', group='title')
+```
+
+Note how you tolerate potential changes in the `style` attribute's value or switch from using double quotes to single for `class` attribute:
+
+The code definitely should not look like:
+
+```python
+title = self._search_regex(
+ r'<span style="position: absolute; left: 910px; width: 90px; float: right; z-index: 9999;" class="title">(.*?)</span>',
+ webpage, 'title', group='title')
+```
+
+### Use safe conversion functions
+
+Wrap all extracted numeric data into safe functions from `utils`: `int_or_none`, `float_or_none`. Use them for string to number conversions as well.
+
# 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).
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#L121-L269). For a start, if you want to intercept youtube-dl's output, set a `logger` object.
+Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of options available, have a look at [`youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py`](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py#L128-L278). 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:
# 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](irc://chat.freenode.net/#youtube-dl) on freenode ([webchat](http://webchat.freenode.net/?randomnick=1&channels=youtube-dl)).
+Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: <https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues>. Unless you were prompted to 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](irc://chat.freenode.net/#youtube-dl) on freenode ([webchat](http://webchat.freenode.net/?randomnick=1&channels=youtube-dl)).
**Please include the full output of youtube-dl when run with `-v`**, i.e. **add** `-v` flag to **your command line**, copy the **whole** output and post it in the issue body wrapped in \`\`\` for better formatting. It should look similar to this:
```
[debug] Proxy map: {}
...
```
-**Do not post screenshots of verbose log only plain text is acceptable.**
+**Do not post screenshots of verbose logs; only plain text is acceptable.**
The output (including the first lines) contains important debugging information. Issues without the full output are often not reproducible and therefore do not get solved in short order, if ever.
### Why are existing options not enough?
-Before requesting a new feature, please have a quick peek at [the list of supported options](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/README.md#synopsis). 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.
+Before requesting a new feature, please have a quick peek at [the list of supported options](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/README.md#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?
### 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.
+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
Rapsys Git / youtubedl / blobdiff