# youtube-dl
## USAGE
-youtube-dl [OPTIONS] URL
+youtube-dl [options] url [url...]
## DESCRIPTION
**youtube-dl** is a small command-line program to download videos from
## OPTIONS
-h, --help print this help text and exit
- -v, --version print program version 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 download rate limit (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
-R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is 10)
+ --dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
+ --list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs they
+ would handle
+
+### Video Selection:
--playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is 1)
--playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
- --dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
+ --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
### Filesystem Options:
-t, --title use title in file name
-l, --literal use literal title in file name
-A, --auto-number number downloaded files starting from 00000
- -o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template
+ -o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(stitle)s to get the
+ title, %(uploader)s for the uploader name,
+ %(autonumber)s to get an automatically incremented
+ number, %(ext)s for the filename extension,
+ %(upload_date)s for the upload date (YYYYMMDD), and
+ %% for a literal percent. Use - to output to
+ stdout.
-a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)
-w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
-c, --continue resume partially downloaded files
- --cookies FILE file to dump cookie jar to
+ --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
### Verbosity / Simulation Options:
-q, --quiet activates quiet mode
- -s, --simulate do not download video
+ -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-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
--no-progress do not print progress bar
--console-title display progress in console titlebar
+ -v, --verbose print various debugging information
### Video Format Options:
-f, --format FORMAT video format code
--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)
### Authentication Options:
-u, --username USERNAME account username
### Post-processing Options:
--extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files (requires
ffmpeg and ffprobe)
- --audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac" or "mp3"; best by default
+ --audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", or "wav";
+ best by default
+ --audio-quality QUALITY ffmpeg audio bitrate specification, 128k by default
+ -k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the post-
+ processing; the video is erased by default
## FAQ
Most people asking this question are not aware that youtube-dl now defaults to downloading the highest available quality as reported by YouTube, which will be 1080p or 720p in some cases, so you no longer need the -b option. For some specific videos, maybe YouTube does not report them to be available in a specific high quality format you''re interested in. In that case, simply request it with the -f option and youtube-dl will try to download it.
-### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What''s this?
+### 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 CAPTCHA](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/154), but at the moment, your best course of action is pointing a webbrowser to the youtube URL, solving the CAPTCHA, and restart youtube-dl.