X-Git-Url: https://git.rapsys.eu/youtubedl/blobdiff_plain/6d835d4d6903cf5e18ad01844736929e06d16004..6245a4128588146e39f66b371624ee39bdbb7720:/README.txt diff --git a/README.txt b/README.txt index 6911156..cc86a1b 100644 --- a/README.txt +++ b/README.txt @@ -1,74 +1,96 @@ +[Build Status] + youtube-dl - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms -SYNOPSIS -======== +- INSTALLATION +- DESCRIPTION +- OPTIONS +- CONFIGURATION +- OUTPUT TEMPLATE +- FORMAT SELECTION +- VIDEO SELECTION +- FAQ +- DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS +- EMBEDDING YOUTUBE-DL +- BUGS +- COPYRIGHT + -youtube-dl OPTIONS URL [URL...] 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 +To install it right away for all UNIX users (Linux, macOS, etc.), type: + + 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+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl + sudo chmod a+rx /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. +Windows users can download an .exe file and place it in any location on +their PATH except for %SYSTEMROOT%\System32 (e.g. DO NOT put in +C:\Windows\System32). + +You can also use pip: -OS X users can install youtube-dl with Homebrew. + sudo -H pip install --upgrade youtube-dl + +This command will update youtube-dl if you have already installed it. +See the pypi page for more information. + +macOS users can install youtube-dl with Homebrew: brew install youtube-dl -You can also use pip: +Or with MacPorts: + + sudo port install youtube-dl + +Alternatively, refer to the 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. - sudo pip install youtube-dl -Alternatively, refer to the developer instructions below for how to -check out and work with the git repository. For further options, -including PGP signatures, see -https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html . DESCRIPTION -=========== -youtube-dl is a small command-line program to download videos from -YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, -version 2.6, 2.7, or 3.3+, and it is not platform specific. It should -work on 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 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 macOS. 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. Make + + -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 + -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 + --dump-user-agent Display the current browser identification + --list-extractors List all supported extractors --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported extractors - --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy. Pass in - an empty string (--proxy "") for direct - connection - --socket-timeout None Time to wait before giving up, in seconds + --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic + extractor --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos - from google videos for youtube-dl "large + 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 @@ -76,39 +98,107 @@ OPTIONS repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if this is not possible instead of searching. --ignore-config Do not read configuration files. When given - in the global configuration file /etc - /youtube-dl.conf: do not read the user - configuration in ~/.config/youtube-dl.conf - (%APPDATA%/youtube-dl/config.txt on - Windows) + 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) + --config-location PATH Location of the configuration file; either + the path to the config or its containing + directory. --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 + + +Network Options: + + --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. + To enable 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 + -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4 + -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6 + + +Geo Restriction: + + --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 + option is not present) is used for the + actual downloading. + --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking + X-Forwarded-For HTTP header + --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via + faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header + --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with + explicitly provided two-letter ISO 3166-2 + country code + --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with + explicitly provided IP block in CIDR + notation + 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 + --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is 1) + --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last) + --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify + indices of the videos in the playlist + separated by commas like: "--playlist-items + 1,2,5,8" if you want to download videos + indexed 1, 2, 5, 8 in the playlist. You can + specify range: "--playlist-items + 1-3,7,10-13", it will download the videos + at index 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13. + --match-title REGEX Download only matching titles (regex or caseless sub-string) - --reject-title REGEX skip download for matching titles (regex or + --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 + --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 + --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 download only the currently playing video - --age-limit YEARS download only videos suitable for the given + --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Specify any key (see + the "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a list of + available keys) to match if the key is + present, !key to check if the key is not + present, key > NUMBER (like "comment_count + > 12", also works with >=, <, <=, !=, =) to + compare against a number, key = 'LITERAL' + (like "uploader = 'Mike Smith'", also works + with !=) to match against a string literal + and & to require multiple matches. Values + which are not known are excluded unless you + put a question mark (?) after the operator. + For example, to only match videos that have + been liked more than 100 times and disliked + less than 50 times (or the dislike + functionality is not available at the given + service), but who also have a description, + use --match-filter "like_count > 100 & + dislike_count .+?) - (?P.+)" + --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs (using dublin core and xdg standards) + --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the + file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only + emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the + default; fix file if we can, warn + otherwise) --prefer-avconv Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running the - postprocessors (default) - --prefer-ffmpeg Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running the postprocessors + --prefer-ffmpeg Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running the + postprocessors (default) + --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg/avconv binary; + either the path to the binary or its + containing directory. --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after downloading, similar to find's -exec syntax. Example: --exec 'adb push {} /sdcard/Music/ && rm {}' + --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to other format + (currently supported: srt|ass|vtt|lrc) + + CONFIGURATION -============= -You can configure youtube-dl by placing default arguments (such as ---extract-audio --no-mtime to always extract the audio and not copy the -mtime) into /etc/youtube-dl.conf and/or ~/.config/youtube-dl/config. On -Windows, the configuration file locations are -%APPDATA%\youtube-dl\config.txt and C:\Users\<Yourname>\youtube-dl.conf. + +You can configure youtube-dl by placing any supported command line +option to a configuration file. On Linux and macOS, 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: + + # 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. + +You can also use --config-location if you want to use custom +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 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 an extractor in the following +format, where _extractor_ is the name of the extractor in lowercase: + + machine <extractor> login <login> password <password> + +For example: + + machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password + machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password + +To activate authentication with the .netrc file you should pass --netrc +to youtube-dl or place it in the configuration file. + +On Windows you may also need to setup the %HOME% environment variable +manually. For example: + + set HOME=%USERPROFILE% + + 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 parenthesis, followed by a -lowercase S. Allowed names are: - -- id: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier. -- url: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL. -- uploader: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the - person who uploaded the video. -- upload_date: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date in - YYYYMMDD format. -- title: The sequence will be replaced by the video title. -- ext: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension - (like flv or mp4). -- epoch: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when creating - the file. -- autonumber: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number - that will be increased with each download, starting at zero. -- playlist: The name or the id of the playlist that contains the - video. -- playlist_index: The index of the video in the playlist, a five-digit - number. +names. + +TL;DR: navigate me to examples. + +The basic usage is not to set any template arguments when downloading a +single file, like in youtube-dl -o funny_video.flv "https://some/video". +However, it may contain special sequences that will be replaced when +downloading each video. The special sequences may be formatted according +to python string formatting operations. For example, %(NAME)s or +%(NAME)05d. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in +parentheses, followed by formatting operations. Allowed names along with +sequence type are: + +- id (string): Video identifier +- title (string): Video title +- url (string): Video URL +- ext (string): Video filename extension +- alt_title (string): A secondary title of the video +- display_id (string): An alternative identifier for the video +- uploader (string): Full name of the video uploader +- license (string): License name the video is licensed under +- creator (string): The creator of the video +- release_date (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was + released +- timestamp (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became + available +- upload_date (string): Video upload date (YYYYMMDD) +- uploader_id (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader +- channel (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on +- channel_id (string): Id of the channel +- location (string): Physical location where the video was filmed +- duration (numeric): Length of the video in seconds +- view_count (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the + platform +- like_count (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video +- dislike_count (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video +- repost_count (numeric): Number of reposts of the video +- average_rating (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale + used depends on the webpage +- comment_count (numeric): Number of comments on the video +- age_limit (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years) +- is_live (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a + fixed-length video +- start_time (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should + start, as specified in the URL +- end_time (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should + end, as specified in the URL +- format (string): A human-readable description of the format +- format_id (string): Format code specified by --format +- format_note (string): Additional info about the format +- width (numeric): Width of the video +- height (numeric): Height of the video +- resolution (string): Textual description of width and height +- tbr (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s +- abr (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s +- acodec (string): Name of the audio codec in use +- asr (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz +- vbr (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s +- fps (numeric): Frame rate +- vcodec (string): Name of the video codec in use +- container (string): Name of the container format +- filesize (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance +- filesize_approx (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes +- protocol (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual + download +- extractor (string): Name of the extractor +- extractor_key (string): Key name of the extractor +- epoch (numeric): Unix epoch when creating the file +- autonumber (numeric): Five-digit number that will be increased with + each download, starting at zero +- playlist (string): Name or id of the playlist that contains the + video +- playlist_index (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded + with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist +- playlist_id (string): Playlist identifier +- playlist_title (string): Playlist title +- playlist_uploader (string): Full name of the playlist uploader +- playlist_uploader_id (string): Nickname or id of the playlist + uploader + +Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section: + +- chapter (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to +- chapter_number (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to +- chapter_id (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to + +Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme: + +- series (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode + belongs to +- season (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to +- season_number (numeric): Number of the season the video episode + belongs to +- season_id (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to +- episode (string): Title of the video episode +- episode_number (numeric): Number of the video episode within a + season +- episode_id (string): Id of the video episode + +Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album: + +- track (string): Title of the track +- track_number (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a + disc +- track_id (string): Id of the track +- artist (string): Artist(s) of the track +- genre (string): Genre(s) of the track +- album (string): Title of the album the track belongs to +- album_type (string): Type of the album +- album_artist (string): List of all artists appeared on the album +- disc_number (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium + the track belongs to +- release_year (numeric): 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 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. + +For numeric sequences you can use numeric related formatting, for +example, %(view_count)05d will result in a string with view count padded +with zeros up to 5 characters, like in 00042. + +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 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. @@ -379,18 +711,209 @@ In some cases, you don't want special characters such as 中, spaces, or or the filename through an 8bit-unsafe channel. In these cases, add the --restrict-filenames flag to get a shorter title: -``` {.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 -``` +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 that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of +single. + + $ 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 + + # 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/ + + # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos + $ youtube-dl -o "C:/MyVideos/%(series)s/%(season_number)s - %(season)s/%(episode_number)s - %(episode)s.%(ext)s" https://videomore.ru/kino_v_detalayah/5_sezon/367617 + + # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout + $ youtube-dl -o - BaW_jenozKc + + + +FORMAT SELECTION + + +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. + +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. + +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 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 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 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 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]"). + +The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons <, <=, >, +>=, = (equals), != (not equals): + +- filesize: The number of bytes, if known in advance +- width: Width of the video, if known +- height: Height of the video, if known +- tbr: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s +- abr: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s +- vbr: Average video bitrate in KBit/s +- asr: Audio sampling rate in Hertz +- fps: Frame rate + +Also filtering work for comparisons = (equals), ^= (starts with), $= +(ends with), *= (contains) and following string meta fields: + +- ext: File extension +- acodec: Name of the audio codec in use +- 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, mms, f4m, ism, + http_dash_segments, m3u8, or m3u8_native) +- format_id: A short description of the format + +Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation ! in order to +produce an opposite comparison, e.g. !*= (does not contain). + +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 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 the 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. + +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 in order not to type it every time you run youtube-dl. + +Format selection examples + +Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of +single. + + # 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 but no better than 480p + $ youtube-dl -f 'bestvideo[height<=480]+bestaudio/best[height<=480]' + + # Download best video only format but no bigger than 50 MB + $ youtube-dl -f 'best[filesize<50M]' + + # 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 -=============== + Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options --date, ---datebefore or --dateafter, they accept dates in two formats: +--datebefore or --dateafter. They accept dates in two formats: - Absolute dates: Dates in the format YYYYMMDD. - Relative dates: Dates in the format @@ -398,19 +921,19 @@ Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options --date, Examples: -``` {.bash} -# Download only the videos uploaded in the last 6 months -$ youtube-dl --dateafter now-6months + # Download only the videos uploaded in the last 6 months + $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-6months + + # Download only the videos uploaded on January 1, 1970 + $ youtube-dl --date 19700101 + + $ # Download only the videos uploaded in the 200x decade + $ youtube-dl --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20091231 -# 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? @@ -420,12 +943,12 @@ 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 +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 +go to https://yt-dl.org to find out the current version. Unfortunately, +there is nothing we youtube-dl developers can do if your distribution serves a really outdated version. You can (and should) complain to your distribution in their bugtracker or support forum. @@ -437,12 +960,16 @@ that, remove the distribution's package, with a line like 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 + 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 hash -r 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 @@ -453,18 +980,22 @@ 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 +Ubuntu packaging people - 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? +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? 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. +particular, the only option out of -citw that is regularly useful is -i. Can you please put the -b option back? @@ -480,34 +1011,100 @@ 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, but at the moment, your best course of action is pointing a -webbrowser to the youtube URL, solving the CAPTCHA, and restart -youtube-dl. +CAPTCHA, but at the moment, your best course of action is pointing a web +browser to the youtube URL, solving the CAPTCHA, and restart youtube-dl. + +Do I need any other programs? + +youtube-dl works fine on its own on most sites. However, if you want to +convert video/audio, you'll need avconv or ffmpeg. On some sites - most +notably YouTube - videos can be retrieved in a higher quality format +without sound. youtube-dl will detect whether avconv/ffmpeg is present +and automatically pick the best option. + +Videos or video formats streamed via RTMP protocol can only be +downloaded when rtmpdump is installed. Downloading MMS and RTSP videos +requires either mplayer or mpv to be installed. I have downloaded a video but how can I play it? -Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as vlc or -mplayer. +Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as mpv, +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 web browser. -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. +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. + +Please bear in mind that some URL protocols are NOT supported by +browsers out of the box, including RTMP. If you are using -g, your own +downloader must support these as well. + +If you want to play the video on a machine that is not running +youtube-dl, you can relay the video content from the machine that runs +youtube-dl. You can use -o - to let youtube-dl stream a video to stdout, +or simply allow the player to download the files written by youtube-dl +in turn. ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info -youtube has switched to a new video info format in July 2011 which is -not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl -with sudo youtube-dl --update. +YouTube has switched to a new video info format in July 2011 which is +not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. See above for how to update +youtube-dl. ERROR: unable to download video -youtube requires an additional signature since September 2012 which is -not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl -with sudo youtube-dl --update. +YouTube requires an additional signature since September 2012 which is +not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. See above for how to update +youtube-dl. + +Video URL contains an ampersand and I'm getting some strange output [1] 2839 or 'v' is not recognized as an internal or external command + +That's actually the output from your shell. Since ampersand is one of +the special shell characters it's interpreted by the shell preventing +you from passing the whole URL to youtube-dl. To disable your shell from +interpreting the ampersands (or any other special characters) you have +to either put the whole URL in quotes or escape them with a backslash +(which approach will work depends on your shell). + +For example if your URL is +https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc you should end up with +following command: + +youtube-dl 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc' + +or + +youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4\&v=BaW_jenozKc + +For Windows you have to use the double quotes: + +youtube-dl "https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc" + +ExtractorError: Could not find JS function u'OF' + +In February 2015, the new YouTube player contained a character sequence +in a string that was misinterpreted by old versions of youtube-dl. See +above for how to update youtube-dl. + +HTTP Error 429: Too Many Requests or 402: Payment Required + +These two error codes indicate that the service is blocking your IP +address because of overuse. Contact the service and ask them to unblock +your IP address, or - if you have acquired a whitelisted IP address +already - use the --proxy or --source-address options to select another +IP address. SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character @@ -527,13 +1124,214 @@ 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++ 2010 +Redistributable Package (x86). + +On Windows, how should I set up ffmpeg and youtube-dl? Where should I put the exe files? + +If you put youtube-dl and ffmpeg in the same directory that you're +running the command from, it will work, but that's rather cumbersome. + +To make a different directory work - either for ffmpeg, or for +youtube-dl, or for both - simply create the directory (say, C:\bin, or +C:\Users\<User name>\bin), put all the executables directly in there, +and then set your PATH environment variable to include that directory. + +From then on, after restarting your shell, you will be able to access +both youtube-dl and ffmpeg (and youtube-dl will be able to find ffmpeg) +by simply typing youtube-dl or ffmpeg, no matter what directory you're +in. + +How do I put downloads into a specific folder? + +Use the -o to specify an output template, for example +-o "/home/user/videos/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s". If you want this for +all of your downloads, put the option into your configuration file. + +How do I download a video starting with a -? + +Either prepend https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= or separate the ID from +the options with --: + + youtube-dl -- -wNyEUrxzFU + youtube-dl "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wNyEUrxzFU" + +How do I pass cookies to youtube-dl? + +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 (for Chrome) +or cookies.txt (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 +in the cookies file and convert newlines if necessary to correspond with +your OS, namely CRLF (\r\n) for Windows and LF (\n) for Unix and +Unix-like systems (Linux, macOS, etc.). 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 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 can be achieved with: + + youtube-dl -o - "https://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 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 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. + +A note on the service that they don't host the infringing content, but +just link to those who do, is evidence that the service should NOT be +included into youtube-dl. The same goes for any DMCA note when the whole +front page of the service is filled with videos they are not allowed to +distribute. A "fair use" note is equally unconvincing if the service +shows copyright-protected videos in full without authorization. + +Support requests for services that DO purchase the rights to distribute +their content are perfectly fine though. If in doubt, you can simply +include a source that mentions the legitimate purchase of content. + +How can I speed up work on my issue? + +(Also known as: Help, my important issue not being solved!) The +youtube-dl core developer team is quite small. While we do our best to +solve as many issues as possible, sometimes that can take quite a while. +To speed up your issue, here's what you can do: + +First of all, please do report the issue at our issue tracker. That +allows us to coordinate all efforts by users and developers, and serves +as a unified point. Unfortunately, the youtube-dl project has grown too +large to use personal email as an effective communication channel. + +Please read the bug reporting instructions below. A lot of bugs lack all +the necessary information. If you can, offer proxy, VPN, or shell access +to the youtube-dl developers. If you are able to, test the issue from +multiple computers in multiple countries to exclude local censorship or +misconfiguration issues. + +If nobody is interested in solving your issue, you are welcome to take +matters into your own hands and submit a pull request (or coerce/pay +somebody else to do so). + +Feel free to bump the issue from time to time by writing a small comment +("Issue is still present in youtube-dl version ...from France, but fixed +from Belgium"), but please not more than once a month. Please do not +declare your issue as important or urgent. + +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 +https://example.com/video/1234567 to https://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. + + + +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, 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. + -To run the exe you need to install first the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 -Redistributable Package. DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS -====================== + Most users do not need to build youtube-dl and can download the builds or get them from their distribution. @@ -550,93 +1348,400 @@ test file directly; any of the following work: python test/test_download.py nosetests +See item 6 of new extractor tutorial for how to run extractor specific +test cases. + 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. 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 its content legally, +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 +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 + + 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$', - # TODO more properties, either as: - # * A value - # * MD5 checksum; start the string with md5: - # * A regular expression; start the string with re: - # * Any Python type (for example int or float) + # coding: utf-8 + from __future__ import unicode_literals + + from .common import InfoExtractor + + + class YourExtractorIE(InfoExtractor): + _VALID_URL = r'https?://(?:www\.)?yourextractor\.com/watch/(?P<id>[0-9]+)' + _TEST = { + 'url': 'https://yourextractor.com/watch/42', + 'md5': 'TODO: md5 sum of the first 10241 bytes of the video file (use --test)', + 'info_dict': { + 'id': '42', + 'ext': 'mp4', + 'title': 'Video title goes here', + 'thumbnail': r're:^https?://.*\.jpg$', + # 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) + 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 ... - webpage = self._download_webpage(url, video_id) - title = self._html_search_regex(r'<h1>(.*?)</h1>', webpage, 'title') + # TODO more code goes here, for example ... + title = self._html_search_regex(r'<h1>(.+?)</h1>', webpage, 'title') - return { - 'id': video_id, - 'title': title, - # TODO more properties (see youtube_dl/extractor/common.py) - } - ``` + return { + 'id': video_id, + 'title': title, + 'description': self._og_search_description(webpage), + 'uploader': self._search_regex(r'<div[^>]+id="uploader"[^>]*>([^<]+)<', webpage, 'uploader', fatal=False), + # TODO more properties (see youtube_dl/extractor/common.py) + } -5. Add an import in youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py. +5. Add an import in 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 + 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, + will 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 + TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_2, etc. Note that tests with + only_matching key in test's dict are not counted in. +7. Have a look at youtube_dl/extractor/common.py for possible helper + methods and a detailed description of what your extractor should and + may return. Add tests and code for as many as you want. +8. Make sure your code follows youtube-dl coding conventions and check + the code with flake8: + + $ flake8 youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py + +9. Make sure your code works under all Python versions claimed + supported by youtube-dl, namely 2.6, 2.7, and 3.2+. +10. 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/extractors.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. +11. Finally, create a pull request. We'll then review and merge it. 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 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 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: + + meta = self._download_json(url, video_id) + +Assume at this point meta's layout is: + + { + ... + "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 meta field you +should be ready that this key may be missing from the meta dict, so that +you should extract it like: + + description = meta.get('summary') # correct + +and not like: + + 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: + + 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: + + 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: + + 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: + + 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. + +Regular expressions + +Don't capture groups you don't use + +Capturing group must be an indication that it's used somewhere in the +code. Any group that is not used must be non capturing. + +Example + +Don't capture id attribute name here since you can't use it for anything +anyway. + +Correct: + + r'(?:id|ID)=(?P<id>\d+)' + +Incorrect: + + r'(id|ID)=(?P<id>\d+)' + +Make regular expressions relaxed and flexible + +When using regular expressions try to write them fuzzy, relaxed and +flexible, skipping insignificant parts that are more likely to change, +allowing both single and double quotes for quoted values and so on. + +Example + +Say you need to extract title from the following HTML code: + + <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: + + title = self._search_regex( + r'<span[^>]+class="title"[^>]*>([^<]+)', webpage, 'title') + +Or even better: + + 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: + + 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') + +Long lines policy + +There is a soft limit to keep lines of code under 80 characters long. +This means it should be respected if possible and if it does not make +readability and code maintenance worse. + +For example, you should NEVER split long string literals like URLs or +some other often copied entities over multiple lines to fit this limit: + +Correct: + + 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqZTN594JQw&list=PLMYEtVRpaqY00V9W81Cwmzp6N6vZqfUKD4' + +Incorrect: + + 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqZTN594JQw&list=' + 'PLMYEtVRpaqY00V9W81Cwmzp6N6vZqfUKD4' + +Inline values + +Extracting variables is acceptable for reducing code duplication and +improving readability of complex expressions. However, you should avoid +extracting variables used only once and moving them to opposite parts of +the extractor file, which makes reading the linear flow difficult. + +Example + +Correct: + + title = self._html_search_regex(r'<title>([^<]+)', webpage, 'title') + +Incorrect: + + TITLE_RE = r'([^<]+)' + # ...some lines of code... + title = self._html_search_regex(TITLE_RE, webpage, 'title') + +Collapse fallbacks + +Multiple fallback values can quickly become unwieldy. Collapse multiple +fallback values into a single expression via a list of patterns. + +Example + +Good: + + description = self._html_search_meta( + ['og:description', 'description', 'twitter:description'], + webpage, 'description', default=None) + +Unwieldy: + + description = ( + self._og_search_description(webpage, default=None) + or self._html_search_meta('description', webpage, default=None) + or self._html_search_meta('twitter:description', webpage, default=None)) + +Methods supporting list of patterns are: _search_regex, +_html_search_regex, _og_search_property, _html_search_meta. + +Trailing parentheses + +Always move trailing parentheses after the last argument. + +Example + +Correct: + + lambda x: x['ResultSet']['Result'][0]['VideoUrlSet']['VideoUrl'], + list) + +Incorrect: + + lambda x: x['ResultSet']['Result'][0]['VideoUrlSet']['VideoUrl'], + list, + ) + +Use convenience conversion and parsing functions + +Wrap all extracted numeric data into safe functions from +youtube_dl/utils.py: int_or_none, float_or_none. Use them for string to +number conversions as well. + +Use url_or_none for safe URL processing. + +Use try_get for safe metadata extraction from parsed JSON. + +Use unified_strdate for uniform upload_date or any YYYYMMDD meta field +extraction, unified_timestamp for uniform timestamp extraction, +parse_filesize for filesize extraction, parse_count for count meta +fields extraction, parse_resolution, parse_duration for duration +extraction, parse_age_limit for age_limit extraction. + +Explore youtube_dl/utils.py for more useful convenience functions. + +More examples + +Safely extract optional description from parsed JSON + + description = try_get(response, lambda x: x['result']['video'][0]['summary'], compat_str) + +Safely extract more optional metadata + + video = try_get(response, lambda x: x['result']['video'][0], dict) or {} + description = video.get('summary') + duration = float_or_none(video.get('durationMs'), scale=1000) + view_count = int_or_none(video.get('views')) + + + 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 @@ -645,32 +1750,90 @@ 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: + from __future__ import unicode_literals import youtube_dl ydl_opts = {} with youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl: - ydl.download(['http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']) + ydl.download(['https://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 +Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of options +available, 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: + + from __future__ import unicode_literals + 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(['https://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. -Please include the full output of the command when run with --verbose. -The output (including the first lines) contain important debugging +Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: +https://github.com/ytdl-org/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 on freenode +(webchat). + +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: + + $ youtube-dl -v + [debug] System config: [] + [debug] User config: [] + [debug] Command-line args: [u'-v', u'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKcj'] + [debug] Encodings: locale cp1251, fs mbcs, out cp866, pref cp1251 + [debug] youtube-dl version 2015.12.06 + [debug] Git HEAD: 135392e + [debug] Python version 2.6.6 - Windows-2003Server-5.2.3790-SP2 + [debug] exe versions: ffmpeg N-75573-g1d0487f, ffprobe N-75573-g1d0487f, rtmpdump 2.4 + [debug] Proxy map: {} + ... + +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. -For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode. - -When you submit a request, please re-read it once to avoid a couple of +Please re-read your issue once again to avoid a couple of common mistakes (you can and should use this as a checklist): Is the description of the issue itself sufficient? @@ -691,20 +1854,28 @@ want to be fixed. Make sure that it's obvious 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 +misinterpretation likely. As a committer 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. +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. + +If your server has multiple IPs or you suspect censorship, adding +--call-home may be a good idea to get more diagnostics. If the error is +ERROR: Unable to extract ... and you cannot reproduce it from multiple +countries, add --dump-pages (warning: this will yield a rather large +output, redirect it to the file log.txt by adding >log.txt 2>&1 to your +command-line) or upload the .dump files you get when you add +--write-pages somewhere. -Site support requests must contain an example URL. An example URL is a +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 +https://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. +a video service (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/) is _not_ an example URL. Are you using the latest version? @@ -716,19 +1887,18 @@ 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. +open. Search at the top of the window or browse the GitHub Issues of +this repository. 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 +report and detail how the existing similar options do _not_ solve your problem. Is there enough context in your bug report? @@ -761,7 +1931,7 @@ 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. +videos, White house 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. @@ -770,27 +1940,27 @@ 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. +Only post features that you (or an incapacitated friend you can +personally talk to) require. Do not post features because they seem like +a good idea. If they are really useful, they will be requested by +someone who requires them. Is your question about youtube-dl? 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. +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 -========= -youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders. -This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton -(https://github.com/dbbolton) and is likewise released into the public -domain. +youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders. +This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton and is likewise +released into the public domain.