]> jfr.im git - yt-dlp.git/blame - README.md
[Steam] Fix extractor (#2029)
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ec2e44fc 1<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b31fdeed 2<div align="center">
3
e980017a 4[![YT-DLP](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master/.github/banner.svg)](#readme)
d9d045e2 5
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1aebc0f7 10[![Supported Sites](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Supported_Sites-brightgreen.svg?style=for-the-badge)](supportedsites.md)
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a7191c6f 15[![Downloads](https://img.shields.io/github/downloads/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/total?style=for-the-badge&color=blue)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest)
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c76eb41b 17
b31fdeed 18</div>
ec2e44fc 19<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
c76eb41b 20
b31fdeed 21yt-dlp is a [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) fork based on the now inactive [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc). The main focus of this project is adding new features and patches while also keeping up to date with the original project
5c0e5bc4 22
ec2e44fc 23<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "USAGE AND OPTIONS" SECTION HERE -->
24
25<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
034b6215 26* [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
53ed7066 27 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
c76eb41b 28* [INSTALLATION](#installation)
17fa3ee2 29 * [Update](#update)
0e5927ee 30 * [Release Files](#release-files)
cf59cd4d 31 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
17fa3ee2 32 * [Compile](#compile)
b31fdeed 33* [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
34 * [General Options](#general-options)
50865ca8 35 * [Network Options](#network-options)
b31fdeed 36 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
50865ca8 37 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
38 * [Download Options](#download-options)
39 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
b31fdeed 40 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
50865ca8 41 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
0744a815 42 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
50865ca8 43 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
44 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
45 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
46 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
50865ca8 47 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
7a340e0d 48 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
50865ca8 49 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
c76eb41b 50* [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
50865ca8 51 * [Authentication with .netrc file](#authentication-with-netrc-file)
c76eb41b 52* [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
50865ca8 53 * [Output template and Windows batch files](#output-template-and-windows-batch-files)
54 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
c76eb41b 55* [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
50865ca8 56 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
57 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
58 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
73cd218f 59* [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
60 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
5d3a0e79 61* [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
f74980cb 62* [PLUGINS](#plugins)
8c6f4daa 63* [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
e167860c 64* [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
8c6f4daa 65* [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
66 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
67 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
c76eb41b 68* [MORE](#more)
ec2e44fc 69<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
50865ca8 70
71
034b6215 72# NEW FEATURES
91f071af 73
b69fd25c 74* Based on **youtube-dl 2021.12.17 [commit/5014bd6](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/5014bd67c22b421207b2650d4dc874b95b36dda1)** and **youtube-dlc 2020.11.11-3 [commit/f9401f2](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/commit/f9401f2a91987068139c5f757b12fc711d4c0cee)**: You get all the features and patches of [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) in addition to the latest [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl)
034b6215 75
7a340e0d 76* **[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in youtube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
034b6215 77
7581d246 78* **[Format Sorting](#sorting-formats)**: The default format sorting options have been changed so that higher resolution and better codecs will be now preferred instead of simply using larger bitrate. Furthermore, you can now specify the sort order using `-S`. This allows for much easier format selection than what is possible by simply using `--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
034b6215 79
0fdf490d 80* **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from [animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including `--write-comments`, `BiliBiliSearch`, `BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that the NicoNico improvements are not available. See [#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
29b6000e 81
f5546c0b 82* **Youtube improvements**:
6ccf351a 83 * All Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`) and private playlists supports downloading multiple pages of content
0fdf490d 84 * Search (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`), search URLs and in-channel search works
85 * Mixes supports downloading multiple pages of content
86c1a8aa 86 * Some (but not all) age-gated content can be downloaded without cookies
a4211baf 87 * Fix for [n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326)
f20f5fe5 88 * Redirect channel's home URL automatically to `/video` to preserve the old behaviour
e6f21b3d 89 * `255kbps` audio is extracted (if available) from youtube music when premium cookies are given
9ee4f0bb 90 * Youtube music Albums, channels etc can be downloaded ([except self-uploaded music](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/723))
adbc4ec4 91 * Download livestreams from the start using `--live-from-start`
f20f5fe5 92
245524e6 93* **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using `--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[:PROFILE]`
94
597c1866 95* **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using `--split-chapters`
96
b31fdeed 97* **Multi-threaded fragment downloads**: Download multiple fragments of m3u8/mpd videos in parallel. Use `--concurrent-fragments` (`-N`) option to set the number of threads used
8d801631 98
b31fdeed 99* **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use `aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
f20f5fe5 100
e75bb0d6 101* **New and fixed extractors**: Many new extractors have been added and a lot of existing ones have been fixed. See the [changelog](Changelog.md) or the [list of supported sites](supportedsites.md)
86c1a8aa 102
103* **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN
fac98805 104
3de7c2ce 105* **Subtitle extraction from manifests**: Subtitles can be extracted from streaming media manifests. See [commit/be6202f](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/be6202f12b97858b9d716e608394b51065d0419f) for details
034b6215 106
597c1866 107* **Multiple paths and output templates**: You can give different [output templates](#output-template) and download paths for different types of files. You can also set a temporary path where intermediary files are downloaded to using `--paths` (`-P`)
0bc0a322 108
109* **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [configuration](#configuration) for details
110
418964fa 111* **Output template improvements**: Output templates can now have date-time formatting, numeric offsets, object traversal etc. See [output template](#output-template) for details. Even more advanced operations can also be done with the help of `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
fac98805 112
91f071af 113* **Other new options**: Many new options have been added such as `--print`, `--wait-for-video`, `--sleep-requests`, `--convert-thumbnails`, `--write-link`, `--force-download-archive`, `--force-overwrites`, `--break-on-reject` etc
0bc0a322 114
91f071af 115* **Improvements**: Regex and other operators in `--match-filter`, multiple `--postprocessor-args` and `--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection), merge multi-video/audio etc
c69911e4 116
86c1a8aa 117* **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
b31fdeed 118
7a5c1cfe 119* **Self-updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`
aa837ddf 120
7a5c1cfe 121See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
a26c99ac 122
53ed7066 123### Differences in default behavior
124
0930b11f 125Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
53ed7066 126
96565c7e 127* The options `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
b69fd25c 128* `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
96565c7e 129* The default [output template](#output-template) is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`. There is no real reason for this change. This was changed before yt-dlp was ever made public and now there are no plans to change it back to `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`. Instead, you may use `--compat-options filename`
e4f02757 130* The default [format sorting](#sorting-formats) is different from youtube-dl and prefers higher resolution and better codecs rather than higher bitrates. You can use the `--format-sort` option to change this to any order you prefer, or use `--compat-options format-sort` to use youtube-dl's sorting order
e75bb0d6 131* The default format selector is `bv*+ba/b`. This means that if a combined video + audio format that is better than the best video-only format is found, the former will be preferred. Use `-f bv+ba/b` or `--compat-options format-spec` to revert this
28b0eb0f 132* Unlike youtube-dlc, yt-dlp does not allow merging multiple audio/video streams into one file by default (since this conflicts with the use of `-f bv*+ba`). If needed, this feature must be enabled using `--audio-multistreams` and `--video-multistreams`. You can also use `--compat-options multistreams` to enable both
133* `--ignore-errors` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
134* When writing metadata files such as thumbnails, description or infojson, the same information (if available) is also written for playlists. Use `--no-write-playlist-metafiles` or `--compat-options no-playlist-metafiles` to not write these files
9222c381 135* `--add-metadata` attaches the `infojson` to `mkv` files in addition to writing the metadata when used with `--write-info-json`. Use `--no-embed-info-json` or `--compat-options no-attach-info-json` to revert this
f279aaee 136* Some metadata are embedded into different fields when using `--add-metadata` as compared to youtube-dl. Most notably, `comment` field contains the `webpage_url` and `synopsis` contains the `description`. You can [use `--parse-metadata`](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp#modifying-metadata) to modify this to your liking or use `--compat-options embed-metadata` to revert this
28b0eb0f 137* `playlist_index` behaves differently when used with options like `--playlist-reverse` and `--playlist-items`. See [#302](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/302) for details. You can use `--compat-options playlist-index` if you want to keep the earlier behavior
138* The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
3acf6d38 139* All *experiences* of a funimation episode are considered as a single video. This behavior breaks existing archives. Use `--compat-options seperate-video-versions` to extract information from only the default player
28b0eb0f 140* Youtube live chat (if available) is considered as a subtitle. Use `--sub-langs all,-live_chat` to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use `--compat-options no-live-chat` to prevent live chat from downloading
09f1580e 141* Youtube channel URLs are automatically redirected to `/video`. Append a `/featured` to the URL to download only the videos in the home page. If the channel does not have a videos tab, we try to download the equivalent `UU` playlist instead. Also, `/live` URLs raise an error if there are no live videos instead of silently downloading the entire channel. You may use `--compat-options no-youtube-channel-redirect` to revert all these redirections
28b0eb0f 142* Unavailable videos are also listed for youtube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
18e674b4 143* If `ffmpeg` is used as the downloader, the downloading and merging of formats happen in a single step when possible. Use `--compat-options no-direct-merge` to revert this
e858a9d6 144* Thumbnail embedding in `mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use `--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
e4f02757 145* Some private fields such as filenames are removed by default from the infojson. Use `--no-clean-infojson` or `--compat-options no-clean-infojson` to revert this
e75bb0d6 146* When `--embed-subs` and `--write-subs` are used together, the subtitles are written to disk and also embedded in the media file. You can use just `--embed-subs` to embed the subs and automatically delete the separate file. See [#630 (comment)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/630#issuecomment-893659460) for more info. `--compat-options no-keep-subs` can be used to revert this
53ed7066 147
148For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
28b0eb0f 149* `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options
150* `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams`
151* `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
53ed7066 152
f20f5fe5 153
d19bb9c0 154# INSTALLATION
50865ca8 155
7bc877a2 156You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
a61f4b28 157
a4211baf 158### Using the release binary
0930b11f 159
160You can simply download the [correct binary file](#release-files) for your OS: **[[Windows](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)] [[UNIX-like](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)]**
5f326cf5 161
0930b11f 162In UNIX-like OSes (MacOS, Linux, BSD), you can also install the same in one of the following ways:
5ba4a0b6
A
163
164```
165sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
166sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
167```
168
169```
170sudo wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
171sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
172```
173
174```
b69fd25c 175sudo aria2c https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp --dir /usr/local/bin -o yt-dlp
5ba4a0b6
A
176sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
177```
178
0930b11f 179PS: The manpages, shell completion files etc. are available in [yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
180
a4211baf 181### With [PIP](https://pypi.org/project/pip)
0930b11f 182
183You can install the [PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) with:
184```
185python3 -m pip install -U yt-dlp
186```
187
86c1a8aa 188You can install without any of the optional dependencies using:
0930b11f 189```
190python3 -m pip install --no-deps -U yt-dlp
191```
192
86c1a8aa 193If you want to be on the cutting edge, you can also install the master branch with:
0930b11f 194```
9222c381 195python3 -m pip install --force-reinstall https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/archive/master.zip
0930b11f 196```
197
198Note that on some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`
199
a4211baf 200### With [Homebrew](https://brew.sh)
0930b11f 201
202macOS or Linux users that are using Homebrew can also install it by:
b8773e63
THD
203
204```
205brew install yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp
206```
207
a4211baf 208## UPDATE
0930b11f 209You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are [using the provided release](#using-the-release-binary)
210
211If you [installed with pip](#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
212
213If you [installed using Homebrew](#with-homebrew), run `brew upgrade yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp`
cf59cd4d 214
ec2e44fc 215<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
a4211baf 216## RELEASE FILES
0e5927ee 217
733d8e8f 218#### Recommended
219
220File|Description
221:---|:---
0930b11f 222[yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform-independant binary. Needs Python (recommended for **UNIX-like systems**)
223[yt-dlp.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary (recommended for **Windows**)
733d8e8f 224
225#### Alternatives
226
0e5927ee
R
227File|Description
228:---|:---
96565c7e 229[yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|MacOS (10.15+) standalone executable
0930b11f 230[yt-dlp_x86.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_x86.exe)|Windows (Vista SP2+) standalone x86 (32-bit) binary
96565c7e 231[yt-dlp_min.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_min.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary built with `py2exe`.<br/> Does not contain `pycryptodomex`, needs VC++14
0930b11f 232[yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
233[yt-dlp_macos.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos.zip)|Unpackaged MacOS (10.15+) executable (no auto-update)
733d8e8f 234
235#### Misc
236
237File|Description
238:---|:---
0e5927ee
R
239[yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball. Also contains manpages, completions, etc
240[SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
241[SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
ec2e44fc 242<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
0e5927ee 243
a4211baf 244## DEPENDENCIES
cf59cd4d 245Python versions 3.6+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
b31fdeed 246
c9652aa4 247<!-- Python 3.5+ uses VC++14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
248<!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999 --x>
cf59cd4d 249On windows, [Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86)](https://download.microsoft.com/download/1/6/5/165255E7-1014-4D0A-B094-B6A430A6BFFC/vcredist_x86.exe) is also necessary to run yt-dlp. You probably already have this, but if the executable throws an error due to missing `MSVCR100.dll` you need to install it manually.
c9652aa4 250-->
fac98805 251
e75bb0d6 252While all the other dependencies are optional, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended
ec2e44fc 253
b69fd25c 254* [**ffmpeg** and **ffprobe**](https://www.ffmpeg.org) - Required for [merging separate video and audio files](#format-selection) as well as for various [post-processing](#post-processing-options) tasks. License [depends on the build](https://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html)
0930b11f 255* [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen) - For embedding thumbnail in certain formats. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
256* [**pycryptodomex**](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome) - For decrypting AES-128 HLS streams and various other data. Licensed under [BSD2](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome/blob/master/LICENSE.rst)
257* [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets) - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under [BSD3](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
258* [**keyring**](https://github.com/jaraco/keyring) - For decrypting cookies of chromium-based browsers on Linux. Licensed under [MIT](https://github.com/jaraco/keyring/blob/main/LICENSE)
259* [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For embedding thumbnail in mp4/m4a if mutagen is not present. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
260* [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licensed under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
261* [**mplayer**](http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html) or [**mpv**](https://mpv.io) - For downloading `rstp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/Copyright)
262* [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licensed under [BSD3](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
263* [**sponskrub**](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) - For using the now **deprecated** [sponskrub options](#sponskrub-options). Licensed under [GPLv3+](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub/blob/master/LICENCE.md)
cf59cd4d 264* Any external downloader that you want to use with `--downloader`
b31fdeed 265
cf59cd4d 266To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
267
0930b11f 268The Windows and MacOS standalone release binaries are already built with the python interpreter, mutagen, pycryptodomex and websockets included.
d710cc6d 269
e75bb0d6 270**Note**: There are some regressions in newer ffmpeg versions that causes various issues when used alongside yt-dlp. Since ffmpeg is such an important dependency, we provide [custom builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds/wiki/Latest#latest-autobuilds) with patches for these issues at [yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds). See [the readme](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#patches-applied) for details on the specific issues solved by these builds
d710cc6d 271
5f326cf5 272
a4211baf 273## COMPILE
5f326cf5 274
c76eb41b 275**For Windows**:
49a57e70 276To build the Windows executable, you must have pyinstaller (and optionally mutagen, pycryptodomex, websockets). Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, (optionally) build lazy extractors using `devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py`, and then just run `pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (32/64 bit) as the python used to build it.
e38df8f9 277
733d8e8f 278 py -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
49a57e70 279 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
733d8e8f 280 py pyinst.py
7581d246 281
fac98805 282Note that pyinstaller [does not support](https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller#requirements-and-tested-platforms) Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment
b96a939b 283
c76eb41b 284**For Unix**:
060ac762 285You will need the required build tools: `python`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`, `zip`, `pytest`
127d0759 286Then simply run `make`. You can also run `make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files
5f326cf5 287
49a57e70 288**Note**: In either platform, `devscripts/update-version.py` can be used to automatically update the version number
d19bb9c0 289
75b725a7 290You can also fork the project on github and run your fork's [build workflow](.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically build a release
59a7a13e 291
b31fdeed 292# USAGE AND OPTIONS
6bcd846b 293
ec2e44fc 294<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
7a5c1cfe 295 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
b50e3bc6 296
c2b5f311 297`Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
ec2e44fc 298<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
c2b5f311 299
ec2e44fc 300<!-- Auto generated -->
c76eb41b 301## General Options:
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302 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
303 --version Print program version and exit
8d801631 304 -U, --update Update this program to latest version. Make
305 sure that you have sufficient permissions
306 (run with sudo if needed)
b1940459 307 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
0930b11f 308 The download will be considered successful
b1940459 309 even if the postprocessing fails
310 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download
311 errors; e.g. to skip unavailable videos in
312 a playlist (default)
8a51f564 313 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
314 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
34488702 315 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
316 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
c4af7684 317 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
34488702 318 extractors and exit
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319 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic
320 extractor
321 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
322 example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
9ee4f0bb 323 from google videos for the search term
324 "large apple". Use the value "auto" to let
325 yt-dlp guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
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326 warning when guessing). "error" just throws
327 an error. The default value "fixup_error"
328 repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
8a51f564 329 this is not possible instead of searching
298f597b 330 --ignore-config, --no-config Disable loading any configuration files
8a51f564 331 except the one provided by --config-location.
332 When given inside a configuration
298f597b 333 file, no further configuration files are
334 loaded. Additionally, (for backward
335 compatibility) if this option is found
336 inside the system configuration file, the
8a51f564 337 user configuration is not loaded
0202b52a 338 --config-location PATH Location of the main configuration file;
339 either the path to the config or its
340 containing directory
c4af7684 341 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
8a51f564 342 only list them
6623ac34 343 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
adbc4ec4
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344 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
345 Currently only supported for YouTube
346 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current
347 time (default)
91f071af 348 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
349 available. Pass the minimum number of
350 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
351 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
b5ae35ee 352 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate).
353 Currently only supported for YouTube
597c1866 354 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
8a51f564 355 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output
53ed7066 356 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
31654882 357 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
53ed7066 358 configurations by reverting some of the
359 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
360 default behavior" for details
08c1d0d3 361
149f05c7 362## Network Options:
28b4f736 363 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy.
0934c9d4
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364 To enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper
365 scheme. For example
28b4f736
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366 socks5://127.0.0.1:1080/. Pass in an empty
367 string (--proxy "") for direct connection
149f05c7 368 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
c4af7684 369 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
c4af7684 370 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
c4af7684 371 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
8c6c88c7 372
b31fdeed 373## Geo-restriction:
c25f1a9b
S
374 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
375 some geo-restricted sites. The default
376 proxy specified by --proxy (or none, if the
7550ea50 377 option is not present) is used for the
8a51f564 378 actual downloading
8c6c88c7 379 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
0934c9d4 380 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
8c6c88c7
S
381 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
382 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
8c6c88c7
S
383 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
384 explicitly provided two-letter ISO 3166-2
0934c9d4 385 country code
9e18bb4c
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386 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
387 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR
0934c9d4 388 notation
149f05c7 389
cfcec693 390## Video Selection:
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391 --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is 1)
392 --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
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393 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify
394 indices of the videos in the playlist
395 separated by commas like: "--playlist-items
396 1,2,5,8" if you want to download videos
397 indexed 1, 2, 5, 8 in the playlist. You can
398 specify range: "--playlist-items
399 1-3,7,10-13", it will download the videos
8a51f564 400 at index 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13
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401 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
402 SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
403 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
404 (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
0930b11f 405 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
6623ac34 406 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
407 "(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?"
c4af7684 408 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
c76eb41b 409 this date. The date formats accepted is the
410 same as --date
c4af7684 411 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
c76eb41b 412 this date. The date formats accepted is the
413 same as --date
77b87f05
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414 --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Any field (see
415 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE") can be compared with a
a047eeb6 416 number or a string using the operators
417 defined in "Filtering formats". You can
418 also simply specify a field to match if the
419 field is present and "!field" to check if
420 the field is not present. In addition,
421 Python style regular expression matching
422 can be done using "~=", and multiple
423 filters can be checked with "&". Use a "\"
424 to escape "&" or quotes if needed. Eg:
425 --match-filter "!is_live & like_count>?100
2e7781a9 426 & description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'"
a047eeb6 427 matches only videos that are not live, has
428 a like count more than 100 (or the like
77b87f05 429 field is not available), and also has a
a047eeb6 430 description that contains the phrase "cats
431 & dogs" (ignoring case)
c76eb41b 432 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
c4af7684 433 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
8a51f564 434 to a video and a playlist
c4af7684 435 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
8a51f564 436 a video and a playlist
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437 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
438 age
439 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
440 archive file. Record the IDs of all
8a51f564 441 downloaded videos in it
91f071af 442 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
443 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
8b0d7497 444 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
8a51f564 445 a file that is in the archive
8b0d7497 446 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
8a51f564 447 a file that has been filtered out
91f071af 448 --break-per-input Make --break-on-existing and --break-on-
449 reject act only on the current input URL
450 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and --break-on-reject
451 terminates the entire download queue
26e2805c 452 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest
453 of the playlist is skipped
6bcd846b 454
d5a62e4f 455## Download Options:
b31fdeed 456 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
457 video that should be download concurrently
458 (default is 1)
5e3856a2 459 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
c4af7684 460 (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
6aecd871 461 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
462 below which throttling is assumed and the
463 video data is re-extracted (e.g. 100K)
c4af7684 464 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
8a51f564 465 "infinite"
205a0654
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466 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access error
467 (default is 10), or "infinite"
0be8314d 468 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default
b56e41a7
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469 is 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and
470 ISM)
6623ac34 471 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
472 hlsnative and ISM (default)
8a51f564 473 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
6623ac34 474 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading if a fragment is unavailable
8a51f564 475 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
a82f4184 476 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
6623ac34 477 downloading is finished
c76eb41b 478 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
479 downloading is finished (default)
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480 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
481 (default is 1024)
c76eb41b 482 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
483 from an initial value of --buffer-size
484 (default)
485 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
db157d2a
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486 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
487 downloading (e.g. 10485760 or 10M) (default
488 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
489 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
490 (experimental)
2101f5d4 491 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
6623ac34 492 --no-playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in default order
c76eb41b 493 (default)
31487eb9 494 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
c4af7684 495 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
0934c9d4 496 expected file size
9bd20204 497 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
498 allowing some players to play the video
499 while downloading, and reducing the chance
500 of file corruption if download is
501 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
502 live streams
503 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
504 videos. This is default when not
505 downloading live streams
52a8a1e1 506 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
507 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
508 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
509 use it for. Currently supports native,
510 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
511 wget (Recommended: aria2c). You can use
512 this option multiple times to set different
513 downloaders for different protocols. For
514 example, --downloader aria2c --downloader
515 "dash,m3u8:native" will use aria2c for
516 http/ftp downloads, and the native
517 downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
518 (Alias: --external-downloader)
46ee996e 519 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
520 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
330690a2 521 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
522 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to
523 different positions using the same syntax
524 as --postprocessor-args. You can use this
525 option multiple times to give different
526 arguments to different downloaders
29b6000e 527 (Alias: --external-downloader-args)
d5a62e4f 528
cfcec693 529## Filesystem Options:
940a67a3 530 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
e8dfecb3 531 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
940a67a3 532 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
8a51f564 533 comments and ignored
1e520b55 534 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
6ccf351a 535 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
0202b52a 536 downloaded. Specify the type of file and
de6000d9 537 the path separated by a colon ":". All the
538 same types as --output are supported.
539 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
6ccf351a 540 (default) and "temp" paths. All
541 intermediary files are first downloaded to
542 the temp path and then the final files are
543 moved over to the home path after download
544 is finished. This option is ignored if
545 --output is an absolute path
d818eb74 546 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
c76eb41b 547 TEMPLATE" for details
0bc0a322 548 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder value for unavailable meta
549 fields in output filename template
550 (default: "NA")
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551 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
552 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
553 filenames
c76eb41b 554 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
555 filenames (default)
0930b11f 556 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
557 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
558 using Windows (default)
c2934512 559 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
560 extension) to the specified number of
561 characters
9b45b9f5 562 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
563 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files.
564 This option includes --no-continue
565 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
566 related files (default)
c25228e5 567 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
568 (default)
569 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
e58c22a0 570 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
c25228e5 571 restart download of the entire file
c76eb41b 572 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
6623ac34 573 into output file (default)
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574 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly
575 into output file
c76eb41b 576 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the
577 file modification time (default)
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578 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
579 the file modification time
580 --write-description Write video description to a .description
581 file
6623ac34 582 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
1dc2726f 583 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
c25228e5 584 (this may contain personal information)
6623ac34 585 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
cac96421 586 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
587 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
588 --write-description etc. (default)
589 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
590 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
75d43ca0 591 --clean-infojson Remove some private fields such as
592 filenames from the infojson. Note that it
593 could still contain some personal
594 information (default)
595 --no-clean-infojson Write all fields to the infojson
2305e2e5 596 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
597 infojson. The comments are fetched even
598 without this option if the extraction is
599 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
600 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
601 extraction is known to be quick
602 (Alias: --no-get-comments)
d845622b 603 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
c4af7684
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604 (created with the "--write-info-json"
605 option)
91f071af 606 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies
607 from and dump cookie jar in
982ee69a
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608 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
609 (default)
610 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[:PROFILE]
611 Load cookies from a user profile of the
612 given web browser. Currently supported
0ef787d7 613 browsers are: brave, chrome, chromium,
614 edge, firefox, opera, safari, vivaldi. You
615 can specify the user profile name or
616 directory using "BROWSER:PROFILE_NAME" or
982ee69a
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617 "BROWSER:PROFILE_PATH". If no profile is
618 given, the most recently accessed one is
619 used
620 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
6623ac34 621 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
3b1fe47d 622 can store some downloaded information (such
623 as client ids and signatures) permanently.
9ee4f0bb 624 By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/yt-dlp or
625 ~/.cache/yt-dlp
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626 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
627 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
6bcd846b 628
b31fdeed 629## Thumbnail Options:
1dc2726f 630 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
6623ac34 631 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk
c76eb41b 632 (default)
1dc2726f 633 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
34488702 634 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
635 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
2b1bd292 636
732044af 637## Internet Shortcut Options:
8a51f564 638 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
639 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
640 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
641 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
642 OS caches the URL based on the file path
643 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
644 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
732044af 645
0744a815 646## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
34488702 647 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with
648 --verbose, print the log to stderr
6c072e7d 649 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
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650 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
651 anything to disk
34488702 652 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
653 options are used
0930b11f 654 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
655 extracting metadata even if the videos are
656 not actually available for download
0cf05715 657 (experimental)
658 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
659 formats are found (default)
e167860c 660 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
661 related files (Alias: --no-download)
34488702 662 -O, --print TEMPLATE Quiet, but print the given fields for each
663 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
664 used. Either a field name or same syntax as
665 the output template can be used
666 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
667 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
668 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
669 description of available keys
670 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
671 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
672 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
673 a playlist, the whole playlist information
674 is dumped in a single line
8a51f564 675 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be
e58c22a0 676 written as far as no errors occur, even if
677 -s or another simulation option is used
8a51f564 678 (Alias: --force-download-archive)
1dc2726f
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679 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
680 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
819e0531 681 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
1dc2726f 682 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
819e0531 683 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
684 Template for progress outputs, optionally
685 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
686 "download-title:" (the console title),
687 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
688 The video's fields are accessible under the
689 "info" key and the progress attributes are
0930b11f 690 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.:
819e0531 691 --console-title --progress-template
692 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
1dc2726f 693 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
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694 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
695 to debug problems (very verbose)
696 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
697 files in the current directory to debug
698 problems
780083db 699 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
6bcd846b 700
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701## Workarounds:
702 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
0930b11f 703 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
c4af7684 704 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
e167860c 705 information about the video (Currently
05a7ffb1 706 supported only for YouTube)
1dc2726f 707 --user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
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708 --referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the video
709 access is restricted to one domain
710 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
45016689 711 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
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712 option multiple times
713 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
714 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
715 or fribidi executable in PATH
1cf376f5 716 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
717 during data extraction
c4af7684 718 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
e167860c 719 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
720 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
721 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
722 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can
723 only be used along with --min-sleep-interval
1cf376f5 724 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
725 subtitle download
36f35428 726
cfcec693 727## Video Format Options:
eb8a4433 728 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
729 for more details
730 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
731 "Sorting Formats" for more details
8a51f564 732 --S-force, --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
733 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
eb8a4433 734 Formats" for more details
735 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
c76eb41b 736 specified sort order (default), see
737 "Sorting Formats" for more details
738 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
739 into a single file
740 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for
741 each output file (default)
742 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
743 into a single file
744 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for
745 each output file (default)
da9be05e 746 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
747 over non-free ones of same quality. Use
748 with "-S ext" to strictly prefer free
749 containers irrespective of quality
750 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
751 containers (default)
0930b11f 752 --check-formats Check that the selected formats are
0ba692ac 753 actually downloadable
0930b11f 754 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
0ba692ac 755 actually downloadable
0930b11f 756 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
757 downloadable
34488702 758 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
759 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
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760 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
761 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
762 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
763 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
8ae7be3e
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764
765## Subtitle Options:
c76eb41b 766 --write-subs Write subtitle file
767 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
768 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
e167860c 769 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
770 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
771 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
34488702 772 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
773 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
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774 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats
775 preference, for example: "srt" or
776 "ass/srt/best"
c32b0aab 777 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
778 be regex) or "all" separated by commas.
a4211baf 779 (Eg: --sub-langs "en.*,ja") You can prefix
c32b0aab 780 the language code with a "-" to exempt it
781 from the requested languages. (Eg: --sub-
782 langs all,-live_chat) Use --list-subs for a
783 list of available language tags
6bcd846b 784
cfcec693 785## Authentication Options:
1dc2726f 786 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
c4af7684 787 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
7a5c1cfe 788 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
dc48a354 789 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
1dc2726f 790 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
0001fcb5 791 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
792 either the path or its containing
793 directory. Defaults to ~/.netrc
29f7c58a 794 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
f5e008d1 795 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
909d24dd 796 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
797 a list of available MSOs
f5e008d1
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798 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
799 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
c74d1aa3 800 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
801 interactively
f5e008d1
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802 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system
803 operators
804
c76eb41b 805## Post-Processing Options:
c4af7684 806 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
e4172ac9 807 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
3de7c2ce 808 --audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format to convert the audio
809 to when -x is used. Currently supported
810 formats are: best (default) or one of
9222c381 811 best|aac|flac|mp3|m4a|opus|vorbis|wav|alac
e4172ac9 812 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality, insert a
86c1a8aa 813 value between 0 (best) and 10 (worst) for
e4172ac9 814 VBR or a specific bitrate like 128K
c4af7684 815 (default 5)
c76eb41b 816 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
29b6000e 817 necessary (currently supported: mp4|mkv|flv
818 |webm|mov|avi|mp3|mka|m4a|ogg|opus). If
819 target container does not support the
06167fbb 820 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
3de7c2ce 821 can specify multiple rules; Eg.
06167fbb 822 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to
823 m4a, mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv.
c76eb41b 824 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
3de7c2ce 825 re-encoding is necessary. The syntax and
826 supported formats are the same as --remux-video
1b77b347 827 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
43820c03 828 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
45016689 829 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
830 to give the argument to the specified
8fa43c73 831 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
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832 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
833 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
8fa43c73 834 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
835 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
6aecd871 836 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
837 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
8fa43c73 838 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
9ee4f0bb 839 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
7a340e0d
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840 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
841 specified executable only when being used
842 by the specified postprocessor.
843 Additionally, for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o"
844 can be appended to the prefix optionally
845 followed by a number to pass the argument
846 before the specified input/output file. Eg:
847 --ppa "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can
848 use this option multiple times to give
e4172ac9 849 different arguments to different
5b1ecbb3 850 postprocessors. (Alias: --ppa)
c76eb41b 851 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
6623ac34 852 after post-processing
c76eb41b 853 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
6623ac34 854 post-processing (default)
855 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
856 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
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857 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
858 webm and mkv videos)
c76eb41b 859 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
6aecd871 860 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
6623ac34 861 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
9222c381 862 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
863 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
864 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json
865 are used (Alias: --add-metadata)
7a340e0d 866 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
6aecd871 867 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
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868 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
869 (Alias: --add-chapters)
870 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default)
871 (Alias: --no-add-chapters)
9222c381 872 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
873 mkv/mka video files
874 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
875 to the video file
73cd218f 876 --parse-metadata FROM:TO Parse additional metadata like title/artist
877 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
878 for details
e9f4ccd1 879 --replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
880 Replace text in a metadata field using the
881 given regex. This option can be used
882 multiple times
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883 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
884 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
885 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
886 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
887 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
888 default; fix file if we can, warn
6aecd871 889 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
890 already exists
e4172ac9 891 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
892 path to the binary or its containing
893 directory
c4af7684 894 --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
34488702 895 downloading and post-processing. Same
896 syntax as the output template can be used
9de3ea31 897 to pass any field as arguments to the
898 command. An additional field "filepath"
899 that contains the final path of the
900 downloaded file is also available. If no
7d1eb38a 901 fields are passed, %(filepath)q is appended
34488702 902 to the end of the command. This option can
903 be used multiple times
904 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
5520aa2d 905 --exec-before-download CMD Execute a command before the actual
906 download. The syntax is the same as --exec
34488702 907 but "filepath" is not available. This
908 option can be used multiple times
909 --no-exec-before-download Remove any previously defined
910 --exec-before-download
e167860c 911 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
3de7c2ce 912 (currently supported: srt|vtt|ass|lrc)
e167860c 913 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
8fa43c73 914 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
3de7c2ce 915 (currently supported: jpg|png)
72755351 916 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
917 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix
918 can be used with "--paths" and "--output"
919 to set the output filename for the split
920 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
921 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters
922 (default)
7a340e0d 923 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
2d9ec704 924 given regular expression. Time ranges
925 prefixed by a "*" can also be used in place
926 of chapters to remove the specified range.
927 Eg: --remove-chapters "*10:15-15:00"
928 --remove-chapters "intro". This option can
7a340e0d 929 be used multiple times
9ee4f0bb 930 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
931 (default)
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932 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes around the chapters before
933 removing/splitting them. Requires a
e75bb0d6 934 re-encode and thus is very slow, but the
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935 resulting video may have fewer artifacts
936 around the cuts
937 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
938 when cutting/splitting (default)
3ae5e797 939 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS] The (case sensitive) name of plugin
940 postprocessors to be enabled, and
941 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
e75bb0d6 942 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
3ae5e797 943 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
944 The "when" argument determines when the
945 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
946 "pre_process" (after extraction),
947 "before_dl" (before video download),
948 "post_process" (after video download;
949 default) or "after_move" (after moving file
950 to their final locations). This option can
951 be used multiple times to add different
952 postprocessors
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953
954## SponsorBlock Options:
955Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
956 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
8a51f564 957 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
958
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959 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
960 for, separated by commas. Available
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961 categories are all, default(=all), sponsor,
962 intro, outro, selfpromo, preview, filler,
963 interaction, music_offtopic, poi_highlight.
964 You can prefix the category with a "-" to
965 exempt it. See [1] for description of the
966 categories. Eg: --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
967 [1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
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968 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
969 the video file, separated by commas. If a
970 category is present in both mark and
971 remove, remove takes precedence. The syntax
972 and available categories are the same as
8157a09d
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973 for --sponsorblock-mark except that
974 "default" refers to "all,-filler" and
975 poi_highlight is not available
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976 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
977 The title template for SponsorBlock
978 chapters created by --sponsorblock-mark.
979 The same syntax as the output template is
980 used, but the only available fields are
981 start_time, end_time, category, categories,
982 name, category_names. Defaults to
983 "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
984 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
985 --sponsorblock-remove
986 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
987 https://sponsor.ajay.app
a9e7f546 988
78895bd3 989## Extractor Options:
5ef7d9bd 990 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor
d6e51845 991 errors (default is 3), or "infinite"
6623ac34 992 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
8a51f564 993 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
994 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
995 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
e409895f 996 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
997 discontinuities such as ad breaks
998 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
999 formats at discontinuities such as ad
1000 breaks (default)
5d3a0e79 1001 --extractor-args KEY:ARGS Pass these arguments to the extractor. See
1002 "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You can
1003 use this option multiple times to give
245524e6 1004 arguments for different extractors
17cb02d0 1005
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1006# CONFIGURATION
1007
7a5c1cfe 1008You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
e2e43aea 1009
0202b52a 10101. **Main Configuration**: The file given by `--config-location`
7a5c1cfe
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10111. **Portable Configuration**: `yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the bundled binary. If you are running from source-code (`<root dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`), the root directory is used instead.
10121. **Home Configuration**: `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by `-P "home:<path>"`, or in the current directory if no such path is given
e2e43aea 10131. **User Configuration**:
1014 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1015 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
1016 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1017 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1018 * `~/yt-dlp.conf`
1019 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
1020
ec2e44fc 1021 `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%` defaults to `~/.config` if undefined. On windows, `%APPDATA%` generally points to `C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming` and `~` points to `%HOME%` if present, `%USERPROFILE%` (generally `C:\Users\<user name>`), or `%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
07cce701 10221. **System Configuration**: `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
b7770046 1023
7a5c1cfe 1024For example, with the following configuration file yt-dlp will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under `YouTube` directory in your home directory:
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1025```
1026# Lines starting with # are comments
1027
1028# Always extract audio
1029-x
1030
1031# Do not copy the mtime
1032--no-mtime
1033
1034# Use this proxy
1035--proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1036
298f597b 1037# Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1038-o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
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1039```
1040
e2e43aea 1041Note 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`.
b7770046 1042
a4211baf 1043You can use `--ignore-config` if you want to disable all configuration files for a particular yt-dlp run. If `--ignore-config` is found inside any configuration file, no further configuration will be loaded. For example, having the option in the portable configuration file prevents loading of home, user, and system configurations. Additionally, (for backward compatibility) if `--ignore-config` is found inside the system configuration file, the user configuration is not loaded.
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1044
1045### Authentication with `.netrc` file
1046
0001fcb5 1047You 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 yt-dlp execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in the shell command history. You can achieve this using a [`.netrc` file](https://stackoverflow.com/tags/.netrc/info) on a per extractor basis. For that you will need to create a `.netrc` file in `--netrc-location` and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:
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1048```
1049touch $HOME/.netrc
1050chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
1051```
1052After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1053```
0001fcb5 1054machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
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1055```
1056For example:
1057```
1058machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1059machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1060```
7a5c1cfe 1061To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
b7770046 1062
0001fcb5 1063The default location of the .netrc file is `$HOME` (`~`) in UNIX. On Windows, it is `%HOME%` if present, `%USERPROFILE%` (generally `C:\Users\<user name>`) or `%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
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1064
1065# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
1066
0202b52a 1067The `-o` option is used to indicate a template for the output file names while `-P` option is used to specify the path each type of file should be saved to.
b7770046 1068
ec2e44fc 1069<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1070**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
ec2e44fc 1071<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1072
e58c22a0 1073The simplest usage of `-o` is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in `yt-dlp -o funny_video.flv "https://some/video"` (hard-coding file extension like this is _not_ recommended and could break some post-processing).
a439a3a4 1074
0930b11f 1075It may however also contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences may be formatted according to [Python string formatting operations](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting). For example, `%(NAME)s` or `%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations.
a439a3a4 1076
1077The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
2b8a2973 10781. **Object traversal**: The dictionaries and lists available in metadata can be traversed by using a `.` (dot) separator. You can also do python slicing using `:`. Eg: `%(tags.0)s`, `%(subtitles.en.-1.ext)s`, `%(id.3:7:-1)s`, `%(formats.:.format_id)s`. `%()s` refers to the entire infodict. Note that all the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use `-j` to see such fields
ec2e44fc 1079
e625be0d 10801. **Addition**: Addition and subtraction of numeric fields can be done using `+` and `-` respectively. Eg: `%(playlist_index+10)03d`, `%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
ec2e44fc 1081
e625be0d 10821. **Date/time Formatting**: Date/time fields can be formatted according to [strftime formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-format-codes) by specifying it separated from the field name using a `>`. Eg: `%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`, `%(upload_date>%Y-%m-%d)s`, `%(epoch-3600>%H-%M-%S)s`
ec2e44fc 1083
e75bb0d6 10841. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a `,`. Eg: `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
ec2e44fc 1085
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10861. **Replacement**: A replacement value can specified using a `&` separator. If the field is *not* empty, this replacement value will be used instead of the actual field content. This is done after alternate fields are considered; thus the replacement is used if *any* of the alternative fields is *not* empty.
1087
e75bb0d6 10881. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a `|` separator. This overrides `--output-na-template`. Eg: `%(uploader|Unknown)s`
ec2e44fc 1089
37893bb0 10901. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types `diouxXeEfFgGcrs`, `B`, `j`, `l`, `q`, `D`, `S` can be used for converting to **B**ytes, **j**son (flag `#` for pretty-printing), a comma separated **l**ist (flag `#` for `\n` newline-separated), a string **q**uoted for the terminal (flag `#` to split a list into different arguments), to add **D**ecimal suffixes (Eg: 10M), and to **S**anitize as filename (flag `#` for restricted), respectively
ec2e44fc 1091
524e2e4f 10921. **Unicode normalization**: The format type `U` can be used for NFC [unicode normalization](https://docs.python.org/3/library/unicodedata.html#unicodedata.normalize). The alternate form flag (`#`) changes the normalization to NFD and the conversion flag `+` can be used for NFKC/NFKD compatibility equivalence normalization. Eg: `%(title)+.100U` is NFKC
a439a3a4 1093
1094To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1095```
e978789f 1096%(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
a439a3a4 1097```
de6000d9 1098
940a67a3 1099Additionally, you can set different output templates for the various metadata files separately from the general output template by specifying the type of file followed by the template separated by a colon `:`. The different file types supported are `subtitle`, `thumbnail`, `description`, `annotation` (deprecated), `infojson`, `link`, `pl_thumbnail`, `pl_description`, `pl_infojson`, `chapter`. For example, `-o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "thumbnail:%(title)s\%(title)s.%(ext)s"` will put the thumbnails in a folder with the same name as the video. If any of the templates (except default) is empty, that type of file will not be written. Eg: `--write-thumbnail -o "thumbnail:"` will write thumbnails only for playlists and not for video.
e29663c6 1100
1101The available fields are:
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1102
1103 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1104 - `title` (string): Video title
1105 - `url` (string): Video URL
1106 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1107 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
597c1866 1108 - `description` (string): The description of the video
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1109 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1110 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1111 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1112 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
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1113 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
1114 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)
e6f21b3d 1115 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released
1116 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
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1117 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1118 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1119 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
1120 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1121 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
53c18592 1122 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
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1123 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1124 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1125 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1126 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1127 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
277d6ff5 1128 - `comment_count` (numeric): Number of comments on the video (For some extractors, comments are only downloaded at the end, and so this field cannot be used)
b7770046 1129 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
940a67a3 1130 - `live_status` (string): One of "is_live", "was_live", "is_upcoming", "not_live"
b7770046 1131 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
f76ede8e 1132 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
6cfda058 1133 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
940a67a3 1134 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
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1135 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1136 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
29b6000e 1137 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
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1138 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by `--format`
1139 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
1140 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
1141 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
1142 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
1143 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1144 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1145 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
1146 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1147 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1148 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
176f1866 1149 - `dynamic_range` (string): The dynamic range of the video
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1150 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
1151 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
1152 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
1153 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
1154 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
1155 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1156 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
1157 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch when creating the file
1158 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`
e6f21b3d 1159 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
b7770046 1160 - `playlist` (string): Name or id of the playlist that contains the video
e6f21b3d 1161 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1162 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
b7770046
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1163 - `playlist_id` (string): Playlist identifier
1164 - `playlist_title` (string): Playlist title
1165 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1166 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
bd99f6e6 1167 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
0bb322b9 1168 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1169 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
bd99f6e6 1170 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)
b7770046
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1171
1172Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1173
1174 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1175 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1176 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1177
1178Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1179
1180 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1181 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1182 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1183 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1184 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1185 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1186 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1187
1188Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1189
1190 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1191 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1192 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1193 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1194 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1195 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1196 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1197 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1198 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1199 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1200
b050d210 1201Available for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
72755351 1202
1203 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1204 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1205 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1206 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1207
53c18592 1208Available only when used in `--print`:
1209
1210 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1211 - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the actual filename may be different due to post-processing. Use `--exec echo` to get the name after all postprocessing is complete
7a340e0d
NA
1212
1213Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1214
1215 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1216 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1217 - `categories` (list): The SponsorBlock categories the chapter belongs to
1218 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1219 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1220 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
53c18592 1221
49a57e70 1222Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. For example for `-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an mp4 video with title `yt-dlp test video` and id `BaW_jenozKc`, this will result in a `yt-dlp test video-BaW_jenozKc.mp4` file created in the current directory.
1223
1224Note 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 placeholder value provided with `--output-na-placeholder` (`NA` by default).
b7770046 1225
0930b11f 1226**Tip**: Look at the `-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
b7770046 1227
49a57e70 1228For numeric sequences you can use [numeric related formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting), for example, `%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to 5 characters, like in `00042`.
b7770046 1229
940a67a3 1230Output 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.
b7770046
U
1231
1232To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
1233
91ebc640 1234The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
b7770046 1235
f304da8a 1236In some cases, you don't want special characters such as 中, spaces, or &, such as when transferring the downloaded filename to a Windows system or the filename through an 8bit-unsafe channel. In these cases, add the `--restrict-filenames` flag to get a shorter title.
b7770046 1237
ec2e44fc 1238<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046
U
1239#### Output template and Windows batch files
1240
1241If 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"`.
ec2e44fc 1242<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046
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1243
1244#### Output template examples
1245
b7770046 1246```bash
940a67a3 1247$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1248test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1249
940a67a3 1250$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1251youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
b7770046 1252
940a67a3 1253$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
9222c381 1254youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
b7770046
U
1255
1256# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
940a67a3 1257$ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
b7770046 1258
b050d210 1259# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
940a67a3 1260$ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
e29663c6 1261
e978789f
P
1262# Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
1263$ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist_index|)s%(playlist_index& - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists
1264
b7770046 1265# Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
940a67a3 1266$ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
b7770046
U
1267
1268# Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
940a67a3 1269$ yt-dlp -u user -p password -P "~/MyVideos" -o "%(playlist)s/%(chapter_number)s - %(chapter)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.udemy.com/java-tutorial"
b7770046
U
1270
1271# Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
940a67a3 1272$ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -o "%(series)s/%(season_number)s - %(season)s/%(episode_number)s - %(episode)s.%(ext)s" "https://videomore.ru/kino_v_detalayah/5_sezon/367617"
b7770046
U
1273
1274# Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
7a5c1cfe 1275$ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
b7770046
U
1276```
1277
1278# FORMAT SELECTION
1279
7a5c1cfe
P
1280By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1281This is generally equivalent to using `-f bestvideo*+bestaudio/best`. However, if multiple audiostreams is enabled (`--audio-multistreams`), the default format changes to `-f bestvideo+bestaudio/best`. Similarly, if ffmpeg is unavailable, or if you use yt-dlp to stream to `stdout` (`-o -`), the default becomes `-f best/bestvideo+bestaudio`.
b7770046 1282
c111cefa 1283**Deprecation warning**: Latest versions of yt-dlp can stream multiple formats to the stdout simultaneously using ffmpeg. So, in future versions, the default for this will be set to `-f bv*+ba/b` similar to normal downloads. If you want to preserve the `-f b/bv+ba` setting, it is recommended to explicitly specify it in the configuration options.
1284
eff63539 1285The general syntax for format selection is `-f FORMAT` (or `--format FORMAT`) where `FORMAT` is a *selector expression*, i.e. an expression that describes format or formats you would like to download.
b7770046 1286
ec2e44fc 1287<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1288**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
ec2e44fc 1289<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1290
a439a3a4 1291The 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.
b7770046
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1292
1293You 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.
1294
fa9f30b8 1295You can use `-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1296
b7770046
U
1297You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1298
59a7a13e 1299 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1300 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
1301 - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio
1302 - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1303 - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
1304 - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
1305 - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
1306 - `ba*`, `bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that **contains audio**. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `best*[acodec!=none]`
1307 - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
909d24dd 1308 - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1309 - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
909d24dd 1310 - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1311 - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
909d24dd 1312 - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
b7770046 1313
e58c22a0 1314For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use `-f worstvideo`. It is however recommended not to use `worst` and related options. When your format selector is `worst`, the format which is worst in all respects is selected. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use `-f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps` instead of `-f worst`. See [sorting formats](#sorting-formats) for more details.
eff63539 1315
1316You can select the n'th best format of a type by using `best<type>.<n>`. For example, `best.2` will select the 2nd best combined format. Similarly, `bv*.3` will select the 3rd best format that contains a video stream.
b7770046 1317
eb8a4433 1318If 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 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.
b7770046
U
1319
1320If 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`.
1321
d806c9fd 1322You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using `-f <format1>+<format2>+...` (requires ffmpeg installed), for example `-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg.
1323
1324**Deprecation warning**: Since the *below* described behavior is complex and counter-intuitive, this will be removed and multistreams will be enabled by default in the future. A new operator will be instead added to limit formats to single audio/video
1325
1326Unless `--video-multistreams` is used, all formats with a video stream except the first one are ignored. Similarly, unless `--audio-multistreams` is used, all formats with an audio stream except the first one are ignored. For example, `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --video-multistreams --audio-multistreams` will download and merge all 3 given formats. The resulting file will have 2 video streams and 2 audio streams. But `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --no-video-multistreams` will download and merge only `bestvideo` and `bestaudio`. `best` is ignored since another format containing a video stream (`bestvideo`) has already been selected. The order of the formats is therefore important. `-f best+bestaudio --no-audio-multistreams` will download and merge both formats while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams` will ignore `best` and download only `bestaudio`.
eb8a4433 1327
1328## Filtering Formats
1329
b7770046
U
1330You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
1331
1332The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
1333
1334 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1335 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1336 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
1337 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1338 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1339 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1340 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1341 - `fps`: Frame rate
1342
1343Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains) and following string meta fields:
1344
1345 - `ext`: File extension
1346 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1347 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1348 - `container`: Name of the container format
1349 - `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`)
1350 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
29f7c58a 1351 - `language`: Language code
b7770046
U
1352
1353Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation `!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g. `!*=` (does not contain).
1354
e58c22a0 1355Note 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 website. Any other field made available by the extractor can also be used for filtering.
b7770046 1356
e094cec1 1357Formats 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 also use the filters with `all` to download all formats that satisfy the filter. For example, `-f "all[vcodec=none]"` selects all audio-only formats.
b7770046 1358
940a67a3 1359Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses, for example if you want to download the best pre-merged mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480 you can use `-f "(mp4,webm)[height<480]"`.
b7770046 1360
eb8a4433 1361## Sorting Formats
1362
2e7781a9 1363You can change the criteria for being considered the `best` by using `-S` (`--format-sort`). The general format for this is `--format-sort field1,field2...`.
1364
1365The available fields are:
eb8a4433 1366
63be1aab 1367 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
1368 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
1369 - `ie_pref`: The format preference as given by the extractor
1370 - `lang`: Language preference as given by the extractor
dca3ff4a 1371 - `quality`: The quality of the format as given by the extractor
63be1aab 1372 - `source`: Preference of the source as given by the extractor
e36d50c5 1373 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > other > `mms`/`rtsp` > unknown > `f4f`/`f4m`)
155d2b48 1374 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other > unknown)
aeb2a9ad 1375 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `eac3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other > unknown)
eb8a4433 1376 - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
e75bb0d6 1377 - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `webm` > `flv` > other > unknown). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is preferred.
63be1aab 1378 - `aext`: Audio Extension (`m4a` > `aac` > `mp3` > `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > other > unknown). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to `opus` > `ogg` > `webm` > `m4a` > `mp3` > `aac`.
1379 - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
0930b11f 1380 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
63be1aab 1381 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1382 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
eb8a4433 1383 - `height`: Height of video
1384 - `width`: Width of video
63be1aab 1385 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1386 - `fps`: Framerate of video
49a57e70 1387 - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `HLG` > `SDR`)
63be1aab 1388 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1389 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1390 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1391 - `br`: Equivalent to using `tbr,vbr,abr`
1392 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
d806c9fd 1393
1394**Deprecation warning**: Many of these fields have (currently undocumented) aliases, that may be removed in a future version. It is recommended to use only the documented field names.
eb8a4433 1395
9ee4f0bb 1396All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in descending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+`. Eg: `+res` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a preferred value for the fields, separated by a `:`. Eg: `res:720` prefers larger videos, but no larger than 720p and the smallest video if there are no videos less than 720p. For `codec` and `ext`, you can provide two preferred values, the first for video and the second for audio. Eg: `+codec:avc:m4a` (equivalent to `+vcodec:avc,+acodec:m4a`) sets the video codec preference to `h264` > `h265` > `vp9` > `vp9.2` > `av01` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` and audio codec preference to `mp4a` > `aac` > `vorbis` > `opus` > `mp3` > `ac3` > `dts`. You can also make the sorting prefer the nearest values to the provided by using `~` as the delimiter. Eg: `filesize~1G` prefers the format with filesize closest to 1 GiB.
1397
176f1866 1398The fields `hasvid` and `ie_pref` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using `--format-sort-force`. Apart from these, the default order used is: `lang,quality,res,fps,hdr:12,codec:vp9.2,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id`. The extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
eb8a4433 1399
e75bb0d6 1400Note that the default has `codec:vp9.2`; i.e. `av1` is not preferred. Similarly, the default for hdr is `hdr:12`; i.e. dolby vision is not preferred. These choices are made since DV and AV1 formats are not yet fully compatible with most devices. This may be changed in the future as more devices become capable of smoothly playing back these formats.
eb8a4433 1401
e58c22a0 1402If your format selector is `worst`, the last item is selected after sorting. This means it will select the format that is worst in all respects. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use `-f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps`.
eb8a4433 1403
1404**Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1405
eb8a4433 1406## Format Selection examples
b7770046 1407
b7770046 1408```bash
e58c22a0 1409# Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
909d24dd 1410# or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
940a67a3 1411$ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
909d24dd 1412
1413# Download best format that contains video,
1414# and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
940a67a3 1415$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
2af884ff 1416
1417# Same as above
7a5c1cfe 1418$ yt-dlp
909d24dd 1419
6fd35a11 1420# Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1421# For this case, an output template should be used since
1422# by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
940a67a3 1423$ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
909d24dd 1424
f8d4ad9a 1425# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1426# and all audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1427$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
f8d4ad9a 1428
1429# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1430# and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1431$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
909d24dd 1432
6fd35a11 1433
1434# The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
f8d4ad9a 1435# and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
6fd35a11 1436
1437# Download the worst video available (old method)
940a67a3 1438$ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
eb8a4433 1439
1440# Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
940a67a3 1441$ yt-dlp -S "+res"
eb8a4433 1442
1443# Download the smallest video available
940a67a3 1444$ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
eb8a4433 1445
1446
909d24dd 1447
eb8a4433 1448# Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
940a67a3 1449$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
eb8a4433 1450
1451# Download the best video with the best extension
1452# (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
940a67a3 1453$ yt-dlp -S "ext"
eb8a4433 1454
1455
909d24dd 1456
eb8a4433 1457# Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1458# or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1459$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
b7770046 1460
eb8a4433 1461# Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1462# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1463$ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
b7770046 1464
eb8a4433 1465# Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1466# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1467# Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1468# So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
940a67a3 1469$ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
b7770046 1470
b7770046 1471
909d24dd 1472
eb8a4433 1473# Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1474# or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1475$ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
eb8a4433 1476
1477# Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1478# or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1479$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
eb8a4433 1480
1481# Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
940a67a3 1482$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
eb8a4433 1483
1484
909d24dd 1485
eb8a4433 1486# Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1487# or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
940a67a3 1488$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1489
1490# Download best video available via the best protocol
1491# (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
940a67a3 1492$ yt-dlp -S "proto"
eb8a4433 1493
1494
909d24dd 1495
eb8a4433 1496# Download the best video with h264 codec, or the best video if there is no such video
940a67a3 1497$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[vcodec^=avc1] / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1498
1499# Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1500# or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1501$ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1502
1503# Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1504# or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1505$ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1506
1507
1508
1509# More complex examples
1510
e58c22a0 1511# Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1512# or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
940a67a3 1513$ yt-dlp -f "((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)"
eb8a4433 1514
1515# Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
f8d4ad9a 1516# or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1517# preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
940a67a3 1518$ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
eb8a4433 1519
1520
909d24dd 1521
eb8a4433 1522# Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1523# or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1524# preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
940a67a3 1525$ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
b7770046 1526```
eb8a4433 1527
73cd218f 1528# MODIFYING METADATA
1529
a4211baf 1530The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
e9f4ccd1 1531
418964fa 1532`--replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE` is used to replace text in any metadata field using [python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax). [Backreferences](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html?highlight=backreferences#re.sub) can be used in the replace string for advanced use.
e9f4ccd1 1533
2e7781a9 1534The general syntax of `--parse-metadata FROM:TO` is to give the name of a field or an [output template](#output-template) to extract data from, and the format to interpret it as, separated by a colon `:`. Either a [python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax) with named capture groups or a similar syntax to the [output template](#output-template) (only `%(field)s` formatting is supported) can be used for `TO`. The option can be used multiple times to parse and modify various fields.
73cd218f 1535
1536Note that any field created by this can be used in the [output template](#output-template) and will also affect the media file's metadata added when using `--add-metadata`.
1537
9c2b75b5 1538This option also has a few special uses:
28b0eb0f 1539* You can download an additional URL based on the metadata of the currently downloaded video. To do this, set the field `additional_urls` to the URL that you want to download. Eg: `--parse-metadata "description:(?P<additional_urls>https?://www\.vimeo\.com/\d+)` will download the first vimeo video found in the description
b11d2101 1540* You can use this to change the metadata that is embedded in the media file. To do this, set the value of the corresponding field with a `meta_` prefix. For example, any value you set to `meta_description` field will be added to the `description` field in the file. For example, you can use this to set a different "description" and "synopsis". Any value set to the `meta_` field will overwrite all default values.
c31be5b0 1541
1542For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1543
1544Metadata fields|From
1545:---|:---
1546`title`|`track` or `title`
1547`date`|`upload_date`
1548`description`, `synopsis`|`description`
1549`purl`, `comment`|`webpage_url`
1550`track`|`track_number`
1551`artist`|`artist`, `creator`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
1552`genre`|`genre`
1553`album`|`album`
1554`album_artist`|`album_artist`
1555`disc`|`disc_number`
1556`show`|`series`
1557`season_number`|`season_number`
1558`episode_id`|`episode` or `episode_id`
1559`episode_sort`|`episode_number`
1560`language` of each stream|From the format's `language`
1561**Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1562
73cd218f 1563
1564## Modifying metadata examples
1565
73cd218f 1566```bash
1567# Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
940a67a3 1568$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
73cd218f 1569
1570# Regex example
940a67a3 1571$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
73cd218f 1572
1573# Set title as "Series name S01E05"
940a67a3 1574$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
73cd218f 1575
1576# Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url
940a67a3 1577$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --add-metadata
73cd218f 1578
0930b11f 1579# Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
940a67a3 1580$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<formats>)" -j
0930b11f 1581
e9f4ccd1 1582# Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
940a67a3 1583$ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
e9f4ccd1 1584
73cd218f 1585```
1586
5d3a0e79 1587# EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1588
59a7a13e 1589Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using `--extractor-args KEY:ARGS`. `ARGS` is a `;` (semicolon) separated string of `ARG=VAL1,VAL2`. Eg: `--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android_agegate,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
5d3a0e79 1590
1591The following extractors use this feature:
96565c7e 1592
1593#### youtube
1594* `skip`: `hls` or `dash` (or both) to skip download of the respective manifests
d0d012d4 1595* `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web`, `android`, `ios`, `mweb`. These also have `_music`, `_embedded`, `_agegate`, and `_creator` variants (Eg: `web_embedded`) (`mweb` has only `_agegate`). By default, `android,web` is used, but the agegate and creator variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly the music variants are added for `music.youtube.com` urls. You can also use `all` to use all the clients, and `default` for the default clients.
96565c7e 1596* `player_skip`: Skip some network requests that are generally needed for robust extraction. One or more of `configs` (skip client configs), `webpage` (skip initial webpage), `js` (skip js player). While these options can help reduce the number of requests needed or avoid some rate-limiting, they could cause some issues. See [#860](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/860) for more details
adbc4ec4 1597* `include_live_dash`: Include live dash formats even without `--live-from-start` (These formats don't download properly)
96565c7e 1598* `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
e75bb0d6 1599* `max_comments`: Limit the amount of comments to gather. Comma-separated list of integers representing `max-comments,max-parents,max-replies,max-replies-per-thread`. Default is `all,all,all,all`.
46383212 1600 * E.g. `all,all,1000,10` will get a maximum of 1000 replies total, with up to 10 replies per thread. `1000,all,100` will get a maximum of 1000 comments, with a maximum of 100 replies total.
1601* `max_comment_depth` Maximum depth for nested comments. YouTube supports depths 1 or 2 (default)
1602 * **Deprecated**: Set `max-replies` to `0` or `all` in `max_comments` instead (e.g. `max_comments=all,all,0` to get no replies)
96565c7e 1603
1604#### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1605* `skip`: One or more of `webpage` (skip initial webpage download), `authcheck` (allow the download of playlists requiring authentication when no initial webpage is downloaded. This may cause unwanted behavior, see [#1122](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/1122) for more details)
1606
1607#### funimation
1608* `language`: Languages to extract. Eg: `funimation:language=english,japanese`
1609* `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`
1610
a9d4da60 1611#### crunchyroll
1612* `language`: Languages to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:language=jaJp`
1613* `hardsub`: Which hard-sub versions to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:hardsub=None,enUS`
1614
96565c7e 1615#### vikichannel
1616* `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
73d829c1 1617
aa4b0545 1618#### youtubewebarchive
1619* `check_all`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails`, `captures`
1620
bc97cdae 1621NOTE: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
5d3a0e79 1622
ec2e44fc 1623<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1624
3acf6d38 1625
f74980cb 1626# PLUGINS
b7770046 1627
3ae5e797 1628Plugins are loaded from `<root-dir>/ytdlp_plugins/<type>/__init__.py`; where `<root-dir>` is the directory of the binary (`<root-dir>/yt-dlp`), or the root directory of the module if you are running directly from source-code (`<root dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`). Plugins are currently not supported for the `pip` version
1629
1630Plugins can be of `<type>`s `extractor` or `postprocessor`. Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it. Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME`.
1631
1632See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example plugins.
1633
1634Note that **all** plugins are imported even if not invoked, and that **there are no checks** performed on plugin code. Use plugins at your own risk and only if you trust the code
1635
1636If you are a plugin author, add [ytdlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/ytdlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability
b7770046 1637
b7770046 1638
8c6f4daa 1639
1640# EMBEDDING YT-DLP
1641
1642yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1643
1644Your program should avoid parsing the normal stdout since they may change in future versions. Instead they should use options such as `-J`, `--print`, `--progress-template`, `--exec` etc to create console output that you can reliably reproduce and parse.
1645
1646From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1647
1648```python
59a7a13e 1649from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
8c6f4daa 1650
093a1710 1651ydl_opts = {'format': 'bestaudio'}
59a7a13e 1652with YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
8c6f4daa 1653 ydl.download(['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
1654```
1655
f304da8a 1656Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of options available, have a look at [`yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py`](yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py#L162).
8c6f4daa 1657
093a1710 1658Here's a more complete example demonstrating various functionality:
8c6f4daa 1659
1660```python
1661import json
8c6f4daa 1662import yt_dlp
8c6f4daa 1663
1664
1665class MyLogger:
1666 def debug(self, msg):
e75bb0d6 1667 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
8c6f4daa 1668 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
1669 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
1670 pass
1671 else:
1672 self.info(msg)
1673
1674 def info(self, msg):
1675 pass
1676
1677 def warning(self, msg):
1678 pass
1679
1680 def error(self, msg):
1681 print(msg)
1682
1683
093a1710 1684# ℹ️ See the docstring of yt_dlp.postprocessor.common.PostProcessor
59a7a13e 1685class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
093a1710 1686 # ℹ️ See docstring of yt_dlp.postprocessor.common.PostProcessor.run
8c6f4daa 1687 def run(self, info):
1688 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
1689 return [], info
1690
1691
093a1710 1692# ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in the docstring of yt_dlp.YoutubeDL
8c6f4daa 1693def my_hook(d):
1694 if d['status'] == 'finished':
1695 print('Done downloading, now converting ...')
1696
1697
093a1710 1698def format_selector(ctx):
1699 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
1700 This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
1701
1702 # formats are already sorted worst to best
1703 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
1704
1705 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
1706 best_video = next(f for f in formats
1707 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
1708
1709 # find compatible audio extension
1710 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
1711 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
1712 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
1713 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
1714
1715 yield {
1716 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
1717 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
1718 'ext': best_video['ext'],
1719 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
e75bb0d6 1720 # Must be + separated list of protocols
093a1710 1721 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
1722 }
1723
1724
1725# ℹ️ See docstring of yt_dlp.YoutubeDL for a description of the options
8c6f4daa 1726ydl_opts = {
093a1710 1727 'format': format_selector,
8c6f4daa 1728 'postprocessors': [{
093a1710 1729 # Embed metadata in video using ffmpeg.
1730 # ℹ️ See yt_dlp.postprocessor.FFmpegMetadataPP for the arguments it accepts
1731 'key': 'FFmpegMetadata',
1732 'add_chapters': True,
1733 'add_metadata': True,
8c6f4daa 1734 }],
1735 'logger': MyLogger(),
1736 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
1737}
1738
59a7a13e 1739
1740# Add custom headers
1741yt_dlp.utils.std_headers.update({'Referer': 'https://www.google.com'})
1742
093a1710 1743# ℹ️ See the public functions in yt_dlp.YoutubeDL for for other available functions.
1744# Eg: "ydl.download", "ydl.download_with_info_file"
8c6f4daa 1745with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1746 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP())
1747 info = ydl.extract_info('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc')
093a1710 1748
1749 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
8c6f4daa 1750 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1751```
1752
49a57e70 1753**Tip**: If you are porting your code from youtube-dl to yt-dlp, one important point to look out for is that we do not guarantee the return value of `YoutubeDL.extract_info` to be json serializable, or even be a dictionary. It will be dictionary-like, but if you want to ensure it is a serializable dictionary, pass it through `YoutubeDL.sanitize_info` as shown in the example above
1754
8c6f4daa 1755
ec2e44fc 1756<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
1757
e167860c 1758# DEPRECATED OPTIONS
1759
1760These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
1761
6ccf351a 1762#### Redundant options
1763While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
f4536226 1764
53c18592 1765 --get-description --print description
1766 --get-duration --print duration_string
1767 --get-filename --print filename
1768 --get-format --print format
1769 --get-id --print id
1770 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
1771 -e, --get-title --print title
1772 -g, --get-url --print urls
2b8a2973 1773 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
8f18aca8 1774 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
1775 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
1776 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
1777 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
6ccf351a 1778
1779
1780#### Not recommended
1781While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
1782
d9aa2332 1783 --all-formats -f all
c32b0aab 1784 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
b7b04c78 1785 --print-json -j --no-simulate
e167860c 1786 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting. Eg: %(autonumber)03d
a439a3a4 1787 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
19b824f6 1788 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
73cd218f 1789 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
52a8a1e1 1790 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
1791 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
53ed7066 1792 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
1793 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
5d3a0e79 1794 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
1795 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
1796 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
1797 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
6ccf351a 1798
1799
1800#### Developer options
1801These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
1802
34488702 1803 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
6ccf351a 1804 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
88acdbc2 1805 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
1806 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
f4536226 1807
1808
1809#### Old aliases
1810These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
1811
1812 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
1813 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
1814 --dump-headers --print-traffic
1815 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
1816 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
1817 --load-info --load-info-json
1818 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
e167860c 1819 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
e167860c 1820 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
1821 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
f4536226 1822 --split-tracks --split-chapters
1823 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
e167860c 1824 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
f4536226 1825 --write-srt --write-subs
e167860c 1826 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
f4536226 1827
7a340e0d 1828#### Sponskrub Options
f304da8a 1829Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock` options
7a340e0d
NA
1830
1831 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
1832 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
1833 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
1834 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
1835 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
1836 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
1837 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
1838 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
1839
f4536226 1840#### No longer supported
1841These options may no longer work as intended
1842
1843 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
1844 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
1845 -C, --call-home Not implemented
1846 --no-call-home Default
1847 --include-ads No longer supported
1848 --no-include-ads Default
0bb1bc1b 1849 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
1850 --no-write-annotations Default
486fb179 1851
1852#### Removed
1853These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
1854
f4536226 1855 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1856 -t, --title -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1857 -l, --literal -o accepts literal names
1858
8c6f4daa 1859# CONTRIBUTING
1860See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp) for instructions on [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue) and [Contributing code to the project](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
e167860c 1861
c2b5f311 1862# MORE
8c6f4daa 1863For FAQ see the [youtube-dl README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)