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94eb2dd1 1youtube-dl - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms
6bcd846b 2
b50e3bc6
PH		 3- [INSTALLATION](#installation)
4- [DESCRIPTION](#description)
5- [OPTIONS](#options)
6- [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
7- [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
8- [VIDEO SELECTION](#video-selection)
9- [FAQ](#faq)
10- [DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS](#developer-instructions)
11- [BUGS](#bugs)
12- [COPYRIGHT](#copyright)
cfcec693 13
d19bb9c0
PH		 14# INSTALLATION
15
16To install it right away for all UNIX users (Linux, OS X, etc.), type:
17
18 sudo curl https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
19 sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
20
21If you do not have curl, you can alternatively use a recent wget:
22
6e74521d 23 sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
d19bb9c0
PH		 24 sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
25
26Windows users can [download a .exe file](https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl.exe) and place it in their home directory or any other location on their [PATH](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PATH_%28variable%29).
27
3b95347b
PH		 28OS X users can install **youtube-dl** with [Homebrew](http://brew.sh/).
29
30 brew install youtube-dl
31
32You can also use pip:
33
34 sudo pip install youtube-dl
35
d19bb9c0
PH		 36Alternatively, refer to the developer instructions below for how to check out and work with the git repository. For further options, including PGP signatures, see https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html .
37
cfcec693 38# DESCRIPTION
6bcd846b
DB		 39**youtube-dl** is a small command-line program to download videos from
40YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version
a03aaaed 412.6, 2.7, or 3.2+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on
280d6789 42your Unix box, on Windows or on Mac OS X. It is released to the public domain,
6bcd846b
DB		 43which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
44
b50e3bc6
PH		 45 youtube-dl [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
46
cfcec693 47# OPTIONS
780083db
PH		 48 -h, --help print this help text and exit
49 --version print program version and exit
50 -U, --update update this program to latest version. Make
51 sure that you have sufficient permissions
52 (run with sudo if needed)
53 -i, --ignore-errors continue on download errors, for example to
98c4b8fa 54 skip unavailable videos in a playlist
780083db
PH		 55 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos (in the
56 playlist or the command line) if an error
57 occurs
58 --dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
780083db
PH		 59 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs
60 they would handle
61 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
62 extractors
780083db
PH		 63 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
64 example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
65 from google videos for youtube-dl "large
f4d66a99 66 apple". Use the value "auto" to let
4f31d0f2
PH		 67 youtube-dl guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
68 warning when guessing). "error" just throws
69 an error. The default value "fixup_error"
70 repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
71 this is not possible instead of searching.
9d3ac744
PH		 72 --ignore-config Do not read configuration files. When given
73 in the global configuration file /etc
9776bc7f
PH		 74 /youtube-dl.conf: Do not read the user
75 configuration in ~/.config/youtube-
76 dl/config (%APPDATA%/youtube-dl/config.txt
77 on Windows)
36f1c904
PH		 78 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
79 only list them.
04bbe413 80 --no-color Do not emit color codes in output.
08c1d0d3 81
149f05c7
PH		 82## Network Options:
83 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy. Pass in
84 an empty string (--proxy "") for direct
85 connection
86 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
87 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
88 (experimental)
89 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
90 (experimental)
91 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
92 (experimental)
93
cfcec693 94## Video Selection:
780083db
PH		 95 --playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is 1)
96 --playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
2b1bd292
PH		 97 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC playlist video items to download. Specify
98 indices of the videos in the playlist
99 seperated by commas like: "--playlist-items
100 1,2,5,8" if you want to download videos
101 indexed 1, 2, 5, 8 in the playlist. You can
102 specify range: "--playlist-items
103 1-3,7,10-13", it will download the videos
104 at index 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13.
780083db
PH		 105 --match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or
106 caseless sub-string)
107 --reject-title REGEX skip download for matching titles (regex or
108 caseless sub-string)
109 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
110 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
111 SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
112 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
113 (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
114 --date DATE download only videos uploaded in this date
115 --datebefore DATE download only videos uploaded on or before
116 this date (i.e. inclusive)
117 --dateafter DATE download only videos uploaded on or after
118 this date (i.e. inclusive)
119 --min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less than
120 COUNT views
121 --max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than
122 COUNT views
84573477
PH		 123 --match-filter FILTER (Experimental) Generic video filter.
124 Specify any key (see help for -o for a list
125 of available keys) to match if the key is
126 present, !key to check if the key is not
127 present,key > NUMBER (like "comment_count >
128 12", also works with >=, <, <=, !=, =) to
129 compare against a number, and & to require
130 multiple matches. Values which are not
131 known are excluded unless you put a
132 question mark (?) after the operator.For
133 example, to only match videos that have
134 been liked more than 100 times and disliked
135 less than 50 times (or the dislike
136 functionality is not available at the given
137 service), but who also have a description,
138 use --match-filter "like_count > 100 &
139 dislike_count <? 50 & description" .
acda92f6
PH		 140 --no-playlist If the URL refers to a video and a
141 playlist, download only the video.
13cd97f3
PH		 142 --yes-playlist If the URL refers to a video and a
143 playlist, download the playlist.
780083db
PH		 144 --age-limit YEARS download only videos suitable for the given
145 age
146 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
147 archive file. Record the IDs of all
148 downloaded videos in it.
149 --include-ads Download advertisements as well
150 (experimental)
6bcd846b 151
d5a62e4f 152## Download Options:
780083db
PH		 153 -r, --rate-limit LIMIT maximum download rate in bytes per second
154 (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
2b1bd292
PH		 155 -R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is 10), or
156 "infinite".
780083db
PH		 157 --buffer-size SIZE size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
158 (default is 1024)
159 --no-resize-buffer do not automatically adjust the buffer
160 size. By default, the buffer size is
161 automatically resized from an initial value
162 of SIZE.
2101f5d4 163 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
2b1bd292
PH		 164 --xattr-set-filesize (experimental) set file xattribute
165 ytdl.filesize with expected filesize
46312e0b
PH		 166 --hls-prefer-native (experimental) Use the native HLS
167 downloader instead of ffmpeg.
2b1bd292
PH		 168 --external-downloader COMMAND (experimental) Use the specified external
169 downloader. Currently supports
170 aria2c,curl,wget
d5a62e4f 171
cfcec693 172## Filesystem Options:
36f35428
PH		 173 -a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for
174 stdin)
780083db 175 --id use only video ID in file name
780083db
PH		 176 -o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(title)s to
177 get the title, %(uploader)s for the
178 uploader name, %(uploader_id)s for the
179 uploader nickname if different,
180 %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
181 incremented number, %(ext)s for the
182 filename extension, %(format)s for the
183 format description (like "22 - 1280x720" or
184 "HD"), %(format_id)s for the unique id of
185 the format (like Youtube's itags: "137"),
186 %(upload_date)s for the upload date
187 (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
188 (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the
1d4df56d
PH		 189 video id, %(playlist_title)s,
190 %(playlist_id)s, or %(playlist)s (=title if
191 present, ID otherwise) for the playlist the
780083db 192 video is in, %(playlist_index)s for the
1d4df56d
PH		 193 position in the playlist. %(height)s and
194 %(width)s for the width and height of the
195 video format. %(resolution)s for a textual
d63516e9 196 description of the resolution of the video
1d4df56d
PH		 197 format. %% for a literal percent. Use - to
198 output to stdout. Can also be used to
199 download to a different directory, for
200 example with -o '/my/downloads/%(uploader)s
201 /%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
780083db
PH		 202 --autonumber-size NUMBER Specifies the number of digits in
203 %(autonumber)s when it is present in output
204 filename template or --auto-number option
205 is given
206 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
207 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
208 filenames
2101f5d4
PH		 209 -A, --auto-number [deprecated; use -o
210 "%(autonumber)s-%(title)s.%(ext)s" ] number
211 downloaded files starting from 00000
36f35428
PH		 212 -t, --title [deprecated] use title in file name
213 (default)
214 -l, --literal [deprecated] alias of --title
780083db
PH		 215 -w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
216 -c, --continue force resume of partially downloaded files.
217 By default, youtube-dl will resume
218 downloads if possible.
219 --no-continue do not resume partially downloaded files
220 (restart from beginning)
9b36dcbd
PH		 221 --no-part do not use .part files - write directly
222 into output file
780083db
PH		 223 --no-mtime do not use the Last-modified header to set
224 the file modification time
225 --write-description write video description to a .description
226 file
227 --write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
228 --write-annotations write video annotations to a .annotation
229 file
36f35428
PH		 230 --load-info FILE json file containing the video information
231 (created with the "--write-json" option)
232 --cookies FILE file to read cookies from and dump cookie
233 jar in
234 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
235 can store some downloaded information
236 permanently. By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME
237 /youtube-dl or ~/.cache/youtube-dl . At the
238 moment, only YouTube player files (for
239 videos with obfuscated signatures) are
240 cached, but that may change.
241 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
242 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
6bcd846b 243
2b1bd292
PH		 244## Thumbnail images:
245 --write-thumbnail write thumbnail image to disk
246 --write-all-thumbnails write all thumbnail image formats to disk
247 --list-thumbnails Simulate and list all available thumbnail
248 formats
249
cfcec693 250## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
780083db 251 -q, --quiet activates quiet mode
6c072e7d 252 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
780083db
PH		 253 -s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write
254 anything to disk
255 --skip-download do not download the video
256 -g, --get-url simulate, quiet but print URL
257 -e, --get-title simulate, quiet but print title
258 --get-id simulate, quiet but print id
259 --get-thumbnail simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
260 --get-description simulate, quiet but print video description
261 --get-duration simulate, quiet but print video length
262 --get-filename simulate, quiet but print output filename
263 --get-format simulate, quiet but print output format
bf30f3bd
PH		 264 -j, --dump-json simulate, quiet but print JSON information.
265 See --output for a description of available
266 keys.
724d0318
PH		 267 -J, --dump-single-json simulate, quiet but print JSON information
268 for each command-line argument. If the URL
269 refers to a playlist, dump the whole
270 playlist information in a single line.
754c8389
PH		 271 --print-json Be quiet and print the video information as
272 JSON (video is still being downloaded).
780083db
PH		 273 --newline output progress bar as new lines
274 --no-progress do not print progress bar
275 --console-title display progress in console titlebar
276 -v, --verbose print various debugging information
277 --dump-intermediate-pages print downloaded pages to debug problems
278 (very verbose)
279 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
280 files in the current directory to debug
281 problems
282 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
cd3063f3 283 -C, --call-home Contact the youtube-dl server for
15aecd87
PH		 284 debugging.
285 --no-call-home Do NOT contact the youtube-dl server for
286 debugging.
6bcd846b 287
36f35428
PH		 288## Workarounds:
289 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
290 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation.
291 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
292 information about the video. (Currently
293 supported only for YouTube)
294 --user-agent UA specify a custom user agent
9b36dcbd 295 --referer URL specify a custom referer, use if the video
36f35428
PH		 296 access is restricted to one domain
297 --add-header FIELD:VALUE specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
298 separated by a colon ':'. You can use this
299 option multiple times
4f31d0f2
PH		 300 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
301 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
302 or fribidi executable in PATH
6f58db89
PH		 303 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
304 download.
36f35428 305
cfcec693 306## Video Format Options:
780083db 307 -f, --format FORMAT video format code, specify the order of
11497d5b
PH		 308 preference using slashes, as in -f 22/17/18
309 . Instead of format codes, you can select
310 by extension for the extensions aac, m4a,
311 mp3, mp4, ogg, wav, webm. You can also use
312 the special names "best", "bestvideo",
c994e6bd
PH		 313 "bestaudio", "worst". You can filter the
314 video results by putting a condition in
315 brackets, as in -f "best[height=720]" (or
316 -f "[filesize>10M]"). This works for
dd893068
PH		 317 filesize, height, width, tbr, abr, vbr,
318 asr, and fps and the comparisons <, <=, >,
319 >=, =, != and for ext, acodec, vcodec,
320 container, and protocol and the comparisons
321 =, != . Formats for which the value is not
322 known are excluded unless you put a
323 question mark (?) after the operator. You
324 can combine format filters, so -f "[height
325 <=? 720][tbr>500]" selects up to 720p
326 videos (or videos where the height is not
327 known) with a bitrate of at least 500
328 KBit/s. By default, youtube-dl will pick
329 the best quality. Use commas to download
330 multiple audio formats, such as -f
1d4df56d
PH		 331 136/137/mp4/bestvideo,140/m4a/bestaudio.
332 You can merge the video and audio of two
333 formats into a single file using -f <video-
334 format>+<audio-format> (requires ffmpeg or
335 avconv), for example -f
336 bestvideo+bestaudio.
780083db
PH		 337 --all-formats download all available video formats
338 --prefer-free-formats prefer free video formats unless a specific
339 one is requested
340 --max-quality FORMAT highest quality format to download
341 -F, --list-formats list all available formats
9b36dcbd
PH		 342 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest Do not download the DASH manifest on
343 YouTube videos
6ef9f882
PH		 344 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
345 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
346 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
347 webm, flv.Ignored if no merge is required
8ae7be3e
PH		 348
349## Subtitle Options:
780083db
PH		 350 --write-sub write subtitle file
351 --write-auto-sub write automatic subtitle file (youtube
352 only)
353 --all-subs downloads all the available subtitles of
354 the video
355 --list-subs lists all available subtitles for the video
459e5fbd
PH		 356 --sub-format FORMAT subtitle format, accepts formats
357 preference, for example: "ass/srt/best"
780083db
PH		 358 --sub-lang LANGS languages of the subtitles to download
359 (optional) separated by commas, use IETF
360 language tags like 'en,pt'
6bcd846b 361
cfcec693 362## Authentication Options:
9b36dcbd 363 -u, --username USERNAME login with this account ID
898c23c0
PH		 364 -p, --password PASSWORD account password. If this option is left
365 out, youtube-dl will ask interactively.
b8313f07 366 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR two-factor auth code
780083db
PH		 367 -n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
368 --video-password PASSWORD video password (vimeo, smotri)
6bcd846b 369
cfcec693 370## Post-processing Options:
780083db
PH		 371 -x, --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files
372 (requires ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or
373 avprobe)
374 --audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a",
9b36dcbd 375 "opus", or "wav"; "best" by default
780083db
PH		 376 --audio-quality QUALITY ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification,
377 insert a value between 0 (better) and 9
378 (worse) for VBR or a specific bitrate like
379 128K (default 5)
380 --recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if
381 necessary (currently supported:
09018e19 382 mp4|flv|ogg|webm|mkv)
780083db
PH		 383 -k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the
384 post-processing; the video is erased by
385 default
386 --no-post-overwrites do not overwrite post-processed files; the
387 post-processed files are overwritten by
388 default
389 --embed-subs embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4
390 videos)
d0f2ab69 391 --embed-thumbnail embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
780083db
PH		 392 --add-metadata write metadata to the video file
393 --xattrs write metadata to the video file's xattrs
394 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
869b4aef
PH		 395 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
396 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
397 emit a warning), detect_or_warn(the
398 default; fix file if we can, warn
399 otherwise)
780083db
PH		 400 --prefer-avconv Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running the
401 postprocessors (default)
402 --prefer-ffmpeg Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running the
403 postprocessors
a5681804
PH		 404 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg/avconv binary;
405 either the path to the binary or its
406 containing directory.
067e9222
PH		 407 --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
408 downloading, similar to find's -exec
409 syntax. Example: --exec 'adb push {}
410 /sdcard/Music/ && rm {}'
6bcd846b 411
df4bad32
PH		 412# CONFIGURATION
413
52fc3ba4 414You can configure youtube-dl by placing default arguments (such as `--extract-audio --no-mtime` to always extract the audio and not copy the mtime) into `/etc/youtube-dl.conf` and/or `~/.config/youtube-dl/config`. On Windows, the configuration file locations are `%APPDATA%\youtube-dl\config.txt` and `C:\Users\<user name>\youtube-dl.conf`.
df4bad32 415
02531431
PH		 416# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
417
418The `-o` option allows users to indicate a template for the output file names. The basic usage is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in `youtube-dl -o funny_video.flv "http://some/video"`. However, it may contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences have the format `%(NAME)s`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parenthesis, followed by a lowercase S. Allowed names are:
419
420 - `id`: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier.
421 - `url`: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL.
422 - `uploader`: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the person who uploaded the video.
423 - `upload_date`: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date in YYYYMMDD format.
424 - `title`: The sequence will be replaced by the video title.
877f4c45
PH		 425 - `ext`: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension (like flv or mp4).
426 - `epoch`: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when creating the file.
427 - `autonumber`: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.
7eab8dc7 428 - `playlist`: The name or the id of the playlist that contains the video.
d281274b 429 - `playlist_index`: The index of the video in the playlist, a five-digit number.
02531431 430
1083705f 431The current default template is `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`.
02531431
PH		 432
433In 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:
434
1ce464ab
EJ		 435```bash
436$ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
437youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
438$ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
439youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
440```
02531431 441
e31852ab
JMF		 442# VIDEO SELECTION
443
444Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options `--date`, `--datebefore` or `--dateafter`, they accept dates in two formats:
445
446 - Absolute dates: Dates in the format `YYYYMMDD`.
447 - Relative dates: Dates in the format `(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?`
448
449Examples:
450
1ce464ab
EJ		 451```bash
452# Download only the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
453$ youtube-dl --dateafter now-6months
09c4d509 454
1ce464ab
EJ		 455# Download only the videos uploaded on January 1, 1970
456$ youtube-dl --date 19700101
09c4d509 457
1ce464ab
EJ		 458$ # will only download the videos uploaded in the 200x decade
459$ youtube-dl --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20091231
460```
e31852ab 461
cfcec693 462# FAQ
447b1d71 463
89294b5f 464### How do I update youtube-dl?
573585c2 465
89294b5f
PH		 466If you've followed [our manual installation instructions](http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html), you can simply run `youtube-dl -U` (or, on Linux, `sudo youtube-dl -U`).
467
468If you have used pip, a simple `sudo pip install -U youtube-dl` is sufficient to update.
573585c2 469
89294b5f 470If you have installed youtube-dl using a package manager like *apt-get* or *yum*, use the standard system update mechanism to update. Note that distribution packages are often outdated. As a rule of thumb, youtube-dl releases at least once a month, and often weekly or even daily. Simply go to http://yt-dl.org/ to find out the current version. Unfortunately, there is nothing we youtube-dl developers can do if your distributions serves a really outdated version. You can (and should) complain to your distribution in their bugtracker or support forum.
573585c2 471
89294b5f
PH		 472As a last resort, you can also uninstall the version installed by your package manager and follow our manual installation instructions. For that, remove the distribution's package, with a line like
473
474 sudo apt-get remove -y youtube-dl
475
476Afterwards, simply follow [our manual installation instructions](http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html):
573585c2
PH		 477
478```
573585c2
PH		 479sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
480sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
481hash -r
482```
483
89294b5f
PH		 484Again, from then on you'll be able to update with `sudo youtube-dl -U`.
485
486### I'm getting an error `Unable to extract OpenGraph title` on YouTube playlists
487
488YouTube changed their playlist format in March 2014 and later on, so you'll need at least youtube-dl 2014.07.25 to download all YouTube videos.
489
08965906 490If you have installed youtube-dl with a package manager, pip, setup.py or a tarball, please use that to update. Note that Ubuntu packages do not seem to get updated anymore. Since we are not affiliated with Ubuntu, there is little we can do. Feel free to [report bugs](https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/youtube-dl/+filebug) to the [Ubuntu packaging guys](mailto:ubuntu-motu@lists.ubuntu.com?subject=outdated%20version%20of%20youtube-dl) - all they have to do is update the package to a somewhat recent version. See above for a way to update.
89294b5f 491
573585c2
PH		 492### Do I always have to pass in `--max-quality FORMAT`, or `-citw`?
493
494By default, youtube-dl intends to have the best options (incidentally, if you have a convincing case that these should be different, [please file an issue where you explain that](https://yt-dl.org/bug)). Therefore, it is unnecessary and sometimes harmful to copy long option strings from webpages. In particular, `--max-quality` *limits* the video quality (so if you want the best quality, do NOT pass it in), and the only option out of `-citw` that is regularly useful is `-i`.
495
447b1d71
PH		 496### Can you please put the -b option back?
497
2e1b3afe 498Most people asking this question are not aware that youtube-dl now defaults to downloading the highest available quality as reported by YouTube, which will be 1080p or 720p in some cases, so you no longer need the `-b` option. For some specific videos, maybe YouTube does not report them to be available in a specific high quality format you're interested in. In that case, simply request it with the `-f` option and youtube-dl will try to download it.
447b1d71 499
f2a3a352 500### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
447b1d71 501
2e1b3afe 502Apparently YouTube requires you to pass a CAPTCHA test if you download too much. We're [considering to provide a way to let you solve the CAPTCHA](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/154), but at the moment, your best course of action is pointing a webbrowser to the youtube URL, solving the CAPTCHA, and restart youtube-dl.
447b1d71
PH		 503
504### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
505
506Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as [vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or [mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
507
fbef83f3 508### I extracted a video URL with -g, but it does not play on another machine / in my webbrowser.
447b1d71 509
fbef83f3
PH		 510It depends a lot on the service. In many cases, requests for the video (to download/play it) must come from the same IP address and with the same cookies. Use the `--cookies` option to write the required cookies into a file, and advise your downloader to read cookies from that file. Some sites also require a common user agent to be used, use `--dump-user-agent` to see the one in use by youtube-dl.
511
512It may be beneficial to use IPv6; in some cases, the restrictions are only applied to IPv4. Some services (sometimes only for a subset of videos) do not restrict the video URL by IP address, cookie, or user-agent, but these are the exception rather than the rule.
513
514Please bear in mind that some URL protocols are **not** supported by browsers out of the box, including RTMP. If you are using -g, your own downloader must support these as well.
515
516If you want to play the video on a machine that is not running youtube-dl, you can relay the video content from the machine that runs youtube-dl. You can use `-o -` to let youtube-dl stream a video to stdout, or simply allow the player to download the files written by youtube-dl in turn.
447b1d71 517
454d6691
PH		 518### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
519
b8b928d5 520YouTube has switched to a new video info format in July 2011 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. See [above](#how-do-i-update-youtube-dl) for how to update youtube-dl.
454d6691 521
6c5b442a
PH		 522### ERROR: unable to download video ###
523
b8b928d5
PH		 524YouTube requires an additional signature since September 2012 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. See [above](#how-do-i-update-youtube-dl) for how to update youtube-dl.
525
526### ExtractorError: Could not find JS function u'OF'
527
528In February 2015, the new YouTube player contained a character sequence in a string that was misinterpreted by old versions of youtube-dl. See [above](#how-do-i-update-youtube-dl) for how to update youtube-dl.
6c5b442a 529
5cdfaeb3 530### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character ###
6c5b442a
PH		 531
532The error
533
534 File "youtube-dl", line 2
535 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\x93' ...
536
537means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python 2.6 or 2.7.
538
5cdfaeb3
FV		 539### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
540
71f36332 541Since June 2012 (#342) youtube-dl is packed as an executable zipfile, simply unzip it (might need renaming to `youtube-dl.zip` first on some systems) or clone the git repository, as laid out above. If you modify the code, you can run it by executing the `__main__.py` file. To recompile the executable, run `make youtube-dl`.
5cdfaeb3 542
ce367443
FV		 543### The exe throws a *Runtime error from Visual C++*
544
545To run the exe you need to install first the [Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package](http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29).
546
5e416647
PH		 547### On Windows, how should I set up ffmpeg and youtube-dl? Where should I put the exe files?
548
549If you put youtube-dl and ffmpeg in the same directory that you're running the command from, it will work, but that's rather cumbersome.
550
551To make a different directory work - either for ffmpeg, or for youtube-dl, or for both - simply create the directory (say, `C:\bin`, or `C:\Users\<User name>\bin`), put all the executables directly in there, and then [set your PATH environment variable](https://www.java.com/en/download/help/path.xml) to include that directory.
552
553From then on, after restarting your shell, you will be able to access both youtube-dl and ffmpeg (and youtube-dl will be able to find ffmpeg) by simply typing `youtube-dl` or `ffmpeg`, no matter what directory you're in.
554
b4a64c59
PH		 555### How do I put downloads into a specific folder?
556
557Use the `-o` to specify an [output template](#output-template), for example `-o "/home/user/videos/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"`. If you want this for all of your downloads, put the option into your [configuration file](#configuration).
558
e2a08185
PH		 559### How do I download a video starting with a `-` ?
560
561Either prepend `http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=` or separate the ID from the options with `--`:
562
563 youtube-dl -- -wNyEUrxzFU
564 youtube-dl "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wNyEUrxzFU"
565
12f0454c
PH		 566### Can you add support for this anime video site, or site which shows current movies for free?
567
568As a matter of policy (as well as legality), youtube-dl does not include support for services that specialize in infringing copyright. As a rule of thumb, if you cannot easily find a video that the service is quite obviously allowed to distribute (i.e. that has been uploaded by the creator, the creator's distributor, or is published under a free license), the service is probably unfit for inclusion to youtube-dl.
569
570A note on the service that they don't host the infringing content, but just link to those who do, is evidence that the service should **not** be included into youtube-dl. The same goes for any DMCA note when the whole front page of the service is filled with videos they are not allowed to distribute. A "fair use" note is equally unconvincing if the service shows copyright-protected videos in full without authorization.
571
572Support requests for services that **do** purchase the rights to distribute their content are perfectly fine though. If in doubt, you can simply include a source that mentions the legitimate purchase of content.
573
416c7fcb
PH		 574### How can I detect whether a given URL is supported by youtube-dl?
575
a00a8bcc 576For one, have a look at the [list of supported sites](docs/supportedsites.md). Note that it can sometimes happen that the site changes its URL scheme (say, from http://example.com/video/1234567 to http://example.com/v/1234567 ) and youtube-dl reports an URL of a service in that list as unsupported. In that case, simply report a bug.
416c7fcb 577
966ea3ae 578It is *not* possible to detect whether a URL is supported or not. That's because youtube-dl contains a generic extractor which matches **all** URLs. You may be tempted to disable, exclude, or remove the generic extractor, but the generic extractor not only allows users to extract videos from lots of websites that embed a video from another service, but may also be used to extract video from a service that it's hosting itself. Therefore, we neither recommend nor support disabling, excluding, or removing the generic extractor.
416c7fcb 579
966ea3ae 580If you want to find out whether a given URL is supported, simply call youtube-dl with it. If you get no videos back, chances are the URL is either not referring to a video or unsupported. You can find out which by examining the output (if you run youtube-dl on the console) or catching an `UnsupportedError` exception if you run it from a Python program.
416c7fcb 581
a96ed916 582# DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS
803abae2 583
63ef36e8 584Most users do not need to build youtube-dl and can [download the builds](http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html) or get them from their distribution.
803abae2 585
63ef36e8
PH		 586To run youtube-dl as a developer, you don't need to build anything either. Simply execute
587
588 python -m youtube_dl
589
590To run the test, simply invoke your favorite test runner, or execute a test file directly; any of the following work:
591
592 python -m unittest discover
593 python test/test_download.py
594 nosetests
595
596If you want to create a build of youtube-dl yourself, you'll need
597
598* python
599* make
600* pandoc
601* zip
602* nosetests
6bcd846b 603
a96ed916
PH		 604### Adding support for a new site
605
5fbd672c
PH		 606If you want to add support for a new site, you can follow this quick list (assuming your service is called `yourextractor`):
607
6081. [Fork this repository](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/fork)
6092. Check out the source code with `git clone git@github.com:YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/youtube-dl.git`
6103. Start a new git branch with `cd youtube-dl; git checkout -b yourextractor`
6114. Start with this simple template and save it to `youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py`:
1ce464ab
EJ		 612 ```python
613 # coding: utf-8
614 from __future__ import unicode_literals
615
1ce464ab
EJ		 616 from .common import InfoExtractor
617
618
619 class YourExtractorIE(InfoExtractor):
620 _VALID_URL = r'https?://(?:www\.)?yourextractor\.com/watch/(?P<id>[0-9]+)'
621 _TEST = {
622 'url': 'http://yourextractor.com/watch/42',
7f5c0c4a 623 'md5': 'TODO: md5 sum of the first 10241 bytes of the video file (use --test)',
1ce464ab
EJ		 624 'info_dict': {
625 'id': '42',
626 'ext': 'mp4',
627 'title': 'Video title goes here',
218f7549 628 'thumbnail': 're:^https?://.*\.jpg$',
1ce464ab
EJ		 629 # TODO more properties, either as:
630 # * A value
631 # * MD5 checksum; start the string with md5:
632 # * A regular expression; start the string with re:
633 # * Any Python type (for example int or float)
5fbd672c 634 }
1ce464ab 635 }
5fbd672c 636
1ce464ab 637 def _real_extract(self, url):
4bc77c84 638 video_id = self._match_id(url)
c920d7f0 639 webpage = self._download_webpage(url, video_id)
5fbd672c 640
1ce464ab 641 # TODO more code goes here, for example ...
1ce464ab 642 title = self._html_search_regex(r'<h1>(.*?)</h1>', webpage, 'title')
d1b3e3dd 643
1ce464ab
EJ		 644 return {
645 'id': video_id,
646 'title': title,
c3e74731 647 'description': self._og_search_description(webpage),
1ce464ab
EJ		 648 # TODO more properties (see youtube_dl/extractor/common.py)
649 }
650 ```
5fbd672c 6515. Add an import in [`youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py`](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py).
ace52c57 6526. Run `python test/test_download.py TestDownload.test_YourExtractor`. This *should fail* at first, but you can continually re-run it until you're done. If you decide to add more than one test, then rename ``_TEST`` to ``_TESTS`` and make it into a list of dictionaries. The tests will be then be named `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor`, `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_1`, `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_2`, etc.
5fbd672c 6537. Have a look at [`youtube_dl/common/extractor/common.py`](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py) for possible helper methods and a [detailed description of what your extractor should return](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py#L38). Add tests and code for as many as you want.
fdaaaaa8 6548. If you can, check the code with [flake8](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/flake8).
982a58d0 6559. When the tests pass, [add](http://git-scm.com/docs/git-add) the new files and [commit](http://git-scm.com/docs/git-commit) them and [push](http://git-scm.com/docs/git-push) the result, like this:
5fbd672c
PH		 656
657 $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py
658 $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py
659 $ git commit -m '[yourextractor] Add new extractor'
660 $ git push origin yourextractor
661
66210. Finally, [create a pull request](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-pull-request). We'll then review and merge it.
663
664In any case, thank you very much for your contributions!
a96ed916 665
03df7baa
PH		 666# EMBEDDING YOUTUBE-DL
667
668youtube-dl makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language. If you encounter any problems parsing its output, feel free to [create a report](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/new).
669
670From a Python program, you can embed youtube-dl in a more powerful fashion, like this:
671
caff5949
PH		 672```python
673import youtube_dl
03df7baa 674
caff5949
PH		 675ydl_opts = {}
676with youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
677 ydl.download(['http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
678```
03df7baa
PH		 679
680Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of what can be done, have a look at [youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py#L69). For a start, if you want to intercept youtube-dl's output, set a `logger` object.
681
71b640cc 682Here's a more complete example of a program that outputs only errors (and a short message after the download is finished), and downloads/converts the video to an mp3 file:
4f026faf 683
caff5949
PH		 684```python
685import youtube_dl
4f026faf
PH		 686
687
caff5949
PH		 688class MyLogger(object):
689 def debug(self, msg):
690 pass
4f026faf 691
caff5949
PH		 692 def warning(self, msg):
693 pass
4f026faf 694
caff5949
PH		 695 def error(self, msg):
696 print(msg)
4f026faf 697
71b640cc 698
caff5949
PH		 699def my_hook(d):
700 if d['status'] == 'finished':
701 print('Done downloading, now converting ...')
71b640cc
PH		 702
703
caff5949
PH		 704ydl_opts = {
705 'format': 'bestaudio/best',
706 'postprocessors': [{
707 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
708 'preferredcodec': 'mp3',
709 'preferredquality': '192',
710 }],
711 'logger': MyLogger(),
712 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
713}
714with youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
715 ydl.download(['http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
716```
4f026faf 717
cfcec693 718# BUGS
e133e121 719
b3efb3eb 720Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: <https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues> . Unless you were prompted so or there is another pertinent reason (e.g. GitHub fails to accept the bug report), please do not send bug reports via personal email. For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.
e133e121 721
c071733f
PH		 722**Please include the full output of youtube-dl when run with `-v`**.
723
724The output (including the first lines) contain important debugging information. Issues without the full output are often not reproducible and therefore do not get solved in short order, if ever.
4b235346 725
b3efb3eb 726Please re-read your issue once again to avoid a couple of common mistakes (you can and should use this as a checklist):
2a18bc9a
PH		 727
728### Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?
729
730We often get issue reports that we cannot really decipher. While in most cases we eventually get the required information after asking back multiple times, this poses an unnecessary drain on our resources. Many contributors, including myself, are also not native speakers, so we may misread some parts.
731
732So please elaborate on what feature you are requesting, or what bug you want to be fixed. Make sure that it's obvious
733
734- What the problem is
735- How it could be fixed
736- How your proposed solution would look like
737
738If your report is shorter than two lines, it is almost certainly missing some of these, which makes it hard for us to respond to it. We're often too polite to close the issue outright, but the missing info makes misinterpretation likely. As a commiter myself, I often get frustrated by these issues, since the only possible way for me to move forward on them is to ask for clarification over and over.
739
740For bug reports, this means that your report should contain the *complete* output of youtube-dl when called with the -v flag. The error message you get for (most) bugs even says so, but you would not believe how many of our bug reports do not contain this information.
741
3ef79a97 742Site support requests **must contain an example URL**. An example URL is a URL you might want to download, like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc . There should be an obvious video present. Except under very special circumstances, the main page of a video service (e.g. http://www.youtube.com/ ) is *not* an example URL.
2a18bc9a
PH		 743
744### Are you using the latest version?
745
3d97cbbd 746Before reporting any issue, type youtube-dl -U. This should report that you're up-to-date. About 20% of the reports we receive are already fixed, but people are using outdated versions. This goes for feature requests as well.
2a18bc9a
PH		 747
748### Is the issue already documented?
749
750Make sure that someone has not already opened the issue you're trying to open. Search at the top of the window or at https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/search?type=Issues . If there is an issue, feel free to write something along the lines of "This affects me as well, with version 2015.01.01. Here is some more information on the issue: ...". While some issues may be old, a new post into them often spurs rapid activity.
751
752### Why are existing options not enough?
753
754Before requesting a new feature, please have a quick peek at [the list of supported options](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/README.md#synopsis). Many feature requests are for features that actually exist already! Please, absolutely do show off your work in the issue report and detail how the existing similar options do *not* solve your problem.
755
756### Is there enough context in your bug report?
757
758People want to solve problems, and often think they do us a favor by breaking down their larger problems (e.g. wanting to skip already downloaded files) to a specific request (e.g. requesting us to look whether the file exists before downloading the info page). However, what often happens is that they break down the problem into two steps: One simple, and one impossible (or extremely complicated one).
759
760We are then presented with a very complicated request when the original problem could be solved far easier, e.g. by recording the downloaded video IDs in a separate file. To avoid this, you must include the greater context where it is non-obvious. In particular, every feature request that does not consist of adding support for a new site should contain a use case scenario that explains in what situation the missing feature would be useful.
761
762### Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?
763
764Some of our users seem to think there is a limit of issues they can or should open. There is no limit of issues they can or should open. While it may seem appealing to be able to dump all your issues into one ticket, that means that someone who solves one of your issues cannot mark the issue as closed. Typically, reporting a bunch of issues leads to the ticket lingering since nobody wants to attack that behemoth, until someone mercifully splits the issue into multiple ones.
765
766In particular, every site support request issue should only pertain to services at one site (generally under a common domain, but always using the same backend technology). Do not request support for vimeo user videos, Whitehouse podcasts, and Google Plus pages in the same issue. Also, make sure that you don't post bug reports alongside feature requests. As a rule of thumb, a feature request does not include outputs of youtube-dl that are not immediately related to the feature at hand. Do not post reports of a network error alongside the request for a new video service.
767
768### Is anyone going to need the feature?
769
330537d0 770Only post features that you (or an incapacitated friend you can personally talk to) require. Do not post features because they seem like a good idea. If they are really useful, they will be requested by someone who requires them.
a17c95f5
PH		 771
772### Is your question about youtube-dl?
773
774It may sound strange, but some bug reports we receive are completely unrelated to youtube-dl and relate to a different or even the reporter's own application. Please make sure that you are actually using youtube-dl. If you are using a UI for youtube-dl, report the bug to the maintainer of the actual application providing the UI. On the other hand, if your UI for youtube-dl fails in some way you believe is related to youtube-dl, by all means, go ahead and report the bug.
63ef36e8
PH		 775
776# COPYRIGHT
777
778youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
779
780This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton (<https://github.com/dbbolton>) and is likewise released into the public domain.
fork of https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/