]> jfr.im git - yt-dlp.git/blame - README.md
[doc, cleanup] Re-indent "Usage and Options" section
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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
ae6a1b95 6[![Release version](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?color=brightgreen&label=Download&style=for-the-badge)](#release-files "Release")
7[![PyPi](https://img.shields.io/badge/-PyPi-blue.svg?logo=pypi&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp "PyPi")
fc5fa964 8[![Donate](https://img.shields.io/badge/_-Donate-red.svg?logo=githubsponsors&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](Collaborators.md#collaborators "Donate")
ae6a1b95 9[![Matrix](https://img.shields.io/matrix/yt-dlp:matrix.org?color=brightgreen&labelColor=555555&label=&logo=element&style=for-the-badge)](https://matrix.to/#/#yt-dlp:matrix.org "Matrix")
10[![Discord](https://img.shields.io/discord/807245652072857610?color=blue&labelColor=555555&label=&logo=discord&style=for-the-badge)](https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r "Discord")
fc5fa964 11[![Supported Sites](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Supported_Sites-brightgreen.svg?style=for-the-badge)](supportedsites.md "Supported Sites")
ae6a1b95 12[![License: Unlicense](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Unlicense-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge)](LICENSE "License")
fc5fa964 13[![CI Status](https://img.shields.io/github/workflow/status/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/Core%20Tests/master?label=Tests&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions "CI Status")
fc5fa964 14[![Commits](https://img.shields.io/github/commit-activity/m/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?label=commits&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
15[![Last Commit](https://img.shields.io/github/last-commit/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master?label=&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
c76eb41b 16
b31fdeed 17</div>
ec2e44fc 18<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
c76eb41b 19
b31fdeed 20yt-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 21
ec2e44fc 22<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "USAGE AND OPTIONS" SECTION HERE -->
23
24<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
034b6215 25* [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
53ed7066 26 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
c76eb41b 27* [INSTALLATION](#installation)
17fa3ee2 28 * [Update](#update)
0e5927ee 29 * [Release Files](#release-files)
cf59cd4d 30 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
17fa3ee2 31 * [Compile](#compile)
b31fdeed 32* [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
33 * [General Options](#general-options)
50865ca8 34 * [Network Options](#network-options)
b31fdeed 35 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
50865ca8 36 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
37 * [Download Options](#download-options)
38 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
b31fdeed 39 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
50865ca8 40 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
0744a815 41 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
50865ca8 42 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
43 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
44 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
45 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
50865ca8 46 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
7a340e0d 47 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
50865ca8 48 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
c76eb41b 49* [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
50865ca8 50 * [Authentication with .netrc file](#authentication-with-netrc-file)
c76eb41b 51* [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
50865ca8 52 * [Output template and Windows batch files](#output-template-and-windows-batch-files)
53 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
c76eb41b 54* [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
50865ca8 55 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
56 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
57 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
73cd218f 58* [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
59 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
5d3a0e79 60* [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
f74980cb 61* [PLUGINS](#plugins)
8c6f4daa 62* [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
43cc91ad 63 * [Embedding examples](#embedding-examples)
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
ebc7d3ff 74* Based on **youtube-dl 2021.12.17 [commit/6508688](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/6508688e88c83bb811653083db9351702cd39a6a)** ([exceptions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/21)) 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
ae6a1b95 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 livestreams are not available. See [#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
29b6000e 81
f5546c0b 82* **Youtube improvements**:
ca5300c7 83 * All Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`, `:ytnotif`) 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))
144a3588 91 * Download livestreams from the start using `--live-from-start` (experimental)
6e634cbe 92 * Support for downloading stories (`ytstories:<channel UCID>`)
f20f5fe5 93
f59f5ef8 94* **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using `--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE]`
245524e6 95
597c1866 96* **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using `--split-chapters`
97
b31fdeed 98* **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 99
b31fdeed 100* **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use `aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
f20f5fe5 101
e75bb0d6 102* **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 103
104* **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN
fac98805 105
3de7c2ce 106* **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 107
597c1866 108* **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 109
110* **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [configuration](#configuration) for details
111
418964fa 112* **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 113
144a3588 114* **Other new options**: Many new options have been added such as `--concat-playlist`, `--print`, `--wait-for-video`, `--sleep-requests`, `--convert-thumbnails`, `--write-link`, `--force-download-archive`, `--force-overwrites`, `--break-on-reject` etc
0bc0a322 115
08d30158 116* **Improvements**: Regex and other operators in `--format`/`--match-filter`, multiple `--postprocessor-args` and `--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection), merge multi-video/audio, multiple `--config-locations`, `--exec` at different stages, etc
c69911e4 117
86c1a8aa 118* **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
b31fdeed 119
7a5c1cfe 120* **Self-updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`
aa837ddf 121
7a5c1cfe 122See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
a26c99ac 123
53ed7066 124### Differences in default behavior
125
0930b11f 126Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
53ed7066 127
96565c7e 128* The options `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
b69fd25c 129* `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
a44ca5a4 130* yt-dlp stores config files in slightly different locations to youtube-dl. See [configuration](#configuration) for a list of correct locations
96565c7e 131* 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 132* 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 133* 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 134* 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
08d30158 135* `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
28b0eb0f 136* 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 137* `--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
9e907ebd 138* 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`](#modifying-metadata) to modify this to your liking or use `--compat-options embed-metadata` to revert this
28b0eb0f 139* `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
140* The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
3acf6d38 141* 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 142* 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
64f36541 143* 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. For all other tabs, if the channel does not show the requested tab, an error will be raised. 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 144* Unavailable videos are also listed for youtube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
18e674b4 145* 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 146* Thumbnail embedding in `mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use `--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
e4f02757 147* 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 148* 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
d5820461 149* `certifi` will be used for SSL root certificates, if installed. If you want to use system certificates (e.g. self-signed), use `--compat-options no-certifi`
5c3895ff 150* youtube-dl tries to remove some superfluous punctuations from filenames. While this can sometimes be helpfull, it is often undesirable. So yt-dlp tries to keep the fields in the filenames as close to their original values as possible. You can use `--compat-options filename-sanitization` to revert to youtube-dl's behavior
53ed7066 151
152For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
3d3bb168 153
28b0eb0f 154* `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options
155* `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams`
156* `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
53ed7066 157
f20f5fe5 158
d19bb9c0 159# INSTALLATION
50865ca8 160
7bc877a2 161You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
a61f4b28 162
a4211baf 163### Using the release binary
0930b11f 164
fc5fa964 165You can simply download the [correct binary file](#release-files) for your OS
5f326cf5 166
fc5fa964 167<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
168[![Windows](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Windows_x64-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=windows)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)
24146491 169[![Linux](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Linux/BSD-red.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=linux)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)
170[![MacOS](https://img.shields.io/badge/-MacOS-lightblue.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=apple)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)
fc5fa964 171[![Source Tarball](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Source_tar-green.svg?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
172[![Other variants](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Other-grey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](#release-files)
3d3bb168 173[![All versions](https://img.shields.io/badge/-All_Versions-lightgrey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
fc5fa964 174<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
175
176Note: The manpages, shell completion files etc. are available in the [source tarball](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
177
178<!-- TODO: Move to Wiki -->
0930b11f 179In UNIX-like OSes (MacOS, Linux, BSD), you can also install the same in one of the following ways:
5ba4a0b6
A
180
181```
182sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
183sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
184```
185
186```
187sudo wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
188sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
189```
190
191```
b69fd25c 192sudo aria2c https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp --dir /usr/local/bin -o yt-dlp
5ba4a0b6
A
193sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
194```
195
0930b11f 196
a4211baf 197### With [PIP](https://pypi.org/project/pip)
0930b11f 198
199You can install the [PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) with:
200```
201python3 -m pip install -U yt-dlp
202```
203
86c1a8aa 204You can install without any of the optional dependencies using:
0930b11f 205```
206python3 -m pip install --no-deps -U yt-dlp
207```
208
86c1a8aa 209If you want to be on the cutting edge, you can also install the master branch with:
0930b11f 210```
ae6a1b95 211python3 -m pip install --force-reinstall https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/archive/master.tar.gz
0930b11f 212```
213
214Note that on some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`
215
fc5fa964 216<!-- TODO: Add to Wiki, Remove Taps -->
a4211baf 217### With [Homebrew](https://brew.sh)
0930b11f 218
219macOS or Linux users that are using Homebrew can also install it by:
b8773e63
THD
220
221```
222brew install yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp
223```
224
a4211baf 225## UPDATE
0930b11f 226You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are [using the provided release](#using-the-release-binary)
227
228If you [installed with pip](#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
229
230If you [installed using Homebrew](#with-homebrew), run `brew upgrade yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp`
cf59cd4d 231
ec2e44fc 232<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
a4211baf 233## RELEASE FILES
0e5927ee 234
733d8e8f 235#### Recommended
236
237File|Description
238:---|:---
ae6a1b95 239[yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform-independant binary. Needs Python (recommended for **Linux/BSD**)
0930b11f 240[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**)
ae6a1b95 241[yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|MacOS (10.15+) standalone executable (recommended for **MacOS**)
733d8e8f 242
243#### Alternatives
244
0e5927ee
R
245File|Description
246:---|:---
0930b11f 247[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
24146491 248[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`/`certifi`, needs VC++14
0930b11f 249[yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
250[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 251
252#### Misc
253
254File|Description
255:---|:---
0e5927ee
R
256[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
257[SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
258[SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
ec2e44fc 259<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
0e5927ee 260
a4211baf 261## DEPENDENCIES
cf59cd4d 262Python versions 3.6+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
b31fdeed 263
c9652aa4 264<!-- Python 3.5+ uses VC++14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
265<!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999 --x>
cf59cd4d 266On 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 267-->
fac98805 268
e75bb0d6 269While all the other dependencies are optional, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended
ec2e44fc 270
b69fd25c 271* [**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)
d5820461 272* [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For embedding thumbnail in certain formats. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
5d0aeac0
M
273* [**pycryptodomex**](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome)\* - For decrypting AES-128 HLS streams and various other data. Licensed under [BSD-2-Clause](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome/blob/master/LICENSE.rst)
274* [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
0a41f331 275* [**secretstorage**](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage) - For accessing the Gnome keyring while decrypting cookies of Chromium-based browsers on Linux. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage/blob/master/LICENSE)
d5820461 276* [**brotli**](https://github.com/google/brotli)\* or [**brotlicffi**](https://github.com/python-hyper/brotlicffi) - [Brotli](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brotli) content encoding support. Both licensed under MIT <sup>[1](https://github.com/google/brotli/blob/master/LICENSE) [2](https://github.com/python-hyper/brotlicffi/blob/master/LICENSE) </sup>
277* [**certifi**](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi)\* - Provides Mozilla's root certificate bundle. Licensed under [MPLv2](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi/blob/master/LICENSE)
6f7563be 278* [**xattr**](https://github.com/xattr/xattr), [**pyxattr**](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr) or [**setfattr**](http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/attr) - For writing xattr metadata on Linux. Licensed under [MIT](https://github.com/xattr/xattr/blob/master/LICENSE.txt), [LGPL2.1](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr/blob/master/COPYING) and [GPLv2+](http://git.savannah.nongnu.org/cgit/attr.git/tree/doc/COPYING) respectively
08d30158 279* [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For embedding thumbnail in mp4/m4a if mutagen/ffmpeg cannot. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
0930b11f 280* [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licensed under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
281* [**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)
5d0aeac0 282* [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
0930b11f 283* [**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 284* Any external downloader that you want to use with `--downloader`
b31fdeed 285
cf59cd4d 286To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
287
0a41f331 288The Windows and MacOS standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with \* included.
d710cc6d 289
08d30158 290<!-- TODO: ffmpeg has merged this patch. Remove this note once there is new release -->
fc5fa964 291**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#ffmpeg-static-auto-builds) 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 292
5f326cf5 293
a4211baf 294## COMPILE
5f326cf5 295
c76eb41b 296**For Windows**:
4390d5ec 297To build the Windows executable, you must have pyinstaller (and any of yt-dlp's optional dependencies if needed). 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 298
733d8e8f 299 py -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
49a57e70 300 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
733d8e8f 301 py pyinst.py
7581d246 302
fac98805 303Note 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 304
c76eb41b 305**For Unix**:
060ac762 306You will need the required build tools: `python`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`, `zip`, `pytest`
127d0759 307Then simply run `make`. You can also run `make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files
5f326cf5 308
49a57e70 309**Note**: In either platform, `devscripts/update-version.py` can be used to automatically update the version number
d19bb9c0 310
75b725a7 311You can also fork the project on github and run your fork's [build workflow](.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically build a release
59a7a13e 312
b31fdeed 313# USAGE AND OPTIONS
6bcd846b 314
ec2e44fc 315<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
7a5c1cfe 316 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
b50e3bc6 317
c2b5f311 318`Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
ec2e44fc 319<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
c2b5f311 320
ec2e44fc 321<!-- Auto generated -->
c76eb41b 322## General Options:
2dd5a2e3 323 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
324 --version Print program version and exit
325 -U, --update Update this program to latest version
326 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
327 The download will be considered successful
328 even if the postprocessing fails
329 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download errors;
330 e.g. to skip unavailable videos in a
331 playlist (default)
332 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
333 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
334 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
335 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
336 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
337 extractors and exit
338 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic
339 extractor
340 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. Eg:
341 "gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
342 google videos for the search term "python".
343 Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
344 ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when
345 guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
346 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken
347 URLs, but emits an error if this is not
348 possible instead of searching
349 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
350 except those given by --config-locations.
351 For backward compatibility, if this option
352 is found inside the system configuration
353 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
354 (Alias: --no-config)
355 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
356 (default). When given inside a configuration
357 file, ignore all previous --config-locations
358 defined in the current file
359 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
360 either the path to the config or its
361 containing directory. Can be used multiple
362 times and inside other configuration files
363 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
364 only list them
365 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
366 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
367 Currently only supported for YouTube
368 (Experimental)
369 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
370 (default)
371 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
372 available. Pass the minimum number of
373 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
374 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
375 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
376 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
377 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output
378 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
379 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
380 configurations by reverting some of the
381 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
382 default behavior" for details
383 --alias ALIASES OPTIONS Create aliases for an option string. Unless
384 an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
385 prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
386 according to the Python string formatting
387 mini-language. Eg: --alias get-audio,-X
388 "-S=aext:{0},abr -x --audio-format {0}"
389 creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
390 takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
391 "-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
392 All defined aliases are listed in the --help
393 output. Alias options can trigger more
394 aliases; so be carefull to avoid defining
395 recursive options. As a safety measure, each
396 alias may be triggered a maximum of 100
397 times. This option can be used multiple
398 times
08c1d0d3 399
149f05c7 400## Network Options:
2dd5a2e3 401 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
402 enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme.
403 Eg: socks5://user:pass@127.0.0.1:1080/. Pass
404 in an empty string (--proxy "") for direct
405 connection
406 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
407 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
408 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
409 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
8c6c88c7 410
b31fdeed 411## Geo-restriction:
2dd5a2e3 412 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
413 some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy
414 specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
415 is not present) is used for the actual
416 downloading
417 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
418 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header (default)
419 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
420 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
421 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
422 explicitly provided two-letter ISO 3166-2
423 country code
424 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
425 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR
426 notation
149f05c7 427
cfcec693 428## Video Selection:
2dd5a2e3 429 --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is 1)
430 --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
431 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify
432 indices of the videos in the playlist
433 separated by commas like: "--playlist-items
434 1,2,5,8" if you want to download videos
435 indexed 1, 2, 5, 8 in the playlist. You can
436 specify range: "--playlist-items
437 1-3,7,10-13", it will download the videos at
438 index 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13
439 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE
440 (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
441 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
442 (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
443 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
444 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
445 [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
446 Eg: --date today-2weeks
447 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
448 this date. The date formats accepted is the
449 same as --date
450 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
451 this date. The date formats accepted is the
452 same as --date
453 --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
454 field can be compared with a number or a
455 string using the operators defined in
456 "Filtering formats". You can also simply
457 specify a field to match if the field is
458 present, use "!field" to check if the field
459 is not present, and "&" to check multiple
460 conditions. Use a "\" to escape "&" or
461 quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
462 the filter matches if atleast one of the
463 conditions are met. Eg: --match-filter
464 !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?100 &
465 description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'" matches
466 only videos that are not live OR those that
467 have a like count more than 100 (or the like
468 field is not available) and also has a
469 description that contains the phrase "cats &
470 dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
471 interactively ask whether to download each
472 video
473 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
474 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
475 to a video and a playlist
476 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
477 a video and a playlist
478 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
479 age
480 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
481 archive file. Record the IDs of all
482 downloaded videos in it
483 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
484 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
485 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
486 a file that is in the archive
487 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
488 a file that has been filtered out
489 --break-per-input Make --break-on-existing, --break-on-reject
490 and --max-downloads act only on the current
491 input URL
492 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
493 terminates the entire download queue
494 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
495 the playlist is skipped
6bcd846b 496
d5a62e4f 497## Download Options:
2dd5a2e3 498 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
499 video that should be downloaded concurrently
500 (default is 1)
501 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
502 (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
503 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
504 below which throttling is assumed and the
505 video data is re-extracted (e.g. 100K)
506 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
507 "infinite"
508 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
509 error (default is 3), or "infinite"
510 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
511 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
512 --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR An expression for the time to sleep between
513 retries in seconds (optionally) prefixed by
514 the type of retry (file_access, fragment,
515 http (default)) to apply the sleep to. EXPR
516 can be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=1]]
517 or exp=START[:END[:BASE=2]]. This option can
518 be used multiple times to set the sleep for
519 the different retry types. Eg: --retry-sleep
520 linear=1::2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=1:20
521 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
522 hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
523 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
524 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment
525 Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
526 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
527 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
528 downloading is finished
529 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
530 downloading is finished (default)
531 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
532 (default is 1024)
533 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
534 from an initial value of --buffer-size
535 (default)
536 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
537 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
538 downloading (e.g. 10485760 or 10M) (default
539 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
540 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
541 (experimental)
542 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
543 --no-playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in default order
544 (default)
545 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
546 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
547 expected file size
548 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
549 allowing some players to play the video
550 while downloading, and reducing the chance
551 of file corruption if download is
552 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
553 live streams
554 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
555 videos. This is default when not downloading
556 live streams
557 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
558 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
559 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
560 use it for. Currently supports native,
561 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
562 wget. You can use this option multiple times
563 to set different downloaders for different
564 protocols. For example, --downloader aria2c
565 --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
566 aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
567 native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
568 (Alias: --external-downloader)
569 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
570 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
571 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
572 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different
573 positions using the same syntax as
574 --postprocessor-args. You can use this
575 option multiple times to give different
576 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
577 --external-downloader-args)
d5a62e4f 578
cfcec693 579## Filesystem Options:
2dd5a2e3 580 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
581 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
582 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
583 comments and ignored
584 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
585 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
586 downloaded. Specify the type of file and the
587 path separated by a colon ":". All the same
588 TYPES as --output are supported.
589 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
590 (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary
591 files are first downloaded to the temp path
592 and then the final files are moved over to
593 the home path after download is finished.
594 This option is ignored if --output is an
595 absolute path
596 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
597 TEMPLATE" for details
598 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
599 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" (default: "NA")
600 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
601 and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
602 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
603 filenames (default)
604 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
605 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
606 using Windows (default)
607 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
608 extension) to the specified number of
609 characters
610 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
611 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This
612 option includes --no-continue
613 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
614 related files (default)
615 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
616 (default)
617 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
618 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
619 restart download of the entire file
620 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
621 into output file (default)
622 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into
623 output file
624 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file
625 modification time (default)
626 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
627 the file modification time
628 --write-description Write video description to a .description
629 file
630 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
631 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
632 (this may contain personal information)
633 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
634 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
635 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
636 --write-description etc. (default)
637 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
638 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
639 --clean-info-json Remove some private fields such as filenames
640 from the infojson. Note that it could still
641 contain some personal information (default)
642 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
643 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
644 infojson. The comments are fetched even
645 without this option if the extraction is
646 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
647 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
648 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
649 --no-get-comments)
650 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
651 (created with the "--write-info-json"
652 option)
653 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from
654 and dump cookie jar in
655 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
656 (default)
f59f5ef8 657 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE]
2dd5a2e3 658 The name of the browser and (optionally) the
659 name/path of the profile to load cookies
660 from, separated by a ":". Currently
661 supported browsers are: brave, chrome,
662 chromium, edge, firefox, opera, safari,
663 vivaldi. By default, the most recently
664 accessed profile is used. The keyring used
665 for decrypting Chromium cookies on Linux can
666 be (optionally) specified after the browser
667 name separated by a "+". Currently supported
668 keyrings are: basictext, gnomekeyring,
669 kwallet
670 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
671 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
672 can store some downloaded information (such
673 as client ids and signatures) permanently.
674 By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/yt-dlp or
675 ~/.cache/yt-dlp
676 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
677 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
6bcd846b 678
b31fdeed 679## Thumbnail Options:
2dd5a2e3 680 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
681 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk
682 (default)
683 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
684 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
685 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
2b1bd292 686
732044af 687## Internet Shortcut Options:
2dd5a2e3 688 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
689 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
690 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
691 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
692 OS caches the URL based on the file path
693 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
694 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
732044af 695
0744a815 696## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
2dd5a2e3 697 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
698 print the log to stderr
699 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
700 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
701 anything to disk
702 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
703 options are used
704 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
705 extracting metadata even if the videos are
706 not actually available for download
707 (experimental)
708 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
709 formats are found (default)
710 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
711 related files (Alias: --no-download)
712 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
713 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
714 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
715 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
716 --use-postprocessor, and "video" (default).
717 Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
718 --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
719 used. This option can be used multiple times
bb66c247 720 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
2dd5a2e3 721 Append given template to the file. The
722 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as that
723 of --print. FILE uses the same syntax as the
724 output template. This option can be used
725 multiple times
726 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
727 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
728 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
729 description of available keys
730 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
731 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
732 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
733 a playlist, the whole playlist information
734 is dumped in a single line
735 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
736 as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
737 another simulation option is used (Alias:
738 --force-download-archive)
739 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
740 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
741 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
742 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
819e0531 743 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
2dd5a2e3 744 Template for progress outputs, optionally
745 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
746 "download-title:" (the console title),
747 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
748 The video's fields are accessible under the
749 "info" key and the progress attributes are
750 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.:
751 --console-title --progress-template
752 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
753 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
754 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
755 to debug problems (very verbose)
756 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files
757 in the current directory to debug problems
758 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
6bcd846b 759
36f35428 760## Workarounds:
2dd5a2e3 761 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
762 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to servers
763 that do not support RFC 5746 secure
764 renegotiation
765 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
766 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
767 information about the video (Currently
768 supported only for YouTube)
769 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
770 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
771 option multiple times
772 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
773 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
774 or fribidi executable in PATH
775 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
776 during data extraction
777 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
778 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
779 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
780 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
781 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only
782 be used along with --min-sleep-interval
783 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
784 subtitle download
36f35428 785
cfcec693 786## Video Format Options:
2dd5a2e3 787 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
788 for more details
789 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
790 "Sorting Formats" for more details
791 --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
792 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
793 Formats" for more details (Alias: --S-force)
794 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
795 specified sort order (default)
796 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
797 into a single file
798 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
799 output file (default)
800 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
801 into a single file
802 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
803 output file (default)
804 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
805 over non-free ones of same quality. Use with
806 "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers
807 irrespective of quality
808 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
809 containers (default)
810 --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
811 those that are actually downloadable
812 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
813 actually downloadable
814 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
815 downloadable
816 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
817 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
818 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
819 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
820 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
821 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
8ae7be3e
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822
823## Subtitle Options:
2dd5a2e3 824 --write-subs Write subtitle file
825 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
826 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
827 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
828 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
829 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
830 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
831 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
832 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
833 Eg: "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
834 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
835 be regex) or "all" separated by commas. (Eg:
836 --sub-langs "en.*,ja") You can prefix the
837 language code with a "-" to exclude it from
838 the requested languages. (Eg: --sub-langs
839 all,-live_chat) Use --list-subs for a list
840 of available language tags
6bcd846b 841
cfcec693 842## Authentication Options:
2dd5a2e3 843 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
844 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
845 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
846 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
847 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
848 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
849 either the path or its containing directory.
850 Defaults to ~/.netrc
851 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
852 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
853 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
854 a list of available MSOs
855 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
856 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
857 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
858 interactively
859 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
860 --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
861 format. May include the private key
862 --client-certificate-key KEYFILE
863 Path to private key file for client
864 certificate
bb58c9ed 865 --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
2dd5a2e3 866 Password for client certificate private key,
867 if encrypted. If not provided, and the key
868 is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask interactively
f5e008d1 869
c76eb41b 870## Post-Processing Options:
2dd5a2e3 871 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
872 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
873 --audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format to convert the audio to
874 when -x is used. Currently supported formats
875 are: best (default) or one of aac, flac,
876 mp3, m4a, opus, vorbis, wav, alac
877 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
878 converting the audio with -x. Insert a value
879 between 0 (best) and 10 (worst) for VBR or a
880 specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
881 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
882 necessary (currently supported: mp4, mkv,
883 flv, webm, mov, avi, mka, ogg, aac, flac,
884 mp3, m4a, opus, vorbis, wav, alac). If
885 target container does not support the
886 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
887 can specify multiple rules; Eg.
888 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
889 mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv.
890 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
891 necessary. The syntax and supported formats
892 are the same as --remux-video
893 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
894 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
895 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
896 to give the argument to the specified
897 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
898 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
899 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
900 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
901 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
902 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
903 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
904 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
905 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
906 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
907 specified executable only when being used by
908 the specified postprocessor. Additionally,
909 for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
910 appended to the prefix optionally followed
911 by a number to pass the argument before the
912 specified input/output file. Eg: --ppa
913 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
914 this option multiple times to give different
915 arguments to different postprocessors.
916 (Alias: --ppa)
917 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
918 after post-processing
919 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
920 post-processing (default)
921 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
922 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
923 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
924 webm and mkv videos)
925 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
926 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
927 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
928 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
929 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
930 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are
931 used (Alias: --add-metadata)
932 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
933 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
934 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
935 (Alias: --add-chapters)
936 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias:
937 --no-add-chapters)
938 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
939 mkv/mka video files
940 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
941 to the video file
942 --parse-metadata FROM:TO Parse additional metadata like title/artist
943 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
944 for details
e9f4ccd1 945 --replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
2dd5a2e3 946 Replace text in a metadata field using the
947 given regex. This option can be used
948 multiple times
949 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
950 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
951 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
952 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
953 (default; only when the videos form a single
954 show). All the video files must have same
955 codecs and number of streams to be
956 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
957 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
958 the output filename for the concatenated
959 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
960 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
961 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
962 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
963 default; fix file if we can, warn
964 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
965 already exists)
966 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
967 path to the binary or its containing
968 directory
969 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
970 when to execute it (after_move if
971 unspecified), separated by a ":". Supported
972 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
973 --use-postprocessor. Same syntax as the
974 output template can be used to pass any
975 field as arguments to the command. After
976 download, an additional field "filepath"
977 that contains the final path of the
978 downloaded file is also available, and if no
979 fields are passed, %(filepath)q is appended
980 to the end of the command. This option can
981 be used multiple times
982 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
983 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
984 (currently supported: srt, vtt, ass, lrc)
985 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
986 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
987 (currently supported: jpg, png, webp)
988 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
989 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can
990 be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
991 the output filename for the split files. See
992 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
993 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters
994 (default)
995 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
996 given regular expression. Time ranges
997 prefixed by a "*" can also be used in place
998 of chapters to remove the specified range.
999 Eg: --remove-chapters "*10:15-15:00"
1000 --remove-chapters "intro". This option can
1001 be used multiple times
1002 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
1003 (default)
1004 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes around chapters when
1005 removing/splitting them. The resulting video
1006 may have fewer artifacts around the cuts,
1007 but is very slow due to needing a re-encode
1008 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
1009 when cutting/splitting (default)
1010 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS]
1011 The (case sensitive) name of plugin
1012 postprocessors to be enabled, and
1013 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
1014 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
1015 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
1016 The "when" argument determines when the
1017 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
1018 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
1019 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
1020 "before_dl" (before each video download),
1021 "post_process" (after each video download;
1022 default), "after_move" (after moving video
1023 file to it's final locations), "after_video"
1024 (after downloading and processing all
1025 formats of a video), or "playlist" (at end
1026 of playlist). This option can be used
1027 multiple times to add different
1028 postprocessors
7a340e0d
NA
1029
1030## SponsorBlock Options:
1031Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1032 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
8a51f564 1033 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1034
2dd5a2e3 1035 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1036 for, separated by commas. Available
1037 categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
1038 selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
1039 music_offtopic, poi_highlight, all and
1040 default (=all). You can prefix the category
1041 with a "-" to exclude it. See [1] for
1042 description of the categories. Eg:
1043 --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1044 [1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1045 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1046 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1047 category is present in both mark and remove,
1048 remove takes precedence. The syntax and
1049 available categories are the same as for
1050 --sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
1051 refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight is
1052 not available
7a340e0d 1053 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
2dd5a2e3 1054 An output template for the title of the
1055 SponsorBlock chapters created by
1056 --sponsorblock-mark. The only available
1057 fields are start_time, end_time, category,
1058 categories, name, category_names. Defaults
1059 to "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1060 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1061 --sponsorblock-remove
1062 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1063 https://sponsor.ajay.app
a9e7f546 1064
78895bd3 1065## Extractor Options:
2dd5a2e3 1066 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors
1067 (default is 3), or "infinite"
1068 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1069 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1070 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1071 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1072 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1073 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1074 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1075 formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
1076 (default)
1077 --extractor-args KEY:ARGS Pass these arguments to the extractor. See
1078 "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You can
1079 use this option multiple times to give
1080 arguments for different extractors
17cb02d0 1081
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1082# CONFIGURATION
1083
7a5c1cfe 1084You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
e2e43aea 1085
0202b52a 10861. **Main Configuration**: The file given by `--config-location`
7a5c1cfe 10871. **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.
88f23a18 10881. **Home Configuration**: `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by `-P`, or in the current directory if no such path is given
e2e43aea 10891. **User Configuration**:
1090 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1091 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
1092 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1093 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1094 * `~/yt-dlp.conf`
1095 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
3d3bb168 1096
ec2e44fc 1097 `%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%`
3d3bb168 1098
07cce701 10991. **System Configuration**: `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
b7770046 1100
7a5c1cfe 1101For 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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1102```
1103# Lines starting with # are comments
1104
1105# Always extract audio
1106-x
1107
1108# Do not copy the mtime
1109--no-mtime
1110
1111# Use this proxy
1112--proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1113
298f597b 1114# Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1115-o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
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1116```
1117
e2e43aea 1118Note 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 1119
a4211baf 1120You 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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1121
1122### Authentication with `.netrc` file
1123
0001fcb5 1124You 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:
b7770046
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1125```
1126touch $HOME/.netrc
1127chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
1128```
1129After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1130```
0001fcb5 1131machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
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1132```
1133For example:
1134```
1135machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1136machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1137```
7a5c1cfe 1138To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
b7770046 1139
0001fcb5 1140The default location of the .netrc file is `$HOME` (`~`) in UNIX. On Windows, it is `%HOME%` if present, `%USERPROFILE%` (generally `C:\Users\<user name>`) or `%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
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1141
1142# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
1143
0202b52a 1144The `-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 1145
ec2e44fc 1146<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1147**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
ec2e44fc 1148<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1149
e58c22a0 1150The 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 1151
0930b11f 1152It 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 1153
1154The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
3d3bb168 1155
2b8a2973 11561. **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 1157
e625be0d 11581. **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 1159
e625be0d 11601. **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 1161
e75bb0d6 11621. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a `,`. Eg: `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
ec2e44fc 1163
e978789f
P
11641. **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.
1165
e75bb0d6 11661. **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 1167
abbeeebc 11681. **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) (flag `#` to use 1024 as factor), and to **S**anitize as filename (flag `#` for restricted), respectively
ec2e44fc 1169
524e2e4f 11701. **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 1171
1172To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1173```
e978789f 1174%(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
a439a3a4 1175```
de6000d9 1176
dbcea058 1177Additionally, 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`, `pl_video`. 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 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 1178
1179The available fields are:
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1180
1181 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1182 - `title` (string): Video title
455a15e2 1183 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
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1184 - `url` (string): Video URL
1185 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1186 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
597c1866 1187 - `description` (string): The description of the video
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1188 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1189 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1190 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1191 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
b7770046 1192 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
ae6a1b95 1193 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
e6f21b3d 1194 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
ae6a1b95 1195 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
f0d785d3 1196 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
ae6a1b95 1197 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
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1198 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1199 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1200 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
6c73052c 1201 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
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1202 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1203 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
53c18592 1204 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
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1205 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1206 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1207 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1208 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1209 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
277d6ff5 1210 - `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 1211 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
940a67a3 1212 - `live_status` (string): One of "is_live", "was_live", "is_upcoming", "not_live"
b7770046 1213 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
f76ede8e 1214 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
6cfda058 1215 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
940a67a3 1216 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
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1217 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1218 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
29b6000e 1219 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
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1220 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by `--format`
1221 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
1222 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
1223 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
1224 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
1225 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1226 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1227 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
1228 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1229 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1230 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
176f1866 1231 - `dynamic_range` (string): The dynamic range of the video
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1232 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
1233 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
1234 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
1235 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
1236 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
1237 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1238 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
455a15e2 1239 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
b7770046 1240 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`
9c906919 1241 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
e6f21b3d 1242 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
455a15e2 1243 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1244 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1245 - `playlist` (string): `playlist_id` or `playlist_title`
f0d785d3 1246 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
e6f21b3d 1247 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1248 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
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1249 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1250 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
bd99f6e6 1251 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
0bb322b9 1252 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1253 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
bd99f6e6 1254 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)
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1255
1256Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1257
1258 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1259 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1260 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1261
1262Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1263
1264 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1265 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1266 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1267 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1268 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1269 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1270 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1271
1272Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1273
1274 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1275 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1276 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1277 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1278 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1279 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1280 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1281 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1282 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1283 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1284
b050d210 1285Available for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
72755351 1286
1287 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1288 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1289 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1290 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1291
53c18592 1292Available only when used in `--print`:
1293
1294 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1295 - `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
ed5835b4 1296 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by `--list-formats`
1297 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by `--list-thumbnails`
1298 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1299 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1300
7a340e0d
NA
1301
1302Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1303
1304 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1305 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1306 - `categories` (list): The SponsorBlock categories the chapter belongs to
1307 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1308 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1309 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
53c18592 1310
49a57e70 1311Each 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.
1312
1313Note 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 1314
0930b11f 1315**Tip**: Look at the `-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
b7770046 1316
49a57e70 1317For 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 1318
940a67a3 1319Output 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.
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1320
1321To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
1322
91ebc640 1323The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
b7770046 1324
f304da8a 1325In 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 1326
ec2e44fc 1327<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
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1328#### Output template and Windows batch files
1329
1330If 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 1331<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
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1332
1333#### Output template examples
1334
b7770046 1335```bash
940a67a3 1336$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1337test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1338
940a67a3 1339$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1340youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
b7770046 1341
940a67a3 1342$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
9222c381 1343youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
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1344
1345# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
940a67a3 1346$ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
b7770046 1347
b050d210 1348# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
940a67a3 1349$ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
e29663c6 1350
e978789f 1351# Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
6a34813a 1352$ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist_index|)s%(playlist_index& - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
e978789f 1353
b7770046 1354# Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
940a67a3 1355$ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
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1356
1357# Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
940a67a3 1358$ 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"
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1359
1360# Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
940a67a3 1361$ 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 1362
6a34813a 1363# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1364# and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1365$ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1366
1367# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1368$ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "subtitle:%(uploader)s/subs/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --write-subs
1369
b7770046 1370# Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
7a5c1cfe 1371$ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
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1372```
1373
1374# FORMAT SELECTION
1375
7a5c1cfe
P
1376By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1377This 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 1378
c111cefa 1379**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.
1380
eff63539 1381The 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 1382
ec2e44fc 1383<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1384**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
ec2e44fc 1385<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1386
a439a3a4 1387The 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.
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1388
1389You 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.
1390
fa9f30b8 1391You can use `-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1392
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1393You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1394
59a7a13e 1395 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1396 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
1397 - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio
1398 - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1399 - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
1400 - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
1401 - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
ae6a1b95 1402 - `ba*`, `bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that **contains audio**. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `best*[acodec!=none]` ([Do not use!](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/979#issuecomment-919629354))
59a7a13e 1403 - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
909d24dd 1404 - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1405 - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
909d24dd 1406 - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1407 - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
909d24dd 1408 - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
b7770046 1409
ae6a1b95 1410For 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 `-S +size` or more rigorously, `-S +size,+br,+res,+fps` instead of `-f worst`. See [sorting formats](#sorting-formats) for more details.
eff63539 1411
1412You 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 1413
eb8a4433 1414If 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.
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1415
1416If 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`.
1417
d806c9fd 1418You 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.
1419
1420**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
1421
1422Unless `--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 1423
1424## Filtering Formats
1425
b7770046
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1426You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
1427
1428The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
1429
1430 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1431 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1432 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
1433 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1434 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1435 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1436 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1437 - `fps`: Frame rate
1438
1ce9a3cb 1439Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains), `~=` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
b7770046
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1440
1441 - `ext`: File extension
1442 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1443 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1444 - `container`: Name of the container format
1445 - `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`)
1446 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
29f7c58a 1447 - `language`: Language code
b7770046 1448
1ce9a3cb 1449Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation `!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g. `!*=` (does not contain). The comparand of a string comparison needs to be quoted with either double or single quotes if it contains spaces or special characters other than `._-`.
b7770046 1450
e58c22a0 1451Note 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 1452
e094cec1 1453Formats 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 1454
940a67a3 1455Format 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 1456
eb8a4433 1457## Sorting Formats
1458
2e7781a9 1459You can change the criteria for being considered the `best` by using `-S` (`--format-sort`). The general format for this is `--format-sort field1,field2...`.
1460
1461The available fields are:
eb8a4433 1462
63be1aab 1463 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
1464 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
ed8d87f9 1465 - `ie_pref`: The format preference
1466 - `lang`: The language preference
1467 - `quality`: The quality of the format
1468 - `source`: The preference of the source
d80d98e7 1469 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > `mms`/`rtsp` > `f4f`/`f4m`)
1470 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other)
1471 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`flac`/`alac` > `wav`/`aiff` > `opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `eac3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other)
eb8a4433 1472 - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
d80d98e7 1473 - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `webm` > `flv` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is preferred.
1474 - `aext`: Audio Extension (`m4a` > `aac` > `mp3` > `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to `opus` > `ogg` > `webm` > `m4a` > `mp3` > `aac`.
63be1aab 1475 - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
0930b11f 1476 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
63be1aab 1477 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1478 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
eb8a4433 1479 - `height`: Height of video
1480 - `width`: Width of video
63be1aab 1481 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1482 - `fps`: Framerate of video
49a57e70 1483 - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `HLG` > `SDR`)
63be1aab 1484 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1485 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1486 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1487 - `br`: Equivalent to using `tbr,vbr,abr`
1488 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
d806c9fd 1489
1490**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 1491
9ee4f0bb 1492All 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.
1493
176f1866 1494The 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 1495
e75bb0d6 1496Note 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 1497
e58c22a0 1498If 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 1499
1500**Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1501
eb8a4433 1502## Format Selection examples
b7770046 1503
b7770046 1504```bash
e58c22a0 1505# Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
909d24dd 1506# or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
940a67a3 1507$ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
909d24dd 1508
1509# Download best format that contains video,
1510# and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
940a67a3 1511$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
2af884ff 1512
1513# Same as above
7a5c1cfe 1514$ yt-dlp
909d24dd 1515
6fd35a11 1516# Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1517# For this case, an output template should be used since
1518# by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
940a67a3 1519$ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
909d24dd 1520
f8d4ad9a 1521# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1522# and all audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1523$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
f8d4ad9a 1524
1525# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1526# and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1527$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
909d24dd 1528
6fd35a11 1529
1530# The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
f8d4ad9a 1531# and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
6fd35a11 1532
1533# Download the worst video available (old method)
940a67a3 1534$ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
eb8a4433 1535
1536# Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
940a67a3 1537$ yt-dlp -S "+res"
eb8a4433 1538
1539# Download the smallest video available
940a67a3 1540$ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
eb8a4433 1541
1542
909d24dd 1543
eb8a4433 1544# Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
940a67a3 1545$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
eb8a4433 1546
1547# Download the best video with the best extension
1548# (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
940a67a3 1549$ yt-dlp -S "ext"
eb8a4433 1550
1551
909d24dd 1552
eb8a4433 1553# Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1554# or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1555$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
b7770046 1556
eb8a4433 1557# Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1558# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1559$ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
b7770046 1560
eb8a4433 1561# Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1562# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1563# Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1564# So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
940a67a3 1565$ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
b7770046 1566
b7770046 1567
909d24dd 1568
eb8a4433 1569# Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1570# or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1571$ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
eb8a4433 1572
1573# Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1574# or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1575$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
eb8a4433 1576
1577# Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
940a67a3 1578$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
eb8a4433 1579
1580
909d24dd 1581
eb8a4433 1582# Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1583# or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
940a67a3 1584$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1585
1586# Download best video available via the best protocol
1587# (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
940a67a3 1588$ yt-dlp -S "proto"
eb8a4433 1589
1590
909d24dd 1591
1ce9a3cb
LF
1592# Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1593# or the best video if there is no such video
1594$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1595
1596# Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1597# or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1598$ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1599
1600# Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1601# or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1602$ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1603
1604
1605
1606# More complex examples
1607
e58c22a0 1608# Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1609# or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
940a67a3 1610$ 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 1611
1612# Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
f8d4ad9a 1613# or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1614# preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
940a67a3 1615$ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
eb8a4433 1616
1617
909d24dd 1618
eb8a4433 1619# Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1620# or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1621# preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
940a67a3 1622$ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
b7770046 1623```
eb8a4433 1624
73cd218f 1625# MODIFYING METADATA
1626
a4211baf 1627The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
e9f4ccd1 1628
418964fa 1629`--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 1630
2e7781a9 1631The 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 1632
1633Note 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`.
1634
9c2b75b5 1635This option also has a few special uses:
3d3bb168 1636
28b0eb0f 1637* 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
3d3bb168 1638
88968992 1639* 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". To modify the metadata of individual streams, use the `meta<n>_` prefix (Eg: `meta1_language`). Any value set to the `meta_` field will overwrite all default values.
c31be5b0 1640
08d30158 1641**Note**: Metadata modification happens before format selection, post-extraction and other post-processing operations. Some fields may be added or changed during these steps, overriding your changes.
1642
c31be5b0 1643For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1644
08d30158 1645Metadata fields | From
1646:--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1647`title` | `track` or `title`
1648`date` | `upload_date`
1649`description`, `synopsis` | `description`
1650`purl`, `comment` | `webpage_url`
1651`track` | `track_number`
1652`artist` | `artist`, `creator`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
1653`genre` | `genre`
1654`album` | `album`
1655`album_artist` | `album_artist`
1656`disc` | `disc_number`
1657`show` | `series`
1658`season_number` | `season_number`
1659`episode_id` | `episode` or `episode_id`
1660`episode_sort` | `episode_number`
1661`language` of each stream | the format's `language`
1662
c31be5b0 1663**Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1664
73cd218f 1665
1666## Modifying metadata examples
1667
73cd218f 1668```bash
1669# Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
940a67a3 1670$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
73cd218f 1671
1672# Regex example
940a67a3 1673$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
73cd218f 1674
1675# Set title as "Series name S01E05"
940a67a3 1676$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
73cd218f 1677
a44ca5a4 1678# Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
1679$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --add-metadata
1680
1681# Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
1682# handling multiple lines correctly
940a67a3 1683$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --add-metadata
73cd218f 1684
0930b11f 1685# Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
940a67a3 1686$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<formats>)" -j
0930b11f 1687
e9f4ccd1 1688# Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
940a67a3 1689$ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
e9f4ccd1 1690
73cd218f 1691```
1692
5d3a0e79 1693# EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1694
a44ca5a4 1695Some 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_embedded,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
5d3a0e79 1696
1697The following extractors use this feature:
96565c7e 1698
1699#### youtube
18e49408 1700* `skip`: One or more of `hls`, `dash` or `translated_subs` to skip extraction of the m3u8 manifests, dash manifests and auto-translated subtitles respectively
e7870111 1701* `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web`, `android` and `ios` with variants `_music`, `_embedded`, `_embedscreen`, `_creator` (Eg: `web_embedded`); and `mweb` and `tv_embedded` (agegate bypass) with no variants. By default, `android,web` is used, but tv_embedded and creator variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly the music variants are added for `music.youtube.com` urls. You can use `all` to use all the clients, and `default` for the default clients.
96565c7e 1702* `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 1703* `include_live_dash`: Include live dash formats even without `--live-from-start` (These formats don't download properly)
96565c7e 1704* `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
a44ca5a4 1705* `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`
1706 * 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
96565c7e 1707
1708#### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1709* `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)
a30a6ed3 1710* `approximate_date`: Extract approximate `upload_date` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
96565c7e 1711
1712#### funimation
1713* `language`: Languages to extract. Eg: `funimation:language=english,japanese`
1714* `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`
1715
a9d4da60 1716#### crunchyroll
1717* `language`: Languages to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:language=jaJp`
1718* `hardsub`: Which hard-sub versions to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:hardsub=None,enUS`
1719
ae6a1b95 1720#### crunchyrollbeta
706dfe44
JH
1721* `format`: Which stream type(s) to extract. Default is `adaptive_hls` Eg: `crunchyrollbeta:format=vo_adaptive_hls`
1722 * Potentially useful values include `adaptive_hls`, `adaptive_dash`, `vo_adaptive_hls`, `vo_adaptive_dash`, `download_hls`, `trailer_hls`, `trailer_dash`
1723* `hardsub`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract. Default is `None` (no hardsubs). Eg: `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None`
1724
96565c7e 1725#### vikichannel
1726* `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
73d829c1 1727
7bdcb4a4
LNO
1728#### niconico
1729* `segment_duration`: Segment duration in milliseconds for HLS-DMC formats. Use it at your own risk since this feature **may result in your account termination.**
1730
aa4b0545 1731#### youtubewebarchive
1732* `check_all`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails`, `captures`
1733
d43de682
M
1734#### gamejolt
1735* `comment_sort`: `hot` (default), `you` (cookies needed), `top`, `new` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1736
26f2aa3d
AG
1737#### hotstar
1738* `res`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd`, `hd`, `fhd`
1739* `vcodec`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264`, `h265`, `dvh265`
1740* `dr`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr`, `hdr10`, `dv`
1741
046cab39
M
1742#### tiktok
1743* `app_version`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version`. (e.g. `20.2.1`)
1744* `manifest_app_version`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with. (e.g. `221`)
1745
7eaf7f9a 1746#### rokfinchannel
1747* `tab`: Which tab to download. One of `new`, `top`, `videos`, `podcasts`, `streams`, `stacks`. (E.g. `rokfinchannel:tab=streams`)
1748
1749
bc97cdae 1750NOTE: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
5d3a0e79 1751
ec2e44fc 1752<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1753
3acf6d38 1754
f74980cb 1755# PLUGINS
b7770046 1756
3ae5e797 1757Plugins 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
1758
1759Plugins 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`.
1760
1761See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example plugins.
1762
1763Note 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
1764
1765If you are a plugin author, add [ytdlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/ytdlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability
b7770046 1766
b7770046 1767
8c6f4daa 1768
1769# EMBEDDING YT-DLP
1770
1771yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1772
1773Your 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.
1774
1775From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1776
1777```python
59a7a13e 1778from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
8c6f4daa 1779
3d3bb168 1780URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1781with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1782 ydl.download(URLS)
8c6f4daa 1783```
1784
e5a998f3 1785Most 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#L181).
8c6f4daa 1786
43cc91ad 1787**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 below](#extracting-information)
3d3bb168 1788
1789## Embedding examples
1790
43cc91ad 1791#### Extracting information
8c6f4daa 1792
1793```python
1794import json
8c6f4daa 1795import yt_dlp
8c6f4daa 1796
3d3bb168 1797URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
1798
1799# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
1800ydl_opts = {}
1801with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1802 info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
1803
1804 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
1805 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1806```
43cc91ad 1807#### Download using an info-json
3d3bb168 1808
1809```python
1810import yt_dlp
1811
1812INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
1813
1814with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1815 error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
1816
1817print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
1818 else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
1819```
1820
43cc91ad 1821#### Extract audio
3d3bb168 1822
1823```python
1824import yt_dlp
1825
1826URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1827
1828ydl_opts = {
0a41f331 1829 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
3d3bb168 1830 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
1831 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
1832 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
1833 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
1834 }]
1835}
1836
1837with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1838 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1839```
0a41f331 1840
1841#### Filter videos
1842
1843```python
1844import yt_dlp
1845
1846URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1847
1848def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
1849 """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
1850 duration = info.get('duration')
1851 if duration and duration < 60:
1852 return 'The video is too short'
1853
1854ydl_opts = {
1855 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
1856}
1857
1858with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1859 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1860```
1861
43cc91ad 1862#### Adding logger and progress hook
3d3bb168 1863
1864```python
1865import yt_dlp
1866
1867URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
8c6f4daa 1868
1869class MyLogger:
1870 def debug(self, msg):
e75bb0d6 1871 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
8c6f4daa 1872 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
1873 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
1874 pass
1875 else:
1876 self.info(msg)
1877
1878 def info(self, msg):
1879 pass
1880
1881 def warning(self, msg):
1882 pass
1883
1884 def error(self, msg):
1885 print(msg)
1886
1887
3d3bb168 1888# ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
1889def my_hook(d):
1890 if d['status'] == 'finished':
1891 print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
1892
1893
1894ydl_opts = {
1895 'logger': MyLogger(),
1896 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
1897}
1898
1899with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1900 ydl.download(URLS)
1901```
1902
43cc91ad 1903#### Add a custom PostProcessor
3d3bb168 1904
1905```python
1906import yt_dlp
1907
1908URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1909
1910# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
59a7a13e 1911class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
8c6f4daa 1912 def run(self, info):
1913 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
1914 return [], info
1915
1916
3d3bb168 1917with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1918 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP())
1919 ydl.download(URLS)
1920```
8c6f4daa 1921
1922
43cc91ad 1923#### Use a custom format selector
3d3bb168 1924
1925```python
1926import yt_dlp
1927
1928URL = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1929
093a1710 1930def format_selector(ctx):
1931 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
3d3bb168 1932 NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
093a1710 1933
1934 # formats are already sorted worst to best
1935 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
1936
1937 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
1938 best_video = next(f for f in formats
1939 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
1940
1941 # find compatible audio extension
1942 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
1943 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
1944 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
1945 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
1946
3d3bb168 1947 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
093a1710 1948 yield {
093a1710 1949 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
1950 'ext': best_video['ext'],
1951 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
e75bb0d6 1952 # Must be + separated list of protocols
093a1710 1953 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
1954 }
1955
1956
8c6f4daa 1957ydl_opts = {
093a1710 1958 'format': format_selector,
8c6f4daa 1959}
1960
1961with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
3d3bb168 1962 ydl.download(URLS)
8c6f4daa 1963```
1964
ec2e44fc 1965<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
1966
e167860c 1967# DEPRECATED OPTIONS
1968
1969These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
1970
8130779d 1971#### Almost redundant options
1972While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
1973
1974 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
1975 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
0bfc53d0 1976 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
8130779d 1977 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
1978
6ccf351a 1979#### Redundant options
1980While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
f4536226 1981
53c18592 1982 --get-description --print description
1983 --get-duration --print duration_string
1984 --get-filename --print filename
1985 --get-format --print format
1986 --get-id --print id
1987 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
1988 -e, --get-title --print title
1989 -g, --get-url --print urls
8f18aca8 1990 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
1991 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
1992 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
1993 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
8b7539d2 1994 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
1995 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
6ccf351a 1996
1997
1998#### Not recommended
1999While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
2000
1e43a6f7 2001 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
2002 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
d9aa2332 2003 --all-formats -f all
c32b0aab 2004 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
b7b04c78 2005 --print-json -j --no-simulate
e167860c 2006 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting. Eg: %(autonumber)03d
a439a3a4 2007 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
19b824f6 2008 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
73cd218f 2009 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
52a8a1e1 2010 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
2011 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
53ed7066 2012 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
2013 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
5d3a0e79 2014 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
2015 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
2016 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
2017 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
6ccf351a 2018
2019
2020#### Developer options
2021These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
2022
34488702 2023 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
6ccf351a 2024 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
88acdbc2 2025 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
2026 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
f4536226 2027
2028
2029#### Old aliases
2030These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
2031
2032 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
3856407a 2033 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
f4536226 2034 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
2035 --dump-headers --print-traffic
2036 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
2037 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
2038 --load-info --load-info-json
3856407a 2039 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
f4536226 2040 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
e167860c 2041 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
e167860c 2042 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
2043 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
f4536226 2044 --split-tracks --split-chapters
2045 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
e167860c 2046 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
f4536226 2047 --write-srt --write-subs
e167860c 2048 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
f4536226 2049
7a340e0d 2050#### Sponskrub Options
f304da8a 2051Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock` options
7a340e0d
NA
2052
2053 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
2054 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
2055 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
2056 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
2057 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
2058 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
2059 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
2060 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
2061
f4536226 2062#### No longer supported
2063These options may no longer work as intended
2064
2065 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
2066 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
2067 -C, --call-home Not implemented
2068 --no-call-home Default
2069 --include-ads No longer supported
2070 --no-include-ads Default
0bb1bc1b 2071 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
2072 --no-write-annotations Default
486fb179 2073
2074#### Removed
2075These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
2076
f4536226 2077 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
3d3bb168 2078 -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
f4536226 2079
8c6f4daa 2080# CONTRIBUTING
2081See [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 2082
c2b5f311 2083# MORE
8c6f4daa 2084For FAQ see the [youtube-dl README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)