]> jfr.im git - yt-dlp.git/blame - README.md
[extractor/youtube] Extract channel `view_count` when `/about` tab is passed
[yt-dlp.git] / README.md
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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
2fa669f7 6[![Release version](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?color=brightgreen&label=Download&style=for-the-badge)](#installation "Installation")
ae6a1b95 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")
08e29b9f 13[![CI Status](https://img.shields.io/github/actions/workflow/status/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/core.yml?branch=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")
46d09f87 15[![Last Commit](https://img.shields.io/github/last-commit/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master?label=&style=for-the-badge&display_timestamp=committer)](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)
deae7c17 28 * [Detailed instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation)
17fa3ee2 29 * [Update](#update)
0e5927ee 30 * [Release Files](#release-files)
cf59cd4d 31 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
17fa3ee2 32 * [Compile](#compile)
b31fdeed 33* [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
34 * [General Options](#general-options)
50865ca8 35 * [Network Options](#network-options)
b31fdeed 36 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
50865ca8 37 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
38 * [Download Options](#download-options)
39 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
b31fdeed 40 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
50865ca8 41 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
0744a815 42 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
50865ca8 43 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
44 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
45 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
46 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
50865ca8 47 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
7a340e0d 48 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
50865ca8 49 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
c76eb41b 50* [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
304ad45a 51 * [Configuration file encoding](#configuration-file-encoding)
50865ca8 52 * [Authentication with .netrc file](#authentication-with-netrc-file)
878eac3e 53 * [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
c76eb41b 54* [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
50865ca8 55 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
c76eb41b 56* [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
50865ca8 57 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
58 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
59 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
73cd218f 60* [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
61 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
5d3a0e79 62* [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
f74980cb 63* [PLUGINS](#plugins)
8e40b9d1
M
64 * [Installing Plugins](#installing-plugins)
65 * [Developing Plugins](#developing-plugins)
8c6f4daa 66* [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
43cc91ad 67 * [Embedding examples](#embedding-examples)
e167860c 68* [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
8c6f4daa 69* [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
70 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
71 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
17ffed18 72* [WIKI](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki)
deae7c17 73 * [FAQ](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/FAQ)
ec2e44fc 74<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
50865ca8 75
76
034b6215 77# NEW FEATURES
91f071af 78
45b2ee6f 79* Merged with **youtube-dl v2021.12.17+ [commit/2dd6c6e](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/2dd6c6e)** ([exceptions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/21)) and **youtube-dlc v2020.11.11-3+ [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 80
304ad45a 81* **[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in YouTube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
034b6215 82
7581d246 83* **[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 84
8e174ba7 85* **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 NicoNico livestreams are not available. See [#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
29b6000e 86
ae61d108 87* **YouTube improvements**:
88 * Supports Clips, Stories (`ytstories:<channel UCID>`), Search (including filters)**\***, YouTube Music Search, Channel-specific search, Search prefixes (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`)**\***, Mixes, YouTube Music Albums/Channels ([except self-uploaded music](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/723)), and Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`, `:ytnotif`)
89 * Fix for [n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326) **\***
90 * Supports some (but not all) age-gated content without cookies
91 * Download livestreams from the start using `--live-from-start` (*experimental*)
92 * `255kbps` audio is extracted (if available) from YouTube Music when premium cookies are given
86973308 93 * Channel URLs download all uploads of the channel, including shorts and live
f20f5fe5 94
304ad45a 95* **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using `--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]`
245524e6 96
5ec1b6b7 97* **Download time range**: Videos can be downloaded partially based on either timestamps or chapters using `--download-sections`
98
597c1866 99* **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using `--split-chapters`
100
b31fdeed 101* **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 102
b31fdeed 103* **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use `aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
f20f5fe5 104
e75bb0d6 105* **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 106
56ba69e4 107* **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN etc.
fac98805 108
3de7c2ce 109* **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 110
597c1866 111* **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 112
d4ada357 113* **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for details
0bc0a322 114
418964fa 115* **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 116
8a82af35 117* **Other new options**: Many new options have been added such as `--alias`, `--print`, `--concat-playlist`, `--wait-for-video`, `--retry-sleep`, `--sleep-requests`, `--convert-thumbnails`, `--force-download-archive`, `--force-overwrites`, `--break-on-reject` etc
0bc0a322 118
08d30158 119* **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 120
86c1a8aa 121* **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
b31fdeed 122
7a5c1cfe 123* **Self-updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`
aa837ddf 124
7a5c1cfe 125See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
a26c99ac 126
ae61d108 127Features marked with a **\*** have been back-ported to youtube-dl
128
53ed7066 129### Differences in default behavior
130
0930b11f 131Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
53ed7066 132
96565c7e 133* The options `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
b69fd25c 134* `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
d4ada357 135* yt-dlp stores config files in slightly different locations to youtube-dl. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for a list of correct locations
96565c7e 136* 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 137* 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 138* 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 139* 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 140* `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
28b0eb0f 141* 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 142* `--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 143* 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 144* `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
145* The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
b79f9e30 146* Live chats (if available) are considered as subtitles. Use `--sub-langs all,-live_chat` to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use `--compat-options no-live-chat` to prevent any live chat/danmaku from downloading
86973308 147* YouTube channel URLs download all uploads of the channel. To download only the videos in a specific tab, pass the tab's URL. 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
304ad45a 148* Unavailable videos are also listed for YouTube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
1ff88b7a 149* The upload dates extracted from YouTube are in UTC [when available](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/89e4d86171c7b7c997c77d4714542e0383bf0db0/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L3898-L3900). Use `--compat-options no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date` to prefer the non-UTC upload date.
18e674b4 150* 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 151* Thumbnail embedding in `mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use `--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
e4f02757 152* 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 153* 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
168bbc4f 154* `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`
1e4fca9a 155* yt-dlp's sanitization of invalid characters in filenames is different/smarter than in youtube-dl. You can use `--compat-options filename-sanitization` to revert to youtube-dl's behavior
ad68b16a 156* yt-dlp tries to parse the external downloader outputs into the standard progress output if possible (Currently implemented: [~~aria2c~~](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/5931)). You can use `--compat-options no-external-downloader-progress` to get the downloader output as-is
53ed7066 157
158For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
3d3bb168 159
8a82af35 160* `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options (Do NOT use)
28b0eb0f 161* `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams`
162* `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
2a06bb4e 163* `--compat-options 2021`: Same as `--compat-options 2022,no-certifi,filename-sanitization,no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date`
8c53322c 164* `--compat-options 2022`: Same as `--compat-options no-external-downloader-progress`. Use this to enable all future compat options
53ed7066 165
f20f5fe5 166
d19bb9c0 167# INSTALLATION
50865ca8 168
fc5fa964 169<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
170[![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)
17ffed18 171[![Unix](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)
24146491 172[![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)
17ffed18 173[![PyPi](https://img.shields.io/badge/-PyPi-blue.svg?logo=pypi&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
fc5fa964 174[![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)
175[![Other variants](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Other-grey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](#release-files)
3d3bb168 176[![All versions](https://img.shields.io/badge/-All_Versions-lightgrey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
fc5fa964 177<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
178
17ffed18 179You can install yt-dlp using [the binaries](#release-files), [PIP](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) or one using a third-party package manager. See [the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation) for detailed instructions
0930b11f 180
b8773e63 181
a4211baf 182## UPDATE
17ffed18 183You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are [using the release binaries](#release-files)
184
185If you [installed with PIP](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
0930b11f 186
8e174ba7 187For other third-party package managers, see [the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#third-party-package-managers) or refer their documentation
0930b11f 188
cf59cd4d 189
ec2e44fc 190<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
a4211baf 191## RELEASE FILES
0e5927ee 192
733d8e8f 193#### Recommended
194
195File|Description
196:---|:---
962ffcf8 197[yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform-independent [zipimport](https://docs.python.org/3/library/zipimport.html) binary. Needs Python (recommended for **Linux/BSD**)
0930b11f 198[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**)
f2df4071 199[yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|Universal MacOS (10.15+) standalone executable (recommended for **MacOS**)
733d8e8f 200
201#### Alternatives
202
0e5927ee
R
203File|Description
204:---|:---
0930b11f 205[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
8aa0e7cd 206[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/> ([Not recommended](#standalone-py2exe-builds-windows))
f2df4071 207[yt-dlp_linux](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux)|Linux standalone x64 binary
208[yt-dlp_linux.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux.zip)|Unpackaged Linux executable (no auto-update)
17fc3dc4
M
209[yt-dlp_linux_armv7l](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_armv7l)|Linux standalone armv7l (32-bit) binary
210[yt-dlp_linux_aarch64](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_aarch64)|Linux standalone aarch64 (64-bit) binary
0930b11f 211[yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
212[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)
6d916fe7 213[yt-dlp_macos_legacy](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos_legacy)|MacOS (10.9+) standalone x64 executable
733d8e8f 214
215#### Misc
216
217File|Description
218:---|:---
17ffed18 219[yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball
0e5927ee
R
220[SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
221[SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
ec2e44fc 222<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
0e5927ee 223
17ffed18 224
8e174ba7 225**Note**: 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)
17ffed18 226
a4211baf 227## DEPENDENCIES
eff42759 228Python versions 3.7+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
b31fdeed 229
c9652aa4 230<!-- Python 3.5+ uses VC++14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
231<!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999 --x>
cf59cd4d 232On 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 233-->
fac98805 234
e75bb0d6 235While all the other dependencies are optional, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended
ec2e44fc 236
8aa0e7cd 237### Strongly recommended
238
b69fd25c 239* [**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)
8aa0e7cd 240
8e174ba7 241 There are bugs in ffmpeg 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 some of 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
242
243 **Important**: What you need is ffmpeg *binary*, **NOT** [the python package of the same name](https://pypi.org/project/ffmpeg)
8aa0e7cd 244
245### Networking
d5820461 246* [**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)
8aa0e7cd 247* [**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>
248* [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
249
250### Metadata
251
252* [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For `--embed-thumbnail` in certain formats. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
253* [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For `--embed-thumbnail` in `mp4`/`m4a` files when `mutagen`/`ffmpeg` cannot. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
254* [**xattr**](https://github.com/xattr/xattr), [**pyxattr**](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr) or [**setfattr**](http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/attr) - For writing xattr metadata (`--xattr`) 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
255
256### Misc
257
258* [**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)
5d0aeac0 259* [**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)
8aa0e7cd 260* [**secretstorage**](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage) - For `--cookies-from-browser` to access 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)
cf59cd4d 261* Any external downloader that you want to use with `--downloader`
b31fdeed 262
deae7c17 263### Deprecated
8aa0e7cd 264
265* [**avconv** and **avprobe**](https://www.libav.org) - Now **deprecated** alternative to ffmpeg. License [depends on the build](https://libav.org/legal)
266* [**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)
998a3cae 267* [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with `--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
268* [**mplayer**](http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html) or [**mpv**](https://mpv.io) - For downloading `rstp`/`mms` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with `--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/Copyright)
8aa0e7cd 269
cf59cd4d 270To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
271
f2df4071 272The standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with **\*** included.
d710cc6d 273
8aa0e7cd 274If you do not have the necessary dependencies for a task you are attempting, yt-dlp will warn you. All the currently available dependencies are visible at the top of the `--verbose` output
d710cc6d 275
5f326cf5 276
a4211baf 277## COMPILE
5f326cf5 278
8aa0e7cd 279### Standalone PyInstaller Builds
115add43 280To build the standalone executable, you must have Python and `pyinstaller` (plus any of yt-dlp's [optional dependencies](#dependencies) if needed). Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, simply run `pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (x86/ARM, 32/64 bit) as the Python used.
e38df8f9 281
8aa0e7cd 282 python3 -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
283 python3 devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
284 python3 pyinst.py
285
286On some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`.
287
73ac0e6b 288`pyinst.py` accepts any arguments that can be passed to `pyinstaller`, such as `--onefile/-F` or `--onedir/-D`, which is further [documented here](https://pyinstaller.org/en/stable/usage.html#what-to-generate).
289
8e174ba7 290**Note**: Pyinstaller versions below 4.4 [do not support](https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller#requirements-and-tested-platforms) Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment.
8aa0e7cd 291
292**Important**: Running `pyinstaller` directly **without** using `pyinst.py` is **not** officially supported. This may or may not work correctly.
7581d246 293
8aa0e7cd 294### Platform-independent Binary (UNIX)
deae7c17 295You will need the build tools `python` (3.7+), `zip`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`\* and `pytest`\*.
b96a939b 296
8aa0e7cd 297After installing these, simply run `make`.
5f326cf5 298
a831c2ea 299You can also run `make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files. (The build tools marked with **\*** are not needed for this)
d19bb9c0 300
8aa0e7cd 301### Standalone Py2Exe Builds (Windows)
302
303While we provide the option to build with [py2exe](https://www.py2exe.org), it is recommended to build [using PyInstaller](#standalone-pyinstaller-builds) instead since the py2exe builds **cannot contain `pycryptodomex`/`certifi` and needs VC++14** on the target computer to run.
304
305If you wish to build it anyway, install Python and py2exe, and then simply run `setup.py py2exe`
306
307 py -m pip install -U py2exe -r requirements.txt
308 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
309 py setup.py py2exe
310
311### Related scripts
312
70b23409 313* **`devscripts/update-version.py [revision]`** - Update the version number based on current date
314* **`devscripts/set-variant.py variant [-M update_message]`** - Set the build variant of the executable
8aa0e7cd 315* **`devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py`** - Create lazy extractors. Running this before building the binaries (any variant) will improve their startup performance. Set the environment variable `YTDLP_NO_LAZY_EXTRACTORS=1` if you wish to forcefully disable lazy extractor loading.
316
304ad45a 317You can also fork the project on GitHub and run your fork's [build workflow](.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically build a full release
59a7a13e 318
b31fdeed 319# USAGE AND OPTIONS
6bcd846b 320
ec2e44fc 321<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
7a5c1cfe 322 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
b50e3bc6 323
c2b5f311 324`Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
ec2e44fc 325<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
c2b5f311 326
ec2e44fc 327<!-- Auto generated -->
c76eb41b 328## General Options:
2dd5a2e3 329 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
330 --version Print program version and exit
70b23409 331 -U, --update Update this program to the latest version
332 --no-update Do not check for updates (default)
2dd5a2e3 333 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
334 The download will be considered successful
335 even if the postprocessing fails
336 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download errors;
337 e.g. to skip unavailable videos in a
338 playlist (default)
339 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
340 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
341 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
342 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
343 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
344 extractors and exit
2516cafb 345 --use-extractors NAMES Extractor names to use separated by commas.
fe7866d0 346 You can also use regexes, "all", "default"
347 and "end" (end URL matching); e.g. --ies
348 "holodex.*,end,youtube". Prefix the name
349 with a "-" to exclude it, e.g. --ies
350 default,-generic. Use --list-extractors for
2516cafb 351 a list of extractor names. (Alias: --ies)
62b58c09 352 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 353 "gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
354 google videos for the search term "python".
355 Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
356 ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when
357 guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
358 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken
359 URLs, but emits an error if this is not
360 possible instead of searching
361 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
362 except those given by --config-locations.
363 For backward compatibility, if this option
364 is found inside the system configuration
365 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
366 (Alias: --no-config)
367 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
368 (default). When given inside a configuration
369 file, ignore all previous --config-locations
370 defined in the current file
371 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
372 either the path to the config or its
6b9e832d 373 containing directory ("-" for stdin). Can be
374 used multiple times and inside other
375 configuration files
2dd5a2e3 376 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
377 only list them
378 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
379 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
380 Currently only supported for YouTube
381 (Experimental)
382 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
383 (default)
384 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
385 available. Pass the minimum number of
386 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
387 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
388 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
389 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
f2df4071 390 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output (Alias:
391 --no-colours)
2dd5a2e3 392 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
393 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
394 configurations by reverting some of the
395 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
396 default behavior" for details
397 --alias ALIASES OPTIONS Create aliases for an option string. Unless
398 an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
399 prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
400 according to the Python string formatting
62b58c09 401 mini-language. E.g. --alias get-audio,-X
2dd5a2e3 402 "-S=aext:{0},abr -x --audio-format {0}"
403 creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
404 takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
405 "-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
406 All defined aliases are listed in the --help
407 output. Alias options can trigger more
962ffcf8 408 aliases; so be careful to avoid defining
2dd5a2e3 409 recursive options. As a safety measure, each
410 alias may be triggered a maximum of 100
64fa820c 411 times. This option can be used multiple times
08c1d0d3 412
149f05c7 413## Network Options:
2dd5a2e3 414 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
62b58c09
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415 enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme,
416 e.g. socks5://user:pass@127.0.0.1:1080/.
417 Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for
418 direct connection
2dd5a2e3 419 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
420 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
421 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
422 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
8300774c
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423 --enable-file-urls Enable file:// URLs. This is disabled by
424 default for security reasons.
8c6c88c7 425
b31fdeed 426## Geo-restriction:
2dd5a2e3 427 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
428 some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy
429 specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
430 is not present) is used for the actual
431 downloading
432 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
433 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header (default)
434 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
435 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
436 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
437 explicitly provided two-letter ISO 3166-2
438 country code
439 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
64fa820c 440 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR notation
149f05c7 441
cfcec693 442## Video Selection:
71df9b7f 443 -I, --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Comma separated playlist_index of the items
7e88d7d7 444 to download. You can specify a range using
445 "[START]:[STOP][:STEP]". For backward
446 compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.
447 Use negative indices to count from the right
448 and negative STEP to download in reverse
62b58c09 449 order. E.g. "-I 1:3,7,-5::2" used on a
71df9b7f 450 playlist of size 15 will download the items
7e88d7d7 451 at index 1,2,3,7,11,13,15
71df9b7f 452 --min-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is smaller than
453 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
454 --max-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is larger than
62b58c09 455 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
2dd5a2e3 456 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
457 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
458 [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
8e174ba7 459 E.g. "--date today-2weeks" downloads
460 only videos uploaded on the same day two
461 weeks ago
2dd5a2e3 462 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
463 this date. The date formats accepted is the
464 same as --date
465 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
466 this date. The date formats accepted is the
467 same as --date
468 --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
469 field can be compared with a number or a
470 string using the operators defined in
d4ada357 471 "Filtering Formats". You can also simply
2dd5a2e3 472 specify a field to match if the field is
473 present, use "!field" to check if the field
474 is not present, and "&" to check multiple
475 conditions. Use a "\" to escape "&" or
476 quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
477 the filter matches if atleast one of the
62b58c09 478 conditions are met. E.g. --match-filter
2dd5a2e3 479 !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?100 &
480 description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'" matches
481 only videos that are not live OR those that
482 have a like count more than 100 (or the like
483 field is not available) and also has a
484 description that contains the phrase "cats &
485 dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
486 interactively ask whether to download each
487 video
488 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
489 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
490 to a video and a playlist
491 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
492 a video and a playlist
493 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
494 age
495 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
496 archive file. Record the IDs of all
497 downloaded videos in it
498 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
499 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
500 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
501 a file that is in the archive
502 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
503 a file that has been filtered out
71df9b7f 504 --break-per-input Alters --max-downloads, --break-on-existing,
505 --break-on-reject, and autonumber to reset
506 per input URL
2dd5a2e3 507 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
508 terminates the entire download queue
509 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
510 the playlist is skipped
6bcd846b 511
d5a62e4f 512## Download Options:
2dd5a2e3 513 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
514 video that should be downloaded concurrently
515 (default is 1)
62b58c09
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516 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second,
517 e.g. 50K or 4.2M
2dd5a2e3 518 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
519 below which throttling is assumed and the
62b58c09 520 video data is re-extracted, e.g. 100K
2dd5a2e3 521 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
522 "infinite"
523 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
524 error (default is 3), or "infinite"
525 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
526 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
be5c1ae8 527 --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR Time to sleep between retries in seconds
528 (optionally) prefixed by the type of retry
529 (http (default), fragment, file_access,
530 extractor) to apply the sleep to. EXPR can
531 be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=1]] or
532 exp=START[:END[:BASE=2]]. This option can be
533 used multiple times to set the sleep for the
62b58c09 534 different retry types, e.g. --retry-sleep
2dd5a2e3 535 linear=1::2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=1:20
536 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
537 hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
8e174ba7 538 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragments)
539 --abort-on-unavailable-fragments
2dd5a2e3 540 Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
541 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
542 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
543 downloading is finished
544 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
545 downloading is finished (default)
62b58c09 546 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer, e.g. 1024 or 16K
2dd5a2e3 547 (default is 1024)
548 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
549 from an initial value of --buffer-size
550 (default)
551 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
552 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
62b58c09 553 downloading, e.g. 10485760 or 10M (default
2dd5a2e3 554 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
555 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
556 (experimental)
2dd5a2e3 557 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
7e9a6125 558 --lazy-playlist Process entries in the playlist as they are
559 received. This disables n_entries,
560 --playlist-random and --playlist-reverse
561 --no-lazy-playlist Process videos in the playlist only after
562 the entire playlist is parsed (default)
2dd5a2e3 563 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
564 expected file size
565 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
566 allowing some players to play the video
567 while downloading, and reducing the chance
568 of file corruption if download is
569 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
570 live streams
571 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
572 videos. This is default when not downloading
573 live streams
5ec1b6b7 574 --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters whose title matches
575 the given regular expression. Time ranges
576 prefixed by a "*" can also be used in place
577 of chapters to download the specified range.
62b58c09
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578 Needs ffmpeg. This option can be used
579 multiple times to download multiple
580 sections, e.g. --download-sections
2fa669f7 581 "*10:15-inf" --download-sections "intro"
2dd5a2e3 582 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
583 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
584 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
585 use it for. Currently supports native,
586 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
587 wget. You can use this option multiple times
588 to set different downloaders for different
62b58c09 589 protocols. E.g. --downloader aria2c
2dd5a2e3 590 --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
591 aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
592 native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
593 (Alias: --external-downloader)
594 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
595 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
596 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
597 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different
598 positions using the same syntax as
599 --postprocessor-args. You can use this
600 option multiple times to give different
601 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
602 --external-downloader-args)
d5a62e4f 603
cfcec693 604## Filesystem Options:
2dd5a2e3 605 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
606 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
607 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
608 comments and ignored
609 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
610 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
611 downloaded. Specify the type of file and the
612 path separated by a colon ":". All the same
613 TYPES as --output are supported.
614 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
615 (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary
616 files are first downloaded to the temp path
617 and then the final files are moved over to
618 the home path after download is finished.
619 This option is ignored if --output is an
620 absolute path
621 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
622 TEMPLATE" for details
623 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
624 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" (default: "NA")
625 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
626 and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
627 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
628 filenames (default)
629 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
630 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
631 using Windows (default)
632 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
633 extension) to the specified number of
634 characters
635 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
636 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This
637 option includes --no-continue
638 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
639 related files (default)
640 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
641 (default)
642 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
643 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
644 restart download of the entire file
645 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
646 into output file (default)
647 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into
648 output file
649 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file
650 modification time (default)
651 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
652 the file modification time
64fa820c 653 --write-description Write video description to a .description file
2dd5a2e3 654 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
655 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
656 (this may contain personal information)
657 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
658 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
659 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
660 --write-description etc. (default)
661 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
662 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
663 --clean-info-json Remove some private fields such as filenames
664 from the infojson. Note that it could still
665 contain some personal information (default)
666 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
667 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
668 infojson. The comments are fetched even
669 without this option if the extraction is
670 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
671 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
672 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
673 --no-get-comments)
674 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
64fa820c 675 (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
2dd5a2e3 676 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from
677 and dump cookie jar in
678 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
679 (default)
825d3ce3 680 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]
681 The name of the browser to load cookies
682 from. Currently supported browsers are:
683 brave, chrome, chromium, edge, firefox,
684 opera, safari, vivaldi. Optionally, the
685 KEYRING used for decrypting Chromium cookies
686 on Linux, the name/path of the PROFILE to
687 load cookies from, and the CONTAINER name
688 (if Firefox) ("none" for no container) can
689 be given with their respective seperators.
690 By default, all containers of the most
691 recently accessed profile are used.
692 Currently supported keyrings are: basictext,
693 gnomekeyring, kwallet
2dd5a2e3 694 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
17ffed18 695 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where yt-dlp can
696 store some downloaded information (such as
697 client ids and signatures) permanently. By
878eac3e 698 default ${XDG_CACHE_HOME}/yt-dlp
2dd5a2e3 699 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
700 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
6bcd846b 701
b31fdeed 702## Thumbnail Options:
2dd5a2e3 703 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
64fa820c 704 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default)
2dd5a2e3 705 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
706 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
707 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
2b1bd292 708
732044af 709## Internet Shortcut Options:
2dd5a2e3 710 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
711 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
712 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
713 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
714 OS caches the URL based on the file path
715 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
716 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
732044af 717
0744a815 718## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
2dd5a2e3 719 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
720 print the log to stderr
721 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
722 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
723 anything to disk
724 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
725 options are used
726 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
727 extracting metadata even if the videos are
728 not actually available for download
729 (experimental)
730 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
731 formats are found (default)
732 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
733 related files (Alias: --no-download)
734 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
735 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
736 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
737 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
119e40ef 738 --use-postprocessor (default: video).
2dd5a2e3 739 Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
740 --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
741 used. This option can be used multiple times
bb66c247 742 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
2dd5a2e3 743 Append given template to the file. The
744 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as that
745 of --print. FILE uses the same syntax as the
746 output template. This option can be used
747 multiple times
748 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
749 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
750 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
751 description of available keys
752 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
753 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
754 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
755 a playlist, the whole playlist information
756 is dumped in a single line
757 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
758 as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
759 another simulation option is used (Alias:
760 --force-download-archive)
761 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
762 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
763 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
764 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
819e0531 765 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
2dd5a2e3 766 Template for progress outputs, optionally
767 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
768 "download-title:" (the console title),
769 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
770 The video's fields are accessible under the
771 "info" key and the progress attributes are
62b58c09 772 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 773 --console-title --progress-template
774 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
775 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
776 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
777 to debug problems (very verbose)
778 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files
779 in the current directory to debug problems
780 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
6bcd846b 781
36f35428 782## Workarounds:
2dd5a2e3 783 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
784 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to servers
785 that do not support RFC 5746 secure
786 renegotiation
787 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
788 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
789 information about the video (Currently
790 supported only for YouTube)
a5387729 791 --add-headers FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
2dd5a2e3 792 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
793 option multiple times
794 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
795 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
796 or fribidi executable in PATH
797 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
798 during data extraction
799 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
800 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
801 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
802 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
803 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only
804 be used along with --min-sleep-interval
805 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
806 subtitle download
36f35428 807
cfcec693 808## Video Format Options:
2dd5a2e3 809 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
810 for more details
811 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
812 "Sorting Formats" for more details
813 --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
814 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
815 Formats" for more details (Alias: --S-force)
816 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
817 specified sort order (default)
818 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
819 into a single file
820 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
821 output file (default)
822 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
823 into a single file
824 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
825 output file (default)
826 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
827 over non-free ones of same quality. Use with
828 "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers
829 irrespective of quality
830 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
831 containers (default)
832 --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
833 those that are actually downloadable
834 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
835 actually downloadable
836 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
837 downloadable
838 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
839 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
fc61aff4 840 --merge-output-format FORMAT Containers that may be used when merging
62b58c09 841 formats, separated by "/", e.g. "mp4/mkv".
fc61aff4
LL
842 Ignored if no merge is required. (currently
843 supported: avi, flv, mkv, mov, mp4, webm)
8ae7be3e
PH
844
845## Subtitle Options:
2dd5a2e3 846 --write-subs Write subtitle file
847 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
848 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
849 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
850 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
851 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
852 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
853 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
854 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
62b58c09 855 e.g. "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
2dd5a2e3 856 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
62b58c09
L
857 be regex) or "all" separated by commas, e.g.
858 --sub-langs "en.*,ja". You can prefix the
2dd5a2e3 859 language code with a "-" to exclude it from
62b58c09
L
860 the requested languages, e.g. --sub-langs
861 all,-live_chat. Use --list-subs for a list
2dd5a2e3 862 of available language tags
6bcd846b 863
cfcec693 864## Authentication Options:
2dd5a2e3 865 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
866 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
867 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
868 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
869 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
870 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
871 either the path or its containing directory.
872 Defaults to ~/.netrc
873 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
874 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
875 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
876 a list of available MSOs
877 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
878 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
879 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
880 interactively
881 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
882 --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
883 format. May include the private key
884 --client-certificate-key KEYFILE
885 Path to private key file for client
886 certificate
bb58c9ed 887 --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
2dd5a2e3 888 Password for client certificate private key,
889 if encrypted. If not provided, and the key
890 is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask interactively
f5e008d1 891
c76eb41b 892## Post-Processing Options:
2dd5a2e3 893 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
894 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
35faefee 895 --audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
896 used. (currently supported: best (default),
8dc59305 897 aac, alac, flac, m4a, mp3, opus, vorbis,
e0ab9854 898 wav). You can specify multiple rules using
899 similar syntax as --remux-video
2dd5a2e3 900 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
901 converting the audio with -x. Insert a value
902 between 0 (best) and 10 (worst) for VBR or a
903 specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
904 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
8dc59305 905 necessary (currently supported: avi, flv,
69f5fe45 906 gif, mkv, mov, mp4, webm, aac, aiff, alac,
907 flac, m4a, mka, mp3, ogg, opus, vorbis,
908 wav). If target container does not support
909 the video/audio codec, remuxing will fail.
910 You can specify multiple rules; e.g.
2dd5a2e3 911 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
35faefee 912 mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
2dd5a2e3 913 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
914 necessary. The syntax and supported formats
915 are the same as --remux-video
916 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
917 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
918 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
919 to give the argument to the specified
920 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
921 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
922 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
923 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
924 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
925 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
926 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
927 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
928 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
929 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
930 specified executable only when being used by
931 the specified postprocessor. Additionally,
932 for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
933 appended to the prefix optionally followed
934 by a number to pass the argument before the
62b58c09 935 specified input/output file, e.g. --ppa
2dd5a2e3 936 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
937 this option multiple times to give different
938 arguments to different postprocessors.
939 (Alias: --ppa)
940 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
941 after post-processing
942 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
943 post-processing (default)
944 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
945 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
946 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
947 webm and mkv videos)
948 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
949 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
950 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
951 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
952 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
953 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are
954 used (Alias: --add-metadata)
955 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
956 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
957 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
958 (Alias: --add-chapters)
959 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias:
960 --no-add-chapters)
961 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
962 mkv/mka video files
963 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
964 to the video file
fe74d5b5 965 --parse-metadata [WHEN:]FROM:TO
966 Parse additional metadata like title/artist
2dd5a2e3 967 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
fe74d5b5 968 for details. Supported values of "WHEN" are
969 the same as that of --use-postprocessor
970 (default: pre_process)
971 --replace-in-metadata [WHEN:]FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
2dd5a2e3 972 Replace text in a metadata field using the
973 given regex. This option can be used
fe74d5b5 974 multiple times. Supported values of "WHEN"
975 are the same as that of --use-postprocessor
976 (default: pre_process)
2dd5a2e3 977 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
978 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
979 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
980 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
981 (default; only when the videos form a single
982 show). All the video files must have same
983 codecs and number of streams to be
984 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
985 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
986 the output filename for the concatenated
987 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
988 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
989 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
990 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
991 default; fix file if we can, warn
992 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
993 already exists)
994 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
64fa820c 995 path to the binary or its containing directory
2dd5a2e3 996 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
119e40ef 997 when to execute it, separated by a ":".
998 Supported values of "WHEN" are the same as
999 that of --use-postprocessor (default:
1000 after_move). Same syntax as the output
1001 template can be used to pass any field as
1002 arguments to the command. After download, an
1003 additional field "filepath" that contains
1004 the final path of the downloaded file is
1005 also available, and if no fields are passed,
8e174ba7 1006 %(filepath,_filename|)q is appended to the
1007 end of the command. This option can be used
1008 multiple times
2dd5a2e3 1009 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
1010 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
8dc59305 1011 (currently supported: ass, lrc, srt, vtt)
2dd5a2e3 1012 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
1013 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
00bbc5f1 1014 (currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
1015 can specify multiple rules using similar
1016 syntax as --remux-video
2dd5a2e3 1017 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
1018 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can
1019 be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1020 the output filename for the split files. See
1021 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
64fa820c 1022 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters (default)
2dd5a2e3 1023 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
5ec1b6b7 1024 given regular expression. The syntax is the
1025 same as --download-sections. This option can
2dd5a2e3 1026 be used multiple times
1027 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
1028 (default)
5ec1b6b7 1029 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes at cuts when
1030 downloading/splitting/removing sections.
1031 This is slow due to needing a re-encode, but
1032 the resulting video may have fewer artifacts
1033 around the cuts
2dd5a2e3 1034 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
1035 when cutting/splitting (default)
1036 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS]
1037 The (case sensitive) name of plugin
1038 postprocessors to be enabled, and
1039 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
1040 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
1041 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
1042 The "when" argument determines when the
1043 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
1044 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
1045 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
119e40ef 1046 "video" (after --format; before
1047 --print/--output), "before_dl" (before each
1048 video download), "post_process" (after each
1049 video download; default), "after_move"
1050 (after moving video file to it's final
1051 locations), "after_video" (after downloading
1052 and processing all formats of a video), or
1053 "playlist" (at end of playlist). This option
1054 can be used multiple times to add different
1055 postprocessors
7a340e0d
NA
1056
1057## SponsorBlock Options:
1058Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1059 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
8a51f564 1060 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1061
2dd5a2e3 1062 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1063 for, separated by commas. Available
1064 categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
1065 selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
71df9b7f 1066 music_offtopic, poi_highlight, chapter, all
1067 and default (=all). You can prefix the
1068 category with a "-" to exclude it. See [1]
1069 for description of the categories. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 1070 --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1071 [1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1072 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1073 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1074 category is present in both mark and remove,
1075 remove takes precedence. The syntax and
1076 available categories are the same as for
1077 --sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
71df9b7f 1078 refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight,
63c547d7 1079 chapter are not available
7a340e0d 1080 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
2dd5a2e3 1081 An output template for the title of the
1082 SponsorBlock chapters created by
1083 --sponsorblock-mark. The only available
1084 fields are start_time, end_time, category,
1085 categories, name, category_names. Defaults
1086 to "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1087 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1088 --sponsorblock-remove
1089 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1090 https://sponsor.ajay.app
a9e7f546 1091
78895bd3 1092## Extractor Options:
2dd5a2e3 1093 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors
1094 (default is 3), or "infinite"
1095 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1096 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1097 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1098 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1099 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1100 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1101 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1102 formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
1103 (default)
2fa669f7 1104 --extractor-args IE_KEY:ARGS Pass ARGS arguments to the IE_KEY extractor.
1105 See "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You
1106 can use this option multiple times to give
2dd5a2e3 1107 arguments for different extractors
17cb02d0 1108
b7770046
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1109# CONFIGURATION
1110
7a5c1cfe 1111You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
e2e43aea 1112
878eac3e 11131. **Main Configuration**:
1114 * The file given by `--config-location`
11151. **Portable Configuration**: (Recommended for portable installations)
1116 * If using a binary, `yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the binary
1117 * If running from source-code, `yt-dlp.conf` in the parent directory of `yt_dlp`
11181. **Home Configuration**:
1119 * `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by `-P`
1120 * If `-P` is not given, the current directory is searched
e2e43aea 11211. **User Configuration**:
773c272d 1122 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp.conf`
878eac3e 1123 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
8e40b9d1 1124 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
773c272d 1125 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp.conf`
878eac3e 1126 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1127 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
e2e43aea 1128 * `~/yt-dlp.conf`
1129 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
8e40b9d1
M
1130 * `~/.yt-dlp/config`
1131 * `~/.yt-dlp/config.txt`
3d3bb168 1132
878eac3e 1133 See also: [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
11341. **System Configuration**:
1135 * `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
8e40b9d1
M
1136 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config`
1137 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config.txt`
b7770046 1138
62b58c09 1139E.g. 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:
b7770046
U
1140```
1141# Lines starting with # are comments
1142
1143# Always extract audio
1144-x
1145
1146# Do not copy the mtime
1147--no-mtime
1148
1149# Use this proxy
1150--proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1151
298f597b 1152# Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1153-o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
b7770046
U
1154```
1155
8e174ba7 1156**Note**: 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`. They must also be quoted when necessary as-if it were a UNIX shell.
b7770046 1157
a4211baf 1158You 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.
b7770046 1159
304ad45a 1160### Configuration file encoding
a904a7f8 1161
304ad45a 1162The configuration files are decoded according to the UTF BOM if present, and in the encoding from system locale otherwise.
a904a7f8 1163
88f60feb 1164If you want your file to be decoded differently, add `# coding: ENCODING` to the beginning of the file (e.g. `# coding: shift-jis`). There must be no characters before that, even spaces or BOM.
a904a7f8 1165
b7770046
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1166### Authentication with `.netrc` file
1167
304ad45a 1168You 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 1169```
878eac3e 1170touch ${HOME}/.netrc
1171chmod a-rwx,u+rw ${HOME}/.netrc
b7770046
U
1172```
1173After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1174```
0001fcb5 1175machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
b7770046 1176```
62b58c09 1177E.g.
b7770046
U
1178```
1179machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1180machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1181```
7a5c1cfe 1182To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
b7770046 1183
878eac3e 1184The default location of the .netrc file is `~` (see below).
1185
1186### Notes about environment variables
1187* Environment variables are normally specified as `${VARIABLE}`/`$VARIABLE` on UNIX and `%VARIABLE%` on Windows; but is always shown as `${VARIABLE}` in this documentation
1188* yt-dlp also allow using UNIX-style variables on Windows for path-like options; e.g. `--output`, `--config-location`
1189* If unset, `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}` defaults to `~/.config` and `${XDG_CACHE_HOME}` to `~/.cache`
1190* On Windows, `~` points to `${HOME}` if present; or, `${USERPROFILE}` or `${HOMEDRIVE}${HOMEPATH}` otherwise
1191* On Windows, `${USERPROFILE}` generally points to `C:\Users\<user name>` and `${APPDATA}` to `${USERPROFILE}\AppData\Roaming`
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1192
1193# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
1194
0202b52a 1195The `-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 1196
ec2e44fc 1197<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1198**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
ec2e44fc 1199<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1200
e58c22a0 1201The 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 1202
62b58c09 1203It 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), e.g. `%(NAME)s` or `%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations.
a439a3a4 1204
1205The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
3d3bb168 1206
07a1250e 12071. **Object traversal**: The dictionaries and lists available in metadata can be traversed by using a dot `.` separator; e.g. `%(tags.0)s`, `%(subtitles.en.-1.ext)s`. You can do Python slicing with colon `:`; E.g. `%(id.3:7:-1)s`, `%(formats.:.format_id)s`. Curly braces `{}` can be used to build dictionaries with only specific keys; e.g. `%(formats.:.{format_id,height})#j`. An empty field name `%()s` refers to the entire infodict; e.g. `%(.{id,title})s`. Note that all the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use `-j` to see such fields
ec2e44fc 1208
62b58c09 12091. **Addition**: Addition and subtraction of numeric fields can be done using `+` and `-` respectively. E.g. `%(playlist_index+10)03d`, `%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
ec2e44fc 1210
62b58c09 12111. **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 `>`. E.g. `%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`, `%(upload_date>%Y-%m-%d)s`, `%(epoch-3600>%H-%M-%S)s`
ec2e44fc 1212
62b58c09 12131. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a `,`. E.g. `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
ec2e44fc 1214
304ad45a 12151. **Replacement**: A replacement value can be 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.
e978789f 1216
17ffed18 12171. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a `|` separator. This overrides `--output-na-placeholder`. E.g. `%(uploader|Unknown)s`
ec2e44fc 1218
9b9dad11 12191. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types `diouxXeEfFgGcrs`, yt-dlp additionally supports converting to `B` = **B**ytes, `j` = **j**son (flag `#` for pretty-printing, `+` for Unicode), `h` = HTML escaping, `l` = a comma separated **l**ist (flag `#` for `\n` newline-separated), `q` = a string **q**uoted for the terminal (flag `#` to split a list into different arguments), `D` = add **D**ecimal suffixes (e.g. 10M) (flag `#` to use 1024 as factor), and `S` = **S**anitize as filename (flag `#` for restricted)
ec2e44fc 1220
d5d1df8a 12211. **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. E.g. `%(title)+.100U` is NFKC
a439a3a4 1222
1223To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1224```
e978789f 1225%(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
a439a3a4 1226```
de6000d9 1227
62b58c09 1228Additionally, 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`. E.g. `-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. E.g. `--write-thumbnail -o "thumbnail:"` will write thumbnails only for playlists and not for video.
e29663c6 1229
7aaf4cd2
RG
1230<a id="outtmpl-postprocess-note"></a>
1231
8e174ba7 1232**Note**: Due to post-processing (i.e. merging etc.), the actual output filename might differ. Use `--print after_move:filepath` to get the name after all post-processing is complete.
7aaf4cd2 1233
e29663c6 1234The available fields are:
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1235
1236 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1237 - `title` (string): Video title
455a15e2 1238 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
b7770046
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1239 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1240 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
597c1866 1241 - `description` (string): The description of the video
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1242 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1243 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1244 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1245 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
b7770046 1246 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
ae6a1b95 1247 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
e6f21b3d 1248 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
ae6a1b95 1249 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
f0d785d3 1250 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
ae6a1b95 1251 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
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1252 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1253 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1254 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
6c73052c 1255 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
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1256 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1257 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
53c18592 1258 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
b7770046 1259 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
867c66ff 1260 - `concurrent_view_count` (numeric): How many users are currently watching the video on the platform.
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1261 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1262 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1263 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1264 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
277d6ff5 1265 - `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 1266 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
e325a21a 1267 - `live_status` (string): One of "not_live", "is_live", "is_upcoming", "was_live", "post_live" (was live, but VOD is not yet processed)
b7770046 1268 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
f76ede8e 1269 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
6cfda058 1270 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
940a67a3 1271 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
b7770046
U
1272 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1273 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
b7770046
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1274 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1275 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
455a15e2 1276 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
b7770046 1277 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`
9c906919 1278 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
e6f21b3d 1279 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
455a15e2 1280 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1281 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1282 - `playlist` (string): `playlist_id` or `playlist_title`
f0d785d3 1283 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
e6f21b3d 1284 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1285 - `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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1286 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1287 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
bd99f6e6 1288 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
0bb322b9 1289 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1290 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
bd99f6e6 1291 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)
d2c8aadf 1292
1293All the fields in [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats) can also be used
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1294
1295Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1296
1297 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1298 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1299 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1300
1301Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1302
1303 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1304 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1305 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1306 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1307 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1308 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1309 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1310
1311Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1312
1313 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1314 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1315 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1316 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1317 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1318 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1319 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1320 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1321 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1322 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1323
5ec1b6b7 1324Available only when using `--download-sections` and for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
72755351 1325
1326 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1327 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1328 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1329 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1330
53c18592 1331Available only when used in `--print`:
1332
1333 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
7aaf4cd2 1334 - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the [actual filename may differ](#outtmpl-postprocess-note)
ed5835b4 1335 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by `--list-formats`
1336 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by `--list-thumbnails`
1337 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1338 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1339
7a340e0d
NA
1340
1341Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1342
1343 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1344 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1338ae3b 1345 - `categories` (list): The [SponsorBlock categories](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Category) the chapter belongs to
7a340e0d
NA
1346 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1347 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1348 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
1338ae3b 1349 - `type` (string): The [SponsorBlock action type](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Action_Type) of the chapter
53c18592 1350
62b58c09 1351Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. E.g. 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.
49a57e70 1352
8e174ba7 1353**Note**: 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 1354
0930b11f 1355**Tip**: Look at the `-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
b7770046 1356
62b58c09 1357For numeric sequences you can use [numeric related formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting); e.g. `%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to 5 characters, like in `00042`.
b7770046 1358
940a67a3 1359Output 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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1360
1361To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
1362
91ebc640 1363The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
b7770046 1364
f304da8a 1365In 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 1366
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1367#### Output template examples
1368
b7770046 1369```bash
d2c8aadf 1370$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1371test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1372
d2c8aadf 1373$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1374youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
b7770046 1375
d2c8aadf 1376$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
9222c381 1377youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
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1378
1379# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
940a67a3 1380$ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
b7770046 1381
b050d210 1382# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
940a67a3 1383$ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
e29663c6 1384
e978789f 1385# Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
6a34813a 1386$ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist_index|)s%(playlist_index& - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
e978789f 1387
b7770046 1388# Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
940a67a3 1389$ 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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1390
1391# Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
940a67a3 1392$ 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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1393
1394# Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
940a67a3 1395$ 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 1396
6a34813a 1397# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1398# and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1399$ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1400
1401# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1402$ 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
1403
b7770046 1404# Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
7a5c1cfe 1405$ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
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1406```
1407
1408# FORMAT SELECTION
1409
7a5c1cfe
P
1410By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1411This 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 1412
c111cefa 1413**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.
1414
eff63539 1415The 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 1416
ec2e44fc 1417<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1418**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
ec2e44fc 1419<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1420
62b58c09 1421The simplest case is requesting a specific format; e.g. 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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1422
1423You 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.
1424
fa9f30b8 1425You can use `-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1426
b7770046
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1427You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1428
59a7a13e 1429 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1430 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
30389593 1431 - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio or both (ie; `vcodec!=none or acodec!=none`)
59a7a13e 1432 - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1433 - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
1434 - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
1435 - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
ae6a1b95 1436 - `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 1437 - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
909d24dd 1438 - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1439 - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
909d24dd 1440 - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1441 - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
909d24dd 1442 - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
b7770046 1443
d4ada357 1444For 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 1445
1446You 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 1447
304ad45a 1448If 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; e.g. `-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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U
1449
1450If 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`.
1451
62b58c09 1452You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using `-f <format1>+<format2>+...` (requires ffmpeg installed); e.g. `-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg.
d806c9fd 1453
1454**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
1455
304ad45a 1456Unless `--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. E.g. `-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 only `best` while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams` will ignore `best` and download only `bestaudio`.
eb8a4433 1457
1458## Filtering Formats
1459
b7770046
U
1460You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
1461
1462The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
1463
1464 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
d2c8aadf 1465 - `filesize_approx`: An estimate for the number of bytes
b7770046
U
1466 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1467 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
105bfd90 1468 - `aspect_ratio`: Aspect ratio of the video, if known
b7770046
U
1469 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1470 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1471 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1472 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1473 - `fps`: Frame rate
d2c8aadf 1474 - `audio_channels`: The number of audio channels
1475 - `stretched_ratio`: `width:height` of the video's pixels, if not square
b7770046 1476
1ce9a3cb 1477Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains), `~=` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
b7770046 1478
d2c8aadf 1479 - `url`: Video URL
b7770046
U
1480 - `ext`: File extension
1481 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1482 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1483 - `container`: Name of the container format
1484 - `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`)
29f7c58a 1485 - `language`: Language code
d2c8aadf 1486 - `dynamic_range`: The dynamic range of the video
1487 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
1488 - `format`: A human-readable description of the format
1489 - `format_note`: Additional info about the format
1490 - `resolution`: Textual description of width and height
b7770046 1491
1ce9a3cb 1492Any 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 1493
8e174ba7 1494**Note**: 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 1495
62b58c09 1496Formats 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, e.g. `-f "all[vcodec=none]"` selects all audio-only formats.
b7770046 1497
62b58c09 1498Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses; e.g. `-f "(mp4,webm)[height<480]"` will download the best pre-merged mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480.
b7770046 1499
eb8a4433 1500## Sorting Formats
1501
2e7781a9 1502You can change the criteria for being considered the `best` by using `-S` (`--format-sort`). The general format for this is `--format-sort field1,field2...`.
1503
1504The available fields are:
eb8a4433 1505
304ad45a 1506 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that have a video stream
1507 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that have an audio stream
ed8d87f9 1508 - `ie_pref`: The format preference
1509 - `lang`: The language preference
1510 - `quality`: The quality of the format
1511 - `source`: The preference of the source
d80d98e7 1512 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > `mms`/`rtsp` > `f4f`/`f4m`)
1513 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other)
a5387729 1514 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`flac`/`alac` > `wav`/`aiff` > `opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `ac4` > `eac3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other)
eb8a4433 1515 - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
29ca4082 1516 - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `mov` > `webm` > `flv` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is preferred.
f2e9fa3e 1517 - `aext`: Audio Extension (`m4a` > `aac` > `mp3` > `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > `mp3` > `m4a` > `aac`
63be1aab 1518 - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
0930b11f 1519 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
63be1aab 1520 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1521 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
eb8a4433 1522 - `height`: Height of video
1523 - `width`: Width of video
63be1aab 1524 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1525 - `fps`: Framerate of video
49a57e70 1526 - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `HLG` > `SDR`)
b8ed0f15 1527 - `channels`: The number of audio channels
63be1aab 1528 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1529 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1530 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1531 - `br`: Equivalent to using `tbr,vbr,abr`
1532 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
d806c9fd 1533
1534**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 1535
62b58c09 1536All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in descending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+`. E.g. `+res` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a preferred value for the fields, separated by a `:`. E.g. `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. E.g. `+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. E.g. `filesize~1G` prefers the format with filesize closest to 1 GiB.
9ee4f0bb 1537
7e798d72 1538The 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,vcodec:vp9.2,channels,acodec,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id`. The extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
eb8a4433 1539
7e798d72 1540Note that the default has `vcodec: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 1541
e58c22a0 1542If 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 1543
1544**Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1545
eb8a4433 1546## Format Selection examples
b7770046 1547
b7770046 1548```bash
e58c22a0 1549# Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
909d24dd 1550# or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
940a67a3 1551$ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
909d24dd 1552
1553# Download best format that contains video,
1554# and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
940a67a3 1555$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
2af884ff 1556
1557# Same as above
7a5c1cfe 1558$ yt-dlp
909d24dd 1559
6fd35a11 1560# Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1561# For this case, an output template should be used since
1562# by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
940a67a3 1563$ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
909d24dd 1564
f8d4ad9a 1565# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1566# and all audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1567$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
f8d4ad9a 1568
1569# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1570# and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1571$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
909d24dd 1572
6fd35a11 1573
1574# The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
f8d4ad9a 1575# and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
6fd35a11 1576
1577# Download the worst video available (old method)
940a67a3 1578$ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
eb8a4433 1579
1580# Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
940a67a3 1581$ yt-dlp -S "+res"
eb8a4433 1582
1583# Download the smallest video available
940a67a3 1584$ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
eb8a4433 1585
1586
909d24dd 1587
eb8a4433 1588# Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
940a67a3 1589$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
eb8a4433 1590
1591# Download the best video with the best extension
29ca4082 1592# (For video, mp4 > mov > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
940a67a3 1593$ yt-dlp -S "ext"
eb8a4433 1594
1595
909d24dd 1596
eb8a4433 1597# Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1598# or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1599$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
b7770046 1600
eb8a4433 1601# Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1602# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1603$ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
b7770046 1604
eb8a4433 1605# Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1606# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1607# Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1608# So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
940a67a3 1609$ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
b7770046 1610
b7770046 1611
909d24dd 1612
eb8a4433 1613# Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1614# or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1615$ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
eb8a4433 1616
1617# Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1618# or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1619$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
eb8a4433 1620
1621# Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
940a67a3 1622$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
eb8a4433 1623
1624
909d24dd 1625
eb8a4433 1626# Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1627# or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
940a67a3 1628$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1629
1630# Download best video available via the best protocol
1631# (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
940a67a3 1632$ yt-dlp -S "proto"
eb8a4433 1633
1634
909d24dd 1635
1ce9a3cb
LF
1636# Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1637# or the best video if there is no such video
1638$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1639
1640# Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1641# or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1642$ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1643
1644# Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1645# or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1646$ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1647
1648
1649
1650# More complex examples
1651
e58c22a0 1652# Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1653# or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
940a67a3 1654$ 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 1655
1656# Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
f8d4ad9a 1657# or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1658# preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
940a67a3 1659$ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
eb8a4433 1660
1661
909d24dd 1662
eb8a4433 1663# Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1664# or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1665# preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
940a67a3 1666$ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
b7770046 1667```
eb8a4433 1668
73cd218f 1669# MODIFYING METADATA
1670
a4211baf 1671The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
e9f4ccd1 1672
418964fa 1673`--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 1674
46d09f87 1675The 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, a single field name, 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 1676
46d09f87 1677Note that these options preserve their relative order, allowing replacements to be made in parsed fields and viceversa. Also, any field thus created can be used in the [output template](#output-template) and will also affect the media file's metadata added when using `--embed-metadata`.
73cd218f 1678
9c2b75b5 1679This option also has a few special uses:
3d3bb168 1680
62b58c09 1681* 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. E.g. `--parse-metadata "description:(?P<additional_urls>https?://www\.vimeo\.com/\d+)` will download the first vimeo video found in the description
3d3bb168 1682
62b58c09 1683* 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 - you can use this to set a different "description" and "synopsis". To modify the metadata of individual streams, use the `meta<n>_` prefix (e.g. `meta1_language`). Any value set to the `meta_` field will overwrite all default values.
c31be5b0 1684
08d30158 1685**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.
1686
c31be5b0 1687For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1688
08d30158 1689Metadata fields | From
1690:--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1691`title` | `track` or `title`
1692`date` | `upload_date`
1693`description`, `synopsis` | `description`
1694`purl`, `comment` | `webpage_url`
1695`track` | `track_number`
1696`artist` | `artist`, `creator`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
1697`genre` | `genre`
1698`album` | `album`
1699`album_artist` | `album_artist`
1700`disc` | `disc_number`
1701`show` | `series`
1702`season_number` | `season_number`
1703`episode_id` | `episode` or `episode_id`
1704`episode_sort` | `episode_number`
1705`language` of each stream | the format's `language`
1706
c31be5b0 1707**Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1708
73cd218f 1709
1710## Modifying metadata examples
1711
73cd218f 1712```bash
1713# Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
940a67a3 1714$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
73cd218f 1715
1716# Regex example
940a67a3 1717$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
73cd218f 1718
1719# Set title as "Series name S01E05"
940a67a3 1720$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
73cd218f 1721
a44ca5a4 1722# Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
2fa669f7 1723$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --embed-metadata
a44ca5a4 1724
1725# Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
1726# handling multiple lines correctly
2fa669f7 1727$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --embed-metadata
73cd218f 1728
8aa0e7cd 1729# Do not set any "synopsis" in the video metadata
1730$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<meta_synopsis>)"
1731
0930b11f 1732# Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
940a67a3 1733$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<formats>)" -j
0930b11f 1734
e9f4ccd1 1735# Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
940a67a3 1736$ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
e9f4ccd1 1737
73cd218f 1738```
1739
5d3a0e79 1740# EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1741
62b58c09 1742Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using `--extractor-args KEY:ARGS`. `ARGS` is a `;` (semicolon) separated string of `ARG=VAL1,VAL2`. E.g. `--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android_embedded,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
5d3a0e79 1743
a5387729 1744Note: In CLI, `ARG` can use `-` instead of `_`; e.g. `youtube:player-client"` becomes `youtube:player_client"`
1745
5d3a0e79 1746The following extractors use this feature:
96565c7e 1747
1748#### youtube
8e174ba7 1749* `lang`: Prefer translated metadata (`title`, `description` etc) of this language code (case-sensitive). By default, the video primary language metadata is preferred, with a fallback to `en` translated. See [youtube.py](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/c26f9b991a0681fd3ea548d535919cec1fbbd430/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L381-L390) for list of supported content language codes
8aa0e7cd 1750* `skip`: One or more of `hls`, `dash` or `translated_subs` to skip extraction of the m3u8 manifests, dash manifests and [auto-translated subtitles](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/4090#issuecomment-1158102032) respectively
304ad45a 1751* `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web`, `android` and `ios` with variants `_music`, `_embedded`, `_embedscreen`, `_creator` (e.g. `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 1752* `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
96565c7e 1753* `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
a44ca5a4 1754* `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`
1755 * 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
4d37720a 1756* `include_incomplete_formats`: Extract formats that cannot be downloaded completely (live dash and post-live m3u8)
1e4fca9a 1757* `innertube_host`: Innertube API host to use for all API requests; e.g. `studio.youtube.com`, `youtubei.googleapis.com`. Note that cookies exported from one subdomain will not work on others
2ae778b8 1758* `innertube_key`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
96565c7e 1759
1760#### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1761* `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)
5225df50 1762* `approximate_date`: Extract approximate `upload_date` and `timestamp` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
96565c7e 1763
3b021eac 1764#### generic
1765* `fragment_query`: Passthrough any query in mpd/m3u8 manifest URLs to their fragments. Does not apply to ffmpeg
1766
96565c7e 1767#### funimation
304ad45a 1768* `language`: Audio languages to extract, e.g. `funimation:language=english,japanese`
96565c7e 1769* `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`
1770
cb1553e9 1771#### crunchyrollbeta (Crunchyroll)
62b58c09 1772* `format`: Which stream type(s) to extract (default: `adaptive_hls`). Potentially useful values include `adaptive_hls`, `adaptive_dash`, `vo_adaptive_hls`, `vo_adaptive_dash`, `download_hls`, `download_dash`, `multitrack_adaptive_hls_v2`
dfea94f8 1773* `hardsub`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract, or `all` (default: `None` = no hardsubs), e.g. `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None`
706dfe44 1774
96565c7e 1775#### vikichannel
1776* `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
73d829c1 1777
7bdcb4a4
LNO
1778#### niconico
1779* `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.**
1780
aa4b0545 1781#### youtubewebarchive
1782* `check_all`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails`, `captures`
1783
d43de682
M
1784#### gamejolt
1785* `comment_sort`: `hot` (default), `you` (cookies needed), `top`, `new` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1786
26f2aa3d
AG
1787#### hotstar
1788* `res`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd`, `hd`, `fhd`
1789* `vcodec`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264`, `h265`, `dvh265`
1790* `dr`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr`, `hdr10`, `dv`
1791
046cab39 1792#### tiktok
c4cbd3be 1793* `api_hostname`: Hostname to use for mobile API requests, e.g. `api-h2.tiktokv.com`
62b58c09
L
1794* `app_version`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version`, e.g. `20.2.1`
1795* `manifest_app_version`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with, e.g. `221`
046cab39 1796
7eaf7f9a 1797#### rokfinchannel
62b58c09 1798* `tab`: Which tab to download - one of `new`, `top`, `videos`, `podcasts`, `streams`, `stacks`
7eaf7f9a 1799
7a26ce26
SS
1800#### twitter
1801* `force_graphql`: Force usage of the GraphQL API. By default it will only be used if login cookies are provided
7eaf7f9a 1802
8e174ba7 1803**Note**: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
5d3a0e79 1804
ec2e44fc 1805<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1806
3acf6d38 1807
f74980cb 1808# PLUGINS
b7770046 1809
8e40b9d1 1810Note 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!**
3ae5e797 1811
8e40b9d1
M
1812Plugins can be of `<type>`s `extractor` or `postprocessor`.
1813- Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it.
1814- Extractor plugins take priority over builtin extractors.
1815- Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME`.
3ae5e797 1816
3ae5e797 1817
8e40b9d1 1818Plugins are loaded from the namespace packages `yt_dlp_plugins.extractor` and `yt_dlp_plugins.postprocessor`.
3ae5e797 1819
8e40b9d1
M
1820In other words, the file structure on the disk looks something like:
1821
1822 yt_dlp_plugins/
1823 extractor/
1824 myplugin.py
1825 postprocessor/
1826 myplugin.py
1827
1828yt-dlp looks for these `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folders in many locations (see below) and loads in plugins from **all** of them.
b7770046 1829
deae7c17 1830See the [wiki for some known plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugins)
1831
8e40b9d1
M
1832## Installing Plugins
1833
1834Plugins can be installed using various methods and locations.
1835
18361. **Configuration directories**:
1837 Plugin packages (containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder) can be dropped into the following standard [configuration locations](#configuration):
1838 * **User Plugins**
1839 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1840 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1841 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Windows)
773c272d 1842 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
8e40b9d1
M
1843 * `~/.yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1844 * `~/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1845 * **System Plugins**
1846 * `/etc/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1847 * `/etc/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
18482. **Executable location**: Plugin packages can similarly be installed in a `yt-dlp-plugins` directory under the executable location:
1849 * Binary: where `<root-dir>/yt-dlp.exe`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1850 * Source: where `<root-dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1851
18523. **pip and other locations in `PYTHONPATH`**
e756f45b 1853 * Plugin packages can be installed and managed using `pip`. See [yt-dlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) for an example.
8e174ba7 1854 * Note: plugin files between plugin packages installed with pip must have unique filenames.
8e40b9d1
M
1855 * Any path in `PYTHONPATH` is searched in for the `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder.
1856 * Note: This does not apply for Pyinstaller/py2exe builds.
1857
1858
8e174ba7 1859`.zip`, `.egg` and `.whl` archives containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder in their root are also supported as plugin packages.
1860* e.g. `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/mypluginpkg.zip` where `mypluginpkg.zip` contains `yt_dlp_plugins/<type>/myplugin.py`
8e40b9d1 1861
8e174ba7 1862Run yt-dlp with `--verbose` to check if the plugin has been loaded.
8e40b9d1
M
1863
1864## Developing Plugins
1865
8e174ba7 1866See the [yt-dlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) repo for a template plugin package and the [Plugin Development](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugin-Development) section of the wiki for a plugin development guide.
8e40b9d1 1867
8e174ba7 1868All public classes with a name ending in `IE`/`PP` are imported from each file for extractors and postprocessors repectively. This respects underscore prefix (e.g. `_MyBasePluginIE` is private) and `__all__`. Modules can similarly be excluded by prefixing the module name with an underscore (e.g. `_myplugin.py`).
e756f45b 1869
773c272d 1870To replace an existing extractor with a subclass of one, set the `plugin_name` class keyword argument (e.g. `class MyPluginIE(ABuiltInIE, plugin_name='myplugin')` will replace `ABuiltInIE` with `MyPluginIE`). Since the extractor replaces the parent, you should exclude the subclass extractor from being imported separately by making it private using one of the methods described above.
8e40b9d1 1871
8e174ba7 1872If you are a plugin author, add [yt-dlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/yt-dlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability.
b7770046 1873
8e40b9d1 1874See the [Developer Instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions) on how to write and test an extractor.
8c6f4daa 1875
1876# EMBEDDING YT-DLP
1877
1878yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1879
1880Your 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.
1881
1882From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1883
1884```python
59a7a13e 1885from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
8c6f4daa 1886
3d3bb168 1887URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1888with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1889 ydl.download(URLS)
8c6f4daa 1890```
1891
a5387729 1892Most 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#L184).
8c6f4daa 1893
43cc91ad 1894**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 1895
1896## Embedding examples
1897
43cc91ad 1898#### Extracting information
8c6f4daa 1899
1900```python
1901import json
8c6f4daa 1902import yt_dlp
8c6f4daa 1903
3d3bb168 1904URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
1905
1906# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
1907ydl_opts = {}
1908with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1909 info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
1910
1911 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
1912 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1913```
43cc91ad 1914#### Download using an info-json
3d3bb168 1915
1916```python
1917import yt_dlp
1918
1919INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
1920
1921with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1922 error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
1923
1924print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
1925 else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
1926```
1927
43cc91ad 1928#### Extract audio
3d3bb168 1929
1930```python
1931import yt_dlp
1932
1933URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1934
1935ydl_opts = {
0a41f331 1936 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
3d3bb168 1937 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
1938 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
1939 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
1940 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
1941 }]
1942}
1943
1944with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1945 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1946```
0a41f331 1947
1948#### Filter videos
1949
1950```python
1951import yt_dlp
1952
1953URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1954
1955def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
1956 """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
1957 duration = info.get('duration')
1958 if duration and duration < 60:
1959 return 'The video is too short'
1960
1961ydl_opts = {
1962 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
1963}
1964
1965with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1966 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1967```
1968
43cc91ad 1969#### Adding logger and progress hook
3d3bb168 1970
1971```python
1972import yt_dlp
1973
1974URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
8c6f4daa 1975
1976class MyLogger:
1977 def debug(self, msg):
e75bb0d6 1978 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
8c6f4daa 1979 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
1980 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
1981 pass
1982 else:
1983 self.info(msg)
1984
1985 def info(self, msg):
1986 pass
1987
1988 def warning(self, msg):
1989 pass
1990
1991 def error(self, msg):
1992 print(msg)
1993
1994
3d3bb168 1995# ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
1996def my_hook(d):
1997 if d['status'] == 'finished':
1998 print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
1999
2000
2001ydl_opts = {
2002 'logger': MyLogger(),
2003 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
2004}
2005
2006with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2007 ydl.download(URLS)
2008```
2009
43cc91ad 2010#### Add a custom PostProcessor
3d3bb168 2011
2012```python
2013import yt_dlp
2014
2015URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2016
2017# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
59a7a13e 2018class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
8c6f4daa 2019 def run(self, info):
2020 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
2021 return [], info
2022
2023
3d3bb168 2024with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
8aa0e7cd 2025 # ℹ️ "when" can take any value in yt_dlp.utils.POSTPROCESS_WHEN
2026 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP(), when='pre_process')
3d3bb168 2027 ydl.download(URLS)
2028```
8c6f4daa 2029
2030
43cc91ad 2031#### Use a custom format selector
3d3bb168 2032
2033```python
2034import yt_dlp
2035
2036URL = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2037
093a1710 2038def format_selector(ctx):
2039 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
3d3bb168 2040 NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
093a1710 2041
2042 # formats are already sorted worst to best
2043 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
2044
2045 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
2046 best_video = next(f for f in formats
2047 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
2048
2049 # find compatible audio extension
2050 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
2051 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
2052 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
2053 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
2054
3d3bb168 2055 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
093a1710 2056 yield {
093a1710 2057 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
2058 'ext': best_video['ext'],
2059 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
e75bb0d6 2060 # Must be + separated list of protocols
093a1710 2061 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
2062 }
2063
2064
8c6f4daa 2065ydl_opts = {
093a1710 2066 'format': format_selector,
8c6f4daa 2067}
2068
2069with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
3d3bb168 2070 ydl.download(URLS)
8c6f4daa 2071```
2072
ec2e44fc 2073<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
2074
e167860c 2075# DEPRECATED OPTIONS
2076
2077These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
2078
8130779d 2079#### Almost redundant options
2080While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
2081
2082 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
2083 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
0bfc53d0 2084 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
8130779d 2085 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
2086
6ccf351a 2087#### Redundant options
2088While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
f4536226 2089
53c18592 2090 --get-description --print description
2091 --get-duration --print duration_string
2092 --get-filename --print filename
2093 --get-format --print format
2094 --get-id --print id
2095 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
2096 -e, --get-title --print title
2097 -g, --get-url --print urls
8f18aca8 2098 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
2099 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
2100 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
2101 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
8b7539d2 2102 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
2103 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
7e88d7d7 2104 --playlist-start NUMBER -I NUMBER:
2105 --playlist-end NUMBER -I :NUMBER
2106 --playlist-reverse -I ::-1
2107 --no-playlist-reverse Default
6ccf351a 2108
2109
2110#### Not recommended
2111While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
2112
fe7866d0 2113 --force-generic-extractor --ies generic,default
1e43a6f7 2114 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
2115 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
d9aa2332 2116 --all-formats -f all
c32b0aab 2117 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
b7b04c78 2118 --print-json -j --no-simulate
62b58c09 2119 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting, e.g. %(autonumber)03d
a439a3a4 2120 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
19b824f6 2121 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
73cd218f 2122 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
52a8a1e1 2123 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
2124 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
53ed7066 2125 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
2126 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
5d3a0e79 2127 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
2128 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
2129 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
2130 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
6ccf351a 2131
2132
2133#### Developer options
2134These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
2135
34488702 2136 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
f95b9dee 2137 --load-pages Load pages dumped by --write-pages
6ccf351a 2138 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
88acdbc2 2139 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
2140 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
f4536226 2141
2142
2143#### Old aliases
2144These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
2145
2146 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
3856407a 2147 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
f4536226 2148 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
2149 --dump-headers --print-traffic
2150 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
2151 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
2152 --load-info --load-info-json
3856407a 2153 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
f4536226 2154 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
e167860c 2155 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
e167860c 2156 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
2157 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
f4536226 2158 --split-tracks --split-chapters
2159 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
e167860c 2160 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
f4536226 2161 --write-srt --write-subs
e167860c 2162 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
f4536226 2163
7a340e0d 2164#### Sponskrub Options
f304da8a 2165Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock` options
7a340e0d
NA
2166
2167 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
2168 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
2169 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
2170 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
2171 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
2172 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
2173 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
2174 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
2175
f4536226 2176#### No longer supported
2177These options may no longer work as intended
2178
2179 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
2180 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
2181 -C, --call-home Not implemented
2182 --no-call-home Default
2183 --include-ads No longer supported
2184 --no-include-ads Default
0bb1bc1b 2185 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
2186 --no-write-annotations Default
1e8fe57e 2187 --compat-options seperate-video-versions No longer needed
486fb179 2188
2189#### Removed
2190These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
2191
f4536226 2192 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
3d3bb168 2193 -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
f4536226 2194
8c6f4daa 2195# CONTRIBUTING
2196See [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 2197
17ffed18 2198# WIKI
2199See the [Wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki) for more information