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[core] Add `--compat-options 2023` (#9084)
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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")
b532a348 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/pulse/monthly "Last activity")
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)
db3ad8a6 52 * [Authentication with netrc](#authentication-with-netrc)
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
f10589e3 79* Forked from [**yt-dlc@f9401f2**](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/commit/f9401f2a91987068139c5f757b12fc711d4c0cee) and merged with [**youtube-dl@be008e6**](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/be008e657d79832642e2158557c899249c9e31cd) ([exceptions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/21))
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**:
c8bc203f 88 * Supports Clips, Stories (`ytstories:<channel UCID>`), Search (including filters)**\***, YouTube Music Search, Channel-specific search, Search prefixes (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`)**\***, Mixes, and Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`, `:ytnotif`)
ae61d108 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*)
86973308 92 * Channel URLs download all uploads of the channel, including shorts and live
f20f5fe5 93
304ad45a 94* **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using `--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]`
245524e6 95
5ec1b6b7 96* **Download time range**: Videos can be downloaded partially based on either timestamps or chapters using `--download-sections`
97
597c1866 98* **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using `--split-chapters`
99
b31fdeed 100* **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 101
b31fdeed 102* **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use `aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
f20f5fe5 103
e75bb0d6 104* **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 105
56ba69e4 106* **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN etc.
fac98805 107
3de7c2ce 108* **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 109
597c1866 110* **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 111
d4ada357 112* **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for details
0bc0a322 113
418964fa 114* **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 115
fe2ce85a 116* **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-match-filter` etc
0bc0a322 117
08d30158 118* **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 119
86c1a8aa 120* **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
b31fdeed 121
77df20f1
SS		 122* **Self updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`, and downgraded using `--update-to` if required
123
a00af298 124* **Automated builds**: [Nightly/master builds](#update-channels) can be used with `--update-to nightly` and `--update-to master`
aa837ddf 125
7a5c1cfe 126See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
a26c99ac 127
ae61d108 128Features marked with a **\*** have been back-ported to youtube-dl
129
53ed7066 130### Differences in default behavior
131
0930b11f 132Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
53ed7066 133
f4b95aca 134* yt-dlp supports only [Python 3.8+](## "Windows 7"), and *may* remove support for more versions as they [become EOL](https://devguide.python.org/versions/#python-release-cycle); while [youtube-dl still supports Python 2.6+ and 3.2+](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/30568#issue-1118238743)
96565c7e 135* The options `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
b69fd25c 136* `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
d4ada357 137* yt-dlp stores config files in slightly different locations to youtube-dl. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for a list of correct locations
96565c7e 138* 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 139* 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 140* 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 141* 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 142* `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
28b0eb0f 143* 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 144* `--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 145* 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 146* `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
147* The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
b79f9e30 148* 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 149* 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 150* Unavailable videos are also listed for YouTube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
1ff88b7a 151* 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 152* 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 153* Thumbnail embedding in `mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use `--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
ad54c913 154* Some internal metadata such as filenames are removed by default from the infojson. Use `--no-clean-infojson` or `--compat-options no-clean-infojson` to revert this
e75bb0d6 155* 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 156* `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 157* 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 158* 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
93b39cdb 159* yt-dlp versions between 2021.09.01 and 2023.01.02 applies `--match-filter` to nested playlists. This was an unintentional side-effect of [8f18ac](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/8f18aca8717bb0dd49054555af8d386e5eda3a88) and is fixed in [d7b460](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/d7b460d0e5fc710950582baed2e3fc616ed98a80). Use `--compat-options playlist-match-filter` to revert this
10025b71 160* yt-dlp versions between 2021.11.10 and 2023.06.21 estimated `filesize_approx` values for fragmented/manifest formats. This was added for convenience in [f2fe69](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/f2fe69c7b0d208bdb1f6292b4ae92bc1e1a7444a), but was reverted in [0dff8e](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/0dff8e4d1e6e9fb938f4256ea9af7d81f42fd54f) due to the potentially extreme inaccuracy of the estimated values. Use `--compat-options manifest-filesize-approx` to keep extracting the estimated values
8a8b5452 161* yt-dlp uses modern http client backends such as `requests`. Use `--compat-options prefer-legacy-http-handler` to prefer the legacy http handler (`urllib`) to be used for standard http requests.
f9fb3ce8 162* The sub-module `swfinterp` is removed.
53ed7066 163
164For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
3d3bb168 165
8a82af35 166* `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options (Do NOT use)
b012271d
SS		 167* `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams,-playlist-match-filter,-manifest-filesize-approx`
168* `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect,-playlist-match-filter,-manifest-filesize-approx`
2a06bb4e 169* `--compat-options 2021`: Same as `--compat-options 2022,no-certifi,filename-sanitization,no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date`
3725b4f0
SS		 170* `--compat-options 2022`: Same as `--compat-options 2023,playlist-match-filter,no-external-downloader-progress`
171* `--compat-options 2023`: Same as `--compat-options prefer-legacy-http-handler,manifest-filesize-approx`. Use this to enable all future compat options
53ed7066 172
f20f5fe5 173
d19bb9c0 174# INSTALLATION
50865ca8 175
fc5fa964 176<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
177[![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 178[![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 179[![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 180[![PyPi](https://img.shields.io/badge/-PyPi-blue.svg?logo=pypi&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
fc5fa964 181[![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)
182[![Other variants](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Other-grey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](#release-files)
3d3bb168 183[![All versions](https://img.shields.io/badge/-All_Versions-lightgrey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
fc5fa964 184<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
185
c8bc203f 186You 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 187
b8773e63 188
a4211baf 189## UPDATE
4815bbfc 190You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are using the [release binaries](#release-files)
17ffed18 191
c8bc203f 192If 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 193
8e174ba7 194For 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 195
77df20f1
SS		 196<a id="update-channels"/>
197
a00af298 198There are currently three release channels for binaries: `stable`, `nightly` and `master`.
199
200* `stable` is the default channel, and many of its changes have been tested by users of the `nightly` and `master` channels.
201* The `nightly` channel has releases scheduled to build every day around midnight UTC, for a snapshot of the project's new patches and changes. This is the **recommended channel for regular users** of yt-dlp. The `nightly` releases are available from [yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds/releases) or as development releases of the `yt-dlp` PyPI package (which can be installed with pip's `--pre` flag).
202* The `master` channel features releases that are built after each push to the master branch, and these will have the very latest fixes and additions, but may also be more prone to regressions. They are available from [yt-dlp/yt-dlp-master-builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-master-builds/releases).
77df20f1
SS		 203
204When using `--update`/`-U`, a release binary will only update to its current channel.
665472a7
SS		 205`--update-to CHANNEL` can be used to switch to a different channel when a newer version is available. `--update-to [CHANNEL@]TAG` can also be used to upgrade or downgrade to specific tags from a channel.
206
207You may also use `--update-to <repository>` (`<owner>/<repository>`) to update to a channel on a completely different repository. Be careful with what repository you are updating to though, there is no verification done for binaries from different repositories.
77df20f1
SS		 208
209Example usage:
a00af298 210* `yt-dlp --update-to master` switch to the `master` channel and update to its latest release
211* `yt-dlp --update-to stable@2023.07.06` upgrade/downgrade to release to `stable` channel tag `2023.07.06`
212* `yt-dlp --update-to 2023.10.07` upgrade/downgrade to tag `2023.10.07` if it exists on the current channel
213* `yt-dlp --update-to example/yt-dlp@2023.09.24` upgrade/downgrade to the release from the `example/yt-dlp` repository, tag `2023.09.24`
214
215**Important**: Any user experiencing an issue with the `stable` release should install or update to the `nightly` release before submitting a bug report:
216```
217# To update to nightly from stable executable/binary:
218yt-dlp --update-to nightly
219
220# To install nightly with pip:
221python -m pip install -U --pre yt-dlp
222```
cf59cd4d 223
ec2e44fc 224<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
a4211baf 225## RELEASE FILES
0e5927ee 226
733d8e8f 227#### Recommended
228
229File|Description
230:---|:---
962ffcf8 231[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 232[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 233[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 234
235#### Alternatives
236
0e5927ee
R		 237File|Description
238:---|:---
0930b11f 239[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 240[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 241[yt-dlp_linux](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux)|Linux standalone x64 binary
242[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		 243[yt-dlp_linux_armv7l](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_armv7l)|Linux standalone armv7l (32-bit) binary
244[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 245[yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
246[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 247[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 248
249#### Misc
250
251File|Description
252:---|:---
17ffed18 253[yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball
0e5927ee 254[SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
12647e03 255[SHA2-512SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA512 sums
0e5927ee 256[SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
12647e03 257[SHA2-256SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA256 sums
0e5927ee 258
12647e03
SS		 259The public key that can be used to verify the GPG signatures is [available here](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/public.key)
260Example usage:
261```
262curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/raw/master/public.key | gpg --import
263gpg --verify SHA2-256SUMS.sig SHA2-256SUMS
264gpg --verify SHA2-512SUMS.sig SHA2-512SUMS
265```
266<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
17ffed18 267
ad54c913 268**Note**: The manpages, shell completion (autocomplete) files etc. are available inside the [source tarball](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
17ffed18 269
a4211baf 270## DEPENDENCIES
f4b95aca 271Python versions 3.8+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
b31fdeed 272
c9652aa4 273<!-- Python 3.5+ uses VC++14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
274<!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999 --x>
cf59cd4d 275On 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 276-->
fac98805 277
e75bb0d6 278While all the other dependencies are optional, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended
ec2e44fc 279
8aa0e7cd 280### Strongly recommended
281
b69fd25c 282* [**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 283
292d60b1 284 There are bugs in ffmpeg that cause 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
8e174ba7 285
286 **Important**: What you need is ffmpeg *binary*, **NOT** [the python package of the same name](https://pypi.org/project/ffmpeg)
8aa0e7cd 287
288### Networking
d5820461 289* [**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 290* [**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>
291* [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
8a8b5452 292* [**requests**](https://github.com/psf/requests)\* - HTTP library. For HTTPS proxy and persistent connections support. Licensed under [Apache-2.0](https://github.com/psf/requests/blob/main/LICENSE)
8aa0e7cd 293
294### Metadata
295
296* [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For `--embed-thumbnail` in certain formats. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
297* [**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)
84e26038 298* [**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 **Mac** and **BSD**. 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
8aa0e7cd 299
300### Misc
301
302* [**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 303* [**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)
f9fb3ce8 304* [**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 305* Any external downloader that you want to use with `--downloader`
b31fdeed 306
deae7c17 307### Deprecated
8aa0e7cd 308
309* [**avconv** and **avprobe**](https://www.libav.org) - Now **deprecated** alternative to ffmpeg. License [depends on the build](https://libav.org/legal)
310* [**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 311* [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with `--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
312* [**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 313
cf59cd4d 314To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
315
f2df4071 316The standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with **\*** included.
d710cc6d 317
8aa0e7cd 318If 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 319
5f326cf5 320
a4211baf 321## COMPILE
5f326cf5 322
8aa0e7cd 323### Standalone PyInstaller Builds
115add43 324To 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 325
8aa0e7cd 326 python3 -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
327 python3 devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
328 python3 pyinst.py
329
330On some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`.
331
73ac0e6b 332`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).
333
8e174ba7 334**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 335
336**Important**: Running `pyinstaller` directly **without** using `pyinst.py` is **not** officially supported. This may or may not work correctly.
7581d246 337
8aa0e7cd 338### Platform-independent Binary (UNIX)
f4b95aca 339You will need the build tools `python` (3.8+), `zip`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`\* and `pytest`\*.
b96a939b 340
8aa0e7cd 341After installing these, simply run `make`.
5f326cf5 342
a831c2ea 343You 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 344
8aa0e7cd 345### Standalone Py2Exe Builds (Windows)
346
347While 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.
348
349If you wish to build it anyway, install Python and py2exe, and then simply run `setup.py py2exe`
350
351 py -m pip install -U py2exe -r requirements.txt
352 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
353 py setup.py py2exe
354
355### Related scripts
356
d400e261
SS		 357* **`devscripts/update-version.py`** - Update the version number based on current date.
358* **`devscripts/set-variant.py`** - Set the build variant of the executable.
359* **`devscripts/make_changelog.py`** - Create a markdown changelog using short commit messages and update `CONTRIBUTORS` file.
8aa0e7cd 360* **`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.
361
d400e261
SS		 362Note: See their `--help` for more info.
363
29cb20bd
SS		 364### Forking the project
365If you fork the project on GitHub, you can run your fork's [build workflow](.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically build the selected version(s) as artifacts. Alternatively, you can run the [release workflow](.github/workflows/release.yml) or enable the [nightly workflow](.github/workflows/release-nightly.yml) to create full (pre-)releases.
59a7a13e 366
b31fdeed 367# USAGE AND OPTIONS
6bcd846b 368
ec2e44fc 369<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
7a5c1cfe 370 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
b50e3bc6 371
c2b5f311 372`Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
ec2e44fc 373<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
c2b5f311 374
ec2e44fc 375<!-- Auto generated -->
c76eb41b 376## General Options:
2dd5a2e3 377 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
378 --version Print program version and exit
70b23409 379 -U, --update Update this program to the latest version
380 --no-update Do not check for updates (default)
77df20f1 381 --update-to [CHANNEL]@[TAG] Upgrade/downgrade to a specific version.
665472a7
SS		 382 CHANNEL can be a repository as well. CHANNEL
383 and TAG default to "stable" and "latest"
384 respectively if omitted; See "UPDATE" for
5d3a3cd4 385 details. Supported channels: stable,
386 nightly, master
2dd5a2e3 387 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
388 The download will be considered successful
389 even if the postprocessing fails
390 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download errors;
391 e.g. to skip unavailable videos in a
392 playlist (default)
393 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
394 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
395 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
396 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
397 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
398 extractors and exit
2516cafb 399 --use-extractors NAMES Extractor names to use separated by commas.
fe7866d0 400 You can also use regexes, "all", "default"
401 and "end" (end URL matching); e.g. --ies
402 "holodex.*,end,youtube". Prefix the name
403 with a "-" to exclude it, e.g. --ies
404 default,-generic. Use --list-extractors for
2516cafb 405 a list of extractor names. (Alias: --ies)
62b58c09 406 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 407 "gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
408 google videos for the search term "python".
409 Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
410 ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when
411 guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
412 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken
413 URLs, but emits an error if this is not
414 possible instead of searching
415 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
416 except those given by --config-locations.
417 For backward compatibility, if this option
418 is found inside the system configuration
419 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
420 (Alias: --no-config)
421 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
422 (default). When given inside a configuration
423 file, ignore all previous --config-locations
424 defined in the current file
425 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
426 either the path to the config or its
6b9e832d 427 containing directory ("-" for stdin). Can be
428 used multiple times and inside other
429 configuration files
2dd5a2e3 430 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
431 only list them
c8bc203f 432 --no-flat-playlist Fully extract the videos of a playlist
433 (default)
2dd5a2e3 434 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
435 Currently only supported for YouTube
436 (Experimental)
437 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
438 (default)
439 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
440 available. Pass the minimum number of
441 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
442 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
443 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
444 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
8417f26b
SS		 445 --color [STREAM:]POLICY Whether to emit color codes in output,
446 optionally prefixed by the STREAM (stdout or
447 stderr) to apply the setting to. Can be one
448 of "always", "auto" (default), "never", or
449 "no_color" (use non color terminal
450 sequences). Can be used multiple times
2dd5a2e3 451 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
452 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
453 configurations by reverting some of the
454 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
455 default behavior" for details
456 --alias ALIASES OPTIONS Create aliases for an option string. Unless
457 an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
458 prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
459 according to the Python string formatting
62b58c09 460 mini-language. E.g. --alias get-audio,-X
2dd5a2e3 461 "-S=aext:{0},abr -x --audio-format {0}"
462 creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
463 takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
464 "-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
465 All defined aliases are listed in the --help
466 output. Alias options can trigger more
962ffcf8 467 aliases; so be careful to avoid defining
2dd5a2e3 468 recursive options. As a safety measure, each
469 alias may be triggered a maximum of 100
64fa820c 470 times. This option can be used multiple times
08c1d0d3 471
149f05c7 472## Network Options:
2dd5a2e3 473 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
62b58c09
L		 474 enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme,
475 e.g. socks5://user:pass@127.0.0.1:1080/.
476 Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for
477 direct connection
2dd5a2e3 478 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
479 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
480 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
481 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
8300774c
M		 482 --enable-file-urls Enable file:// URLs. This is disabled by
483 default for security reasons.
8c6c88c7 484
b31fdeed 485## Geo-restriction:
2dd5a2e3 486 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
487 some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy
488 specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
489 is not present) is used for the actual
490 downloading
c1664464 491 --xff VALUE How to fake X-Forwarded-For HTTP header to
492 try bypassing geographic restriction. One of
c8bc203f 493 "default" (only when known to be useful),
494 "never", an IP block in CIDR notation, or a
495 two-letter ISO 3166-2 country code
149f05c7 496
cfcec693 497## Video Selection:
71df9b7f 498 -I, --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Comma separated playlist_index of the items
7e88d7d7 499 to download. You can specify a range using
500 "[START]:[STOP][:STEP]". For backward
501 compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.
502 Use negative indices to count from the right
503 and negative STEP to download in reverse
62b58c09 504 order. E.g. "-I 1:3,7,-5::2" used on a
71df9b7f 505 playlist of size 15 will download the items
7e88d7d7 506 at index 1,2,3,7,11,13,15
71df9b7f 507 --min-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is smaller than
508 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
509 --max-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is larger than
62b58c09 510 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
2dd5a2e3 511 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
512 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
513 [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
29cb20bd
SS		 514 E.g. "--date today-2weeks" downloads only
515 videos uploaded on the same day two weeks ago
2dd5a2e3 516 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
517 this date. The date formats accepted is the
518 same as --date
519 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
520 this date. The date formats accepted is the
521 same as --date
522 --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
523 field can be compared with a number or a
524 string using the operators defined in
d4ada357 525 "Filtering Formats". You can also simply
2dd5a2e3 526 specify a field to match if the field is
527 present, use "!field" to check if the field
528 is not present, and "&" to check multiple
529 conditions. Use a "\" to escape "&" or
530 quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
531 the filter matches if atleast one of the
62b58c09 532 conditions are met. E.g. --match-filter
2dd5a2e3 533 !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?100 &
534 description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'" matches
535 only videos that are not live OR those that
536 have a like count more than 100 (or the like
537 field is not available) and also has a
538 description that contains the phrase "cats &
539 dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
540 interactively ask whether to download each
541 video
c8bc203f 542 --no-match-filters Do not use any --match-filter (default)
fe2ce85a 543 --break-match-filters FILTER Same as "--match-filters" but stops the
544 download process when a video is rejected
545 --no-break-match-filters Do not use any --break-match-filters (default)
2dd5a2e3 546 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
547 to a video and a playlist
548 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
549 a video and a playlist
550 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
551 age
552 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
553 archive file. Record the IDs of all
554 downloaded videos in it
555 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
556 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
557 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
558 a file that is in the archive
71df9b7f 559 --break-per-input Alters --max-downloads, --break-on-existing,
354d5fca 560 --break-match-filter, and autonumber to
561 reset per input URL
2dd5a2e3 562 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
563 terminates the entire download queue
564 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
565 the playlist is skipped
6bcd846b 566
d5a62e4f 567## Download Options:
2dd5a2e3 568 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
569 video that should be downloaded concurrently
570 (default is 1)
62b58c09
L		 571 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second,
572 e.g. 50K or 4.2M
2dd5a2e3 573 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
574 below which throttling is assumed and the
62b58c09 575 video data is re-extracted, e.g. 100K
2dd5a2e3 576 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
577 "infinite"
578 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
579 error (default is 3), or "infinite"
580 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
581 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
be5c1ae8 582 --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR Time to sleep between retries in seconds
583 (optionally) prefixed by the type of retry
584 (http (default), fragment, file_access,
585 extractor) to apply the sleep to. EXPR can
586 be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=1]] or
587 exp=START[:END[:BASE=2]]. This option can be
588 used multiple times to set the sleep for the
62b58c09 589 different retry types, e.g. --retry-sleep
2dd5a2e3 590 linear=1::2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=1:20
591 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
592 hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
8e174ba7 593 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragments)
594 --abort-on-unavailable-fragments
2dd5a2e3 595 Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
596 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
597 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
598 downloading is finished
599 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
600 downloading is finished (default)
62b58c09 601 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer, e.g. 1024 or 16K
2dd5a2e3 602 (default is 1024)
603 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
604 from an initial value of --buffer-size
605 (default)
606 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
607 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
62b58c09 608 downloading, e.g. 10485760 or 10M (default
2dd5a2e3 609 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
610 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
611 (experimental)
2dd5a2e3 612 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
7e9a6125 613 --lazy-playlist Process entries in the playlist as they are
614 received. This disables n_entries,
615 --playlist-random and --playlist-reverse
616 --no-lazy-playlist Process videos in the playlist only after
617 the entire playlist is parsed (default)
2dd5a2e3 618 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
619 expected file size
620 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
621 allowing some players to play the video
622 while downloading, and reducing the chance
623 of file corruption if download is
624 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
625 live streams
626 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
627 videos. This is default when not downloading
628 live streams
b4e0d758 629 --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters that match the
630 regular expression. A "*" prefix denotes
631 time-range instead of chapter. Negative
632 timestamps are calculated from the end.
633 "*from-url" can be used to download between
634 the "start_time" and "end_time" extracted
635 from the URL. Needs ffmpeg. This option can
636 be used multiple times to download multiple
62b58c09 637 sections, e.g. --download-sections
2fa669f7 638 "*10:15-inf" --download-sections "intro"
2dd5a2e3 639 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
640 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
641 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
642 use it for. Currently supports native,
643 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
644 wget. You can use this option multiple times
645 to set different downloaders for different
62b58c09 646 protocols. E.g. --downloader aria2c
2dd5a2e3 647 --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
648 aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
649 native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
650 (Alias: --external-downloader)
651 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
652 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
653 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
654 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different
655 positions using the same syntax as
656 --postprocessor-args. You can use this
657 option multiple times to give different
658 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
659 --external-downloader-args)
d5a62e4f 660
cfcec693 661## Filesystem Options:
2dd5a2e3 662 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
663 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
664 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
665 comments and ignored
666 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
667 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
668 downloaded. Specify the type of file and the
669 path separated by a colon ":". All the same
670 TYPES as --output are supported.
671 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
672 (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary
673 files are first downloaded to the temp path
674 and then the final files are moved over to
675 the home path after download is finished.
676 This option is ignored if --output is an
677 absolute path
678 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
679 TEMPLATE" for details
680 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
681 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" (default: "NA")
682 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
683 and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
684 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
685 filenames (default)
686 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
687 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
688 using Windows (default)
689 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
690 extension) to the specified number of
691 characters
692 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
693 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This
694 option includes --no-continue
695 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
696 related files (default)
697 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
698 (default)
699 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
700 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
701 restart download of the entire file
702 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
703 into output file (default)
704 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into
705 output file
706 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file
707 modification time (default)
708 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
709 the file modification time
64fa820c 710 --write-description Write video description to a .description file
2dd5a2e3 711 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
712 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
713 (this may contain personal information)
714 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
715 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
716 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
717 --write-description etc. (default)
718 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
719 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
ad54c913 720 --clean-info-json Remove some internal metadata such as
721 filenames from the infojson (default)
2dd5a2e3 722 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
723 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
724 infojson. The comments are fetched even
725 without this option if the extraction is
726 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
727 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
728 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
729 --no-get-comments)
730 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
64fa820c 731 (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
2dd5a2e3 732 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from
733 and dump cookie jar in
734 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
735 (default)
825d3ce3 736 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]
737 The name of the browser to load cookies
738 from. Currently supported browsers are:
739 brave, chrome, chromium, edge, firefox,
740 opera, safari, vivaldi. Optionally, the
741 KEYRING used for decrypting Chromium cookies
742 on Linux, the name/path of the PROFILE to
743 load cookies from, and the CONTAINER name
744 (if Firefox) ("none" for no container) can
745 be given with their respective seperators.
746 By default, all containers of the most
747 recently accessed profile are used.
748 Currently supported keyrings are: basictext,
2e023649 749 gnomekeyring, kwallet, kwallet5, kwallet6
2dd5a2e3 750 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
17ffed18 751 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where yt-dlp can
752 store some downloaded information (such as
753 client ids and signatures) permanently. By
878eac3e 754 default ${XDG_CACHE_HOME}/yt-dlp
2dd5a2e3 755 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
756 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
6bcd846b 757
b31fdeed 758## Thumbnail Options:
2dd5a2e3 759 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
64fa820c 760 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default)
2dd5a2e3 761 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
762 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
763 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
2b1bd292 764
732044af 765## Internet Shortcut Options:
2dd5a2e3 766 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
767 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
768 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
769 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
770 OS caches the URL based on the file path
771 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
772 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
732044af 773
0744a815 774## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
2dd5a2e3 775 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
776 print the log to stderr
d669772c 777 --no-quiet Deactivate quiet mode. (Default)
2dd5a2e3 778 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
779 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
780 anything to disk
781 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
782 options are used
783 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
784 extracting metadata even if the videos are
785 not actually available for download
786 (experimental)
787 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
788 formats are found (default)
789 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
790 related files (Alias: --no-download)
791 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
792 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
793 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
794 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
119e40ef 795 --use-postprocessor (default: video).
2dd5a2e3 796 Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
797 --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
798 used. This option can be used multiple times
bb66c247 799 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
2dd5a2e3 800 Append given template to the file. The
801 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as that
802 of --print. FILE uses the same syntax as the
803 output template. This option can be used
804 multiple times
805 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
806 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
807 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
808 description of available keys
809 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
810 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
811 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
812 a playlist, the whole playlist information
813 is dumped in a single line
814 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
815 as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
816 another simulation option is used (Alias:
817 --force-download-archive)
818 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
819 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
820 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
821 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
819e0531 822 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
2dd5a2e3 823 Template for progress outputs, optionally
824 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
825 "download-title:" (the console title),
826 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
827 The video's fields are accessible under the
828 "info" key and the progress attributes are
62b58c09 829 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 830 --console-title --progress-template
831 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
832 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
833 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
834 to debug problems (very verbose)
835 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files
836 in the current directory to debug problems
837 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
6bcd846b 838
36f35428 839## Workarounds:
2dd5a2e3 840 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
841 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to servers
842 that do not support RFC 5746 secure
843 renegotiation
844 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
845 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
846 information about the video (Currently
847 supported only for YouTube)
a5387729 848 --add-headers FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
2dd5a2e3 849 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
850 option multiple times
851 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
852 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
853 or fribidi executable in PATH
854 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
855 during data extraction
856 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
857 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
858 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
859 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
860 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only
861 be used along with --min-sleep-interval
862 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
863 subtitle download
36f35428 864
cfcec693 865## Video Format Options:
2dd5a2e3 866 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
867 for more details
868 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
869 "Sorting Formats" for more details
870 --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
871 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
872 Formats" for more details (Alias: --S-force)
873 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
874 specified sort order (default)
875 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
876 into a single file
877 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
878 output file (default)
879 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
880 into a single file
881 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
882 output file (default)
883 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
884 over non-free ones of same quality. Use with
885 "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers
886 irrespective of quality
887 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
888 containers (default)
889 --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
890 those that are actually downloadable
891 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
892 actually downloadable
893 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
894 downloadable
895 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
896 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
fc61aff4 897 --merge-output-format FORMAT Containers that may be used when merging
62b58c09 898 formats, separated by "/", e.g. "mp4/mkv".
fc61aff4
LL		 899 Ignored if no merge is required. (currently
900 supported: avi, flv, mkv, mov, mp4, webm)
8ae7be3e
PH		 901
902## Subtitle Options:
2dd5a2e3 903 --write-subs Write subtitle file
904 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
905 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
906 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
907 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
908 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
909 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
910 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
911 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
62b58c09 912 e.g. "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
2dd5a2e3 913 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
62b58c09
L		 914 be regex) or "all" separated by commas, e.g.
915 --sub-langs "en.*,ja". You can prefix the
2dd5a2e3 916 language code with a "-" to exclude it from
62b58c09
L		 917 the requested languages, e.g. --sub-langs
918 all,-live_chat. Use --list-subs for a list
2dd5a2e3 919 of available language tags
6bcd846b 920
cfcec693 921## Authentication Options:
2dd5a2e3 922 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
923 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
924 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
925 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
926 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
927 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
928 either the path or its containing directory.
929 Defaults to ~/.netrc
db3ad8a6 930 --netrc-cmd NETRC_CMD Command to execute to get the credentials
d1b21561 931 for an extractor.
b634ba74 932 --video-password PASSWORD Video-specific password
2dd5a2e3 933 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
934 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
935 a list of available MSOs
936 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
937 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
938 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
939 interactively
940 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
941 --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
942 format. May include the private key
943 --client-certificate-key KEYFILE
944 Path to private key file for client
945 certificate
bb58c9ed 946 --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
2dd5a2e3 947 Password for client certificate private key,
948 if encrypted. If not provided, and the key
949 is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask interactively
f5e008d1 950
c76eb41b 951## Post-Processing Options:
2dd5a2e3 952 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
953 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
35faefee 954 --audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
955 used. (currently supported: best (default),
8dc59305 956 aac, alac, flac, m4a, mp3, opus, vorbis,
e0ab9854 957 wav). You can specify multiple rules using
958 similar syntax as --remux-video
2dd5a2e3 959 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
960 converting the audio with -x. Insert a value
961 between 0 (best) and 10 (worst) for VBR or a
962 specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
963 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
8dc59305 964 necessary (currently supported: avi, flv,
69f5fe45 965 gif, mkv, mov, mp4, webm, aac, aiff, alac,
966 flac, m4a, mka, mp3, ogg, opus, vorbis,
967 wav). If target container does not support
968 the video/audio codec, remuxing will fail.
969 You can specify multiple rules; e.g.
2dd5a2e3 970 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
35faefee 971 mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
2dd5a2e3 972 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
973 necessary. The syntax and supported formats
974 are the same as --remux-video
975 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
976 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
977 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
978 to give the argument to the specified
979 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
980 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
981 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
982 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
983 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
984 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
985 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
986 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
987 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
988 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
989 specified executable only when being used by
990 the specified postprocessor. Additionally,
991 for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
992 appended to the prefix optionally followed
993 by a number to pass the argument before the
62b58c09 994 specified input/output file, e.g. --ppa
2dd5a2e3 995 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
996 this option multiple times to give different
997 arguments to different postprocessors.
998 (Alias: --ppa)
999 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
1000 after post-processing
1001 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
1002 post-processing (default)
1003 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
1004 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
1005 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
1006 webm and mkv videos)
1007 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
1008 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
1009 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
1010 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
1011 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
1012 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are
1013 used (Alias: --add-metadata)
1014 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
1015 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
1016 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
1017 (Alias: --add-chapters)
1018 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias:
1019 --no-add-chapters)
1020 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
1021 mkv/mka video files
1022 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
1023 to the video file
fe74d5b5 1024 --parse-metadata [WHEN:]FROM:TO
1025 Parse additional metadata like title/artist
2dd5a2e3 1026 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
fe74d5b5 1027 for details. Supported values of "WHEN" are
1028 the same as that of --use-postprocessor
1029 (default: pre_process)
1030 --replace-in-metadata [WHEN:]FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
2dd5a2e3 1031 Replace text in a metadata field using the
1032 given regex. This option can be used
fe74d5b5 1033 multiple times. Supported values of "WHEN"
1034 are the same as that of --use-postprocessor
1035 (default: pre_process)
2dd5a2e3 1036 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
1037 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
1038 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
1039 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
1040 (default; only when the videos form a single
1041 show). All the video files must have same
1042 codecs and number of streams to be
1043 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
1044 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1045 the output filename for the concatenated
1046 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1047 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
1048 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
1049 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
1050 default; fix file if we can, warn
1051 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
1052 already exists)
1053 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
64fa820c 1054 path to the binary or its containing directory
2dd5a2e3 1055 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
119e40ef 1056 when to execute it, separated by a ":".
1057 Supported values of "WHEN" are the same as
1058 that of --use-postprocessor (default:
1059 after_move). Same syntax as the output
1060 template can be used to pass any field as
ad54c913 1061 arguments to the command. If no fields are
1062 passed, %(filepath,_filename|)q is appended
1063 to the end of the command. This option can
1064 be used multiple times
2dd5a2e3 1065 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
1066 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
8dc59305 1067 (currently supported: ass, lrc, srt, vtt)
2dd5a2e3 1068 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
1069 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
00bbc5f1 1070 (currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
1071 can specify multiple rules using similar
1072 syntax as --remux-video
2dd5a2e3 1073 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
1074 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can
1075 be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1076 the output filename for the split files. See
1077 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
64fa820c 1078 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters (default)
2dd5a2e3 1079 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
5ec1b6b7 1080 given regular expression. The syntax is the
1081 same as --download-sections. This option can
2dd5a2e3 1082 be used multiple times
1083 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
1084 (default)
5ec1b6b7 1085 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes at cuts when
1086 downloading/splitting/removing sections.
1087 This is slow due to needing a re-encode, but
1088 the resulting video may have fewer artifacts
1089 around the cuts
2dd5a2e3 1090 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
1091 when cutting/splitting (default)
1092 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS]
1093 The (case sensitive) name of plugin
1094 postprocessors to be enabled, and
1095 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
1096 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
1097 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
1098 The "when" argument determines when the
1099 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
1100 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
1101 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
119e40ef 1102 "video" (after --format; before
1103 --print/--output), "before_dl" (before each
1104 video download), "post_process" (after each
1105 video download; default), "after_move"
1106 (after moving video file to it's final
1107 locations), "after_video" (after downloading
1108 and processing all formats of a video), or
1109 "playlist" (at end of playlist). This option
1110 can be used multiple times to add different
1111 postprocessors
7a340e0d
NA		 1112
1113## SponsorBlock Options:
1114Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1115 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
8a51f564 1116 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1117
2dd5a2e3 1118 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1119 for, separated by commas. Available
1120 categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
1121 selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
71df9b7f 1122 music_offtopic, poi_highlight, chapter, all
1123 and default (=all). You can prefix the
1124 category with a "-" to exclude it. See [1]
1125 for description of the categories. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 1126 --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1127 [1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1128 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1129 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1130 category is present in both mark and remove,
1131 remove takes precedence. The syntax and
1132 available categories are the same as for
1133 --sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
71df9b7f 1134 refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight,
63c547d7 1135 chapter are not available
7a340e0d 1136 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
2dd5a2e3 1137 An output template for the title of the
1138 SponsorBlock chapters created by
1139 --sponsorblock-mark. The only available
1140 fields are start_time, end_time, category,
1141 categories, name, category_names. Defaults
1142 to "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1143 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1144 --sponsorblock-remove
1145 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1146 https://sponsor.ajay.app
a9e7f546 1147
78895bd3 1148## Extractor Options:
2dd5a2e3 1149 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors
1150 (default is 3), or "infinite"
1151 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1152 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1153 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1154 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1155 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1156 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1157 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1158 formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
1159 (default)
2fa669f7 1160 --extractor-args IE_KEY:ARGS Pass ARGS arguments to the IE_KEY extractor.
1161 See "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You
1162 can use this option multiple times to give
2dd5a2e3 1163 arguments for different extractors
17cb02d0 1164
b7770046
U		 1165# CONFIGURATION
1166
7a5c1cfe 1167You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
e2e43aea 1168
878eac3e 11691. **Main Configuration**:
1170 * The file given by `--config-location`
11711. **Portable Configuration**: (Recommended for portable installations)
1172 * If using a binary, `yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the binary
1173 * If running from source-code, `yt-dlp.conf` in the parent directory of `yt_dlp`
11741. **Home Configuration**:
1175 * `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by `-P`
1176 * If `-P` is not given, the current directory is searched
e2e43aea 11771. **User Configuration**:
773c272d 1178 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp.conf`
878eac3e 1179 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
8e40b9d1 1180 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
773c272d 1181 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp.conf`
878eac3e 1182 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1183 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
e2e43aea 1184 * `~/yt-dlp.conf`
1185 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
8e40b9d1
M		 1186 * `~/.yt-dlp/config`
1187 * `~/.yt-dlp/config.txt`
3d3bb168 1188
878eac3e 1189 See also: [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
11901. **System Configuration**:
1191 * `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
8e40b9d1
M		 1192 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config`
1193 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config.txt`
b7770046 1194
62b58c09 1195E.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		 1196```
1197# Lines starting with # are comments
1198
1199# Always extract audio
1200-x
1201
1202# Do not copy the mtime
1203--no-mtime
1204
1205# Use this proxy
1206--proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1207
298f597b 1208# Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1209-o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
b7770046
U		 1210```
1211
8e174ba7 1212**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 1213
a4211baf 1214You 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 1215
304ad45a 1216### Configuration file encoding
a904a7f8 1217
304ad45a 1218The configuration files are decoded according to the UTF BOM if present, and in the encoding from system locale otherwise.
a904a7f8 1219
88f60feb 1220If 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 1221
db3ad8a6 1222### Authentication with netrc
b7770046 1223
304ad45a 1224You 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 1225```
878eac3e 1226touch ${HOME}/.netrc
1227chmod a-rwx,u+rw ${HOME}/.netrc
b7770046
U		 1228```
1229After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1230```
0001fcb5 1231machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
b7770046 1232```
62b58c09 1233E.g.
b7770046
U		 1234```
1235machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1236machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1237```
7a5c1cfe 1238To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
b7770046 1239
878eac3e 1240The default location of the .netrc file is `~` (see below).
1241
d7cd97e8 1242As an alternative to using the `.netrc` file, which has the disadvantage of keeping your passwords in a plain text file, you can configure a custom shell command to provide the credentials for an extractor. This is done by providing the `--netrc-cmd` parameter, it shall output the credentials in the netrc format and return `0` on success, other values will be treated as an error. `{}` in the command will be replaced by the name of the extractor to make it possible to select the credentials for the right extractor.
db3ad8a6
ND		 1243
1244E.g. To use an encrypted `.netrc` file stored as `.authinfo.gpg`
1245```
1246yt-dlp --netrc-cmd 'gpg --decrypt ~/.authinfo.gpg' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc
1247```
1248
1249
878eac3e 1250### Notes about environment variables
1251* Environment variables are normally specified as `${VARIABLE}`/`$VARIABLE` on UNIX and `%VARIABLE%` on Windows; but is always shown as `${VARIABLE}` in this documentation
1252* yt-dlp also allow using UNIX-style variables on Windows for path-like options; e.g. `--output`, `--config-location`
1253* If unset, `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}` defaults to `~/.config` and `${XDG_CACHE_HOME}` to `~/.cache`
1254* On Windows, `~` points to `${HOME}` if present; or, `${USERPROFILE}` or `${HOMEDRIVE}${HOMEPATH}` otherwise
1255* On Windows, `${USERPROFILE}` generally points to `C:\Users\<user name>` and `${APPDATA}` to `${USERPROFILE}\AppData\Roaming`
b7770046
U		 1256
1257# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
1258
0202b52a 1259The `-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 1260
ec2e44fc 1261<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1262**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
ec2e44fc 1263<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1264
e58c22a0 1265The 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 1266
62b58c09 1267It 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 1268
1269The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
3d3bb168 1270
07a1250e 12711. **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 1272
993edd3f 12731. **Arithmetic**: Simple arithmetic can be done on numeric fields using `+`, `-` and `*`. E.g. `%(playlist_index+10)03d`, `%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
ec2e44fc 1274
62b58c09 12751. **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 1276
62b58c09 12771. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a `,`. E.g. `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
ec2e44fc 1278
ec9311c4 12791. **Replacement**: A replacement value can be specified using a `&` separator according to the [`str.format` mini-language](https://docs.python.org/3/library/string.html#format-specification-mini-language). 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. E.g. `%(chapters&has chapters|no chapters)s`, `%(title&TITLE={:>20}|NO TITLE)s`
e978789f 1280
17ffed18 12811. **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 1282
9b9dad11 12831. **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 1284
d5d1df8a 12851. **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 1286
1287To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1288```
e978789f 1289%(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
a439a3a4 1290```
de6000d9 1291
62b58c09 1292Additionally, 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 1293
4815bbfc 1294<a id="outtmpl-postprocess-note"/>
7aaf4cd2 1295
8e174ba7 1296**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 1297
e29663c6 1298The available fields are:
b7770046
U		 1299
1300 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1301 - `title` (string): Video title
455a15e2 1302 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
b7770046
U		 1303 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1304 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
597c1866 1305 - `description` (string): The description of the video
b7770046
U		 1306 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1307 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1308 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1309 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
b7770046 1310 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
ae6a1b95 1311 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
e6f21b3d 1312 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
ae6a1b95 1313 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
1732eccc 1314 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the video or album was released
f0d785d3 1315 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
ae6a1b95 1316 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
b7770046
U		 1317 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1318 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1319 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
6c73052c 1320 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
8213ce28 1321 - `channel_is_verified` (boolean): Whether the channel is verified on the platform
b7770046
U		 1322 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1323 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
53c18592 1324 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
b7770046 1325 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
867c66ff 1326 - `concurrent_view_count` (numeric): How many users are currently watching the video on the platform.
b7770046
U		 1327 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1328 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1329 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1330 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
277d6ff5 1331 - `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 1332 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
e325a21a 1333 - `live_status` (string): One of "not_live", "is_live", "is_upcoming", "was_live", "post_live" (was live, but VOD is not yet processed)
b7770046 1334 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
f76ede8e 1335 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
6cfda058 1336 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
940a67a3 1337 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
e370f9ec 1338 - `media_type` (string): The type of media as classified by the site, e.g. "episode", "clip", "trailer"
b7770046
U		 1339 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1340 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
b7770046
U		 1341 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1342 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
455a15e2 1343 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
b532a348 1344 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`, padded with leading zeros to 5 digits
9c906919 1345 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
e6f21b3d 1346 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
455a15e2 1347 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1348 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1349 - `playlist` (string): `playlist_id` or `playlist_title`
f0d785d3 1350 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
e6f21b3d 1351 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1352 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
b7770046
U		 1353 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1354 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
bd99f6e6 1355 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
0bb322b9 1356 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1357 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
bd99f6e6 1358 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)
d2c8aadf 1359
1360All the fields in [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats) can also be used
b7770046
U		 1361
1362Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1363
1364 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1365 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1366 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1367
1368Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1369
1370 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1371 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1372 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1373 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1374 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1375 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1376 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1377
1378Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1379
1380 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1381 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1382 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1383 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1384 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1385 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1386 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1387 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1388 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
b7770046 1389
5ec1b6b7 1390Available only when using `--download-sections` and for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
72755351 1391
1392 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1393 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1394 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1395 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1396
53c18592 1397Available only when used in `--print`:
1398
1399 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
7aaf4cd2 1400 - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the [actual filename may differ](#outtmpl-postprocess-note)
ed5835b4 1401 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by `--list-formats`
1402 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by `--list-thumbnails`
1403 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1404 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1405
ad54c913 1406 Available only after the video is downloaded (`post_process`/`after_move`):
7a340e0d 1407
ad54c913 1408 - `filepath`: Actual path of downloaded video file
1409
7a340e0d
NA		 1410Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1411
1412 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1413 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1338ae3b 1414 - `categories` (list): The [SponsorBlock categories](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Category) the chapter belongs to
7a340e0d
NA		 1415 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1416 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1417 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
1338ae3b 1418 - `type` (string): The [SponsorBlock action type](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Action_Type) of the chapter
53c18592 1419
62b58c09 1420Each 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 1421
8e174ba7 1422**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 1423
0930b11f 1424**Tip**: Look at the `-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
b7770046 1425
62b58c09 1426For 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 1427
940a67a3 1428Output templates can also contain arbitrary hierarchical path, e.g. `-o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s"` which will result in downloading each video in a directory corresponding to this path template. Any missing directory will be automatically created for you.
b7770046
U		 1429
1430To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
1431
91ebc640 1432The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
b7770046 1433
f304da8a 1434In 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 1435
b7770046
U		 1436#### Output template examples
1437
b7770046 1438```bash
d2c8aadf 1439$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1440test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1441
d2c8aadf 1442$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1443youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
b7770046 1444
d2c8aadf 1445$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
9222c381 1446youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
b7770046
U		 1447
1448# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
940a67a3 1449$ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
b7770046 1450
b050d210 1451# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
940a67a3 1452$ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
e29663c6 1453
e978789f 1454# Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
ad54c913 1455$ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist_index&{} - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
e978789f 1456
b7770046 1457# Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
940a67a3 1458$ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
b7770046
U		 1459
1460# Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
940a67a3 1461$ yt-dlp -u user -p password -P "~/MyVideos" -o "%(playlist)s/%(chapter_number)s - %(chapter)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.udemy.com/java-tutorial"
b7770046
U		 1462
1463# Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
940a67a3 1464$ 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 1465
6a34813a 1466# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1467# and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1468$ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1469
1470# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1471$ 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
1472
b7770046 1473# Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
7a5c1cfe 1474$ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
b7770046
U		 1475```
1476
1477# FORMAT SELECTION
1478
7a5c1cfe
P		 1479By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1480This 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 1481
c111cefa 1482**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.
1483
eff63539 1484The 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 1485
ec2e44fc 1486<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1487**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
ec2e44fc 1488<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1489
62b58c09 1490The 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.
b7770046
U		 1491
1492You 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.
1493
fa9f30b8 1494You can use `-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1495
b7770046
U		 1496You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1497
59a7a13e 1498 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1499 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
30389593 1500 - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio or both (ie; `vcodec!=none or acodec!=none`)
59a7a13e 1501 - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1502 - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
1503 - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
1504 - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
ae6a1b95 1505 - `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 1506 - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
909d24dd 1507 - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1508 - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
909d24dd 1509 - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1510 - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
909d24dd 1511 - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
b7770046 1512
d4ada357 1513For 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 1514
1515You 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 1516
304ad45a 1517If 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.
b7770046
U		 1518
1519If 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`.
1520
62b58c09 1521You 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 1522
1523**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
1524
304ad45a 1525Unless `--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 1526
1527## Filtering Formats
1528
b532a348 1529You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"` since filters without a selector are interpreted as `best`).
b7770046
U		 1530
1531The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
1532
1533 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
d2c8aadf 1534 - `filesize_approx`: An estimate for the number of bytes
b7770046
U		 1535 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1536 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
105bfd90 1537 - `aspect_ratio`: Aspect ratio of the video, if known
b7770046
U		 1538 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1539 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1540 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1541 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1542 - `fps`: Frame rate
d2c8aadf 1543 - `audio_channels`: The number of audio channels
1544 - `stretched_ratio`: `width:height` of the video's pixels, if not square
b7770046 1545
1ce9a3cb 1546Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains), `~=` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
b7770046 1547
d2c8aadf 1548 - `url`: Video URL
b7770046
U		 1549 - `ext`: File extension
1550 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1551 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1552 - `container`: Name of the container format
1553 - `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 1554 - `language`: Language code
d2c8aadf 1555 - `dynamic_range`: The dynamic range of the video
1556 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
1557 - `format`: A human-readable description of the format
1558 - `format_note`: Additional info about the format
1559 - `resolution`: Textual description of width and height
b7770046 1560
1ce9a3cb 1561Any 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 1562
8e174ba7 1563**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 1564
b532a348 1565Formats 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 "bv[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 1566
62b58c09 1567Format 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 1568
eb8a4433 1569## Sorting Formats
1570
2e7781a9 1571You can change the criteria for being considered the `best` by using `-S` (`--format-sort`). The general format for this is `--format-sort field1,field2...`.
1572
1573The available fields are:
eb8a4433 1574
304ad45a 1575 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that have a video stream
1576 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that have an audio stream
ed8d87f9 1577 - `ie_pref`: The format preference
1578 - `lang`: The language preference
1579 - `quality`: The quality of the format
1580 - `source`: The preference of the source
d80d98e7 1581 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > `mms`/`rtsp` > `f4f`/`f4m`)
1582 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other)
a5387729 1583 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`flac`/`alac` > `wav`/`aiff` > `opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `ac4` > `eac3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other)
eb8a4433 1584 - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
29ca4082 1585 - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `mov` > `webm` > `flv` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is preferred.
f2e9fa3e 1586 - `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 1587 - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
0930b11f 1588 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
62b5c94c 1589 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize
63be1aab 1590 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
eb8a4433 1591 - `height`: Height of video
1592 - `width`: Width of video
63be1aab 1593 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1594 - `fps`: Framerate of video
49a57e70 1595 - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `HLG` > `SDR`)
b8ed0f15 1596 - `channels`: The number of audio channels
63be1aab 1597 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1598 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1599 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
62b5c94c 1600 - `br`: Average bitrate in KBit/s, `tbr`/`vbr`/`abr`
63be1aab 1601 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
d806c9fd 1602
1603**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 1604
62b58c09 1605All 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 1606
7e798d72 1607The 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 1608
7e798d72 1609Note 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 1610
e58c22a0 1611If 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 1612
1613**Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1614
eb8a4433 1615## Format Selection examples
b7770046 1616
b7770046 1617```bash
e58c22a0 1618# Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
909d24dd 1619# or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
940a67a3 1620$ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
909d24dd 1621
1622# Download best format that contains video,
1623# and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
940a67a3 1624$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
2af884ff 1625
1626# Same as above
7a5c1cfe 1627$ yt-dlp
909d24dd 1628
6fd35a11 1629# Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1630# For this case, an output template should be used since
1631# by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
940a67a3 1632$ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
909d24dd 1633
f8d4ad9a 1634# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1635# and all audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1636$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
f8d4ad9a 1637
1638# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1639# and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1640$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
909d24dd 1641
6fd35a11 1642
1643# The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
f8d4ad9a 1644# and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
6fd35a11 1645
1646# Download the worst video available (old method)
940a67a3 1647$ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
eb8a4433 1648
1649# Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
940a67a3 1650$ yt-dlp -S "+res"
eb8a4433 1651
1652# Download the smallest video available
940a67a3 1653$ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
eb8a4433 1654
1655
909d24dd 1656
eb8a4433 1657# Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
940a67a3 1658$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
eb8a4433 1659
1660# Download the best video with the best extension
29ca4082 1661# (For video, mp4 > mov > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
940a67a3 1662$ yt-dlp -S "ext"
eb8a4433 1663
1664
909d24dd 1665
eb8a4433 1666# Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1667# or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1668$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
b7770046 1669
eb8a4433 1670# Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1671# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1672$ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
b7770046 1673
eb8a4433 1674# Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1675# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1676# Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1677# So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
940a67a3 1678$ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
b7770046 1679
b7770046 1680
909d24dd 1681
eb8a4433 1682# Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1683# or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1684$ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
eb8a4433 1685
1686# Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1687# or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1688$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
eb8a4433 1689
1690# Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
940a67a3 1691$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
eb8a4433 1692
1693
909d24dd 1694
eb8a4433 1695# Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1696# or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
940a67a3 1697$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1698
1699# Download best video available via the best protocol
1700# (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
940a67a3 1701$ yt-dlp -S "proto"
eb8a4433 1702
1703
909d24dd 1704
1ce9a3cb
LF		 1705# Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1706# or the best video if there is no such video
1707$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1708
1709# Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1710# or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1711$ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1712
1713# Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1714# or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1715$ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1716
1717
1718
1719# More complex examples
1720
e58c22a0 1721# Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1722# or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
940a67a3 1723$ 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 1724
1725# Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
f8d4ad9a 1726# or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1727# preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
940a67a3 1728$ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
eb8a4433 1729
1730
909d24dd 1731
eb8a4433 1732# Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1733# or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1734# preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
940a67a3 1735$ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
b7770046 1736```
eb8a4433 1737
73cd218f 1738# MODIFYING METADATA
1739
a4211baf 1740The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
e9f4ccd1 1741
418964fa 1742`--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 1743
46d09f87 1744The 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 1745
46d09f87 1746Note 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 1747
9c2b75b5 1748This option also has a few special uses:
3d3bb168 1749
c8bc203f 1750* 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 1751
62b58c09 1752* 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 1753
08d30158 1754**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.
1755
c31be5b0 1756For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1757
08d30158 1758Metadata fields | From
1759:--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1760`title` | `track` or `title`
1761`date` | `upload_date`
1762`description`, `synopsis` | `description`
1763`purl`, `comment` | `webpage_url`
1764`track` | `track_number`
1765`artist` | `artist`, `creator`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
1766`genre` | `genre`
1767`album` | `album`
1768`album_artist` | `album_artist`
1769`disc` | `disc_number`
1770`show` | `series`
1771`season_number` | `season_number`
1772`episode_id` | `episode` or `episode_id`
1773`episode_sort` | `episode_number`
1774`language` of each stream | the format's `language`
1775
c31be5b0 1776**Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1777
73cd218f 1778
1779## Modifying metadata examples
1780
73cd218f 1781```bash
1782# Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
940a67a3 1783$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
73cd218f 1784
1785# Regex example
940a67a3 1786$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
73cd218f 1787
1788# Set title as "Series name S01E05"
940a67a3 1789$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
73cd218f 1790
a44ca5a4 1791# Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
2fa669f7 1792$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --embed-metadata
a44ca5a4 1793
1794# Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
1795# handling multiple lines correctly
2fa669f7 1796$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --embed-metadata
73cd218f 1797
8aa0e7cd 1798# Do not set any "synopsis" in the video metadata
1799$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<meta_synopsis>)"
1800
0930b11f 1801# Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
7f9c6a63 1802$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "video::(?P<formats>)" --write-info-json
0930b11f 1803
e9f4ccd1 1804# Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
940a67a3 1805$ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
e9f4ccd1 1806
73cd218f 1807```
1808
5d3a0e79 1809# EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1810
62b58c09 1811Some 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 1812
a5387729 1813Note: In CLI, `ARG` can use `-` instead of `_`; e.g. `youtube:player-client"` becomes `youtube:player_client"`
1814
5d3a0e79 1815The following extractors use this feature:
96565c7e 1816
1817#### youtube
8e174ba7 1818* `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 1819* `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
fd8fcf8f 1820* `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`, `mweb_embedscreen` and `tv_embedded` (agegate bypass) with no variants. By default, `ios,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 1821* `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
ba06d77a 1822* `player_params`: YouTube player parameters to use for player requests. Will overwrite any default ones set by yt-dlp.
96565c7e 1823* `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
a44ca5a4 1824* `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`
1825 * 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
b532a348 1826* `formats`: Change the types of formats to return. `dashy` (convert HTTP to DASH), `duplicate` (identical content but different URLs or protocol; includes `dashy`), `incomplete` (cannot be downloaded completely - live dash and post-live m3u8)
1e4fca9a 1827* `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 1828* `innertube_key`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
eb5bdbfa 1829* `raise_incomplete_data`: `Incomplete Data Received` raises an error instead of reporting a warning
96565c7e 1830
1831#### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1832* `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 1833* `approximate_date`: Extract approximate `upload_date` and `timestamp` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
96565c7e 1834
3b021eac 1835#### generic
5cc0a8fd 1836* `fragment_query`: Passthrough any query in mpd/m3u8 manifest URLs to their fragments if no value is provided, or else apply the query string given as `fragment_query=VALUE`. Does not apply to ffmpeg
1837* `variant_query`: Passthrough the master m3u8 URL query to its variant playlist URLs if no value is provided, or else apply the query string given as `variant_query=VALUE`
c2e0fc40 1838* `hls_key`: An HLS AES-128 key URI *or* key (as hex), and optionally the IV (as hex), in the form of `(URI|KEY)[,IV]`; e.g. `generic:hls_key=ABCDEF1234567980,0xFEDCBA0987654321`. Passing any of these values will force usage of the native HLS downloader and override the corresponding values found in the m3u8 playlist
93e7c699 1839* `is_live`: Bypass live HLS detection and manually set `live_status` - a value of `false` will set `not_live`, any other value (or no value) will set `is_live`
3b021eac 1840
96565c7e 1841#### funimation
304ad45a 1842* `language`: Audio languages to extract, e.g. `funimation:language=english,japanese`
96565c7e 1843* `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`
1844
cb1553e9 1845#### crunchyrollbeta (Crunchyroll)
62b58c09 1846* `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 1847* `hardsub`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract, or `all` (default: `None` = no hardsubs), e.g. `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None`
706dfe44 1848
96565c7e 1849#### vikichannel
1850* `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
73d829c1 1851
7bdcb4a4
LNO		 1852#### niconico
1853* `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.**
1854
aa4b0545 1855#### youtubewebarchive
1856* `check_all`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails`, `captures`
1857
d43de682
M		 1858#### gamejolt
1859* `comment_sort`: `hot` (default), `you` (cookies needed), `top`, `new` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1860
26f2aa3d
AG		 1861#### hotstar
1862* `res`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd`, `hd`, `fhd`
1863* `vcodec`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264`, `h265`, `dvh265`
1864* `dr`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr`, `hdr10`, `dv`
1865
698beb9a
M		 1866#### niconicochannelplus
1867* `max_comments`: Maximum number of comments to extract - default is `120`
1868
046cab39 1869#### tiktok
c4cbd3be 1870* `api_hostname`: Hostname to use for mobile API requests, e.g. `api-h2.tiktokv.com`
62b58c09
L		 1871* `app_version`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version`, e.g. `20.2.1`
1872* `manifest_app_version`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with, e.g. `221`
046cab39 1873
7eaf7f9a 1874#### rokfinchannel
62b58c09 1875* `tab`: Which tab to download - one of `new`, `top`, `videos`, `podcasts`, `streams`, `stacks`
7eaf7f9a 1876
b03fa783 1877#### twitter
a006ce2b 1878* `api`: Select one of `graphql` (default), `legacy` or `syndication` as the API for tweet extraction. Has no effect if logged in
b03fa783 1879
af1fd12f 1880#### stacommu, wrestleuniverse
ef8fb7f0 1881* `device_id`: UUID value assigned by the website and used to enforce device limits for paid livestream content. Can be found in browser local storage
1882
7f9c6a63 1883#### twitch
1884* `client_id`: Client ID value to be sent with GraphQL requests, e.g. `twitch:client_id=kimne78kx3ncx6brgo4mv6wki5h1ko`
01231feb 1885
81c8b9bd 1886#### nhkradirulive (NHK らじる★らじる LIVE)
1887* `area`: Which regional variation to extract. Valid areas are: `sapporo`, `sendai`, `tokyo`, `nagoya`, `osaka`, `hiroshima`, `matsuyama`, `fukuoka`. Defaults to `tokyo`
1888
1eaca74b 1889#### nflplusreplay
1890* `type`: Type(s) of game replays to extract. Valid types are: `full_game`, `full_game_spanish`, `condensed_game` and `all_22`. You can use `all` to extract all available replay types, which is the default
1891
5154dc0a 1892#### jiosaavn
1893* `bitrate`: Audio bitrates to request. One or more of `16`, `32`, `64`, `128`, `320`. Default is `128,320`
1894
8e174ba7 1895**Note**: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
5d3a0e79 1896
ec2e44fc 1897<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1898
3acf6d38 1899
f74980cb 1900# PLUGINS
b7770046 1901
8e40b9d1 1902Note 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 1903
8e40b9d1
M		 1904Plugins can be of `<type>`s `extractor` or `postprocessor`.
1905- Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it.
1906- Extractor plugins take priority over builtin extractors.
1907- Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME`.
3ae5e797 1908
3ae5e797 1909
8e40b9d1 1910Plugins are loaded from the namespace packages `yt_dlp_plugins.extractor` and `yt_dlp_plugins.postprocessor`.
3ae5e797 1911
8e40b9d1
M		 1912In other words, the file structure on the disk looks something like:
1913
1914 yt_dlp_plugins/
1915 extractor/
1916 myplugin.py
1917 postprocessor/
1918 myplugin.py
1919
1920yt-dlp looks for these `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folders in many locations (see below) and loads in plugins from **all** of them.
b7770046 1921
deae7c17 1922See the [wiki for some known plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugins)
1923
8e40b9d1
M		 1924## Installing Plugins
1925
1926Plugins can be installed using various methods and locations.
1927
19281. **Configuration directories**:
1929 Plugin packages (containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder) can be dropped into the following standard [configuration locations](#configuration):
1930 * **User Plugins**
1931 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1932 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1933 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Windows)
773c272d 1934 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
8e40b9d1
M		 1935 * `~/.yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1936 * `~/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1937 * **System Plugins**
1938 * `/etc/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1939 * `/etc/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
c8bc203f 19402. **Executable location**: Plugin packages can similarly be installed in a `yt-dlp-plugins` directory under the executable location (recommended for portable installations):
8e40b9d1
M		 1941 * Binary: where `<root-dir>/yt-dlp.exe`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1942 * Source: where `<root-dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1943
19443. **pip and other locations in `PYTHONPATH`**
e756f45b 1945 * 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 1946 * Note: plugin files between plugin packages installed with pip must have unique filenames.
8e40b9d1
M		 1947 * Any path in `PYTHONPATH` is searched in for the `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder.
1948 * Note: This does not apply for Pyinstaller/py2exe builds.
1949
1950
8e174ba7 1951`.zip`, `.egg` and `.whl` archives containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder in their root are also supported as plugin packages.
1952* e.g. `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/mypluginpkg.zip` where `mypluginpkg.zip` contains `yt_dlp_plugins/<type>/myplugin.py`
8e40b9d1 1953
8e174ba7 1954Run yt-dlp with `--verbose` to check if the plugin has been loaded.
8e40b9d1
M		 1955
1956## Developing Plugins
1957
8e174ba7 1958See 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 1959
8e174ba7 1960All 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 1961
773c272d 1962To 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 1963
8e174ba7 1964If 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 1965
8e40b9d1 1966See 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 1967
1968# EMBEDDING YT-DLP
1969
1970yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1971
1972Your 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.
1973
1974From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1975
1976```python
59a7a13e 1977from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
8c6f4daa 1978
3d3bb168 1979URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1980with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1981 ydl.download(URLS)
8c6f4daa 1982```
1983
b532a348 1984Most 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#L183) or `help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)` in a Python shell. If you are already familiar with the CLI, you can use [`devscripts/cli_to_api.py`](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/devscripts/cli_to_api.py) to translate any CLI switches to `YoutubeDL` params.
8c6f4daa 1985
43cc91ad 1986**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 1987
1988## Embedding examples
1989
43cc91ad 1990#### Extracting information
8c6f4daa 1991
1992```python
1993import json
8c6f4daa 1994import yt_dlp
8c6f4daa 1995
3d3bb168 1996URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
1997
1998# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
1999ydl_opts = {}
2000with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2001 info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
2002
2003 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
2004 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
2005```
43cc91ad 2006#### Download using an info-json
3d3bb168 2007
2008```python
2009import yt_dlp
2010
2011INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
2012
2013with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
2014 error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
2015
2016print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
2017 else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
2018```
2019
43cc91ad 2020#### Extract audio
3d3bb168 2021
2022```python
2023import yt_dlp
2024
2025URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2026
2027ydl_opts = {
0a41f331 2028 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
3d3bb168 2029 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
2030 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
2031 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
2032 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
2033 }]
2034}
2035
2036with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2037 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
2038```
0a41f331 2039
2040#### Filter videos
2041
2042```python
2043import yt_dlp
2044
2045URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2046
2047def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
2048 """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
2049 duration = info.get('duration')
2050 if duration and duration < 60:
2051 return 'The video is too short'
2052
2053ydl_opts = {
2054 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
2055}
2056
2057with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2058 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
2059```
2060
43cc91ad 2061#### Adding logger and progress hook
3d3bb168 2062
2063```python
2064import yt_dlp
2065
2066URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
8c6f4daa 2067
2068class MyLogger:
2069 def debug(self, msg):
e75bb0d6 2070 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
8c6f4daa 2071 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
2072 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
2073 pass
2074 else:
2075 self.info(msg)
2076
2077 def info(self, msg):
2078 pass
2079
2080 def warning(self, msg):
2081 pass
2082
2083 def error(self, msg):
2084 print(msg)
2085
2086
3d3bb168 2087# ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
2088def my_hook(d):
2089 if d['status'] == 'finished':
2090 print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
2091
2092
2093ydl_opts = {
2094 'logger': MyLogger(),
2095 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
2096}
2097
2098with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2099 ydl.download(URLS)
2100```
2101
43cc91ad 2102#### Add a custom PostProcessor
3d3bb168 2103
2104```python
2105import yt_dlp
2106
2107URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2108
2109# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
59a7a13e 2110class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
8c6f4daa 2111 def run(self, info):
2112 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
2113 return [], info
2114
2115
3d3bb168 2116with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
8aa0e7cd 2117 # ℹ️ "when" can take any value in yt_dlp.utils.POSTPROCESS_WHEN
2118 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP(), when='pre_process')
3d3bb168 2119 ydl.download(URLS)
2120```
8c6f4daa 2121
2122
43cc91ad 2123#### Use a custom format selector
3d3bb168 2124
2125```python
2126import yt_dlp
2127
c8bc203f 2128URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
3d3bb168 2129
093a1710 2130def format_selector(ctx):
2131 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
3d3bb168 2132 NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
093a1710 2133
2134 # formats are already sorted worst to best
2135 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
2136
2137 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
2138 best_video = next(f for f in formats
2139 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
2140
2141 # find compatible audio extension
2142 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
2143 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
2144 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
2145 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
2146
3d3bb168 2147 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
093a1710 2148 yield {
093a1710 2149 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
2150 'ext': best_video['ext'],
2151 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
e75bb0d6 2152 # Must be + separated list of protocols
093a1710 2153 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
2154 }
2155
2156
8c6f4daa 2157ydl_opts = {
093a1710 2158 'format': format_selector,
8c6f4daa 2159}
2160
2161with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
3d3bb168 2162 ydl.download(URLS)
8c6f4daa 2163```
2164
ec2e44fc 2165<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
2166
e167860c 2167# DEPRECATED OPTIONS
2168
2169These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
2170
8130779d 2171#### Almost redundant options
2172While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
2173
2174 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
2175 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
0bfc53d0 2176 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
8130779d 2177 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
2178
6ccf351a 2179#### Redundant options
2180While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
f4536226 2181
53c18592 2182 --get-description --print description
2183 --get-duration --print duration_string
2184 --get-filename --print filename
2185 --get-format --print format
2186 --get-id --print id
2187 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
2188 -e, --get-title --print title
2189 -g, --get-url --print urls
8f18aca8 2190 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
2191 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
2192 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
2193 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
fe2ce85a 2194 --break-on-reject Use --break-match-filter
8b7539d2 2195 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
2196 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
7e88d7d7 2197 --playlist-start NUMBER -I NUMBER:
2198 --playlist-end NUMBER -I :NUMBER
2199 --playlist-reverse -I ::-1
2200 --no-playlist-reverse Default
8417f26b 2201 --no-colors --color no_color
6ccf351a 2202
2203
2204#### Not recommended
2205While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
2206
fe7866d0 2207 --force-generic-extractor --ies generic,default
1e43a6f7 2208 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
2209 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
d9aa2332 2210 --all-formats -f all
c32b0aab 2211 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
b7b04c78 2212 --print-json -j --no-simulate
62b58c09 2213 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting, e.g. %(autonumber)03d
a439a3a4 2214 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
19b824f6 2215 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
73cd218f 2216 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
52a8a1e1 2217 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
2218 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
53ed7066 2219 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
2220 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
5d3a0e79 2221 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
2222 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
2223 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
2224 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
c1664464 2225 --geo-bypass --xff "default"
2226 --no-geo-bypass --xff "never"
2227 --geo-bypass-country CODE --xff CODE
2228 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK --xff IP_BLOCK
6ccf351a 2229
2230
2231#### Developer options
2232These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
2233
34488702 2234 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
f95b9dee 2235 --load-pages Load pages dumped by --write-pages
6ccf351a 2236 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
88acdbc2 2237 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
2238 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
f4536226 2239
2240
2241#### Old aliases
2242These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
2243
2244 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
3856407a 2245 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
f4536226 2246 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
2247 --dump-headers --print-traffic
2248 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
2249 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
2250 --load-info --load-info-json
3856407a 2251 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
f4536226 2252 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
e167860c 2253 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
e167860c 2254 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
2255 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
f4536226 2256 --split-tracks --split-chapters
2257 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
e167860c 2258 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
f4536226 2259 --write-srt --write-subs
e167860c 2260 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
f4536226 2261
7a340e0d 2262#### Sponskrub Options
f304da8a 2263Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock` options
7a340e0d
NA		 2264
2265 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
2266 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
2267 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
2268 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
2269 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
2270 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
2271 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
2272 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
2273
f4536226 2274#### No longer supported
2275These options may no longer work as intended
2276
2277 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
2278 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
2279 -C, --call-home Not implemented
2280 --no-call-home Default
2281 --include-ads No longer supported
2282 --no-include-ads Default
0bb1bc1b 2283 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
2284 --no-write-annotations Default
1e8fe57e 2285 --compat-options seperate-video-versions No longer needed
486fb179 2286
2287#### Removed
2288These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
2289
f4536226 2290 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
3d3bb168 2291 -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
f4536226 2292
8c6f4daa 2293# CONTRIBUTING
2294See [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 2295
17ffed18 2296# WIKI
2297See the [Wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki) for more information
fork of https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/