]> jfr.im git - yt-dlp.git/blame - README.md
[extractor] Fix empty `BaseURL` in MPD
[yt-dlp.git] / README.md
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ec2e44fc 1<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b31fdeed 2<div align="center">
3
e980017a 4[![YT-DLP](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master/.github/banner.svg)](#readme)
d9d045e2 5
ae6a1b95 6[![Release version](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?color=brightgreen&label=Download&style=for-the-badge)](#release-files "Release")
7[![PyPi](https://img.shields.io/badge/-PyPi-blue.svg?logo=pypi&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp "PyPi")
fc5fa964 8[![Donate](https://img.shields.io/badge/_-Donate-red.svg?logo=githubsponsors&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](Collaborators.md#collaborators "Donate")
ae6a1b95 9[![Matrix](https://img.shields.io/matrix/yt-dlp:matrix.org?color=brightgreen&labelColor=555555&label=&logo=element&style=for-the-badge)](https://matrix.to/#/#yt-dlp:matrix.org "Matrix")
10[![Discord](https://img.shields.io/discord/807245652072857610?color=blue&labelColor=555555&label=&logo=discord&style=for-the-badge)](https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r "Discord")
fc5fa964 11[![Supported Sites](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Supported_Sites-brightgreen.svg?style=for-the-badge)](supportedsites.md "Supported Sites")
ae6a1b95 12[![License: Unlicense](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Unlicense-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge)](LICENSE "License")
fc5fa964 13[![CI Status](https://img.shields.io/github/workflow/status/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/Core%20Tests/master?label=Tests&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions "CI Status")
fc5fa964 14[![Commits](https://img.shields.io/github/commit-activity/m/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?label=commits&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
15[![Last Commit](https://img.shields.io/github/last-commit/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master?label=&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
c76eb41b 16
b31fdeed 17</div>
ec2e44fc 18<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
c76eb41b 19
b31fdeed 20yt-dlp is a [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) fork based on the now inactive [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc). The main focus of this project is adding new features and patches while also keeping up to date with the original project
5c0e5bc4 21
ec2e44fc 22<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "USAGE AND OPTIONS" SECTION HERE -->
23
24<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
034b6215 25* [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
53ed7066 26 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
c76eb41b 27* [INSTALLATION](#installation)
17fa3ee2 28 * [Update](#update)
0e5927ee 29 * [Release Files](#release-files)
cf59cd4d 30 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
17fa3ee2 31 * [Compile](#compile)
b31fdeed 32* [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
33 * [General Options](#general-options)
50865ca8 34 * [Network Options](#network-options)
b31fdeed 35 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
50865ca8 36 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
37 * [Download Options](#download-options)
38 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
b31fdeed 39 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
50865ca8 40 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
0744a815 41 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
50865ca8 42 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
43 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
44 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
45 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
50865ca8 46 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
7a340e0d 47 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
50865ca8 48 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
c76eb41b 49* [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
50865ca8 50 * [Authentication with .netrc file](#authentication-with-netrc-file)
c76eb41b 51* [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
50865ca8 52 * [Output template and Windows batch files](#output-template-and-windows-batch-files)
53 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
c76eb41b 54* [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
50865ca8 55 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
56 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
57 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
73cd218f 58* [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
59 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
5d3a0e79 60* [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
f74980cb 61* [PLUGINS](#plugins)
8c6f4daa 62* [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
43cc91ad 63 * [Embedding examples](#embedding-examples)
e167860c 64* [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
8c6f4daa 65* [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
66 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
67 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
c76eb41b 68* [MORE](#more)
ec2e44fc 69<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
50865ca8 70
71
034b6215 72# NEW FEATURES
91f071af 73
6d1b3489 74* Based on **youtube-dl 2021.12.17 [commit/8a158a9](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/8a158a936c8b002ef536e9e2b778ded02c09c0fa)**<!--([exceptions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/21))--> and **youtube-dlc 2020.11.11-3 [commit/f9401f2](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/commit/f9401f2a91987068139c5f757b12fc711d4c0cee)**: You get all the features and patches of [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) in addition to the latest [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl)
034b6215 75
7a340e0d 76* **[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in youtube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
034b6215 77
7581d246 78* **[Format Sorting](#sorting-formats)**: The default format sorting options have been changed so that higher resolution and better codecs will be now preferred instead of simply using larger bitrate. Furthermore, you can now specify the sort order using `-S`. This allows for much easier format selection than what is possible by simply using `--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
034b6215 79
ae6a1b95 80* **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from [animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including `--write-comments`, `BiliBiliSearch`, `BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that the NicoNico livestreams are not available. See [#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
29b6000e 81
f5546c0b 82* **Youtube improvements**:
ca5300c7 83 * All Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`, `:ytnotif`) and private playlists supports downloading multiple pages of content
0fdf490d 84 * Search (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`), search URLs and in-channel search works
85 * Mixes supports downloading multiple pages of content
86c1a8aa 86 * Some (but not all) age-gated content can be downloaded without cookies
a4211baf 87 * Fix for [n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326)
f20f5fe5 88 * Redirect channel's home URL automatically to `/video` to preserve the old behaviour
e6f21b3d 89 * `255kbps` audio is extracted (if available) from youtube music when premium cookies are given
9ee4f0bb 90 * Youtube music Albums, channels etc can be downloaded ([except self-uploaded music](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/723))
144a3588 91 * Download livestreams from the start using `--live-from-start` (experimental)
6e634cbe 92 * Support for downloading stories (`ytstories:<channel UCID>`)
471d0367 93 * Support for downloading clips
f20f5fe5 94
f59f5ef8 95* **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using `--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE]`
245524e6 96
5ec1b6b7 97* **Download time range**: Videos can be downloaded partially based on either timestamps or chapters using `--download-sections`
98
597c1866 99* **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using `--split-chapters`
100
b31fdeed 101* **Multi-threaded fragment downloads**: Download multiple fragments of m3u8/mpd videos in parallel. Use `--concurrent-fragments` (`-N`) option to set the number of threads used
8d801631 102
b31fdeed 103* **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use `aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
f20f5fe5 104
e75bb0d6 105* **New and fixed extractors**: Many new extractors have been added and a lot of existing ones have been fixed. See the [changelog](Changelog.md) or the [list of supported sites](supportedsites.md)
86c1a8aa 106
56ba69e4 107* **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN etc.
fac98805 108
3de7c2ce 109* **Subtitle extraction from manifests**: Subtitles can be extracted from streaming media manifests. See [commit/be6202f](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/be6202f12b97858b9d716e608394b51065d0419f) for details
034b6215 110
597c1866 111* **Multiple paths and output templates**: You can give different [output templates](#output-template) and download paths for different types of files. You can also set a temporary path where intermediary files are downloaded to using `--paths` (`-P`)
0bc0a322 112
113* **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [configuration](#configuration) for details
114
418964fa 115* **Output template improvements**: Output templates can now have date-time formatting, numeric offsets, object traversal etc. See [output template](#output-template) for details. Even more advanced operations can also be done with the help of `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
fac98805 116
8a82af35 117* **Other new options**: Many new options have been added such as `--alias`, `--print`, `--concat-playlist`, `--wait-for-video`, `--retry-sleep`, `--sleep-requests`, `--convert-thumbnails`, `--force-download-archive`, `--force-overwrites`, `--break-on-reject` etc
0bc0a322 118
08d30158 119* **Improvements**: Regex and other operators in `--format`/`--match-filter`, multiple `--postprocessor-args` and `--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection), merge multi-video/audio, multiple `--config-locations`, `--exec` at different stages, etc
c69911e4 120
86c1a8aa 121* **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
b31fdeed 122
7a5c1cfe 123* **Self-updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`
aa837ddf 124
7a5c1cfe 125See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
a26c99ac 126
53ed7066 127### Differences in default behavior
128
0930b11f 129Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
53ed7066 130
96565c7e 131* The options `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
b69fd25c 132* `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
a44ca5a4 133* yt-dlp stores config files in slightly different locations to youtube-dl. See [configuration](#configuration) for a list of correct locations
96565c7e 134* 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 135* 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 136* 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 137* 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 138* `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
28b0eb0f 139* 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 140* `--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 141* 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 142* `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
143* The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
3acf6d38 144* All *experiences* of a funimation episode are considered as a single video. This behavior breaks existing archives. Use `--compat-options seperate-video-versions` to extract information from only the default player
28b0eb0f 145* Youtube live chat (if available) is considered as a subtitle. Use `--sub-langs all,-live_chat` to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use `--compat-options no-live-chat` to prevent live chat from downloading
64f36541 146* Youtube channel URLs are automatically redirected to `/video`. Append a `/featured` to the URL to download only the videos in the home page. If the channel does not have a videos tab, we try to download the equivalent `UU` playlist instead. For all other tabs, if the channel does not show the requested tab, an error will be raised. Also, `/live` URLs raise an error if there are no live videos instead of silently downloading the entire channel. You may use `--compat-options no-youtube-channel-redirect` to revert all these redirections
28b0eb0f 147* Unavailable videos are also listed for youtube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
18e674b4 148* 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 149* Thumbnail embedding in `mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use `--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
e4f02757 150* Some private fields such as filenames are removed by default from the infojson. Use `--no-clean-infojson` or `--compat-options no-clean-infojson` to revert this
e75bb0d6 151* 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
0bf9dc1e 152* `certifi` will be used for SSL root certificates, if installed. If you want to use only system certificates, use `--compat-options no-certifi`
962ffcf8 153* youtube-dl tries to remove some superfluous punctuations from filenames. While this can sometimes be helpful, it is often undesirable. So yt-dlp tries to keep the fields in the filenames as close to their original values as possible. You can use `--compat-options filename-sanitization` to revert to youtube-dl's behavior
53ed7066 154
155For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
3d3bb168 156
8a82af35 157* `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options (Do NOT use)
28b0eb0f 158* `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams`
159* `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
53ed7066 160
f20f5fe5 161
d19bb9c0 162# INSTALLATION
50865ca8 163
7bc877a2 164You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
a61f4b28 165
a4211baf 166### Using the release binary
0930b11f 167
fc5fa964 168You can simply download the [correct binary file](#release-files) for your OS
5f326cf5 169
fc5fa964 170<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
171[![Windows](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Windows_x64-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=windows)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)
24146491 172[![Linux](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Linux/BSD-red.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=linux)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)
173[![MacOS](https://img.shields.io/badge/-MacOS-lightblue.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=apple)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)
fc5fa964 174[![Source Tarball](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Source_tar-green.svg?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
175[![Other variants](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Other-grey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](#release-files)
3d3bb168 176[![All versions](https://img.shields.io/badge/-All_Versions-lightgrey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
fc5fa964 177<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
178
179Note: The manpages, shell completion files etc. are available in the [source tarball](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
180
181<!-- TODO: Move to Wiki -->
0930b11f 182In UNIX-like OSes (MacOS, Linux, BSD), you can also install the same in one of the following ways:
5ba4a0b6
A
183
184```
185sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
186sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
187```
188
189```
190sudo wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
191sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
192```
193
194```
b69fd25c 195sudo aria2c https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp --dir /usr/local/bin -o yt-dlp
5ba4a0b6
A
196sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
197```
198
0930b11f 199
a4211baf 200### With [PIP](https://pypi.org/project/pip)
0930b11f 201
202You can install the [PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) with:
203```
204python3 -m pip install -U yt-dlp
205```
206
86c1a8aa 207You can install without any of the optional dependencies using:
0930b11f 208```
209python3 -m pip install --no-deps -U yt-dlp
210```
211
86c1a8aa 212If you want to be on the cutting edge, you can also install the master branch with:
0930b11f 213```
ae6a1b95 214python3 -m pip install --force-reinstall https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/archive/master.tar.gz
0930b11f 215```
216
8aa0e7cd 217On some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`
0930b11f 218
fc5fa964 219<!-- TODO: Add to Wiki, Remove Taps -->
a4211baf 220### With [Homebrew](https://brew.sh)
0930b11f 221
222macOS or Linux users that are using Homebrew can also install it by:
b8773e63
THD
223
224```
225brew install yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp
226```
227
a4211baf 228## UPDATE
0930b11f 229You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are [using the provided release](#using-the-release-binary)
230
231If you [installed with pip](#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
232
233If you [installed using Homebrew](#with-homebrew), run `brew upgrade yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp`
cf59cd4d 234
ec2e44fc 235<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
a4211baf 236## RELEASE FILES
0e5927ee 237
733d8e8f 238#### Recommended
239
240File|Description
241:---|:---
962ffcf8 242[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 243[yt-dlp.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary (recommended for **Windows**)
ae6a1b95 244[yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|MacOS (10.15+) standalone executable (recommended for **MacOS**)
733d8e8f 245
246#### Alternatives
247
0e5927ee
R
248File|Description
249:---|:---
0930b11f 250[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 251[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))
e4afcfde 252[yt-dlp_linux](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux)|UNIX standalone x64 binary
253[yt-dlp_linux.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux.zip)|Unpackaged Unix executable (no auto-update)
0930b11f 254[yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
255[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 256[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 257
258#### Misc
259
260File|Description
261:---|:---
0e5927ee
R
262[yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball. Also contains manpages, completions, etc
263[SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
264[SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
ec2e44fc 265<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
0e5927ee 266
a4211baf 267## DEPENDENCIES
eff42759 268Python versions 3.7+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
b31fdeed 269
c9652aa4 270<!-- Python 3.5+ uses VC++14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
271<!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999 --x>
cf59cd4d 272On 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 273-->
fac98805 274
e75bb0d6 275While all the other dependencies are optional, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended
ec2e44fc 276
8aa0e7cd 277### Strongly recommended
278
b69fd25c 279* [**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 280
281 <!-- TODO: ffmpeg has merged this patch. Remove this note once there is new release -->
282 **Note**: There are some regressions in newer ffmpeg versions that causes various issues when used alongside yt-dlp. Since ffmpeg is such an important dependency, we provide [custom builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#ffmpeg-static-auto-builds) with patches for these issues at [yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds). See [the readme](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#patches-applied) for details on the specific issues solved by these builds
283
284### Networking
d5820461 285* [**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 286* [**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>
287* [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
288
289### Metadata
290
291* [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For `--embed-thumbnail` in certain formats. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
292* [**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)
293* [**xattr**](https://github.com/xattr/xattr), [**pyxattr**](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr) or [**setfattr**](http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/attr) - For writing xattr metadata (`--xattr`) on **Linux**. Licensed under [MIT](https://github.com/xattr/xattr/blob/master/LICENSE.txt), [LGPL2.1](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr/blob/master/COPYING) and [GPLv2+](http://git.savannah.nongnu.org/cgit/attr.git/tree/doc/COPYING) respectively
294
295### Misc
296
297* [**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 298* [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
8aa0e7cd 299* [**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 300* Any external downloader that you want to use with `--downloader`
b31fdeed 301
8aa0e7cd 302#### Deprecated
303
304* [**avconv** and **avprobe**](https://www.libav.org) - Now **deprecated** alternative to ffmpeg. License [depends on the build](https://libav.org/legal)
305* [**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 306* [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with `--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
307* [**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 308
cf59cd4d 309To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
310
8aa0e7cd 311The Windows and MacOS standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with **\*** included.
d710cc6d 312
8aa0e7cd 313If 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 314
5f326cf5 315
a4211baf 316## COMPILE
5f326cf5 317
8aa0e7cd 318### Standalone PyInstaller Builds
319To build the Windows/MacOS 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 (32/64 bit) as the Python used.
e38df8f9 320
8aa0e7cd 321 python3 -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
322 python3 devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
323 python3 pyinst.py
324
325On some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`.
326
327Note that pyinstaller [does not support](https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller#requirements-and-tested-platforms) Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment.
328
329**Important**: Running `pyinstaller` directly **without** using `pyinst.py` is **not** officially supported. This may or may not work correctly.
7581d246 330
8aa0e7cd 331### Platform-independent Binary (UNIX)
332You will need the build tools `python` (3.6+), `zip`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`\* and `pytest`\*.
b96a939b 333
8aa0e7cd 334After installing these, simply run `make`.
5f326cf5 335
8aa0e7cd 336You can also run `make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files. (The dependencies marked with **\*** are not needed for this)
d19bb9c0 337
8aa0e7cd 338### Standalone Py2Exe Builds (Windows)
339
340While 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.
341
342If you wish to build it anyway, install Python and py2exe, and then simply run `setup.py py2exe`
343
344 py -m pip install -U py2exe -r requirements.txt
345 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
346 py setup.py py2exe
347
348### Related scripts
349
350* **`devscripts/update-version.py`** - Update the version number based on current timestamp
351* **`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.
352
353You can also fork the project on github and run your fork's [build workflow](.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically build a full release
59a7a13e 354
b31fdeed 355# USAGE AND OPTIONS
6bcd846b 356
ec2e44fc 357<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
7a5c1cfe 358 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
b50e3bc6 359
c2b5f311 360`Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
ec2e44fc 361<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
c2b5f311 362
ec2e44fc 363<!-- Auto generated -->
c76eb41b 364## General Options:
2dd5a2e3 365 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
366 --version Print program version and exit
367 -U, --update Update this program to latest version
d32f30ac 368 --no-update Do not update (default)
2dd5a2e3 369 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
370 The download will be considered successful
371 even if the postprocessing fails
372 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download errors;
373 e.g. to skip unavailable videos in a
374 playlist (default)
375 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
376 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
377 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
378 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
379 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
380 extractors and exit
64fa820c 381 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic extractor
2dd5a2e3 382 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. Eg:
383 "gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
384 google videos for the search term "python".
385 Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
386 ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when
387 guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
388 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken
389 URLs, but emits an error if this is not
390 possible instead of searching
391 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
392 except those given by --config-locations.
393 For backward compatibility, if this option
394 is found inside the system configuration
395 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
396 (Alias: --no-config)
397 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
398 (default). When given inside a configuration
399 file, ignore all previous --config-locations
400 defined in the current file
401 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
402 either the path to the config or its
6b9e832d 403 containing directory ("-" for stdin). Can be
404 used multiple times and inside other
405 configuration files
2dd5a2e3 406 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
407 only list them
408 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
409 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
410 Currently only supported for YouTube
411 (Experimental)
412 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
413 (default)
414 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
415 available. Pass the minimum number of
416 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
417 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
418 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
419 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
420 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output
421 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
422 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
423 configurations by reverting some of the
424 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
425 default behavior" for details
426 --alias ALIASES OPTIONS Create aliases for an option string. Unless
427 an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
428 prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
429 according to the Python string formatting
430 mini-language. Eg: --alias get-audio,-X
431 "-S=aext:{0},abr -x --audio-format {0}"
432 creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
433 takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
434 "-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
435 All defined aliases are listed in the --help
436 output. Alias options can trigger more
962ffcf8 437 aliases; so be careful to avoid defining
2dd5a2e3 438 recursive options. As a safety measure, each
439 alias may be triggered a maximum of 100
64fa820c 440 times. This option can be used multiple times
08c1d0d3 441
149f05c7 442## Network Options:
2dd5a2e3 443 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
444 enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme.
445 Eg: socks5://user:pass@127.0.0.1:1080/. Pass
446 in an empty string (--proxy "") for direct
447 connection
448 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
449 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
450 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
451 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
8c6c88c7 452
b31fdeed 453## Geo-restriction:
2dd5a2e3 454 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
455 some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy
456 specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
457 is not present) is used for the actual
458 downloading
459 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
460 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header (default)
461 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
462 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
463 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
464 explicitly provided two-letter ISO 3166-2
465 country code
466 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
64fa820c 467 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR notation
149f05c7 468
cfcec693 469## Video Selection:
962ffcf8 470 -I, --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Comma separated playlist_index of the videos
7e88d7d7 471 to download. You can specify a range using
472 "[START]:[STOP][:STEP]". For backward
473 compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.
474 Use negative indices to count from the right
475 and negative STEP to download in reverse
476 order. Eg: "-I 1:3,7,-5::2" used on a
477 playlist of size 15 will download the videos
478 at index 1,2,3,7,11,13,15
2dd5a2e3 479 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE
480 (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
481 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
482 (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
483 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
484 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
485 [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
486 Eg: --date today-2weeks
487 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
488 this date. The date formats accepted is the
489 same as --date
490 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
491 this date. The date formats accepted is the
492 same as --date
493 --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
494 field can be compared with a number or a
495 string using the operators defined in
496 "Filtering formats". You can also simply
497 specify a field to match if the field is
498 present, use "!field" to check if the field
499 is not present, and "&" to check multiple
500 conditions. Use a "\" to escape "&" or
501 quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
502 the filter matches if atleast one of the
503 conditions are met. Eg: --match-filter
504 !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?100 &
505 description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'" matches
506 only videos that are not live OR those that
507 have a like count more than 100 (or the like
508 field is not available) and also has a
509 description that contains the phrase "cats &
510 dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
511 interactively ask whether to download each
512 video
513 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
514 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
515 to a video and a playlist
516 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
517 a video and a playlist
518 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
519 age
520 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
521 archive file. Record the IDs of all
522 downloaded videos in it
523 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
524 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
525 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
526 a file that is in the archive
527 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
528 a file that has been filtered out
529 --break-per-input Make --break-on-existing, --break-on-reject
530 and --max-downloads act only on the current
531 input URL
532 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
533 terminates the entire download queue
534 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
535 the playlist is skipped
6bcd846b 536
d5a62e4f 537## Download Options:
2dd5a2e3 538 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
539 video that should be downloaded concurrently
540 (default is 1)
541 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
542 (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
543 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
544 below which throttling is assumed and the
545 video data is re-extracted (e.g. 100K)
546 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
547 "infinite"
548 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
549 error (default is 3), or "infinite"
550 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
551 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
552 --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR An expression for the time to sleep between
553 retries in seconds (optionally) prefixed by
554 the type of retry (file_access, fragment,
555 http (default)) to apply the sleep to. EXPR
556 can be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=1]]
557 or exp=START[:END[:BASE=2]]. This option can
558 be used multiple times to set the sleep for
559 the different retry types. Eg: --retry-sleep
560 linear=1::2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=1:20
561 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
562 hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
563 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
564 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment
565 Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
566 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
567 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
568 downloading is finished
569 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
570 downloading is finished (default)
571 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
572 (default is 1024)
573 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
574 from an initial value of --buffer-size
575 (default)
576 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
577 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
578 downloading (e.g. 10485760 or 10M) (default
579 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
580 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
581 (experimental)
2dd5a2e3 582 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
7e9a6125 583 --lazy-playlist Process entries in the playlist as they are
584 received. This disables n_entries,
585 --playlist-random and --playlist-reverse
586 --no-lazy-playlist Process videos in the playlist only after
587 the entire playlist is parsed (default)
2dd5a2e3 588 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
589 expected file size
590 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
591 allowing some players to play the video
592 while downloading, and reducing the chance
593 of file corruption if download is
594 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
595 live streams
596 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
597 videos. This is default when not downloading
598 live streams
5ec1b6b7 599 --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters whose title matches
600 the given regular expression. Time ranges
601 prefixed by a "*" can also be used in place
602 of chapters to download the specified range.
603 Eg: --download-sections "*10:15-15:00"
604 --download-sections "intro". Needs ffmpeg.
605 This option can be used multiple times to
606 download multiple sections
2dd5a2e3 607 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
608 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
609 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
610 use it for. Currently supports native,
611 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
612 wget. You can use this option multiple times
613 to set different downloaders for different
614 protocols. For example, --downloader aria2c
615 --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
616 aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
617 native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
618 (Alias: --external-downloader)
619 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
620 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
621 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
622 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different
623 positions using the same syntax as
624 --postprocessor-args. You can use this
625 option multiple times to give different
626 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
627 --external-downloader-args)
d5a62e4f 628
cfcec693 629## Filesystem Options:
2dd5a2e3 630 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
631 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
632 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
633 comments and ignored
634 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
635 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
636 downloaded. Specify the type of file and the
637 path separated by a colon ":". All the same
638 TYPES as --output are supported.
639 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
640 (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary
641 files are first downloaded to the temp path
642 and then the final files are moved over to
643 the home path after download is finished.
644 This option is ignored if --output is an
645 absolute path
646 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
647 TEMPLATE" for details
648 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
649 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" (default: "NA")
650 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
651 and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
652 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
653 filenames (default)
654 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
655 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
656 using Windows (default)
657 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
658 extension) to the specified number of
659 characters
660 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
661 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This
662 option includes --no-continue
663 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
664 related files (default)
665 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
666 (default)
667 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
668 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
669 restart download of the entire file
670 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
671 into output file (default)
672 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into
673 output file
674 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file
675 modification time (default)
676 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
677 the file modification time
64fa820c 678 --write-description Write video description to a .description file
2dd5a2e3 679 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
680 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
681 (this may contain personal information)
682 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
683 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
684 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
685 --write-description etc. (default)
686 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
687 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
688 --clean-info-json Remove some private fields such as filenames
689 from the infojson. Note that it could still
690 contain some personal information (default)
691 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
692 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
693 infojson. The comments are fetched even
694 without this option if the extraction is
695 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
696 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
697 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
698 --no-get-comments)
699 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
64fa820c 700 (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
2dd5a2e3 701 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from
702 and dump cookie jar in
703 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
704 (default)
f59f5ef8 705 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE]
2dd5a2e3 706 The name of the browser and (optionally) the
707 name/path of the profile to load cookies
708 from, separated by a ":". Currently
709 supported browsers are: brave, chrome,
710 chromium, edge, firefox, opera, safari,
711 vivaldi. By default, the most recently
712 accessed profile is used. The keyring used
713 for decrypting Chromium cookies on Linux can
714 be (optionally) specified after the browser
715 name separated by a "+". Currently supported
64fa820c 716 keyrings are: basictext, gnomekeyring, kwallet
2dd5a2e3 717 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
718 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
719 can store some downloaded information (such
720 as client ids and signatures) permanently.
721 By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/yt-dlp or
722 ~/.cache/yt-dlp
723 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
724 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
6bcd846b 725
b31fdeed 726## Thumbnail Options:
2dd5a2e3 727 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
64fa820c 728 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default)
2dd5a2e3 729 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
730 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
731 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
2b1bd292 732
732044af 733## Internet Shortcut Options:
2dd5a2e3 734 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
735 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
736 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
737 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
738 OS caches the URL based on the file path
739 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
740 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
732044af 741
0744a815 742## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
2dd5a2e3 743 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
744 print the log to stderr
745 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
746 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
747 anything to disk
748 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
749 options are used
750 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
751 extracting metadata even if the videos are
752 not actually available for download
753 (experimental)
754 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
755 formats are found (default)
756 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
757 related files (Alias: --no-download)
758 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
759 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
760 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
761 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
762 --use-postprocessor, and "video" (default).
763 Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
764 --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
765 used. This option can be used multiple times
bb66c247 766 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
2dd5a2e3 767 Append given template to the file. The
768 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as that
769 of --print. FILE uses the same syntax as the
770 output template. This option can be used
771 multiple times
772 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
773 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
774 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
775 description of available keys
776 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
777 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
778 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
779 a playlist, the whole playlist information
780 is dumped in a single line
781 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
782 as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
783 another simulation option is used (Alias:
784 --force-download-archive)
785 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
786 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
787 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
788 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
819e0531 789 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
2dd5a2e3 790 Template for progress outputs, optionally
791 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
792 "download-title:" (the console title),
793 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
794 The video's fields are accessible under the
795 "info" key and the progress attributes are
796 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.:
797 --console-title --progress-template
798 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
799 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
800 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
801 to debug problems (very verbose)
802 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files
803 in the current directory to debug problems
804 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
6bcd846b 805
36f35428 806## Workarounds:
2dd5a2e3 807 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
808 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to servers
809 that do not support RFC 5746 secure
810 renegotiation
811 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
812 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
813 information about the video (Currently
814 supported only for YouTube)
815 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
816 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
817 option multiple times
818 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
819 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
820 or fribidi executable in PATH
821 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
822 during data extraction
823 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
824 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
825 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
826 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
827 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only
828 be used along with --min-sleep-interval
829 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
830 subtitle download
36f35428 831
cfcec693 832## Video Format Options:
2dd5a2e3 833 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
834 for more details
835 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
836 "Sorting Formats" for more details
837 --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
838 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
839 Formats" for more details (Alias: --S-force)
840 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
841 specified sort order (default)
842 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
843 into a single file
844 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
845 output file (default)
846 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
847 into a single file
848 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
849 output file (default)
850 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
851 over non-free ones of same quality. Use with
852 "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers
853 irrespective of quality
854 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
855 containers (default)
856 --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
857 those that are actually downloadable
858 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
859 actually downloadable
860 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
861 downloadable
862 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
863 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
864 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
865 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
866 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
867 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
8ae7be3e
PH
868
869## Subtitle Options:
2dd5a2e3 870 --write-subs Write subtitle file
871 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
872 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
873 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
874 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
875 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
876 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
877 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
878 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
879 Eg: "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
880 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
881 be regex) or "all" separated by commas. (Eg:
882 --sub-langs "en.*,ja") You can prefix the
883 language code with a "-" to exclude it from
884 the requested languages. (Eg: --sub-langs
885 all,-live_chat) Use --list-subs for a list
886 of available language tags
6bcd846b 887
cfcec693 888## Authentication Options:
2dd5a2e3 889 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
890 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
891 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
892 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
893 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
894 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
895 either the path or its containing directory.
896 Defaults to ~/.netrc
897 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
898 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
899 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
900 a list of available MSOs
901 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
902 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
903 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
904 interactively
905 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
906 --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
907 format. May include the private key
908 --client-certificate-key KEYFILE
909 Path to private key file for client
910 certificate
bb58c9ed 911 --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
2dd5a2e3 912 Password for client certificate private key,
913 if encrypted. If not provided, and the key
914 is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask interactively
f5e008d1 915
c76eb41b 916## Post-Processing Options:
2dd5a2e3 917 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
918 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
35faefee 919 --audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
920 used. (currently supported: best (default),
e0ab9854 921 mp3, aac, m4a, opus, vorbis, flac, alac,
922 wav). You can specify multiple rules using
923 similar syntax as --remux-video
2dd5a2e3 924 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
925 converting the audio with -x. Insert a value
926 between 0 (best) and 10 (worst) for VBR or a
927 specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
928 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
929 necessary (currently supported: mp4, mkv,
35faefee 930 flv, webm, mov, avi, mka, ogg, mp3, aac,
931 m4a, opus, vorbis, flac, alac, wav). If
2dd5a2e3 932 target container does not support the
933 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
934 can specify multiple rules; Eg.
935 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
35faefee 936 mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
2dd5a2e3 937 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
938 necessary. The syntax and supported formats
939 are the same as --remux-video
940 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
941 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
942 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
943 to give the argument to the specified
944 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
945 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
946 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
947 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
948 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
949 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
950 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
951 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
952 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
953 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
954 specified executable only when being used by
955 the specified postprocessor. Additionally,
956 for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
957 appended to the prefix optionally followed
958 by a number to pass the argument before the
959 specified input/output file. Eg: --ppa
960 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
961 this option multiple times to give different
962 arguments to different postprocessors.
963 (Alias: --ppa)
964 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
965 after post-processing
966 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
967 post-processing (default)
968 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
969 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
970 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
971 webm and mkv videos)
972 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
973 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
974 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
975 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
976 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
977 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are
978 used (Alias: --add-metadata)
979 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
980 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
981 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
982 (Alias: --add-chapters)
983 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias:
984 --no-add-chapters)
985 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
986 mkv/mka video files
987 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
988 to the video file
989 --parse-metadata FROM:TO Parse additional metadata like title/artist
990 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
991 for details
e9f4ccd1 992 --replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
2dd5a2e3 993 Replace text in a metadata field using the
994 given regex. This option can be used
995 multiple times
996 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
997 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
998 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
999 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
1000 (default; only when the videos form a single
1001 show). All the video files must have same
1002 codecs and number of streams to be
1003 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
1004 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1005 the output filename for the concatenated
1006 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1007 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
1008 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
1009 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
1010 default; fix file if we can, warn
1011 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
1012 already exists)
1013 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
64fa820c 1014 path to the binary or its containing directory
2dd5a2e3 1015 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
1016 when to execute it (after_move if
1017 unspecified), separated by a ":". Supported
1018 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
1019 --use-postprocessor. Same syntax as the
1020 output template can be used to pass any
1021 field as arguments to the command. After
1022 download, an additional field "filepath"
1023 that contains the final path of the
1024 downloaded file is also available, and if no
1025 fields are passed, %(filepath)q is appended
1026 to the end of the command. This option can
1027 be used multiple times
1028 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
1029 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
1030 (currently supported: srt, vtt, ass, lrc)
1031 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
1032 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
00bbc5f1 1033 (currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
1034 can specify multiple rules using similar
1035 syntax as --remux-video
2dd5a2e3 1036 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
1037 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can
1038 be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1039 the output filename for the split files. See
1040 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
64fa820c 1041 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters (default)
2dd5a2e3 1042 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
5ec1b6b7 1043 given regular expression. The syntax is the
1044 same as --download-sections. This option can
2dd5a2e3 1045 be used multiple times
1046 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
1047 (default)
5ec1b6b7 1048 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes at cuts when
1049 downloading/splitting/removing sections.
1050 This is slow due to needing a re-encode, but
1051 the resulting video may have fewer artifacts
1052 around the cuts
2dd5a2e3 1053 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
1054 when cutting/splitting (default)
1055 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS]
1056 The (case sensitive) name of plugin
1057 postprocessors to be enabled, and
1058 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
1059 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
1060 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
1061 The "when" argument determines when the
1062 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
1063 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
1064 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
1065 "before_dl" (before each video download),
1066 "post_process" (after each video download;
1067 default), "after_move" (after moving video
1068 file to it's final locations), "after_video"
1069 (after downloading and processing all
1070 formats of a video), or "playlist" (at end
1071 of playlist). This option can be used
64fa820c 1072 multiple times to add different postprocessors
7a340e0d
NA
1073
1074## SponsorBlock Options:
1075Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1076 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
8a51f564 1077 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1078
2dd5a2e3 1079 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1080 for, separated by commas. Available
1081 categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
1082 selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
1083 music_offtopic, poi_highlight, all and
1084 default (=all). You can prefix the category
1085 with a "-" to exclude it. See [1] for
1086 description of the categories. Eg:
1087 --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1088 [1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1089 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1090 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1091 category is present in both mark and remove,
1092 remove takes precedence. The syntax and
1093 available categories are the same as for
1094 --sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
1095 refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight is
1096 not available
7a340e0d 1097 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
2dd5a2e3 1098 An output template for the title of the
1099 SponsorBlock chapters created by
1100 --sponsorblock-mark. The only available
1101 fields are start_time, end_time, category,
1102 categories, name, category_names. Defaults
1103 to "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1104 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1105 --sponsorblock-remove
1106 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1107 https://sponsor.ajay.app
a9e7f546 1108
78895bd3 1109## Extractor Options:
2dd5a2e3 1110 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors
1111 (default is 3), or "infinite"
1112 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1113 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1114 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1115 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1116 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1117 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1118 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1119 formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
1120 (default)
1121 --extractor-args KEY:ARGS Pass these arguments to the extractor. See
1122 "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You can
1123 use this option multiple times to give
1124 arguments for different extractors
17cb02d0 1125
b7770046
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1126# CONFIGURATION
1127
7a5c1cfe 1128You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
e2e43aea 1129
0202b52a 11301. **Main Configuration**: The file given by `--config-location`
7a5c1cfe 11311. **Portable Configuration**: `yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the bundled binary. If you are running from source-code (`<root dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`), the root directory is used instead.
88f23a18 11321. **Home Configuration**: `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by `-P`, or in the current directory if no such path is given
e2e43aea 11331. **User Configuration**:
1134 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1135 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
1136 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1137 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1138 * `~/yt-dlp.conf`
1139 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
3d3bb168 1140
ec2e44fc 1141 `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%` defaults to `~/.config` if undefined. On windows, `%APPDATA%` generally points to `C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming` and `~` points to `%HOME%` if present, `%USERPROFILE%` (generally `C:\Users\<user name>`), or `%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
3d3bb168 1142
07cce701 11431. **System Configuration**: `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
b7770046 1144
7a5c1cfe 1145For example, with the following configuration file yt-dlp will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under `YouTube` directory in your home directory:
b7770046
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1146```
1147# Lines starting with # are comments
1148
1149# Always extract audio
1150-x
1151
1152# Do not copy the mtime
1153--no-mtime
1154
1155# Use this proxy
1156--proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1157
298f597b 1158# Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1159-o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
b7770046
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1160```
1161
e2e43aea 1162Note that options in configuration file are just the same options aka switches used in regular command line calls; thus there **must be no whitespace** after `-` or `--`, e.g. `-o` or `--proxy` but not `- o` or `-- proxy`.
b7770046 1163
a4211baf 1164You 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
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1165
1166### Authentication with `.netrc` file
1167
0001fcb5 1168You may also want to configure automatic credentials storage for extractors that support authentication (by providing login and password with `--username` and `--password`) in order not to pass credentials as command line arguments on every yt-dlp execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in the shell command history. You can achieve this using a [`.netrc` file](https://stackoverflow.com/tags/.netrc/info) on a per extractor basis. For that you will need to create a `.netrc` file in `--netrc-location` and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:
b7770046
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1169```
1170touch $HOME/.netrc
1171chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
1172```
1173After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1174```
0001fcb5 1175machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
b7770046
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1176```
1177For example:
1178```
1179machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1180machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1181```
7a5c1cfe 1182To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
b7770046 1183
0001fcb5 1184The default location of the .netrc file is `$HOME` (`~`) in UNIX. On Windows, it is `%HOME%` if present, `%USERPROFILE%` (generally `C:\Users\<user name>`) or `%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
b7770046
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1185
1186# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
1187
0202b52a 1188The `-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 1189
ec2e44fc 1190<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1191**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
ec2e44fc 1192<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1193
e58c22a0 1194The 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 1195
0930b11f 1196It may however also contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences may be formatted according to [Python string formatting operations](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting). For example, `%(NAME)s` or `%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations.
a439a3a4 1197
1198The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
3d3bb168 1199
2b8a2973 12001. **Object traversal**: The dictionaries and lists available in metadata can be traversed by using a `.` (dot) separator. You can also do python slicing using `:`. Eg: `%(tags.0)s`, `%(subtitles.en.-1.ext)s`, `%(id.3:7:-1)s`, `%(formats.:.format_id)s`. `%()s` refers to the entire infodict. Note that all the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use `-j` to see such fields
ec2e44fc 1201
e625be0d 12021. **Addition**: Addition and subtraction of numeric fields can be done using `+` and `-` respectively. Eg: `%(playlist_index+10)03d`, `%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
ec2e44fc 1203
e625be0d 12041. **Date/time Formatting**: Date/time fields can be formatted according to [strftime formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-format-codes) by specifying it separated from the field name using a `>`. Eg: `%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`, `%(upload_date>%Y-%m-%d)s`, `%(epoch-3600>%H-%M-%S)s`
ec2e44fc 1205
e75bb0d6 12061. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a `,`. Eg: `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
ec2e44fc 1207
e978789f
P
12081. **Replacement**: A replacement value can specified using a `&` separator. If the field is *not* empty, this replacement value will be used instead of the actual field content. This is done after alternate fields are considered; thus the replacement is used if *any* of the alternative fields is *not* empty.
1209
e75bb0d6 12101. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a `|` separator. This overrides `--output-na-template`. Eg: `%(uploader|Unknown)s`
ec2e44fc 1211
abbeeebc 12121. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types `diouxXeEfFgGcrs`, `B`, `j`, `l`, `q`, `D`, `S` can be used for converting to **B**ytes, **j**son (flag `#` for pretty-printing), a comma separated **l**ist (flag `#` for `\n` newline-separated), a string **q**uoted for the terminal (flag `#` to split a list into different arguments), to add **D**ecimal suffixes (Eg: 10M) (flag `#` to use 1024 as factor), and to **S**anitize as filename (flag `#` for restricted), respectively
ec2e44fc 1213
524e2e4f 12141. **Unicode normalization**: The format type `U` can be used for NFC [unicode normalization](https://docs.python.org/3/library/unicodedata.html#unicodedata.normalize). The alternate form flag (`#`) changes the normalization to NFD and the conversion flag `+` can be used for NFKC/NFKD compatibility equivalence normalization. Eg: `%(title)+.100U` is NFKC
a439a3a4 1215
1216To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1217```
e978789f 1218%(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
a439a3a4 1219```
de6000d9 1220
dbcea058 1221Additionally, you can set different output templates for the various metadata files separately from the general output template by specifying the type of file followed by the template separated by a colon `:`. The different file types supported are `subtitle`, `thumbnail`, `description`, `annotation` (deprecated), `infojson`, `link`, `pl_thumbnail`, `pl_description`, `pl_infojson`, `chapter`, `pl_video`. For example, `-o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "thumbnail:%(title)s\%(title)s.%(ext)s"` will put the thumbnails in a folder with the same name as the video. If any of the templates is empty, that type of file will not be written. Eg: `--write-thumbnail -o "thumbnail:"` will write thumbnails only for playlists and not for video.
e29663c6 1222
1223The available fields are:
b7770046
U
1224
1225 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1226 - `title` (string): Video title
455a15e2 1227 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
b7770046
U
1228 - `url` (string): Video URL
1229 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1230 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
597c1866 1231 - `description` (string): The description of the video
b7770046
U
1232 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1233 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1234 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1235 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
b7770046 1236 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
ae6a1b95 1237 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
e6f21b3d 1238 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
ae6a1b95 1239 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
f0d785d3 1240 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
ae6a1b95 1241 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
b7770046
U
1242 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1243 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1244 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
6c73052c 1245 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
b7770046
U
1246 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1247 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
53c18592 1248 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
b7770046
U
1249 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1250 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1251 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1252 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1253 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
277d6ff5 1254 - `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 1255 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
940a67a3 1256 - `live_status` (string): One of "is_live", "was_live", "is_upcoming", "not_live"
b7770046 1257 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
f76ede8e 1258 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
6cfda058 1259 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
940a67a3 1260 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
b7770046
U
1261 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1262 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
29b6000e 1263 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
b7770046
U
1264 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by `--format`
1265 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
1266 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
1267 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
1268 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
1269 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1270 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1271 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
1272 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1273 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1274 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
176f1866 1275 - `dynamic_range` (string): The dynamic range of the video
8aa0e7cd 1276 - `stretched_ratio` (float): `width:height` of the video's pixels, if not square
b7770046
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1277 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
1278 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
1279 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
1280 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
1281 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
1282 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1283 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
455a15e2 1284 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
b7770046 1285 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`
9c906919 1286 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
e6f21b3d 1287 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
455a15e2 1288 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1289 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1290 - `playlist` (string): `playlist_id` or `playlist_title`
f0d785d3 1291 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
e6f21b3d 1292 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1293 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
b7770046
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1294 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1295 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
bd99f6e6 1296 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
0bb322b9 1297 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1298 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
bd99f6e6 1299 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)
b7770046
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1300
1301Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1302
1303 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1304 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1305 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1306
1307Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1308
1309 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1310 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1311 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1312 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1313 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1314 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1315 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1316
1317Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1318
1319 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1320 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1321 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1322 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1323 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1324 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1325 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1326 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1327 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1328 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1329
5ec1b6b7 1330Available only when using `--download-sections` and for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
72755351 1331
1332 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1333 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1334 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1335 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1336
53c18592 1337Available only when used in `--print`:
1338
1339 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1340 - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the actual filename may be different due to post-processing. Use `--exec echo` to get the name after all postprocessing is complete
ed5835b4 1341 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by `--list-formats`
1342 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by `--list-thumbnails`
1343 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1344 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1345
7a340e0d
NA
1346
1347Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1348
1349 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1350 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1351 - `categories` (list): The SponsorBlock categories the chapter belongs to
1352 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1353 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1354 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
53c18592 1355
49a57e70 1356Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. For example for `-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an mp4 video with title `yt-dlp test video` and id `BaW_jenozKc`, this will result in a `yt-dlp test video-BaW_jenozKc.mp4` file created in the current directory.
1357
1358Note that some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor. Such sequences will be replaced with placeholder value provided with `--output-na-placeholder` (`NA` by default).
b7770046 1359
0930b11f 1360**Tip**: Look at the `-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
b7770046 1361
49a57e70 1362For numeric sequences you can use [numeric related formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting), for example, `%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to 5 characters, like in `00042`.
b7770046 1363
940a67a3 1364Output 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
1365
1366To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
1367
91ebc640 1368The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
b7770046 1369
f304da8a 1370In 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 1371
ec2e44fc 1372<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046
U
1373#### Output template and Windows batch files
1374
1375If you are using an output template inside a Windows batch file then you must escape plain percent characters (`%`) by doubling, so that `-o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"` should become `-o "%%(title)s-%%(id)s.%%(ext)s"`. However you should not touch `%`'s that are not plain characters, e.g. environment variables for expansion should stay intact: `-o "C:\%HOMEPATH%\Desktop\%%(title)s.%%(ext)s"`.
ec2e44fc 1376<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046
U
1377
1378#### Output template examples
1379
b7770046 1380```bash
940a67a3 1381$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1382test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1383
940a67a3 1384$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1385youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
b7770046 1386
940a67a3 1387$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
9222c381 1388youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
b7770046
U
1389
1390# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
940a67a3 1391$ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
b7770046 1392
b050d210 1393# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
940a67a3 1394$ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
e29663c6 1395
e978789f 1396# Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
6a34813a 1397$ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist_index|)s%(playlist_index& - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
e978789f 1398
b7770046 1399# Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
940a67a3 1400$ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
b7770046
U
1401
1402# Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
940a67a3 1403$ 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
1404
1405# Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
940a67a3 1406$ 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 1407
6a34813a 1408# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1409# and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1410$ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1411
1412# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1413$ 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
1414
b7770046 1415# Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
7a5c1cfe 1416$ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
b7770046
U
1417```
1418
1419# FORMAT SELECTION
1420
7a5c1cfe
P
1421By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1422This 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 1423
c111cefa 1424**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.
1425
eff63539 1426The 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 1427
ec2e44fc 1428<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1429**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
ec2e44fc 1430<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1431
a439a3a4 1432The simplest case is requesting a specific format, for example with `-f 22` you can download the format with format code equal to 22. You can get the list of available format codes for particular video using `--list-formats` or `-F`. Note that these format codes are extractor specific.
b7770046
U
1433
1434You 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.
1435
fa9f30b8 1436You can use `-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1437
b7770046
U
1438You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1439
59a7a13e 1440 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1441 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
1442 - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio
1443 - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1444 - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
1445 - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
1446 - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
ae6a1b95 1447 - `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 1448 - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
909d24dd 1449 - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1450 - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
909d24dd 1451 - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1452 - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
909d24dd 1453 - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
b7770046 1454
ae6a1b95 1455For 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 1456
1457You 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 1458
eb8a4433 1459If you want to download multiple videos and they don't have the same formats available, you can specify the order of preference using slashes. Note that formats on the left hand side are preferred, for example `-f 22/17/18` will download format 22 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 17 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 18 if it's available, otherwise it will complain that no suitable formats are available for download.
b7770046
U
1460
1461If 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`.
1462
d806c9fd 1463You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using `-f <format1>+<format2>+...` (requires ffmpeg installed), for example `-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg.
1464
1465**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
1466
1467Unless `--video-multistreams` is used, all formats with a video stream except the first one are ignored. Similarly, unless `--audio-multistreams` is used, all formats with an audio stream except the first one are ignored. For example, `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --video-multistreams --audio-multistreams` will download and merge all 3 given formats. The resulting file will have 2 video streams and 2 audio streams. But `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --no-video-multistreams` will download and merge only `bestvideo` and `bestaudio`. `best` is ignored since another format containing a video stream (`bestvideo`) has already been selected. The order of the formats is therefore important. `-f best+bestaudio --no-audio-multistreams` will download and merge both formats while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams` will ignore `best` and download only `bestaudio`.
eb8a4433 1468
1469## Filtering Formats
1470
b7770046
U
1471You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
1472
1473The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
1474
1475 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1476 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1477 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
1478 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1479 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1480 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1481 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1482 - `fps`: Frame rate
1483
1ce9a3cb 1484Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains), `~=` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
b7770046
U
1485
1486 - `ext`: File extension
1487 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1488 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1489 - `container`: Name of the container format
1490 - `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`)
1491 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
29f7c58a 1492 - `language`: Language code
b7770046 1493
1ce9a3cb 1494Any 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 1495
e58c22a0 1496Note that none of the aforementioned meta fields are guaranteed to be present since this solely depends on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, i.e. the metadata offered by the website. Any other field made available by the extractor can also be used for filtering.
b7770046 1497
e094cec1 1498Formats for which the value is not known are excluded unless you put a question mark (`?`) after the operator. You can combine format filters, so `-f "[height<=?720][tbr>500]"` selects up to 720p videos (or videos where the height is not known) with a bitrate of at least 500 KBit/s. You can also use the filters with `all` to download all formats that satisfy the filter. For example, `-f "all[vcodec=none]"` selects all audio-only formats.
b7770046 1499
940a67a3 1500Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses, for example if you want to download the best pre-merged mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480 you can use `-f "(mp4,webm)[height<480]"`.
b7770046 1501
eb8a4433 1502## Sorting Formats
1503
2e7781a9 1504You can change the criteria for being considered the `best` by using `-S` (`--format-sort`). The general format for this is `--format-sort field1,field2...`.
1505
1506The available fields are:
eb8a4433 1507
63be1aab 1508 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
1509 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
ed8d87f9 1510 - `ie_pref`: The format preference
1511 - `lang`: The language preference
1512 - `quality`: The quality of the format
1513 - `source`: The preference of the source
d80d98e7 1514 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > `mms`/`rtsp` > `f4f`/`f4m`)
1515 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other)
1516 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`flac`/`alac` > `wav`/`aiff` > `opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `eac3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other)
eb8a4433 1517 - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
d80d98e7 1518 - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `webm` > `flv` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is preferred.
1519 - `aext`: Audio Extension (`m4a` > `aac` > `mp3` > `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to `opus` > `ogg` > `webm` > `m4a` > `mp3` > `aac`.
63be1aab 1520 - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
0930b11f 1521 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
63be1aab 1522 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1523 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
eb8a4433 1524 - `height`: Height of video
1525 - `width`: Width of video
63be1aab 1526 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1527 - `fps`: Framerate of video
49a57e70 1528 - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `HLG` > `SDR`)
63be1aab 1529 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1530 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1531 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1532 - `br`: Equivalent to using `tbr,vbr,abr`
1533 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
d806c9fd 1534
1535**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 1536
9ee4f0bb 1537All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in descending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+`. Eg: `+res` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a preferred value for the fields, separated by a `:`. Eg: `res:720` prefers larger videos, but no larger than 720p and the smallest video if there are no videos less than 720p. For `codec` and `ext`, you can provide two preferred values, the first for video and the second for audio. Eg: `+codec:avc:m4a` (equivalent to `+vcodec:avc,+acodec:m4a`) sets the video codec preference to `h264` > `h265` > `vp9` > `vp9.2` > `av01` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` and audio codec preference to `mp4a` > `aac` > `vorbis` > `opus` > `mp3` > `ac3` > `dts`. You can also make the sorting prefer the nearest values to the provided by using `~` as the delimiter. Eg: `filesize~1G` prefers the format with filesize closest to 1 GiB.
1538
176f1866 1539The fields `hasvid` and `ie_pref` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using `--format-sort-force`. Apart from these, the default order used is: `lang,quality,res,fps,hdr:12,codec:vp9.2,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id`. The extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
eb8a4433 1540
e75bb0d6 1541Note that the default has `codec:vp9.2`; i.e. `av1` is not preferred. Similarly, the default for hdr is `hdr:12`; i.e. dolby vision is not preferred. These choices are made since DV and AV1 formats are not yet fully compatible with most devices. This may be changed in the future as more devices become capable of smoothly playing back these formats.
eb8a4433 1542
e58c22a0 1543If 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 1544
1545**Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1546
eb8a4433 1547## Format Selection examples
b7770046 1548
b7770046 1549```bash
e58c22a0 1550# Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
909d24dd 1551# or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
940a67a3 1552$ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
909d24dd 1553
1554# Download best format that contains video,
1555# and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
940a67a3 1556$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
2af884ff 1557
1558# Same as above
7a5c1cfe 1559$ yt-dlp
909d24dd 1560
6fd35a11 1561# Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1562# For this case, an output template should be used since
1563# by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
940a67a3 1564$ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
909d24dd 1565
f8d4ad9a 1566# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1567# and all audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1568$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
f8d4ad9a 1569
1570# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1571# and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1572$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
909d24dd 1573
6fd35a11 1574
1575# The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
f8d4ad9a 1576# and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
6fd35a11 1577
1578# Download the worst video available (old method)
940a67a3 1579$ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
eb8a4433 1580
1581# Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
940a67a3 1582$ yt-dlp -S "+res"
eb8a4433 1583
1584# Download the smallest video available
940a67a3 1585$ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
eb8a4433 1586
1587
909d24dd 1588
eb8a4433 1589# Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
940a67a3 1590$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
eb8a4433 1591
1592# Download the best video with the best extension
1593# (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
940a67a3 1594$ yt-dlp -S "ext"
eb8a4433 1595
1596
909d24dd 1597
eb8a4433 1598# Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1599# or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1600$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
b7770046 1601
eb8a4433 1602# Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1603# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1604$ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
b7770046 1605
eb8a4433 1606# Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1607# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1608# Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1609# So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
940a67a3 1610$ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
b7770046 1611
b7770046 1612
909d24dd 1613
eb8a4433 1614# Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1615# or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1616$ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
eb8a4433 1617
1618# Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1619# or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1620$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
eb8a4433 1621
1622# Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
940a67a3 1623$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
eb8a4433 1624
1625
909d24dd 1626
eb8a4433 1627# Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1628# or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
940a67a3 1629$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1630
1631# Download best video available via the best protocol
1632# (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
940a67a3 1633$ yt-dlp -S "proto"
eb8a4433 1634
1635
909d24dd 1636
1ce9a3cb
LF
1637# Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1638# or the best video if there is no such video
1639$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1640
1641# Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1642# or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1643$ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1644
1645# Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1646# or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1647$ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1648
1649
1650
1651# More complex examples
1652
e58c22a0 1653# Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1654# or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
940a67a3 1655$ 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 1656
1657# Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
f8d4ad9a 1658# or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1659# preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
940a67a3 1660$ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
eb8a4433 1661
1662
909d24dd 1663
eb8a4433 1664# Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1665# or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1666# preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
940a67a3 1667$ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
b7770046 1668```
eb8a4433 1669
73cd218f 1670# MODIFYING METADATA
1671
a4211baf 1672The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
e9f4ccd1 1673
418964fa 1674`--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 1675
2e7781a9 1676The general syntax of `--parse-metadata FROM:TO` is to give the name of a field or an [output template](#output-template) to extract data from, and the format to interpret it as, separated by a colon `:`. Either a [python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax) with named capture groups or a similar syntax to the [output template](#output-template) (only `%(field)s` formatting is supported) can be used for `TO`. The option can be used multiple times to parse and modify various fields.
73cd218f 1677
1678Note that any field created by this can be used in the [output template](#output-template) and will also affect the media file's metadata added when using `--add-metadata`.
1679
9c2b75b5 1680This option also has a few special uses:
3d3bb168 1681
28b0eb0f 1682* You can download an additional URL based on the metadata of the currently downloaded video. To do this, set the field `additional_urls` to the URL that you want to download. Eg: `--parse-metadata "description:(?P<additional_urls>https?://www\.vimeo\.com/\d+)` will download the first vimeo video found in the description
3d3bb168 1683
88968992 1684* You can use this to change the metadata that is embedded in the media file. To do this, set the value of the corresponding field with a `meta_` prefix. For example, any value you set to `meta_description` field will be added to the `description` field in the file. For example, you can use this to set a different "description" and "synopsis". To modify the metadata of individual streams, use the `meta<n>_` prefix (Eg: `meta1_language`). Any value set to the `meta_` field will overwrite all default values.
c31be5b0 1685
08d30158 1686**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.
1687
c31be5b0 1688For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1689
08d30158 1690Metadata fields | From
1691:--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1692`title` | `track` or `title`
1693`date` | `upload_date`
1694`description`, `synopsis` | `description`
1695`purl`, `comment` | `webpage_url`
1696`track` | `track_number`
1697`artist` | `artist`, `creator`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
1698`genre` | `genre`
1699`album` | `album`
1700`album_artist` | `album_artist`
1701`disc` | `disc_number`
1702`show` | `series`
1703`season_number` | `season_number`
1704`episode_id` | `episode` or `episode_id`
1705`episode_sort` | `episode_number`
1706`language` of each stream | the format's `language`
1707
c31be5b0 1708**Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1709
73cd218f 1710
1711## Modifying metadata examples
1712
73cd218f 1713```bash
1714# Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
940a67a3 1715$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
73cd218f 1716
1717# Regex example
940a67a3 1718$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
73cd218f 1719
1720# Set title as "Series name S01E05"
940a67a3 1721$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
73cd218f 1722
a44ca5a4 1723# Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
1724$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --add-metadata
1725
1726# Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
1727# handling multiple lines correctly
940a67a3 1728$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --add-metadata
73cd218f 1729
8aa0e7cd 1730# Do not set any "synopsis" in the video metadata
1731$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<meta_synopsis>)"
1732
0930b11f 1733# Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
940a67a3 1734$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<formats>)" -j
0930b11f 1735
e9f4ccd1 1736# Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
940a67a3 1737$ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
e9f4ccd1 1738
73cd218f 1739```
1740
5d3a0e79 1741# EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1742
a44ca5a4 1743Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using `--extractor-args KEY:ARGS`. `ARGS` is a `;` (semicolon) separated string of `ARG=VAL1,VAL2`. Eg: `--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android_embedded,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
5d3a0e79 1744
1745The following extractors use this feature:
96565c7e 1746
1747#### youtube
8aa0e7cd 1748* `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
56ba69e4 1749* `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web`, `android` and `ios` with variants `_music`, `_embedded`, `_embedscreen`, `_creator` (Eg: `web_embedded`); and `mweb` and `tv_embedded` (agegate bypass) with no variants. By default, `android,web` is used, but `tv_embedded` and `creator` variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly the music variants are added for `music.youtube.com` urls. You can use `all` to use all the clients, and `default` for the default clients.
96565c7e 1750* `player_skip`: Skip some network requests that are generally needed for robust extraction. One or more of `configs` (skip client configs), `webpage` (skip initial webpage), `js` (skip js player). While these options can help reduce the number of requests needed or avoid some rate-limiting, they could cause some issues. See [#860](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/860) for more details
adbc4ec4 1751* `include_live_dash`: Include live dash formats even without `--live-from-start` (These formats don't download properly)
96565c7e 1752* `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
a44ca5a4 1753* `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`
1754 * 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
2ae778b8 1755* `innertube_host`: Innertube API host to use for all API requests
1756 * e.g. `studio.youtube.com`, `youtubei.googleapis.com`
1757 * Note: Cookies exported from `www.youtube.com` will not work with hosts other than `*.youtube.com`
1758* `innertube_key`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
96565c7e 1759
1760#### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1761* `skip`: One or more of `webpage` (skip initial webpage download), `authcheck` (allow the download of playlists requiring authentication when no initial webpage is downloaded. This may cause unwanted behavior, see [#1122](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/1122) for more details)
a30a6ed3 1762* `approximate_date`: Extract approximate `upload_date` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
96565c7e 1763
1764#### funimation
1765* `language`: Languages to extract. Eg: `funimation:language=english,japanese`
1766* `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`
1767
a9d4da60 1768#### crunchyroll
1769* `language`: Languages to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:language=jaJp`
1770* `hardsub`: Which hard-sub versions to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:hardsub=None,enUS`
1771
ae6a1b95 1772#### crunchyrollbeta
706dfe44
JH
1773* `format`: Which stream type(s) to extract. Default is `adaptive_hls` Eg: `crunchyrollbeta:format=vo_adaptive_hls`
1774 * Potentially useful values include `adaptive_hls`, `adaptive_dash`, `vo_adaptive_hls`, `vo_adaptive_dash`, `download_hls`, `trailer_hls`, `trailer_dash`
1775* `hardsub`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract. Default is `None` (no hardsubs). Eg: `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None`
1776
96565c7e 1777#### vikichannel
1778* `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
73d829c1 1779
7bdcb4a4
LNO
1780#### niconico
1781* `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.**
1782
aa4b0545 1783#### youtubewebarchive
1784* `check_all`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails`, `captures`
1785
d43de682
M
1786#### gamejolt
1787* `comment_sort`: `hot` (default), `you` (cookies needed), `top`, `new` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1788
26f2aa3d
AG
1789#### hotstar
1790* `res`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd`, `hd`, `fhd`
1791* `vcodec`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264`, `h265`, `dvh265`
1792* `dr`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr`, `hdr10`, `dv`
1793
046cab39
M
1794#### tiktok
1795* `app_version`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version`. (e.g. `20.2.1`)
1796* `manifest_app_version`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with. (e.g. `221`)
1797
7eaf7f9a 1798#### rokfinchannel
1799* `tab`: Which tab to download. One of `new`, `top`, `videos`, `podcasts`, `streams`, `stacks`. (E.g. `rokfinchannel:tab=streams`)
1800
1801
bc97cdae 1802NOTE: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
5d3a0e79 1803
ec2e44fc 1804<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1805
3acf6d38 1806
f74980cb 1807# PLUGINS
b7770046 1808
3ae5e797 1809Plugins are loaded from `<root-dir>/ytdlp_plugins/<type>/__init__.py`; where `<root-dir>` is the directory of the binary (`<root-dir>/yt-dlp`), or the root directory of the module if you are running directly from source-code (`<root dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`). Plugins are currently not supported for the `pip` version
1810
1811Plugins can be of `<type>`s `extractor` or `postprocessor`. Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it. Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME`.
1812
1813See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example plugins.
1814
1815Note 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
1816
1817If you are a plugin author, add [ytdlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/ytdlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability
b7770046 1818
b7770046 1819
8c6f4daa 1820
1821# EMBEDDING YT-DLP
1822
1823yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1824
1825Your 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.
1826
1827From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1828
1829```python
59a7a13e 1830from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
8c6f4daa 1831
3d3bb168 1832URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1833with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1834 ydl.download(URLS)
8c6f4daa 1835```
1836
1890fc63 1837Most 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#L180).
8c6f4daa 1838
43cc91ad 1839**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 1840
1841## Embedding examples
1842
43cc91ad 1843#### Extracting information
8c6f4daa 1844
1845```python
1846import json
8c6f4daa 1847import yt_dlp
8c6f4daa 1848
3d3bb168 1849URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
1850
1851# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
1852ydl_opts = {}
1853with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1854 info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
1855
1856 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
1857 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1858```
43cc91ad 1859#### Download using an info-json
3d3bb168 1860
1861```python
1862import yt_dlp
1863
1864INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
1865
1866with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1867 error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
1868
1869print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
1870 else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
1871```
1872
43cc91ad 1873#### Extract audio
3d3bb168 1874
1875```python
1876import yt_dlp
1877
1878URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1879
1880ydl_opts = {
0a41f331 1881 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
3d3bb168 1882 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
1883 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
1884 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
1885 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
1886 }]
1887}
1888
1889with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1890 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1891```
0a41f331 1892
1893#### Filter videos
1894
1895```python
1896import yt_dlp
1897
1898URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1899
1900def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
1901 """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
1902 duration = info.get('duration')
1903 if duration and duration < 60:
1904 return 'The video is too short'
1905
1906ydl_opts = {
1907 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
1908}
1909
1910with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1911 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1912```
1913
43cc91ad 1914#### Adding logger and progress hook
3d3bb168 1915
1916```python
1917import yt_dlp
1918
1919URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
8c6f4daa 1920
1921class MyLogger:
1922 def debug(self, msg):
e75bb0d6 1923 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
8c6f4daa 1924 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
1925 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
1926 pass
1927 else:
1928 self.info(msg)
1929
1930 def info(self, msg):
1931 pass
1932
1933 def warning(self, msg):
1934 pass
1935
1936 def error(self, msg):
1937 print(msg)
1938
1939
3d3bb168 1940# ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
1941def my_hook(d):
1942 if d['status'] == 'finished':
1943 print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
1944
1945
1946ydl_opts = {
1947 'logger': MyLogger(),
1948 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
1949}
1950
1951with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1952 ydl.download(URLS)
1953```
1954
43cc91ad 1955#### Add a custom PostProcessor
3d3bb168 1956
1957```python
1958import yt_dlp
1959
1960URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1961
1962# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
59a7a13e 1963class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
8c6f4daa 1964 def run(self, info):
1965 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
1966 return [], info
1967
1968
3d3bb168 1969with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
8aa0e7cd 1970 # ℹ️ "when" can take any value in yt_dlp.utils.POSTPROCESS_WHEN
1971 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP(), when='pre_process')
3d3bb168 1972 ydl.download(URLS)
1973```
8c6f4daa 1974
1975
43cc91ad 1976#### Use a custom format selector
3d3bb168 1977
1978```python
1979import yt_dlp
1980
1981URL = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1982
093a1710 1983def format_selector(ctx):
1984 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
3d3bb168 1985 NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
093a1710 1986
1987 # formats are already sorted worst to best
1988 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
1989
1990 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
1991 best_video = next(f for f in formats
1992 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
1993
1994 # find compatible audio extension
1995 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
1996 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
1997 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
1998 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
1999
3d3bb168 2000 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
093a1710 2001 yield {
093a1710 2002 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
2003 'ext': best_video['ext'],
2004 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
e75bb0d6 2005 # Must be + separated list of protocols
093a1710 2006 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
2007 }
2008
2009
8c6f4daa 2010ydl_opts = {
093a1710 2011 'format': format_selector,
8c6f4daa 2012}
2013
2014with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
3d3bb168 2015 ydl.download(URLS)
8c6f4daa 2016```
2017
ec2e44fc 2018<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
2019
e167860c 2020# DEPRECATED OPTIONS
2021
2022These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
2023
8130779d 2024#### Almost redundant options
2025While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
2026
2027 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
2028 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
0bfc53d0 2029 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
8130779d 2030 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
2031
6ccf351a 2032#### Redundant options
2033While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
f4536226 2034
53c18592 2035 --get-description --print description
2036 --get-duration --print duration_string
2037 --get-filename --print filename
2038 --get-format --print format
2039 --get-id --print id
2040 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
2041 -e, --get-title --print title
2042 -g, --get-url --print urls
8f18aca8 2043 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
2044 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
2045 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
2046 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
8b7539d2 2047 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
2048 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
7e88d7d7 2049 --playlist-start NUMBER -I NUMBER:
2050 --playlist-end NUMBER -I :NUMBER
2051 --playlist-reverse -I ::-1
2052 --no-playlist-reverse Default
6ccf351a 2053
2054
2055#### Not recommended
2056While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
2057
1e43a6f7 2058 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
2059 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
d9aa2332 2060 --all-formats -f all
c32b0aab 2061 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
b7b04c78 2062 --print-json -j --no-simulate
e167860c 2063 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting. Eg: %(autonumber)03d
a439a3a4 2064 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
19b824f6 2065 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
73cd218f 2066 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
52a8a1e1 2067 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
2068 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
53ed7066 2069 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
2070 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
5d3a0e79 2071 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
2072 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
2073 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
2074 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
6ccf351a 2075
2076
2077#### Developer options
2078These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
2079
34488702 2080 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
f95b9dee 2081 --load-pages Load pages dumped by --write-pages
6ccf351a 2082 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
88acdbc2 2083 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
2084 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
f4536226 2085
2086
2087#### Old aliases
2088These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
2089
2090 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
3856407a 2091 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
f4536226 2092 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
2093 --dump-headers --print-traffic
2094 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
2095 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
2096 --load-info --load-info-json
3856407a 2097 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
f4536226 2098 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
e167860c 2099 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
e167860c 2100 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
2101 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
f4536226 2102 --split-tracks --split-chapters
2103 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
e167860c 2104 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
f4536226 2105 --write-srt --write-subs
e167860c 2106 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
f4536226 2107
7a340e0d 2108#### Sponskrub Options
f304da8a 2109Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock` options
7a340e0d
NA
2110
2111 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
2112 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
2113 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
2114 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
2115 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
2116 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
2117 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
2118 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
2119
f4536226 2120#### No longer supported
2121These options may no longer work as intended
2122
2123 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
2124 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
2125 -C, --call-home Not implemented
2126 --no-call-home Default
2127 --include-ads No longer supported
2128 --no-include-ads Default
0bb1bc1b 2129 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
2130 --no-write-annotations Default
486fb179 2131
2132#### Removed
2133These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
2134
f4536226 2135 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
3d3bb168 2136 -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
f4536226 2137
8c6f4daa 2138# CONTRIBUTING
2139See [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 2140
c2b5f311 2141# MORE
8c6f4daa 2142For FAQ see the [youtube-dl README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)