]> jfr.im git - yt-dlp.git/blame - README.md
[TVer] Extract better thumbnails (#1929)
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1aebc0f7 9[![Supported Sites](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Supported_Sites-brightgreen.svg?style=for-the-badge)](supportedsites.md)
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c76eb41b 16
b31fdeed 17</div>
c76eb41b 18
b31fdeed 19yt-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 20
034b6215 21* [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
53ed7066 22 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
c76eb41b 23* [INSTALLATION](#installation)
17fa3ee2 24 * [Update](#update)
0e5927ee 25 * [Release Files](#release-files)
cf59cd4d 26 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
17fa3ee2 27 * [Compile](#compile)
b31fdeed 28* [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
29 * [General Options](#general-options)
50865ca8 30 * [Network Options](#network-options)
b31fdeed 31 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
50865ca8 32 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
33 * [Download Options](#download-options)
34 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
b31fdeed 35 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
50865ca8 36 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
0744a815 37 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
50865ca8 38 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
39 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
40 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
41 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
50865ca8 42 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
7a340e0d 43 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
50865ca8 44 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
c76eb41b 45* [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
50865ca8 46 * [Authentication with .netrc file](#authentication-with-netrc-file)
c76eb41b 47* [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
50865ca8 48 * [Output template and Windows batch files](#output-template-and-windows-batch-files)
49 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
c76eb41b 50* [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
50865ca8 51 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
52 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
53 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
73cd218f 54* [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
55 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
5d3a0e79 56* [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
f74980cb 57* [PLUGINS](#plugins)
8c6f4daa 58* [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
e167860c 59* [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
8c6f4daa 60* [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
61 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
62 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
c76eb41b 63* [MORE](#more)
50865ca8 64
65
034b6215 66# NEW FEATURES
91f071af 67
68* Based on **youtube-dl 2021.06.06 [commit/379f52a](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/379f52a4954013767219d25099cce9e0f9401961)** and **youtube-dlc 2020.11.11-3 [commit/98e248f](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/commit/98e248faa49e69d795abc60f7cdefcf91e2612aa)**: 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 69
7a340e0d 70* **[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in youtube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
034b6215 71
7581d246 72* **[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 73
0fdf490d 74* **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 improvements are not available. See [#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
29b6000e 75
f5546c0b 76* **Youtube improvements**:
6ccf351a 77 * All Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`) and private playlists supports downloading multiple pages of content
0fdf490d 78 * Search (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`), search URLs and in-channel search works
79 * Mixes supports downloading multiple pages of content
86c1a8aa 80 * Some (but not all) age-gated content can be downloaded without cookies
a4211baf 81 * Fix for [n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326)
f20f5fe5 82 * Redirect channel's home URL automatically to `/video` to preserve the old behaviour
e6f21b3d 83 * `255kbps` audio is extracted (if available) from youtube music when premium cookies are given
9ee4f0bb 84 * Youtube music Albums, channels etc can be downloaded ([except self-uploaded music](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/723))
f20f5fe5 85
245524e6 86* **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using `--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[:PROFILE]`
87
597c1866 88* **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using `--split-chapters`
89
b31fdeed 90* **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 91
b31fdeed 92* **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use `aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
f20f5fe5 93
91f071af 94* **New and fixed extractors**: Many new extractors have been added and a lot of exisiting ones have been fixed. See the [changelog](Changelog.md) or the [list of supported sites](supportedsites.md)
86c1a8aa 95
96* **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN
fac98805 97
3de7c2ce 98* **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 99
597c1866 100* **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 101
102* **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [configuration](#configuration) for details
103
418964fa 104* **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 105
91f071af 106* **Other new options**: Many new options have been added such as `--print`, `--wait-for-video`, `--sleep-requests`, `--convert-thumbnails`, `--write-link`, `--force-download-archive`, `--force-overwrites`, `--break-on-reject` etc
0bc0a322 107
91f071af 108* **Improvements**: Regex and other operators in `--match-filter`, multiple `--postprocessor-args` and `--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection), merge multi-video/audio etc
c69911e4 109
86c1a8aa 110* **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
b31fdeed 111
7a5c1cfe 112* **Self-updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`
aa837ddf 113
7a5c1cfe 114See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
a26c99ac 115
53ed7066 116### Differences in default behavior
117
0930b11f 118Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
53ed7066 119
96565c7e 120* The options `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
28b0eb0f 121* `avconv` is not supported as as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
96565c7e 122* 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 123* 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
28b0eb0f 124* 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 prefered. Use `-f bv+ba/b` or `--compat-options format-spec` to revert this
125* 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
126* `--ignore-errors` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
127* 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 128* `--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
f279aaee 129* 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`](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp#modifying-metadata) to modify this to your liking or use `--compat-options embed-metadata` to revert this
28b0eb0f 130* `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
131* The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
3acf6d38 132* 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 133* 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
09f1580e 134* 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. 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 135* Unavailable videos are also listed for youtube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
18e674b4 136* 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 137* Thumbnail embedding in `mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use `--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
e4f02757 138* 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
0930b11f 139* 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 seperate 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
53ed7066 140
141For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
28b0eb0f 142* `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options
143* `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams`
144* `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
53ed7066 145
f20f5fe5 146
d19bb9c0 147# INSTALLATION
50865ca8 148
7bc877a2 149You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
a61f4b28 150
a4211baf 151### Using the release binary
0930b11f 152
153You can simply download the [correct binary file](#release-files) for your OS: **[[Windows](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)] [[UNIX-like](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)]**
5f326cf5 154
0930b11f 155In UNIX-like OSes (MacOS, Linux, BSD), you can also install the same in one of the following ways:
5ba4a0b6
A
156
157```
158sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
159sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
160```
161
162```
163sudo wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
164sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
165```
166
167```
168sudo aria2c https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
169sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
170```
171
0930b11f 172PS: The manpages, shell completion files etc. are available in [yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
173
a4211baf 174### With [PIP](https://pypi.org/project/pip)
0930b11f 175
176You can install the [PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) with:
177```
178python3 -m pip install -U yt-dlp
179```
180
86c1a8aa 181You can install without any of the optional dependencies using:
0930b11f 182```
183python3 -m pip install --no-deps -U yt-dlp
184```
185
86c1a8aa 186If you want to be on the cutting edge, you can also install the master branch with:
0930b11f 187```
9222c381 188python3 -m pip install --force-reinstall https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/archive/master.zip
0930b11f 189```
190
191Note that on some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`
192
a4211baf 193### With [Homebrew](https://brew.sh)
0930b11f 194
195macOS or Linux users that are using Homebrew can also install it by:
b8773e63
THD
196
197```
198brew install yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp
199```
200
a4211baf 201## UPDATE
0930b11f 202You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are [using the provided release](#using-the-release-binary)
203
204If you [installed with pip](#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
205
206If you [installed using Homebrew](#with-homebrew), run `brew upgrade yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp`
cf59cd4d 207
a4211baf 208## RELEASE FILES
0e5927ee 209
733d8e8f 210#### Recommended
211
212File|Description
213:---|:---
0930b11f 214[yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform-independant binary. Needs Python (recommended for **UNIX-like systems**)
215[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**)
733d8e8f 216
217#### Alternatives
218
0e5927ee
R
219File|Description
220:---|:---
96565c7e 221[yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|MacOS (10.15+) standalone executable
0930b11f 222[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
96565c7e 223[yt-dlp_min.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_min.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary built with `py2exe`.<br/> Does not contain `pycryptodomex`, needs VC++14
0930b11f 224[yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
225[yt-dlp_macos.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos.zip)|Unpackaged MacOS (10.15+) executable (no auto-update)
733d8e8f 226
227#### Misc
228
229File|Description
230:---|:---
0e5927ee
R
231[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
232[SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
233[SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
234
a4211baf 235## DEPENDENCIES
cf59cd4d 236Python versions 3.6+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
b31fdeed 237
c9652aa4 238<!-- Python 3.5+ uses VC++14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
239<!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999 --x>
cf59cd4d 240On 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 241-->
fac98805 242
cf59cd4d 243While all the other dependancies are optional, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended
244* [**ffmpeg** and **ffprobe**](https://www.ffmpeg.org) - Required for [merging seperate video and audio files](#format-selection) as well as for various [post-processing](#post-processing-options) tasks. Licence [depends on the build](https://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html)
0930b11f 245* [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen) - For embedding thumbnail in certain formats. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
246* [**pycryptodomex**](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome) - For decrypting AES-128 HLS streams and various other data. Licensed under [BSD2](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome/blob/master/LICENSE.rst)
247* [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets) - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under [BSD3](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
248* [**keyring**](https://github.com/jaraco/keyring) - For decrypting cookies of chromium-based browsers on Linux. Licensed under [MIT](https://github.com/jaraco/keyring/blob/main/LICENSE)
249* [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For embedding thumbnail in mp4/m4a if mutagen is not present. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
250* [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licensed under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
251* [**mplayer**](http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html) or [**mpv**](https://mpv.io) - For downloading `rstp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/Copyright)
252* [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licensed under [BSD3](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
253* [**sponskrub**](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) - For using the now **deprecated** [sponskrub options](#sponskrub-options). Licensed under [GPLv3+](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub/blob/master/LICENCE.md)
cf59cd4d 254* Any external downloader that you want to use with `--downloader`
b31fdeed 255
cf59cd4d 256To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
257
0930b11f 258The Windows and MacOS standalone release binaries are already built with the python interpreter, mutagen, pycryptodomex and websockets included.
d710cc6d 259
260**Note**: There are some regressions in newer ffmpeg versions that causes various issues when used alongside yt-dlp. Since ffmpeg is such an important dependancy, we provide [custom builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds/wiki/Latest#latest-autobuilds) 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 specifc issues solved by these builds
261
5f326cf5 262
a4211baf 263## COMPILE
5f326cf5 264
c76eb41b 265**For Windows**:
49a57e70 266To build the Windows executable, you must have pyinstaller (and optionally mutagen, pycryptodomex, websockets). Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, (optionally) build lazy extractors using `devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py`, and then just run `pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (32/64 bit) as the python used to build it.
e38df8f9 267
733d8e8f 268 py -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
49a57e70 269 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
733d8e8f 270 py pyinst.py
7581d246 271
fac98805 272Note that pyinstaller [does not support](https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller#requirements-and-tested-platforms) Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment
b96a939b 273
c76eb41b 274**For Unix**:
060ac762 275You will need the required build tools: `python`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`, `zip`, `pytest`
127d0759 276Then simply run `make`. You can also run `make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files
5f326cf5 277
49a57e70 278**Note**: In either platform, `devscripts/update-version.py` can be used to automatically update the version number
d19bb9c0 279
75b725a7 280You can also fork the project on github and run your fork's [build workflow](.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically build a release
59a7a13e 281
b31fdeed 282# USAGE AND OPTIONS
6bcd846b 283
7a5c1cfe 284 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
b50e3bc6 285
c2b5f311 286`Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
e58c22a0 287<!-- Auto generated -->
c2b5f311 288
c76eb41b 289## General Options:
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290 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
291 --version Print program version and exit
8d801631 292 -U, --update Update this program to latest version. Make
293 sure that you have sufficient permissions
294 (run with sudo if needed)
b1940459 295 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
0930b11f 296 The download will be considered successful
b1940459 297 even if the postprocessing fails
298 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download
299 errors; e.g. to skip unavailable videos in
300 a playlist (default)
8a51f564 301 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
302 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
34488702 303 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
304 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
c4af7684 305 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
34488702 306 extractors and exit
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307 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic
308 extractor
309 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
310 example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
9ee4f0bb 311 from google videos for the search term
312 "large apple". Use the value "auto" to let
313 yt-dlp guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
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314 warning when guessing). "error" just throws
315 an error. The default value "fixup_error"
316 repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
8a51f564 317 this is not possible instead of searching
298f597b 318 --ignore-config, --no-config Disable loading any configuration files
8a51f564 319 except the one provided by --config-location.
320 When given inside a configuration
298f597b 321 file, no further configuration files are
322 loaded. Additionally, (for backward
323 compatibility) if this option is found
324 inside the system configuration file, the
8a51f564 325 user configuration is not loaded
0202b52a 326 --config-location PATH Location of the main configuration file;
327 either the path to the config or its
328 containing directory
c4af7684 329 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
8a51f564 330 only list them
6623ac34 331 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
91f071af 332 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
333 available. Pass the minimum number of
334 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
335 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
b5ae35ee 336 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate).
337 Currently only supported for YouTube
597c1866 338 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
8a51f564 339 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output
53ed7066 340 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
31654882 341 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
53ed7066 342 configurations by reverting some of the
343 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
344 default behavior" for details
08c1d0d3 345
149f05c7 346## Network Options:
28b4f736 347 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy.
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348 To enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper
349 scheme. For example
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350 socks5://127.0.0.1:1080/. Pass in an empty
351 string (--proxy "") for direct connection
149f05c7 352 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
c4af7684 353 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
c4af7684 354 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
c4af7684 355 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
8c6c88c7 356
b31fdeed 357## Geo-restriction:
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358 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
359 some geo-restricted sites. The default
360 proxy specified by --proxy (or none, if the
7550ea50 361 option is not present) is used for the
8a51f564 362 actual downloading
8c6c88c7 363 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
0934c9d4 364 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
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365 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
366 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
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367 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
368 explicitly provided two-letter ISO 3166-2
0934c9d4 369 country code
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370 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
371 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR
0934c9d4 372 notation
149f05c7 373
cfcec693 374## Video Selection:
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375 --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is 1)
376 --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
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377 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify
378 indices of the videos in the playlist
379 separated by commas like: "--playlist-items
380 1,2,5,8" if you want to download videos
381 indexed 1, 2, 5, 8 in the playlist. You can
382 specify range: "--playlist-items
383 1-3,7,10-13", it will download the videos
8a51f564 384 at index 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13
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385 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
386 SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
387 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
388 (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
0930b11f 389 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
6623ac34 390 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
391 "(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?"
c4af7684 392 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
c76eb41b 393 this date. The date formats accepted is the
394 same as --date
c4af7684 395 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
c76eb41b 396 this date. The date formats accepted is the
397 same as --date
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398 --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Any field (see
399 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE") can be compared with a
a047eeb6 400 number or a string using the operators
401 defined in "Filtering formats". You can
402 also simply specify a field to match if the
403 field is present and "!field" to check if
404 the field is not present. In addition,
405 Python style regular expression matching
406 can be done using "~=", and multiple
407 filters can be checked with "&". Use a "\"
408 to escape "&" or quotes if needed. Eg:
409 --match-filter "!is_live & like_count>?100
2e7781a9 410 & description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'"
a047eeb6 411 matches only videos that are not live, has
412 a like count more than 100 (or the like
77b87f05 413 field is not available), and also has a
a047eeb6 414 description that contains the phrase "cats
415 & dogs" (ignoring case)
c76eb41b 416 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
c4af7684 417 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
8a51f564 418 to a video and a playlist
c4af7684 419 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
8a51f564 420 a video and a playlist
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421 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
422 age
423 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
424 archive file. Record the IDs of all
8a51f564 425 downloaded videos in it
91f071af 426 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
427 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
8b0d7497 428 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
8a51f564 429 a file that is in the archive
8b0d7497 430 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
8a51f564 431 a file that has been filtered out
91f071af 432 --break-per-input Make --break-on-existing and --break-on-
433 reject act only on the current input URL
434 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and --break-on-reject
435 terminates the entire download queue
26e2805c 436 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest
437 of the playlist is skipped
6bcd846b 438
d5a62e4f 439## Download Options:
b31fdeed 440 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
441 video that should be download concurrently
442 (default is 1)
5e3856a2 443 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
c4af7684 444 (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
6aecd871 445 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
446 below which throttling is assumed and the
447 video data is re-extracted (e.g. 100K)
c4af7684 448 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
8a51f564 449 "infinite"
0be8314d 450 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default
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451 is 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and
452 ISM)
6623ac34 453 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
454 hlsnative and ISM (default)
8a51f564 455 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
6623ac34 456 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading if a fragment is unavailable
8a51f564 457 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
a82f4184 458 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
6623ac34 459 downloading is finished
c76eb41b 460 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
461 downloading is finished (default)
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462 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
463 (default is 1024)
c76eb41b 464 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
465 from an initial value of --buffer-size
466 (default)
467 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
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468 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
469 downloading (e.g. 10485760 or 10M) (default
470 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
471 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
472 (experimental)
2101f5d4 473 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
6623ac34 474 --no-playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in default order
c76eb41b 475 (default)
31487eb9 476 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
c4af7684 477 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
0934c9d4 478 expected file size
9bd20204 479 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
480 allowing some players to play the video
481 while downloading, and reducing the chance
482 of file corruption if download is
483 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
484 live streams
485 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
486 videos. This is default when not
487 downloading live streams
52a8a1e1 488 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
489 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
490 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
491 use it for. Currently supports native,
492 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
493 wget (Recommended: aria2c). You can use
494 this option multiple times to set different
495 downloaders for different protocols. For
496 example, --downloader aria2c --downloader
497 "dash,m3u8:native" will use aria2c for
498 http/ftp downloads, and the native
499 downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
500 (Alias: --external-downloader)
46ee996e 501 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
502 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
330690a2 503 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
504 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to
505 different positions using the same syntax
506 as --postprocessor-args. You can use this
507 option multiple times to give different
508 arguments to different downloaders
29b6000e 509 (Alias: --external-downloader-args)
d5a62e4f 510
cfcec693 511## Filesystem Options:
c4af7684 512 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ('-' for
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513 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
514 with '#', ';' or ']' are considered as
8a51f564 515 comments and ignored
1e520b55 516 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
6ccf351a 517 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
0202b52a 518 downloaded. Specify the type of file and
de6000d9 519 the path separated by a colon ":". All the
520 same types as --output are supported.
521 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
6ccf351a 522 (default) and "temp" paths. All
523 intermediary files are first downloaded to
524 the temp path and then the final files are
525 moved over to the home path after download
526 is finished. This option is ignored if
527 --output is an absolute path
d818eb74 528 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
c76eb41b 529 TEMPLATE" for details
0bc0a322 530 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder value for unavailable meta
531 fields in output filename template
532 (default: "NA")
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533 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
534 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
535 filenames
c76eb41b 536 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
537 filenames (default)
0930b11f 538 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
539 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
540 using Windows (default)
c2934512 541 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
542 extension) to the specified number of
543 characters
9b45b9f5 544 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
545 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files.
546 This option includes --no-continue
547 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
548 related files (default)
c25228e5 549 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
550 (default)
551 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
e58c22a0 552 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
c25228e5 553 restart download of the entire file
c76eb41b 554 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
6623ac34 555 into output file (default)
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556 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly
557 into output file
c76eb41b 558 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the
559 file modification time (default)
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560 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
561 the file modification time
562 --write-description Write video description to a .description
563 file
6623ac34 564 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
1dc2726f 565 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
c25228e5 566 (this may contain personal information)
6623ac34 567 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
cac96421 568 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
569 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
570 --write-description etc. (default)
571 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
572 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
75d43ca0 573 --clean-infojson Remove some private fields such as
574 filenames from the infojson. Note that it
575 could still contain some personal
576 information (default)
577 --no-clean-infojson Write all fields to the infojson
2305e2e5 578 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
579 infojson. The comments are fetched even
580 without this option if the extraction is
581 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
582 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
583 extraction is known to be quick
584 (Alias: --no-get-comments)
d845622b 585 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
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586 (created with the "--write-info-json"
587 option)
91f071af 588 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies
589 from and dump cookie jar in
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590 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
591 (default)
592 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[:PROFILE]
593 Load cookies from a user profile of the
594 given web browser. Currently supported
0ef787d7 595 browsers are: brave, chrome, chromium,
596 edge, firefox, opera, safari, vivaldi. You
597 can specify the user profile name or
598 directory using "BROWSER:PROFILE_NAME" or
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599 "BROWSER:PROFILE_PATH". If no profile is
600 given, the most recently accessed one is
601 used
602 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
6623ac34 603 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
3b1fe47d 604 can store some downloaded information (such
605 as client ids and signatures) permanently.
9ee4f0bb 606 By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/yt-dlp or
607 ~/.cache/yt-dlp
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608 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
609 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
6bcd846b 610
b31fdeed 611## Thumbnail Options:
1dc2726f 612 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
6623ac34 613 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk
c76eb41b 614 (default)
1dc2726f 615 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
34488702 616 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
617 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
2b1bd292 618
732044af 619## Internet Shortcut Options:
8a51f564 620 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
621 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
622 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
623 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
624 OS caches the URL based on the file path
625 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
626 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
732044af 627
0744a815 628## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
34488702 629 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with
630 --verbose, print the log to stderr
6c072e7d 631 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
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632 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
633 anything to disk
34488702 634 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
635 options are used
0930b11f 636 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
637 extracting metadata even if the videos are
638 not actually available for download
0cf05715 639 (experimental)
640 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
641 formats are found (default)
e167860c 642 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
643 related files (Alias: --no-download)
34488702 644 -O, --print TEMPLATE Quiet, but print the given fields for each
645 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
646 used. Either a field name or same syntax as
647 the output template can be used
648 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
649 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
650 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
651 description of available keys
652 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
653 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
654 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
655 a playlist, the whole playlist information
656 is dumped in a single line
8a51f564 657 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be
e58c22a0 658 written as far as no errors occur, even if
659 -s or another simulation option is used
8a51f564 660 (Alias: --force-download-archive)
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661 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
662 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
819e0531 663 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
1dc2726f 664 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
819e0531 665 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
666 Template for progress outputs, optionally
667 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
668 "download-title:" (the console title),
669 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
670 The video's fields are accessible under the
671 "info" key and the progress attributes are
0930b11f 672 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.:
819e0531 673 --console-title --progress-template
674 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
1dc2726f 675 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
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676 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
677 to debug problems (very verbose)
678 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
679 files in the current directory to debug
680 problems
780083db 681 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
6bcd846b 682
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683## Workarounds:
684 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
0930b11f 685 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
c4af7684 686 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
e167860c 687 information about the video (Currently
05a7ffb1 688 supported only for YouTube)
1dc2726f 689 --user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
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690 --referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the video
691 access is restricted to one domain
692 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
45016689 693 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
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694 option multiple times
695 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
696 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
697 or fribidi executable in PATH
1cf376f5 698 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
699 during data extraction
c4af7684 700 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
e167860c 701 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
702 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
703 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
704 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can
705 only be used along with --min-sleep-interval
1cf376f5 706 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
707 subtitle download
36f35428 708
cfcec693 709## Video Format Options:
eb8a4433 710 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
711 for more details
712 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
713 "Sorting Formats" for more details
8a51f564 714 --S-force, --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
715 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
eb8a4433 716 Formats" for more details
717 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
c76eb41b 718 specified sort order (default), see
719 "Sorting Formats" for more details
720 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
721 into a single file
722 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for
723 each output file (default)
724 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
725 into a single file
726 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for
727 each output file (default)
da9be05e 728 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
729 over non-free ones of same quality. Use
730 with "-S ext" to strictly prefer free
731 containers irrespective of quality
732 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
733 containers (default)
0930b11f 734 --check-formats Check that the selected formats are
0ba692ac 735 actually downloadable
0930b11f 736 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
0ba692ac 737 actually downloadable
0930b11f 738 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
739 downloadable
34488702 740 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
741 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
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742 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
743 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
744 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
745 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
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746
747## Subtitle Options:
c76eb41b 748 --write-subs Write subtitle file
749 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
750 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
e167860c 751 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
752 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
753 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
34488702 754 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
755 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
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756 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats
757 preference, for example: "srt" or
758 "ass/srt/best"
c32b0aab 759 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
760 be regex) or "all" separated by commas.
a4211baf 761 (Eg: --sub-langs "en.*,ja") You can prefix
c32b0aab 762 the language code with a "-" to exempt it
763 from the requested languages. (Eg: --sub-
764 langs all,-live_chat) Use --list-subs for a
765 list of available language tags
6bcd846b 766
cfcec693 767## Authentication Options:
1dc2726f 768 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
c4af7684 769 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
7a5c1cfe 770 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
dc48a354 771 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
1dc2726f 772 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
0001fcb5 773 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
774 either the path or its containing
775 directory. Defaults to ~/.netrc
29f7c58a 776 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
f5e008d1 777 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
909d24dd 778 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
779 a list of available MSOs
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780 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
781 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
c74d1aa3 782 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
783 interactively
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784 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system
785 operators
786
c76eb41b 787## Post-Processing Options:
c4af7684 788 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
e4172ac9 789 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
3de7c2ce 790 --audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format to convert the audio
791 to when -x is used. Currently supported
792 formats are: best (default) or one of
9222c381 793 best|aac|flac|mp3|m4a|opus|vorbis|wav|alac
e4172ac9 794 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality, insert a
86c1a8aa 795 value between 0 (best) and 10 (worst) for
e4172ac9 796 VBR or a specific bitrate like 128K
c4af7684 797 (default 5)
c76eb41b 798 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
29b6000e 799 necessary (currently supported: mp4|mkv|flv
800 |webm|mov|avi|mp3|mka|m4a|ogg|opus). If
801 target container does not support the
06167fbb 802 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
3de7c2ce 803 can specify multiple rules; Eg.
06167fbb 804 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to
805 m4a, mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv.
c76eb41b 806 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
3de7c2ce 807 re-encoding is necessary. The syntax and
808 supported formats are the same as --remux-video
1b77b347 809 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
43820c03 810 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
45016689 811 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
812 to give the argument to the specified
8fa43c73 813 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
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814 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
815 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
8fa43c73 816 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
817 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
6aecd871 818 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
819 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
8fa43c73 820 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
9ee4f0bb 821 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
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822 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
823 specified executable only when being used
824 by the specified postprocessor.
825 Additionally, for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o"
826 can be appended to the prefix optionally
827 followed by a number to pass the argument
828 before the specified input/output file. Eg:
829 --ppa "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can
830 use this option multiple times to give
e4172ac9 831 different arguments to different
5b1ecbb3 832 postprocessors. (Alias: --ppa)
c76eb41b 833 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
6623ac34 834 after post-processing
c76eb41b 835 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
6623ac34 836 post-processing (default)
837 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
838 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
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839 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
840 webm and mkv videos)
c76eb41b 841 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
6aecd871 842 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
6623ac34 843 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
9222c381 844 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
845 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
846 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json
847 are used (Alias: --add-metadata)
7a340e0d 848 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
6aecd871 849 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
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850 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
851 (Alias: --add-chapters)
852 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default)
853 (Alias: --no-add-chapters)
9222c381 854 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
855 mkv/mka video files
856 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
857 to the video file
73cd218f 858 --parse-metadata FROM:TO Parse additional metadata like title/artist
859 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
860 for details
e9f4ccd1 861 --replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
862 Replace text in a metadata field using the
863 given regex. This option can be used
864 multiple times
c4af7684
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865 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
866 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
867 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
868 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
869 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
870 default; fix file if we can, warn
6aecd871 871 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
872 already exists
e4172ac9 873 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
874 path to the binary or its containing
875 directory
c4af7684 876 --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
34488702 877 downloading and post-processing. Same
878 syntax as the output template can be used
9de3ea31 879 to pass any field as arguments to the
880 command. An additional field "filepath"
881 that contains the final path of the
882 downloaded file is also available. If no
7d1eb38a 883 fields are passed, %(filepath)q is appended
34488702 884 to the end of the command. This option can
885 be used multiple times
886 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
5520aa2d 887 --exec-before-download CMD Execute a command before the actual
888 download. The syntax is the same as --exec
34488702 889 but "filepath" is not available. This
890 option can be used multiple times
891 --no-exec-before-download Remove any previously defined
892 --exec-before-download
e167860c 893 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
3de7c2ce 894 (currently supported: srt|vtt|ass|lrc)
e167860c 895 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
8fa43c73 896 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
3de7c2ce 897 (currently supported: jpg|png)
72755351 898 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
899 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix
900 can be used with "--paths" and "--output"
901 to set the output filename for the split
902 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
903 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters
904 (default)
7a340e0d 905 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
2d9ec704 906 given regular expression. Time ranges
907 prefixed by a "*" can also be used in place
908 of chapters to remove the specified range.
909 Eg: --remove-chapters "*10:15-15:00"
910 --remove-chapters "intro". This option can
7a340e0d 911 be used multiple times
9ee4f0bb 912 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
913 (default)
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914 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes around the chapters before
915 removing/splitting them. Requires a
916 reencode and thus is very slow, but the
917 resulting video may have fewer artifacts
918 around the cuts
919 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
920 when cutting/splitting (default)
3ae5e797 921 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS] The (case sensitive) name of plugin
922 postprocessors to be enabled, and
923 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
924 seperated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
925 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
926 The "when" argument determines when the
927 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
928 "pre_process" (after extraction),
929 "before_dl" (before video download),
930 "post_process" (after video download;
931 default) or "after_move" (after moving file
932 to their final locations). This option can
933 be used multiple times to add different
934 postprocessors
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935
936## SponsorBlock Options:
937Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
938 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
8a51f564 939 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
940
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941 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
942 for, separated by commas. Available
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943 categories are all, default(=all), sponsor,
944 intro, outro, selfpromo, preview, filler,
945 interaction, music_offtopic, poi_highlight.
946 You can prefix the category with a "-" to
947 exempt it. See [1] for description of the
948 categories. Eg: --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
949 [1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
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950 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
951 the video file, separated by commas. If a
952 category is present in both mark and
953 remove, remove takes precedence. The syntax
954 and available categories are the same as
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955 for --sponsorblock-mark except that
956 "default" refers to "all,-filler" and
957 poi_highlight is not available
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958 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
959 The title template for SponsorBlock
960 chapters created by --sponsorblock-mark.
961 The same syntax as the output template is
962 used, but the only available fields are
963 start_time, end_time, category, categories,
964 name, category_names. Defaults to
965 "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
966 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
967 --sponsorblock-remove
968 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
969 https://sponsor.ajay.app
a9e7f546 970
78895bd3 971## Extractor Options:
5ef7d9bd 972 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor
d6e51845 973 errors (default is 3), or "infinite"
6623ac34 974 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
8a51f564 975 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
976 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
977 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
e409895f 978 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
979 discontinuities such as ad breaks
980 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
981 formats at discontinuities such as ad
982 breaks (default)
5d3a0e79 983 --extractor-args KEY:ARGS Pass these arguments to the extractor. See
984 "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You can
985 use this option multiple times to give
245524e6 986 arguments for different extractors
17cb02d0 987
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988# CONFIGURATION
989
7a5c1cfe 990You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
e2e43aea 991
0202b52a 9921. **Main Configuration**: The file given by `--config-location`
7a5c1cfe
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9931. **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.
9941. **Home Configuration**: `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by `-P "home:<path>"`, or in the current directory if no such path is given
e2e43aea 9951. **User Configuration**:
996 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
997 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
998 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
999 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1000 * `~/yt-dlp.conf`
1001 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
1002
a4211baf 1003 `%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%`
07cce701 10041. **System Configuration**: `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
b7770046 1005
7a5c1cfe 1006For example, with the following configuration file yt-dlp will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under `YouTube` directory in your home directory:
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1007```
1008# Lines starting with # are comments
1009
1010# Always extract audio
1011-x
1012
1013# Do not copy the mtime
1014--no-mtime
1015
1016# Use this proxy
1017--proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1018
298f597b 1019# Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1020-o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
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1021```
1022
e2e43aea 1023Note 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 1024
a4211baf 1025You can use `--ignore-config` if you want to disable all configuration files for a particular yt-dlp run. If `--ignore-config` is found inside any configuration file, no further configuration will be loaded. For example, having the option in the portable configuration file prevents loading of home, user, and system configurations. Additionally, (for backward compatibility) if `--ignore-config` is found inside the system configuration file, the user configuration is not loaded.
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1026
1027### Authentication with `.netrc` file
1028
0001fcb5 1029You 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:
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1030```
1031touch $HOME/.netrc
1032chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
1033```
1034After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1035```
0001fcb5 1036machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
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1037```
1038For example:
1039```
1040machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1041machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1042```
7a5c1cfe 1043To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
b7770046 1044
0001fcb5 1045The default location of the .netrc file is `$HOME` (`~`) in UNIX. On Windows, it is `%HOME%` if present, `%USERPROFILE%` (generally `C:\Users\<user name>`) or `%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
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1046
1047# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
1048
0202b52a 1049The `-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.
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1050
1051**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
1052
e58c22a0 1053The 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 1054
0930b11f 1055It 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 1056
1057The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
2b8a2973 10581. **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
e625be0d 10591. **Addition**: Addition and subtraction of numeric fields can be done using `+` and `-` respectively. Eg: `%(playlist_index+10)03d`, `%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
10601. **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`
7c37ff97 10611. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified seperated with a `,`. Eg: `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
10621. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a `|` seperator. This overrides `--output-na-template`. Eg: `%(uploader|Unknown)s`
4476d2c7 10631. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types `diouxXeEfFgGcrs`, `B`, `j`, `l`, `q` can be used for converting to **B**ytes, **j**son (flag `#` for pretty-printing), a comma seperated **l**ist (flag `#` for `\n` newline-seperated) and a string **q**uoted for the terminal (flag `#` to split a list into different arguments), respectively
524e2e4f 10641. **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 1065
1066To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1067```
7c37ff97 1068%(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
a439a3a4 1069```
de6000d9 1070
08438d2c 1071Additionally, 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`. 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 (except default) 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 1072
1073The available fields are:
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1074
1075 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1076 - `title` (string): Video title
1077 - `url` (string): Video URL
1078 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1079 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
597c1866 1080 - `description` (string): The description of the video
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1081 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1082 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1083 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1084 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
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1085 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
1086 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)
e6f21b3d 1087 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released
1088 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
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1089 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1090 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1091 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
1092 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1093 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
53c18592 1094 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
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1095 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1096 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1097 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1098 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1099 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
277d6ff5 1100 - `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 1101 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
3dbb2a9d 1102 - `live_status` (string): One of 'is_live', 'was_live', 'is_upcoming', 'not_live'
b7770046 1103 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
f76ede8e 1104 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
6cfda058 1105 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
c224251a 1106 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is 'private', 'premium_only', 'subscriber_only', 'needs_auth', 'unlisted' or 'public'
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1107 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1108 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
29b6000e 1109 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
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1110 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by `--format`
1111 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
1112 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
1113 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
1114 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
1115 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1116 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1117 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
1118 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1119 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1120 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
176f1866 1121 - `dynamic_range` (string): The dynamic range of the video
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1122 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
1123 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
1124 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
1125 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
1126 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
1127 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1128 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
1129 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch when creating the file
1130 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`
e6f21b3d 1131 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
b7770046 1132 - `playlist` (string): Name or id of the playlist that contains the video
e6f21b3d 1133 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1134 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
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1135 - `playlist_id` (string): Playlist identifier
1136 - `playlist_title` (string): Playlist title
1137 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1138 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
bd99f6e6 1139 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
1140 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)
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1141
1142Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1143
1144 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1145 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1146 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1147
1148Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1149
1150 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1151 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1152 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1153 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1154 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1155 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1156 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1157
1158Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1159
1160 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1161 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1162 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1163 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1164 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1165 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1166 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1167 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1168 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1169 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1170
b050d210 1171Available for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
72755351 1172
1173 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1174 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1175 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1176 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1177
53c18592 1178Available only when used in `--print`:
1179
1180 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1181 - `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
7a340e0d
NA
1182
1183Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1184
1185 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1186 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1187 - `categories` (list): The SponsorBlock categories the chapter belongs to
1188 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1189 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1190 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
53c18592 1191
49a57e70 1192Each 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.
1193
1194Note 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 1195
0930b11f 1196**Tip**: Look at the `-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
b7770046 1197
49a57e70 1198For 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`.
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1199
1200Output 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.
1201
1202To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
1203
91ebc640 1204The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
b7770046 1205
f304da8a 1206In 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.
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1207
1208#### Output template and Windows batch files
1209
1210If 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"`.
1211
1212#### Output template examples
1213
de6000d9 1214Note that on Windows you need to use double quotes instead of single.
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1215
1216```bash
9222c381 1217$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o 'test video.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc
1218test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1219
7a5c1cfe 1220$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1221youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
b7770046 1222
7a5c1cfe 1223$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
9222c381 1224youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
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1225
1226# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
7a5c1cfe 1227$ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
b7770046 1228
b050d210 1229# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
7a5c1cfe 1230$ yt-dlp -o '%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
e29663c6 1231
b7770046 1232# Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
7a5c1cfe 1233$ yt-dlp -o '%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists
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1234
1235# Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
7a5c1cfe 1236$ 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
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1237
1238# Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
7a5c1cfe 1239$ 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
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1240
1241# Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
7a5c1cfe 1242$ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
b7770046
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1243```
1244
1245# FORMAT SELECTION
1246
7a5c1cfe
P
1247By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1248This 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 1249
c111cefa 1250**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.
1251
eff63539 1252The 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
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1253
1254**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
1255
a439a3a4 1256The simplest case is requesting a specific format, for example with `-f 22` you can download the format with format code equal to 22. You can get the list of available format codes for particular video using `--list-formats` or `-F`. Note that these format codes are extractor specific.
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1257
1258You 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.
1259
1260You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1261
59a7a13e 1262 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1263 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
1264 - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio
1265 - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1266 - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
1267 - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
1268 - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
1269 - `ba*`, `bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that **contains audio**. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `best*[acodec!=none]`
1270 - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
909d24dd 1271 - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1272 - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
909d24dd 1273 - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1274 - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
909d24dd 1275 - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
b7770046 1276
e58c22a0 1277For 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 `-f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps` instead of `-f worst`. See [sorting formats](#sorting-formats) for more details.
eff63539 1278
1279You 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 1280
eb8a4433 1281If you want to download multiple videos and they don't have the same formats available, you can specify the order of preference using slashes. Note that formats on the left hand side are preferred, for example `-f 22/17/18` will download format 22 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 17 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 18 if it's available, otherwise it will complain that no suitable formats are available for download.
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1282
1283If 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`.
1284
d806c9fd 1285You 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.
1286
1287**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
1288
1289Unless `--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 1290
1291## Filtering Formats
1292
b7770046
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1293You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
1294
1295The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
1296
1297 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1298 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1299 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
1300 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1301 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1302 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1303 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1304 - `fps`: Frame rate
1305
1306Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains) and following string meta fields:
1307
1308 - `ext`: File extension
1309 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1310 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1311 - `container`: Name of the container format
1312 - `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`)
1313 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
29f7c58a 1314 - `language`: Language code
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1315
1316Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation `!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g. `!*=` (does not contain).
1317
e58c22a0 1318Note 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 1319
e094cec1 1320Formats 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 1321
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1322Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses, for example if you want to download the best mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480 you can use `-f '(mp4,webm)[height<480]'`.
1323
eb8a4433 1324## Sorting Formats
1325
2e7781a9 1326You can change the criteria for being considered the `best` by using `-S` (`--format-sort`). The general format for this is `--format-sort field1,field2...`.
1327
1328The available fields are:
eb8a4433 1329
63be1aab 1330 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
1331 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
1332 - `ie_pref`: The format preference as given by the extractor
1333 - `lang`: Language preference as given by the extractor
dca3ff4a 1334 - `quality`: The quality of the format as given by the extractor
63be1aab 1335 - `source`: Preference of the source as given by the extractor
e36d50c5 1336 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > other > `mms`/`rtsp` > unknown > `f4f`/`f4m`)
155d2b48 1337 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other > unknown)
aeb2a9ad 1338 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `eac3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other > unknown)
eb8a4433 1339 - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
63be1aab 1340 - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `webm` > `flv` > other > unknown). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is prefered.
1341 - `aext`: Audio Extension (`m4a` > `aac` > `mp3` > `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > other > unknown). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to `opus` > `ogg` > `webm` > `m4a` > `mp3` > `aac`.
1342 - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
0930b11f 1343 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
63be1aab 1344 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1345 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
eb8a4433 1346 - `height`: Height of video
1347 - `width`: Width of video
63be1aab 1348 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1349 - `fps`: Framerate of video
49a57e70 1350 - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `HLG` > `SDR`)
63be1aab 1351 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1352 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1353 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1354 - `br`: Equivalent to using `tbr,vbr,abr`
1355 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
d806c9fd 1356
1357**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 1358
9ee4f0bb 1359All 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.
1360
176f1866 1361The 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 1362
176f1866 1363Note that the default has `codec:vp9.2`; i.e. `av1` is not prefered. Similarly, the default for hdr is `hdr:12`; i.e. dolby vision is not prefered. 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 1364
e58c22a0 1365If 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 1366
1367**Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1368
eb8a4433 1369## Format Selection examples
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1370
1371Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
1372
1373```bash
e58c22a0 1374# Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
909d24dd 1375# or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
7a5c1cfe 1376$ yt-dlp -f 'bv+ba/b'
909d24dd 1377
1378# Download best format that contains video,
1379# and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
7a5c1cfe 1380$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+ba/b'
2af884ff 1381
1382# Same as above
7a5c1cfe 1383$ yt-dlp
909d24dd 1384
6fd35a11 1385# Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1386# For this case, an output template should be used since
1387# by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
7a5c1cfe 1388$ yt-dlp -f 'bv,ba' -o '%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s'
909d24dd 1389
f8d4ad9a 1390# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1391# and all audio-only formats into one file
1392$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]' --audio-multistreams
1393
1394# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1395# and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
1396$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*+ba+ba.2' --audio-multistreams
909d24dd 1397
6fd35a11 1398
1399# The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
f8d4ad9a 1400# and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
6fd35a11 1401
1402# Download the worst video available (old method)
7a5c1cfe 1403$ yt-dlp -f 'wv*+wa/w'
eb8a4433 1404
1405# Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
7a5c1cfe 1406$ yt-dlp -S '+res'
eb8a4433 1407
1408# Download the smallest video available
7a5c1cfe 1409$ yt-dlp -S '+size,+br'
eb8a4433 1410
1411
909d24dd 1412
eb8a4433 1413# Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
7a5c1cfe 1414$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b'
eb8a4433 1415
1416# Download the best video with the best extension
1417# (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
7a5c1cfe 1418$ yt-dlp -S 'ext'
eb8a4433 1419
1420
909d24dd 1421
eb8a4433 1422# Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1423# or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
7a5c1cfe 1424$ yt-dlp -f 'bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w'
b7770046 1425
eb8a4433 1426# Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1427# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
7a5c1cfe 1428$ yt-dlp -S 'height:480'
b7770046 1429
eb8a4433 1430# Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1431# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1432# Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1433# So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
7a5c1cfe 1434$ yt-dlp -S 'res:480'
b7770046 1435
b7770046 1436
909d24dd 1437
eb8a4433 1438# Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1439# or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
7a5c1cfe 1440$ yt-dlp -f 'b[filesize<50M] / w'
eb8a4433 1441
1442# Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1443# or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
7a5c1cfe 1444$ yt-dlp -f 'b' -S 'filesize:50M'
eb8a4433 1445
1446# Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
7a5c1cfe 1447$ yt-dlp -f 'b' -S 'filesize~50M'
eb8a4433 1448
1449
909d24dd 1450
eb8a4433 1451# Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1452# or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1453$ yt-dlp -f '(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)'
eb8a4433 1454
1455# Download best video available via the best protocol
1456# (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
7a5c1cfe 1457$ yt-dlp -S 'proto'
eb8a4433 1458
1459
909d24dd 1460
eb8a4433 1461# Download the best video with h264 codec, or the best video if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1462$ yt-dlp -f '(bv*+ba/b)[vcodec^=avc1] / (bv*+ba/b)'
eb8a4433 1463
1464# Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1465# or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1466$ yt-dlp -S 'codec:h264'
eb8a4433 1467
1468# Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1469# or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1470$ yt-dlp -S '+codec:h264'
eb8a4433 1471
1472
1473
1474# More complex examples
1475
e58c22a0 1476# Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1477# or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
7a5c1cfe 1478$ 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 1479
1480# Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
f8d4ad9a 1481# or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1482# preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
7a5c1cfe 1483$ yt-dlp -S 'res:720,fps'
eb8a4433 1484
1485
909d24dd 1486
eb8a4433 1487# Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1488# or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1489# preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
7a5c1cfe 1490$ yt-dlp -S '+res:480,codec,br'
b7770046 1491```
eb8a4433 1492
73cd218f 1493# MODIFYING METADATA
1494
a4211baf 1495The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
e9f4ccd1 1496
418964fa 1497`--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 1498
2e7781a9 1499The 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 1500
1501Note 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`.
1502
9c2b75b5 1503This option also has a few special uses:
28b0eb0f 1504* 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
b11d2101 1505* 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". Any value set to the `meta_` field will overwrite all default values.
c31be5b0 1506
1507For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1508
1509Metadata fields|From
1510:---|:---
1511`title`|`track` or `title`
1512`date`|`upload_date`
1513`description`, `synopsis`|`description`
1514`purl`, `comment`|`webpage_url`
1515`track`|`track_number`
1516`artist`|`artist`, `creator`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
1517`genre`|`genre`
1518`album`|`album`
1519`album_artist`|`album_artist`
1520`disc`|`disc_number`
1521`show`|`series`
1522`season_number`|`season_number`
1523`episode_id`|`episode` or `episode_id`
1524`episode_sort`|`episode_number`
1525`language` of each stream|From the format's `language`
1526**Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1527
73cd218f 1528
1529## Modifying metadata examples
1530
1531Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
1532
1533```bash
1534# Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
02aabd45 1535$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'title:%(artist)s - %(title)s'
73cd218f 1536
1537# Regex example
02aabd45 1538$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)'
73cd218f 1539
1540# Set title as "Series name S01E05"
02aabd45 1541$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata '%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s'
73cd218f 1542
1543# Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url
02aabd45 1544$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata 'description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)' --add-metadata
73cd218f 1545
0930b11f 1546# Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
1547$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ':(?P<formats>)' -j
1548
e9f4ccd1 1549# Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
1550$ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata 'title,uploader' '[ _]' '-'
1551
73cd218f 1552```
1553
5d3a0e79 1554# EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1555
59a7a13e 1556Some 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_agegate,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
5d3a0e79 1557
1558The following extractors use this feature:
96565c7e 1559
1560#### youtube
1561* `skip`: `hls` or `dash` (or both) to skip download of the respective manifests
d0d012d4 1562* `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web`, `android`, `ios`, `mweb`. These also have `_music`, `_embedded`, `_agegate`, and `_creator` variants (Eg: `web_embedded`) (`mweb` has only `_agegate`). By default, `android,web` is used, but the agegate and creator variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly the music variants are added for `music.youtube.com` urls. You can also use `all` to use all the clients, and `default` for the default clients.
96565c7e 1563* `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
1564* `include_live_dash`: Include live dash formats (These formats don't download properly)
1565* `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
1566* `max_comments`: Maximum amount of comments to download (default all)
1567* `max_comment_depth`: Maximum depth for nested comments. YouTube supports depths 1 or 2 (default)
1568
1569#### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1570* `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)
1571
1572#### funimation
1573* `language`: Languages to extract. Eg: `funimation:language=english,japanese`
1574* `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`
1575
a9d4da60 1576#### crunchyroll
1577* `language`: Languages to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:language=jaJp`
1578* `hardsub`: Which hard-sub versions to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:hardsub=None,enUS`
1579
96565c7e 1580#### vikichannel
1581* `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
73d829c1 1582
bc97cdae 1583NOTE: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
5d3a0e79 1584
3acf6d38 1585
f74980cb 1586# PLUGINS
b7770046 1587
3ae5e797 1588Plugins 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
1589
1590Plugins 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`.
1591
1592See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example plugins.
1593
1594Note 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
1595
1596If you are a plugin author, add [ytdlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/ytdlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability
b7770046 1597
b7770046 1598
8c6f4daa 1599
1600# EMBEDDING YT-DLP
1601
1602yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1603
1604Your 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.
1605
1606From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1607
1608```python
59a7a13e 1609from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
8c6f4daa 1610
093a1710 1611ydl_opts = {'format': 'bestaudio'}
59a7a13e 1612with YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
8c6f4daa 1613 ydl.download(['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
1614```
1615
f304da8a 1616Most 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#L162).
8c6f4daa 1617
093a1710 1618Here's a more complete example demonstrating various functionality:
8c6f4daa 1619
1620```python
1621import json
8c6f4daa 1622import yt_dlp
8c6f4daa 1623
1624
1625class MyLogger:
1626 def debug(self, msg):
1627 # For compatability with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
1628 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
1629 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
1630 pass
1631 else:
1632 self.info(msg)
1633
1634 def info(self, msg):
1635 pass
1636
1637 def warning(self, msg):
1638 pass
1639
1640 def error(self, msg):
1641 print(msg)
1642
1643
093a1710 1644# ℹ️ See the docstring of yt_dlp.postprocessor.common.PostProcessor
59a7a13e 1645class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
093a1710 1646 # ℹ️ See docstring of yt_dlp.postprocessor.common.PostProcessor.run
8c6f4daa 1647 def run(self, info):
1648 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
1649 return [], info
1650
1651
093a1710 1652# ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in the docstring of yt_dlp.YoutubeDL
8c6f4daa 1653def my_hook(d):
1654 if d['status'] == 'finished':
1655 print('Done downloading, now converting ...')
1656
1657
093a1710 1658def format_selector(ctx):
1659 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
1660 This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
1661
1662 # formats are already sorted worst to best
1663 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
1664
1665 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
1666 best_video = next(f for f in formats
1667 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
1668
1669 # find compatible audio extension
1670 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
1671 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
1672 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
1673 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
1674
1675 yield {
1676 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
1677 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
1678 'ext': best_video['ext'],
1679 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
1680 # Must be + seperated list of protocols
1681 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
1682 }
1683
1684
1685# ℹ️ See docstring of yt_dlp.YoutubeDL for a description of the options
8c6f4daa 1686ydl_opts = {
093a1710 1687 'format': format_selector,
8c6f4daa 1688 'postprocessors': [{
093a1710 1689 # Embed metadata in video using ffmpeg.
1690 # ℹ️ See yt_dlp.postprocessor.FFmpegMetadataPP for the arguments it accepts
1691 'key': 'FFmpegMetadata',
1692 'add_chapters': True,
1693 'add_metadata': True,
8c6f4daa 1694 }],
1695 'logger': MyLogger(),
1696 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
1697}
1698
59a7a13e 1699
1700# Add custom headers
1701yt_dlp.utils.std_headers.update({'Referer': 'https://www.google.com'})
1702
093a1710 1703# ℹ️ See the public functions in yt_dlp.YoutubeDL for for other available functions.
1704# Eg: "ydl.download", "ydl.download_with_info_file"
8c6f4daa 1705with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1706 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP())
1707 info = ydl.extract_info('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc')
093a1710 1708
1709 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
8c6f4daa 1710 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1711```
1712
49a57e70 1713**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 above
1714
8c6f4daa 1715
e167860c 1716# DEPRECATED OPTIONS
1717
1718These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
1719
6ccf351a 1720#### Redundant options
1721While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
f4536226 1722
53c18592 1723 --get-description --print description
1724 --get-duration --print duration_string
1725 --get-filename --print filename
1726 --get-format --print format
1727 --get-id --print id
1728 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
1729 -e, --get-title --print title
1730 -g, --get-url --print urls
2b8a2973 1731 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
8f18aca8 1732 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
1733 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
1734 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
1735 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
6ccf351a 1736
1737
1738#### Not recommended
1739While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
1740
d9aa2332 1741 --all-formats -f all
c32b0aab 1742 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
b7b04c78 1743 --print-json -j --no-simulate
e167860c 1744 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting. Eg: %(autonumber)03d
a439a3a4 1745 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
19b824f6 1746 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
73cd218f 1747 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
52a8a1e1 1748 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
1749 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
53ed7066 1750 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
1751 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
5d3a0e79 1752 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
1753 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
1754 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
1755 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
6ccf351a 1756
1757
1758#### Developer options
1759These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
1760
34488702 1761 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
6ccf351a 1762 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
88acdbc2 1763 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
1764 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
f4536226 1765
1766
1767#### Old aliases
1768These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
1769
1770 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
1771 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
1772 --dump-headers --print-traffic
1773 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
1774 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
1775 --load-info --load-info-json
1776 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
e167860c 1777 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
e167860c 1778 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
1779 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
f4536226 1780 --split-tracks --split-chapters
1781 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
e167860c 1782 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
f4536226 1783 --write-srt --write-subs
e167860c 1784 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
f4536226 1785
7a340e0d 1786#### Sponskrub Options
f304da8a 1787Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock` options
7a340e0d
NA
1788
1789 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
1790 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
1791 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
1792 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
1793 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
1794 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
1795 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
1796 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
1797
f4536226 1798#### No longer supported
1799These options may no longer work as intended
1800
1801 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
1802 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
1803 -C, --call-home Not implemented
1804 --no-call-home Default
1805 --include-ads No longer supported
1806 --no-include-ads Default
0bb1bc1b 1807 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
1808 --no-write-annotations Default
486fb179 1809
1810#### Removed
1811These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
1812
f4536226 1813 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1814 -t, --title -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
1815 -l, --literal -o accepts literal names
1816
8c6f4daa 1817# CONTRIBUTING
1818See [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 1819
c2b5f311 1820# MORE
8c6f4daa 1821For FAQ see the [youtube-dl README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)