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d94adc26 1% YOUTUBE-DL(1)
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cfcec693 3# NAME
94eb2dd1 4youtube-dl - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms
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6# SYNOPSIS
7**youtube-dl** [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
8
9# DESCRIPTION
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10**youtube-dl** is a small command-line program to download videos from
11YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version
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122.6, 2.7, or 3.3+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on
13your Unix box, on Windows or on Mac OS X. It is released to the public domain,
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14which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
15
cfcec693 16# OPTIONS
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17 -h, --help print this help text and exit
18 --version print program version and exit
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19 -U, --update update this program to latest version. Make sure
20 that you have sufficient permissions (run with
21 sudo if needed)
b625bc2c 22 -i, --ignore-errors continue on download errors
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23 --dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
24 --user-agent UA specify a custom user agent
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25 --referer REF specify a custom referer, use if the video access
26 is restricted to one domain
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27 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs they
28 would handle
d5a62e4f 29 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported extractors
dbc50fdf 30 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy
891629c8 31 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation.
08c1d0d3 32
cfcec693 33## Video Selection:
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34 --playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is 1)
35 --playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
36 --match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or caseless
37 sub-string)
38 --reject-title REGEX skip download for matching titles (regex or
39 caseless sub-string)
40 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
41 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE
42 (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
43 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE (e.g.
44 50k or 44.6m)
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45 --date DATE download only videos uploaded in this date
46 --datebefore DATE download only videos uploaded before this date
47 --dateafter DATE download only videos uploaded after this date
6bcd846b 48
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49## Download Options:
50 -r, --rate-limit LIMIT maximum download rate (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
51 -R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is 10)
52 --buffer-size SIZE size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16k)
53 (default is 1024)
54 --no-resize-buffer do not automatically adjust the buffer size. By
55 default, the buffer size is automatically resized
56 from an initial value of SIZE.
57
cfcec693 58## Filesystem Options:
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59 -t, --title use title in file name (default)
60 --id use only video ID in file name
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61 -l, --literal [deprecated] alias of --title
62 -A, --auto-number number downloaded files starting from 00000
63 -o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(title)s to get
64 the title, %(uploader)s for the uploader name,
65 %(uploader_id)s for the uploader nickname if
66 different, %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
67 incremented number, %(ext)s for the filename
68 extension, %(upload_date)s for the upload date
69 (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
70 (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the video id
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71 , %(playlist)s for the playlist the video is in,
72 %(playlist_index)s for the position in the
73 playlist and %% for a literal percent. Use - to
74 output to stdout. Can also be used to download to
75 a different directory, for example with -o '/my/d
76 ownloads/%(uploader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
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77 --autonumber-size NUMBER Specifies the number of digits in %(autonumber)s
78 when it is present in output filename template or
79 --autonumber option is given
80 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters, and
81 avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
82 -a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)
83 -w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
84 -c, --continue resume partially downloaded files
85 --no-continue do not resume partially downloaded files (restart
86 from beginning)
87 --cookies FILE file to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in
88 --no-part do not use .part files
89 --no-mtime do not use the Last-modified header to set the
90 file modification time
91 --write-description write video description to a .description file
92 --write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
d496a75d 93 --write-thumbnail write thumbnail image to disk
6bcd846b 94
cfcec693 95## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
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96 -q, --quiet activates quiet mode
97 -s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write
98 anything to disk
99 --skip-download do not download the video
100 -g, --get-url simulate, quiet but print URL
101 -e, --get-title simulate, quiet but print title
1a2adf3f 102 --get-id simulate, quiet but print id
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103 --get-thumbnail simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
104 --get-description simulate, quiet but print video description
105 --get-filename simulate, quiet but print output filename
106 --get-format simulate, quiet but print output format
107 --newline output progress bar as new lines
108 --no-progress do not print progress bar
109 --console-title display progress in console titlebar
110 -v, --verbose print various debugging information
111 --dump-intermediate-pages print downloaded pages to debug problems(very
112 verbose)
6bcd846b 113
cfcec693 114## Video Format Options:
f4b659f7 115 -f, --format FORMAT video format code, specifiy the order of
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116 preference using slashes: "-f 22/17/18". "-f mp4"
117 and "-f flv" are also supported
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118 --all-formats download all available video formats
119 --prefer-free-formats prefer free video formats unless a specific one
120 is requested
121 --max-quality FORMAT highest quality format to download
122 -F, --list-formats list all available formats (currently youtube
123 only)
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124
125## Subtitle Options:
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126 --write-sub write subtitle file
127 --write-auto-sub write automatic subtitle file (youtube only)
b625bc2c 128 --all-subs downloads all the available subtitles of the
8ae7be3e 129 video
b625bc2c 130 --list-subs lists all available subtitles for the video
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131 --sub-format FORMAT subtitle format (default=srt) ([sbv/vtt] youtube
132 only)
133 --sub-lang LANGS languages of the subtitles to download (optional)
134 separated by commas, use IETF language tags like
135 'en,pt'
6bcd846b 136
cfcec693 137## Authentication Options:
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138 -u, --username USERNAME account username
139 -p, --password PASSWORD account password
140 -n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
81b42336 141 --video-password PASSWORD video password (vimeo only)
6bcd846b 142
cfcec693 143## Post-processing Options:
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144 -x, --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files (requires
145 ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)
146 --audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", or
147 "wav"; best by default
148 --audio-quality QUALITY ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification, insert
149 a value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse) for VBR
150 or a specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
151 --recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if necessary
152 (currently supported: mp4|flv|ogg|webm)
153 -k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the post-
154 processing; the video is erased by default
155 --no-post-overwrites do not overwrite post-processed files; the post-
156 processed files are overwritten by default
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157 --embed-subs embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4
158 videos)
6bcd846b 159
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160# CONFIGURATION
161
280d6789 162You can configure youtube-dl by placing default arguments (such as `--extract-audio --no-mtime` to always extract the audio and not copy the mtime) into `/etc/youtube-dl.conf` and/or `~/.config/youtube-dl.conf`.
df4bad32 163
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164# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
165
166The `-o` option allows users to indicate a template for the output file names. The basic usage is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in `youtube-dl -o funny_video.flv "http://some/video"`. However, it may contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences have the format `%(NAME)s`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parenthesis, followed by a lowercase S. Allowed names are:
167
168 - `id`: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier.
169 - `url`: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL.
170 - `uploader`: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the person who uploaded the video.
171 - `upload_date`: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date in YYYYMMDD format.
172 - `title`: The sequence will be replaced by the video title.
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173 - `ext`: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension (like flv or mp4).
174 - `epoch`: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when creating the file.
175 - `autonumber`: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.
7eab8dc7 176 - `playlist`: The name or the id of the playlist that contains the video.
d281274b 177 - `playlist_index`: The index of the video in the playlist, a five-digit number.
02531431 178
1083705f 179The current default template is `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`.
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180
181In 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:
182
183 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
184 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
185 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
186 youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
187
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188# VIDEO SELECTION
189
190Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options `--date`, `--datebefore` or `--dateafter`, they accept dates in two formats:
191
192 - Absolute dates: Dates in the format `YYYYMMDD`.
193 - Relative dates: Dates in the format `(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?`
194
195Examples:
196
197 $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-6months #will only download the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
198 $ youtube-dl --date 19700101 #will only download the videos uploaded in January 1, 1970
199 $ youtube-dl --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20100101 #will only download the videos uploaded between 2000 and 2010
200
cfcec693 201# FAQ
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202
203### Can you please put the -b option back?
204
2e1b3afe 205Most people asking this question are not aware that youtube-dl now defaults to downloading the highest available quality as reported by YouTube, which will be 1080p or 720p in some cases, so you no longer need the `-b` option. For some specific videos, maybe YouTube does not report them to be available in a specific high quality format you're interested in. In that case, simply request it with the `-f` option and youtube-dl will try to download it.
447b1d71 206
f2a3a352 207### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
447b1d71 208
2e1b3afe 209Apparently YouTube requires you to pass a CAPTCHA test if you download too much. We're [considering to provide a way to let you solve the CAPTCHA](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/154), but at the moment, your best course of action is pointing a webbrowser to the youtube URL, solving the CAPTCHA, and restart youtube-dl.
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210
211### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
212
213Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as [vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or [mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
214
215### The links provided by youtube-dl -g are not working anymore
216
a0432a1e 217The URLs youtube-dl outputs require the downloader to have the correct cookies. Use the `--cookies` option to write the required cookies into a file, and advise your downloader to read cookies from that file. Some sites also require a common user agent to be used, use `--dump-user-agent` to see the one in use by youtube-dl.
447b1d71 218
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219### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
220
5a2ba45e 221youtube has switched to a new video info format in July 2011 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl with `sudo youtube-dl --update`.
454d6691 222
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223### ERROR: unable to download video ###
224
225youtube requires an additional signature since September 2012 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl with `sudo youtube-dl --update`.
226
5cdfaeb3 227### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character ###
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228
229The error
230
231 File "youtube-dl", line 2
232 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\x93' ...
233
234means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python 2.6 or 2.7.
235
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236### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
237
71f36332 238Since June 2012 (#342) youtube-dl is packed as an executable zipfile, simply unzip it (might need renaming to `youtube-dl.zip` first on some systems) or clone the git repository, as laid out above. If you modify the code, you can run it by executing the `__main__.py` file. To recompile the executable, run `make youtube-dl`.
5cdfaeb3 239
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240### The exe throws a *Runtime error from Visual C++*
241
242To run the exe you need to install first the [Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package](http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29).
243
cfcec693 244# COPYRIGHT
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245
246youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
247
248This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton (<https://github.com/dbbolton>) and is likewise released into the public domain.
6bcd846b 249
cfcec693 250# BUGS
e133e121 251
8236e851 252Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: <https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues>
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253
254Please include:
255
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256* Your exact command line, like `youtube-dl -t "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHlDtZ6Oc3s&feature=channel_video_title"`. A common mistake is not to escape the `&`. Putting URLs in quotes should solve this problem.
257* If possible re-run the command with `--verbose`, and include the full output, it is really helpful to us.
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258* The output of `youtube-dl --version`
259* The output of `python --version`
260* The name and version of your Operating System ("Ubuntu 11.04 x64" or "Windows 7 x64" is usually enough).
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261
262For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.