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ec2e44fc 1<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b31fdeed 2<div align="center">
3
e980017a 4[![YT-DLP](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master/.github/banner.svg)](#readme)
d9d045e2 5
2fa669f7 6[![Release version](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?color=brightgreen&label=Download&style=for-the-badge)](#installation "Installation")
ae6a1b95 7[![PyPi](https://img.shields.io/badge/-PyPi-blue.svg?logo=pypi&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp "PyPi")
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fc5fa964 11[![Supported Sites](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Supported_Sites-brightgreen.svg?style=for-the-badge)](supportedsites.md "Supported Sites")
ae6a1b95 12[![License: Unlicense](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Unlicense-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge)](LICENSE "License")
08e29b9f 13[![CI Status](https://img.shields.io/github/actions/workflow/status/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/core.yml?branch=master&label=Tests&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions "CI Status")
fc5fa964 14[![Commits](https://img.shields.io/github/commit-activity/m/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?label=commits&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
b532a348 15[![Last Commit](https://img.shields.io/github/last-commit/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master?label=&style=for-the-badge&display_timestamp=committer)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pulse/monthly "Last activity")
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b31fdeed 17</div>
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c76eb41b 19
b31fdeed 20yt-dlp is a [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) fork based on the now inactive [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc). The main focus of this project is adding new features and patches while also keeping up to date with the original project
5c0e5bc4 21
ec2e44fc 22<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "USAGE AND OPTIONS" SECTION HERE -->
23
24<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
034b6215 25* [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
53ed7066 26 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
c76eb41b 27* [INSTALLATION](#installation)
deae7c17 28 * [Detailed instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation)
17fa3ee2 29 * [Update](#update)
0e5927ee 30 * [Release Files](#release-files)
cf59cd4d 31 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
17fa3ee2 32 * [Compile](#compile)
b31fdeed 33* [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
34 * [General Options](#general-options)
50865ca8 35 * [Network Options](#network-options)
b31fdeed 36 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
50865ca8 37 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
38 * [Download Options](#download-options)
39 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
b31fdeed 40 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
50865ca8 41 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
0744a815 42 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
50865ca8 43 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
44 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
45 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
46 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
50865ca8 47 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
7a340e0d 48 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
50865ca8 49 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
c76eb41b 50* [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
304ad45a 51 * [Configuration file encoding](#configuration-file-encoding)
db3ad8a6 52 * [Authentication with netrc](#authentication-with-netrc)
878eac3e 53 * [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
c76eb41b 54* [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
50865ca8 55 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
c76eb41b 56* [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
50865ca8 57 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
58 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
59 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
73cd218f 60* [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
61 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
5d3a0e79 62* [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
f74980cb 63* [PLUGINS](#plugins)
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64 * [Installing Plugins](#installing-plugins)
65 * [Developing Plugins](#developing-plugins)
8c6f4daa 66* [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
43cc91ad 67 * [Embedding examples](#embedding-examples)
e167860c 68* [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
8c6f4daa 69* [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
70 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
71 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
17ffed18 72* [WIKI](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki)
deae7c17 73 * [FAQ](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/FAQ)
ec2e44fc 74<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
50865ca8 75
76
034b6215 77# NEW FEATURES
91f071af 78
9d625406 79* Forked from [**yt-dlc@f9401f2**](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/commit/f9401f2a91987068139c5f757b12fc711d4c0cee) and merged with [**youtube-dl@66ab08**](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/66ab0814c4baa2dc79c2dd5287bc0ad61a37c5b9) ([exceptions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/21))
034b6215 80
304ad45a 81* **[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in YouTube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
034b6215 82
7581d246 83* **[Format Sorting](#sorting-formats)**: The default format sorting options have been changed so that higher resolution and better codecs will be now preferred instead of simply using larger bitrate. Furthermore, you can now specify the sort order using `-S`. This allows for much easier format selection than what is possible by simply using `--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
034b6215 84
8e174ba7 85* **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from [animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including `--write-comments`, `BiliBiliSearch`, `BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that NicoNico livestreams are not available. See [#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
29b6000e 86
ae61d108 87* **YouTube improvements**:
c8bc203f 88 * Supports Clips, Stories (`ytstories:<channel UCID>`), Search (including filters)**\***, YouTube Music Search, Channel-specific search, Search prefixes (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`)**\***, Mixes, and Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`, `:ytnotif`)
ae61d108 89 * Fix for [n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326) **\***
90 * Supports some (but not all) age-gated content without cookies
91 * Download livestreams from the start using `--live-from-start` (*experimental*)
92 * `255kbps` audio is extracted (if available) from YouTube Music when premium cookies are given
86973308 93 * Channel URLs download all uploads of the channel, including shorts and live
f20f5fe5 94
304ad45a 95* **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using `--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]`
245524e6 96
5ec1b6b7 97* **Download time range**: Videos can be downloaded partially based on either timestamps or chapters using `--download-sections`
98
597c1866 99* **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using `--split-chapters`
100
b31fdeed 101* **Multi-threaded fragment downloads**: Download multiple fragments of m3u8/mpd videos in parallel. Use `--concurrent-fragments` (`-N`) option to set the number of threads used
8d801631 102
b31fdeed 103* **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use `aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
f20f5fe5 104
e75bb0d6 105* **New and fixed extractors**: Many new extractors have been added and a lot of existing ones have been fixed. See the [changelog](Changelog.md) or the [list of supported sites](supportedsites.md)
86c1a8aa 106
56ba69e4 107* **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN etc.
fac98805 108
3de7c2ce 109* **Subtitle extraction from manifests**: Subtitles can be extracted from streaming media manifests. See [commit/be6202f](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/be6202f12b97858b9d716e608394b51065d0419f) for details
034b6215 110
597c1866 111* **Multiple paths and output templates**: You can give different [output templates](#output-template) and download paths for different types of files. You can also set a temporary path where intermediary files are downloaded to using `--paths` (`-P`)
0bc0a322 112
d4ada357 113* **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for details
0bc0a322 114
418964fa 115* **Output template improvements**: Output templates can now have date-time formatting, numeric offsets, object traversal etc. See [output template](#output-template) for details. Even more advanced operations can also be done with the help of `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
fac98805 116
fe2ce85a 117* **Other new options**: Many new options have been added such as `--alias`, `--print`, `--concat-playlist`, `--wait-for-video`, `--retry-sleep`, `--sleep-requests`, `--convert-thumbnails`, `--force-download-archive`, `--force-overwrites`, `--break-match-filter` etc
0bc0a322 118
08d30158 119* **Improvements**: Regex and other operators in `--format`/`--match-filter`, multiple `--postprocessor-args` and `--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection), merge multi-video/audio, multiple `--config-locations`, `--exec` at different stages, etc
c69911e4 120
86c1a8aa 121* **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
b31fdeed 122
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123* **Self updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`, and downgraded using `--update-to` if required
124
125* **Nightly builds**: [Automated nightly builds](#update-channels) can be used with `--update-to nightly`
aa837ddf 126
7a5c1cfe 127See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
a26c99ac 128
ae61d108 129Features marked with a **\*** have been back-ported to youtube-dl
130
53ed7066 131### Differences in default behavior
132
0930b11f 133Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
53ed7066 134
5b28cef7 135* yt-dlp supports only [Python 3.7+](## "Windows 7"), and *may* remove support for more versions as they [become EOL](https://devguide.python.org/versions/#python-release-cycle); while [youtube-dl still supports Python 2.6+ and 3.2+](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/30568#issue-1118238743)
96565c7e 136* The options `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
b69fd25c 137* `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
d4ada357 138* yt-dlp stores config files in slightly different locations to youtube-dl. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for a list of correct locations
96565c7e 139* 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 140* The default [format sorting](#sorting-formats) is different from youtube-dl and prefers higher resolution and better codecs rather than higher bitrates. You can use the `--format-sort` option to change this to any order you prefer, or use `--compat-options format-sort` to use youtube-dl's sorting order
e75bb0d6 141* The default format selector is `bv*+ba/b`. This means that if a combined video + audio format that is better than the best video-only format is found, the former will be preferred. Use `-f bv+ba/b` or `--compat-options format-spec` to revert this
28b0eb0f 142* Unlike youtube-dlc, yt-dlp does not allow merging multiple audio/video streams into one file by default (since this conflicts with the use of `-f bv*+ba`). If needed, this feature must be enabled using `--audio-multistreams` and `--video-multistreams`. You can also use `--compat-options multistreams` to enable both
08d30158 143* `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
28b0eb0f 144* 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 145* `--add-metadata` attaches the `infojson` to `mkv` files in addition to writing the metadata when used with `--write-info-json`. Use `--no-embed-info-json` or `--compat-options no-attach-info-json` to revert this
9e907ebd 146* Some metadata are embedded into different fields when using `--add-metadata` as compared to youtube-dl. Most notably, `comment` field contains the `webpage_url` and `synopsis` contains the `description`. You can [use `--parse-metadata`](#modifying-metadata) to modify this to your liking or use `--compat-options embed-metadata` to revert this
28b0eb0f 147* `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
148* The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
b79f9e30 149* Live chats (if available) are considered as subtitles. Use `--sub-langs all,-live_chat` to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use `--compat-options no-live-chat` to prevent any live chat/danmaku from downloading
86973308 150* YouTube channel URLs download all uploads of the channel. To download only the videos in a specific tab, pass the tab's URL. If the channel does not show the requested tab, an error will be raised. Also, `/live` URLs raise an error if there are no live videos instead of silently downloading the entire channel. You may use `--compat-options no-youtube-channel-redirect` to revert all these redirections
304ad45a 151* Unavailable videos are also listed for YouTube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
1ff88b7a 152* The upload dates extracted from YouTube are in UTC [when available](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/89e4d86171c7b7c997c77d4714542e0383bf0db0/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L3898-L3900). Use `--compat-options no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date` to prefer the non-UTC upload date.
18e674b4 153* 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 154* Thumbnail embedding in `mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use `--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
ad54c913 155* Some internal metadata such as filenames are removed by default from the infojson. Use `--no-clean-infojson` or `--compat-options no-clean-infojson` to revert this
e75bb0d6 156* When `--embed-subs` and `--write-subs` are used together, the subtitles are written to disk and also embedded in the media file. You can use just `--embed-subs` to embed the subs and automatically delete the separate file. See [#630 (comment)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/630#issuecomment-893659460) for more info. `--compat-options no-keep-subs` can be used to revert this
168bbc4f 157* `certifi` will be used for SSL root certificates, if installed. If you want to use system certificates (e.g. self-signed), use `--compat-options no-certifi`
1e4fca9a 158* yt-dlp's sanitization of invalid characters in filenames is different/smarter than in youtube-dl. You can use `--compat-options filename-sanitization` to revert to youtube-dl's behavior
ad68b16a 159* yt-dlp tries to parse the external downloader outputs into the standard progress output if possible (Currently implemented: [~~aria2c~~](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/5931)). You can use `--compat-options no-external-downloader-progress` to get the downloader output as-is
93b39cdb 160* yt-dlp versions between 2021.09.01 and 2023.01.02 applies `--match-filter` to nested playlists. This was an unintentional side-effect of [8f18ac](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/8f18aca8717bb0dd49054555af8d386e5eda3a88) and is fixed in [d7b460](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/d7b460d0e5fc710950582baed2e3fc616ed98a80). Use `--compat-options playlist-match-filter` to revert this
53ed7066 161
162For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
3d3bb168 163
8a82af35 164* `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options (Do NOT use)
93b39cdb 165* `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams,-playlist-match-filter`
166* `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect,-playlist-match-filter`
2a06bb4e 167* `--compat-options 2021`: Same as `--compat-options 2022,no-certifi,filename-sanitization,no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date`
93b39cdb 168* `--compat-options 2022`: Same as `--compat-options playlist-match-filter,no-external-downloader-progress`. Use this to enable all future compat options
53ed7066 169
f20f5fe5 170
d19bb9c0 171# INSTALLATION
50865ca8 172
fc5fa964 173<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
174[![Windows](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Windows_x64-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=windows)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)
17ffed18 175[![Unix](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Linux/BSD-red.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=linux)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)
24146491 176[![MacOS](https://img.shields.io/badge/-MacOS-lightblue.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=apple)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)
17ffed18 177[![PyPi](https://img.shields.io/badge/-PyPi-blue.svg?logo=pypi&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
fc5fa964 178[![Source Tarball](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Source_tar-green.svg?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
179[![Other variants](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Other-grey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](#release-files)
3d3bb168 180[![All versions](https://img.shields.io/badge/-All_Versions-lightgrey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
fc5fa964 181<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
182
c8bc203f 183You can install yt-dlp using [the binaries](#release-files), [pip](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) or one using a third-party package manager. See [the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation) for detailed instructions
0930b11f 184
b8773e63 185
a4211baf 186## UPDATE
4815bbfc 187You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are using the [release binaries](#release-files)
17ffed18 188
c8bc203f 189If you [installed with pip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
0930b11f 190
8e174ba7 191For other third-party package managers, see [the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#third-party-package-managers) or refer their documentation
0930b11f 192
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193<a id="update-channels"/>
194
195There are currently two release channels for binaries, `stable` and `nightly`.
392389b7 196`stable` is the default channel, and many of its changes have been tested by users of the nightly channel.
197The `nightly` channel has releases built after each push to the master branch, and will have the most recent fixes and additions, but also have more risk of regressions. They are available in [their own repo](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds/releases).
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198
199When using `--update`/`-U`, a release binary will only update to its current channel.
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200`--update-to CHANNEL` can be used to switch to a different channel when a newer version is available. `--update-to [CHANNEL@]TAG` can also be used to upgrade or downgrade to specific tags from a channel.
201
202You may also use `--update-to <repository>` (`<owner>/<repository>`) to update to a channel on a completely different repository. Be careful with what repository you are updating to though, there is no verification done for binaries from different repositories.
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203
204Example usage:
205* `yt-dlp --update-to nightly` change to `nightly` channel and update to its latest release
206* `yt-dlp --update-to stable@2023.02.17` upgrade/downgrade to release to `stable` channel tag `2023.02.17`
207* `yt-dlp --update-to 2023.01.06` upgrade/downgrade to tag `2023.01.06` if it exists on the current channel
665472a7 208* `yt-dlp --update-to example/yt-dlp@2023.03.01` upgrade/downgrade to the release from the `example/yt-dlp` repository, tag `2023.03.01`
cf59cd4d 209
ec2e44fc 210<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
a4211baf 211## RELEASE FILES
0e5927ee 212
733d8e8f 213#### Recommended
214
215File|Description
216:---|:---
962ffcf8 217[yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform-independent [zipimport](https://docs.python.org/3/library/zipimport.html) binary. Needs Python (recommended for **Linux/BSD**)
0930b11f 218[yt-dlp.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary (recommended for **Windows**)
f2df4071 219[yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|Universal MacOS (10.15+) standalone executable (recommended for **MacOS**)
733d8e8f 220
221#### Alternatives
222
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223File|Description
224:---|:---
0930b11f 225[yt-dlp_x86.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_x86.exe)|Windows (Vista SP2+) standalone x86 (32-bit) binary
8aa0e7cd 226[yt-dlp_min.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_min.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary built with `py2exe`<br/> ([Not recommended](#standalone-py2exe-builds-windows))
f2df4071 227[yt-dlp_linux](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux)|Linux standalone x64 binary
228[yt-dlp_linux.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux.zip)|Unpackaged Linux executable (no auto-update)
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229[yt-dlp_linux_armv7l](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_armv7l)|Linux standalone armv7l (32-bit) binary
230[yt-dlp_linux_aarch64](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_aarch64)|Linux standalone aarch64 (64-bit) binary
0930b11f 231[yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
232[yt-dlp_macos.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos.zip)|Unpackaged MacOS (10.15+) executable (no auto-update)
6d916fe7 233[yt-dlp_macos_legacy](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos_legacy)|MacOS (10.9+) standalone x64 executable
733d8e8f 234
235#### Misc
236
237File|Description
238:---|:---
17ffed18 239[yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball
0e5927ee 240[SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
12647e03 241[SHA2-512SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA512 sums
0e5927ee 242[SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
12647e03 243[SHA2-256SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA256 sums
0e5927ee 244
12647e03
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245The public key that can be used to verify the GPG signatures is [available here](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/public.key)
246Example usage:
247```
248curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/raw/master/public.key | gpg --import
249gpg --verify SHA2-256SUMS.sig SHA2-256SUMS
250gpg --verify SHA2-512SUMS.sig SHA2-512SUMS
251```
252<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
17ffed18 253
ad54c913 254**Note**: The manpages, shell completion (autocomplete) files etc. are available inside the [source tarball](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
17ffed18 255
a4211baf 256## DEPENDENCIES
eff42759 257Python versions 3.7+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
b31fdeed 258
c9652aa4 259<!-- Python 3.5+ uses VC++14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
260<!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999 --x>
cf59cd4d 261On 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 262-->
fac98805 263
e75bb0d6 264While all the other dependencies are optional, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended
ec2e44fc 265
8aa0e7cd 266### Strongly recommended
267
b69fd25c 268* [**ffmpeg** and **ffprobe**](https://www.ffmpeg.org) - Required for [merging separate video and audio files](#format-selection) as well as for various [post-processing](#post-processing-options) tasks. License [depends on the build](https://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html)
8aa0e7cd 269
8e174ba7 270 There are bugs in ffmpeg that causes various issues when used alongside yt-dlp. Since ffmpeg is such an important dependency, we provide [custom builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#ffmpeg-static-auto-builds) with patches for some of these issues at [yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds). See [the readme](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#patches-applied) for details on the specific issues solved by these builds
271
272 **Important**: What you need is ffmpeg *binary*, **NOT** [the python package of the same name](https://pypi.org/project/ffmpeg)
8aa0e7cd 273
274### Networking
d5820461 275* [**certifi**](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi)\* - Provides Mozilla's root certificate bundle. Licensed under [MPLv2](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi/blob/master/LICENSE)
8aa0e7cd 276* [**brotli**](https://github.com/google/brotli)\* or [**brotlicffi**](https://github.com/python-hyper/brotlicffi) - [Brotli](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brotli) content encoding support. Both licensed under MIT <sup>[1](https://github.com/google/brotli/blob/master/LICENSE) [2](https://github.com/python-hyper/brotlicffi/blob/master/LICENSE) </sup>
277* [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
278
279### Metadata
280
281* [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For `--embed-thumbnail` in certain formats. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
282* [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For `--embed-thumbnail` in `mp4`/`m4a` files when `mutagen`/`ffmpeg` cannot. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
283* [**xattr**](https://github.com/xattr/xattr), [**pyxattr**](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr) or [**setfattr**](http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/attr) - For writing xattr metadata (`--xattr`) on **Linux**. Licensed under [MIT](https://github.com/xattr/xattr/blob/master/LICENSE.txt), [LGPL2.1](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr/blob/master/COPYING) and [GPLv2+](http://git.savannah.nongnu.org/cgit/attr.git/tree/doc/COPYING) respectively
284
285### Misc
286
287* [**pycryptodomex**](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome)\* - For decrypting AES-128 HLS streams and various other data. Licensed under [BSD-2-Clause](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome/blob/master/LICENSE.rst)
5d0aeac0 288* [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
8aa0e7cd 289* [**secretstorage**](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage) - For `--cookies-from-browser` to access the **Gnome** keyring while decrypting cookies of **Chromium**-based browsers on **Linux**. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage/blob/master/LICENSE)
cf59cd4d 290* Any external downloader that you want to use with `--downloader`
b31fdeed 291
deae7c17 292### Deprecated
8aa0e7cd 293
294* [**avconv** and **avprobe**](https://www.libav.org) - Now **deprecated** alternative to ffmpeg. License [depends on the build](https://libav.org/legal)
295* [**sponskrub**](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) - For using the now **deprecated** [sponskrub options](#sponskrub-options). Licensed under [GPLv3+](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub/blob/master/LICENCE.md)
998a3cae 296* [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with `--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
297* [**mplayer**](http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html) or [**mpv**](https://mpv.io) - For downloading `rstp`/`mms` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with `--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/Copyright)
8aa0e7cd 298
cf59cd4d 299To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
300
f2df4071 301The standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with **\*** included.
d710cc6d 302
8aa0e7cd 303If you do not have the necessary dependencies for a task you are attempting, yt-dlp will warn you. All the currently available dependencies are visible at the top of the `--verbose` output
d710cc6d 304
5f326cf5 305
a4211baf 306## COMPILE
5f326cf5 307
8aa0e7cd 308### Standalone PyInstaller Builds
115add43 309To build the standalone executable, you must have Python and `pyinstaller` (plus any of yt-dlp's [optional dependencies](#dependencies) if needed). Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, simply run `pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (x86/ARM, 32/64 bit) as the Python used.
e38df8f9 310
8aa0e7cd 311 python3 -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
312 python3 devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
313 python3 pyinst.py
314
315On some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`.
316
73ac0e6b 317`pyinst.py` accepts any arguments that can be passed to `pyinstaller`, such as `--onefile/-F` or `--onedir/-D`, which is further [documented here](https://pyinstaller.org/en/stable/usage.html#what-to-generate).
318
8e174ba7 319**Note**: Pyinstaller versions below 4.4 [do not support](https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller#requirements-and-tested-platforms) Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment.
8aa0e7cd 320
321**Important**: Running `pyinstaller` directly **without** using `pyinst.py` is **not** officially supported. This may or may not work correctly.
7581d246 322
8aa0e7cd 323### Platform-independent Binary (UNIX)
deae7c17 324You will need the build tools `python` (3.7+), `zip`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`\* and `pytest`\*.
b96a939b 325
8aa0e7cd 326After installing these, simply run `make`.
5f326cf5 327
a831c2ea 328You can also run `make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files. (The build tools marked with **\*** are not needed for this)
d19bb9c0 329
8aa0e7cd 330### Standalone Py2Exe Builds (Windows)
331
332While we provide the option to build with [py2exe](https://www.py2exe.org), it is recommended to build [using PyInstaller](#standalone-pyinstaller-builds) instead since the py2exe builds **cannot contain `pycryptodomex`/`certifi` and needs VC++14** on the target computer to run.
333
334If you wish to build it anyway, install Python and py2exe, and then simply run `setup.py py2exe`
335
336 py -m pip install -U py2exe -r requirements.txt
337 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
338 py setup.py py2exe
339
340### Related scripts
341
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342* **`devscripts/update-version.py`** - Update the version number based on current date.
343* **`devscripts/set-variant.py`** - Set the build variant of the executable.
344* **`devscripts/make_changelog.py`** - Create a markdown changelog using short commit messages and update `CONTRIBUTORS` file.
8aa0e7cd 345* **`devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py`** - Create lazy extractors. Running this before building the binaries (any variant) will improve their startup performance. Set the environment variable `YTDLP_NO_LAZY_EXTRACTORS=1` if you wish to forcefully disable lazy extractor loading.
346
d400e261
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347Note: See their `--help` for more info.
348
29cb20bd
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349### Forking the project
350If you fork the project on GitHub, you can run your fork's [build workflow](.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically build the selected version(s) as artifacts. Alternatively, you can run the [release workflow](.github/workflows/release.yml) or enable the [nightly workflow](.github/workflows/release-nightly.yml) to create full (pre-)releases.
59a7a13e 351
b31fdeed 352# USAGE AND OPTIONS
6bcd846b 353
ec2e44fc 354<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
7a5c1cfe 355 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
b50e3bc6 356
c2b5f311 357`Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
ec2e44fc 358<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
c2b5f311 359
ec2e44fc 360<!-- Auto generated -->
c76eb41b 361## General Options:
2dd5a2e3 362 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
363 --version Print program version and exit
70b23409 364 -U, --update Update this program to the latest version
365 --no-update Do not check for updates (default)
77df20f1 366 --update-to [CHANNEL]@[TAG] Upgrade/downgrade to a specific version.
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367 CHANNEL can be a repository as well. CHANNEL
368 and TAG default to "stable" and "latest"
369 respectively if omitted; See "UPDATE" for
370 details. Supported channels: stable, nightly
2dd5a2e3 371 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
372 The download will be considered successful
373 even if the postprocessing fails
374 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download errors;
375 e.g. to skip unavailable videos in a
376 playlist (default)
377 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
378 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
379 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
380 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
381 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
382 extractors and exit
2516cafb 383 --use-extractors NAMES Extractor names to use separated by commas.
fe7866d0 384 You can also use regexes, "all", "default"
385 and "end" (end URL matching); e.g. --ies
386 "holodex.*,end,youtube". Prefix the name
387 with a "-" to exclude it, e.g. --ies
388 default,-generic. Use --list-extractors for
2516cafb 389 a list of extractor names. (Alias: --ies)
62b58c09 390 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 391 "gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
392 google videos for the search term "python".
393 Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
394 ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when
395 guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
396 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken
397 URLs, but emits an error if this is not
398 possible instead of searching
399 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
400 except those given by --config-locations.
401 For backward compatibility, if this option
402 is found inside the system configuration
403 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
404 (Alias: --no-config)
405 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
406 (default). When given inside a configuration
407 file, ignore all previous --config-locations
408 defined in the current file
409 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
410 either the path to the config or its
6b9e832d 411 containing directory ("-" for stdin). Can be
412 used multiple times and inside other
413 configuration files
2dd5a2e3 414 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
415 only list them
c8bc203f 416 --no-flat-playlist Fully extract the videos of a playlist
417 (default)
2dd5a2e3 418 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
419 Currently only supported for YouTube
420 (Experimental)
421 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
422 (default)
423 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
424 available. Pass the minimum number of
425 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
426 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
427 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
428 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
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429 --color [STREAM:]POLICY Whether to emit color codes in output,
430 optionally prefixed by the STREAM (stdout or
431 stderr) to apply the setting to. Can be one
432 of "always", "auto" (default), "never", or
433 "no_color" (use non color terminal
434 sequences). Can be used multiple times
2dd5a2e3 435 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
436 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
437 configurations by reverting some of the
438 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
439 default behavior" for details
440 --alias ALIASES OPTIONS Create aliases for an option string. Unless
441 an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
442 prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
443 according to the Python string formatting
62b58c09 444 mini-language. E.g. --alias get-audio,-X
2dd5a2e3 445 "-S=aext:{0},abr -x --audio-format {0}"
446 creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
447 takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
448 "-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
449 All defined aliases are listed in the --help
450 output. Alias options can trigger more
962ffcf8 451 aliases; so be careful to avoid defining
2dd5a2e3 452 recursive options. As a safety measure, each
453 alias may be triggered a maximum of 100
64fa820c 454 times. This option can be used multiple times
08c1d0d3 455
149f05c7 456## Network Options:
2dd5a2e3 457 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
62b58c09
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458 enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme,
459 e.g. socks5://user:pass@127.0.0.1:1080/.
460 Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for
461 direct connection
2dd5a2e3 462 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
463 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
464 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
465 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
8300774c
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466 --enable-file-urls Enable file:// URLs. This is disabled by
467 default for security reasons.
8c6c88c7 468
b31fdeed 469## Geo-restriction:
2dd5a2e3 470 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
471 some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy
472 specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
473 is not present) is used for the actual
474 downloading
c1664464 475 --xff VALUE How to fake X-Forwarded-For HTTP header to
476 try bypassing geographic restriction. One of
c8bc203f 477 "default" (only when known to be useful),
478 "never", an IP block in CIDR notation, or a
479 two-letter ISO 3166-2 country code
149f05c7 480
cfcec693 481## Video Selection:
71df9b7f 482 -I, --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Comma separated playlist_index of the items
7e88d7d7 483 to download. You can specify a range using
484 "[START]:[STOP][:STEP]". For backward
485 compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.
486 Use negative indices to count from the right
487 and negative STEP to download in reverse
62b58c09 488 order. E.g. "-I 1:3,7,-5::2" used on a
71df9b7f 489 playlist of size 15 will download the items
7e88d7d7 490 at index 1,2,3,7,11,13,15
71df9b7f 491 --min-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is smaller than
492 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
493 --max-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is larger than
62b58c09 494 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
2dd5a2e3 495 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
496 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
497 [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
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498 E.g. "--date today-2weeks" downloads only
499 videos uploaded on the same day two weeks ago
2dd5a2e3 500 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
501 this date. The date formats accepted is the
502 same as --date
503 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
504 this date. The date formats accepted is the
505 same as --date
506 --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
507 field can be compared with a number or a
508 string using the operators defined in
d4ada357 509 "Filtering Formats". You can also simply
2dd5a2e3 510 specify a field to match if the field is
511 present, use "!field" to check if the field
512 is not present, and "&" to check multiple
513 conditions. Use a "\" to escape "&" or
514 quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
515 the filter matches if atleast one of the
62b58c09 516 conditions are met. E.g. --match-filter
2dd5a2e3 517 !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?100 &
518 description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'" matches
519 only videos that are not live OR those that
520 have a like count more than 100 (or the like
521 field is not available) and also has a
522 description that contains the phrase "cats &
523 dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
524 interactively ask whether to download each
525 video
c8bc203f 526 --no-match-filters Do not use any --match-filter (default)
fe2ce85a 527 --break-match-filters FILTER Same as "--match-filters" but stops the
528 download process when a video is rejected
529 --no-break-match-filters Do not use any --break-match-filters (default)
2dd5a2e3 530 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
531 to a video and a playlist
532 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
533 a video and a playlist
534 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
535 age
536 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
537 archive file. Record the IDs of all
538 downloaded videos in it
539 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
540 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
541 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
542 a file that is in the archive
71df9b7f 543 --break-per-input Alters --max-downloads, --break-on-existing,
354d5fca 544 --break-match-filter, and autonumber to
545 reset per input URL
2dd5a2e3 546 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
547 terminates the entire download queue
548 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
549 the playlist is skipped
6bcd846b 550
d5a62e4f 551## Download Options:
2dd5a2e3 552 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
553 video that should be downloaded concurrently
554 (default is 1)
62b58c09
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555 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second,
556 e.g. 50K or 4.2M
2dd5a2e3 557 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
558 below which throttling is assumed and the
62b58c09 559 video data is re-extracted, e.g. 100K
2dd5a2e3 560 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
561 "infinite"
562 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
563 error (default is 3), or "infinite"
564 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
565 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
be5c1ae8 566 --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR Time to sleep between retries in seconds
567 (optionally) prefixed by the type of retry
568 (http (default), fragment, file_access,
569 extractor) to apply the sleep to. EXPR can
570 be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=1]] or
571 exp=START[:END[:BASE=2]]. This option can be
572 used multiple times to set the sleep for the
62b58c09 573 different retry types, e.g. --retry-sleep
2dd5a2e3 574 linear=1::2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=1:20
575 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
576 hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
8e174ba7 577 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragments)
578 --abort-on-unavailable-fragments
2dd5a2e3 579 Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
580 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
581 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
582 downloading is finished
583 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
584 downloading is finished (default)
62b58c09 585 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer, e.g. 1024 or 16K
2dd5a2e3 586 (default is 1024)
587 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
588 from an initial value of --buffer-size
589 (default)
590 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
591 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
62b58c09 592 downloading, e.g. 10485760 or 10M (default
2dd5a2e3 593 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
594 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
595 (experimental)
2dd5a2e3 596 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
7e9a6125 597 --lazy-playlist Process entries in the playlist as they are
598 received. This disables n_entries,
599 --playlist-random and --playlist-reverse
600 --no-lazy-playlist Process videos in the playlist only after
601 the entire playlist is parsed (default)
2dd5a2e3 602 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
603 expected file size
604 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
605 allowing some players to play the video
606 while downloading, and reducing the chance
607 of file corruption if download is
608 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
609 live streams
610 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
611 videos. This is default when not downloading
612 live streams
b4e0d758 613 --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters that match the
614 regular expression. A "*" prefix denotes
615 time-range instead of chapter. Negative
616 timestamps are calculated from the end.
617 "*from-url" can be used to download between
618 the "start_time" and "end_time" extracted
619 from the URL. Needs ffmpeg. This option can
620 be used multiple times to download multiple
62b58c09 621 sections, e.g. --download-sections
2fa669f7 622 "*10:15-inf" --download-sections "intro"
2dd5a2e3 623 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
624 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
625 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
626 use it for. Currently supports native,
627 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
628 wget. You can use this option multiple times
629 to set different downloaders for different
62b58c09 630 protocols. E.g. --downloader aria2c
2dd5a2e3 631 --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
632 aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
633 native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
634 (Alias: --external-downloader)
635 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
636 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
637 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
638 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different
639 positions using the same syntax as
640 --postprocessor-args. You can use this
641 option multiple times to give different
642 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
643 --external-downloader-args)
d5a62e4f 644
cfcec693 645## Filesystem Options:
2dd5a2e3 646 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
647 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
648 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
649 comments and ignored
650 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
651 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
652 downloaded. Specify the type of file and the
653 path separated by a colon ":". All the same
654 TYPES as --output are supported.
655 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
656 (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary
657 files are first downloaded to the temp path
658 and then the final files are moved over to
659 the home path after download is finished.
660 This option is ignored if --output is an
661 absolute path
662 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
663 TEMPLATE" for details
664 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
665 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" (default: "NA")
666 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
667 and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
668 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
669 filenames (default)
670 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
671 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
672 using Windows (default)
673 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
674 extension) to the specified number of
675 characters
676 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
677 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This
678 option includes --no-continue
679 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
680 related files (default)
681 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
682 (default)
683 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
684 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
685 restart download of the entire file
686 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
687 into output file (default)
688 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into
689 output file
690 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file
691 modification time (default)
692 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
693 the file modification time
64fa820c 694 --write-description Write video description to a .description file
2dd5a2e3 695 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
696 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
697 (this may contain personal information)
698 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
699 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
700 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
701 --write-description etc. (default)
702 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
703 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
ad54c913 704 --clean-info-json Remove some internal metadata such as
705 filenames from the infojson (default)
2dd5a2e3 706 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
707 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
708 infojson. The comments are fetched even
709 without this option if the extraction is
710 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
711 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
712 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
713 --no-get-comments)
714 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
64fa820c 715 (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
2dd5a2e3 716 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from
717 and dump cookie jar in
718 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
719 (default)
825d3ce3 720 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]
721 The name of the browser to load cookies
722 from. Currently supported browsers are:
723 brave, chrome, chromium, edge, firefox,
724 opera, safari, vivaldi. Optionally, the
725 KEYRING used for decrypting Chromium cookies
726 on Linux, the name/path of the PROFILE to
727 load cookies from, and the CONTAINER name
728 (if Firefox) ("none" for no container) can
729 be given with their respective seperators.
730 By default, all containers of the most
731 recently accessed profile are used.
732 Currently supported keyrings are: basictext,
2e023649 733 gnomekeyring, kwallet, kwallet5, kwallet6
2dd5a2e3 734 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
17ffed18 735 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where yt-dlp can
736 store some downloaded information (such as
737 client ids and signatures) permanently. By
878eac3e 738 default ${XDG_CACHE_HOME}/yt-dlp
2dd5a2e3 739 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
740 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
6bcd846b 741
b31fdeed 742## Thumbnail Options:
2dd5a2e3 743 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
64fa820c 744 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default)
2dd5a2e3 745 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
746 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
747 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
2b1bd292 748
732044af 749## Internet Shortcut Options:
2dd5a2e3 750 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
751 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
752 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
753 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
754 OS caches the URL based on the file path
755 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
756 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
732044af 757
0744a815 758## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
2dd5a2e3 759 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
760 print the log to stderr
d669772c 761 --no-quiet Deactivate quiet mode. (Default)
2dd5a2e3 762 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
763 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
764 anything to disk
765 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
766 options are used
767 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
768 extracting metadata even if the videos are
769 not actually available for download
770 (experimental)
771 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
772 formats are found (default)
773 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
774 related files (Alias: --no-download)
775 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
776 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
777 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
778 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
119e40ef 779 --use-postprocessor (default: video).
2dd5a2e3 780 Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
781 --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
782 used. This option can be used multiple times
bb66c247 783 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
2dd5a2e3 784 Append given template to the file. The
785 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as that
786 of --print. FILE uses the same syntax as the
787 output template. This option can be used
788 multiple times
789 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
790 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
791 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
792 description of available keys
793 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
794 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
795 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
796 a playlist, the whole playlist information
797 is dumped in a single line
798 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
799 as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
800 another simulation option is used (Alias:
801 --force-download-archive)
802 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
803 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
804 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
805 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
819e0531 806 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
2dd5a2e3 807 Template for progress outputs, optionally
808 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
809 "download-title:" (the console title),
810 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
811 The video's fields are accessible under the
812 "info" key and the progress attributes are
62b58c09 813 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 814 --console-title --progress-template
815 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
816 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
817 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
818 to debug problems (very verbose)
819 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files
820 in the current directory to debug problems
821 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
6bcd846b 822
36f35428 823## Workarounds:
2dd5a2e3 824 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
825 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to servers
826 that do not support RFC 5746 secure
827 renegotiation
828 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
829 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
830 information about the video (Currently
831 supported only for YouTube)
a5387729 832 --add-headers FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
2dd5a2e3 833 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
834 option multiple times
835 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
836 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
837 or fribidi executable in PATH
838 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
839 during data extraction
840 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
841 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
842 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
843 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
844 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only
845 be used along with --min-sleep-interval
846 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
847 subtitle download
36f35428 848
cfcec693 849## Video Format Options:
2dd5a2e3 850 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
851 for more details
852 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
853 "Sorting Formats" for more details
854 --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
855 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
856 Formats" for more details (Alias: --S-force)
857 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
858 specified sort order (default)
859 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
860 into a single file
861 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
862 output file (default)
863 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
864 into a single file
865 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
866 output file (default)
867 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
868 over non-free ones of same quality. Use with
869 "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers
870 irrespective of quality
871 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
872 containers (default)
873 --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
874 those that are actually downloadable
875 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
876 actually downloadable
877 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
878 downloadable
879 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
880 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
fc61aff4 881 --merge-output-format FORMAT Containers that may be used when merging
62b58c09 882 formats, separated by "/", e.g. "mp4/mkv".
fc61aff4
LL
883 Ignored if no merge is required. (currently
884 supported: avi, flv, mkv, mov, mp4, webm)
8ae7be3e
PH
885
886## Subtitle Options:
2dd5a2e3 887 --write-subs Write subtitle file
888 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
889 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
890 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
891 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
892 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
893 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
894 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
895 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
62b58c09 896 e.g. "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
2dd5a2e3 897 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
62b58c09
L
898 be regex) or "all" separated by commas, e.g.
899 --sub-langs "en.*,ja". You can prefix the
2dd5a2e3 900 language code with a "-" to exclude it from
62b58c09
L
901 the requested languages, e.g. --sub-langs
902 all,-live_chat. Use --list-subs for a list
2dd5a2e3 903 of available language tags
6bcd846b 904
cfcec693 905## Authentication Options:
2dd5a2e3 906 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
907 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
908 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
909 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
910 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
911 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
912 either the path or its containing directory.
913 Defaults to ~/.netrc
db3ad8a6 914 --netrc-cmd NETRC_CMD Command to execute to get the credentials
d1b21561 915 for an extractor.
2dd5a2e3 916 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
917 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
918 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
919 a list of available MSOs
920 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
921 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
922 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
923 interactively
924 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
925 --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
926 format. May include the private key
927 --client-certificate-key KEYFILE
928 Path to private key file for client
929 certificate
bb58c9ed 930 --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
2dd5a2e3 931 Password for client certificate private key,
932 if encrypted. If not provided, and the key
933 is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask interactively
f5e008d1 934
c76eb41b 935## Post-Processing Options:
2dd5a2e3 936 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
937 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
35faefee 938 --audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
939 used. (currently supported: best (default),
8dc59305 940 aac, alac, flac, m4a, mp3, opus, vorbis,
e0ab9854 941 wav). You can specify multiple rules using
942 similar syntax as --remux-video
2dd5a2e3 943 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
944 converting the audio with -x. Insert a value
945 between 0 (best) and 10 (worst) for VBR or a
946 specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
947 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
8dc59305 948 necessary (currently supported: avi, flv,
69f5fe45 949 gif, mkv, mov, mp4, webm, aac, aiff, alac,
950 flac, m4a, mka, mp3, ogg, opus, vorbis,
951 wav). If target container does not support
952 the video/audio codec, remuxing will fail.
953 You can specify multiple rules; e.g.
2dd5a2e3 954 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
35faefee 955 mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
2dd5a2e3 956 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
957 necessary. The syntax and supported formats
958 are the same as --remux-video
959 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
960 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
961 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
962 to give the argument to the specified
963 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
964 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
965 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
966 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
967 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
968 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
969 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
970 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
971 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
972 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
973 specified executable only when being used by
974 the specified postprocessor. Additionally,
975 for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
976 appended to the prefix optionally followed
977 by a number to pass the argument before the
62b58c09 978 specified input/output file, e.g. --ppa
2dd5a2e3 979 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
980 this option multiple times to give different
981 arguments to different postprocessors.
982 (Alias: --ppa)
983 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
984 after post-processing
985 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
986 post-processing (default)
987 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
988 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
989 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
990 webm and mkv videos)
991 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
992 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
993 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
994 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
995 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
996 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are
997 used (Alias: --add-metadata)
998 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
999 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
1000 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
1001 (Alias: --add-chapters)
1002 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias:
1003 --no-add-chapters)
1004 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
1005 mkv/mka video files
1006 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
1007 to the video file
fe74d5b5 1008 --parse-metadata [WHEN:]FROM:TO
1009 Parse additional metadata like title/artist
2dd5a2e3 1010 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
fe74d5b5 1011 for details. Supported values of "WHEN" are
1012 the same as that of --use-postprocessor
1013 (default: pre_process)
1014 --replace-in-metadata [WHEN:]FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
2dd5a2e3 1015 Replace text in a metadata field using the
1016 given regex. This option can be used
fe74d5b5 1017 multiple times. Supported values of "WHEN"
1018 are the same as that of --use-postprocessor
1019 (default: pre_process)
2dd5a2e3 1020 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
1021 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
1022 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
1023 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
1024 (default; only when the videos form a single
1025 show). All the video files must have same
1026 codecs and number of streams to be
1027 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
1028 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1029 the output filename for the concatenated
1030 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1031 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
1032 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
1033 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
1034 default; fix file if we can, warn
1035 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
1036 already exists)
1037 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
64fa820c 1038 path to the binary or its containing directory
2dd5a2e3 1039 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
119e40ef 1040 when to execute it, separated by a ":".
1041 Supported values of "WHEN" are the same as
1042 that of --use-postprocessor (default:
1043 after_move). Same syntax as the output
1044 template can be used to pass any field as
ad54c913 1045 arguments to the command. If no fields are
1046 passed, %(filepath,_filename|)q is appended
1047 to the end of the command. This option can
1048 be used multiple times
2dd5a2e3 1049 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
1050 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
8dc59305 1051 (currently supported: ass, lrc, srt, vtt)
2dd5a2e3 1052 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
1053 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
00bbc5f1 1054 (currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
1055 can specify multiple rules using similar
1056 syntax as --remux-video
2dd5a2e3 1057 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
1058 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can
1059 be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1060 the output filename for the split files. See
1061 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
64fa820c 1062 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters (default)
2dd5a2e3 1063 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
5ec1b6b7 1064 given regular expression. The syntax is the
1065 same as --download-sections. This option can
2dd5a2e3 1066 be used multiple times
1067 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
1068 (default)
5ec1b6b7 1069 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes at cuts when
1070 downloading/splitting/removing sections.
1071 This is slow due to needing a re-encode, but
1072 the resulting video may have fewer artifacts
1073 around the cuts
2dd5a2e3 1074 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
1075 when cutting/splitting (default)
1076 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS]
1077 The (case sensitive) name of plugin
1078 postprocessors to be enabled, and
1079 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
1080 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
1081 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
1082 The "when" argument determines when the
1083 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
1084 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
1085 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
119e40ef 1086 "video" (after --format; before
1087 --print/--output), "before_dl" (before each
1088 video download), "post_process" (after each
1089 video download; default), "after_move"
1090 (after moving video file to it's final
1091 locations), "after_video" (after downloading
1092 and processing all formats of a video), or
1093 "playlist" (at end of playlist). This option
1094 can be used multiple times to add different
1095 postprocessors
7a340e0d
NA
1096
1097## SponsorBlock Options:
1098Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1099 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
8a51f564 1100 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1101
2dd5a2e3 1102 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1103 for, separated by commas. Available
1104 categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
1105 selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
71df9b7f 1106 music_offtopic, poi_highlight, chapter, all
1107 and default (=all). You can prefix the
1108 category with a "-" to exclude it. See [1]
1109 for description of the categories. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 1110 --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1111 [1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1112 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1113 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1114 category is present in both mark and remove,
1115 remove takes precedence. The syntax and
1116 available categories are the same as for
1117 --sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
71df9b7f 1118 refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight,
63c547d7 1119 chapter are not available
7a340e0d 1120 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
2dd5a2e3 1121 An output template for the title of the
1122 SponsorBlock chapters created by
1123 --sponsorblock-mark. The only available
1124 fields are start_time, end_time, category,
1125 categories, name, category_names. Defaults
1126 to "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1127 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1128 --sponsorblock-remove
1129 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1130 https://sponsor.ajay.app
a9e7f546 1131
78895bd3 1132## Extractor Options:
2dd5a2e3 1133 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors
1134 (default is 3), or "infinite"
1135 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1136 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1137 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1138 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1139 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1140 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1141 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1142 formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
1143 (default)
2fa669f7 1144 --extractor-args IE_KEY:ARGS Pass ARGS arguments to the IE_KEY extractor.
1145 See "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You
1146 can use this option multiple times to give
2dd5a2e3 1147 arguments for different extractors
17cb02d0 1148
b7770046
U
1149# CONFIGURATION
1150
7a5c1cfe 1151You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
e2e43aea 1152
878eac3e 11531. **Main Configuration**:
1154 * The file given by `--config-location`
11551. **Portable Configuration**: (Recommended for portable installations)
1156 * If using a binary, `yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the binary
1157 * If running from source-code, `yt-dlp.conf` in the parent directory of `yt_dlp`
11581. **Home Configuration**:
1159 * `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by `-P`
1160 * If `-P` is not given, the current directory is searched
e2e43aea 11611. **User Configuration**:
773c272d 1162 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp.conf`
878eac3e 1163 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
8e40b9d1 1164 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
773c272d 1165 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp.conf`
878eac3e 1166 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1167 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
e2e43aea 1168 * `~/yt-dlp.conf`
1169 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
8e40b9d1
M
1170 * `~/.yt-dlp/config`
1171 * `~/.yt-dlp/config.txt`
3d3bb168 1172
878eac3e 1173 See also: [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
11741. **System Configuration**:
1175 * `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
8e40b9d1
M
1176 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config`
1177 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config.txt`
b7770046 1178
62b58c09 1179E.g. with the following configuration file yt-dlp will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under `YouTube` directory in your home directory:
b7770046
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1180```
1181# Lines starting with # are comments
1182
1183# Always extract audio
1184-x
1185
1186# Do not copy the mtime
1187--no-mtime
1188
1189# Use this proxy
1190--proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1191
298f597b 1192# Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1193-o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
b7770046
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1194```
1195
8e174ba7 1196**Note**: Options in configuration file are just the same options aka switches used in regular command line calls; thus there **must be no whitespace** after `-` or `--`, e.g. `-o` or `--proxy` but not `- o` or `-- proxy`. They must also be quoted when necessary as-if it were a UNIX shell.
b7770046 1197
a4211baf 1198You can use `--ignore-config` if you want to disable all configuration files for a particular yt-dlp run. If `--ignore-config` is found inside any configuration file, no further configuration will be loaded. For example, having the option in the portable configuration file prevents loading of home, user, and system configurations. Additionally, (for backward compatibility) if `--ignore-config` is found inside the system configuration file, the user configuration is not loaded.
b7770046 1199
304ad45a 1200### Configuration file encoding
a904a7f8 1201
304ad45a 1202The configuration files are decoded according to the UTF BOM if present, and in the encoding from system locale otherwise.
a904a7f8 1203
88f60feb 1204If you want your file to be decoded differently, add `# coding: ENCODING` to the beginning of the file (e.g. `# coding: shift-jis`). There must be no characters before that, even spaces or BOM.
a904a7f8 1205
db3ad8a6 1206### Authentication with netrc
b7770046 1207
304ad45a 1208You may also want to configure automatic credentials storage for extractors that support authentication (by providing login and password with `--username` and `--password`) in order not to pass credentials as command line arguments on every yt-dlp execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in the shell command history. You can achieve this using a [`.netrc` file](https://stackoverflow.com/tags/.netrc/info) on a per-extractor basis. For that you will need to create a `.netrc` file in `--netrc-location` and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:
b7770046 1209```
878eac3e 1210touch ${HOME}/.netrc
1211chmod a-rwx,u+rw ${HOME}/.netrc
b7770046
U
1212```
1213After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1214```
0001fcb5 1215machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
b7770046 1216```
62b58c09 1217E.g.
b7770046
U
1218```
1219machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1220machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1221```
7a5c1cfe 1222To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
b7770046 1223
878eac3e 1224The default location of the .netrc file is `~` (see below).
1225
d7cd97e8 1226As an alternative to using the `.netrc` file, which has the disadvantage of keeping your passwords in a plain text file, you can configure a custom shell command to provide the credentials for an extractor. This is done by providing the `--netrc-cmd` parameter, it shall output the credentials in the netrc format and return `0` on success, other values will be treated as an error. `{}` in the command will be replaced by the name of the extractor to make it possible to select the credentials for the right extractor.
db3ad8a6
ND
1227
1228E.g. To use an encrypted `.netrc` file stored as `.authinfo.gpg`
1229```
1230yt-dlp --netrc-cmd 'gpg --decrypt ~/.authinfo.gpg' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc
1231```
1232
1233
878eac3e 1234### Notes about environment variables
1235* Environment variables are normally specified as `${VARIABLE}`/`$VARIABLE` on UNIX and `%VARIABLE%` on Windows; but is always shown as `${VARIABLE}` in this documentation
1236* yt-dlp also allow using UNIX-style variables on Windows for path-like options; e.g. `--output`, `--config-location`
1237* If unset, `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}` defaults to `~/.config` and `${XDG_CACHE_HOME}` to `~/.cache`
1238* On Windows, `~` points to `${HOME}` if present; or, `${USERPROFILE}` or `${HOMEDRIVE}${HOMEPATH}` otherwise
1239* On Windows, `${USERPROFILE}` generally points to `C:\Users\<user name>` and `${APPDATA}` to `${USERPROFILE}\AppData\Roaming`
b7770046
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1240
1241# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
1242
0202b52a 1243The `-o` option is used to indicate a template for the output file names while `-P` option is used to specify the path each type of file should be saved to.
b7770046 1244
ec2e44fc 1245<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1246**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
ec2e44fc 1247<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1248
e58c22a0 1249The 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 1250
62b58c09 1251It may however also contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences may be formatted according to [Python string formatting operations](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting), e.g. `%(NAME)s` or `%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations.
a439a3a4 1252
1253The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
3d3bb168 1254
07a1250e 12551. **Object traversal**: The dictionaries and lists available in metadata can be traversed by using a dot `.` separator; e.g. `%(tags.0)s`, `%(subtitles.en.-1.ext)s`. You can do Python slicing with colon `:`; E.g. `%(id.3:7:-1)s`, `%(formats.:.format_id)s`. Curly braces `{}` can be used to build dictionaries with only specific keys; e.g. `%(formats.:.{format_id,height})#j`. An empty field name `%()s` refers to the entire infodict; e.g. `%(.{id,title})s`. Note that all the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use `-j` to see such fields
ec2e44fc 1256
62b58c09 12571. **Addition**: Addition and subtraction of numeric fields can be done using `+` and `-` respectively. E.g. `%(playlist_index+10)03d`, `%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
ec2e44fc 1258
62b58c09 12591. **Date/time Formatting**: Date/time fields can be formatted according to [strftime formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-format-codes) by specifying it separated from the field name using a `>`. E.g. `%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`, `%(upload_date>%Y-%m-%d)s`, `%(epoch-3600>%H-%M-%S)s`
ec2e44fc 1260
62b58c09 12611. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a `,`. E.g. `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
ec2e44fc 1262
ec9311c4 12631. **Replacement**: A replacement value can be specified using a `&` separator according to the [`str.format` mini-language](https://docs.python.org/3/library/string.html#format-specification-mini-language). If the field is *not* empty, this replacement value will be used instead of the actual field content. This is done after alternate fields are considered; thus the replacement is used if *any* of the alternative fields is *not* empty. E.g. `%(chapters&has chapters|no chapters)s`, `%(title&TITLE={:>20}|NO TITLE)s`
e978789f 1264
17ffed18 12651. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a `|` separator. This overrides `--output-na-placeholder`. E.g. `%(uploader|Unknown)s`
ec2e44fc 1266
9b9dad11 12671. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types `diouxXeEfFgGcrs`, yt-dlp additionally supports converting to `B` = **B**ytes, `j` = **j**son (flag `#` for pretty-printing, `+` for Unicode), `h` = HTML escaping, `l` = a comma separated **l**ist (flag `#` for `\n` newline-separated), `q` = a string **q**uoted for the terminal (flag `#` to split a list into different arguments), `D` = add **D**ecimal suffixes (e.g. 10M) (flag `#` to use 1024 as factor), and `S` = **S**anitize as filename (flag `#` for restricted)
ec2e44fc 1268
d5d1df8a 12691. **Unicode normalization**: The format type `U` can be used for NFC [Unicode normalization](https://docs.python.org/3/library/unicodedata.html#unicodedata.normalize). The alternate form flag (`#`) changes the normalization to NFD and the conversion flag `+` can be used for NFKC/NFKD compatibility equivalence normalization. E.g. `%(title)+.100U` is NFKC
a439a3a4 1270
1271To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1272```
e978789f 1273%(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
a439a3a4 1274```
de6000d9 1275
62b58c09 1276Additionally, you can set different output templates for the various metadata files separately from the general output template by specifying the type of file followed by the template separated by a colon `:`. The different file types supported are `subtitle`, `thumbnail`, `description`, `annotation` (deprecated), `infojson`, `link`, `pl_thumbnail`, `pl_description`, `pl_infojson`, `chapter`, `pl_video`. E.g. `-o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "thumbnail:%(title)s\%(title)s.%(ext)s"` will put the thumbnails in a folder with the same name as the video. If any of the templates is empty, that type of file will not be written. E.g. `--write-thumbnail -o "thumbnail:"` will write thumbnails only for playlists and not for video.
e29663c6 1277
4815bbfc 1278<a id="outtmpl-postprocess-note"/>
7aaf4cd2 1279
8e174ba7 1280**Note**: Due to post-processing (i.e. merging etc.), the actual output filename might differ. Use `--print after_move:filepath` to get the name after all post-processing is complete.
7aaf4cd2 1281
e29663c6 1282The available fields are:
b7770046
U
1283
1284 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1285 - `title` (string): Video title
455a15e2 1286 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
b7770046
U
1287 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1288 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
597c1866 1289 - `description` (string): The description of the video
b7770046
U
1290 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1291 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1292 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1293 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
b7770046 1294 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
ae6a1b95 1295 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
e6f21b3d 1296 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
ae6a1b95 1297 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
f0d785d3 1298 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
ae6a1b95 1299 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
b7770046
U
1300 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1301 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1302 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
6c73052c 1303 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
8213ce28 1304 - `channel_is_verified` (boolean): Whether the channel is verified on the platform
b7770046
U
1305 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1306 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
53c18592 1307 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
b7770046 1308 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
867c66ff 1309 - `concurrent_view_count` (numeric): How many users are currently watching the video on the platform.
b7770046
U
1310 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1311 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1312 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1313 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
277d6ff5 1314 - `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 1315 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
e325a21a 1316 - `live_status` (string): One of "not_live", "is_live", "is_upcoming", "was_live", "post_live" (was live, but VOD is not yet processed)
b7770046 1317 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
f76ede8e 1318 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
6cfda058 1319 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
940a67a3 1320 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
b7770046
U
1321 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1322 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
b7770046
U
1323 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1324 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
455a15e2 1325 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
b532a348 1326 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`, padded with leading zeros to 5 digits
9c906919 1327 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
e6f21b3d 1328 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
455a15e2 1329 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1330 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1331 - `playlist` (string): `playlist_id` or `playlist_title`
f0d785d3 1332 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
e6f21b3d 1333 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1334 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
b7770046
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1335 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1336 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
bd99f6e6 1337 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
0bb322b9 1338 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1339 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
bd99f6e6 1340 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)
d2c8aadf 1341
1342All the fields in [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats) can also be used
b7770046
U
1343
1344Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1345
1346 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1347 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1348 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1349
1350Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1351
1352 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1353 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1354 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1355 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1356 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1357 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1358 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1359
1360Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1361
1362 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1363 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1364 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1365 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1366 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1367 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1368 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1369 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1370 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1371 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1372
5ec1b6b7 1373Available only when using `--download-sections` and for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
72755351 1374
1375 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1376 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1377 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1378 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1379
53c18592 1380Available only when used in `--print`:
1381
1382 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
7aaf4cd2 1383 - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the [actual filename may differ](#outtmpl-postprocess-note)
ed5835b4 1384 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by `--list-formats`
1385 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by `--list-thumbnails`
1386 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1387 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1388
ad54c913 1389 Available only after the video is downloaded (`post_process`/`after_move`):
7a340e0d 1390
ad54c913 1391 - `filepath`: Actual path of downloaded video file
1392
7a340e0d
NA
1393Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1394
1395 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1396 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1338ae3b 1397 - `categories` (list): The [SponsorBlock categories](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Category) the chapter belongs to
7a340e0d
NA
1398 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1399 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1400 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
1338ae3b 1401 - `type` (string): The [SponsorBlock action type](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Action_Type) of the chapter
53c18592 1402
62b58c09 1403Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. E.g. for `-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an mp4 video with title `yt-dlp test video` and id `BaW_jenozKc`, this will result in a `yt-dlp test video-BaW_jenozKc.mp4` file created in the current directory.
49a57e70 1404
8e174ba7 1405**Note**: Some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor. Such sequences will be replaced with placeholder value provided with `--output-na-placeholder` (`NA` by default).
b7770046 1406
0930b11f 1407**Tip**: Look at the `-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
b7770046 1408
62b58c09 1409For numeric sequences you can use [numeric related formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting); e.g. `%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to 5 characters, like in `00042`.
b7770046 1410
940a67a3 1411Output templates can also contain arbitrary hierarchical path, e.g. `-o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s"` which will result in downloading each video in a directory corresponding to this path template. Any missing directory will be automatically created for you.
b7770046
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1412
1413To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
1414
91ebc640 1415The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
b7770046 1416
f304da8a 1417In some cases, you don't want special characters such as 中, spaces, or &, such as when transferring the downloaded filename to a Windows system or the filename through an 8bit-unsafe channel. In these cases, add the `--restrict-filenames` flag to get a shorter title.
b7770046 1418
b7770046
U
1419#### Output template examples
1420
b7770046 1421```bash
d2c8aadf 1422$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1423test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1424
d2c8aadf 1425$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1426youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
b7770046 1427
d2c8aadf 1428$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
9222c381 1429youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
b7770046
U
1430
1431# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
940a67a3 1432$ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
b7770046 1433
b050d210 1434# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
940a67a3 1435$ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
e29663c6 1436
e978789f 1437# Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
ad54c913 1438$ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist_index&{} - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
e978789f 1439
b7770046 1440# Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
940a67a3 1441$ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
b7770046
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1442
1443# Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
940a67a3 1444$ yt-dlp -u user -p password -P "~/MyVideos" -o "%(playlist)s/%(chapter_number)s - %(chapter)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.udemy.com/java-tutorial"
b7770046
U
1445
1446# Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
940a67a3 1447$ 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 1448
6a34813a 1449# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1450# and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1451$ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1452
1453# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1454$ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "subtitle:%(uploader)s/subs/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --write-subs
1455
b7770046 1456# Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
7a5c1cfe 1457$ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
b7770046
U
1458```
1459
1460# FORMAT SELECTION
1461
7a5c1cfe
P
1462By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1463This 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 1464
c111cefa 1465**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.
1466
eff63539 1467The 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 1468
ec2e44fc 1469<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1470**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
ec2e44fc 1471<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1472
62b58c09 1473The simplest case is requesting a specific format; e.g. with `-f 22` you can download the format with format code equal to 22. You can get the list of available format codes for particular video using `--list-formats` or `-F`. Note that these format codes are extractor specific.
b7770046
U
1474
1475You 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.
1476
fa9f30b8 1477You can use `-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1478
b7770046
U
1479You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1480
59a7a13e 1481 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1482 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
30389593 1483 - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio or both (ie; `vcodec!=none or acodec!=none`)
59a7a13e 1484 - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1485 - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
1486 - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
1487 - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
ae6a1b95 1488 - `ba*`, `bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that **contains audio**. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `best*[acodec!=none]` ([Do not use!](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/979#issuecomment-919629354))
59a7a13e 1489 - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
909d24dd 1490 - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1491 - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
909d24dd 1492 - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1493 - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
909d24dd 1494 - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
b7770046 1495
d4ada357 1496For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use `-f worstvideo`. It is however recommended not to use `worst` and related options. When your format selector is `worst`, the format which is worst in all respects is selected. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use `-S +size` or more rigorously, `-S +size,+br,+res,+fps` instead of `-f worst`. See [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats) for more details.
eff63539 1497
1498You 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 1499
304ad45a 1500If you want to download multiple videos, and they don't have the same formats available, you can specify the order of preference using slashes. Note that formats on the left hand side are preferred; e.g. `-f 22/17/18` will download format 22 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 17 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 18 if it's available, otherwise it will complain that no suitable formats are available for download.
b7770046
U
1501
1502If 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`.
1503
62b58c09 1504You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using `-f <format1>+<format2>+...` (requires ffmpeg installed); e.g. `-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg.
d806c9fd 1505
1506**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
1507
304ad45a 1508Unless `--video-multistreams` is used, all formats with a video stream except the first one are ignored. Similarly, unless `--audio-multistreams` is used, all formats with an audio stream except the first one are ignored. E.g. `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --video-multistreams --audio-multistreams` will download and merge all 3 given formats. The resulting file will have 2 video streams and 2 audio streams. But `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --no-video-multistreams` will download and merge only `bestvideo` and `bestaudio`. `best` is ignored since another format containing a video stream (`bestvideo`) has already been selected. The order of the formats is therefore important. `-f best+bestaudio --no-audio-multistreams` will download only `best` while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams` will ignore `best` and download only `bestaudio`.
eb8a4433 1509
1510## Filtering Formats
1511
b532a348 1512You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"` since filters without a selector are interpreted as `best`).
b7770046
U
1513
1514The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
1515
1516 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
d2c8aadf 1517 - `filesize_approx`: An estimate for the number of bytes
b7770046
U
1518 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1519 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
105bfd90 1520 - `aspect_ratio`: Aspect ratio of the video, if known
b7770046
U
1521 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1522 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1523 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1524 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1525 - `fps`: Frame rate
d2c8aadf 1526 - `audio_channels`: The number of audio channels
1527 - `stretched_ratio`: `width:height` of the video's pixels, if not square
b7770046 1528
1ce9a3cb 1529Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains), `~=` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
b7770046 1530
d2c8aadf 1531 - `url`: Video URL
b7770046
U
1532 - `ext`: File extension
1533 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1534 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1535 - `container`: Name of the container format
1536 - `protocol`: The protocol that will be used for the actual download, lower-case (`http`, `https`, `rtsp`, `rtmp`, `rtmpe`, `mms`, `f4m`, `ism`, `http_dash_segments`, `m3u8`, or `m3u8_native`)
29f7c58a 1537 - `language`: Language code
d2c8aadf 1538 - `dynamic_range`: The dynamic range of the video
1539 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
1540 - `format`: A human-readable description of the format
1541 - `format_note`: Additional info about the format
1542 - `resolution`: Textual description of width and height
b7770046 1543
1ce9a3cb 1544Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation `!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g. `!*=` (does not contain). The comparand of a string comparison needs to be quoted with either double or single quotes if it contains spaces or special characters other than `._-`.
b7770046 1545
8e174ba7 1546**Note**: None of the aforementioned meta fields are guaranteed to be present since this solely depends on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, i.e. the metadata offered by the website. Any other field made available by the extractor can also be used for filtering.
b7770046 1547
b532a348 1548Formats for which the value is not known are excluded unless you put a question mark (`?`) after the operator. You can combine format filters, so `-f "bv[height<=?720][tbr>500]"` selects up to 720p videos (or videos where the height is not known) with a bitrate of at least 500 KBit/s. You can also use the filters with `all` to download all formats that satisfy the filter, e.g. `-f "all[vcodec=none]"` selects all audio-only formats.
b7770046 1549
62b58c09 1550Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses; e.g. `-f "(mp4,webm)[height<480]"` will download the best pre-merged mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480.
b7770046 1551
eb8a4433 1552## Sorting Formats
1553
2e7781a9 1554You can change the criteria for being considered the `best` by using `-S` (`--format-sort`). The general format for this is `--format-sort field1,field2...`.
1555
1556The available fields are:
eb8a4433 1557
304ad45a 1558 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that have a video stream
1559 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that have an audio stream
ed8d87f9 1560 - `ie_pref`: The format preference
1561 - `lang`: The language preference
1562 - `quality`: The quality of the format
1563 - `source`: The preference of the source
d80d98e7 1564 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > `mms`/`rtsp` > `f4f`/`f4m`)
1565 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other)
a5387729 1566 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`flac`/`alac` > `wav`/`aiff` > `opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `ac4` > `eac3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other)
eb8a4433 1567 - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
29ca4082 1568 - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `mov` > `webm` > `flv` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is preferred.
f2e9fa3e 1569 - `aext`: Audio Extension (`m4a` > `aac` > `mp3` > `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > `mp3` > `m4a` > `aac`
63be1aab 1570 - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
0930b11f 1571 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
62b5c94c 1572 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize
63be1aab 1573 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
eb8a4433 1574 - `height`: Height of video
1575 - `width`: Width of video
63be1aab 1576 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1577 - `fps`: Framerate of video
49a57e70 1578 - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `HLG` > `SDR`)
b8ed0f15 1579 - `channels`: The number of audio channels
63be1aab 1580 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1581 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1582 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
62b5c94c 1583 - `br`: Average bitrate in KBit/s, `tbr`/`vbr`/`abr`
63be1aab 1584 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
d806c9fd 1585
1586**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 1587
62b58c09 1588All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in descending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+`. E.g. `+res` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a preferred value for the fields, separated by a `:`. E.g. `res:720` prefers larger videos, but no larger than 720p and the smallest video if there are no videos less than 720p. For `codec` and `ext`, you can provide two preferred values, the first for video and the second for audio. E.g. `+codec:avc:m4a` (equivalent to `+vcodec:avc,+acodec:m4a`) sets the video codec preference to `h264` > `h265` > `vp9` > `vp9.2` > `av01` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` and audio codec preference to `mp4a` > `aac` > `vorbis` > `opus` > `mp3` > `ac3` > `dts`. You can also make the sorting prefer the nearest values to the provided by using `~` as the delimiter. E.g. `filesize~1G` prefers the format with filesize closest to 1 GiB.
9ee4f0bb 1589
7e798d72 1590The fields `hasvid` and `ie_pref` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using `--format-sort-force`. Apart from these, the default order used is: `lang,quality,res,fps,hdr:12,vcodec:vp9.2,channels,acodec,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id`. The extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
eb8a4433 1591
7e798d72 1592Note that the default has `vcodec:vp9.2`; i.e. `av1` is not preferred. Similarly, the default for hdr is `hdr:12`; i.e. dolby vision is not preferred. These choices are made since DV and AV1 formats are not yet fully compatible with most devices. This may be changed in the future as more devices become capable of smoothly playing back these formats.
eb8a4433 1593
e58c22a0 1594If 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 1595
1596**Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1597
eb8a4433 1598## Format Selection examples
b7770046 1599
b7770046 1600```bash
e58c22a0 1601# Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
909d24dd 1602# or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
940a67a3 1603$ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
909d24dd 1604
1605# Download best format that contains video,
1606# and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
940a67a3 1607$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
2af884ff 1608
1609# Same as above
7a5c1cfe 1610$ yt-dlp
909d24dd 1611
6fd35a11 1612# Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1613# For this case, an output template should be used since
1614# by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
940a67a3 1615$ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
909d24dd 1616
f8d4ad9a 1617# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1618# and all audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1619$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
f8d4ad9a 1620
1621# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1622# and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1623$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
909d24dd 1624
6fd35a11 1625
1626# The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
f8d4ad9a 1627# and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
6fd35a11 1628
1629# Download the worst video available (old method)
940a67a3 1630$ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
eb8a4433 1631
1632# Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
940a67a3 1633$ yt-dlp -S "+res"
eb8a4433 1634
1635# Download the smallest video available
940a67a3 1636$ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
eb8a4433 1637
1638
909d24dd 1639
eb8a4433 1640# Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
940a67a3 1641$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
eb8a4433 1642
1643# Download the best video with the best extension
29ca4082 1644# (For video, mp4 > mov > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
940a67a3 1645$ yt-dlp -S "ext"
eb8a4433 1646
1647
909d24dd 1648
eb8a4433 1649# Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1650# or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1651$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
b7770046 1652
eb8a4433 1653# Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1654# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1655$ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
b7770046 1656
eb8a4433 1657# Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1658# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1659# Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1660# So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
940a67a3 1661$ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
b7770046 1662
b7770046 1663
909d24dd 1664
eb8a4433 1665# Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1666# or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1667$ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
eb8a4433 1668
1669# Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1670# or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1671$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
eb8a4433 1672
1673# Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
940a67a3 1674$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
eb8a4433 1675
1676
909d24dd 1677
eb8a4433 1678# Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1679# or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
940a67a3 1680$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1681
1682# Download best video available via the best protocol
1683# (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
940a67a3 1684$ yt-dlp -S "proto"
eb8a4433 1685
1686
909d24dd 1687
1ce9a3cb
LF
1688# Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1689# or the best video if there is no such video
1690$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1691
1692# Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1693# or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1694$ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1695
1696# Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1697# or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1698$ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1699
1700
1701
1702# More complex examples
1703
e58c22a0 1704# Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1705# or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
940a67a3 1706$ 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 1707
1708# Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
f8d4ad9a 1709# or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1710# preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
940a67a3 1711$ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
eb8a4433 1712
1713
909d24dd 1714
eb8a4433 1715# Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1716# or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1717# preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
940a67a3 1718$ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
b7770046 1719```
eb8a4433 1720
73cd218f 1721# MODIFYING METADATA
1722
a4211baf 1723The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
e9f4ccd1 1724
418964fa 1725`--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 1726
46d09f87 1727The general syntax of `--parse-metadata FROM:TO` is to give the name of a field or an [output template](#output-template) to extract data from, and the format to interpret it as, separated by a colon `:`. Either a [python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax) with named capture groups, a single field name, or a similar syntax to the [output template](#output-template) (only `%(field)s` formatting is supported) can be used for `TO`. The option can be used multiple times to parse and modify various fields.
73cd218f 1728
46d09f87 1729Note that these options preserve their relative order, allowing replacements to be made in parsed fields and viceversa. Also, any field thus created can be used in the [output template](#output-template) and will also affect the media file's metadata added when using `--embed-metadata`.
73cd218f 1730
9c2b75b5 1731This option also has a few special uses:
3d3bb168 1732
c8bc203f 1733* You can download an additional URL based on the metadata of the currently downloaded video. To do this, set the field `additional_urls` to the URL that you want to download. E.g. `--parse-metadata "description:(?P<additional_urls>https?://www\.vimeo\.com/\d+)"` will download the first vimeo video found in the description
3d3bb168 1734
62b58c09 1735* You can use this to change the metadata that is embedded in the media file. To do this, set the value of the corresponding field with a `meta_` prefix. For example, any value you set to `meta_description` field will be added to the `description` field in the file - you can use this to set a different "description" and "synopsis". To modify the metadata of individual streams, use the `meta<n>_` prefix (e.g. `meta1_language`). Any value set to the `meta_` field will overwrite all default values.
c31be5b0 1736
08d30158 1737**Note**: Metadata modification happens before format selection, post-extraction and other post-processing operations. Some fields may be added or changed during these steps, overriding your changes.
1738
c31be5b0 1739For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1740
08d30158 1741Metadata fields | From
1742:--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1743`title` | `track` or `title`
1744`date` | `upload_date`
1745`description`, `synopsis` | `description`
1746`purl`, `comment` | `webpage_url`
1747`track` | `track_number`
1748`artist` | `artist`, `creator`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
1749`genre` | `genre`
1750`album` | `album`
1751`album_artist` | `album_artist`
1752`disc` | `disc_number`
1753`show` | `series`
1754`season_number` | `season_number`
1755`episode_id` | `episode` or `episode_id`
1756`episode_sort` | `episode_number`
1757`language` of each stream | the format's `language`
1758
c31be5b0 1759**Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1760
73cd218f 1761
1762## Modifying metadata examples
1763
73cd218f 1764```bash
1765# Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
940a67a3 1766$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
73cd218f 1767
1768# Regex example
940a67a3 1769$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
73cd218f 1770
1771# Set title as "Series name S01E05"
940a67a3 1772$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
73cd218f 1773
a44ca5a4 1774# Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
2fa669f7 1775$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --embed-metadata
a44ca5a4 1776
1777# Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
1778# handling multiple lines correctly
2fa669f7 1779$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --embed-metadata
73cd218f 1780
8aa0e7cd 1781# Do not set any "synopsis" in the video metadata
1782$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<meta_synopsis>)"
1783
0930b11f 1784# Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
7f9c6a63 1785$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "video::(?P<formats>)" --write-info-json
0930b11f 1786
e9f4ccd1 1787# Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
940a67a3 1788$ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
e9f4ccd1 1789
73cd218f 1790```
1791
5d3a0e79 1792# EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1793
62b58c09 1794Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using `--extractor-args KEY:ARGS`. `ARGS` is a `;` (semicolon) separated string of `ARG=VAL1,VAL2`. E.g. `--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android_embedded,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
5d3a0e79 1795
a5387729 1796Note: In CLI, `ARG` can use `-` instead of `_`; e.g. `youtube:player-client"` becomes `youtube:player_client"`
1797
5d3a0e79 1798The following extractors use this feature:
96565c7e 1799
1800#### youtube
8e174ba7 1801* `lang`: Prefer translated metadata (`title`, `description` etc) of this language code (case-sensitive). By default, the video primary language metadata is preferred, with a fallback to `en` translated. See [youtube.py](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/c26f9b991a0681fd3ea548d535919cec1fbbd430/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L381-L390) for list of supported content language codes
8aa0e7cd 1802* `skip`: One or more of `hls`, `dash` or `translated_subs` to skip extraction of the m3u8 manifests, dash manifests and [auto-translated subtitles](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/4090#issuecomment-1158102032) respectively
5ca095cb 1803* `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web`, `android` and `ios` with variants `_music`, `_embedded`, `_embedscreen`, `_creator` (e.g. `web_embedded`); and `mweb`, `mweb_embedscreen` and `tv_embedded` (agegate bypass) with no variants. By default, `ios,android,web` is used, but `tv_embedded` and `creator` variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly, the music variants are added for `music.youtube.com` urls. You can use `all` to use all the clients, and `default` for the default clients.
96565c7e 1804* `player_skip`: Skip some network requests that are generally needed for robust extraction. One or more of `configs` (skip client configs), `webpage` (skip initial webpage), `js` (skip js player). While these options can help reduce the number of requests needed or avoid some rate-limiting, they could cause some issues. See [#860](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/860) for more details
ba06d77a 1805* `player_params`: YouTube player parameters to use for player requests. Will overwrite any default ones set by yt-dlp.
96565c7e 1806* `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
a44ca5a4 1807* `max_comments`: Limit the amount of comments to gather. Comma-separated list of integers representing `max-comments,max-parents,max-replies,max-replies-per-thread`. Default is `all,all,all,all`
1808 * E.g. `all,all,1000,10` will get a maximum of 1000 replies total, with up to 10 replies per thread. `1000,all,100` will get a maximum of 1000 comments, with a maximum of 100 replies total
b532a348 1809* `formats`: Change the types of formats to return. `dashy` (convert HTTP to DASH), `duplicate` (identical content but different URLs or protocol; includes `dashy`), `incomplete` (cannot be downloaded completely - live dash and post-live m3u8)
1e4fca9a 1810* `innertube_host`: Innertube API host to use for all API requests; e.g. `studio.youtube.com`, `youtubei.googleapis.com`. Note that cookies exported from one subdomain will not work on others
2ae778b8 1811* `innertube_key`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
96565c7e 1812
1813#### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1814* `skip`: One or more of `webpage` (skip initial webpage download), `authcheck` (allow the download of playlists requiring authentication when no initial webpage is downloaded. This may cause unwanted behavior, see [#1122](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/1122) for more details)
5225df50 1815* `approximate_date`: Extract approximate `upload_date` and `timestamp` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
96565c7e 1816
3b021eac 1817#### generic
5cc0a8fd 1818* `fragment_query`: Passthrough any query in mpd/m3u8 manifest URLs to their fragments if no value is provided, or else apply the query string given as `fragment_query=VALUE`. Does not apply to ffmpeg
1819* `variant_query`: Passthrough the master m3u8 URL query to its variant playlist URLs if no value is provided, or else apply the query string given as `variant_query=VALUE`
c2e0fc40 1820* `hls_key`: An HLS AES-128 key URI *or* key (as hex), and optionally the IV (as hex), in the form of `(URI|KEY)[,IV]`; e.g. `generic:hls_key=ABCDEF1234567980,0xFEDCBA0987654321`. Passing any of these values will force usage of the native HLS downloader and override the corresponding values found in the m3u8 playlist
93e7c699 1821* `is_live`: Bypass live HLS detection and manually set `live_status` - a value of `false` will set `not_live`, any other value (or no value) will set `is_live`
3b021eac 1822
96565c7e 1823#### funimation
304ad45a 1824* `language`: Audio languages to extract, e.g. `funimation:language=english,japanese`
96565c7e 1825* `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`
1826
cb1553e9 1827#### crunchyrollbeta (Crunchyroll)
62b58c09 1828* `format`: Which stream type(s) to extract (default: `adaptive_hls`). Potentially useful values include `adaptive_hls`, `adaptive_dash`, `vo_adaptive_hls`, `vo_adaptive_dash`, `download_hls`, `download_dash`, `multitrack_adaptive_hls_v2`
dfea94f8 1829* `hardsub`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract, or `all` (default: `None` = no hardsubs), e.g. `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None`
706dfe44 1830
96565c7e 1831#### vikichannel
1832* `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
73d829c1 1833
7bdcb4a4
LNO
1834#### niconico
1835* `segment_duration`: Segment duration in milliseconds for HLS-DMC formats. Use it at your own risk since this feature **may result in your account termination.**
1836
aa4b0545 1837#### youtubewebarchive
1838* `check_all`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails`, `captures`
1839
d43de682
M
1840#### gamejolt
1841* `comment_sort`: `hot` (default), `you` (cookies needed), `top`, `new` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1842
26f2aa3d
AG
1843#### hotstar
1844* `res`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd`, `hd`, `fhd`
1845* `vcodec`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264`, `h265`, `dvh265`
1846* `dr`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr`, `hdr10`, `dv`
1847
698beb9a
M
1848#### niconicochannelplus
1849* `max_comments`: Maximum number of comments to extract - default is `120`
1850
046cab39 1851#### tiktok
c4cbd3be 1852* `api_hostname`: Hostname to use for mobile API requests, e.g. `api-h2.tiktokv.com`
62b58c09
L
1853* `app_version`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version`, e.g. `20.2.1`
1854* `manifest_app_version`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with, e.g. `221`
046cab39 1855
7eaf7f9a 1856#### rokfinchannel
62b58c09 1857* `tab`: Which tab to download - one of `new`, `top`, `videos`, `podcasts`, `streams`, `stacks`
7eaf7f9a 1858
b03fa783 1859#### twitter
a006ce2b 1860* `api`: Select one of `graphql` (default), `legacy` or `syndication` as the API for tweet extraction. Has no effect if logged in
b03fa783 1861
af1fd12f 1862#### stacommu, wrestleuniverse
ef8fb7f0 1863* `device_id`: UUID value assigned by the website and used to enforce device limits for paid livestream content. Can be found in browser local storage
1864
7f9c6a63 1865#### twitch
1866* `client_id`: Client ID value to be sent with GraphQL requests, e.g. `twitch:client_id=kimne78kx3ncx6brgo4mv6wki5h1ko`
01231feb 1867
81c8b9bd 1868#### nhkradirulive (NHK らじる★らじる LIVE)
1869* `area`: Which regional variation to extract. Valid areas are: `sapporo`, `sendai`, `tokyo`, `nagoya`, `osaka`, `hiroshima`, `matsuyama`, `fukuoka`. Defaults to `tokyo`
1870
8e174ba7 1871**Note**: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
5d3a0e79 1872
ec2e44fc 1873<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1874
3acf6d38 1875
f74980cb 1876# PLUGINS
b7770046 1877
8e40b9d1 1878Note that **all** plugins are imported even if not invoked, and that **there are no checks** performed on plugin code. **Use plugins at your own risk and only if you trust the code!**
3ae5e797 1879
8e40b9d1
M
1880Plugins can be of `<type>`s `extractor` or `postprocessor`.
1881- Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it.
1882- Extractor plugins take priority over builtin extractors.
1883- Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME`.
3ae5e797 1884
3ae5e797 1885
8e40b9d1 1886Plugins are loaded from the namespace packages `yt_dlp_plugins.extractor` and `yt_dlp_plugins.postprocessor`.
3ae5e797 1887
8e40b9d1
M
1888In other words, the file structure on the disk looks something like:
1889
1890 yt_dlp_plugins/
1891 extractor/
1892 myplugin.py
1893 postprocessor/
1894 myplugin.py
1895
1896yt-dlp looks for these `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folders in many locations (see below) and loads in plugins from **all** of them.
b7770046 1897
deae7c17 1898See the [wiki for some known plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugins)
1899
8e40b9d1
M
1900## Installing Plugins
1901
1902Plugins can be installed using various methods and locations.
1903
19041. **Configuration directories**:
1905 Plugin packages (containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder) can be dropped into the following standard [configuration locations](#configuration):
1906 * **User Plugins**
1907 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1908 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1909 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Windows)
773c272d 1910 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
8e40b9d1
M
1911 * `~/.yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1912 * `~/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1913 * **System Plugins**
1914 * `/etc/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1915 * `/etc/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
c8bc203f 19162. **Executable location**: Plugin packages can similarly be installed in a `yt-dlp-plugins` directory under the executable location (recommended for portable installations):
8e40b9d1
M
1917 * Binary: where `<root-dir>/yt-dlp.exe`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1918 * Source: where `<root-dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1919
19203. **pip and other locations in `PYTHONPATH`**
e756f45b 1921 * Plugin packages can be installed and managed using `pip`. See [yt-dlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) for an example.
8e174ba7 1922 * Note: plugin files between plugin packages installed with pip must have unique filenames.
8e40b9d1
M
1923 * Any path in `PYTHONPATH` is searched in for the `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder.
1924 * Note: This does not apply for Pyinstaller/py2exe builds.
1925
1926
8e174ba7 1927`.zip`, `.egg` and `.whl` archives containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder in their root are also supported as plugin packages.
1928* e.g. `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/mypluginpkg.zip` where `mypluginpkg.zip` contains `yt_dlp_plugins/<type>/myplugin.py`
8e40b9d1 1929
8e174ba7 1930Run yt-dlp with `--verbose` to check if the plugin has been loaded.
8e40b9d1
M
1931
1932## Developing Plugins
1933
8e174ba7 1934See the [yt-dlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) repo for a template plugin package and the [Plugin Development](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugin-Development) section of the wiki for a plugin development guide.
8e40b9d1 1935
8e174ba7 1936All public classes with a name ending in `IE`/`PP` are imported from each file for extractors and postprocessors repectively. This respects underscore prefix (e.g. `_MyBasePluginIE` is private) and `__all__`. Modules can similarly be excluded by prefixing the module name with an underscore (e.g. `_myplugin.py`).
e756f45b 1937
773c272d 1938To replace an existing extractor with a subclass of one, set the `plugin_name` class keyword argument (e.g. `class MyPluginIE(ABuiltInIE, plugin_name='myplugin')` will replace `ABuiltInIE` with `MyPluginIE`). Since the extractor replaces the parent, you should exclude the subclass extractor from being imported separately by making it private using one of the methods described above.
8e40b9d1 1939
8e174ba7 1940If you are a plugin author, add [yt-dlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/yt-dlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability.
b7770046 1941
8e40b9d1 1942See the [Developer Instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions) on how to write and test an extractor.
8c6f4daa 1943
1944# EMBEDDING YT-DLP
1945
1946yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1947
1948Your 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.
1949
1950From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1951
1952```python
59a7a13e 1953from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
8c6f4daa 1954
3d3bb168 1955URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1956with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1957 ydl.download(URLS)
8c6f4daa 1958```
1959
b532a348 1960Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of options available, have a look at [`yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py`](yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py#L183) or `help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)` in a Python shell. If you are already familiar with the CLI, you can use [`devscripts/cli_to_api.py`](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/devscripts/cli_to_api.py) to translate any CLI switches to `YoutubeDL` params.
8c6f4daa 1961
43cc91ad 1962**Tip**: If you are porting your code from youtube-dl to yt-dlp, one important point to look out for is that we do not guarantee the return value of `YoutubeDL.extract_info` to be json serializable, or even be a dictionary. It will be dictionary-like, but if you want to ensure it is a serializable dictionary, pass it through `YoutubeDL.sanitize_info` as shown in the [example below](#extracting-information)
3d3bb168 1963
1964## Embedding examples
1965
43cc91ad 1966#### Extracting information
8c6f4daa 1967
1968```python
1969import json
8c6f4daa 1970import yt_dlp
8c6f4daa 1971
3d3bb168 1972URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
1973
1974# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
1975ydl_opts = {}
1976with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1977 info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
1978
1979 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
1980 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1981```
43cc91ad 1982#### Download using an info-json
3d3bb168 1983
1984```python
1985import yt_dlp
1986
1987INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
1988
1989with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1990 error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
1991
1992print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
1993 else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
1994```
1995
43cc91ad 1996#### Extract audio
3d3bb168 1997
1998```python
1999import yt_dlp
2000
2001URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2002
2003ydl_opts = {
0a41f331 2004 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
3d3bb168 2005 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
2006 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
2007 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
2008 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
2009 }]
2010}
2011
2012with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2013 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
2014```
0a41f331 2015
2016#### Filter videos
2017
2018```python
2019import yt_dlp
2020
2021URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2022
2023def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
2024 """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
2025 duration = info.get('duration')
2026 if duration and duration < 60:
2027 return 'The video is too short'
2028
2029ydl_opts = {
2030 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
2031}
2032
2033with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2034 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
2035```
2036
43cc91ad 2037#### Adding logger and progress hook
3d3bb168 2038
2039```python
2040import yt_dlp
2041
2042URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
8c6f4daa 2043
2044class MyLogger:
2045 def debug(self, msg):
e75bb0d6 2046 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
8c6f4daa 2047 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
2048 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
2049 pass
2050 else:
2051 self.info(msg)
2052
2053 def info(self, msg):
2054 pass
2055
2056 def warning(self, msg):
2057 pass
2058
2059 def error(self, msg):
2060 print(msg)
2061
2062
3d3bb168 2063# ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
2064def my_hook(d):
2065 if d['status'] == 'finished':
2066 print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
2067
2068
2069ydl_opts = {
2070 'logger': MyLogger(),
2071 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
2072}
2073
2074with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2075 ydl.download(URLS)
2076```
2077
43cc91ad 2078#### Add a custom PostProcessor
3d3bb168 2079
2080```python
2081import yt_dlp
2082
2083URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2084
2085# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
59a7a13e 2086class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
8c6f4daa 2087 def run(self, info):
2088 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
2089 return [], info
2090
2091
3d3bb168 2092with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
8aa0e7cd 2093 # ℹ️ "when" can take any value in yt_dlp.utils.POSTPROCESS_WHEN
2094 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP(), when='pre_process')
3d3bb168 2095 ydl.download(URLS)
2096```
8c6f4daa 2097
2098
43cc91ad 2099#### Use a custom format selector
3d3bb168 2100
2101```python
2102import yt_dlp
2103
c8bc203f 2104URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
3d3bb168 2105
093a1710 2106def format_selector(ctx):
2107 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
3d3bb168 2108 NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
093a1710 2109
2110 # formats are already sorted worst to best
2111 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
2112
2113 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
2114 best_video = next(f for f in formats
2115 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
2116
2117 # find compatible audio extension
2118 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
2119 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
2120 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
2121 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
2122
3d3bb168 2123 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
093a1710 2124 yield {
093a1710 2125 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
2126 'ext': best_video['ext'],
2127 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
e75bb0d6 2128 # Must be + separated list of protocols
093a1710 2129 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
2130 }
2131
2132
8c6f4daa 2133ydl_opts = {
093a1710 2134 'format': format_selector,
8c6f4daa 2135}
2136
2137with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
3d3bb168 2138 ydl.download(URLS)
8c6f4daa 2139```
2140
ec2e44fc 2141<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
2142
e167860c 2143# DEPRECATED OPTIONS
2144
2145These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
2146
8130779d 2147#### Almost redundant options
2148While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
2149
2150 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
2151 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
0bfc53d0 2152 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
8130779d 2153 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
2154
6ccf351a 2155#### Redundant options
2156While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
f4536226 2157
53c18592 2158 --get-description --print description
2159 --get-duration --print duration_string
2160 --get-filename --print filename
2161 --get-format --print format
2162 --get-id --print id
2163 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
2164 -e, --get-title --print title
2165 -g, --get-url --print urls
8f18aca8 2166 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
2167 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
2168 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
2169 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
fe2ce85a 2170 --break-on-reject Use --break-match-filter
8b7539d2 2171 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
2172 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
7e88d7d7 2173 --playlist-start NUMBER -I NUMBER:
2174 --playlist-end NUMBER -I :NUMBER
2175 --playlist-reverse -I ::-1
2176 --no-playlist-reverse Default
8417f26b 2177 --no-colors --color no_color
6ccf351a 2178
2179
2180#### Not recommended
2181While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
2182
fe7866d0 2183 --force-generic-extractor --ies generic,default
1e43a6f7 2184 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
2185 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
d9aa2332 2186 --all-formats -f all
c32b0aab 2187 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
b7b04c78 2188 --print-json -j --no-simulate
62b58c09 2189 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting, e.g. %(autonumber)03d
a439a3a4 2190 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
19b824f6 2191 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
73cd218f 2192 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
52a8a1e1 2193 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
2194 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
53ed7066 2195 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
2196 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
5d3a0e79 2197 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
2198 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
2199 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
2200 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
c1664464 2201 --geo-bypass --xff "default"
2202 --no-geo-bypass --xff "never"
2203 --geo-bypass-country CODE --xff CODE
2204 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK --xff IP_BLOCK
6ccf351a 2205
2206
2207#### Developer options
2208These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
2209
34488702 2210 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
f95b9dee 2211 --load-pages Load pages dumped by --write-pages
6ccf351a 2212 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
88acdbc2 2213 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
2214 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
f4536226 2215
2216
2217#### Old aliases
2218These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
2219
2220 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
3856407a 2221 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
f4536226 2222 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
2223 --dump-headers --print-traffic
2224 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
2225 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
2226 --load-info --load-info-json
3856407a 2227 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
f4536226 2228 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
e167860c 2229 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
e167860c 2230 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
2231 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
f4536226 2232 --split-tracks --split-chapters
2233 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
e167860c 2234 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
f4536226 2235 --write-srt --write-subs
e167860c 2236 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
f4536226 2237
7a340e0d 2238#### Sponskrub Options
f304da8a 2239Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock` options
7a340e0d
NA
2240
2241 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
2242 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
2243 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
2244 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
2245 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
2246 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
2247 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
2248 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
2249
f4536226 2250#### No longer supported
2251These options may no longer work as intended
2252
2253 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
2254 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
2255 -C, --call-home Not implemented
2256 --no-call-home Default
2257 --include-ads No longer supported
2258 --no-include-ads Default
0bb1bc1b 2259 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
2260 --no-write-annotations Default
1e8fe57e 2261 --compat-options seperate-video-versions No longer needed
486fb179 2262
2263#### Removed
2264These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
2265
f4536226 2266 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
3d3bb168 2267 -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
f4536226 2268
8c6f4daa 2269# CONTRIBUTING
2270See [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 2271
17ffed18 2272# WIKI
2273See the [Wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki) for more information