]> jfr.im git - yt-dlp.git/blame - CONTRIBUTING.md
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8c6f4daa 1# CONTRIBUTING TO YT-DLP
2
3- [OPENING AN ISSUE](#opening-an-issue)
4 - [Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?](#is-the-description-of-the-issue-itself-sufficient)
5 - [Are you using the latest version?](#are-you-using-the-latest-version)
6 - [Is the issue already documented?](#is-the-issue-already-documented)
7 - [Why are existing options not enough?](#why-are-existing-options-not-enough)
8 - [Have you read and understood the changes, between youtube-dl and yt-dlp](#have-you-read-and-understood-the-changes-between-youtube-dl-and-yt-dlp)
9 - [Is there enough context in your bug report?](#is-there-enough-context-in-your-bug-report)
10 - [Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?](#does-the-issue-involve-one-problem-and-one-problem-only)
11 - [Is anyone going to need the feature?](#is-anyone-going-to-need-the-feature)
12 - [Is your question about yt-dlp?](#is-your-question-about-yt-dlp)
d80d98e7 13 - [Are you willing to share account details if needed?](#are-you-willing-to-share-account-details-if-needed)
08d30158 14 - [Is the website primarily used for piracy](#is-the-website-primarily-used-for-piracy)
8c6f4daa 15- [DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS](#developer-instructions)
16 - [Adding new feature or making overarching changes](#adding-new-feature-or-making-overarching-changes)
17 - [Adding support for a new site](#adding-support-for-a-new-site)
18 - [yt-dlp coding conventions](#yt-dlp-coding-conventions)
19 - [Mandatory and optional metafields](#mandatory-and-optional-metafields)
20 - [Provide fallbacks](#provide-fallbacks)
21 - [Regular expressions](#regular-expressions)
22 - [Long lines policy](#long-lines-policy)
fc5fa964 23 - [Quotes](#quotes)
8c6f4daa 24 - [Inline values](#inline-values)
25 - [Collapse fallbacks](#collapse-fallbacks)
26 - [Trailing parentheses](#trailing-parentheses)
27 - [Use convenience conversion and parsing functions](#use-convenience-conversion-and-parsing-functions)
08d30158 28 - [My pull request is labeled pending-fixes](#my-pull-request-is-labeled-pending-fixes)
8c6f4daa 29- [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](README.md#embedding-yt-dlp)
30
31
32
33# OPENING AN ISSUE
34
35Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: [yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues). Unless you were prompted to or there is another pertinent reason (e.g. GitHub fails to accept the bug report), please do not send bug reports via personal email. For discussions, join us in our [discord server](https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r).
36
fc5fa964 37**Please include the full output of yt-dlp when run with `-vU`**, i.e. **add** `-vU` flag to **your command line**, copy the **whole** output and post it in the issue body wrapped in \`\`\` for better formatting. It should look similar to this:
8c6f4daa 38```
fc5fa964 39$ yt-dlp -vU <your command line>
8c6f4daa 40[debug] Command-line config: ['-v', 'demo.com']
41[debug] Encodings: locale UTF-8, fs utf-8, out utf-8, pref UTF-8
42[debug] yt-dlp version 2021.09.25 (zip)
43[debug] Python version 3.8.10 (CPython 64bit) - Linux-5.4.0-74-generic-x86_64-with-glibc2.29
44[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg 4.2.4, ffprobe 4.2.4
86e8c894 45[debug] Proxy map: {}
8c6f4daa 46Current Build Hash 25cc412d1d3c0725a1f2f5b7e4682f6fb40e6d15f7024e96f7afd572e9919535
47yt-dlp is up to date (2021.09.25)
86e8c894
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48...
49```
bbd77068 50**Do not post screenshots of verbose logs; only plain text is acceptable.**
4c1a017e 51
8c6f4daa 52The output (including the first lines) contains important debugging information. Issues without the full output are often not reproducible and therefore will be closed as `incomplete`.
53
54The templates provided for the Issues, should be completed and **not removed**, this helps aide the resolution of the issue.
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55
56Please re-read your issue once again to avoid a couple of common mistakes (you can and should use this as a checklist):
57
58### Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?
59
8c6f4daa 60We often get issue reports that we cannot really decipher. While in most cases we eventually get the required information after asking back multiple times, this poses an unnecessary drain on our resources.
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61
62So please elaborate on what feature you are requesting, or what bug you want to be fixed. Make sure that it's obvious
63
64- What the problem is
65- How it could be fixed
66- How your proposed solution would look like
67
8c6f4daa 68If your report is shorter than two lines, it is almost certainly missing some of these, which makes it hard for us to respond to it. We're often too polite to close the issue outright, but the missing info makes misinterpretation likely. We often get frustrated by these issues, since the only possible way for us to move forward on them is to ask for clarification over and over.
e56190b3 69
fc5fa964 70For bug reports, this means that your report should contain the **complete** output of yt-dlp when called with the `-vU` flag. The error message you get for (most) bugs even says so, but you would not believe how many of our bug reports do not contain this information.
e56190b3 71
8c6f4daa 72If the error is `ERROR: Unable to extract ...` and you cannot reproduce it from multiple countries, add `--write-pages` and upload the `.dump` files you get [somewhere](https://gist.github.com).
f848215d 73
df235dbb 74**Site support requests must contain an example URL**. An example URL is a URL you might want to download, like `https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc`. There should be an obvious video present. Except under very special circumstances, the main page of a video service (e.g. `https://www.youtube.com/`) is *not* an example URL.
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75
76### Are you using the latest version?
77
8c6f4daa 78Before reporting any issue, type `yt-dlp -U`. This should report that you're up-to-date. This goes for feature requests as well.
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79
80### Is the issue already documented?
81
47ab66db 82Make sure that someone has not already opened the issue you're trying to open. Search at the top of the window or browse the [GitHub Issues](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/search?type=Issues) of this repository. If there is an issue, subscribe to it to be notified when there is any progress. Unless you have something useful to add to the conversation, please refrain from commenting.
8c6f4daa 83
84Additionally, it is also helpful to see if the issue has already been documented in the [youtube-dl issue tracker](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues). If similar issues have already been reported in youtube-dl (but not in our issue tracker), links to them can be included in your issue report here.
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85
86### Why are existing options not enough?
87
8c6f4daa 88Before requesting a new feature, please have a quick peek at [the list of supported options](README.md#usage-and-options). Many feature requests are for features that actually exist already! Please, absolutely do show off your work in the issue report and detail how the existing similar options do *not* solve your problem.
89
90### Have you read and understood the changes, between youtube-dl and yt-dlp
91
92There are many changes between youtube-dl and yt-dlp [(changes to default behavior)](README.md#differences-in-default-behavior), and some of the options available have a different behaviour in yt-dlp, or have been removed all together [(list of changes to options)](README.md#deprecated-options). Make sure you have read and understand the differences in the options and how this may impact your downloads before opening an issue.
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93
94### Is there enough context in your bug report?
95
96People want to solve problems, and often think they do us a favor by breaking down their larger problems (e.g. wanting to skip already downloaded files) to a specific request (e.g. requesting us to look whether the file exists before downloading the info page). However, what often happens is that they break down the problem into two steps: One simple, and one impossible (or extremely complicated one).
97
98We are then presented with a very complicated request when the original problem could be solved far easier, e.g. by recording the downloaded video IDs in a separate file. To avoid this, you must include the greater context where it is non-obvious. In particular, every feature request that does not consist of adding support for a new site should contain a use case scenario that explains in what situation the missing feature would be useful.
99
100### Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?
101
102Some of our users seem to think there is a limit of issues they can or should open. There is no limit of issues they can or should open. While it may seem appealing to be able to dump all your issues into one ticket, that means that someone who solves one of your issues cannot mark the issue as closed. Typically, reporting a bunch of issues leads to the ticket lingering since nobody wants to attack that behemoth, until someone mercifully splits the issue into multiple ones.
103
8c6f4daa 104In particular, every site support request issue should only pertain to services at one site (generally under a common domain, but always using the same backend technology). Do not request support for vimeo user videos, White house podcasts, and Google Plus pages in the same issue. Also, make sure that you don't post bug reports alongside feature requests. As a rule of thumb, a feature request does not include outputs of yt-dlp that are not immediately related to the feature at hand. Do not post reports of a network error alongside the request for a new video service.
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105
106### Is anyone going to need the feature?
107
fdd6e18b 108Only post features that you (or an incapacitated friend you can personally talk to) require. Do not post features because they seem like a good idea. If they are really useful, they will be requested by someone who requires them.
e56190b3 109
8c6f4daa 110### Is your question about yt-dlp?
111
59a7a13e 112Some bug reports are completely unrelated to yt-dlp and relate to a different, or even the reporter's own, application. Please make sure that you are actually using yt-dlp. If you are using a UI for yt-dlp, report the bug to the maintainer of the actual application providing the UI. In general, if you are unable to provide the verbose log, you should not be opening the issue here.
8c6f4daa 113
114If the issue is with `youtube-dl` (the upstream fork of yt-dlp) and not with yt-dlp, the issue should be raised in the youtube-dl project.
115
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116### Are you willing to share account details if needed?
117
455a15e2 118The maintainers and potential contributors of the project often do not have an account for the website you are asking support for. So any developer interested in solving your issue may ask you for account details. It is your personal discretion whether you are willing to share the account in order for the developer to try and solve your issue. However, if you are unwilling or unable to provide details, they obviously cannot work on the issue and it cannot be solved unless some developer who both has an account and is willing/able to contribute decides to solve it.
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119
120By sharing an account with anyone, you agree to bear all risks associated with it. The maintainers and yt-dlp can't be held responsible for any misuse of the credentials.
121
122While these steps won't necessarily ensure that no misuse of the account takes place, these are still some good practices to follow.
123
59a7a13e 124- Look for people with `Member` (maintainers of the project) or `Contributor` (people who have previously contributed code) tag on their messages.
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125- Change the password before sharing the account to something random (use [this](https://passwordsgenerator.net/) if you don't have a random password generator).
126- Change the password after receiving the account back.
127
08d30158 128### Is the website primarily used for piracy?
129
5b28cef7 130We follow [youtube-dl's policy](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#can-you-add-support-for-this-anime-video-site-or-site-which-shows-current-movies-for-free) to not support services that is primarily used for infringing copyright. Additionally, it has been decided to not to support porn sites that specialize in fakes. We also cannot support any service that serves only [DRM protected content](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management).
08d30158 131
8c6f4daa 132
e56190b3 133
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134
135# DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS
136
e897bd82 137Most users do not need to build yt-dlp and can [download the builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases), get them via [the other installation methods](README.md#installation) or directly run it using `python -m yt_dlp`.
e56190b3 138
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139`yt-dlp` uses [`hatch`](<https://hatch.pypa.io>) as a project management tool.
140You can easily install it using [`pipx`](<https://pipx.pypa.io>) via `pipx install hatch`, or else via `pip` or your package manager of choice. Make sure you are using at least version `1.10.0`, otherwise some functionality might not work as expected.
e56190b3 141
e897bd82 142If you plan on contributing to `yt-dlp`, best practice is to start by running the following command:
e56190b3 143
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144```shell
145$ hatch run setup
146```
147
148The above command will install a `pre-commit` hook so that required checks/fixes (linting, formatting) will run automatically before each commit. If any code needs to be linted or formatted, then the commit will be blocked and the necessary changes will be made; you should review all edits and re-commit the fixed version.
e56190b3 149
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150After this you can use `hatch shell` to enable a virtual environment that has `yt-dlp` and its development dependencies installed.
151
152In addition, the following script commands can be used to run simple tasks such as linting or testing (without having to run `hatch shell` first):
153* `hatch fmt`: Automatically fix linter violations and apply required code formatting changes
154 * See `hatch fmt --help` for more info
155* `hatch test`: Run extractor or core tests
156 * See `hatch test --help` for more info
e56190b3 157
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158See item 6 of [new extractor tutorial](#adding-support-for-a-new-site) for how to run extractor specific test cases.
159
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160While it is strongly recommended to use `hatch` for yt-dlp development, if you are unable to do so, alternatively you can manually create a virtual environment and use the following commands:
161
162```shell
163# To only install development dependencies:
164$ python -m devscripts.install_deps --include dev
165
166# Or, for an editable install plus dev dependencies:
167$ python -m pip install -e ".[default,dev]"
168
169# To setup the pre-commit hook:
170$ pre-commit install
171
172# To be used in place of `hatch test`:
173$ python -m devscripts.run_tests
174
175# To be used in place of `hatch fmt`:
176$ ruff check --fix .
177$ autopep8 --in-place .
178
179# To only check code instead of applying fixes:
180$ ruff check .
181$ autopep8 --diff .
182```
183
8c6f4daa 184If you want to create a build of yt-dlp yourself, you can follow the instructions [here](README.md#compile).
e56190b3 185
e56190b3 186
8c6f4daa 187## Adding new feature or making overarching changes
e56190b3 188
47ab66db 189Before you start writing code for implementing a new feature, open an issue explaining your feature request and at least one use case. This allows the maintainers to decide whether such a feature is desired for the project in the first place, and will provide an avenue to discuss some implementation details. If you open a pull request for a new feature without discussing with us first, do not be surprised when we ask for large changes to the code, or even reject it outright.
8c6f4daa 190
0930b11f 191The same applies for changes to the documentation, code style, or overarching changes to the architecture
8c6f4daa 192
193
194## Adding support for a new site
195
17ffed18 196If you want to add support for a new site, first of all **make sure** this site is **not dedicated to [copyright infringement](#is-the-website-primarily-used-for-piracy)**. yt-dlp does **not support** such sites thus pull requests adding support for them **will be rejected**.
da665ddc 197
2021b650 198After you have ensured this site is distributing its content legally, you can follow this quick list (assuming your service is called `yourextractor`):
e56190b3 199
8c6f4daa 2001. [Fork this repository](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/fork)
2011. Check out the source code with:
bff98341 202
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203 ```shell
204 $ git clone git@github.com:YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/yt-dlp.git
205 ```
bff98341 206
8c6f4daa 2071. Start a new git branch with
bff98341 208
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209 ```shell
210 $ cd yt-dlp
211 $ git checkout -b yourextractor
212 ```
bff98341 213
8c6f4daa 2141. Start with this simple template and save it to `yt_dlp/extractor/yourextractor.py`:
bff98341 215
e56190b3 216 ```python
e56190b3 217 from .common import InfoExtractor
8c6f4daa 218
219
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220 class YourExtractorIE(InfoExtractor):
221 _VALID_URL = r'https?://(?:www\.)?yourextractor\.com/watch/(?P<id>[0-9]+)'
8c6f4daa 222 _TESTS = [{
df235dbb 223 'url': 'https://yourextractor.com/watch/42',
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224 'md5': 'TODO: md5 sum of the first 10241 bytes of the video file (use --test)',
225 'info_dict': {
2d1d683a 226 # For videos, only the 'id' and 'ext' fields are required to RUN the test:
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227 'id': '42',
228 'ext': 'mp4',
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229 # Then if the test run fails, it will output the missing/incorrect fields.
230 # Properties can be added as:
231 # * A value, e.g.
232 # 'title': 'Video title goes here',
233 # * MD5 checksum; start the string with 'md5:', e.g.
234 # 'description': 'md5:098f6bcd4621d373cade4e832627b4f6',
235 # * A regular expression; start the string with 're:', e.g.
236 # 'thumbnail': r're:^https?://.*\.jpg$',
237 # * A count of elements in a list; start the string with 'count:', e.g.
238 # 'tags': 'count:10',
239 # * Any Python type, e.g.
240 # 'view_count': int,
e56190b3 241 }
8c6f4daa 242 }]
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243
244 def _real_extract(self, url):
245 video_id = self._match_id(url)
246 webpage = self._download_webpage(url, video_id)
8c6f4daa 247
e56190b3 248 # TODO more code goes here, for example ...
ab03c0b4 249 title = self._html_search_regex(r'<h1>(.+?)</h1>', webpage, 'title')
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250
251 return {
252 'id': video_id,
253 'title': title,
254 'description': self._og_search_description(webpage),
ab03c0b4 255 'uploader': self._search_regex(r'<div[^>]+id="uploader"[^>]*>([^<]+)<', webpage, 'uploader', fatal=False),
8c6f4daa 256 # TODO more properties (see yt_dlp/extractor/common.py)
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257 }
258 ```
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2591. Add an import in [`yt_dlp/extractor/_extractors.py`](yt_dlp/extractor/_extractors.py). Note that the class name must end with `IE`. Also note that when adding a parenthesized import group, the last import in the group must have a trailing comma in order for this formatting to be respected by our code formatter.
2601. Run `hatch test YourExtractor`. This *may fail* at first, but you can continually re-run it until you're done. Upon failure, it will output the missing fields and/or correct values which you can copy. If you decide to add more than one test, the tests will then be named `YourExtractor`, `YourExtractor_1`, `YourExtractor_2`, etc. Note that tests with an `only_matching` key in the test's dict are not included in the count. You can also run all the tests in one go with `YourExtractor_all`
2d1d683a 2611. Make sure you have at least one test for your extractor. Even if all videos covered by the extractor are expected to be inaccessible for automated testing, tests should still be added with a `skip` parameter indicating why the particular test is disabled from running.
5ca095cb 2621. Have a look at [`yt_dlp/extractor/common.py`](yt_dlp/extractor/common.py) for possible helper methods and a [detailed description of what your extractor should and may return](yt_dlp/extractor/common.py#L119-L440). Add tests and code for as many as you want.
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2631. Make sure your code follows [yt-dlp coding conventions](#yt-dlp-coding-conventions), passes [ruff](https://docs.astral.sh/ruff/tutorial/#getting-started) code checks and is properly formatted:
264
265 ```shell
266 $ hatch fmt --check
267 ```
9d9daed4 268
e897bd82 269 You can use `hatch fmt` to automatically fix problems.
9d9daed4 270
f4b95aca 2711. Make sure your code works under all [Python](https://www.python.org/) versions supported by yt-dlp, namely CPython and PyPy for Python 3.8 and above. Backward compatibility is not required for even older versions of Python.
8c6f4daa 2721. When the tests pass, [add](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-add) the new files, [commit](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-commit) them and [push](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-push) the result, like this:
e56190b3 273
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274 ```shell
275 $ git add yt_dlp/extractor/_extractors.py
276 $ git add yt_dlp/extractor/yourextractor.py
277 $ git commit -m '[yourextractor] Add extractor'
278 $ git push origin yourextractor
279 ```
e56190b3 280
8c6f4daa 2811. Finally, [create a pull request](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-pull-request). We'll then review and merge it.
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282
283In any case, thank you very much for your contributions!
284
47ab66db 285**Tip:** To test extractors that require login information, create a file `test/local_parameters.json` and add `"usenetrc": true` or your `username`&`password` or `cookiefile`/`cookiesfrombrowser` in it:
b69fd25c 286```json
287{
288 "username": "your user name",
289 "password": "your password"
290}
291```
8c6f4daa 292
293## yt-dlp coding conventions
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294
295This section introduces a guide lines for writing idiomatic, robust and future-proof extractor code.
296
c8bc203f 297Extractors are very fragile by nature since they depend on the layout of the source data provided by 3rd party media hosters out of your control and this layout tends to change. As an extractor implementer your task is not only to write code that will extract media links and metadata correctly but also to minimize dependency on the source's layout and even to make the code foresee potential future changes and be ready for that. This is important because it will allow the extractor not to break on minor layout changes thus keeping old yt-dlp versions working. Even though this breakage issue may be easily fixed by a new version of yt-dlp, this could take some time, during which the extractor will remain broken.
8c6f4daa 298
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299
300### Mandatory and optional metafields
301
5ca095cb 302For extraction to work yt-dlp relies on metadata your extractor extracts and provides to yt-dlp expressed by an [information dictionary](yt_dlp/extractor/common.py#L119-L440) or simply *info dict*. Only the following meta fields in the *info dict* are considered mandatory for a successful extraction process by yt-dlp:
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303
304 - `id` (media identifier)
305 - `title` (media title)
306 - `url` (media download URL) or `formats`
307
fc08bdd6 308The aforementioned metafields are the critical data that the extraction does not make any sense without and if any of them fail to be extracted then the extractor is considered completely broken. While all extractors must return a `title`, they must also allow it's extraction to be non-fatal.
309
455a15e2 310For pornographic sites, appropriate `age_limit` must also be returned.
311
47ab66db 312The extractor is allowed to return the info dict without url or formats in some special cases if it allows the user to extract useful information with `--ignore-no-formats-error` - e.g. when the video is a live stream that has not started yet.
bff98341 313
8c6f4daa 314[Any field](yt_dlp/extractor/common.py#219-L426) apart from the aforementioned ones are considered **optional**. That means that extraction should be **tolerant** to situations when sources for these fields can potentially be unavailable (even if they are always available at the moment) and **future-proof** in order not to break the extraction of general purpose mandatory fields.
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315
316#### Example
317
318Say you have some source dictionary `meta` that you've fetched as JSON with HTTP request and it has a key `summary`:
319
320```python
321meta = self._download_json(url, video_id)
322```
323
324Assume at this point `meta`'s layout is:
325
326```python
327{
bff98341 328 "summary": "some fancy summary text",
8c6f4daa 329 "user": {
330 "name": "uploader name"
331 },
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332 ...
333}
334```
335
2021b650 336Assume you want to extract `summary` and put it into the resulting info dict as `description`. Since `description` is an optional meta field you should be ready that this key may be missing from the `meta` dict, so that you should extract it like:
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337
338```python
339description = meta.get('summary') # correct
340```
341
342and not like:
343
344```python
345description = meta['summary'] # incorrect
346```
347
bbd77068 348The latter will break extraction process with `KeyError` if `summary` disappears from `meta` at some later time but with the former approach extraction will just go ahead with `description` set to `None` which is perfectly fine (remember `None` is equivalent to the absence of data).
bff98341 349
8c6f4daa 350
8aa0e7cd 351If the data is nested, do not use `.get` chains, but instead make use of `traverse_obj`.
8c6f4daa 352
353Considering the above `meta` again, assume you want to extract `["user"]["name"]` and put it in the resulting info dict as `uploader`
354
8c6f4daa 355```python
356uploader = traverse_obj(meta, ('user', 'name')) # correct
357```
358
359and not like:
360
361```python
362uploader = meta['user']['name'] # incorrect
363```
364or
365```python
366uploader = meta.get('user', {}).get('name') # incorrect
367```
8aa0e7cd 368or
369```python
370uploader = try_get(meta, lambda x: x['user']['name']) # old utility
371```
8c6f4daa 372
373
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374Similarly, you should pass `fatal=False` when extracting optional data from a webpage with `_search_regex`, `_html_search_regex` or similar methods, for instance:
375
376```python
377description = self._search_regex(
378 r'<span[^>]+id="title"[^>]*>([^<]+)<',
379 webpage, 'description', fatal=False)
380```
381
382With `fatal` set to `False` if `_search_regex` fails to extract `description` it will emit a warning and continue extraction.
383
384You can also pass `default=<some fallback value>`, for example:
385
386```python
387description = self._search_regex(
388 r'<span[^>]+id="title"[^>]*>([^<]+)<',
389 webpage, 'description', default=None)
390```
391
bbd77068 392On failure this code will silently continue the extraction with `description` set to `None`. That is useful for metafields that may or may not be present.
8c6f4daa 393
394
395Another thing to remember is not to try to iterate over `None`
396
8aa0e7cd 397Say you extracted a list of thumbnails into `thumbnail_data` and want to iterate over them
8c6f4daa 398
399```python
8aa0e7cd 400thumbnail_data = data.get('thumbnails') or []
8c6f4daa 401thumbnails = [{
71df9b7f 402 'url': item['url'],
403 'height': item.get('h'),
404} for item in thumbnail_data if item.get('url')] # correct
8c6f4daa 405```
406
407and not like:
408
409```python
8aa0e7cd 410thumbnail_data = data.get('thumbnails')
8c6f4daa 411thumbnails = [{
71df9b7f 412 'url': item['url'],
413 'height': item.get('h'),
8c6f4daa 414} for item in thumbnail_data] # incorrect
415```
416
8aa0e7cd 417In this case, `thumbnail_data` will be `None` if the field was not found and this will cause the loop `for item in thumbnail_data` to raise a fatal error. Using `or []` avoids this error and results in setting an empty list in `thumbnails` instead.
8c6f4daa 418
71df9b7f 419Alternately, this can be further simplified by using `traverse_obj`
420
421```python
422thumbnails = [{
423 'url': item['url'],
424 'height': item.get('h'),
425} for item in traverse_obj(data, ('thumbnails', lambda _, v: v['url']))]
426```
427
428or, even better,
429
430```python
431thumbnails = traverse_obj(data, ('thumbnails', ..., {'url': 'url', 'height': 'h'}))
432```
8c6f4daa 433
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434### Provide fallbacks
435
bbd77068 436When extracting metadata try to do so from multiple sources. For example if `title` is present in several places, try extracting from at least some of them. This makes it more future-proof in case some of the sources become unavailable.
bff98341 437
8c6f4daa 438
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439#### Example
440
3d3bb168 441Say `meta` from the previous example has a `title` and you are about to extract it like:
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442
443```python
3d3bb168 444title = meta.get('title')
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445```
446
3d3bb168 447If `title` disappears from `meta` in future due to some changes on the hoster's side the title extraction would fail.
bff98341 448
3d3bb168 449Assume that you have some another source you can extract `title` from, for example `og:title` HTML meta of a `webpage`. In this case you can provide a fallback like:
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450
451```python
452title = meta.get('title') or self._og_search_title(webpage)
453```
454
3d3bb168 455This code will try to extract from `meta` first and if it fails it will try extracting `og:title` from a `webpage`, making the extractor more robust.
bff98341 456
8c6f4daa 457
d7c3af7a 458### Regular expressions
bff98341 459
d7c3af7a
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460#### Don't capture groups you don't use
461
462Capturing group must be an indication that it's used somewhere in the code. Any group that is not used must be non capturing.
463
464##### Example
465
466Don't capture id attribute name here since you can't use it for anything anyway.
467
468Correct:
469
470```python
471r'(?:id|ID)=(?P<id>\d+)'
472```
473
474Incorrect:
475```python
476r'(id|ID)=(?P<id>\d+)'
477```
478
d7c3af7a
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479#### Make regular expressions relaxed and flexible
480
481When using regular expressions try to write them fuzzy, relaxed and flexible, skipping insignificant parts that are more likely to change, allowing both single and double quotes for quoted values and so on.
8c6f4daa 482
d7c3af7a 483##### Example
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484
485Say you need to extract `title` from the following HTML code:
486
487```html
488<span style="position: absolute; left: 910px; width: 90px; float: right; z-index: 9999;" class="title">some fancy title</span>
489```
490
491The code for that task should look similar to:
492
493```python
8c6f4daa 494title = self._search_regex( # correct
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495 r'<span[^>]+class="title"[^>]*>([^<]+)', webpage, 'title')
496```
497
56ba69e4 498which tolerates potential changes in the `style` attribute's value. Or even better:
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499
500```python
8c6f4daa 501title = self._search_regex( # correct
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502 r'<span[^>]+class=(["\'])title\1[^>]*>(?P<title>[^<]+)',
503 webpage, 'title', group='title')
504```
505
56ba69e4 506which also handles both single quotes in addition to double quotes.
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507
508The code definitely should not look like:
509
510```python
8c6f4daa 511title = self._search_regex( # incorrect
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512 r'<span style="position: absolute; left: 910px; width: 90px; float: right; z-index: 9999;" class="title">(.*?)</span>',
513 webpage, 'title', group='title')
514```
515
8c6f4daa 516or even
517
518```python
519title = self._search_regex( # incorrect
520 r'<span style=".*?" class="title">(.*?)</span>',
521 webpage, 'title', group='title')
522```
523
962ffcf8 524Here the presence or absence of other attributes including `style` is irrelevant for the data we need, and so the regex must not depend on it
8c6f4daa 525
526
8aa0e7cd 527#### Keep the regular expressions as simple as possible, but no simpler
528
529Since many extractors deal with unstructured data provided by websites, we will often need to use very complex regular expressions. You should try to use the *simplest* regex that can accomplish what you want. In other words, each part of the regex must have a reason for existing. If you can take out a symbol and the functionality does not change, the symbol should not be there.
530
531##### Example
532
533Correct:
534
535```python
536_VALID_URL = r'https?://(?:www\.)?website\.com/(?:[^/]+/){3,4}(?P<display_id>[^/]+)_(?P<id>\d+)'
537```
538
539Incorrect:
540
541```python
542_VALID_URL = r'https?:\/\/(?:www\.)?website\.com\/[^\/]+/[^\/]+/[^\/]+(?:\/[^\/]+)?\/(?P<display_id>[^\/]+)_(?P<id>\d+)'
543```
544
545#### Do not misuse `.` and use the correct quantifiers (`+*?`)
546
547Avoid creating regexes that over-match because of wrong use of quantifiers. Also try to avoid non-greedy matching (`?`) where possible since they could easily result in [catastrophic backtracking](https://www.regular-expressions.info/catastrophic.html)
548
549Correct:
550
551```python
552title = self._search_regex(r'<span\b[^>]+class="title"[^>]*>([^<]+)', webpage, 'title')
553```
554
555Incorrect:
556
557```python
558title = self._search_regex(r'<span\b.*class="title".*>(.+?)<', webpage, 'title')
559```
560
561
d7c3af7a
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562### Long lines policy
563
fc5fa964 564There is a soft limit to keep lines of code under 100 characters long. This means it should be respected if possible and if it does not make readability and code maintenance worse. Sometimes, it may be reasonable to go upto 120 characters and sometimes even 80 can be unreadable. Keep in mind that this is not a hard limit and is just one of many tools to make the code more readable.
d7c3af7a
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565
566For example, you should **never** split long string literals like URLs or some other often copied entities over multiple lines to fit this limit:
567
962ffcf8 568Conversely, don't unnecessarily split small lines further. As a rule of thumb, if removing the line split keeps the code under 80 characters, it should be a single line.
fc5fa964 569
570##### Examples
571
d7c3af7a
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572Correct:
573
574```python
575'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqZTN594JQw&list=PLMYEtVRpaqY00V9W81Cwmzp6N6vZqfUKD4'
576```
577
578Incorrect:
579
580```python
581'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqZTN594JQw&list='
582'PLMYEtVRpaqY00V9W81Cwmzp6N6vZqfUKD4'
583```
584
fc5fa964 585Correct:
586
587```python
588uploader = traverse_obj(info, ('uploader', 'name'), ('author', 'fullname'))
589```
590
591Incorrect:
592
593```python
594uploader = traverse_obj(
595 info,
596 ('uploader', 'name'),
597 ('author', 'fullname'))
598```
599
600Correct:
601
602```python
603formats = self._extract_m3u8_formats(
604 m3u8_url, video_id, 'mp4', 'm3u8_native', m3u8_id='hls',
605 note='Downloading HD m3u8 information', errnote='Unable to download HD m3u8 information')
606```
607
608Incorrect:
609
610```python
611formats = self._extract_m3u8_formats(m3u8_url,
612 video_id,
613 'mp4',
614 'm3u8_native',
615 m3u8_id='hls',
616 note='Downloading HD m3u8 information',
617 errnote='Unable to download HD m3u8 information')
618```
619
620
621### Quotes
622
8aa0e7cd 623Always use single quotes for strings (even if the string has `'`) and double quotes for docstrings. Use `'''` only for multi-line strings. An exception can be made if a string has multiple single quotes in it and escaping makes it *significantly* harder to read. For f-strings, use you can use double quotes on the inside. But avoid f-strings that have too many quotes inside.
fc5fa964 624
625
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626### Inline values
627
628Extracting variables is acceptable for reducing code duplication and improving readability of complex expressions. However, you should avoid extracting variables used only once and moving them to opposite parts of the extractor file, which makes reading the linear flow difficult.
629
8aa0e7cd 630#### Examples
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631
632Correct:
633
634```python
8aa0e7cd 635return {
636 'title': self._html_search_regex(r'<h1>([^<]+)</h1>', webpage, 'title'),
637 # ...some lines of code...
638}
def849e0
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639```
640
641Incorrect:
642
643```python
04f3fd2c 644TITLE_RE = r'<h1>([^<]+)</h1>'
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645# ...some lines of code...
646title = self._html_search_regex(TITLE_RE, webpage, 'title')
8aa0e7cd 647# ...some lines of code...
648return {
649 'title': title,
650 # ...some lines of code...
651}
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652```
653
8c6f4daa 654
def849e0
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655### Collapse fallbacks
656
657Multiple fallback values can quickly become unwieldy. Collapse multiple fallback values into a single expression via a list of patterns.
658
659#### Example
660
661Good:
662
663```python
664description = self._html_search_meta(
665 ['og:description', 'description', 'twitter:description'],
666 webpage, 'description', default=None)
667```
668
669Unwieldy:
670
671```python
672description = (
673 self._og_search_description(webpage, default=None)
674 or self._html_search_meta('description', webpage, default=None)
675 or self._html_search_meta('twitter:description', webpage, default=None))
676```
677
678Methods supporting list of patterns are: `_search_regex`, `_html_search_regex`, `_og_search_property`, `_html_search_meta`.
679
8c6f4daa 680
def849e0
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681### Trailing parentheses
682
8aa0e7cd 683Always move trailing parentheses used for grouping/functions after the last argument. On the other hand, multi-line literal list/tuple/dict/set should closed be in a new line. Generators and list/dict comprehensions may use either style
def849e0 684
fc5fa964 685#### Examples
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686
687Correct:
688
689```python
8aa0e7cd 690url = traverse_obj(info, (
691 'context', 'dispatcher', 'stores', 'VideoTitlePageStore', 'data', 'video', 0, 'VideoUrlSet', 'VideoUrl'), list)
def849e0 692```
fc5fa964 693Correct:
694
695```python
8aa0e7cd 696url = traverse_obj(
697 info,
698 ('context', 'dispatcher', 'stores', 'VideoTitlePageStore', 'data', 'video', 0, 'VideoUrlSet', 'VideoUrl'),
699 list)
fc5fa964 700```
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701
702Incorrect:
703
704```python
8aa0e7cd 705url = traverse_obj(
fc5fa964 706 info,
8aa0e7cd 707 ('context', 'dispatcher', 'stores', 'VideoTitlePageStore', 'data', 'video', 0, 'VideoUrlSet', 'VideoUrl'),
708 list
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709)
710```
711
fc5fa964 712Correct:
713
714```python
715f = {
716 'url': url,
717 'format_id': format_id,
718}
719```
720
721Incorrect:
722
723```python
724f = {'url': url,
725 'format_id': format_id}
726```
727
728Correct:
729
730```python
731formats = [process_formats(f) for f in format_data
732 if f.get('type') in ('hls', 'dash', 'direct') and f.get('downloadable')]
733```
734
735Correct:
736
737```python
738formats = [
739 process_formats(f) for f in format_data
740 if f.get('type') in ('hls', 'dash', 'direct') and f.get('downloadable')
741]
742```
743
8c6f4daa 744
e71be6ee 745### Use convenience conversion and parsing functions
bff98341 746
5ca095cb 747Wrap all extracted numeric data into safe functions from [`yt_dlp/utils/`](yt_dlp/utils/): `int_or_none`, `float_or_none`. Use them for string to number conversions as well.
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748
749Use `url_or_none` for safe URL processing.
750
c4f60dd7 751Use `traverse_obj` and `try_call` (superseeds `dict_get` and `try_get`) for safe metadata extraction from parsed JSON.
532782ad 752
e71be6ee
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753Use `unified_strdate` for uniform `upload_date` or any `YYYYMMDD` meta field extraction, `unified_timestamp` for uniform `timestamp` extraction, `parse_filesize` for `filesize` extraction, `parse_count` for count meta fields extraction, `parse_resolution`, `parse_duration` for `duration` extraction, `parse_age_limit` for `age_limit` extraction.
754
5ca095cb 755Explore [`yt_dlp/utils/`](yt_dlp/utils/) for more useful convenience functions.
532782ad 756
8aa0e7cd 757#### Examples
532782ad 758
532782ad 759```python
8c6f4daa 760description = traverse_obj(response, ('result', 'video', 'summary'), expected_type=str)
8aa0e7cd 761thumbnails = traverse_obj(response, ('result', 'thumbnails', ..., 'url'), expected_type=url_or_none)
8c6f4daa 762video = traverse_obj(response, ('result', 'video', 0), default={}, expected_type=dict)
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763duration = float_or_none(video.get('durationMs'), scale=1000)
764view_count = int_or_none(video.get('views'))
765```
bff98341 766
8aa0e7cd 767
08d30158 768# My pull request is labeled pending-fixes
769
770The `pending-fixes` label is added when there are changes requested to a PR. When the necessary changes are made, the label should be removed. However, despite our best efforts, it may sometimes happen that the maintainer did not see the changes or forgot to remove the label. If your PR is still marked as `pending-fixes` a few days after all requested changes have been made, feel free to ping the maintainer who labeled your issue and ask them to re-review and remove the label.
771
8c6f4daa 772
773
774
775# EMBEDDING YT-DLP
776See [README.md#embedding-yt-dlp](README.md#embedding-yt-dlp) for instructions on how to embed yt-dlp in another Python program