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[extractor/lbry] Update livestream API (#4042)
[yt-dlp.git] / README.md
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ec2e44fc 1<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b31fdeed 2<div align="center">
3
e980017a 4[![YT-DLP](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master/.github/banner.svg)](#readme)
d9d045e2 5
ae6a1b95 6[![Release version](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?color=brightgreen&label=Download&style=for-the-badge)](#release-files "Release")
7[![PyPi](https://img.shields.io/badge/-PyPi-blue.svg?logo=pypi&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp "PyPi")
fc5fa964 8[![Donate](https://img.shields.io/badge/_-Donate-red.svg?logo=githubsponsors&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](Collaborators.md#collaborators "Donate")
ae6a1b95 9[![Matrix](https://img.shields.io/matrix/yt-dlp:matrix.org?color=brightgreen&labelColor=555555&label=&logo=element&style=for-the-badge)](https://matrix.to/#/#yt-dlp:matrix.org "Matrix")
10[![Discord](https://img.shields.io/discord/807245652072857610?color=blue&labelColor=555555&label=&logo=discord&style=for-the-badge)](https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r "Discord")
fc5fa964 11[![Supported Sites](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Supported_Sites-brightgreen.svg?style=for-the-badge)](supportedsites.md "Supported Sites")
ae6a1b95 12[![License: Unlicense](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Unlicense-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge)](LICENSE "License")
fc5fa964 13[![CI Status](https://img.shields.io/github/workflow/status/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/Core%20Tests/master?label=Tests&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions "CI Status")
fc5fa964 14[![Commits](https://img.shields.io/github/commit-activity/m/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?label=commits&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
15[![Last Commit](https://img.shields.io/github/last-commit/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master?label=&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
c76eb41b 16
b31fdeed 17</div>
ec2e44fc 18<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
c76eb41b 19
b31fdeed 20yt-dlp is a [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) fork based on the now inactive [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc). The main focus of this project is adding new features and patches while also keeping up to date with the original project
5c0e5bc4 21
ec2e44fc 22<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "USAGE AND OPTIONS" SECTION HERE -->
23
24<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
034b6215 25* [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
53ed7066 26 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
c76eb41b 27* [INSTALLATION](#installation)
17fa3ee2 28 * [Update](#update)
0e5927ee 29 * [Release Files](#release-files)
cf59cd4d 30 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
17fa3ee2 31 * [Compile](#compile)
b31fdeed 32* [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
33 * [General Options](#general-options)
50865ca8 34 * [Network Options](#network-options)
b31fdeed 35 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
50865ca8 36 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
37 * [Download Options](#download-options)
38 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
b31fdeed 39 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
50865ca8 40 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
0744a815 41 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
50865ca8 42 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
43 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
44 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
45 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
50865ca8 46 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
7a340e0d 47 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
50865ca8 48 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
c76eb41b 49* [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
50865ca8 50 * [Authentication with .netrc file](#authentication-with-netrc-file)
c76eb41b 51* [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
50865ca8 52 * [Output template and Windows batch files](#output-template-and-windows-batch-files)
53 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
c76eb41b 54* [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
50865ca8 55 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
56 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
57 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
73cd218f 58* [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
59 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
5d3a0e79 60* [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
f74980cb 61* [PLUGINS](#plugins)
8c6f4daa 62* [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
43cc91ad 63 * [Embedding examples](#embedding-examples)
e167860c 64* [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
8c6f4daa 65* [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
66 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
67 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
c76eb41b 68* [MORE](#more)
ec2e44fc 69<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
50865ca8 70
71
034b6215 72# NEW FEATURES
91f071af 73
ebc7d3ff 74* Based on **youtube-dl 2021.12.17 [commit/6508688](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/6508688e88c83bb811653083db9351702cd39a6a)** ([exceptions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/21)) and **youtube-dlc 2020.11.11-3 [commit/f9401f2](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/commit/f9401f2a91987068139c5f757b12fc711d4c0cee)**: You get all the features and patches of [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) in addition to the latest [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl)
034b6215 75
7a340e0d 76* **[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in youtube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
034b6215 77
7581d246 78* **[Format Sorting](#sorting-formats)**: The default format sorting options have been changed so that higher resolution and better codecs will be now preferred instead of simply using larger bitrate. Furthermore, you can now specify the sort order using `-S`. This allows for much easier format selection than what is possible by simply using `--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
034b6215 79
ae6a1b95 80* **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from [animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including `--write-comments`, `BiliBiliSearch`, `BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that the NicoNico livestreams are not available. See [#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
29b6000e 81
f5546c0b 82* **Youtube improvements**:
ca5300c7 83 * All Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`, `:ytnotif`) and private playlists supports downloading multiple pages of content
0fdf490d 84 * Search (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`), search URLs and in-channel search works
85 * Mixes supports downloading multiple pages of content
86c1a8aa 86 * Some (but not all) age-gated content can be downloaded without cookies
a4211baf 87 * Fix for [n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326)
f20f5fe5 88 * Redirect channel's home URL automatically to `/video` to preserve the old behaviour
e6f21b3d 89 * `255kbps` audio is extracted (if available) from youtube music when premium cookies are given
9ee4f0bb 90 * Youtube music Albums, channels etc can be downloaded ([except self-uploaded music](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/723))
144a3588 91 * Download livestreams from the start using `--live-from-start` (experimental)
6e634cbe 92 * Support for downloading stories (`ytstories:<channel UCID>`)
f20f5fe5 93
f59f5ef8 94* **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using `--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE]`
245524e6 95
5ec1b6b7 96* **Download time range**: Videos can be downloaded partially based on either timestamps or chapters using `--download-sections`
97
597c1866 98* **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using `--split-chapters`
99
b31fdeed 100* **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 101
b31fdeed 102* **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use `aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
f20f5fe5 103
e75bb0d6 104* **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 105
56ba69e4 106* **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN etc.
fac98805 107
3de7c2ce 108* **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 109
597c1866 110* **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 111
112* **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [configuration](#configuration) for details
113
418964fa 114* **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 115
8a82af35 116* **Other new options**: Many new options have been added such as `--alias`, `--print`, `--concat-playlist`, `--wait-for-video`, `--retry-sleep`, `--sleep-requests`, `--convert-thumbnails`, `--force-download-archive`, `--force-overwrites`, `--break-on-reject` etc
0bc0a322 117
08d30158 118* **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 119
86c1a8aa 120* **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
b31fdeed 121
7a5c1cfe 122* **Self-updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`
aa837ddf 123
7a5c1cfe 124See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
a26c99ac 125
53ed7066 126### Differences in default behavior
127
0930b11f 128Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
53ed7066 129
96565c7e 130* The options `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
b69fd25c 131* `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
a44ca5a4 132* yt-dlp stores config files in slightly different locations to youtube-dl. See [configuration](#configuration) for a list of correct locations
96565c7e 133* 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 134* 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 135* 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 136* 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 137* `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
28b0eb0f 138* 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 139* `--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 140* 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 141* `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
142* The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
3acf6d38 143* All *experiences* of a funimation episode are considered as a single video. This behavior breaks existing archives. Use `--compat-options seperate-video-versions` to extract information from only the default player
28b0eb0f 144* Youtube live chat (if available) is considered as a subtitle. Use `--sub-langs all,-live_chat` to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use `--compat-options no-live-chat` to prevent live chat from downloading
64f36541 145* Youtube channel URLs are automatically redirected to `/video`. Append a `/featured` to the URL to download only the videos in the home page. If the channel does not have a videos tab, we try to download the equivalent `UU` playlist instead. For all other tabs, if the channel does not show the requested tab, an error will be raised. Also, `/live` URLs raise an error if there are no live videos instead of silently downloading the entire channel. You may use `--compat-options no-youtube-channel-redirect` to revert all these redirections
28b0eb0f 146* Unavailable videos are also listed for youtube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
18e674b4 147* 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 148* Thumbnail embedding in `mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use `--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
e4f02757 149* Some private fields such as filenames are removed by default from the infojson. Use `--no-clean-infojson` or `--compat-options no-clean-infojson` to revert this
e75bb0d6 150* When `--embed-subs` and `--write-subs` are used together, the subtitles are written to disk and also embedded in the media file. You can use just `--embed-subs` to embed the subs and automatically delete the separate file. See [#630 (comment)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/630#issuecomment-893659460) for more info. `--compat-options no-keep-subs` can be used to revert this
0bf9dc1e 151* `certifi` will be used for SSL root certificates, if installed. If you want to use only system certificates, use `--compat-options no-certifi`
5c3895ff 152* youtube-dl tries to remove some superfluous punctuations from filenames. While this can sometimes be helpfull, it is often undesirable. So yt-dlp tries to keep the fields in the filenames as close to their original values as possible. You can use `--compat-options filename-sanitization` to revert to youtube-dl's behavior
53ed7066 153
154For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
3d3bb168 155
8a82af35 156* `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options (Do NOT use)
28b0eb0f 157* `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams`
158* `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
53ed7066 159
f20f5fe5 160
d19bb9c0 161# INSTALLATION
50865ca8 162
7bc877a2 163You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
a61f4b28 164
a4211baf 165### Using the release binary
0930b11f 166
fc5fa964 167You can simply download the [correct binary file](#release-files) for your OS
5f326cf5 168
fc5fa964 169<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
170[![Windows](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Windows_x64-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=windows)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)
24146491 171[![Linux](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Linux/BSD-red.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=linux)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)
172[![MacOS](https://img.shields.io/badge/-MacOS-lightblue.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=apple)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)
fc5fa964 173[![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)
174[![Other variants](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Other-grey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](#release-files)
3d3bb168 175[![All versions](https://img.shields.io/badge/-All_Versions-lightgrey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
fc5fa964 176<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
177
178Note: The manpages, shell completion files etc. are available in the [source tarball](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
179
180<!-- TODO: Move to Wiki -->
0930b11f 181In UNIX-like OSes (MacOS, Linux, BSD), you can also install the same in one of the following ways:
5ba4a0b6
A		 182
183```
184sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
185sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
186```
187
188```
189sudo wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
190sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
191```
192
193```
b69fd25c 194sudo aria2c https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp --dir /usr/local/bin -o yt-dlp
5ba4a0b6
A		 195sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
196```
197
0930b11f 198
a4211baf 199### With [PIP](https://pypi.org/project/pip)
0930b11f 200
201You can install the [PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) with:
202```
203python3 -m pip install -U yt-dlp
204```
205
86c1a8aa 206You can install without any of the optional dependencies using:
0930b11f 207```
208python3 -m pip install --no-deps -U yt-dlp
209```
210
86c1a8aa 211If you want to be on the cutting edge, you can also install the master branch with:
0930b11f 212```
ae6a1b95 213python3 -m pip install --force-reinstall https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/archive/master.tar.gz
0930b11f 214```
215
216Note that on some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`
217
fc5fa964 218<!-- TODO: Add to Wiki, Remove Taps -->
a4211baf 219### With [Homebrew](https://brew.sh)
0930b11f 220
221macOS or Linux users that are using Homebrew can also install it by:
b8773e63
THD		 222
223```
224brew install yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp
225```
226
a4211baf 227## UPDATE
0930b11f 228You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are [using the provided release](#using-the-release-binary)
229
230If you [installed with pip](#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
231
232If you [installed using Homebrew](#with-homebrew), run `brew upgrade yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp`
cf59cd4d 233
ec2e44fc 234<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
a4211baf 235## RELEASE FILES
0e5927ee 236
733d8e8f 237#### Recommended
238
239File|Description
240:---|:---
ae6a1b95 241[yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform-independant binary. Needs Python (recommended for **Linux/BSD**)
0930b11f 242[yt-dlp.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary (recommended for **Windows**)
ae6a1b95 243[yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|MacOS (10.15+) standalone executable (recommended for **MacOS**)
733d8e8f 244
245#### Alternatives
246
0e5927ee
R		 247File|Description
248:---|:---
0930b11f 249[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
24146491 250[yt-dlp_min.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_min.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary built with `py2exe`.<br/> Does not contain `pycryptodomex`/`certifi`, needs VC++14
0930b11f 251[yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
252[yt-dlp_macos.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos.zip)|Unpackaged MacOS (10.15+) executable (no auto-update)
733d8e8f 253
254#### Misc
255
256File|Description
257:---|:---
0e5927ee
R		 258[yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball. Also contains manpages, completions, etc
259[SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
260[SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
ec2e44fc 261<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
0e5927ee 262
a4211baf 263## DEPENDENCIES
cf59cd4d 264Python versions 3.6+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
b31fdeed 265
c9652aa4 266<!-- Python 3.5+ uses VC++14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
267<!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999 --x>
cf59cd4d 268On 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 269-->
fac98805 270
e75bb0d6 271While all the other dependencies are optional, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended
ec2e44fc 272
b69fd25c 273* [**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)
d5820461 274* [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For embedding thumbnail in certain formats. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
5d0aeac0
M		 275* [**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)
276* [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
0a41f331 277* [**secretstorage**](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage) - For accessing 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)
d5820461 278* [**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>
279* [**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)
6f7563be 280* [**xattr**](https://github.com/xattr/xattr), [**pyxattr**](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr) or [**setfattr**](http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/attr) - For writing xattr metadata 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
08d30158 281* [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For embedding thumbnail in mp4/m4a if mutagen/ffmpeg cannot. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
0930b11f 282* [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licensed under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
283* [**mplayer**](http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html) or [**mpv**](https://mpv.io) - For downloading `rstp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/Copyright)
5d0aeac0 284* [**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)
0930b11f 285* [**sponskrub**](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) - For using the now **deprecated** [sponskrub options](#sponskrub-options). Licensed under [GPLv3+](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub/blob/master/LICENCE.md)
cf59cd4d 286* Any external downloader that you want to use with `--downloader`
b31fdeed 287
cf59cd4d 288To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
289
0a41f331 290The Windows and MacOS standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with \* included.
d710cc6d 291
08d30158 292<!-- TODO: ffmpeg has merged this patch. Remove this note once there is new release -->
fc5fa964 293**Note**: There are some regressions in newer ffmpeg versions that causes various issues when used alongside yt-dlp. Since ffmpeg is such an important dependency, we provide [custom builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#ffmpeg-static-auto-builds) with patches for these issues at [yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds). See [the readme](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#patches-applied) for details on the specific issues solved by these builds
d710cc6d 294
5f326cf5 295
a4211baf 296## COMPILE
5f326cf5 297
c76eb41b 298**For Windows**:
4390d5ec 299To build the Windows executable, you must have pyinstaller (and any of yt-dlp's optional dependencies if needed). Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, (optionally) build lazy extractors using `devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py`, and then just run `pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (32/64 bit) as the python used to build it.
e38df8f9 300
733d8e8f 301 py -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
49a57e70 302 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
733d8e8f 303 py pyinst.py
7581d246 304
fac98805 305Note that pyinstaller [does not support](https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller#requirements-and-tested-platforms) Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment
b96a939b 306
c76eb41b 307**For Unix**:
060ac762 308You will need the required build tools: `python`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`, `zip`, `pytest`
127d0759 309Then simply run `make`. You can also run `make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files
5f326cf5 310
49a57e70 311**Note**: In either platform, `devscripts/update-version.py` can be used to automatically update the version number
d19bb9c0 312
75b725a7 313You can also fork the project on github and run your fork's [build workflow](.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically build a release
59a7a13e 314
b31fdeed 315# USAGE AND OPTIONS
6bcd846b 316
ec2e44fc 317<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
7a5c1cfe 318 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
b50e3bc6 319
c2b5f311 320`Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
ec2e44fc 321<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
c2b5f311 322
ec2e44fc 323<!-- Auto generated -->
c76eb41b 324## General Options:
2dd5a2e3 325 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
326 --version Print program version and exit
327 -U, --update Update this program to latest version
d32f30ac 328 --no-update Do not update (default)
2dd5a2e3 329 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
330 The download will be considered successful
331 even if the postprocessing fails
332 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download errors;
333 e.g. to skip unavailable videos in a
334 playlist (default)
335 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
336 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
337 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
338 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
339 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
340 extractors and exit
64fa820c 341 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic extractor
2dd5a2e3 342 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. Eg:
343 "gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
344 google videos for the search term "python".
345 Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
346 ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when
347 guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
348 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken
349 URLs, but emits an error if this is not
350 possible instead of searching
351 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
352 except those given by --config-locations.
353 For backward compatibility, if this option
354 is found inside the system configuration
355 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
356 (Alias: --no-config)
357 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
358 (default). When given inside a configuration
359 file, ignore all previous --config-locations
360 defined in the current file
361 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
362 either the path to the config or its
6b9e832d 363 containing directory ("-" for stdin). Can be
364 used multiple times and inside other
365 configuration files
2dd5a2e3 366 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
367 only list them
368 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
369 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
370 Currently only supported for YouTube
371 (Experimental)
372 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
373 (default)
374 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
375 available. Pass the minimum number of
376 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
377 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
378 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
379 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
380 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output
381 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
382 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
383 configurations by reverting some of the
384 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
385 default behavior" for details
386 --alias ALIASES OPTIONS Create aliases for an option string. Unless
387 an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
388 prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
389 according to the Python string formatting
390 mini-language. Eg: --alias get-audio,-X
391 "-S=aext:{0},abr -x --audio-format {0}"
392 creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
393 takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
394 "-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
395 All defined aliases are listed in the --help
396 output. Alias options can trigger more
397 aliases; so be carefull to avoid defining
398 recursive options. As a safety measure, each
399 alias may be triggered a maximum of 100
64fa820c 400 times. This option can be used multiple times
08c1d0d3 401
149f05c7 402## Network Options:
2dd5a2e3 403 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
404 enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme.
405 Eg: socks5://user:pass@127.0.0.1:1080/. Pass
406 in an empty string (--proxy "") for direct
407 connection
408 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
409 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
410 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
411 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
8c6c88c7 412
b31fdeed 413## Geo-restriction:
2dd5a2e3 414 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
415 some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy
416 specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
417 is not present) is used for the actual
418 downloading
419 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
420 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header (default)
421 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
422 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
423 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
424 explicitly provided two-letter ISO 3166-2
425 country code
426 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
64fa820c 427 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR notation
149f05c7 428
cfcec693 429## Video Selection:
7e88d7d7 430 -I, --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Comma seperated playlist_index of the videos
431 to download. You can specify a range using
432 "[START]:[STOP][:STEP]". For backward
433 compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.
434 Use negative indices to count from the right
435 and negative STEP to download in reverse
436 order. Eg: "-I 1:3,7,-5::2" used on a
437 playlist of size 15 will download the videos
438 at index 1,2,3,7,11,13,15
2dd5a2e3 439 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE
440 (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
441 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
442 (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
443 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
444 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
445 [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
446 Eg: --date today-2weeks
447 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
448 this date. The date formats accepted is the
449 same as --date
450 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
451 this date. The date formats accepted is the
452 same as --date
453 --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
454 field can be compared with a number or a
455 string using the operators defined in
456 "Filtering formats". You can also simply
457 specify a field to match if the field is
458 present, use "!field" to check if the field
459 is not present, and "&" to check multiple
460 conditions. Use a "\" to escape "&" or
461 quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
462 the filter matches if atleast one of the
463 conditions are met. Eg: --match-filter
464 !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?100 &
465 description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'" matches
466 only videos that are not live OR those that
467 have a like count more than 100 (or the like
468 field is not available) and also has a
469 description that contains the phrase "cats &
470 dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
471 interactively ask whether to download each
472 video
473 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
474 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
475 to a video and a playlist
476 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
477 a video and a playlist
478 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
479 age
480 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
481 archive file. Record the IDs of all
482 downloaded videos in it
483 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
484 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
485 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
486 a file that is in the archive
487 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
488 a file that has been filtered out
489 --break-per-input Make --break-on-existing, --break-on-reject
490 and --max-downloads act only on the current
491 input URL
492 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
493 terminates the entire download queue
494 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
495 the playlist is skipped
6bcd846b 496
d5a62e4f 497## Download Options:
2dd5a2e3 498 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
499 video that should be downloaded concurrently
500 (default is 1)
501 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
502 (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
503 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
504 below which throttling is assumed and the
505 video data is re-extracted (e.g. 100K)
506 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
507 "infinite"
508 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
509 error (default is 3), or "infinite"
510 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
511 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
512 --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR An expression for the time to sleep between
513 retries in seconds (optionally) prefixed by
514 the type of retry (file_access, fragment,
515 http (default)) to apply the sleep to. EXPR
516 can be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=1]]
517 or exp=START[:END[:BASE=2]]. This option can
518 be used multiple times to set the sleep for
519 the different retry types. Eg: --retry-sleep
520 linear=1::2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=1:20
521 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
522 hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
523 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
524 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment
525 Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
526 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
527 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
528 downloading is finished
529 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
530 downloading is finished (default)
531 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
532 (default is 1024)
533 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
534 from an initial value of --buffer-size
535 (default)
536 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
537 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
538 downloading (e.g. 10485760 or 10M) (default
539 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
540 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
541 (experimental)
2dd5a2e3 542 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
7e9a6125 543 --lazy-playlist Process entries in the playlist as they are
544 received. This disables n_entries,
545 --playlist-random and --playlist-reverse
546 --no-lazy-playlist Process videos in the playlist only after
547 the entire playlist is parsed (default)
2dd5a2e3 548 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
549 expected file size
550 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
551 allowing some players to play the video
552 while downloading, and reducing the chance
553 of file corruption if download is
554 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
555 live streams
556 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
557 videos. This is default when not downloading
558 live streams
5ec1b6b7 559 --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters whose title matches
560 the given regular expression. Time ranges
561 prefixed by a "*" can also be used in place
562 of chapters to download the specified range.
563 Eg: --download-sections "*10:15-15:00"
564 --download-sections "intro". Needs ffmpeg.
565 This option can be used multiple times to
566 download multiple sections
2dd5a2e3 567 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
568 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
569 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
570 use it for. Currently supports native,
571 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
572 wget. You can use this option multiple times
573 to set different downloaders for different
574 protocols. For example, --downloader aria2c
575 --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
576 aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
577 native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
578 (Alias: --external-downloader)
579 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
580 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
581 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
582 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different
583 positions using the same syntax as
584 --postprocessor-args. You can use this
585 option multiple times to give different
586 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
587 --external-downloader-args)
d5a62e4f 588
cfcec693 589## Filesystem Options:
2dd5a2e3 590 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
591 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
592 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
593 comments and ignored
594 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
595 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
596 downloaded. Specify the type of file and the
597 path separated by a colon ":". All the same
598 TYPES as --output are supported.
599 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
600 (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary
601 files are first downloaded to the temp path
602 and then the final files are moved over to
603 the home path after download is finished.
604 This option is ignored if --output is an
605 absolute path
606 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
607 TEMPLATE" for details
608 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
609 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" (default: "NA")
610 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
611 and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
612 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
613 filenames (default)
614 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
615 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
616 using Windows (default)
617 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
618 extension) to the specified number of
619 characters
620 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
621 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This
622 option includes --no-continue
623 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
624 related files (default)
625 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
626 (default)
627 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
628 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
629 restart download of the entire file
630 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
631 into output file (default)
632 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into
633 output file
634 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file
635 modification time (default)
636 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
637 the file modification time
64fa820c 638 --write-description Write video description to a .description file
2dd5a2e3 639 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
640 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
641 (this may contain personal information)
642 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
643 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
644 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
645 --write-description etc. (default)
646 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
647 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
648 --clean-info-json Remove some private fields such as filenames
649 from the infojson. Note that it could still
650 contain some personal information (default)
651 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
652 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
653 infojson. The comments are fetched even
654 without this option if the extraction is
655 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
656 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
657 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
658 --no-get-comments)
659 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
64fa820c 660 (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
2dd5a2e3 661 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from
662 and dump cookie jar in
663 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
664 (default)
f59f5ef8 665 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE]
2dd5a2e3 666 The name of the browser and (optionally) the
667 name/path of the profile to load cookies
668 from, separated by a ":". Currently
669 supported browsers are: brave, chrome,
670 chromium, edge, firefox, opera, safari,
671 vivaldi. By default, the most recently
672 accessed profile is used. The keyring used
673 for decrypting Chromium cookies on Linux can
674 be (optionally) specified after the browser
675 name separated by a "+". Currently supported
64fa820c 676 keyrings are: basictext, gnomekeyring, kwallet
2dd5a2e3 677 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
678 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
679 can store some downloaded information (such
680 as client ids and signatures) permanently.
681 By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/yt-dlp or
682 ~/.cache/yt-dlp
683 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
684 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
6bcd846b 685
b31fdeed 686## Thumbnail Options:
2dd5a2e3 687 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
64fa820c 688 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default)
2dd5a2e3 689 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
690 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
691 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
2b1bd292 692
732044af 693## Internet Shortcut Options:
2dd5a2e3 694 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
695 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
696 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
697 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
698 OS caches the URL based on the file path
699 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
700 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
732044af 701
0744a815 702## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
2dd5a2e3 703 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
704 print the log to stderr
705 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
706 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
707 anything to disk
708 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
709 options are used
710 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
711 extracting metadata even if the videos are
712 not actually available for download
713 (experimental)
714 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
715 formats are found (default)
716 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
717 related files (Alias: --no-download)
718 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
719 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
720 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
721 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
722 --use-postprocessor, and "video" (default).
723 Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
724 --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
725 used. This option can be used multiple times
bb66c247 726 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
2dd5a2e3 727 Append given template to the file. The
728 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as that
729 of --print. FILE uses the same syntax as the
730 output template. This option can be used
731 multiple times
732 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
733 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
734 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
735 description of available keys
736 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
737 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
738 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
739 a playlist, the whole playlist information
740 is dumped in a single line
741 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
742 as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
743 another simulation option is used (Alias:
744 --force-download-archive)
745 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
746 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
747 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
748 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
819e0531 749 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
2dd5a2e3 750 Template for progress outputs, optionally
751 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
752 "download-title:" (the console title),
753 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
754 The video's fields are accessible under the
755 "info" key and the progress attributes are
756 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.:
757 --console-title --progress-template
758 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
759 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
760 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
761 to debug problems (very verbose)
762 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files
763 in the current directory to debug problems
764 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
6bcd846b 765
36f35428 766## Workarounds:
2dd5a2e3 767 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
768 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to servers
769 that do not support RFC 5746 secure
770 renegotiation
771 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
772 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
773 information about the video (Currently
774 supported only for YouTube)
775 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
776 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
777 option multiple times
778 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
779 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
780 or fribidi executable in PATH
781 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
782 during data extraction
783 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
784 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
785 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
786 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
787 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only
788 be used along with --min-sleep-interval
789 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
790 subtitle download
36f35428 791
cfcec693 792## Video Format Options:
2dd5a2e3 793 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
794 for more details
795 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
796 "Sorting Formats" for more details
797 --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
798 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
799 Formats" for more details (Alias: --S-force)
800 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
801 specified sort order (default)
802 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
803 into a single file
804 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
805 output file (default)
806 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
807 into a single file
808 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
809 output file (default)
810 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
811 over non-free ones of same quality. Use with
812 "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers
813 irrespective of quality
814 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
815 containers (default)
816 --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
817 those that are actually downloadable
818 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
819 actually downloadable
820 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
821 downloadable
822 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
823 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
824 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
825 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
826 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
827 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
8ae7be3e
PH		 828
829## Subtitle Options:
2dd5a2e3 830 --write-subs Write subtitle file
831 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
832 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
833 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
834 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
835 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
836 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
837 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
838 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
839 Eg: "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
840 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
841 be regex) or "all" separated by commas. (Eg:
842 --sub-langs "en.*,ja") You can prefix the
843 language code with a "-" to exclude it from
844 the requested languages. (Eg: --sub-langs
845 all,-live_chat) Use --list-subs for a list
846 of available language tags
6bcd846b 847
cfcec693 848## Authentication Options:
2dd5a2e3 849 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
850 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
851 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
852 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
853 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
854 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
855 either the path or its containing directory.
856 Defaults to ~/.netrc
857 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
858 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
859 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
860 a list of available MSOs
861 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
862 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
863 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
864 interactively
865 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
866 --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
867 format. May include the private key
868 --client-certificate-key KEYFILE
869 Path to private key file for client
870 certificate
bb58c9ed 871 --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
2dd5a2e3 872 Password for client certificate private key,
873 if encrypted. If not provided, and the key
874 is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask interactively
f5e008d1 875
c76eb41b 876## Post-Processing Options:
2dd5a2e3 877 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
878 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
35faefee 879 --audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
880 used. (currently supported: best (default),
e0ab9854 881 mp3, aac, m4a, opus, vorbis, flac, alac,
882 wav). You can specify multiple rules using
883 similar syntax as --remux-video
2dd5a2e3 884 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
885 converting the audio with -x. Insert a value
886 between 0 (best) and 10 (worst) for VBR or a
887 specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
888 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
889 necessary (currently supported: mp4, mkv,
35faefee 890 flv, webm, mov, avi, mka, ogg, mp3, aac,
891 m4a, opus, vorbis, flac, alac, wav). If
2dd5a2e3 892 target container does not support the
893 video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
894 can specify multiple rules; Eg.
895 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
35faefee 896 mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
2dd5a2e3 897 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
898 necessary. The syntax and supported formats
899 are the same as --remux-video
900 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
901 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
902 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
903 to give the argument to the specified
904 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
905 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
906 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
907 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
908 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
909 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
910 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
911 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
912 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
913 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
914 specified executable only when being used by
915 the specified postprocessor. Additionally,
916 for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
917 appended to the prefix optionally followed
918 by a number to pass the argument before the
919 specified input/output file. Eg: --ppa
920 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
921 this option multiple times to give different
922 arguments to different postprocessors.
923 (Alias: --ppa)
924 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
925 after post-processing
926 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
927 post-processing (default)
928 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
929 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
930 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
931 webm and mkv videos)
932 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
933 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
934 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
935 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
936 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
937 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are
938 used (Alias: --add-metadata)
939 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
940 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
941 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
942 (Alias: --add-chapters)
943 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias:
944 --no-add-chapters)
945 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
946 mkv/mka video files
947 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
948 to the video file
949 --parse-metadata FROM:TO Parse additional metadata like title/artist
950 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
951 for details
e9f4ccd1 952 --replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
2dd5a2e3 953 Replace text in a metadata field using the
954 given regex. This option can be used
955 multiple times
956 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
957 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
958 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
959 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
960 (default; only when the videos form a single
961 show). All the video files must have same
962 codecs and number of streams to be
963 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
964 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
965 the output filename for the concatenated
966 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
967 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
968 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
969 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
970 default; fix file if we can, warn
971 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
972 already exists)
973 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
64fa820c 974 path to the binary or its containing directory
2dd5a2e3 975 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
976 when to execute it (after_move if
977 unspecified), separated by a ":". Supported
978 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
979 --use-postprocessor. Same syntax as the
980 output template can be used to pass any
981 field as arguments to the command. After
982 download, an additional field "filepath"
983 that contains the final path of the
984 downloaded file is also available, and if no
985 fields are passed, %(filepath)q is appended
986 to the end of the command. This option can
987 be used multiple times
988 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
989 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
990 (currently supported: srt, vtt, ass, lrc)
991 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
992 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
00bbc5f1 993 (currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
994 can specify multiple rules using similar
995 syntax as --remux-video
2dd5a2e3 996 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
997 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can
998 be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
999 the output filename for the split files. See
1000 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
64fa820c 1001 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters (default)
2dd5a2e3 1002 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
5ec1b6b7 1003 given regular expression. The syntax is the
1004 same as --download-sections. This option can
2dd5a2e3 1005 be used multiple times
1006 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
1007 (default)
5ec1b6b7 1008 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes at cuts when
1009 downloading/splitting/removing sections.
1010 This is slow due to needing a re-encode, but
1011 the resulting video may have fewer artifacts
1012 around the cuts
2dd5a2e3 1013 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
1014 when cutting/splitting (default)
1015 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS]
1016 The (case sensitive) name of plugin
1017 postprocessors to be enabled, and
1018 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
1019 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
1020 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
1021 The "when" argument determines when the
1022 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
1023 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
1024 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
1025 "before_dl" (before each video download),
1026 "post_process" (after each video download;
1027 default), "after_move" (after moving video
1028 file to it's final locations), "after_video"
1029 (after downloading and processing all
1030 formats of a video), or "playlist" (at end
1031 of playlist). This option can be used
64fa820c 1032 multiple times to add different postprocessors
7a340e0d
NA		 1033
1034## SponsorBlock Options:
1035Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1036 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
8a51f564 1037 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1038
2dd5a2e3 1039 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1040 for, separated by commas. Available
1041 categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
1042 selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
1043 music_offtopic, poi_highlight, all and
1044 default (=all). You can prefix the category
1045 with a "-" to exclude it. See [1] for
1046 description of the categories. Eg:
1047 --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1048 [1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1049 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1050 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1051 category is present in both mark and remove,
1052 remove takes precedence. The syntax and
1053 available categories are the same as for
1054 --sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
1055 refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight is
1056 not available
7a340e0d 1057 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
2dd5a2e3 1058 An output template for the title of the
1059 SponsorBlock chapters created by
1060 --sponsorblock-mark. The only available
1061 fields are start_time, end_time, category,
1062 categories, name, category_names. Defaults
1063 to "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1064 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1065 --sponsorblock-remove
1066 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1067 https://sponsor.ajay.app
a9e7f546 1068
78895bd3 1069## Extractor Options:
2dd5a2e3 1070 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors
1071 (default is 3), or "infinite"
1072 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1073 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1074 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1075 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1076 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1077 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1078 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1079 formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
1080 (default)
1081 --extractor-args KEY:ARGS Pass these arguments to the extractor. See
1082 "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You can
1083 use this option multiple times to give
1084 arguments for different extractors
17cb02d0 1085
b7770046
U		 1086# CONFIGURATION
1087
7a5c1cfe 1088You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
e2e43aea 1089
0202b52a 10901. **Main Configuration**: The file given by `--config-location`
7a5c1cfe 10911. **Portable Configuration**: `yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the bundled binary. If you are running from source-code (`<root dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`), the root directory is used instead.
88f23a18 10921. **Home Configuration**: `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by `-P`, or in the current directory if no such path is given
e2e43aea 10931. **User Configuration**:
1094 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1095 * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
1096 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1097 * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1098 * `~/yt-dlp.conf`
1099 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
3d3bb168 1100
ec2e44fc 1101 `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%` defaults to `~/.config` if undefined. On windows, `%APPDATA%` generally points to `C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming` and `~` points to `%HOME%` if present, `%USERPROFILE%` (generally `C:\Users\<user name>`), or `%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
3d3bb168 1102
07cce701 11031. **System Configuration**: `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
b7770046 1104
7a5c1cfe 1105For example, with the following configuration file yt-dlp will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under `YouTube` directory in your home directory:
b7770046
U		 1106```
1107# Lines starting with # are comments
1108
1109# Always extract audio
1110-x
1111
1112# Do not copy the mtime
1113--no-mtime
1114
1115# Use this proxy
1116--proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1117
298f597b 1118# Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1119-o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
b7770046
U		 1120```
1121
e2e43aea 1122Note that options in configuration file are just the same options aka switches used in regular command line calls; thus there **must be no whitespace** after `-` or `--`, e.g. `-o` or `--proxy` but not `- o` or `-- proxy`.
b7770046 1123
a4211baf 1124You 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
U		 1125
1126### Authentication with `.netrc` file
1127
0001fcb5 1128You 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
U		 1129```
1130touch $HOME/.netrc
1131chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
1132```
1133After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1134```
0001fcb5 1135machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
b7770046
U		 1136```
1137For example:
1138```
1139machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1140machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1141```
7a5c1cfe 1142To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
b7770046 1143
0001fcb5 1144The default location of the .netrc file is `$HOME` (`~`) in UNIX. On Windows, it is `%HOME%` if present, `%USERPROFILE%` (generally `C:\Users\<user name>`) or `%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
b7770046
U		 1145
1146# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
1147
0202b52a 1148The `-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 1149
ec2e44fc 1150<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1151**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
ec2e44fc 1152<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1153
e58c22a0 1154The 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 1155
0930b11f 1156It may however also contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences may be formatted according to [Python string formatting operations](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting). For example, `%(NAME)s` or `%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations.
a439a3a4 1157
1158The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
3d3bb168 1159
2b8a2973 11601. **Object traversal**: The dictionaries and lists available in metadata can be traversed by using a `.` (dot) separator. You can also do python slicing using `:`. Eg: `%(tags.0)s`, `%(subtitles.en.-1.ext)s`, `%(id.3:7:-1)s`, `%(formats.:.format_id)s`. `%()s` refers to the entire infodict. Note that all the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use `-j` to see such fields
ec2e44fc 1161
e625be0d 11621. **Addition**: Addition and subtraction of numeric fields can be done using `+` and `-` respectively. Eg: `%(playlist_index+10)03d`, `%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
ec2e44fc 1163
e625be0d 11641. **Date/time Formatting**: Date/time fields can be formatted according to [strftime formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-format-codes) by specifying it separated from the field name using a `>`. Eg: `%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`, `%(upload_date>%Y-%m-%d)s`, `%(epoch-3600>%H-%M-%S)s`
ec2e44fc 1165
e75bb0d6 11661. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a `,`. Eg: `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
ec2e44fc 1167
e978789f
P		 11681. **Replacement**: A replacement value can specified using a `&` separator. If the field is *not* empty, this replacement value will be used instead of the actual field content. This is done after alternate fields are considered; thus the replacement is used if *any* of the alternative fields is *not* empty.
1169
e75bb0d6 11701. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a `|` separator. This overrides `--output-na-template`. Eg: `%(uploader|Unknown)s`
ec2e44fc 1171
abbeeebc 11721. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types `diouxXeEfFgGcrs`, `B`, `j`, `l`, `q`, `D`, `S` can be used for converting to **B**ytes, **j**son (flag `#` for pretty-printing), a comma separated **l**ist (flag `#` for `\n` newline-separated), a string **q**uoted for the terminal (flag `#` to split a list into different arguments), to add **D**ecimal suffixes (Eg: 10M) (flag `#` to use 1024 as factor), and to **S**anitize as filename (flag `#` for restricted), respectively
ec2e44fc 1173
524e2e4f 11741. **Unicode normalization**: The format type `U` can be used for NFC [unicode normalization](https://docs.python.org/3/library/unicodedata.html#unicodedata.normalize). The alternate form flag (`#`) changes the normalization to NFD and the conversion flag `+` can be used for NFKC/NFKD compatibility equivalence normalization. Eg: `%(title)+.100U` is NFKC
a439a3a4 1175
1176To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1177```
e978789f 1178%(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
a439a3a4 1179```
de6000d9 1180
dbcea058 1181Additionally, you can set different output templates for the various metadata files separately from the general output template by specifying the type of file followed by the template separated by a colon `:`. The different file types supported are `subtitle`, `thumbnail`, `description`, `annotation` (deprecated), `infojson`, `link`, `pl_thumbnail`, `pl_description`, `pl_infojson`, `chapter`, `pl_video`. For example, `-o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "thumbnail:%(title)s\%(title)s.%(ext)s"` will put the thumbnails in a folder with the same name as the video. If any of the templates is empty, that type of file will not be written. Eg: `--write-thumbnail -o "thumbnail:"` will write thumbnails only for playlists and not for video.
e29663c6 1182
1183The available fields are:
b7770046
U		 1184
1185 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1186 - `title` (string): Video title
455a15e2 1187 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
b7770046
U		 1188 - `url` (string): Video URL
1189 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1190 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
597c1866 1191 - `description` (string): The description of the video
b7770046
U		 1192 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1193 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1194 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1195 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
b7770046 1196 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
ae6a1b95 1197 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
e6f21b3d 1198 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
ae6a1b95 1199 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
f0d785d3 1200 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
ae6a1b95 1201 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
b7770046
U		 1202 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1203 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1204 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
6c73052c 1205 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
b7770046
U		 1206 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1207 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
53c18592 1208 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
b7770046
U		 1209 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1210 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1211 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1212 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1213 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
277d6ff5 1214 - `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 1215 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
940a67a3 1216 - `live_status` (string): One of "is_live", "was_live", "is_upcoming", "not_live"
b7770046 1217 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
f76ede8e 1218 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
6cfda058 1219 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
940a67a3 1220 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
b7770046
U		 1221 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1222 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
29b6000e 1223 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
b7770046
U		 1224 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by `--format`
1225 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
1226 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
1227 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
1228 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
1229 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1230 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1231 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
1232 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1233 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1234 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
176f1866 1235 - `dynamic_range` (string): The dynamic range of the video
b7770046
U		 1236 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
1237 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
1238 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
1239 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
1240 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
1241 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1242 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
455a15e2 1243 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
b7770046 1244 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`
9c906919 1245 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
e6f21b3d 1246 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
455a15e2 1247 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1248 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1249 - `playlist` (string): `playlist_id` or `playlist_title`
f0d785d3 1250 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
e6f21b3d 1251 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1252 - `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
U		 1253 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1254 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
bd99f6e6 1255 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
0bb322b9 1256 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1257 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
bd99f6e6 1258 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)
b7770046
U		 1259
1260Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1261
1262 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1263 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1264 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1265
1266Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1267
1268 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1269 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1270 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1271 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1272 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1273 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1274 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1275
1276Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1277
1278 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1279 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1280 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1281 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1282 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1283 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1284 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1285 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1286 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1287 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1288
5ec1b6b7 1289Available only when using `--download-sections` and for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
72755351 1290
1291 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1292 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1293 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1294 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1295
53c18592 1296Available only when used in `--print`:
1297
1298 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1299 - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the actual filename may be different due to post-processing. Use `--exec echo` to get the name after all postprocessing is complete
ed5835b4 1300 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by `--list-formats`
1301 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by `--list-thumbnails`
1302 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1303 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1304
7a340e0d
NA		 1305
1306Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1307
1308 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1309 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1310 - `categories` (list): The SponsorBlock categories the chapter belongs to
1311 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1312 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1313 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
53c18592 1314
49a57e70 1315Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. For example for `-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an mp4 video with title `yt-dlp test video` and id `BaW_jenozKc`, this will result in a `yt-dlp test video-BaW_jenozKc.mp4` file created in the current directory.
1316
1317Note that some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor. Such sequences will be replaced with placeholder value provided with `--output-na-placeholder` (`NA` by default).
b7770046 1318
0930b11f 1319**Tip**: Look at the `-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
b7770046 1320
49a57e70 1321For numeric sequences you can use [numeric related formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting), for example, `%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to 5 characters, like in `00042`.
b7770046 1322
940a67a3 1323Output templates can also contain arbitrary hierarchical path, e.g. `-o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s"` which will result in downloading each video in a directory corresponding to this path template. Any missing directory will be automatically created for you.
b7770046
U		 1324
1325To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
1326
91ebc640 1327The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
b7770046 1328
f304da8a 1329In 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 1330
ec2e44fc 1331<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046
U		 1332#### Output template and Windows batch files
1333
1334If you are using an output template inside a Windows batch file then you must escape plain percent characters (`%`) by doubling, so that `-o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"` should become `-o "%%(title)s-%%(id)s.%%(ext)s"`. However you should not touch `%`'s that are not plain characters, e.g. environment variables for expansion should stay intact: `-o "C:\%HOMEPATH%\Desktop\%%(title)s.%%(ext)s"`.
ec2e44fc 1335<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046
U		 1336
1337#### Output template examples
1338
b7770046 1339```bash
940a67a3 1340$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1341test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1342
940a67a3 1343$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1344youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
b7770046 1345
940a67a3 1346$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
9222c381 1347youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
b7770046
U		 1348
1349# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
940a67a3 1350$ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
b7770046 1351
b050d210 1352# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
940a67a3 1353$ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
e29663c6 1354
e978789f 1355# Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
6a34813a 1356$ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist_index|)s%(playlist_index& - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
e978789f 1357
b7770046 1358# Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
940a67a3 1359$ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
b7770046
U		 1360
1361# Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
940a67a3 1362$ 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		 1363
1364# Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
940a67a3 1365$ 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 1366
6a34813a 1367# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1368# and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1369$ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1370
1371# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1372$ 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
1373
b7770046 1374# Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
7a5c1cfe 1375$ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
b7770046
U		 1376```
1377
1378# FORMAT SELECTION
1379
7a5c1cfe
P		 1380By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1381This 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 1382
c111cefa 1383**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.
1384
eff63539 1385The 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 1386
ec2e44fc 1387<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1388**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
ec2e44fc 1389<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1390
a439a3a4 1391The simplest case is requesting a specific format, for example with `-f 22` you can download the format with format code equal to 22. You can get the list of available format codes for particular video using `--list-formats` or `-F`. Note that these format codes are extractor specific.
b7770046
U		 1392
1393You 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.
1394
fa9f30b8 1395You can use `-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1396
b7770046
U		 1397You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1398
59a7a13e 1399 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1400 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
1401 - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio
1402 - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1403 - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
1404 - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
1405 - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
ae6a1b95 1406 - `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 1407 - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
909d24dd 1408 - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1409 - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
909d24dd 1410 - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1411 - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
909d24dd 1412 - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
b7770046 1413
ae6a1b95 1414For 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 1415
1416You 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 1417
eb8a4433 1418If you want to download multiple videos and they don't have the same formats available, you can specify the order of preference using slashes. Note that formats on the left hand side are preferred, for example `-f 22/17/18` will download format 22 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 17 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 18 if it's available, otherwise it will complain that no suitable formats are available for download.
b7770046
U		 1419
1420If 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`.
1421
d806c9fd 1422You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using `-f <format1>+<format2>+...` (requires ffmpeg installed), for example `-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg.
1423
1424**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
1425
1426Unless `--video-multistreams` is used, all formats with a video stream except the first one are ignored. Similarly, unless `--audio-multistreams` is used, all formats with an audio stream except the first one are ignored. For example, `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --video-multistreams --audio-multistreams` will download and merge all 3 given formats. The resulting file will have 2 video streams and 2 audio streams. But `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --no-video-multistreams` will download and merge only `bestvideo` and `bestaudio`. `best` is ignored since another format containing a video stream (`bestvideo`) has already been selected. The order of the formats is therefore important. `-f best+bestaudio --no-audio-multistreams` will download and merge both formats while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams` will ignore `best` and download only `bestaudio`.
eb8a4433 1427
1428## Filtering Formats
1429
b7770046
U		 1430You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
1431
1432The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
1433
1434 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1435 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1436 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
1437 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1438 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1439 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1440 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1441 - `fps`: Frame rate
1442
1ce9a3cb 1443Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains), `~=` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
b7770046
U		 1444
1445 - `ext`: File extension
1446 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1447 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1448 - `container`: Name of the container format
1449 - `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`)
1450 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
29f7c58a 1451 - `language`: Language code
b7770046 1452
1ce9a3cb 1453Any 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 1454
e58c22a0 1455Note that none of the aforementioned meta fields are guaranteed to be present since this solely depends on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, i.e. the metadata offered by the website. Any other field made available by the extractor can also be used for filtering.
b7770046 1456
e094cec1 1457Formats for which the value is not known are excluded unless you put a question mark (`?`) after the operator. You can combine format filters, so `-f "[height<=?720][tbr>500]"` selects up to 720p videos (or videos where the height is not known) with a bitrate of at least 500 KBit/s. You can also use the filters with `all` to download all formats that satisfy the filter. For example, `-f "all[vcodec=none]"` selects all audio-only formats.
b7770046 1458
940a67a3 1459Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses, for example if you want to download the best pre-merged mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480 you can use `-f "(mp4,webm)[height<480]"`.
b7770046 1460
eb8a4433 1461## Sorting Formats
1462
2e7781a9 1463You can change the criteria for being considered the `best` by using `-S` (`--format-sort`). The general format for this is `--format-sort field1,field2...`.
1464
1465The available fields are:
eb8a4433 1466
63be1aab 1467 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
1468 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
ed8d87f9 1469 - `ie_pref`: The format preference
1470 - `lang`: The language preference
1471 - `quality`: The quality of the format
1472 - `source`: The preference of the source
d80d98e7 1473 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > `mms`/`rtsp` > `f4f`/`f4m`)
1474 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other)
1475 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`flac`/`alac` > `wav`/`aiff` > `opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `eac3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other)
eb8a4433 1476 - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
d80d98e7 1477 - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `webm` > `flv` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is preferred.
1478 - `aext`: Audio Extension (`m4a` > `aac` > `mp3` > `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to `opus` > `ogg` > `webm` > `m4a` > `mp3` > `aac`.
63be1aab 1479 - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
0930b11f 1480 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
63be1aab 1481 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1482 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
eb8a4433 1483 - `height`: Height of video
1484 - `width`: Width of video
63be1aab 1485 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1486 - `fps`: Framerate of video
49a57e70 1487 - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `HLG` > `SDR`)
63be1aab 1488 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1489 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1490 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1491 - `br`: Equivalent to using `tbr,vbr,abr`
1492 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
d806c9fd 1493
1494**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 1495
9ee4f0bb 1496All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in descending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+`. Eg: `+res` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a preferred value for the fields, separated by a `:`. Eg: `res:720` prefers larger videos, but no larger than 720p and the smallest video if there are no videos less than 720p. For `codec` and `ext`, you can provide two preferred values, the first for video and the second for audio. Eg: `+codec:avc:m4a` (equivalent to `+vcodec:avc,+acodec:m4a`) sets the video codec preference to `h264` > `h265` > `vp9` > `vp9.2` > `av01` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` and audio codec preference to `mp4a` > `aac` > `vorbis` > `opus` > `mp3` > `ac3` > `dts`. You can also make the sorting prefer the nearest values to the provided by using `~` as the delimiter. Eg: `filesize~1G` prefers the format with filesize closest to 1 GiB.
1497
176f1866 1498The fields `hasvid` and `ie_pref` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using `--format-sort-force`. Apart from these, the default order used is: `lang,quality,res,fps,hdr:12,codec:vp9.2,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id`. The extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
eb8a4433 1499
e75bb0d6 1500Note that the default has `codec:vp9.2`; i.e. `av1` is not preferred. Similarly, the default for hdr is `hdr:12`; i.e. dolby vision is not preferred. These choices are made since DV and AV1 formats are not yet fully compatible with most devices. This may be changed in the future as more devices become capable of smoothly playing back these formats.
eb8a4433 1501
e58c22a0 1502If 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 1503
1504**Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1505
eb8a4433 1506## Format Selection examples
b7770046 1507
b7770046 1508```bash
e58c22a0 1509# Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
909d24dd 1510# or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
940a67a3 1511$ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
909d24dd 1512
1513# Download best format that contains video,
1514# and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
940a67a3 1515$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
2af884ff 1516
1517# Same as above
7a5c1cfe 1518$ yt-dlp
909d24dd 1519
6fd35a11 1520# Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1521# For this case, an output template should be used since
1522# by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
940a67a3 1523$ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
909d24dd 1524
f8d4ad9a 1525# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1526# and all audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1527$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
f8d4ad9a 1528
1529# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1530# and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1531$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
909d24dd 1532
6fd35a11 1533
1534# The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
f8d4ad9a 1535# and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
6fd35a11 1536
1537# Download the worst video available (old method)
940a67a3 1538$ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
eb8a4433 1539
1540# Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
940a67a3 1541$ yt-dlp -S "+res"
eb8a4433 1542
1543# Download the smallest video available
940a67a3 1544$ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
eb8a4433 1545
1546
909d24dd 1547
eb8a4433 1548# Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
940a67a3 1549$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
eb8a4433 1550
1551# Download the best video with the best extension
1552# (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
940a67a3 1553$ yt-dlp -S "ext"
eb8a4433 1554
1555
909d24dd 1556
eb8a4433 1557# Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1558# or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1559$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
b7770046 1560
eb8a4433 1561# Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1562# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1563$ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
b7770046 1564
eb8a4433 1565# Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1566# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1567# Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1568# So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
940a67a3 1569$ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
b7770046 1570
b7770046 1571
909d24dd 1572
eb8a4433 1573# Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1574# or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1575$ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
eb8a4433 1576
1577# Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1578# or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1579$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
eb8a4433 1580
1581# Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
940a67a3 1582$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
eb8a4433 1583
1584
909d24dd 1585
eb8a4433 1586# Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1587# or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
940a67a3 1588$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1589
1590# Download best video available via the best protocol
1591# (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
940a67a3 1592$ yt-dlp -S "proto"
eb8a4433 1593
1594
909d24dd 1595
1ce9a3cb
LF		 1596# Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1597# or the best video if there is no such video
1598$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1599
1600# Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1601# or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1602$ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1603
1604# Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1605# or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1606$ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1607
1608
1609
1610# More complex examples
1611
e58c22a0 1612# Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1613# or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
940a67a3 1614$ 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 1615
1616# Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
f8d4ad9a 1617# or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1618# preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
940a67a3 1619$ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
eb8a4433 1620
1621
909d24dd 1622
eb8a4433 1623# Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1624# or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1625# preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
940a67a3 1626$ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
b7770046 1627```
eb8a4433 1628
73cd218f 1629# MODIFYING METADATA
1630
a4211baf 1631The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
e9f4ccd1 1632
418964fa 1633`--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 1634
2e7781a9 1635The general syntax of `--parse-metadata FROM:TO` is to give the name of a field or an [output template](#output-template) to extract data from, and the format to interpret it as, separated by a colon `:`. Either a [python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax) with named capture groups or a similar syntax to the [output template](#output-template) (only `%(field)s` formatting is supported) can be used for `TO`. The option can be used multiple times to parse and modify various fields.
73cd218f 1636
1637Note that any field created by this can be used in the [output template](#output-template) and will also affect the media file's metadata added when using `--add-metadata`.
1638
9c2b75b5 1639This option also has a few special uses:
3d3bb168 1640
28b0eb0f 1641* You can download an additional URL based on the metadata of the currently downloaded video. To do this, set the field `additional_urls` to the URL that you want to download. Eg: `--parse-metadata "description:(?P<additional_urls>https?://www\.vimeo\.com/\d+)` will download the first vimeo video found in the description
3d3bb168 1642
88968992 1643* You can use this to change the metadata that is embedded in the media file. To do this, set the value of the corresponding field with a `meta_` prefix. For example, any value you set to `meta_description` field will be added to the `description` field in the file. For example, you can use this to set a different "description" and "synopsis". To modify the metadata of individual streams, use the `meta<n>_` prefix (Eg: `meta1_language`). Any value set to the `meta_` field will overwrite all default values.
c31be5b0 1644
08d30158 1645**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.
1646
c31be5b0 1647For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1648
08d30158 1649Metadata fields | From
1650:--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1651`title` | `track` or `title`
1652`date` | `upload_date`
1653`description`, `synopsis` | `description`
1654`purl`, `comment` | `webpage_url`
1655`track` | `track_number`
1656`artist` | `artist`, `creator`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
1657`genre` | `genre`
1658`album` | `album`
1659`album_artist` | `album_artist`
1660`disc` | `disc_number`
1661`show` | `series`
1662`season_number` | `season_number`
1663`episode_id` | `episode` or `episode_id`
1664`episode_sort` | `episode_number`
1665`language` of each stream | the format's `language`
1666
c31be5b0 1667**Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1668
73cd218f 1669
1670## Modifying metadata examples
1671
73cd218f 1672```bash
1673# Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
940a67a3 1674$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
73cd218f 1675
1676# Regex example
940a67a3 1677$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
73cd218f 1678
1679# Set title as "Series name S01E05"
940a67a3 1680$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
73cd218f 1681
a44ca5a4 1682# Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
1683$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --add-metadata
1684
1685# Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
1686# handling multiple lines correctly
940a67a3 1687$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --add-metadata
73cd218f 1688
0930b11f 1689# Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
940a67a3 1690$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<formats>)" -j
0930b11f 1691
e9f4ccd1 1692# Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
940a67a3 1693$ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
e9f4ccd1 1694
73cd218f 1695```
1696
5d3a0e79 1697# EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1698
a44ca5a4 1699Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using `--extractor-args KEY:ARGS`. `ARGS` is a `;` (semicolon) separated string of `ARG=VAL1,VAL2`. Eg: `--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android_embedded,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
5d3a0e79 1700
1701The following extractors use this feature:
96565c7e 1702
1703#### youtube
18e49408 1704* `skip`: One or more of `hls`, `dash` or `translated_subs` to skip extraction of the m3u8 manifests, dash manifests and auto-translated subtitles respectively
56ba69e4 1705* `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web`, `android` and `ios` with variants `_music`, `_embedded`, `_embedscreen`, `_creator` (Eg: `web_embedded`); and `mweb` and `tv_embedded` (agegate bypass) with no variants. By default, `android,web` is used, but `tv_embedded` and `creator` variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly the music variants are added for `music.youtube.com` urls. You can use `all` to use all the clients, and `default` for the default clients.
96565c7e 1706* `player_skip`: Skip some network requests that are generally needed for robust extraction. One or more of `configs` (skip client configs), `webpage` (skip initial webpage), `js` (skip js player). While these options can help reduce the number of requests needed or avoid some rate-limiting, they could cause some issues. See [#860](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/860) for more details
adbc4ec4 1707* `include_live_dash`: Include live dash formats even without `--live-from-start` (These formats don't download properly)
96565c7e 1708* `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
a44ca5a4 1709* `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`
1710 * E.g. `all,all,1000,10` will get a maximum of 1000 replies total, with up to 10 replies per thread. `1000,all,100` will get a maximum of 1000 comments, with a maximum of 100 replies total
2ae778b8 1711* `innertube_host`: Innertube API host to use for all API requests
1712 * e.g. `studio.youtube.com`, `youtubei.googleapis.com`
1713 * Note: Cookies exported from `www.youtube.com` will not work with hosts other than `*.youtube.com`
1714* `innertube_key`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
96565c7e 1715
1716#### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1717* `skip`: One or more of `webpage` (skip initial webpage download), `authcheck` (allow the download of playlists requiring authentication when no initial webpage is downloaded. This may cause unwanted behavior, see [#1122](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/1122) for more details)
a30a6ed3 1718* `approximate_date`: Extract approximate `upload_date` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
96565c7e 1719
1720#### funimation
1721* `language`: Languages to extract. Eg: `funimation:language=english,japanese`
1722* `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`
1723
a9d4da60 1724#### crunchyroll
1725* `language`: Languages to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:language=jaJp`
1726* `hardsub`: Which hard-sub versions to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:hardsub=None,enUS`
1727
ae6a1b95 1728#### crunchyrollbeta
706dfe44
JH		 1729* `format`: Which stream type(s) to extract. Default is `adaptive_hls` Eg: `crunchyrollbeta:format=vo_adaptive_hls`
1730 * Potentially useful values include `adaptive_hls`, `adaptive_dash`, `vo_adaptive_hls`, `vo_adaptive_dash`, `download_hls`, `trailer_hls`, `trailer_dash`
1731* `hardsub`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract. Default is `None` (no hardsubs). Eg: `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None`
1732
96565c7e 1733#### vikichannel
1734* `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
73d829c1 1735
7bdcb4a4
LNO		 1736#### niconico
1737* `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.**
1738
aa4b0545 1739#### youtubewebarchive
1740* `check_all`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails`, `captures`
1741
d43de682
M		 1742#### gamejolt
1743* `comment_sort`: `hot` (default), `you` (cookies needed), `top`, `new` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1744
26f2aa3d
AG		 1745#### hotstar
1746* `res`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd`, `hd`, `fhd`
1747* `vcodec`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264`, `h265`, `dvh265`
1748* `dr`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr`, `hdr10`, `dv`
1749
046cab39
M		 1750#### tiktok
1751* `app_version`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version`. (e.g. `20.2.1`)
1752* `manifest_app_version`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with. (e.g. `221`)
1753
7eaf7f9a 1754#### rokfinchannel
1755* `tab`: Which tab to download. One of `new`, `top`, `videos`, `podcasts`, `streams`, `stacks`. (E.g. `rokfinchannel:tab=streams`)
1756
1757
bc97cdae 1758NOTE: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
5d3a0e79 1759
ec2e44fc 1760<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1761
3acf6d38 1762
f74980cb 1763# PLUGINS
b7770046 1764
3ae5e797 1765Plugins are loaded from `<root-dir>/ytdlp_plugins/<type>/__init__.py`; where `<root-dir>` is the directory of the binary (`<root-dir>/yt-dlp`), or the root directory of the module if you are running directly from source-code (`<root dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`). Plugins are currently not supported for the `pip` version
1766
1767Plugins can be of `<type>`s `extractor` or `postprocessor`. Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it. Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME`.
1768
1769See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example plugins.
1770
1771Note 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
1772
1773If you are a plugin author, add [ytdlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/ytdlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability
b7770046 1774
b7770046 1775
8c6f4daa 1776
1777# EMBEDDING YT-DLP
1778
1779yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1780
1781Your 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.
1782
1783From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1784
1785```python
59a7a13e 1786from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
8c6f4daa 1787
3d3bb168 1788URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1789with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1790 ydl.download(URLS)
8c6f4daa 1791```
1792
1890fc63 1793Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of options available, have a look at [`yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py`](yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py#L180).
8c6f4daa 1794
43cc91ad 1795**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 1796
1797## Embedding examples
1798
43cc91ad 1799#### Extracting information
8c6f4daa 1800
1801```python
1802import json
8c6f4daa 1803import yt_dlp
8c6f4daa 1804
3d3bb168 1805URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
1806
1807# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
1808ydl_opts = {}
1809with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1810 info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
1811
1812 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
1813 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1814```
43cc91ad 1815#### Download using an info-json
3d3bb168 1816
1817```python
1818import yt_dlp
1819
1820INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
1821
1822with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1823 error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
1824
1825print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
1826 else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
1827```
1828
43cc91ad 1829#### Extract audio
3d3bb168 1830
1831```python
1832import yt_dlp
1833
1834URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1835
1836ydl_opts = {
0a41f331 1837 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
3d3bb168 1838 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
1839 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
1840 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
1841 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
1842 }]
1843}
1844
1845with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1846 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1847```
0a41f331 1848
1849#### Filter videos
1850
1851```python
1852import yt_dlp
1853
1854URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1855
1856def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
1857 """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
1858 duration = info.get('duration')
1859 if duration and duration < 60:
1860 return 'The video is too short'
1861
1862ydl_opts = {
1863 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
1864}
1865
1866with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1867 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1868```
1869
43cc91ad 1870#### Adding logger and progress hook
3d3bb168 1871
1872```python
1873import yt_dlp
1874
1875URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
8c6f4daa 1876
1877class MyLogger:
1878 def debug(self, msg):
e75bb0d6 1879 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
8c6f4daa 1880 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
1881 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
1882 pass
1883 else:
1884 self.info(msg)
1885
1886 def info(self, msg):
1887 pass
1888
1889 def warning(self, msg):
1890 pass
1891
1892 def error(self, msg):
1893 print(msg)
1894
1895
3d3bb168 1896# ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
1897def my_hook(d):
1898 if d['status'] == 'finished':
1899 print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
1900
1901
1902ydl_opts = {
1903 'logger': MyLogger(),
1904 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
1905}
1906
1907with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1908 ydl.download(URLS)
1909```
1910
43cc91ad 1911#### Add a custom PostProcessor
3d3bb168 1912
1913```python
1914import yt_dlp
1915
1916URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1917
1918# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
59a7a13e 1919class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
8c6f4daa 1920 def run(self, info):
1921 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
1922 return [], info
1923
1924
3d3bb168 1925with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1926 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP())
1927 ydl.download(URLS)
1928```
8c6f4daa 1929
1930
43cc91ad 1931#### Use a custom format selector
3d3bb168 1932
1933```python
1934import yt_dlp
1935
1936URL = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1937
093a1710 1938def format_selector(ctx):
1939 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
3d3bb168 1940 NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
093a1710 1941
1942 # formats are already sorted worst to best
1943 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
1944
1945 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
1946 best_video = next(f for f in formats
1947 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
1948
1949 # find compatible audio extension
1950 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
1951 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
1952 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
1953 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
1954
3d3bb168 1955 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
093a1710 1956 yield {
093a1710 1957 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
1958 'ext': best_video['ext'],
1959 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
e75bb0d6 1960 # Must be + separated list of protocols
093a1710 1961 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
1962 }
1963
1964
8c6f4daa 1965ydl_opts = {
093a1710 1966 'format': format_selector,
8c6f4daa 1967}
1968
1969with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
3d3bb168 1970 ydl.download(URLS)
8c6f4daa 1971```
1972
ec2e44fc 1973<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
1974
e167860c 1975# DEPRECATED OPTIONS
1976
1977These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
1978
8130779d 1979#### Almost redundant options
1980While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
1981
1982 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
1983 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
0bfc53d0 1984 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
8130779d 1985 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
1986
6ccf351a 1987#### Redundant options
1988While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
f4536226 1989
53c18592 1990 --get-description --print description
1991 --get-duration --print duration_string
1992 --get-filename --print filename
1993 --get-format --print format
1994 --get-id --print id
1995 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
1996 -e, --get-title --print title
1997 -g, --get-url --print urls
8f18aca8 1998 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
1999 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
2000 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
2001 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
8b7539d2 2002 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
2003 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
7e88d7d7 2004 --playlist-start NUMBER -I NUMBER:
2005 --playlist-end NUMBER -I :NUMBER
2006 --playlist-reverse -I ::-1
2007 --no-playlist-reverse Default
6ccf351a 2008
2009
2010#### Not recommended
2011While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
2012
1e43a6f7 2013 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
2014 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
d9aa2332 2015 --all-formats -f all
c32b0aab 2016 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
b7b04c78 2017 --print-json -j --no-simulate
e167860c 2018 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting. Eg: %(autonumber)03d
a439a3a4 2019 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
19b824f6 2020 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
73cd218f 2021 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
52a8a1e1 2022 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
2023 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
53ed7066 2024 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
2025 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
5d3a0e79 2026 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
2027 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
2028 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
2029 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
6ccf351a 2030
2031
2032#### Developer options
2033These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
2034
34488702 2035 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
f95b9dee 2036 --load-pages Load pages dumped by --write-pages
6ccf351a 2037 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
88acdbc2 2038 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
2039 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
f4536226 2040
2041
2042#### Old aliases
2043These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
2044
2045 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
3856407a 2046 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
f4536226 2047 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
2048 --dump-headers --print-traffic
2049 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
2050 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
2051 --load-info --load-info-json
3856407a 2052 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
f4536226 2053 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
e167860c 2054 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
e167860c 2055 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
2056 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
f4536226 2057 --split-tracks --split-chapters
2058 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
e167860c 2059 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
f4536226 2060 --write-srt --write-subs
e167860c 2061 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
f4536226 2062
7a340e0d 2063#### Sponskrub Options
f304da8a 2064Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock` options
7a340e0d
NA		 2065
2066 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
2067 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
2068 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
2069 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
2070 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
2071 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
2072 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
2073 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
2074
f4536226 2075#### No longer supported
2076These options may no longer work as intended
2077
2078 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
2079 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
2080 -C, --call-home Not implemented
2081 --no-call-home Default
2082 --include-ads No longer supported
2083 --no-include-ads Default
0bb1bc1b 2084 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
2085 --no-write-annotations Default
486fb179 2086
2087#### Removed
2088These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
2089
f4536226 2090 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
3d3bb168 2091 -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
f4536226 2092
8c6f4daa 2093# CONTRIBUTING
2094See [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 2095
c2b5f311 2096# MORE
8c6f4daa 2097For FAQ see the [youtube-dl README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)
fork of https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/