[yt-dlp.git] / README.md

% YOUTUBE-DL(1)

# NAME
youtube-dl

# SYNOPSIS
**youtube-dl** [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]

# DESCRIPTION
**youtube-dl** is a small command-line program to download videos from
YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version
2.6, 2.7, or 3.3+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on
your Unix box, on Windows or on Mac OS X. It is released to the public domain,
which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.

# OPTIONS
    -h, --help                 print this help text and exit
    --version                  print program version and exit
    -U, --update               update this program to latest version
    -i, --ignore-errors        continue on download errors
    -r, --rate-limit LIMIT     maximum download rate (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
    -R, --retries RETRIES      number of retries (default is 10)
    --buffer-size SIZE         size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16k)
                               (default is 1024)
    --no-resize-buffer         do not automatically adjust the buffer size. By
                               default, the buffer size is automatically resized
                               from an initial value of SIZE.
    --dump-user-agent          display the current browser identification
    --user-agent UA            specify a custom user agent
    --list-extractors          List all supported extractors and the URLs they
                               would handle

## Video Selection:
    --playlist-start NUMBER    playlist video to start at (default is 1)
    --playlist-end NUMBER      playlist video to end at (default is last)
    --match-title REGEX        download only matching titles (regex or caseless
                               sub-string)
    --reject-title REGEX       skip download for matching titles (regex or
                               caseless sub-string)
    --max-downloads NUMBER     Abort after downloading NUMBER files
    --min-filesize SIZE        Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE
                               (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
    --max-filesize SIZE        Do not download any videos larger than SIZE (e.g.
                               50k or 44.6m)

## Filesystem Options:
    -t, --title                use title in file name
    --id                       use video ID in file name
    -l, --literal              [deprecated] alias of --title
    -A, --auto-number          number downloaded files starting from 00000
    -o, --output TEMPLATE      output filename template. Use %(title)s to get
                               the title, %(uploader)s for the uploader name,
                               %(uploader_id)s for the uploader nickname if
                               different, %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
                               incremented number, %(ext)s for the filename
                               extension, %(upload_date)s for the upload date
                               (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
                               (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the video id
                               and %% for a literal percent. Use - to output to
                               stdout. Can also be used to download to a
                               different directory, for example with -o '/my/dow
                               nloads/%(uploader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
    --autonumber-size NUMBER   Specifies the number of digits in %(autonumber)s
                               when it is present in output filename template or
                               --autonumber option is given
    --restrict-filenames       Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters, and
                               avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
    -a, --batch-file FILE      file containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)
    -w, --no-overwrites        do not overwrite files
    -c, --continue             resume partially downloaded files
    --no-continue              do not resume partially downloaded files (restart
                               from beginning)
    --cookies FILE             file to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in
    --no-part                  do not use .part files
    --no-mtime                 do not use the Last-modified header to set the
                               file modification time
    --write-description        write video description to a .description file
    --write-info-json          write video metadata to a .info.json file

## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
    -q, --quiet                activates quiet mode
    -s, --simulate             do not download the video and do not write
                               anything to disk
    --skip-download            do not download the video
    -g, --get-url              simulate, quiet but print URL
    -e, --get-title            simulate, quiet but print title
    --get-thumbnail            simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
    --get-description          simulate, quiet but print video description
    --get-filename             simulate, quiet but print output filename
    --get-format               simulate, quiet but print output format
    --newline                  output progress bar as new lines
    --no-progress              do not print progress bar
    --console-title            display progress in console titlebar
    -v, --verbose              print various debugging information
    --dump-intermediate-pages  print downloaded pages to debug problems(very
                               verbose)

## Video Format Options:
    -f, --format FORMAT        video format code
    --all-formats              download all available video formats
    --prefer-free-formats      prefer free video formats unless a specific one
                               is requested
    --max-quality FORMAT       highest quality format to download
    -F, --list-formats         list all available formats (currently youtube
                               only)
    --write-sub                write subtitle file (currently youtube only)
    --only-sub                 downloads only the subtitles (no video)
    --all-subs                 downloads all the available subtitles of the
                               video (currently youtube only)
    --list-subs                lists all available subtitles for the video
                               (currently youtube only)
    --sub-format LANG          subtitle format [srt/sbv] (default=srt)
                               (currently youtube only)
    --sub-lang LANG            language of the subtitles to download (optional)
                               use IETF language tags like 'en'

## Authentication Options:
    -u, --username USERNAME    account username
    -p, --password PASSWORD    account password
    -n, --netrc                use .netrc authentication data

## Post-processing Options:
    -x, --extract-audio        convert video files to audio-only files (requires
                               ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)
    --audio-format FORMAT      "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", or
                               "wav"; best by default
    --audio-quality QUALITY    ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification, insert
                               a value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse) for VBR
                               or a specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
    --recode-video FORMAT      Encode the video to another format if necessary
                               (currently supported: mp4|flv|ogg|webm)
    -k, --keep-video           keeps the video file on disk after the post-
                               processing; the video is erased by default
    --no-post-overwrites       do not overwrite post-processed files; the post-
                               processed files are overwritten by default

# CONFIGURATION

You can configure youtube-dl by placing default arguments (such as `--extract-audio --no-mtime` to always extract the audio and not copy the mtime) into `/etc/youtube-dl.conf` and/or `~/.config/youtube-dl.conf`.

# OUTPUT TEMPLATE

The `-o` option allows users to indicate a template for the output file names. The basic usage is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in `youtube-dl -o funny_video.flv "http://some/video"`. However, it may contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences have the format `%(NAME)s`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parenthesis, followed by a lowercase S. Allowed names are:

 - `id`: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier.
 - `url`: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL.
 - `uploader`: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the person who uploaded the video.
 - `upload_date`: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date in YYYYMMDD format.
 - `title`: The sequence will be replaced by the video title.
 - `ext`: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension (like flv or mp4).
 - `epoch`: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when creating the file.
 - `autonumber`: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.

The current default template is `%(id)s.%(ext)s`, but that will be switchted to `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` (which can be requested with `-t` at the moment).

In 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:

    $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
    youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4    # All kinds of weird characters
    $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
    youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4          # A simple file name

# FAQ

### Can you please put the -b option back?

Most people asking this question are not aware that youtube-dl now defaults to downloading the highest available quality as reported by YouTube, which will be 1080p or 720p in some cases, so you no longer need the -b option. For some specific videos, maybe YouTube does not report them to be available in a specific high quality format you''re interested in. In that case, simply request it with the -f option and youtube-dl will try to download it.

### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?

Apparently YouTube requires you to pass a CAPTCHA test if you download too much. We''re [considering to provide a way to let you solve the CAPTCHA](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/154), but at the moment, your best course of action is pointing a webbrowser to the youtube URL, solving the CAPTCHA, and restart youtube-dl.

### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?

Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as [vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or [mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).

### The links provided by youtube-dl -g are not working anymore

The URLs youtube-dl outputs require the downloader to have the correct cookies. Use the `--cookies` option to write the required cookies into a file, and advise your downloader to read cookies from that file. Some sites also require a common user agent to be used, use `--dump-user-agent` to see the one in use by youtube-dl.

### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info

youtube has switched to a new video info format in July 2011 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl with `sudo youtube-dl --update`.

### ERROR: unable to download video ###

youtube requires an additional signature since September 2012 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl with `sudo youtube-dl --update`.

### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character ###

The error

    File "youtube-dl", line 2
    SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\x93' ...

means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python 2.6 or 2.7.

### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?

Since June 2012 (#342) youtube-dl is packed as an executable zipfile, simply unzip it (might need renaming to `youtube-dl.zip` first on some systems) or clone the git repository, as laid out above. If you modify the code, you can run it by executing the `__main__.py` file. To recompile the executable, run `make youtube-dl`.

### The exe throws a *Runtime error from Visual C++*

To run the exe you need to install first the [Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package](http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29).

# COPYRIGHT

youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.

This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton (<https://github.com/dbbolton>) and is likewise released into the public domain.

# BUGS

Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: <https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues>

Please include:

* Your exact command line, like `youtube-dl -t "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHlDtZ6Oc3s&feature=channel_video_title"`. A common mistake is not to escape the `&`. Putting URLs in quotes should solve this problem.
* If possible re-run the command with `--verbose`, and include the full output, it is really helpful to us.
* The output of `youtube-dl --version`
* The output of `python --version`
* The name and version of your Operating System ("Ubuntu 11.04 x64" or "Windows 7 x64" is usually enough).

For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.
Commit	Line	Data
d94adc26	1	% YOUTUBE-DL(1)
6bcd846b	2
cfcec693 FV	3	# NAME
cfcec693 FV	4	youtube-dl
6bcd846b	5
cfcec693 FV	6	# SYNOPSIS
	7	youtube-dl [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
	8
	9	# DESCRIPTION
6bcd846b DB	10	youtube-dl is a small command-line program to download videos from
6bcd846b DB	11	YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version
280d6789 PH	12	2.6, 2.7, or 3.3+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on
280d6789 PH	13	your Unix box, on Windows or on Mac OS X. It is released to the public domain,
6bcd846b DB	14	which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
6bcd846b DB	15
cfcec693	16	# OPTIONS
b625bc2c PH	17	-h, --help print this help text and exit
	18	--version print program version and exit
	19	-U, --update update this program to latest version
	20	-i, --ignore-errors continue on download errors
	21	-r, --rate-limit LIMIT maximum download rate (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
	22	-R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is 10)
	23	--buffer-size SIZE size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16k)
	24	(default is 1024)
	25	--no-resize-buffer do not automatically adjust the buffer size. By
	26	default, the buffer size is automatically resized
	27	from an initial value of SIZE.
	28	--dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
	29	--user-agent UA specify a custom user agent
	30	--list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs they
	31	would handle
08c1d0d3	32
cfcec693	33	## Video Selection:
b625bc2c PH	34	--playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is 1)
	35	--playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
	36	--match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or caseless
	37	sub-string)
	38	--reject-title REGEX skip download for matching titles (regex or
	39	caseless sub-string)
	40	--max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
	41	--min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE
	42	(e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
	43	--max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE (e.g.
	44	50k or 44.6m)
6bcd846b	45
cfcec693	46	## Filesystem Options:
b625bc2c PH	47	-t, --title use title in file name
	48	--id use video ID in file name
	49	-l, --literal [deprecated] alias of --title
	50	-A, --auto-number number downloaded files starting from 00000
	51	-o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(title)s to get
	52	the title, %(uploader)s for the uploader name,
	53	%(uploader_id)s for the uploader nickname if
	54	different, %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
	55	incremented number, %(ext)s for the filename
	56	extension, %(upload_date)s for the upload date
	57	(YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
	58	(youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the video id
	59	and %% for a literal percent. Use - to output to
	60	stdout. Can also be used to download to a
	61	different directory, for example with -o '/my/dow
	62	nloads/%(uploader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
	63	--autonumber-size NUMBER Specifies the number of digits in %(autonumber)s
	64	when it is present in output filename template or
	65	--autonumber option is given
	66	--restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters, and
	67	avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
	68	-a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)
	69	-w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
	70	-c, --continue resume partially downloaded files
	71	--no-continue do not resume partially downloaded files (restart
	72	from beginning)
	73	--cookies FILE file to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in
	74	--no-part do not use .part files
	75	--no-mtime do not use the Last-modified header to set the
	76	file modification time
	77	--write-description write video description to a .description file
	78	--write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
6bcd846b	79
cfcec693	80	## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
b625bc2c PH	81	-q, --quiet activates quiet mode
	82	-s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write
	83	anything to disk
	84	--skip-download do not download the video
	85	-g, --get-url simulate, quiet but print URL
	86	-e, --get-title simulate, quiet but print title
	87	--get-thumbnail simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
	88	--get-description simulate, quiet but print video description
	89	--get-filename simulate, quiet but print output filename
	90	--get-format simulate, quiet but print output format
	91	--newline output progress bar as new lines
	92	--no-progress do not print progress bar
	93	--console-title display progress in console titlebar
	94	-v, --verbose print various debugging information
	95	--dump-intermediate-pages print downloaded pages to debug problems(very
	96	verbose)
6bcd846b	97
cfcec693	98	## Video Format Options:
b625bc2c PH	99	-f, --format FORMAT video format code
	100	--all-formats download all available video formats
	101	--prefer-free-formats prefer free video formats unless a specific one
	102	is requested
	103	--max-quality FORMAT highest quality format to download
	104	-F, --list-formats list all available formats (currently youtube
	105	only)
	106	--write-sub write subtitle file (currently youtube only)
	107	--only-sub downloads only the subtitles (no video)
	108	--all-subs downloads all the available subtitles of the
	109	video (currently youtube only)
	110	--list-subs lists all available subtitles for the video
	111	(currently youtube only)
	112	--sub-format LANG subtitle format [srt/sbv] (default=srt)
	113	(currently youtube only)
	114	--sub-lang LANG language of the subtitles to download (optional)
	115	use IETF language tags like 'en'
6bcd846b	116
cfcec693	117	## Authentication Options:
b625bc2c PH	118	-u, --username USERNAME account username
	119	-p, --password PASSWORD account password
	120	-n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
6bcd846b	121
cfcec693	122	## Post-processing Options:
b625bc2c PH	123	-x, --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files (requires
	124	ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)
	125	--audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", or
	126	"wav"; best by default
	127	--audio-quality QUALITY ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification, insert
	128	a value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse) for VBR
	129	or a specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
	130	--recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if necessary
	131	(currently supported: mp4\|flv\|ogg\|webm)
	132	-k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the post-
	133	processing; the video is erased by default
	134	--no-post-overwrites do not overwrite post-processed files; the post-
	135	processed files are overwritten by default
6bcd846b	136
df4bad32 PH	137	# CONFIGURATION
df4bad32 PH	138
280d6789	139	You can configure youtube-dl by placing default arguments (such as `--extract-audio --no-mtime` to always extract the audio and not copy the mtime) into `/etc/youtube-dl.conf` and/or `~/.config/youtube-dl.conf`.
df4bad32	140
02531431 PH	141	# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
	142
	143	The `-o` option allows users to indicate a template for the output file names. The basic usage is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in `youtube-dl -o funny_video.flv "http://some/video"`. However, it may contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences have the format `%(NAME)s`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parenthesis, followed by a lowercase S. Allowed names are:
	144
	145	- `id`: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier.
	146	- `url`: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL.
	147	- `uploader`: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the person who uploaded the video.
	148	- `upload_date`: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date in YYYYMMDD format.
	149	- `title`: The sequence will be replaced by the video title.
877f4c45 PH	150	- `ext`: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension (like flv or mp4).
	151	- `epoch`: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when creating the file.
	152	- `autonumber`: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.
02531431 PH	153
	154	The current default template is `%(id)s.%(ext)s`, but that will be switchted to `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` (which can be requested with `-t` at the moment).
	155
	156	In 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:
	157
	158	$ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
	159	youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
	160	$ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
	161	youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
	162
cfcec693	163	# FAQ
447b1d71 PH	164
	165	### Can you please put the -b option back?
	166
	167	Most people asking this question are not aware that youtube-dl now defaults to downloading the highest available quality as reported by YouTube, which will be 1080p or 720p in some cases, so you no longer need the -b option. For some specific videos, maybe YouTube does not report them to be available in a specific high quality format you''re interested in. In that case, simply request it with the -f option and youtube-dl will try to download it.
	168
f2a3a352	169	### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
447b1d71	170
8236e851	171	Apparently YouTube requires you to pass a CAPTCHA test if you download too much. We''re [considering to provide a way to let you solve the CAPTCHA](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/154), but at the moment, your best course of action is pointing a webbrowser to the youtube URL, solving the CAPTCHA, and restart youtube-dl.
447b1d71 PH	172
	173	### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
	174
	175	Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as [vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or [mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
	176
	177	### The links provided by youtube-dl -g are not working anymore
	178
a0432a1e	179	The URLs youtube-dl outputs require the downloader to have the correct cookies. Use the `--cookies` option to write the required cookies into a file, and advise your downloader to read cookies from that file. Some sites also require a common user agent to be used, use `--dump-user-agent` to see the one in use by youtube-dl.
447b1d71	180
454d6691 PH	181	### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
454d6691 PH	182
5a2ba45e	183	youtube has switched to a new video info format in July 2011 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl with `sudo youtube-dl --update`.
454d6691	184
6c5b442a PH	185	### ERROR: unable to download video ###
	186
	187	youtube requires an additional signature since September 2012 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl with `sudo youtube-dl --update`.
	188
5cdfaeb3	189	### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character ###
6c5b442a PH	190
	191	The error
	192
	193	File "youtube-dl", line 2
	194	SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\x93' ...
	195
	196	means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python 2.6 or 2.7.
	197
5cdfaeb3 FV	198	### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
5cdfaeb3 FV	199
71f36332	200	Since June 2012 (#342) youtube-dl is packed as an executable zipfile, simply unzip it (might need renaming to `youtube-dl.zip` first on some systems) or clone the git repository, as laid out above. If you modify the code, you can run it by executing the `__main__.py` file. To recompile the executable, run `make youtube-dl`.
5cdfaeb3	201
ce367443 FV	202	### The exe throws a Runtime error from Visual C++
	203
	204	To run the exe you need to install first the [Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package](http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29).
	205
cfcec693	206	# COPYRIGHT
803abae2 PH	207
	208	youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
	209
	210	This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton (<https://github.com/dbbolton>) and is likewise released into the public domain.
6bcd846b	211
cfcec693	212	# BUGS
e133e121	213
8236e851	214	Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: <https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues>
e133e121 PH	215
	216	Please include:
	217
95fedbf8 FV	218	* Your exact command line, like `youtube-dl -t "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHlDtZ6Oc3s&feature=channel_video_title"`. A common mistake is not to escape the `&`. Putting URLs in quotes should solve this problem.
95fedbf8 FV	219	* If possible re-run the command with `--verbose`, and include the full output, it is really helpful to us.
e133e121 PH	220	* The output of `youtube-dl --version`
	221	* The output of `python --version`
	222	* The name and version of your Operating System ("Ubuntu 11.04 x64" or "Windows 7 x64" is usually enough).
4b235346 PH	223
4b235346 PH	224	For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.