]> jfr.im git - yt-dlp.git/blame - README.md
[cleanup] Fix changelog typo
[yt-dlp.git] / README.md
CommitLineData
ec2e44fc 1<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b31fdeed 2<div align="center">
3
e980017a 4[![YT-DLP](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master/.github/banner.svg)](#readme)
d9d045e2 5
2fa669f7 6[![Release version](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?color=brightgreen&label=Download&style=for-the-badge)](#installation "Installation")
ae6a1b95 7[![PyPi](https://img.shields.io/badge/-PyPi-blue.svg?logo=pypi&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp "PyPi")
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")
08e29b9f 13[![CI Status](https://img.shields.io/github/actions/workflow/status/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/core.yml?branch=master&label=Tests&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions "CI Status")
fc5fa964 14[![Commits](https://img.shields.io/github/commit-activity/m/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?label=commits&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
b532a348 15[![Last Commit](https://img.shields.io/github/last-commit/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master?label=&style=for-the-badge&display_timestamp=committer)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pulse/monthly "Last activity")
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)
deae7c17 28 * [Detailed instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation)
17fa3ee2 29 * [Update](#update)
0e5927ee 30 * [Release Files](#release-files)
cf59cd4d 31 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
17fa3ee2 32 * [Compile](#compile)
b31fdeed 33* [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
34 * [General Options](#general-options)
50865ca8 35 * [Network Options](#network-options)
b31fdeed 36 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
50865ca8 37 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
38 * [Download Options](#download-options)
39 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
b31fdeed 40 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
50865ca8 41 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
0744a815 42 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
50865ca8 43 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
44 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
45 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
46 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
50865ca8 47 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
7a340e0d 48 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
50865ca8 49 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
c76eb41b 50* [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
304ad45a 51 * [Configuration file encoding](#configuration-file-encoding)
db3ad8a6 52 * [Authentication with netrc](#authentication-with-netrc)
878eac3e 53 * [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
c76eb41b 54* [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
50865ca8 55 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
c76eb41b 56* [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
50865ca8 57 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
58 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
59 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
73cd218f 60* [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
61 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
5d3a0e79 62* [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
f74980cb 63* [PLUGINS](#plugins)
8e40b9d1
M
64 * [Installing Plugins](#installing-plugins)
65 * [Developing Plugins](#developing-plugins)
8c6f4daa 66* [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
43cc91ad 67 * [Embedding examples](#embedding-examples)
e167860c 68* [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
8c6f4daa 69* [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
70 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
71 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
17ffed18 72* [WIKI](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki)
deae7c17 73 * [FAQ](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/FAQ)
ec2e44fc 74<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
50865ca8 75
76
034b6215 77# NEW FEATURES
91f071af 78
9d625406 79* Forked from [**yt-dlc@f9401f2**](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/commit/f9401f2a91987068139c5f757b12fc711d4c0cee) and merged with [**youtube-dl@66ab08**](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/66ab0814c4baa2dc79c2dd5287bc0ad61a37c5b9) ([exceptions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/21))
034b6215 80
304ad45a 81* **[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in YouTube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
034b6215 82
7581d246 83* **[Format Sorting](#sorting-formats)**: The default format sorting options have been changed so that higher resolution and better codecs will be now preferred instead of simply using larger bitrate. Furthermore, you can now specify the sort order using `-S`. This allows for much easier format selection than what is possible by simply using `--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
034b6215 84
8e174ba7 85* **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from [animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including `--write-comments`, `BiliBiliSearch`, `BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that NicoNico livestreams are not available. See [#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
29b6000e 86
ae61d108 87* **YouTube improvements**:
c8bc203f 88 * Supports Clips, Stories (`ytstories:<channel UCID>`), Search (including filters)**\***, YouTube Music Search, Channel-specific search, Search prefixes (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`)**\***, Mixes, and Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`, `:ytnotif`)
ae61d108 89 * Fix for [n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326) **\***
90 * Supports some (but not all) age-gated content without cookies
91 * Download livestreams from the start using `--live-from-start` (*experimental*)
86973308 92 * Channel URLs download all uploads of the channel, including shorts and live
f20f5fe5 93
304ad45a 94* **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using `--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]`
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
d4ada357 112* **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for details
0bc0a322 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
fe2ce85a 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-match-filter` 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
77df20f1
SS
122* **Self updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`, and downgraded using `--update-to` if required
123
a00af298 124* **Automated builds**: [Nightly/master builds](#update-channels) can be used with `--update-to nightly` and `--update-to master`
aa837ddf 125
7a5c1cfe 126See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
a26c99ac 127
ae61d108 128Features marked with a **\*** have been back-ported to youtube-dl
129
53ed7066 130### Differences in default behavior
131
0930b11f 132Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
53ed7066 133
5b28cef7 134* yt-dlp supports only [Python 3.7+](## "Windows 7"), and *may* remove support for more versions as they [become EOL](https://devguide.python.org/versions/#python-release-cycle); while [youtube-dl still supports Python 2.6+ and 3.2+](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/30568#issue-1118238743)
96565c7e 135* The options `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
b69fd25c 136* `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
d4ada357 137* yt-dlp stores config files in slightly different locations to youtube-dl. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for a list of correct locations
96565c7e 138* 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 139* 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 140* 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 141* 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 142* `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
28b0eb0f 143* 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 144* `--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 145* 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 146* `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
147* The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
b79f9e30 148* Live chats (if available) are considered as subtitles. Use `--sub-langs all,-live_chat` to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use `--compat-options no-live-chat` to prevent any live chat/danmaku from downloading
86973308 149* YouTube channel URLs download all uploads of the channel. To download only the videos in a specific tab, pass the tab's URL. If the channel does not show the requested tab, an error will be raised. Also, `/live` URLs raise an error if there are no live videos instead of silently downloading the entire channel. You may use `--compat-options no-youtube-channel-redirect` to revert all these redirections
304ad45a 150* Unavailable videos are also listed for YouTube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
1ff88b7a 151* The upload dates extracted from YouTube are in UTC [when available](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/89e4d86171c7b7c997c77d4714542e0383bf0db0/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L3898-L3900). Use `--compat-options no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date` to prefer the non-UTC upload date.
18e674b4 152* 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 153* Thumbnail embedding in `mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use `--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
ad54c913 154* Some internal metadata such as filenames are removed by default from the infojson. Use `--no-clean-infojson` or `--compat-options no-clean-infojson` to revert this
e75bb0d6 155* When `--embed-subs` and `--write-subs` are used together, the subtitles are written to disk and also embedded in the media file. You can use just `--embed-subs` to embed the subs and automatically delete the separate file. See [#630 (comment)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/630#issuecomment-893659460) for more info. `--compat-options no-keep-subs` can be used to revert this
168bbc4f 156* `certifi` will be used for SSL root certificates, if installed. If you want to use system certificates (e.g. self-signed), use `--compat-options no-certifi`
1e4fca9a 157* yt-dlp's sanitization of invalid characters in filenames is different/smarter than in youtube-dl. You can use `--compat-options filename-sanitization` to revert to youtube-dl's behavior
ad68b16a 158* yt-dlp tries to parse the external downloader outputs into the standard progress output if possible (Currently implemented: [~~aria2c~~](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/5931)). You can use `--compat-options no-external-downloader-progress` to get the downloader output as-is
93b39cdb 159* yt-dlp versions between 2021.09.01 and 2023.01.02 applies `--match-filter` to nested playlists. This was an unintentional side-effect of [8f18ac](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/8f18aca8717bb0dd49054555af8d386e5eda3a88) and is fixed in [d7b460](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/d7b460d0e5fc710950582baed2e3fc616ed98a80). Use `--compat-options playlist-match-filter` to revert this
10025b71 160* yt-dlp versions between 2021.11.10 and 2023.06.21 estimated `filesize_approx` values for fragmented/manifest formats. This was added for convenience in [f2fe69](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/f2fe69c7b0d208bdb1f6292b4ae92bc1e1a7444a), but was reverted in [0dff8e](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/0dff8e4d1e6e9fb938f4256ea9af7d81f42fd54f) due to the potentially extreme inaccuracy of the estimated values. Use `--compat-options manifest-filesize-approx` to keep extracting the estimated values
8a8b5452 161* yt-dlp uses modern http client backends such as `requests`. Use `--compat-options prefer-legacy-http-handler` to prefer the legacy http handler (`urllib`) to be used for standard http requests.
53ed7066 162
163For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
3d3bb168 164
8a82af35 165* `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options (Do NOT use)
b012271d
SS
166* `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams,-playlist-match-filter,-manifest-filesize-approx`
167* `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect,-playlist-match-filter,-manifest-filesize-approx`
2a06bb4e 168* `--compat-options 2021`: Same as `--compat-options 2022,no-certifi,filename-sanitization,no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date`
b012271d 169* `--compat-options 2022`: Same as `--compat-options playlist-match-filter,no-external-downloader-progress,prefer-legacy-http-handler,manifest-filesize-approx`. Use this to enable all future compat options
53ed7066 170
f20f5fe5 171
d19bb9c0 172# INSTALLATION
50865ca8 173
fc5fa964 174<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
175[![Windows](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Windows_x64-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=windows)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)
17ffed18 176[![Unix](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Linux/BSD-red.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=linux)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)
24146491 177[![MacOS](https://img.shields.io/badge/-MacOS-lightblue.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=apple)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)
17ffed18 178[![PyPi](https://img.shields.io/badge/-PyPi-blue.svg?logo=pypi&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
fc5fa964 179[![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)
180[![Other variants](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Other-grey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](#release-files)
3d3bb168 181[![All versions](https://img.shields.io/badge/-All_Versions-lightgrey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
fc5fa964 182<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
183
c8bc203f 184You can install yt-dlp using [the binaries](#release-files), [pip](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) or one using a third-party package manager. See [the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation) for detailed instructions
0930b11f 185
b8773e63 186
a4211baf 187## UPDATE
4815bbfc 188You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are using the [release binaries](#release-files)
17ffed18 189
c8bc203f 190If you [installed with pip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
0930b11f 191
8e174ba7 192For other third-party package managers, see [the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#third-party-package-managers) or refer their documentation
0930b11f 193
77df20f1
SS
194<a id="update-channels"/>
195
a00af298 196There are currently three release channels for binaries: `stable`, `nightly` and `master`.
197
198* `stable` is the default channel, and many of its changes have been tested by users of the `nightly` and `master` channels.
199* The `nightly` channel has releases scheduled to build every day around midnight UTC, for a snapshot of the project's new patches and changes. This is the **recommended channel for regular users** of yt-dlp. The `nightly` releases are available from [yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds/releases) or as development releases of the `yt-dlp` PyPI package (which can be installed with pip's `--pre` flag).
200* The `master` channel features releases that are built after each push to the master branch, and these will have the very latest fixes and additions, but may also be more prone to regressions. They are available from [yt-dlp/yt-dlp-master-builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-master-builds/releases).
77df20f1
SS
201
202When using `--update`/`-U`, a release binary will only update to its current channel.
665472a7
SS
203`--update-to CHANNEL` can be used to switch to a different channel when a newer version is available. `--update-to [CHANNEL@]TAG` can also be used to upgrade or downgrade to specific tags from a channel.
204
205You may also use `--update-to <repository>` (`<owner>/<repository>`) to update to a channel on a completely different repository. Be careful with what repository you are updating to though, there is no verification done for binaries from different repositories.
77df20f1
SS
206
207Example usage:
a00af298 208* `yt-dlp --update-to master` switch to the `master` channel and update to its latest release
209* `yt-dlp --update-to stable@2023.07.06` upgrade/downgrade to release to `stable` channel tag `2023.07.06`
210* `yt-dlp --update-to 2023.10.07` upgrade/downgrade to tag `2023.10.07` if it exists on the current channel
211* `yt-dlp --update-to example/yt-dlp@2023.09.24` upgrade/downgrade to the release from the `example/yt-dlp` repository, tag `2023.09.24`
212
213**Important**: Any user experiencing an issue with the `stable` release should install or update to the `nightly` release before submitting a bug report:
214```
215# To update to nightly from stable executable/binary:
216yt-dlp --update-to nightly
217
218# To install nightly with pip:
219python -m pip install -U --pre yt-dlp
220```
cf59cd4d 221
ec2e44fc 222<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
a4211baf 223## RELEASE FILES
0e5927ee 224
733d8e8f 225#### Recommended
226
227File|Description
228:---|:---
962ffcf8 229[yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform-independent [zipimport](https://docs.python.org/3/library/zipimport.html) binary. Needs Python (recommended for **Linux/BSD**)
0930b11f 230[yt-dlp.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary (recommended for **Windows**)
f2df4071 231[yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|Universal MacOS (10.15+) standalone executable (recommended for **MacOS**)
733d8e8f 232
233#### Alternatives
234
0e5927ee
R
235File|Description
236:---|:---
0930b11f 237[yt-dlp_x86.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_x86.exe)|Windows (Vista SP2+) standalone x86 (32-bit) binary
8aa0e7cd 238[yt-dlp_min.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_min.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary built with `py2exe`<br/> ([Not recommended](#standalone-py2exe-builds-windows))
f2df4071 239[yt-dlp_linux](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux)|Linux standalone x64 binary
240[yt-dlp_linux.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux.zip)|Unpackaged Linux executable (no auto-update)
17fc3dc4
M
241[yt-dlp_linux_armv7l](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_armv7l)|Linux standalone armv7l (32-bit) binary
242[yt-dlp_linux_aarch64](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_aarch64)|Linux standalone aarch64 (64-bit) binary
0930b11f 243[yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
244[yt-dlp_macos.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos.zip)|Unpackaged MacOS (10.15+) executable (no auto-update)
6d916fe7 245[yt-dlp_macos_legacy](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos_legacy)|MacOS (10.9+) standalone x64 executable
733d8e8f 246
247#### Misc
248
249File|Description
250:---|:---
17ffed18 251[yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball
0e5927ee 252[SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
12647e03 253[SHA2-512SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA512 sums
0e5927ee 254[SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
12647e03 255[SHA2-256SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA256 sums
0e5927ee 256
12647e03
SS
257The public key that can be used to verify the GPG signatures is [available here](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/public.key)
258Example usage:
259```
260curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/raw/master/public.key | gpg --import
261gpg --verify SHA2-256SUMS.sig SHA2-256SUMS
262gpg --verify SHA2-512SUMS.sig SHA2-512SUMS
263```
264<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
17ffed18 265
ad54c913 266**Note**: The manpages, shell completion (autocomplete) files etc. are available inside the [source tarball](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
17ffed18 267
a4211baf 268## DEPENDENCIES
eff42759 269Python versions 3.7+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
b31fdeed 270
c9652aa4 271<!-- Python 3.5+ uses VC++14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
272<!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999 --x>
cf59cd4d 273On 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 274-->
fac98805 275
e75bb0d6 276While all the other dependencies are optional, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended
ec2e44fc 277
8aa0e7cd 278### Strongly recommended
279
b69fd25c 280* [**ffmpeg** and **ffprobe**](https://www.ffmpeg.org) - Required for [merging separate video and audio files](#format-selection) as well as for various [post-processing](#post-processing-options) tasks. License [depends on the build](https://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html)
8aa0e7cd 281
8e174ba7 282 There are bugs in ffmpeg that causes various issues when used alongside yt-dlp. Since ffmpeg is such an important dependency, we provide [custom builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#ffmpeg-static-auto-builds) with patches for some of these issues at [yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds). See [the readme](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#patches-applied) for details on the specific issues solved by these builds
283
284 **Important**: What you need is ffmpeg *binary*, **NOT** [the python package of the same name](https://pypi.org/project/ffmpeg)
8aa0e7cd 285
286### Networking
d5820461 287* [**certifi**](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi)\* - Provides Mozilla's root certificate bundle. Licensed under [MPLv2](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi/blob/master/LICENSE)
8aa0e7cd 288* [**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>
289* [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
8a8b5452 290* [**requests**](https://github.com/psf/requests)\* - HTTP library. For HTTPS proxy and persistent connections support. Licensed under [Apache-2.0](https://github.com/psf/requests/blob/main/LICENSE)
8aa0e7cd 291
292### Metadata
293
294* [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For `--embed-thumbnail` in certain formats. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
295* [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For `--embed-thumbnail` in `mp4`/`m4a` files when `mutagen`/`ffmpeg` cannot. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
84e26038 296* [**xattr**](https://github.com/xattr/xattr), [**pyxattr**](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr) or [**setfattr**](http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/attr) - For writing xattr metadata (`--xattr`) on **Mac** and **BSD**. 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
8aa0e7cd 297
298### Misc
299
300* [**pycryptodomex**](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome)\* - For decrypting AES-128 HLS streams and various other data. Licensed under [BSD-2-Clause](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome/blob/master/LICENSE.rst)
5d0aeac0 301* [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
8aa0e7cd 302* [**secretstorage**](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage) - For `--cookies-from-browser` to access the **Gnome** keyring while decrypting cookies of **Chromium**-based browsers on **Linux**. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage/blob/master/LICENSE)
cf59cd4d 303* Any external downloader that you want to use with `--downloader`
b31fdeed 304
deae7c17 305### Deprecated
8aa0e7cd 306
307* [**avconv** and **avprobe**](https://www.libav.org) - Now **deprecated** alternative to ffmpeg. License [depends on the build](https://libav.org/legal)
308* [**sponskrub**](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) - For using the now **deprecated** [sponskrub options](#sponskrub-options). Licensed under [GPLv3+](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub/blob/master/LICENCE.md)
998a3cae 309* [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with `--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
310* [**mplayer**](http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html) or [**mpv**](https://mpv.io) - For downloading `rstp`/`mms` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with `--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/Copyright)
8aa0e7cd 311
cf59cd4d 312To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
313
f2df4071 314The standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with **\*** included.
d710cc6d 315
8aa0e7cd 316If you do not have the necessary dependencies for a task you are attempting, yt-dlp will warn you. All the currently available dependencies are visible at the top of the `--verbose` output
d710cc6d 317
5f326cf5 318
a4211baf 319## COMPILE
5f326cf5 320
8aa0e7cd 321### Standalone PyInstaller Builds
115add43 322To build the standalone executable, you must have Python and `pyinstaller` (plus any of yt-dlp's [optional dependencies](#dependencies) if needed). Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, simply run `pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (x86/ARM, 32/64 bit) as the Python used.
e38df8f9 323
8aa0e7cd 324 python3 -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
325 python3 devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
326 python3 pyinst.py
327
328On some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`.
329
73ac0e6b 330`pyinst.py` accepts any arguments that can be passed to `pyinstaller`, such as `--onefile/-F` or `--onedir/-D`, which is further [documented here](https://pyinstaller.org/en/stable/usage.html#what-to-generate).
331
8e174ba7 332**Note**: Pyinstaller versions below 4.4 [do not support](https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller#requirements-and-tested-platforms) Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment.
8aa0e7cd 333
334**Important**: Running `pyinstaller` directly **without** using `pyinst.py` is **not** officially supported. This may or may not work correctly.
7581d246 335
8aa0e7cd 336### Platform-independent Binary (UNIX)
deae7c17 337You will need the build tools `python` (3.7+), `zip`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`\* and `pytest`\*.
b96a939b 338
8aa0e7cd 339After installing these, simply run `make`.
5f326cf5 340
a831c2ea 341You can also run `make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files. (The build tools marked with **\*** are not needed for this)
d19bb9c0 342
8aa0e7cd 343### Standalone Py2Exe Builds (Windows)
344
345While we provide the option to build with [py2exe](https://www.py2exe.org), it is recommended to build [using PyInstaller](#standalone-pyinstaller-builds) instead since the py2exe builds **cannot contain `pycryptodomex`/`certifi` and needs VC++14** on the target computer to run.
346
347If you wish to build it anyway, install Python and py2exe, and then simply run `setup.py py2exe`
348
349 py -m pip install -U py2exe -r requirements.txt
350 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
351 py setup.py py2exe
352
353### Related scripts
354
d400e261
SS
355* **`devscripts/update-version.py`** - Update the version number based on current date.
356* **`devscripts/set-variant.py`** - Set the build variant of the executable.
357* **`devscripts/make_changelog.py`** - Create a markdown changelog using short commit messages and update `CONTRIBUTORS` file.
8aa0e7cd 358* **`devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py`** - Create lazy extractors. Running this before building the binaries (any variant) will improve their startup performance. Set the environment variable `YTDLP_NO_LAZY_EXTRACTORS=1` if you wish to forcefully disable lazy extractor loading.
359
d400e261
SS
360Note: See their `--help` for more info.
361
29cb20bd
SS
362### Forking the project
363If you fork the project on GitHub, you can run your fork's [build workflow](.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically build the selected version(s) as artifacts. Alternatively, you can run the [release workflow](.github/workflows/release.yml) or enable the [nightly workflow](.github/workflows/release-nightly.yml) to create full (pre-)releases.
59a7a13e 364
b31fdeed 365# USAGE AND OPTIONS
6bcd846b 366
ec2e44fc 367<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
7a5c1cfe 368 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
b50e3bc6 369
c2b5f311 370`Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
ec2e44fc 371<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
c2b5f311 372
ec2e44fc 373<!-- Auto generated -->
c76eb41b 374## General Options:
2dd5a2e3 375 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
376 --version Print program version and exit
70b23409 377 -U, --update Update this program to the latest version
378 --no-update Do not check for updates (default)
77df20f1 379 --update-to [CHANNEL]@[TAG] Upgrade/downgrade to a specific version.
665472a7
SS
380 CHANNEL can be a repository as well. CHANNEL
381 and TAG default to "stable" and "latest"
382 respectively if omitted; See "UPDATE" for
383 details. Supported channels: stable, nightly
2dd5a2e3 384 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
385 The download will be considered successful
386 even if the postprocessing fails
387 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download errors;
388 e.g. to skip unavailable videos in a
389 playlist (default)
390 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
391 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
392 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
393 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
394 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
395 extractors and exit
2516cafb 396 --use-extractors NAMES Extractor names to use separated by commas.
fe7866d0 397 You can also use regexes, "all", "default"
398 and "end" (end URL matching); e.g. --ies
399 "holodex.*,end,youtube". Prefix the name
400 with a "-" to exclude it, e.g. --ies
401 default,-generic. Use --list-extractors for
2516cafb 402 a list of extractor names. (Alias: --ies)
62b58c09 403 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 404 "gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
405 google videos for the search term "python".
406 Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
407 ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when
408 guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
409 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken
410 URLs, but emits an error if this is not
411 possible instead of searching
412 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
413 except those given by --config-locations.
414 For backward compatibility, if this option
415 is found inside the system configuration
416 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
417 (Alias: --no-config)
418 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
419 (default). When given inside a configuration
420 file, ignore all previous --config-locations
421 defined in the current file
422 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
423 either the path to the config or its
6b9e832d 424 containing directory ("-" for stdin). Can be
425 used multiple times and inside other
426 configuration files
2dd5a2e3 427 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
428 only list them
c8bc203f 429 --no-flat-playlist Fully extract the videos of a playlist
430 (default)
2dd5a2e3 431 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
432 Currently only supported for YouTube
433 (Experimental)
434 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
435 (default)
436 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
437 available. Pass the minimum number of
438 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
439 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
440 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
441 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
8417f26b
SS
442 --color [STREAM:]POLICY Whether to emit color codes in output,
443 optionally prefixed by the STREAM (stdout or
444 stderr) to apply the setting to. Can be one
445 of "always", "auto" (default), "never", or
446 "no_color" (use non color terminal
447 sequences). Can be used multiple times
2dd5a2e3 448 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
449 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
450 configurations by reverting some of the
451 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
452 default behavior" for details
453 --alias ALIASES OPTIONS Create aliases for an option string. Unless
454 an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
455 prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
456 according to the Python string formatting
62b58c09 457 mini-language. E.g. --alias get-audio,-X
2dd5a2e3 458 "-S=aext:{0},abr -x --audio-format {0}"
459 creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
460 takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
461 "-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
462 All defined aliases are listed in the --help
463 output. Alias options can trigger more
962ffcf8 464 aliases; so be careful to avoid defining
2dd5a2e3 465 recursive options. As a safety measure, each
466 alias may be triggered a maximum of 100
64fa820c 467 times. This option can be used multiple times
08c1d0d3 468
149f05c7 469## Network Options:
2dd5a2e3 470 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
62b58c09
L
471 enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme,
472 e.g. socks5://user:pass@127.0.0.1:1080/.
473 Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for
474 direct connection
2dd5a2e3 475 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
476 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
477 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
478 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
8300774c
M
479 --enable-file-urls Enable file:// URLs. This is disabled by
480 default for security reasons.
8c6c88c7 481
b31fdeed 482## Geo-restriction:
2dd5a2e3 483 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
484 some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy
485 specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
486 is not present) is used for the actual
487 downloading
c1664464 488 --xff VALUE How to fake X-Forwarded-For HTTP header to
489 try bypassing geographic restriction. One of
c8bc203f 490 "default" (only when known to be useful),
491 "never", an IP block in CIDR notation, or a
492 two-letter ISO 3166-2 country code
149f05c7 493
cfcec693 494## Video Selection:
71df9b7f 495 -I, --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Comma separated playlist_index of the items
7e88d7d7 496 to download. You can specify a range using
497 "[START]:[STOP][:STEP]". For backward
498 compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.
499 Use negative indices to count from the right
500 and negative STEP to download in reverse
62b58c09 501 order. E.g. "-I 1:3,7,-5::2" used on a
71df9b7f 502 playlist of size 15 will download the items
7e88d7d7 503 at index 1,2,3,7,11,13,15
71df9b7f 504 --min-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is smaller than
505 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
506 --max-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is larger than
62b58c09 507 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
2dd5a2e3 508 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
509 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
510 [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
29cb20bd
SS
511 E.g. "--date today-2weeks" downloads only
512 videos uploaded on the same day two weeks ago
2dd5a2e3 513 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
514 this date. The date formats accepted is the
515 same as --date
516 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
517 this date. The date formats accepted is the
518 same as --date
519 --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
520 field can be compared with a number or a
521 string using the operators defined in
d4ada357 522 "Filtering Formats". You can also simply
2dd5a2e3 523 specify a field to match if the field is
524 present, use "!field" to check if the field
525 is not present, and "&" to check multiple
526 conditions. Use a "\" to escape "&" or
527 quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
528 the filter matches if atleast one of the
62b58c09 529 conditions are met. E.g. --match-filter
2dd5a2e3 530 !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?100 &
531 description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'" matches
532 only videos that are not live OR those that
533 have a like count more than 100 (or the like
534 field is not available) and also has a
535 description that contains the phrase "cats &
536 dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
537 interactively ask whether to download each
538 video
c8bc203f 539 --no-match-filters Do not use any --match-filter (default)
fe2ce85a 540 --break-match-filters FILTER Same as "--match-filters" but stops the
541 download process when a video is rejected
542 --no-break-match-filters Do not use any --break-match-filters (default)
2dd5a2e3 543 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
544 to a video and a playlist
545 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
546 a video and a playlist
547 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
548 age
549 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
550 archive file. Record the IDs of all
551 downloaded videos in it
552 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
553 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
554 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
555 a file that is in the archive
71df9b7f 556 --break-per-input Alters --max-downloads, --break-on-existing,
354d5fca 557 --break-match-filter, and autonumber to
558 reset per input URL
2dd5a2e3 559 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
560 terminates the entire download queue
561 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
562 the playlist is skipped
6bcd846b 563
d5a62e4f 564## Download Options:
2dd5a2e3 565 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
566 video that should be downloaded concurrently
567 (default is 1)
62b58c09
L
568 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second,
569 e.g. 50K or 4.2M
2dd5a2e3 570 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
571 below which throttling is assumed and the
62b58c09 572 video data is re-extracted, e.g. 100K
2dd5a2e3 573 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
574 "infinite"
575 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
576 error (default is 3), or "infinite"
577 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
578 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
be5c1ae8 579 --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR Time to sleep between retries in seconds
580 (optionally) prefixed by the type of retry
581 (http (default), fragment, file_access,
582 extractor) to apply the sleep to. EXPR can
583 be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=1]] or
584 exp=START[:END[:BASE=2]]. This option can be
585 used multiple times to set the sleep for the
62b58c09 586 different retry types, e.g. --retry-sleep
2dd5a2e3 587 linear=1::2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=1:20
588 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
589 hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
8e174ba7 590 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragments)
591 --abort-on-unavailable-fragments
2dd5a2e3 592 Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
593 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
594 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
595 downloading is finished
596 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
597 downloading is finished (default)
62b58c09 598 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer, e.g. 1024 or 16K
2dd5a2e3 599 (default is 1024)
600 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
601 from an initial value of --buffer-size
602 (default)
603 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
604 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
62b58c09 605 downloading, e.g. 10485760 or 10M (default
2dd5a2e3 606 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
607 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
608 (experimental)
2dd5a2e3 609 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
7e9a6125 610 --lazy-playlist Process entries in the playlist as they are
611 received. This disables n_entries,
612 --playlist-random and --playlist-reverse
613 --no-lazy-playlist Process videos in the playlist only after
614 the entire playlist is parsed (default)
2dd5a2e3 615 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
616 expected file size
617 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
618 allowing some players to play the video
619 while downloading, and reducing the chance
620 of file corruption if download is
621 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
622 live streams
623 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
624 videos. This is default when not downloading
625 live streams
b4e0d758 626 --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters that match the
627 regular expression. A "*" prefix denotes
628 time-range instead of chapter. Negative
629 timestamps are calculated from the end.
630 "*from-url" can be used to download between
631 the "start_time" and "end_time" extracted
632 from the URL. Needs ffmpeg. This option can
633 be used multiple times to download multiple
62b58c09 634 sections, e.g. --download-sections
2fa669f7 635 "*10:15-inf" --download-sections "intro"
2dd5a2e3 636 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
637 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
638 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
639 use it for. Currently supports native,
640 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
641 wget. You can use this option multiple times
642 to set different downloaders for different
62b58c09 643 protocols. E.g. --downloader aria2c
2dd5a2e3 644 --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
645 aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
646 native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
647 (Alias: --external-downloader)
648 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
649 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
650 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
651 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different
652 positions using the same syntax as
653 --postprocessor-args. You can use this
654 option multiple times to give different
655 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
656 --external-downloader-args)
d5a62e4f 657
cfcec693 658## Filesystem Options:
2dd5a2e3 659 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
660 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
661 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
662 comments and ignored
663 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
664 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
665 downloaded. Specify the type of file and the
666 path separated by a colon ":". All the same
667 TYPES as --output are supported.
668 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
669 (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary
670 files are first downloaded to the temp path
671 and then the final files are moved over to
672 the home path after download is finished.
673 This option is ignored if --output is an
674 absolute path
675 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
676 TEMPLATE" for details
677 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
678 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" (default: "NA")
679 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
680 and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
681 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
682 filenames (default)
683 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
684 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
685 using Windows (default)
686 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
687 extension) to the specified number of
688 characters
689 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
690 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This
691 option includes --no-continue
692 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
693 related files (default)
694 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
695 (default)
696 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
697 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
698 restart download of the entire file
699 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
700 into output file (default)
701 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into
702 output file
703 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file
704 modification time (default)
705 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
706 the file modification time
64fa820c 707 --write-description Write video description to a .description file
2dd5a2e3 708 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
709 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
710 (this may contain personal information)
711 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
712 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
713 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
714 --write-description etc. (default)
715 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
716 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
ad54c913 717 --clean-info-json Remove some internal metadata such as
718 filenames from the infojson (default)
2dd5a2e3 719 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
720 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
721 infojson. The comments are fetched even
722 without this option if the extraction is
723 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
724 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
725 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
726 --no-get-comments)
727 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
64fa820c 728 (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
2dd5a2e3 729 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from
730 and dump cookie jar in
731 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
732 (default)
825d3ce3 733 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]
734 The name of the browser to load cookies
735 from. Currently supported browsers are:
736 brave, chrome, chromium, edge, firefox,
737 opera, safari, vivaldi. Optionally, the
738 KEYRING used for decrypting Chromium cookies
739 on Linux, the name/path of the PROFILE to
740 load cookies from, and the CONTAINER name
741 (if Firefox) ("none" for no container) can
742 be given with their respective seperators.
743 By default, all containers of the most
744 recently accessed profile are used.
745 Currently supported keyrings are: basictext,
2e023649 746 gnomekeyring, kwallet, kwallet5, kwallet6
2dd5a2e3 747 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
17ffed18 748 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where yt-dlp can
749 store some downloaded information (such as
750 client ids and signatures) permanently. By
878eac3e 751 default ${XDG_CACHE_HOME}/yt-dlp
2dd5a2e3 752 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
753 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
6bcd846b 754
b31fdeed 755## Thumbnail Options:
2dd5a2e3 756 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
64fa820c 757 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default)
2dd5a2e3 758 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
759 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
760 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
2b1bd292 761
732044af 762## Internet Shortcut Options:
2dd5a2e3 763 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
764 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
765 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
766 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
767 OS caches the URL based on the file path
768 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
769 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
732044af 770
0744a815 771## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
2dd5a2e3 772 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
773 print the log to stderr
d669772c 774 --no-quiet Deactivate quiet mode. (Default)
2dd5a2e3 775 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
776 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
777 anything to disk
778 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
779 options are used
780 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
781 extracting metadata even if the videos are
782 not actually available for download
783 (experimental)
784 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
785 formats are found (default)
786 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
787 related files (Alias: --no-download)
788 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
789 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
790 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
791 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
119e40ef 792 --use-postprocessor (default: video).
2dd5a2e3 793 Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
794 --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
795 used. This option can be used multiple times
bb66c247 796 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
2dd5a2e3 797 Append given template to the file. The
798 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as that
799 of --print. FILE uses the same syntax as the
800 output template. This option can be used
801 multiple times
802 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
803 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
804 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
805 description of available keys
806 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
807 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
808 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
809 a playlist, the whole playlist information
810 is dumped in a single line
811 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
812 as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
813 another simulation option is used (Alias:
814 --force-download-archive)
815 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
816 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
817 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
818 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
819e0531 819 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
2dd5a2e3 820 Template for progress outputs, optionally
821 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
822 "download-title:" (the console title),
823 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
824 The video's fields are accessible under the
825 "info" key and the progress attributes are
62b58c09 826 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 827 --console-title --progress-template
828 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
829 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
830 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
831 to debug problems (very verbose)
832 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files
833 in the current directory to debug problems
834 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
6bcd846b 835
36f35428 836## Workarounds:
2dd5a2e3 837 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
838 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to servers
839 that do not support RFC 5746 secure
840 renegotiation
841 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
842 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
843 information about the video (Currently
844 supported only for YouTube)
a5387729 845 --add-headers FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
2dd5a2e3 846 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
847 option multiple times
848 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
849 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
850 or fribidi executable in PATH
851 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
852 during data extraction
853 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
854 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
855 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
856 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
857 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only
858 be used along with --min-sleep-interval
859 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
860 subtitle download
36f35428 861
cfcec693 862## Video Format Options:
2dd5a2e3 863 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
864 for more details
865 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
866 "Sorting Formats" for more details
867 --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
868 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
869 Formats" for more details (Alias: --S-force)
870 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
871 specified sort order (default)
872 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
873 into a single file
874 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
875 output file (default)
876 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
877 into a single file
878 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
879 output file (default)
880 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
881 over non-free ones of same quality. Use with
882 "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers
883 irrespective of quality
884 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
885 containers (default)
886 --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
887 those that are actually downloadable
888 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
889 actually downloadable
890 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
891 downloadable
892 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
893 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
fc61aff4 894 --merge-output-format FORMAT Containers that may be used when merging
62b58c09 895 formats, separated by "/", e.g. "mp4/mkv".
fc61aff4
LL
896 Ignored if no merge is required. (currently
897 supported: avi, flv, mkv, mov, mp4, webm)
8ae7be3e
PH
898
899## Subtitle Options:
2dd5a2e3 900 --write-subs Write subtitle file
901 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
902 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
903 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
904 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
905 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
906 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
907 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
908 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
62b58c09 909 e.g. "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
2dd5a2e3 910 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
62b58c09
L
911 be regex) or "all" separated by commas, e.g.
912 --sub-langs "en.*,ja". You can prefix the
2dd5a2e3 913 language code with a "-" to exclude it from
62b58c09
L
914 the requested languages, e.g. --sub-langs
915 all,-live_chat. Use --list-subs for a list
2dd5a2e3 916 of available language tags
6bcd846b 917
cfcec693 918## Authentication Options:
2dd5a2e3 919 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
920 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
921 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
922 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
923 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
924 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
925 either the path or its containing directory.
926 Defaults to ~/.netrc
db3ad8a6 927 --netrc-cmd NETRC_CMD Command to execute to get the credentials
d1b21561 928 for an extractor.
b634ba74 929 --video-password PASSWORD Video-specific password
2dd5a2e3 930 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
931 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
932 a list of available MSOs
933 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
934 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
935 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
936 interactively
937 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
938 --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
939 format. May include the private key
940 --client-certificate-key KEYFILE
941 Path to private key file for client
942 certificate
bb58c9ed 943 --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
2dd5a2e3 944 Password for client certificate private key,
945 if encrypted. If not provided, and the key
946 is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask interactively
f5e008d1 947
c76eb41b 948## Post-Processing Options:
2dd5a2e3 949 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
950 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
35faefee 951 --audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
952 used. (currently supported: best (default),
8dc59305 953 aac, alac, flac, m4a, mp3, opus, vorbis,
e0ab9854 954 wav). You can specify multiple rules using
955 similar syntax as --remux-video
2dd5a2e3 956 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
957 converting the audio with -x. Insert a value
958 between 0 (best) and 10 (worst) for VBR or a
959 specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
960 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
8dc59305 961 necessary (currently supported: avi, flv,
69f5fe45 962 gif, mkv, mov, mp4, webm, aac, aiff, alac,
963 flac, m4a, mka, mp3, ogg, opus, vorbis,
964 wav). If target container does not support
965 the video/audio codec, remuxing will fail.
966 You can specify multiple rules; e.g.
2dd5a2e3 967 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
35faefee 968 mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
2dd5a2e3 969 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
970 necessary. The syntax and supported formats
971 are the same as --remux-video
972 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
973 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
974 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
975 to give the argument to the specified
976 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
977 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
978 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
979 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
980 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
981 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
982 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
983 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
984 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
985 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
986 specified executable only when being used by
987 the specified postprocessor. Additionally,
988 for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
989 appended to the prefix optionally followed
990 by a number to pass the argument before the
62b58c09 991 specified input/output file, e.g. --ppa
2dd5a2e3 992 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
993 this option multiple times to give different
994 arguments to different postprocessors.
995 (Alias: --ppa)
996 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
997 after post-processing
998 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
999 post-processing (default)
1000 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
1001 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
1002 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
1003 webm and mkv videos)
1004 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
1005 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
1006 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
1007 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
1008 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
1009 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are
1010 used (Alias: --add-metadata)
1011 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
1012 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
1013 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
1014 (Alias: --add-chapters)
1015 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias:
1016 --no-add-chapters)
1017 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
1018 mkv/mka video files
1019 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
1020 to the video file
fe74d5b5 1021 --parse-metadata [WHEN:]FROM:TO
1022 Parse additional metadata like title/artist
2dd5a2e3 1023 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
fe74d5b5 1024 for details. Supported values of "WHEN" are
1025 the same as that of --use-postprocessor
1026 (default: pre_process)
1027 --replace-in-metadata [WHEN:]FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
2dd5a2e3 1028 Replace text in a metadata field using the
1029 given regex. This option can be used
fe74d5b5 1030 multiple times. Supported values of "WHEN"
1031 are the same as that of --use-postprocessor
1032 (default: pre_process)
2dd5a2e3 1033 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
1034 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
1035 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
1036 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
1037 (default; only when the videos form a single
1038 show). All the video files must have same
1039 codecs and number of streams to be
1040 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
1041 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1042 the output filename for the concatenated
1043 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1044 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
1045 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
1046 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
1047 default; fix file if we can, warn
1048 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
1049 already exists)
1050 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
64fa820c 1051 path to the binary or its containing directory
2dd5a2e3 1052 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
119e40ef 1053 when to execute it, separated by a ":".
1054 Supported values of "WHEN" are the same as
1055 that of --use-postprocessor (default:
1056 after_move). Same syntax as the output
1057 template can be used to pass any field as
ad54c913 1058 arguments to the command. If no fields are
1059 passed, %(filepath,_filename|)q is appended
1060 to the end of the command. This option can
1061 be used multiple times
2dd5a2e3 1062 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
1063 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
8dc59305 1064 (currently supported: ass, lrc, srt, vtt)
2dd5a2e3 1065 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
1066 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
00bbc5f1 1067 (currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
1068 can specify multiple rules using similar
1069 syntax as --remux-video
2dd5a2e3 1070 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
1071 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can
1072 be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1073 the output filename for the split files. See
1074 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
64fa820c 1075 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters (default)
2dd5a2e3 1076 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
5ec1b6b7 1077 given regular expression. The syntax is the
1078 same as --download-sections. This option can
2dd5a2e3 1079 be used multiple times
1080 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
1081 (default)
5ec1b6b7 1082 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes at cuts when
1083 downloading/splitting/removing sections.
1084 This is slow due to needing a re-encode, but
1085 the resulting video may have fewer artifacts
1086 around the cuts
2dd5a2e3 1087 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
1088 when cutting/splitting (default)
1089 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS]
1090 The (case sensitive) name of plugin
1091 postprocessors to be enabled, and
1092 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
1093 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
1094 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
1095 The "when" argument determines when the
1096 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
1097 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
1098 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
119e40ef 1099 "video" (after --format; before
1100 --print/--output), "before_dl" (before each
1101 video download), "post_process" (after each
1102 video download; default), "after_move"
1103 (after moving video file to it's final
1104 locations), "after_video" (after downloading
1105 and processing all formats of a video), or
1106 "playlist" (at end of playlist). This option
1107 can be used multiple times to add different
1108 postprocessors
7a340e0d
NA
1109
1110## SponsorBlock Options:
1111Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1112 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
8a51f564 1113 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1114
2dd5a2e3 1115 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1116 for, separated by commas. Available
1117 categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
1118 selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
71df9b7f 1119 music_offtopic, poi_highlight, chapter, all
1120 and default (=all). You can prefix the
1121 category with a "-" to exclude it. See [1]
1122 for description of the categories. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 1123 --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1124 [1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1125 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1126 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1127 category is present in both mark and remove,
1128 remove takes precedence. The syntax and
1129 available categories are the same as for
1130 --sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
71df9b7f 1131 refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight,
63c547d7 1132 chapter are not available
7a340e0d 1133 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
2dd5a2e3 1134 An output template for the title of the
1135 SponsorBlock chapters created by
1136 --sponsorblock-mark. The only available
1137 fields are start_time, end_time, category,
1138 categories, name, category_names. Defaults
1139 to "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1140 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1141 --sponsorblock-remove
1142 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1143 https://sponsor.ajay.app
a9e7f546 1144
78895bd3 1145## Extractor Options:
2dd5a2e3 1146 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors
1147 (default is 3), or "infinite"
1148 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1149 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1150 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1151 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1152 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1153 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1154 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1155 formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
1156 (default)
2fa669f7 1157 --extractor-args IE_KEY:ARGS Pass ARGS arguments to the IE_KEY extractor.
1158 See "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You
1159 can use this option multiple times to give
2dd5a2e3 1160 arguments for different extractors
17cb02d0 1161
b7770046
U
1162# CONFIGURATION
1163
7a5c1cfe 1164You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
e2e43aea 1165
878eac3e 11661. **Main Configuration**:
1167 * The file given by `--config-location`
11681. **Portable Configuration**: (Recommended for portable installations)
1169 * If using a binary, `yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the binary
1170 * If running from source-code, `yt-dlp.conf` in the parent directory of `yt_dlp`
11711. **Home Configuration**:
1172 * `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by `-P`
1173 * If `-P` is not given, the current directory is searched
e2e43aea 11741. **User Configuration**:
773c272d 1175 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp.conf`
878eac3e 1176 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
8e40b9d1 1177 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
773c272d 1178 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp.conf`
878eac3e 1179 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1180 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
e2e43aea 1181 * `~/yt-dlp.conf`
1182 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
8e40b9d1
M
1183 * `~/.yt-dlp/config`
1184 * `~/.yt-dlp/config.txt`
3d3bb168 1185
878eac3e 1186 See also: [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
11871. **System Configuration**:
1188 * `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
8e40b9d1
M
1189 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config`
1190 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config.txt`
b7770046 1191
62b58c09 1192E.g. with the following configuration file yt-dlp will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under `YouTube` directory in your home directory:
b7770046
U
1193```
1194# Lines starting with # are comments
1195
1196# Always extract audio
1197-x
1198
1199# Do not copy the mtime
1200--no-mtime
1201
1202# Use this proxy
1203--proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1204
298f597b 1205# Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1206-o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
b7770046
U
1207```
1208
8e174ba7 1209**Note**: Options in configuration file are just the same options aka switches used in regular command line calls; thus there **must be no whitespace** after `-` or `--`, e.g. `-o` or `--proxy` but not `- o` or `-- proxy`. They must also be quoted when necessary as-if it were a UNIX shell.
b7770046 1210
a4211baf 1211You 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 1212
304ad45a 1213### Configuration file encoding
a904a7f8 1214
304ad45a 1215The configuration files are decoded according to the UTF BOM if present, and in the encoding from system locale otherwise.
a904a7f8 1216
88f60feb 1217If you want your file to be decoded differently, add `# coding: ENCODING` to the beginning of the file (e.g. `# coding: shift-jis`). There must be no characters before that, even spaces or BOM.
a904a7f8 1218
db3ad8a6 1219### Authentication with netrc
b7770046 1220
304ad45a 1221You 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 1222```
878eac3e 1223touch ${HOME}/.netrc
1224chmod a-rwx,u+rw ${HOME}/.netrc
b7770046
U
1225```
1226After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1227```
0001fcb5 1228machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
b7770046 1229```
62b58c09 1230E.g.
b7770046
U
1231```
1232machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1233machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1234```
7a5c1cfe 1235To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
b7770046 1236
878eac3e 1237The default location of the .netrc file is `~` (see below).
1238
d7cd97e8 1239As an alternative to using the `.netrc` file, which has the disadvantage of keeping your passwords in a plain text file, you can configure a custom shell command to provide the credentials for an extractor. This is done by providing the `--netrc-cmd` parameter, it shall output the credentials in the netrc format and return `0` on success, other values will be treated as an error. `{}` in the command will be replaced by the name of the extractor to make it possible to select the credentials for the right extractor.
db3ad8a6
ND
1240
1241E.g. To use an encrypted `.netrc` file stored as `.authinfo.gpg`
1242```
1243yt-dlp --netrc-cmd 'gpg --decrypt ~/.authinfo.gpg' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc
1244```
1245
1246
878eac3e 1247### Notes about environment variables
1248* Environment variables are normally specified as `${VARIABLE}`/`$VARIABLE` on UNIX and `%VARIABLE%` on Windows; but is always shown as `${VARIABLE}` in this documentation
1249* yt-dlp also allow using UNIX-style variables on Windows for path-like options; e.g. `--output`, `--config-location`
1250* If unset, `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}` defaults to `~/.config` and `${XDG_CACHE_HOME}` to `~/.cache`
1251* On Windows, `~` points to `${HOME}` if present; or, `${USERPROFILE}` or `${HOMEDRIVE}${HOMEPATH}` otherwise
1252* On Windows, `${USERPROFILE}` generally points to `C:\Users\<user name>` and `${APPDATA}` to `${USERPROFILE}\AppData\Roaming`
b7770046
U
1253
1254# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
1255
0202b52a 1256The `-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 1257
ec2e44fc 1258<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1259**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
ec2e44fc 1260<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1261
e58c22a0 1262The 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 1263
62b58c09 1264It may however also contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences may be formatted according to [Python string formatting operations](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting), e.g. `%(NAME)s` or `%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations.
a439a3a4 1265
1266The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
3d3bb168 1267
07a1250e 12681. **Object traversal**: The dictionaries and lists available in metadata can be traversed by using a dot `.` separator; e.g. `%(tags.0)s`, `%(subtitles.en.-1.ext)s`. You can do Python slicing with colon `:`; E.g. `%(id.3:7:-1)s`, `%(formats.:.format_id)s`. Curly braces `{}` can be used to build dictionaries with only specific keys; e.g. `%(formats.:.{format_id,height})#j`. An empty field name `%()s` refers to the entire infodict; e.g. `%(.{id,title})s`. Note that all the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use `-j` to see such fields
ec2e44fc 1269
62b58c09 12701. **Addition**: Addition and subtraction of numeric fields can be done using `+` and `-` respectively. E.g. `%(playlist_index+10)03d`, `%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
ec2e44fc 1271
62b58c09 12721. **Date/time Formatting**: Date/time fields can be formatted according to [strftime formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-format-codes) by specifying it separated from the field name using a `>`. E.g. `%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`, `%(upload_date>%Y-%m-%d)s`, `%(epoch-3600>%H-%M-%S)s`
ec2e44fc 1273
62b58c09 12741. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a `,`. E.g. `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
ec2e44fc 1275
ec9311c4 12761. **Replacement**: A replacement value can be specified using a `&` separator according to the [`str.format` mini-language](https://docs.python.org/3/library/string.html#format-specification-mini-language). If the field is *not* empty, this replacement value will be used instead of the actual field content. This is done after alternate fields are considered; thus the replacement is used if *any* of the alternative fields is *not* empty. E.g. `%(chapters&has chapters|no chapters)s`, `%(title&TITLE={:>20}|NO TITLE)s`
e978789f 1277
17ffed18 12781. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a `|` separator. This overrides `--output-na-placeholder`. E.g. `%(uploader|Unknown)s`
ec2e44fc 1279
9b9dad11 12801. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types `diouxXeEfFgGcrs`, yt-dlp additionally supports converting to `B` = **B**ytes, `j` = **j**son (flag `#` for pretty-printing, `+` for Unicode), `h` = HTML escaping, `l` = a comma separated **l**ist (flag `#` for `\n` newline-separated), `q` = a string **q**uoted for the terminal (flag `#` to split a list into different arguments), `D` = add **D**ecimal suffixes (e.g. 10M) (flag `#` to use 1024 as factor), and `S` = **S**anitize as filename (flag `#` for restricted)
ec2e44fc 1281
d5d1df8a 12821. **Unicode normalization**: The format type `U` can be used for NFC [Unicode normalization](https://docs.python.org/3/library/unicodedata.html#unicodedata.normalize). The alternate form flag (`#`) changes the normalization to NFD and the conversion flag `+` can be used for NFKC/NFKD compatibility equivalence normalization. E.g. `%(title)+.100U` is NFKC
a439a3a4 1283
1284To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1285```
e978789f 1286%(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
a439a3a4 1287```
de6000d9 1288
62b58c09 1289Additionally, you can set different output templates for the various metadata files separately from the general output template by specifying the type of file followed by the template separated by a colon `:`. The different file types supported are `subtitle`, `thumbnail`, `description`, `annotation` (deprecated), `infojson`, `link`, `pl_thumbnail`, `pl_description`, `pl_infojson`, `chapter`, `pl_video`. E.g. `-o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "thumbnail:%(title)s\%(title)s.%(ext)s"` will put the thumbnails in a folder with the same name as the video. If any of the templates is empty, that type of file will not be written. E.g. `--write-thumbnail -o "thumbnail:"` will write thumbnails only for playlists and not for video.
e29663c6 1290
4815bbfc 1291<a id="outtmpl-postprocess-note"/>
7aaf4cd2 1292
8e174ba7 1293**Note**: Due to post-processing (i.e. merging etc.), the actual output filename might differ. Use `--print after_move:filepath` to get the name after all post-processing is complete.
7aaf4cd2 1294
e29663c6 1295The available fields are:
b7770046
U
1296
1297 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1298 - `title` (string): Video title
455a15e2 1299 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
b7770046
U
1300 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1301 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
597c1866 1302 - `description` (string): The description of the video
b7770046
U
1303 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1304 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1305 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1306 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
b7770046 1307 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
ae6a1b95 1308 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
e6f21b3d 1309 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
ae6a1b95 1310 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
f0d785d3 1311 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
ae6a1b95 1312 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
b7770046
U
1313 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1314 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1315 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
6c73052c 1316 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
8213ce28 1317 - `channel_is_verified` (boolean): Whether the channel is verified on the platform
b7770046
U
1318 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1319 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
53c18592 1320 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
b7770046 1321 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
867c66ff 1322 - `concurrent_view_count` (numeric): How many users are currently watching the video on the platform.
b7770046
U
1323 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1324 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1325 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1326 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
277d6ff5 1327 - `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 1328 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
e325a21a 1329 - `live_status` (string): One of "not_live", "is_live", "is_upcoming", "was_live", "post_live" (was live, but VOD is not yet processed)
b7770046 1330 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
f76ede8e 1331 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
6cfda058 1332 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
940a67a3 1333 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
b7770046
U
1334 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1335 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
b7770046
U
1336 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1337 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
455a15e2 1338 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
b532a348 1339 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`, padded with leading zeros to 5 digits
9c906919 1340 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
e6f21b3d 1341 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
455a15e2 1342 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1343 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1344 - `playlist` (string): `playlist_id` or `playlist_title`
f0d785d3 1345 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
e6f21b3d 1346 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1347 - `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
1348 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1349 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
bd99f6e6 1350 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
0bb322b9 1351 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1352 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
bd99f6e6 1353 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)
d2c8aadf 1354
1355All the fields in [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats) can also be used
b7770046
U
1356
1357Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1358
1359 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1360 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1361 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1362
1363Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1364
1365 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1366 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1367 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1368 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1369 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1370 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1371 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1372
1373Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1374
1375 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1376 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1377 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1378 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1379 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1380 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1381 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1382 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1383 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1384 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1385
5ec1b6b7 1386Available only when using `--download-sections` and for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
72755351 1387
1388 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1389 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1390 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1391 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1392
53c18592 1393Available only when used in `--print`:
1394
1395 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
7aaf4cd2 1396 - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the [actual filename may differ](#outtmpl-postprocess-note)
ed5835b4 1397 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by `--list-formats`
1398 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by `--list-thumbnails`
1399 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1400 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1401
ad54c913 1402 Available only after the video is downloaded (`post_process`/`after_move`):
7a340e0d 1403
ad54c913 1404 - `filepath`: Actual path of downloaded video file
1405
7a340e0d
NA
1406Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1407
1408 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1409 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1338ae3b 1410 - `categories` (list): The [SponsorBlock categories](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Category) the chapter belongs to
7a340e0d
NA
1411 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1412 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1413 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
1338ae3b 1414 - `type` (string): The [SponsorBlock action type](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Action_Type) of the chapter
53c18592 1415
62b58c09 1416Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. E.g. for `-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an mp4 video with title `yt-dlp test video` and id `BaW_jenozKc`, this will result in a `yt-dlp test video-BaW_jenozKc.mp4` file created in the current directory.
49a57e70 1417
8e174ba7 1418**Note**: Some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor. Such sequences will be replaced with placeholder value provided with `--output-na-placeholder` (`NA` by default).
b7770046 1419
0930b11f 1420**Tip**: Look at the `-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
b7770046 1421
62b58c09 1422For numeric sequences you can use [numeric related formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting); e.g. `%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to 5 characters, like in `00042`.
b7770046 1423
940a67a3 1424Output 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
1425
1426To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
1427
91ebc640 1428The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
b7770046 1429
f304da8a 1430In 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 1431
b7770046
U
1432#### Output template examples
1433
b7770046 1434```bash
d2c8aadf 1435$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1436test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1437
d2c8aadf 1438$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1439youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
b7770046 1440
d2c8aadf 1441$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
9222c381 1442youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
b7770046
U
1443
1444# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
940a67a3 1445$ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
b7770046 1446
b050d210 1447# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
940a67a3 1448$ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
e29663c6 1449
e978789f 1450# Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
ad54c913 1451$ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist_index&{} - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
e978789f 1452
b7770046 1453# Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
940a67a3 1454$ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
b7770046
U
1455
1456# Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
940a67a3 1457$ 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
1458
1459# Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
940a67a3 1460$ 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 1461
6a34813a 1462# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1463# and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1464$ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1465
1466# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1467$ 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
1468
b7770046 1469# Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
7a5c1cfe 1470$ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
b7770046
U
1471```
1472
1473# FORMAT SELECTION
1474
7a5c1cfe
P
1475By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1476This 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 1477
c111cefa 1478**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.
1479
eff63539 1480The 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 1481
ec2e44fc 1482<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1483**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
ec2e44fc 1484<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1485
62b58c09 1486The simplest case is requesting a specific format; e.g. with `-f 22` you can download the format with format code equal to 22. You can get the list of available format codes for particular video using `--list-formats` or `-F`. Note that these format codes are extractor specific.
b7770046
U
1487
1488You 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.
1489
fa9f30b8 1490You can use `-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1491
b7770046
U
1492You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1493
59a7a13e 1494 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1495 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
30389593 1496 - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio or both (ie; `vcodec!=none or acodec!=none`)
59a7a13e 1497 - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1498 - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
1499 - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
1500 - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
ae6a1b95 1501 - `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 1502 - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
909d24dd 1503 - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1504 - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
909d24dd 1505 - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1506 - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
909d24dd 1507 - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
b7770046 1508
d4ada357 1509For 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 1510
1511You 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 1512
304ad45a 1513If you want to download multiple videos, and they don't have the same formats available, you can specify the order of preference using slashes. Note that formats on the left hand side are preferred; e.g. `-f 22/17/18` will download format 22 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 17 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 18 if it's available, otherwise it will complain that no suitable formats are available for download.
b7770046
U
1514
1515If 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`.
1516
62b58c09 1517You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using `-f <format1>+<format2>+...` (requires ffmpeg installed); e.g. `-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg.
d806c9fd 1518
1519**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
1520
304ad45a 1521Unless `--video-multistreams` is used, all formats with a video stream except the first one are ignored. Similarly, unless `--audio-multistreams` is used, all formats with an audio stream except the first one are ignored. E.g. `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --video-multistreams --audio-multistreams` will download and merge all 3 given formats. The resulting file will have 2 video streams and 2 audio streams. But `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --no-video-multistreams` will download and merge only `bestvideo` and `bestaudio`. `best` is ignored since another format containing a video stream (`bestvideo`) has already been selected. The order of the formats is therefore important. `-f best+bestaudio --no-audio-multistreams` will download only `best` while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams` will ignore `best` and download only `bestaudio`.
eb8a4433 1522
1523## Filtering Formats
1524
b532a348 1525You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"` since filters without a selector are interpreted as `best`).
b7770046
U
1526
1527The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
1528
1529 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
d2c8aadf 1530 - `filesize_approx`: An estimate for the number of bytes
b7770046
U
1531 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1532 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
105bfd90 1533 - `aspect_ratio`: Aspect ratio of the video, if known
b7770046
U
1534 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1535 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1536 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1537 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1538 - `fps`: Frame rate
d2c8aadf 1539 - `audio_channels`: The number of audio channels
1540 - `stretched_ratio`: `width:height` of the video's pixels, if not square
b7770046 1541
1ce9a3cb 1542Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains), `~=` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
b7770046 1543
d2c8aadf 1544 - `url`: Video URL
b7770046
U
1545 - `ext`: File extension
1546 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1547 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1548 - `container`: Name of the container format
1549 - `protocol`: The protocol that will be used for the actual download, lower-case (`http`, `https`, `rtsp`, `rtmp`, `rtmpe`, `mms`, `f4m`, `ism`, `http_dash_segments`, `m3u8`, or `m3u8_native`)
29f7c58a 1550 - `language`: Language code
d2c8aadf 1551 - `dynamic_range`: The dynamic range of the video
1552 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
1553 - `format`: A human-readable description of the format
1554 - `format_note`: Additional info about the format
1555 - `resolution`: Textual description of width and height
b7770046 1556
1ce9a3cb 1557Any 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 1558
8e174ba7 1559**Note**: None of the aforementioned meta fields are guaranteed to be present since this solely depends on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, i.e. the metadata offered by the website. Any other field made available by the extractor can also be used for filtering.
b7770046 1560
b532a348 1561Formats for which the value is not known are excluded unless you put a question mark (`?`) after the operator. You can combine format filters, so `-f "bv[height<=?720][tbr>500]"` selects up to 720p videos (or videos where the height is not known) with a bitrate of at least 500 KBit/s. You can also use the filters with `all` to download all formats that satisfy the filter, e.g. `-f "all[vcodec=none]"` selects all audio-only formats.
b7770046 1562
62b58c09 1563Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses; e.g. `-f "(mp4,webm)[height<480]"` will download the best pre-merged mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480.
b7770046 1564
eb8a4433 1565## Sorting Formats
1566
2e7781a9 1567You can change the criteria for being considered the `best` by using `-S` (`--format-sort`). The general format for this is `--format-sort field1,field2...`.
1568
1569The available fields are:
eb8a4433 1570
304ad45a 1571 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that have a video stream
1572 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that have an audio stream
ed8d87f9 1573 - `ie_pref`: The format preference
1574 - `lang`: The language preference
1575 - `quality`: The quality of the format
1576 - `source`: The preference of the source
d80d98e7 1577 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > `mms`/`rtsp` > `f4f`/`f4m`)
1578 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other)
a5387729 1579 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`flac`/`alac` > `wav`/`aiff` > `opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `ac4` > `eac3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other)
eb8a4433 1580 - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
29ca4082 1581 - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `mov` > `webm` > `flv` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is preferred.
f2e9fa3e 1582 - `aext`: Audio Extension (`m4a` > `aac` > `mp3` > `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > `mp3` > `m4a` > `aac`
63be1aab 1583 - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
0930b11f 1584 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
62b5c94c 1585 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize
63be1aab 1586 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
eb8a4433 1587 - `height`: Height of video
1588 - `width`: Width of video
63be1aab 1589 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1590 - `fps`: Framerate of video
49a57e70 1591 - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `HLG` > `SDR`)
b8ed0f15 1592 - `channels`: The number of audio channels
63be1aab 1593 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1594 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1595 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
62b5c94c 1596 - `br`: Average bitrate in KBit/s, `tbr`/`vbr`/`abr`
63be1aab 1597 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
d806c9fd 1598
1599**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 1600
62b58c09 1601All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in descending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+`. E.g. `+res` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a preferred value for the fields, separated by a `:`. E.g. `res:720` prefers larger videos, but no larger than 720p and the smallest video if there are no videos less than 720p. For `codec` and `ext`, you can provide two preferred values, the first for video and the second for audio. E.g. `+codec:avc:m4a` (equivalent to `+vcodec:avc,+acodec:m4a`) sets the video codec preference to `h264` > `h265` > `vp9` > `vp9.2` > `av01` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` and audio codec preference to `mp4a` > `aac` > `vorbis` > `opus` > `mp3` > `ac3` > `dts`. You can also make the sorting prefer the nearest values to the provided by using `~` as the delimiter. E.g. `filesize~1G` prefers the format with filesize closest to 1 GiB.
9ee4f0bb 1602
7e798d72 1603The fields `hasvid` and `ie_pref` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using `--format-sort-force`. Apart from these, the default order used is: `lang,quality,res,fps,hdr:12,vcodec:vp9.2,channels,acodec,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id`. The extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
eb8a4433 1604
7e798d72 1605Note that the default has `vcodec:vp9.2`; i.e. `av1` is not preferred. Similarly, the default for hdr is `hdr:12`; i.e. dolby vision is not preferred. These choices are made since DV and AV1 formats are not yet fully compatible with most devices. This may be changed in the future as more devices become capable of smoothly playing back these formats.
eb8a4433 1606
e58c22a0 1607If 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 1608
1609**Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1610
eb8a4433 1611## Format Selection examples
b7770046 1612
b7770046 1613```bash
e58c22a0 1614# Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
909d24dd 1615# or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
940a67a3 1616$ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
909d24dd 1617
1618# Download best format that contains video,
1619# and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
940a67a3 1620$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
2af884ff 1621
1622# Same as above
7a5c1cfe 1623$ yt-dlp
909d24dd 1624
6fd35a11 1625# Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1626# For this case, an output template should be used since
1627# by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
940a67a3 1628$ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
909d24dd 1629
f8d4ad9a 1630# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1631# and all audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1632$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
f8d4ad9a 1633
1634# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1635# and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1636$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
909d24dd 1637
6fd35a11 1638
1639# The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
f8d4ad9a 1640# and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
6fd35a11 1641
1642# Download the worst video available (old method)
940a67a3 1643$ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
eb8a4433 1644
1645# Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
940a67a3 1646$ yt-dlp -S "+res"
eb8a4433 1647
1648# Download the smallest video available
940a67a3 1649$ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
eb8a4433 1650
1651
909d24dd 1652
eb8a4433 1653# Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
940a67a3 1654$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
eb8a4433 1655
1656# Download the best video with the best extension
29ca4082 1657# (For video, mp4 > mov > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
940a67a3 1658$ yt-dlp -S "ext"
eb8a4433 1659
1660
909d24dd 1661
eb8a4433 1662# Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1663# or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1664$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
b7770046 1665
eb8a4433 1666# Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1667# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1668$ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
b7770046 1669
eb8a4433 1670# Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1671# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1672# Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1673# So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
940a67a3 1674$ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
b7770046 1675
b7770046 1676
909d24dd 1677
eb8a4433 1678# Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1679# or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1680$ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
eb8a4433 1681
1682# Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1683# or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1684$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
eb8a4433 1685
1686# Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
940a67a3 1687$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
eb8a4433 1688
1689
909d24dd 1690
eb8a4433 1691# Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1692# or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
940a67a3 1693$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1694
1695# Download best video available via the best protocol
1696# (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
940a67a3 1697$ yt-dlp -S "proto"
eb8a4433 1698
1699
909d24dd 1700
1ce9a3cb
LF
1701# Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1702# or the best video if there is no such video
1703$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1704
1705# Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1706# or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1707$ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1708
1709# Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1710# or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1711$ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1712
1713
1714
1715# More complex examples
1716
e58c22a0 1717# Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1718# or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
940a67a3 1719$ 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 1720
1721# Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
f8d4ad9a 1722# or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1723# preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
940a67a3 1724$ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
eb8a4433 1725
1726
909d24dd 1727
eb8a4433 1728# Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1729# or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1730# preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
940a67a3 1731$ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
b7770046 1732```
eb8a4433 1733
73cd218f 1734# MODIFYING METADATA
1735
a4211baf 1736The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
e9f4ccd1 1737
418964fa 1738`--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 1739
46d09f87 1740The general syntax of `--parse-metadata FROM:TO` is to give the name of a field or an [output template](#output-template) to extract data from, and the format to interpret it as, separated by a colon `:`. Either a [python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax) with named capture groups, a single field name, or a similar syntax to the [output template](#output-template) (only `%(field)s` formatting is supported) can be used for `TO`. The option can be used multiple times to parse and modify various fields.
73cd218f 1741
46d09f87 1742Note that these options preserve their relative order, allowing replacements to be made in parsed fields and viceversa. Also, any field thus created can be used in the [output template](#output-template) and will also affect the media file's metadata added when using `--embed-metadata`.
73cd218f 1743
9c2b75b5 1744This option also has a few special uses:
3d3bb168 1745
c8bc203f 1746* You can download an additional URL based on the metadata of the currently downloaded video. To do this, set the field `additional_urls` to the URL that you want to download. E.g. `--parse-metadata "description:(?P<additional_urls>https?://www\.vimeo\.com/\d+)"` will download the first vimeo video found in the description
3d3bb168 1747
62b58c09 1748* You can use this to change the metadata that is embedded in the media file. To do this, set the value of the corresponding field with a `meta_` prefix. For example, any value you set to `meta_description` field will be added to the `description` field in the file - you can use this to set a different "description" and "synopsis". To modify the metadata of individual streams, use the `meta<n>_` prefix (e.g. `meta1_language`). Any value set to the `meta_` field will overwrite all default values.
c31be5b0 1749
08d30158 1750**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.
1751
c31be5b0 1752For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1753
08d30158 1754Metadata fields | From
1755:--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1756`title` | `track` or `title`
1757`date` | `upload_date`
1758`description`, `synopsis` | `description`
1759`purl`, `comment` | `webpage_url`
1760`track` | `track_number`
1761`artist` | `artist`, `creator`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
1762`genre` | `genre`
1763`album` | `album`
1764`album_artist` | `album_artist`
1765`disc` | `disc_number`
1766`show` | `series`
1767`season_number` | `season_number`
1768`episode_id` | `episode` or `episode_id`
1769`episode_sort` | `episode_number`
1770`language` of each stream | the format's `language`
1771
c31be5b0 1772**Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1773
73cd218f 1774
1775## Modifying metadata examples
1776
73cd218f 1777```bash
1778# Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
940a67a3 1779$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
73cd218f 1780
1781# Regex example
940a67a3 1782$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
73cd218f 1783
1784# Set title as "Series name S01E05"
940a67a3 1785$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
73cd218f 1786
a44ca5a4 1787# Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
2fa669f7 1788$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --embed-metadata
a44ca5a4 1789
1790# Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
1791# handling multiple lines correctly
2fa669f7 1792$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --embed-metadata
73cd218f 1793
8aa0e7cd 1794# Do not set any "synopsis" in the video metadata
1795$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<meta_synopsis>)"
1796
0930b11f 1797# Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
7f9c6a63 1798$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "video::(?P<formats>)" --write-info-json
0930b11f 1799
e9f4ccd1 1800# Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
940a67a3 1801$ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
e9f4ccd1 1802
73cd218f 1803```
1804
5d3a0e79 1805# EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1806
62b58c09 1807Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using `--extractor-args KEY:ARGS`. `ARGS` is a `;` (semicolon) separated string of `ARG=VAL1,VAL2`. E.g. `--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android_embedded,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
5d3a0e79 1808
a5387729 1809Note: In CLI, `ARG` can use `-` instead of `_`; e.g. `youtube:player-client"` becomes `youtube:player_client"`
1810
5d3a0e79 1811The following extractors use this feature:
96565c7e 1812
1813#### youtube
8e174ba7 1814* `lang`: Prefer translated metadata (`title`, `description` etc) of this language code (case-sensitive). By default, the video primary language metadata is preferred, with a fallback to `en` translated. See [youtube.py](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/c26f9b991a0681fd3ea548d535919cec1fbbd430/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L381-L390) for list of supported content language codes
8aa0e7cd 1815* `skip`: One or more of `hls`, `dash` or `translated_subs` to skip extraction of the m3u8 manifests, dash manifests and [auto-translated subtitles](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/4090#issuecomment-1158102032) respectively
fd8fcf8f 1816* `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web`, `android` and `ios` with variants `_music`, `_embedded`, `_embedscreen`, `_creator` (e.g. `web_embedded`); and `mweb`, `mweb_embedscreen` and `tv_embedded` (agegate bypass) with no variants. By default, `ios,android,web` is used, but `tv_embedded` and `creator` variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly, the music variants are added for `music.youtube.com` urls. You can use `all` to use all the clients, and `default` for the default clients.
96565c7e 1817* `player_skip`: Skip some network requests that are generally needed for robust extraction. One or more of `configs` (skip client configs), `webpage` (skip initial webpage), `js` (skip js player). While these options can help reduce the number of requests needed or avoid some rate-limiting, they could cause some issues. See [#860](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/860) for more details
ba06d77a 1818* `player_params`: YouTube player parameters to use for player requests. Will overwrite any default ones set by yt-dlp.
96565c7e 1819* `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
a44ca5a4 1820* `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`
1821 * E.g. `all,all,1000,10` will get a maximum of 1000 replies total, with up to 10 replies per thread. `1000,all,100` will get a maximum of 1000 comments, with a maximum of 100 replies total
b532a348 1822* `formats`: Change the types of formats to return. `dashy` (convert HTTP to DASH), `duplicate` (identical content but different URLs or protocol; includes `dashy`), `incomplete` (cannot be downloaded completely - live dash and post-live m3u8)
1e4fca9a 1823* `innertube_host`: Innertube API host to use for all API requests; e.g. `studio.youtube.com`, `youtubei.googleapis.com`. Note that cookies exported from one subdomain will not work on others
2ae778b8 1824* `innertube_key`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
eb5bdbfa 1825* `raise_incomplete_data`: `Incomplete Data Received` raises an error instead of reporting a warning
96565c7e 1826
1827#### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1828* `skip`: One or more of `webpage` (skip initial webpage download), `authcheck` (allow the download of playlists requiring authentication when no initial webpage is downloaded. This may cause unwanted behavior, see [#1122](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/1122) for more details)
5225df50 1829* `approximate_date`: Extract approximate `upload_date` and `timestamp` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
96565c7e 1830
3b021eac 1831#### generic
5cc0a8fd 1832* `fragment_query`: Passthrough any query in mpd/m3u8 manifest URLs to their fragments if no value is provided, or else apply the query string given as `fragment_query=VALUE`. Does not apply to ffmpeg
1833* `variant_query`: Passthrough the master m3u8 URL query to its variant playlist URLs if no value is provided, or else apply the query string given as `variant_query=VALUE`
c2e0fc40 1834* `hls_key`: An HLS AES-128 key URI *or* key (as hex), and optionally the IV (as hex), in the form of `(URI|KEY)[,IV]`; e.g. `generic:hls_key=ABCDEF1234567980,0xFEDCBA0987654321`. Passing any of these values will force usage of the native HLS downloader and override the corresponding values found in the m3u8 playlist
93e7c699 1835* `is_live`: Bypass live HLS detection and manually set `live_status` - a value of `false` will set `not_live`, any other value (or no value) will set `is_live`
3b021eac 1836
96565c7e 1837#### funimation
304ad45a 1838* `language`: Audio languages to extract, e.g. `funimation:language=english,japanese`
96565c7e 1839* `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`
1840
cb1553e9 1841#### crunchyrollbeta (Crunchyroll)
62b58c09 1842* `format`: Which stream type(s) to extract (default: `adaptive_hls`). Potentially useful values include `adaptive_hls`, `adaptive_dash`, `vo_adaptive_hls`, `vo_adaptive_dash`, `download_hls`, `download_dash`, `multitrack_adaptive_hls_v2`
dfea94f8 1843* `hardsub`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract, or `all` (default: `None` = no hardsubs), e.g. `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None`
706dfe44 1844
96565c7e 1845#### vikichannel
1846* `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
73d829c1 1847
7bdcb4a4
LNO
1848#### niconico
1849* `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.**
1850
aa4b0545 1851#### youtubewebarchive
1852* `check_all`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails`, `captures`
1853
d43de682
M
1854#### gamejolt
1855* `comment_sort`: `hot` (default), `you` (cookies needed), `top`, `new` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1856
26f2aa3d
AG
1857#### hotstar
1858* `res`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd`, `hd`, `fhd`
1859* `vcodec`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264`, `h265`, `dvh265`
1860* `dr`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr`, `hdr10`, `dv`
1861
698beb9a
M
1862#### niconicochannelplus
1863* `max_comments`: Maximum number of comments to extract - default is `120`
1864
046cab39 1865#### tiktok
c4cbd3be 1866* `api_hostname`: Hostname to use for mobile API requests, e.g. `api-h2.tiktokv.com`
62b58c09
L
1867* `app_version`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version`, e.g. `20.2.1`
1868* `manifest_app_version`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with, e.g. `221`
046cab39 1869
7eaf7f9a 1870#### rokfinchannel
62b58c09 1871* `tab`: Which tab to download - one of `new`, `top`, `videos`, `podcasts`, `streams`, `stacks`
7eaf7f9a 1872
b03fa783 1873#### twitter
a006ce2b 1874* `api`: Select one of `graphql` (default), `legacy` or `syndication` as the API for tweet extraction. Has no effect if logged in
b03fa783 1875
af1fd12f 1876#### stacommu, wrestleuniverse
ef8fb7f0 1877* `device_id`: UUID value assigned by the website and used to enforce device limits for paid livestream content. Can be found in browser local storage
1878
7f9c6a63 1879#### twitch
1880* `client_id`: Client ID value to be sent with GraphQL requests, e.g. `twitch:client_id=kimne78kx3ncx6brgo4mv6wki5h1ko`
01231feb 1881
81c8b9bd 1882#### nhkradirulive (NHK らじる★らじる LIVE)
1883* `area`: Which regional variation to extract. Valid areas are: `sapporo`, `sendai`, `tokyo`, `nagoya`, `osaka`, `hiroshima`, `matsuyama`, `fukuoka`. Defaults to `tokyo`
1884
1eaca74b 1885#### nflplusreplay
1886* `type`: Type(s) of game replays to extract. Valid types are: `full_game`, `full_game_spanish`, `condensed_game` and `all_22`. You can use `all` to extract all available replay types, which is the default
1887
8e174ba7 1888**Note**: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
5d3a0e79 1889
ec2e44fc 1890<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1891
3acf6d38 1892
f74980cb 1893# PLUGINS
b7770046 1894
8e40b9d1 1895Note that **all** plugins are imported even if not invoked, and that **there are no checks** performed on plugin code. **Use plugins at your own risk and only if you trust the code!**
3ae5e797 1896
8e40b9d1
M
1897Plugins can be of `<type>`s `extractor` or `postprocessor`.
1898- Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it.
1899- Extractor plugins take priority over builtin extractors.
1900- Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME`.
3ae5e797 1901
3ae5e797 1902
8e40b9d1 1903Plugins are loaded from the namespace packages `yt_dlp_plugins.extractor` and `yt_dlp_plugins.postprocessor`.
3ae5e797 1904
8e40b9d1
M
1905In other words, the file structure on the disk looks something like:
1906
1907 yt_dlp_plugins/
1908 extractor/
1909 myplugin.py
1910 postprocessor/
1911 myplugin.py
1912
1913yt-dlp looks for these `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folders in many locations (see below) and loads in plugins from **all** of them.
b7770046 1914
deae7c17 1915See the [wiki for some known plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugins)
1916
8e40b9d1
M
1917## Installing Plugins
1918
1919Plugins can be installed using various methods and locations.
1920
19211. **Configuration directories**:
1922 Plugin packages (containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder) can be dropped into the following standard [configuration locations](#configuration):
1923 * **User Plugins**
1924 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1925 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1926 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Windows)
773c272d 1927 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
8e40b9d1
M
1928 * `~/.yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1929 * `~/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1930 * **System Plugins**
1931 * `/etc/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1932 * `/etc/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
c8bc203f 19332. **Executable location**: Plugin packages can similarly be installed in a `yt-dlp-plugins` directory under the executable location (recommended for portable installations):
8e40b9d1
M
1934 * Binary: where `<root-dir>/yt-dlp.exe`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1935 * Source: where `<root-dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1936
19373. **pip and other locations in `PYTHONPATH`**
e756f45b 1938 * Plugin packages can be installed and managed using `pip`. See [yt-dlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) for an example.
8e174ba7 1939 * Note: plugin files between plugin packages installed with pip must have unique filenames.
8e40b9d1
M
1940 * Any path in `PYTHONPATH` is searched in for the `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder.
1941 * Note: This does not apply for Pyinstaller/py2exe builds.
1942
1943
8e174ba7 1944`.zip`, `.egg` and `.whl` archives containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder in their root are also supported as plugin packages.
1945* e.g. `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/mypluginpkg.zip` where `mypluginpkg.zip` contains `yt_dlp_plugins/<type>/myplugin.py`
8e40b9d1 1946
8e174ba7 1947Run yt-dlp with `--verbose` to check if the plugin has been loaded.
8e40b9d1
M
1948
1949## Developing Plugins
1950
8e174ba7 1951See the [yt-dlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) repo for a template plugin package and the [Plugin Development](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugin-Development) section of the wiki for a plugin development guide.
8e40b9d1 1952
8e174ba7 1953All public classes with a name ending in `IE`/`PP` are imported from each file for extractors and postprocessors repectively. This respects underscore prefix (e.g. `_MyBasePluginIE` is private) and `__all__`. Modules can similarly be excluded by prefixing the module name with an underscore (e.g. `_myplugin.py`).
e756f45b 1954
773c272d 1955To replace an existing extractor with a subclass of one, set the `plugin_name` class keyword argument (e.g. `class MyPluginIE(ABuiltInIE, plugin_name='myplugin')` will replace `ABuiltInIE` with `MyPluginIE`). Since the extractor replaces the parent, you should exclude the subclass extractor from being imported separately by making it private using one of the methods described above.
8e40b9d1 1956
8e174ba7 1957If you are a plugin author, add [yt-dlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/yt-dlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability.
b7770046 1958
8e40b9d1 1959See the [Developer Instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions) on how to write and test an extractor.
8c6f4daa 1960
1961# EMBEDDING YT-DLP
1962
1963yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1964
1965Your 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.
1966
1967From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1968
1969```python
59a7a13e 1970from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
8c6f4daa 1971
3d3bb168 1972URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1973with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1974 ydl.download(URLS)
8c6f4daa 1975```
1976
b532a348 1977Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of options available, have a look at [`yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py`](yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py#L183) or `help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)` in a Python shell. If you are already familiar with the CLI, you can use [`devscripts/cli_to_api.py`](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/devscripts/cli_to_api.py) to translate any CLI switches to `YoutubeDL` params.
8c6f4daa 1978
43cc91ad 1979**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 1980
1981## Embedding examples
1982
43cc91ad 1983#### Extracting information
8c6f4daa 1984
1985```python
1986import json
8c6f4daa 1987import yt_dlp
8c6f4daa 1988
3d3bb168 1989URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
1990
1991# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
1992ydl_opts = {}
1993with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1994 info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
1995
1996 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
1997 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1998```
43cc91ad 1999#### Download using an info-json
3d3bb168 2000
2001```python
2002import yt_dlp
2003
2004INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
2005
2006with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
2007 error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
2008
2009print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
2010 else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
2011```
2012
43cc91ad 2013#### Extract audio
3d3bb168 2014
2015```python
2016import yt_dlp
2017
2018URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2019
2020ydl_opts = {
0a41f331 2021 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
3d3bb168 2022 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
2023 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
2024 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
2025 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
2026 }]
2027}
2028
2029with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2030 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
2031```
0a41f331 2032
2033#### Filter videos
2034
2035```python
2036import yt_dlp
2037
2038URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2039
2040def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
2041 """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
2042 duration = info.get('duration')
2043 if duration and duration < 60:
2044 return 'The video is too short'
2045
2046ydl_opts = {
2047 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
2048}
2049
2050with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2051 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
2052```
2053
43cc91ad 2054#### Adding logger and progress hook
3d3bb168 2055
2056```python
2057import yt_dlp
2058
2059URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
8c6f4daa 2060
2061class MyLogger:
2062 def debug(self, msg):
e75bb0d6 2063 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
8c6f4daa 2064 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
2065 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
2066 pass
2067 else:
2068 self.info(msg)
2069
2070 def info(self, msg):
2071 pass
2072
2073 def warning(self, msg):
2074 pass
2075
2076 def error(self, msg):
2077 print(msg)
2078
2079
3d3bb168 2080# ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
2081def my_hook(d):
2082 if d['status'] == 'finished':
2083 print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
2084
2085
2086ydl_opts = {
2087 'logger': MyLogger(),
2088 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
2089}
2090
2091with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2092 ydl.download(URLS)
2093```
2094
43cc91ad 2095#### Add a custom PostProcessor
3d3bb168 2096
2097```python
2098import yt_dlp
2099
2100URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2101
2102# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
59a7a13e 2103class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
8c6f4daa 2104 def run(self, info):
2105 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
2106 return [], info
2107
2108
3d3bb168 2109with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
8aa0e7cd 2110 # ℹ️ "when" can take any value in yt_dlp.utils.POSTPROCESS_WHEN
2111 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP(), when='pre_process')
3d3bb168 2112 ydl.download(URLS)
2113```
8c6f4daa 2114
2115
43cc91ad 2116#### Use a custom format selector
3d3bb168 2117
2118```python
2119import yt_dlp
2120
c8bc203f 2121URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
3d3bb168 2122
093a1710 2123def format_selector(ctx):
2124 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
3d3bb168 2125 NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
093a1710 2126
2127 # formats are already sorted worst to best
2128 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
2129
2130 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
2131 best_video = next(f for f in formats
2132 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
2133
2134 # find compatible audio extension
2135 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
2136 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
2137 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
2138 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
2139
3d3bb168 2140 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
093a1710 2141 yield {
093a1710 2142 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
2143 'ext': best_video['ext'],
2144 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
e75bb0d6 2145 # Must be + separated list of protocols
093a1710 2146 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
2147 }
2148
2149
8c6f4daa 2150ydl_opts = {
093a1710 2151 'format': format_selector,
8c6f4daa 2152}
2153
2154with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
3d3bb168 2155 ydl.download(URLS)
8c6f4daa 2156```
2157
ec2e44fc 2158<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
2159
e167860c 2160# DEPRECATED OPTIONS
2161
2162These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
2163
8130779d 2164#### Almost redundant options
2165While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
2166
2167 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
2168 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
0bfc53d0 2169 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
8130779d 2170 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
2171
6ccf351a 2172#### Redundant options
2173While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
f4536226 2174
53c18592 2175 --get-description --print description
2176 --get-duration --print duration_string
2177 --get-filename --print filename
2178 --get-format --print format
2179 --get-id --print id
2180 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
2181 -e, --get-title --print title
2182 -g, --get-url --print urls
8f18aca8 2183 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
2184 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
2185 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
2186 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
fe2ce85a 2187 --break-on-reject Use --break-match-filter
8b7539d2 2188 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
2189 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
7e88d7d7 2190 --playlist-start NUMBER -I NUMBER:
2191 --playlist-end NUMBER -I :NUMBER
2192 --playlist-reverse -I ::-1
2193 --no-playlist-reverse Default
8417f26b 2194 --no-colors --color no_color
6ccf351a 2195
2196
2197#### Not recommended
2198While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
2199
fe7866d0 2200 --force-generic-extractor --ies generic,default
1e43a6f7 2201 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
2202 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
d9aa2332 2203 --all-formats -f all
c32b0aab 2204 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
b7b04c78 2205 --print-json -j --no-simulate
62b58c09 2206 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting, e.g. %(autonumber)03d
a439a3a4 2207 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
19b824f6 2208 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
73cd218f 2209 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
52a8a1e1 2210 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
2211 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
53ed7066 2212 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
2213 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
5d3a0e79 2214 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
2215 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
2216 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
2217 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
c1664464 2218 --geo-bypass --xff "default"
2219 --no-geo-bypass --xff "never"
2220 --geo-bypass-country CODE --xff CODE
2221 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK --xff IP_BLOCK
6ccf351a 2222
2223
2224#### Developer options
2225These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
2226
34488702 2227 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
f95b9dee 2228 --load-pages Load pages dumped by --write-pages
6ccf351a 2229 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
88acdbc2 2230 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
2231 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
f4536226 2232
2233
2234#### Old aliases
2235These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
2236
2237 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
3856407a 2238 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
f4536226 2239 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
2240 --dump-headers --print-traffic
2241 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
2242 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
2243 --load-info --load-info-json
3856407a 2244 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
f4536226 2245 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
e167860c 2246 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
e167860c 2247 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
2248 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
f4536226 2249 --split-tracks --split-chapters
2250 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
e167860c 2251 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
f4536226 2252 --write-srt --write-subs
e167860c 2253 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
f4536226 2254
7a340e0d 2255#### Sponskrub Options
f304da8a 2256Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock` options
7a340e0d
NA
2257
2258 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
2259 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
2260 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
2261 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
2262 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
2263 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
2264 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
2265 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
2266
f4536226 2267#### No longer supported
2268These options may no longer work as intended
2269
2270 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
2271 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
2272 -C, --call-home Not implemented
2273 --no-call-home Default
2274 --include-ads No longer supported
2275 --no-include-ads Default
0bb1bc1b 2276 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
2277 --no-write-annotations Default
1e8fe57e 2278 --compat-options seperate-video-versions No longer needed
486fb179 2279
2280#### Removed
2281These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
2282
f4536226 2283 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
3d3bb168 2284 -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
f4536226 2285
8c6f4daa 2286# CONTRIBUTING
2287See [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 2288
17ffed18 2289# WIKI
2290See the [Wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki) for more information