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ec2e44fc 1<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b31fdeed 2<div align="center">
3
e980017a 4[![YT-DLP](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master/.github/banner.svg)](#readme)
d9d045e2 5
2fa669f7 6[![Release version](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?color=brightgreen&label=Download&style=for-the-badge)](#installation "Installation")
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ae6a1b95 12[![License: Unlicense](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Unlicense-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge)](LICENSE "License")
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b532a348 15[![Last Commit](https://img.shields.io/github/last-commit/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master?label=&style=for-the-badge&display_timestamp=committer)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pulse/monthly "Last activity")
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b31fdeed 17</div>
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c76eb41b 19
b31fdeed 20yt-dlp is a [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) fork based on the now inactive [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc). The main focus of this project is adding new features and patches while also keeping up to date with the original project
5c0e5bc4 21
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23
24<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
034b6215 25* [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
53ed7066 26 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
c76eb41b 27* [INSTALLATION](#installation)
deae7c17 28 * [Detailed instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation)
17fa3ee2 29 * [Update](#update)
0e5927ee 30 * [Release Files](#release-files)
cf59cd4d 31 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
17fa3ee2 32 * [Compile](#compile)
b31fdeed 33* [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
34 * [General Options](#general-options)
50865ca8 35 * [Network Options](#network-options)
b31fdeed 36 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
50865ca8 37 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
38 * [Download Options](#download-options)
39 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
b31fdeed 40 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
50865ca8 41 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
0744a815 42 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
50865ca8 43 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
44 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
45 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
46 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
50865ca8 47 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
7a340e0d 48 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
50865ca8 49 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
c76eb41b 50* [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
304ad45a 51 * [Configuration file encoding](#configuration-file-encoding)
db3ad8a6 52 * [Authentication with netrc](#authentication-with-netrc)
878eac3e 53 * [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
c76eb41b 54* [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
50865ca8 55 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
c76eb41b 56* [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
50865ca8 57 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
58 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
59 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
73cd218f 60* [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
61 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
5d3a0e79 62* [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
f74980cb 63* [PLUGINS](#plugins)
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64 * [Installing Plugins](#installing-plugins)
65 * [Developing Plugins](#developing-plugins)
8c6f4daa 66* [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
43cc91ad 67 * [Embedding examples](#embedding-examples)
e167860c 68* [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
8c6f4daa 69* [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
70 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
71 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
17ffed18 72* [WIKI](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki)
deae7c17 73 * [FAQ](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/FAQ)
ec2e44fc 74<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
50865ca8 75
76
034b6215 77# NEW FEATURES
91f071af 78
9d625406 79* Forked from [**yt-dlc@f9401f2**](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/commit/f9401f2a91987068139c5f757b12fc711d4c0cee) and merged with [**youtube-dl@66ab08**](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/66ab0814c4baa2dc79c2dd5287bc0ad61a37c5b9) ([exceptions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/21))
034b6215 80
304ad45a 81* **[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in YouTube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
034b6215 82
7581d246 83* **[Format Sorting](#sorting-formats)**: The default format sorting options have been changed so that higher resolution and better codecs will be now preferred instead of simply using larger bitrate. Furthermore, you can now specify the sort order using `-S`. This allows for much easier format selection than what is possible by simply using `--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
034b6215 84
8e174ba7 85* **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from [animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including `--write-comments`, `BiliBiliSearch`, `BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that NicoNico livestreams are not available. See [#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
29b6000e 86
ae61d108 87* **YouTube improvements**:
c8bc203f 88 * Supports Clips, Stories (`ytstories:<channel UCID>`), Search (including filters)**\***, YouTube Music Search, Channel-specific search, Search prefixes (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`)**\***, Mixes, and Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`, `:ytnotif`)
ae61d108 89 * Fix for [n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326) **\***
90 * Supports some (but not all) age-gated content without cookies
91 * Download livestreams from the start using `--live-from-start` (*experimental*)
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
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122* **Self updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`, and downgraded using `--update-to` if required
123
124* **Nightly builds**: [Automated nightly builds](#update-channels) can be used with `--update-to nightly`
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
53ed7066 160
161For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
3d3bb168 162
8a82af35 163* `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options (Do NOT use)
93b39cdb 164* `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams,-playlist-match-filter`
165* `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect,-playlist-match-filter`
2a06bb4e 166* `--compat-options 2021`: Same as `--compat-options 2022,no-certifi,filename-sanitization,no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date`
93b39cdb 167* `--compat-options 2022`: Same as `--compat-options playlist-match-filter,no-external-downloader-progress`. Use this to enable all future compat options
53ed7066 168
f20f5fe5 169
d19bb9c0 170# INSTALLATION
50865ca8 171
fc5fa964 172<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
173[![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 174[![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 175[![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 176[![PyPi](https://img.shields.io/badge/-PyPi-blue.svg?logo=pypi&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
fc5fa964 177[![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)
178[![Other variants](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Other-grey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](#release-files)
3d3bb168 179[![All versions](https://img.shields.io/badge/-All_Versions-lightgrey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
fc5fa964 180<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
181
c8bc203f 182You 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 183
b8773e63 184
a4211baf 185## UPDATE
4815bbfc 186You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are using the [release binaries](#release-files)
17ffed18 187
c8bc203f 188If 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 189
8e174ba7 190For 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 191
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192<a id="update-channels"/>
193
194There are currently two release channels for binaries, `stable` and `nightly`.
392389b7 195`stable` is the default channel, and many of its changes have been tested by users of the nightly channel.
196The `nightly` channel has releases built after each push to the master branch, and will have the most recent fixes and additions, but also have more risk of regressions. They are available in [their own repo](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds/releases).
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197
198When using `--update`/`-U`, a release binary will only update to its current channel.
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199`--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.
200
201You may also use `--update-to <repository>` (`<owner>/<repository>`) to update to a channel on a completely different repository. Be careful with what repository you are updating to though, there is no verification done for binaries from different repositories.
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202
203Example usage:
204* `yt-dlp --update-to nightly` change to `nightly` channel and update to its latest release
205* `yt-dlp --update-to stable@2023.02.17` upgrade/downgrade to release to `stable` channel tag `2023.02.17`
206* `yt-dlp --update-to 2023.01.06` upgrade/downgrade to tag `2023.01.06` if it exists on the current channel
665472a7 207* `yt-dlp --update-to example/yt-dlp@2023.03.01` upgrade/downgrade to the release from the `example/yt-dlp` repository, tag `2023.03.01`
cf59cd4d 208
ec2e44fc 209<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
a4211baf 210## RELEASE FILES
0e5927ee 211
733d8e8f 212#### Recommended
213
214File|Description
215:---|:---
962ffcf8 216[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 217[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 218[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 219
220#### Alternatives
221
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222File|Description
223:---|:---
0930b11f 224[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 225[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 226[yt-dlp_linux](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux)|Linux standalone x64 binary
227[yt-dlp_linux.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux.zip)|Unpackaged Linux executable (no auto-update)
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228[yt-dlp_linux_armv7l](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_armv7l)|Linux standalone armv7l (32-bit) binary
229[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 230[yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
231[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 232[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 233
234#### Misc
235
236File|Description
237:---|:---
17ffed18 238[yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball
0e5927ee 239[SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
12647e03 240[SHA2-512SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA512 sums
0e5927ee 241[SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
12647e03 242[SHA2-256SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA256 sums
0e5927ee 243
12647e03
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244The 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)
245Example usage:
246```
247curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/raw/master/public.key | gpg --import
248gpg --verify SHA2-256SUMS.sig SHA2-256SUMS
249gpg --verify SHA2-512SUMS.sig SHA2-512SUMS
250```
251<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
17ffed18 252
ad54c913 253**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 254
a4211baf 255## DEPENDENCIES
eff42759 256Python versions 3.7+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
b31fdeed 257
c9652aa4 258<!-- Python 3.5+ uses VC++14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
259<!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999 --x>
cf59cd4d 260On 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 261-->
fac98805 262
e75bb0d6 263While all the other dependencies are optional, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended
ec2e44fc 264
8aa0e7cd 265### Strongly recommended
266
b69fd25c 267* [**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 268
8e174ba7 269 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
270
271 **Important**: What you need is ffmpeg *binary*, **NOT** [the python package of the same name](https://pypi.org/project/ffmpeg)
8aa0e7cd 272
273### Networking
d5820461 274* [**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 275* [**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>
276* [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
277
278### Metadata
279
280* [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For `--embed-thumbnail` in certain formats. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
281* [**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 282* [**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 283
284### Misc
285
286* [**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 287* [**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 288* [**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 289* Any external downloader that you want to use with `--downloader`
b31fdeed 290
deae7c17 291### Deprecated
8aa0e7cd 292
293* [**avconv** and **avprobe**](https://www.libav.org) - Now **deprecated** alternative to ffmpeg. License [depends on the build](https://libav.org/legal)
294* [**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 295* [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with `--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
296* [**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 297
cf59cd4d 298To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
299
f2df4071 300The standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with **\*** included.
d710cc6d 301
8aa0e7cd 302If 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 303
5f326cf5 304
a4211baf 305## COMPILE
5f326cf5 306
8aa0e7cd 307### Standalone PyInstaller Builds
115add43 308To 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 309
8aa0e7cd 310 python3 -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
311 python3 devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
312 python3 pyinst.py
313
314On some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`.
315
73ac0e6b 316`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).
317
8e174ba7 318**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 319
320**Important**: Running `pyinstaller` directly **without** using `pyinst.py` is **not** officially supported. This may or may not work correctly.
7581d246 321
8aa0e7cd 322### Platform-independent Binary (UNIX)
deae7c17 323You will need the build tools `python` (3.7+), `zip`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`\* and `pytest`\*.
b96a939b 324
8aa0e7cd 325After installing these, simply run `make`.
5f326cf5 326
a831c2ea 327You 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 328
8aa0e7cd 329### Standalone Py2Exe Builds (Windows)
330
331While 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.
332
333If you wish to build it anyway, install Python and py2exe, and then simply run `setup.py py2exe`
334
335 py -m pip install -U py2exe -r requirements.txt
336 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
337 py setup.py py2exe
338
339### Related scripts
340
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341* **`devscripts/update-version.py`** - Update the version number based on current date.
342* **`devscripts/set-variant.py`** - Set the build variant of the executable.
343* **`devscripts/make_changelog.py`** - Create a markdown changelog using short commit messages and update `CONTRIBUTORS` file.
8aa0e7cd 344* **`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.
345
d400e261
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346Note: See their `--help` for more info.
347
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348### Forking the project
349If 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 350
b31fdeed 351# USAGE AND OPTIONS
6bcd846b 352
ec2e44fc 353<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
7a5c1cfe 354 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
b50e3bc6 355
c2b5f311 356`Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
ec2e44fc 357<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
c2b5f311 358
ec2e44fc 359<!-- Auto generated -->
c76eb41b 360## General Options:
2dd5a2e3 361 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
362 --version Print program version and exit
70b23409 363 -U, --update Update this program to the latest version
364 --no-update Do not check for updates (default)
77df20f1 365 --update-to [CHANNEL]@[TAG] Upgrade/downgrade to a specific version.
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366 CHANNEL can be a repository as well. CHANNEL
367 and TAG default to "stable" and "latest"
368 respectively if omitted; See "UPDATE" for
369 details. Supported channels: stable, nightly
2dd5a2e3 370 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
371 The download will be considered successful
372 even if the postprocessing fails
373 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download errors;
374 e.g. to skip unavailable videos in a
375 playlist (default)
376 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
377 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
378 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
379 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
380 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
381 extractors and exit
2516cafb 382 --use-extractors NAMES Extractor names to use separated by commas.
fe7866d0 383 You can also use regexes, "all", "default"
384 and "end" (end URL matching); e.g. --ies
385 "holodex.*,end,youtube". Prefix the name
386 with a "-" to exclude it, e.g. --ies
387 default,-generic. Use --list-extractors for
2516cafb 388 a list of extractor names. (Alias: --ies)
62b58c09 389 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 390 "gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
391 google videos for the search term "python".
392 Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
393 ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when
394 guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
395 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken
396 URLs, but emits an error if this is not
397 possible instead of searching
398 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
399 except those given by --config-locations.
400 For backward compatibility, if this option
401 is found inside the system configuration
402 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
403 (Alias: --no-config)
404 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
405 (default). When given inside a configuration
406 file, ignore all previous --config-locations
407 defined in the current file
408 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
409 either the path to the config or its
6b9e832d 410 containing directory ("-" for stdin). Can be
411 used multiple times and inside other
412 configuration files
2dd5a2e3 413 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
414 only list them
c8bc203f 415 --no-flat-playlist Fully extract the videos of a playlist
416 (default)
2dd5a2e3 417 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
418 Currently only supported for YouTube
419 (Experimental)
420 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
421 (default)
422 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
423 available. Pass the minimum number of
424 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
425 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
426 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
427 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
8417f26b
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428 --color [STREAM:]POLICY Whether to emit color codes in output,
429 optionally prefixed by the STREAM (stdout or
430 stderr) to apply the setting to. Can be one
431 of "always", "auto" (default), "never", or
432 "no_color" (use non color terminal
433 sequences). Can be used multiple times
2dd5a2e3 434 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
435 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
436 configurations by reverting some of the
437 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
438 default behavior" for details
439 --alias ALIASES OPTIONS Create aliases for an option string. Unless
440 an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
441 prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
442 according to the Python string formatting
62b58c09 443 mini-language. E.g. --alias get-audio,-X
2dd5a2e3 444 "-S=aext:{0},abr -x --audio-format {0}"
445 creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
446 takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
447 "-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
448 All defined aliases are listed in the --help
449 output. Alias options can trigger more
962ffcf8 450 aliases; so be careful to avoid defining
2dd5a2e3 451 recursive options. As a safety measure, each
452 alias may be triggered a maximum of 100
64fa820c 453 times. This option can be used multiple times
08c1d0d3 454
149f05c7 455## Network Options:
2dd5a2e3 456 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
62b58c09
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457 enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme,
458 e.g. socks5://user:pass@127.0.0.1:1080/.
459 Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for
460 direct connection
2dd5a2e3 461 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
462 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
463 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
464 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
8300774c
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465 --enable-file-urls Enable file:// URLs. This is disabled by
466 default for security reasons.
8c6c88c7 467
b31fdeed 468## Geo-restriction:
2dd5a2e3 469 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
470 some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy
471 specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
472 is not present) is used for the actual
473 downloading
c1664464 474 --xff VALUE How to fake X-Forwarded-For HTTP header to
475 try bypassing geographic restriction. One of
c8bc203f 476 "default" (only when known to be useful),
477 "never", an IP block in CIDR notation, or a
478 two-letter ISO 3166-2 country code
149f05c7 479
cfcec693 480## Video Selection:
71df9b7f 481 -I, --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Comma separated playlist_index of the items
7e88d7d7 482 to download. You can specify a range using
483 "[START]:[STOP][:STEP]". For backward
484 compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.
485 Use negative indices to count from the right
486 and negative STEP to download in reverse
62b58c09 487 order. E.g. "-I 1:3,7,-5::2" used on a
71df9b7f 488 playlist of size 15 will download the items
7e88d7d7 489 at index 1,2,3,7,11,13,15
71df9b7f 490 --min-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is smaller than
491 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
492 --max-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is larger than
62b58c09 493 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
2dd5a2e3 494 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
495 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
496 [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
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497 E.g. "--date today-2weeks" downloads only
498 videos uploaded on the same day two weeks ago
2dd5a2e3 499 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
500 this date. The date formats accepted is the
501 same as --date
502 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
503 this date. The date formats accepted is the
504 same as --date
505 --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
506 field can be compared with a number or a
507 string using the operators defined in
d4ada357 508 "Filtering Formats". You can also simply
2dd5a2e3 509 specify a field to match if the field is
510 present, use "!field" to check if the field
511 is not present, and "&" to check multiple
512 conditions. Use a "\" to escape "&" or
513 quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
514 the filter matches if atleast one of the
62b58c09 515 conditions are met. E.g. --match-filter
2dd5a2e3 516 !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?100 &
517 description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'" matches
518 only videos that are not live OR those that
519 have a like count more than 100 (or the like
520 field is not available) and also has a
521 description that contains the phrase "cats &
522 dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
523 interactively ask whether to download each
524 video
c8bc203f 525 --no-match-filters Do not use any --match-filter (default)
fe2ce85a 526 --break-match-filters FILTER Same as "--match-filters" but stops the
527 download process when a video is rejected
528 --no-break-match-filters Do not use any --break-match-filters (default)
2dd5a2e3 529 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
530 to a video and a playlist
531 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
532 a video and a playlist
533 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
534 age
535 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
536 archive file. Record the IDs of all
537 downloaded videos in it
538 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
539 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
540 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
541 a file that is in the archive
71df9b7f 542 --break-per-input Alters --max-downloads, --break-on-existing,
354d5fca 543 --break-match-filter, and autonumber to
544 reset per input URL
2dd5a2e3 545 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
546 terminates the entire download queue
547 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
548 the playlist is skipped
6bcd846b 549
d5a62e4f 550## Download Options:
2dd5a2e3 551 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
552 video that should be downloaded concurrently
553 (default is 1)
62b58c09
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554 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second,
555 e.g. 50K or 4.2M
2dd5a2e3 556 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
557 below which throttling is assumed and the
62b58c09 558 video data is re-extracted, e.g. 100K
2dd5a2e3 559 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
560 "infinite"
561 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
562 error (default is 3), or "infinite"
563 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
564 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
be5c1ae8 565 --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR Time to sleep between retries in seconds
566 (optionally) prefixed by the type of retry
567 (http (default), fragment, file_access,
568 extractor) to apply the sleep to. EXPR can
569 be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=1]] or
570 exp=START[:END[:BASE=2]]. This option can be
571 used multiple times to set the sleep for the
62b58c09 572 different retry types, e.g. --retry-sleep
2dd5a2e3 573 linear=1::2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=1:20
574 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
575 hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
8e174ba7 576 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragments)
577 --abort-on-unavailable-fragments
2dd5a2e3 578 Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
579 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
580 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
581 downloading is finished
582 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
583 downloading is finished (default)
62b58c09 584 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer, e.g. 1024 or 16K
2dd5a2e3 585 (default is 1024)
586 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
587 from an initial value of --buffer-size
588 (default)
589 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
590 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
62b58c09 591 downloading, e.g. 10485760 or 10M (default
2dd5a2e3 592 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
593 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
594 (experimental)
2dd5a2e3 595 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
7e9a6125 596 --lazy-playlist Process entries in the playlist as they are
597 received. This disables n_entries,
598 --playlist-random and --playlist-reverse
599 --no-lazy-playlist Process videos in the playlist only after
600 the entire playlist is parsed (default)
2dd5a2e3 601 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
602 expected file size
603 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
604 allowing some players to play the video
605 while downloading, and reducing the chance
606 of file corruption if download is
607 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
608 live streams
609 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
610 videos. This is default when not downloading
611 live streams
b4e0d758 612 --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters that match the
613 regular expression. A "*" prefix denotes
614 time-range instead of chapter. Negative
615 timestamps are calculated from the end.
616 "*from-url" can be used to download between
617 the "start_time" and "end_time" extracted
618 from the URL. Needs ffmpeg. This option can
619 be used multiple times to download multiple
62b58c09 620 sections, e.g. --download-sections
2fa669f7 621 "*10:15-inf" --download-sections "intro"
2dd5a2e3 622 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
623 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
624 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
625 use it for. Currently supports native,
626 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
627 wget. You can use this option multiple times
628 to set different downloaders for different
62b58c09 629 protocols. E.g. --downloader aria2c
2dd5a2e3 630 --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
631 aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
632 native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
633 (Alias: --external-downloader)
634 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
635 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
636 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
637 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different
638 positions using the same syntax as
639 --postprocessor-args. You can use this
640 option multiple times to give different
641 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
642 --external-downloader-args)
d5a62e4f 643
cfcec693 644## Filesystem Options:
2dd5a2e3 645 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
646 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
647 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
648 comments and ignored
649 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
650 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
651 downloaded. Specify the type of file and the
652 path separated by a colon ":". All the same
653 TYPES as --output are supported.
654 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
655 (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary
656 files are first downloaded to the temp path
657 and then the final files are moved over to
658 the home path after download is finished.
659 This option is ignored if --output is an
660 absolute path
661 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
662 TEMPLATE" for details
663 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
664 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" (default: "NA")
665 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
666 and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
667 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
668 filenames (default)
669 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
670 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
671 using Windows (default)
672 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
673 extension) to the specified number of
674 characters
675 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
676 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This
677 option includes --no-continue
678 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
679 related files (default)
680 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
681 (default)
682 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
683 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
684 restart download of the entire file
685 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
686 into output file (default)
687 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into
688 output file
689 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file
690 modification time (default)
691 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
692 the file modification time
64fa820c 693 --write-description Write video description to a .description file
2dd5a2e3 694 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
695 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
696 (this may contain personal information)
697 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
698 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
699 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
700 --write-description etc. (default)
701 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
702 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
ad54c913 703 --clean-info-json Remove some internal metadata such as
704 filenames from the infojson (default)
2dd5a2e3 705 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
706 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
707 infojson. The comments are fetched even
708 without this option if the extraction is
709 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
710 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
711 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
712 --no-get-comments)
713 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
64fa820c 714 (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
2dd5a2e3 715 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from
716 and dump cookie jar in
717 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
718 (default)
825d3ce3 719 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]
720 The name of the browser to load cookies
721 from. Currently supported browsers are:
722 brave, chrome, chromium, edge, firefox,
723 opera, safari, vivaldi. Optionally, the
724 KEYRING used for decrypting Chromium cookies
725 on Linux, the name/path of the PROFILE to
726 load cookies from, and the CONTAINER name
727 (if Firefox) ("none" for no container) can
728 be given with their respective seperators.
729 By default, all containers of the most
730 recently accessed profile are used.
731 Currently supported keyrings are: basictext,
2e023649 732 gnomekeyring, kwallet, kwallet5, kwallet6
2dd5a2e3 733 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
17ffed18 734 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where yt-dlp can
735 store some downloaded information (such as
736 client ids and signatures) permanently. By
878eac3e 737 default ${XDG_CACHE_HOME}/yt-dlp
2dd5a2e3 738 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
739 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
6bcd846b 740
b31fdeed 741## Thumbnail Options:
2dd5a2e3 742 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
64fa820c 743 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default)
2dd5a2e3 744 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
745 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
746 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
2b1bd292 747
732044af 748## Internet Shortcut Options:
2dd5a2e3 749 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
750 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
751 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
752 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
753 OS caches the URL based on the file path
754 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
755 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
732044af 756
0744a815 757## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
2dd5a2e3 758 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
759 print the log to stderr
d669772c 760 --no-quiet Deactivate quiet mode. (Default)
2dd5a2e3 761 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
762 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
763 anything to disk
764 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
765 options are used
766 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
767 extracting metadata even if the videos are
768 not actually available for download
769 (experimental)
770 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
771 formats are found (default)
772 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
773 related files (Alias: --no-download)
774 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
775 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
776 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
777 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
119e40ef 778 --use-postprocessor (default: video).
2dd5a2e3 779 Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
780 --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
781 used. This option can be used multiple times
bb66c247 782 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
2dd5a2e3 783 Append given template to the file. The
784 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as that
785 of --print. FILE uses the same syntax as the
786 output template. This option can be used
787 multiple times
788 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
789 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
790 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
791 description of available keys
792 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
793 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
794 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
795 a playlist, the whole playlist information
796 is dumped in a single line
797 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
798 as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
799 another simulation option is used (Alias:
800 --force-download-archive)
801 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
802 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
803 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
804 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
819e0531 805 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
2dd5a2e3 806 Template for progress outputs, optionally
807 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
808 "download-title:" (the console title),
809 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
810 The video's fields are accessible under the
811 "info" key and the progress attributes are
62b58c09 812 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 813 --console-title --progress-template
814 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
815 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
816 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
817 to debug problems (very verbose)
818 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files
819 in the current directory to debug problems
820 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
6bcd846b 821
36f35428 822## Workarounds:
2dd5a2e3 823 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
824 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to servers
825 that do not support RFC 5746 secure
826 renegotiation
827 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
828 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
829 information about the video (Currently
830 supported only for YouTube)
a5387729 831 --add-headers FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
2dd5a2e3 832 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
833 option multiple times
834 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
835 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
836 or fribidi executable in PATH
837 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
838 during data extraction
839 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
840 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
841 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
842 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
843 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only
844 be used along with --min-sleep-interval
845 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
846 subtitle download
36f35428 847
cfcec693 848## Video Format Options:
2dd5a2e3 849 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
850 for more details
851 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
852 "Sorting Formats" for more details
853 --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
854 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
855 Formats" for more details (Alias: --S-force)
856 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
857 specified sort order (default)
858 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
859 into a single file
860 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
861 output file (default)
862 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
863 into a single file
864 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
865 output file (default)
866 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
867 over non-free ones of same quality. Use with
868 "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers
869 irrespective of quality
870 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
871 containers (default)
872 --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
873 those that are actually downloadable
874 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
875 actually downloadable
876 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
877 downloadable
878 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
879 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
fc61aff4 880 --merge-output-format FORMAT Containers that may be used when merging
62b58c09 881 formats, separated by "/", e.g. "mp4/mkv".
fc61aff4
LL
882 Ignored if no merge is required. (currently
883 supported: avi, flv, mkv, mov, mp4, webm)
8ae7be3e
PH
884
885## Subtitle Options:
2dd5a2e3 886 --write-subs Write subtitle file
887 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
888 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
889 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
890 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
891 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
892 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
893 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
894 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
62b58c09 895 e.g. "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
2dd5a2e3 896 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
62b58c09
L
897 be regex) or "all" separated by commas, e.g.
898 --sub-langs "en.*,ja". You can prefix the
2dd5a2e3 899 language code with a "-" to exclude it from
62b58c09
L
900 the requested languages, e.g. --sub-langs
901 all,-live_chat. Use --list-subs for a list
2dd5a2e3 902 of available language tags
6bcd846b 903
cfcec693 904## Authentication Options:
2dd5a2e3 905 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
906 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
907 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
908 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
909 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
910 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
911 either the path or its containing directory.
912 Defaults to ~/.netrc
db3ad8a6 913 --netrc-cmd NETRC_CMD Command to execute to get the credentials
d1b21561 914 for an extractor.
b634ba74 915 --video-password PASSWORD Video-specific password
2dd5a2e3 916 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
917 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
918 a list of available MSOs
919 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
920 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
921 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
922 interactively
923 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
924 --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
925 format. May include the private key
926 --client-certificate-key KEYFILE
927 Path to private key file for client
928 certificate
bb58c9ed 929 --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
2dd5a2e3 930 Password for client certificate private key,
931 if encrypted. If not provided, and the key
932 is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask interactively
f5e008d1 933
c76eb41b 934## Post-Processing Options:
2dd5a2e3 935 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
936 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
35faefee 937 --audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
938 used. (currently supported: best (default),
8dc59305 939 aac, alac, flac, m4a, mp3, opus, vorbis,
e0ab9854 940 wav). You can specify multiple rules using
941 similar syntax as --remux-video
2dd5a2e3 942 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
943 converting the audio with -x. Insert a value
944 between 0 (best) and 10 (worst) for VBR or a
945 specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
946 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
8dc59305 947 necessary (currently supported: avi, flv,
69f5fe45 948 gif, mkv, mov, mp4, webm, aac, aiff, alac,
949 flac, m4a, mka, mp3, ogg, opus, vorbis,
950 wav). If target container does not support
951 the video/audio codec, remuxing will fail.
952 You can specify multiple rules; e.g.
2dd5a2e3 953 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
35faefee 954 mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
2dd5a2e3 955 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
956 necessary. The syntax and supported formats
957 are the same as --remux-video
958 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
959 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
960 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
961 to give the argument to the specified
962 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
963 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
964 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
965 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
966 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
967 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
968 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
969 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
970 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
971 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
972 specified executable only when being used by
973 the specified postprocessor. Additionally,
974 for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
975 appended to the prefix optionally followed
976 by a number to pass the argument before the
62b58c09 977 specified input/output file, e.g. --ppa
2dd5a2e3 978 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
979 this option multiple times to give different
980 arguments to different postprocessors.
981 (Alias: --ppa)
982 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
983 after post-processing
984 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
985 post-processing (default)
986 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
987 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
988 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
989 webm and mkv videos)
990 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
991 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
992 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
993 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
994 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
995 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are
996 used (Alias: --add-metadata)
997 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
998 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
999 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
1000 (Alias: --add-chapters)
1001 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias:
1002 --no-add-chapters)
1003 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
1004 mkv/mka video files
1005 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
1006 to the video file
fe74d5b5 1007 --parse-metadata [WHEN:]FROM:TO
1008 Parse additional metadata like title/artist
2dd5a2e3 1009 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
fe74d5b5 1010 for details. Supported values of "WHEN" are
1011 the same as that of --use-postprocessor
1012 (default: pre_process)
1013 --replace-in-metadata [WHEN:]FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
2dd5a2e3 1014 Replace text in a metadata field using the
1015 given regex. This option can be used
fe74d5b5 1016 multiple times. Supported values of "WHEN"
1017 are the same as that of --use-postprocessor
1018 (default: pre_process)
2dd5a2e3 1019 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
1020 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
1021 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
1022 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
1023 (default; only when the videos form a single
1024 show). All the video files must have same
1025 codecs and number of streams to be
1026 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
1027 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1028 the output filename for the concatenated
1029 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1030 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
1031 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
1032 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
1033 default; fix file if we can, warn
1034 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
1035 already exists)
1036 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
64fa820c 1037 path to the binary or its containing directory
2dd5a2e3 1038 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
119e40ef 1039 when to execute it, separated by a ":".
1040 Supported values of "WHEN" are the same as
1041 that of --use-postprocessor (default:
1042 after_move). Same syntax as the output
1043 template can be used to pass any field as
ad54c913 1044 arguments to the command. If no fields are
1045 passed, %(filepath,_filename|)q is appended
1046 to the end of the command. This option can
1047 be used multiple times
2dd5a2e3 1048 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
1049 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
8dc59305 1050 (currently supported: ass, lrc, srt, vtt)
2dd5a2e3 1051 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
1052 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
00bbc5f1 1053 (currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
1054 can specify multiple rules using similar
1055 syntax as --remux-video
2dd5a2e3 1056 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
1057 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can
1058 be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1059 the output filename for the split files. See
1060 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
64fa820c 1061 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters (default)
2dd5a2e3 1062 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
5ec1b6b7 1063 given regular expression. The syntax is the
1064 same as --download-sections. This option can
2dd5a2e3 1065 be used multiple times
1066 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
1067 (default)
5ec1b6b7 1068 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes at cuts when
1069 downloading/splitting/removing sections.
1070 This is slow due to needing a re-encode, but
1071 the resulting video may have fewer artifacts
1072 around the cuts
2dd5a2e3 1073 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
1074 when cutting/splitting (default)
1075 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS]
1076 The (case sensitive) name of plugin
1077 postprocessors to be enabled, and
1078 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
1079 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
1080 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
1081 The "when" argument determines when the
1082 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
1083 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
1084 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
119e40ef 1085 "video" (after --format; before
1086 --print/--output), "before_dl" (before each
1087 video download), "post_process" (after each
1088 video download; default), "after_move"
1089 (after moving video file to it's final
1090 locations), "after_video" (after downloading
1091 and processing all formats of a video), or
1092 "playlist" (at end of playlist). This option
1093 can be used multiple times to add different
1094 postprocessors
7a340e0d
NA
1095
1096## SponsorBlock Options:
1097Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1098 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
8a51f564 1099 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1100
2dd5a2e3 1101 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1102 for, separated by commas. Available
1103 categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
1104 selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
71df9b7f 1105 music_offtopic, poi_highlight, chapter, all
1106 and default (=all). You can prefix the
1107 category with a "-" to exclude it. See [1]
1108 for description of the categories. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 1109 --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1110 [1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1111 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1112 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1113 category is present in both mark and remove,
1114 remove takes precedence. The syntax and
1115 available categories are the same as for
1116 --sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
71df9b7f 1117 refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight,
63c547d7 1118 chapter are not available
7a340e0d 1119 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
2dd5a2e3 1120 An output template for the title of the
1121 SponsorBlock chapters created by
1122 --sponsorblock-mark. The only available
1123 fields are start_time, end_time, category,
1124 categories, name, category_names. Defaults
1125 to "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1126 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1127 --sponsorblock-remove
1128 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1129 https://sponsor.ajay.app
a9e7f546 1130
78895bd3 1131## Extractor Options:
2dd5a2e3 1132 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors
1133 (default is 3), or "infinite"
1134 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1135 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1136 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1137 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1138 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1139 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1140 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1141 formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
1142 (default)
2fa669f7 1143 --extractor-args IE_KEY:ARGS Pass ARGS arguments to the IE_KEY extractor.
1144 See "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You
1145 can use this option multiple times to give
2dd5a2e3 1146 arguments for different extractors
17cb02d0 1147
b7770046
U
1148# CONFIGURATION
1149
7a5c1cfe 1150You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
e2e43aea 1151
878eac3e 11521. **Main Configuration**:
1153 * The file given by `--config-location`
11541. **Portable Configuration**: (Recommended for portable installations)
1155 * If using a binary, `yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the binary
1156 * If running from source-code, `yt-dlp.conf` in the parent directory of `yt_dlp`
11571. **Home Configuration**:
1158 * `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by `-P`
1159 * If `-P` is not given, the current directory is searched
e2e43aea 11601. **User Configuration**:
773c272d 1161 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp.conf`
878eac3e 1162 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
8e40b9d1 1163 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
773c272d 1164 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp.conf`
878eac3e 1165 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1166 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
e2e43aea 1167 * `~/yt-dlp.conf`
1168 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
8e40b9d1
M
1169 * `~/.yt-dlp/config`
1170 * `~/.yt-dlp/config.txt`
3d3bb168 1171
878eac3e 1172 See also: [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
11731. **System Configuration**:
1174 * `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
8e40b9d1
M
1175 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config`
1176 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config.txt`
b7770046 1177
62b58c09 1178E.g. with the following configuration file yt-dlp will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under `YouTube` directory in your home directory:
b7770046
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1179```
1180# Lines starting with # are comments
1181
1182# Always extract audio
1183-x
1184
1185# Do not copy the mtime
1186--no-mtime
1187
1188# Use this proxy
1189--proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1190
298f597b 1191# Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1192-o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
b7770046
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1193```
1194
8e174ba7 1195**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 1196
a4211baf 1197You 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 1198
304ad45a 1199### Configuration file encoding
a904a7f8 1200
304ad45a 1201The configuration files are decoded according to the UTF BOM if present, and in the encoding from system locale otherwise.
a904a7f8 1202
88f60feb 1203If 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 1204
db3ad8a6 1205### Authentication with netrc
b7770046 1206
304ad45a 1207You 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 1208```
878eac3e 1209touch ${HOME}/.netrc
1210chmod a-rwx,u+rw ${HOME}/.netrc
b7770046
U
1211```
1212After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1213```
0001fcb5 1214machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
b7770046 1215```
62b58c09 1216E.g.
b7770046
U
1217```
1218machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1219machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1220```
7a5c1cfe 1221To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
b7770046 1222
878eac3e 1223The default location of the .netrc file is `~` (see below).
1224
d7cd97e8 1225As an alternative to using the `.netrc` file, which has the disadvantage of keeping your passwords in a plain text file, you can configure a custom shell command to provide the credentials for an extractor. This is done by providing the `--netrc-cmd` parameter, it shall output the credentials in the netrc format and return `0` on success, other values will be treated as an error. `{}` in the command will be replaced by the name of the extractor to make it possible to select the credentials for the right extractor.
db3ad8a6
ND
1226
1227E.g. To use an encrypted `.netrc` file stored as `.authinfo.gpg`
1228```
1229yt-dlp --netrc-cmd 'gpg --decrypt ~/.authinfo.gpg' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc
1230```
1231
1232
878eac3e 1233### Notes about environment variables
1234* Environment variables are normally specified as `${VARIABLE}`/`$VARIABLE` on UNIX and `%VARIABLE%` on Windows; but is always shown as `${VARIABLE}` in this documentation
1235* yt-dlp also allow using UNIX-style variables on Windows for path-like options; e.g. `--output`, `--config-location`
1236* If unset, `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}` defaults to `~/.config` and `${XDG_CACHE_HOME}` to `~/.cache`
1237* On Windows, `~` points to `${HOME}` if present; or, `${USERPROFILE}` or `${HOMEDRIVE}${HOMEPATH}` otherwise
1238* On Windows, `${USERPROFILE}` generally points to `C:\Users\<user name>` and `${APPDATA}` to `${USERPROFILE}\AppData\Roaming`
b7770046
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1239
1240# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
1241
0202b52a 1242The `-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 1243
ec2e44fc 1244<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1245**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
ec2e44fc 1246<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1247
e58c22a0 1248The 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 1249
62b58c09 1250It 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 1251
1252The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
3d3bb168 1253
07a1250e 12541. **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 1255
62b58c09 12561. **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 1257
62b58c09 12581. **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 1259
62b58c09 12601. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a `,`. E.g. `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
ec2e44fc 1261
ec9311c4 12621. **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 1263
17ffed18 12641. **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 1265
9b9dad11 12661. **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 1267
d5d1df8a 12681. **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 1269
1270To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1271```
e978789f 1272%(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
a439a3a4 1273```
de6000d9 1274
62b58c09 1275Additionally, 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 1276
4815bbfc 1277<a id="outtmpl-postprocess-note"/>
7aaf4cd2 1278
8e174ba7 1279**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 1280
e29663c6 1281The available fields are:
b7770046
U
1282
1283 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1284 - `title` (string): Video title
455a15e2 1285 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
b7770046
U
1286 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1287 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
597c1866 1288 - `description` (string): The description of the video
b7770046
U
1289 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1290 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1291 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1292 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
b7770046 1293 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
ae6a1b95 1294 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
e6f21b3d 1295 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
ae6a1b95 1296 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
f0d785d3 1297 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
ae6a1b95 1298 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
b7770046
U
1299 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1300 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1301 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
6c73052c 1302 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
8213ce28 1303 - `channel_is_verified` (boolean): Whether the channel is verified on the platform
b7770046
U
1304 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1305 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
53c18592 1306 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
b7770046 1307 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
867c66ff 1308 - `concurrent_view_count` (numeric): How many users are currently watching the video on the platform.
b7770046
U
1309 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1310 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1311 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1312 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
277d6ff5 1313 - `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 1314 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
e325a21a 1315 - `live_status` (string): One of "not_live", "is_live", "is_upcoming", "was_live", "post_live" (was live, but VOD is not yet processed)
b7770046 1316 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
f76ede8e 1317 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
6cfda058 1318 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
940a67a3 1319 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
b7770046
U
1320 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1321 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
b7770046
U
1322 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1323 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
455a15e2 1324 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
b532a348 1325 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`, padded with leading zeros to 5 digits
9c906919 1326 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
e6f21b3d 1327 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
455a15e2 1328 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1329 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1330 - `playlist` (string): `playlist_id` or `playlist_title`
f0d785d3 1331 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
e6f21b3d 1332 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1333 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
b7770046
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1334 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1335 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
bd99f6e6 1336 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
0bb322b9 1337 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1338 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
bd99f6e6 1339 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)
d2c8aadf 1340
1341All the fields in [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats) can also be used
b7770046
U
1342
1343Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1344
1345 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1346 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1347 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1348
1349Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1350
1351 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1352 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1353 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1354 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1355 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1356 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1357 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1358
1359Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1360
1361 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1362 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1363 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1364 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1365 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1366 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1367 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1368 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1369 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1370 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1371
5ec1b6b7 1372Available only when using `--download-sections` and for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
72755351 1373
1374 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1375 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1376 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1377 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1378
53c18592 1379Available only when used in `--print`:
1380
1381 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
7aaf4cd2 1382 - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the [actual filename may differ](#outtmpl-postprocess-note)
ed5835b4 1383 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by `--list-formats`
1384 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by `--list-thumbnails`
1385 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1386 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1387
ad54c913 1388 Available only after the video is downloaded (`post_process`/`after_move`):
7a340e0d 1389
ad54c913 1390 - `filepath`: Actual path of downloaded video file
1391
7a340e0d
NA
1392Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1393
1394 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1395 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1338ae3b 1396 - `categories` (list): The [SponsorBlock categories](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Category) the chapter belongs to
7a340e0d
NA
1397 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1398 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1399 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
1338ae3b 1400 - `type` (string): The [SponsorBlock action type](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Action_Type) of the chapter
53c18592 1401
62b58c09 1402Each 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 1403
8e174ba7 1404**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 1405
0930b11f 1406**Tip**: Look at the `-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
b7770046 1407
62b58c09 1408For 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 1409
940a67a3 1410Output templates can also contain arbitrary hierarchical path, e.g. `-o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s"` which will result in downloading each video in a directory corresponding to this path template. Any missing directory will be automatically created for you.
b7770046
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1411
1412To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
1413
91ebc640 1414The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
b7770046 1415
f304da8a 1416In 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 1417
b7770046
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1418#### Output template examples
1419
b7770046 1420```bash
d2c8aadf 1421$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1422test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1423
d2c8aadf 1424$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1425youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
b7770046 1426
d2c8aadf 1427$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
9222c381 1428youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
b7770046
U
1429
1430# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
940a67a3 1431$ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
b7770046 1432
b050d210 1433# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
940a67a3 1434$ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
e29663c6 1435
e978789f 1436# Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
ad54c913 1437$ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist_index&{} - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
e978789f 1438
b7770046 1439# Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
940a67a3 1440$ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
b7770046
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1441
1442# Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
940a67a3 1443$ 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
1444
1445# Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
940a67a3 1446$ 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 1447
6a34813a 1448# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1449# and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1450$ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1451
1452# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1453$ 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
1454
b7770046 1455# Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
7a5c1cfe 1456$ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
b7770046
U
1457```
1458
1459# FORMAT SELECTION
1460
7a5c1cfe
P
1461By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1462This 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 1463
c111cefa 1464**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.
1465
eff63539 1466The 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 1467
ec2e44fc 1468<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1469**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
ec2e44fc 1470<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1471
62b58c09 1472The 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
1473
1474You 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.
1475
fa9f30b8 1476You can use `-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1477
b7770046
U
1478You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1479
59a7a13e 1480 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1481 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
30389593 1482 - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio or both (ie; `vcodec!=none or acodec!=none`)
59a7a13e 1483 - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1484 - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
1485 - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
1486 - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
ae6a1b95 1487 - `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 1488 - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
909d24dd 1489 - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1490 - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
909d24dd 1491 - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1492 - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
909d24dd 1493 - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
b7770046 1494
d4ada357 1495For 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 1496
1497You 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 1498
304ad45a 1499If 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
1500
1501If 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`.
1502
62b58c09 1503You 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 1504
1505**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
1506
304ad45a 1507Unless `--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 1508
1509## Filtering Formats
1510
b532a348 1511You 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
1512
1513The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
1514
1515 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
d2c8aadf 1516 - `filesize_approx`: An estimate for the number of bytes
b7770046
U
1517 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1518 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
105bfd90 1519 - `aspect_ratio`: Aspect ratio of the video, if known
b7770046
U
1520 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1521 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1522 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1523 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1524 - `fps`: Frame rate
d2c8aadf 1525 - `audio_channels`: The number of audio channels
1526 - `stretched_ratio`: `width:height` of the video's pixels, if not square
b7770046 1527
1ce9a3cb 1528Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains), `~=` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
b7770046 1529
d2c8aadf 1530 - `url`: Video URL
b7770046
U
1531 - `ext`: File extension
1532 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1533 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1534 - `container`: Name of the container format
1535 - `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 1536 - `language`: Language code
d2c8aadf 1537 - `dynamic_range`: The dynamic range of the video
1538 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
1539 - `format`: A human-readable description of the format
1540 - `format_note`: Additional info about the format
1541 - `resolution`: Textual description of width and height
b7770046 1542
1ce9a3cb 1543Any 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 1544
8e174ba7 1545**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 1546
b532a348 1547Formats 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 1548
62b58c09 1549Format 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 1550
eb8a4433 1551## Sorting Formats
1552
2e7781a9 1553You can change the criteria for being considered the `best` by using `-S` (`--format-sort`). The general format for this is `--format-sort field1,field2...`.
1554
1555The available fields are:
eb8a4433 1556
304ad45a 1557 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that have a video stream
1558 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that have an audio stream
ed8d87f9 1559 - `ie_pref`: The format preference
1560 - `lang`: The language preference
1561 - `quality`: The quality of the format
1562 - `source`: The preference of the source
d80d98e7 1563 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > `mms`/`rtsp` > `f4f`/`f4m`)
1564 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other)
a5387729 1565 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`flac`/`alac` > `wav`/`aiff` > `opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `ac4` > `eac3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other)
eb8a4433 1566 - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
29ca4082 1567 - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `mov` > `webm` > `flv` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is preferred.
f2e9fa3e 1568 - `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 1569 - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
0930b11f 1570 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
62b5c94c 1571 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize
63be1aab 1572 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
eb8a4433 1573 - `height`: Height of video
1574 - `width`: Width of video
63be1aab 1575 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1576 - `fps`: Framerate of video
49a57e70 1577 - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `HLG` > `SDR`)
b8ed0f15 1578 - `channels`: The number of audio channels
63be1aab 1579 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1580 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1581 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
62b5c94c 1582 - `br`: Average bitrate in KBit/s, `tbr`/`vbr`/`abr`
63be1aab 1583 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
d806c9fd 1584
1585**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 1586
62b58c09 1587All 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 1588
7e798d72 1589The 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 1590
7e798d72 1591Note 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 1592
e58c22a0 1593If 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 1594
1595**Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1596
eb8a4433 1597## Format Selection examples
b7770046 1598
b7770046 1599```bash
e58c22a0 1600# Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
909d24dd 1601# or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
940a67a3 1602$ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
909d24dd 1603
1604# Download best format that contains video,
1605# and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
940a67a3 1606$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
2af884ff 1607
1608# Same as above
7a5c1cfe 1609$ yt-dlp
909d24dd 1610
6fd35a11 1611# Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1612# For this case, an output template should be used since
1613# by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
940a67a3 1614$ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
909d24dd 1615
f8d4ad9a 1616# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1617# and all audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1618$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
f8d4ad9a 1619
1620# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1621# and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1622$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
909d24dd 1623
6fd35a11 1624
1625# The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
f8d4ad9a 1626# and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
6fd35a11 1627
1628# Download the worst video available (old method)
940a67a3 1629$ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
eb8a4433 1630
1631# Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
940a67a3 1632$ yt-dlp -S "+res"
eb8a4433 1633
1634# Download the smallest video available
940a67a3 1635$ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
eb8a4433 1636
1637
909d24dd 1638
eb8a4433 1639# Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
940a67a3 1640$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
eb8a4433 1641
1642# Download the best video with the best extension
29ca4082 1643# (For video, mp4 > mov > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
940a67a3 1644$ yt-dlp -S "ext"
eb8a4433 1645
1646
909d24dd 1647
eb8a4433 1648# Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1649# or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1650$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
b7770046 1651
eb8a4433 1652# Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1653# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1654$ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
b7770046 1655
eb8a4433 1656# Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1657# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1658# Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1659# So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
940a67a3 1660$ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
b7770046 1661
b7770046 1662
909d24dd 1663
eb8a4433 1664# Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1665# or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1666$ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
eb8a4433 1667
1668# Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1669# or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1670$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
eb8a4433 1671
1672# Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
940a67a3 1673$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
eb8a4433 1674
1675
909d24dd 1676
eb8a4433 1677# Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1678# or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
940a67a3 1679$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1680
1681# Download best video available via the best protocol
1682# (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
940a67a3 1683$ yt-dlp -S "proto"
eb8a4433 1684
1685
909d24dd 1686
1ce9a3cb
LF
1687# Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1688# or the best video if there is no such video
1689$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1690
1691# Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1692# or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1693$ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1694
1695# Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1696# or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1697$ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1698
1699
1700
1701# More complex examples
1702
e58c22a0 1703# Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1704# or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
940a67a3 1705$ 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 1706
1707# Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
f8d4ad9a 1708# or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1709# preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
940a67a3 1710$ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
eb8a4433 1711
1712
909d24dd 1713
eb8a4433 1714# Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1715# or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1716# preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
940a67a3 1717$ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
b7770046 1718```
eb8a4433 1719
73cd218f 1720# MODIFYING METADATA
1721
a4211baf 1722The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
e9f4ccd1 1723
418964fa 1724`--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 1725
46d09f87 1726The 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 1727
46d09f87 1728Note 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 1729
9c2b75b5 1730This option also has a few special uses:
3d3bb168 1731
c8bc203f 1732* 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 1733
62b58c09 1734* 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 1735
08d30158 1736**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.
1737
c31be5b0 1738For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1739
08d30158 1740Metadata fields | From
1741:--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1742`title` | `track` or `title`
1743`date` | `upload_date`
1744`description`, `synopsis` | `description`
1745`purl`, `comment` | `webpage_url`
1746`track` | `track_number`
1747`artist` | `artist`, `creator`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
1748`genre` | `genre`
1749`album` | `album`
1750`album_artist` | `album_artist`
1751`disc` | `disc_number`
1752`show` | `series`
1753`season_number` | `season_number`
1754`episode_id` | `episode` or `episode_id`
1755`episode_sort` | `episode_number`
1756`language` of each stream | the format's `language`
1757
c31be5b0 1758**Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1759
73cd218f 1760
1761## Modifying metadata examples
1762
73cd218f 1763```bash
1764# Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
940a67a3 1765$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
73cd218f 1766
1767# Regex example
940a67a3 1768$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
73cd218f 1769
1770# Set title as "Series name S01E05"
940a67a3 1771$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
73cd218f 1772
a44ca5a4 1773# Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
2fa669f7 1774$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --embed-metadata
a44ca5a4 1775
1776# Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
1777# handling multiple lines correctly
2fa669f7 1778$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --embed-metadata
73cd218f 1779
8aa0e7cd 1780# Do not set any "synopsis" in the video metadata
1781$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<meta_synopsis>)"
1782
0930b11f 1783# Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
7f9c6a63 1784$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "video::(?P<formats>)" --write-info-json
0930b11f 1785
e9f4ccd1 1786# Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
940a67a3 1787$ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
e9f4ccd1 1788
73cd218f 1789```
1790
5d3a0e79 1791# EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1792
62b58c09 1793Some 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 1794
a5387729 1795Note: In CLI, `ARG` can use `-` instead of `_`; e.g. `youtube:player-client"` becomes `youtube:player_client"`
1796
5d3a0e79 1797The following extractors use this feature:
96565c7e 1798
1799#### youtube
8e174ba7 1800* `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 1801* `skip`: One or more of `hls`, `dash` or `translated_subs` to skip extraction of the m3u8 manifests, dash manifests and [auto-translated subtitles](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/4090#issuecomment-1158102032) respectively
5ca095cb 1802* `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 1803* `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 1804* `player_params`: YouTube player parameters to use for player requests. Will overwrite any default ones set by yt-dlp.
96565c7e 1805* `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
a44ca5a4 1806* `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`
1807 * 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 1808* `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 1809* `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 1810* `innertube_key`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
eb5bdbfa 1811* `raise_incomplete_data`: `Incomplete Data Received` raises an error instead of reporting a warning
96565c7e 1812
1813#### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1814* `skip`: One or more of `webpage` (skip initial webpage download), `authcheck` (allow the download of playlists requiring authentication when no initial webpage is downloaded. This may cause unwanted behavior, see [#1122](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/1122) for more details)
5225df50 1815* `approximate_date`: Extract approximate `upload_date` and `timestamp` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
96565c7e 1816
3b021eac 1817#### generic
5cc0a8fd 1818* `fragment_query`: Passthrough any query in mpd/m3u8 manifest URLs to their fragments if no value is provided, or else apply the query string given as `fragment_query=VALUE`. Does not apply to ffmpeg
1819* `variant_query`: Passthrough the master m3u8 URL query to its variant playlist URLs if no value is provided, or else apply the query string given as `variant_query=VALUE`
c2e0fc40 1820* `hls_key`: An HLS AES-128 key URI *or* key (as hex), and optionally the IV (as hex), in the form of `(URI|KEY)[,IV]`; e.g. `generic:hls_key=ABCDEF1234567980,0xFEDCBA0987654321`. Passing any of these values will force usage of the native HLS downloader and override the corresponding values found in the m3u8 playlist
93e7c699 1821* `is_live`: Bypass live HLS detection and manually set `live_status` - a value of `false` will set `not_live`, any other value (or no value) will set `is_live`
3b021eac 1822
96565c7e 1823#### funimation
304ad45a 1824* `language`: Audio languages to extract, e.g. `funimation:language=english,japanese`
96565c7e 1825* `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`
1826
cb1553e9 1827#### crunchyrollbeta (Crunchyroll)
62b58c09 1828* `format`: Which stream type(s) to extract (default: `adaptive_hls`). Potentially useful values include `adaptive_hls`, `adaptive_dash`, `vo_adaptive_hls`, `vo_adaptive_dash`, `download_hls`, `download_dash`, `multitrack_adaptive_hls_v2`
dfea94f8 1829* `hardsub`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract, or `all` (default: `None` = no hardsubs), e.g. `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None`
706dfe44 1830
96565c7e 1831#### vikichannel
1832* `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
73d829c1 1833
7bdcb4a4
LNO
1834#### niconico
1835* `segment_duration`: Segment duration in milliseconds for HLS-DMC formats. Use it at your own risk since this feature **may result in your account termination.**
1836
aa4b0545 1837#### youtubewebarchive
1838* `check_all`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails`, `captures`
1839
d43de682
M
1840#### gamejolt
1841* `comment_sort`: `hot` (default), `you` (cookies needed), `top`, `new` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1842
26f2aa3d
AG
1843#### hotstar
1844* `res`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd`, `hd`, `fhd`
1845* `vcodec`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264`, `h265`, `dvh265`
1846* `dr`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr`, `hdr10`, `dv`
1847
698beb9a
M
1848#### niconicochannelplus
1849* `max_comments`: Maximum number of comments to extract - default is `120`
1850
046cab39 1851#### tiktok
c4cbd3be 1852* `api_hostname`: Hostname to use for mobile API requests, e.g. `api-h2.tiktokv.com`
62b58c09
L
1853* `app_version`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version`, e.g. `20.2.1`
1854* `manifest_app_version`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with, e.g. `221`
046cab39 1855
7eaf7f9a 1856#### rokfinchannel
62b58c09 1857* `tab`: Which tab to download - one of `new`, `top`, `videos`, `podcasts`, `streams`, `stacks`
7eaf7f9a 1858
b03fa783 1859#### twitter
a006ce2b 1860* `api`: Select one of `graphql` (default), `legacy` or `syndication` as the API for tweet extraction. Has no effect if logged in
b03fa783 1861
af1fd12f 1862#### stacommu, wrestleuniverse
ef8fb7f0 1863* `device_id`: UUID value assigned by the website and used to enforce device limits for paid livestream content. Can be found in browser local storage
1864
7f9c6a63 1865#### twitch
1866* `client_id`: Client ID value to be sent with GraphQL requests, e.g. `twitch:client_id=kimne78kx3ncx6brgo4mv6wki5h1ko`
01231feb 1867
81c8b9bd 1868#### nhkradirulive (NHK らじる★らじる LIVE)
1869* `area`: Which regional variation to extract. Valid areas are: `sapporo`, `sendai`, `tokyo`, `nagoya`, `osaka`, `hiroshima`, `matsuyama`, `fukuoka`. Defaults to `tokyo`
1870
1eaca74b 1871#### nflplusreplay
1872* `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
1873
8e174ba7 1874**Note**: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
5d3a0e79 1875
ec2e44fc 1876<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1877
3acf6d38 1878
f74980cb 1879# PLUGINS
b7770046 1880
8e40b9d1 1881Note 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 1882
8e40b9d1
M
1883Plugins can be of `<type>`s `extractor` or `postprocessor`.
1884- Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it.
1885- Extractor plugins take priority over builtin extractors.
1886- Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME`.
3ae5e797 1887
3ae5e797 1888
8e40b9d1 1889Plugins are loaded from the namespace packages `yt_dlp_plugins.extractor` and `yt_dlp_plugins.postprocessor`.
3ae5e797 1890
8e40b9d1
M
1891In other words, the file structure on the disk looks something like:
1892
1893 yt_dlp_plugins/
1894 extractor/
1895 myplugin.py
1896 postprocessor/
1897 myplugin.py
1898
1899yt-dlp looks for these `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folders in many locations (see below) and loads in plugins from **all** of them.
b7770046 1900
deae7c17 1901See the [wiki for some known plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugins)
1902
8e40b9d1
M
1903## Installing Plugins
1904
1905Plugins can be installed using various methods and locations.
1906
19071. **Configuration directories**:
1908 Plugin packages (containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder) can be dropped into the following standard [configuration locations](#configuration):
1909 * **User Plugins**
1910 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1911 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1912 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Windows)
773c272d 1913 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
8e40b9d1
M
1914 * `~/.yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1915 * `~/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1916 * **System Plugins**
1917 * `/etc/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1918 * `/etc/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
c8bc203f 19192. **Executable location**: Plugin packages can similarly be installed in a `yt-dlp-plugins` directory under the executable location (recommended for portable installations):
8e40b9d1
M
1920 * Binary: where `<root-dir>/yt-dlp.exe`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1921 * Source: where `<root-dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1922
19233. **pip and other locations in `PYTHONPATH`**
e756f45b 1924 * 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 1925 * Note: plugin files between plugin packages installed with pip must have unique filenames.
8e40b9d1
M
1926 * Any path in `PYTHONPATH` is searched in for the `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder.
1927 * Note: This does not apply for Pyinstaller/py2exe builds.
1928
1929
8e174ba7 1930`.zip`, `.egg` and `.whl` archives containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder in their root are also supported as plugin packages.
1931* e.g. `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/mypluginpkg.zip` where `mypluginpkg.zip` contains `yt_dlp_plugins/<type>/myplugin.py`
8e40b9d1 1932
8e174ba7 1933Run yt-dlp with `--verbose` to check if the plugin has been loaded.
8e40b9d1
M
1934
1935## Developing Plugins
1936
8e174ba7 1937See 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 1938
8e174ba7 1939All 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 1940
773c272d 1941To 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 1942
8e174ba7 1943If 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 1944
8e40b9d1 1945See 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 1946
1947# EMBEDDING YT-DLP
1948
1949yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1950
1951Your 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.
1952
1953From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1954
1955```python
59a7a13e 1956from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
8c6f4daa 1957
3d3bb168 1958URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1959with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1960 ydl.download(URLS)
8c6f4daa 1961```
1962
b532a348 1963Most 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 1964
43cc91ad 1965**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 1966
1967## Embedding examples
1968
43cc91ad 1969#### Extracting information
8c6f4daa 1970
1971```python
1972import json
8c6f4daa 1973import yt_dlp
8c6f4daa 1974
3d3bb168 1975URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
1976
1977# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
1978ydl_opts = {}
1979with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1980 info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
1981
1982 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
1983 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1984```
43cc91ad 1985#### Download using an info-json
3d3bb168 1986
1987```python
1988import yt_dlp
1989
1990INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
1991
1992with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1993 error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
1994
1995print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
1996 else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
1997```
1998
43cc91ad 1999#### Extract audio
3d3bb168 2000
2001```python
2002import yt_dlp
2003
2004URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2005
2006ydl_opts = {
0a41f331 2007 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
3d3bb168 2008 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
2009 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
2010 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
2011 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
2012 }]
2013}
2014
2015with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2016 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
2017```
0a41f331 2018
2019#### Filter videos
2020
2021```python
2022import yt_dlp
2023
2024URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2025
2026def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
2027 """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
2028 duration = info.get('duration')
2029 if duration and duration < 60:
2030 return 'The video is too short'
2031
2032ydl_opts = {
2033 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
2034}
2035
2036with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2037 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
2038```
2039
43cc91ad 2040#### Adding logger and progress hook
3d3bb168 2041
2042```python
2043import yt_dlp
2044
2045URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
8c6f4daa 2046
2047class MyLogger:
2048 def debug(self, msg):
e75bb0d6 2049 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
8c6f4daa 2050 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
2051 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
2052 pass
2053 else:
2054 self.info(msg)
2055
2056 def info(self, msg):
2057 pass
2058
2059 def warning(self, msg):
2060 pass
2061
2062 def error(self, msg):
2063 print(msg)
2064
2065
3d3bb168 2066# ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
2067def my_hook(d):
2068 if d['status'] == 'finished':
2069 print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
2070
2071
2072ydl_opts = {
2073 'logger': MyLogger(),
2074 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
2075}
2076
2077with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2078 ydl.download(URLS)
2079```
2080
43cc91ad 2081#### Add a custom PostProcessor
3d3bb168 2082
2083```python
2084import yt_dlp
2085
2086URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2087
2088# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
59a7a13e 2089class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
8c6f4daa 2090 def run(self, info):
2091 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
2092 return [], info
2093
2094
3d3bb168 2095with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
8aa0e7cd 2096 # ℹ️ "when" can take any value in yt_dlp.utils.POSTPROCESS_WHEN
2097 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP(), when='pre_process')
3d3bb168 2098 ydl.download(URLS)
2099```
8c6f4daa 2100
2101
43cc91ad 2102#### Use a custom format selector
3d3bb168 2103
2104```python
2105import yt_dlp
2106
c8bc203f 2107URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
3d3bb168 2108
093a1710 2109def format_selector(ctx):
2110 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
3d3bb168 2111 NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
093a1710 2112
2113 # formats are already sorted worst to best
2114 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
2115
2116 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
2117 best_video = next(f for f in formats
2118 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
2119
2120 # find compatible audio extension
2121 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
2122 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
2123 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
2124 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
2125
3d3bb168 2126 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
093a1710 2127 yield {
093a1710 2128 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
2129 'ext': best_video['ext'],
2130 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
e75bb0d6 2131 # Must be + separated list of protocols
093a1710 2132 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
2133 }
2134
2135
8c6f4daa 2136ydl_opts = {
093a1710 2137 'format': format_selector,
8c6f4daa 2138}
2139
2140with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
3d3bb168 2141 ydl.download(URLS)
8c6f4daa 2142```
2143
ec2e44fc 2144<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
2145
e167860c 2146# DEPRECATED OPTIONS
2147
2148These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
2149
8130779d 2150#### Almost redundant options
2151While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
2152
2153 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
2154 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
0bfc53d0 2155 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
8130779d 2156 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
2157
6ccf351a 2158#### Redundant options
2159While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
f4536226 2160
53c18592 2161 --get-description --print description
2162 --get-duration --print duration_string
2163 --get-filename --print filename
2164 --get-format --print format
2165 --get-id --print id
2166 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
2167 -e, --get-title --print title
2168 -g, --get-url --print urls
8f18aca8 2169 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
2170 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
2171 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
2172 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
fe2ce85a 2173 --break-on-reject Use --break-match-filter
8b7539d2 2174 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
2175 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
7e88d7d7 2176 --playlist-start NUMBER -I NUMBER:
2177 --playlist-end NUMBER -I :NUMBER
2178 --playlist-reverse -I ::-1
2179 --no-playlist-reverse Default
8417f26b 2180 --no-colors --color no_color
6ccf351a 2181
2182
2183#### Not recommended
2184While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
2185
fe7866d0 2186 --force-generic-extractor --ies generic,default
1e43a6f7 2187 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
2188 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
d9aa2332 2189 --all-formats -f all
c32b0aab 2190 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
b7b04c78 2191 --print-json -j --no-simulate
62b58c09 2192 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting, e.g. %(autonumber)03d
a439a3a4 2193 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
19b824f6 2194 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
73cd218f 2195 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
52a8a1e1 2196 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
2197 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
53ed7066 2198 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
2199 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
5d3a0e79 2200 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
2201 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
2202 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
2203 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
c1664464 2204 --geo-bypass --xff "default"
2205 --no-geo-bypass --xff "never"
2206 --geo-bypass-country CODE --xff CODE
2207 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK --xff IP_BLOCK
6ccf351a 2208
2209
2210#### Developer options
2211These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
2212
34488702 2213 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
f95b9dee 2214 --load-pages Load pages dumped by --write-pages
6ccf351a 2215 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
88acdbc2 2216 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
2217 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
f4536226 2218
2219
2220#### Old aliases
2221These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
2222
2223 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
3856407a 2224 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
f4536226 2225 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
2226 --dump-headers --print-traffic
2227 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
2228 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
2229 --load-info --load-info-json
3856407a 2230 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
f4536226 2231 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
e167860c 2232 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
e167860c 2233 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
2234 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
f4536226 2235 --split-tracks --split-chapters
2236 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
e167860c 2237 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
f4536226 2238 --write-srt --write-subs
e167860c 2239 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
f4536226 2240
7a340e0d 2241#### Sponskrub Options
f304da8a 2242Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock` options
7a340e0d
NA
2243
2244 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
2245 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
2246 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
2247 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
2248 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
2249 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
2250 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
2251 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
2252
f4536226 2253#### No longer supported
2254These options may no longer work as intended
2255
2256 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
2257 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
2258 -C, --call-home Not implemented
2259 --no-call-home Default
2260 --include-ads No longer supported
2261 --no-include-ads Default
0bb1bc1b 2262 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
2263 --no-write-annotations Default
1e8fe57e 2264 --compat-options seperate-video-versions No longer needed
486fb179 2265
2266#### Removed
2267These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
2268
f4536226 2269 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
3d3bb168 2270 -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
f4536226 2271
8c6f4daa 2272# CONTRIBUTING
2273See [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 2274
17ffed18 2275# WIKI
2276See the [Wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki) for more information