[yt-dlp.git] / README.md

% YOUTUBE-DL(1)

# NAME
youtube-dl

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

# CONFIGURATION

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

# OUTPUT TEMPLATE

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

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

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

In some cases, you don't want special characters such as 中, spaces, or &, such as when transferring the downloaded filename to a Windows system or the filename through an 8bit-unsafe channel. In these cases, add the `--restrict-filenames` flag to get a shorter title:

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

# FAQ

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The error

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

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

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

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

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

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

# COPYRIGHT

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

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

# BUGS

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

Please include:

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

For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.
Commit	Line	Data
d94adc26	1	% YOUTUBE-DL(1)
6bcd846b	2
cfcec693 FV	3	# NAME
cfcec693 FV	4	youtube-dl
6bcd846b	5
cfcec693 FV	6	# SYNOPSIS
	7	youtube-dl [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
	8
	9	# DESCRIPTION
6bcd846b DB	10	youtube-dl is a small command-line program to download videos from
6bcd846b DB	11	YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version
280d6789 PH	12	2.6, 2.7, or 3.3+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on
280d6789 PH	13	your Unix box, on Windows or on Mac OS X. It is released to the public domain,
6bcd846b DB	14	which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
6bcd846b DB	15
cfcec693	16	# OPTIONS
4618f3da	17	-h, --help print this help text and exit
c4105fa0	18	--version print program version and exit
8f88eb1f	19	-U, --update update this program to latest version
4618f3da	20	-i, --ignore-errors continue on download errors
1bf2801e	21	-r, --rate-limit LIMIT maximum download rate (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
4618f3da	22	-R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is 10)
cc872b68 PH	23	--buffer-size SIZE size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16k) (default
	24	is 1024)
	25	--no-resize-buffer do not automatically adjust the buffer size. By
	26	default, the buffer size is automatically resized
	27	from an initial value of SIZE.
08c1d0d3	28	--dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
20326b8b	29	--user-agent UA specify a custom user agent
6a1ca41e PH	30	--list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs they
6a1ca41e PH	31	would handle
08c1d0d3	32
cfcec693	33	## Video Selection:
4618f3da PH	34	--playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is 1)
4618f3da PH	35	--playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
08c1d0d3 PH	36	--match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or caseless
	37	sub-string)
	38	--reject-title REGEX skip download for matching titles (regex or
	39	caseless sub-string)
b88a5250	40	--max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
085c8b75 PH	41	--min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE (e.g.
	42	50k or 44.6m)
	43	--max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE (e.g.
	44	50k or 44.6m)
6bcd846b	45
cfcec693	46	## Filesystem Options:
4618f3da	47	-t, --title use title in file name
74e453bd	48	--id use video ID in file name
baec1538	49	-l, --literal [deprecated] alias of --title
4618f3da	50	-A, --auto-number number downloaded files starting from 00000
b6fab35b	51	-o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(title)s to get the
9baa2ef5	52	title, %(uploader)s for the uploader name,
77c4beab FV	53	%(uploader_id)s for the uploader nickname if
	54	different, %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
	55	incremented number, %(ext)s for the filename
	56	extension, %(upload_date)s for the upload date
	57	(YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
	58	(youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the video id
	59	and %% for a literal percent. Use - to output to
	60	stdout. Can also be used to download to a different
	61	directory, for example with -o '/my/downloads/%(upl
	62	oader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
56781d3d PH	63	--restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters, and
56781d3d PH	64	avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
4618f3da PH	65	-a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)
	66	-w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
	67	-c, --continue resume partially downloaded files
eca1b76f PH	68	--no-continue do not resume partially downloaded files (restart
eca1b76f PH	69	from beginning)
3ce59dae	70	--cookies FILE file to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in
4618f3da PH	71	--no-part do not use .part files
	72	--no-mtime do not use the Last-modified header to set the file
	73	modification time
	74	--write-description write video description to a .description file
	75	--write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
6bcd846b	76
cfcec693	77	## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
4618f3da	78	-q, --quiet activates quiet mode
6a1ca41e PH	79	-s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write anything
	80	to disk
	81	--skip-download do not download the video
4618f3da PH	82	-g, --get-url simulate, quiet but print URL
	83	-e, --get-title simulate, quiet but print title
	84	--get-thumbnail simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
	85	--get-description simulate, quiet but print video description
	86	--get-filename simulate, quiet but print output filename
6a1ca41e	87	--get-format simulate, quiet but print output format
355fc8e9	88	--newline output progress bar as new lines
4618f3da PH	89	--no-progress do not print progress bar
4618f3da PH	90	--console-title display progress in console titlebar
c4105fa0	91	-v, --verbose print various debugging information
6bcd846b	92
cfcec693	93	## Video Format Options:
4618f3da PH	94	-f, --format FORMAT video format code
4618f3da PH	95	--all-formats download all available video formats
561504ff PH	96	--prefer-free-formats prefer free video formats unless a specific one is
561504ff PH	97	requested
4618f3da	98	--max-quality FORMAT highest quality format to download
2761012f	99	-F, --list-formats list all available formats (currently youtube only)
1bf2801e PH	100	--write-sub write subtitle file (currently youtube only)
	101	--only-sub downloads only the subtitles (no video)
	102	--all-subs downloads all the available subtitles of the video
a0432a1e	103	(currently youtube only)
1bf2801e PH	104	--list-subs lists all available subtitles for the video
	105	(currently youtube only)
	106	--sub-format LANG subtitle format [srt/sbv] (default=srt) (currently
	107	youtube only)
	108	--sub-lang LANG language of the subtitles to download (optional)
	109	use IETF language tags like 'en'
6bcd846b	110
cfcec693	111	## Authentication Options:
4618f3da PH	112	-u, --username USERNAME account username
	113	-p, --password PASSWORD account password
	114	-n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
6bcd846b	115
cfcec693	116	## Post-processing Options:
b7a34316	117	-x, --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files (requires
505ed308	118	ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)
280d6789 PH	119	--audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", or
280d6789 PH	120	"wav"; best by default
b24676ce	121	--audio-quality QUALITY ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification, insert a
3a68d7b4 FV	122	value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse) for VBR or a
3a68d7b4 FV	123	specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
fbc5f99d PH	124	--recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if necessary
fbc5f99d PH	125	(currently supported: mp4\|flv\|ogg\|webm)
6a1ca41e PH	126	-k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the post-
6a1ca41e PH	127	processing; the video is erased by default
99b0a129 FV	128	--no-post-overwrites do not overwrite post-processed files; the post-
99b0a129 FV	129	processed files are overwritten by default
6bcd846b	130
df4bad32 PH	131	# CONFIGURATION
df4bad32 PH	132
280d6789	133	You can configure youtube-dl by placing default arguments (such as `--extract-audio --no-mtime` to always extract the audio and not copy the mtime) into `/etc/youtube-dl.conf` and/or `~/.config/youtube-dl.conf`.
df4bad32	134
02531431 PH	135	# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
	136
	137	The `-o` option allows users to indicate a template for the output file names. The basic usage is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in `youtube-dl -o funny_video.flv "http://some/video"`. However, it may contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences have the format `%(NAME)s`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parenthesis, followed by a lowercase S. Allowed names are:
	138
	139	- `id`: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier.
	140	- `url`: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL.
	141	- `uploader`: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the person who uploaded the video.
	142	- `upload_date`: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date in YYYYMMDD format.
	143	- `title`: The sequence will be replaced by the video title.
877f4c45 PH	144	- `ext`: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension (like flv or mp4).
	145	- `epoch`: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when creating the file.
	146	- `autonumber`: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.
7eab8dc7	147	- `playlist`: The name or the id of the playlist that contains the video.
02531431 PH	148
	149	The current default template is `%(id)s.%(ext)s`, but that will be switchted to `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` (which can be requested with `-t` at the moment).
	150
	151	In some cases, you don't want special characters such as 中, spaces, or &, such as when transferring the downloaded filename to a Windows system or the filename through an 8bit-unsafe channel. In these cases, add the `--restrict-filenames` flag to get a shorter title:
	152
	153	$ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
	154	youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
	155	$ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
	156	youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
	157
cfcec693	158	# FAQ
447b1d71 PH	159
	160	### Can you please put the -b option back?
	161
	162	Most people asking this question are not aware that youtube-dl now defaults to downloading the highest available quality as reported by YouTube, which will be 1080p or 720p in some cases, so you no longer need the -b option. For some specific videos, maybe YouTube does not report them to be available in a specific high quality format you''re interested in. In that case, simply request it with the -f option and youtube-dl will try to download it.
	163
f2a3a352	164	### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
447b1d71	165
8236e851	166	Apparently YouTube requires you to pass a CAPTCHA test if you download too much. We''re [considering to provide a way to let you solve the CAPTCHA](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/154), but at the moment, your best course of action is pointing a webbrowser to the youtube URL, solving the CAPTCHA, and restart youtube-dl.
447b1d71 PH	167
	168	### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
	169
	170	Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as [vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or [mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
	171
	172	### The links provided by youtube-dl -g are not working anymore
	173
a0432a1e	174	The URLs youtube-dl outputs require the downloader to have the correct cookies. Use the `--cookies` option to write the required cookies into a file, and advise your downloader to read cookies from that file. Some sites also require a common user agent to be used, use `--dump-user-agent` to see the one in use by youtube-dl.
447b1d71	175
454d6691 PH	176	### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
454d6691 PH	177
5a2ba45e	178	youtube has switched to a new video info format in July 2011 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl with `sudo youtube-dl --update`.
454d6691	179
6c5b442a PH	180	### ERROR: unable to download video ###
	181
	182	youtube requires an additional signature since September 2012 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl with `sudo youtube-dl --update`.
	183
5cdfaeb3	184	### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character ###
6c5b442a PH	185
	186	The error
	187
	188	File "youtube-dl", line 2
	189	SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\x93' ...
	190
	191	means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python 2.6 or 2.7.
	192
5cdfaeb3 FV	193	### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
5cdfaeb3 FV	194
71f36332	195	Since June 2012 (#342) youtube-dl is packed as an executable zipfile, simply unzip it (might need renaming to `youtube-dl.zip` first on some systems) or clone the git repository, as laid out above. If you modify the code, you can run it by executing the `__main__.py` file. To recompile the executable, run `make youtube-dl`.
5cdfaeb3	196
ce367443 FV	197	### The exe throws a Runtime error from Visual C++
	198
	199	To run the exe you need to install first the [Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package](http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29).
	200
cfcec693	201	# COPYRIGHT
803abae2 PH	202
	203	youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
	204
	205	This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton (<https://github.com/dbbolton>) and is likewise released into the public domain.
6bcd846b	206
cfcec693	207	# BUGS
e133e121	208
8236e851	209	Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: <https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues>
e133e121 PH	210
	211	Please include:
	212
95fedbf8 FV	213	* Your exact command line, like `youtube-dl -t "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHlDtZ6Oc3s&feature=channel_video_title"`. A common mistake is not to escape the `&`. Putting URLs in quotes should solve this problem.
95fedbf8 FV	214	* If possible re-run the command with `--verbose`, and include the full output, it is really helpful to us.
e133e121 PH	215	* The output of `youtube-dl --version`
	216	* The output of `python --version`
	217	* The name and version of your Operating System ("Ubuntu 11.04 x64" or "Windows 7 x64" is usually enough).
4b235346 PH	218
4b235346 PH	219	For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.