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8c6f4daa 1# CONTRIBUTING TO YT-DLP
2
3- [OPENING AN ISSUE](#opening-an-issue)
4 - [Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?](#is-the-description-of-the-issue-itself-sufficient)
5 - [Are you using the latest version?](#are-you-using-the-latest-version)
6 - [Is the issue already documented?](#is-the-issue-already-documented)
7 - [Why are existing options not enough?](#why-are-existing-options-not-enough)
8 - [Have you read and understood the changes, between youtube-dl and yt-dlp](#have-you-read-and-understood-the-changes-between-youtube-dl-and-yt-dlp)
9 - [Is there enough context in your bug report?](#is-there-enough-context-in-your-bug-report)
10 - [Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?](#does-the-issue-involve-one-problem-and-one-problem-only)
11 - [Is anyone going to need the feature?](#is-anyone-going-to-need-the-feature)
12 - [Is your question about yt-dlp?](#is-your-question-about-yt-dlp)
d80d98e7 13 - [Are you willing to share account details if needed?](#are-you-willing-to-share-account-details-if-needed)
08d30158 14 - [Is the website primarily used for piracy](#is-the-website-primarily-used-for-piracy)
8c6f4daa 15- [DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS](#developer-instructions)
16 - [Adding new feature or making overarching changes](#adding-new-feature-or-making-overarching-changes)
17 - [Adding support for a new site](#adding-support-for-a-new-site)
18 - [yt-dlp coding conventions](#yt-dlp-coding-conventions)
19 - [Mandatory and optional metafields](#mandatory-and-optional-metafields)
20 - [Provide fallbacks](#provide-fallbacks)
21 - [Regular expressions](#regular-expressions)
22 - [Long lines policy](#long-lines-policy)
fc5fa964 23 - [Quotes](#quotes)
8c6f4daa 24 - [Inline values](#inline-values)
25 - [Collapse fallbacks](#collapse-fallbacks)
26 - [Trailing parentheses](#trailing-parentheses)
27 - [Use convenience conversion and parsing functions](#use-convenience-conversion-and-parsing-functions)
08d30158 28 - [My pull request is labeled pending-fixes](#my-pull-request-is-labeled-pending-fixes)
8c6f4daa 29- [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](README.md#embedding-yt-dlp)
30
31
32
33# OPENING AN ISSUE
34
35Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: [yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues). Unless you were prompted to or there is another pertinent reason (e.g. GitHub fails to accept the bug report), please do not send bug reports via personal email. For discussions, join us in our [discord server](https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r).
36
fc5fa964 37**Please include the full output of yt-dlp when run with `-vU`**, i.e. **add** `-vU` flag to **your command line**, copy the **whole** output and post it in the issue body wrapped in \`\`\` for better formatting. It should look similar to this:
8c6f4daa 38```
fc5fa964 39$ yt-dlp -vU <your command line>
8c6f4daa 40[debug] Command-line config: ['-v', 'demo.com']
41[debug] Encodings: locale UTF-8, fs utf-8, out utf-8, pref UTF-8
42[debug] yt-dlp version 2021.09.25 (zip)
43[debug] Python version 3.8.10 (CPython 64bit) - Linux-5.4.0-74-generic-x86_64-with-glibc2.29
44[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg 4.2.4, ffprobe 4.2.4
86e8c894 45[debug] Proxy map: {}
8c6f4daa 46Current Build Hash 25cc412d1d3c0725a1f2f5b7e4682f6fb40e6d15f7024e96f7afd572e9919535
47yt-dlp is up to date (2021.09.25)
86e8c894
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48...
49```
bbd77068 50**Do not post screenshots of verbose logs; only plain text is acceptable.**
4c1a017e 51
8c6f4daa 52The output (including the first lines) contains important debugging information. Issues without the full output are often not reproducible and therefore will be closed as `incomplete`.
53
54The templates provided for the Issues, should be completed and **not removed**, this helps aide the resolution of the issue.
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55
56Please re-read your issue once again to avoid a couple of common mistakes (you can and should use this as a checklist):
57
58### Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?
59
8c6f4daa 60We often get issue reports that we cannot really decipher. While in most cases we eventually get the required information after asking back multiple times, this poses an unnecessary drain on our resources.
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61
62So please elaborate on what feature you are requesting, or what bug you want to be fixed. Make sure that it's obvious
63
64- What the problem is
65- How it could be fixed
66- How your proposed solution would look like
67
8c6f4daa 68If your report is shorter than two lines, it is almost certainly missing some of these, which makes it hard for us to respond to it. We're often too polite to close the issue outright, but the missing info makes misinterpretation likely. We often get frustrated by these issues, since the only possible way for us to move forward on them is to ask for clarification over and over.
e56190b3 69
fc5fa964 70For bug reports, this means that your report should contain the **complete** output of yt-dlp when called with the `-vU` flag. The error message you get for (most) bugs even says so, but you would not believe how many of our bug reports do not contain this information.
e56190b3 71
8c6f4daa 72If the error is `ERROR: Unable to extract ...` and you cannot reproduce it from multiple countries, add `--write-pages` and upload the `.dump` files you get [somewhere](https://gist.github.com).
f848215d 73
df235dbb 74**Site support requests must contain an example URL**. An example URL is a URL you might want to download, like `https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc`. There should be an obvious video present. Except under very special circumstances, the main page of a video service (e.g. `https://www.youtube.com/`) is *not* an example URL.
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75
76### Are you using the latest version?
77
8c6f4daa 78Before reporting any issue, type `yt-dlp -U`. This should report that you're up-to-date. This goes for feature requests as well.
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79
80### Is the issue already documented?
81
8c6f4daa 82Make sure that someone has not already opened the issue you're trying to open. Search at the top of the window or browse the [GitHub Issues](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/search?type=Issues) of this repository. If there is an issue, feel free to write something along the lines of "This affects me as well, with version 2021.01.01. Here is some more information on the issue: ...". While some issues may be old, a new post into them often spurs rapid activity.
83
84Additionally, it is also helpful to see if the issue has already been documented in the [youtube-dl issue tracker](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues). If similar issues have already been reported in youtube-dl (but not in our issue tracker), links to them can be included in your issue report here.
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85
86### Why are existing options not enough?
87
8c6f4daa 88Before requesting a new feature, please have a quick peek at [the list of supported options](README.md#usage-and-options). Many feature requests are for features that actually exist already! Please, absolutely do show off your work in the issue report and detail how the existing similar options do *not* solve your problem.
89
90### Have you read and understood the changes, between youtube-dl and yt-dlp
91
92There are many changes between youtube-dl and yt-dlp [(changes to default behavior)](README.md#differences-in-default-behavior), and some of the options available have a different behaviour in yt-dlp, or have been removed all together [(list of changes to options)](README.md#deprecated-options). Make sure you have read and understand the differences in the options and how this may impact your downloads before opening an issue.
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93
94### Is there enough context in your bug report?
95
96People want to solve problems, and often think they do us a favor by breaking down their larger problems (e.g. wanting to skip already downloaded files) to a specific request (e.g. requesting us to look whether the file exists before downloading the info page). However, what often happens is that they break down the problem into two steps: One simple, and one impossible (or extremely complicated one).
97
98We are then presented with a very complicated request when the original problem could be solved far easier, e.g. by recording the downloaded video IDs in a separate file. To avoid this, you must include the greater context where it is non-obvious. In particular, every feature request that does not consist of adding support for a new site should contain a use case scenario that explains in what situation the missing feature would be useful.
99
100### Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?
101
102Some of our users seem to think there is a limit of issues they can or should open. There is no limit of issues they can or should open. While it may seem appealing to be able to dump all your issues into one ticket, that means that someone who solves one of your issues cannot mark the issue as closed. Typically, reporting a bunch of issues leads to the ticket lingering since nobody wants to attack that behemoth, until someone mercifully splits the issue into multiple ones.
103
8c6f4daa 104In particular, every site support request issue should only pertain to services at one site (generally under a common domain, but always using the same backend technology). Do not request support for vimeo user videos, White house podcasts, and Google Plus pages in the same issue. Also, make sure that you don't post bug reports alongside feature requests. As a rule of thumb, a feature request does not include outputs of yt-dlp that are not immediately related to the feature at hand. Do not post reports of a network error alongside the request for a new video service.
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105
106### Is anyone going to need the feature?
107
fdd6e18b 108Only post features that you (or an incapacitated friend you can personally talk to) require. Do not post features because they seem like a good idea. If they are really useful, they will be requested by someone who requires them.
e56190b3 109
8c6f4daa 110### Is your question about yt-dlp?
111
59a7a13e 112Some bug reports are completely unrelated to yt-dlp and relate to a different, or even the reporter's own, application. Please make sure that you are actually using yt-dlp. If you are using a UI for yt-dlp, report the bug to the maintainer of the actual application providing the UI. In general, if you are unable to provide the verbose log, you should not be opening the issue here.
8c6f4daa 113
114If the issue is with `youtube-dl` (the upstream fork of yt-dlp) and not with yt-dlp, the issue should be raised in the youtube-dl project.
115
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116### Are you willing to share account details if needed?
117
455a15e2 118The maintainers and potential contributors of the project often do not have an account for the website you are asking support for. So any developer interested in solving your issue may ask you for account details. It is your personal discretion whether you are willing to share the account in order for the developer to try and solve your issue. However, if you are unwilling or unable to provide details, they obviously cannot work on the issue and it cannot be solved unless some developer who both has an account and is willing/able to contribute decides to solve it.
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119
120By sharing an account with anyone, you agree to bear all risks associated with it. The maintainers and yt-dlp can't be held responsible for any misuse of the credentials.
121
122While these steps won't necessarily ensure that no misuse of the account takes place, these are still some good practices to follow.
123
59a7a13e 124- Look for people with `Member` (maintainers of the project) or `Contributor` (people who have previously contributed code) tag on their messages.
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125- Change the password before sharing the account to something random (use [this](https://passwordsgenerator.net/) if you don't have a random password generator).
126- Change the password after receiving the account back.
127
08d30158 128### Is the website primarily used for piracy?
129
130We follow [youtube-dl's policy](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#can-you-add-support-for-this-anime-video-site-or-site-which-shows-current-movies-for-free) to not support services that is primarily used for infringing copyright. Additionally, it has been decided to not to support porn sites that specialize in deep fake. We also cannot support any service that serves only [DRM protected content](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management).
131
8c6f4daa 132
e56190b3 133
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134
135# DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS
136
8c6f4daa 137Most users do not need to build yt-dlp and can [download the builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases) or get them via [the other installation methods](README.md#installation).
e56190b3 138
8c6f4daa 139To run yt-dlp as a developer, you don't need to build anything either. Simply execute
e56190b3 140
8c6f4daa 141 python -m yt_dlp
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142
143To run the test, simply invoke your favorite test runner, or execute a test file directly; any of the following work:
144
145 python -m unittest discover
146 python test/test_download.py
147 nosetests
060ac762 148 pytest
e56190b3 149
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150See item 6 of [new extractor tutorial](#adding-support-for-a-new-site) for how to run extractor specific test cases.
151
8c6f4daa 152If you want to create a build of yt-dlp yourself, you can follow the instructions [here](README.md#compile).
e56190b3 153
e56190b3 154
8c6f4daa 155## Adding new feature or making overarching changes
e56190b3 156
8c6f4daa 157Before you start writing code for implementing a new feature, open an issue explaining your feature request and atleast one use case. This allows the maintainers to decide whether such a feature is desired for the project in the first place, and will provide an avenue to discuss some implementation details. If you open a pull request for a new feature without discussing with us first, do not be surprised when we ask for large changes to the code, or even reject it outright.
158
0930b11f 159The same applies for changes to the documentation, code style, or overarching changes to the architecture
8c6f4daa 160
161
162## Adding support for a new site
163
17ffed18 164If you want to add support for a new site, first of all **make sure** this site is **not dedicated to [copyright infringement](#is-the-website-primarily-used-for-piracy)**. yt-dlp does **not support** such sites thus pull requests adding support for them **will be rejected**.
da665ddc 165
2021b650 166After you have ensured this site is distributing its content legally, you can follow this quick list (assuming your service is called `yourextractor`):
e56190b3 167
8c6f4daa 1681. [Fork this repository](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/fork)
1691. Check out the source code with:
bff98341 170
8c6f4daa 171 git clone git@github.com:YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/yt-dlp.git
bff98341 172
8c6f4daa 1731. Start a new git branch with
bff98341 174
8c6f4daa 175 cd yt-dlp
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176 git checkout -b yourextractor
177
8c6f4daa 1781. Start with this simple template and save it to `yt_dlp/extractor/yourextractor.py`:
bff98341 179
e56190b3 180 ```python
e56190b3 181 from .common import InfoExtractor
8c6f4daa 182
183
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184 class YourExtractorIE(InfoExtractor):
185 _VALID_URL = r'https?://(?:www\.)?yourextractor\.com/watch/(?P<id>[0-9]+)'
8c6f4daa 186 _TESTS = [{
df235dbb 187 'url': 'https://yourextractor.com/watch/42',
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188 'md5': 'TODO: md5 sum of the first 10241 bytes of the video file (use --test)',
189 'info_dict': {
190 'id': '42',
191 'ext': 'mp4',
192 'title': 'Video title goes here',
e7ea724c 193 'thumbnail': r're:^https?://.*\.jpg$',
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194 # TODO more properties, either as:
195 # * A value
196 # * MD5 checksum; start the string with md5:
197 # * A regular expression; start the string with re:
62b58c09 198 # * Any Python type, e.g. int or float
e56190b3 199 }
8c6f4daa 200 }]
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201
202 def _real_extract(self, url):
203 video_id = self._match_id(url)
204 webpage = self._download_webpage(url, video_id)
8c6f4daa 205
e56190b3 206 # TODO more code goes here, for example ...
ab03c0b4 207 title = self._html_search_regex(r'<h1>(.+?)</h1>', webpage, 'title')
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208
209 return {
210 'id': video_id,
211 'title': title,
212 'description': self._og_search_description(webpage),
ab03c0b4 213 'uploader': self._search_regex(r'<div[^>]+id="uploader"[^>]*>([^<]+)<', webpage, 'uploader', fatal=False),
8c6f4daa 214 # TODO more properties (see yt_dlp/extractor/common.py)
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215 }
216 ```
8aa0e7cd 2171. Add an import in [`yt_dlp/extractor/_extractors.py`](yt_dlp/extractor/_extractors.py). Note that the class name must end with `IE`.
08d30158 2181. Run `python test/test_download.py TestDownload.test_YourExtractor` (note that `YourExtractor` doesn't end with `IE`). This *should fail* at first, but you can continually re-run it until you're done. If you decide to add more than one test, the tests will then be named `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor`, `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_1`, `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_2`, etc. Note that tests with `only_matching` key in test's dict are not counted in. You can also run all the tests in one go with `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_all`
9222c381 2191. Make sure you have atleast one test for your extractor. Even if all videos covered by the extractor are expected to be inaccessible for automated testing, tests should still be added with a `skip` parameter indicating why the particular test is disabled from running.
8c6f4daa 2201. Have a look at [`yt_dlp/extractor/common.py`](yt_dlp/extractor/common.py) for possible helper methods and a [detailed description of what your extractor should and may return](yt_dlp/extractor/common.py#L91-L426). Add tests and code for as many as you want.
2211. Make sure your code follows [yt-dlp coding conventions](#yt-dlp-coding-conventions) and check the code with [flake8](https://flake8.pycqa.org/en/latest/index.html#quickstart):
9d9daed4 222
8c6f4daa 223 $ flake8 yt_dlp/extractor/yourextractor.py
9d9daed4 224
31b532a1 2251. Make sure your code works under all [Python](https://www.python.org/) versions supported by yt-dlp, namely CPython and PyPy for Python 3.7 and above. Backward compatibility is not required for even older versions of Python.
8c6f4daa 2261. When the tests pass, [add](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-add) the new files, [commit](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-commit) them and [push](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-push) the result, like this:
e56190b3 227
8aa0e7cd 228 $ git add yt_dlp/extractor/_extractors.py
8c6f4daa 229 $ git add yt_dlp/extractor/yourextractor.py
230 $ git commit -m '[yourextractor] Add extractor'
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231 $ git push origin yourextractor
232
8c6f4daa 2331. Finally, [create a pull request](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-pull-request). We'll then review and merge it.
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234
235In any case, thank you very much for your contributions!
236
b69fd25c 237**Tip:** To test extractors that require login information, create a file `test/local_parameters.json` and add `"usenetrc": true` or your username and password in it:
238```json
239{
240 "username": "your user name",
241 "password": "your password"
242}
243```
8c6f4daa 244
245## yt-dlp coding conventions
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246
247This section introduces a guide lines for writing idiomatic, robust and future-proof extractor code.
248
8c6f4daa 249Extractors are very fragile by nature since they depend on the layout of the source data provided by 3rd party media hosters out of your control and this layout tends to change. As an extractor implementer your task is not only to write code that will extract media links and metadata correctly but also to minimize dependency on the source's layout and even to make the code foresee potential future changes and be ready for that. This is important because it will allow the extractor not to break on minor layout changes thus keeping old yt-dlp versions working. Even though this breakage issue may be easily fixed by a new version of yt-dlp, this could take some time, during which the the extractor will remain broken.
250
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251
252### Mandatory and optional metafields
253
8c6f4daa 254For extraction to work yt-dlp relies on metadata your extractor extracts and provides to yt-dlp expressed by an [information dictionary](yt_dlp/extractor/common.py#L91-L426) or simply *info dict*. Only the following meta fields in the *info dict* are considered mandatory for a successful extraction process by yt-dlp:
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255
256 - `id` (media identifier)
257 - `title` (media title)
258 - `url` (media download URL) or `formats`
259
fc08bdd6 260The aforementioned metafields are the critical data that the extraction does not make any sense without and if any of them fail to be extracted then the extractor is considered completely broken. While all extractors must return a `title`, they must also allow it's extraction to be non-fatal.
261
455a15e2 262For pornographic sites, appropriate `age_limit` must also be returned.
263
62b58c09 264The extractor is allowed to return the info dict without url or formats in some special cases if it allows the user to extract usefull information with `--ignore-no-formats-error` - e.g. when the video is a live stream that has not started yet.
bff98341 265
8c6f4daa 266[Any field](yt_dlp/extractor/common.py#219-L426) apart from the aforementioned ones are considered **optional**. That means that extraction should be **tolerant** to situations when sources for these fields can potentially be unavailable (even if they are always available at the moment) and **future-proof** in order not to break the extraction of general purpose mandatory fields.
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267
268#### Example
269
270Say you have some source dictionary `meta` that you've fetched as JSON with HTTP request and it has a key `summary`:
271
272```python
273meta = self._download_json(url, video_id)
274```
275
276Assume at this point `meta`'s layout is:
277
278```python
279{
bff98341 280 "summary": "some fancy summary text",
8c6f4daa 281 "user": {
282 "name": "uploader name"
283 },
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284 ...
285}
286```
287
2021b650 288Assume you want to extract `summary` and put it into the resulting info dict as `description`. Since `description` is an optional meta field you should be ready that this key may be missing from the `meta` dict, so that you should extract it like:
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289
290```python
291description = meta.get('summary') # correct
292```
293
294and not like:
295
296```python
297description = meta['summary'] # incorrect
298```
299
bbd77068 300The latter will break extraction process with `KeyError` if `summary` disappears from `meta` at some later time but with the former approach extraction will just go ahead with `description` set to `None` which is perfectly fine (remember `None` is equivalent to the absence of data).
bff98341 301
8c6f4daa 302
8aa0e7cd 303If the data is nested, do not use `.get` chains, but instead make use of `traverse_obj`.
8c6f4daa 304
305Considering the above `meta` again, assume you want to extract `["user"]["name"]` and put it in the resulting info dict as `uploader`
306
8c6f4daa 307```python
308uploader = traverse_obj(meta, ('user', 'name')) # correct
309```
310
311and not like:
312
313```python
314uploader = meta['user']['name'] # incorrect
315```
316or
317```python
318uploader = meta.get('user', {}).get('name') # incorrect
319```
8aa0e7cd 320or
321```python
322uploader = try_get(meta, lambda x: x['user']['name']) # old utility
323```
8c6f4daa 324
325
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326Similarly, you should pass `fatal=False` when extracting optional data from a webpage with `_search_regex`, `_html_search_regex` or similar methods, for instance:
327
328```python
329description = self._search_regex(
330 r'<span[^>]+id="title"[^>]*>([^<]+)<',
331 webpage, 'description', fatal=False)
332```
333
334With `fatal` set to `False` if `_search_regex` fails to extract `description` it will emit a warning and continue extraction.
335
336You can also pass `default=<some fallback value>`, for example:
337
338```python
339description = self._search_regex(
340 r'<span[^>]+id="title"[^>]*>([^<]+)<',
341 webpage, 'description', default=None)
342```
343
bbd77068 344On failure this code will silently continue the extraction with `description` set to `None`. That is useful for metafields that may or may not be present.
8c6f4daa 345
346
347Another thing to remember is not to try to iterate over `None`
348
8aa0e7cd 349Say you extracted a list of thumbnails into `thumbnail_data` and want to iterate over them
8c6f4daa 350
351```python
8aa0e7cd 352thumbnail_data = data.get('thumbnails') or []
8c6f4daa 353thumbnails = [{
354 'url': item['url']
8aa0e7cd 355} for item in thumbnail_data] # correct
8c6f4daa 356```
357
358and not like:
359
360```python
8aa0e7cd 361thumbnail_data = data.get('thumbnails')
8c6f4daa 362thumbnails = [{
363 'url': item['url']
364} for item in thumbnail_data] # incorrect
365```
366
8aa0e7cd 367In this case, `thumbnail_data` will be `None` if the field was not found and this will cause the loop `for item in thumbnail_data` to raise a fatal error. Using `or []` avoids this error and results in setting an empty list in `thumbnails` instead.
8c6f4daa 368
369
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370### Provide fallbacks
371
bbd77068 372When extracting metadata try to do so from multiple sources. For example if `title` is present in several places, try extracting from at least some of them. This makes it more future-proof in case some of the sources become unavailable.
bff98341 373
8c6f4daa 374
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375#### Example
376
3d3bb168 377Say `meta` from the previous example has a `title` and you are about to extract it like:
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378
379```python
3d3bb168 380title = meta.get('title')
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381```
382
3d3bb168 383If `title` disappears from `meta` in future due to some changes on the hoster's side the title extraction would fail.
bff98341 384
3d3bb168 385Assume that you have some another source you can extract `title` from, for example `og:title` HTML meta of a `webpage`. In this case you can provide a fallback like:
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386
387```python
388title = meta.get('title') or self._og_search_title(webpage)
389```
390
3d3bb168 391This code will try to extract from `meta` first and if it fails it will try extracting `og:title` from a `webpage`, making the extractor more robust.
bff98341 392
8c6f4daa 393
d7c3af7a 394### Regular expressions
bff98341 395
d7c3af7a
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396#### Don't capture groups you don't use
397
398Capturing group must be an indication that it's used somewhere in the code. Any group that is not used must be non capturing.
399
400##### Example
401
402Don't capture id attribute name here since you can't use it for anything anyway.
403
404Correct:
405
406```python
407r'(?:id|ID)=(?P<id>\d+)'
408```
409
410Incorrect:
411```python
412r'(id|ID)=(?P<id>\d+)'
413```
414
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415#### Make regular expressions relaxed and flexible
416
417When using regular expressions try to write them fuzzy, relaxed and flexible, skipping insignificant parts that are more likely to change, allowing both single and double quotes for quoted values and so on.
8c6f4daa 418
d7c3af7a 419##### Example
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420
421Say you need to extract `title` from the following HTML code:
422
423```html
424<span style="position: absolute; left: 910px; width: 90px; float: right; z-index: 9999;" class="title">some fancy title</span>
425```
426
427The code for that task should look similar to:
428
429```python
8c6f4daa 430title = self._search_regex( # correct
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431 r'<span[^>]+class="title"[^>]*>([^<]+)', webpage, 'title')
432```
433
56ba69e4 434which tolerates potential changes in the `style` attribute's value. Or even better:
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435
436```python
8c6f4daa 437title = self._search_regex( # correct
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438 r'<span[^>]+class=(["\'])title\1[^>]*>(?P<title>[^<]+)',
439 webpage, 'title', group='title')
440```
441
56ba69e4 442which also handles both single quotes in addition to double quotes.
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443
444The code definitely should not look like:
445
446```python
8c6f4daa 447title = self._search_regex( # incorrect
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448 r'<span style="position: absolute; left: 910px; width: 90px; float: right; z-index: 9999;" class="title">(.*?)</span>',
449 webpage, 'title', group='title')
450```
451
8c6f4daa 452or even
453
454```python
455title = self._search_regex( # incorrect
456 r'<span style=".*?" class="title">(.*?)</span>',
457 webpage, 'title', group='title')
458```
459
962ffcf8 460Here the presence or absence of other attributes including `style` is irrelevant for the data we need, and so the regex must not depend on it
8c6f4daa 461
462
8aa0e7cd 463#### Keep the regular expressions as simple as possible, but no simpler
464
465Since many extractors deal with unstructured data provided by websites, we will often need to use very complex regular expressions. You should try to use the *simplest* regex that can accomplish what you want. In other words, each part of the regex must have a reason for existing. If you can take out a symbol and the functionality does not change, the symbol should not be there.
466
467##### Example
468
469Correct:
470
471```python
472_VALID_URL = r'https?://(?:www\.)?website\.com/(?:[^/]+/){3,4}(?P<display_id>[^/]+)_(?P<id>\d+)'
473```
474
475Incorrect:
476
477```python
478_VALID_URL = r'https?:\/\/(?:www\.)?website\.com\/[^\/]+/[^\/]+/[^\/]+(?:\/[^\/]+)?\/(?P<display_id>[^\/]+)_(?P<id>\d+)'
479```
480
481#### Do not misuse `.` and use the correct quantifiers (`+*?`)
482
483Avoid creating regexes that over-match because of wrong use of quantifiers. Also try to avoid non-greedy matching (`?`) where possible since they could easily result in [catastrophic backtracking](https://www.regular-expressions.info/catastrophic.html)
484
485Correct:
486
487```python
488title = self._search_regex(r'<span\b[^>]+class="title"[^>]*>([^<]+)', webpage, 'title')
489```
490
491Incorrect:
492
493```python
494title = self._search_regex(r'<span\b.*class="title".*>(.+?)<', webpage, 'title')
495```
496
497
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498### Long lines policy
499
fc5fa964 500There is a soft limit to keep lines of code under 100 characters long. This means it should be respected if possible and if it does not make readability and code maintenance worse. Sometimes, it may be reasonable to go upto 120 characters and sometimes even 80 can be unreadable. Keep in mind that this is not a hard limit and is just one of many tools to make the code more readable.
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501
502For example, you should **never** split long string literals like URLs or some other often copied entities over multiple lines to fit this limit:
503
962ffcf8 504Conversely, don't unnecessarily split small lines further. As a rule of thumb, if removing the line split keeps the code under 80 characters, it should be a single line.
fc5fa964 505
506##### Examples
507
d7c3af7a
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508Correct:
509
510```python
511'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqZTN594JQw&list=PLMYEtVRpaqY00V9W81Cwmzp6N6vZqfUKD4'
512```
513
514Incorrect:
515
516```python
517'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqZTN594JQw&list='
518'PLMYEtVRpaqY00V9W81Cwmzp6N6vZqfUKD4'
519```
520
fc5fa964 521Correct:
522
523```python
524uploader = traverse_obj(info, ('uploader', 'name'), ('author', 'fullname'))
525```
526
527Incorrect:
528
529```python
530uploader = traverse_obj(
531 info,
532 ('uploader', 'name'),
533 ('author', 'fullname'))
534```
535
536Correct:
537
538```python
539formats = self._extract_m3u8_formats(
540 m3u8_url, video_id, 'mp4', 'm3u8_native', m3u8_id='hls',
541 note='Downloading HD m3u8 information', errnote='Unable to download HD m3u8 information')
542```
543
544Incorrect:
545
546```python
547formats = self._extract_m3u8_formats(m3u8_url,
548 video_id,
549 'mp4',
550 'm3u8_native',
551 m3u8_id='hls',
552 note='Downloading HD m3u8 information',
553 errnote='Unable to download HD m3u8 information')
554```
555
556
557### Quotes
558
8aa0e7cd 559Always use single quotes for strings (even if the string has `'`) and double quotes for docstrings. Use `'''` only for multi-line strings. An exception can be made if a string has multiple single quotes in it and escaping makes it *significantly* harder to read. For f-strings, use you can use double quotes on the inside. But avoid f-strings that have too many quotes inside.
fc5fa964 560
561
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562### Inline values
563
564Extracting variables is acceptable for reducing code duplication and improving readability of complex expressions. However, you should avoid extracting variables used only once and moving them to opposite parts of the extractor file, which makes reading the linear flow difficult.
565
8aa0e7cd 566#### Examples
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567
568Correct:
569
570```python
8aa0e7cd 571return {
572 'title': self._html_search_regex(r'<h1>([^<]+)</h1>', webpage, 'title'),
573 # ...some lines of code...
574}
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575```
576
577Incorrect:
578
579```python
04f3fd2c 580TITLE_RE = r'<h1>([^<]+)</h1>'
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581# ...some lines of code...
582title = self._html_search_regex(TITLE_RE, webpage, 'title')
8aa0e7cd 583# ...some lines of code...
584return {
585 'title': title,
586 # ...some lines of code...
587}
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588```
589
8c6f4daa 590
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591### Collapse fallbacks
592
593Multiple fallback values can quickly become unwieldy. Collapse multiple fallback values into a single expression via a list of patterns.
594
595#### Example
596
597Good:
598
599```python
600description = self._html_search_meta(
601 ['og:description', 'description', 'twitter:description'],
602 webpage, 'description', default=None)
603```
604
605Unwieldy:
606
607```python
608description = (
609 self._og_search_description(webpage, default=None)
610 or self._html_search_meta('description', webpage, default=None)
611 or self._html_search_meta('twitter:description', webpage, default=None))
612```
613
614Methods supporting list of patterns are: `_search_regex`, `_html_search_regex`, `_og_search_property`, `_html_search_meta`.
615
8c6f4daa 616
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617### Trailing parentheses
618
8aa0e7cd 619Always move trailing parentheses used for grouping/functions after the last argument. On the other hand, multi-line literal list/tuple/dict/set should closed be in a new line. Generators and list/dict comprehensions may use either style
def849e0 620
fc5fa964 621#### Examples
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622
623Correct:
624
625```python
8aa0e7cd 626url = traverse_obj(info, (
627 'context', 'dispatcher', 'stores', 'VideoTitlePageStore', 'data', 'video', 0, 'VideoUrlSet', 'VideoUrl'), list)
def849e0 628```
fc5fa964 629Correct:
630
631```python
8aa0e7cd 632url = traverse_obj(
633 info,
634 ('context', 'dispatcher', 'stores', 'VideoTitlePageStore', 'data', 'video', 0, 'VideoUrlSet', 'VideoUrl'),
635 list)
fc5fa964 636```
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637
638Incorrect:
639
640```python
8aa0e7cd 641url = traverse_obj(
fc5fa964 642 info,
8aa0e7cd 643 ('context', 'dispatcher', 'stores', 'VideoTitlePageStore', 'data', 'video', 0, 'VideoUrlSet', 'VideoUrl'),
644 list
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645)
646```
647
fc5fa964 648Correct:
649
650```python
651f = {
652 'url': url,
653 'format_id': format_id,
654}
655```
656
657Incorrect:
658
659```python
660f = {'url': url,
661 'format_id': format_id}
662```
663
664Correct:
665
666```python
667formats = [process_formats(f) for f in format_data
668 if f.get('type') in ('hls', 'dash', 'direct') and f.get('downloadable')]
669```
670
671Correct:
672
673```python
674formats = [
675 process_formats(f) for f in format_data
676 if f.get('type') in ('hls', 'dash', 'direct') and f.get('downloadable')
677]
678```
679
8c6f4daa 680
e71be6ee 681### Use convenience conversion and parsing functions
bff98341 682
8c6f4daa 683Wrap all extracted numeric data into safe functions from [`yt_dlp/utils.py`](yt_dlp/utils.py): `int_or_none`, `float_or_none`. Use them for string to number conversions as well.
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684
685Use `url_or_none` for safe URL processing.
686
c4f60dd7 687Use `traverse_obj` and `try_call` (superseeds `dict_get` and `try_get`) for safe metadata extraction from parsed JSON.
532782ad 688
e71be6ee
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689Use `unified_strdate` for uniform `upload_date` or any `YYYYMMDD` meta field extraction, `unified_timestamp` for uniform `timestamp` extraction, `parse_filesize` for `filesize` extraction, `parse_count` for count meta fields extraction, `parse_resolution`, `parse_duration` for `duration` extraction, `parse_age_limit` for `age_limit` extraction.
690
8c6f4daa 691Explore [`yt_dlp/utils.py`](yt_dlp/utils.py) for more useful convenience functions.
532782ad 692
8aa0e7cd 693#### Examples
532782ad 694
532782ad 695```python
8c6f4daa 696description = traverse_obj(response, ('result', 'video', 'summary'), expected_type=str)
8aa0e7cd 697thumbnails = traverse_obj(response, ('result', 'thumbnails', ..., 'url'), expected_type=url_or_none)
8c6f4daa 698video = traverse_obj(response, ('result', 'video', 0), default={}, expected_type=dict)
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699duration = float_or_none(video.get('durationMs'), scale=1000)
700view_count = int_or_none(video.get('views'))
701```
bff98341 702
8aa0e7cd 703
08d30158 704# My pull request is labeled pending-fixes
705
706The `pending-fixes` label is added when there are changes requested to a PR. When the necessary changes are made, the label should be removed. However, despite our best efforts, it may sometimes happen that the maintainer did not see the changes or forgot to remove the label. If your PR is still marked as `pending-fixes` a few days after all requested changes have been made, feel free to ping the maintainer who labeled your issue and ask them to re-review and remove the label.
707
8c6f4daa 708
709
710
711# EMBEDDING YT-DLP
712See [README.md#embedding-yt-dlp](README.md#embedding-yt-dlp) for instructions on how to embed yt-dlp in another Python program