]> jfr.im git - yt-dlp.git/blame - README.md
[README] brevity is the soul of wit
[yt-dlp.git] / README.md
CommitLineData
94eb2dd1 1youtube-dl - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms
6bcd846b 2
cfcec693
FV
3# SYNOPSIS
4**youtube-dl** [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
5
d19bb9c0
PH
6# INSTALLATION
7
8To install it right away for all UNIX users (Linux, OS X, etc.), type:
9
10 sudo curl https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
11 sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
12
13If you do not have curl, you can alternatively use a recent wget:
14
6e74521d 15 sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
d19bb9c0
PH
16 sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
17
18Windows users can [download a .exe file](https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl.exe) and place it in their home directory or any other location on their [PATH](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PATH_%28variable%29).
19
3b95347b
PH
20OS X users can install **youtube-dl** with [Homebrew](http://brew.sh/).
21
22 brew install youtube-dl
23
24You can also use pip:
25
26 sudo pip install youtube-dl
27
d19bb9c0
PH
28Alternatively, refer to the developer instructions below for how to check out and work with the git repository. For further options, including PGP signatures, see https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html .
29
cfcec693 30# DESCRIPTION
6bcd846b
DB
31**youtube-dl** is a small command-line program to download videos from
32YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version
280d6789
PH
332.6, 2.7, or 3.3+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on
34your Unix box, on Windows or on Mac OS X. It is released to the public domain,
6bcd846b
DB
35which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
36
cfcec693 37# OPTIONS
780083db
PH
38 -h, --help print this help text and exit
39 --version print program version and exit
40 -U, --update update this program to latest version. Make
41 sure that you have sufficient permissions
42 (run with sudo if needed)
43 -i, --ignore-errors continue on download errors, for example to
98c4b8fa 44 skip unavailable videos in a playlist
780083db
PH
45 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos (in the
46 playlist or the command line) if an error
47 occurs
48 --dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
780083db
PH
49 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs
50 they would handle
51 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
52 extractors
53 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy. Pass in
54 an empty string (--proxy "") for direct
55 connection
780083db 56 --socket-timeout None Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
780083db
PH
57 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
58 example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
59 from google videos for youtube-dl "large
f4d66a99 60 apple". Use the value "auto" to let
4f31d0f2
PH
61 youtube-dl guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
62 warning when guessing). "error" just throws
63 an error. The default value "fixup_error"
64 repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
65 this is not possible instead of searching.
9d3ac744
PH
66 --ignore-config Do not read configuration files. When given
67 in the global configuration file /etc
68 /youtube-dl.conf: do not read the user
69 configuration in ~/.config/youtube-dl.conf
70 (%APPDATA%/youtube-dl/config.txt on
71 Windows)
08c1d0d3 72
cfcec693 73## Video Selection:
780083db
PH
74 --playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is 1)
75 --playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
76 --match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or
77 caseless sub-string)
78 --reject-title REGEX skip download for matching titles (regex or
79 caseless sub-string)
80 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
81 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
82 SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
83 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
84 (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
85 --date DATE download only videos uploaded in this date
86 --datebefore DATE download only videos uploaded on or before
87 this date (i.e. inclusive)
88 --dateafter DATE download only videos uploaded on or after
89 this date (i.e. inclusive)
90 --min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less than
91 COUNT views
92 --max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than
93 COUNT views
94 --no-playlist download only the currently playing video
95 --age-limit YEARS download only videos suitable for the given
96 age
97 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
98 archive file. Record the IDs of all
99 downloaded videos in it.
100 --include-ads Download advertisements as well
101 (experimental)
c35b1b07
PH
102 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Try to download the DASH manifest on
103 YouTube videos (experimental)
6bcd846b 104
d5a62e4f 105## Download Options:
780083db
PH
106 -r, --rate-limit LIMIT maximum download rate in bytes per second
107 (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
108 -R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is 10)
109 --buffer-size SIZE size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
110 (default is 1024)
111 --no-resize-buffer do not automatically adjust the buffer
112 size. By default, the buffer size is
113 automatically resized from an initial value
114 of SIZE.
d5a62e4f 115
cfcec693 116## Filesystem Options:
36f35428
PH
117 -a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for
118 stdin)
780083db 119 --id use only video ID in file name
780083db
PH
120 -A, --auto-number number downloaded files starting from 00000
121 -o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(title)s to
122 get the title, %(uploader)s for the
123 uploader name, %(uploader_id)s for the
124 uploader nickname if different,
125 %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
126 incremented number, %(ext)s for the
127 filename extension, %(format)s for the
128 format description (like "22 - 1280x720" or
129 "HD"), %(format_id)s for the unique id of
130 the format (like Youtube's itags: "137"),
131 %(upload_date)s for the upload date
132 (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
133 (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the
134 video id, %(playlist)s for the playlist the
135 video is in, %(playlist_index)s for the
136 position in the playlist and %% for a
17b75c0d 137 literal percent. %(height)s and %(width)s
d63516e9
PH
138 for the width and height of the video
139 format. %(resolution)s for a textual
140 description of the resolution of the video
141 format. Use - to output to stdout. Can also
142 be used to download to a different
143 directory, for example with -o '/my/downloa
144 ds/%(uploader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
780083db
PH
145 --autonumber-size NUMBER Specifies the number of digits in
146 %(autonumber)s when it is present in output
147 filename template or --auto-number option
148 is given
149 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
150 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
151 filenames
36f35428
PH
152 -t, --title [deprecated] use title in file name
153 (default)
154 -l, --literal [deprecated] alias of --title
780083db
PH
155 -w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
156 -c, --continue force resume of partially downloaded files.
157 By default, youtube-dl will resume
158 downloads if possible.
159 --no-continue do not resume partially downloaded files
160 (restart from beginning)
780083db
PH
161 --no-part do not use .part files
162 --no-mtime do not use the Last-modified header to set
163 the file modification time
164 --write-description write video description to a .description
165 file
166 --write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
167 --write-annotations write video annotations to a .annotation
168 file
169 --write-thumbnail write thumbnail image to disk
36f35428
PH
170 --load-info FILE json file containing the video information
171 (created with the "--write-json" option)
172 --cookies FILE file to read cookies from and dump cookie
173 jar in
174 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
175 can store some downloaded information
176 permanently. By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME
177 /youtube-dl or ~/.cache/youtube-dl . At the
178 moment, only YouTube player files (for
179 videos with obfuscated signatures) are
180 cached, but that may change.
181 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
182 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
6bcd846b 183
cfcec693 184## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
780083db 185 -q, --quiet activates quiet mode
6c072e7d 186 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
780083db
PH
187 -s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write
188 anything to disk
189 --skip-download do not download the video
190 -g, --get-url simulate, quiet but print URL
191 -e, --get-title simulate, quiet but print title
192 --get-id simulate, quiet but print id
193 --get-thumbnail simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
194 --get-description simulate, quiet but print video description
195 --get-duration simulate, quiet but print video length
196 --get-filename simulate, quiet but print output filename
197 --get-format simulate, quiet but print output format
bf30f3bd
PH
198 -j, --dump-json simulate, quiet but print JSON information.
199 See --output for a description of available
200 keys.
780083db
PH
201 --newline output progress bar as new lines
202 --no-progress do not print progress bar
203 --console-title display progress in console titlebar
204 -v, --verbose print various debugging information
205 --dump-intermediate-pages print downloaded pages to debug problems
206 (very verbose)
207 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
208 files in the current directory to debug
209 problems
210 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
6bcd846b 211
36f35428
PH
212## Workarounds:
213 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
214 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation.
215 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
216 information about the video. (Currently
217 supported only for YouTube)
218 --user-agent UA specify a custom user agent
219 --referer REF specify a custom referer, use if the video
220 access is restricted to one domain
221 --add-header FIELD:VALUE specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
222 separated by a colon ':'. You can use this
223 option multiple times
4f31d0f2
PH
224 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
225 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
226 or fribidi executable in PATH
36f35428 227
cfcec693 228## Video Format Options:
780083db
PH
229 -f, --format FORMAT video format code, specify the order of
230 preference using slashes: "-f 22/17/18".
231 "-f mp4" and "-f flv" are also supported.
232 You can also use the special names "best",
9d840c43
PH
233 "bestvideo", "bestaudio", "worst",
234 "worstvideo" and "worstaudio". By default,
235 youtube-dl will pick the best quality.
780083db
PH
236 --all-formats download all available video formats
237 --prefer-free-formats prefer free video formats unless a specific
238 one is requested
239 --max-quality FORMAT highest quality format to download
240 -F, --list-formats list all available formats
8ae7be3e
PH
241
242## Subtitle Options:
780083db
PH
243 --write-sub write subtitle file
244 --write-auto-sub write automatic subtitle file (youtube
245 only)
246 --all-subs downloads all the available subtitles of
247 the video
248 --list-subs lists all available subtitles for the video
249 --sub-format FORMAT subtitle format (default=srt) ([sbv/vtt]
250 youtube only)
251 --sub-lang LANGS languages of the subtitles to download
252 (optional) separated by commas, use IETF
253 language tags like 'en,pt'
6bcd846b 254
cfcec693 255## Authentication Options:
780083db
PH
256 -u, --username USERNAME account username
257 -p, --password PASSWORD account password
258 -n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
259 --video-password PASSWORD video password (vimeo, smotri)
6bcd846b 260
cfcec693 261## Post-processing Options:
780083db
PH
262 -x, --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files
263 (requires ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or
264 avprobe)
265 --audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a",
266 "opus", or "wav"; best by default
267 --audio-quality QUALITY ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification,
268 insert a value between 0 (better) and 9
269 (worse) for VBR or a specific bitrate like
270 128K (default 5)
271 --recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if
272 necessary (currently supported:
09018e19 273 mp4|flv|ogg|webm|mkv)
780083db
PH
274 -k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the
275 post-processing; the video is erased by
276 default
277 --no-post-overwrites do not overwrite post-processed files; the
278 post-processed files are overwritten by
279 default
280 --embed-subs embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4
281 videos)
d0f2ab69 282 --embed-thumbnail embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
780083db
PH
283 --add-metadata write metadata to the video file
284 --xattrs write metadata to the video file's xattrs
285 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
286 --prefer-avconv Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running the
287 postprocessors (default)
288 --prefer-ffmpeg Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running the
289 postprocessors
6bcd846b 290
df4bad32
PH
291# CONFIGURATION
292
fe52f9f9 293You 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/config`. On Windows, the configuration file locations are `%APPDATA%\youtube-dl\config.txt` and `C:\Users\<Yourname>\youtube-dl.conf`.
df4bad32 294
02531431
PH
295# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
296
297The `-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:
298
299 - `id`: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier.
300 - `url`: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL.
301 - `uploader`: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the person who uploaded the video.
302 - `upload_date`: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date in YYYYMMDD format.
303 - `title`: The sequence will be replaced by the video title.
877f4c45
PH
304 - `ext`: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension (like flv or mp4).
305 - `epoch`: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when creating the file.
306 - `autonumber`: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.
7eab8dc7 307 - `playlist`: The name or the id of the playlist that contains the video.
d281274b 308 - `playlist_index`: The index of the video in the playlist, a five-digit number.
02531431 309
1083705f 310The current default template is `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`.
02531431
PH
311
312In 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:
313
1ce464ab
EJ
314```bash
315$ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
316youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
317$ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
318youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
319```
02531431 320
e31852ab
JMF
321# VIDEO SELECTION
322
323Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options `--date`, `--datebefore` or `--dateafter`, they accept dates in two formats:
324
325 - Absolute dates: Dates in the format `YYYYMMDD`.
326 - Relative dates: Dates in the format `(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?`
327
328Examples:
329
1ce464ab
EJ
330```bash
331# Download only the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
332$ youtube-dl --dateafter now-6months
09c4d509 333
1ce464ab
EJ
334# Download only the videos uploaded on January 1, 1970
335$ youtube-dl --date 19700101
09c4d509 336
1ce464ab
EJ
337$ # will only download the videos uploaded in the 200x decade
338$ youtube-dl --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20091231
339```
e31852ab 340
cfcec693 341# FAQ
447b1d71
PH
342
343### Can you please put the -b option back?
344
2e1b3afe 345Most 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.
447b1d71 346
f2a3a352 347### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
447b1d71 348
2e1b3afe 349Apparently 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
350
351### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
352
353Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as [vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or [mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
354
355### The links provided by youtube-dl -g are not working anymore
356
a0432a1e 357The 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 358
454d6691
PH
359### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
360
5a2ba45e 361youtube 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 362
6c5b442a
PH
363### ERROR: unable to download video ###
364
365youtube 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`.
366
5cdfaeb3 367### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character ###
6c5b442a
PH
368
369The error
370
371 File "youtube-dl", line 2
372 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\x93' ...
373
374means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python 2.6 or 2.7.
375
5cdfaeb3
FV
376### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
377
71f36332 378Since 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 379
ce367443
FV
380### The exe throws a *Runtime error from Visual C++*
381
382To 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).
383
a96ed916 384# DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS
803abae2 385
63ef36e8 386Most users do not need to build youtube-dl and can [download the builds](http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html) or get them from their distribution.
803abae2 387
63ef36e8
PH
388To run youtube-dl as a developer, you don't need to build anything either. Simply execute
389
390 python -m youtube_dl
391
392To run the test, simply invoke your favorite test runner, or execute a test file directly; any of the following work:
393
394 python -m unittest discover
395 python test/test_download.py
396 nosetests
397
398If you want to create a build of youtube-dl yourself, you'll need
399
400* python
401* make
402* pandoc
403* zip
404* nosetests
6bcd846b 405
a96ed916
PH
406### Adding support for a new site
407
5fbd672c
PH
408If you want to add support for a new site, you can follow this quick list (assuming your service is called `yourextractor`):
409
4101. [Fork this repository](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/fork)
4112. Check out the source code with `git clone git@github.com:YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/youtube-dl.git`
4123. Start a new git branch with `cd youtube-dl; git checkout -b yourextractor`
4134. Start with this simple template and save it to `youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py`:
1ce464ab
EJ
414 ```python
415 # coding: utf-8
416 from __future__ import unicode_literals
417
418 import re
419
420 from .common import InfoExtractor
421
422
423 class YourExtractorIE(InfoExtractor):
424 _VALID_URL = r'https?://(?:www\.)?yourextractor\.com/watch/(?P<id>[0-9]+)'
425 _TEST = {
426 'url': 'http://yourextractor.com/watch/42',
427 'md5': 'TODO: md5 sum of the first 10KiB of the video file',
428 'info_dict': {
429 'id': '42',
430 'ext': 'mp4',
431 'title': 'Video title goes here',
432 # TODO more properties, either as:
433 # * A value
434 # * MD5 checksum; start the string with md5:
435 # * A regular expression; start the string with re:
436 # * Any Python type (for example int or float)
5fbd672c 437 }
1ce464ab 438 }
5fbd672c 439
1ce464ab
EJ
440 def _real_extract(self, url):
441 mobj = re.match(self._VALID_URL, url)
442 video_id = mobj.group('id')
5fbd672c 443
1ce464ab
EJ
444 # TODO more code goes here, for example ...
445 webpage = self._download_webpage(url, video_id)
446 title = self._html_search_regex(r'<h1>(.*?)</h1>', webpage, 'title')
d1b3e3dd 447
1ce464ab
EJ
448 return {
449 'id': video_id,
450 'title': title,
451 # TODO more properties (see youtube_dl/extractor/common.py)
452 }
453 ```
5fbd672c
PH
4545. Add an import in [`youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py`](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py).
4556. Run `python test/test_download.py TestDownload.test_YourExtractor`. This *should fail* at first, but you can continually re-run it until you're done.
e62e150f 456 * If you decide to add more than one test, then rename the ``_TEST`` variable to ``_TESTS`` and make it into a list of dictionaries. The tests will be then be named `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor`, `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_1`, `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_2`, etc.
5fbd672c
PH
4577. Have a look at [`youtube_dl/common/extractor/common.py`](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py) for possible helper methods and a [detailed description of what your extractor should return](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py#L38). Add tests and code for as many as you want.
4588. If you can, check the code with [pyflakes](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pyflakes) (a good idea) and [pep8](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pep8) (optional, ignore E501).
4599. When the tests pass, [add](https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-add.html) the new files and [commit](https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-commit.html) them and [push](https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-push.html) the result, like this:
460
461 $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py
462 $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py
463 $ git commit -m '[yourextractor] Add new extractor'
464 $ git push origin yourextractor
465
46610. Finally, [create a pull request](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-pull-request). We'll then review and merge it.
467
468In any case, thank you very much for your contributions!
a96ed916 469
cfcec693 470# BUGS
e133e121 471
2a18bc9a 472Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: <https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues> . Unless you were prompted so or there is another pertinent reason (e.g. GitHub fails to accept the bug report), please do not send bug reports via personal email.
e133e121 473
2a18bc9a 474Please include the full output of the command when run with `--verbose`. The output (including the first lines) contain important debugging information. Issues without the full output are often not reproducible and therefore do not get solved in short order, if ever.
4b235346
PH
475
476For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.
2a18bc9a
PH
477
478When you submit a request, please re-read it once to avoid a couple of mistakes (you can and should use this as a checklist):
479
480### Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?
481
482We 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. Many contributors, including myself, are also not native speakers, so we may misread some parts.
483
484So please elaborate on what feature you are requesting, or what bug you want to be fixed. Make sure that it's obvious
485
486- What the problem is
487- How it could be fixed
488- How your proposed solution would look like
489
490If 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. As a commiter myself, I often get frustrated by these issues, since the only possible way for me to move forward on them is to ask for clarification over and over.
491
492For bug reports, this means that your report should contain the *complete* output of youtube-dl when called with the -v 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.
493
3ef79a97 494Site support requests **must contain an example URL**. An example URL is a URL you might want to download, like http://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. http://www.youtube.com/ ) is *not* an example URL.
2a18bc9a
PH
495
496### Are you using the latest version?
497
3d97cbbd 498Before reporting any issue, type youtube-dl -U. This should report that you're up-to-date. About 20% of the reports we receive are already fixed, but people are using outdated versions. This goes for feature requests as well.
2a18bc9a
PH
499
500### Is the issue already documented?
501
502Make sure that someone has not already opened the issue you're trying to open. Search at the top of the window or at https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/search?type=Issues . If there is an issue, feel free to write something along the lines of "This affects me as well, with version 2015.01.01. Here is some more information on the issue: ...". While some issues may be old, a new post into them often spurs rapid activity.
503
504### Why are existing options not enough?
505
506Before requesting a new feature, please have a quick peek at [the list of supported options](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/README.md#synopsis). 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.
507
508### Is there enough context in your bug report?
509
510People 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).
511
512We 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.
513
514### Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?
515
516Some 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.
517
518In 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, Whitehouse 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 youtube-dl 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.
519
520### Is anyone going to need the feature?
521
522Only post features that you (or an incapicated 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.
a17c95f5
PH
523
524### Is your question about youtube-dl?
525
526It may sound strange, but some bug reports we receive are completely unrelated to youtube-dl and relate to a different or even the reporter's own application. Please make sure that you are actually using youtube-dl. If you are using a UI for youtube-dl, report the bug to the maintainer of the actual application providing the UI. On the other hand, if your UI for youtube-dl fails in some way you believe is related to youtube-dl, by all means, go ahead and report the bug.
63ef36e8
PH
527
528# COPYRIGHT
529
530youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
531
532This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton (<https://github.com/dbbolton>) and is likewise released into the public domain.