]> jfr.im git - yt-dlp.git/blame - README.md
[test] Workaround websocket server hanging (#9467)
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ec2e44fc 1<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b31fdeed 2<div align="center">
3
e980017a 4[![YT-DLP](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master/.github/banner.svg)](#readme)
d9d045e2 5
2fa669f7 6[![Release version](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?color=brightgreen&label=Download&style=for-the-badge)](#installation "Installation")
ae6a1b95 7[![PyPi](https://img.shields.io/badge/-PyPi-blue.svg?logo=pypi&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp "PyPi")
fc5fa964 8[![Donate](https://img.shields.io/badge/_-Donate-red.svg?logo=githubsponsors&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](Collaborators.md#collaborators "Donate")
ae6a1b95 9[![Matrix](https://img.shields.io/matrix/yt-dlp:matrix.org?color=brightgreen&labelColor=555555&label=&logo=element&style=for-the-badge)](https://matrix.to/#/#yt-dlp:matrix.org "Matrix")
10[![Discord](https://img.shields.io/discord/807245652072857610?color=blue&labelColor=555555&label=&logo=discord&style=for-the-badge)](https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r "Discord")
fc5fa964 11[![Supported Sites](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Supported_Sites-brightgreen.svg?style=for-the-badge)](supportedsites.md "Supported Sites")
ae6a1b95 12[![License: Unlicense](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Unlicense-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge)](LICENSE "License")
08e29b9f 13[![CI Status](https://img.shields.io/github/actions/workflow/status/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/core.yml?branch=master&label=Tests&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions "CI Status")
fc5fa964 14[![Commits](https://img.shields.io/github/commit-activity/m/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?label=commits&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
b532a348 15[![Last Commit](https://img.shields.io/github/last-commit/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master?label=&style=for-the-badge&display_timestamp=committer)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pulse/monthly "Last activity")
c76eb41b 16
b31fdeed 17</div>
ec2e44fc 18<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
c76eb41b 19
b31fdeed 20yt-dlp is a [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) fork based on the now inactive [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc). The main focus of this project is adding new features and patches while also keeping up to date with the original project
5c0e5bc4 21
ec2e44fc 22<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "USAGE AND OPTIONS" SECTION HERE -->
23
24<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
c76eb41b 25* [INSTALLATION](#installation)
deae7c17 26 * [Detailed instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation)
0e5927ee 27 * [Release Files](#release-files)
47ab66db 28 * [Update](#update)
cf59cd4d 29 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
17fa3ee2 30 * [Compile](#compile)
b31fdeed 31* [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
32 * [General Options](#general-options)
50865ca8 33 * [Network Options](#network-options)
b31fdeed 34 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
50865ca8 35 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
36 * [Download Options](#download-options)
37 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
b31fdeed 38 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
50865ca8 39 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
0744a815 40 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
50865ca8 41 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
42 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
43 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
44 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
50865ca8 45 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
7a340e0d 46 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
50865ca8 47 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
c76eb41b 48* [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
304ad45a 49 * [Configuration file encoding](#configuration-file-encoding)
db3ad8a6 50 * [Authentication with netrc](#authentication-with-netrc)
878eac3e 51 * [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
c76eb41b 52* [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
50865ca8 53 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
c76eb41b 54* [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
50865ca8 55 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
56 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
57 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
73cd218f 58* [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
59 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
5d3a0e79 60* [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
f74980cb 61* [PLUGINS](#plugins)
8e40b9d1
M
62 * [Installing Plugins](#installing-plugins)
63 * [Developing Plugins](#developing-plugins)
8c6f4daa 64* [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
43cc91ad 65 * [Embedding examples](#embedding-examples)
47ab66db 66* [CHANGES FROM YOUTUBE-DL](#changes-from-youtube-dl)
67 * [New features](#new-features)
68 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
69 * [Deprecated options](#deprecated-options)
8c6f4daa 70* [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
71 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
72 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
17ffed18 73* [WIKI](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki)
deae7c17 74 * [FAQ](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/FAQ)
ec2e44fc 75<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
50865ca8 76
77
d19bb9c0 78# INSTALLATION
50865ca8 79
fc5fa964 80<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
81[![Windows](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Windows_x64-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=windows)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)
17ffed18 82[![Unix](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Linux/BSD-red.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=linux)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)
24146491 83[![MacOS](https://img.shields.io/badge/-MacOS-lightblue.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=apple)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)
17ffed18 84[![PyPi](https://img.shields.io/badge/-PyPi-blue.svg?logo=pypi&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
fc5fa964 85[![Source Tarball](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Source_tar-green.svg?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
86[![Other variants](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Other-grey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](#release-files)
3d3bb168 87[![All versions](https://img.shields.io/badge/-All_Versions-lightgrey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
fc5fa964 88<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
89
c8bc203f 90You can install yt-dlp using [the binaries](#release-files), [pip](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) or one using a third-party package manager. See [the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation) for detailed instructions
0930b11f 91
b8773e63 92
ec2e44fc 93<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
a4211baf 94## RELEASE FILES
0e5927ee 95
733d8e8f 96#### Recommended
97
98File|Description
99:---|:---
962ffcf8 100[yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform-independent [zipimport](https://docs.python.org/3/library/zipimport.html) binary. Needs Python (recommended for **Linux/BSD**)
0930b11f 101[yt-dlp.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary (recommended for **Windows**)
f2df4071 102[yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|Universal MacOS (10.15+) standalone executable (recommended for **MacOS**)
733d8e8f 103
104#### Alternatives
105
0e5927ee
R
106File|Description
107:---|:---
47ab66db 108[yt-dlp_x86.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_x86.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x86 (32-bit) binary
8aa0e7cd 109[yt-dlp_min.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_min.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary built with `py2exe`<br/> ([Not recommended](#standalone-py2exe-builds-windows))
f2df4071 110[yt-dlp_linux](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux)|Linux standalone x64 binary
111[yt-dlp_linux.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux.zip)|Unpackaged Linux executable (no auto-update)
17fc3dc4
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112[yt-dlp_linux_armv7l](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_armv7l)|Linux standalone armv7l (32-bit) binary
113[yt-dlp_linux_aarch64](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_aarch64)|Linux standalone aarch64 (64-bit) binary
0930b11f 114[yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
115[yt-dlp_macos.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos.zip)|Unpackaged MacOS (10.15+) executable (no auto-update)
6d916fe7 116[yt-dlp_macos_legacy](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos_legacy)|MacOS (10.9+) standalone x64 executable
733d8e8f 117
118#### Misc
119
120File|Description
121:---|:---
17ffed18 122[yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball
0e5927ee 123[SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
12647e03 124[SHA2-512SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA512 sums
0e5927ee 125[SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
12647e03 126[SHA2-256SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA256 sums
0e5927ee 127
12647e03
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128The public key that can be used to verify the GPG signatures is [available here](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/public.key)
129Example usage:
130```
131curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/raw/master/public.key | gpg --import
132gpg --verify SHA2-256SUMS.sig SHA2-256SUMS
133gpg --verify SHA2-512SUMS.sig SHA2-512SUMS
134```
135<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
17ffed18 136
ad54c913 137**Note**: The manpages, shell completion (autocomplete) files etc. are available inside the [source tarball](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
17ffed18 138
47ab66db 139
140## UPDATE
141You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are using the [release binaries](#release-files)
142
143If you [installed with pip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
144
145For other third-party package managers, see [the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#third-party-package-managers) or refer their documentation
146
147<a id="update-channels"></a>
148
149There are currently three release channels for binaries: `stable`, `nightly` and `master`.
150
151* `stable` is the default channel, and many of its changes have been tested by users of the `nightly` and `master` channels.
152* The `nightly` channel has releases scheduled to build every day around midnight UTC, for a snapshot of the project's new patches and changes. This is the **recommended channel for regular users** of yt-dlp. The `nightly` releases are available from [yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds/releases) or as development releases of the `yt-dlp` PyPI package (which can be installed with pip's `--pre` flag).
153* The `master` channel features releases that are built after each push to the master branch, and these will have the very latest fixes and additions, but may also be more prone to regressions. They are available from [yt-dlp/yt-dlp-master-builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-master-builds/releases).
154
155When using `--update`/`-U`, a release binary will only update to its current channel.
156`--update-to CHANNEL` can be used to switch to a different channel when a newer version is available. `--update-to [CHANNEL@]TAG` can also be used to upgrade or downgrade to specific tags from a channel.
157
158You may also use `--update-to <repository>` (`<owner>/<repository>`) to update to a channel on a completely different repository. Be careful with what repository you are updating to though, there is no verification done for binaries from different repositories.
159
160Example usage:
161* `yt-dlp --update-to master` switch to the `master` channel and update to its latest release
162* `yt-dlp --update-to stable@2023.07.06` upgrade/downgrade to release to `stable` channel tag `2023.07.06`
163* `yt-dlp --update-to 2023.10.07` upgrade/downgrade to tag `2023.10.07` if it exists on the current channel
164* `yt-dlp --update-to example/yt-dlp@2023.09.24` upgrade/downgrade to the release from the `example/yt-dlp` repository, tag `2023.09.24`
165
166**Important**: Any user experiencing an issue with the `stable` release should install or update to the `nightly` release before submitting a bug report:
167```
168# To update to nightly from stable executable/binary:
169yt-dlp --update-to nightly
170
171# To install nightly with pip:
172python3 -m pip install -U --pre yt-dlp[default]
173```
174
a4211baf 175## DEPENDENCIES
f4b95aca 176Python versions 3.8+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
b31fdeed 177
c9652aa4 178<!-- Python 3.5+ uses VC++14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
179<!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999 --x>
cf59cd4d 180On windows, [Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86)](https://download.microsoft.com/download/1/6/5/165255E7-1014-4D0A-B094-B6A430A6BFFC/vcredist_x86.exe) is also necessary to run yt-dlp. You probably already have this, but if the executable throws an error due to missing `MSVCR100.dll` you need to install it manually.
c9652aa4 181-->
fac98805 182
e75bb0d6 183While all the other dependencies are optional, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended
ec2e44fc 184
8aa0e7cd 185### Strongly recommended
186
b69fd25c 187* [**ffmpeg** and **ffprobe**](https://www.ffmpeg.org) - Required for [merging separate video and audio files](#format-selection) as well as for various [post-processing](#post-processing-options) tasks. License [depends on the build](https://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html)
8aa0e7cd 188
292d60b1 189 There are bugs in ffmpeg that cause various issues when used alongside yt-dlp. Since ffmpeg is such an important dependency, we provide [custom builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#ffmpeg-static-auto-builds) with patches for some of these issues at [yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds). See [the readme](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#patches-applied) for details on the specific issues solved by these builds
8e174ba7 190
47ab66db 191 **Important**: What you need is ffmpeg *binary*, **NOT** [the Python package of the same name](https://pypi.org/project/ffmpeg)
8aa0e7cd 192
193### Networking
d5820461 194* [**certifi**](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi)\* - Provides Mozilla's root certificate bundle. Licensed under [MPLv2](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi/blob/master/LICENSE)
8aa0e7cd 195* [**brotli**](https://github.com/google/brotli)\* or [**brotlicffi**](https://github.com/python-hyper/brotlicffi) - [Brotli](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brotli) content encoding support. Both licensed under MIT <sup>[1](https://github.com/google/brotli/blob/master/LICENSE) [2](https://github.com/python-hyper/brotlicffi/blob/master/LICENSE) </sup>
196* [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
8a8b5452 197* [**requests**](https://github.com/psf/requests)\* - HTTP library. For HTTPS proxy and persistent connections support. Licensed under [Apache-2.0](https://github.com/psf/requests/blob/main/LICENSE)
8aa0e7cd 198
199### Metadata
200
201* [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For `--embed-thumbnail` in certain formats. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
202* [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For `--embed-thumbnail` in `mp4`/`m4a` files when `mutagen`/`ffmpeg` cannot. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
84e26038 203* [**xattr**](https://github.com/xattr/xattr), [**pyxattr**](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr) or [**setfattr**](http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/attr) - For writing xattr metadata (`--xattr`) on **Mac** and **BSD**. Licensed under [MIT](https://github.com/xattr/xattr/blob/master/LICENSE.txt), [LGPL2.1](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr/blob/master/COPYING) and [GPLv2+](http://git.savannah.nongnu.org/cgit/attr.git/tree/doc/COPYING) respectively
8aa0e7cd 204
205### Misc
206
207* [**pycryptodomex**](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome)\* - For decrypting AES-128 HLS streams and various other data. Licensed under [BSD-2-Clause](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome/blob/master/LICENSE.rst)
5d0aeac0 208* [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
f9fb3ce8 209* [**secretstorage**](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage)\* - For `--cookies-from-browser` to access the **Gnome** keyring while decrypting cookies of **Chromium**-based browsers on **Linux**. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage/blob/master/LICENSE)
cf59cd4d 210* Any external downloader that you want to use with `--downloader`
b31fdeed 211
deae7c17 212### Deprecated
8aa0e7cd 213
214* [**avconv** and **avprobe**](https://www.libav.org) - Now **deprecated** alternative to ffmpeg. License [depends on the build](https://libav.org/legal)
215* [**sponskrub**](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) - For using the now **deprecated** [sponskrub options](#sponskrub-options). Licensed under [GPLv3+](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub/blob/master/LICENCE.md)
998a3cae 216* [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with `--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
217* [**mplayer**](http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html) or [**mpv**](https://mpv.io) - For downloading `rstp`/`mms` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with `--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/Copyright)
8aa0e7cd 218
cf59cd4d 219To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
220
f2df4071 221The standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with **\*** included.
d710cc6d 222
8aa0e7cd 223If you do not have the necessary dependencies for a task you are attempting, yt-dlp will warn you. All the currently available dependencies are visible at the top of the `--verbose` output
d710cc6d 224
5f326cf5 225
a4211baf 226## COMPILE
5f326cf5 227
8aa0e7cd 228### Standalone PyInstaller Builds
47ab66db 229To build the standalone executable, you must have Python and `pyinstaller` (plus any of yt-dlp's [optional dependencies](#dependencies) if needed). The executable will be built for the same CPU architecture as the Python used.
230
231You can run the following commands:
e38df8f9 232
a1b77842 233```
b8a433aa 234python3 devscripts/install_deps.py --include pyinstaller
a1b77842 235python3 devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
236python3 -m bundle.pyinstaller
237```
8aa0e7cd 238
239On some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`.
240
47ab66db 241`python -m bundle.pyinstaller` accepts any arguments that can be passed to `pyinstaller`, such as `--onefile/-F` or `--onedir/-D`, which is further [documented here](https://pyinstaller.org/en/stable/usage.html#what-to-generate).
73ac0e6b 242
8e174ba7 243**Note**: Pyinstaller versions below 4.4 [do not support](https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller#requirements-and-tested-platforms) Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment.
8aa0e7cd 244
47ab66db 245**Important**: Running `pyinstaller` directly **instead of** using `python -m bundle.pyinstaller` is **not** officially supported. This may or may not work correctly.
7581d246 246
8aa0e7cd 247### Platform-independent Binary (UNIX)
f4b95aca 248You will need the build tools `python` (3.8+), `zip`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`\* and `pytest`\*.
b96a939b 249
8aa0e7cd 250After installing these, simply run `make`.
5f326cf5 251
a831c2ea 252You can also run `make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files. (The build tools marked with **\*** are not needed for this)
d19bb9c0 253
8aa0e7cd 254### Standalone Py2Exe Builds (Windows)
255
256While we provide the option to build with [py2exe](https://www.py2exe.org), it is recommended to build [using PyInstaller](#standalone-pyinstaller-builds) instead since the py2exe builds **cannot contain `pycryptodomex`/`certifi` and needs VC++14** on the target computer to run.
257
a1b77842 258If you wish to build it anyway, install Python (if it is not already installed) and you can run the following commands:
8aa0e7cd 259
a1b77842 260```
b8a433aa 261py devscripts/install_deps.py --include py2exe
a1b77842 262py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
263py -m bundle.py2exe
264```
8aa0e7cd 265
266### Related scripts
267
b8a433aa 268* **`devscripts/install_deps.py`** - Install dependencies for yt-dlp.
d400e261
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269* **`devscripts/update-version.py`** - Update the version number based on current date.
270* **`devscripts/set-variant.py`** - Set the build variant of the executable.
271* **`devscripts/make_changelog.py`** - Create a markdown changelog using short commit messages and update `CONTRIBUTORS` file.
8aa0e7cd 272* **`devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py`** - Create lazy extractors. Running this before building the binaries (any variant) will improve their startup performance. Set the environment variable `YTDLP_NO_LAZY_EXTRACTORS=1` if you wish to forcefully disable lazy extractor loading.
273
d400e261
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274Note: See their `--help` for more info.
275
29cb20bd
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276### Forking the project
277If you fork the project on GitHub, you can run your fork's [build workflow](.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically build the selected version(s) as artifacts. Alternatively, you can run the [release workflow](.github/workflows/release.yml) or enable the [nightly workflow](.github/workflows/release-nightly.yml) to create full (pre-)releases.
59a7a13e 278
b31fdeed 279# USAGE AND OPTIONS
6bcd846b 280
ec2e44fc 281<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
7a5c1cfe 282 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
b50e3bc6 283
c2b5f311 284`Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
ec2e44fc 285<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
c2b5f311 286
ec2e44fc 287<!-- Auto generated -->
c76eb41b 288## General Options:
2dd5a2e3 289 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
290 --version Print program version and exit
70b23409 291 -U, --update Update this program to the latest version
292 --no-update Do not check for updates (default)
77df20f1 293 --update-to [CHANNEL]@[TAG] Upgrade/downgrade to a specific version.
665472a7
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294 CHANNEL can be a repository as well. CHANNEL
295 and TAG default to "stable" and "latest"
296 respectively if omitted; See "UPDATE" for
5d3a3cd4 297 details. Supported channels: stable,
298 nightly, master
2dd5a2e3 299 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
300 The download will be considered successful
301 even if the postprocessing fails
302 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download errors;
303 e.g. to skip unavailable videos in a
304 playlist (default)
305 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
306 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
307 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
308 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
309 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
310 extractors and exit
2516cafb 311 --use-extractors NAMES Extractor names to use separated by commas.
fe7866d0 312 You can also use regexes, "all", "default"
313 and "end" (end URL matching); e.g. --ies
314 "holodex.*,end,youtube". Prefix the name
315 with a "-" to exclude it, e.g. --ies
316 default,-generic. Use --list-extractors for
2516cafb 317 a list of extractor names. (Alias: --ies)
62b58c09 318 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 319 "gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
320 google videos for the search term "python".
321 Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
322 ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when
323 guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
324 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken
325 URLs, but emits an error if this is not
326 possible instead of searching
327 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
47ab66db 328 except those given to --config-locations.
2dd5a2e3 329 For backward compatibility, if this option
330 is found inside the system configuration
331 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
332 (Alias: --no-config)
333 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
334 (default). When given inside a configuration
335 file, ignore all previous --config-locations
336 defined in the current file
337 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
338 either the path to the config or its
6b9e832d 339 containing directory ("-" for stdin). Can be
340 used multiple times and inside other
341 configuration files
2dd5a2e3 342 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
343 only list them
c8bc203f 344 --no-flat-playlist Fully extract the videos of a playlist
345 (default)
2dd5a2e3 346 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
347 Currently only supported for YouTube
348 (Experimental)
349 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
350 (default)
351 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
352 available. Pass the minimum number of
353 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
354 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
355 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
356 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
8417f26b
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357 --color [STREAM:]POLICY Whether to emit color codes in output,
358 optionally prefixed by the STREAM (stdout or
359 stderr) to apply the setting to. Can be one
360 of "always", "auto" (default), "never", or
361 "no_color" (use non color terminal
362 sequences). Can be used multiple times
2dd5a2e3 363 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
364 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
365 configurations by reverting some of the
366 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
367 default behavior" for details
368 --alias ALIASES OPTIONS Create aliases for an option string. Unless
369 an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
370 prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
371 according to the Python string formatting
62b58c09 372 mini-language. E.g. --alias get-audio,-X
2dd5a2e3 373 "-S=aext:{0},abr -x --audio-format {0}"
374 creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
375 takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
376 "-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
377 All defined aliases are listed in the --help
378 output. Alias options can trigger more
962ffcf8 379 aliases; so be careful to avoid defining
2dd5a2e3 380 recursive options. As a safety measure, each
381 alias may be triggered a maximum of 100
64fa820c 382 times. This option can be used multiple times
08c1d0d3 383
149f05c7 384## Network Options:
2dd5a2e3 385 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
62b58c09
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386 enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme,
387 e.g. socks5://user:pass@127.0.0.1:1080/.
388 Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for
389 direct connection
2dd5a2e3 390 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
391 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
392 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
393 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
8300774c
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394 --enable-file-urls Enable file:// URLs. This is disabled by
395 default for security reasons.
8c6c88c7 396
b31fdeed 397## Geo-restriction:
2dd5a2e3 398 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
399 some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy
400 specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
401 is not present) is used for the actual
402 downloading
c1664464 403 --xff VALUE How to fake X-Forwarded-For HTTP header to
404 try bypassing geographic restriction. One of
c8bc203f 405 "default" (only when known to be useful),
406 "never", an IP block in CIDR notation, or a
407 two-letter ISO 3166-2 country code
149f05c7 408
cfcec693 409## Video Selection:
71df9b7f 410 -I, --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Comma separated playlist_index of the items
7e88d7d7 411 to download. You can specify a range using
412 "[START]:[STOP][:STEP]". For backward
413 compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.
414 Use negative indices to count from the right
415 and negative STEP to download in reverse
62b58c09 416 order. E.g. "-I 1:3,7,-5::2" used on a
71df9b7f 417 playlist of size 15 will download the items
7e88d7d7 418 at index 1,2,3,7,11,13,15
71df9b7f 419 --min-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is smaller than
420 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
421 --max-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is larger than
62b58c09 422 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
2dd5a2e3 423 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
424 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
425 [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
29cb20bd
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426 E.g. "--date today-2weeks" downloads only
427 videos uploaded on the same day two weeks ago
2dd5a2e3 428 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
429 this date. The date formats accepted is the
430 same as --date
431 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
432 this date. The date formats accepted is the
433 same as --date
434 --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
435 field can be compared with a number or a
436 string using the operators defined in
d4ada357 437 "Filtering Formats". You can also simply
2dd5a2e3 438 specify a field to match if the field is
439 present, use "!field" to check if the field
440 is not present, and "&" to check multiple
441 conditions. Use a "\" to escape "&" or
442 quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
443 the filter matches if atleast one of the
62b58c09 444 conditions are met. E.g. --match-filter
2dd5a2e3 445 !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?100 &
446 description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'" matches
447 only videos that are not live OR those that
448 have a like count more than 100 (or the like
449 field is not available) and also has a
450 description that contains the phrase "cats &
451 dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
452 interactively ask whether to download each
453 video
c8bc203f 454 --no-match-filters Do not use any --match-filter (default)
fe2ce85a 455 --break-match-filters FILTER Same as "--match-filters" but stops the
456 download process when a video is rejected
457 --no-break-match-filters Do not use any --break-match-filters (default)
2dd5a2e3 458 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
459 to a video and a playlist
460 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
461 a video and a playlist
462 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
463 age
464 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
465 archive file. Record the IDs of all
466 downloaded videos in it
467 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
468 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
469 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
470 a file that is in the archive
71df9b7f 471 --break-per-input Alters --max-downloads, --break-on-existing,
354d5fca 472 --break-match-filter, and autonumber to
473 reset per input URL
2dd5a2e3 474 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
475 terminates the entire download queue
476 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
477 the playlist is skipped
6bcd846b 478
d5a62e4f 479## Download Options:
2dd5a2e3 480 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
481 video that should be downloaded concurrently
482 (default is 1)
62b58c09
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483 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second,
484 e.g. 50K or 4.2M
2dd5a2e3 485 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
486 below which throttling is assumed and the
62b58c09 487 video data is re-extracted, e.g. 100K
2dd5a2e3 488 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
489 "infinite"
490 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
491 error (default is 3), or "infinite"
492 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
493 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
be5c1ae8 494 --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR Time to sleep between retries in seconds
495 (optionally) prefixed by the type of retry
496 (http (default), fragment, file_access,
497 extractor) to apply the sleep to. EXPR can
498 be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=1]] or
499 exp=START[:END[:BASE=2]]. This option can be
500 used multiple times to set the sleep for the
62b58c09 501 different retry types, e.g. --retry-sleep
2dd5a2e3 502 linear=1::2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=1:20
503 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
504 hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
8e174ba7 505 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragments)
506 --abort-on-unavailable-fragments
2dd5a2e3 507 Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
508 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
509 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
510 downloading is finished
511 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
512 downloading is finished (default)
62b58c09 513 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer, e.g. 1024 or 16K
2dd5a2e3 514 (default is 1024)
515 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
516 from an initial value of --buffer-size
517 (default)
518 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
519 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
62b58c09 520 downloading, e.g. 10485760 or 10M (default
2dd5a2e3 521 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
522 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
523 (experimental)
2dd5a2e3 524 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
7e9a6125 525 --lazy-playlist Process entries in the playlist as they are
526 received. This disables n_entries,
527 --playlist-random and --playlist-reverse
528 --no-lazy-playlist Process videos in the playlist only after
529 the entire playlist is parsed (default)
2dd5a2e3 530 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
531 expected file size
532 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
533 allowing some players to play the video
534 while downloading, and reducing the chance
535 of file corruption if download is
536 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
537 live streams
538 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
539 videos. This is default when not downloading
540 live streams
b4e0d758 541 --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters that match the
542 regular expression. A "*" prefix denotes
543 time-range instead of chapter. Negative
544 timestamps are calculated from the end.
545 "*from-url" can be used to download between
546 the "start_time" and "end_time" extracted
547 from the URL. Needs ffmpeg. This option can
548 be used multiple times to download multiple
62b58c09 549 sections, e.g. --download-sections
2fa669f7 550 "*10:15-inf" --download-sections "intro"
2dd5a2e3 551 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
552 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
553 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
554 use it for. Currently supports native,
555 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
556 wget. You can use this option multiple times
557 to set different downloaders for different
62b58c09 558 protocols. E.g. --downloader aria2c
2dd5a2e3 559 --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
560 aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
561 native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
562 (Alias: --external-downloader)
563 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
564 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
565 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
566 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different
567 positions using the same syntax as
568 --postprocessor-args. You can use this
569 option multiple times to give different
570 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
571 --external-downloader-args)
d5a62e4f 572
cfcec693 573## Filesystem Options:
2dd5a2e3 574 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
575 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
576 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
577 comments and ignored
578 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
579 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
580 downloaded. Specify the type of file and the
581 path separated by a colon ":". All the same
582 TYPES as --output are supported.
583 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
584 (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary
585 files are first downloaded to the temp path
586 and then the final files are moved over to
587 the home path after download is finished.
588 This option is ignored if --output is an
589 absolute path
590 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
591 TEMPLATE" for details
592 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
47ab66db 593 --output (default: "NA")
2dd5a2e3 594 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
595 and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
596 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
597 filenames (default)
598 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
599 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
600 using Windows (default)
601 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
602 extension) to the specified number of
603 characters
604 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
605 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This
606 option includes --no-continue
607 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
608 related files (default)
609 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
610 (default)
611 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
612 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
613 restart download of the entire file
614 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
615 into output file (default)
616 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into
617 output file
618 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file
619 modification time (default)
620 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
621 the file modification time
64fa820c 622 --write-description Write video description to a .description file
2dd5a2e3 623 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
624 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
625 (this may contain personal information)
626 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
627 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
628 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
629 --write-description etc. (default)
630 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
631 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
ad54c913 632 --clean-info-json Remove some internal metadata such as
633 filenames from the infojson (default)
2dd5a2e3 634 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
635 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
636 infojson. The comments are fetched even
637 without this option if the extraction is
638 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
639 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
640 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
641 --no-get-comments)
642 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
64fa820c 643 (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
2dd5a2e3 644 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from
645 and dump cookie jar in
646 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
647 (default)
825d3ce3 648 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]
649 The name of the browser to load cookies
650 from. Currently supported browsers are:
651 brave, chrome, chromium, edge, firefox,
652 opera, safari, vivaldi. Optionally, the
653 KEYRING used for decrypting Chromium cookies
654 on Linux, the name/path of the PROFILE to
655 load cookies from, and the CONTAINER name
656 (if Firefox) ("none" for no container) can
657 be given with their respective seperators.
658 By default, all containers of the most
659 recently accessed profile are used.
660 Currently supported keyrings are: basictext,
2e023649 661 gnomekeyring, kwallet, kwallet5, kwallet6
2dd5a2e3 662 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
17ffed18 663 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where yt-dlp can
664 store some downloaded information (such as
665 client ids and signatures) permanently. By
878eac3e 666 default ${XDG_CACHE_HOME}/yt-dlp
2dd5a2e3 667 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
668 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
6bcd846b 669
b31fdeed 670## Thumbnail Options:
2dd5a2e3 671 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
64fa820c 672 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default)
2dd5a2e3 673 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
674 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
675 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
2b1bd292 676
732044af 677## Internet Shortcut Options:
2dd5a2e3 678 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
679 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
680 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
681 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
682 OS caches the URL based on the file path
683 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
684 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
732044af 685
0744a815 686## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
2dd5a2e3 687 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
688 print the log to stderr
d669772c 689 --no-quiet Deactivate quiet mode. (Default)
2dd5a2e3 690 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
691 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
692 anything to disk
693 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
694 options are used
695 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
696 extracting metadata even if the videos are
697 not actually available for download
698 (experimental)
699 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
700 formats are found (default)
701 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
702 related files (Alias: --no-download)
703 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
704 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
705 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
706 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
119e40ef 707 --use-postprocessor (default: video).
2dd5a2e3 708 Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
709 --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
710 used. This option can be used multiple times
bb66c247 711 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
2dd5a2e3 712 Append given template to the file. The
713 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as that
714 of --print. FILE uses the same syntax as the
715 output template. This option can be used
716 multiple times
717 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
718 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
719 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
720 description of available keys
721 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
722 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
723 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
724 a playlist, the whole playlist information
725 is dumped in a single line
726 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
727 as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
728 another simulation option is used (Alias:
729 --force-download-archive)
730 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
731 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
732 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
733 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
819e0531 734 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
2dd5a2e3 735 Template for progress outputs, optionally
736 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
737 "download-title:" (the console title),
738 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
739 The video's fields are accessible under the
740 "info" key and the progress attributes are
62b58c09 741 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 742 --console-title --progress-template
743 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
744 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
745 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
746 to debug problems (very verbose)
747 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files
748 in the current directory to debug problems
749 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
6bcd846b 750
36f35428 751## Workarounds:
2dd5a2e3 752 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
753 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to servers
754 that do not support RFC 5746 secure
755 renegotiation
756 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
757 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
758 information about the video (Currently
759 supported only for YouTube)
a5387729 760 --add-headers FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
2dd5a2e3 761 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
762 option multiple times
763 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
764 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
765 or fribidi executable in PATH
766 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
767 during data extraction
768 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
769 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
770 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
771 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
772 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only
773 be used along with --min-sleep-interval
774 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
775 subtitle download
36f35428 776
cfcec693 777## Video Format Options:
2dd5a2e3 778 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
779 for more details
780 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
781 "Sorting Formats" for more details
782 --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
783 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
784 Formats" for more details (Alias: --S-force)
785 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
786 specified sort order (default)
787 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
788 into a single file
789 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
790 output file (default)
791 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
792 into a single file
793 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
794 output file (default)
795 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
796 over non-free ones of same quality. Use with
797 "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers
798 irrespective of quality
799 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
800 containers (default)
801 --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
802 those that are actually downloadable
803 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
804 actually downloadable
805 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
806 downloadable
807 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
808 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
fc61aff4 809 --merge-output-format FORMAT Containers that may be used when merging
62b58c09 810 formats, separated by "/", e.g. "mp4/mkv".
fc61aff4
LL
811 Ignored if no merge is required. (currently
812 supported: avi, flv, mkv, mov, mp4, webm)
8ae7be3e
PH
813
814## Subtitle Options:
2dd5a2e3 815 --write-subs Write subtitle file
816 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
817 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
818 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
819 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
820 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
821 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
822 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
823 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
62b58c09 824 e.g. "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
2dd5a2e3 825 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
62b58c09
L
826 be regex) or "all" separated by commas, e.g.
827 --sub-langs "en.*,ja". You can prefix the
2dd5a2e3 828 language code with a "-" to exclude it from
62b58c09
L
829 the requested languages, e.g. --sub-langs
830 all,-live_chat. Use --list-subs for a list
2dd5a2e3 831 of available language tags
6bcd846b 832
cfcec693 833## Authentication Options:
2dd5a2e3 834 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
835 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
836 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
837 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
838 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
839 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
840 either the path or its containing directory.
841 Defaults to ~/.netrc
db3ad8a6 842 --netrc-cmd NETRC_CMD Command to execute to get the credentials
d1b21561 843 for an extractor.
b634ba74 844 --video-password PASSWORD Video-specific password
2dd5a2e3 845 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
846 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
847 a list of available MSOs
848 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
849 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
850 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
851 interactively
852 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
853 --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
854 format. May include the private key
855 --client-certificate-key KEYFILE
856 Path to private key file for client
857 certificate
bb58c9ed 858 --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
2dd5a2e3 859 Password for client certificate private key,
860 if encrypted. If not provided, and the key
861 is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask interactively
f5e008d1 862
c76eb41b 863## Post-Processing Options:
2dd5a2e3 864 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
865 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
35faefee 866 --audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
867 used. (currently supported: best (default),
8dc59305 868 aac, alac, flac, m4a, mp3, opus, vorbis,
e0ab9854 869 wav). You can specify multiple rules using
870 similar syntax as --remux-video
2dd5a2e3 871 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
872 converting the audio with -x. Insert a value
873 between 0 (best) and 10 (worst) for VBR or a
874 specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
875 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
8dc59305 876 necessary (currently supported: avi, flv,
69f5fe45 877 gif, mkv, mov, mp4, webm, aac, aiff, alac,
878 flac, m4a, mka, mp3, ogg, opus, vorbis,
879 wav). If target container does not support
880 the video/audio codec, remuxing will fail.
881 You can specify multiple rules; e.g.
2dd5a2e3 882 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
35faefee 883 mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
2dd5a2e3 884 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
885 necessary. The syntax and supported formats
886 are the same as --remux-video
887 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
888 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
889 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
890 to give the argument to the specified
891 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
892 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
893 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
894 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
895 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
896 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
897 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
898 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
899 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
900 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
901 specified executable only when being used by
902 the specified postprocessor. Additionally,
903 for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
904 appended to the prefix optionally followed
905 by a number to pass the argument before the
62b58c09 906 specified input/output file, e.g. --ppa
2dd5a2e3 907 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
908 this option multiple times to give different
909 arguments to different postprocessors.
910 (Alias: --ppa)
911 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
912 after post-processing
913 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
914 post-processing (default)
915 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
916 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
917 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
918 webm and mkv videos)
919 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
920 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
921 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
922 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
923 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
924 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are
925 used (Alias: --add-metadata)
926 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
927 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
928 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
929 (Alias: --add-chapters)
930 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias:
931 --no-add-chapters)
932 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
933 mkv/mka video files
934 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
935 to the video file
fe74d5b5 936 --parse-metadata [WHEN:]FROM:TO
937 Parse additional metadata like title/artist
2dd5a2e3 938 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
fe74d5b5 939 for details. Supported values of "WHEN" are
940 the same as that of --use-postprocessor
941 (default: pre_process)
942 --replace-in-metadata [WHEN:]FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
2dd5a2e3 943 Replace text in a metadata field using the
944 given regex. This option can be used
fe74d5b5 945 multiple times. Supported values of "WHEN"
946 are the same as that of --use-postprocessor
947 (default: pre_process)
2dd5a2e3 948 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
949 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
950 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
951 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
952 (default; only when the videos form a single
953 show). All the video files must have same
954 codecs and number of streams to be
955 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
956 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
957 the output filename for the concatenated
958 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
959 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
960 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
961 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
962 default; fix file if we can, warn
963 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
964 already exists)
965 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
64fa820c 966 path to the binary or its containing directory
2dd5a2e3 967 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
119e40ef 968 when to execute it, separated by a ":".
969 Supported values of "WHEN" are the same as
970 that of --use-postprocessor (default:
971 after_move). Same syntax as the output
972 template can be used to pass any field as
ad54c913 973 arguments to the command. If no fields are
974 passed, %(filepath,_filename|)q is appended
975 to the end of the command. This option can
976 be used multiple times
2dd5a2e3 977 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
978 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
8dc59305 979 (currently supported: ass, lrc, srt, vtt)
2dd5a2e3 980 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
981 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
00bbc5f1 982 (currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
983 can specify multiple rules using similar
984 syntax as --remux-video
2dd5a2e3 985 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
986 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can
987 be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
988 the output filename for the split files. See
989 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
64fa820c 990 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters (default)
2dd5a2e3 991 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
5ec1b6b7 992 given regular expression. The syntax is the
993 same as --download-sections. This option can
2dd5a2e3 994 be used multiple times
995 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
996 (default)
5ec1b6b7 997 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes at cuts when
998 downloading/splitting/removing sections.
999 This is slow due to needing a re-encode, but
1000 the resulting video may have fewer artifacts
1001 around the cuts
2dd5a2e3 1002 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
1003 when cutting/splitting (default)
1004 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS]
1005 The (case sensitive) name of plugin
1006 postprocessors to be enabled, and
1007 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
1008 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
1009 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
1010 The "when" argument determines when the
1011 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
1012 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
1013 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
119e40ef 1014 "video" (after --format; before
1015 --print/--output), "before_dl" (before each
1016 video download), "post_process" (after each
1017 video download; default), "after_move"
1018 (after moving video file to it's final
1019 locations), "after_video" (after downloading
1020 and processing all formats of a video), or
1021 "playlist" (at end of playlist). This option
1022 can be used multiple times to add different
1023 postprocessors
7a340e0d
NA
1024
1025## SponsorBlock Options:
1026Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1027 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
8a51f564 1028 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1029
2dd5a2e3 1030 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1031 for, separated by commas. Available
1032 categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
1033 selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
71df9b7f 1034 music_offtopic, poi_highlight, chapter, all
1035 and default (=all). You can prefix the
1036 category with a "-" to exclude it. See [1]
1037 for description of the categories. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 1038 --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1039 [1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1040 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1041 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1042 category is present in both mark and remove,
1043 remove takes precedence. The syntax and
1044 available categories are the same as for
1045 --sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
71df9b7f 1046 refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight,
63c547d7 1047 chapter are not available
7a340e0d 1048 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
2dd5a2e3 1049 An output template for the title of the
1050 SponsorBlock chapters created by
1051 --sponsorblock-mark. The only available
1052 fields are start_time, end_time, category,
1053 categories, name, category_names. Defaults
1054 to "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1055 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1056 --sponsorblock-remove
1057 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1058 https://sponsor.ajay.app
a9e7f546 1059
78895bd3 1060## Extractor Options:
2dd5a2e3 1061 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors
1062 (default is 3), or "infinite"
1063 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1064 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1065 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1066 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1067 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1068 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1069 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1070 formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
1071 (default)
2fa669f7 1072 --extractor-args IE_KEY:ARGS Pass ARGS arguments to the IE_KEY extractor.
1073 See "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You
1074 can use this option multiple times to give
2dd5a2e3 1075 arguments for different extractors
17cb02d0 1076
b7770046
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1077# CONFIGURATION
1078
7a5c1cfe 1079You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
e2e43aea 1080
878eac3e 10811. **Main Configuration**:
47ab66db 1082 * The file given to `--config-location`
878eac3e 10831. **Portable Configuration**: (Recommended for portable installations)
1084 * If using a binary, `yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the binary
1085 * If running from source-code, `yt-dlp.conf` in the parent directory of `yt_dlp`
10861. **Home Configuration**:
47ab66db 1087 * `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given to `-P`
878eac3e 1088 * If `-P` is not given, the current directory is searched
e2e43aea 10891. **User Configuration**:
773c272d 1090 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp.conf`
878eac3e 1091 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
8e40b9d1 1092 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
773c272d 1093 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp.conf`
878eac3e 1094 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1095 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
e2e43aea 1096 * `~/yt-dlp.conf`
1097 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
8e40b9d1
M
1098 * `~/.yt-dlp/config`
1099 * `~/.yt-dlp/config.txt`
3d3bb168 1100
878eac3e 1101 See also: [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
11021. **System Configuration**:
1103 * `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
8e40b9d1
M
1104 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config`
1105 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config.txt`
b7770046 1106
62b58c09 1107E.g. with the following configuration file yt-dlp will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under `YouTube` directory in your home directory:
b7770046
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1108```
1109# Lines starting with # are comments
1110
1111# Always extract audio
1112-x
1113
1114# Do not copy the mtime
1115--no-mtime
1116
1117# Use this proxy
1118--proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1119
298f597b 1120# Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1121-o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
b7770046
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1122```
1123
8e174ba7 1124**Note**: Options in configuration file are just the same options aka switches used in regular command line calls; thus there **must be no whitespace** after `-` or `--`, e.g. `-o` or `--proxy` but not `- o` or `-- proxy`. They must also be quoted when necessary as-if it were a UNIX shell.
b7770046 1125
a4211baf 1126You can use `--ignore-config` if you want to disable all configuration files for a particular yt-dlp run. If `--ignore-config` is found inside any configuration file, no further configuration will be loaded. For example, having the option in the portable configuration file prevents loading of home, user, and system configurations. Additionally, (for backward compatibility) if `--ignore-config` is found inside the system configuration file, the user configuration is not loaded.
b7770046 1127
304ad45a 1128### Configuration file encoding
a904a7f8 1129
304ad45a 1130The configuration files are decoded according to the UTF BOM if present, and in the encoding from system locale otherwise.
a904a7f8 1131
88f60feb 1132If you want your file to be decoded differently, add `# coding: ENCODING` to the beginning of the file (e.g. `# coding: shift-jis`). There must be no characters before that, even spaces or BOM.
a904a7f8 1133
db3ad8a6 1134### Authentication with netrc
b7770046 1135
304ad45a 1136You may also want to configure automatic credentials storage for extractors that support authentication (by providing login and password with `--username` and `--password`) in order not to pass credentials as command line arguments on every yt-dlp execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in the shell command history. You can achieve this using a [`.netrc` file](https://stackoverflow.com/tags/.netrc/info) on a per-extractor basis. For that you will need to create a `.netrc` file in `--netrc-location` and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:
b7770046 1137```
878eac3e 1138touch ${HOME}/.netrc
1139chmod a-rwx,u+rw ${HOME}/.netrc
b7770046
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1140```
1141After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1142```
0001fcb5 1143machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
b7770046 1144```
62b58c09 1145E.g.
b7770046
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1146```
1147machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1148machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1149```
7a5c1cfe 1150To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
b7770046 1151
878eac3e 1152The default location of the .netrc file is `~` (see below).
1153
d7cd97e8 1154As an alternative to using the `.netrc` file, which has the disadvantage of keeping your passwords in a plain text file, you can configure a custom shell command to provide the credentials for an extractor. This is done by providing the `--netrc-cmd` parameter, it shall output the credentials in the netrc format and return `0` on success, other values will be treated as an error. `{}` in the command will be replaced by the name of the extractor to make it possible to select the credentials for the right extractor.
db3ad8a6
ND
1155
1156E.g. To use an encrypted `.netrc` file stored as `.authinfo.gpg`
1157```
1158yt-dlp --netrc-cmd 'gpg --decrypt ~/.authinfo.gpg' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc
1159```
1160
1161
878eac3e 1162### Notes about environment variables
1163* Environment variables are normally specified as `${VARIABLE}`/`$VARIABLE` on UNIX and `%VARIABLE%` on Windows; but is always shown as `${VARIABLE}` in this documentation
1164* yt-dlp also allow using UNIX-style variables on Windows for path-like options; e.g. `--output`, `--config-location`
1165* If unset, `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}` defaults to `~/.config` and `${XDG_CACHE_HOME}` to `~/.cache`
1166* On Windows, `~` points to `${HOME}` if present; or, `${USERPROFILE}` or `${HOMEDRIVE}${HOMEPATH}` otherwise
1167* On Windows, `${USERPROFILE}` generally points to `C:\Users\<user name>` and `${APPDATA}` to `${USERPROFILE}\AppData\Roaming`
b7770046
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1168
1169# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
1170
0202b52a 1171The `-o` option is used to indicate a template for the output file names while `-P` option is used to specify the path each type of file should be saved to.
b7770046 1172
ec2e44fc 1173<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1174**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
ec2e44fc 1175<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1176
e58c22a0 1177The simplest usage of `-o` is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in `yt-dlp -o funny_video.flv "https://some/video"` (hard-coding file extension like this is _not_ recommended and could break some post-processing).
a439a3a4 1178
62b58c09 1179It may however also contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences may be formatted according to [Python string formatting operations](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting), e.g. `%(NAME)s` or `%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations.
a439a3a4 1180
1181The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
3d3bb168 1182
07a1250e 11831. **Object traversal**: The dictionaries and lists available in metadata can be traversed by using a dot `.` separator; e.g. `%(tags.0)s`, `%(subtitles.en.-1.ext)s`. You can do Python slicing with colon `:`; E.g. `%(id.3:7:-1)s`, `%(formats.:.format_id)s`. Curly braces `{}` can be used to build dictionaries with only specific keys; e.g. `%(formats.:.{format_id,height})#j`. An empty field name `%()s` refers to the entire infodict; e.g. `%(.{id,title})s`. Note that all the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use `-j` to see such fields
ec2e44fc 1184
993edd3f 11851. **Arithmetic**: Simple arithmetic can be done on numeric fields using `+`, `-` and `*`. E.g. `%(playlist_index+10)03d`, `%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
ec2e44fc 1186
62b58c09 11871. **Date/time Formatting**: Date/time fields can be formatted according to [strftime formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-format-codes) by specifying it separated from the field name using a `>`. E.g. `%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`, `%(upload_date>%Y-%m-%d)s`, `%(epoch-3600>%H-%M-%S)s`
ec2e44fc 1188
62b58c09 11891. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a `,`. E.g. `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
ec2e44fc 1190
ec9311c4 11911. **Replacement**: A replacement value can be specified using a `&` separator according to the [`str.format` mini-language](https://docs.python.org/3/library/string.html#format-specification-mini-language). If the field is *not* empty, this replacement value will be used instead of the actual field content. This is done after alternate fields are considered; thus the replacement is used if *any* of the alternative fields is *not* empty. E.g. `%(chapters&has chapters|no chapters)s`, `%(title&TITLE={:>20}|NO TITLE)s`
e978789f 1192
17ffed18 11931. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a `|` separator. This overrides `--output-na-placeholder`. E.g. `%(uploader|Unknown)s`
ec2e44fc 1194
9b9dad11 11951. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types `diouxXeEfFgGcrs`, yt-dlp additionally supports converting to `B` = **B**ytes, `j` = **j**son (flag `#` for pretty-printing, `+` for Unicode), `h` = HTML escaping, `l` = a comma separated **l**ist (flag `#` for `\n` newline-separated), `q` = a string **q**uoted for the terminal (flag `#` to split a list into different arguments), `D` = add **D**ecimal suffixes (e.g. 10M) (flag `#` to use 1024 as factor), and `S` = **S**anitize as filename (flag `#` for restricted)
ec2e44fc 1196
d5d1df8a 11971. **Unicode normalization**: The format type `U` can be used for NFC [Unicode normalization](https://docs.python.org/3/library/unicodedata.html#unicodedata.normalize). The alternate form flag (`#`) changes the normalization to NFD and the conversion flag `+` can be used for NFKC/NFKD compatibility equivalence normalization. E.g. `%(title)+.100U` is NFKC
a439a3a4 1198
1199To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1200```
e978789f 1201%(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
a439a3a4 1202```
de6000d9 1203
62b58c09 1204Additionally, you can set different output templates for the various metadata files separately from the general output template by specifying the type of file followed by the template separated by a colon `:`. The different file types supported are `subtitle`, `thumbnail`, `description`, `annotation` (deprecated), `infojson`, `link`, `pl_thumbnail`, `pl_description`, `pl_infojson`, `chapter`, `pl_video`. E.g. `-o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "thumbnail:%(title)s\%(title)s.%(ext)s"` will put the thumbnails in a folder with the same name as the video. If any of the templates is empty, that type of file will not be written. E.g. `--write-thumbnail -o "thumbnail:"` will write thumbnails only for playlists and not for video.
e29663c6 1205
47ab66db 1206<a id="outtmpl-postprocess-note"></a>
7aaf4cd2 1207
8e174ba7 1208**Note**: Due to post-processing (i.e. merging etc.), the actual output filename might differ. Use `--print after_move:filepath` to get the name after all post-processing is complete.
7aaf4cd2 1209
e29663c6 1210The available fields are:
b7770046
U
1211
1212 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1213 - `title` (string): Video title
455a15e2 1214 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
b7770046
U
1215 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1216 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
597c1866 1217 - `description` (string): The description of the video
b7770046
U
1218 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1219 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
f4f9f6d0 1220 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1221 - `uploader_url` (string): URL to the video uploader's profile
b7770046 1222 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
104a7b5a
L
1223 - `creators` (list): The creators of the video
1224 - `creator` (string): The creators of the video; comma-separated
b7770046 1225 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
ae6a1b95 1226 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
e6f21b3d 1227 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
ae6a1b95 1228 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
1732eccc 1229 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the video or album was released
f0d785d3 1230 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
ae6a1b95 1231 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
b7770046
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1232 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1233 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
f4f9f6d0 1234 - `channel_url` (string): URL of the channel
6c73052c 1235 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
8213ce28 1236 - `channel_is_verified` (boolean): Whether the channel is verified on the platform
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1237 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1238 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
53c18592 1239 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
b7770046 1240 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
867c66ff 1241 - `concurrent_view_count` (numeric): How many users are currently watching the video on the platform.
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1242 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1243 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1244 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1245 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
277d6ff5 1246 - `comment_count` (numeric): Number of comments on the video (For some extractors, comments are only downloaded at the end, and so this field cannot be used)
b7770046 1247 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
e325a21a 1248 - `live_status` (string): One of "not_live", "is_live", "is_upcoming", "was_live", "post_live" (was live, but VOD is not yet processed)
b7770046 1249 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
f76ede8e 1250 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
6cfda058 1251 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
940a67a3 1252 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
e370f9ec 1253 - `media_type` (string): The type of media as classified by the site, e.g. "episode", "clip", "trailer"
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1254 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1255 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
b7770046
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1256 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1257 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
455a15e2 1258 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
b532a348 1259 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`, padded with leading zeros to 5 digits
9c906919 1260 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
e6f21b3d 1261 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
455a15e2 1262 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1263 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1264 - `playlist` (string): `playlist_id` or `playlist_title`
f0d785d3 1265 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
e6f21b3d 1266 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1267 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
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1268 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1269 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
bd99f6e6 1270 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
0bb322b9 1271 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1272 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
bd99f6e6 1273 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)
f4f9f6d0 1274 - `categories` (list): List of categories the video belongs to
1275 - `tags` (list): List of tags assigned to the video
1276 - `cast` (list): List of cast members
1277
d2c8aadf 1278All the fields in [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats) can also be used
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1279
1280Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1281
1282 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1283 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1284 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1285
1286Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1287
1288 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
f4f9f6d0 1289 - `series_id` (string): Id of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
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1290 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1291 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1292 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1293 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1294 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1295 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1296
1297Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1298
1299 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1300 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1301 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
104a7b5a
L
1302 - `artists` (list): Artist(s) of the track
1303 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track; comma-separated
1304 - `genres` (list): Genre(s) of the track
1305 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track; comma-separated
1306 - `composers` (list): Composer(s) of the piece
1307 - `composer` (string): Composer(s) of the piece; comma-separated
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1308 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1309 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
104a7b5a
L
1310 - `album_artists` (list): All artists appeared on the album
1311 - `album_artist` (string): All artists appeared on the album; comma-separated
b7770046 1312 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
b7770046 1313
5ec1b6b7 1314Available only when using `--download-sections` and for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
72755351 1315
1316 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1317 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1318 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1319 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1320
53c18592 1321Available only when used in `--print`:
1322
1323 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
7aaf4cd2 1324 - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the [actual filename may differ](#outtmpl-postprocess-note)
ed5835b4 1325 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by `--list-formats`
1326 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by `--list-thumbnails`
1327 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1328 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1329
ad54c913 1330 Available only after the video is downloaded (`post_process`/`after_move`):
7a340e0d 1331
ad54c913 1332 - `filepath`: Actual path of downloaded video file
1333
7a340e0d
NA
1334Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1335
1336 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1337 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1338ae3b 1338 - `categories` (list): The [SponsorBlock categories](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Category) the chapter belongs to
7a340e0d
NA
1339 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1340 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1341 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
1338ae3b 1342 - `type` (string): The [SponsorBlock action type](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Action_Type) of the chapter
53c18592 1343
62b58c09 1344Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. E.g. for `-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an mp4 video with title `yt-dlp test video` and id `BaW_jenozKc`, this will result in a `yt-dlp test video-BaW_jenozKc.mp4` file created in the current directory.
49a57e70 1345
8e174ba7 1346**Note**: Some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor. Such sequences will be replaced with placeholder value provided with `--output-na-placeholder` (`NA` by default).
b7770046 1347
0930b11f 1348**Tip**: Look at the `-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
b7770046 1349
62b58c09 1350For numeric sequences you can use [numeric related formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting); e.g. `%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to 5 characters, like in `00042`.
b7770046 1351
940a67a3 1352Output templates can also contain arbitrary hierarchical path, e.g. `-o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s"` which will result in downloading each video in a directory corresponding to this path template. Any missing directory will be automatically created for you.
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1353
1354To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
1355
91ebc640 1356The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
b7770046 1357
f304da8a 1358In some cases, you don't want special characters such as 中, spaces, or &, such as when transferring the downloaded filename to a Windows system or the filename through an 8bit-unsafe channel. In these cases, add the `--restrict-filenames` flag to get a shorter title.
b7770046 1359
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1360#### Output template examples
1361
b7770046 1362```bash
d2c8aadf 1363$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1364test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1365
d2c8aadf 1366$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1367youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
b7770046 1368
d2c8aadf 1369$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
9222c381 1370youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
b7770046
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1371
1372# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
940a67a3 1373$ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
b7770046 1374
b050d210 1375# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
940a67a3 1376$ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
e29663c6 1377
e978789f 1378# Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
ad54c913 1379$ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist_index&{} - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
e978789f 1380
b7770046 1381# Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
940a67a3 1382$ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
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1383
1384# Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
940a67a3 1385$ yt-dlp -u user -p password -P "~/MyVideos" -o "%(playlist)s/%(chapter_number)s - %(chapter)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.udemy.com/java-tutorial"
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1386
1387# Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
940a67a3 1388$ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -o "%(series)s/%(season_number)s - %(season)s/%(episode_number)s - %(episode)s.%(ext)s" "https://videomore.ru/kino_v_detalayah/5_sezon/367617"
b7770046 1389
6a34813a 1390# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1391# and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1392$ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1393
1394# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1395$ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "subtitle:%(uploader)s/subs/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --write-subs
1396
b7770046 1397# Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
7a5c1cfe 1398$ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
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1399```
1400
1401# FORMAT SELECTION
1402
7a5c1cfe
P
1403By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1404This is generally equivalent to using `-f bestvideo*+bestaudio/best`. However, if multiple audiostreams is enabled (`--audio-multistreams`), the default format changes to `-f bestvideo+bestaudio/best`. Similarly, if ffmpeg is unavailable, or if you use yt-dlp to stream to `stdout` (`-o -`), the default becomes `-f best/bestvideo+bestaudio`.
b7770046 1405
c111cefa 1406**Deprecation warning**: Latest versions of yt-dlp can stream multiple formats to the stdout simultaneously using ffmpeg. So, in future versions, the default for this will be set to `-f bv*+ba/b` similar to normal downloads. If you want to preserve the `-f b/bv+ba` setting, it is recommended to explicitly specify it in the configuration options.
1407
eff63539 1408The general syntax for format selection is `-f FORMAT` (or `--format FORMAT`) where `FORMAT` is a *selector expression*, i.e. an expression that describes format or formats you would like to download.
b7770046 1409
ec2e44fc 1410<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1411**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
ec2e44fc 1412<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1413
62b58c09 1414The simplest case is requesting a specific format; e.g. with `-f 22` you can download the format with format code equal to 22. You can get the list of available format codes for particular video using `--list-formats` or `-F`. Note that these format codes are extractor specific.
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1415
1416You can also use a file extension (currently `3gp`, `aac`, `flv`, `m4a`, `mp3`, `mp4`, `ogg`, `wav`, `webm` are supported) to download the best quality format of a particular file extension served as a single file, e.g. `-f webm` will download the best quality format with the `webm` extension served as a single file.
1417
fa9f30b8 1418You can use `-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1419
b7770046
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1420You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1421
59a7a13e 1422 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1423 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
30389593 1424 - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio or both (ie; `vcodec!=none or acodec!=none`)
59a7a13e 1425 - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1426 - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
1427 - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
1428 - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
ae6a1b95 1429 - `ba*`, `bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that **contains audio**. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `best*[acodec!=none]` ([Do not use!](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/979#issuecomment-919629354))
59a7a13e 1430 - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
909d24dd 1431 - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1432 - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
909d24dd 1433 - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1434 - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
909d24dd 1435 - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
b7770046 1436
d4ada357 1437For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use `-f worstvideo`. It is however recommended not to use `worst` and related options. When your format selector is `worst`, the format which is worst in all respects is selected. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use `-S +size` or more rigorously, `-S +size,+br,+res,+fps` instead of `-f worst`. See [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats) for more details.
eff63539 1438
1439You can select the n'th best format of a type by using `best<type>.<n>`. For example, `best.2` will select the 2nd best combined format. Similarly, `bv*.3` will select the 3rd best format that contains a video stream.
b7770046 1440
304ad45a 1441If you want to download multiple videos, and they don't have the same formats available, you can specify the order of preference using slashes. Note that formats on the left hand side are preferred; e.g. `-f 22/17/18` will download format 22 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 17 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 18 if it's available, otherwise it will complain that no suitable formats are available for download.
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1442
1443If you want to download several formats of the same video use a comma as a separator, e.g. `-f 22,17,18` will download all these three formats, of course if they are available. Or a more sophisticated example combined with the precedence feature: `-f 136/137/mp4/bestvideo,140/m4a/bestaudio`.
1444
62b58c09 1445You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using `-f <format1>+<format2>+...` (requires ffmpeg installed); e.g. `-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg.
d806c9fd 1446
1447**Deprecation warning**: Since the *below* described behavior is complex and counter-intuitive, this will be removed and multistreams will be enabled by default in the future. A new operator will be instead added to limit formats to single audio/video
1448
304ad45a 1449Unless `--video-multistreams` is used, all formats with a video stream except the first one are ignored. Similarly, unless `--audio-multistreams` is used, all formats with an audio stream except the first one are ignored. E.g. `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --video-multistreams --audio-multistreams` will download and merge all 3 given formats. The resulting file will have 2 video streams and 2 audio streams. But `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --no-video-multistreams` will download and merge only `bestvideo` and `bestaudio`. `best` is ignored since another format containing a video stream (`bestvideo`) has already been selected. The order of the formats is therefore important. `-f best+bestaudio --no-audio-multistreams` will download only `best` while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams` will ignore `best` and download only `bestaudio`.
eb8a4433 1450
1451## Filtering Formats
1452
b532a348 1453You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"` since filters without a selector are interpreted as `best`).
b7770046
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1454
1455The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
1456
1457 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
d2c8aadf 1458 - `filesize_approx`: An estimate for the number of bytes
b7770046
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1459 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1460 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
105bfd90 1461 - `aspect_ratio`: Aspect ratio of the video, if known
b7770046
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1462 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1463 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1464 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1465 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1466 - `fps`: Frame rate
d2c8aadf 1467 - `audio_channels`: The number of audio channels
1468 - `stretched_ratio`: `width:height` of the video's pixels, if not square
b7770046 1469
1ce9a3cb 1470Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains), `~=` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
b7770046 1471
d2c8aadf 1472 - `url`: Video URL
b7770046
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1473 - `ext`: File extension
1474 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1475 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1476 - `container`: Name of the container format
1477 - `protocol`: The protocol that will be used for the actual download, lower-case (`http`, `https`, `rtsp`, `rtmp`, `rtmpe`, `mms`, `f4m`, `ism`, `http_dash_segments`, `m3u8`, or `m3u8_native`)
29f7c58a 1478 - `language`: Language code
d2c8aadf 1479 - `dynamic_range`: The dynamic range of the video
1480 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
1481 - `format`: A human-readable description of the format
1482 - `format_note`: Additional info about the format
1483 - `resolution`: Textual description of width and height
b7770046 1484
1ce9a3cb 1485Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation `!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g. `!*=` (does not contain). The comparand of a string comparison needs to be quoted with either double or single quotes if it contains spaces or special characters other than `._-`.
b7770046 1486
8e174ba7 1487**Note**: None of the aforementioned meta fields are guaranteed to be present since this solely depends on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, i.e. the metadata offered by the website. Any other field made available by the extractor can also be used for filtering.
b7770046 1488
b532a348 1489Formats for which the value is not known are excluded unless you put a question mark (`?`) after the operator. You can combine format filters, so `-f "bv[height<=?720][tbr>500]"` selects up to 720p videos (or videos where the height is not known) with a bitrate of at least 500 KBit/s. You can also use the filters with `all` to download all formats that satisfy the filter, e.g. `-f "all[vcodec=none]"` selects all audio-only formats.
b7770046 1490
62b58c09 1491Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses; e.g. `-f "(mp4,webm)[height<480]"` will download the best pre-merged mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480.
b7770046 1492
eb8a4433 1493## Sorting Formats
1494
2e7781a9 1495You can change the criteria for being considered the `best` by using `-S` (`--format-sort`). The general format for this is `--format-sort field1,field2...`.
1496
1497The available fields are:
eb8a4433 1498
304ad45a 1499 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that have a video stream
1500 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that have an audio stream
ed8d87f9 1501 - `ie_pref`: The format preference
1502 - `lang`: The language preference
1503 - `quality`: The quality of the format
1504 - `source`: The preference of the source
d80d98e7 1505 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > `mms`/`rtsp` > `f4f`/`f4m`)
1506 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other)
a5387729 1507 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`flac`/`alac` > `wav`/`aiff` > `opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `ac4` > `eac3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other)
eb8a4433 1508 - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
29ca4082 1509 - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `mov` > `webm` > `flv` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is preferred.
f2e9fa3e 1510 - `aext`: Audio Extension (`m4a` > `aac` > `mp3` > `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > `mp3` > `m4a` > `aac`
63be1aab 1511 - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
0930b11f 1512 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
62b5c94c 1513 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize
63be1aab 1514 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
eb8a4433 1515 - `height`: Height of video
1516 - `width`: Width of video
63be1aab 1517 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1518 - `fps`: Framerate of video
49a57e70 1519 - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `HLG` > `SDR`)
b8ed0f15 1520 - `channels`: The number of audio channels
63be1aab 1521 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1522 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1523 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
62b5c94c 1524 - `br`: Average bitrate in KBit/s, `tbr`/`vbr`/`abr`
63be1aab 1525 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
d806c9fd 1526
1527**Deprecation warning**: Many of these fields have (currently undocumented) aliases, that may be removed in a future version. It is recommended to use only the documented field names.
eb8a4433 1528
62b58c09 1529All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in descending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+`. E.g. `+res` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a preferred value for the fields, separated by a `:`. E.g. `res:720` prefers larger videos, but no larger than 720p and the smallest video if there are no videos less than 720p. For `codec` and `ext`, you can provide two preferred values, the first for video and the second for audio. E.g. `+codec:avc:m4a` (equivalent to `+vcodec:avc,+acodec:m4a`) sets the video codec preference to `h264` > `h265` > `vp9` > `vp9.2` > `av01` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` and audio codec preference to `mp4a` > `aac` > `vorbis` > `opus` > `mp3` > `ac3` > `dts`. You can also make the sorting prefer the nearest values to the provided by using `~` as the delimiter. E.g. `filesize~1G` prefers the format with filesize closest to 1 GiB.
9ee4f0bb 1530
7e798d72 1531The fields `hasvid` and `ie_pref` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using `--format-sort-force`. Apart from these, the default order used is: `lang,quality,res,fps,hdr:12,vcodec:vp9.2,channels,acodec,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id`. The extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
eb8a4433 1532
7e798d72 1533Note that the default has `vcodec:vp9.2`; i.e. `av1` is not preferred. Similarly, the default for hdr is `hdr:12`; i.e. dolby vision is not preferred. These choices are made since DV and AV1 formats are not yet fully compatible with most devices. This may be changed in the future as more devices become capable of smoothly playing back these formats.
eb8a4433 1534
e58c22a0 1535If your format selector is `worst`, the last item is selected after sorting. This means it will select the format that is worst in all respects. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use `-f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps`.
eb8a4433 1536
1537**Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1538
eb8a4433 1539## Format Selection examples
b7770046 1540
b7770046 1541```bash
e58c22a0 1542# Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
909d24dd 1543# or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
940a67a3 1544$ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
909d24dd 1545
1546# Download best format that contains video,
1547# and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
940a67a3 1548$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
2af884ff 1549
1550# Same as above
7a5c1cfe 1551$ yt-dlp
909d24dd 1552
6fd35a11 1553# Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1554# For this case, an output template should be used since
1555# by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
940a67a3 1556$ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
909d24dd 1557
f8d4ad9a 1558# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1559# and all audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1560$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
f8d4ad9a 1561
1562# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1563# and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1564$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
909d24dd 1565
6fd35a11 1566
1567# The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
f8d4ad9a 1568# and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
6fd35a11 1569
1570# Download the worst video available (old method)
940a67a3 1571$ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
eb8a4433 1572
1573# Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
940a67a3 1574$ yt-dlp -S "+res"
eb8a4433 1575
1576# Download the smallest video available
940a67a3 1577$ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
eb8a4433 1578
1579
909d24dd 1580
eb8a4433 1581# Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
940a67a3 1582$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
eb8a4433 1583
1584# Download the best video with the best extension
29ca4082 1585# (For video, mp4 > mov > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
940a67a3 1586$ yt-dlp -S "ext"
eb8a4433 1587
1588
909d24dd 1589
eb8a4433 1590# Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1591# or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1592$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
b7770046 1593
eb8a4433 1594# Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1595# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1596$ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
b7770046 1597
eb8a4433 1598# Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1599# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1600# Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1601# So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
940a67a3 1602$ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
b7770046 1603
b7770046 1604
909d24dd 1605
eb8a4433 1606# Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1607# or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1608$ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
eb8a4433 1609
1610# Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1611# or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1612$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
eb8a4433 1613
1614# Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
940a67a3 1615$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
eb8a4433 1616
1617
909d24dd 1618
eb8a4433 1619# Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1620# or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
940a67a3 1621$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1622
1623# Download best video available via the best protocol
1624# (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
940a67a3 1625$ yt-dlp -S "proto"
eb8a4433 1626
1627
909d24dd 1628
1ce9a3cb
LF
1629# Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1630# or the best video if there is no such video
1631$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1632
1633# Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1634# or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1635$ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1636
1637# Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1638# or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1639$ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1640
1641
1642
1643# More complex examples
1644
e58c22a0 1645# Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1646# or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
940a67a3 1647$ yt-dlp -f "((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)"
eb8a4433 1648
1649# Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
f8d4ad9a 1650# or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1651# preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
940a67a3 1652$ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
eb8a4433 1653
1654
909d24dd 1655
eb8a4433 1656# Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1657# or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1658# preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
940a67a3 1659$ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
b7770046 1660```
eb8a4433 1661
73cd218f 1662# MODIFYING METADATA
1663
a4211baf 1664The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
e9f4ccd1 1665
47ab66db 1666`--replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE` is used to replace text in any metadata field using [Python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax). [Backreferences](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html?highlight=backreferences#re.sub) can be used in the replace string for advanced use.
e9f4ccd1 1667
47ab66db 1668The general syntax of `--parse-metadata FROM:TO` is to give the name of a field or an [output template](#output-template) to extract data from, and the format to interpret it as, separated by a colon `:`. Either a [Python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax) with named capture groups, a single field name, or a similar syntax to the [output template](#output-template) (only `%(field)s` formatting is supported) can be used for `TO`. The option can be used multiple times to parse and modify various fields.
73cd218f 1669
46d09f87 1670Note that these options preserve their relative order, allowing replacements to be made in parsed fields and viceversa. Also, any field thus created can be used in the [output template](#output-template) and will also affect the media file's metadata added when using `--embed-metadata`.
73cd218f 1671
9c2b75b5 1672This option also has a few special uses:
3d3bb168 1673
c8bc203f 1674* You can download an additional URL based on the metadata of the currently downloaded video. To do this, set the field `additional_urls` to the URL that you want to download. E.g. `--parse-metadata "description:(?P<additional_urls>https?://www\.vimeo\.com/\d+)"` will download the first vimeo video found in the description
3d3bb168 1675
62b58c09 1676* You can use this to change the metadata that is embedded in the media file. To do this, set the value of the corresponding field with a `meta_` prefix. For example, any value you set to `meta_description` field will be added to the `description` field in the file - you can use this to set a different "description" and "synopsis". To modify the metadata of individual streams, use the `meta<n>_` prefix (e.g. `meta1_language`). Any value set to the `meta_` field will overwrite all default values.
c31be5b0 1677
08d30158 1678**Note**: Metadata modification happens before format selection, post-extraction and other post-processing operations. Some fields may be added or changed during these steps, overriding your changes.
1679
c31be5b0 1680For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1681
08d30158 1682Metadata fields | From
1683:--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1684`title` | `track` or `title`
1685`date` | `upload_date`
1686`description`, `synopsis` | `description`
1687`purl`, `comment` | `webpage_url`
1688`track` | `track_number`
104a7b5a
L
1689`artist` | `artist`, `artists`, `creator`, `creators`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
1690`composer` | `composer` or `composers`
1691`genre` | `genre` or `genres`
08d30158 1692`album` | `album`
104a7b5a 1693`album_artist` | `album_artist` or `album_artists`
08d30158 1694`disc` | `disc_number`
1695`show` | `series`
1696`season_number` | `season_number`
1697`episode_id` | `episode` or `episode_id`
1698`episode_sort` | `episode_number`
1699`language` of each stream | the format's `language`
1700
c31be5b0 1701**Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1702
73cd218f 1703
1704## Modifying metadata examples
1705
73cd218f 1706```bash
1707# Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
940a67a3 1708$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
73cd218f 1709
1710# Regex example
940a67a3 1711$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
73cd218f 1712
1713# Set title as "Series name S01E05"
940a67a3 1714$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
73cd218f 1715
a44ca5a4 1716# Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
2fa669f7 1717$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --embed-metadata
a44ca5a4 1718
1719# Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
1720# handling multiple lines correctly
2fa669f7 1721$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --embed-metadata
73cd218f 1722
8aa0e7cd 1723# Do not set any "synopsis" in the video metadata
1724$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<meta_synopsis>)"
1725
0930b11f 1726# Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
7f9c6a63 1727$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "video::(?P<formats>)" --write-info-json
0930b11f 1728
e9f4ccd1 1729# Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
940a67a3 1730$ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
e9f4ccd1 1731
73cd218f 1732```
1733
5d3a0e79 1734# EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1735
62b58c09 1736Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using `--extractor-args KEY:ARGS`. `ARGS` is a `;` (semicolon) separated string of `ARG=VAL1,VAL2`. E.g. `--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android_embedded,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
5d3a0e79 1737
a5387729 1738Note: In CLI, `ARG` can use `-` instead of `_`; e.g. `youtube:player-client"` becomes `youtube:player_client"`
1739
5d3a0e79 1740The following extractors use this feature:
96565c7e 1741
1742#### youtube
8e174ba7 1743* `lang`: Prefer translated metadata (`title`, `description` etc) of this language code (case-sensitive). By default, the video primary language metadata is preferred, with a fallback to `en` translated. See [youtube.py](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/c26f9b991a0681fd3ea548d535919cec1fbbd430/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L381-L390) for list of supported content language codes
8aa0e7cd 1744* `skip`: One or more of `hls`, `dash` or `translated_subs` to skip extraction of the m3u8 manifests, dash manifests and [auto-translated subtitles](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/4090#issuecomment-1158102032) respectively
fd8fcf8f 1745* `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web`, `android` and `ios` with variants `_music`, `_embedded`, `_embedscreen`, `_creator` (e.g. `web_embedded`); and `mweb`, `mweb_embedscreen` and `tv_embedded` (agegate bypass) with no variants. By default, `ios,android,web` is used, but `tv_embedded` and `creator` variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly, the music variants are added for `music.youtube.com` urls. You can use `all` to use all the clients, and `default` for the default clients.
96565c7e 1746* `player_skip`: Skip some network requests that are generally needed for robust extraction. One or more of `configs` (skip client configs), `webpage` (skip initial webpage), `js` (skip js player). While these options can help reduce the number of requests needed or avoid some rate-limiting, they could cause some issues. See [#860](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/860) for more details
ba06d77a 1747* `player_params`: YouTube player parameters to use for player requests. Will overwrite any default ones set by yt-dlp.
96565c7e 1748* `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
a44ca5a4 1749* `max_comments`: Limit the amount of comments to gather. Comma-separated list of integers representing `max-comments,max-parents,max-replies,max-replies-per-thread`. Default is `all,all,all,all`
1750 * E.g. `all,all,1000,10` will get a maximum of 1000 replies total, with up to 10 replies per thread. `1000,all,100` will get a maximum of 1000 comments, with a maximum of 100 replies total
b532a348 1751* `formats`: Change the types of formats to return. `dashy` (convert HTTP to DASH), `duplicate` (identical content but different URLs or protocol; includes `dashy`), `incomplete` (cannot be downloaded completely - live dash and post-live m3u8)
1e4fca9a 1752* `innertube_host`: Innertube API host to use for all API requests; e.g. `studio.youtube.com`, `youtubei.googleapis.com`. Note that cookies exported from one subdomain will not work on others
2ae778b8 1753* `innertube_key`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
eb5bdbfa 1754* `raise_incomplete_data`: `Incomplete Data Received` raises an error instead of reporting a warning
96565c7e 1755
1756#### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1757* `skip`: One or more of `webpage` (skip initial webpage download), `authcheck` (allow the download of playlists requiring authentication when no initial webpage is downloaded. This may cause unwanted behavior, see [#1122](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/1122) for more details)
5225df50 1758* `approximate_date`: Extract approximate `upload_date` and `timestamp` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
96565c7e 1759
3b021eac 1760#### generic
5cc0a8fd 1761* `fragment_query`: Passthrough any query in mpd/m3u8 manifest URLs to their fragments if no value is provided, or else apply the query string given as `fragment_query=VALUE`. Does not apply to ffmpeg
1762* `variant_query`: Passthrough the master m3u8 URL query to its variant playlist URLs if no value is provided, or else apply the query string given as `variant_query=VALUE`
c2e0fc40 1763* `hls_key`: An HLS AES-128 key URI *or* key (as hex), and optionally the IV (as hex), in the form of `(URI|KEY)[,IV]`; e.g. `generic:hls_key=ABCDEF1234567980,0xFEDCBA0987654321`. Passing any of these values will force usage of the native HLS downloader and override the corresponding values found in the m3u8 playlist
93e7c699 1764* `is_live`: Bypass live HLS detection and manually set `live_status` - a value of `false` will set `not_live`, any other value (or no value) will set `is_live`
3b021eac 1765
96565c7e 1766#### funimation
304ad45a 1767* `language`: Audio languages to extract, e.g. `funimation:language=english,japanese`
96565c7e 1768* `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`
1769
cb1553e9 1770#### crunchyrollbeta (Crunchyroll)
62b58c09 1771* `format`: Which stream type(s) to extract (default: `adaptive_hls`). Potentially useful values include `adaptive_hls`, `adaptive_dash`, `vo_adaptive_hls`, `vo_adaptive_dash`, `download_hls`, `download_dash`, `multitrack_adaptive_hls_v2`
dfea94f8 1772* `hardsub`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract, or `all` (default: `None` = no hardsubs), e.g. `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None`
706dfe44 1773
96565c7e 1774#### vikichannel
1775* `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
73d829c1 1776
7bdcb4a4
LNO
1777#### niconico
1778* `segment_duration`: Segment duration in milliseconds for HLS-DMC formats. Use it at your own risk since this feature **may result in your account termination.**
1779
aa4b0545 1780#### youtubewebarchive
1781* `check_all`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails`, `captures`
1782
d43de682
M
1783#### gamejolt
1784* `comment_sort`: `hot` (default), `you` (cookies needed), `top`, `new` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1785
26f2aa3d
AG
1786#### hotstar
1787* `res`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd`, `hd`, `fhd`
1788* `vcodec`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264`, `h265`, `dvh265`
1789* `dr`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr`, `hdr10`, `dv`
1790
698beb9a
M
1791#### niconicochannelplus
1792* `max_comments`: Maximum number of comments to extract - default is `120`
1793
046cab39 1794#### tiktok
c4cbd3be 1795* `api_hostname`: Hostname to use for mobile API requests, e.g. `api-h2.tiktokv.com`
62b58c09
L
1796* `app_version`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version`, e.g. `20.2.1`
1797* `manifest_app_version`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with, e.g. `221`
046cab39 1798
7eaf7f9a 1799#### rokfinchannel
62b58c09 1800* `tab`: Which tab to download - one of `new`, `top`, `videos`, `podcasts`, `streams`, `stacks`
7eaf7f9a 1801
b03fa783 1802#### twitter
a006ce2b 1803* `api`: Select one of `graphql` (default), `legacy` or `syndication` as the API for tweet extraction. Has no effect if logged in
b03fa783 1804
af1fd12f 1805#### stacommu, wrestleuniverse
ef8fb7f0 1806* `device_id`: UUID value assigned by the website and used to enforce device limits for paid livestream content. Can be found in browser local storage
1807
7f9c6a63 1808#### twitch
1809* `client_id`: Client ID value to be sent with GraphQL requests, e.g. `twitch:client_id=kimne78kx3ncx6brgo4mv6wki5h1ko`
01231feb 1810
81c8b9bd 1811#### nhkradirulive (NHK らじる★らじる LIVE)
1812* `area`: Which regional variation to extract. Valid areas are: `sapporo`, `sendai`, `tokyo`, `nagoya`, `osaka`, `hiroshima`, `matsuyama`, `fukuoka`. Defaults to `tokyo`
1813
1eaca74b 1814#### nflplusreplay
1815* `type`: Type(s) of game replays to extract. Valid types are: `full_game`, `full_game_spanish`, `condensed_game` and `all_22`. You can use `all` to extract all available replay types, which is the default
1816
5154dc0a 1817#### jiosaavn
1818* `bitrate`: Audio bitrates to request. One or more of `16`, `32`, `64`, `128`, `320`. Default is `128,320`
1819
8e174ba7 1820**Note**: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
5d3a0e79 1821
ec2e44fc 1822<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1823
3acf6d38 1824
f74980cb 1825# PLUGINS
b7770046 1826
8e40b9d1 1827Note that **all** plugins are imported even if not invoked, and that **there are no checks** performed on plugin code. **Use plugins at your own risk and only if you trust the code!**
3ae5e797 1828
8e40b9d1
M
1829Plugins can be of `<type>`s `extractor` or `postprocessor`.
1830- Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it.
1831- Extractor plugins take priority over builtin extractors.
1832- Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME`.
3ae5e797 1833
3ae5e797 1834
8e40b9d1 1835Plugins are loaded from the namespace packages `yt_dlp_plugins.extractor` and `yt_dlp_plugins.postprocessor`.
3ae5e797 1836
8e40b9d1
M
1837In other words, the file structure on the disk looks something like:
1838
1839 yt_dlp_plugins/
1840 extractor/
1841 myplugin.py
1842 postprocessor/
1843 myplugin.py
1844
1845yt-dlp looks for these `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folders in many locations (see below) and loads in plugins from **all** of them.
b7770046 1846
deae7c17 1847See the [wiki for some known plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugins)
1848
8e40b9d1
M
1849## Installing Plugins
1850
1851Plugins can be installed using various methods and locations.
1852
18531. **Configuration directories**:
1854 Plugin packages (containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder) can be dropped into the following standard [configuration locations](#configuration):
1855 * **User Plugins**
1856 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1857 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1858 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Windows)
773c272d 1859 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
8e40b9d1
M
1860 * `~/.yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1861 * `~/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1862 * **System Plugins**
1863 * `/etc/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1864 * `/etc/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
c8bc203f 18652. **Executable location**: Plugin packages can similarly be installed in a `yt-dlp-plugins` directory under the executable location (recommended for portable installations):
8e40b9d1
M
1866 * Binary: where `<root-dir>/yt-dlp.exe`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1867 * Source: where `<root-dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1868
18693. **pip and other locations in `PYTHONPATH`**
e756f45b 1870 * Plugin packages can be installed and managed using `pip`. See [yt-dlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) for an example.
8e174ba7 1871 * Note: plugin files between plugin packages installed with pip must have unique filenames.
8e40b9d1
M
1872 * Any path in `PYTHONPATH` is searched in for the `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder.
1873 * Note: This does not apply for Pyinstaller/py2exe builds.
1874
1875
8e174ba7 1876`.zip`, `.egg` and `.whl` archives containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder in their root are also supported as plugin packages.
1877* e.g. `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/mypluginpkg.zip` where `mypluginpkg.zip` contains `yt_dlp_plugins/<type>/myplugin.py`
8e40b9d1 1878
8e174ba7 1879Run yt-dlp with `--verbose` to check if the plugin has been loaded.
8e40b9d1
M
1880
1881## Developing Plugins
1882
8e174ba7 1883See the [yt-dlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) repo for a template plugin package and the [Plugin Development](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugin-Development) section of the wiki for a plugin development guide.
8e40b9d1 1884
8e174ba7 1885All public classes with a name ending in `IE`/`PP` are imported from each file for extractors and postprocessors repectively. This respects underscore prefix (e.g. `_MyBasePluginIE` is private) and `__all__`. Modules can similarly be excluded by prefixing the module name with an underscore (e.g. `_myplugin.py`).
e756f45b 1886
773c272d 1887To replace an existing extractor with a subclass of one, set the `plugin_name` class keyword argument (e.g. `class MyPluginIE(ABuiltInIE, plugin_name='myplugin')` will replace `ABuiltInIE` with `MyPluginIE`). Since the extractor replaces the parent, you should exclude the subclass extractor from being imported separately by making it private using one of the methods described above.
8e40b9d1 1888
8e174ba7 1889If you are a plugin author, add [yt-dlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/yt-dlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability.
b7770046 1890
8e40b9d1 1891See the [Developer Instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions) on how to write and test an extractor.
8c6f4daa 1892
1893# EMBEDDING YT-DLP
1894
1895yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1896
1897Your program should avoid parsing the normal stdout since they may change in future versions. Instead they should use options such as `-J`, `--print`, `--progress-template`, `--exec` etc to create console output that you can reliably reproduce and parse.
1898
1899From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1900
1901```python
59a7a13e 1902from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
8c6f4daa 1903
3d3bb168 1904URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1905with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1906 ydl.download(URLS)
8c6f4daa 1907```
1908
b532a348 1909Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of options available, have a look at [`yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py`](yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py#L183) or `help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)` in a Python shell. If you are already familiar with the CLI, you can use [`devscripts/cli_to_api.py`](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/devscripts/cli_to_api.py) to translate any CLI switches to `YoutubeDL` params.
8c6f4daa 1910
43cc91ad 1911**Tip**: If you are porting your code from youtube-dl to yt-dlp, one important point to look out for is that we do not guarantee the return value of `YoutubeDL.extract_info` to be json serializable, or even be a dictionary. It will be dictionary-like, but if you want to ensure it is a serializable dictionary, pass it through `YoutubeDL.sanitize_info` as shown in the [example below](#extracting-information)
3d3bb168 1912
1913## Embedding examples
1914
43cc91ad 1915#### Extracting information
8c6f4daa 1916
1917```python
1918import json
8c6f4daa 1919import yt_dlp
8c6f4daa 1920
3d3bb168 1921URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
1922
1923# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
1924ydl_opts = {}
1925with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1926 info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
1927
1928 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
1929 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1930```
43cc91ad 1931#### Download using an info-json
3d3bb168 1932
1933```python
1934import yt_dlp
1935
1936INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
1937
1938with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1939 error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
1940
1941print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
1942 else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
1943```
1944
43cc91ad 1945#### Extract audio
3d3bb168 1946
1947```python
1948import yt_dlp
1949
1950URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1951
1952ydl_opts = {
0a41f331 1953 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
3d3bb168 1954 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
1955 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
1956 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
1957 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
1958 }]
1959}
1960
1961with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1962 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1963```
0a41f331 1964
1965#### Filter videos
1966
1967```python
1968import yt_dlp
1969
1970URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1971
1972def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
1973 """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
1974 duration = info.get('duration')
1975 if duration and duration < 60:
1976 return 'The video is too short'
1977
1978ydl_opts = {
1979 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
1980}
1981
1982with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1983 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1984```
1985
43cc91ad 1986#### Adding logger and progress hook
3d3bb168 1987
1988```python
1989import yt_dlp
1990
1991URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
8c6f4daa 1992
1993class MyLogger:
1994 def debug(self, msg):
e75bb0d6 1995 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
8c6f4daa 1996 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
1997 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
1998 pass
1999 else:
2000 self.info(msg)
2001
2002 def info(self, msg):
2003 pass
2004
2005 def warning(self, msg):
2006 pass
2007
2008 def error(self, msg):
2009 print(msg)
2010
2011
3d3bb168 2012# ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
2013def my_hook(d):
2014 if d['status'] == 'finished':
2015 print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
2016
2017
2018ydl_opts = {
2019 'logger': MyLogger(),
2020 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
2021}
2022
2023with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2024 ydl.download(URLS)
2025```
2026
43cc91ad 2027#### Add a custom PostProcessor
3d3bb168 2028
2029```python
2030import yt_dlp
2031
2032URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2033
2034# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
59a7a13e 2035class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
8c6f4daa 2036 def run(self, info):
2037 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
2038 return [], info
2039
2040
3d3bb168 2041with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
8aa0e7cd 2042 # ℹ️ "when" can take any value in yt_dlp.utils.POSTPROCESS_WHEN
2043 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP(), when='pre_process')
3d3bb168 2044 ydl.download(URLS)
2045```
8c6f4daa 2046
2047
43cc91ad 2048#### Use a custom format selector
3d3bb168 2049
2050```python
2051import yt_dlp
2052
c8bc203f 2053URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
3d3bb168 2054
093a1710 2055def format_selector(ctx):
2056 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
3d3bb168 2057 NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
093a1710 2058
2059 # formats are already sorted worst to best
2060 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
2061
2062 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
2063 best_video = next(f for f in formats
2064 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
2065
2066 # find compatible audio extension
2067 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
2068 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
2069 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
2070 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
2071
3d3bb168 2072 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
093a1710 2073 yield {
093a1710 2074 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
2075 'ext': best_video['ext'],
2076 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
e75bb0d6 2077 # Must be + separated list of protocols
093a1710 2078 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
2079 }
2080
2081
8c6f4daa 2082ydl_opts = {
093a1710 2083 'format': format_selector,
8c6f4daa 2084}
2085
2086with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
3d3bb168 2087 ydl.download(URLS)
8c6f4daa 2088```
2089
ec2e44fc 2090
47ab66db 2091# CHANGES FROM YOUTUBE-DL
2092
2093### New features
2094
2095* Forked from [**yt-dlc@f9401f2**](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/commit/f9401f2a91987068139c5f757b12fc711d4c0cee) and merged with [**youtube-dl@be008e6**](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/be008e657d79832642e2158557c899249c9e31cd) ([exceptions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/21))
2096
2097* **[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in YouTube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
2098
2099* **[Format Sorting](#sorting-formats)**: The default format sorting options have been changed so that higher resolution and better codecs will be now preferred instead of simply using larger bitrate. Furthermore, you can now specify the sort order using `-S`. This allows for much easier format selection than what is possible by simply using `--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
2100
2101* **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from [animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including `--write-comments`, `BiliBiliSearch`, `BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that NicoNico livestreams are not available. See [#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
2102
2103* **YouTube improvements**:
2104 * Supports Clips, Stories (`ytstories:<channel UCID>`), Search (including filters)**\***, YouTube Music Search, Channel-specific search, Search prefixes (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`)**\***, Mixes, and Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`, `:ytnotif`)
2105 * Fix for [n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326) **\***
2106 * Supports some (but not all) age-gated content without cookies
2107 * Download livestreams from the start using `--live-from-start` (*experimental*)
2108 * Channel URLs download all uploads of the channel, including shorts and live
2109
2110* **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using `--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]`
2111
2112* **Download time range**: Videos can be downloaded partially based on either timestamps or chapters using `--download-sections`
2113
2114* **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using `--split-chapters`
2115
2116* **Multi-threaded fragment downloads**: Download multiple fragments of m3u8/mpd videos in parallel. Use `--concurrent-fragments` (`-N`) option to set the number of threads used
2117
2118* **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use `aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
2119
2120* **New and fixed extractors**: Many new extractors have been added and a lot of existing ones have been fixed. See the [changelog](Changelog.md) or the [list of supported sites](supportedsites.md)
2121
2122* **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN etc.
2123
2124* **Subtitle extraction from manifests**: Subtitles can be extracted from streaming media manifests. See [commit/be6202f](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/be6202f12b97858b9d716e608394b51065d0419f) for details
2125
2126* **Multiple paths and output templates**: You can give different [output templates](#output-template) and download paths for different types of files. You can also set a temporary path where intermediary files are downloaded to using `--paths` (`-P`)
2127
2128* **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for details
2129
2130* **Output template improvements**: Output templates can now have date-time formatting, numeric offsets, object traversal etc. See [output template](#output-template) for details. Even more advanced operations can also be done with the help of `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
2131
2132* **Other new options**: Many new options have been added such as `--alias`, `--print`, `--concat-playlist`, `--wait-for-video`, `--retry-sleep`, `--sleep-requests`, `--convert-thumbnails`, `--force-download-archive`, `--force-overwrites`, `--break-match-filter` etc
2133
2134* **Improvements**: Regex and other operators in `--format`/`--match-filter`, multiple `--postprocessor-args` and `--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection), merge multi-video/audio, multiple `--config-locations`, `--exec` at different stages, etc
2135
2136* **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
2137
2138* **Self updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`, and downgraded using `--update-to` if required
2139
2140* **Automated builds**: [Nightly/master builds](#update-channels) can be used with `--update-to nightly` and `--update-to master`
2141
2142See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
2143
2144Features marked with a **\*** have been back-ported to youtube-dl
2145
2146### Differences in default behavior
2147
2148Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
2149
2150* yt-dlp supports only [Python 3.8+](## "Windows 7"), and *may* remove support for more versions as they [become EOL](https://devguide.python.org/versions/#python-release-cycle); while [youtube-dl still supports Python 2.6+ and 3.2+](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/30568#issue-1118238743)
2151* The options `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
2152* `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
2153* yt-dlp stores config files in slightly different locations to youtube-dl. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for a list of correct locations
2154* The default [output template](#output-template) is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`. There is no real reason for this change. This was changed before yt-dlp was ever made public and now there are no plans to change it back to `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`. Instead, you may use `--compat-options filename`
2155* The default [format sorting](#sorting-formats) is different from youtube-dl and prefers higher resolution and better codecs rather than higher bitrates. You can use the `--format-sort` option to change this to any order you prefer, or use `--compat-options format-sort` to use youtube-dl's sorting order
2156* The default format selector is `bv*+ba/b`. This means that if a combined video + audio format that is better than the best video-only format is found, the former will be preferred. Use `-f bv+ba/b` or `--compat-options format-spec` to revert this
2157* Unlike youtube-dlc, yt-dlp does not allow merging multiple audio/video streams into one file by default (since this conflicts with the use of `-f bv*+ba`). If needed, this feature must be enabled using `--audio-multistreams` and `--video-multistreams`. You can also use `--compat-options multistreams` to enable both
2158* `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
2159* When writing metadata files such as thumbnails, description or infojson, the same information (if available) is also written for playlists. Use `--no-write-playlist-metafiles` or `--compat-options no-playlist-metafiles` to not write these files
2160* `--add-metadata` attaches the `infojson` to `mkv` files in addition to writing the metadata when used with `--write-info-json`. Use `--no-embed-info-json` or `--compat-options no-attach-info-json` to revert this
2161* Some metadata are embedded into different fields when using `--add-metadata` as compared to youtube-dl. Most notably, `comment` field contains the `webpage_url` and `synopsis` contains the `description`. You can [use `--parse-metadata`](#modifying-metadata) to modify this to your liking or use `--compat-options embed-metadata` to revert this
2162* `playlist_index` behaves differently when used with options like `--playlist-reverse` and `--playlist-items`. See [#302](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/302) for details. You can use `--compat-options playlist-index` if you want to keep the earlier behavior
2163* The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
2164* Live chats (if available) are considered as subtitles. Use `--sub-langs all,-live_chat` to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use `--compat-options no-live-chat` to prevent any live chat/danmaku from downloading
2165* YouTube channel URLs download all uploads of the channel. To download only the videos in a specific tab, pass the tab's URL. If the channel does not show the requested tab, an error will be raised. Also, `/live` URLs raise an error if there are no live videos instead of silently downloading the entire channel. You may use `--compat-options no-youtube-channel-redirect` to revert all these redirections
2166* Unavailable videos are also listed for YouTube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
2167* The upload dates extracted from YouTube are in UTC [when available](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/89e4d86171c7b7c997c77d4714542e0383bf0db0/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L3898-L3900). Use `--compat-options no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date` to prefer the non-UTC upload date.
2168* If `ffmpeg` is used as the downloader, the downloading and merging of formats happen in a single step when possible. Use `--compat-options no-direct-merge` to revert this
2169* Thumbnail embedding in `mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use `--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
2170* Some internal metadata such as filenames are removed by default from the infojson. Use `--no-clean-infojson` or `--compat-options no-clean-infojson` to revert this
2171* When `--embed-subs` and `--write-subs` are used together, the subtitles are written to disk and also embedded in the media file. You can use just `--embed-subs` to embed the subs and automatically delete the separate file. See [#630 (comment)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/630#issuecomment-893659460) for more info. `--compat-options no-keep-subs` can be used to revert this
2172* `certifi` will be used for SSL root certificates, if installed. If you want to use system certificates (e.g. self-signed), use `--compat-options no-certifi`
2173* yt-dlp's sanitization of invalid characters in filenames is different/smarter than in youtube-dl. You can use `--compat-options filename-sanitization` to revert to youtube-dl's behavior
2174* ~~yt-dlp tries to parse the external downloader outputs into the standard progress output if possible (Currently implemented: [aria2c](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/5931)). You can use `--compat-options no-external-downloader-progress` to get the downloader output as-is~~
2175* yt-dlp versions between 2021.09.01 and 2023.01.02 applies `--match-filter` to nested playlists. This was an unintentional side-effect of [8f18ac](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/8f18aca8717bb0dd49054555af8d386e5eda3a88) and is fixed in [d7b460](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/d7b460d0e5fc710950582baed2e3fc616ed98a80). Use `--compat-options playlist-match-filter` to revert this
2176* yt-dlp versions between 2021.11.10 and 2023.06.21 estimated `filesize_approx` values for fragmented/manifest formats. This was added for convenience in [f2fe69](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/f2fe69c7b0d208bdb1f6292b4ae92bc1e1a7444a), but was reverted in [0dff8e](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/0dff8e4d1e6e9fb938f4256ea9af7d81f42fd54f) due to the potentially extreme inaccuracy of the estimated values. Use `--compat-options manifest-filesize-approx` to keep extracting the estimated values
2177* yt-dlp uses modern http client backends such as `requests`. Use `--compat-options prefer-legacy-http-handler` to prefer the legacy http handler (`urllib`) to be used for standard http requests.
ed3bb2b0 2178* The sub-modules `swfinterp`, `casefold` are removed.
47ab66db 2179
2180For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
2181
2182* `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options (Do NOT use)
2183* `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams,-playlist-match-filter,-manifest-filesize-approx`
2184* `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect,-playlist-match-filter,-manifest-filesize-approx`
2185* `--compat-options 2021`: Same as `--compat-options 2022,no-certifi,filename-sanitization,no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date`
2186* `--compat-options 2022`: Same as `--compat-options 2023,playlist-match-filter,no-external-downloader-progress,prefer-legacy-http-handler,manifest-filesize-approx`
2187* `--compat-options 2023`: Currently does nothing. Use this to enable all future compat options
2188
2189### Deprecated options
e167860c 2190
2191These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
2192
8130779d 2193#### Almost redundant options
2194While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
2195
2196 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
2197 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
0bfc53d0 2198 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
8130779d 2199 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
2200
6ccf351a 2201#### Redundant options
2202While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
f4536226 2203
53c18592 2204 --get-description --print description
2205 --get-duration --print duration_string
2206 --get-filename --print filename
2207 --get-format --print format
2208 --get-id --print id
2209 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
2210 -e, --get-title --print title
2211 -g, --get-url --print urls
8f18aca8 2212 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
2213 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
2214 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
2215 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
fe2ce85a 2216 --break-on-reject Use --break-match-filter
8b7539d2 2217 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
2218 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
7e88d7d7 2219 --playlist-start NUMBER -I NUMBER:
2220 --playlist-end NUMBER -I :NUMBER
2221 --playlist-reverse -I ::-1
2222 --no-playlist-reverse Default
8417f26b 2223 --no-colors --color no_color
6ccf351a 2224
6ccf351a 2225#### Not recommended
2226While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
2227
fe7866d0 2228 --force-generic-extractor --ies generic,default
1e43a6f7 2229 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
2230 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
d9aa2332 2231 --all-formats -f all
c32b0aab 2232 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
b7b04c78 2233 --print-json -j --no-simulate
62b58c09 2234 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting, e.g. %(autonumber)03d
a439a3a4 2235 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
19b824f6 2236 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
73cd218f 2237 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
52a8a1e1 2238 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
2239 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
53ed7066 2240 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
2241 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
5d3a0e79 2242 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
2243 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
2244 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
2245 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
c1664464 2246 --geo-bypass --xff "default"
2247 --no-geo-bypass --xff "never"
2248 --geo-bypass-country CODE --xff CODE
2249 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK --xff IP_BLOCK
6ccf351a 2250
6ccf351a 2251#### Developer options
2252These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
2253
34488702 2254 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
f95b9dee 2255 --load-pages Load pages dumped by --write-pages
6ccf351a 2256 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
88acdbc2 2257 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
2258 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
f4536226 2259
f4536226 2260#### Old aliases
2261These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
2262
2263 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
3856407a 2264 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
f4536226 2265 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
2266 --dump-headers --print-traffic
2267 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
2268 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
2269 --load-info --load-info-json
3856407a 2270 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
f4536226 2271 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
e167860c 2272 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
e167860c 2273 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
2274 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
f4536226 2275 --split-tracks --split-chapters
2276 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
e167860c 2277 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
f4536226 2278 --write-srt --write-subs
e167860c 2279 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
f4536226 2280
7a340e0d 2281#### Sponskrub Options
f304da8a 2282Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock` options
7a340e0d
NA
2283
2284 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
2285 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
2286 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
2287 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
2288 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
2289 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
2290 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
2291 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
2292
f4536226 2293#### No longer supported
2294These options may no longer work as intended
2295
2296 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
2297 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
2298 -C, --call-home Not implemented
2299 --no-call-home Default
2300 --include-ads No longer supported
2301 --no-include-ads Default
0bb1bc1b 2302 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
2303 --no-write-annotations Default
1e8fe57e 2304 --compat-options seperate-video-versions No longer needed
486fb179 2305
2306#### Removed
2307These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
2308
f4536226 2309 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
3d3bb168 2310 -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
f4536226 2311
47ab66db 2312
8c6f4daa 2313# CONTRIBUTING
2314See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp) for instructions on [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue) and [Contributing code to the project](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
e167860c 2315
17ffed18 2316# WIKI
2317See the [Wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki) for more information