]> jfr.im git - yt-dlp.git/blame - README.md
projects / yt-dlp.git / blame
? search:
summary | shortlog | log | commit | commitdiff | tree
blob | blame (incremental) | history | HEAD
[devscripts] `tomlparse`: Add makeshift toml parser
[yt-dlp.git] / README.md
CommitLineData
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 -->
034b6215 25* [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
53ed7066 26 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
c76eb41b 27* [INSTALLATION](#installation)
deae7c17 28 * [Detailed instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation)
17fa3ee2 29 * [Update](#update)
0e5927ee 30 * [Release Files](#release-files)
cf59cd4d 31 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
17fa3ee2 32 * [Compile](#compile)
b31fdeed 33* [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
34 * [General Options](#general-options)
50865ca8 35 * [Network Options](#network-options)
b31fdeed 36 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
50865ca8 37 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
38 * [Download Options](#download-options)
39 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
b31fdeed 40 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
50865ca8 41 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
0744a815 42 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
50865ca8 43 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
44 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
45 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
46 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
50865ca8 47 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
7a340e0d 48 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
50865ca8 49 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
c76eb41b 50* [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
304ad45a 51 * [Configuration file encoding](#configuration-file-encoding)
db3ad8a6 52 * [Authentication with netrc](#authentication-with-netrc)
878eac3e 53 * [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
c76eb41b 54* [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
50865ca8 55 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
c76eb41b 56* [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
50865ca8 57 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
58 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
59 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
73cd218f 60* [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
61 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
5d3a0e79 62* [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
f74980cb 63* [PLUGINS](#plugins)
8e40b9d1
M		 64 * [Installing Plugins](#installing-plugins)
65 * [Developing Plugins](#developing-plugins)
8c6f4daa 66* [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
43cc91ad 67 * [Embedding examples](#embedding-examples)
e167860c 68* [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
8c6f4daa 69* [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
70 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
71 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
17ffed18 72* [WIKI](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki)
deae7c17 73 * [FAQ](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/FAQ)
ec2e44fc 74<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
50865ca8 75
76
034b6215 77# NEW FEATURES
91f071af 78
f10589e3 79* 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))
034b6215 80
304ad45a 81* **[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in YouTube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
034b6215 82
7581d246 83* **[Format Sorting](#sorting-formats)**: The default format sorting options have been changed so that higher resolution and better codecs will be now preferred instead of simply using larger bitrate. Furthermore, you can now specify the sort order using `-S`. This allows for much easier format selection than what is possible by simply using `--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
034b6215 84
8e174ba7 85* **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from [animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including `--write-comments`, `BiliBiliSearch`, `BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that NicoNico livestreams are not available. See [#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
29b6000e 86
ae61d108 87* **YouTube improvements**:
c8bc203f 88 * Supports Clips, Stories (`ytstories:<channel UCID>`), Search (including filters)**\***, YouTube Music Search, Channel-specific search, Search prefixes (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`)**\***, Mixes, and Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`, `:ytnotif`)
ae61d108 89 * Fix for [n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326) **\***
90 * Supports some (but not all) age-gated content without cookies
91 * Download livestreams from the start using `--live-from-start` (*experimental*)
86973308 92 * Channel URLs download all uploads of the channel, including shorts and live
f20f5fe5 93
304ad45a 94* **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using `--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]`
245524e6 95
5ec1b6b7 96* **Download time range**: Videos can be downloaded partially based on either timestamps or chapters using `--download-sections`
97
597c1866 98* **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using `--split-chapters`
99
b31fdeed 100* **Multi-threaded fragment downloads**: Download multiple fragments of m3u8/mpd videos in parallel. Use `--concurrent-fragments` (`-N`) option to set the number of threads used
8d801631 101
b31fdeed 102* **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use `aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
f20f5fe5 103
e75bb0d6 104* **New and fixed extractors**: Many new extractors have been added and a lot of existing ones have been fixed. See the [changelog](Changelog.md) or the [list of supported sites](supportedsites.md)
86c1a8aa 105
56ba69e4 106* **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN etc.
fac98805 107
3de7c2ce 108* **Subtitle extraction from manifests**: Subtitles can be extracted from streaming media manifests. See [commit/be6202f](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/be6202f12b97858b9d716e608394b51065d0419f) for details
034b6215 109
597c1866 110* **Multiple paths and output templates**: You can give different [output templates](#output-template) and download paths for different types of files. You can also set a temporary path where intermediary files are downloaded to using `--paths` (`-P`)
0bc0a322 111
d4ada357 112* **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for details
0bc0a322 113
418964fa 114* **Output template improvements**: Output templates can now have date-time formatting, numeric offsets, object traversal etc. See [output template](#output-template) for details. Even more advanced operations can also be done with the help of `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
fac98805 115
fe2ce85a 116* **Other new options**: Many new options have been added such as `--alias`, `--print`, `--concat-playlist`, `--wait-for-video`, `--retry-sleep`, `--sleep-requests`, `--convert-thumbnails`, `--force-download-archive`, `--force-overwrites`, `--break-match-filter` etc
0bc0a322 117
08d30158 118* **Improvements**: Regex and other operators in `--format`/`--match-filter`, multiple `--postprocessor-args` and `--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection), merge multi-video/audio, multiple `--config-locations`, `--exec` at different stages, etc
c69911e4 119
86c1a8aa 120* **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
b31fdeed 121
77df20f1
SS		 122* **Self updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`, and downgraded using `--update-to` if required
123
a00af298 124* **Automated builds**: [Nightly/master builds](#update-channels) can be used with `--update-to nightly` and `--update-to master`
aa837ddf 125
7a5c1cfe 126See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
a26c99ac 127
ae61d108 128Features marked with a **\*** have been back-ported to youtube-dl
129
53ed7066 130### Differences in default behavior
131
0930b11f 132Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
53ed7066 133
f4b95aca 134* 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)
96565c7e 135* The options `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
b69fd25c 136* `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
d4ada357 137* yt-dlp stores config files in slightly different locations to youtube-dl. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for a list of correct locations
96565c7e 138* The default [output template](#output-template) is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`. There is no real reason for this change. This was changed before yt-dlp was ever made public and now there are no plans to change it back to `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`. Instead, you may use `--compat-options filename`
e4f02757 139* The default [format sorting](#sorting-formats) is different from youtube-dl and prefers higher resolution and better codecs rather than higher bitrates. You can use the `--format-sort` option to change this to any order you prefer, or use `--compat-options format-sort` to use youtube-dl's sorting order
e75bb0d6 140* The default format selector is `bv*+ba/b`. This means that if a combined video + audio format that is better than the best video-only format is found, the former will be preferred. Use `-f bv+ba/b` or `--compat-options format-spec` to revert this
28b0eb0f 141* Unlike youtube-dlc, yt-dlp does not allow merging multiple audio/video streams into one file by default (since this conflicts with the use of `-f bv*+ba`). If needed, this feature must be enabled using `--audio-multistreams` and `--video-multistreams`. You can also use `--compat-options multistreams` to enable both
08d30158 142* `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
28b0eb0f 143* When writing metadata files such as thumbnails, description or infojson, the same information (if available) is also written for playlists. Use `--no-write-playlist-metafiles` or `--compat-options no-playlist-metafiles` to not write these files
9222c381 144* `--add-metadata` attaches the `infojson` to `mkv` files in addition to writing the metadata when used with `--write-info-json`. Use `--no-embed-info-json` or `--compat-options no-attach-info-json` to revert this
9e907ebd 145* Some metadata are embedded into different fields when using `--add-metadata` as compared to youtube-dl. Most notably, `comment` field contains the `webpage_url` and `synopsis` contains the `description`. You can [use `--parse-metadata`](#modifying-metadata) to modify this to your liking or use `--compat-options embed-metadata` to revert this
28b0eb0f 146* `playlist_index` behaves differently when used with options like `--playlist-reverse` and `--playlist-items`. See [#302](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/302) for details. You can use `--compat-options playlist-index` if you want to keep the earlier behavior
147* The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
b79f9e30 148* Live chats (if available) are considered as subtitles. Use `--sub-langs all,-live_chat` to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use `--compat-options no-live-chat` to prevent any live chat/danmaku from downloading
86973308 149* YouTube channel URLs download all uploads of the channel. To download only the videos in a specific tab, pass the tab's URL. If the channel does not show the requested tab, an error will be raised. Also, `/live` URLs raise an error if there are no live videos instead of silently downloading the entire channel. You may use `--compat-options no-youtube-channel-redirect` to revert all these redirections
304ad45a 150* Unavailable videos are also listed for YouTube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
1ff88b7a 151* The upload dates extracted from YouTube are in UTC [when available](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/89e4d86171c7b7c997c77d4714542e0383bf0db0/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L3898-L3900). Use `--compat-options no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date` to prefer the non-UTC upload date.
18e674b4 152* If `ffmpeg` is used as the downloader, the downloading and merging of formats happen in a single step when possible. Use `--compat-options no-direct-merge` to revert this
e858a9d6 153* Thumbnail embedding in `mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use `--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
ad54c913 154* Some internal metadata such as filenames are removed by default from the infojson. Use `--no-clean-infojson` or `--compat-options no-clean-infojson` to revert this
e75bb0d6 155* When `--embed-subs` and `--write-subs` are used together, the subtitles are written to disk and also embedded in the media file. You can use just `--embed-subs` to embed the subs and automatically delete the separate file. See [#630 (comment)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/630#issuecomment-893659460) for more info. `--compat-options no-keep-subs` can be used to revert this
168bbc4f 156* `certifi` will be used for SSL root certificates, if installed. If you want to use system certificates (e.g. self-signed), use `--compat-options no-certifi`
1e4fca9a 157* yt-dlp's sanitization of invalid characters in filenames is different/smarter than in youtube-dl. You can use `--compat-options filename-sanitization` to revert to youtube-dl's behavior
ad68b16a 158* yt-dlp tries to parse the external downloader outputs into the standard progress output if possible (Currently implemented: [~~aria2c~~](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/5931)). You can use `--compat-options no-external-downloader-progress` to get the downloader output as-is
93b39cdb 159* yt-dlp versions between 2021.09.01 and 2023.01.02 applies `--match-filter` to nested playlists. This was an unintentional side-effect of [8f18ac](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/8f18aca8717bb0dd49054555af8d386e5eda3a88) and is fixed in [d7b460](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/d7b460d0e5fc710950582baed2e3fc616ed98a80). Use `--compat-options playlist-match-filter` to revert this
10025b71 160* 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
8a8b5452 161* 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.
f9fb3ce8 162* The sub-module `swfinterp` is removed.
53ed7066 163
164For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
3d3bb168 165
8a82af35 166* `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options (Do NOT use)
b012271d
SS		 167* `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams,-playlist-match-filter,-manifest-filesize-approx`
168* `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect,-playlist-match-filter,-manifest-filesize-approx`
2a06bb4e 169* `--compat-options 2021`: Same as `--compat-options 2022,no-certifi,filename-sanitization,no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date`
3725b4f0
SS		 170* `--compat-options 2022`: Same as `--compat-options 2023,playlist-match-filter,no-external-downloader-progress`
171* `--compat-options 2023`: Same as `--compat-options prefer-legacy-http-handler,manifest-filesize-approx`. Use this to enable all future compat options
53ed7066 172
f20f5fe5 173
d19bb9c0 174# INSTALLATION
50865ca8 175
fc5fa964 176<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
177[![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 178[![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 179[![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 180[![PyPi](https://img.shields.io/badge/-PyPi-blue.svg?logo=pypi&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
fc5fa964 181[![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)
182[![Other variants](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Other-grey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](#release-files)
3d3bb168 183[![All versions](https://img.shields.io/badge/-All_Versions-lightgrey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
fc5fa964 184<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
185
c8bc203f 186You 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 187
b8773e63 188
a4211baf 189## UPDATE
4815bbfc 190You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are using the [release binaries](#release-files)
17ffed18 191
c8bc203f 192If you [installed with pip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
0930b11f 193
8e174ba7 194For other third-party package managers, see [the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#third-party-package-managers) or refer their documentation
0930b11f 195
77df20f1
SS		 196<a id="update-channels"/>
197
a00af298 198There are currently three release channels for binaries: `stable`, `nightly` and `master`.
199
200* `stable` is the default channel, and many of its changes have been tested by users of the `nightly` and `master` channels.
201* 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).
202* 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).
77df20f1
SS		 203
204When using `--update`/`-U`, a release binary will only update to its current channel.
665472a7
SS		 205`--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.
206
207You 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.
77df20f1
SS		 208
209Example usage:
a00af298 210* `yt-dlp --update-to master` switch to the `master` channel and update to its latest release
211* `yt-dlp --update-to stable@2023.07.06` upgrade/downgrade to release to `stable` channel tag `2023.07.06`
212* `yt-dlp --update-to 2023.10.07` upgrade/downgrade to tag `2023.10.07` if it exists on the current channel
213* `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`
214
215**Important**: Any user experiencing an issue with the `stable` release should install or update to the `nightly` release before submitting a bug report:
216```
217# To update to nightly from stable executable/binary:
218yt-dlp --update-to nightly
219
220# To install nightly with pip:
221python -m pip install -U --pre yt-dlp
222```
cf59cd4d 223
ec2e44fc 224<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
a4211baf 225## RELEASE FILES
0e5927ee 226
733d8e8f 227#### Recommended
228
229File|Description
230:---|:---
962ffcf8 231[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 232[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 233[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 234
235#### Alternatives
236
0e5927ee
R		 237File|Description
238:---|:---
0930b11f 239[yt-dlp_x86.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_x86.exe)|Windows (Vista SP2+) standalone x86 (32-bit) binary
8aa0e7cd 240[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 241[yt-dlp_linux](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux)|Linux standalone x64 binary
242[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
M		 243[yt-dlp_linux_armv7l](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_armv7l)|Linux standalone armv7l (32-bit) binary
244[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 245[yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
246[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 247[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 248
249#### Misc
250
251File|Description
252:---|:---
17ffed18 253[yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball
0e5927ee 254[SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
12647e03 255[SHA2-512SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA512 sums
0e5927ee 256[SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
12647e03 257[SHA2-256SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA256 sums
0e5927ee 258
12647e03
SS		 259The 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)
260Example usage:
261```
262curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/raw/master/public.key | gpg --import
263gpg --verify SHA2-256SUMS.sig SHA2-256SUMS
264gpg --verify SHA2-512SUMS.sig SHA2-512SUMS
265```
266<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
17ffed18 267
ad54c913 268**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 269
a4211baf 270## DEPENDENCIES
f4b95aca 271Python versions 3.8+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
b31fdeed 272
c9652aa4 273<!-- Python 3.5+ uses VC++14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
274<!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999 --x>
cf59cd4d 275On 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 276-->
fac98805 277
e75bb0d6 278While all the other dependencies are optional, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended
ec2e44fc 279
8aa0e7cd 280### Strongly recommended
281
b69fd25c 282* [**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 283
292d60b1 284 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 285
286 **Important**: What you need is ffmpeg *binary*, **NOT** [the python package of the same name](https://pypi.org/project/ffmpeg)
8aa0e7cd 287
288### Networking
d5820461 289* [**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 290* [**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>
291* [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
8a8b5452 292* [**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 293
294### Metadata
295
296* [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For `--embed-thumbnail` in certain formats. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
297* [**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 298* [**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 299
300### Misc
301
302* [**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 303* [**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 304* [**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 305* Any external downloader that you want to use with `--downloader`
b31fdeed 306
deae7c17 307### Deprecated
8aa0e7cd 308
309* [**avconv** and **avprobe**](https://www.libav.org) - Now **deprecated** alternative to ffmpeg. License [depends on the build](https://libav.org/legal)
310* [**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 311* [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with `--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
312* [**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 313
cf59cd4d 314To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
315
f2df4071 316The standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with **\*** included.
d710cc6d 317
8aa0e7cd 318If 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 319
5f326cf5 320
a4211baf 321## COMPILE
5f326cf5 322
8aa0e7cd 323### Standalone PyInstaller Builds
a1b77842 324To 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 architecture (x86/ARM, 32/64 bit) as the Python used. You can run the following commands:
e38df8f9 325
a1b77842 326```
327python3 -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
328python3 devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
329python3 -m bundle.pyinstaller
330```
8aa0e7cd 331
332On some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`.
333
a1b77842 334`bundle/pyinstaller.py` accepts any arguments that can be passed to `pyinstaller`, such as `--onefile/-F` or `--onedir/-D`, which is further [documented here](https://pyinstaller.org/en/stable/usage.html#what-to-generate).
73ac0e6b 335
8e174ba7 336**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 337
a1b77842 338**Important**: Running `pyinstaller` directly **without** using `bundle/pyinstaller.py` is **not** officially supported. This may or may not work correctly.
7581d246 339
8aa0e7cd 340### Platform-independent Binary (UNIX)
f4b95aca 341You will need the build tools `python` (3.8+), `zip`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`\* and `pytest`\*.
b96a939b 342
8aa0e7cd 343After installing these, simply run `make`.
5f326cf5 344
a831c2ea 345You 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 346
8aa0e7cd 347### Standalone Py2Exe Builds (Windows)
348
349While 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.
350
a1b77842 351If you wish to build it anyway, install Python (if it is not already installed) and you can run the following commands:
8aa0e7cd 352
a1b77842 353```
354py -m pip install -U py2exe -r requirements.txt
355py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
356py -m bundle.py2exe
357```
8aa0e7cd 358
359### Related scripts
360
d400e261
SS		 361* **`devscripts/update-version.py`** - Update the version number based on current date.
362* **`devscripts/set-variant.py`** - Set the build variant of the executable.
363* **`devscripts/make_changelog.py`** - Create a markdown changelog using short commit messages and update `CONTRIBUTORS` file.
8aa0e7cd 364* **`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.
365
d400e261
SS		 366Note: See their `--help` for more info.
367
29cb20bd
SS		 368### Forking the project
369If 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 370
b31fdeed 371# USAGE AND OPTIONS
6bcd846b 372
ec2e44fc 373<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
7a5c1cfe 374 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
b50e3bc6 375
c2b5f311 376`Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
ec2e44fc 377<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
c2b5f311 378
ec2e44fc 379<!-- Auto generated -->
c76eb41b 380## General Options:
2dd5a2e3 381 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
382 --version Print program version and exit
70b23409 383 -U, --update Update this program to the latest version
384 --no-update Do not check for updates (default)
77df20f1 385 --update-to [CHANNEL]@[TAG] Upgrade/downgrade to a specific version.
665472a7
SS		 386 CHANNEL can be a repository as well. CHANNEL
387 and TAG default to "stable" and "latest"
388 respectively if omitted; See "UPDATE" for
5d3a3cd4 389 details. Supported channels: stable,
390 nightly, master
2dd5a2e3 391 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
392 The download will be considered successful
393 even if the postprocessing fails
394 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download errors;
395 e.g. to skip unavailable videos in a
396 playlist (default)
397 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
398 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
399 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
400 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
401 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
402 extractors and exit
2516cafb 403 --use-extractors NAMES Extractor names to use separated by commas.
fe7866d0 404 You can also use regexes, "all", "default"
405 and "end" (end URL matching); e.g. --ies
406 "holodex.*,end,youtube". Prefix the name
407 with a "-" to exclude it, e.g. --ies
408 default,-generic. Use --list-extractors for
2516cafb 409 a list of extractor names. (Alias: --ies)
62b58c09 410 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 411 "gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
412 google videos for the search term "python".
413 Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
414 ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when
415 guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
416 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken
417 URLs, but emits an error if this is not
418 possible instead of searching
419 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
420 except those given by --config-locations.
421 For backward compatibility, if this option
422 is found inside the system configuration
423 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
424 (Alias: --no-config)
425 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
426 (default). When given inside a configuration
427 file, ignore all previous --config-locations
428 defined in the current file
429 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
430 either the path to the config or its
6b9e832d 431 containing directory ("-" for stdin). Can be
432 used multiple times and inside other
433 configuration files
2dd5a2e3 434 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
435 only list them
c8bc203f 436 --no-flat-playlist Fully extract the videos of a playlist
437 (default)
2dd5a2e3 438 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
439 Currently only supported for YouTube
440 (Experimental)
441 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
442 (default)
443 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
444 available. Pass the minimum number of
445 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
446 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
447 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
448 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
8417f26b
SS		 449 --color [STREAM:]POLICY Whether to emit color codes in output,
450 optionally prefixed by the STREAM (stdout or
451 stderr) to apply the setting to. Can be one
452 of "always", "auto" (default), "never", or
453 "no_color" (use non color terminal
454 sequences). Can be used multiple times
2dd5a2e3 455 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
456 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
457 configurations by reverting some of the
458 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
459 default behavior" for details
460 --alias ALIASES OPTIONS Create aliases for an option string. Unless
461 an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
462 prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
463 according to the Python string formatting
62b58c09 464 mini-language. E.g. --alias get-audio,-X
2dd5a2e3 465 "-S=aext:{0},abr -x --audio-format {0}"
466 creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
467 takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
468 "-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
469 All defined aliases are listed in the --help
470 output. Alias options can trigger more
962ffcf8 471 aliases; so be careful to avoid defining
2dd5a2e3 472 recursive options. As a safety measure, each
473 alias may be triggered a maximum of 100
64fa820c 474 times. This option can be used multiple times
08c1d0d3 475
149f05c7 476## Network Options:
2dd5a2e3 477 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
62b58c09
L		 478 enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme,
479 e.g. socks5://user:pass@127.0.0.1:1080/.
480 Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for
481 direct connection
2dd5a2e3 482 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
483 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
484 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
485 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
8300774c
M		 486 --enable-file-urls Enable file:// URLs. This is disabled by
487 default for security reasons.
8c6c88c7 488
b31fdeed 489## Geo-restriction:
2dd5a2e3 490 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
491 some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy
492 specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
493 is not present) is used for the actual
494 downloading
c1664464 495 --xff VALUE How to fake X-Forwarded-For HTTP header to
496 try bypassing geographic restriction. One of
c8bc203f 497 "default" (only when known to be useful),
498 "never", an IP block in CIDR notation, or a
499 two-letter ISO 3166-2 country code
149f05c7 500
cfcec693 501## Video Selection:
71df9b7f 502 -I, --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Comma separated playlist_index of the items
7e88d7d7 503 to download. You can specify a range using
504 "[START]:[STOP][:STEP]". For backward
505 compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.
506 Use negative indices to count from the right
507 and negative STEP to download in reverse
62b58c09 508 order. E.g. "-I 1:3,7,-5::2" used on a
71df9b7f 509 playlist of size 15 will download the items
7e88d7d7 510 at index 1,2,3,7,11,13,15
71df9b7f 511 --min-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is smaller than
512 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
513 --max-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is larger than
62b58c09 514 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
2dd5a2e3 515 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
516 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
517 [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
29cb20bd
SS		 518 E.g. "--date today-2weeks" downloads only
519 videos uploaded on the same day two weeks ago
2dd5a2e3 520 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
521 this date. The date formats accepted is the
522 same as --date
523 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
524 this date. The date formats accepted is the
525 same as --date
526 --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
527 field can be compared with a number or a
528 string using the operators defined in
d4ada357 529 "Filtering Formats". You can also simply
2dd5a2e3 530 specify a field to match if the field is
531 present, use "!field" to check if the field
532 is not present, and "&" to check multiple
533 conditions. Use a "\" to escape "&" or
534 quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
535 the filter matches if atleast one of the
62b58c09 536 conditions are met. E.g. --match-filter
2dd5a2e3 537 !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?100 &
538 description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'" matches
539 only videos that are not live OR those that
540 have a like count more than 100 (or the like
541 field is not available) and also has a
542 description that contains the phrase "cats &
543 dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
544 interactively ask whether to download each
545 video
c8bc203f 546 --no-match-filters Do not use any --match-filter (default)
fe2ce85a 547 --break-match-filters FILTER Same as "--match-filters" but stops the
548 download process when a video is rejected
549 --no-break-match-filters Do not use any --break-match-filters (default)
2dd5a2e3 550 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
551 to a video and a playlist
552 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
553 a video and a playlist
554 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
555 age
556 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
557 archive file. Record the IDs of all
558 downloaded videos in it
559 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
560 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
561 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
562 a file that is in the archive
71df9b7f 563 --break-per-input Alters --max-downloads, --break-on-existing,
354d5fca 564 --break-match-filter, and autonumber to
565 reset per input URL
2dd5a2e3 566 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
567 terminates the entire download queue
568 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
569 the playlist is skipped
6bcd846b 570
d5a62e4f 571## Download Options:
2dd5a2e3 572 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
573 video that should be downloaded concurrently
574 (default is 1)
62b58c09
L		 575 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second,
576 e.g. 50K or 4.2M
2dd5a2e3 577 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
578 below which throttling is assumed and the
62b58c09 579 video data is re-extracted, e.g. 100K
2dd5a2e3 580 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
581 "infinite"
582 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
583 error (default is 3), or "infinite"
584 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
585 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
be5c1ae8 586 --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR Time to sleep between retries in seconds
587 (optionally) prefixed by the type of retry
588 (http (default), fragment, file_access,
589 extractor) to apply the sleep to. EXPR can
590 be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=1]] or
591 exp=START[:END[:BASE=2]]. This option can be
592 used multiple times to set the sleep for the
62b58c09 593 different retry types, e.g. --retry-sleep
2dd5a2e3 594 linear=1::2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=1:20
595 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
596 hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
8e174ba7 597 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragments)
598 --abort-on-unavailable-fragments
2dd5a2e3 599 Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
600 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
601 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
602 downloading is finished
603 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
604 downloading is finished (default)
62b58c09 605 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer, e.g. 1024 or 16K
2dd5a2e3 606 (default is 1024)
607 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
608 from an initial value of --buffer-size
609 (default)
610 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
611 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
62b58c09 612 downloading, e.g. 10485760 or 10M (default
2dd5a2e3 613 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
614 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
615 (experimental)
2dd5a2e3 616 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
7e9a6125 617 --lazy-playlist Process entries in the playlist as they are
618 received. This disables n_entries,
619 --playlist-random and --playlist-reverse
620 --no-lazy-playlist Process videos in the playlist only after
621 the entire playlist is parsed (default)
2dd5a2e3 622 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
623 expected file size
624 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
625 allowing some players to play the video
626 while downloading, and reducing the chance
627 of file corruption if download is
628 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
629 live streams
630 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
631 videos. This is default when not downloading
632 live streams
b4e0d758 633 --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters that match the
634 regular expression. A "*" prefix denotes
635 time-range instead of chapter. Negative
636 timestamps are calculated from the end.
637 "*from-url" can be used to download between
638 the "start_time" and "end_time" extracted
639 from the URL. Needs ffmpeg. This option can
640 be used multiple times to download multiple
62b58c09 641 sections, e.g. --download-sections
2fa669f7 642 "*10:15-inf" --download-sections "intro"
2dd5a2e3 643 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
644 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
645 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
646 use it for. Currently supports native,
647 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
648 wget. You can use this option multiple times
649 to set different downloaders for different
62b58c09 650 protocols. E.g. --downloader aria2c
2dd5a2e3 651 --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
652 aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
653 native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
654 (Alias: --external-downloader)
655 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
656 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
657 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
658 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different
659 positions using the same syntax as
660 --postprocessor-args. You can use this
661 option multiple times to give different
662 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
663 --external-downloader-args)
d5a62e4f 664
cfcec693 665## Filesystem Options:
2dd5a2e3 666 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
667 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
668 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
669 comments and ignored
670 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
671 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
672 downloaded. Specify the type of file and the
673 path separated by a colon ":". All the same
674 TYPES as --output are supported.
675 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
676 (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary
677 files are first downloaded to the temp path
678 and then the final files are moved over to
679 the home path after download is finished.
680 This option is ignored if --output is an
681 absolute path
682 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
683 TEMPLATE" for details
684 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
685 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" (default: "NA")
686 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
687 and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
688 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
689 filenames (default)
690 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
691 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
692 using Windows (default)
693 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
694 extension) to the specified number of
695 characters
696 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
697 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This
698 option includes --no-continue
699 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
700 related files (default)
701 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
702 (default)
703 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
704 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
705 restart download of the entire file
706 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
707 into output file (default)
708 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into
709 output file
710 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file
711 modification time (default)
712 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
713 the file modification time
64fa820c 714 --write-description Write video description to a .description file
2dd5a2e3 715 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
716 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
717 (this may contain personal information)
718 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
719 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
720 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
721 --write-description etc. (default)
722 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
723 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
ad54c913 724 --clean-info-json Remove some internal metadata such as
725 filenames from the infojson (default)
2dd5a2e3 726 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
727 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
728 infojson. The comments are fetched even
729 without this option if the extraction is
730 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
731 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
732 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
733 --no-get-comments)
734 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
64fa820c 735 (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
2dd5a2e3 736 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from
737 and dump cookie jar in
738 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
739 (default)
825d3ce3 740 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]
741 The name of the browser to load cookies
742 from. Currently supported browsers are:
743 brave, chrome, chromium, edge, firefox,
744 opera, safari, vivaldi. Optionally, the
745 KEYRING used for decrypting Chromium cookies
746 on Linux, the name/path of the PROFILE to
747 load cookies from, and the CONTAINER name
748 (if Firefox) ("none" for no container) can
749 be given with their respective seperators.
750 By default, all containers of the most
751 recently accessed profile are used.
752 Currently supported keyrings are: basictext,
2e023649 753 gnomekeyring, kwallet, kwallet5, kwallet6
2dd5a2e3 754 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
17ffed18 755 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where yt-dlp can
756 store some downloaded information (such as
757 client ids and signatures) permanently. By
878eac3e 758 default ${XDG_CACHE_HOME}/yt-dlp
2dd5a2e3 759 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
760 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
6bcd846b 761
b31fdeed 762## Thumbnail Options:
2dd5a2e3 763 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
64fa820c 764 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default)
2dd5a2e3 765 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
766 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
767 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
2b1bd292 768
732044af 769## Internet Shortcut Options:
2dd5a2e3 770 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
771 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
772 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
773 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
774 OS caches the URL based on the file path
775 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
776 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
732044af 777
0744a815 778## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
2dd5a2e3 779 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
780 print the log to stderr
d669772c 781 --no-quiet Deactivate quiet mode. (Default)
2dd5a2e3 782 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
783 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
784 anything to disk
785 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
786 options are used
787 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
788 extracting metadata even if the videos are
789 not actually available for download
790 (experimental)
791 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
792 formats are found (default)
793 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
794 related files (Alias: --no-download)
795 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
796 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
797 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
798 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
119e40ef 799 --use-postprocessor (default: video).
2dd5a2e3 800 Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
801 --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
802 used. This option can be used multiple times
bb66c247 803 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
2dd5a2e3 804 Append given template to the file. The
805 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as that
806 of --print. FILE uses the same syntax as the
807 output template. This option can be used
808 multiple times
809 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
810 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
811 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
812 description of available keys
813 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
814 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
815 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
816 a playlist, the whole playlist information
817 is dumped in a single line
818 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
819 as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
820 another simulation option is used (Alias:
821 --force-download-archive)
822 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
823 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
824 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
825 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
819e0531 826 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
2dd5a2e3 827 Template for progress outputs, optionally
828 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
829 "download-title:" (the console title),
830 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
831 The video's fields are accessible under the
832 "info" key and the progress attributes are
62b58c09 833 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 834 --console-title --progress-template
835 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
836 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
837 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
838 to debug problems (very verbose)
839 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files
840 in the current directory to debug problems
841 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
6bcd846b 842
36f35428 843## Workarounds:
2dd5a2e3 844 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
845 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to servers
846 that do not support RFC 5746 secure
847 renegotiation
848 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
849 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
850 information about the video (Currently
851 supported only for YouTube)
a5387729 852 --add-headers FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
2dd5a2e3 853 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
854 option multiple times
855 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
856 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
857 or fribidi executable in PATH
858 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
859 during data extraction
860 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
861 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
862 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
863 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
864 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only
865 be used along with --min-sleep-interval
866 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
867 subtitle download
36f35428 868
cfcec693 869## Video Format Options:
2dd5a2e3 870 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
871 for more details
872 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
873 "Sorting Formats" for more details
874 --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
875 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
876 Formats" for more details (Alias: --S-force)
877 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
878 specified sort order (default)
879 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
880 into a single file
881 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
882 output file (default)
883 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
884 into a single file
885 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
886 output file (default)
887 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
888 over non-free ones of same quality. Use with
889 "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers
890 irrespective of quality
891 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
892 containers (default)
893 --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
894 those that are actually downloadable
895 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
896 actually downloadable
897 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
898 downloadable
899 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
900 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
fc61aff4 901 --merge-output-format FORMAT Containers that may be used when merging
62b58c09 902 formats, separated by "/", e.g. "mp4/mkv".
fc61aff4
LL		 903 Ignored if no merge is required. (currently
904 supported: avi, flv, mkv, mov, mp4, webm)
8ae7be3e
PH		 905
906## Subtitle Options:
2dd5a2e3 907 --write-subs Write subtitle file
908 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
909 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
910 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
911 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
912 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
913 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
914 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
915 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
62b58c09 916 e.g. "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
2dd5a2e3 917 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
62b58c09
L		 918 be regex) or "all" separated by commas, e.g.
919 --sub-langs "en.*,ja". You can prefix the
2dd5a2e3 920 language code with a "-" to exclude it from
62b58c09
L		 921 the requested languages, e.g. --sub-langs
922 all,-live_chat. Use --list-subs for a list
2dd5a2e3 923 of available language tags
6bcd846b 924
cfcec693 925## Authentication Options:
2dd5a2e3 926 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
927 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
928 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
929 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
930 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
931 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
932 either the path or its containing directory.
933 Defaults to ~/.netrc
db3ad8a6 934 --netrc-cmd NETRC_CMD Command to execute to get the credentials
d1b21561 935 for an extractor.
b634ba74 936 --video-password PASSWORD Video-specific password
2dd5a2e3 937 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
938 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
939 a list of available MSOs
940 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
941 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
942 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
943 interactively
944 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
945 --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
946 format. May include the private key
947 --client-certificate-key KEYFILE
948 Path to private key file for client
949 certificate
bb58c9ed 950 --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
2dd5a2e3 951 Password for client certificate private key,
952 if encrypted. If not provided, and the key
953 is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask interactively
f5e008d1 954
c76eb41b 955## Post-Processing Options:
2dd5a2e3 956 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
957 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
35faefee 958 --audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
959 used. (currently supported: best (default),
8dc59305 960 aac, alac, flac, m4a, mp3, opus, vorbis,
e0ab9854 961 wav). You can specify multiple rules using
962 similar syntax as --remux-video
2dd5a2e3 963 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
964 converting the audio with -x. Insert a value
965 between 0 (best) and 10 (worst) for VBR or a
966 specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
967 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
8dc59305 968 necessary (currently supported: avi, flv,
69f5fe45 969 gif, mkv, mov, mp4, webm, aac, aiff, alac,
970 flac, m4a, mka, mp3, ogg, opus, vorbis,
971 wav). If target container does not support
972 the video/audio codec, remuxing will fail.
973 You can specify multiple rules; e.g.
2dd5a2e3 974 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
35faefee 975 mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
2dd5a2e3 976 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
977 necessary. The syntax and supported formats
978 are the same as --remux-video
979 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
980 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
981 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
982 to give the argument to the specified
983 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
984 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
985 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
986 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
987 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
988 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
989 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
990 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
991 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
992 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
993 specified executable only when being used by
994 the specified postprocessor. Additionally,
995 for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
996 appended to the prefix optionally followed
997 by a number to pass the argument before the
62b58c09 998 specified input/output file, e.g. --ppa
2dd5a2e3 999 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
1000 this option multiple times to give different
1001 arguments to different postprocessors.
1002 (Alias: --ppa)
1003 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
1004 after post-processing
1005 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
1006 post-processing (default)
1007 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
1008 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
1009 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
1010 webm and mkv videos)
1011 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
1012 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
1013 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
1014 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
1015 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
1016 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are
1017 used (Alias: --add-metadata)
1018 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
1019 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
1020 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
1021 (Alias: --add-chapters)
1022 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias:
1023 --no-add-chapters)
1024 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
1025 mkv/mka video files
1026 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
1027 to the video file
fe74d5b5 1028 --parse-metadata [WHEN:]FROM:TO
1029 Parse additional metadata like title/artist
2dd5a2e3 1030 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
fe74d5b5 1031 for details. Supported values of "WHEN" are
1032 the same as that of --use-postprocessor
1033 (default: pre_process)
1034 --replace-in-metadata [WHEN:]FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
2dd5a2e3 1035 Replace text in a metadata field using the
1036 given regex. This option can be used
fe74d5b5 1037 multiple times. Supported values of "WHEN"
1038 are the same as that of --use-postprocessor
1039 (default: pre_process)
2dd5a2e3 1040 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
1041 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
1042 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
1043 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
1044 (default; only when the videos form a single
1045 show). All the video files must have same
1046 codecs and number of streams to be
1047 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
1048 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1049 the output filename for the concatenated
1050 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1051 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
1052 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
1053 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
1054 default; fix file if we can, warn
1055 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
1056 already exists)
1057 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
64fa820c 1058 path to the binary or its containing directory
2dd5a2e3 1059 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
119e40ef 1060 when to execute it, separated by a ":".
1061 Supported values of "WHEN" are the same as
1062 that of --use-postprocessor (default:
1063 after_move). Same syntax as the output
1064 template can be used to pass any field as
ad54c913 1065 arguments to the command. If no fields are
1066 passed, %(filepath,_filename|)q is appended
1067 to the end of the command. This option can
1068 be used multiple times
2dd5a2e3 1069 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
1070 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
8dc59305 1071 (currently supported: ass, lrc, srt, vtt)
2dd5a2e3 1072 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
1073 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
00bbc5f1 1074 (currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
1075 can specify multiple rules using similar
1076 syntax as --remux-video
2dd5a2e3 1077 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
1078 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can
1079 be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1080 the output filename for the split files. See
1081 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
64fa820c 1082 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters (default)
2dd5a2e3 1083 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
5ec1b6b7 1084 given regular expression. The syntax is the
1085 same as --download-sections. This option can
2dd5a2e3 1086 be used multiple times
1087 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
1088 (default)
5ec1b6b7 1089 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes at cuts when
1090 downloading/splitting/removing sections.
1091 This is slow due to needing a re-encode, but
1092 the resulting video may have fewer artifacts
1093 around the cuts
2dd5a2e3 1094 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
1095 when cutting/splitting (default)
1096 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS]
1097 The (case sensitive) name of plugin
1098 postprocessors to be enabled, and
1099 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
1100 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
1101 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
1102 The "when" argument determines when the
1103 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
1104 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
1105 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
119e40ef 1106 "video" (after --format; before
1107 --print/--output), "before_dl" (before each
1108 video download), "post_process" (after each
1109 video download; default), "after_move"
1110 (after moving video file to it's final
1111 locations), "after_video" (after downloading
1112 and processing all formats of a video), or
1113 "playlist" (at end of playlist). This option
1114 can be used multiple times to add different
1115 postprocessors
7a340e0d
NA		 1116
1117## SponsorBlock Options:
1118Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1119 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
8a51f564 1120 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1121
2dd5a2e3 1122 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1123 for, separated by commas. Available
1124 categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
1125 selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
71df9b7f 1126 music_offtopic, poi_highlight, chapter, all
1127 and default (=all). You can prefix the
1128 category with a "-" to exclude it. See [1]
1129 for description of the categories. E.g.
2dd5a2e3 1130 --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1131 [1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1132 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1133 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1134 category is present in both mark and remove,
1135 remove takes precedence. The syntax and
1136 available categories are the same as for
1137 --sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
71df9b7f 1138 refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight,
63c547d7 1139 chapter are not available
7a340e0d 1140 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
2dd5a2e3 1141 An output template for the title of the
1142 SponsorBlock chapters created by
1143 --sponsorblock-mark. The only available
1144 fields are start_time, end_time, category,
1145 categories, name, category_names. Defaults
1146 to "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1147 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1148 --sponsorblock-remove
1149 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1150 https://sponsor.ajay.app
a9e7f546 1151
78895bd3 1152## Extractor Options:
2dd5a2e3 1153 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors
1154 (default is 3), or "infinite"
1155 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1156 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1157 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1158 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1159 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1160 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1161 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1162 formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
1163 (default)
2fa669f7 1164 --extractor-args IE_KEY:ARGS Pass ARGS arguments to the IE_KEY extractor.
1165 See "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You
1166 can use this option multiple times to give
2dd5a2e3 1167 arguments for different extractors
17cb02d0 1168
b7770046
U		 1169# CONFIGURATION
1170
7a5c1cfe 1171You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
e2e43aea 1172
878eac3e 11731. **Main Configuration**:
1174 * The file given by `--config-location`
11751. **Portable Configuration**: (Recommended for portable installations)
1176 * If using a binary, `yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the binary
1177 * If running from source-code, `yt-dlp.conf` in the parent directory of `yt_dlp`
11781. **Home Configuration**:
1179 * `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by `-P`
1180 * If `-P` is not given, the current directory is searched
e2e43aea 11811. **User Configuration**:
773c272d 1182 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp.conf`
878eac3e 1183 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
8e40b9d1 1184 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
773c272d 1185 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp.conf`
878eac3e 1186 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1187 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
e2e43aea 1188 * `~/yt-dlp.conf`
1189 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
8e40b9d1
M		 1190 * `~/.yt-dlp/config`
1191 * `~/.yt-dlp/config.txt`
3d3bb168 1192
878eac3e 1193 See also: [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
11941. **System Configuration**:
1195 * `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
8e40b9d1
M		 1196 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config`
1197 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config.txt`
b7770046 1198
62b58c09 1199E.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
U		 1200```
1201# Lines starting with # are comments
1202
1203# Always extract audio
1204-x
1205
1206# Do not copy the mtime
1207--no-mtime
1208
1209# Use this proxy
1210--proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1211
298f597b 1212# Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1213-o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
b7770046
U		 1214```
1215
8e174ba7 1216**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 1217
a4211baf 1218You 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 1219
304ad45a 1220### Configuration file encoding
a904a7f8 1221
304ad45a 1222The configuration files are decoded according to the UTF BOM if present, and in the encoding from system locale otherwise.
a904a7f8 1223
88f60feb 1224If 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 1225
db3ad8a6 1226### Authentication with netrc
b7770046 1227
304ad45a 1228You 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 1229```
878eac3e 1230touch ${HOME}/.netrc
1231chmod a-rwx,u+rw ${HOME}/.netrc
b7770046
U		 1232```
1233After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1234```
0001fcb5 1235machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
b7770046 1236```
62b58c09 1237E.g.
b7770046
U		 1238```
1239machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1240machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1241```
7a5c1cfe 1242To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
b7770046 1243
878eac3e 1244The default location of the .netrc file is `~` (see below).
1245
d7cd97e8 1246As an alternative to using the `.netrc` file, which has the disadvantage of keeping your passwords in a plain text file, you can configure a custom shell command to provide the credentials for an extractor. This is done by providing the `--netrc-cmd` parameter, it shall output the credentials in the netrc format and return `0` on success, other values will be treated as an error. `{}` in the command will be replaced by the name of the extractor to make it possible to select the credentials for the right extractor.
db3ad8a6
ND		 1247
1248E.g. To use an encrypted `.netrc` file stored as `.authinfo.gpg`
1249```
1250yt-dlp --netrc-cmd 'gpg --decrypt ~/.authinfo.gpg' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc
1251```
1252
1253
878eac3e 1254### Notes about environment variables
1255* Environment variables are normally specified as `${VARIABLE}`/`$VARIABLE` on UNIX and `%VARIABLE%` on Windows; but is always shown as `${VARIABLE}` in this documentation
1256* yt-dlp also allow using UNIX-style variables on Windows for path-like options; e.g. `--output`, `--config-location`
1257* If unset, `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}` defaults to `~/.config` and `${XDG_CACHE_HOME}` to `~/.cache`
1258* On Windows, `~` points to `${HOME}` if present; or, `${USERPROFILE}` or `${HOMEDRIVE}${HOMEPATH}` otherwise
1259* On Windows, `${USERPROFILE}` generally points to `C:\Users\<user name>` and `${APPDATA}` to `${USERPROFILE}\AppData\Roaming`
b7770046
U		 1260
1261# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
1262
0202b52a 1263The `-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 1264
ec2e44fc 1265<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1266**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
ec2e44fc 1267<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1268
e58c22a0 1269The 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 1270
62b58c09 1271It 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 1272
1273The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
3d3bb168 1274
07a1250e 12751. **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 1276
993edd3f 12771. **Arithmetic**: Simple arithmetic can be done on numeric fields using `+`, `-` and `*`. E.g. `%(playlist_index+10)03d`, `%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
ec2e44fc 1278
62b58c09 12791. **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 1280
62b58c09 12811. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a `,`. E.g. `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
ec2e44fc 1282
ec9311c4 12831. **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 1284
17ffed18 12851. **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 1286
9b9dad11 12871. **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 1288
d5d1df8a 12891. **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 1290
1291To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1292```
e978789f 1293%(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
a439a3a4 1294```
de6000d9 1295
62b58c09 1296Additionally, 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 1297
4815bbfc 1298<a id="outtmpl-postprocess-note"/>
7aaf4cd2 1299
8e174ba7 1300**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 1301
e29663c6 1302The available fields are:
b7770046
U		 1303
1304 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1305 - `title` (string): Video title
455a15e2 1306 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
b7770046
U		 1307 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1308 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
597c1866 1309 - `description` (string): The description of the video
b7770046
U		 1310 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1311 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1312 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1313 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
b7770046 1314 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
ae6a1b95 1315 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
e6f21b3d 1316 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
ae6a1b95 1317 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
1732eccc 1318 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the video or album was released
f0d785d3 1319 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
ae6a1b95 1320 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
b7770046
U		 1321 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1322 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1323 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
6c73052c 1324 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
8213ce28 1325 - `channel_is_verified` (boolean): Whether the channel is verified on the platform
b7770046
U		 1326 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1327 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
53c18592 1328 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
b7770046 1329 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
867c66ff 1330 - `concurrent_view_count` (numeric): How many users are currently watching the video on the platform.
b7770046
U		 1331 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1332 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1333 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1334 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
277d6ff5 1335 - `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 1336 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
e325a21a 1337 - `live_status` (string): One of "not_live", "is_live", "is_upcoming", "was_live", "post_live" (was live, but VOD is not yet processed)
b7770046 1338 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
f76ede8e 1339 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
6cfda058 1340 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
940a67a3 1341 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
e370f9ec 1342 - `media_type` (string): The type of media as classified by the site, e.g. "episode", "clip", "trailer"
b7770046
U		 1343 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1344 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
b7770046
U		 1345 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1346 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
455a15e2 1347 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
b532a348 1348 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`, padded with leading zeros to 5 digits
9c906919 1349 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
e6f21b3d 1350 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
455a15e2 1351 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1352 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1353 - `playlist` (string): `playlist_id` or `playlist_title`
f0d785d3 1354 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
e6f21b3d 1355 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1356 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
b7770046
U		 1357 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1358 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
bd99f6e6 1359 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
0bb322b9 1360 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1361 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
bd99f6e6 1362 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)
d2c8aadf 1363
1364All the fields in [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats) can also be used
b7770046
U		 1365
1366Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1367
1368 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1369 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1370 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1371
1372Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1373
1374 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1375 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1376 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1377 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1378 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1379 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1380 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1381
1382Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1383
1384 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1385 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1386 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1387 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1388 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1389 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1390 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1391 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1392 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
b7770046 1393
5ec1b6b7 1394Available only when using `--download-sections` and for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
72755351 1395
1396 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1397 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1398 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1399 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1400
53c18592 1401Available only when used in `--print`:
1402
1403 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
7aaf4cd2 1404 - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the [actual filename may differ](#outtmpl-postprocess-note)
ed5835b4 1405 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by `--list-formats`
1406 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by `--list-thumbnails`
1407 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1408 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1409
ad54c913 1410 Available only after the video is downloaded (`post_process`/`after_move`):
7a340e0d 1411
ad54c913 1412 - `filepath`: Actual path of downloaded video file
1413
7a340e0d
NA		 1414Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1415
1416 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1417 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1338ae3b 1418 - `categories` (list): The [SponsorBlock categories](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Category) the chapter belongs to
7a340e0d
NA		 1419 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1420 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1421 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
1338ae3b 1422 - `type` (string): The [SponsorBlock action type](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Action_Type) of the chapter
53c18592 1423
62b58c09 1424Each 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 1425
8e174ba7 1426**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 1427
0930b11f 1428**Tip**: Look at the `-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
b7770046 1429
62b58c09 1430For 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 1431
940a67a3 1432Output templates can also contain arbitrary hierarchical path, e.g. `-o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s"` which will result in downloading each video in a directory corresponding to this path template. Any missing directory will be automatically created for you.
b7770046
U		 1433
1434To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
1435
91ebc640 1436The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
b7770046 1437
f304da8a 1438In 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 1439
b7770046
U		 1440#### Output template examples
1441
b7770046 1442```bash
d2c8aadf 1443$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1444test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1445
d2c8aadf 1446$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
9222c381 1447youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
b7770046 1448
d2c8aadf 1449$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
9222c381 1450youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
b7770046
U		 1451
1452# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
940a67a3 1453$ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
b7770046 1454
b050d210 1455# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
940a67a3 1456$ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
e29663c6 1457
e978789f 1458# Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
ad54c913 1459$ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist_index&{} - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
e978789f 1460
b7770046 1461# Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
940a67a3 1462$ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
b7770046
U		 1463
1464# Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
940a67a3 1465$ yt-dlp -u user -p password -P "~/MyVideos" -o "%(playlist)s/%(chapter_number)s - %(chapter)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.udemy.com/java-tutorial"
b7770046
U		 1466
1467# Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
940a67a3 1468$ 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 1469
6a34813a 1470# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1471# and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1472$ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1473
1474# Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1475$ 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
1476
b7770046 1477# Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
7a5c1cfe 1478$ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
b7770046
U		 1479```
1480
1481# FORMAT SELECTION
1482
7a5c1cfe
P		 1483By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1484This 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 1485
c111cefa 1486**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.
1487
eff63539 1488The 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 1489
ec2e44fc 1490<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1491**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
ec2e44fc 1492<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
b7770046 1493
62b58c09 1494The simplest case is requesting a specific format; e.g. with `-f 22` you can download the format with format code equal to 22. You can get the list of available format codes for particular video using `--list-formats` or `-F`. Note that these format codes are extractor specific.
b7770046
U		 1495
1496You 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.
1497
fa9f30b8 1498You can use `-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1499
b7770046
U		 1500You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1501
59a7a13e 1502 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1503 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
30389593 1504 - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio or both (ie; `vcodec!=none or acodec!=none`)
59a7a13e 1505 - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1506 - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
1507 - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
1508 - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
ae6a1b95 1509 - `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 1510 - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
909d24dd 1511 - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1512 - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
909d24dd 1513 - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
909d24dd 1514 - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
909d24dd 1515 - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
b7770046 1516
d4ada357 1517For 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 1518
1519You 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 1520
304ad45a 1521If you want to download multiple videos, and they don't have the same formats available, you can specify the order of preference using slashes. Note that formats on the left hand side are preferred; e.g. `-f 22/17/18` will download format 22 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 17 if it's available, otherwise it will download format 18 if it's available, otherwise it will complain that no suitable formats are available for download.
b7770046
U		 1522
1523If 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`.
1524
62b58c09 1525You 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 1526
1527**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
1528
304ad45a 1529Unless `--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 1530
1531## Filtering Formats
1532
b532a348 1533You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"` since filters without a selector are interpreted as `best`).
b7770046
U		 1534
1535The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
1536
1537 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
d2c8aadf 1538 - `filesize_approx`: An estimate for the number of bytes
b7770046
U		 1539 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1540 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
105bfd90 1541 - `aspect_ratio`: Aspect ratio of the video, if known
b7770046
U		 1542 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1543 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1544 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1545 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1546 - `fps`: Frame rate
d2c8aadf 1547 - `audio_channels`: The number of audio channels
1548 - `stretched_ratio`: `width:height` of the video's pixels, if not square
b7770046 1549
1ce9a3cb 1550Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains), `~=` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
b7770046 1551
d2c8aadf 1552 - `url`: Video URL
b7770046
U		 1553 - `ext`: File extension
1554 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1555 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1556 - `container`: Name of the container format
1557 - `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 1558 - `language`: Language code
d2c8aadf 1559 - `dynamic_range`: The dynamic range of the video
1560 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
1561 - `format`: A human-readable description of the format
1562 - `format_note`: Additional info about the format
1563 - `resolution`: Textual description of width and height
b7770046 1564
1ce9a3cb 1565Any 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 1566
8e174ba7 1567**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 1568
b532a348 1569Formats 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 1570
62b58c09 1571Format 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 1572
eb8a4433 1573## Sorting Formats
1574
2e7781a9 1575You can change the criteria for being considered the `best` by using `-S` (`--format-sort`). The general format for this is `--format-sort field1,field2...`.
1576
1577The available fields are:
eb8a4433 1578
304ad45a 1579 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that have a video stream
1580 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that have an audio stream
ed8d87f9 1581 - `ie_pref`: The format preference
1582 - `lang`: The language preference
1583 - `quality`: The quality of the format
1584 - `source`: The preference of the source
d80d98e7 1585 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > `mms`/`rtsp` > `f4f`/`f4m`)
1586 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other)
a5387729 1587 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`flac`/`alac` > `wav`/`aiff` > `opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `ac4` > `eac3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other)
eb8a4433 1588 - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
29ca4082 1589 - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `mov` > `webm` > `flv` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is preferred.
f2e9fa3e 1590 - `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 1591 - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
0930b11f 1592 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
62b5c94c 1593 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize
63be1aab 1594 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
eb8a4433 1595 - `height`: Height of video
1596 - `width`: Width of video
63be1aab 1597 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1598 - `fps`: Framerate of video
49a57e70 1599 - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `HLG` > `SDR`)
b8ed0f15 1600 - `channels`: The number of audio channels
63be1aab 1601 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1602 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1603 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
62b5c94c 1604 - `br`: Average bitrate in KBit/s, `tbr`/`vbr`/`abr`
63be1aab 1605 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
d806c9fd 1606
1607**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 1608
62b58c09 1609All 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 1610
7e798d72 1611The 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 1612
7e798d72 1613Note 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 1614
e58c22a0 1615If 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 1616
1617**Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1618
eb8a4433 1619## Format Selection examples
b7770046 1620
b7770046 1621```bash
e58c22a0 1622# Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
909d24dd 1623# or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
940a67a3 1624$ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
909d24dd 1625
1626# Download best format that contains video,
1627# and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
940a67a3 1628$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
2af884ff 1629
1630# Same as above
7a5c1cfe 1631$ yt-dlp
909d24dd 1632
6fd35a11 1633# Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1634# For this case, an output template should be used since
1635# by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
940a67a3 1636$ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
909d24dd 1637
f8d4ad9a 1638# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1639# and all audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1640$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
f8d4ad9a 1641
1642# Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1643# and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
940a67a3 1644$ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
909d24dd 1645
6fd35a11 1646
1647# The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
f8d4ad9a 1648# and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
6fd35a11 1649
1650# Download the worst video available (old method)
940a67a3 1651$ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
eb8a4433 1652
1653# Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
940a67a3 1654$ yt-dlp -S "+res"
eb8a4433 1655
1656# Download the smallest video available
940a67a3 1657$ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
eb8a4433 1658
1659
909d24dd 1660
eb8a4433 1661# Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
940a67a3 1662$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
eb8a4433 1663
1664# Download the best video with the best extension
29ca4082 1665# (For video, mp4 > mov > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
940a67a3 1666$ yt-dlp -S "ext"
eb8a4433 1667
1668
909d24dd 1669
eb8a4433 1670# Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1671# or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1672$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
b7770046 1673
eb8a4433 1674# Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1675# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
940a67a3 1676$ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
b7770046 1677
eb8a4433 1678# Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1679# or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1680# Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1681# So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
940a67a3 1682$ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
b7770046 1683
b7770046 1684
909d24dd 1685
eb8a4433 1686# Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1687# or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1688$ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
eb8a4433 1689
1690# Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1691# or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
940a67a3 1692$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
eb8a4433 1693
1694# Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
940a67a3 1695$ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
eb8a4433 1696
1697
909d24dd 1698
eb8a4433 1699# Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1700# or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
940a67a3 1701$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1702
1703# Download best video available via the best protocol
1704# (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
940a67a3 1705$ yt-dlp -S "proto"
eb8a4433 1706
1707
909d24dd 1708
1ce9a3cb
LF		 1709# Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1710# or the best video if there is no such video
1711$ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
eb8a4433 1712
1713# Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1714# or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1715$ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1716
1717# Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1718# or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
940a67a3 1719$ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
eb8a4433 1720
1721
1722
1723# More complex examples
1724
e58c22a0 1725# Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1726# or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
940a67a3 1727$ 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 1728
1729# Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
f8d4ad9a 1730# or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1731# preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
940a67a3 1732$ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
eb8a4433 1733
1734
909d24dd 1735
eb8a4433 1736# Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1737# or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
e58c22a0 1738# preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
940a67a3 1739$ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
b7770046 1740```
eb8a4433 1741
73cd218f 1742# MODIFYING METADATA
1743
a4211baf 1744The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
e9f4ccd1 1745
418964fa 1746`--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 1747
46d09f87 1748The 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 1749
46d09f87 1750Note 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 1751
9c2b75b5 1752This option also has a few special uses:
3d3bb168 1753
c8bc203f 1754* 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 1755
62b58c09 1756* 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 1757
08d30158 1758**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.
1759
c31be5b0 1760For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1761
08d30158 1762Metadata fields | From
1763:--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1764`title` | `track` or `title`
1765`date` | `upload_date`
1766`description`, `synopsis` | `description`
1767`purl`, `comment` | `webpage_url`
1768`track` | `track_number`
1769`artist` | `artist`, `creator`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
1770`genre` | `genre`
1771`album` | `album`
1772`album_artist` | `album_artist`
1773`disc` | `disc_number`
1774`show` | `series`
1775`season_number` | `season_number`
1776`episode_id` | `episode` or `episode_id`
1777`episode_sort` | `episode_number`
1778`language` of each stream | the format's `language`
1779
c31be5b0 1780**Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1781
73cd218f 1782
1783## Modifying metadata examples
1784
73cd218f 1785```bash
1786# Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
940a67a3 1787$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
73cd218f 1788
1789# Regex example
940a67a3 1790$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
73cd218f 1791
1792# Set title as "Series name S01E05"
940a67a3 1793$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
73cd218f 1794
a44ca5a4 1795# Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
2fa669f7 1796$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --embed-metadata
a44ca5a4 1797
1798# Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
1799# handling multiple lines correctly
2fa669f7 1800$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --embed-metadata
73cd218f 1801
8aa0e7cd 1802# Do not set any "synopsis" in the video metadata
1803$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<meta_synopsis>)"
1804
0930b11f 1805# Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
7f9c6a63 1806$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "video::(?P<formats>)" --write-info-json
0930b11f 1807
e9f4ccd1 1808# Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
940a67a3 1809$ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
e9f4ccd1 1810
73cd218f 1811```
1812
5d3a0e79 1813# EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1814
62b58c09 1815Some 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 1816
a5387729 1817Note: In CLI, `ARG` can use `-` instead of `_`; e.g. `youtube:player-client"` becomes `youtube:player_client"`
1818
5d3a0e79 1819The following extractors use this feature:
96565c7e 1820
1821#### youtube
8e174ba7 1822* `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 1823* `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 1824* `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 1825* `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 1826* `player_params`: YouTube player parameters to use for player requests. Will overwrite any default ones set by yt-dlp.
96565c7e 1827* `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
a44ca5a4 1828* `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`
1829 * 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 1830* `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 1831* `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 1832* `innertube_key`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
eb5bdbfa 1833* `raise_incomplete_data`: `Incomplete Data Received` raises an error instead of reporting a warning
96565c7e 1834
1835#### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1836* `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 1837* `approximate_date`: Extract approximate `upload_date` and `timestamp` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
96565c7e 1838
3b021eac 1839#### generic
5cc0a8fd 1840* `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
1841* `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 1842* `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 1843* `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 1844
96565c7e 1845#### funimation
304ad45a 1846* `language`: Audio languages to extract, e.g. `funimation:language=english,japanese`
96565c7e 1847* `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`
1848
cb1553e9 1849#### crunchyrollbeta (Crunchyroll)
62b58c09 1850* `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 1851* `hardsub`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract, or `all` (default: `None` = no hardsubs), e.g. `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None`
706dfe44 1852
96565c7e 1853#### vikichannel
1854* `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
73d829c1 1855
7bdcb4a4
LNO		 1856#### niconico
1857* `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.**
1858
aa4b0545 1859#### youtubewebarchive
1860* `check_all`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails`, `captures`
1861
d43de682
M		 1862#### gamejolt
1863* `comment_sort`: `hot` (default), `you` (cookies needed), `top`, `new` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1864
26f2aa3d
AG		 1865#### hotstar
1866* `res`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd`, `hd`, `fhd`
1867* `vcodec`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264`, `h265`, `dvh265`
1868* `dr`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr`, `hdr10`, `dv`
1869
698beb9a
M		 1870#### niconicochannelplus
1871* `max_comments`: Maximum number of comments to extract - default is `120`
1872
046cab39 1873#### tiktok
c4cbd3be 1874* `api_hostname`: Hostname to use for mobile API requests, e.g. `api-h2.tiktokv.com`
62b58c09
L		 1875* `app_version`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version`, e.g. `20.2.1`
1876* `manifest_app_version`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with, e.g. `221`
046cab39 1877
7eaf7f9a 1878#### rokfinchannel
62b58c09 1879* `tab`: Which tab to download - one of `new`, `top`, `videos`, `podcasts`, `streams`, `stacks`
7eaf7f9a 1880
b03fa783 1881#### twitter
a006ce2b 1882* `api`: Select one of `graphql` (default), `legacy` or `syndication` as the API for tweet extraction. Has no effect if logged in
b03fa783 1883
af1fd12f 1884#### stacommu, wrestleuniverse
ef8fb7f0 1885* `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
1886
7f9c6a63 1887#### twitch
1888* `client_id`: Client ID value to be sent with GraphQL requests, e.g. `twitch:client_id=kimne78kx3ncx6brgo4mv6wki5h1ko`
01231feb 1889
81c8b9bd 1890#### nhkradirulive (NHK らじる★らじる LIVE)
1891* `area`: Which regional variation to extract. Valid areas are: `sapporo`, `sendai`, `tokyo`, `nagoya`, `osaka`, `hiroshima`, `matsuyama`, `fukuoka`. Defaults to `tokyo`
1892
1eaca74b 1893#### nflplusreplay
1894* `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
1895
5154dc0a 1896#### jiosaavn
1897* `bitrate`: Audio bitrates to request. One or more of `16`, `32`, `64`, `128`, `320`. Default is `128,320`
1898
8e174ba7 1899**Note**: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
5d3a0e79 1900
ec2e44fc 1901<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1902
3acf6d38 1903
f74980cb 1904# PLUGINS
b7770046 1905
8e40b9d1 1906Note 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 1907
8e40b9d1
M		 1908Plugins can be of `<type>`s `extractor` or `postprocessor`.
1909- Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it.
1910- Extractor plugins take priority over builtin extractors.
1911- Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME`.
3ae5e797 1912
3ae5e797 1913
8e40b9d1 1914Plugins are loaded from the namespace packages `yt_dlp_plugins.extractor` and `yt_dlp_plugins.postprocessor`.
3ae5e797 1915
8e40b9d1
M		 1916In other words, the file structure on the disk looks something like:
1917
1918 yt_dlp_plugins/
1919 extractor/
1920 myplugin.py
1921 postprocessor/
1922 myplugin.py
1923
1924yt-dlp looks for these `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folders in many locations (see below) and loads in plugins from **all** of them.
b7770046 1925
deae7c17 1926See the [wiki for some known plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugins)
1927
8e40b9d1
M		 1928## Installing Plugins
1929
1930Plugins can be installed using various methods and locations.
1931
19321. **Configuration directories**:
1933 Plugin packages (containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder) can be dropped into the following standard [configuration locations](#configuration):
1934 * **User Plugins**
1935 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1936 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1937 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Windows)
773c272d 1938 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
8e40b9d1
M		 1939 * `~/.yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1940 * `~/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1941 * **System Plugins**
1942 * `/etc/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1943 * `/etc/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
c8bc203f 19442. **Executable location**: Plugin packages can similarly be installed in a `yt-dlp-plugins` directory under the executable location (recommended for portable installations):
8e40b9d1
M		 1945 * Binary: where `<root-dir>/yt-dlp.exe`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1946 * Source: where `<root-dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1947
19483. **pip and other locations in `PYTHONPATH`**
e756f45b 1949 * 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 1950 * Note: plugin files between plugin packages installed with pip must have unique filenames.
8e40b9d1
M		 1951 * Any path in `PYTHONPATH` is searched in for the `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder.
1952 * Note: This does not apply for Pyinstaller/py2exe builds.
1953
1954
8e174ba7 1955`.zip`, `.egg` and `.whl` archives containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder in their root are also supported as plugin packages.
1956* e.g. `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/mypluginpkg.zip` where `mypluginpkg.zip` contains `yt_dlp_plugins/<type>/myplugin.py`
8e40b9d1 1957
8e174ba7 1958Run yt-dlp with `--verbose` to check if the plugin has been loaded.
8e40b9d1
M		 1959
1960## Developing Plugins
1961
8e174ba7 1962See 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 1963
8e174ba7 1964All 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 1965
773c272d 1966To 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 1967
8e174ba7 1968If 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 1969
8e40b9d1 1970See 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 1971
1972# EMBEDDING YT-DLP
1973
1974yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1975
1976Your 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.
1977
1978From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1979
1980```python
59a7a13e 1981from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
8c6f4daa 1982
3d3bb168 1983URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1984with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1985 ydl.download(URLS)
8c6f4daa 1986```
1987
b532a348 1988Most 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 1989
43cc91ad 1990**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 1991
1992## Embedding examples
1993
43cc91ad 1994#### Extracting information
8c6f4daa 1995
1996```python
1997import json
8c6f4daa 1998import yt_dlp
8c6f4daa 1999
3d3bb168 2000URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
2001
2002# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
2003ydl_opts = {}
2004with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2005 info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
2006
2007 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
2008 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
2009```
43cc91ad 2010#### Download using an info-json
3d3bb168 2011
2012```python
2013import yt_dlp
2014
2015INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
2016
2017with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
2018 error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
2019
2020print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
2021 else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
2022```
2023
43cc91ad 2024#### Extract audio
3d3bb168 2025
2026```python
2027import yt_dlp
2028
2029URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2030
2031ydl_opts = {
0a41f331 2032 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
3d3bb168 2033 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
2034 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
2035 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
2036 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
2037 }]
2038}
2039
2040with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2041 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
2042```
0a41f331 2043
2044#### Filter videos
2045
2046```python
2047import yt_dlp
2048
2049URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2050
2051def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
2052 """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
2053 duration = info.get('duration')
2054 if duration and duration < 60:
2055 return 'The video is too short'
2056
2057ydl_opts = {
2058 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
2059}
2060
2061with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2062 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
2063```
2064
43cc91ad 2065#### Adding logger and progress hook
3d3bb168 2066
2067```python
2068import yt_dlp
2069
2070URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
8c6f4daa 2071
2072class MyLogger:
2073 def debug(self, msg):
e75bb0d6 2074 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
8c6f4daa 2075 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
2076 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
2077 pass
2078 else:
2079 self.info(msg)
2080
2081 def info(self, msg):
2082 pass
2083
2084 def warning(self, msg):
2085 pass
2086
2087 def error(self, msg):
2088 print(msg)
2089
2090
3d3bb168 2091# ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
2092def my_hook(d):
2093 if d['status'] == 'finished':
2094 print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
2095
2096
2097ydl_opts = {
2098 'logger': MyLogger(),
2099 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
2100}
2101
2102with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2103 ydl.download(URLS)
2104```
2105
43cc91ad 2106#### Add a custom PostProcessor
3d3bb168 2107
2108```python
2109import yt_dlp
2110
2111URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2112
2113# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
59a7a13e 2114class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
8c6f4daa 2115 def run(self, info):
2116 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
2117 return [], info
2118
2119
3d3bb168 2120with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
8aa0e7cd 2121 # ℹ️ "when" can take any value in yt_dlp.utils.POSTPROCESS_WHEN
2122 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP(), when='pre_process')
3d3bb168 2123 ydl.download(URLS)
2124```
8c6f4daa 2125
2126
43cc91ad 2127#### Use a custom format selector
3d3bb168 2128
2129```python
2130import yt_dlp
2131
c8bc203f 2132URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
3d3bb168 2133
093a1710 2134def format_selector(ctx):
2135 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
3d3bb168 2136 NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
093a1710 2137
2138 # formats are already sorted worst to best
2139 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
2140
2141 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
2142 best_video = next(f for f in formats
2143 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
2144
2145 # find compatible audio extension
2146 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
2147 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
2148 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
2149 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
2150
3d3bb168 2151 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
093a1710 2152 yield {
093a1710 2153 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
2154 'ext': best_video['ext'],
2155 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
e75bb0d6 2156 # Must be + separated list of protocols
093a1710 2157 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
2158 }
2159
2160
8c6f4daa 2161ydl_opts = {
093a1710 2162 'format': format_selector,
8c6f4daa 2163}
2164
2165with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
3d3bb168 2166 ydl.download(URLS)
8c6f4daa 2167```
2168
ec2e44fc 2169<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
2170
e167860c 2171# DEPRECATED OPTIONS
2172
2173These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
2174
8130779d 2175#### Almost redundant options
2176While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
2177
2178 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
2179 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
0bfc53d0 2180 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
8130779d 2181 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
2182
6ccf351a 2183#### Redundant options
2184While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
f4536226 2185
53c18592 2186 --get-description --print description
2187 --get-duration --print duration_string
2188 --get-filename --print filename
2189 --get-format --print format
2190 --get-id --print id
2191 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
2192 -e, --get-title --print title
2193 -g, --get-url --print urls
8f18aca8 2194 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
2195 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
2196 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
2197 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
fe2ce85a 2198 --break-on-reject Use --break-match-filter
8b7539d2 2199 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
2200 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
7e88d7d7 2201 --playlist-start NUMBER -I NUMBER:
2202 --playlist-end NUMBER -I :NUMBER
2203 --playlist-reverse -I ::-1
2204 --no-playlist-reverse Default
8417f26b 2205 --no-colors --color no_color
6ccf351a 2206
2207
2208#### Not recommended
2209While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
2210
fe7866d0 2211 --force-generic-extractor --ies generic,default
1e43a6f7 2212 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
2213 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
d9aa2332 2214 --all-formats -f all
c32b0aab 2215 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
b7b04c78 2216 --print-json -j --no-simulate
62b58c09 2217 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting, e.g. %(autonumber)03d
a439a3a4 2218 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
19b824f6 2219 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
73cd218f 2220 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
52a8a1e1 2221 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
2222 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
53ed7066 2223 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
2224 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
5d3a0e79 2225 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
2226 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
2227 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
2228 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
c1664464 2229 --geo-bypass --xff "default"
2230 --no-geo-bypass --xff "never"
2231 --geo-bypass-country CODE --xff CODE
2232 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK --xff IP_BLOCK
6ccf351a 2233
2234
2235#### Developer options
2236These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
2237
34488702 2238 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
f95b9dee 2239 --load-pages Load pages dumped by --write-pages
6ccf351a 2240 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
88acdbc2 2241 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
2242 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
f4536226 2243
2244
2245#### Old aliases
2246These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
2247
2248 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
3856407a 2249 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
f4536226 2250 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
2251 --dump-headers --print-traffic
2252 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
2253 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
2254 --load-info --load-info-json
3856407a 2255 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
f4536226 2256 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
e167860c 2257 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
e167860c 2258 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
2259 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
f4536226 2260 --split-tracks --split-chapters
2261 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
e167860c 2262 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
f4536226 2263 --write-srt --write-subs
e167860c 2264 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
f4536226 2265
7a340e0d 2266#### Sponskrub Options
f304da8a 2267Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock` options
7a340e0d
NA		 2268
2269 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
2270 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
2271 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
2272 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
2273 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
2274 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
2275 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
2276 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
2277
f4536226 2278#### No longer supported
2279These options may no longer work as intended
2280
2281 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
2282 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
2283 -C, --call-home Not implemented
2284 --no-call-home Default
2285 --include-ads No longer supported
2286 --no-include-ads Default
0bb1bc1b 2287 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
2288 --no-write-annotations Default
1e8fe57e 2289 --compat-options seperate-video-versions No longer needed
486fb179 2290
2291#### Removed
2292These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
2293
f4536226 2294 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
3d3bb168 2295 -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
f4536226 2296
8c6f4daa 2297# CONTRIBUTING
2298See [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 2299
17ffed18 2300# WIKI
2301See the [Wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki) for more information
fork of https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/