1 youtube-dl - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms
4 **youtube-dl** [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
8 To install it right away for all UNIX users (Linux, OS X, etc.), type:
10 sudo curl https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
11 sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
13 If you do not have curl, you can alternatively use a recent wget:
15 sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
16 sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
18 Windows users can
[download a .exe file](https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl.exe) and place it in their home directory or any other location on their
[PATH](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PATH_%28variable%29).
20 OS X users can install **youtube-dl** with
[Homebrew](http://brew.sh/).
22 brew install youtube-dl
26 sudo pip install youtube-dl
28 Alternatively, refer to the developer instructions below for how to check out and work with the git repository. For further options, including PGP signatures, see https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html .
31 **youtube-dl** is a small command-line program to download videos from
32 YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version
33 2.6,
2.7, or
3.3+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on
34 your Unix box, on Windows or on Mac OS X. It is released to the public domain,
35 which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
38 -h, --help print this help text and exit
39 --version print program version and exit
40 -U, --update update this program to latest version. Make
41 sure that you have sufficient permissions
42 (run with sudo if needed)
43 -i, --ignore-errors continue on download errors, for example to
44 skip unavailable videos in a playlist
45 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos (in the
46 playlist or the command line) if an error
48 --dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
49 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs
51 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
53 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy. Pass in
54 an empty string (--proxy "") for direct
56 --socket-timeout None Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
57 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
58 example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
59 from google videos for youtube-dl "large
60 apple". Use the value "auto" to let
61 youtube-dl guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
62 warning when guessing). "error" just throws
63 an error. The default value "fixup_error"
64 repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
65 this is not possible instead of searching.
66 --ignore-config Do not read configuration files. When given
67 in the global configuration file /etc
68 /youtube-dl.conf: do not read the user
69 configuration in ~/.config/youtube-dl.conf
70 (%APPDATA%/youtube-dl/config.txt on
72 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
76 --playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is
1)
77 --playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
78 --match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or
80 --reject-title REGEX skip download for matching titles (regex or
82 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
83 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
84 SIZE (e.g.
50k or
44.6m)
85 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
87 --date DATE download only videos uploaded in this date
88 --datebefore DATE download only videos uploaded on or before
89 this date (i.e. inclusive)
90 --dateafter DATE download only videos uploaded on or after
91 this date (i.e. inclusive)
92 --min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less than
94 --max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than
96 --no-playlist download only the currently playing video
97 --age-limit YEARS download only videos suitable for the given
99 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
100 archive file. Record the IDs of all
101 downloaded videos in it.
102 --include-ads Download advertisements as well
106 -r, --rate-limit LIMIT maximum download rate in bytes per second
108 -R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is
10)
109 --buffer-size SIZE size of download buffer (e.g.
1024 or
16K)
111 --no-resize-buffer do not automatically adjust the buffer
112 size. By default, the buffer size is
113 automatically resized from an initial value
116 ## Filesystem Options:
117 -a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for
119 --id use only video ID in file name
120 -A, --auto-number number downloaded files starting from
00000
121 -o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(title)s to
122 get the title, %(uploader)s for the
123 uploader name, %(uploader_id)s for the
124 uploader nickname if different,
125 %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
126 incremented number, %(ext)s for the
127 filename extension, %(format)s for the
128 format description (like "
22 -
1280x720" or
129 "HD"), %(format_id)s for the unique id of
130 the format (like Youtube's itags: "
137"),
131 %(upload_date)s for the upload date
132 (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
133 (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the
134 video id, %(playlist)s for the playlist the
135 video is in, %(playlist_index)s for the
136 position in the playlist and %% for a
137 literal percent. %(height)s and %(width)s
138 for the width and height of the video
139 format. %(resolution)s for a textual
140 description of the resolution of the video
141 format. Use - to output to stdout. Can also
142 be used to download to a different
143 directory, for example with -o '/my/downloa
144 ds/%(uploader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
145 --autonumber-size NUMBER Specifies the number of digits in
146 %(autonumber)s when it is present in output
147 filename template or --auto-number option
149 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
150 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
152 -t, --title [deprecated] use title in file name
154 -l, --literal [deprecated] alias of --title
155 -w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
156 -c, --continue force resume of partially downloaded files.
157 By default, youtube-dl will resume
158 downloads if possible.
159 --no-continue do not resume partially downloaded files
160 (restart from beginning)
161 --no-part do not use .part files - write directly
163 --no-mtime do not use the Last-modified header to set
164 the file modification time
165 --write-description write video description to a .description
167 --write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
168 --write-annotations write video annotations to a .annotation
170 --write-thumbnail write thumbnail image to disk
171 --load-info FILE json file containing the video information
172 (created with the "--write-json" option)
173 --cookies FILE file to read cookies from and dump cookie
175 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
176 can store some downloaded information
177 permanently. By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME
178 /youtube-dl or ~/.cache/youtube-dl . At the
179 moment, only YouTube player files (for
180 videos with obfuscated signatures) are
181 cached, but that may change.
182 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
183 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
185 ## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
186 -q, --quiet activates quiet mode
187 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
188 -s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write
190 --skip-download do not download the video
191 -g, --get-url simulate, quiet but print URL
192 -e, --get-title simulate, quiet but print title
193 --get-id simulate, quiet but print id
194 --get-thumbnail simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
195 --get-description simulate, quiet but print video description
196 --get-duration simulate, quiet but print video length
197 --get-filename simulate, quiet but print output filename
198 --get-format simulate, quiet but print output format
199 -j, --dump-json simulate, quiet but print JSON information.
200 See --output for a description of available
202 -J, --dump-single-json simulate, quiet but print JSON information
203 for each command-line argument. If the URL
204 refers to a playlist, dump the whole
205 playlist information in a single line.
206 --newline output progress bar as new lines
207 --no-progress do not print progress bar
208 --console-title display progress in console titlebar
209 -v, --verbose print various debugging information
210 --dump-intermediate-pages print downloaded pages to debug problems
212 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
213 files in the current directory to debug
215 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
218 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
219 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation.
220 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
221 information about the video. (Currently
222 supported only for YouTube)
223 --user-agent UA specify a custom user agent
224 --referer URL specify a custom referer, use if the video
225 access is restricted to one domain
226 --add-header FIELD:VALUE specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
227 separated by a colon ':'. You can use this
228 option multiple times
229 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
230 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
231 or fribidi executable in PATH
233 ## Video Format Options:
234 -f, --format FORMAT video format code, specify the order of
235 preference using slashes: -f
22/
17/
18 . -f
236 mp4 , -f m4a and -f flv are also
237 supported. You can also use the special
238 names "best", "bestvideo", "bestaudio",
239 "worst", "worstvideo" and "worstaudio". By
240 default, youtube-dl will pick the best
241 quality. Use commas to download multiple
242 audio formats, such as -f
243 136/
137/mp4/bestvideo,
140/m4a/bestaudio
244 --all-formats download all available video formats
245 --prefer-free-formats prefer free video formats unless a specific
247 --max-quality FORMAT highest quality format to download
248 -F, --list-formats list all available formats
249 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest Do not download the DASH manifest on
253 --write-sub write subtitle file
254 --write-auto-sub write automatic subtitle file (youtube
256 --all-subs downloads all the available subtitles of
258 --list-subs lists all available subtitles for the video
259 --sub-format FORMAT subtitle format (default=srt) ([sbv/vtt]
261 --sub-lang LANGS languages of the subtitles to download
262 (optional) separated by commas, use IETF
263 language tags like 'en,pt'
265 ## Authentication Options:
266 -u, --username USERNAME login with this account ID
267 -p, --password PASSWORD account password
268 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR two-factor auth code
269 -n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
270 --video-password PASSWORD video password (vimeo, smotri)
272 ## Post-processing Options:
273 -x, --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files
274 (requires ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or
276 --audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a",
277 "opus", or "wav"; "best" by default
278 --audio-quality QUALITY ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification,
279 insert a value between
0 (better) and
9
280 (worse) for VBR or a specific bitrate like
282 --recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if
283 necessary (currently supported:
284 mp4|flv|ogg|webm|mkv)
285 -k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the
286 post-processing; the video is erased by
288 --no-post-overwrites do not overwrite post-processed files; the
289 post-processed files are overwritten by
291 --embed-subs embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4
293 --embed-thumbnail embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
294 --add-metadata write metadata to the video file
295 --xattrs write metadata to the video file's xattrs
296 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
297 --prefer-avconv Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running the
298 postprocessors (default)
299 --prefer-ffmpeg Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running the
301 --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
302 downloading, similar to find's -exec
303 syntax. Example: --exec 'adb push {}
304 /sdcard/Music/ && rm {}'
308 You can configure youtube-dl by placing default arguments (such as
`--extract-audio --no-mtime` to always extract the audio and not copy the mtime) into
`/etc/youtube-dl.conf` and/or
`~/.config/youtube-dl/config`. On Windows, the configuration file locations are
`%APPDATA%\youtube-dl\config.txt` and
`C:\Users\<Yourname>\youtube-dl.conf`.
312 The
`-o` option allows users to indicate a template for the output file names. The basic usage is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in
`youtube-dl -o funny_video.flv "http://some/video"`. However, it may contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences have the format
`%(NAME)s`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parenthesis, followed by a lowercase S. Allowed names are:
314 - `id`: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier.
315 - `url`: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL.
316 - `uploader`: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the person who uploaded the video.
317 - `upload_date`: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date in YYYYMMDD format.
318 - `title`: The sequence will be replaced by the video title.
319 - `ext`: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension (like flv or mp4).
320 - `epoch`: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when creating the file.
321 - `autonumber`: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.
322 - `playlist`: The name or the id of the playlist that contains the video.
323 - `playlist_index`: The index of the video in the playlist, a five-digit number.
325 The current default template is
`%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`.
327 In some cases, you don't want special characters such as 中, spaces, or &, such as when transferring the downloaded filename to a Windows system or the filename through an
8bit-unsafe channel. In these cases, add the
`--restrict-filenames` flag to get a shorter title:
330 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
331 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
332 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
333 youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
338 Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options
`--date`,
`--datebefore` or
`--dateafter`, they accept dates in two formats:
340 - Absolute dates: Dates in the format
`YYYYMMDD`.
341 - Relative dates: Dates in the format
`(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?`
346 # Download only the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
347 $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-6months
349 # Download only the videos uploaded on January 1, 1970
350 $ youtube-dl --date 19700101
352 $ # will only download the videos uploaded in the 200x decade
353 $ youtube-dl --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20091231
358 ### How do I update youtube-dl?
360 If you've followed
[our manual installation instructions](http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html), you can simply run
`youtube-dl -U` (or, on Linux,
`sudo youtube-dl -U`).
362 If you have used pip, a simple
`sudo pip install -U youtube-dl` is sufficient to update.
364 If you have installed youtube-dl using a package manager like *apt-get* or *yum*, use the standard system update mechanism to update. Note that distribution packages are often outdated. As a rule of thumb, youtube-dl releases at least once a month, and often weekly or even daily. Simply go to http://yt-dl.org/ to find out the current version. Unfortunately, there is nothing we youtube-dl developers can do if your distributions serves a really outdated version. You can (and should) complain to your distribution in their bugtracker or support forum.
366 As a last resort, you can also uninstall the version installed by your package manager and follow our manual installation instructions. For that, remove the distribution's package, with a line like
368 sudo apt-get remove -y youtube-dl
370 Afterwards, simply follow
[our manual installation instructions](http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html):
373 sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
374 sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
378 Again, from then on you'll be able to update with
`sudo youtube-dl -U`.
380 ### I'm getting an error `Unable to extract OpenGraph title` on YouTube playlists
382 YouTube changed their playlist format in March
2014 and later on, so you'll need at least youtube-dl
2014.07.25 to download all YouTube videos.
384 If you have installed youtube-dl with a package manager, pip, setup.py or a tarball, please use that to update. Note that Ubuntu packages do not seem to get updated anymore. Since we are not affiliated with Ubuntu, there is little we can do. Feel free to
[report bugs](https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/youtube-dl/+filebug) to the [Ubuntu packaging guys](mailto:ubuntu-motu@lists.ubuntu.com?subject=outdated%
20version%
20of%
20youtube-dl) - all they have to do is update the package to a somewhat recent version. See above for a way to update.
386 ### Do I always have to pass in `--max-quality FORMAT`, or `-citw`?
388 By default, youtube-dl intends to have the best options (incidentally, if you have a convincing case that these should be different,
[please file an issue where you explain that](https://yt-dl.org/bug)). Therefore, it is unnecessary and sometimes harmful to copy long option strings from webpages. In particular,
`--max-quality` *limits* the video quality (so if you want the best quality, do NOT pass it in), and the only option out of
`-citw` that is regularly useful is
`-i`.
390 ### Can you please put the -b option back?
392 Most people asking this question are not aware that youtube-dl now defaults to downloading the highest available quality as reported by YouTube, which will be
1080p or
720p in some cases, so you no longer need the
`-b` option. For some specific videos, maybe YouTube does not report them to be available in a specific high quality format you're interested in. In that case, simply request it with the
`-f` option and youtube-dl will try to download it.
394 ### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
396 Apparently YouTube requires you to pass a CAPTCHA test if you download too much. We're
[considering to provide a way to let you solve the CAPTCHA](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/154), but at the moment, your best course of action is pointing a webbrowser to the youtube URL, solving the CAPTCHA, and restart youtube-dl.
398 ### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
400 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as
[vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or
[mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
402 ### The links provided by youtube-dl -g are not working anymore
404 The URLs youtube-dl outputs require the downloader to have the correct cookies. Use the
`--cookies` option to write the required cookies into a file, and advise your downloader to read cookies from that file. Some sites also require a common user agent to be used, use
`--dump-user-agent` to see the one in use by youtube-dl.
406 ### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
408 youtube has switched to a new video info format in July
2011 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl with
`sudo youtube-dl --update`.
410 ### ERROR: unable to download video ###
412 youtube requires an additional signature since September
2012 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl with
`sudo youtube-dl --update`.
414 ### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character ###
418 File "youtube-dl", line
2
419 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '
\x93' ...
421 means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python
2.6 or
2.7.
423 ### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
425 Since June
2012 (#
342) youtube-dl is packed as an executable zipfile, simply unzip it (might need renaming to
`youtube-dl.zip` first on some systems) or clone the git repository, as laid out above. If you modify the code, you can run it by executing the
`__main__.py` file. To recompile the executable, run
`make youtube-dl`.
427 ### The exe throws a *Runtime error from Visual C++*
429 To run the exe you need to install first the
[Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package](http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29).
431 # DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS
433 Most users do not need to build youtube-dl and can
[download the builds](http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html) or get them from their distribution.
435 To run youtube-dl as a developer, you don't need to build anything either. Simply execute
439 To run the test, simply invoke your favorite test runner, or execute a test file directly; any of the following work:
441 python -m unittest discover
442 python test/test_download.py
445 If you want to create a build of youtube-dl yourself, you'll need
453 ### Adding support for a new site
455 If you want to add support for a new site, you can follow this quick list (assuming your service is called
`yourextractor`):
457 1.
[Fork this repository](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/fork)
458 2. Check out the source code with
`git clone git@github.com:YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/youtube-dl.git`
459 3. Start a new git branch with
`cd youtube-dl; git checkout -b yourextractor`
460 4. Start with this simple template and save it to
`youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py`:
463 from __future__ import unicode_literals
465 from .common import InfoExtractor
468 class YourExtractorIE(InfoExtractor):
469 _VALID_URL = r'https?://(?:www\.)?yourextractor\.com/watch/(?P<id>[0-9]+)'
471 'url': 'http://yourextractor.com/watch/42',
472 'md5': 'TODO: md5 sum of the first 10241 bytes of the video file (use --test)',
476 'title': 'Video title goes here',
477 'thumbnail': 're:^https?://.*\.jpg$',
478 # TODO more properties, either as:
480 # * MD5 checksum; start the string with md5:
481 # * A regular expression; start the string with re:
482 # * Any Python type (for example int or float)
486 def _real_extract(self, url):
487 video_id = self._match_id(url)
489 # TODO more code goes here, for example ...
490 webpage = self._download_webpage(url, video_id)
491 title = self._html_search_regex(r'<h1>(.*?)</h1>', webpage, 'title')
496 # TODO more properties (see youtube_dl/extractor/common.py)
499 5. Add an import in
[`youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py`](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py).
500 6. Run
`python test/test_download.py TestDownload.test_YourExtractor`. This *should fail* at first, but you can continually re-run it until you're done. If you decide to add more than one test, then rename
``_TEST
`` to
``_TESTS
`` and make it into a list of dictionaries. The tests will be then be named
`TestDownload.test_YourExtractor`,
`TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_1`,
`TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_2`, etc.
501 7. Have a look at
[`youtube_dl/common/extractor/common.py`](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py) for possible helper methods and a
[detailed description of what your extractor should return](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py#L38). Add tests and code for as many as you want.
502 8. If you can, check the code with
[pyflakes](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pyflakes) (a good idea) and
[pep8](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pep8) (optional, ignore E501).
503 9. When the tests pass,
[add](https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-add.html) the new files and
[commit](https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-commit.html) them and
[push](https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-push.html) the result, like this:
505 $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py
506 $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py
507 $ git commit -m '[yourextractor] Add new extractor'
508 $ git push origin yourextractor
510 10. Finally,
[create a pull request](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-pull-request). We'll then review and merge it.
512 In any case, thank you very much for your contributions!
514 # EMBEDDING YOUTUBE-DL
516 youtube-dl makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language. If you encounter any problems parsing its output, feel free to
[create a report](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/new).
518 From a Python program, you can embed youtube-dl in a more powerful fashion, like this:
523 with youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
524 ydl.download(['http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
526 Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of what can be done, have a look at
[youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py#L69). For a start, if you want to intercept youtube-dl's output, set a
`logger` object.
530 Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: <https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues> . Unless you were prompted so or there is another pertinent reason (e.g. GitHub fails to accept the bug report), please do not send bug reports via personal email.
532 Please include the full output of the command when run with
`--verbose`. The output (including the first lines) contain important debugging information. Issues without the full output are often not reproducible and therefore do not get solved in short order, if ever.
534 For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.
536 When you submit a request, please re-read it once to avoid a couple of mistakes (you can and should use this as a checklist):
538 ### Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?
540 We often get issue reports that we cannot really decipher. While in most cases we eventually get the required information after asking back multiple times, this poses an unnecessary drain on our resources. Many contributors, including myself, are also not native speakers, so we may misread some parts.
542 So please elaborate on what feature you are requesting, or what bug you want to be fixed. Make sure that it's obvious
544 - What the problem is
545 - How it could be fixed
546 - How your proposed solution would look like
548 If your report is shorter than two lines, it is almost certainly missing some of these, which makes it hard for us to respond to it. We're often too polite to close the issue outright, but the missing info makes misinterpretation likely. As a commiter myself, I often get frustrated by these issues, since the only possible way for me to move forward on them is to ask for clarification over and over.
550 For bug reports, this means that your report should contain the *complete* output of youtube-dl when called with the -v flag. The error message you get for (most) bugs even says so, but you would not believe how many of our bug reports do not contain this information.
552 Site support requests **must contain an example URL**. An example URL is a URL you might want to download, like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc . There should be an obvious video present. Except under very special circumstances, the main page of a video service (e.g. http://www.youtube.com/ ) is *not* an example URL.
554 ### Are you using the latest version?
556 Before reporting any issue, type youtube-dl -U. This should report that you're up-to-date. About
20% of the reports we receive are already fixed, but people are using outdated versions. This goes for feature requests as well.
558 ### Is the issue already documented?
560 Make sure that someone has not already opened the issue you're trying to open. Search at the top of the window or at https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/search?type=Issues . If there is an issue, feel free to write something along the lines of "This affects me as well, with version
2015.01.01. Here is some more information on the issue: ...". While some issues may be old, a new post into them often spurs rapid activity.
562 ### Why are existing options not enough?
564 Before requesting a new feature, please have a quick peek at
[the list of supported options](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/README.md#synopsis). Many feature requests are for features that actually exist already! Please, absolutely do show off your work in the issue report and detail how the existing similar options do *not* solve your problem.
566 ### Is there enough context in your bug report?
568 People want to solve problems, and often think they do us a favor by breaking down their larger problems (e.g. wanting to skip already downloaded files) to a specific request (e.g. requesting us to look whether the file exists before downloading the info page). However, what often happens is that they break down the problem into two steps: One simple, and one impossible (or extremely complicated one).
570 We are then presented with a very complicated request when the original problem could be solved far easier, e.g. by recording the downloaded video IDs in a separate file. To avoid this, you must include the greater context where it is non-obvious. In particular, every feature request that does not consist of adding support for a new site should contain a use case scenario that explains in what situation the missing feature would be useful.
572 ### Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?
574 Some of our users seem to think there is a limit of issues they can or should open. There is no limit of issues they can or should open. While it may seem appealing to be able to dump all your issues into one ticket, that means that someone who solves one of your issues cannot mark the issue as closed. Typically, reporting a bunch of issues leads to the ticket lingering since nobody wants to attack that behemoth, until someone mercifully splits the issue into multiple ones.
576 In particular, every site support request issue should only pertain to services at one site (generally under a common domain, but always using the same backend technology). Do not request support for vimeo user videos, Whitehouse podcasts, and Google Plus pages in the same issue. Also, make sure that you don't post bug reports alongside feature requests. As a rule of thumb, a feature request does not include outputs of youtube-dl that are not immediately related to the feature at hand. Do not post reports of a network error alongside the request for a new video service.
578 ### Is anyone going to need the feature?
580 Only post features that you (or an incapicated friend you can personally talk to) require. Do not post features because they seem like a good idea. If they are really useful, they will be requested by someone who requires them.
582 ### Is your question about youtube-dl?
584 It may sound strange, but some bug reports we receive are completely unrelated to youtube-dl and relate to a different or even the reporter's own application. Please make sure that you are actually using youtube-dl. If you are using a UI for youtube-dl, report the bug to the maintainer of the actual application providing the UI. On the other hand, if your UI for youtube-dl fails in some way you believe is related to youtube-dl, by all means, go ahead and report the bug.
588 youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
590 This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton (<https://github.com/dbbolton>) and is likewise released into the public domain.