1 youtube-dl - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms
3 - [INSTALLATION](#installation)
4 - [DESCRIPTION](#description)
6 - [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
7 - [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
8 - [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
9 - [VIDEO SELECTION](#video-selection)
11 - [DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS](#developer-instructions)
12 - [EMBEDDING YOUTUBE-DL](#embedding-youtube-dl)
14 - [COPYRIGHT](#copyright)
18 To install it right away for all UNIX users (Linux, OS X, etc.), type:
20 sudo curl https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
21 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
23 If you do not have curl, you can alternatively use a recent wget:
25 sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
26 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
28 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).
30 OS X users can install **youtube-dl** with
[Homebrew](http://brew.sh/).
32 brew install youtube-dl
36 sudo pip install youtube-dl
38 Alternatively, refer to the
[developer instructions](#developer-instructions) for how to check out and work with the git repository. For further options, including PGP signatures, see the [youtube-dl Download Page](https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html).
41 **youtube-dl** is a small command-line program to download videos from
42 YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version
43 2.6,
2.7, or
3.2+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on
44 your Unix box, on Windows or on Mac OS X. It is released to the public domain,
45 which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
47 youtube-dl [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
50 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
51 --version Print program version and exit
52 -U, --update Update this program to latest version. Make
53 sure that you have sufficient permissions
54 (run with sudo if needed)
55 -i, --ignore-errors Continue on download errors, for example to
56 skip unavailable videos in a playlist
57 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos (in the
58 playlist or the command line) if an error
60 --dump-user-agent Display the current browser identification
61 --list-extractors List all supported extractors
62 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
64 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic
66 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
67 example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
68 from google videos for youtube-dl "large
69 apple". Use the value "auto" to let
70 youtube-dl guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
71 warning when guessing). "error" just throws
72 an error. The default value "fixup_error"
73 repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
74 this is not possible instead of searching.
75 --ignore-config Do not read configuration files. When given
76 in the global configuration file /etc
77 /youtube-dl.conf: Do not read the user
78 configuration in ~/.config/youtube-
79 dl/config (%APPDATA%/youtube-dl/config.txt
81 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
83 --no-color Do not emit color codes in output
86 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy. Pass in
87 an empty string (--proxy "") for direct
89 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
90 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
92 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
94 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
96 --cn-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
97 some Chinese sites. The default proxy
98 specified by --proxy (or none, if the
99 options is not present) is used for the
100 actual downloading. (experimental)
103 --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is
1)
104 --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
105 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify
106 indices of the videos in the playlist
107 separated by commas like: "--playlist-items
108 1,
2,
5,
8" if you want to download videos
109 indexed
1,
2,
5,
8 in the playlist. You can
110 specify range: "--playlist-items
111 1-
3,
7,
10-
13", it will download the videos
112 at index
1,
2,
3,
7,
10,
11,
12 and
13.
113 --match-title REGEX Download only matching titles (regex or
115 --reject-title REGEX Skip download for matching titles (regex or
117 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
118 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
119 SIZE (e.g.
50k or
44.6m)
120 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
122 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded in this date
123 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
124 this date (i.e. inclusive)
125 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
126 this date (i.e. inclusive)
127 --min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less than
129 --max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than
131 --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter (experimental).
132 Specify any key (see help for -o for a list
133 of available keys) to match if the key is
134 present, !key to check if the key is not
135 present,key > NUMBER (like "comment_count >
136 12", also works with >=, <, <=, !=, =) to
137 compare against a number, and & to require
138 multiple matches. Values which are not
139 known are excluded unless you put a
140 question mark (?) after the operator.For
141 example, to only match videos that have
142 been liked more than
100 times and disliked
143 less than
50 times (or the dislike
144 functionality is not available at the given
145 service), but who also have a description,
146 use --match-filter "like_count >
100 &
147 dislike_count <?
50 & description" .
148 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
149 to a video and a playlist.
150 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
151 a video and a playlist.
152 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
154 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
155 archive file. Record the IDs of all
156 downloaded videos in it.
157 --include-ads Download advertisements as well
161 -r, --rate-limit LIMIT Maximum download rate in bytes per second
163 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is
10), or
165 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g.
1024 or
16K)
167 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer
168 size. By default, the buffer size is
169 automatically resized from an initial value
171 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
172 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
173 expected filesize (experimental)
174 --hls-prefer-native Use the native HLS downloader instead of
175 ffmpeg (experimental)
176 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos,
177 allowing to play the video while
178 downloading (some players may not be able
180 --external-downloader COMMAND Use the specified external downloader.
182 aria2c,axel,curl,httpie,wget
183 --external-downloader-args ARGS Give these arguments to the external
186 ## Filesystem Options:
187 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ('-' for
189 --id Use only video ID in file name
190 -o, --output TEMPLATE Output filename template. Use %(title)s to
191 get the title, %(uploader)s for the
192 uploader name, %(uploader_id)s for the
193 uploader nickname if different,
194 %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
195 incremented number, %(ext)s for the
196 filename extension, %(format)s for the
197 format description (like "
22 -
1280x720" or
198 "HD"), %(format_id)s for the unique id of
199 the format (like YouTube's itags: "
137"),
200 %(upload_date)s for the upload date
201 (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
202 (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the
203 video id, %(playlist_title)s,
204 %(playlist_id)s, or %(playlist)s (=title if
205 present, ID otherwise) for the playlist the
206 video is in, %(playlist_index)s for the
207 position in the playlist. %(height)s and
208 %(width)s for the width and height of the
209 video format. %(resolution)s for a textual
210 description of the resolution of the video
211 format. %% for a literal percent. Use - to
212 output to stdout. Can also be used to
213 download to a different directory, for
214 example with -o '/my/downloads/%(uploader)s
215 /%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
216 --autonumber-size NUMBER Specify the number of digits in
217 %(autonumber)s when it is present in output
218 filename template or --auto-number option
220 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
221 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
223 -A, --auto-number [deprecated; use -o
224 "%(autonumber)s-%(title)s.%(ext)s" ] Number
225 downloaded files starting from
00000
226 -t, --title [deprecated] Use title in file name
228 -l, --literal [deprecated] Alias of --title
229 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite files
230 -c, --continue Force resume of partially downloaded files.
231 By default, youtube-dl will resume
232 downloads if possible.
233 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded files
234 (restart from beginning)
235 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly
237 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
238 the file modification time
239 --write-description Write video description to a .description
241 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
242 --write-annotations Write video annotations to a
243 .annotations.xml file
244 --load-info FILE JSON file containing the video information
245 (created with the "--write-info-json"
247 --cookies FILE File to read cookies from and dump cookie
249 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
250 can store some downloaded information
251 permanently. By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME
252 /youtube-dl or ~/.cache/youtube-dl . At the
253 moment, only YouTube player files (for
254 videos with obfuscated signatures) are
255 cached, but that may change.
256 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
257 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
260 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
261 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
262 --list-thumbnails Simulate and list all available thumbnail
265 ## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
266 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode
267 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
268 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
270 --skip-download Do not download the video
271 -g, --get-url Simulate, quiet but print URL
272 -e, --get-title Simulate, quiet but print title
273 --get-id Simulate, quiet but print id
274 --get-thumbnail Simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
275 --get-description Simulate, quiet but print video description
276 --get-duration Simulate, quiet but print video length
277 --get-filename Simulate, quiet but print output filename
278 --get-format Simulate, quiet but print output format
279 -j, --dump-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information.
280 See --output for a description of available
282 -J, --dump-single-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information
283 for each command-line argument. If the URL
284 refers to a playlist, dump the whole
285 playlist information in a single line.
286 --print-json Be quiet and print the video information as
287 JSON (video is still being downloaded).
288 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
289 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
290 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
291 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
292 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
293 to debug problems (very verbose)
294 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
295 files in the current directory to debug
297 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
298 -C, --call-home Contact the youtube-dl server for debugging
299 --no-call-home Do NOT contact the youtube-dl server for
303 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
304 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
305 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
306 information about the video. (Currently
307 supported only for YouTube)
308 --user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
309 --referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the video
310 access is restricted to one domain
311 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
312 separated by a colon ':'. You can use this
313 option multiple times
314 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
315 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
316 or fribidi executable in PATH
317 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
320 ## Video Format Options:
321 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see the "FORMAT
322 SELECTION" for all the info
323 --all-formats Download all available video formats
324 --prefer-free-formats Prefer free video formats unless a specific
326 -F, --list-formats List all available formats of requested
328 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest Do not download the DASH manifests and
329 related data on YouTube videos
330 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
331 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
332 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
333 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
336 --write-sub Write subtitle file
337 --write-auto-sub Write automatically generated subtitle file
339 --all-subs Download all the available subtitles of the
341 --list-subs List all available subtitles for the video
342 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats
343 preference, for example: "srt" or
345 --sub-lang LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download
346 (optional) separated by commas, use --list-
347 subs for available language tags
349 ## Authentication Options:
350 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
351 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
352 out, youtube-dl will ask interactively.
353 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor auth code
354 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
355 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, smotri, youku)
357 ## Post-processing Options:
358 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
359 (requires ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or
361 --audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format: "best", "aac",
362 "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", or "wav";
364 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg/avconv audio quality, insert
365 a value between
0 (better) and
9 (worse)
366 for VBR or a specific bitrate like
128K
368 --recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if
369 necessary (currently supported:
370 mp4|flv|ogg|webm|mkv|avi)
371 --postprocessor-args ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessor
372 -k, --keep-video Keep the video file on disk after the post-
373 processing; the video is erased by default
374 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files; the
375 post-processed files are overwritten by
377 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mkv
379 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
380 --add-metadata Write metadata to the video file
381 --metadata-from-title FORMAT Parse additional metadata like song title /
382 artist from the video title. The format
383 syntax is the same as --output, the parsed
384 parameters replace existing values.
385 Additional templates: %(album)s,
386 %(artist)s. Example: --metadata-from-title
387 "%(artist)s - %(title)s" matches a title
388 like "Coldplay - Paradise"
389 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
390 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
391 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
392 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
393 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
394 default; fix file if we can, warn
396 --prefer-avconv Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running the
397 postprocessors (default)
398 --prefer-ffmpeg Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running the
400 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg/avconv binary;
401 either the path to the binary or its
402 containing directory.
403 --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
404 downloading, similar to find's -exec
405 syntax. Example: --exec 'adb push {}
406 /sdcard/Music/ && rm {}'
407 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to other format
408 (currently supported: srt|ass|vtt)
412 You can configure youtube-dl by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. On Linux, the system wide configuration file is located at
`/etc/youtube-dl.conf` and the user wide configuration file at
`~/.config/youtube-dl/config`. On Windows, the user wide configuration file locations are
`%APPDATA%\youtube-dl\config.txt` or
`C:\Users\<user name>\youtube-dl.conf`. For example, with the following configuration file youtube-dl will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime and use a proxy:
416 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
419 You can use
`--ignore-config` if you want to disable the configuration file for a particular youtube-dl run.
421 ### Authentication with `.netrc` file
423 You 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 youtube-dl execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in the shell command history. You can achieve this using a
[`.netrc` file](http://stackoverflow.com/tags/.netrc/info) on per extractor basis. For that you will need to create a
`.netrc` file in your
`$HOME` and restrict permissions to read/write by you only:
426 chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
428 After that you can add credentials for extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of extractor in lowercase:
430 machine <extractor> login <login> password <password>
434 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
435 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
437 To activate authentication with the
`.netrc` file you should pass
`--netrc` to youtube-dl or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
439 On Windows you may also need to setup the
`%HOME%` environment variable manually.
443 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 parentheses, followed by a lowercase S. Allowed names are:
445 - `id`: Video identifier
446 - `title`: Video title
448 - `ext`: Video filename extension
449 - `alt_title`: A secondary title of the video
450 - `display_id`: An alternative identifier for the video
451 - `uploader`: Full name of the video uploader
452 - `creator`: The main artist who created the video
453 - `release_date`: The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released
454 - `timestamp`: UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
455 - `upload_date`: Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)
456 - `uploader_id`: Nickname or id of the video uploader
457 - `location`: Physical location where the video was filmed
458 - `duration`: Length of the video in seconds
459 - `view_count`: How many users have watched the video on the platform
460 - `like_count`: Number of positive ratings of the video
461 - `dislike_count`: Number of negative ratings of the video
462 - `repost_count`: Number of reposts of the video
463 - `average_rating`: Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
464 - `comment_count`: Number of comments on the video
465 - `age_limit`: Age restriction for the video (years)
466 - `format`: A human-readable description of the format
467 - `format_id`: Format code specified by
`--format`
468 - `format_note`: Additional info about the format
469 - `width`: Width of the video
470 - `height`: Height of the video
471 - `resolution`: Textual description of width and height
472 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
473 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
474 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
475 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
476 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
478 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
479 - `container`: Name of the container format
480 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
481 - `filesize_approx`: An estimate for the number of bytes
482 - `protocol`: The protocol that will be used for the actual download
483 - `extractor`: Name of the extractor
484 - `extractor_key`: Key name of the extractor
485 - `epoch`: Unix epoch when creating the file
486 - `autonumber`: Five-digit number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero
487 - `playlist`: Name or id of the playlist that contains the video
488 - `playlist_index`: Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
490 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
491 - `chapter`: Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
492 - `chapter_number`: Number of the chapter the video belongs to
493 - `chapter_id`: Id of the chapter the video belongs to
495 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
496 - `series`: Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
497 - `season`: Title of the season the video episode belongs to
498 - `season_number`: Number of the season the video episode belongs to
499 - `season_id`: Id of the season the video episode belongs to
500 - `episode`: Title of the video episode
501 - `episode_number`: Number of the video episode within a season
502 - `episode_id`: Id of the video episode
504 Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. Note that some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, such sequences will be replaced with
`NA`.
506 For example for
`-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and mp4 video with title
`youtube-dl test video` and id
`BaW_jenozKcj` this will result in a
`youtube-dl test video-BaW_jenozKcj.mp4` file created in the current directory.
508 Output template can also contain arbitrary hierarchical path, e.g.
`-o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s'` that will result in downloading each video in a directory corresponding to this path template. Any missing directory will be automatically created for you.
510 To specify percent literal in output template use
`%%`. To output to stdout use
`-o -`.
512 The current default template is
`%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`.
514 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:
516 Examples (note on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single)::
519 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc
520 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
522 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
523 youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
525 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
526 $ youtube-dl -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
528 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
529 $ youtube-dl -u user -p password -o '~/MyVideos/%(playlist)s/%(chapter_number)s - %(chapter)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.udemy.com/java-tutorial/
531 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
532 $ youtube-dl -o "C:/MyVideos/%(series)s/%(season_number)s - %(season)s/%(episode_number)s - %(episode)s.%(ext)s" http://videomore.ru/kino_v_detalayah/5_sezon/367617
534 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
535 $ youtube-dl -o - BaW_jenozKc
540 By default youtube-dl tries to download the best available quality, i.e. if you want the best quality you **don't need** to pass any special options, youtube-dl will guess it for you by **default**.
542 But sometimes you may want to download in a different format, for example when you are on a slow or intermittent connection. The key mechanism for achieving this is so called *format selection* based on which you can explicitly specify desired format, select formats based on some criterion or criteria, setup precedence and much more.
544 The general syntax for format selection is
`--format FORMAT` or shorter
`-f FORMAT` where
`FORMAT` is a *selector expression*, i.e. an expression that describes format or formats you would like to download.
546 The simplest case is requesting a specific format, for example 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.
548 You can also use a file extension (currently
`3gp`,
`aac`,
`flv`,
`m4a`,
`mp3`,
`mp4`,
`ogg`,
`wav`,
`webm` are supported) to download best quality format of particular file extension served as a single file, e.g.
`-f webm` will download best quality format with
`webm` extension served as a single file.
550 You can also use special names to select particular edge case format:
551 - `best`: Select best quality format represented by single file with video and audio
552 - `worst`: Select worst quality format represented by single file with video and audio
553 - `bestvideo`: Select best quality video only format (e.g. DASH video), may not be available
554 - `worstvideo`: Select worst quality video only format, may not be available
555 - `bestaudio`: Select best quality audio only format, may not be available
556 - `worstaudio`: Select worst quality audio only format, may not be available
558 For example, to download worst quality video only format you can use
`-f worstvideo`.
560 If 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 slash is left-associative, i.e. formats on the left hand side are preferred, for example
`-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.
562 If you want to download several formats of the same video use comma as a separator, e.g.
`-f 22,17,18` will download all these three formats, of course if they are available. Or more sophisticated example combined with precedence feature
`-f 136/137/mp4/bestvideo,140/m4a/bestaudio`.
564 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in
`-f "best[height=720]"` (or
`-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
566 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons
`<`,
`<=`,
`>`,
`>=`,
`=` (equals),
`!=` (not equals):
567 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
568 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
569 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
570 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
571 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
572 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
573 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
576 Also filtering work for comparisons
`=` (equals),
`!=` (not equals),
`^=` (begins with),
`$=` (ends with),
`*=` (contains) and following string meta fields:
577 - `ext`: File extension
578 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
579 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
580 - `container`: Name of the container format
581 - `protocol`: The protocol that will be used for the actual download, lower-case.
`http`,
`https`,
`rtsp`,
`rtmp`,
`rtmpe`,
`m3u8`, or
`m3u8_native`
583 Note that 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 video hoster.
585 Formats 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 "[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.
587 You can merge the video and audio of two formats into a single file using
`-f <video-format>+<audio-format>` (requires ffmpeg or avconv installed), for example
`-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download best video only format, best audio only format and mux them together with ffmpeg/avconv.
589 Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses, for example if you want to download the best mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than
480 you can use
`-f '(mp4,webm)[height<480]'`.
591 Since the end of April
2015 and version
2015.04.26 youtube-dl uses
`-f bestvideo+bestaudio/best` as default format selection (see #
5447, #
5456). If ffmpeg or avconv are installed this results in downloading
`bestvideo` and
`bestaudio` separately and muxing them together into a single file giving the best overall quality available. Otherwise it falls back to
`best` and results in downloading the best available quality served as a single file.
`best` is also needed for videos that don't come from YouTube because they don't provide the audio and video in two different files. If you want to only download some DASH formats (for example if you are not interested in getting videos with a resolution higher than
1080p), you can add
`-f bestvideo[height<=?1080]+bestaudio/best` to your configuration file. Note that if you use youtube-dl to stream to
`stdout` (and most likely to pipe it to your media player then), i.e. you explicitly specify output template as
`-o -`, youtube-dl still uses
`-f best` format selection in order to start content delivery immediately to your player and not to wait until
`bestvideo` and
`bestaudio` are downloaded and muxed.
593 If you want to preserve the old format selection behavior (prior to youtube-dl
2015.04.26), i.e. you want to download the best available quality media served as a single file, you should explicitly specify your choice with
`-f best`. You may want to add it to the [configuration file](#configuration) in order not to type it every time you run youtube-dl.
595 Examples (note on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single):
597 # Download best mp4 format available or any other best if no mp4 available
598 $ youtube-dl -f 'bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/best[ext=mp4]/best'
600 # Download best format available but not better that 480p
601 $ youtube-dl -f 'bestvideo[height<=480]+bestaudio/best[height<=480]'
603 # Download best video only format but no bigger that 50 MB
604 $ youtube-dl -f 'best[filesize<50M]'
606 # Download best format available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol
607 $ youtube-dl -f '(bestvideo+bestaudio/best)[protocol^=http]'
613 Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options
`--date`,
`--datebefore` or
`--dateafter`. They accept dates in two formats:
615 - Absolute dates: Dates in the format
`YYYYMMDD`.
616 - Relative dates: Dates in the format
`(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?`
621 # Download only the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
622 $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-6months
624 # Download only the videos uploaded on January 1, 1970
625 $ youtube-dl --date 19700101
627 $ # Download only the videos uploaded in the 200x decade
628 $ youtube-dl --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20091231
633 ### How do I update youtube-dl?
635 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`).
637 If you have used pip, a simple
`sudo pip install -U youtube-dl` is sufficient to update.
639 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 distribution serves a really outdated version. You can (and should) complain to your distribution in their bugtracker or support forum.
641 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
643 sudo apt-get remove -y youtube-dl
645 Afterwards, simply follow
[our manual installation instructions](http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html):
648 sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
649 sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
653 Again, from then on you'll be able to update with
`sudo youtube-dl -U`.
655 ### I'm getting an error `Unable to extract OpenGraph title` on YouTube playlists
657 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.
659 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.
661 ### Do I always have to pass `-citw`?
663 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, the only option out of
`-citw` that is regularly useful is
`-i`.
665 ### Can you please put the `-b` option back?
667 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.
669 ### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
671 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.
673 ### Do I need any other programs?
675 youtube-dl works fine on its own on most sites. However, if you want to convert video/audio, you'll need
[avconv](https://libav.org/) or
[ffmpeg](https://www.ffmpeg.org/). On some sites - most notably YouTube - videos can be retrieved in a higher quality format without sound. youtube-dl will detect whether avconv/ffmpeg is present and automatically pick the best option.
677 Videos or video formats streamed via RTMP protocol can only be downloaded when
[rtmpdump](https://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu/) is installed. Downloading MMS and RTSP videos requires either
[mplayer](http://mplayerhq.hu/) or
[mpv](https://mpv.io/) to be installed.
679 ### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
681 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as
[vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or
[mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
683 ### I extracted a video URL with `-g`, but it does not play on another machine / in my webbrowser.
685 It depends a lot on the service. In many cases, requests for the video (to download/play it) must come from the same IP address and with the same 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.
687 It may be beneficial to use IPv6; in some cases, the restrictions are only applied to IPv4. Some services (sometimes only for a subset of videos) do not restrict the video URL by IP address, cookie, or user-agent, but these are the exception rather than the rule.
689 Please bear in mind that some URL protocols are **not** supported by browsers out of the box, including RTMP. If you are using
`-g`, your own downloader must support these as well.
691 If you want to play the video on a machine that is not running youtube-dl, you can relay the video content from the machine that runs youtube-dl. You can use
`-o -` to let youtube-dl stream a video to stdout, or simply allow the player to download the files written by youtube-dl in turn.
693 ### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
695 YouTube has switched to a new video info format in July
2011 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. See [above](#how-do-i-update-youtube-dl) for how to update youtube-dl.
697 ### ERROR: unable to download video
699 YouTube requires an additional signature since September
2012 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. See [above](#how-do-i-update-youtube-dl) for how to update youtube-dl.
701 ### Video URL contains an ampersand and I'm getting some strange output `[1] 2839` or `'v' is not recognized as an internal or external command`
703 That's actually the output from your shell. Since ampersand is one of the special shell characters it's interpreted by the shell preventing you from passing the whole URL to youtube-dl. To disable your shell from interpreting the ampersands (or any other special characters) you have to either put the whole URL in quotes or escape them with a backslash (which approach will work depends on your shell).
705 For example if your URL is https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=
4&v=BaW_jenozKc you should end up with following command:
707 ```youtube-dl 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc'```
711 ```youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4\&v=BaW_jenozKc```
713 For Windows you have to use the double quotes:
715 ```youtube-dl "https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc"```
717 ### ExtractorError: Could not find JS function u'OF'
719 In February
2015, the new YouTube player contained a character sequence in a string that was misinterpreted by old versions of youtube-dl. See [above](#how-do-i-update-youtube-dl) for how to update youtube-dl.
721 ### HTTP Error 429: Too Many Requests or 402: Payment Required
723 These two error codes indicate that the service is blocking your IP address because of overuse. Contact the service and ask them to unblock your IP address, or - if you have acquired a whitelisted IP address already - use the [
`--proxy` or
`--source-address` options](#network-options) to select another IP address.
725 ### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character
729 File "youtube-dl", line
2
730 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '
\x93' ...
732 means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python
2.6 or
2.7.
734 ### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
736 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`.
738 ### The exe throws a *Runtime error from Visual C++*
740 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).
742 ### On Windows, how should I set up ffmpeg and youtube-dl? Where should I put the exe files?
744 If you put youtube-dl and ffmpeg in the same directory that you're running the command from, it will work, but that's rather cumbersome.
746 To make a different directory work - either for ffmpeg, or for youtube-dl, or for both - simply create the directory (say,
`C:\bin`, or
`C:\Users\<User name>\bin`), put all the executables directly in there, and then
[set your PATH environment variable](https://www.java.com/en/download/help/path.xml) to include that directory.
748 From then on, after restarting your shell, you will be able to access both youtube-dl and ffmpeg (and youtube-dl will be able to find ffmpeg) by simply typing
`youtube-dl` or
`ffmpeg`, no matter what directory you're in.
750 ### How do I put downloads into a specific folder?
752 Use the
`-o` to specify an [output template](#output-template), for example
`-o "/home/user/videos/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"`. If you want this for all of your downloads, put the option into your [configuration file](#configuration).
754 ### How do I download a video starting with a `-`?
756 Either prepend
`http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=` or separate the ID from the options with
`--`:
758 youtube-dl -- -wNyEUrxzFU
759 youtube-dl "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wNyEUrxzFU"
761 ### How do I pass cookies to youtube-dl?
763 Use the
`--cookies` option, for example
`--cookies /path/to/cookies/file.txt`. Note that the cookies file must be in Mozilla/Netscape format and the first line of the cookies file must be either
`# HTTP Cookie File` or
`# Netscape HTTP Cookie File`. Make sure you have correct
[newline format](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newline) in the cookies file and convert newlines if necessary to correspond with your OS, namely
`CRLF` (
`\r\n`) for Windows,
`LF` (
`\n`) for Linux and
`CR` (
`\r`) for Mac OS.
`HTTP Error 400: Bad Request` when using
`--cookies` is a good sign of invalid newline format.
765 Passing cookies to youtube-dl is a good way to workaround login when a particular extractor does not implement it explicitly. Another use case is working around
[CAPTCHA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAPTCHA) some websites require you to solve in particular cases in order to get access (e.g. YouTube, CloudFlare).
767 ### Can you add support for this anime video site, or site which shows current movies for free?
769 As a matter of policy (as well as legality), youtube-dl does not include support for services that specialize in infringing copyright. As a rule of thumb, if you cannot easily find a video that the service is quite obviously allowed to distribute (i.e. that has been uploaded by the creator, the creator's distributor, or is published under a free license), the service is probably unfit for inclusion to youtube-dl.
771 A note on the service that they don't host the infringing content, but just link to those who do, is evidence that the service should **not** be included into youtube-dl. The same goes for any DMCA note when the whole front page of the service is filled with videos they are not allowed to distribute. A "fair use" note is equally unconvincing if the service shows copyright-protected videos in full without authorization.
773 Support requests for services that **do** purchase the rights to distribute their content are perfectly fine though. If in doubt, you can simply include a source that mentions the legitimate purchase of content.
775 ### How can I speed up work on my issue?
777 (Also known as: Help, my important issue not being solved!) The youtube-dl core developer team is quite small. While we do our best to solve as many issues as possible, sometimes that can take quite a while. To speed up your issue, here's what you can do:
779 First of all, please do report the issue
[at our issue tracker](https://yt-dl.org/bugs). That allows us to coordinate all efforts by users and developers, and serves as a unified point. Unfortunately, the youtube-dl project has grown too large to use personal email as an effective communication channel.
781 Please read the [bug reporting instructions](#bugs) below. A lot of bugs lack all the necessary information. If you can, offer proxy, VPN, or shell access to the youtube-dl developers. If you are able to, test the issue from multiple computers in multiple countries to exclude local censorship or misconfiguration issues.
783 If nobody is interested in solving your issue, you are welcome to take matters into your own hands and submit a pull request (or coerce/pay somebody else to do so).
785 Feel free to bump the issue from time to time by writing a small comment ("Issue is still present in youtube-dl version ...from France, but fixed from Belgium"), but please not more than once a month. Please do not declare your issue as
`important` or
`urgent`.
787 ### How can I detect whether a given URL is supported by youtube-dl?
789 For one, have a look at the [list of supported sites](docs/supportedsites.md). Note that it can sometimes happen that the site changes its URL scheme (say, from http://example.com/video/
1234567 to http://example.com/v/
1234567 ) and youtube-dl reports an URL of a service in that list as unsupported. In that case, simply report a bug.
791 It is *not* possible to detect whether a URL is supported or not. That's because youtube-dl contains a generic extractor which matches **all** URLs. You may be tempted to disable, exclude, or remove the generic extractor, but the generic extractor not only allows users to extract videos from lots of websites that embed a video from another service, but may also be used to extract video from a service that it's hosting itself. Therefore, we neither recommend nor support disabling, excluding, or removing the generic extractor.
793 If you want to find out whether a given URL is supported, simply call youtube-dl with it. If you get no videos back, chances are the URL is either not referring to a video or unsupported. You can find out which by examining the output (if you run youtube-dl on the console) or catching an
`UnsupportedError` exception if you run it from a Python program.
795 # DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS
797 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.
799 To run youtube-dl as a developer, you don't need to build anything either. Simply execute
803 To run the test, simply invoke your favorite test runner, or execute a test file directly; any of the following work:
805 python -m unittest discover
806 python test/test_download.py
809 If you want to create a build of youtube-dl yourself, you'll need
817 ### Adding support for a new site
819 If you want to add support for a new site, you can follow this quick list (assuming your service is called
`yourextractor`):
821 1.
[Fork this repository](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/fork)
822 2. Check out the source code with
`git clone git@github.com:YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/youtube-dl.git`
823 3. Start a new git branch with
`cd youtube-dl; git checkout -b yourextractor`
824 4. Start with this simple template and save it to
`youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py`:
827 from __future__ import unicode_literals
829 from .common import InfoExtractor
832 class YourExtractorIE(InfoExtractor):
833 _VALID_URL = r'https?://(?:www\.)?yourextractor\.com/watch/(?P<id>[0-9]+)'
835 'url': 'http://yourextractor.com/watch/42',
836 'md5': 'TODO: md5 sum of the first 10241 bytes of the video file (use --test)',
840 'title': 'Video title goes here',
841 'thumbnail': 're:^https?://.*\.jpg$',
842 # TODO more properties, either as:
844 # * MD5 checksum; start the string with md5:
845 # * A regular expression; start the string with re:
846 # * Any Python type (for example int or float)
850 def _real_extract(self, url):
851 video_id = self._match_id(url)
852 webpage = self._download_webpage(url, video_id)
854 # TODO more code goes here, for example ...
855 title = self._html_search_regex(r'<h1>(.+?)</h1>', webpage, 'title')
860 'description': self._og_search_description(webpage),
861 'uploader': self._search_regex(r'<div[^>]+id="uploader"[^>]*>([^<]+)<', webpage, 'uploader', fatal=False),
862 # TODO more properties (see youtube_dl/extractor/common.py)
865 5. Add an import in
[`youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py`](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py).
866 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 then be named
`TestDownload.test_YourExtractor`,
`TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_1`,
`TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_2`, etc.
867 7. Have a look at
[`youtube_dl/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 and may return](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py#L62-L200). Add tests and code for as many as you want.
868 8. If you can, check the code with
[flake8](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/flake8).
869 9. When the tests pass,
[add](http://git-scm.com/docs/git-add) the new files and
[commit](http://git-scm.com/docs/git-commit) them and
[push](http://git-scm.com/docs/git-push) the result, like this:
871 $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py
872 $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py
873 $ git commit -m '[yourextractor] Add new extractor'
874 $ git push origin yourextractor
876 10. Finally,
[create a pull request](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-pull-request). We'll then review and merge it.
878 In any case, thank you very much for your contributions!
880 # EMBEDDING YOUTUBE-DL
882 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).
884 From a Python program, you can embed youtube-dl in a more powerful fashion, like this:
887 from __future__ import unicode_literals
891 with youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
892 ydl.download(['http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
895 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#L121-L269). For a start, if you want to intercept youtube-dl's output, set a
`logger` object.
897 Here's a more complete example of a program that outputs only errors (and a short message after the download is finished), and downloads/converts the video to an mp3 file:
900 from __future__ import unicode_literals
904 class MyLogger(object):
905 def debug(self, msg):
908 def warning(self, msg):
911 def error(self, msg):
916 if d['status'] == 'finished':
917 print('Done downloading, now converting ...')
921 'format': 'bestaudio/best',
923 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
924 'preferredcodec': 'mp3',
925 'preferredquality': '192',
927 'logger': MyLogger(),
928 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
930 with youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
931 ydl.download(['http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
936 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. For discussions, join us in the IRC channel
[#youtube-dl](irc://chat.freenode.net/#youtube-dl) on freenode ([webchat](http://webchat.freenode.net/?randomnick=1&channels=youtube-dl)).
938 **Please include the full output of youtube-dl when run with
`-v`**, i.e. add
`-v` flag to your command line, copy the **whole** output and post it in the issue body wrapped in \
`\`\
` for better formatting. It should look similar to this:
940 $ youtube-dl -v http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKcj
941 [debug] System config: []
942 [debug] User config: []
943 [debug] Command-line args: [u'-v', u'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKcj']
944 [debug] Encodings: locale cp1251, fs mbcs, out cp866, pref cp1251
945 [debug] youtube-dl version 2015.12.06
946 [debug] Git HEAD: 135392e
947 [debug] Python version 2.6.6 - Windows-2003Server-5.2.3790-SP2
948 [debug] exe versions: ffmpeg N-75573-g1d0487f, ffprobe N-75573-g1d0487f, rtmpdump 2.4
949 [debug] Proxy map: {}
952 **Do not post screenshots of verbose log only plain text is acceptable.**
954 The output (including the first lines) contains important debugging information. Issues without the full output are often not reproducible and therefore do not get solved in short order, if ever.
956 Please re-read your issue once again to avoid a couple of common mistakes (you can and should use this as a checklist):
958 ### Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?
960 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.
962 So please elaborate on what feature you are requesting, or what bug you want to be fixed. Make sure that it's obvious
964 - What the problem is
965 - How it could be fixed
966 - How your proposed solution would look like
968 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 committer 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.
970 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.
972 If your server has multiple IPs or you suspect censorship, adding `--call-home
` may be a good idea to get more diagnostics. If the error is `ERROR: Unable to extract ...
` and you cannot reproduce it from multiple countries, add `--dump-pages
` (warning: this will yield a rather large output, redirect it to the file `log.txt
` by adding `>log.txt
2>&
1` to your command-line) or upload the `.dump
` files you get when you add `--write-pages
` [somewhere](https://gist.github.com/).
974 **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.
976 ### Are you using the latest version?
978 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.
980 ### Is the issue already documented?
982 Make sure that someone has not already opened the issue you're trying to open. Search at the top of the window or browse the [GitHub Issues](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/search?type=Issues) of this repository. If there is an issue, feel free to write something along the lines of "This affects me as well, with version 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.
984 ### Why are existing options not enough?
986 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.
988 ### Is there enough context in your bug report?
990 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).
992 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.
994 ### Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?
996 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.
998 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.
1000 ### Is anyone going to need the feature?
1002 Only post features that you (or an incapacitated friend you can personally talk to) require. Do not post features because they seem like a good idea. If they are really useful, they will be requested by someone who requires them.
1004 ### Is your question about youtube-dl?
1006 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.
1010 youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
1012 This README file was originally written by [Daniel Bolton](https://github.com/dbbolton) and is likewise released into the public domain.