README.md

   1 % youtube-dl(1)
   2
   3 # NAME
   4 youtube-dl
   5
   6 # SYNOPSIS
   7 **youtube-dl** [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
   8
   9 # DESCRIPTION
  10 **youtube-dl** is a small command-line program to download videos from
  11 YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version
  12 2.x (x being at least 6), and it is not platform specific. It should work in
  13 your Unix box, in Windows or in Mac OS X. It is released to the public domain,
  14 which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
  15
  16 # OPTIONS
  17     -h, --help               print this help text and exit
  18     --version                print program version and exit
  19     -U, --update             update this program to latest version
  20     -i, --ignore-errors      continue on download errors
  21     -r, --rate-limit LIMIT   download rate limit (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
  22     -R, --retries RETRIES    number of retries (default is 10)
  23     --dump-user-agent        display the current browser identification
  24     --user-agent UA          specify a custom user agent
  25     --list-extractors        List all supported extractors and the URLs they
  26                              would handle
  27
  28   Video Selection:
  29     --playlist-start NUMBER  playlist video to start at (default is 1)
  30     --playlist-end NUMBER    playlist video to end at (default is last)
  31     --match-title REGEX      download only matching titles (regex or caseless
  32                              sub-string)
  33     --reject-title REGEX     skip download for matching titles (regex or
  34                              caseless sub-string)
  35     --max-downloads NUMBER   Abort after downloading NUMBER files
  36
  37   Filesystem Options:
  38     -t, --title              use title in file name
  39     --id                     use video ID in file name
  40     -l, --literal            use literal title in file name
  41     -A, --auto-number        number downloaded files starting from 00000
  42     -o, --output TEMPLATE    output filename template. Use %(stitle)s to get the
  43                              title, %(uploader)s for the uploader name,
  44                              %(autonumber)s to get an automatically incremented
  45                              number, %(ext)s for the filename extension,
  46                              %(upload_date)s for the upload date (YYYYMMDD),
  47                              %(extractor)s for the provider (youtube, metacafe,
  48                              etc), %(id)s for the video id and %% for a literal
  49                              percent. Use - to output to stdout.
  50     -a, --batch-file FILE    file containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)
  51     -w, --no-overwrites      do not overwrite files
  52     -c, --continue           resume partially downloaded files
  53     --no-continue            do not resume partially downloaded files (restart
  54                              from beginning)
  55     --cookies FILE           file to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in
  56     --no-part                do not use .part files
  57     --no-mtime               do not use the Last-modified header to set the file
  58                              modification time
  59     --write-description      write video description to a .description file
  60     --write-info-json        write video metadata to a .info.json file
  61
  62   Verbosity / Simulation Options:
  63     -q, --quiet              activates quiet mode
  64     -s, --simulate           do not download the video and do not write anything
  65                              to disk
  66     --skip-download          do not download the video
  67     -g, --get-url            simulate, quiet but print URL
  68     -e, --get-title          simulate, quiet but print title
  69     --get-thumbnail          simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
  70     --get-description        simulate, quiet but print video description
  71     --get-filename           simulate, quiet but print output filename
  72     --get-format             simulate, quiet but print output format
  73     --no-progress            do not print progress bar
  74     --console-title          display progress in console titlebar
  75     -v, --verbose            print various debugging information
  76
  77   Video Format Options:
  78     -f, --format FORMAT      video format code
  79     --all-formats            download all available video formats
  80     --prefer-free-formats    prefer free video formats unless a specific one is
  81                              requested
  82     --max-quality FORMAT     highest quality format to download
  83     -F, --list-formats       list all available formats (currently youtube only)
  84     --write-srt              write video closed captions to a .srt file
  85                              (currently youtube only)
  86     --srt-lang LANG          language of the closed captions to download
  87                              (optional) use IETF language tags like 'en'
  88
  89   Authentication Options:
  90     -u, --username USERNAME  account username
  91     -p, --password PASSWORD  account password
  92     -n, --netrc              use .netrc authentication data
  93
  94   Post-processing Options:
  95     -x, --extract-audio      convert video files to audio-only files (requires
  96                              ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)
  97     --audio-format FORMAT    "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", or "wav";
  98                              best by default
  99     --audio-quality QUALITY  ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification, insert a
 100                              value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse) for VBR or a
 101                              specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
 102     -k, --keep-video         keeps the video file on disk after the post-
 103                              processing; the video is erased by default
 104
 105 # FAQ
 106
 107 ### Can you please put the -b option back?
 108
 109 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.
 110
 111 ### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
 112
 113 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.
 114
 115 ### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
 116
 117 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as [vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or [mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
 118
 119 ### The links provided by youtube-dl -g are not working anymore
 120
 121 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.
 122
 123 ### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
 124
 125 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`.
 126
 127 ### ERROR: unable to download video ###
 128
 129 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`.
 130
 131 ### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character ###
 132
 133 The error
 134
 135     File "youtube-dl", line 2
 136     SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\93' ...
 137
 138 means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python 2.6 or 2.7.
 139
 140 To run youtube-dl under Python 2.5, you'll have to manually check it out like this:
 141
 142         git clone git://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl.git
 143         cd youtube-dl
 144         python -m youtube_dl --help
 145
 146 Please note that Python 2.5 is not supported anymore.
 147
 148 ### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
 149
 150 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 repo to see the code. If you modify the code, you can run it by executing the `__main__.py` file. To recompile the executable, run `make compile`.
 151
 152 ### The exe throws a *Runtime error from Visual C++*
 153
 154 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).
 155
 156 # COPYRIGHT
 157
 158 youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
 159
 160 This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton (<https://github.com/dbbolton>) and is likewise released into the public domain.
 161
 162 # BUGS
 163
 164 Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: <https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues>
 165
 166 Please include:
 167
 168 * Your exact command line, like `youtube-dl -t "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHlDtZ6Oc3s&feature=channel_video_title"`. A common mistake is not to escape the `&`. Putting URLs in quotes should solve this problem.
 169 * The output of `youtube-dl --version`
 170 * The output of `python --version`
 171 * The name and version of your Operating System ("Ubuntu 11.04 x64" or "Windows 7 x64" is usually enough).