README.md

   1 % YOUTUBE-DL(1)
   2
   3 # NAME
   4 youtube-dl - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms
   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 2.6, 2.7, or 3.3+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on
  13 your Unix box, on Windows or on 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. Make sure
  20                                that you have sufficient permissions (run with
  21                                sudo if needed)
  22     -i, --ignore-errors        continue on download errors, for example to to
  23                                skip unavailable videos in a playlist
  24     --abort-on-error           Abort downloading of further videos (in the
  25                                playlist or the command line) if an error occurs
  26     --dump-user-agent          display the current browser identification
  27     --user-agent UA            specify a custom user agent
  28     --referer REF              specify a custom referer, use if the video access
  29                                is restricted to one domain
  30     --list-extractors          List all supported extractors and the URLs they
  31                                would handle
  32     --extractor-descriptions   Output descriptions of all supported extractors
  33     --proxy URL                Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy
  34     --no-check-certificate     Suppress HTTPS certificate validation.
  35     --cache-dir DIR            Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl can
  36                                store downloaded information permanently. By
  37                                default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl or ~/.cache
  38                                /youtube-dl .
  39     --no-cache-dir             Disable filesystem caching
  40
  41 ## Video Selection:
  42     --playlist-start NUMBER    playlist video to start at (default is 1)
  43     --playlist-end NUMBER      playlist video to end at (default is last)
  44     --match-title REGEX        download only matching titles (regex or caseless
  45                                sub-string)
  46     --reject-title REGEX       skip download for matching titles (regex or
  47                                caseless sub-string)
  48     --max-downloads NUMBER     Abort after downloading NUMBER files
  49     --min-filesize SIZE        Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE
  50                                (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
  51     --max-filesize SIZE        Do not download any videos larger than SIZE (e.g.
  52                                50k or 44.6m)
  53     --date DATE                download only videos uploaded in this date
  54     --datebefore DATE          download only videos uploaded before this date
  55     --dateafter DATE           download only videos uploaded after this date
  56     --no-playlist              download only the currently playing video
  57     --age-limit YEARS          download only videos suitable for the given age
  58     --download-archive FILE    Download only videos not present in the archive
  59                                file. Record the IDs of all downloaded videos in
  60                                it.
  61
  62 ## Download Options:
  63     -r, --rate-limit LIMIT     maximum download rate in bytes per second (e.g.
  64                                50K or 4.2M)
  65     -R, --retries RETRIES      number of retries (default is 10)
  66     --buffer-size SIZE         size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
  67                                (default is 1024)
  68     --no-resize-buffer         do not automatically adjust the buffer size. By
  69                                default, the buffer size is automatically resized
  70                                from an initial value of SIZE.
  71
  72 ## Filesystem Options:
  73     -t, --title                use title in file name (default)
  74     --id                       use only video ID in file name
  75     -l, --literal              [deprecated] alias of --title
  76     -A, --auto-number          number downloaded files starting from 00000
  77     -o, --output TEMPLATE      output filename template. Use %(title)s to get
  78                                the title, %(uploader)s for the uploader name,
  79                                %(uploader_id)s for the uploader nickname if
  80                                different, %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
  81                                incremented number, %(ext)s for the filename
  82                                extension, %(format)s for the format description
  83                                (like "22 - 1280x720" or "HD"),%(format_id)s for
  84                                the unique id of the format (like Youtube's
  85                                itags: "137"),%(upload_date)s for the upload date
  86                                (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
  87                                (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the video id
  88                                , %(playlist)s for the playlist the video is in,
  89                                %(playlist_index)s for the position in the
  90                                playlist and %% for a literal percent. Use - to
  91                                output to stdout. Can also be used to download to
  92                                a different directory, for example with -o '/my/d
  93                                ownloads/%(uploader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
  94     --autonumber-size NUMBER   Specifies the number of digits in %(autonumber)s
  95                                when it is present in output filename template or
  96                                --auto-number option is given
  97     --restrict-filenames       Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters, and
  98                                avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
  99     -a, --batch-file FILE      file containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)
 100     -w, --no-overwrites        do not overwrite files
 101     -c, --continue             force resume of partially downloaded files. By
 102                                default, youtube-dl will resume downloads if
 103                                possible.
 104     --no-continue              do not resume partially downloaded files (restart
 105                                from beginning)
 106     --cookies FILE             file to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in
 107     --no-part                  do not use .part files
 108     --no-mtime                 do not use the Last-modified header to set the
 109                                file modification time
 110     --write-description        write video description to a .description file
 111     --write-info-json          write video metadata to a .info.json file
 112     --write-annotations        write video annotations to a .annotation file
 113     --write-thumbnail          write thumbnail image to disk
 114
 115 ## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
 116     -q, --quiet                activates quiet mode
 117     -s, --simulate             do not download the video and do not write
 118                                anything to disk
 119     --skip-download            do not download the video
 120     -g, --get-url              simulate, quiet but print URL
 121     -e, --get-title            simulate, quiet but print title
 122     --get-id                   simulate, quiet but print id
 123     --get-thumbnail            simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
 124     --get-description          simulate, quiet but print video description
 125     --get-filename             simulate, quiet but print output filename
 126     --get-format               simulate, quiet but print output format
 127     -j, --dump-json            simulate, quiet but print JSON information
 128     --newline                  output progress bar as new lines
 129     --no-progress              do not print progress bar
 130     --console-title            display progress in console titlebar
 131     -v, --verbose              print various debugging information
 132     --dump-intermediate-pages  print downloaded pages to debug problems(very
 133                                verbose)
 134     --write-pages              Write downloaded intermediary pages to files in
 135                                the current directory to debug problems
 136
 137 ## Video Format Options:
 138     -f, --format FORMAT        video format code, specify the order of
 139                                preference using slashes: "-f 22/17/18". "-f mp4"
 140                                and "-f flv" are also supported
 141     --all-formats              download all available video formats
 142     --prefer-free-formats      prefer free video formats unless a specific one
 143                                is requested
 144     --max-quality FORMAT       highest quality format to download
 145     -F, --list-formats         list all available formats (currently youtube
 146                                only)
 147
 148 ## Subtitle Options:
 149     --write-sub                write subtitle file
 150     --write-auto-sub           write automatic subtitle file (youtube only)
 151     --all-subs                 downloads all the available subtitles of the
 152                                video
 153     --list-subs                lists all available subtitles for the video
 154     --sub-format FORMAT        subtitle format (default=srt) ([sbv/vtt] youtube
 155                                only)
 156     --sub-lang LANGS           languages of the subtitles to download (optional)
 157                                separated by commas, use IETF language tags like
 158                                'en,pt'
 159
 160 ## Authentication Options:
 161     -u, --username USERNAME    account username
 162     -p, --password PASSWORD    account password
 163     -n, --netrc                use .netrc authentication data
 164     --video-password PASSWORD  video password (vimeo only)
 165
 166 ## Post-processing Options:
 167     -x, --extract-audio        convert video files to audio-only files (requires
 168                                ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)
 169     --audio-format FORMAT      "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", or
 170                                "wav"; best by default
 171     --audio-quality QUALITY    ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification, insert
 172                                a value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse) for VBR
 173                                or a specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
 174     --recode-video FORMAT      Encode the video to another format if necessary
 175                                (currently supported: mp4|flv|ogg|webm)
 176     -k, --keep-video           keeps the video file on disk after the post-
 177                                processing; the video is erased by default
 178     --no-post-overwrites       do not overwrite post-processed files; the post-
 179                                processed files are overwritten by default
 180     --embed-subs               embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4
 181                                videos)
 182     --add-metadata             add metadata to the files
 183
 184 # CONFIGURATION
 185
 186 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.conf`. On Windows, the configuration file locations are `%APPDATA%\youtube-dl\config` and `C:\Users\<Yourname>\youtube-dl.conf`.
 187
 188 # OUTPUT TEMPLATE
 189
 190 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:
 191
 192  - `id`: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier.
 193  - `url`: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL.
 194  - `uploader`: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the person who uploaded the video.
 195  - `upload_date`: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date in YYYYMMDD format.
 196  - `title`: The sequence will be replaced by the video title.
 197  - `ext`: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension (like flv or mp4).
 198  - `epoch`: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when creating the file.
 199  - `autonumber`: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.
 200  - `playlist`: The name or the id of the playlist that contains the video.
 201  - `playlist_index`: The index of the video in the playlist, a five-digit number.
 202
 203 The current default template is `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`.
 204
 205 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:
 206
 207     $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
 208     youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4    # All kinds of weird characters
 209     $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
 210     youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4          # A simple file name
 211
 212 # VIDEO SELECTION
 213
 214 Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options `--date`, `--datebefore` or `--dateafter`, they accept dates in two formats:
 215
 216  - Absolute dates: Dates in the format `YYYYMMDD`.
 217  - Relative dates: Dates in the format `(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?`
 218
 219 Examples:
 220
 221         $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-6months #will only download the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
 222         $ youtube-dl --date 19700101 #will only download the videos uploaded in January 1, 1970
 223         $ youtube-dl --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20100101 #will only download the videos uploaded between 2000 and 2010
 224
 225 # FAQ
 226
 227 ### Can you please put the -b option back?
 228
 229 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.
 230
 231 ### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
 232
 233 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.
 234
 235 ### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
 236
 237 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as [vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or [mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
 238
 239 ### The links provided by youtube-dl -g are not working anymore
 240
 241 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.
 242
 243 ### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
 244
 245 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`.
 246
 247 ### ERROR: unable to download video ###
 248
 249 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`.
 250
 251 ### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character ###
 252
 253 The error
 254
 255     File "youtube-dl", line 2
 256     SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\x93' ...
 257
 258 means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python 2.6 or 2.7.
 259
 260 ### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
 261
 262 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`.
 263
 264 ### The exe throws a *Runtime error from Visual C++*
 265
 266 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).
 267
 268 # COPYRIGHT
 269
 270 youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
 271
 272 This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton (<https://github.com/dbbolton>) and is likewise released into the public domain.
 273
 274 # BUGS
 275
 276 Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: <https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues>
 277
 278 Please include:
 279
 280 * 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.
 281 * If possible re-run the command with `--verbose`, and include the full output, it is really helpful to us.
 282 * The output of `youtube-dl --version`
 283 * The output of `python --version`
 284 * The name and version of your Operating System ("Ubuntu 11.04 x64" or "Windows 7 x64" is usually enough).
 285
 286 For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.