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     -l, --literal            use literal title in file name
  40     -A, --auto-number        number downloaded files starting from 00000
  41     -o, --output TEMPLATE    output filename template. Use %(stitle)s to get the
  42                              title, %(uploader)s for the uploader name,
  43                              %(autonumber)s to get an automatically incremented
  44                              number, %(ext)s for the filename extension,
  45                              %(upload_date)s for the upload date (YYYYMMDD),
  46                              %(provider)s for the provider (youtube, metacafe,
  47                              etc), %(id)s for the video id and %% for a literal
  48                              percent. Use - to output to stdout.
  49     -a, --batch-file FILE    file containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)
  50     -w, --no-overwrites      do not overwrite files
  51     -c, --continue           resume partially downloaded files
  52     --no-continue            do not resume partially downloaded files (restart
  53                              from beginning)
  54     --cookies FILE           file to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in
  55     --no-part                do not use .part files
  56     --no-mtime               do not use the Last-modified header to set the file
  57                              modification time
  58     --write-description      write video description to a .description file
  59     --write-info-json        write video metadata to a .info.json file
  60
  61 ## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
  62     -q, --quiet              activates quiet mode
  63     -s, --simulate           do not download the video and do not write anything
  64                              to disk
  65     --skip-download          do not download the video
  66     -g, --get-url            simulate, quiet but print URL
  67     -e, --get-title          simulate, quiet but print title
  68     --get-thumbnail          simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
  69     --get-description        simulate, quiet but print video description
  70     --get-filename           simulate, quiet but print output filename
  71     --get-format             simulate, quiet but print output format
  72     --no-progress            do not print progress bar
  73     --console-title          display progress in console titlebar
  74     -v, --verbose            print various debugging information
  75
  76 ## Video Format Options:
  77     -f, --format FORMAT      video format code
  78     --all-formats            download all available video formats
  79     --prefer-free-formats    prefer free video formats unless a specific one is
  80                              requested
  81     --max-quality FORMAT     highest quality format to download
  82     -F, --list-formats       list all available formats (currently youtube only)
  83     --write-srt              write video closed captions to a .srt file
  84                              (currently youtube only)
  85     --srt-lang LANG          language of the closed captions to download
  86                              (optional) use IETF language tags like 'en'
  87
  88 ## Authentication Options:
  89     -u, --username USERNAME  account username
  90     -p, --password PASSWORD  account password
  91     -n, --netrc              use .netrc authentication data
  92
  93 ## Post-processing Options:
  94     --extract-audio          convert video files to audio-only files (requires
  95                              ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)
  96     --audio-format FORMAT    "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", or "wav";
  97                              best by default
  98     --audio-quality QUALITY  ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification, insert a
  99                              value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse) for VBR or a
 100                              specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
 101     -k, --keep-video         keeps the video file on disk after the post-
 102                              processing; the video is erased by default
 103
 104 # FAQ
 105
 106 ### Can you please put the -b option back?
 107
 108 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.
 109
 110 ### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
 111
 112 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.
 113
 114 ### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
 115
 116 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as [vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or [mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
 117
 118 ### The links provided by youtube-dl -g are not working anymore
 119
 120 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.
 121
 122 ### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
 123
 124 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`.
 125
 126 ### ERROR: unable to download video ###
 127
 128 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`.
 129
 130 ### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character ###
 131
 132 The error
 133
 134     File "youtube-dl", line 2
 135     SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\x93' ...
 136
 137 means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python 2.6 or 2.7.
 138
 139 To run youtube-dl under Python 2.5, you'll have to manually check it out like this:
 140
 141         git clone git://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl.git
 142         cd youtube-dl
 143         python -m youtube_dl --help
 144
 145 Please note that Python 2.5 is not supported anymore.
 146
 147 ### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
 148
 149 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`.
 150
 151 ### The exe throws a *Runtime error from Visual C++*
 152
 153 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).
 154
 155 # COPYRIGHT
 156
 157 youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
 158
 159 This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton (<https://github.com/dbbolton>) and is likewise released into the public domain.
 160
 161 # BUGS
 162
 163 Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: <https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues>
 164
 165 Please include:
 166
 167 * 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.
 168 * The output of `youtube-dl --version`
 169 * The output of `python --version`
 170 * The name and version of your Operating System ("Ubuntu 11.04 x64" or "Windows 7 x64" is usually enough).