]> jfr.im git - yt-dlp.git/blob - README.md
[extractor/twitter] Fix unauthenticated extraction (#7476)
[yt-dlp.git] / README.md
1 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
2 <div align="center">
3
4 [![YT-DLP](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master/.github/banner.svg)](#readme)
5
6 [![Release version](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?color=brightgreen&label=Download&style=for-the-badge)](#installation "Installation")
7 [![PyPi](https://img.shields.io/badge/-PyPi-blue.svg?logo=pypi&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp "PyPi")
8 [![Donate](https://img.shields.io/badge/_-Donate-red.svg?logo=githubsponsors&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](Collaborators.md#collaborators "Donate")
9 [![Matrix](https://img.shields.io/matrix/yt-dlp:matrix.org?color=brightgreen&labelColor=555555&label=&logo=element&style=for-the-badge)](https://matrix.to/#/#yt-dlp:matrix.org "Matrix")
10 [![Discord](https://img.shields.io/discord/807245652072857610?color=blue&labelColor=555555&label=&logo=discord&style=for-the-badge)](https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r "Discord")
11 [![Supported Sites](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Supported_Sites-brightgreen.svg?style=for-the-badge)](supportedsites.md "Supported Sites")
12 [![License: Unlicense](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Unlicense-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge)](LICENSE "License")
13 [![CI Status](https://img.shields.io/github/actions/workflow/status/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/core.yml?branch=master&label=Tests&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions "CI Status")
14 [![Commits](https://img.shields.io/github/commit-activity/m/yt-dlp/yt-dlp?label=commits&style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
15 [![Last Commit](https://img.shields.io/github/last-commit/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/master?label=&style=for-the-badge&display_timestamp=committer)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
16
17 </div>
18 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
19
20 yt-dlp is a [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) fork based on the now inactive [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc). The main focus of this project is adding new features and patches while also keeping up to date with the original project
21
22 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "USAGE AND OPTIONS" SECTION HERE -->
23
24 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
25 * [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
26 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
27 * [INSTALLATION](#installation)
28 * [Detailed instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation)
29 * [Update](#update)
30 * [Release Files](#release-files)
31 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
32 * [Compile](#compile)
33 * [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
34 * [General Options](#general-options)
35 * [Network Options](#network-options)
36 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
37 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
38 * [Download Options](#download-options)
39 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
40 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
41 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
42 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
43 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
44 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
45 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
46 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
47 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
48 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
49 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
50 * [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
51 * [Configuration file encoding](#configuration-file-encoding)
52 * [Authentication with netrc](#authentication-with-netrc)
53 * [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
54 * [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
55 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
56 * [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
57 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
58 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
59 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
60 * [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
61 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
62 * [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
63 * [PLUGINS](#plugins)
64 * [Installing Plugins](#installing-plugins)
65 * [Developing Plugins](#developing-plugins)
66 * [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
67 * [Embedding examples](#embedding-examples)
68 * [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
69 * [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
70 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
71 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
72 * [WIKI](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki)
73 * [FAQ](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/FAQ)
74 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
75
76
77 # NEW FEATURES
78
79 * Forked from [**yt-dlc@f9401f2**](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/commit/f9401f2a91987068139c5f757b12fc711d4c0cee) and merged with [**youtube-dl@42f2d4**](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/42f2d4) ([exceptions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/21))
80
81 * **[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in YouTube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
82
83 * **[Format Sorting](#sorting-formats)**: The default format sorting options have been changed so that higher resolution and better codecs will be now preferred instead of simply using larger bitrate. Furthermore, you can now specify the sort order using `-S`. This allows for much easier format selection than what is possible by simply using `--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
84
85 * **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from [animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including `--write-comments`, `BiliBiliSearch`, `BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that NicoNico livestreams are not available. See [#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
86
87 * **YouTube improvements**:
88 * Supports Clips, Stories (`ytstories:<channel UCID>`), Search (including filters)**\***, YouTube Music Search, Channel-specific search, Search prefixes (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`)**\***, Mixes, and Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`, `:ytnotif`)
89 * Fix for [n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326) **\***
90 * Supports some (but not all) age-gated content without cookies
91 * Download livestreams from the start using `--live-from-start` (*experimental*)
92 * `255kbps` audio is extracted (if available) from YouTube Music when premium cookies are given
93 * Channel URLs download all uploads of the channel, including shorts and live
94
95 * **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using `--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]`
96
97 * **Download time range**: Videos can be downloaded partially based on either timestamps or chapters using `--download-sections`
98
99 * **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using `--split-chapters`
100
101 * **Multi-threaded fragment downloads**: Download multiple fragments of m3u8/mpd videos in parallel. Use `--concurrent-fragments` (`-N`) option to set the number of threads used
102
103 * **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use `aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
104
105 * **New and fixed extractors**: Many new extractors have been added and a lot of existing ones have been fixed. See the [changelog](Changelog.md) or the [list of supported sites](supportedsites.md)
106
107 * **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN etc.
108
109 * **Subtitle extraction from manifests**: Subtitles can be extracted from streaming media manifests. See [commit/be6202f](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/be6202f12b97858b9d716e608394b51065d0419f) for details
110
111 * **Multiple paths and output templates**: You can give different [output templates](#output-template) and download paths for different types of files. You can also set a temporary path where intermediary files are downloaded to using `--paths` (`-P`)
112
113 * **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for details
114
115 * **Output template improvements**: Output templates can now have date-time formatting, numeric offsets, object traversal etc. See [output template](#output-template) for details. Even more advanced operations can also be done with the help of `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
116
117 * **Other new options**: Many new options have been added such as `--alias`, `--print`, `--concat-playlist`, `--wait-for-video`, `--retry-sleep`, `--sleep-requests`, `--convert-thumbnails`, `--force-download-archive`, `--force-overwrites`, `--break-match-filter` etc
118
119 * **Improvements**: Regex and other operators in `--format`/`--match-filter`, multiple `--postprocessor-args` and `--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection), merge multi-video/audio, multiple `--config-locations`, `--exec` at different stages, etc
120
121 * **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
122
123 * **Self updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`, and downgraded using `--update-to` if required
124
125 * **Nightly builds**: [Automated nightly builds](#update-channels) can be used with `--update-to nightly`
126
127 See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
128
129 Features marked with a **\*** have been back-ported to youtube-dl
130
131 ### Differences in default behavior
132
133 Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
134
135 * yt-dlp supports only [Python 3.7+](## "Windows 7"), and *may* remove support for more versions as they [become EOL](https://devguide.python.org/versions/#python-release-cycle); while [youtube-dl still supports Python 2.6+ and 3.2+](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/30568#issue-1118238743)
136 * The options `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
137 * `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
138 * yt-dlp stores config files in slightly different locations to youtube-dl. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for a list of correct locations
139 * The default [output template](#output-template) is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`. There is no real reason for this change. This was changed before yt-dlp was ever made public and now there are no plans to change it back to `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`. Instead, you may use `--compat-options filename`
140 * The default [format sorting](#sorting-formats) is different from youtube-dl and prefers higher resolution and better codecs rather than higher bitrates. You can use the `--format-sort` option to change this to any order you prefer, or use `--compat-options format-sort` to use youtube-dl's sorting order
141 * The default format selector is `bv*+ba/b`. This means that if a combined video + audio format that is better than the best video-only format is found, the former will be preferred. Use `-f bv+ba/b` or `--compat-options format-spec` to revert this
142 * Unlike youtube-dlc, yt-dlp does not allow merging multiple audio/video streams into one file by default (since this conflicts with the use of `-f bv*+ba`). If needed, this feature must be enabled using `--audio-multistreams` and `--video-multistreams`. You can also use `--compat-options multistreams` to enable both
143 * `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
144 * When writing metadata files such as thumbnails, description or infojson, the same information (if available) is also written for playlists. Use `--no-write-playlist-metafiles` or `--compat-options no-playlist-metafiles` to not write these files
145 * `--add-metadata` attaches the `infojson` to `mkv` files in addition to writing the metadata when used with `--write-info-json`. Use `--no-embed-info-json` or `--compat-options no-attach-info-json` to revert this
146 * Some metadata are embedded into different fields when using `--add-metadata` as compared to youtube-dl. Most notably, `comment` field contains the `webpage_url` and `synopsis` contains the `description`. You can [use `--parse-metadata`](#modifying-metadata) to modify this to your liking or use `--compat-options embed-metadata` to revert this
147 * `playlist_index` behaves differently when used with options like `--playlist-reverse` and `--playlist-items`. See [#302](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/302) for details. You can use `--compat-options playlist-index` if you want to keep the earlier behavior
148 * The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
149 * Live chats (if available) are considered as subtitles. Use `--sub-langs all,-live_chat` to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use `--compat-options no-live-chat` to prevent any live chat/danmaku from downloading
150 * YouTube channel URLs download all uploads of the channel. To download only the videos in a specific tab, pass the tab's URL. If the channel does not show the requested tab, an error will be raised. Also, `/live` URLs raise an error if there are no live videos instead of silently downloading the entire channel. You may use `--compat-options no-youtube-channel-redirect` to revert all these redirections
151 * Unavailable videos are also listed for YouTube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
152 * The upload dates extracted from YouTube are in UTC [when available](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/89e4d86171c7b7c997c77d4714542e0383bf0db0/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L3898-L3900). Use `--compat-options no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date` to prefer the non-UTC upload date.
153 * If `ffmpeg` is used as the downloader, the downloading and merging of formats happen in a single step when possible. Use `--compat-options no-direct-merge` to revert this
154 * Thumbnail embedding in `mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use `--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
155 * Some internal metadata such as filenames are removed by default from the infojson. Use `--no-clean-infojson` or `--compat-options no-clean-infojson` to revert this
156 * When `--embed-subs` and `--write-subs` are used together, the subtitles are written to disk and also embedded in the media file. You can use just `--embed-subs` to embed the subs and automatically delete the separate file. See [#630 (comment)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/630#issuecomment-893659460) for more info. `--compat-options no-keep-subs` can be used to revert this
157 * `certifi` will be used for SSL root certificates, if installed. If you want to use system certificates (e.g. self-signed), use `--compat-options no-certifi`
158 * yt-dlp's sanitization of invalid characters in filenames is different/smarter than in youtube-dl. You can use `--compat-options filename-sanitization` to revert to youtube-dl's behavior
159 * yt-dlp tries to parse the external downloader outputs into the standard progress output if possible (Currently implemented: [~~aria2c~~](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/5931)). You can use `--compat-options no-external-downloader-progress` to get the downloader output as-is
160 * yt-dlp versions between 2021.09.01 and 2023.01.02 applies `--match-filter` to nested playlists. This was an unintentional side-effect of [8f18ac](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/8f18aca8717bb0dd49054555af8d386e5eda3a88) and is fixed in [d7b460](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/d7b460d0e5fc710950582baed2e3fc616ed98a80). Use `--compat-options playlist-match-filter` to revert this
161
162 For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
163
164 * `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options (Do NOT use)
165 * `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams,-playlist-match-filter`
166 * `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect,-playlist-match-filter`
167 * `--compat-options 2021`: Same as `--compat-options 2022,no-certifi,filename-sanitization,no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date`
168 * `--compat-options 2022`: Same as `--compat-options playlist-match-filter,no-external-downloader-progress`. Use this to enable all future compat options
169
170
171 # INSTALLATION
172
173 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
174 [![Windows](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Windows_x64-blue.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=windows)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)
175 [![Unix](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Linux/BSD-red.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=linux)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)
176 [![MacOS](https://img.shields.io/badge/-MacOS-lightblue.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=apple)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)
177 [![PyPi](https://img.shields.io/badge/-PyPi-blue.svg?logo=pypi&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
178 [![Source Tarball](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Source_tar-green.svg?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
179 [![Other variants](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Other-grey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](#release-files)
180 [![All versions](https://img.shields.io/badge/-All_Versions-lightgrey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
181 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
182
183 You can install yt-dlp using [the binaries](#release-files), [pip](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) or one using a third-party package manager. See [the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation) for detailed instructions
184
185
186 ## UPDATE
187 You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are using the [release binaries](#release-files)
188
189 If you [installed with pip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
190
191 For other third-party package managers, see [the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#third-party-package-managers) or refer their documentation
192
193 <a id="update-channels"/>
194
195 There are currently two release channels for binaries, `stable` and `nightly`.
196 `stable` is the default channel, and many of its changes have been tested by users of the nightly channel.
197 The `nightly` channel has releases built after each push to the master branch, and will have the most recent fixes and additions, but also have more risk of regressions. They are available in [their own repo](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds/releases).
198
199 When using `--update`/`-U`, a release binary will only update to its current channel.
200 `--update-to CHANNEL` can be used to switch to a different channel when a newer version is available. `--update-to [CHANNEL@]TAG` can also be used to upgrade or downgrade to specific tags from a channel.
201
202 You may also use `--update-to <repository>` (`<owner>/<repository>`) to update to a channel on a completely different repository. Be careful with what repository you are updating to though, there is no verification done for binaries from different repositories.
203
204 Example usage:
205 * `yt-dlp --update-to nightly` change to `nightly` channel and update to its latest release
206 * `yt-dlp --update-to stable@2023.02.17` upgrade/downgrade to release to `stable` channel tag `2023.02.17`
207 * `yt-dlp --update-to 2023.01.06` upgrade/downgrade to tag `2023.01.06` if it exists on the current channel
208 * `yt-dlp --update-to example/yt-dlp@2023.03.01` upgrade/downgrade to the release from the `example/yt-dlp` repository, tag `2023.03.01`
209
210 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
211 ## RELEASE FILES
212
213 #### Recommended
214
215 File|Description
216 :---|:---
217 [yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform-independent [zipimport](https://docs.python.org/3/library/zipimport.html) binary. Needs Python (recommended for **Linux/BSD**)
218 [yt-dlp.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary (recommended for **Windows**)
219 [yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|Universal MacOS (10.15+) standalone executable (recommended for **MacOS**)
220
221 #### Alternatives
222
223 File|Description
224 :---|:---
225 [yt-dlp_x86.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_x86.exe)|Windows (Vista SP2+) standalone x86 (32-bit) binary
226 [yt-dlp_min.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_min.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary built with `py2exe`<br/> ([Not recommended](#standalone-py2exe-builds-windows))
227 [yt-dlp_linux](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux)|Linux standalone x64 binary
228 [yt-dlp_linux.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux.zip)|Unpackaged Linux executable (no auto-update)
229 [yt-dlp_linux_armv7l](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_armv7l)|Linux standalone armv7l (32-bit) binary
230 [yt-dlp_linux_aarch64](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_aarch64)|Linux standalone aarch64 (64-bit) binary
231 [yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
232 [yt-dlp_macos.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos.zip)|Unpackaged MacOS (10.15+) executable (no auto-update)
233 [yt-dlp_macos_legacy](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos_legacy)|MacOS (10.9+) standalone x64 executable
234
235 #### Misc
236
237 File|Description
238 :---|:---
239 [yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball
240 [SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
241 [SHA2-512SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA512 sums
242 [SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
243 [SHA2-256SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA256 sums
244
245 The public key that can be used to verify the GPG signatures is [available here](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/public.key)
246 Example usage:
247 ```
248 curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/raw/master/public.key | gpg --import
249 gpg --verify SHA2-256SUMS.sig SHA2-256SUMS
250 gpg --verify SHA2-512SUMS.sig SHA2-512SUMS
251 ```
252 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
253
254 **Note**: The manpages, shell completion (autocomplete) files etc. are available inside the [source tarball](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
255
256 ## DEPENDENCIES
257 Python versions 3.7+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
258
259 <!-- Python 3.5+ uses VC++14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
260 <!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999 --x>
261 On windows, [Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86)](https://download.microsoft.com/download/1/6/5/165255E7-1014-4D0A-B094-B6A430A6BFFC/vcredist_x86.exe) is also necessary to run yt-dlp. You probably already have this, but if the executable throws an error due to missing `MSVCR100.dll` you need to install it manually.
262 -->
263
264 While all the other dependencies are optional, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended
265
266 ### Strongly recommended
267
268 * [**ffmpeg** and **ffprobe**](https://www.ffmpeg.org) - Required for [merging separate video and audio files](#format-selection) as well as for various [post-processing](#post-processing-options) tasks. License [depends on the build](https://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html)
269
270 There are bugs in ffmpeg that causes various issues when used alongside yt-dlp. Since ffmpeg is such an important dependency, we provide [custom builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#ffmpeg-static-auto-builds) with patches for some of these issues at [yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds). See [the readme](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#patches-applied) for details on the specific issues solved by these builds
271
272 **Important**: What you need is ffmpeg *binary*, **NOT** [the python package of the same name](https://pypi.org/project/ffmpeg)
273
274 ### Networking
275 * [**certifi**](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi)\* - Provides Mozilla's root certificate bundle. Licensed under [MPLv2](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi/blob/master/LICENSE)
276 * [**brotli**](https://github.com/google/brotli)\* or [**brotlicffi**](https://github.com/python-hyper/brotlicffi) - [Brotli](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brotli) content encoding support. Both licensed under MIT <sup>[1](https://github.com/google/brotli/blob/master/LICENSE) [2](https://github.com/python-hyper/brotlicffi/blob/master/LICENSE) </sup>
277 * [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
278
279 ### Metadata
280
281 * [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For `--embed-thumbnail` in certain formats. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
282 * [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For `--embed-thumbnail` in `mp4`/`m4a` files when `mutagen`/`ffmpeg` cannot. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
283 * [**xattr**](https://github.com/xattr/xattr), [**pyxattr**](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr) or [**setfattr**](http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/attr) - For writing xattr metadata (`--xattr`) on **Linux**. Licensed under [MIT](https://github.com/xattr/xattr/blob/master/LICENSE.txt), [LGPL2.1](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr/blob/master/COPYING) and [GPLv2+](http://git.savannah.nongnu.org/cgit/attr.git/tree/doc/COPYING) respectively
284
285 ### Misc
286
287 * [**pycryptodomex**](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome)\* - For decrypting AES-128 HLS streams and various other data. Licensed under [BSD-2-Clause](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome/blob/master/LICENSE.rst)
288 * [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
289 * [**secretstorage**](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage) - For `--cookies-from-browser` to access the **Gnome** keyring while decrypting cookies of **Chromium**-based browsers on **Linux**. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage/blob/master/LICENSE)
290 * Any external downloader that you want to use with `--downloader`
291
292 ### Deprecated
293
294 * [**avconv** and **avprobe**](https://www.libav.org) - Now **deprecated** alternative to ffmpeg. License [depends on the build](https://libav.org/legal)
295 * [**sponskrub**](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) - For using the now **deprecated** [sponskrub options](#sponskrub-options). Licensed under [GPLv3+](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub/blob/master/LICENCE.md)
296 * [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with `--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
297 * [**mplayer**](http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html) or [**mpv**](https://mpv.io) - For downloading `rstp`/`mms` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with `--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/Copyright)
298
299 To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
300
301 The standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with **\*** included.
302
303 If you do not have the necessary dependencies for a task you are attempting, yt-dlp will warn you. All the currently available dependencies are visible at the top of the `--verbose` output
304
305
306 ## COMPILE
307
308 ### Standalone PyInstaller Builds
309 To build the standalone executable, you must have Python and `pyinstaller` (plus any of yt-dlp's [optional dependencies](#dependencies) if needed). Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, simply run `pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (x86/ARM, 32/64 bit) as the Python used.
310
311 python3 -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
312 python3 devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
313 python3 pyinst.py
314
315 On some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`.
316
317 `pyinst.py` accepts any arguments that can be passed to `pyinstaller`, such as `--onefile/-F` or `--onedir/-D`, which is further [documented here](https://pyinstaller.org/en/stable/usage.html#what-to-generate).
318
319 **Note**: Pyinstaller versions below 4.4 [do not support](https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller#requirements-and-tested-platforms) Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment.
320
321 **Important**: Running `pyinstaller` directly **without** using `pyinst.py` is **not** officially supported. This may or may not work correctly.
322
323 ### Platform-independent Binary (UNIX)
324 You will need the build tools `python` (3.7+), `zip`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`\* and `pytest`\*.
325
326 After installing these, simply run `make`.
327
328 You can also run `make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files. (The build tools marked with **\*** are not needed for this)
329
330 ### Standalone Py2Exe Builds (Windows)
331
332 While we provide the option to build with [py2exe](https://www.py2exe.org), it is recommended to build [using PyInstaller](#standalone-pyinstaller-builds) instead since the py2exe builds **cannot contain `pycryptodomex`/`certifi` and needs VC++14** on the target computer to run.
333
334 If you wish to build it anyway, install Python and py2exe, and then simply run `setup.py py2exe`
335
336 py -m pip install -U py2exe -r requirements.txt
337 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
338 py setup.py py2exe
339
340 ### Related scripts
341
342 * **`devscripts/update-version.py`** - Update the version number based on current date.
343 * **`devscripts/set-variant.py`** - Set the build variant of the executable.
344 * **`devscripts/make_changelog.py`** - Create a markdown changelog using short commit messages and update `CONTRIBUTORS` file.
345 * **`devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py`** - Create lazy extractors. Running this before building the binaries (any variant) will improve their startup performance. Set the environment variable `YTDLP_NO_LAZY_EXTRACTORS=1` if you wish to forcefully disable lazy extractor loading.
346
347 Note: See their `--help` for more info.
348
349 ### Forking the project
350 If you fork the project on GitHub, you can run your fork's [build workflow](.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically build the selected version(s) as artifacts. Alternatively, you can run the [release workflow](.github/workflows/release.yml) or enable the [nightly workflow](.github/workflows/release-nightly.yml) to create full (pre-)releases.
351
352 # USAGE AND OPTIONS
353
354 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
355 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
356
357 `Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
358 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
359
360 <!-- Auto generated -->
361 ## General Options:
362 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
363 --version Print program version and exit
364 -U, --update Update this program to the latest version
365 --no-update Do not check for updates (default)
366 --update-to [CHANNEL]@[TAG] Upgrade/downgrade to a specific version.
367 CHANNEL can be a repository as well. CHANNEL
368 and TAG default to "stable" and "latest"
369 respectively if omitted; See "UPDATE" for
370 details. Supported channels: stable, nightly
371 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
372 The download will be considered successful
373 even if the postprocessing fails
374 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download errors;
375 e.g. to skip unavailable videos in a
376 playlist (default)
377 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
378 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
379 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
380 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
381 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
382 extractors and exit
383 --use-extractors NAMES Extractor names to use separated by commas.
384 You can also use regexes, "all", "default"
385 and "end" (end URL matching); e.g. --ies
386 "holodex.*,end,youtube". Prefix the name
387 with a "-" to exclude it, e.g. --ies
388 default,-generic. Use --list-extractors for
389 a list of extractor names. (Alias: --ies)
390 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. E.g.
391 "gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
392 google videos for the search term "python".
393 Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
394 ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when
395 guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
396 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken
397 URLs, but emits an error if this is not
398 possible instead of searching
399 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
400 except those given by --config-locations.
401 For backward compatibility, if this option
402 is found inside the system configuration
403 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
404 (Alias: --no-config)
405 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
406 (default). When given inside a configuration
407 file, ignore all previous --config-locations
408 defined in the current file
409 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
410 either the path to the config or its
411 containing directory ("-" for stdin). Can be
412 used multiple times and inside other
413 configuration files
414 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
415 only list them
416 --no-flat-playlist Fully extract the videos of a playlist
417 (default)
418 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
419 Currently only supported for YouTube
420 (Experimental)
421 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
422 (default)
423 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
424 available. Pass the minimum number of
425 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
426 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
427 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
428 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
429 --color [STREAM:]POLICY Whether to emit color codes in output,
430 optionally prefixed by the STREAM (stdout or
431 stderr) to apply the setting to. Can be one
432 of "always", "auto" (default), "never", or
433 "no_color" (use non color terminal
434 sequences). Can be used multiple times
435 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
436 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
437 configurations by reverting some of the
438 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
439 default behavior" for details
440 --alias ALIASES OPTIONS Create aliases for an option string. Unless
441 an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
442 prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
443 according to the Python string formatting
444 mini-language. E.g. --alias get-audio,-X
445 "-S=aext:{0},abr -x --audio-format {0}"
446 creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
447 takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
448 "-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
449 All defined aliases are listed in the --help
450 output. Alias options can trigger more
451 aliases; so be careful to avoid defining
452 recursive options. As a safety measure, each
453 alias may be triggered a maximum of 100
454 times. This option can be used multiple times
455
456 ## Network Options:
457 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
458 enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme,
459 e.g. socks5://user:pass@127.0.0.1:1080/.
460 Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for
461 direct connection
462 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
463 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
464 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
465 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
466 --enable-file-urls Enable file:// URLs. This is disabled by
467 default for security reasons.
468
469 ## Geo-restriction:
470 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
471 some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy
472 specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
473 is not present) is used for the actual
474 downloading
475 --xff VALUE How to fake X-Forwarded-For HTTP header to
476 try bypassing geographic restriction. One of
477 "default" (only when known to be useful),
478 "never", an IP block in CIDR notation, or a
479 two-letter ISO 3166-2 country code
480
481 ## Video Selection:
482 -I, --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Comma separated playlist_index of the items
483 to download. You can specify a range using
484 "[START]:[STOP][:STEP]". For backward
485 compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.
486 Use negative indices to count from the right
487 and negative STEP to download in reverse
488 order. E.g. "-I 1:3,7,-5::2" used on a
489 playlist of size 15 will download the items
490 at index 1,2,3,7,11,13,15
491 --min-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is smaller than
492 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
493 --max-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is larger than
494 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
495 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
496 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
497 [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
498 E.g. "--date today-2weeks" downloads only
499 videos uploaded on the same day two weeks ago
500 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
501 this date. The date formats accepted is the
502 same as --date
503 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
504 this date. The date formats accepted is the
505 same as --date
506 --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
507 field can be compared with a number or a
508 string using the operators defined in
509 "Filtering Formats". You can also simply
510 specify a field to match if the field is
511 present, use "!field" to check if the field
512 is not present, and "&" to check multiple
513 conditions. Use a "\" to escape "&" or
514 quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
515 the filter matches if atleast one of the
516 conditions are met. E.g. --match-filter
517 !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?100 &
518 description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'" matches
519 only videos that are not live OR those that
520 have a like count more than 100 (or the like
521 field is not available) and also has a
522 description that contains the phrase "cats &
523 dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
524 interactively ask whether to download each
525 video
526 --no-match-filters Do not use any --match-filter (default)
527 --break-match-filters FILTER Same as "--match-filters" but stops the
528 download process when a video is rejected
529 --no-break-match-filters Do not use any --break-match-filters (default)
530 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
531 to a video and a playlist
532 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
533 a video and a playlist
534 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
535 age
536 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
537 archive file. Record the IDs of all
538 downloaded videos in it
539 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
540 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
541 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
542 a file that is in the archive
543 --break-per-input Alters --max-downloads, --break-on-existing,
544 --break-match-filter, and autonumber to
545 reset per input URL
546 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
547 terminates the entire download queue
548 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
549 the playlist is skipped
550
551 ## Download Options:
552 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
553 video that should be downloaded concurrently
554 (default is 1)
555 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second,
556 e.g. 50K or 4.2M
557 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
558 below which throttling is assumed and the
559 video data is re-extracted, e.g. 100K
560 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
561 "infinite"
562 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
563 error (default is 3), or "infinite"
564 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
565 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
566 --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR Time to sleep between retries in seconds
567 (optionally) prefixed by the type of retry
568 (http (default), fragment, file_access,
569 extractor) to apply the sleep to. EXPR can
570 be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=1]] or
571 exp=START[:END[:BASE=2]]. This option can be
572 used multiple times to set the sleep for the
573 different retry types, e.g. --retry-sleep
574 linear=1::2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=1:20
575 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
576 hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
577 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragments)
578 --abort-on-unavailable-fragments
579 Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
580 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
581 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
582 downloading is finished
583 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
584 downloading is finished (default)
585 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer, e.g. 1024 or 16K
586 (default is 1024)
587 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
588 from an initial value of --buffer-size
589 (default)
590 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
591 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
592 downloading, e.g. 10485760 or 10M (default
593 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
594 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
595 (experimental)
596 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
597 --lazy-playlist Process entries in the playlist as they are
598 received. This disables n_entries,
599 --playlist-random and --playlist-reverse
600 --no-lazy-playlist Process videos in the playlist only after
601 the entire playlist is parsed (default)
602 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
603 expected file size
604 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
605 allowing some players to play the video
606 while downloading, and reducing the chance
607 of file corruption if download is
608 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
609 live streams
610 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
611 videos. This is default when not downloading
612 live streams
613 --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters that match the
614 regular expression. A "*" prefix denotes
615 time-range instead of chapter. Negative
616 timestamps are calculated from the end.
617 "*from-url" can be used to download between
618 the "start_time" and "end_time" extracted
619 from the URL. Needs ffmpeg. This option can
620 be used multiple times to download multiple
621 sections, e.g. --download-sections
622 "*10:15-inf" --download-sections "intro"
623 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
624 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
625 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
626 use it for. Currently supports native,
627 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
628 wget. You can use this option multiple times
629 to set different downloaders for different
630 protocols. E.g. --downloader aria2c
631 --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
632 aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
633 native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
634 (Alias: --external-downloader)
635 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
636 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
637 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
638 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different
639 positions using the same syntax as
640 --postprocessor-args. You can use this
641 option multiple times to give different
642 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
643 --external-downloader-args)
644
645 ## Filesystem Options:
646 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
647 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
648 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
649 comments and ignored
650 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
651 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
652 downloaded. Specify the type of file and the
653 path separated by a colon ":". All the same
654 TYPES as --output are supported.
655 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
656 (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary
657 files are first downloaded to the temp path
658 and then the final files are moved over to
659 the home path after download is finished.
660 This option is ignored if --output is an
661 absolute path
662 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
663 TEMPLATE" for details
664 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
665 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" (default: "NA")
666 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
667 and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
668 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
669 filenames (default)
670 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
671 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
672 using Windows (default)
673 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
674 extension) to the specified number of
675 characters
676 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
677 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This
678 option includes --no-continue
679 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
680 related files (default)
681 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
682 (default)
683 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
684 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
685 restart download of the entire file
686 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
687 into output file (default)
688 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into
689 output file
690 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file
691 modification time (default)
692 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
693 the file modification time
694 --write-description Write video description to a .description file
695 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
696 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
697 (this may contain personal information)
698 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
699 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
700 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
701 --write-description etc. (default)
702 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
703 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
704 --clean-info-json Remove some internal metadata such as
705 filenames from the infojson (default)
706 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
707 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
708 infojson. The comments are fetched even
709 without this option if the extraction is
710 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
711 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
712 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
713 --no-get-comments)
714 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
715 (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
716 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from
717 and dump cookie jar in
718 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
719 (default)
720 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]
721 The name of the browser to load cookies
722 from. Currently supported browsers are:
723 brave, chrome, chromium, edge, firefox,
724 opera, safari, vivaldi. Optionally, the
725 KEYRING used for decrypting Chromium cookies
726 on Linux, the name/path of the PROFILE to
727 load cookies from, and the CONTAINER name
728 (if Firefox) ("none" for no container) can
729 be given with their respective seperators.
730 By default, all containers of the most
731 recently accessed profile are used.
732 Currently supported keyrings are: basictext,
733 gnomekeyring, kwallet, kwallet5, kwallet6
734 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
735 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where yt-dlp can
736 store some downloaded information (such as
737 client ids and signatures) permanently. By
738 default ${XDG_CACHE_HOME}/yt-dlp
739 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
740 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
741
742 ## Thumbnail Options:
743 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
744 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default)
745 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
746 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
747 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
748
749 ## Internet Shortcut Options:
750 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
751 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
752 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
753 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
754 OS caches the URL based on the file path
755 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
756 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
757
758 ## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
759 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
760 print the log to stderr
761 --no-quiet Deactivate quiet mode. (Default)
762 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
763 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
764 anything to disk
765 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
766 options are used
767 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
768 extracting metadata even if the videos are
769 not actually available for download
770 (experimental)
771 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
772 formats are found (default)
773 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
774 related files (Alias: --no-download)
775 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
776 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
777 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
778 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
779 --use-postprocessor (default: video).
780 Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
781 --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
782 used. This option can be used multiple times
783 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
784 Append given template to the file. The
785 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as that
786 of --print. FILE uses the same syntax as the
787 output template. This option can be used
788 multiple times
789 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
790 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
791 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
792 description of available keys
793 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
794 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
795 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
796 a playlist, the whole playlist information
797 is dumped in a single line
798 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
799 as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
800 another simulation option is used (Alias:
801 --force-download-archive)
802 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
803 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
804 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
805 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
806 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
807 Template for progress outputs, optionally
808 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
809 "download-title:" (the console title),
810 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
811 The video's fields are accessible under the
812 "info" key and the progress attributes are
813 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.
814 --console-title --progress-template
815 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
816 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
817 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
818 to debug problems (very verbose)
819 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files
820 in the current directory to debug problems
821 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
822
823 ## Workarounds:
824 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
825 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to servers
826 that do not support RFC 5746 secure
827 renegotiation
828 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
829 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
830 information about the video (Currently
831 supported only for YouTube)
832 --add-headers FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
833 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
834 option multiple times
835 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
836 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
837 or fribidi executable in PATH
838 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
839 during data extraction
840 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
841 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
842 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
843 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
844 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only
845 be used along with --min-sleep-interval
846 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
847 subtitle download
848
849 ## Video Format Options:
850 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
851 for more details
852 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
853 "Sorting Formats" for more details
854 --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
855 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
856 Formats" for more details (Alias: --S-force)
857 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
858 specified sort order (default)
859 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
860 into a single file
861 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
862 output file (default)
863 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
864 into a single file
865 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
866 output file (default)
867 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
868 over non-free ones of same quality. Use with
869 "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers
870 irrespective of quality
871 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
872 containers (default)
873 --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
874 those that are actually downloadable
875 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
876 actually downloadable
877 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
878 downloadable
879 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
880 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
881 --merge-output-format FORMAT Containers that may be used when merging
882 formats, separated by "/", e.g. "mp4/mkv".
883 Ignored if no merge is required. (currently
884 supported: avi, flv, mkv, mov, mp4, webm)
885
886 ## Subtitle Options:
887 --write-subs Write subtitle file
888 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
889 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
890 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
891 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
892 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
893 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
894 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
895 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
896 e.g. "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
897 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
898 be regex) or "all" separated by commas, e.g.
899 --sub-langs "en.*,ja". You can prefix the
900 language code with a "-" to exclude it from
901 the requested languages, e.g. --sub-langs
902 all,-live_chat. Use --list-subs for a list
903 of available language tags
904
905 ## Authentication Options:
906 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
907 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
908 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
909 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
910 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
911 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
912 either the path or its containing directory.
913 Defaults to ~/.netrc
914 --netrc-cmd NETRC_CMD Command to execute to get the credentials
915 for an extractor.
916 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
917 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
918 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
919 a list of available MSOs
920 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
921 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
922 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
923 interactively
924 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
925 --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
926 format. May include the private key
927 --client-certificate-key KEYFILE
928 Path to private key file for client
929 certificate
930 --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
931 Password for client certificate private key,
932 if encrypted. If not provided, and the key
933 is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask interactively
934
935 ## Post-Processing Options:
936 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
937 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
938 --audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
939 used. (currently supported: best (default),
940 aac, alac, flac, m4a, mp3, opus, vorbis,
941 wav). You can specify multiple rules using
942 similar syntax as --remux-video
943 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
944 converting the audio with -x. Insert a value
945 between 0 (best) and 10 (worst) for VBR or a
946 specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
947 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
948 necessary (currently supported: avi, flv,
949 gif, mkv, mov, mp4, webm, aac, aiff, alac,
950 flac, m4a, mka, mp3, ogg, opus, vorbis,
951 wav). If target container does not support
952 the video/audio codec, remuxing will fail.
953 You can specify multiple rules; e.g.
954 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
955 mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
956 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
957 necessary. The syntax and supported formats
958 are the same as --remux-video
959 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
960 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
961 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
962 to give the argument to the specified
963 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
964 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
965 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
966 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
967 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
968 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
969 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
970 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
971 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
972 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
973 specified executable only when being used by
974 the specified postprocessor. Additionally,
975 for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
976 appended to the prefix optionally followed
977 by a number to pass the argument before the
978 specified input/output file, e.g. --ppa
979 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
980 this option multiple times to give different
981 arguments to different postprocessors.
982 (Alias: --ppa)
983 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
984 after post-processing
985 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
986 post-processing (default)
987 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
988 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
989 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
990 webm and mkv videos)
991 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
992 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
993 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
994 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
995 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
996 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are
997 used (Alias: --add-metadata)
998 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
999 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
1000 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
1001 (Alias: --add-chapters)
1002 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias:
1003 --no-add-chapters)
1004 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
1005 mkv/mka video files
1006 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
1007 to the video file
1008 --parse-metadata [WHEN:]FROM:TO
1009 Parse additional metadata like title/artist
1010 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
1011 for details. Supported values of "WHEN" are
1012 the same as that of --use-postprocessor
1013 (default: pre_process)
1014 --replace-in-metadata [WHEN:]FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
1015 Replace text in a metadata field using the
1016 given regex. This option can be used
1017 multiple times. Supported values of "WHEN"
1018 are the same as that of --use-postprocessor
1019 (default: pre_process)
1020 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
1021 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
1022 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
1023 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
1024 (default; only when the videos form a single
1025 show). All the video files must have same
1026 codecs and number of streams to be
1027 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
1028 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1029 the output filename for the concatenated
1030 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1031 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
1032 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
1033 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
1034 default; fix file if we can, warn
1035 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
1036 already exists)
1037 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
1038 path to the binary or its containing directory
1039 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
1040 when to execute it, separated by a ":".
1041 Supported values of "WHEN" are the same as
1042 that of --use-postprocessor (default:
1043 after_move). Same syntax as the output
1044 template can be used to pass any field as
1045 arguments to the command. If no fields are
1046 passed, %(filepath,_filename|)q is appended
1047 to the end of the command. This option can
1048 be used multiple times
1049 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
1050 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
1051 (currently supported: ass, lrc, srt, vtt)
1052 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
1053 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
1054 (currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
1055 can specify multiple rules using similar
1056 syntax as --remux-video
1057 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
1058 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can
1059 be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1060 the output filename for the split files. See
1061 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1062 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters (default)
1063 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
1064 given regular expression. The syntax is the
1065 same as --download-sections. This option can
1066 be used multiple times
1067 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
1068 (default)
1069 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes at cuts when
1070 downloading/splitting/removing sections.
1071 This is slow due to needing a re-encode, but
1072 the resulting video may have fewer artifacts
1073 around the cuts
1074 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
1075 when cutting/splitting (default)
1076 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS]
1077 The (case sensitive) name of plugin
1078 postprocessors to be enabled, and
1079 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
1080 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
1081 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
1082 The "when" argument determines when the
1083 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
1084 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
1085 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
1086 "video" (after --format; before
1087 --print/--output), "before_dl" (before each
1088 video download), "post_process" (after each
1089 video download; default), "after_move"
1090 (after moving video file to it's final
1091 locations), "after_video" (after downloading
1092 and processing all formats of a video), or
1093 "playlist" (at end of playlist). This option
1094 can be used multiple times to add different
1095 postprocessors
1096
1097 ## SponsorBlock Options:
1098 Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1099 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
1100 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1101
1102 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1103 for, separated by commas. Available
1104 categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
1105 selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
1106 music_offtopic, poi_highlight, chapter, all
1107 and default (=all). You can prefix the
1108 category with a "-" to exclude it. See [1]
1109 for description of the categories. E.g.
1110 --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1111 [1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1112 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1113 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1114 category is present in both mark and remove,
1115 remove takes precedence. The syntax and
1116 available categories are the same as for
1117 --sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
1118 refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight,
1119 chapter are not available
1120 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
1121 An output template for the title of the
1122 SponsorBlock chapters created by
1123 --sponsorblock-mark. The only available
1124 fields are start_time, end_time, category,
1125 categories, name, category_names. Defaults
1126 to "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1127 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1128 --sponsorblock-remove
1129 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1130 https://sponsor.ajay.app
1131
1132 ## Extractor Options:
1133 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors
1134 (default is 3), or "infinite"
1135 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1136 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1137 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1138 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1139 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1140 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1141 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1142 formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
1143 (default)
1144 --extractor-args IE_KEY:ARGS Pass ARGS arguments to the IE_KEY extractor.
1145 See "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You
1146 can use this option multiple times to give
1147 arguments for different extractors
1148
1149 # CONFIGURATION
1150
1151 You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
1152
1153 1. **Main Configuration**:
1154 * The file given by `--config-location`
1155 1. **Portable Configuration**: (Recommended for portable installations)
1156 * If using a binary, `yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the binary
1157 * If running from source-code, `yt-dlp.conf` in the parent directory of `yt_dlp`
1158 1. **Home Configuration**:
1159 * `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by `-P`
1160 * If `-P` is not given, the current directory is searched
1161 1. **User Configuration**:
1162 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp.conf`
1163 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1164 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1165 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp.conf`
1166 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1167 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1168 * `~/yt-dlp.conf`
1169 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
1170 * `~/.yt-dlp/config`
1171 * `~/.yt-dlp/config.txt`
1172
1173 See also: [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
1174 1. **System Configuration**:
1175 * `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
1176 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config`
1177 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1178
1179 E.g. with the following configuration file yt-dlp will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under `YouTube` directory in your home directory:
1180 ```
1181 # Lines starting with # are comments
1182
1183 # Always extract audio
1184 -x
1185
1186 # Do not copy the mtime
1187 --no-mtime
1188
1189 # Use this proxy
1190 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1191
1192 # Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1193 -o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
1194 ```
1195
1196 **Note**: Options in configuration file are just the same options aka switches used in regular command line calls; thus there **must be no whitespace** after `-` or `--`, e.g. `-o` or `--proxy` but not `- o` or `-- proxy`. They must also be quoted when necessary as-if it were a UNIX shell.
1197
1198 You can use `--ignore-config` if you want to disable all configuration files for a particular yt-dlp run. If `--ignore-config` is found inside any configuration file, no further configuration will be loaded. For example, having the option in the portable configuration file prevents loading of home, user, and system configurations. Additionally, (for backward compatibility) if `--ignore-config` is found inside the system configuration file, the user configuration is not loaded.
1199
1200 ### Configuration file encoding
1201
1202 The configuration files are decoded according to the UTF BOM if present, and in the encoding from system locale otherwise.
1203
1204 If you want your file to be decoded differently, add `# coding: ENCODING` to the beginning of the file (e.g. `# coding: shift-jis`). There must be no characters before that, even spaces or BOM.
1205
1206 ### Authentication with netrc
1207
1208 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 yt-dlp execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in the shell command history. You can achieve this using a [`.netrc` file](https://stackoverflow.com/tags/.netrc/info) on a per-extractor basis. For that you will need to create a `.netrc` file in `--netrc-location` and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:
1209 ```
1210 touch ${HOME}/.netrc
1211 chmod a-rwx,u+rw ${HOME}/.netrc
1212 ```
1213 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1214 ```
1215 machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
1216 ```
1217 E.g.
1218 ```
1219 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1220 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1221 ```
1222 To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
1223
1224 The default location of the .netrc file is `~` (see below).
1225
1226 As an alternative to using the `.netrc` file, which has the disadvantage of keeping your passwords in a plain text file, you can configure a custom shell command to provide the credentials for an extractor. This is done by providing the `--netrc-cmd` parameter, it shall output the credentials in the netrc format and return `0` on success, other values will be treated as an error. `{}` in the command will be replaced by the name of the extractor to make it possible to select the credentials for the right extractor.
1227
1228 E.g. To use an encrypted `.netrc` file stored as `.authinfo.gpg`
1229 ```
1230 yt-dlp --netrc-cmd 'gpg --decrypt ~/.authinfo.gpg' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc
1231 ```
1232
1233
1234 ### Notes about environment variables
1235 * Environment variables are normally specified as `${VARIABLE}`/`$VARIABLE` on UNIX and `%VARIABLE%` on Windows; but is always shown as `${VARIABLE}` in this documentation
1236 * yt-dlp also allow using UNIX-style variables on Windows for path-like options; e.g. `--output`, `--config-location`
1237 * If unset, `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}` defaults to `~/.config` and `${XDG_CACHE_HOME}` to `~/.cache`
1238 * On Windows, `~` points to `${HOME}` if present; or, `${USERPROFILE}` or `${HOMEDRIVE}${HOMEPATH}` otherwise
1239 * On Windows, `${USERPROFILE}` generally points to `C:\Users\<user name>` and `${APPDATA}` to `${USERPROFILE}\AppData\Roaming`
1240
1241 # OUTPUT TEMPLATE
1242
1243 The `-o` option is used to indicate a template for the output file names while `-P` option is used to specify the path each type of file should be saved to.
1244
1245 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1246 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
1247 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1248
1249 The simplest usage of `-o` is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in `yt-dlp -o funny_video.flv "https://some/video"` (hard-coding file extension like this is _not_ recommended and could break some post-processing).
1250
1251 It may however also contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences may be formatted according to [Python string formatting operations](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting), e.g. `%(NAME)s` or `%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations.
1252
1253 The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
1254
1255 1. **Object traversal**: The dictionaries and lists available in metadata can be traversed by using a dot `.` separator; e.g. `%(tags.0)s`, `%(subtitles.en.-1.ext)s`. You can do Python slicing with colon `:`; E.g. `%(id.3:7:-1)s`, `%(formats.:.format_id)s`. Curly braces `{}` can be used to build dictionaries with only specific keys; e.g. `%(formats.:.{format_id,height})#j`. An empty field name `%()s` refers to the entire infodict; e.g. `%(.{id,title})s`. Note that all the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use `-j` to see such fields
1256
1257 1. **Addition**: Addition and subtraction of numeric fields can be done using `+` and `-` respectively. E.g. `%(playlist_index+10)03d`, `%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
1258
1259 1. **Date/time Formatting**: Date/time fields can be formatted according to [strftime formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-format-codes) by specifying it separated from the field name using a `>`. E.g. `%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`, `%(upload_date>%Y-%m-%d)s`, `%(epoch-3600>%H-%M-%S)s`
1260
1261 1. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a `,`. E.g. `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
1262
1263 1. **Replacement**: A replacement value can be specified using a `&` separator according to the [`str.format` mini-language](https://docs.python.org/3/library/string.html#format-specification-mini-language). If the field is *not* empty, this replacement value will be used instead of the actual field content. This is done after alternate fields are considered; thus the replacement is used if *any* of the alternative fields is *not* empty. E.g. `%(chapters&has chapters|no chapters)s`, `%(title&TITLE={:>20}|NO TITLE)s`
1264
1265 1. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a `|` separator. This overrides `--output-na-placeholder`. E.g. `%(uploader|Unknown)s`
1266
1267 1. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types `diouxXeEfFgGcrs`, yt-dlp additionally supports converting to `B` = **B**ytes, `j` = **j**son (flag `#` for pretty-printing, `+` for Unicode), `h` = HTML escaping, `l` = a comma separated **l**ist (flag `#` for `\n` newline-separated), `q` = a string **q**uoted for the terminal (flag `#` to split a list into different arguments), `D` = add **D**ecimal suffixes (e.g. 10M) (flag `#` to use 1024 as factor), and `S` = **S**anitize as filename (flag `#` for restricted)
1268
1269 1. **Unicode normalization**: The format type `U` can be used for NFC [Unicode normalization](https://docs.python.org/3/library/unicodedata.html#unicodedata.normalize). The alternate form flag (`#`) changes the normalization to NFD and the conversion flag `+` can be used for NFKC/NFKD compatibility equivalence normalization. E.g. `%(title)+.100U` is NFKC
1270
1271 To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1272 ```
1273 %(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
1274 ```
1275
1276 Additionally, you can set different output templates for the various metadata files separately from the general output template by specifying the type of file followed by the template separated by a colon `:`. The different file types supported are `subtitle`, `thumbnail`, `description`, `annotation` (deprecated), `infojson`, `link`, `pl_thumbnail`, `pl_description`, `pl_infojson`, `chapter`, `pl_video`. E.g. `-o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "thumbnail:%(title)s\%(title)s.%(ext)s"` will put the thumbnails in a folder with the same name as the video. If any of the templates is empty, that type of file will not be written. E.g. `--write-thumbnail -o "thumbnail:"` will write thumbnails only for playlists and not for video.
1277
1278 <a id="outtmpl-postprocess-note"/>
1279
1280 **Note**: Due to post-processing (i.e. merging etc.), the actual output filename might differ. Use `--print after_move:filepath` to get the name after all post-processing is complete.
1281
1282 The available fields are:
1283
1284 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1285 - `title` (string): Video title
1286 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
1287 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1288 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
1289 - `description` (string): The description of the video
1290 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1291 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1292 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1293 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
1294 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
1295 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
1296 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
1297 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
1298 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
1299 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
1300 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1301 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1302 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
1303 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
1304 - `channel_is_verified` (boolean): Whether the channel is verified on the platform
1305 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1306 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
1307 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
1308 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1309 - `concurrent_view_count` (numeric): How many users are currently watching the video on the platform.
1310 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1311 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1312 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1313 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
1314 - `comment_count` (numeric): Number of comments on the video (For some extractors, comments are only downloaded at the end, and so this field cannot be used)
1315 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
1316 - `live_status` (string): One of "not_live", "is_live", "is_upcoming", "was_live", "post_live" (was live, but VOD is not yet processed)
1317 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
1318 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
1319 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
1320 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
1321 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1322 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
1323 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1324 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
1325 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
1326 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`
1327 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
1328 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
1329 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1330 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1331 - `playlist` (string): `playlist_id` or `playlist_title`
1332 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
1333 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1334 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
1335 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1336 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
1337 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
1338 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1339 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
1340 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)
1341
1342 All the fields in [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats) can also be used
1343
1344 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1345
1346 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1347 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1348 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1349
1350 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1351
1352 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1353 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1354 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1355 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1356 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1357 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1358 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1359
1360 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1361
1362 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1363 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1364 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1365 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1366 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1367 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1368 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1369 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1370 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1371 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1372
1373 Available only when using `--download-sections` and for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
1374
1375 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1376 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1377 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1378 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1379
1380 Available only when used in `--print`:
1381
1382 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1383 - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the [actual filename may differ](#outtmpl-postprocess-note)
1384 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by `--list-formats`
1385 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by `--list-thumbnails`
1386 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1387 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1388
1389 Available only after the video is downloaded (`post_process`/`after_move`):
1390
1391 - `filepath`: Actual path of downloaded video file
1392
1393 Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1394
1395 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1396 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1397 - `categories` (list): The [SponsorBlock categories](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Category) the chapter belongs to
1398 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1399 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1400 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
1401 - `type` (string): The [SponsorBlock action type](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Action_Type) of the chapter
1402
1403 Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. E.g. for `-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an mp4 video with title `yt-dlp test video` and id `BaW_jenozKc`, this will result in a `yt-dlp test video-BaW_jenozKc.mp4` file created in the current directory.
1404
1405 **Note**: Some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor. Such sequences will be replaced with placeholder value provided with `--output-na-placeholder` (`NA` by default).
1406
1407 **Tip**: Look at the `-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
1408
1409 For numeric sequences you can use [numeric related formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting); e.g. `%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to 5 characters, like in `00042`.
1410
1411 Output templates can also contain arbitrary hierarchical path, e.g. `-o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s"` which will result in downloading each video in a directory corresponding to this path template. Any missing directory will be automatically created for you.
1412
1413 To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
1414
1415 The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
1416
1417 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.
1418
1419 #### Output template examples
1420
1421 ```bash
1422 $ yt-dlp --print filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1423 test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1424
1425 $ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1426 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
1427
1428 $ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
1429 youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
1430
1431 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
1432 $ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1433
1434 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
1435 $ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1436
1437 # Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
1438 $ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist_index&{} - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1439
1440 # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
1441 $ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1442
1443 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
1444 $ yt-dlp -u user -p password -P "~/MyVideos" -o "%(playlist)s/%(chapter_number)s - %(chapter)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.udemy.com/java-tutorial"
1445
1446 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
1447 $ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -o "%(series)s/%(season_number)s - %(season)s/%(episode_number)s - %(episode)s.%(ext)s" "https://videomore.ru/kino_v_detalayah/5_sezon/367617"
1448
1449 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1450 # and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1451 $ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1452
1453 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1454 $ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "subtitle:%(uploader)s/subs/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --write-subs
1455
1456 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
1457 $ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
1458 ```
1459
1460 # FORMAT SELECTION
1461
1462 By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1463 This is generally equivalent to using `-f bestvideo*+bestaudio/best`. However, if multiple audiostreams is enabled (`--audio-multistreams`), the default format changes to `-f bestvideo+bestaudio/best`. Similarly, if ffmpeg is unavailable, or if you use yt-dlp to stream to `stdout` (`-o -`), the default becomes `-f best/bestvideo+bestaudio`.
1464
1465 **Deprecation warning**: Latest versions of yt-dlp can stream multiple formats to the stdout simultaneously using ffmpeg. So, in future versions, the default for this will be set to `-f bv*+ba/b` similar to normal downloads. If you want to preserve the `-f b/bv+ba` setting, it is recommended to explicitly specify it in the configuration options.
1466
1467 The general syntax for format selection is `-f FORMAT` (or `--format FORMAT`) where `FORMAT` is a *selector expression*, i.e. an expression that describes format or formats you would like to download.
1468
1469 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1470 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
1471 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1472
1473 The simplest case is requesting a specific format; e.g. 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.
1474
1475 You can also use a file extension (currently `3gp`, `aac`, `flv`, `m4a`, `mp3`, `mp4`, `ogg`, `wav`, `webm` are supported) to download the best quality format of a particular file extension served as a single file, e.g. `-f webm` will download the best quality format with the `webm` extension served as a single file.
1476
1477 You can use `-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1478
1479 You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1480
1481 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1482 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
1483 - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio or both (ie; `vcodec!=none or acodec!=none`)
1484 - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1485 - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
1486 - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
1487 - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
1488 - `ba*`, `bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that **contains audio**. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `best*[acodec!=none]` ([Do not use!](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/979#issuecomment-919629354))
1489 - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
1490 - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1491 - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
1492 - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
1493 - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
1494 - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
1495
1496 For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use `-f worstvideo`. It is however recommended not to use `worst` and related options. When your format selector is `worst`, the format which is worst in all respects is selected. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use `-S +size` or more rigorously, `-S +size,+br,+res,+fps` instead of `-f worst`. See [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats) for more details.
1497
1498 You can select the n'th best format of a type by using `best<type>.<n>`. For example, `best.2` will select the 2nd best combined format. Similarly, `bv*.3` will select the 3rd best format that contains a video stream.
1499
1500 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 formats on the left hand side are preferred; e.g. `-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.
1501
1502 If you want to download several formats of the same video use a comma as a separator, e.g. `-f 22,17,18` will download all these three formats, of course if they are available. Or a more sophisticated example combined with the precedence feature: `-f 136/137/mp4/bestvideo,140/m4a/bestaudio`.
1503
1504 You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using `-f <format1>+<format2>+...` (requires ffmpeg installed); e.g. `-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg.
1505
1506 **Deprecation warning**: Since the *below* described behavior is complex and counter-intuitive, this will be removed and multistreams will be enabled by default in the future. A new operator will be instead added to limit formats to single audio/video
1507
1508 Unless `--video-multistreams` is used, all formats with a video stream except the first one are ignored. Similarly, unless `--audio-multistreams` is used, all formats with an audio stream except the first one are ignored. E.g. `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --video-multistreams --audio-multistreams` will download and merge all 3 given formats. The resulting file will have 2 video streams and 2 audio streams. But `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --no-video-multistreams` will download and merge only `bestvideo` and `bestaudio`. `best` is ignored since another format containing a video stream (`bestvideo`) has already been selected. The order of the formats is therefore important. `-f best+bestaudio --no-audio-multistreams` will download only `best` while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams` will ignore `best` and download only `bestaudio`.
1509
1510 ## Filtering Formats
1511
1512 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
1513
1514 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
1515
1516 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1517 - `filesize_approx`: An estimate for the number of bytes
1518 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1519 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
1520 - `aspect_ratio`: Aspect ratio of the video, if known
1521 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1522 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1523 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1524 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1525 - `fps`: Frame rate
1526 - `audio_channels`: The number of audio channels
1527 - `stretched_ratio`: `width:height` of the video's pixels, if not square
1528
1529 Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains), `~=` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
1530
1531 - `url`: Video URL
1532 - `ext`: File extension
1533 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1534 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1535 - `container`: Name of the container format
1536 - `protocol`: The protocol that will be used for the actual download, lower-case (`http`, `https`, `rtsp`, `rtmp`, `rtmpe`, `mms`, `f4m`, `ism`, `http_dash_segments`, `m3u8`, or `m3u8_native`)
1537 - `language`: Language code
1538 - `dynamic_range`: The dynamic range of the video
1539 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
1540 - `format`: A human-readable description of the format
1541 - `format_note`: Additional info about the format
1542 - `resolution`: Textual description of width and height
1543
1544 Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation `!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g. `!*=` (does not contain). The comparand of a string comparison needs to be quoted with either double or single quotes if it contains spaces or special characters other than `._-`.
1545
1546 **Note**: 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 the website. Any other field made available by the extractor can also be used for filtering.
1547
1548 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. You can also use the filters with `all` to download all formats that satisfy the filter, e.g. `-f "all[vcodec=none]"` selects all audio-only formats.
1549
1550 Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses; e.g. `-f "(mp4,webm)[height<480]"` will download the best pre-merged mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480.
1551
1552 ## Sorting Formats
1553
1554 You can change the criteria for being considered the `best` by using `-S` (`--format-sort`). The general format for this is `--format-sort field1,field2...`.
1555
1556 The available fields are:
1557
1558 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that have a video stream
1559 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that have an audio stream
1560 - `ie_pref`: The format preference
1561 - `lang`: The language preference
1562 - `quality`: The quality of the format
1563 - `source`: The preference of the source
1564 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > `mms`/`rtsp` > `f4f`/`f4m`)
1565 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other)
1566 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`flac`/`alac` > `wav`/`aiff` > `opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `ac4` > `eac3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other)
1567 - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
1568 - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `mov` > `webm` > `flv` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is preferred.
1569 - `aext`: Audio Extension (`m4a` > `aac` > `mp3` > `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > `mp3` > `m4a` > `aac`
1570 - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
1571 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
1572 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1573 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
1574 - `height`: Height of video
1575 - `width`: Width of video
1576 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1577 - `fps`: Framerate of video
1578 - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `HLG` > `SDR`)
1579 - `channels`: The number of audio channels
1580 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1581 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1582 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1583 - `br`: Equivalent to using `tbr,vbr,abr`
1584 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
1585
1586 **Deprecation warning**: Many of these fields have (currently undocumented) aliases, that may be removed in a future version. It is recommended to use only the documented field names.
1587
1588 All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in descending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+`. E.g. `+res` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a preferred value for the fields, separated by a `:`. E.g. `res:720` prefers larger videos, but no larger than 720p and the smallest video if there are no videos less than 720p. For `codec` and `ext`, you can provide two preferred values, the first for video and the second for audio. E.g. `+codec:avc:m4a` (equivalent to `+vcodec:avc,+acodec:m4a`) sets the video codec preference to `h264` > `h265` > `vp9` > `vp9.2` > `av01` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` and audio codec preference to `mp4a` > `aac` > `vorbis` > `opus` > `mp3` > `ac3` > `dts`. You can also make the sorting prefer the nearest values to the provided by using `~` as the delimiter. E.g. `filesize~1G` prefers the format with filesize closest to 1 GiB.
1589
1590 The fields `hasvid` and `ie_pref` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using `--format-sort-force`. Apart from these, the default order used is: `lang,quality,res,fps,hdr:12,vcodec:vp9.2,channels,acodec,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id`. The extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
1591
1592 Note that the default has `vcodec:vp9.2`; i.e. `av1` is not preferred. Similarly, the default for hdr is `hdr:12`; i.e. dolby vision is not preferred. These choices are made since DV and AV1 formats are not yet fully compatible with most devices. This may be changed in the future as more devices become capable of smoothly playing back these formats.
1593
1594 If your format selector is `worst`, the last item is selected after sorting. This means it will select the format that is worst in all respects. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use `-f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps`.
1595
1596 **Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1597
1598 ## Format Selection examples
1599
1600 ```bash
1601 # Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
1602 # or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
1603 $ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
1604
1605 # Download best format that contains video,
1606 # and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
1607 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
1608
1609 # Same as above
1610 $ yt-dlp
1611
1612 # Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1613 # For this case, an output template should be used since
1614 # by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
1615 $ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
1616
1617 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1618 # and all audio-only formats into one file
1619 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
1620
1621 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1622 # and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
1623 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
1624
1625
1626 # The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
1627 # and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
1628
1629 # Download the worst video available (old method)
1630 $ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
1631
1632 # Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
1633 $ yt-dlp -S "+res"
1634
1635 # Download the smallest video available
1636 $ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
1637
1638
1639
1640 # Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
1641 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
1642
1643 # Download the best video with the best extension
1644 # (For video, mp4 > mov > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
1645 $ yt-dlp -S "ext"
1646
1647
1648
1649 # Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1650 # or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
1651 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
1652
1653 # Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1654 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1655 $ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
1656
1657 # Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1658 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1659 # Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1660 # So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
1661 $ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
1662
1663
1664
1665 # Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1666 # or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1667 $ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
1668
1669 # Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1670 # or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1671 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
1672
1673 # Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
1674 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
1675
1676
1677
1678 # Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1679 # or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
1680 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
1681
1682 # Download best video available via the best protocol
1683 # (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
1684 $ yt-dlp -S "proto"
1685
1686
1687
1688 # Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1689 # or the best video if there is no such video
1690 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
1691
1692 # Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1693 # or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
1694 $ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
1695
1696 # Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1697 # or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
1698 $ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
1699
1700
1701
1702 # More complex examples
1703
1704 # Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1705 # or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
1706 $ yt-dlp -f "((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)"
1707
1708 # Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
1709 # or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
1710 # preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
1711 $ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
1712
1713
1714
1715 # Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1716 # or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
1717 # preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
1718 $ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
1719 ```
1720
1721 # MODIFYING METADATA
1722
1723 The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
1724
1725 `--replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE` is used to replace text in any metadata field using [python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax). [Backreferences](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html?highlight=backreferences#re.sub) can be used in the replace string for advanced use.
1726
1727 The general syntax of `--parse-metadata FROM:TO` is to give the name of a field or an [output template](#output-template) to extract data from, and the format to interpret it as, separated by a colon `:`. Either a [python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax) with named capture groups, a single field name, or a similar syntax to the [output template](#output-template) (only `%(field)s` formatting is supported) can be used for `TO`. The option can be used multiple times to parse and modify various fields.
1728
1729 Note that these options preserve their relative order, allowing replacements to be made in parsed fields and viceversa. Also, any field thus created can be used in the [output template](#output-template) and will also affect the media file's metadata added when using `--embed-metadata`.
1730
1731 This option also has a few special uses:
1732
1733 * You can download an additional URL based on the metadata of the currently downloaded video. To do this, set the field `additional_urls` to the URL that you want to download. E.g. `--parse-metadata "description:(?P<additional_urls>https?://www\.vimeo\.com/\d+)"` will download the first vimeo video found in the description
1734
1735 * You can use this to change the metadata that is embedded in the media file. To do this, set the value of the corresponding field with a `meta_` prefix. For example, any value you set to `meta_description` field will be added to the `description` field in the file - you can use this to set a different "description" and "synopsis". To modify the metadata of individual streams, use the `meta<n>_` prefix (e.g. `meta1_language`). Any value set to the `meta_` field will overwrite all default values.
1736
1737 **Note**: Metadata modification happens before format selection, post-extraction and other post-processing operations. Some fields may be added or changed during these steps, overriding your changes.
1738
1739 For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1740
1741 Metadata fields | From
1742 :--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1743 `title` | `track` or `title`
1744 `date` | `upload_date`
1745 `description`, `synopsis` | `description`
1746 `purl`, `comment` | `webpage_url`
1747 `track` | `track_number`
1748 `artist` | `artist`, `creator`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
1749 `genre` | `genre`
1750 `album` | `album`
1751 `album_artist` | `album_artist`
1752 `disc` | `disc_number`
1753 `show` | `series`
1754 `season_number` | `season_number`
1755 `episode_id` | `episode` or `episode_id`
1756 `episode_sort` | `episode_number`
1757 `language` of each stream | the format's `language`
1758
1759 **Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1760
1761
1762 ## Modifying metadata examples
1763
1764 ```bash
1765 # Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
1766 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
1767
1768 # Regex example
1769 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
1770
1771 # Set title as "Series name S01E05"
1772 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
1773
1774 # Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
1775 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --embed-metadata
1776
1777 # Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
1778 # handling multiple lines correctly
1779 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --embed-metadata
1780
1781 # Do not set any "synopsis" in the video metadata
1782 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<meta_synopsis>)"
1783
1784 # Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
1785 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "video::(?P<formats>)" --write-info-json
1786
1787 # Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
1788 $ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
1789
1790 ```
1791
1792 # EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1793
1794 Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using `--extractor-args KEY:ARGS`. `ARGS` is a `;` (semicolon) separated string of `ARG=VAL1,VAL2`. E.g. `--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android_embedded,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
1795
1796 Note: In CLI, `ARG` can use `-` instead of `_`; e.g. `youtube:player-client"` becomes `youtube:player_client"`
1797
1798 The following extractors use this feature:
1799
1800 #### youtube
1801 * `lang`: Prefer translated metadata (`title`, `description` etc) of this language code (case-sensitive). By default, the video primary language metadata is preferred, with a fallback to `en` translated. See [youtube.py](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/c26f9b991a0681fd3ea548d535919cec1fbbd430/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L381-L390) for list of supported content language codes
1802 * `skip`: One or more of `hls`, `dash` or `translated_subs` to skip extraction of the m3u8 manifests, dash manifests and [auto-translated subtitles](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/4090#issuecomment-1158102032) respectively
1803 * `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web`, `android` and `ios` with variants `_music`, `_embedded`, `_embedscreen`, `_creator` (e.g. `web_embedded`); and `mweb` and `tv_embedded` (agegate bypass) with no variants. By default, `ios,android,web` is used, but `tv_embedded` and `creator` variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly, the music variants are added for `music.youtube.com` urls. You can use `all` to use all the clients, and `default` for the default clients.
1804 * `player_skip`: Skip some network requests that are generally needed for robust extraction. One or more of `configs` (skip client configs), `webpage` (skip initial webpage), `js` (skip js player). While these options can help reduce the number of requests needed or avoid some rate-limiting, they could cause some issues. See [#860](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/860) for more details
1805 * `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
1806 * `max_comments`: Limit the amount of comments to gather. Comma-separated list of integers representing `max-comments,max-parents,max-replies,max-replies-per-thread`. Default is `all,all,all,all`
1807 * E.g. `all,all,1000,10` will get a maximum of 1000 replies total, with up to 10 replies per thread. `1000,all,100` will get a maximum of 1000 comments, with a maximum of 100 replies total
1808 * `formats`: Change the types of formats to return. `dashy` (convert http to DASH), `duplicate` (identical content but different URLs or protocol; includes `dashy`), `incomplete` (cannot be downloaded completely - live dash and post-live m3u8)
1809 * `innertube_host`: Innertube API host to use for all API requests; e.g. `studio.youtube.com`, `youtubei.googleapis.com`. Note that cookies exported from one subdomain will not work on others
1810 * `innertube_key`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
1811
1812 #### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1813 * `skip`: One or more of `webpage` (skip initial webpage download), `authcheck` (allow the download of playlists requiring authentication when no initial webpage is downloaded. This may cause unwanted behavior, see [#1122](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/1122) for more details)
1814 * `approximate_date`: Extract approximate `upload_date` and `timestamp` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
1815
1816 #### generic
1817 * `fragment_query`: Passthrough any query in mpd/m3u8 manifest URLs to their fragments if no value is provided, or else apply the query string given as `fragment_query=VALUE`. Does not apply to ffmpeg
1818 * `variant_query`: Passthrough the master m3u8 URL query to its variant playlist URLs if no value is provided, or else apply the query string given as `variant_query=VALUE`
1819 * `hls_key`: An HLS AES-128 key URI *or* key (as hex), and optionally the IV (as hex), in the form of `(URI|KEY)[,IV]`; e.g. `generic:hls_key=ABCDEF1234567980,0xFEDCBA0987654321`. Passing any of these values will force usage of the native HLS downloader and override the corresponding values found in the m3u8 playlist
1820 * `is_live`: Bypass live HLS detection and manually set `live_status` - a value of `false` will set `not_live`, any other value (or no value) will set `is_live`
1821
1822 #### funimation
1823 * `language`: Audio languages to extract, e.g. `funimation:language=english,japanese`
1824 * `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`
1825
1826 #### crunchyrollbeta (Crunchyroll)
1827 * `format`: Which stream type(s) to extract (default: `adaptive_hls`). Potentially useful values include `adaptive_hls`, `adaptive_dash`, `vo_adaptive_hls`, `vo_adaptive_dash`, `download_hls`, `download_dash`, `multitrack_adaptive_hls_v2`
1828 * `hardsub`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract, or `all` (default: `None` = no hardsubs), e.g. `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None`
1829
1830 #### vikichannel
1831 * `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
1832
1833 #### niconico
1834 * `segment_duration`: Segment duration in milliseconds for HLS-DMC formats. Use it at your own risk since this feature **may result in your account termination.**
1835
1836 #### youtubewebarchive
1837 * `check_all`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails`, `captures`
1838
1839 #### gamejolt
1840 * `comment_sort`: `hot` (default), `you` (cookies needed), `top`, `new` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1841
1842 #### hotstar
1843 * `res`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd`, `hd`, `fhd`
1844 * `vcodec`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264`, `h265`, `dvh265`
1845 * `dr`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr`, `hdr10`, `dv`
1846
1847 #### tiktok
1848 * `api_hostname`: Hostname to use for mobile API requests, e.g. `api-h2.tiktokv.com`
1849 * `app_version`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version`, e.g. `20.2.1`
1850 * `manifest_app_version`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with, e.g. `221`
1851
1852 #### rokfinchannel
1853 * `tab`: Which tab to download - one of `new`, `top`, `videos`, `podcasts`, `streams`, `stacks`
1854
1855 #### stacommu, wrestleuniverse
1856 * `device_id`: UUID value assigned by the website and used to enforce device limits for paid livestream content. Can be found in browser local storage
1857
1858 #### twitch
1859 * `client_id`: Client ID value to be sent with GraphQL requests, e.g. `twitch:client_id=kimne78kx3ncx6brgo4mv6wki5h1ko`
1860
1861 #### nhkradirulive (NHK らじる★らじる LIVE)
1862 * `area`: Which regional variation to extract. Valid areas are: `sapporo`, `sendai`, `tokyo`, `nagoya`, `osaka`, `hiroshima`, `matsuyama`, `fukuoka`. Defaults to `tokyo`
1863
1864 **Note**: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
1865
1866 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1867
1868
1869 # PLUGINS
1870
1871 Note that **all** plugins are imported even if not invoked, and that **there are no checks** performed on plugin code. **Use plugins at your own risk and only if you trust the code!**
1872
1873 Plugins can be of `<type>`s `extractor` or `postprocessor`.
1874 - Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it.
1875 - Extractor plugins take priority over builtin extractors.
1876 - Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME`.
1877
1878
1879 Plugins are loaded from the namespace packages `yt_dlp_plugins.extractor` and `yt_dlp_plugins.postprocessor`.
1880
1881 In other words, the file structure on the disk looks something like:
1882
1883 yt_dlp_plugins/
1884 extractor/
1885 myplugin.py
1886 postprocessor/
1887 myplugin.py
1888
1889 yt-dlp looks for these `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folders in many locations (see below) and loads in plugins from **all** of them.
1890
1891 See the [wiki for some known plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugins)
1892
1893 ## Installing Plugins
1894
1895 Plugins can be installed using various methods and locations.
1896
1897 1. **Configuration directories**:
1898 Plugin packages (containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder) can be dropped into the following standard [configuration locations](#configuration):
1899 * **User Plugins**
1900 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1901 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1902 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Windows)
1903 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1904 * `~/.yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1905 * `~/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1906 * **System Plugins**
1907 * `/etc/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1908 * `/etc/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1909 2. **Executable location**: Plugin packages can similarly be installed in a `yt-dlp-plugins` directory under the executable location (recommended for portable installations):
1910 * Binary: where `<root-dir>/yt-dlp.exe`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1911 * Source: where `<root-dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1912
1913 3. **pip and other locations in `PYTHONPATH`**
1914 * Plugin packages can be installed and managed using `pip`. See [yt-dlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) for an example.
1915 * Note: plugin files between plugin packages installed with pip must have unique filenames.
1916 * Any path in `PYTHONPATH` is searched in for the `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder.
1917 * Note: This does not apply for Pyinstaller/py2exe builds.
1918
1919
1920 `.zip`, `.egg` and `.whl` archives containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder in their root are also supported as plugin packages.
1921 * e.g. `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/mypluginpkg.zip` where `mypluginpkg.zip` contains `yt_dlp_plugins/<type>/myplugin.py`
1922
1923 Run yt-dlp with `--verbose` to check if the plugin has been loaded.
1924
1925 ## Developing Plugins
1926
1927 See the [yt-dlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) repo for a template plugin package and the [Plugin Development](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugin-Development) section of the wiki for a plugin development guide.
1928
1929 All public classes with a name ending in `IE`/`PP` are imported from each file for extractors and postprocessors repectively. This respects underscore prefix (e.g. `_MyBasePluginIE` is private) and `__all__`. Modules can similarly be excluded by prefixing the module name with an underscore (e.g. `_myplugin.py`).
1930
1931 To replace an existing extractor with a subclass of one, set the `plugin_name` class keyword argument (e.g. `class MyPluginIE(ABuiltInIE, plugin_name='myplugin')` will replace `ABuiltInIE` with `MyPluginIE`). Since the extractor replaces the parent, you should exclude the subclass extractor from being imported separately by making it private using one of the methods described above.
1932
1933 If you are a plugin author, add [yt-dlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/yt-dlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability.
1934
1935 See the [Developer Instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions) on how to write and test an extractor.
1936
1937 # EMBEDDING YT-DLP
1938
1939 yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1940
1941 Your program should avoid parsing the normal stdout since they may change in future versions. Instead they should use options such as `-J`, `--print`, `--progress-template`, `--exec` etc to create console output that you can reliably reproduce and parse.
1942
1943 From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1944
1945 ```python
1946 from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
1947
1948 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1949 with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1950 ydl.download(URLS)
1951 ```
1952
1953 Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of options available, have a look at [`yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py`](yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py#L184).
1954
1955 **Tip**: If you are porting your code from youtube-dl to yt-dlp, one important point to look out for is that we do not guarantee the return value of `YoutubeDL.extract_info` to be json serializable, or even be a dictionary. It will be dictionary-like, but if you want to ensure it is a serializable dictionary, pass it through `YoutubeDL.sanitize_info` as shown in the [example below](#extracting-information)
1956
1957 ## Embedding examples
1958
1959 #### Extracting information
1960
1961 ```python
1962 import json
1963 import yt_dlp
1964
1965 URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
1966
1967 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
1968 ydl_opts = {}
1969 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1970 info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
1971
1972 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
1973 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1974 ```
1975 #### Download using an info-json
1976
1977 ```python
1978 import yt_dlp
1979
1980 INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
1981
1982 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1983 error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
1984
1985 print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
1986 else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
1987 ```
1988
1989 #### Extract audio
1990
1991 ```python
1992 import yt_dlp
1993
1994 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1995
1996 ydl_opts = {
1997 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
1998 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
1999 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
2000 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
2001 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
2002 }]
2003 }
2004
2005 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2006 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
2007 ```
2008
2009 #### Filter videos
2010
2011 ```python
2012 import yt_dlp
2013
2014 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2015
2016 def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
2017 """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
2018 duration = info.get('duration')
2019 if duration and duration < 60:
2020 return 'The video is too short'
2021
2022 ydl_opts = {
2023 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
2024 }
2025
2026 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2027 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
2028 ```
2029
2030 #### Adding logger and progress hook
2031
2032 ```python
2033 import yt_dlp
2034
2035 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2036
2037 class MyLogger:
2038 def debug(self, msg):
2039 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
2040 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
2041 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
2042 pass
2043 else:
2044 self.info(msg)
2045
2046 def info(self, msg):
2047 pass
2048
2049 def warning(self, msg):
2050 pass
2051
2052 def error(self, msg):
2053 print(msg)
2054
2055
2056 # ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
2057 def my_hook(d):
2058 if d['status'] == 'finished':
2059 print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
2060
2061
2062 ydl_opts = {
2063 'logger': MyLogger(),
2064 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
2065 }
2066
2067 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2068 ydl.download(URLS)
2069 ```
2070
2071 #### Add a custom PostProcessor
2072
2073 ```python
2074 import yt_dlp
2075
2076 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2077
2078 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
2079 class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
2080 def run(self, info):
2081 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
2082 return [], info
2083
2084
2085 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
2086 # ℹ️ "when" can take any value in yt_dlp.utils.POSTPROCESS_WHEN
2087 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP(), when='pre_process')
2088 ydl.download(URLS)
2089 ```
2090
2091
2092 #### Use a custom format selector
2093
2094 ```python
2095 import yt_dlp
2096
2097 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2098
2099 def format_selector(ctx):
2100 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
2101 NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
2102
2103 # formats are already sorted worst to best
2104 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
2105
2106 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
2107 best_video = next(f for f in formats
2108 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
2109
2110 # find compatible audio extension
2111 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
2112 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
2113 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
2114 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
2115
2116 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
2117 yield {
2118 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
2119 'ext': best_video['ext'],
2120 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
2121 # Must be + separated list of protocols
2122 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
2123 }
2124
2125
2126 ydl_opts = {
2127 'format': format_selector,
2128 }
2129
2130 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2131 ydl.download(URLS)
2132 ```
2133
2134 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
2135
2136 # DEPRECATED OPTIONS
2137
2138 These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
2139
2140 #### Almost redundant options
2141 While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
2142
2143 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
2144 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
2145 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
2146 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
2147
2148 #### Redundant options
2149 While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
2150
2151 --get-description --print description
2152 --get-duration --print duration_string
2153 --get-filename --print filename
2154 --get-format --print format
2155 --get-id --print id
2156 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
2157 -e, --get-title --print title
2158 -g, --get-url --print urls
2159 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
2160 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
2161 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
2162 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
2163 --break-on-reject Use --break-match-filter
2164 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
2165 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
2166 --playlist-start NUMBER -I NUMBER:
2167 --playlist-end NUMBER -I :NUMBER
2168 --playlist-reverse -I ::-1
2169 --no-playlist-reverse Default
2170 --no-colors --color no_color
2171
2172
2173 #### Not recommended
2174 While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
2175
2176 --force-generic-extractor --ies generic,default
2177 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
2178 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
2179 --all-formats -f all
2180 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
2181 --print-json -j --no-simulate
2182 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting, e.g. %(autonumber)03d
2183 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
2184 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2185 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
2186 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
2187 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
2188 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
2189 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
2190 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
2191 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
2192 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
2193 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
2194 --geo-bypass --xff "default"
2195 --no-geo-bypass --xff "never"
2196 --geo-bypass-country CODE --xff CODE
2197 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK --xff IP_BLOCK
2198
2199
2200 #### Developer options
2201 These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
2202
2203 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
2204 --load-pages Load pages dumped by --write-pages
2205 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
2206 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
2207 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
2208
2209
2210 #### Old aliases
2211 These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
2212
2213 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
2214 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
2215 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
2216 --dump-headers --print-traffic
2217 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
2218 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
2219 --load-info --load-info-json
2220 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
2221 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
2222 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
2223 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
2224 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
2225 --split-tracks --split-chapters
2226 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
2227 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
2228 --write-srt --write-subs
2229 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
2230
2231 #### Sponskrub Options
2232 Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock` options
2233
2234 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
2235 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
2236 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
2237 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
2238 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
2239 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
2240 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
2241 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
2242
2243 #### No longer supported
2244 These options may no longer work as intended
2245
2246 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
2247 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
2248 -C, --call-home Not implemented
2249 --no-call-home Default
2250 --include-ads No longer supported
2251 --no-include-ads Default
2252 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
2253 --no-write-annotations Default
2254 --compat-options seperate-video-versions No longer needed
2255
2256 #### Removed
2257 These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
2258
2259 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2260 -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2261
2262 # CONTRIBUTING
2263 See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp) for instructions on [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue) and [Contributing code to the project](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
2264
2265 # WIKI
2266 See the [Wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki) for more information