]> jfr.im git - yt-dlp.git/blob - README.md
Improve plugin architecture (#5553)
[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/workflow/status/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/Core%20Tests/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>
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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 file](#authentication-with-netrc-file)
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 * Merged with **youtube-dl v2021.12.17+ [commit/de39d12](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/de39d128)** <!--([exceptions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/21))--> and **youtube-dlc v2020.11.11-3+ [commit/f9401f2](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/commit/f9401f2a91987068139c5f757b12fc711d4c0cee)**: You get all the features and patches of [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) in addition to the latest [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl)
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 the 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, YouTube Music Albums/Channels ([except self-uploaded music](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/723)), 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-on-reject` 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`
124
125 See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
126
127 Features marked with a **\*** have been back-ported to youtube-dl
128
129 ### Differences in default behavior
130
131 Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
132
133 * The options `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
134 * `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
135 * yt-dlp stores config files in slightly different locations to youtube-dl. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for a list of correct locations
136 * 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`
137 * 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
138 * 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
139 * 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
140 * `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
141 * 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
142 * `--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
143 * 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
144 * `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
145 * The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
146 * 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
147 * 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
148 * Unavailable videos are also listed for YouTube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
149 * 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.
150 * 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
151 * Thumbnail embedding in `mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use `--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
152 * Some private fields such as filenames are removed by default from the infojson. Use `--no-clean-infojson` or `--compat-options no-clean-infojson` to revert this
153 * 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
154 * `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`
155 * 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
156
157 For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
158
159 * `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options (Do NOT use)
160 * `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams`
161 * `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
162
163
164 # INSTALLATION
165
166 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
167 [![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)
168 [![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)
169 [![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)
170 [![PyPi](https://img.shields.io/badge/-PyPi-blue.svg?logo=pypi&labelColor=555555&style=for-the-badge)](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
171 [![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)
172 [![Other variants](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Other-grey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](#release-files)
173 [![All versions](https://img.shields.io/badge/-All_Versions-lightgrey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
174 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
175
176 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
177
178
179 ## UPDATE
180 You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are [using the release binaries](#release-files)
181
182 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
183
184 For other third-party package managers, see [the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation) or refer their documentation
185
186
187 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
188 ## RELEASE FILES
189
190 #### Recommended
191
192 File|Description
193 :---|:---
194 [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**)
195 [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**)
196 [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**)
197
198 #### Alternatives
199
200 File|Description
201 :---|:---
202 [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
203 [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))
204 [yt-dlp_linux](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux)|Linux standalone x64 binary
205 [yt-dlp_linux.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux.zip)|Unpackaged Linux executable (no auto-update)
206 [yt-dlp_linux_armv7l](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_armv7l)|Linux standalone armv7l (32-bit) binary
207 [yt-dlp_linux_aarch64](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_aarch64)|Linux standalone aarch64 (64-bit) binary
208 [yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
209 [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)
210 [yt-dlp_macos_legacy](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos_legacy)|MacOS (10.9+) standalone x64 executable
211
212 #### Misc
213
214 File|Description
215 :---|:---
216 [yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball
217 [SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
218 [SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
219 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
220
221
222 Note: The manpages, shell completion files etc. are available in the [source tarball](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
223
224 ## DEPENDENCIES
225 Python versions 3.7+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
226
227 <!-- Python 3.5+ uses VC++14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
228 <!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999 --x>
229 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.
230 -->
231
232 While all the other dependencies are optional, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended
233
234 ### Strongly recommended
235
236 * [**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)
237
238 <!-- TODO: ffmpeg has merged this patch. Remove this note once there is new release -->
239 **Note**: There are some regressions in newer ffmpeg versions 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 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
240
241 ### Networking
242 * [**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)
243 * [**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>
244 * [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
245
246 ### Metadata
247
248 * [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For `--embed-thumbnail` in certain formats. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
249 * [**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)
250 * [**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
251
252 ### Misc
253
254 * [**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)
255 * [**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)
256 * [**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)
257 * Any external downloader that you want to use with `--downloader`
258
259 ### Deprecated
260
261 * [**avconv** and **avprobe**](https://www.libav.org) - Now **deprecated** alternative to ffmpeg. License [depends on the build](https://libav.org/legal)
262 * [**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)
263 * [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with `--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
264 * [**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)
265
266 To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
267
268 The standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with **\*** included.
269
270 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
271
272
273 ## COMPILE
274
275 ### Standalone PyInstaller Builds
276 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.
277
278 python3 -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
279 python3 devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
280 python3 pyinst.py
281
282 On some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`.
283
284 `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).
285
286 Note that pyinstaller with 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.
287
288 **Important**: Running `pyinstaller` directly **without** using `pyinst.py` is **not** officially supported. This may or may not work correctly.
289
290 ### Platform-independent Binary (UNIX)
291 You will need the build tools `python` (3.7+), `zip`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`\* and `pytest`\*.
292
293 After installing these, simply run `make`.
294
295 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)
296
297 ### Standalone Py2Exe Builds (Windows)
298
299 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.
300
301 If you wish to build it anyway, install Python and py2exe, and then simply run `setup.py py2exe`
302
303 py -m pip install -U py2exe -r requirements.txt
304 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
305 py setup.py py2exe
306
307 ### Related scripts
308
309 * **`devscripts/update-version.py [revision]`** - Update the version number based on current date
310 * **`devscripts/set-variant.py variant [-M update_message]`** - Set the build variant of the executable
311 * **`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.
312
313 You can also fork the project on GitHub and run your fork's [build workflow](.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically build a full release
314
315 # USAGE AND OPTIONS
316
317 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
318 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
319
320 `Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
321 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
322
323 <!-- Auto generated -->
324 ## General Options:
325 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
326 --version Print program version and exit
327 -U, --update Update this program to the latest version
328 --no-update Do not check for updates (default)
329 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
330 The download will be considered successful
331 even if the postprocessing fails
332 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download errors;
333 e.g. to skip unavailable videos in a
334 playlist (default)
335 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
336 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
337 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
338 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
339 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
340 extractors and exit
341 --use-extractors NAMES Extractor names to use separated by commas.
342 You can also use regexes, "all", "default"
343 and "end" (end URL matching); e.g. --ies
344 "holodex.*,end,youtube". Prefix the name
345 with a "-" to exclude it, e.g. --ies
346 default,-generic. Use --list-extractors for
347 a list of extractor names. (Alias: --ies)
348 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. E.g.
349 "gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
350 google videos for the search term "python".
351 Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
352 ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when
353 guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
354 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken
355 URLs, but emits an error if this is not
356 possible instead of searching
357 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
358 except those given by --config-locations.
359 For backward compatibility, if this option
360 is found inside the system configuration
361 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
362 (Alias: --no-config)
363 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
364 (default). When given inside a configuration
365 file, ignore all previous --config-locations
366 defined in the current file
367 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
368 either the path to the config or its
369 containing directory ("-" for stdin). Can be
370 used multiple times and inside other
371 configuration files
372 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
373 only list them
374 --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
375 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
376 Currently only supported for YouTube
377 (Experimental)
378 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
379 (default)
380 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
381 available. Pass the minimum number of
382 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
383 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
384 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
385 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
386 --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output (Alias:
387 --no-colours)
388 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
389 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
390 configurations by reverting some of the
391 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
392 default behavior" for details
393 --alias ALIASES OPTIONS Create aliases for an option string. Unless
394 an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
395 prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
396 according to the Python string formatting
397 mini-language. E.g. --alias get-audio,-X
398 "-S=aext:{0},abr -x --audio-format {0}"
399 creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
400 takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
401 "-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
402 All defined aliases are listed in the --help
403 output. Alias options can trigger more
404 aliases; so be careful to avoid defining
405 recursive options. As a safety measure, each
406 alias may be triggered a maximum of 100
407 times. This option can be used multiple times
408
409 ## Network Options:
410 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
411 enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme,
412 e.g. socks5://user:pass@127.0.0.1:1080/.
413 Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for
414 direct connection
415 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
416 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
417 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
418 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
419
420 ## Geo-restriction:
421 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
422 some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy
423 specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
424 is not present) is used for the actual
425 downloading
426 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
427 X-Forwarded-For HTTP header (default)
428 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
429 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
430 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
431 explicitly provided two-letter ISO 3166-2
432 country code
433 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
434 explicitly provided IP block in CIDR notation
435
436 ## Video Selection:
437 -I, --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Comma separated playlist_index of the items
438 to download. You can specify a range using
439 "[START]:[STOP][:STEP]". For backward
440 compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.
441 Use negative indices to count from the right
442 and negative STEP to download in reverse
443 order. E.g. "-I 1:3,7,-5::2" used on a
444 playlist of size 15 will download the items
445 at index 1,2,3,7,11,13,15
446 --min-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is smaller than
447 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
448 --max-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is larger than
449 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
450 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
451 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
452 [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
453 E.g. --date today-2weeks
454 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
455 this date. The date formats accepted is the
456 same as --date
457 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
458 this date. The date formats accepted is the
459 same as --date
460 --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
461 field can be compared with a number or a
462 string using the operators defined in
463 "Filtering Formats". You can also simply
464 specify a field to match if the field is
465 present, use "!field" to check if the field
466 is not present, and "&" to check multiple
467 conditions. Use a "\" to escape "&" or
468 quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
469 the filter matches if atleast one of the
470 conditions are met. E.g. --match-filter
471 !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?100 &
472 description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'" matches
473 only videos that are not live OR those that
474 have a like count more than 100 (or the like
475 field is not available) and also has a
476 description that contains the phrase "cats &
477 dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
478 interactively ask whether to download each
479 video
480 --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
481 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
482 to a video and a playlist
483 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
484 a video and a playlist
485 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
486 age
487 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
488 archive file. Record the IDs of all
489 downloaded videos in it
490 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
491 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
492 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
493 a file that is in the archive
494 --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
495 a file that has been filtered out
496 --break-per-input Alters --max-downloads, --break-on-existing,
497 --break-on-reject, and autonumber to reset
498 per input URL
499 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
500 terminates the entire download queue
501 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
502 the playlist is skipped
503
504 ## Download Options:
505 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
506 video that should be downloaded concurrently
507 (default is 1)
508 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second,
509 e.g. 50K or 4.2M
510 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
511 below which throttling is assumed and the
512 video data is re-extracted, e.g. 100K
513 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
514 "infinite"
515 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
516 error (default is 3), or "infinite"
517 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
518 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
519 --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR Time to sleep between retries in seconds
520 (optionally) prefixed by the type of retry
521 (http (default), fragment, file_access,
522 extractor) to apply the sleep to. EXPR can
523 be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=1]] or
524 exp=START[:END[:BASE=2]]. This option can be
525 used multiple times to set the sleep for the
526 different retry types, e.g. --retry-sleep
527 linear=1::2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=1:20
528 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
529 hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
530 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
531 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment
532 Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
533 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
534 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
535 downloading is finished
536 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
537 downloading is finished (default)
538 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer, e.g. 1024 or 16K
539 (default is 1024)
540 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
541 from an initial value of --buffer-size
542 (default)
543 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
544 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
545 downloading, e.g. 10485760 or 10M (default
546 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
547 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
548 (experimental)
549 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
550 --lazy-playlist Process entries in the playlist as they are
551 received. This disables n_entries,
552 --playlist-random and --playlist-reverse
553 --no-lazy-playlist Process videos in the playlist only after
554 the entire playlist is parsed (default)
555 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
556 expected file size
557 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
558 allowing some players to play the video
559 while downloading, and reducing the chance
560 of file corruption if download is
561 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
562 live streams
563 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
564 videos. This is default when not downloading
565 live streams
566 --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters whose title matches
567 the given regular expression. Time ranges
568 prefixed by a "*" can also be used in place
569 of chapters to download the specified range.
570 Needs ffmpeg. This option can be used
571 multiple times to download multiple
572 sections, e.g. --download-sections
573 "*10:15-inf" --download-sections "intro"
574 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
575 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
576 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
577 use it for. Currently supports native,
578 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
579 wget. You can use this option multiple times
580 to set different downloaders for different
581 protocols. E.g. --downloader aria2c
582 --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
583 aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
584 native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
585 (Alias: --external-downloader)
586 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
587 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
588 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
589 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different
590 positions using the same syntax as
591 --postprocessor-args. You can use this
592 option multiple times to give different
593 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
594 --external-downloader-args)
595
596 ## Filesystem Options:
597 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
598 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
599 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
600 comments and ignored
601 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
602 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
603 downloaded. Specify the type of file and the
604 path separated by a colon ":". All the same
605 TYPES as --output are supported.
606 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
607 (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary
608 files are first downloaded to the temp path
609 and then the final files are moved over to
610 the home path after download is finished.
611 This option is ignored if --output is an
612 absolute path
613 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
614 TEMPLATE" for details
615 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
616 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" (default: "NA")
617 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
618 and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
619 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
620 filenames (default)
621 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
622 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
623 using Windows (default)
624 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
625 extension) to the specified number of
626 characters
627 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
628 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This
629 option includes --no-continue
630 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
631 related files (default)
632 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
633 (default)
634 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
635 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
636 restart download of the entire file
637 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
638 into output file (default)
639 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into
640 output file
641 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file
642 modification time (default)
643 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
644 the file modification time
645 --write-description Write video description to a .description file
646 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
647 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
648 (this may contain personal information)
649 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
650 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
651 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
652 --write-description etc. (default)
653 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
654 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
655 --clean-info-json Remove some private fields such as filenames
656 from the infojson. Note that it could still
657 contain some personal information (default)
658 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
659 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
660 infojson. The comments are fetched even
661 without this option if the extraction is
662 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
663 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
664 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
665 --no-get-comments)
666 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
667 (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
668 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from
669 and dump cookie jar in
670 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
671 (default)
672 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]
673 The name of the browser to load cookies
674 from. Currently supported browsers are:
675 brave, chrome, chromium, edge, firefox,
676 opera, safari, vivaldi. Optionally, the
677 KEYRING used for decrypting Chromium cookies
678 on Linux, the name/path of the PROFILE to
679 load cookies from, and the CONTAINER name
680 (if Firefox) ("none" for no container) can
681 be given with their respective seperators.
682 By default, all containers of the most
683 recently accessed profile are used.
684 Currently supported keyrings are: basictext,
685 gnomekeyring, kwallet
686 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
687 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where yt-dlp can
688 store some downloaded information (such as
689 client ids and signatures) permanently. By
690 default ${XDG_CACHE_HOME}/yt-dlp
691 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
692 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
693
694 ## Thumbnail Options:
695 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
696 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default)
697 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
698 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
699 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
700
701 ## Internet Shortcut Options:
702 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
703 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
704 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
705 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
706 OS caches the URL based on the file path
707 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
708 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
709
710 ## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
711 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
712 print the log to stderr
713 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
714 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
715 anything to disk
716 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
717 options are used
718 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
719 extracting metadata even if the videos are
720 not actually available for download
721 (experimental)
722 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
723 formats are found (default)
724 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
725 related files (Alias: --no-download)
726 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
727 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
728 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
729 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
730 --use-postprocessor (default: video).
731 Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
732 --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
733 used. This option can be used multiple times
734 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
735 Append given template to the file. The
736 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as that
737 of --print. FILE uses the same syntax as the
738 output template. This option can be used
739 multiple times
740 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
741 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
742 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
743 description of available keys
744 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
745 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
746 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
747 a playlist, the whole playlist information
748 is dumped in a single line
749 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
750 as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
751 another simulation option is used (Alias:
752 --force-download-archive)
753 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
754 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
755 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
756 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
757 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
758 Template for progress outputs, optionally
759 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
760 "download-title:" (the console title),
761 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
762 The video's fields are accessible under the
763 "info" key and the progress attributes are
764 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.
765 --console-title --progress-template
766 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
767 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
768 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
769 to debug problems (very verbose)
770 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files
771 in the current directory to debug problems
772 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
773
774 ## Workarounds:
775 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
776 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to servers
777 that do not support RFC 5746 secure
778 renegotiation
779 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
780 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
781 information about the video (Currently
782 supported only for YouTube)
783 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
784 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
785 option multiple times
786 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
787 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
788 or fribidi executable in PATH
789 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
790 during data extraction
791 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
792 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
793 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
794 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
795 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only
796 be used along with --min-sleep-interval
797 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
798 subtitle download
799
800 ## Video Format Options:
801 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
802 for more details
803 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
804 "Sorting Formats" for more details
805 --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
806 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
807 Formats" for more details (Alias: --S-force)
808 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
809 specified sort order (default)
810 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
811 into a single file
812 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
813 output file (default)
814 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
815 into a single file
816 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
817 output file (default)
818 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
819 over non-free ones of same quality. Use with
820 "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers
821 irrespective of quality
822 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
823 containers (default)
824 --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
825 those that are actually downloadable
826 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
827 actually downloadable
828 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
829 downloadable
830 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
831 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
832 --merge-output-format FORMAT Containers that may be used when merging
833 formats, separated by "/", e.g. "mp4/mkv".
834 Ignored if no merge is required. (currently
835 supported: avi, flv, mkv, mov, mp4, webm)
836
837 ## Subtitle Options:
838 --write-subs Write subtitle file
839 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
840 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
841 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
842 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
843 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
844 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
845 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
846 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
847 e.g. "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
848 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
849 be regex) or "all" separated by commas, e.g.
850 --sub-langs "en.*,ja". You can prefix the
851 language code with a "-" to exclude it from
852 the requested languages, e.g. --sub-langs
853 all,-live_chat. Use --list-subs for a list
854 of available language tags
855
856 ## Authentication Options:
857 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
858 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
859 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
860 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
861 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
862 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
863 either the path or its containing directory.
864 Defaults to ~/.netrc
865 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
866 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
867 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
868 a list of available MSOs
869 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
870 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
871 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
872 interactively
873 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
874 --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
875 format. May include the private key
876 --client-certificate-key KEYFILE
877 Path to private key file for client
878 certificate
879 --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
880 Password for client certificate private key,
881 if encrypted. If not provided, and the key
882 is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask interactively
883
884 ## Post-Processing Options:
885 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
886 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
887 --audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
888 used. (currently supported: best (default),
889 aac, alac, flac, m4a, mp3, opus, vorbis,
890 wav). You can specify multiple rules using
891 similar syntax as --remux-video
892 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
893 converting the audio with -x. Insert a value
894 between 0 (best) and 10 (worst) for VBR or a
895 specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
896 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
897 necessary (currently supported: avi, flv,
898 gif, mkv, mov, mp4, webm, aac, aiff, alac,
899 flac, m4a, mka, mp3, ogg, opus, vorbis,
900 wav). If target container does not support
901 the video/audio codec, remuxing will fail.
902 You can specify multiple rules; e.g.
903 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
904 mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
905 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
906 necessary. The syntax and supported formats
907 are the same as --remux-video
908 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
909 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
910 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
911 to give the argument to the specified
912 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
913 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
914 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
915 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
916 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
917 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
918 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
919 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
920 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
921 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
922 specified executable only when being used by
923 the specified postprocessor. Additionally,
924 for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
925 appended to the prefix optionally followed
926 by a number to pass the argument before the
927 specified input/output file, e.g. --ppa
928 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
929 this option multiple times to give different
930 arguments to different postprocessors.
931 (Alias: --ppa)
932 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
933 after post-processing
934 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
935 post-processing (default)
936 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
937 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
938 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
939 webm and mkv videos)
940 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
941 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
942 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
943 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
944 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
945 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are
946 used (Alias: --add-metadata)
947 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
948 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
949 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
950 (Alias: --add-chapters)
951 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias:
952 --no-add-chapters)
953 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
954 mkv/mka video files
955 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
956 to the video file
957 --parse-metadata [WHEN:]FROM:TO
958 Parse additional metadata like title/artist
959 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
960 for details. Supported values of "WHEN" are
961 the same as that of --use-postprocessor
962 (default: pre_process)
963 --replace-in-metadata [WHEN:]FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
964 Replace text in a metadata field using the
965 given regex. This option can be used
966 multiple times. Supported values of "WHEN"
967 are the same as that of --use-postprocessor
968 (default: pre_process)
969 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
970 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
971 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
972 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
973 (default; only when the videos form a single
974 show). All the video files must have same
975 codecs and number of streams to be
976 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
977 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
978 the output filename for the concatenated
979 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
980 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
981 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
982 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
983 default; fix file if we can, warn
984 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
985 already exists)
986 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
987 path to the binary or its containing directory
988 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
989 when to execute it, separated by a ":".
990 Supported values of "WHEN" are the same as
991 that of --use-postprocessor (default:
992 after_move). Same syntax as the output
993 template can be used to pass any field as
994 arguments to the command. After download, an
995 additional field "filepath" that contains
996 the final path of the downloaded file is
997 also available, and if no fields are passed,
998 %(filepath)q is appended to the end of the
999 command. This option can be used multiple
1000 times
1001 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
1002 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
1003 (currently supported: ass, lrc, srt, vtt)
1004 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
1005 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
1006 (currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
1007 can specify multiple rules using similar
1008 syntax as --remux-video
1009 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
1010 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can
1011 be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1012 the output filename for the split files. See
1013 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1014 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters (default)
1015 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
1016 given regular expression. The syntax is the
1017 same as --download-sections. This option can
1018 be used multiple times
1019 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
1020 (default)
1021 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes at cuts when
1022 downloading/splitting/removing sections.
1023 This is slow due to needing a re-encode, but
1024 the resulting video may have fewer artifacts
1025 around the cuts
1026 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
1027 when cutting/splitting (default)
1028 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS]
1029 The (case sensitive) name of plugin
1030 postprocessors to be enabled, and
1031 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
1032 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
1033 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
1034 The "when" argument determines when the
1035 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
1036 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
1037 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
1038 "video" (after --format; before
1039 --print/--output), "before_dl" (before each
1040 video download), "post_process" (after each
1041 video download; default), "after_move"
1042 (after moving video file to it's final
1043 locations), "after_video" (after downloading
1044 and processing all formats of a video), or
1045 "playlist" (at end of playlist). This option
1046 can be used multiple times to add different
1047 postprocessors
1048
1049 ## SponsorBlock Options:
1050 Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1051 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
1052 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1053
1054 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1055 for, separated by commas. Available
1056 categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
1057 selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
1058 music_offtopic, poi_highlight, chapter, all
1059 and default (=all). You can prefix the
1060 category with a "-" to exclude it. See [1]
1061 for description of the categories. E.g.
1062 --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1063 [1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1064 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1065 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1066 category is present in both mark and remove,
1067 remove takes precedence. The syntax and
1068 available categories are the same as for
1069 --sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
1070 refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight,
1071 chapter are not available
1072 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
1073 An output template for the title of the
1074 SponsorBlock chapters created by
1075 --sponsorblock-mark. The only available
1076 fields are start_time, end_time, category,
1077 categories, name, category_names. Defaults
1078 to "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1079 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1080 --sponsorblock-remove
1081 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1082 https://sponsor.ajay.app
1083
1084 ## Extractor Options:
1085 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors
1086 (default is 3), or "infinite"
1087 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1088 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1089 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1090 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1091 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1092 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1093 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1094 formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
1095 (default)
1096 --extractor-args IE_KEY:ARGS Pass ARGS arguments to the IE_KEY extractor.
1097 See "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You
1098 can use this option multiple times to give
1099 arguments for different extractors
1100
1101 # CONFIGURATION
1102
1103 You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
1104
1105 1. **Main Configuration**:
1106 * The file given by `--config-location`
1107 1. **Portable Configuration**: (Recommended for portable installations)
1108 * If using a binary, `yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the binary
1109 * If running from source-code, `yt-dlp.conf` in the parent directory of `yt_dlp`
1110 1. **Home Configuration**:
1111 * `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by `-P`
1112 * If `-P` is not given, the current directory is searched
1113 1. **User Configuration**:
1114 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1115 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1116 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp.conf`
1117 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1118 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1119 * `~/yt-dlp.conf`
1120 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
1121 * `~/.yt-dlp/config`
1122 * `~/.yt-dlp/config.txt`
1123
1124 See also: [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
1125 1. **System Configuration**:
1126 * `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
1127 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config`
1128 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1129
1130 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:
1131 ```
1132 # Lines starting with # are comments
1133
1134 # Always extract audio
1135 -x
1136
1137 # Do not copy the mtime
1138 --no-mtime
1139
1140 # Use this proxy
1141 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1142
1143 # Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1144 -o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
1145 ```
1146
1147 Note that 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.
1148
1149 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.
1150
1151 ### Configuration file encoding
1152
1153 The configuration files are decoded according to the UTF BOM if present, and in the encoding from system locale otherwise.
1154
1155 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.
1156
1157 ### Authentication with `.netrc` file
1158
1159 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:
1160 ```
1161 touch ${HOME}/.netrc
1162 chmod a-rwx,u+rw ${HOME}/.netrc
1163 ```
1164 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1165 ```
1166 machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
1167 ```
1168 E.g.
1169 ```
1170 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1171 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1172 ```
1173 To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
1174
1175 The default location of the .netrc file is `~` (see below).
1176
1177 ### Notes about environment variables
1178 * Environment variables are normally specified as `${VARIABLE}`/`$VARIABLE` on UNIX and `%VARIABLE%` on Windows; but is always shown as `${VARIABLE}` in this documentation
1179 * yt-dlp also allow using UNIX-style variables on Windows for path-like options; e.g. `--output`, `--config-location`
1180 * If unset, `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}` defaults to `~/.config` and `${XDG_CACHE_HOME}` to `~/.cache`
1181 * On Windows, `~` points to `${HOME}` if present; or, `${USERPROFILE}` or `${HOMEDRIVE}${HOMEPATH}` otherwise
1182 * On Windows, `${USERPROFILE}` generally points to `C:\Users\<user name>` and `${APPDATA}` to `${USERPROFILE}\AppData\Roaming`
1183
1184 # OUTPUT TEMPLATE
1185
1186 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.
1187
1188 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1189 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
1190 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1191
1192 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).
1193
1194 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.
1195
1196 The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
1197
1198 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
1199
1200 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`
1201
1202 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`
1203
1204 1. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a `,`. E.g. `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
1205
1206 1. **Replacement**: A replacement value can be specified using a `&` separator. 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.
1207
1208 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`
1209
1210 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)
1211
1212 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
1213
1214 To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1215 ```
1216 %(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
1217 ```
1218
1219 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.
1220
1221 <a id="outtmpl-postprocess-note"></a>
1222
1223 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.
1224
1225 The available fields are:
1226
1227 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1228 - `title` (string): Video title
1229 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
1230 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1231 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
1232 - `description` (string): The description of the video
1233 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1234 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1235 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1236 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
1237 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
1238 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
1239 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
1240 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
1241 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
1242 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
1243 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1244 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1245 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
1246 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
1247 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1248 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
1249 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
1250 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1251 - `concurrent_view_count` (numeric): How many users are currently watching the video on the platform.
1252 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1253 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1254 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1255 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
1256 - `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)
1257 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
1258 - `live_status` (string): One of "not_live", "is_live", "is_upcoming", "was_live", "post_live" (was live, but VOD is not yet processed)
1259 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
1260 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
1261 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
1262 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
1263 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1264 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
1265 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1266 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
1267 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
1268 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`
1269 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
1270 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
1271 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1272 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1273 - `playlist` (string): `playlist_id` or `playlist_title`
1274 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
1275 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1276 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
1277 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1278 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
1279 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
1280 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1281 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
1282 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)
1283
1284 All the fields in [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats) can also be used
1285
1286 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1287
1288 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1289 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1290 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1291
1292 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1293
1294 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1295 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1296 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1297 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1298 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1299 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1300 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1301
1302 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1303
1304 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1305 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1306 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1307 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1308 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1309 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1310 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1311 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1312 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1313 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1314
1315 Available only when using `--download-sections` and for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
1316
1317 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1318 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1319 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1320 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1321
1322 Available only when used in `--print`:
1323
1324 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1325 - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the [actual filename may differ](#outtmpl-postprocess-note)
1326 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by `--list-formats`
1327 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by `--list-thumbnails`
1328 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1329 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1330
1331
1332 Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1333
1334 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1335 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1336 - `categories` (list): The [SponsorBlock categories](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Category) the chapter belongs to
1337 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1338 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1339 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
1340 - `type` (string): The [SponsorBlock action type](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Action_Type) of the chapter
1341
1342 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.
1343
1344 Note that 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).
1345
1346 **Tip**: Look at the `-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
1347
1348 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`.
1349
1350 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.
1351
1352 To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
1353
1354 The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
1355
1356 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.
1357
1358 #### Output template examples
1359
1360 ```bash
1361 $ yt-dlp --print filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1362 test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1363
1364 $ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1365 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
1366
1367 $ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
1368 youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
1369
1370 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
1371 $ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1372
1373 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
1374 $ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1375
1376 # Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
1377 $ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist_index|)s%(playlist_index& - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1378
1379 # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
1380 $ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1381
1382 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
1383 $ 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"
1384
1385 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
1386 $ 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"
1387
1388 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1389 # and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1390 $ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1391
1392 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1393 $ 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
1394
1395 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
1396 $ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
1397 ```
1398
1399 # FORMAT SELECTION
1400
1401 By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1402 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`.
1403
1404 **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.
1405
1406 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.
1407
1408 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1409 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
1410 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1411
1412 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.
1413
1414 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.
1415
1416 You can use `-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1417
1418 You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1419
1420 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1421 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
1422 - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio or both (ie; `vcodec!=none or acodec!=none`)
1423 - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1424 - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
1425 - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
1426 - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
1427 - `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))
1428 - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
1429 - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1430 - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
1431 - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
1432 - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
1433 - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
1434
1435 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.
1436
1437 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.
1438
1439 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.
1440
1441 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`.
1442
1443 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.
1444
1445 **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
1446
1447 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`.
1448
1449 ## Filtering Formats
1450
1451 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
1452
1453 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
1454
1455 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1456 - `filesize_approx`: An estimate for the number of bytes
1457 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1458 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
1459 - `aspect_ratio`: Aspect ratio of the video, if known
1460 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1461 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1462 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1463 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1464 - `fps`: Frame rate
1465 - `audio_channels`: The number of audio channels
1466 - `stretched_ratio`: `width:height` of the video's pixels, if not square
1467
1468 Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains), `~=` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
1469
1470 - `url`: Video URL
1471 - `ext`: File extension
1472 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1473 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1474 - `container`: Name of the container format
1475 - `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`)
1476 - `language`: Language code
1477 - `dynamic_range`: The dynamic range of the video
1478 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
1479 - `format`: A human-readable description of the format
1480 - `format_note`: Additional info about the format
1481 - `resolution`: Textual description of width and height
1482
1483 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 `._-`.
1484
1485 Note that none of the aforementioned meta fields are guaranteed to be present since this solely depends on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, i.e. the metadata offered by the website. Any other field made available by the extractor can also be used for filtering.
1486
1487 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.
1488
1489 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.
1490
1491 ## Sorting Formats
1492
1493 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...`.
1494
1495 The available fields are:
1496
1497 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that have a video stream
1498 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that have an audio stream
1499 - `ie_pref`: The format preference
1500 - `lang`: The language preference
1501 - `quality`: The quality of the format
1502 - `source`: The preference of the source
1503 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > `mms`/`rtsp` > `f4f`/`f4m`)
1504 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other)
1505 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`flac`/`alac` > `wav`/`aiff` > `opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` `ac4` > > `eac3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other)
1506 - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
1507 - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `mov` > `webm` > `flv` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is preferred.
1508 - `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`
1509 - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
1510 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
1511 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1512 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
1513 - `height`: Height of video
1514 - `width`: Width of video
1515 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1516 - `fps`: Framerate of video
1517 - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `HLG` > `SDR`)
1518 - `channels`: The number of audio channels
1519 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1520 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1521 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1522 - `br`: Equivalent to using `tbr,vbr,abr`
1523 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
1524
1525 **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.
1526
1527 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.
1528
1529 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.
1530
1531 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.
1532
1533 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`.
1534
1535 **Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1536
1537 ## Format Selection examples
1538
1539 ```bash
1540 # Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
1541 # or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
1542 $ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
1543
1544 # Download best format that contains video,
1545 # and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
1546 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
1547
1548 # Same as above
1549 $ yt-dlp
1550
1551 # Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1552 # For this case, an output template should be used since
1553 # by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
1554 $ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
1555
1556 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1557 # and all audio-only formats into one file
1558 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
1559
1560 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1561 # and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
1562 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
1563
1564
1565 # The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
1566 # and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
1567
1568 # Download the worst video available (old method)
1569 $ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
1570
1571 # Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
1572 $ yt-dlp -S "+res"
1573
1574 # Download the smallest video available
1575 $ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
1576
1577
1578
1579 # Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
1580 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
1581
1582 # Download the best video with the best extension
1583 # (For video, mp4 > mov > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
1584 $ yt-dlp -S "ext"
1585
1586
1587
1588 # Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1589 # or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
1590 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
1591
1592 # Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1593 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1594 $ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
1595
1596 # Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1597 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1598 # Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1599 # So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
1600 $ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
1601
1602
1603
1604 # Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1605 # or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1606 $ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
1607
1608 # Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1609 # or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1610 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
1611
1612 # Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
1613 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
1614
1615
1616
1617 # Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1618 # or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
1619 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
1620
1621 # Download best video available via the best protocol
1622 # (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
1623 $ yt-dlp -S "proto"
1624
1625
1626
1627 # Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1628 # or the best video if there is no such video
1629 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
1630
1631 # Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1632 # or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
1633 $ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
1634
1635 # Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1636 # or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
1637 $ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
1638
1639
1640
1641 # More complex examples
1642
1643 # Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1644 # or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
1645 $ yt-dlp -f "((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)"
1646
1647 # Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
1648 # or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
1649 # preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
1650 $ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
1651
1652
1653
1654 # Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1655 # or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
1656 # preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
1657 $ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
1658 ```
1659
1660 # MODIFYING METADATA
1661
1662 The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
1663
1664 `--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.
1665
1666 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.
1667
1668 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`.
1669
1670 This option also has a few special uses:
1671
1672 * 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
1673
1674 * 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.
1675
1676 **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.
1677
1678 For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1679
1680 Metadata fields | From
1681 :--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1682 `title` | `track` or `title`
1683 `date` | `upload_date`
1684 `description`, `synopsis` | `description`
1685 `purl`, `comment` | `webpage_url`
1686 `track` | `track_number`
1687 `artist` | `artist`, `creator`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
1688 `genre` | `genre`
1689 `album` | `album`
1690 `album_artist` | `album_artist`
1691 `disc` | `disc_number`
1692 `show` | `series`
1693 `season_number` | `season_number`
1694 `episode_id` | `episode` or `episode_id`
1695 `episode_sort` | `episode_number`
1696 `language` of each stream | the format's `language`
1697
1698 **Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1699
1700
1701 ## Modifying metadata examples
1702
1703 ```bash
1704 # Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
1705 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
1706
1707 # Regex example
1708 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
1709
1710 # Set title as "Series name S01E05"
1711 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
1712
1713 # Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
1714 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --embed-metadata
1715
1716 # Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
1717 # handling multiple lines correctly
1718 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --embed-metadata
1719
1720 # Do not set any "synopsis" in the video metadata
1721 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<meta_synopsis>)"
1722
1723 # Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
1724 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<formats>)" -j
1725
1726 # Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
1727 $ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
1728
1729 ```
1730
1731 # EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1732
1733 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"`
1734
1735 The following extractors use this feature:
1736
1737 #### youtube
1738 * `lang`: Language code to prefer translated metadata of this language (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
1739 * `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
1740 * `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, `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.
1741 * `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
1742 * `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
1743 * `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`
1744 * 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
1745 * `include_incomplete_formats`: Extract formats that cannot be downloaded completely (live dash and post-live m3u8)
1746 * `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
1747 * `innertube_key`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
1748
1749 #### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1750 * `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)
1751 * `approximate_date`: Extract approximate `upload_date` and `timestamp` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
1752
1753 #### generic
1754 * `fragment_query`: Passthrough any query in mpd/m3u8 manifest URLs to their fragments. Does not apply to ffmpeg
1755
1756 #### funimation
1757 * `language`: Audio languages to extract, e.g. `funimation:language=english,japanese`
1758 * `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`
1759
1760 #### crunchyrollbeta (Crunchyroll)
1761 * `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`
1762 * `hardsub`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract, or `all` (default: `None` = no hardsubs), e.g. `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None`
1763
1764 #### vikichannel
1765 * `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
1766
1767 #### niconico
1768 * `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.**
1769
1770 #### youtubewebarchive
1771 * `check_all`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails`, `captures`
1772
1773 #### gamejolt
1774 * `comment_sort`: `hot` (default), `you` (cookies needed), `top`, `new` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1775
1776 #### hotstar
1777 * `res`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd`, `hd`, `fhd`
1778 * `vcodec`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264`, `h265`, `dvh265`
1779 * `dr`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr`, `hdr10`, `dv`
1780
1781 #### tiktok
1782 * `api_hostname`: Hostname to use for mobile API requests, e.g. `api-h2.tiktokv.com`
1783 * `app_version`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version`, e.g. `20.2.1`
1784 * `manifest_app_version`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with, e.g. `221`
1785
1786 #### rokfinchannel
1787 * `tab`: Which tab to download - one of `new`, `top`, `videos`, `podcasts`, `streams`, `stacks`
1788
1789 #### twitter
1790 * `force_graphql`: Force usage of the GraphQL API. By default it will only be used if login cookies are provided
1791
1792 NOTE: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
1793
1794 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1795
1796
1797 # PLUGINS
1798
1799 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!**
1800
1801 Plugins can be of `<type>`s `extractor` or `postprocessor`.
1802 - Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it.
1803 - Extractor plugins take priority over builtin extractors.
1804 - Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME`.
1805
1806
1807 Plugins are loaded from the namespace packages `yt_dlp_plugins.extractor` and `yt_dlp_plugins.postprocessor`.
1808
1809 In other words, the file structure on the disk looks something like:
1810
1811 yt_dlp_plugins/
1812 extractor/
1813 myplugin.py
1814 postprocessor/
1815 myplugin.py
1816
1817 yt-dlp looks for these `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folders in many locations (see below) and loads in plugins from **all** of them.
1818
1819 See the [wiki for some known plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugins)
1820
1821 ## Installing Plugins
1822
1823 Plugins can be installed using various methods and locations.
1824
1825 1. **Configuration directories**:
1826 Plugin packages (containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder) can be dropped into the following standard [configuration locations](#configuration):
1827 * **User Plugins**
1828 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1829 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1830 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Windows)
1831 * `~/.yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1832 * `~/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1833 * **System Plugins**
1834 * `/etc/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1835 * `/etc/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1836 2. **Executable location**: Plugin packages can similarly be installed in a `yt-dlp-plugins` directory under the executable location:
1837 * Binary: where `<root-dir>/yt-dlp.exe`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1838 * Source: where `<root-dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1839
1840 3. **pip and other locations in `PYTHONPATH`**
1841 * Plugin packages can be installed and managed using `pip`. See [ytdlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) for an example.
1842 * Note: plugin files between plugin packages installed with pip must have unique filenames
1843 * Any path in `PYTHONPATH` is searched in for the `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder.
1844 * Note: This does not apply for Pyinstaller/py2exe builds.
1845
1846
1847 .zip, .egg and .whl archives containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder in their root are also supported. These can be placed in the same locations `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folders can be found.
1848 - e.g. `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/mypluginpkg.zip` where `mypluginpkg.zip` contains `yt_dlp_plugins/<type>/myplugin.py`
1849
1850 Run yt-dlp with `--verbose`/`-v` to check if the plugin has been loaded.
1851
1852 ## Developing Plugins
1853
1854 See [ytdlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) for a sample plugin package with instructions on how to set up an environment for plugin development.
1855
1856 All public classes with a name ending in `IE` are imported from each file. 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`)
1857
1858 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
1859
1860 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.
1861
1862 # EMBEDDING YT-DLP
1863
1864 yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1865
1866 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.
1867
1868 From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1869
1870 ```python
1871 from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
1872
1873 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1874 with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1875 ydl.download(URLS)
1876 ```
1877
1878 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#L180).
1879
1880 **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)
1881
1882 ## Embedding examples
1883
1884 #### Extracting information
1885
1886 ```python
1887 import json
1888 import yt_dlp
1889
1890 URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
1891
1892 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
1893 ydl_opts = {}
1894 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1895 info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
1896
1897 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
1898 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1899 ```
1900 #### Download using an info-json
1901
1902 ```python
1903 import yt_dlp
1904
1905 INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
1906
1907 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1908 error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
1909
1910 print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
1911 else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
1912 ```
1913
1914 #### Extract audio
1915
1916 ```python
1917 import yt_dlp
1918
1919 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1920
1921 ydl_opts = {
1922 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
1923 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
1924 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
1925 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
1926 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
1927 }]
1928 }
1929
1930 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1931 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1932 ```
1933
1934 #### Filter videos
1935
1936 ```python
1937 import yt_dlp
1938
1939 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1940
1941 def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
1942 """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
1943 duration = info.get('duration')
1944 if duration and duration < 60:
1945 return 'The video is too short'
1946
1947 ydl_opts = {
1948 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
1949 }
1950
1951 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1952 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1953 ```
1954
1955 #### Adding logger and progress hook
1956
1957 ```python
1958 import yt_dlp
1959
1960 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1961
1962 class MyLogger:
1963 def debug(self, msg):
1964 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
1965 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
1966 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
1967 pass
1968 else:
1969 self.info(msg)
1970
1971 def info(self, msg):
1972 pass
1973
1974 def warning(self, msg):
1975 pass
1976
1977 def error(self, msg):
1978 print(msg)
1979
1980
1981 # ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
1982 def my_hook(d):
1983 if d['status'] == 'finished':
1984 print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
1985
1986
1987 ydl_opts = {
1988 'logger': MyLogger(),
1989 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
1990 }
1991
1992 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1993 ydl.download(URLS)
1994 ```
1995
1996 #### Add a custom PostProcessor
1997
1998 ```python
1999 import yt_dlp
2000
2001 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2002
2003 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
2004 class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
2005 def run(self, info):
2006 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
2007 return [], info
2008
2009
2010 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
2011 # ℹ️ "when" can take any value in yt_dlp.utils.POSTPROCESS_WHEN
2012 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP(), when='pre_process')
2013 ydl.download(URLS)
2014 ```
2015
2016
2017 #### Use a custom format selector
2018
2019 ```python
2020 import yt_dlp
2021
2022 URL = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2023
2024 def format_selector(ctx):
2025 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
2026 NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
2027
2028 # formats are already sorted worst to best
2029 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
2030
2031 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
2032 best_video = next(f for f in formats
2033 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
2034
2035 # find compatible audio extension
2036 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
2037 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
2038 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
2039 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
2040
2041 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
2042 yield {
2043 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
2044 'ext': best_video['ext'],
2045 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
2046 # Must be + separated list of protocols
2047 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
2048 }
2049
2050
2051 ydl_opts = {
2052 'format': format_selector,
2053 }
2054
2055 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2056 ydl.download(URLS)
2057 ```
2058
2059 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
2060
2061 # DEPRECATED OPTIONS
2062
2063 These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
2064
2065 #### Almost redundant options
2066 While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
2067
2068 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
2069 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
2070 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
2071 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
2072
2073 #### Redundant options
2074 While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
2075
2076 --get-description --print description
2077 --get-duration --print duration_string
2078 --get-filename --print filename
2079 --get-format --print format
2080 --get-id --print id
2081 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
2082 -e, --get-title --print title
2083 -g, --get-url --print urls
2084 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
2085 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
2086 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
2087 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
2088 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
2089 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
2090 --playlist-start NUMBER -I NUMBER:
2091 --playlist-end NUMBER -I :NUMBER
2092 --playlist-reverse -I ::-1
2093 --no-playlist-reverse Default
2094
2095
2096 #### Not recommended
2097 While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
2098
2099 --force-generic-extractor --ies generic,default
2100 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
2101 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
2102 --all-formats -f all
2103 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
2104 --print-json -j --no-simulate
2105 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting, e.g. %(autonumber)03d
2106 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
2107 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2108 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
2109 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
2110 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
2111 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
2112 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
2113 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
2114 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
2115 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
2116 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
2117
2118
2119 #### Developer options
2120 These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
2121
2122 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
2123 --load-pages Load pages dumped by --write-pages
2124 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
2125 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
2126 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
2127
2128
2129 #### Old aliases
2130 These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
2131
2132 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
2133 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
2134 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
2135 --dump-headers --print-traffic
2136 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
2137 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
2138 --load-info --load-info-json
2139 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
2140 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
2141 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
2142 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
2143 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
2144 --split-tracks --split-chapters
2145 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
2146 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
2147 --write-srt --write-subs
2148 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
2149
2150 #### Sponskrub Options
2151 Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock` options
2152
2153 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
2154 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
2155 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
2156 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
2157 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
2158 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
2159 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
2160 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
2161
2162 #### No longer supported
2163 These options may no longer work as intended
2164
2165 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
2166 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
2167 -C, --call-home Not implemented
2168 --no-call-home Default
2169 --include-ads No longer supported
2170 --no-include-ads Default
2171 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
2172 --no-write-annotations Default
2173 --compat-options seperate-video-versions No longer needed
2174
2175 #### Removed
2176 These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
2177
2178 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2179 -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2180
2181 # CONTRIBUTING
2182 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)
2183
2184 # WIKI
2185 See the [Wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki) for more information