]> jfr.im git - yt-dlp.git/blob - CONTRIBUTING.md
[cleanup] Fix misc bugs (#8968)
[yt-dlp.git] / CONTRIBUTING.md
1 # CONTRIBUTING TO YT-DLP
2
3 - [OPENING AN ISSUE](#opening-an-issue)
4 - [Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?](#is-the-description-of-the-issue-itself-sufficient)
5 - [Are you using the latest version?](#are-you-using-the-latest-version)
6 - [Is the issue already documented?](#is-the-issue-already-documented)
7 - [Why are existing options not enough?](#why-are-existing-options-not-enough)
8 - [Have you read and understood the changes, between youtube-dl and yt-dlp](#have-you-read-and-understood-the-changes-between-youtube-dl-and-yt-dlp)
9 - [Is there enough context in your bug report?](#is-there-enough-context-in-your-bug-report)
10 - [Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?](#does-the-issue-involve-one-problem-and-one-problem-only)
11 - [Is anyone going to need the feature?](#is-anyone-going-to-need-the-feature)
12 - [Is your question about yt-dlp?](#is-your-question-about-yt-dlp)
13 - [Are you willing to share account details if needed?](#are-you-willing-to-share-account-details-if-needed)
14 - [Is the website primarily used for piracy](#is-the-website-primarily-used-for-piracy)
15 - [DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS](#developer-instructions)
16 - [Adding new feature or making overarching changes](#adding-new-feature-or-making-overarching-changes)
17 - [Adding support for a new site](#adding-support-for-a-new-site)
18 - [yt-dlp coding conventions](#yt-dlp-coding-conventions)
19 - [Mandatory and optional metafields](#mandatory-and-optional-metafields)
20 - [Provide fallbacks](#provide-fallbacks)
21 - [Regular expressions](#regular-expressions)
22 - [Long lines policy](#long-lines-policy)
23 - [Quotes](#quotes)
24 - [Inline values](#inline-values)
25 - [Collapse fallbacks](#collapse-fallbacks)
26 - [Trailing parentheses](#trailing-parentheses)
27 - [Use convenience conversion and parsing functions](#use-convenience-conversion-and-parsing-functions)
28 - [My pull request is labeled pending-fixes](#my-pull-request-is-labeled-pending-fixes)
29 - [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](README.md#embedding-yt-dlp)
30
31
32
33 # OPENING AN ISSUE
34
35 Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: [yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues). Unless you were prompted to or there is another pertinent reason (e.g. GitHub fails to accept the bug report), please do not send bug reports via personal email. For discussions, join us in our [discord server](https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r).
36
37 **Please include the full output of yt-dlp when run with `-vU`**, i.e. **add** `-vU` flag to **your command line**, copy the **whole** output and post it in the issue body wrapped in \`\`\` for better formatting. It should look similar to this:
38 ```
39 $ yt-dlp -vU <your command line>
40 [debug] Command-line config: ['-v', 'demo.com']
41 [debug] Encodings: locale UTF-8, fs utf-8, out utf-8, pref UTF-8
42 [debug] yt-dlp version 2021.09.25 (zip)
43 [debug] Python version 3.8.10 (CPython 64bit) - Linux-5.4.0-74-generic-x86_64-with-glibc2.29
44 [debug] exe versions: ffmpeg 4.2.4, ffprobe 4.2.4
45 [debug] Proxy map: {}
46 Current Build Hash 25cc412d1d3c0725a1f2f5b7e4682f6fb40e6d15f7024e96f7afd572e9919535
47 yt-dlp is up to date (2021.09.25)
48 ...
49 ```
50 **Do not post screenshots of verbose logs; only plain text is acceptable.**
51
52 The output (including the first lines) contains important debugging information. Issues without the full output are often not reproducible and therefore will be closed as `incomplete`.
53
54 The templates provided for the Issues, should be completed and **not removed**, this helps aide the resolution of the issue.
55
56 Please re-read your issue once again to avoid a couple of common mistakes (you can and should use this as a checklist):
57
58 ### Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?
59
60 We often get issue reports that we cannot really decipher. While in most cases we eventually get the required information after asking back multiple times, this poses an unnecessary drain on our resources.
61
62 So please elaborate on what feature you are requesting, or what bug you want to be fixed. Make sure that it's obvious
63
64 - What the problem is
65 - How it could be fixed
66 - How your proposed solution would look like
67
68 If your report is shorter than two lines, it is almost certainly missing some of these, which makes it hard for us to respond to it. We're often too polite to close the issue outright, but the missing info makes misinterpretation likely. We often get frustrated by these issues, since the only possible way for us to move forward on them is to ask for clarification over and over.
69
70 For bug reports, this means that your report should contain the **complete** output of yt-dlp when called with the `-vU` flag. The error message you get for (most) bugs even says so, but you would not believe how many of our bug reports do not contain this information.
71
72 If the error is `ERROR: Unable to extract ...` and you cannot reproduce it from multiple countries, add `--write-pages` and upload the `.dump` files you get [somewhere](https://gist.github.com).
73
74 **Site support requests must contain an example URL**. An example URL is a URL you might want to download, like `https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc`. There should be an obvious video present. Except under very special circumstances, the main page of a video service (e.g. `https://www.youtube.com/`) is *not* an example URL.
75
76 ### Are you using the latest version?
77
78 Before reporting any issue, type `yt-dlp -U`. This should report that you're up-to-date. This goes for feature requests as well.
79
80 ### Is the issue already documented?
81
82 Make sure that someone has not already opened the issue you're trying to open. Search at the top of the window or browse the [GitHub Issues](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/search?type=Issues) of this repository. If there is an issue, subscribe to it to be notified when there is any progress. Unless you have something useful to add to the conversation, please refrain from commenting.
83
84 Additionally, it is also helpful to see if the issue has already been documented in the [youtube-dl issue tracker](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues). If similar issues have already been reported in youtube-dl (but not in our issue tracker), links to them can be included in your issue report here.
85
86 ### Why are existing options not enough?
87
88 Before requesting a new feature, please have a quick peek at [the list of supported options](README.md#usage-and-options). Many feature requests are for features that actually exist already! Please, absolutely do show off your work in the issue report and detail how the existing similar options do *not* solve your problem.
89
90 ### Have you read and understood the changes, between youtube-dl and yt-dlp
91
92 There are many changes between youtube-dl and yt-dlp [(changes to default behavior)](README.md#differences-in-default-behavior), and some of the options available have a different behaviour in yt-dlp, or have been removed all together [(list of changes to options)](README.md#deprecated-options). Make sure you have read and understand the differences in the options and how this may impact your downloads before opening an issue.
93
94 ### Is there enough context in your bug report?
95
96 People want to solve problems, and often think they do us a favor by breaking down their larger problems (e.g. wanting to skip already downloaded files) to a specific request (e.g. requesting us to look whether the file exists before downloading the info page). However, what often happens is that they break down the problem into two steps: One simple, and one impossible (or extremely complicated one).
97
98 We are then presented with a very complicated request when the original problem could be solved far easier, e.g. by recording the downloaded video IDs in a separate file. To avoid this, you must include the greater context where it is non-obvious. In particular, every feature request that does not consist of adding support for a new site should contain a use case scenario that explains in what situation the missing feature would be useful.
99
100 ### Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?
101
102 Some of our users seem to think there is a limit of issues they can or should open. There is no limit of issues they can or should open. While it may seem appealing to be able to dump all your issues into one ticket, that means that someone who solves one of your issues cannot mark the issue as closed. Typically, reporting a bunch of issues leads to the ticket lingering since nobody wants to attack that behemoth, until someone mercifully splits the issue into multiple ones.
103
104 In particular, every site support request issue should only pertain to services at one site (generally under a common domain, but always using the same backend technology). Do not request support for vimeo user videos, White house podcasts, and Google Plus pages in the same issue. Also, make sure that you don't post bug reports alongside feature requests. As a rule of thumb, a feature request does not include outputs of yt-dlp that are not immediately related to the feature at hand. Do not post reports of a network error alongside the request for a new video service.
105
106 ### Is anyone going to need the feature?
107
108 Only post features that you (or an incapacitated friend you can personally talk to) require. Do not post features because they seem like a good idea. If they are really useful, they will be requested by someone who requires them.
109
110 ### Is your question about yt-dlp?
111
112 Some bug reports are completely unrelated to yt-dlp and relate to a different, or even the reporter's own, application. Please make sure that you are actually using yt-dlp. If you are using a UI for yt-dlp, report the bug to the maintainer of the actual application providing the UI. In general, if you are unable to provide the verbose log, you should not be opening the issue here.
113
114 If the issue is with `youtube-dl` (the upstream fork of yt-dlp) and not with yt-dlp, the issue should be raised in the youtube-dl project.
115
116 ### Are you willing to share account details if needed?
117
118 The maintainers and potential contributors of the project often do not have an account for the website you are asking support for. So any developer interested in solving your issue may ask you for account details. It is your personal discretion whether you are willing to share the account in order for the developer to try and solve your issue. However, if you are unwilling or unable to provide details, they obviously cannot work on the issue and it cannot be solved unless some developer who both has an account and is willing/able to contribute decides to solve it.
119
120 By sharing an account with anyone, you agree to bear all risks associated with it. The maintainers and yt-dlp can't be held responsible for any misuse of the credentials.
121
122 While these steps won't necessarily ensure that no misuse of the account takes place, these are still some good practices to follow.
123
124 - Look for people with `Member` (maintainers of the project) or `Contributor` (people who have previously contributed code) tag on their messages.
125 - Change the password before sharing the account to something random (use [this](https://passwordsgenerator.net/) if you don't have a random password generator).
126 - Change the password after receiving the account back.
127
128 ### Is the website primarily used for piracy?
129
130 We follow [youtube-dl's policy](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#can-you-add-support-for-this-anime-video-site-or-site-which-shows-current-movies-for-free) to not support services that is primarily used for infringing copyright. Additionally, it has been decided to not to support porn sites that specialize in fakes. We also cannot support any service that serves only [DRM protected content](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management).
131
132
133
134
135 # DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS
136
137 Most users do not need to build yt-dlp and can [download the builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases) or get them via [the other installation methods](README.md#installation).
138
139 To run yt-dlp as a developer, you don't need to build anything either. Simply execute
140
141 python3 -m yt_dlp
142
143 To run all the available core tests, use:
144
145 python3 devscripts/run_tests.py
146
147 See item 6 of [new extractor tutorial](#adding-support-for-a-new-site) for how to run extractor specific test cases.
148
149 If you want to create a build of yt-dlp yourself, you can follow the instructions [here](README.md#compile).
150
151
152 ## Adding new feature or making overarching changes
153
154 Before you start writing code for implementing a new feature, open an issue explaining your feature request and at least one use case. This allows the maintainers to decide whether such a feature is desired for the project in the first place, and will provide an avenue to discuss some implementation details. If you open a pull request for a new feature without discussing with us first, do not be surprised when we ask for large changes to the code, or even reject it outright.
155
156 The same applies for changes to the documentation, code style, or overarching changes to the architecture
157
158
159 ## Adding support for a new site
160
161 If you want to add support for a new site, first of all **make sure** this site is **not dedicated to [copyright infringement](#is-the-website-primarily-used-for-piracy)**. yt-dlp does **not support** such sites thus pull requests adding support for them **will be rejected**.
162
163 After you have ensured this site is distributing its content legally, you can follow this quick list (assuming your service is called `yourextractor`):
164
165 1. [Fork this repository](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/fork)
166 1. Check out the source code with:
167
168 git clone git@github.com:YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/yt-dlp.git
169
170 1. Start a new git branch with
171
172 cd yt-dlp
173 git checkout -b yourextractor
174
175 1. Start with this simple template and save it to `yt_dlp/extractor/yourextractor.py`:
176
177 ```python
178 from .common import InfoExtractor
179
180
181 class YourExtractorIE(InfoExtractor):
182 _VALID_URL = r'https?://(?:www\.)?yourextractor\.com/watch/(?P<id>[0-9]+)'
183 _TESTS = [{
184 'url': 'https://yourextractor.com/watch/42',
185 'md5': 'TODO: md5 sum of the first 10241 bytes of the video file (use --test)',
186 'info_dict': {
187 # For videos, only the 'id' and 'ext' fields are required to RUN the test:
188 'id': '42',
189 'ext': 'mp4',
190 # Then if the test run fails, it will output the missing/incorrect fields.
191 # Properties can be added as:
192 # * A value, e.g.
193 # 'title': 'Video title goes here',
194 # * MD5 checksum; start the string with 'md5:', e.g.
195 # 'description': 'md5:098f6bcd4621d373cade4e832627b4f6',
196 # * A regular expression; start the string with 're:', e.g.
197 # 'thumbnail': r're:^https?://.*\.jpg$',
198 # * A count of elements in a list; start the string with 'count:', e.g.
199 # 'tags': 'count:10',
200 # * Any Python type, e.g.
201 # 'view_count': int,
202 }
203 }]
204
205 def _real_extract(self, url):
206 video_id = self._match_id(url)
207 webpage = self._download_webpage(url, video_id)
208
209 # TODO more code goes here, for example ...
210 title = self._html_search_regex(r'<h1>(.+?)</h1>', webpage, 'title')
211
212 return {
213 'id': video_id,
214 'title': title,
215 'description': self._og_search_description(webpage),
216 'uploader': self._search_regex(r'<div[^>]+id="uploader"[^>]*>([^<]+)<', webpage, 'uploader', fatal=False),
217 # TODO more properties (see yt_dlp/extractor/common.py)
218 }
219 ```
220 1. Add an import in [`yt_dlp/extractor/_extractors.py`](yt_dlp/extractor/_extractors.py). Note that the class name must end with `IE`.
221 1. Run `python3 devscripts/run_tests.py YourExtractor`. This *may fail* at first, but you can continually re-run it until you're done. Upon failure, it will output the missing fields and/or correct values which you can copy. If you decide to add more than one test, the tests will then be named `YourExtractor`, `YourExtractor_1`, `YourExtractor_2`, etc. Note that tests with an `only_matching` key in the test's dict are not included in the count. You can also run all the tests in one go with `YourExtractor_all`
222 1. Make sure you have at least one test for your extractor. Even if all videos covered by the extractor are expected to be inaccessible for automated testing, tests should still be added with a `skip` parameter indicating why the particular test is disabled from running.
223 1. Have a look at [`yt_dlp/extractor/common.py`](yt_dlp/extractor/common.py) for possible helper methods and a [detailed description of what your extractor should and may return](yt_dlp/extractor/common.py#L119-L440). Add tests and code for as many as you want.
224 1. Make sure your code follows [yt-dlp coding conventions](#yt-dlp-coding-conventions) and check the code with [flake8](https://flake8.pycqa.org/en/latest/index.html#quickstart):
225
226 $ flake8 yt_dlp/extractor/yourextractor.py
227
228 1. Make sure your code works under all [Python](https://www.python.org/) versions supported by yt-dlp, namely CPython and PyPy for Python 3.8 and above. Backward compatibility is not required for even older versions of Python.
229 1. When the tests pass, [add](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-add) the new files, [commit](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-commit) them and [push](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-push) the result, like this:
230
231 $ git add yt_dlp/extractor/_extractors.py
232 $ git add yt_dlp/extractor/yourextractor.py
233 $ git commit -m '[yourextractor] Add extractor'
234 $ git push origin yourextractor
235
236 1. Finally, [create a pull request](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-pull-request). We'll then review and merge it.
237
238 In any case, thank you very much for your contributions!
239
240 **Tip:** To test extractors that require login information, create a file `test/local_parameters.json` and add `"usenetrc": true` or your `username`&`password` or `cookiefile`/`cookiesfrombrowser` in it:
241 ```json
242 {
243 "username": "your user name",
244 "password": "your password"
245 }
246 ```
247
248 ## yt-dlp coding conventions
249
250 This section introduces a guide lines for writing idiomatic, robust and future-proof extractor code.
251
252 Extractors are very fragile by nature since they depend on the layout of the source data provided by 3rd party media hosters out of your control and this layout tends to change. As an extractor implementer your task is not only to write code that will extract media links and metadata correctly but also to minimize dependency on the source's layout and even to make the code foresee potential future changes and be ready for that. This is important because it will allow the extractor not to break on minor layout changes thus keeping old yt-dlp versions working. Even though this breakage issue may be easily fixed by a new version of yt-dlp, this could take some time, during which the extractor will remain broken.
253
254
255 ### Mandatory and optional metafields
256
257 For extraction to work yt-dlp relies on metadata your extractor extracts and provides to yt-dlp expressed by an [information dictionary](yt_dlp/extractor/common.py#L119-L440) or simply *info dict*. Only the following meta fields in the *info dict* are considered mandatory for a successful extraction process by yt-dlp:
258
259 - `id` (media identifier)
260 - `title` (media title)
261 - `url` (media download URL) or `formats`
262
263 The aforementioned metafields are the critical data that the extraction does not make any sense without and if any of them fail to be extracted then the extractor is considered completely broken. While all extractors must return a `title`, they must also allow it's extraction to be non-fatal.
264
265 For pornographic sites, appropriate `age_limit` must also be returned.
266
267 The extractor is allowed to return the info dict without url or formats in some special cases if it allows the user to extract useful information with `--ignore-no-formats-error` - e.g. when the video is a live stream that has not started yet.
268
269 [Any field](yt_dlp/extractor/common.py#219-L426) apart from the aforementioned ones are considered **optional**. That means that extraction should be **tolerant** to situations when sources for these fields can potentially be unavailable (even if they are always available at the moment) and **future-proof** in order not to break the extraction of general purpose mandatory fields.
270
271 #### Example
272
273 Say you have some source dictionary `meta` that you've fetched as JSON with HTTP request and it has a key `summary`:
274
275 ```python
276 meta = self._download_json(url, video_id)
277 ```
278
279 Assume at this point `meta`'s layout is:
280
281 ```python
282 {
283 "summary": "some fancy summary text",
284 "user": {
285 "name": "uploader name"
286 },
287 ...
288 }
289 ```
290
291 Assume you want to extract `summary` and put it into the resulting info dict as `description`. Since `description` is an optional meta field you should be ready that this key may be missing from the `meta` dict, so that you should extract it like:
292
293 ```python
294 description = meta.get('summary') # correct
295 ```
296
297 and not like:
298
299 ```python
300 description = meta['summary'] # incorrect
301 ```
302
303 The latter will break extraction process with `KeyError` if `summary` disappears from `meta` at some later time but with the former approach extraction will just go ahead with `description` set to `None` which is perfectly fine (remember `None` is equivalent to the absence of data).
304
305
306 If the data is nested, do not use `.get` chains, but instead make use of `traverse_obj`.
307
308 Considering the above `meta` again, assume you want to extract `["user"]["name"]` and put it in the resulting info dict as `uploader`
309
310 ```python
311 uploader = traverse_obj(meta, ('user', 'name')) # correct
312 ```
313
314 and not like:
315
316 ```python
317 uploader = meta['user']['name'] # incorrect
318 ```
319 or
320 ```python
321 uploader = meta.get('user', {}).get('name') # incorrect
322 ```
323 or
324 ```python
325 uploader = try_get(meta, lambda x: x['user']['name']) # old utility
326 ```
327
328
329 Similarly, you should pass `fatal=False` when extracting optional data from a webpage with `_search_regex`, `_html_search_regex` or similar methods, for instance:
330
331 ```python
332 description = self._search_regex(
333 r'<span[^>]+id="title"[^>]*>([^<]+)<',
334 webpage, 'description', fatal=False)
335 ```
336
337 With `fatal` set to `False` if `_search_regex` fails to extract `description` it will emit a warning and continue extraction.
338
339 You can also pass `default=<some fallback value>`, for example:
340
341 ```python
342 description = self._search_regex(
343 r'<span[^>]+id="title"[^>]*>([^<]+)<',
344 webpage, 'description', default=None)
345 ```
346
347 On failure this code will silently continue the extraction with `description` set to `None`. That is useful for metafields that may or may not be present.
348
349
350 Another thing to remember is not to try to iterate over `None`
351
352 Say you extracted a list of thumbnails into `thumbnail_data` and want to iterate over them
353
354 ```python
355 thumbnail_data = data.get('thumbnails') or []
356 thumbnails = [{
357 'url': item['url'],
358 'height': item.get('h'),
359 } for item in thumbnail_data if item.get('url')] # correct
360 ```
361
362 and not like:
363
364 ```python
365 thumbnail_data = data.get('thumbnails')
366 thumbnails = [{
367 'url': item['url'],
368 'height': item.get('h'),
369 } for item in thumbnail_data] # incorrect
370 ```
371
372 In this case, `thumbnail_data` will be `None` if the field was not found and this will cause the loop `for item in thumbnail_data` to raise a fatal error. Using `or []` avoids this error and results in setting an empty list in `thumbnails` instead.
373
374 Alternately, this can be further simplified by using `traverse_obj`
375
376 ```python
377 thumbnails = [{
378 'url': item['url'],
379 'height': item.get('h'),
380 } for item in traverse_obj(data, ('thumbnails', lambda _, v: v['url']))]
381 ```
382
383 or, even better,
384
385 ```python
386 thumbnails = traverse_obj(data, ('thumbnails', ..., {'url': 'url', 'height': 'h'}))
387 ```
388
389 ### Provide fallbacks
390
391 When extracting metadata try to do so from multiple sources. For example if `title` is present in several places, try extracting from at least some of them. This makes it more future-proof in case some of the sources become unavailable.
392
393
394 #### Example
395
396 Say `meta` from the previous example has a `title` and you are about to extract it like:
397
398 ```python
399 title = meta.get('title')
400 ```
401
402 If `title` disappears from `meta` in future due to some changes on the hoster's side the title extraction would fail.
403
404 Assume that you have some another source you can extract `title` from, for example `og:title` HTML meta of a `webpage`. In this case you can provide a fallback like:
405
406 ```python
407 title = meta.get('title') or self._og_search_title(webpage)
408 ```
409
410 This code will try to extract from `meta` first and if it fails it will try extracting `og:title` from a `webpage`, making the extractor more robust.
411
412
413 ### Regular expressions
414
415 #### Don't capture groups you don't use
416
417 Capturing group must be an indication that it's used somewhere in the code. Any group that is not used must be non capturing.
418
419 ##### Example
420
421 Don't capture id attribute name here since you can't use it for anything anyway.
422
423 Correct:
424
425 ```python
426 r'(?:id|ID)=(?P<id>\d+)'
427 ```
428
429 Incorrect:
430 ```python
431 r'(id|ID)=(?P<id>\d+)'
432 ```
433
434 #### Make regular expressions relaxed and flexible
435
436 When using regular expressions try to write them fuzzy, relaxed and flexible, skipping insignificant parts that are more likely to change, allowing both single and double quotes for quoted values and so on.
437
438 ##### Example
439
440 Say you need to extract `title` from the following HTML code:
441
442 ```html
443 <span style="position: absolute; left: 910px; width: 90px; float: right; z-index: 9999;" class="title">some fancy title</span>
444 ```
445
446 The code for that task should look similar to:
447
448 ```python
449 title = self._search_regex( # correct
450 r'<span[^>]+class="title"[^>]*>([^<]+)', webpage, 'title')
451 ```
452
453 which tolerates potential changes in the `style` attribute's value. Or even better:
454
455 ```python
456 title = self._search_regex( # correct
457 r'<span[^>]+class=(["\'])title\1[^>]*>(?P<title>[^<]+)',
458 webpage, 'title', group='title')
459 ```
460
461 which also handles both single quotes in addition to double quotes.
462
463 The code definitely should not look like:
464
465 ```python
466 title = self._search_regex( # incorrect
467 r'<span style="position: absolute; left: 910px; width: 90px; float: right; z-index: 9999;" class="title">(.*?)</span>',
468 webpage, 'title', group='title')
469 ```
470
471 or even
472
473 ```python
474 title = self._search_regex( # incorrect
475 r'<span style=".*?" class="title">(.*?)</span>',
476 webpage, 'title', group='title')
477 ```
478
479 Here the presence or absence of other attributes including `style` is irrelevant for the data we need, and so the regex must not depend on it
480
481
482 #### Keep the regular expressions as simple as possible, but no simpler
483
484 Since many extractors deal with unstructured data provided by websites, we will often need to use very complex regular expressions. You should try to use the *simplest* regex that can accomplish what you want. In other words, each part of the regex must have a reason for existing. If you can take out a symbol and the functionality does not change, the symbol should not be there.
485
486 ##### Example
487
488 Correct:
489
490 ```python
491 _VALID_URL = r'https?://(?:www\.)?website\.com/(?:[^/]+/){3,4}(?P<display_id>[^/]+)_(?P<id>\d+)'
492 ```
493
494 Incorrect:
495
496 ```python
497 _VALID_URL = r'https?:\/\/(?:www\.)?website\.com\/[^\/]+/[^\/]+/[^\/]+(?:\/[^\/]+)?\/(?P<display_id>[^\/]+)_(?P<id>\d+)'
498 ```
499
500 #### Do not misuse `.` and use the correct quantifiers (`+*?`)
501
502 Avoid creating regexes that over-match because of wrong use of quantifiers. Also try to avoid non-greedy matching (`?`) where possible since they could easily result in [catastrophic backtracking](https://www.regular-expressions.info/catastrophic.html)
503
504 Correct:
505
506 ```python
507 title = self._search_regex(r'<span\b[^>]+class="title"[^>]*>([^<]+)', webpage, 'title')
508 ```
509
510 Incorrect:
511
512 ```python
513 title = self._search_regex(r'<span\b.*class="title".*>(.+?)<', webpage, 'title')
514 ```
515
516
517 ### Long lines policy
518
519 There is a soft limit to keep lines of code under 100 characters long. This means it should be respected if possible and if it does not make readability and code maintenance worse. Sometimes, it may be reasonable to go upto 120 characters and sometimes even 80 can be unreadable. Keep in mind that this is not a hard limit and is just one of many tools to make the code more readable.
520
521 For example, you should **never** split long string literals like URLs or some other often copied entities over multiple lines to fit this limit:
522
523 Conversely, don't unnecessarily split small lines further. As a rule of thumb, if removing the line split keeps the code under 80 characters, it should be a single line.
524
525 ##### Examples
526
527 Correct:
528
529 ```python
530 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqZTN594JQw&list=PLMYEtVRpaqY00V9W81Cwmzp6N6vZqfUKD4'
531 ```
532
533 Incorrect:
534
535 ```python
536 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqZTN594JQw&list='
537 'PLMYEtVRpaqY00V9W81Cwmzp6N6vZqfUKD4'
538 ```
539
540 Correct:
541
542 ```python
543 uploader = traverse_obj(info, ('uploader', 'name'), ('author', 'fullname'))
544 ```
545
546 Incorrect:
547
548 ```python
549 uploader = traverse_obj(
550 info,
551 ('uploader', 'name'),
552 ('author', 'fullname'))
553 ```
554
555 Correct:
556
557 ```python
558 formats = self._extract_m3u8_formats(
559 m3u8_url, video_id, 'mp4', 'm3u8_native', m3u8_id='hls',
560 note='Downloading HD m3u8 information', errnote='Unable to download HD m3u8 information')
561 ```
562
563 Incorrect:
564
565 ```python
566 formats = self._extract_m3u8_formats(m3u8_url,
567 video_id,
568 'mp4',
569 'm3u8_native',
570 m3u8_id='hls',
571 note='Downloading HD m3u8 information',
572 errnote='Unable to download HD m3u8 information')
573 ```
574
575
576 ### Quotes
577
578 Always use single quotes for strings (even if the string has `'`) and double quotes for docstrings. Use `'''` only for multi-line strings. An exception can be made if a string has multiple single quotes in it and escaping makes it *significantly* harder to read. For f-strings, use you can use double quotes on the inside. But avoid f-strings that have too many quotes inside.
579
580
581 ### Inline values
582
583 Extracting variables is acceptable for reducing code duplication and improving readability of complex expressions. However, you should avoid extracting variables used only once and moving them to opposite parts of the extractor file, which makes reading the linear flow difficult.
584
585 #### Examples
586
587 Correct:
588
589 ```python
590 return {
591 'title': self._html_search_regex(r'<h1>([^<]+)</h1>', webpage, 'title'),
592 # ...some lines of code...
593 }
594 ```
595
596 Incorrect:
597
598 ```python
599 TITLE_RE = r'<h1>([^<]+)</h1>'
600 # ...some lines of code...
601 title = self._html_search_regex(TITLE_RE, webpage, 'title')
602 # ...some lines of code...
603 return {
604 'title': title,
605 # ...some lines of code...
606 }
607 ```
608
609
610 ### Collapse fallbacks
611
612 Multiple fallback values can quickly become unwieldy. Collapse multiple fallback values into a single expression via a list of patterns.
613
614 #### Example
615
616 Good:
617
618 ```python
619 description = self._html_search_meta(
620 ['og:description', 'description', 'twitter:description'],
621 webpage, 'description', default=None)
622 ```
623
624 Unwieldy:
625
626 ```python
627 description = (
628 self._og_search_description(webpage, default=None)
629 or self._html_search_meta('description', webpage, default=None)
630 or self._html_search_meta('twitter:description', webpage, default=None))
631 ```
632
633 Methods supporting list of patterns are: `_search_regex`, `_html_search_regex`, `_og_search_property`, `_html_search_meta`.
634
635
636 ### Trailing parentheses
637
638 Always move trailing parentheses used for grouping/functions after the last argument. On the other hand, multi-line literal list/tuple/dict/set should closed be in a new line. Generators and list/dict comprehensions may use either style
639
640 #### Examples
641
642 Correct:
643
644 ```python
645 url = traverse_obj(info, (
646 'context', 'dispatcher', 'stores', 'VideoTitlePageStore', 'data', 'video', 0, 'VideoUrlSet', 'VideoUrl'), list)
647 ```
648 Correct:
649
650 ```python
651 url = traverse_obj(
652 info,
653 ('context', 'dispatcher', 'stores', 'VideoTitlePageStore', 'data', 'video', 0, 'VideoUrlSet', 'VideoUrl'),
654 list)
655 ```
656
657 Incorrect:
658
659 ```python
660 url = traverse_obj(
661 info,
662 ('context', 'dispatcher', 'stores', 'VideoTitlePageStore', 'data', 'video', 0, 'VideoUrlSet', 'VideoUrl'),
663 list
664 )
665 ```
666
667 Correct:
668
669 ```python
670 f = {
671 'url': url,
672 'format_id': format_id,
673 }
674 ```
675
676 Incorrect:
677
678 ```python
679 f = {'url': url,
680 'format_id': format_id}
681 ```
682
683 Correct:
684
685 ```python
686 formats = [process_formats(f) for f in format_data
687 if f.get('type') in ('hls', 'dash', 'direct') and f.get('downloadable')]
688 ```
689
690 Correct:
691
692 ```python
693 formats = [
694 process_formats(f) for f in format_data
695 if f.get('type') in ('hls', 'dash', 'direct') and f.get('downloadable')
696 ]
697 ```
698
699
700 ### Use convenience conversion and parsing functions
701
702 Wrap all extracted numeric data into safe functions from [`yt_dlp/utils/`](yt_dlp/utils/): `int_or_none`, `float_or_none`. Use them for string to number conversions as well.
703
704 Use `url_or_none` for safe URL processing.
705
706 Use `traverse_obj` and `try_call` (superseeds `dict_get` and `try_get`) for safe metadata extraction from parsed JSON.
707
708 Use `unified_strdate` for uniform `upload_date` or any `YYYYMMDD` meta field extraction, `unified_timestamp` for uniform `timestamp` extraction, `parse_filesize` for `filesize` extraction, `parse_count` for count meta fields extraction, `parse_resolution`, `parse_duration` for `duration` extraction, `parse_age_limit` for `age_limit` extraction.
709
710 Explore [`yt_dlp/utils/`](yt_dlp/utils/) for more useful convenience functions.
711
712 #### Examples
713
714 ```python
715 description = traverse_obj(response, ('result', 'video', 'summary'), expected_type=str)
716 thumbnails = traverse_obj(response, ('result', 'thumbnails', ..., 'url'), expected_type=url_or_none)
717 video = traverse_obj(response, ('result', 'video', 0), default={}, expected_type=dict)
718 duration = float_or_none(video.get('durationMs'), scale=1000)
719 view_count = int_or_none(video.get('views'))
720 ```
721
722
723 # My pull request is labeled pending-fixes
724
725 The `pending-fixes` label is added when there are changes requested to a PR. When the necessary changes are made, the label should be removed. However, despite our best efforts, it may sometimes happen that the maintainer did not see the changes or forgot to remove the label. If your PR is still marked as `pending-fixes` a few days after all requested changes have been made, feel free to ping the maintainer who labeled your issue and ask them to re-review and remove the label.
726
727
728
729
730 # EMBEDDING YT-DLP
731 See [README.md#embedding-yt-dlp](README.md#embedding-yt-dlp) for instructions on how to embed yt-dlp in another Python program