* [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
* [PLUGINS](#plugins)
* [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
+ * [Embedding examples](#embedding-examples)
* [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
* [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
* [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
# NEW FEATURES
-* Based on **youtube-dl 2021.12.17 [commit/6508688](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/6508688e88c83bb811653083db9351702cd39a6a)** and **youtube-dlc 2020.11.11-3 [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)
+* Based on **youtube-dl 2021.12.17 [commit/6508688](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/6508688e88c83bb811653083db9351702cd39a6a)** ([exceptions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/21)) and **youtube-dlc 2020.11.11-3 [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)
* **[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in youtube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
* **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.
* **Youtube improvements**:
- * All Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`) and private playlists supports downloading multiple pages of content
+ * All Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`, `:ytnotif`) and private playlists supports downloading multiple pages of content
* Search (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`), search URLs and in-channel search works
* Mixes supports downloading multiple pages of content
* Some (but not all) age-gated content can be downloaded without cookies
* The options `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
* `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
+* yt-dlp stores config files in slightly different locations to youtube-dl. See [configuration](#configuration) for a list of correct locations
* 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`
* 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
* 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
* youtube-dl tries to remove some superfluous punctuations from filenames. While this can sometimes be helpfull, it is often undesirable. So yt-dlp tries to keep the fields in the filenames as close to their original values as possible. You can use `--compat-options filename-sanitization` to revert to youtube-dl's behavior
For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
+
* `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options
* `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams`
* `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
[![Linux](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Linux/MacOS/BSD-red.svg?style=for-the-badge&logo=linux)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)
[![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)
[![Other variants](https://img.shields.io/badge/-Other-grey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](#release-files)
-[![ALl versions](https://img.shields.io/badge/-All_Versions-lightgrey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
+[![All versions](https://img.shields.io/badge/-All_Versions-lightgrey.svg?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
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)
--dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
this date. The date formats accepted is the
same as --date
- --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Any field (see
+ --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any field (see
"OUTPUT TEMPLATE") can be compared with a
number or a string using the operators
defined in "Filtering formats". You can
also simply specify a field to match if the
- field is present and "!field" to check if
- the field is not present. In addition,
- Python style regular expression matching
- can be done using "~=", and multiple
- filters can be checked with "&". Use a "\"
- to escape "&" or quotes if needed. Eg:
- --match-filter "!is_live & like_count>?100
- & description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'"
- matches only videos that are not live, has
- a like count more than 100 (or the like
- field is not available), and also has a
- description that contains the phrase "cats
- & dogs" (ignoring case)
+ field is present, use "!field" to check if
+ the field is not present, and "&" to check
+ multiple conditions. Use a "\" to escape
+ "&" or quotes if needed. If used multiple
+ times, the filter matches if atleast one of
+ the conditions are met. Eg: --match-filter
+ !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?100 &
+ description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'"
+ matches only videos that are not live OR
+ those that have a like count more than 100
+ (or the like field is not available) and
+ also has a description that contains the
+ phrase "cats & dogs" (ignoring case). Use
+ "--match-filter -" to interactively ask
+ whether to download each video
--no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
--no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
to a video and a playlist
-R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
"infinite"
--file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
- error (default is 10), or "infinite"
+ error (default is 3), or "infinite"
--fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default
is 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and
ISM)
print it, separated by a ":". Supported
values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
--use-postprocessor, and "video" (default).
- Implies --quiet and --simulate (unless
- --no-simulate is used). This option can be
- used multiple times
+ Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
+ --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
+ used. This option can be used multiple
+ times
--print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
Append given template to the file. The
values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as
containers irrespective of quality
--no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
containers (default)
- --check-formats Check that the selected formats are
- actually downloadable
+ --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
+ those that are actually downloadable
--check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
actually downloadable
--no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
(requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
--audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format to convert the audio
to when -x is used. Currently supported
- formats are: best (default) or one of
- best|aac|flac|mp3|m4a|opus|vorbis|wav|alac
- --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality, insert a
+ formats are: best (default) or one of aac,
+ flac, mp3, m4a, opus, vorbis, wav, alac
+ --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
+ converting the audio with -x. Insert a
value between 0 (best) and 10 (worst) for
VBR or a specific bitrate like 128K
(default 5)
--remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
- necessary (currently supported: mp4|mkv|flv
- |webm|mov|avi|mp3|mka|m4a|ogg|opus). If
+ necessary (currently supported: mp4, mkv,
+ flv, webm, mov, avi, mka, ogg, aac, flac,
+ mp3, m4a, opus, vorbis, wav, alac). If
target container does not support the
video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
can specify multiple rules; Eg.
same codecs and number of streams to be
concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
- the output filename for the split files.
- See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
+ the output filename for the concatenated
+ files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
--fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
option can be used multiple times
--no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
--convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
- (currently supported: srt|vtt|ass|lrc)
+ (currently supported: srt, vtt, ass, lrc)
(Alias: --convert-subtitles)
--convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
- (currently supported: jpg|png|webp)
+ (currently supported: jpg, png, webp)
--split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix
can be used with "--paths" and "--output"
* `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
* `~/yt-dlp.conf`
* `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
-
+
`%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%` defaults to `~/.config` if undefined. On windows, `%APPDATA%` generally points to `C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming` and `~` points to `%HOME%` if present, `%USERPROFILE%` (generally `C:\Users\<user name>`), or `%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
+
1. **System Configuration**: `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
For example, 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:
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). For example, `%(NAME)s` or `%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations.
The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
+
1. **Object traversal**: The dictionaries and lists available in metadata can be traversed by using a `.` (dot) separator. You can also do python slicing using `:`. Eg: `%(tags.0)s`, `%(subtitles.en.-1.ext)s`, `%(id.3:7:-1)s`, `%(formats.:.format_id)s`. `%()s` refers to the entire infodict. Note that all the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use `-j` to see such fields
1. **Addition**: Addition and subtraction of numeric fields can be done using `+` and `-` respectively. Eg: `%(playlist_index+10)03d`, `%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
Note that any field created by this can be used in the [output template](#output-template) and will also affect the media file's metadata added when using `--add-metadata`.
This option also has a few special uses:
+
* 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. Eg: `--parse-metadata "description:(?P<additional_urls>https?://www\.vimeo\.com/\d+)` will download the first vimeo video found in the description
+
* 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. For example, you can use this to set a different "description" and "synopsis". To modify the metadata of individual streams, use the `meta<n>_` prefix (Eg: `meta1_language`). Any value set to the `meta_` field will overwrite all default values.
**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.
# Set title as "Series name S01E05"
$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
-# Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url
+# Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
+$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --add-metadata
+
+# Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
+# handling multiple lines correctly
$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --add-metadata
# Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
# EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
-Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using `--extractor-args KEY:ARGS`. `ARGS` is a `;` (semicolon) separated string of `ARG=VAL1,VAL2`. Eg: `--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android_agegate,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
+Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using `--extractor-args KEY:ARGS`. `ARGS` is a `;` (semicolon) separated string of `ARG=VAL1,VAL2`. Eg: `--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android_embedded,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
The following extractors use this feature:
* `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
* `include_live_dash`: Include live dash formats even without `--live-from-start` (These formats don't download properly)
* `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
-* `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`.
- * 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.
-* `max_comment_depth` Maximum depth for nested comments. YouTube supports depths 1 or 2 (default)
- * **Deprecated**: Set `max-replies` to `0` or `all` in `max_comments` instead (e.g. `max_comments=all,all,0` to get no replies)
+* `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`
+ * 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
#### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
* `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)
```python
from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
-ydl_opts = {'format': 'bestaudio'}
-with YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
- ydl.download(['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
+URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
+with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
+ ydl.download(URLS)
```
-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#L191).
+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#L181).
-Here's a more complete example demonstrating various functionality:
+**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)
+
+## Embedding examples
+
+#### Extracting information
```python
import json
import yt_dlp
+URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
+
+# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
+ydl_opts = {}
+with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
+ info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
+
+ # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
+ print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
+```
+#### Download using an info-json
+
+```python
+import yt_dlp
+
+INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
+
+with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
+ error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
+
+print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
+ else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
+```
+
+#### Extract audio
+
+```python
+import yt_dlp
+
+URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
+
+ydl_opts = {
+ 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best'
+ # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
+ 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
+ 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
+ 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
+ }]
+}
+
+with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
+ error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
+```
+#### Adding logger and progress hook
+
+```python
+import yt_dlp
+
+URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
class MyLogger:
def debug(self, msg):
print(msg)
-# ℹ️ See the docstring of yt_dlp.postprocessor.common.PostProcessor
+# ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
+def my_hook(d):
+ if d['status'] == 'finished':
+ print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
+
+
+ydl_opts = {
+ 'logger': MyLogger(),
+ 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
+}
+
+with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
+ ydl.download(URLS)
+```
+
+#### Add a custom PostProcessor
+
+```python
+import yt_dlp
+
+URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
+
+# ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
- # ℹ️ See docstring of yt_dlp.postprocessor.common.PostProcessor.run
def run(self, info):
self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
return [], info
-# ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in the docstring of yt_dlp.YoutubeDL
-def my_hook(d):
- if d['status'] == 'finished':
- print('Done downloading, now converting ...')
+with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
+ ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP())
+ ydl.download(URLS)
+```
+
+
+#### Use a custom format selector
+
+```python
+import yt_dlp
+URL = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
def format_selector(ctx):
""" Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
- This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
+ NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
# formats are already sorted worst to best
formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
+ # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
yield {
- # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
'ext': best_video['ext'],
'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
}
-# ℹ️ See docstring of yt_dlp.YoutubeDL for a description of the options
ydl_opts = {
'format': format_selector,
- 'postprocessors': [{
- # Embed metadata in video using ffmpeg.
- # ℹ️ See yt_dlp.postprocessor.FFmpegMetadataPP for the arguments it accepts
- 'key': 'FFmpegMetadata',
- 'add_chapters': True,
- 'add_metadata': True,
- }],
- 'logger': MyLogger(),
- 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
- # Add custom headers
- 'http_headers': {'Referer': 'https://www.google.com'}
}
-
-# ℹ️ See the public functions in yt_dlp.YoutubeDL for for other available functions.
-# Eg: "ydl.download", "ydl.download_with_info_file"
with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
- ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP())
- info = ydl.extract_info('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc')
-
- # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
- print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
+ ydl.download(URLS)
```
-**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 above
-
-
<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
# DEPRECATED OPTIONS
These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
-A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
- -t, --title -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
- -l, --literal -o accepts literal names
+ -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
# CONTRIBUTING
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)