[](#readme)
-[](#release-files "Release")
+[](#installation "Installation")
[](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp "PyPi")
[](Collaborators.md#collaborators "Donate")
[](https://matrix.to/#/#yt-dlp:matrix.org "Matrix")
[](https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r "Discord")
[](supportedsites.md "Supported Sites")
[](LICENSE "License")
-[](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions "CI Status")
+[](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions "CI Status")
[](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
-[](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
+[](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pulse/monthly "Last activity")
</div>
<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "USAGE AND OPTIONS" SECTION HERE -->
<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
-* [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
- * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
* [INSTALLATION](#installation)
- * [Update](#update)
+ * [Detailed instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation)
* [Release Files](#release-files)
+ * [Update](#update)
* [Dependencies](#dependencies)
* [Compile](#compile)
* [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
* [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
* [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
* [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
- * [Authentication with .netrc file](#authentication-with-netrc-file)
+ * [Configuration file encoding](#configuration-file-encoding)
+ * [Authentication with netrc](#authentication-with-netrc)
+ * [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
* [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
- * [Output template and Windows batch files](#output-template-and-windows-batch-files)
* [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
* [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
* [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
* [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
* [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
* [PLUGINS](#plugins)
+ * [Installing Plugins](#installing-plugins)
+ * [Developing Plugins](#developing-plugins)
* [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
* [Embedding examples](#embedding-examples)
-* [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
+* [CHANGES FROM YOUTUBE-DL](#changes-from-youtube-dl)
+ * [New features](#new-features)
+ * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
+ * [Deprecated options](#deprecated-options)
* [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
* [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
* [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
-* [MORE](#more)
+* [WIKI](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki)
+ * [FAQ](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/FAQ)
<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
-# NEW FEATURES
-
-* Based on **youtube-dl 2021.12.17 [commit/8a158a9](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/8a158a936c8b002ef536e9e2b778ded02c09c0fa)**<!--([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
-
-* **[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))
-
-* **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`, `: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
- * Fix for [n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326)
- * Redirect channel's home URL automatically to `/video` to preserve the old behaviour
- * `255kbps` audio is extracted (if available) from youtube music when premium cookies are given
- * Youtube music Albums, channels etc can be downloaded ([except self-uploaded music](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/723))
- * Download livestreams from the start using `--live-from-start` (experimental)
- * Support for downloading stories (`ytstories:<channel UCID>`)
-
-* **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using `--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE]`
-
-* **Download time range**: Videos can be downloaded partially based on either timestamps or chapters using `--download-sections`
-
-* **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using `--split-chapters`
-
-* **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
-
-* **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use `aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
-
-* **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)
-
-* **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN etc.
-
-* **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
-
-* **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`)
-
-* **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [configuration](#configuration) for details
-
-* **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`
-
-* **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
-
-* **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
-
-* **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
-
-* **Self-updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`
-
-See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
-
-### Differences in default behavior
-
-Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
-
-* 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
-* 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
-* `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
-* 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
-* `--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
-* 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
-* `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
-* The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
-* All *experiences* of a funimation episode are considered as a single video. This behavior breaks existing archives. Use `--compat-options seperate-video-versions` to extract information from only the default player
-* Youtube live chat (if available) is considered as a subtitle. Use `--sub-langs all,-live_chat` to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use `--compat-options no-live-chat` to prevent live chat from downloading
-* Youtube channel URLs are automatically redirected to `/video`. Append a `/featured` to the URL to download only the videos in the home page. If the channel does not have a videos tab, we try to download the equivalent `UU` playlist instead. For all other tabs, 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
-* Unavailable videos are also listed for youtube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
-* 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
-* Thumbnail embedding in `mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use `--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
-* 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
-* 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
-* `certifi` will be used for SSL root certificates, if installed. If you want to use only system certificates, use `--compat-options no-certifi`
-* 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 (Do NOT use)
-* `--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`
-
-
# INSTALLATION
-You can install yt-dlp using one of the following methods:
-
-### Using the release binary
-
-You can simply download the [correct binary file](#release-files) for your OS
-
<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
[](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)
-[](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)
+[](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)
[](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)
+[](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
[](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
[](#release-files)
[](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)
-
-<!-- TODO: Move to Wiki -->
-In UNIX-like OSes (MacOS, Linux, BSD), you can also install the same in one of the following ways:
-
-```
-sudo curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -o /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
-sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
-```
-
-```
-sudo wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
-sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
-```
-
-```
-sudo aria2c https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp --dir /usr/local/bin -o yt-dlp
-sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp
-```
-
-
-### With [PIP](https://pypi.org/project/pip)
-
-You can install the [PyPI package](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) with:
-```
-python3 -m pip install -U yt-dlp
-```
-
-You can install without any of the optional dependencies using:
-```
-python3 -m pip install --no-deps -U yt-dlp
-```
-
-If you want to be on the cutting edge, you can also install the master branch with:
-```
-python3 -m pip install --force-reinstall https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/archive/master.tar.gz
-```
-
-On some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`
-
-<!-- TODO: Add to Wiki, Remove Taps -->
-### With [Homebrew](https://brew.sh)
+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
-macOS or Linux users that are using Homebrew can also install it by:
-
-```
-brew install yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp
-```
-
-## UPDATE
-You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are [using the provided release](#using-the-release-binary)
-
-If you [installed with pip](#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
-
-If you [installed using Homebrew](#with-homebrew), run `brew upgrade yt-dlp/taps/yt-dlp`
<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
## RELEASE FILES
File|Description
:---|:---
-[yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform-independant [zipimport](https://docs.python.org/3/library/zipimport.html) binary. Needs Python (recommended for **Linux/BSD**)
+[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**)
[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**)
-[yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|MacOS (10.15+) standalone executable (recommended for **MacOS**)
+[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**)
#### Alternatives
File|Description
:---|:---
-[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
+[yt-dlp_x86.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_x86.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x86 (32-bit) binary
[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))
+[yt-dlp_linux](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux)|Linux standalone x64 binary
+[yt-dlp_linux.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux.zip)|Unpackaged Linux executable (no auto-update)
+[yt-dlp_linux_armv7l](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_armv7l)|Linux standalone armv7l (32-bit) binary
+[yt-dlp_linux_aarch64](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_aarch64)|Linux standalone aarch64 (64-bit) binary
[yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
[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)
+[yt-dlp_macos_legacy](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos_legacy)|MacOS (10.9+) standalone x64 executable
#### Misc
File|Description
:---|:---
-[yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball. Also contains manpages, completions, etc
+[yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball
[SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
+[SHA2-512SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA512 sums
[SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
+[SHA2-256SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA256 sums
+
+The public key that can be used to verify the GPG signatures is [available here](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/public.key)
+Example usage:
+```
+curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/raw/master/public.key | gpg --import
+gpg --verify SHA2-256SUMS.sig SHA2-256SUMS
+gpg --verify SHA2-512SUMS.sig SHA2-512SUMS
+```
<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
+**Note**: The manpages, shell completion (autocomplete) files etc. are available inside the [source tarball](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
+
+
+## UPDATE
+You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are using the [release binaries](#release-files)
+
+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
+
+For other third-party package managers, see [the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#third-party-package-managers) or refer their documentation
+
+<a id="update-channels"></a>
+
+There are currently three release channels for binaries: `stable`, `nightly` and `master`.
+
+* `stable` is the default channel, and many of its changes have been tested by users of the `nightly` and `master` channels.
+* The `nightly` channel has releases scheduled to build every day around midnight UTC, for a snapshot of the project's new patches and changes. This is the **recommended channel for regular users** of yt-dlp. The `nightly` releases are available from [yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds/releases) or as development releases of the `yt-dlp` PyPI package (which can be installed with pip's `--pre` flag).
+* The `master` channel features releases that are built after each push to the master branch, and these will have the very latest fixes and additions, but may also be more prone to regressions. They are available from [yt-dlp/yt-dlp-master-builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-master-builds/releases).
+
+When using `--update`/`-U`, a release binary will only update to its current channel.
+`--update-to CHANNEL` can be used to switch to a different channel when a newer version is available. `--update-to [CHANNEL@]TAG` can also be used to upgrade or downgrade to specific tags from a channel.
+
+You may also use `--update-to <repository>` (`<owner>/<repository>`) to update to a channel on a completely different repository. Be careful with what repository you are updating to though, there is no verification done for binaries from different repositories.
+
+Example usage:
+* `yt-dlp --update-to master` switch to the `master` channel and update to its latest release
+* `yt-dlp --update-to stable@2023.07.06` upgrade/downgrade to release to `stable` channel tag `2023.07.06`
+* `yt-dlp --update-to 2023.10.07` upgrade/downgrade to tag `2023.10.07` if it exists on the current channel
+* `yt-dlp --update-to example/yt-dlp@2023.09.24` upgrade/downgrade to the release from the `example/yt-dlp` repository, tag `2023.09.24`
+
+**Important**: Any user experiencing an issue with the `stable` release should install or update to the `nightly` release before submitting a bug report:
+```
+# To update to nightly from stable executable/binary:
+yt-dlp --update-to nightly
+
+# To install nightly with pip:
+python3 -m pip install -U --pre yt-dlp[default]
+```
+
## DEPENDENCIES
-Python versions 3.6+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
+Python versions 3.8+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
<!-- Python 3.5+ uses VC++14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
<!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999 --x>
* [**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)
- <!-- TODO: ffmpeg has merged this patch. Remove this note once there is new release -->
- **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
+ There are bugs in ffmpeg that cause various issues when used alongside yt-dlp. Since ffmpeg is such an important dependency, we provide [custom builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#ffmpeg-static-auto-builds) with patches for some of these issues at [yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds). See [the readme](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#patches-applied) for details on the specific issues solved by these builds
+
+ **Important**: What you need is ffmpeg *binary*, **NOT** [the Python package of the same name](https://pypi.org/project/ffmpeg)
### Networking
* [**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)
* [**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>
* [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
+* [**requests**](https://github.com/psf/requests)\* - HTTP library. For HTTPS proxy and persistent connections support. Licensed under [Apache-2.0](https://github.com/psf/requests/blob/main/LICENSE)
### Metadata
* [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For `--embed-thumbnail` in certain formats. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
* [**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)
-* [**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
+* [**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 **Mac** and **BSD**. 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
### Misc
* [**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)
* [**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)
-* [**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)
+* [**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)
* Any external downloader that you want to use with `--downloader`
-#### Deprecated
+### Deprecated
* [**avconv** and **avprobe**](https://www.libav.org) - Now **deprecated** alternative to ffmpeg. License [depends on the build](https://libav.org/legal)
* [**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)
-* [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licensed under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
-* [**mplayer**](http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html) or [**mpv**](https://mpv.io) - For downloading `rstp` streams. ffmpeg will be used as a fallback. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/Copyright)
+* [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with `--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
+* [**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)
To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
-The Windows and MacOS standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with **\*** included.
+The standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with **\*** included.
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
## COMPILE
### Standalone PyInstaller Builds
-To build the Windows/MacOS 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 (32/64 bit) as the Python used.
+To build the standalone executable, you must have Python and `pyinstaller` (plus any of yt-dlp's [optional dependencies](#dependencies) if needed). The executable will be built for the same CPU architecture as the Python used.
- python3 -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
- python3 devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
- python3 pyinst.py
+You can run the following commands:
+
+```
+python3 devscripts/install_deps.py --include pyinstaller
+python3 devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
+python3 -m bundle.pyinstaller
+```
On some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`.
-Note that pyinstaller [does not support](https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller#requirements-and-tested-platforms) Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment.
+`python -m bundle.pyinstaller` 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).
-**Important**: Running `pyinstaller` directly **without** using `pyinst.py` is **not** officially supported. This may or may not work correctly.
+**Note**: Pyinstaller versions below 4.4 [do not support](https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller#requirements-and-tested-platforms) Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment.
+
+**Important**: Running `pyinstaller` directly **instead of** using `python -m bundle.pyinstaller` is **not** officially supported. This may or may not work correctly.
### Platform-independent Binary (UNIX)
-You will need the build tools `python` (3.6+), `zip`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`\* and `pytest`\*.
+You will need the build tools `python` (3.8+), `zip`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`\* and `pytest`\*.
After installing these, simply run `make`.
-You can also run `make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files. (The dependencies marked with **\*** are not needed for this)
+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)
### Standalone Py2Exe Builds (Windows)
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.
-If you wish to build it anyway, install Python and py2exe, and then simply run `setup.py py2exe`
+If you wish to build it anyway, install Python (if it is not already installed) and you can run the following commands:
- py -m pip install -U py2exe -r requirements.txt
- py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
- py setup.py py2exe
+```
+py devscripts/install_deps.py --include py2exe
+py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
+py -m bundle.py2exe
+```
### Related scripts
-* **`devscripts/update-version.py`** - Update the version number based on current timestamp
+* **`devscripts/install_deps.py`** - Install dependencies for yt-dlp.
+* **`devscripts/update-version.py`** - Update the version number based on current date.
+* **`devscripts/set-variant.py`** - Set the build variant of the executable.
+* **`devscripts/make_changelog.py`** - Create a markdown changelog using short commit messages and update `CONTRIBUTORS` file.
* **`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.
-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
+Note: See their `--help` for more info.
+
+### Forking the project
+If you fork the project on GitHub, you can run your fork's [build workflow](.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically build the selected version(s) as artifacts. Alternatively, you can run the [release workflow](.github/workflows/release.yml) or enable the [nightly workflow](.github/workflows/release-nightly.yml) to create full (pre-)releases.
# USAGE AND OPTIONS
## General Options:
-h, --help Print this help text and exit
--version Print program version and exit
- -U, --update Update this program to latest version
- --no-update Do not update (default)
+ -U, --update Update this program to the latest version
+ --no-update Do not check for updates (default)
+ --update-to [CHANNEL]@[TAG] Upgrade/downgrade to a specific version.
+ CHANNEL can be a repository as well. CHANNEL
+ and TAG default to "stable" and "latest"
+ respectively if omitted; See "UPDATE" for
+ details. Supported channels: stable,
+ nightly, master
-i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
The download will be considered successful
even if the postprocessing fails
--list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
--extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
extractors and exit
- --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic extractor
- --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. Eg:
+ --use-extractors NAMES Extractor names to use separated by commas.
+ You can also use regexes, "all", "default"
+ and "end" (end URL matching); e.g. --ies
+ "holodex.*,end,youtube". Prefix the name
+ with a "-" to exclude it, e.g. --ies
+ default,-generic. Use --list-extractors for
+ a list of extractor names. (Alias: --ies)
+ --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. E.g.
"gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
google videos for the search term "python".
Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
URLs, but emits an error if this is not
possible instead of searching
--ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
- except those given by --config-locations.
+ except those given to --config-locations.
For backward compatibility, if this option
is found inside the system configuration
file, the user configuration is not loaded.
configuration files
--flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
only list them
- --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
+ --no-flat-playlist Fully extract the videos of a playlist
+ (default)
--live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
Currently only supported for YouTube
(Experimental)
--no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
--mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
--no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
- --no-colors Do not emit color codes in output
+ --color [STREAM:]POLICY Whether to emit color codes in output,
+ optionally prefixed by the STREAM (stdout or
+ stderr) to apply the setting to. Can be one
+ of "always", "auto" (default), "never", or
+ "no_color" (use non color terminal
+ sequences). Can be used multiple times
--compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
configurations by reverting some of the
an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
according to the Python string formatting
- mini-language. Eg: --alias get-audio,-X
+ mini-language. E.g. --alias get-audio,-X
"-S=aext:{0},abr -x --audio-format {0}"
creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
"-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
All defined aliases are listed in the --help
output. Alias options can trigger more
- aliases; so be carefull to avoid defining
+ aliases; so be careful to avoid defining
recursive options. As a safety measure, each
alias may be triggered a maximum of 100
times. This option can be used multiple times
## Network Options:
--proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
- enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme.
- Eg: socks5://user:pass@127.0.0.1:1080/. Pass
- in an empty string (--proxy "") for direct
- connection
+ enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme,
+ e.g. socks5://user:pass@127.0.0.1:1080/.
+ Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for
+ direct connection
--socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
--source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
-4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
-6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
+ --enable-file-urls Enable file:// URLs. This is disabled by
+ default for security reasons.
## Geo-restriction:
--geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
is not present) is used for the actual
downloading
- --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via faking
- X-Forwarded-For HTTP header (default)
- --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction via
- faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
- --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction with
- explicitly provided two-letter ISO 3166-2
- country code
- --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction with
- explicitly provided IP block in CIDR notation
+ --xff VALUE How to fake X-Forwarded-For HTTP header to
+ try bypassing geographic restriction. One of
+ "default" (only when known to be useful),
+ "never", an IP block in CIDR notation, or a
+ two-letter ISO 3166-2 country code
## Video Selection:
- -I, --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Comma seperated playlist_index of the videos
+ -I, --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Comma separated playlist_index of the items
to download. You can specify a range using
"[START]:[STOP][:STEP]". For backward
compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.
Use negative indices to count from the right
and negative STEP to download in reverse
- order. Eg: "-I 1:3,7,-5::2" used on a
- playlist of size 15 will download the videos
+ order. E.g. "-I 1:3,7,-5::2" used on a
+ playlist of size 15 will download the items
at index 1,2,3,7,11,13,15
- --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE
- (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
- --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
- (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
+ --min-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is smaller than
+ SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
+ --max-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is larger than
+ SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
--date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
[now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
- Eg: --date today-2weeks
+ E.g. "--date today-2weeks" downloads only
+ videos uploaded on the same day two weeks ago
--datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
this date. The date formats accepted is the
same as --date
--match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
field can be compared with a number or a
string using the operators defined in
- "Filtering formats". You can also simply
+ "Filtering Formats". You can also simply
specify a field to match if the 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
+ conditions are met. E.g. --match-filter
!is_live --match-filter "like_count>?100 &
description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'" matches
only videos that are not live OR those that
dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
interactively ask whether to download each
video
- --no-match-filter Do not use generic video filter (default)
+ --no-match-filters Do not use any --match-filter (default)
+ --break-match-filters FILTER Same as "--match-filters" but stops the
+ download process when a video is rejected
+ --no-break-match-filters Do not use any --break-match-filters (default)
--no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
to a video and a playlist
--yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
--max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
--break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
a file that is in the archive
- --break-on-reject Stop the download process when encountering
- a file that has been filtered out
- --break-per-input Make --break-on-existing, --break-on-reject
- and --max-downloads act only on the current
- input URL
+ --break-per-input Alters --max-downloads, --break-on-existing,
+ --break-match-filter, and autonumber to
+ reset per input URL
--no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
terminates the entire download queue
--skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
-N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
video that should be downloaded concurrently
(default is 1)
- -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
- (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
+ -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second,
+ e.g. 50K or 4.2M
--throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
below which throttling is assumed and the
- video data is re-extracted (e.g. 100K)
+ video data is re-extracted, e.g. 100K
-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 3), or "infinite"
--fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
- --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR An expression for the time to sleep between
- retries in seconds (optionally) prefixed by
- the type of retry (file_access, fragment,
- http (default)) to apply the sleep to. EXPR
- can be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=1]]
- or exp=START[:END[:BASE=2]]. This option can
- be used multiple times to set the sleep for
- the different retry types. Eg: --retry-sleep
+ --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR Time to sleep between retries in seconds
+ (optionally) prefixed by the type of retry
+ (http (default), fragment, file_access,
+ extractor) to apply the sleep to. EXPR can
+ be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=1]] or
+ exp=START[:END[:BASE=2]]. This option can be
+ used multiple times to set the sleep for the
+ different retry types, e.g. --retry-sleep
linear=1::2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=1:20
--skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
- (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
- --abort-on-unavailable-fragment
+ (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragments)
+ --abort-on-unavailable-fragments
Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
(Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
--keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
downloading is finished
--no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
downloading is finished (default)
- --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
+ --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer, e.g. 1024 or 16K
(default is 1024)
--resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
from an initial value of --buffer-size
(default)
--no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
--http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
- downloading (e.g. 10485760 or 10M) (default
+ downloading, e.g. 10485760 or 10M (default
is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
(experimental)
--no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
videos. This is default when not downloading
live streams
- --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters whose title matches
- the given regular expression. Time ranges
- prefixed by a "*" can also be used in place
- of chapters to download the specified range.
- Eg: --download-sections "*10:15-15:00"
- --download-sections "intro". Needs ffmpeg.
- This option can be used multiple times to
- download multiple sections
+ --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters that match the
+ regular expression. A "*" prefix denotes
+ time-range instead of chapter. Negative
+ timestamps are calculated from the end.
+ "*from-url" can be used to download between
+ the "start_time" and "end_time" extracted
+ from the URL. Needs ffmpeg. This option can
+ be used multiple times to download multiple
+ sections, e.g. --download-sections
+ "*10:15-inf" --download-sections "intro"
--downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
(http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
wget. You can use this option multiple times
to set different downloaders for different
- protocols. For example, --downloader aria2c
+ protocols. E.g. --downloader aria2c
--downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
-o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
TEMPLATE" for details
--output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
- "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" (default: "NA")
+ --output (default: "NA")
--restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
--no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
--write-description etc. (default)
--no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
--write-info-json, --write-description etc.
- --clean-info-json Remove some private fields such as filenames
- from the infojson. Note that it could still
- contain some personal information (default)
+ --clean-info-json Remove some internal metadata such as
+ filenames from the infojson (default)
--no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
--write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
infojson. The comments are fetched even
and dump cookie jar in
--no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
(default)
- --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE]
- The name of the browser and (optionally) the
- name/path of the profile to load cookies
- from, separated by a ":". Currently
- supported browsers are: brave, chrome,
- chromium, edge, firefox, opera, safari,
- vivaldi. By default, the most recently
- accessed profile is used. The keyring used
- for decrypting Chromium cookies on Linux can
- be (optionally) specified after the browser
- name separated by a "+". Currently supported
- keyrings are: basictext, gnomekeyring, kwallet
+ --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]
+ The name of the browser to load cookies
+ from. Currently supported browsers are:
+ brave, chrome, chromium, edge, firefox,
+ opera, safari, vivaldi. Optionally, the
+ KEYRING used for decrypting Chromium cookies
+ on Linux, the name/path of the PROFILE to
+ load cookies from, and the CONTAINER name
+ (if Firefox) ("none" for no container) can
+ be given with their respective seperators.
+ By default, all containers of the most
+ recently accessed profile are used.
+ Currently supported keyrings are: basictext,
+ gnomekeyring, kwallet, kwallet5, kwallet6
--no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
- --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
- can store some downloaded information (such
- as client ids and signatures) permanently.
- By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/yt-dlp or
- ~/.cache/yt-dlp
+ --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where yt-dlp can
+ store some downloaded information (such as
+ client ids and signatures) permanently. By
+ default ${XDG_CACHE_HOME}/yt-dlp
--no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
--rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
-q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
print the log to stderr
+ --no-quiet Deactivate quiet mode. (Default)
--no-warnings Ignore warnings
-s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
anything to disk
screen, optionally prefixed with when to
print it, separated by a ":". Supported
values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
- --use-postprocessor, and "video" (default).
+ --use-postprocessor (default: video).
Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
--no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
used. This option can be used multiple times
"postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
The video's fields are accessible under the
"info" key and the progress attributes are
- accessible under "progress" key. E.g.:
+ accessible under "progress" key. E.g.
--console-title --progress-template
"download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
-v, --verbose Print various debugging information
--prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
information about the video (Currently
supported only for YouTube)
- --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
+ --add-headers FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
separated by a colon ":". You can use this
option multiple times
--bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
downloadable
-F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
- --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
- bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
- container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
- webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
+ --merge-output-format FORMAT Containers that may be used when merging
+ formats, separated by "/", e.g. "mp4/mkv".
+ Ignored if no merge is required. (currently
+ supported: avi, flv, mkv, mov, mp4, webm)
## Subtitle Options:
--write-subs Write subtitle file
--list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
--sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
- Eg: "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
+ e.g. "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
--sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
- be regex) or "all" separated by commas. (Eg:
- --sub-langs "en.*,ja") You can prefix the
+ be regex) or "all" separated by commas, e.g.
+ --sub-langs "en.*,ja". You can prefix the
language code with a "-" to exclude it from
- the requested languages. (Eg: --sub-langs
- all,-live_chat) Use --list-subs for a list
+ the requested languages, e.g. --sub-langs
+ all,-live_chat. Use --list-subs for a list
of available language tags
## Authentication Options:
--netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
either the path or its containing directory.
Defaults to ~/.netrc
- --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
+ --netrc-cmd NETRC_CMD Command to execute to get the credentials
+ for an extractor.
+ --video-password PASSWORD Video-specific password
--ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
a list of available MSOs
(requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
--audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
used. (currently supported: best (default),
- mp3, aac, m4a, opus, vorbis, flac, alac,
+ aac, alac, flac, m4a, mp3, opus, vorbis,
wav). You can specify multiple rules using
similar syntax as --remux-video
--audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
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, mka, ogg, mp3, aac,
- m4a, opus, vorbis, flac, alac, wav). If
- target container does not support the
- video/audio codec, remuxing will fail. You
- can specify multiple rules; Eg.
+ necessary (currently supported: avi, flv,
+ gif, mkv, mov, mp4, webm, aac, aiff, alac,
+ flac, m4a, mka, mp3, ogg, opus, vorbis,
+ wav). If target container does not support
+ the video/audio codec, remuxing will fail.
+ You can specify multiple rules; e.g.
"aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
--recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
appended to the prefix optionally followed
by a number to pass the argument before the
- specified input/output file. Eg: --ppa
+ specified input/output file, e.g. --ppa
"Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
this option multiple times to give different
arguments to different postprocessors.
mkv/mka video files
--no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
to the video file
- --parse-metadata FROM:TO Parse additional metadata like title/artist
+ --parse-metadata [WHEN:]FROM:TO
+ Parse additional metadata like title/artist
from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
- for details
- --replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
+ for details. Supported values of "WHEN" are
+ the same as that of --use-postprocessor
+ (default: pre_process)
+ --replace-in-metadata [WHEN:]FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
Replace text in a metadata field using the
given regex. This option can be used
- multiple times
+ multiple times. Supported values of "WHEN"
+ are the same as that of --use-postprocessor
+ (default: pre_process)
--xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
(using dublin core and xdg standards)
--concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
--ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
path to the binary or its containing directory
--exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
- when to execute it (after_move if
- unspecified), separated by a ":". Supported
- values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
- --use-postprocessor. Same syntax as the
- output template can be used to pass any
- field as arguments to the command. After
- download, an additional field "filepath"
- that contains the final path of the
- downloaded file is also available, and if no
- fields are passed, %(filepath)q is appended
+ when to execute it, separated by a ":".
+ Supported values of "WHEN" are the same as
+ that of --use-postprocessor (default:
+ after_move). Same syntax as the output
+ template can be used to pass any field as
+ arguments to the command. If no fields are
+ passed, %(filepath,_filename|)q is appended
to the end of the command. This 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: ass, lrc, srt, vtt)
(Alias: --convert-subtitles)
--convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
(currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
"pre_process" (after video extraction),
"after_filter" (after video passes filter),
- "before_dl" (before each video download),
- "post_process" (after each video download;
- default), "after_move" (after moving video
- file to it's final locations), "after_video"
- (after downloading and processing all
- formats of a video), or "playlist" (at end
- of playlist). This option can be used
- multiple times to add different postprocessors
+ "video" (after --format; before
+ --print/--output), "before_dl" (before each
+ video download), "post_process" (after each
+ video download; default), "after_move"
+ (after moving video file to it's final
+ locations), "after_video" (after downloading
+ and processing all formats of a video), or
+ "playlist" (at end of playlist). This option
+ can be used multiple times to add different
+ postprocessors
## SponsorBlock Options:
Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
for, separated by commas. Available
categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
- music_offtopic, poi_highlight, all and
- default (=all). You can prefix the category
- with a "-" to exclude it. See [1] for
- description of the categories. Eg:
+ music_offtopic, poi_highlight, chapter, all
+ and default (=all). You can prefix the
+ category with a "-" to exclude it. See [1]
+ for description of the categories. E.g.
--sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
[1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
--sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
remove takes precedence. The syntax and
available categories are the same as for
--sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
- refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight is
- not available
+ refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight,
+ chapter are not available
--sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
An output template for the title of the
SponsorBlock chapters created by
--no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
(default)
- --extractor-args KEY:ARGS Pass these arguments to the extractor. See
- "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You can
- use this option multiple times to give
+ --extractor-args IE_KEY:ARGS Pass ARGS arguments to the IE_KEY extractor.
+ See "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You
+ can use this option multiple times to give
arguments for different extractors
# CONFIGURATION
You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
-1. **Main Configuration**: The file given by `--config-location`
-1. **Portable Configuration**: `yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the bundled binary. If you are running from source-code (`<root dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`), the root directory is used instead.
-1. **Home Configuration**: `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by `-P`, or in the current directory if no such path is given
+1. **Main Configuration**:
+ * The file given to `--config-location`
+1. **Portable Configuration**: (Recommended for portable installations)
+ * If using a binary, `yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the binary
+ * If running from source-code, `yt-dlp.conf` in the parent directory of `yt_dlp`
+1. **Home Configuration**:
+ * `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given to `-P`
+ * If `-P` is not given, the current directory is searched
1. **User Configuration**:
- * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
- * `%XDG_CONFIG_HOME%/yt-dlp.conf`
- * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
- * `%APPDATA%/yt-dlp/config.txt`
+ * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp.conf`
+ * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
+ * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
+ * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp.conf`
+ * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
+ * `${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%`
+ * `~/.yt-dlp/config`
+ * `~/.yt-dlp/config.txt`
-1. **System Configuration**: `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
+ See also: [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
+1. **System Configuration**:
+ * `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
+ * `/etc/yt-dlp/config`
+ * `/etc/yt-dlp/config.txt`
-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:
+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:
```
# Lines starting with # are comments
-o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
```
-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`.
+**Note**: Options in configuration file are just the same options aka switches used in regular command line calls; thus there **must be no whitespace** after `-` or `--`, e.g. `-o` or `--proxy` but not `- o` or `-- proxy`. They must also be quoted when necessary as-if it were a UNIX shell.
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.
-### Authentication with `.netrc` file
+### Configuration file encoding
-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:
+The configuration files are decoded according to the UTF BOM if present, and in the encoding from system locale otherwise.
+
+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.
+
+### Authentication with netrc
+
+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:
```
-touch $HOME/.netrc
-chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
+touch ${HOME}/.netrc
+chmod a-rwx,u+rw ${HOME}/.netrc
```
After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
```
machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
```
-For example:
+E.g.
```
machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
```
To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
-The default location of the .netrc file is `$HOME` (`~`) in UNIX. On Windows, it is `%HOME%` if present, `%USERPROFILE%` (generally `C:\Users\<user name>`) or `%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%`
+The default location of the .netrc file is `~` (see below).
+
+As an alternative to using the `.netrc` file, which has the disadvantage of keeping your passwords in a plain text file, you can configure a custom shell command to provide the credentials for an extractor. This is done by providing the `--netrc-cmd` parameter, it shall output the credentials in the netrc format and return `0` on success, other values will be treated as an error. `{}` in the command will be replaced by the name of the extractor to make it possible to select the credentials for the right extractor.
+
+E.g. To use an encrypted `.netrc` file stored as `.authinfo.gpg`
+```
+yt-dlp --netrc-cmd 'gpg --decrypt ~/.authinfo.gpg' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc
+```
+
+
+### Notes about environment variables
+* Environment variables are normally specified as `${VARIABLE}`/`$VARIABLE` on UNIX and `%VARIABLE%` on Windows; but is always shown as `${VARIABLE}` in this documentation
+* yt-dlp also allow using UNIX-style variables on Windows for path-like options; e.g. `--output`, `--config-location`
+* If unset, `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}` defaults to `~/.config` and `${XDG_CACHE_HOME}` to `~/.cache`
+* On Windows, `~` points to `${HOME}` if present; or, `${USERPROFILE}` or `${HOMEDRIVE}${HOMEPATH}` otherwise
+* On Windows, `${USERPROFILE}` generally points to `C:\Users\<user name>` and `${APPDATA}` to `${USERPROFILE}\AppData\Roaming`
# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
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).
-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.
+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.
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. **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
-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`
+1. **Arithmetic**: Simple arithmetic can be done on numeric fields using `+`, `-` and `*`. E.g. `%(playlist_index+10)03d`, `%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
-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 `>`. Eg: `%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`, `%(upload_date>%Y-%m-%d)s`, `%(epoch-3600>%H-%M-%S)s`
+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`
-1. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a `,`. Eg: `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
+1. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a `,`. E.g. `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
-1. **Replacement**: A replacement value can 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.
+1. **Replacement**: A replacement value can be specified using a `&` separator according to the [`str.format` mini-language](https://docs.python.org/3/library/string.html#format-specification-mini-language). If the field is *not* empty, this replacement value will be used instead of the actual field content. This is done after alternate fields are considered; thus the replacement is used if *any* of the alternative fields is *not* empty. E.g. `%(chapters&has chapters|no chapters)s`, `%(title&TITLE={:>20}|NO TITLE)s`
-1. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a `|` separator. This overrides `--output-na-template`. Eg: `%(uploader|Unknown)s`
+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`
-1. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types `diouxXeEfFgGcrs`, `B`, `j`, `l`, `q`, `D`, `S` can be used for converting to **B**ytes, **j**son (flag `#` for pretty-printing), a comma separated **l**ist (flag `#` for `\n` newline-separated), a string **q**uoted for the terminal (flag `#` to split a list into different arguments), to add **D**ecimal suffixes (Eg: 10M) (flag `#` to use 1024 as factor), and to **S**anitize as filename (flag `#` for restricted), respectively
+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)
-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. Eg: `%(title)+.100U` is NFKC
+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
To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
```
%(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
```
-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`. For example, `-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. Eg: `--write-thumbnail -o "thumbnail:"` will write thumbnails only for playlists and not for video.
+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.
+
+<a id="outtmpl-postprocess-note"></a>
+
+**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.
The available fields are:
- `id` (string): Video identifier
- `title` (string): Video title
- `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
- - `url` (string): Video URL
- `ext` (string): Video filename extension
- `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
- `description` (string): The description of the video
- `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
- `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
+ - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
+ - `uploader_url` (string): URL to the video uploader's profile
- `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
- - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
+ - `creators` (list): The creators of the video
+ - `creator` (string): The creators of the video; comma-separated
- `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
- `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
- `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
- `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
+ - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the video or album was released
- `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
- `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
- - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
- `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
- `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
+ - `channel_url` (string): URL of the channel
- `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
+ - `channel_is_verified` (boolean): Whether the channel is verified on the platform
- `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
- `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
- `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
- `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
+ - `concurrent_view_count` (numeric): How many users are currently watching the video on the platform.
- `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
- `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
- `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
- `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
- `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)
- `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
- - `live_status` (string): One of "is_live", "was_live", "is_upcoming", "not_live"
+ - `live_status` (string): One of "not_live", "is_live", "is_upcoming", "was_live", "post_live" (was live, but VOD is not yet processed)
- `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
- `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
- `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
- `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
+ - `media_type` (string): The type of media as classified by the site, e.g. "episode", "clip", "trailer"
- `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
- `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
- - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
- - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by `--format`
- - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
- - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
- - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
- - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
- - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
- - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
- - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
- - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
- - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
- - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
- - `dynamic_range` (string): The dynamic range of the video
- - `stretched_ratio` (float): `width:height` of the video's pixels, if not square
- - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
- - `container` (string): Name of the container format
- - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
- - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
- - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
- `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
- `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
- `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
- - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`
+ - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`, padded with leading zeros to 5 digits
- `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
- `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
- `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
- `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
- `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
- `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)
+ - `categories` (list): List of categories the video belongs to
+ - `tags` (list): List of tags assigned to the video
+ - `cast` (list): List of cast members
+
+All the fields in [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats) can also be used
Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
- `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
+ - `series_id` (string): Id of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
- `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
- `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
- `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
- `track` (string): Title of the track
- `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
- `track_id` (string): Id of the track
- - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
- - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
+ - `artists` (list): Artist(s) of the track
+ - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track; comma-separated
+ - `genres` (list): Genre(s) of the track
+ - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track; comma-separated
+ - `composers` (list): Composer(s) of the piece
+ - `composer` (string): Composer(s) of the piece; comma-separated
- `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
- `album_type` (string): Type of the album
- - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
+ - `album_artists` (list): All artists appeared on the album
+ - `album_artist` (string): All artists appeared on the album; comma-separated
- `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
- - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
Available only when using `--download-sections` and for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
Available only when used in `--print`:
- `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
- - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the actual filename may be different due to post-processing. Use `--exec echo` to get the name after all postprocessing is complete
+ - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the [actual filename may differ](#outtmpl-postprocess-note)
- `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by `--list-formats`
- `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by `--list-thumbnails`
- `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
- `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
+ Available only after the video is downloaded (`post_process`/`after_move`):
+ - `filepath`: Actual path of downloaded video file
+
Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
- `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
- `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
- - `categories` (list): The SponsorBlock categories the chapter belongs to
+ - `categories` (list): The [SponsorBlock categories](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Category) the chapter belongs to
- `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
- `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
- `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
+ - `type` (string): The [SponsorBlock action type](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Action_Type) of the chapter
-Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. For example 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.
+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.
-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).
+**Note**: Some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor. Such sequences will be replaced with placeholder value provided with `--output-na-placeholder` (`NA` by default).
**Tip**: Look at the `-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
-For numeric sequences you can use [numeric related formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting), for example, `%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to 5 characters, like in `00042`.
+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`.
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.
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.
-<!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
-#### Output template and Windows batch files
-
-If you are using an output template inside a Windows batch file then you must escape plain percent characters (`%`) by doubling, so that `-o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"` should become `-o "%%(title)s-%%(id)s.%%(ext)s"`. However you should not touch `%`'s that are not plain characters, e.g. environment variables for expansion should stay intact: `-o "C:\%HOMEPATH%\Desktop\%%(title)s.%%(ext)s"`.
-<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
-
#### Output template examples
```bash
-$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
+$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
-$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
+$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
-$ yt-dlp --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
+$ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
$ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
# Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
-$ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist_index|)s%(playlist_index& - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
+$ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist_index&{} - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
# Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
$ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
<!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
-The simplest case is requesting a specific format, for example 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.
+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.
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.
- `all`: Select **all formats** separately
- `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
- - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio
+ - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio or both (ie; `vcodec!=none or acodec!=none`)
- `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
- `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
- `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
- `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
- `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
-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.
+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.
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.
-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, for example `-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.
+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.
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`.
-You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using `-f <format1>+<format2>+...` (requires ffmpeg installed), for example `-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg.
+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.
**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
-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. For example, `-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 and merge both formats while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams` will ignore `best` and download only `bestaudio`.
+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`.
## Filtering Formats
-You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
+You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"` since filters without a selector are interpreted as `best`).
The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
- `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
+ - `filesize_approx`: An estimate for the number of bytes
- `width`: Width of the video, if known
- `height`: Height of the video, if known
+ - `aspect_ratio`: Aspect ratio of the video, if known
- `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
- `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
- `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
- `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
- `fps`: Frame rate
+ - `audio_channels`: The number of audio channels
+ - `stretched_ratio`: `width:height` of the video's pixels, if not square
Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains), `~=` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
+ - `url`: Video URL
- `ext`: File extension
- `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
- `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
- `container`: Name of the container format
- `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`)
- - `format_id`: A short description of the format
- `language`: Language code
+ - `dynamic_range`: The dynamic range of the video
+ - `format_id`: A short description of the format
+ - `format`: A human-readable description of the format
+ - `format_note`: Additional info about the format
+ - `resolution`: Textual description of width and height
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 `._-`.
-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.
+**Note**: None of the aforementioned meta fields are guaranteed to be present since this solely depends on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, i.e. the metadata offered by the website. Any other field made available by the extractor can also be used for filtering.
-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. For example, `-f "all[vcodec=none]"` selects all audio-only formats.
+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 "bv[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.
-Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses, for example if you want to download the best pre-merged mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480 you can use `-f "(mp4,webm)[height<480]"`.
+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.
## Sorting Formats
The available fields are:
- - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that has a video stream
- - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that has a audio stream
+ - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that have a video stream
+ - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that have an audio stream
- `ie_pref`: The format preference
- `lang`: The language preference
- `quality`: The quality of the format
- `source`: The preference of the source
- `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > `mms`/`rtsp` > `f4f`/`f4m`)
- `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other)
- - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`flac`/`alac` > `wav`/`aiff` > `opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `eac3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other)
+ - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`flac`/`alac` > `wav`/`aiff` > `opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `ac4` > `eac3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other)
- `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
- - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `webm` > `flv` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is preferred.
- - `aext`: Audio Extension (`m4a` > `aac` > `mp3` > `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to `opus` > `ogg` > `webm` > `m4a` > `mp3` > `aac`.
+ - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `mov` > `webm` > `flv` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is preferred.
+ - `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`
- `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
- `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
- - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
+ - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize
- `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
- `height`: Height of video
- `width`: Width of video
- `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
- `fps`: Framerate of video
- `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `HLG` > `SDR`)
+ - `channels`: The number of audio channels
- `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
- `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
- `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
- - `br`: Equivalent to using `tbr,vbr,abr`
+ - `br`: Average bitrate in KBit/s, `tbr`/`vbr`/`abr`
- `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
**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.
-All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in descending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+`. Eg: `+res` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a preferred value for the fields, separated by a `:`. Eg: `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. Eg: `+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. Eg: `filesize~1G` prefers the format with filesize closest to 1 GiB.
+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.
-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,codec:vp9.2,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id`. The extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
+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.
-Note that the default has `codec: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.
+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.
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`.
$ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
# Download the best video with the best extension
-# (For video, mp4 > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
+# (For video, mp4 > mov > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
$ yt-dlp -S "ext"
The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
-`--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.
+`--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.
-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 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.
+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.
-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`.
+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`.
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 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
-* 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.
+* 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.
**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.
`description`, `synopsis` | `description`
`purl`, `comment` | `webpage_url`
`track` | `track_number`
-`artist` | `artist`, `creator`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
-`genre` | `genre`
+`artist` | `artist`, `artists`, `creator`, `creators`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
+`composer` | `composer` or `composers`
+`genre` | `genre` or `genres`
`album` | `album`
-`album_artist` | `album_artist`
+`album_artist` | `album_artist` or `album_artists`
`disc` | `disc_number`
`show` | `series`
`season_number` | `season_number`
$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
# Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
-$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --add-metadata
+$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --embed-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
+$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --embed-metadata
# Do not set any "synopsis" in the video metadata
$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<meta_synopsis>)"
# Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
-$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<formats>)" -j
+$ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "video::(?P<formats>)" --write-info-json
# Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
$ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
# 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_embedded,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`. E.g. `--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android_embedded,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
+
+Note: In CLI, `ARG` can use `-` instead of `_`; e.g. `youtube:player-client"` becomes `youtube:player_client"`
The following extractors use this feature:
#### youtube
+* `lang`: Prefer translated metadata (`title`, `description` etc) of this language code (case-sensitive). By default, the video primary language metadata is preferred, with a fallback to `en` translated. See [youtube.py](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/c26f9b991a0681fd3ea548d535919cec1fbbd430/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L381-L390) for list of supported content language codes
* `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
-* `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web`, `android` and `ios` with variants `_music`, `_embedded`, `_embedscreen`, `_creator` (Eg: `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.
+* `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`, `mweb_embedscreen` and `tv_embedded` (agegate bypass) with no variants. By default, `ios,android,web` is used, but `tv_embedded` and `creator` variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly, the music variants are added for `music.youtube.com` urls. You can use `all` to use all the clients, and `default` for the default clients.
* `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)
+* `player_params`: YouTube player parameters to use for player requests. Will overwrite any default ones set by yt-dlp.
* `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
-* `innertube_host`: Innertube API host to use for all API requests
- * e.g. `studio.youtube.com`, `youtubei.googleapis.com`
- * Note: Cookies exported from `www.youtube.com` will not work with hosts other than `*.youtube.com`
+* `formats`: Change the types of formats to return. `dashy` (convert HTTP to DASH), `duplicate` (identical content but different URLs or protocol; includes `dashy`), `incomplete` (cannot be downloaded completely - live dash and post-live m3u8)
+* `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
* `innertube_key`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
+* `raise_incomplete_data`: `Incomplete Data Received` raises an error instead of reporting a warning
#### 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)
-* `approximate_date`: Extract approximate `upload_date` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
+* `approximate_date`: Extract approximate `upload_date` and `timestamp` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
+
+#### generic
+* `fragment_query`: Passthrough any query in mpd/m3u8 manifest URLs to their fragments if no value is provided, or else apply the query string given as `fragment_query=VALUE`. Does not apply to ffmpeg
+* `variant_query`: Passthrough the master m3u8 URL query to its variant playlist URLs if no value is provided, or else apply the query string given as `variant_query=VALUE`
+* `hls_key`: An HLS AES-128 key URI *or* key (as hex), and optionally the IV (as hex), in the form of `(URI|KEY)[,IV]`; e.g. `generic:hls_key=ABCDEF1234567980,0xFEDCBA0987654321`. Passing any of these values will force usage of the native HLS downloader and override the corresponding values found in the m3u8 playlist
+* `is_live`: Bypass live HLS detection and manually set `live_status` - a value of `false` will set `not_live`, any other value (or no value) will set `is_live`
#### funimation
-* `language`: Languages to extract. Eg: `funimation:language=english,japanese`
+* `language`: Audio languages to extract, e.g. `funimation:language=english,japanese`
* `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`
-#### crunchyroll
-* `language`: Languages to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:language=jaJp`
-* `hardsub`: Which hard-sub versions to extract. Eg: `crunchyroll:hardsub=None,enUS`
-
-#### crunchyrollbeta
-* `format`: Which stream type(s) to extract. Default is `adaptive_hls` Eg: `crunchyrollbeta:format=vo_adaptive_hls`
- * Potentially useful values include `adaptive_hls`, `adaptive_dash`, `vo_adaptive_hls`, `vo_adaptive_dash`, `download_hls`, `trailer_hls`, `trailer_dash`
-* `hardsub`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract. Default is `None` (no hardsubs). Eg: `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None`
+#### crunchyrollbeta (Crunchyroll)
+* `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`
+* `hardsub`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract, or `all` (default: `None` = no hardsubs), e.g. `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None`
#### vikichannel
* `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
* `vcodec`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264`, `h265`, `dvh265`
* `dr`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr`, `hdr10`, `dv`
+#### niconicochannelplus
+* `max_comments`: Maximum number of comments to extract - default is `120`
+
#### tiktok
-* `app_version`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version`. (e.g. `20.2.1`)
-* `manifest_app_version`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with. (e.g. `221`)
+* `api_hostname`: Hostname to use for mobile API requests, e.g. `api-h2.tiktokv.com`
+* `app_version`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version`, e.g. `20.2.1`
+* `manifest_app_version`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with, e.g. `221`
#### rokfinchannel
-* `tab`: Which tab to download. One of `new`, `top`, `videos`, `podcasts`, `streams`, `stacks`. (E.g. `rokfinchannel:tab=streams`)
+* `tab`: Which tab to download - one of `new`, `top`, `videos`, `podcasts`, `streams`, `stacks`
+
+#### twitter
+* `api`: Select one of `graphql` (default), `legacy` or `syndication` as the API for tweet extraction. Has no effect if logged in
+
+#### stacommu, wrestleuniverse
+* `device_id`: UUID value assigned by the website and used to enforce device limits for paid livestream content. Can be found in browser local storage
+
+#### twitch
+* `client_id`: Client ID value to be sent with GraphQL requests, e.g. `twitch:client_id=kimne78kx3ncx6brgo4mv6wki5h1ko`
+
+#### nhkradirulive (NHK らじる★らじる LIVE)
+* `area`: Which regional variation to extract. Valid areas are: `sapporo`, `sendai`, `tokyo`, `nagoya`, `osaka`, `hiroshima`, `matsuyama`, `fukuoka`. Defaults to `tokyo`
+
+#### nflplusreplay
+* `type`: Type(s) of game replays to extract. Valid types are: `full_game`, `full_game_spanish`, `condensed_game` and `all_22`. You can use `all` to extract all available replay types, which is the default
+#### jiosaavn
+* `bitrate`: Audio bitrates to request. One or more of `16`, `32`, `64`, `128`, `320`. Default is `128,320`
-NOTE: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
+**Note**: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
# PLUGINS
-Plugins are loaded from `<root-dir>/ytdlp_plugins/<type>/__init__.py`; where `<root-dir>` is the directory of the binary (`<root-dir>/yt-dlp`), or the root directory of the module if you are running directly from source-code (`<root dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`). Plugins are currently not supported for the `pip` version
+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!**
+
+Plugins can be of `<type>`s `extractor` or `postprocessor`.
+- Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it.
+- Extractor plugins take priority over builtin extractors.
+- Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME`.
+
+
+Plugins are loaded from the namespace packages `yt_dlp_plugins.extractor` and `yt_dlp_plugins.postprocessor`.
+
+In other words, the file structure on the disk looks something like:
+
+ yt_dlp_plugins/
+ extractor/
+ myplugin.py
+ postprocessor/
+ myplugin.py
+
+yt-dlp looks for these `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folders in many locations (see below) and loads in plugins from **all** of them.
+
+See the [wiki for some known plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugins)
-Plugins can be of `<type>`s `extractor` or `postprocessor`. Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it. Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME`.
+## Installing Plugins
-See [ytdlp_plugins](ytdlp_plugins) for example plugins.
+Plugins can be installed using various methods and locations.
-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
+1. **Configuration directories**:
+ Plugin packages (containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder) can be dropped into the following standard [configuration locations](#configuration):
+ * **User Plugins**
+ * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
+ * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
+ * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Windows)
+ * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
+ * `~/.yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
+ * `~/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
+ * **System Plugins**
+ * `/etc/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
+ * `/etc/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
+2. **Executable location**: Plugin packages can similarly be installed in a `yt-dlp-plugins` directory under the executable location (recommended for portable installations):
+ * Binary: where `<root-dir>/yt-dlp.exe`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
+ * Source: where `<root-dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
-If you are a plugin author, add [ytdlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/ytdlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability
+3. **pip and other locations in `PYTHONPATH`**
+ * Plugin packages can be installed and managed using `pip`. See [yt-dlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) for an example.
+ * Note: plugin files between plugin packages installed with pip must have unique filenames.
+ * Any path in `PYTHONPATH` is searched in for the `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder.
+ * Note: This does not apply for Pyinstaller/py2exe builds.
+`.zip`, `.egg` and `.whl` archives containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder in their root are also supported as plugin packages.
+* e.g. `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/mypluginpkg.zip` where `mypluginpkg.zip` contains `yt_dlp_plugins/<type>/myplugin.py`
+
+Run yt-dlp with `--verbose` to check if the plugin has been loaded.
+
+## Developing Plugins
+
+See the [yt-dlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) repo for a template plugin package and the [Plugin Development](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugin-Development) section of the wiki for a plugin development guide.
+
+All public classes with a name ending in `IE`/`PP` are imported from each file for extractors and postprocessors repectively. This respects underscore prefix (e.g. `_MyBasePluginIE` is private) and `__all__`. Modules can similarly be excluded by prefixing the module name with an underscore (e.g. `_myplugin.py`).
+
+To replace an existing extractor with a subclass of one, set the `plugin_name` class keyword argument (e.g. `class MyPluginIE(ABuiltInIE, plugin_name='myplugin')` will replace `ABuiltInIE` with `MyPluginIE`). Since the extractor replaces the parent, you should exclude the subclass extractor from being imported separately by making it private using one of the methods described above.
+
+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.
+
+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.
# EMBEDDING YT-DLP
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#L180).
+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#L183) or `help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)` in a Python shell. If you are already familiar with the CLI, you can use [`devscripts/cli_to_api.py`](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/devscripts/cli_to_api.py) to translate any CLI switches to `YoutubeDL` params.
**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)
```python
import yt_dlp
-URL = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
+URLS = ['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.
ydl.download(URLS)
```
-<!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
-# DEPRECATED OPTIONS
+# CHANGES FROM YOUTUBE-DL
+
+### New features
+
+* Forked from [**yt-dlc@f9401f2**](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/commit/f9401f2a91987068139c5f757b12fc711d4c0cee) and merged with [**youtube-dl@be008e6**](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/be008e657d79832642e2158557c899249c9e31cd) ([exceptions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/21))
+
+* **[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in YouTube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
+
+* **[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))
+
+* **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from [animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including `--write-comments`, `BiliBiliSearch`, `BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that NicoNico livestreams are not available. See [#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
+
+* **YouTube improvements**:
+ * Supports Clips, Stories (`ytstories:<channel UCID>`), Search (including filters)**\***, YouTube Music Search, Channel-specific search, Search prefixes (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`)**\***, Mixes, and Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`, `:ytnotif`)
+ * Fix for [n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326) **\***
+ * Supports some (but not all) age-gated content without cookies
+ * Download livestreams from the start using `--live-from-start` (*experimental*)
+ * Channel URLs download all uploads of the channel, including shorts and live
+
+* **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using `--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]`
+
+* **Download time range**: Videos can be downloaded partially based on either timestamps or chapters using `--download-sections`
+
+* **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using `--split-chapters`
+
+* **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
+
+* **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use `aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
+
+* **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)
+
+* **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN etc.
+
+* **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
+
+* **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`)
+
+* **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for details
+
+* **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`
+
+* **Other new options**: Many new options have been added such as `--alias`, `--print`, `--concat-playlist`, `--wait-for-video`, `--retry-sleep`, `--sleep-requests`, `--convert-thumbnails`, `--force-download-archive`, `--force-overwrites`, `--break-match-filter` etc
+
+* **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
+
+* **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
+
+* **Self updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`, and downgraded using `--update-to` if required
+
+* **Automated builds**: [Nightly/master builds](#update-channels) can be used with `--update-to nightly` and `--update-to master`
+
+See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
+
+Features marked with a **\*** have been back-ported to youtube-dl
+
+### Differences in default behavior
+
+Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
+
+* yt-dlp supports only [Python 3.8+](## "Windows 7"), and *may* remove support for more versions as they [become EOL](https://devguide.python.org/versions/#python-release-cycle); while [youtube-dl still supports Python 2.6+ and 3.2+](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/30568#issue-1118238743)
+* 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
+* 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
+* `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
+* 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
+* `--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
+* 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
+* `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
+* The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
+* 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
+* 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
+* Unavailable videos are also listed for YouTube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
+* 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.
+* 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
+* Thumbnail embedding in `mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use `--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
+* Some internal metadata such as filenames are removed by default from the infojson. Use `--no-clean-infojson` or `--compat-options no-clean-infojson` to revert this
+* 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
+* `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`
+* 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
+* ~~yt-dlp tries to parse the external downloader outputs into the standard progress output if possible (Currently implemented: [aria2c](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/5931)). You can use `--compat-options no-external-downloader-progress` to get the downloader output as-is~~
+* yt-dlp versions between 2021.09.01 and 2023.01.02 applies `--match-filter` to nested playlists. This was an unintentional side-effect of [8f18ac](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/8f18aca8717bb0dd49054555af8d386e5eda3a88) and is fixed in [d7b460](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/d7b460d0e5fc710950582baed2e3fc616ed98a80). Use `--compat-options playlist-match-filter` to revert this
+* yt-dlp versions between 2021.11.10 and 2023.06.21 estimated `filesize_approx` values for fragmented/manifest formats. This was added for convenience in [f2fe69](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/f2fe69c7b0d208bdb1f6292b4ae92bc1e1a7444a), but was reverted in [0dff8e](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/0dff8e4d1e6e9fb938f4256ea9af7d81f42fd54f) due to the potentially extreme inaccuracy of the estimated values. Use `--compat-options manifest-filesize-approx` to keep extracting the estimated values
+* yt-dlp uses modern http client backends such as `requests`. Use `--compat-options prefer-legacy-http-handler` to prefer the legacy http handler (`urllib`) to be used for standard http requests.
+* The sub-modules `swfinterp`, `casefold` are removed.
+
+For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
+
+* `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options (Do NOT use)
+* `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams,-playlist-match-filter,-manifest-filesize-approx`
+* `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect,-playlist-match-filter,-manifest-filesize-approx`
+* `--compat-options 2021`: Same as `--compat-options 2022,no-certifi,filename-sanitization,no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date`
+* `--compat-options 2022`: Same as `--compat-options 2023,playlist-match-filter,no-external-downloader-progress,prefer-legacy-http-handler,manifest-filesize-approx`
+* `--compat-options 2023`: Currently does nothing. Use this to enable all future compat options
+
+### Deprecated options
These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
--reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
--min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
--max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
+ --break-on-reject Use --break-match-filter
--user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
--referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
--playlist-start NUMBER -I NUMBER:
--playlist-end NUMBER -I :NUMBER
--playlist-reverse -I ::-1
--no-playlist-reverse Default
-
+ --no-colors --color no_color
#### Not recommended
While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
+ --force-generic-extractor --ies generic,default
--exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
--no-exec-before-download --no-exec
--all-formats -f all
--all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
--print-json -j --no-simulate
- --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting. Eg: %(autonumber)03d
+ --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting, e.g. %(autonumber)03d
--autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
--id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
--metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
--youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
--youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
--youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
-
+ --geo-bypass --xff "default"
+ --no-geo-bypass --xff "never"
+ --geo-bypass-country CODE --xff CODE
+ --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK --xff IP_BLOCK
#### Developer options
These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
--allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
--no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
-
#### Old aliases
These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
--no-include-ads Default
--write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
--no-write-annotations Default
+ --compat-options seperate-video-versions No longer needed
#### Removed
These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
-A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
-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)
-# MORE
-For FAQ see the [youtube-dl README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl#faq)
+# WIKI
+See the [Wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki) for more information
projects / yt-dlp.git / blobdiff