- [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
- [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
- [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
- - [Default Format Selection](#default-format-selection)
- [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
- [VIDEO SELECTION](#video-selection-1)
**DO NOT UPDATE using `-U` !** instead download binaries again or when installed with pip use a described above when installing.
I will add some memorable short links to the binaries so you can download them easier.
+
+
+
+
# DESCRIPTION
**youtube-dlc** is a command-line program to download videos from YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version 2.6, 2.7, or 3.2+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on your Unix box, on Windows or on macOS. It is released to the public domain, which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
youtube-dlc [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
# OPTIONS
+`Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
+
-h, --help Print this help text and exit
--version Print program version and exit
- -U, --update Update this program to latest version. Make
+ -U, --update (Doesn't work since there is no release)
+ Update this program to latest version. Make
sure that you have sufficient permissions
(run with sudo if needed)
+
-i, --ignore-errors Continue on download errors, for example to
skip unavailable videos in a playlist
- --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos (in the
- playlist or the command line) if an error
- occurs
+ (Same as --no-abort-on-error)
+ --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
+ error occurs (Same as --no-ignore-errors)
--dump-user-agent Display the current browser identification
--list-extractors List all supported extractors
--extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
extractor
--default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
- from google videos for youtube-dlc "large
+ from google videos for youtube-dl "large
apple". Use the value "auto" to let
- youtube-dlc guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
+ youtube-dl guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
warning when guessing). "error" just throws
an error. The default value "fixup_error"
repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
this is not possible instead of searching.
- --ignore-config Do not read configuration files. When given
+ --ignore-config, --no-config Do not read configuration files. When given
in the global configuration file
- /etc/youtube-dlc.conf: Do not read the user
+ /etc/youtube-dl.conf: Do not read the user
configuration in ~/.config/youtube-
- dlc/config (%APPDATA%/youtube-
- dlc/config.txt on Windows)
+ dl/config (%APPDATA%/youtube-dl/config.txt
+ on Windows)
--config-location PATH Location of the configuration file; either
the path to the config or its containing
directory.
--flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
only list them.
+ --flat-videos Do not resolve the video urls
+ --no-flat-playlist Extract the videos of a playlist
--mark-watched Mark videos watched (YouTube only)
--no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (YouTube only)
--no-color Do not emit color codes in output
SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
--max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
(e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
- --date DATE Download only videos uploaded in this date
+ --date DATE Download only videos uploaded in this date.
+ The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
+ "(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?"
--datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
- this date (i.e. inclusive)
+ this date (i.e. inclusive). The date formats
+ accepted is the same as --date
--dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
- this date (i.e. inclusive)
+ this date (i.e. inclusive). The date formats
+ accepted is the same as --date
--min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less than
COUNT views
--max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than
service), but who also have a description,
use --match-filter "like_count > 100 &
dislike_count <? 50 & description" .
+ --no-match-filter FILTER Do not use generic video filter (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
--download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
archive file. Record the IDs of all
downloaded videos in it.
+ --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
--break-on-existing Stop the download process after attempting
to download a file that's in the archive.
- --include-ads Download advertisements as well
- (experimental)
+ --include-ads Download advertisements as well (experimental)
+ --no-include-ads Do not download advertisements (default)
## Download Options:
-r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
--fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default
is 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and
ISM)
- --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments (DASH, hlsnative
- and ISM)
- --abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading when some fragment is not
- available
+ --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
+ hlsnative and ISM (default)
+ (Same as --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
+ --abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading if a fragment is unavailable
+ (Same as --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
--keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
- downloading is finished; fragments are
- erased by default
+ 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)
(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. By default, the buffer size is
- automatically resized from an initial value
- of SIZE.
+ size
--http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
downloading (e.g. 10485760 or 10M) (default
is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
(experimental)
--playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
+ --no-playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in default order
--playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
--xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
expected file size
stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
with '#', ';' or ']' are considered as
comments and ignored.
- --id Use only video ID in file name
-o, --output TEMPLATE Output filename template, see the "OUTPUT
TEMPLATE" for all the info
--autonumber-start NUMBER Specify the start value for %(autonumber)s
--restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
filenames
+ --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces
+ in filenames (default)
-w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite files
- -c, --continue Force resume of partially downloaded files.
- By default, youtube-dlc will resume
- downloads if possible.
+ -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files (default)
--no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded files
(restart from beginning)
+ --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
+ into output file (default)
--no-part Do not use .part files - write directly
into output file
+ --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the
+ file modification time
--no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
the file modification time
--write-description Write video description to a .description
file
+ --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
--write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
+ --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
--write-annotations Write video annotations to a
.annotations.xml file
+ --no-write-annotations Do not write video annotations (default)
--load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
(created with the "--write-info-json"
option)
--cookies FILE File to read cookies from and dump cookie
jar in
- --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-
- dlc can store some downloaded information
+ --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies (default)
+ --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
+ can store some downloaded information
permanently. By default
- $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dlc or
- ~/.cache/youtube-dlc . At the moment, only
+ $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl or
+ ~/.cache/youtube-dl . At the moment, only
YouTube player files (for videos with
obfuscated signatures) are cached, but that
may change.
## Thumbnail images:
--write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
+ --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk
--write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
--list-thumbnails Simulate and list all available thumbnail
formats
+
+## Internet Shortcut Options:
+ --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending on
+ the current platform (.url/.webloc/.desktop).
+ The URL may be cached by the OS.
+ --write-url-link Write a Windows .url internet shortcut file.
+ (The OS caches the URL based on the file path)
+ --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut file
+ --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut file
+
## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
-q, --quiet Activate quiet mode
--no-warnings Ignore warnings
playlist information in a single line.
--print-json Be quiet and print the video information as
JSON (video is still being downloaded).
+ --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
+ as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
+ another simulation switch is used.
+ (Same as --force-download-archive)
--newline Output progress bar as new lines
--no-progress Do not print progress bar
--console-title Display progress in console titlebar
files in the current directory to debug
problems
--print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
- -C, --call-home Contact the youtube-dlc server for
- debugging
- --no-call-home Do NOT contact the youtube-dlc server for
- debugging
+ -C, --call-home Contact the youtube-dlc server for debugging
+ --no-call-home Do not contact the youtube-dlc server for
+ debugging (default)
## Workarounds:
--encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
--no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
specified sort order, see "Sorting Formats"
for more details (default)
- --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged into a single file (default)
- --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each output file
- --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged into a single file (default)
- --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each output file
+ --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged into
+ a single file (default)
+ --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
+ output file
+ --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged into
+ a single file (default)
+ --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
+ output file
--all-formats Download all available video formats
--prefer-free-formats Prefer free video formats unless a specific
one is requested
-F, --list-formats List all available formats of requested
videos
+ --list-formats-as-table Present the output of -F in a more tabular form
+ --list-formats-old Present the output of -F in older form (default)
+ (Same as --no-list-formats-as-table)
--youtube-skip-dash-manifest Do not download the DASH manifests and
related data on YouTube videos
+ (Same as --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
+ --youtube-include-dash-manifest Download the DASH manifests and related data
+ on YouTube videos (default)
+ (Same as --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
--youtube-skip-hls-manifest Do not download the HLS manifests and
related data on YouTube videos
+ (Same as --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
+ --youtube-include-hls-manifest Download the HLS manifests and related data
+ on YouTube videos (default)
+ (Same as --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
--merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
## Subtitle Options:
--write-sub Write subtitle file
+ --no-write-sub Do not write subtitle file (default)
--write-auto-sub Write automatically generated subtitle file
(YouTube only)
+ --no-write-auto-sub Do not write automatically generated
+ subtitle file (default)
--all-subs Download all the available subtitles of the
video
--list-subs List all available subtitles for the video
necessary (currently supported:
mp4|flv|ogg|webm|mkv|avi)
--postprocessor-args ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessor
- -k, --keep-video Keep the video file on disk after the post-
- processing; the video is erased by default
- --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files; the
- post-processed files are overwritten by
- default
+ -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
+ after post-processing
+ --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
+ post-processing (default)
+ --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
+ --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
--embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
webm and mkv videos)
+ --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles in the video (default)
--embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
+ --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
--add-metadata Write metadata to the video file
+ --no-add-metadata Do not write metadata (default)
--metadata-from-title FORMAT Parse additional metadata like song title /
artist from the video title. The format
syntax is the same as --output. Regular
default; fix file if we can, warn
otherwise)
--prefer-avconv Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running the
- postprocessors
+ postprocessors (Same as --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
--prefer-ffmpeg Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running the
postprocessors (default)
+ (Same as --no-prefer-avconv)
--ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg/avconv binary;
either the path to the binary or its
containing directory.
--convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to other format
(currently supported: srt|ass|vtt|lrc)
+## SponSkrub Options (SponsorBlock)
+ --sponskrub Use sponskrub to mark sponsored sections with
+ the data available in SponsorBlock API. This
+ is enabled by default if the sponskrub binary
+ exists (Youtube only)
+ --sponskrub-cut Cut out the sponsor sections instead of
+ simply marking them
+ --no-sponskrub-cut Simply mark the sponsor sections, not cut
+ them out (default)
+ --sponskrub-force Allow cutting out the sponsor sections even
+ if the video was already downloaded.
+ --no-sponskrub-force Do not cut out the sponsor sections if the
+ video was already downloaded (default)
+ --sponskrub-location Location of the sponskrub binary;
+ either the path to the binary or its
+ containing directory
+ --sponskrub-args Give these arguments to sponskrub
+
## Extractor Options:
--ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
+ (Same as --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
+ --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
+ (Same as --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
# CONFIGURATION
# FORMAT SELECTION
-By default youtube-dlc tries to download the best available quality, i.e. if you want the best quality you **don't need** to pass any special options, youtube-dlc will guess it for you by **default**.
+By default, youtube-dlc tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
+This is generally equivalent to using `-f bestvideo+bestaudio/best`. However, if ffmpeg and avconv are unavailable, or if you use youtube-dlc to stream to `stdout` (`-o -`), the default becomes `-f best/bestvideo+bestaudio`.
-But sometimes you may want to download in a different format, for example when you are on a slow or intermittent connection. The key mechanism for achieving this is so-called *format selection* based on which you can explicitly specify desired format, select formats based on some criterion or criteria, setup precedence and much more.
-
-The general syntax for format selection is `--format FORMAT` or shorter `-f FORMAT` where `FORMAT` is a *selector expression*, i.e. an expression that describes format or formats you would like to download.
+The general syntax for format selection is `--f FORMAT` (or `--format FORMAT`) where `FORMAT` is a *selector expression*, i.e. an expression that describes format or formats you would like to download.
**tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
- `ba*`, `bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `best*[acodec!=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 recomended to never actually use `worst` and related options. 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 recomended to never actually 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 `-f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps` instead of `-f worst`. See [sorting formats](#sorting-formats) for more details.
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.
Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation `!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g. `!*=` (does not contain).
-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 video hoster.
+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 video hoster. 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.
- `br`, `bitrate`: Equivalent to using `tbr,vbr,abr`
- `samplerate`, `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
-All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in decending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+`. Eg: `+res` prefers the smallest resolution format. Additionally, you can suffix a prefered value for the fields, seperated 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 prefered 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` > `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.
+Note that any other **numerical** field made available by the extractor can also be used. All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in decending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+`. Eg: `+res` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a prefered value for the fields, seperated 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 prefered 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` > `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.
-The fields `has_video`, `extractor_preference`, `language_preference`, `quality` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using `--force-format-sort`. Apart from these, the default order used by youtube-dlc is: `tbr,filesize,vbr,height,width,protocol,vext,abr,aext,fps,filesize_approx,source_preference,format_id`. Note that the extractors may override this default order (currently no extractor does this), but not the user-provided order.
+The fields `has_video`, `extractor`, `lang`, `quality` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using `--force-format-sort`. Apart from these, the default order used by youtube-dlc is: `tbr,filesize,vbr,height,width,protocol,vext,abr,aext,fps,filesize_approx,source_preference,format_id`. Note that the extractors may override this default order, but not the user-provided order.
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 repects. 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`.
**Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
-## Default Format Selection
-
-Since the end of April 2015 and version 2015.04.26, youtube-dlc uses `-f bestvideo+bestaudio/best` as the default format selection (see [#5447](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/5447), [#5456](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/5456)). If ffmpeg or avconv are installed this results in downloading `bestvideo` and `bestaudio` separately and muxing them together into a single file giving the best overall quality available. Otherwise it falls back to `best` and results in downloading the best available quality served as a single file. `best` is also needed for videos that don't come from YouTube because they don't provide the audio and video in two different files. Note that if you use youtube-dlc to stream to `stdout` (and most likely to pipe it to your media player then), i.e. you explicitly specify output template as `-o -`, youtube-dlc still uses `-f best` format selection in order to start content delivery immediately to your player and not to wait until `bestvideo` and `bestaudio` are downloaded and muxed.
-
-If you want to preserve the old format selection behavior (prior to youtube-dlc 2015.04.26), i.e. you want to download the best available quality media served as a single file, you should explicitly specify your choice with `-f best`. You may want to add it to the [configuration file](#configuration) in order not to type it every time you run youtube-dlc.
-
## Format Selection examples
Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
-# VIDEO SELECTION
-
-Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options `--date`, `--datebefore` or `--dateafter`. They accept dates in two formats:
- - Absolute dates: Dates in the format `YYYYMMDD`.
- - Relative dates: Dates in the format `(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?`
-
-Examples:
-```bash
-# Download only the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
-$ youtube-dlc --dateafter now-6months
-
-# Download only the videos uploaded on January 1, 1970
-$ youtube-dlc --date 19700101
-
-$ # Download only the videos uploaded in the 200x decade
-$ youtube-dlc --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20091231
-```
+# MORE
+For FAQ, Developer Instructions etc., see the [original README](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl)
\ No newline at end of file
projects / yt-dlp.git / blobdiff