You can not select more than 25 topics Topics must start with a letter or number, can include dashes ('-') and can be up to 35 characters long.

1065 lines
73 KiB

13 years ago
9 years ago
13 years ago
9 years ago
10 years ago
  1. youtube-dl - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms
  2. - [INSTALLATION](#installation)
  3. - [DESCRIPTION](#description)
  4. - [OPTIONS](#options)
  5. - [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
  6. - [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
  7. - [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
  8. - [VIDEO SELECTION](#video-selection)
  9. - [FAQ](#faq)
  10. - [DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS](#developer-instructions)
  11. - [EMBEDDING YOUTUBE-DL](#embedding-youtube-dl)
  12. - [BUGS](#bugs)
  13. - [COPYRIGHT](#copyright)
  14. # INSTALLATION
  15. To install it right away for all UNIX users (Linux, OS X, etc.), type:
  16. sudo curl https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
  17. sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
  18. If you do not have curl, you can alternatively use a recent wget:
  19. sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
  20. sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
  21. Windows users can [download an .exe file](https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl.exe) and place it in any location on their [PATH](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PATH_%28variable%29) except for `%SYSTEMROOT%\System32` (e.g. **do not** put in `C:\Windows\System32`).
  22. OS X users can install **youtube-dl** with [Homebrew](http://brew.sh/).
  23. brew install youtube-dl
  24. You can also use pip:
  25. sudo pip install youtube-dl
  26. Alternatively, refer to the [developer instructions](#developer-instructions) for how to check out and work with the git repository. For further options, including PGP signatures, see the [youtube-dl Download Page](https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html).
  27. # DESCRIPTION
  28. **youtube-dl** is a small command-line program to download videos from
  29. YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version
  30. 2.6, 2.7, or 3.2+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on
  31. your Unix box, on Windows or on Mac OS X. It is released to the public domain,
  32. which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
  33. youtube-dl [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
  34. # OPTIONS
  35. -h, --help Print this help text and exit
  36. --version Print program version and exit
  37. -U, --update Update this program to latest version. Make
  38. sure that you have sufficient permissions
  39. (run with sudo if needed)
  40. -i, --ignore-errors Continue on download errors, for example to
  41. skip unavailable videos in a playlist
  42. --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos (in the
  43. playlist or the command line) if an error
  44. occurs
  45. --dump-user-agent Display the current browser identification
  46. --list-extractors List all supported extractors
  47. --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
  48. extractors
  49. --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic
  50. extractor
  51. --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
  52. example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
  53. from google videos for youtube-dl "large
  54. apple". Use the value "auto" to let
  55. youtube-dl guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
  56. warning when guessing). "error" just throws
  57. an error. The default value "fixup_error"
  58. repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
  59. this is not possible instead of searching.
  60. --ignore-config Do not read configuration files. When given
  61. in the global configuration file
  62. /etc/youtube-dl.conf: Do not read the user
  63. configuration in ~/.config/youtube-
  64. dl/config (%APPDATA%/youtube-dl/config.txt
  65. on Windows)
  66. --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
  67. only list them.
  68. --mark-watched Mark videos watched (YouTube only)
  69. --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (YouTube only)
  70. --no-color Do not emit color codes in output
  71. ## Network Options:
  72. --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy.
  73. To enable experimental SOCKS proxy, specify
  74. a proper scheme. For example
  75. socks5://127.0.0.1:1080/. Pass in an empty
  76. string (--proxy "") for direct connection
  77. --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
  78. --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
  79. (experimental)
  80. -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
  81. (experimental)
  82. -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
  83. (experimental)
  84. --cn-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
  85. some Chinese sites. The default proxy
  86. specified by --proxy (or none, if the
  87. options is not present) is used for the
  88. actual downloading. (experimental)
  89. ## Video Selection:
  90. --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is 1)
  91. --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
  92. --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify
  93. indices of the videos in the playlist
  94. separated by commas like: "--playlist-items
  95. 1,2,5,8" if you want to download videos
  96. indexed 1, 2, 5, 8 in the playlist. You can
  97. specify range: "--playlist-items
  98. 1-3,7,10-13", it will download the videos
  99. at index 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13.
  100. --match-title REGEX Download only matching titles (regex or
  101. caseless sub-string)
  102. --reject-title REGEX Skip download for matching titles (regex or
  103. caseless sub-string)
  104. --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
  105. --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
  106. SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
  107. --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
  108. (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
  109. --date DATE Download only videos uploaded in this date
  110. --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
  111. this date (i.e. inclusive)
  112. --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
  113. this date (i.e. inclusive)
  114. --min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less than
  115. COUNT views
  116. --max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than
  117. COUNT views
  118. --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter (experimental).
  119. Specify any key (see help for -o for a list
  120. of available keys) to match if the key is
  121. present, !key to check if the key is not
  122. present,key > NUMBER (like "comment_count >
  123. 12", also works with >=, <, <=, !=, =) to
  124. compare against a number, and & to require
  125. multiple matches. Values which are not
  126. known are excluded unless you put a
  127. question mark (?) after the operator.For
  128. example, to only match videos that have
  129. been liked more than 100 times and disliked
  130. less than 50 times (or the dislike
  131. functionality is not available at the given
  132. service), but who also have a description,
  133. use --match-filter "like_count > 100 &
  134. dislike_count <? 50 & description" .
  135. --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
  136. to a video and a playlist.
  137. --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
  138. a video and a playlist.
  139. --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
  140. age
  141. --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
  142. archive file. Record the IDs of all
  143. downloaded videos in it.
  144. --include-ads Download advertisements as well
  145. (experimental)
  146. ## Download Options:
  147. -r, --rate-limit LIMIT Maximum download rate in bytes per second
  148. (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
  149. -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
  150. "infinite".
  151. --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default
  152. is 10), or "infinite" (DASH only)
  153. --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
  154. (default is 1024)
  155. --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer
  156. size. By default, the buffer size is
  157. automatically resized from an initial value
  158. of SIZE.
  159. --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
  160. --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
  161. expected filesize (experimental)
  162. --hls-prefer-native Use the native HLS downloader instead of
  163. ffmpeg
  164. --hls-prefer-ffmpeg Use ffmpeg instead of the native HLS
  165. downloader
  166. --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos,
  167. allowing to play the video while
  168. downloading (some players may not be able
  169. to play it)
  170. --external-downloader COMMAND Use the specified external downloader.
  171. Currently supports
  172. aria2c,avconv,axel,curl,ffmpeg,httpie,wget
  173. --external-downloader-args ARGS Give these arguments to the external
  174. downloader
  175. ## Filesystem Options:
  176. -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ('-' for
  177. stdin)
  178. --id Use only video ID in file name
  179. -o, --output TEMPLATE Output filename template. Use %(title)s to
  180. get the title, %(uploader)s for the
  181. uploader name, %(uploader_id)s for the
  182. uploader nickname if different,
  183. %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
  184. incremented number, %(ext)s for the
  185. filename extension, %(format)s for the
  186. format description (like "22 - 1280x720" or
  187. "HD"), %(format_id)s for the unique id of
  188. the format (like YouTube's itags: "137"),
  189. %(upload_date)s for the upload date
  190. (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
  191. (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the
  192. video id, %(playlist_title)s,
  193. %(playlist_id)s, or %(playlist)s (=title if
  194. present, ID otherwise) for the playlist the
  195. video is in, %(playlist_index)s for the
  196. position in the playlist. %(height)s and
  197. %(width)s for the width and height of the
  198. video format. %(resolution)s for a textual
  199. description of the resolution of the video
  200. format. %% for a literal percent. Use - to
  201. output to stdout. Can also be used to
  202. download to a different directory, for
  203. example with -o '/my/downloads/%(uploader)s
  204. /%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
  205. --autonumber-size NUMBER Specify the number of digits in
  206. %(autonumber)s when it is present in output
  207. filename template or --auto-number option
  208. is given
  209. --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
  210. characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
  211. filenames
  212. -A, --auto-number [deprecated; use -o
  213. "%(autonumber)s-%(title)s.%(ext)s" ] Number
  214. downloaded files starting from 00000
  215. -t, --title [deprecated] Use title in file name
  216. (default)
  217. -l, --literal [deprecated] Alias of --title
  218. -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite files
  219. -c, --continue Force resume of partially downloaded files.
  220. By default, youtube-dl will resume
  221. downloads if possible.
  222. --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded files
  223. (restart from beginning)
  224. --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly
  225. into output file
  226. --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
  227. the file modification time
  228. --write-description Write video description to a .description
  229. file
  230. --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
  231. --write-annotations Write video annotations to a
  232. .annotations.xml file
  233. --load-info FILE JSON file containing the video information
  234. (created with the "--write-info-json"
  235. option)
  236. --cookies FILE File to read cookies from and dump cookie
  237. jar in
  238. --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
  239. can store some downloaded information
  240. permanently. By default
  241. $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl or
  242. ~/.cache/youtube-dl . At the moment, only
  243. YouTube player files (for videos with
  244. obfuscated signatures) are cached, but that
  245. may change.
  246. --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
  247. --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
  248. ## Thumbnail images:
  249. --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
  250. --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
  251. --list-thumbnails Simulate and list all available thumbnail
  252. formats
  253. ## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
  254. -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode
  255. --no-warnings Ignore warnings
  256. -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
  257. anything to disk
  258. --skip-download Do not download the video
  259. -g, --get-url Simulate, quiet but print URL
  260. -e, --get-title Simulate, quiet but print title
  261. --get-id Simulate, quiet but print id
  262. --get-thumbnail Simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
  263. --get-description Simulate, quiet but print video description
  264. --get-duration Simulate, quiet but print video length
  265. --get-filename Simulate, quiet but print output filename
  266. --get-format Simulate, quiet but print output format
  267. -j, --dump-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information.
  268. See --output for a description of available
  269. keys.
  270. -J, --dump-single-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information
  271. for each command-line argument. If the URL
  272. refers to a playlist, dump the whole
  273. playlist information in a single line.
  274. --print-json Be quiet and print the video information as
  275. JSON (video is still being downloaded).
  276. --newline Output progress bar as new lines
  277. --no-progress Do not print progress bar
  278. --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
  279. -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
  280. --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
  281. to debug problems (very verbose)
  282. --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
  283. files in the current directory to debug
  284. problems
  285. --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
  286. -C, --call-home Contact the youtube-dl server for debugging
  287. --no-call-home Do NOT contact the youtube-dl server for
  288. debugging
  289. ## Workarounds:
  290. --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
  291. --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
  292. --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
  293. information about the video. (Currently
  294. supported only for YouTube)
  295. --user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
  296. --referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the video
  297. access is restricted to one domain
  298. --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
  299. separated by a colon ':'. You can use this
  300. option multiple times
  301. --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
  302. bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
  303. or fribidi executable in PATH
  304. --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
  305. download.
  306. ## Video Format Options:
  307. -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see the "FORMAT
  308. SELECTION" for all the info
  309. --all-formats Download all available video formats
  310. --prefer-free-formats Prefer free video formats unless a specific
  311. one is requested
  312. -F, --list-formats List all available formats of requested
  313. videos
  314. --youtube-skip-dash-manifest Do not download the DASH manifests and
  315. related data on YouTube videos
  316. --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
  317. bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
  318. container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
  319. webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
  320. ## Subtitle Options:
  321. --write-sub Write subtitle file
  322. --write-auto-sub Write automatically generated subtitle file
  323. (YouTube only)
  324. --all-subs Download all the available subtitles of the
  325. video
  326. --list-subs List all available subtitles for the video
  327. --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats
  328. preference, for example: "srt" or
  329. "ass/srt/best"
  330. --sub-lang LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download
  331. (optional) separated by commas, use --list-
  332. subs for available language tags
  333. ## Authentication Options:
  334. -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
  335. -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
  336. out, youtube-dl will ask interactively.
  337. -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor auth code
  338. -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
  339. --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, smotri, youku)
  340. ## Post-processing Options:
  341. -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
  342. (requires ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or
  343. avprobe)
  344. --audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format: "best", "aac",
  345. "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", or "wav";
  346. "best" by default
  347. --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg/avconv audio quality, insert
  348. a value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse)
  349. for VBR or a specific bitrate like 128K
  350. (default 5)
  351. --recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if
  352. necessary (currently supported:
  353. mp4|flv|ogg|webm|mkv|avi)
  354. --postprocessor-args ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessor
  355. -k, --keep-video Keep the video file on disk after the post-
  356. processing; the video is erased by default
  357. --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files; the
  358. post-processed files are overwritten by
  359. default
  360. --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
  361. webm and mkv videos)
  362. --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
  363. --add-metadata Write metadata to the video file
  364. --metadata-from-title FORMAT Parse additional metadata like song title /
  365. artist from the video title. The format
  366. syntax is the same as --output, the parsed
  367. parameters replace existing values.
  368. Additional templates: %(album)s,
  369. %(artist)s. Example: --metadata-from-title
  370. "%(artist)s - %(title)s" matches a title
  371. like "Coldplay - Paradise"
  372. --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
  373. (using dublin core and xdg standards)
  374. --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
  375. file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
  376. emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
  377. default; fix file if we can, warn
  378. otherwise)
  379. --prefer-avconv Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running the
  380. postprocessors (default)
  381. --prefer-ffmpeg Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running the
  382. postprocessors
  383. --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg/avconv binary;
  384. either the path to the binary or its
  385. containing directory.
  386. --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
  387. downloading, similar to find's -exec
  388. syntax. Example: --exec 'adb push {}
  389. /sdcard/Music/ && rm {}'
  390. --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to other format
  391. (currently supported: srt|ass|vtt)
  392. # CONFIGURATION
  393. You can configure youtube-dl by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. On Linux and OS X, the system wide configuration file is located at `/etc/youtube-dl.conf` and the user wide configuration file at `~/.config/youtube-dl/config`. On Windows, the user wide configuration file locations are `%APPDATA%\youtube-dl\config.txt` or `C:\Users\<user name>\youtube-dl.conf`.
  394. For example, with the following configuration file youtube-dl will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under `Movies` directory in your home directory:
  395. ```
  396. -x
  397. --no-mtime
  398. --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
  399. -o ~/Movies/%(title)s.%(ext)s
  400. ```
  401. 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`.
  402. You can use `--ignore-config` if you want to disable the configuration file for a particular youtube-dl run.
  403. ### Authentication with `.netrc` file
  404. 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 youtube-dl execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in the shell command history. You can achieve this using a [`.netrc` file](http://stackoverflow.com/tags/.netrc/info) on per extractor basis. For that you will need to create a `.netrc` file in your `$HOME` and restrict permissions to read/write by you only:
  405. ```
  406. touch $HOME/.netrc
  407. chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
  408. ```
  409. After that you can add credentials for extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of extractor in lowercase:
  410. ```
  411. machine <extractor> login <login> password <password>
  412. ```
  413. For example:
  414. ```
  415. machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
  416. machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
  417. ```
  418. To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to youtube-dl or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
  419. On Windows you may also need to setup the `%HOME%` environment variable manually.
  420. # OUTPUT TEMPLATE
  421. The `-o` option allows users to indicate a template for the output file names.
  422. **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
  423. The basic usage is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in `youtube-dl -o funny_video.flv "http://some/video"`. However, it may contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences have the format `%(NAME)s`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by a lowercase S. Allowed names are:
  424. - `id`: Video identifier
  425. - `title`: Video title
  426. - `url`: Video URL
  427. - `ext`: Video filename extension
  428. - `alt_title`: A secondary title of the video
  429. - `display_id`: An alternative identifier for the video
  430. - `uploader`: Full name of the video uploader
  431. - `license`: License name the video is licensed under
  432. - `creator`: The creator of the video
  433. - `release_date`: The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released
  434. - `timestamp`: UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
  435. - `upload_date`: Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)
  436. - `uploader_id`: Nickname or id of the video uploader
  437. - `location`: Physical location where the video was filmed
  438. - `duration`: Length of the video in seconds
  439. - `view_count`: How many users have watched the video on the platform
  440. - `like_count`: Number of positive ratings of the video
  441. - `dislike_count`: Number of negative ratings of the video
  442. - `repost_count`: Number of reposts of the video
  443. - `average_rating`: Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
  444. - `comment_count`: Number of comments on the video
  445. - `age_limit`: Age restriction for the video (years)
  446. - `format`: A human-readable description of the format
  447. - `format_id`: Format code specified by `--format`
  448. - `format_note`: Additional info about the format
  449. - `width`: Width of the video
  450. - `height`: Height of the video
  451. - `resolution`: Textual description of width and height
  452. - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
  453. - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
  454. - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
  455. - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
  456. - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
  457. - `fps`: Frame rate
  458. - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
  459. - `container`: Name of the container format
  460. - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
  461. - `filesize_approx`: An estimate for the number of bytes
  462. - `protocol`: The protocol that will be used for the actual download
  463. - `extractor`: Name of the extractor
  464. - `extractor_key`: Key name of the extractor
  465. - `epoch`: Unix epoch when creating the file
  466. - `autonumber`: Five-digit number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero
  467. - `playlist`: Name or id of the playlist that contains the video
  468. - `playlist_index`: Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
  469. Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
  470. - `chapter`: Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
  471. - `chapter_number`: Number of the chapter the video belongs to
  472. - `chapter_id`: Id of the chapter the video belongs to
  473. Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
  474. - `series`: Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
  475. - `season`: Title of the season the video episode belongs to
  476. - `season_number`: Number of the season the video episode belongs to
  477. - `season_id`: Id of the season the video episode belongs to
  478. - `episode`: Title of the video episode
  479. - `episode_number`: Number of the video episode within a season
  480. - `episode_id`: Id of the video episode
  481. Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
  482. - `track`: Title of the track
  483. - `track_number`: Number of the track within an album or a disc
  484. - `track_id`: Id of the track
  485. - `artist`: Artist(s) of the track
  486. - `genre`: Genre(s) of the track
  487. - `album`: Title of the album the track belongs to
  488. - `album_type`: Type of the album
  489. - `album_artist`: List of all artists appeared on the album
  490. - `disc_number`: Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
  491. - `release_year`: Year (YYYY) when the album was released
  492. Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. Note that some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, such sequences will be replaced with `NA`.
  493. For example for `-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and mp4 video with title `youtube-dl test video` and id `BaW_jenozKcj` this will result in a `youtube-dl test video-BaW_jenozKcj.mp4` file created in the current directory.
  494. Output template can also contain arbitrary hierarchical path, e.g. `-o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s'` that will result in downloading each video in a directory corresponding to this path template. Any missing directory will be automatically created for you.
  495. To specify percent literal in output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
  496. The current default template is `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`.
  497. 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:
  498. #### Output template examples
  499. Note on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
  500. ```bash
  501. $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc
  502. youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
  503. $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
  504. youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
  505. # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
  506. $ youtube-dl -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
  507. # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
  508. $ youtube-dl -o '%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists
  509. # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
  510. $ youtube-dl -u user -p password -o '~/MyVideos/%(playlist)s/%(chapter_number)s - %(chapter)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.udemy.com/java-tutorial/
  511. # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
  512. $ youtube-dl -o "C:/MyVideos/%(series)s/%(season_number)s - %(season)s/%(episode_number)s - %(episode)s.%(ext)s" http://videomore.ru/kino_v_detalayah/5_sezon/367617
  513. # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
  514. $ youtube-dl -o - BaW_jenozKc
  515. ```
  516. # FORMAT SELECTION
  517. By default youtube-dl 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-dl will guess it for you by **default**.
  518. 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.
  519. 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.
  520. **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
  521. 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.
  522. You can also use a file extension (currently `3gp`, `aac`, `flv`, `m4a`, `mp3`, `mp4`, `ogg`, `wav`, `webm` are supported) to download best quality format of particular file extension served as a single file, e.g. `-f webm` will download best quality format with `webm` extension served as a single file.
  523. You can also use special names to select particular edge case format:
  524. - `best`: Select best quality format represented by single file with video and audio
  525. - `worst`: Select worst quality format represented by single file with video and audio
  526. - `bestvideo`: Select best quality video only format (e.g. DASH video), may not be available
  527. - `worstvideo`: Select worst quality video only format, may not be available
  528. - `bestaudio`: Select best quality audio only format, may not be available
  529. - `worstaudio`: Select worst quality audio only format, may not be available
  530. For example, to download worst quality video only format you can use `-f worstvideo`.
  531. 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 slash is left-associative, i.e. 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.
  532. If you want to download several formats of the same video use comma as a separator, e.g. `-f 22,17,18` will download all these three formats, of course if they are available. Or more sophisticated example combined with precedence feature `-f 136/137/mp4/bestvideo,140/m4a/bestaudio`.
  533. You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
  534. The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
  535. - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
  536. - `width`: Width of the video, if known
  537. - `height`: Height of the video, if known
  538. - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
  539. - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
  540. - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
  541. - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
  542. - `fps`: Frame rate
  543. Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals), `^=` (begins with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains) and following string meta fields:
  544. - `ext`: File extension
  545. - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
  546. - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
  547. - `container`: Name of the container format
  548. - `protocol`: The protocol that will be used for the actual download, lower-case. `http`, `https`, `rtsp`, `rtmp`, `rtmpe`, `m3u8`, or `m3u8_native`
  549. - `format_id`: A short description of the format
  550. 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 video hoster.
  551. 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.
  552. You can merge the video and audio of two formats into a single file using `-f <video-format>+<audio-format>` (requires ffmpeg or avconv installed), for example `-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download best video only format, best audio only format and mux them together with ffmpeg/avconv.
  553. Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses, for example if you want to download the best mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480 you can use `-f '(mp4,webm)[height<480]'`.
  554. Since the end of April 2015 and version 2015.04.26 youtube-dl uses `-f bestvideo+bestaudio/best` as default format selection (see [#5447](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/5447), [#5456](https://github.com/rg3/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. If you want to only download some DASH formats (for example if you are not interested in getting videos with a resolution higher than 1080p), you can add `-f bestvideo[height<=?1080]+bestaudio/best` to your configuration file. Note that if you use youtube-dl 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-dl 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.
  555. If you want to preserve the old format selection behavior (prior to youtube-dl 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-dl.
  556. #### Format selection examples
  557. Note on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
  558. ```bash
  559. # Download best mp4 format available or any other best if no mp4 available
  560. $ youtube-dl -f 'bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/best[ext=mp4]/best'
  561. # Download best format available but not better that 480p
  562. $ youtube-dl -f 'bestvideo[height<=480]+bestaudio/best[height<=480]'
  563. # Download best video only format but no bigger that 50 MB
  564. $ youtube-dl -f 'best[filesize<50M]'
  565. # Download best format available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol
  566. $ youtube-dl -f '(bestvideo+bestaudio/best)[protocol^=http]'
  567. ```
  568. # VIDEO SELECTION
  569. Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options `--date`, `--datebefore` or `--dateafter`. They accept dates in two formats:
  570. - Absolute dates: Dates in the format `YYYYMMDD`.
  571. - Relative dates: Dates in the format `(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?`
  572. Examples:
  573. ```bash
  574. # Download only the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
  575. $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-6months
  576. # Download only the videos uploaded on January 1, 1970
  577. $ youtube-dl --date 19700101
  578. $ # Download only the videos uploaded in the 200x decade
  579. $ youtube-dl --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20091231
  580. ```
  581. # FAQ
  582. ### How do I update youtube-dl?
  583. If you've followed [our manual installation instructions](http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html), you can simply run `youtube-dl -U` (or, on Linux, `sudo youtube-dl -U`).
  584. If you have used pip, a simple `sudo pip install -U youtube-dl` is sufficient to update.
  585. If you have installed youtube-dl using a package manager like *apt-get* or *yum*, use the standard system update mechanism to update. Note that distribution packages are often outdated. As a rule of thumb, youtube-dl releases at least once a month, and often weekly or even daily. Simply go to http://yt-dl.org/ to find out the current version. Unfortunately, there is nothing we youtube-dl developers can do if your distribution serves a really outdated version. You can (and should) complain to your distribution in their bugtracker or support forum.
  586. As a last resort, you can also uninstall the version installed by your package manager and follow our manual installation instructions. For that, remove the distribution's package, with a line like
  587. sudo apt-get remove -y youtube-dl
  588. Afterwards, simply follow [our manual installation instructions](http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html):
  589. ```
  590. sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
  591. sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
  592. hash -r
  593. ```
  594. Again, from then on you'll be able to update with `sudo youtube-dl -U`.
  595. ### youtube-dl is extremely slow to start on Windows
  596. Add a file exclusion for `youtube-dl.exe` in Windows Defender settings.
  597. ### I'm getting an error `Unable to extract OpenGraph title` on YouTube playlists
  598. YouTube changed their playlist format in March 2014 and later on, so you'll need at least youtube-dl 2014.07.25 to download all YouTube videos.
  599. If you have installed youtube-dl with a package manager, pip, setup.py or a tarball, please use that to update. Note that Ubuntu packages do not seem to get updated anymore. Since we are not affiliated with Ubuntu, there is little we can do. Feel free to [report bugs](https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/youtube-dl/+filebug) to the [Ubuntu packaging guys](mailto:ubuntu-motu@lists.ubuntu.com?subject=outdated%20version%20of%20youtube-dl) - all they have to do is update the package to a somewhat recent version. See above for a way to update.
  600. ### I'm getting an error when trying to use output template: `error: using output template conflicts with using title, video ID or auto number`
  601. Make sure you are not using `-o` with any of these options `-t`, `--title`, `--id`, `-A` or `--auto-number` set in command line or in a configuration file. Remove the latter if any.
  602. ### Do I always have to pass `-citw`?
  603. By default, youtube-dl intends to have the best options (incidentally, if you have a convincing case that these should be different, [please file an issue where you explain that](https://yt-dl.org/bug)). Therefore, it is unnecessary and sometimes harmful to copy long option strings from webpages. In particular, the only option out of `-citw` that is regularly useful is `-i`.
  604. ### Can you please put the `-b` option back?
  605. Most people asking this question are not aware that youtube-dl now defaults to downloading the highest available quality as reported by YouTube, which will be 1080p or 720p in some cases, so you no longer need the `-b` option. For some specific videos, maybe YouTube does not report them to be available in a specific high quality format you're interested in. In that case, simply request it with the `-f` option and youtube-dl will try to download it.
  606. ### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
  607. Apparently YouTube requires you to pass a CAPTCHA test if you download too much. We're [considering to provide a way to let you solve the CAPTCHA](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/154), but at the moment, your best course of action is pointing a webbrowser to the youtube URL, solving the CAPTCHA, and restart youtube-dl.
  608. ### Do I need any other programs?
  609. youtube-dl works fine on its own on most sites. However, if you want to convert video/audio, you'll need [avconv](https://libav.org/) or [ffmpeg](https://www.ffmpeg.org/). On some sites - most notably YouTube - videos can be retrieved in a higher quality format without sound. youtube-dl will detect whether avconv/ffmpeg is present and automatically pick the best option.
  610. Videos or video formats streamed via RTMP protocol can only be downloaded when [rtmpdump](https://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu/) is installed. Downloading MMS and RTSP videos requires either [mplayer](http://mplayerhq.hu/) or [mpv](https://mpv.io/) to be installed.
  611. ### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
  612. Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as [mpv](https://mpv.io/), [vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or [mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
  613. ### I extracted a video URL with `-g`, but it does not play on another machine / in my webbrowser.
  614. It depends a lot on the service. In many cases, requests for the video (to download/play it) must come from the same IP address and with the same cookies. Use the `--cookies` option to write the required cookies into a file, and advise your downloader to read cookies from that file. Some sites also require a common user agent to be used, use `--dump-user-agent` to see the one in use by youtube-dl.
  615. It may be beneficial to use IPv6; in some cases, the restrictions are only applied to IPv4. Some services (sometimes only for a subset of videos) do not restrict the video URL by IP address, cookie, or user-agent, but these are the exception rather than the rule.
  616. Please bear in mind that some URL protocols are **not** supported by browsers out of the box, including RTMP. If you are using `-g`, your own downloader must support these as well.
  617. If you want to play the video on a machine that is not running youtube-dl, you can relay the video content from the machine that runs youtube-dl. You can use `-o -` to let youtube-dl stream a video to stdout, or simply allow the player to download the files written by youtube-dl in turn.
  618. ### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
  619. YouTube has switched to a new video info format in July 2011 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. See [above](#how-do-i-update-youtube-dl) for how to update youtube-dl.
  620. ### ERROR: unable to download video
  621. YouTube requires an additional signature since September 2012 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. See [above](#how-do-i-update-youtube-dl) for how to update youtube-dl.
  622. ### Video URL contains an ampersand and I'm getting some strange output `[1] 2839` or `'v' is not recognized as an internal or external command`
  623. That's actually the output from your shell. Since ampersand is one of the special shell characters it's interpreted by the shell preventing you from passing the whole URL to youtube-dl. To disable your shell from interpreting the ampersands (or any other special characters) you have to either put the whole URL in quotes or escape them with a backslash (which approach will work depends on your shell).
  624. For example if your URL is https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc you should end up with following command:
  625. ```youtube-dl 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc'```
  626. or
  627. ```youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4\&v=BaW_jenozKc```
  628. For Windows you have to use the double quotes:
  629. ```youtube-dl "https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc"```
  630. ### ExtractorError: Could not find JS function u'OF'
  631. In February 2015, the new YouTube player contained a character sequence in a string that was misinterpreted by old versions of youtube-dl. See [above](#how-do-i-update-youtube-dl) for how to update youtube-dl.
  632. ### HTTP Error 429: Too Many Requests or 402: Payment Required
  633. These two error codes indicate that the service is blocking your IP address because of overuse. Contact the service and ask them to unblock your IP address, or - if you have acquired a whitelisted IP address already - use the [`--proxy` or `--source-address` options](#network-options) to select another IP address.
  634. ### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character
  635. The error
  636. File "youtube-dl", line 2
  637. SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\x93' ...
  638. means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python 2.6 or 2.7.
  639. ### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
  640. Since June 2012 ([#342](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/342)) youtube-dl is packed as an executable zipfile, simply unzip it (might need renaming to `youtube-dl.zip` first on some systems) or clone the git repository, as laid out above. If you modify the code, you can run it by executing the `__main__.py` file. To recompile the executable, run `make youtube-dl`.
  641. ### The exe throws an error due to missing `MSVCR100.dll`
  642. To run the exe you need to install first the [Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x86)](https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/download/details.aspx?id=5555).
  643. ### On Windows, how should I set up ffmpeg and youtube-dl? Where should I put the exe files?
  644. If you put youtube-dl and ffmpeg in the same directory that you're running the command from, it will work, but that's rather cumbersome.
  645. To make a different directory work - either for ffmpeg, or for youtube-dl, or for both - simply create the directory (say, `C:\bin`, or `C:\Users\<User name>\bin`), put all the executables directly in there, and then [set your PATH environment variable](https://www.java.com/en/download/help/path.xml) to include that directory.
  646. From then on, after restarting your shell, you will be able to access both youtube-dl and ffmpeg (and youtube-dl will be able to find ffmpeg) by simply typing `youtube-dl` or `ffmpeg`, no matter what directory you're in.
  647. ### How do I put downloads into a specific folder?
  648. Use the `-o` to specify an [output template](#output-template), for example `-o "/home/user/videos/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"`. If you want this for all of your downloads, put the option into your [configuration file](#configuration).
  649. ### How do I download a video starting with a `-`?
  650. Either prepend `http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=` or separate the ID from the options with `--`:
  651. youtube-dl -- -wNyEUrxzFU
  652. youtube-dl "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wNyEUrxzFU"
  653. ### How do I pass cookies to youtube-dl?
  654. Use the `--cookies` option, for example `--cookies /path/to/cookies/file.txt`. Note that the cookies file must be in Mozilla/Netscape format and the first line of the cookies file must be either `# HTTP Cookie File` or `# Netscape HTTP Cookie File`. Make sure you have correct [newline format](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newline) in the cookies file and convert newlines if necessary to correspond with your OS, namely `CRLF` (`\r\n`) for Windows, `LF` (`\n`) for Linux and `CR` (`\r`) for Mac OS. `HTTP Error 400: Bad Request` when using `--cookies` is a good sign of invalid newline format.
  655. Passing cookies to youtube-dl is a good way to workaround login when a particular extractor does not implement it explicitly. Another use case is working around [CAPTCHA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAPTCHA) some websites require you to solve in particular cases in order to get access (e.g. YouTube, CloudFlare).
  656. ### Can you add support for this anime video site, or site which shows current movies for free?
  657. As a matter of policy (as well as legality), youtube-dl does not include support for services that specialize in infringing copyright. As a rule of thumb, if you cannot easily find a video that the service is quite obviously allowed to distribute (i.e. that has been uploaded by the creator, the creator's distributor, or is published under a free license), the service is probably unfit for inclusion to youtube-dl.
  658. A note on the service that they don't host the infringing content, but just link to those who do, is evidence that the service should **not** be included into youtube-dl. The same goes for any DMCA note when the whole front page of the service is filled with videos they are not allowed to distribute. A "fair use" note is equally unconvincing if the service shows copyright-protected videos in full without authorization.
  659. Support requests for services that **do** purchase the rights to distribute their content are perfectly fine though. If in doubt, you can simply include a source that mentions the legitimate purchase of content.
  660. ### How can I speed up work on my issue?
  661. (Also known as: Help, my important issue not being solved!) The youtube-dl core developer team is quite small. While we do our best to solve as many issues as possible, sometimes that can take quite a while. To speed up your issue, here's what you can do:
  662. First of all, please do report the issue [at our issue tracker](https://yt-dl.org/bugs). That allows us to coordinate all efforts by users and developers, and serves as a unified point. Unfortunately, the youtube-dl project has grown too large to use personal email as an effective communication channel.
  663. Please read the [bug reporting instructions](#bugs) below. A lot of bugs lack all the necessary information. If you can, offer proxy, VPN, or shell access to the youtube-dl developers. If you are able to, test the issue from multiple computers in multiple countries to exclude local censorship or misconfiguration issues.
  664. If nobody is interested in solving your issue, you are welcome to take matters into your own hands and submit a pull request (or coerce/pay somebody else to do so).
  665. Feel free to bump the issue from time to time by writing a small comment ("Issue is still present in youtube-dl version ...from France, but fixed from Belgium"), but please not more than once a month. Please do not declare your issue as `important` or `urgent`.
  666. ### How can I detect whether a given URL is supported by youtube-dl?
  667. For one, have a look at the [list of supported sites](docs/supportedsites.md). Note that it can sometimes happen that the site changes its URL scheme (say, from http://example.com/video/1234567 to http://example.com/v/1234567 ) and youtube-dl reports an URL of a service in that list as unsupported. In that case, simply report a bug.
  668. It is *not* possible to detect whether a URL is supported or not. That's because youtube-dl contains a generic extractor which matches **all** URLs. You may be tempted to disable, exclude, or remove the generic extractor, but the generic extractor not only allows users to extract videos from lots of websites that embed a video from another service, but may also be used to extract video from a service that it's hosting itself. Therefore, we neither recommend nor support disabling, excluding, or removing the generic extractor.
  669. If you want to find out whether a given URL is supported, simply call youtube-dl with it. If you get no videos back, chances are the URL is either not referring to a video or unsupported. You can find out which by examining the output (if you run youtube-dl on the console) or catching an `UnsupportedError` exception if you run it from a Python program.
  670. # DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS
  671. Most users do not need to build youtube-dl and can [download the builds](http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html) or get them from their distribution.
  672. To run youtube-dl as a developer, you don't need to build anything either. Simply execute
  673. python -m youtube_dl
  674. To run the test, simply invoke your favorite test runner, or execute a test file directly; any of the following work:
  675. python -m unittest discover
  676. python test/test_download.py
  677. nosetests
  678. If you want to create a build of youtube-dl yourself, you'll need
  679. * python
  680. * make (both GNU make and BSD make are supported)
  681. * pandoc
  682. * zip
  683. * nosetests
  684. ### Adding support for a new site
  685. If you want to add support for a new site, first of all **make sure** this site is **not dedicated to [copyright infringement](#can-you-add-support-for-this-anime-video-site-or-site-which-shows-current-movies-for-free)**. youtube-dl does **not support** such sites thus pull requests adding support for them **will be rejected**.
  686. After you have ensured this site is distributing it's content legally, you can follow this quick list (assuming your service is called `yourextractor`):
  687. 1. [Fork this repository](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/fork)
  688. 2. Check out the source code with `git clone git@github.com:YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/youtube-dl.git`
  689. 3. Start a new git branch with `cd youtube-dl; git checkout -b yourextractor`
  690. 4. Start with this simple template and save it to `youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py`:
  691. ```python
  692. # coding: utf-8
  693. from __future__ import unicode_literals
  694. from .common import InfoExtractor
  695. class YourExtractorIE(InfoExtractor):
  696. _VALID_URL = r'https?://(?:www\.)?yourextractor\.com/watch/(?P<id>[0-9]+)'
  697. _TEST = {
  698. 'url': 'http://yourextractor.com/watch/42',
  699. 'md5': 'TODO: md5 sum of the first 10241 bytes of the video file (use --test)',
  700. 'info_dict': {
  701. 'id': '42',
  702. 'ext': 'mp4',
  703. 'title': 'Video title goes here',
  704. 'thumbnail': 're:^https?://.*\.jpg$',
  705. # TODO more properties, either as:
  706. # * A value
  707. # * MD5 checksum; start the string with md5:
  708. # * A regular expression; start the string with re:
  709. # * Any Python type (for example int or float)
  710. }
  711. }
  712. def _real_extract(self, url):
  713. video_id = self._match_id(url)
  714. webpage = self._download_webpage(url, video_id)
  715. # TODO more code goes here, for example ...
  716. title = self._html_search_regex(r'<h1>(.+?)</h1>', webpage, 'title')
  717. return {
  718. 'id': video_id,
  719. 'title': title,
  720. 'description': self._og_search_description(webpage),
  721. 'uploader': self._search_regex(r'<div[^>]+id="uploader"[^>]*>([^<]+)<', webpage, 'uploader', fatal=False),
  722. # TODO more properties (see youtube_dl/extractor/common.py)
  723. }
  724. ```
  725. 5. Add an import in [`youtube_dl/extractor/extractors.py`](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/extractors.py).
  726. 6. Run `python test/test_download.py TestDownload.test_YourExtractor`. This *should fail* at first, but you can continually re-run it until you're done. If you decide to add more than one test, then rename ``_TEST`` to ``_TESTS`` and make it into a list of dictionaries. The tests will then be named `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor`, `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_1`, `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_2`, etc.
  727. 7. Have a look at [`youtube_dl/extractor/common.py`](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py) for possible helper methods and a [detailed description of what your extractor should and may return](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/58525c94d547be1c8167d16c298bdd75506db328/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py#L68-L226). Add tests and code for as many as you want.
  728. 8. Keep in mind that the only mandatory fields in info dict for successful extraction process are `id`, `title` and either `url` or `formats`, i.e. these are the critical data the extraction does not make any sense without. This means that [any field](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/58525c94d547be1c8167d16c298bdd75506db328/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py#L138-L226) apart from aforementioned mandatory ones should be treated **as optional** and extraction should be **tolerate** to situations when sources for these fields can potentially be unavailable (even if they always available at the moment) and **future-proof** in order not to break the extraction of general purpose mandatory fields. For example, if you have some intermediate dict `meta` that is a source of metadata and it has a key `summary` that you want to extract and put into resulting info dict as `description`, you should be ready that this key may be missing from the `meta` dict, i.e. you should extract it as `meta.get('summary')` and not `meta['summary']`. Similarly, you should pass `fatal=False` when extracting data from a webpage with `_search_regex/_html_search_regex`.
  729. 9. Check the code with [flake8](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/flake8).
  730. 10. When the tests pass, [add](http://git-scm.com/docs/git-add) the new files and [commit](http://git-scm.com/docs/git-commit) them and [push](http://git-scm.com/docs/git-push) the result, like this:
  731. $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/extractors.py
  732. $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py
  733. $ git commit -m '[yourextractor] Add new extractor'
  734. $ git push origin yourextractor
  735. 11. Finally, [create a pull request](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-pull-request). We'll then review and merge it.
  736. In any case, thank you very much for your contributions!
  737. # EMBEDDING YOUTUBE-DL
  738. youtube-dl makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language. If you encounter any problems parsing its output, feel free to [create a report](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/new).
  739. From a Python program, you can embed youtube-dl in a more powerful fashion, like this:
  740. ```python
  741. from __future__ import unicode_literals
  742. import youtube_dl
  743. ydl_opts = {}
  744. with youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
  745. ydl.download(['http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
  746. ```
  747. Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of what can be done, have a look at [`youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py`](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py#L121-L269). For a start, if you want to intercept youtube-dl's output, set a `logger` object.
  748. Here's a more complete example of a program that outputs only errors (and a short message after the download is finished), and downloads/converts the video to an mp3 file:
  749. ```python
  750. from __future__ import unicode_literals
  751. import youtube_dl
  752. class MyLogger(object):
  753. def debug(self, msg):
  754. pass
  755. def warning(self, msg):
  756. pass
  757. def error(self, msg):
  758. print(msg)
  759. def my_hook(d):
  760. if d['status'] == 'finished':
  761. print('Done downloading, now converting ...')
  762. ydl_opts = {
  763. 'format': 'bestaudio/best',
  764. 'postprocessors': [{
  765. 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
  766. 'preferredcodec': 'mp3',
  767. 'preferredquality': '192',
  768. }],
  769. 'logger': MyLogger(),
  770. 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
  771. }
  772. with youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
  773. ydl.download(['http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
  774. ```
  775. # BUGS
  776. Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: <https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues>. Unless you were prompted so or there is another pertinent reason (e.g. GitHub fails to accept the bug report), please do not send bug reports via personal email. For discussions, join us in the IRC channel [#youtube-dl](irc://chat.freenode.net/#youtube-dl) on freenode ([webchat](http://webchat.freenode.net/?randomnick=1&channels=youtube-dl)).
  777. **Please include the full output of youtube-dl when run with `-v`**, i.e. **add** `-v` flag to **your command line**, copy the **whole** output and post it in the issue body wrapped in \`\`\` for better formatting. It should look similar to this:
  778. ```
  779. $ youtube-dl -v <your command line>
  780. [debug] System config: []
  781. [debug] User config: []
  782. [debug] Command-line args: [u'-v', u'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKcj']
  783. [debug] Encodings: locale cp1251, fs mbcs, out cp866, pref cp1251
  784. [debug] youtube-dl version 2015.12.06
  785. [debug] Git HEAD: 135392e
  786. [debug] Python version 2.6.6 - Windows-2003Server-5.2.3790-SP2
  787. [debug] exe versions: ffmpeg N-75573-g1d0487f, ffprobe N-75573-g1d0487f, rtmpdump 2.4
  788. [debug] Proxy map: {}
  789. ...
  790. ```
  791. **Do not post screenshots of verbose log only plain text is acceptable.**
  792. The output (including the first lines) contains important debugging information. Issues without the full output are often not reproducible and therefore do not get solved in short order, if ever.
  793. Please re-read your issue once again to avoid a couple of common mistakes (you can and should use this as a checklist):
  794. ### Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?
  795. We often get issue reports that we cannot really decipher. While in most cases we eventually get the required information after asking back multiple times, this poses an unnecessary drain on our resources. Many contributors, including myself, are also not native speakers, so we may misread some parts.
  796. So please elaborate on what feature you are requesting, or what bug you want to be fixed. Make sure that it's obvious
  797. - What the problem is
  798. - How it could be fixed
  799. - How your proposed solution would look like
  800. If your report is shorter than two lines, it is almost certainly missing some of these, which makes it hard for us to respond to it. We're often too polite to close the issue outright, but the missing info makes misinterpretation likely. As a committer myself, I often get frustrated by these issues, since the only possible way for me to move forward on them is to ask for clarification over and over.
  801. For bug reports, this means that your report should contain the *complete* output of youtube-dl when called with the `-v` flag. The error message you get for (most) bugs even says so, but you would not believe how many of our bug reports do not contain this information.
  802. If your server has multiple IPs or you suspect censorship, adding `--call-home` may be a good idea to get more diagnostics. If the error is `ERROR: Unable to extract ...` and you cannot reproduce it from multiple countries, add `--dump-pages` (warning: this will yield a rather large output, redirect it to the file `log.txt` by adding `>log.txt 2>&1` to your command-line) or upload the `.dump` files you get when you add `--write-pages` [somewhere](https://gist.github.com/).
  803. **Site support requests must contain an example URL**. An example URL is a URL you might want to download, like `http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc`. There should be an obvious video present. Except under very special circumstances, the main page of a video service (e.g. `http://www.youtube.com/`) is *not* an example URL.
  804. ### Are you using the latest version?
  805. Before reporting any issue, type `youtube-dl -U`. This should report that you're up-to-date. About 20% of the reports we receive are already fixed, but people are using outdated versions. This goes for feature requests as well.
  806. ### Is the issue already documented?
  807. Make sure that someone has not already opened the issue you're trying to open. Search at the top of the window or browse the [GitHub Issues](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/search?type=Issues) of this repository. If there is an issue, feel free to write something along the lines of "This affects me as well, with version 2015.01.01. Here is some more information on the issue: ...". While some issues may be old, a new post into them often spurs rapid activity.
  808. ### Why are existing options not enough?
  809. Before requesting a new feature, please have a quick peek at [the list of supported options](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/README.md#synopsis). Many feature requests are for features that actually exist already! Please, absolutely do show off your work in the issue report and detail how the existing similar options do *not* solve your problem.
  810. ### Is there enough context in your bug report?
  811. People want to solve problems, and often think they do us a favor by breaking down their larger problems (e.g. wanting to skip already downloaded files) to a specific request (e.g. requesting us to look whether the file exists before downloading the info page). However, what often happens is that they break down the problem into two steps: One simple, and one impossible (or extremely complicated one).
  812. We are then presented with a very complicated request when the original problem could be solved far easier, e.g. by recording the downloaded video IDs in a separate file. To avoid this, you must include the greater context where it is non-obvious. In particular, every feature request that does not consist of adding support for a new site should contain a use case scenario that explains in what situation the missing feature would be useful.
  813. ### Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?
  814. Some of our users seem to think there is a limit of issues they can or should open. There is no limit of issues they can or should open. While it may seem appealing to be able to dump all your issues into one ticket, that means that someone who solves one of your issues cannot mark the issue as closed. Typically, reporting a bunch of issues leads to the ticket lingering since nobody wants to attack that behemoth, until someone mercifully splits the issue into multiple ones.
  815. In particular, every site support request issue should only pertain to services at one site (generally under a common domain, but always using the same backend technology). Do not request support for vimeo user videos, Whitehouse podcasts, and Google Plus pages in the same issue. Also, make sure that you don't post bug reports alongside feature requests. As a rule of thumb, a feature request does not include outputs of youtube-dl that are not immediately related to the feature at hand. Do not post reports of a network error alongside the request for a new video service.
  816. ### Is anyone going to need the feature?
  817. Only post features that you (or an incapacitated friend you can personally talk to) require. Do not post features because they seem like a good idea. If they are really useful, they will be requested by someone who requires them.
  818. ### Is your question about youtube-dl?
  819. It may sound strange, but some bug reports we receive are completely unrelated to youtube-dl and relate to a different or even the reporter's own application. Please make sure that you are actually using youtube-dl. If you are using a UI for youtube-dl, report the bug to the maintainer of the actual application providing the UI. On the other hand, if your UI for youtube-dl fails in some way you believe is related to youtube-dl, by all means, go ahead and report the bug.
  820. # COPYRIGHT
  821. youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
  822. This README file was originally written by [Daniel Bolton](https://github.com/dbbolton) and is likewise released into the public domain.