1 [](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/actions?query=workflow%3ACI)
2
3
4 youtube-dl - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms
5
6 - [INSTALLATION](#installation)
7 - [DESCRIPTION](#description)
8 - [OPTIONS](#options)
9 - [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
10 - [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
11 - [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
12 - [VIDEO SELECTION](#video-selection)
13 - [FAQ](#faq)
14 - [DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS](#developer-instructions)
15 - [EMBEDDING YOUTUBE-DL](#embedding-youtube-dl)
16 - [BUGS](#bugs)
17 - [COPYRIGHT](#copyright)
18
19 # INSTALLATION
20
21 To install it right away for all UNIX users (Linux, macOS, etc.), type:
22
23 sudo curl -L https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
24 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
25
26 If you do not have curl, you can alternatively use a recent wget:
27
28 sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
29 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
30
31 Windows users can [download an .exe file](https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl.exe) and place it in any location on their [PATH](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PATH_%28variable%29) except for `%SYSTEMROOT%\System32` (e.g. **do not** put in `C:\Windows\System32`).
32
33 You can also use pip:
34
35 sudo -H pip install --upgrade youtube-dl
36
37 This command will update youtube-dl if you have already installed it. See the [pypi page](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/youtube_dl) for more information.
38
39 macOS users can install youtube-dl with [Homebrew](https://brew.sh/):
40
41 brew install youtube-dl
42
43 Or with [MacPorts](https://www.macports.org/):
44
45 sudo port install youtube-dl
46
47 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://ytdl-org.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html).
48
49 # DESCRIPTION
50 **youtube-dl** 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.
51
52 youtube-dl [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
53
54 # OPTIONS
55 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
56 --version Print program version and exit
57 -U, --update Update this program to latest version.
58 Make sure that you have sufficient
59 permissions (run with sudo if needed)
60 -i, --ignore-errors Continue on download errors, for
61 example to skip unavailable videos in a
62 playlist
63 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos (in
64 the playlist or the command line) if an
65 error occurs
66 --dump-user-agent Display the current browser
67 identification
68 --list-extractors List all supported extractors
69 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
70 extractors
71 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic
72 extractor
73 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs.
74 For example "gvsearch2:" downloads two
75 videos from google videos for youtube-
76 dl "large apple". Use the value "auto"
77 to let youtube-dl guess ("auto_warning"
78 to emit a warning when guessing).
79 "error" just throws an error. The
80 default value "fixup_error" repairs
81 broken URLs, but emits an error if this
82 is not possible instead of searching.
83 --ignore-config Do not read configuration files. When
84 given in the global configuration file
85 /etc/youtube-dl.conf: Do not read the
86 user configuration in
87 ~/.config/youtube-dl/config
88 (%APPDATA%/youtube-dl/config.txt on
89 Windows)
90 --config-location PATH Location of the configuration file;
91 either the path to the config or its
92 containing directory.
93 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a
94 playlist, only list them.
95 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (YouTube only)
96 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (YouTube
97 only)
98 --no-color Do not emit color codes in output
99
100 ## Network Options:
101 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS
102 proxy. To enable SOCKS proxy, specify a
103 proper scheme. For example
104 socks5://127.0.0.1:1080/. Pass in an
105 empty string (--proxy "") for direct
106 connection
107 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in
108 seconds
109 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
110 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
111 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
112
113 ## Geo Restriction:
114 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address
115 for some geo-restricted sites. The
116 default proxy specified by --proxy (or
117 none, if the option is not present) is
118 used for the actual downloading.
119 --geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via
120 faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
121 --no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction
122 via faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
123 --geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction
124 with explicitly provided two-letter ISO
125 3166-2 country code
126 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction
127 with explicitly provided IP block in
128 CIDR notation
129
130 ## Video Selection:
131 --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is
132 1)
133 --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is
134 last)
135 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download.
136 Specify indices of the videos in the
137 playlist separated by commas like: "--
138 playlist-items 1,2,5,8" if you want to
139 download videos indexed 1, 2, 5, 8 in
140 the playlist. You can specify range: "
141 --playlist-items 1-3,7,10-13", it will
142 download the videos at index 1, 2, 3,
143 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13.
144 --match-title REGEX Download only matching titles (regex or
145 caseless sub-string)
146 --reject-title REGEX Skip download for matching titles
147 (regex or caseless sub-string)
148 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
149 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
150 SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
151 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than
152 SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
153 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded in this
154 date
155 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or
156 before this date (i.e. inclusive)
157 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or
158 after this date (i.e. inclusive)
159 --min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less
160 than COUNT views
161 --max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more
162 than COUNT views
163 --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Specify any key
164 (see the "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a list
165 of available keys) to match if the key
166 is present, !key to check if the key is
167 not present, key > NUMBER (like
168 "comment_count > 12", also works with
169 >=, <, <=, !=, =) to compare against a
170 number, key = 'LITERAL' (like "uploader
171 = 'Mike Smith'", also works with !=) to
172 match against a string literal and & to
173 require multiple matches. Values which
174 are not known are excluded unless you
175 put a question mark (?) after the
176 operator. For example, to only match
177 videos that have been liked more than
178 100 times and disliked less than 50
179 times (or the dislike functionality is
180 not available at the given service),
181 but who also have a description, use
182 --match-filter "like_count > 100 &
183 dislike_count <? 50 & description" .
184 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL
185 refers to a video and a playlist.
186 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL
187 refers to a video and a playlist.
188 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the
189 given age
190 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
191 archive file. Record the IDs of all
192 downloaded videos in it.
193 --include-ads Download advertisements as well
194 (experimental)
195
196 ## Download Options:
197 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per
198 second (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
199 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
200 "infinite".
201 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment
202 (default is 10), or "infinite" (DASH,
203 hlsnative and ISM)
204 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments (DASH,
205 hlsnative and ISM)
206 --abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading when some fragment is
207 not available
208 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
209 downloading is finished; fragments are
210 erased by default
211 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or
212 16K) (default is 1024)
213 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer
214 size. By default, the buffer size is
215 automatically resized from an initial
216 value of SIZE.
217 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
218 downloading (e.g. 10485760 or 10M)
219 (default is disabled). May be useful
220 for bypassing bandwidth throttling
221 imposed by a webserver (experimental)
222 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse
223 order
224 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random
225 order
226 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
227 expected file size
228 --hls-prefer-native Use the native HLS downloader instead
229 of ffmpeg
230 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg Use ffmpeg instead of the native HLS
231 downloader
232 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS
233 videos, allowing to play the video
234 while downloading (some players may not
235 be able to play it)
236 --external-downloader COMMAND Use the specified external downloader.
237 Currently supports aria2c,avconv,axel,c
238 url,ffmpeg,httpie,wget
239 --external-downloader-args ARGS Give these arguments to the external
240 downloader
241
242 ## Filesystem Options:
243 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ('-'
244 for stdin), one URL per line. Lines
245 starting with '#', ';' or ']' are
246 considered as comments and ignored.
247 --id Use only video ID in file name
248 -o, --output TEMPLATE Output filename template, see the
249 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for all the info
250 --output-na-placeholder PLACEHOLDER Placeholder value for unavailable meta
251 fields in output filename template
252 (default is "NA")
253 --autonumber-start NUMBER Specify the start value for
254 %(autonumber)s (default is 1)
255 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
256 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
257 filenames
258 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite files
259 -c, --continue Force resume of partially downloaded
260 files. By default, youtube-dl will
261 resume downloads if possible.
262 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
263 files (restart from beginning)
264 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly
265 into output file
266 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to
267 set the file modification time
268 --write-description Write video description to a
269 .description file
270 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json
271 file
272 --write-annotations Write video annotations to a
273 .annotations.xml file
274 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video
275 information (created with the "--write-
276 info-json" option)
277 --cookies FILE File to read cookies from and dump
278 cookie jar in
279 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where
280 youtube-dl can store some downloaded
281 information permanently. By default
282 $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl or
283 ~/.cache/youtube-dl . At the moment,
284 only YouTube player files (for videos
285 with obfuscated signatures) are cached,
286 but that may change.
287 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
288 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
289
290 ## Thumbnail Options:
291 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
292 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to
293 disk
294 --list-thumbnails Simulate and list all available
295 thumbnail formats
296
297 ## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
298 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode
299 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
300 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not
301 write anything to disk
302 --skip-download Do not download the video
303 -g, --get-url Simulate, quiet but print URL
304 -e, --get-title Simulate, quiet but print title
305 --get-id Simulate, quiet but print id
306 --get-thumbnail Simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
307 --get-description Simulate, quiet but print video
308 description
309 --get-duration Simulate, quiet but print video length
310 --get-filename Simulate, quiet but print output
311 filename
312 --get-format Simulate, quiet but print output format
313 -j, --dump-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON
314 information. See the "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
315 for a description of available keys.
316 -J, --dump-single-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON
317 information for each command-line
318 argument. If the URL refers to a
319 playlist, dump the whole playlist
320 information in a single line.
321 --print-json Be quiet and print the video
322 information as JSON (video is still
323 being downloaded).
324 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
325 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
326 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
327 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
328 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using
329 base64 to debug problems (very verbose)
330 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
331 files in the current directory to debug
332 problems
333 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
334 -C, --call-home Contact the youtube-dl server for
335 debugging
336 --no-call-home Do NOT contact the youtube-dl server
337 for debugging
338
339 ## Workarounds:
340 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding
341 (experimental)
342 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
343 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to
344 retrieve information about the video.
345 (Currently supported only for YouTube)
346 --user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
347 --referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the
348 video access is restricted to one
349 domain
350 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its
351 value, separated by a colon ':'. You
352 can use this option multiple times
353 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
354 bidirectional text support. Requires
355 bidiv or fribidi executable in PATH
356 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
357 download when used alone or a lower
358 bound of a range for randomized sleep
359 before each download (minimum possible
360 number of seconds to sleep) when used
361 along with --max-sleep-interval.
362 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Upper bound of a range for randomized
363 sleep before each download (maximum
364 possible number of seconds to sleep).
365 Must only be used along with --min-
366 sleep-interval.
367
368 ## Video Format Options:
369 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see the "FORMAT
370 SELECTION" for all the info
371 --all-formats Download all available video formats
372 --prefer-free-formats Prefer free video formats unless a
373 specific one is requested
374 -F, --list-formats List all available formats of requested
375 videos
376 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest Do not download the DASH manifests and
377 related data on YouTube videos
378 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
379 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
380 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
381 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is
382 required
383
384 ## Subtitle Options:
385 --write-sub Write subtitle file
386 --write-auto-sub Write automatically generated subtitle
387 file (YouTube only)
388 --all-subs Download all the available subtitles of
389 the video
390 --list-subs List all available subtitles for the
391 video
392 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats
393 preference, for example: "srt" or
394 "ass/srt/best"
395 --sub-lang LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download
396 (optional) separated by commas, use
397 --list-subs for available language tags
398
399 ## Authentication Options:
400 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
401 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is
402 left out, youtube-dl will ask
403 interactively.
404 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
405 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
406 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
407
408 ## Adobe Pass Options:
409 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
410 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso
411 for a list of available MSOs
412 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
413 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account
414 password. If this option is left out,
415 youtube-dl will ask interactively.
416 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system
417 operators
418
419 ## Post-processing Options:
420 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
421 (requires ffmpeg/avconv and
422 ffprobe/avprobe)
423 --audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format: "best", "aac",
424 "flac", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", "vorbis",
425 or "wav"; "best" by default; No effect
426 without -x
427 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg/avconv audio quality,
428 insert a value between 0 (better) and 9
429 (worse) for VBR or a specific bitrate
430 like 128K (default 5)
431 --recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if
432 necessary (currently supported:
433 mp4|flv|ogg|webm|mkv|avi)
434 --postprocessor-args ARGS Give these arguments to the
435 postprocessor
436 -k, --keep-video Keep the video file on disk after the
437 post-processing; the video is erased by
438 default
439 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files;
440 the post-processed files are
441 overwritten by default
442 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for
443 mp4, webm and mkv videos)
444 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the audio as cover
445 art
446 --add-metadata Write metadata to the video file
447 --metadata-from-title FORMAT Parse additional metadata like song
448 title / artist from the video title.
449 The format syntax is the same as
450 --output. Regular expression with named
451 capture groups may also be used. The
452 parsed parameters replace existing
453 values. Example: --metadata-from-title
454 "%(artist)s - %(title)s" matches a
455 title like "Coldplay - Paradise".
456 Example (regex): --metadata-from-title
457 "(?P<artist>.+?) - (?P<title>.+)"
458 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's
459 xattrs (using dublin core and xdg
460 standards)
461 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of
462 the file. One of never (do nothing),
463 warn (only emit a warning),
464 detect_or_warn (the default; fix file
465 if we can, warn otherwise)
466 --prefer-avconv Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running
467 the postprocessors
468 --prefer-ffmpeg Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running
469 the postprocessors (default)
470 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg/avconv binary;
471 either the path to the binary or its
472 containing directory.
473 --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
474 downloading and post-processing,
475 similar to find's -exec syntax.
476 Example: --exec 'adb push {}
477 /sdcard/Music/ && rm {}'
478 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to other format
479 (currently supported: srt|ass|vtt|lrc)
480
481 # CONFIGURATION
482
483 You can configure youtube-dl by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. On Linux and macOS, 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`. Note that by default configuration file may not exist so you may need to create it yourself.
484
485 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:
486 ```
487 # Lines starting with # are comments
488
489 # Always extract audio
490 -x
491
492 # Do not copy the mtime
493 --no-mtime
494
495 # Use this proxy
496 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
497
498 # Save all videos under Movies directory in your home directory
499 -o ~/Movies/%(title)s.%(ext)s
500 ```
501
502 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`.
503
504 You can use `--ignore-config` if you want to disable the configuration file for a particular youtube-dl run.
505
506 You can also use `--config-location` if you want to use custom configuration file for a particular youtube-dl run.
507
508 ### Authentication with `.netrc` file
509
510 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](https://stackoverflow.com/tags/.netrc/info) on a per extractor basis. For that you will need to create a `.netrc` file in your `$HOME` and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:
511 ```
512 touch $HOME/.netrc
513 chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
514 ```
515 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
516 ```
517 machine <extractor> login <login> password <password>
518 ```
519 For example:
520 ```
521 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
522 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
523 ```
524 To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to youtube-dl or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
525
526 On Windows you may also need to setup the `%HOME%` environment variable manually. For example:
527 ```
528 set HOME=%USERPROFILE%
529 ```
530
531 # OUTPUT TEMPLATE
532
533 The `-o` option allows users to indicate a template for the output file names.
534
535 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
536
537 The basic usage is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in `youtube-dl -o funny_video.flv "https://some/video"`. However, it may contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences may be formatted according to [python string formatting operations](https://docs.python.org/2/library/stdtypes.html#string-formatting). For example, `%(NAME)s` or `%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations. Allowed names along with sequence type are:
538
539 - `id` (string): Video identifier
540 - `title` (string): Video title
541 - `url` (string): Video URL
542 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
543 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
544 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
545 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
546 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
547 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
548 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released
549 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
550 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)
551 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
552 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
553 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
554 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
555 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
556 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
557 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
558 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
559 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
560 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
561 - `comment_count` (numeric): Number of comments on the video
562 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
563 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
564 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
565 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
566 - `format` (string): A human-readable description of the format
567 - `format_id` (string): Format code specified by `--format`
568 - `format_note` (string): Additional info about the format
569 - `width` (numeric): Width of the video
570 - `height` (numeric): Height of the video
571 - `resolution` (string): Textual description of width and height
572 - `tbr` (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
573 - `abr` (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
574 - `acodec` (string): Name of the audio codec in use
575 - `asr` (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
576 - `vbr` (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
577 - `fps` (numeric): Frame rate
578 - `vcodec` (string): Name of the video codec in use
579 - `container` (string): Name of the container format
580 - `filesize` (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
581 - `filesize_approx` (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
582 - `protocol` (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual download
583 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
584 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
585 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch when creating the file
586 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`
587 - `playlist` (string): Name or id of the playlist that contains the video
588 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
589 - `playlist_id` (string): Playlist identifier
590 - `playlist_title` (string): Playlist title
591 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
592 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
593
594 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
595
596 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
597 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
598 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
599
600 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
601
602 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
603 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
604 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
605 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
606 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
607 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
608 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
609
610 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
611
612 - `track` (string): Title of the track
613 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
614 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
615 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
616 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
617 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
618 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
619 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
620 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
621 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
622
623 Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an 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 a particular extractor. Such sequences will be replaced with placeholder value provided with `--output-na-placeholder` (`NA` by default).
624
625 For example for `-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an 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.
626
627 For numeric sequences you can use numeric related formatting, for example, `%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to 5 characters, like in `00042`.
628
629 Output templates can also contain arbitrary hierarchical path, e.g. `-o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s'` which will result in downloading each video in a directory corresponding to this path template. Any missing directory will be automatically created for you.
630
631 To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
632
633 The current default template is `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`.
634
635 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:
636
637 #### Output template and Windows batch files
638
639 If you are using an output template inside a Windows batch file then you must escape plain percent characters (`%`) by doubling, so that `-o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"` should become `-o "%%(title)s-%%(id)s.%%(ext)s"`. However you should not touch `%`'s that are not plain characters, e.g. environment variables for expansion should stay intact: `-o "C:\%HOMEPATH%\Desktop\%%(title)s.%%(ext)s"`.
640
641 #### Output template examples
642
643 Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
644
645 ```bash
646 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc
647 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
648
649 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
650 youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
651
652 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
653 $ youtube-dl -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
654
655 # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
656 $ youtube-dl -o '%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists
657
658 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
659 $ 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/
660
661 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
662 $ youtube-dl -o "C:/MyVideos/%(series)s/%(season_number)s - %(season)s/%(episode_number)s - %(episode)s.%(ext)s" https://videomore.ru/kino_v_detalayah/5_sezon/367617
663
664 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
665 $ youtube-dl -o - BaW_jenozKc
666 ```
667
668 # FORMAT SELECTION
669
670 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**.
671
672 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.
673
674 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.
675
676 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
677
678 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.
679
680 You can also use a file extension (currently `3gp`, `aac`, `flv`, `m4a`, `mp3`, `mp4`, `ogg`, `wav`, `webm` are supported) to download the best quality format of a particular file extension served as a single file, e.g. `-f webm` will download the best quality format with the `webm` extension served as a single file.
681
682 You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
683
684 - `best`: Select the best quality format represented by a single file with video and audio.
685 - `worst`: Select the worst quality format represented by a single file with video and audio.
686 - `bestvideo`: Select the best quality video-only format (e.g. DASH video). May not be available.
687 - `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. May not be available.
688 - `bestaudio`: Select the best quality audio only-format. May not be available.
689 - `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio only-format. May not be available.
690
691 For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use `-f worstvideo`.
692
693 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.
694
695 If you want to download several formats of the same video use a comma as a separator, e.g. `-f 22,17,18` will download all these three formats, of course if they are available. Or a more sophisticated example combined with the precedence feature: `-f 136/137/mp4/bestvideo,140/m4a/bestaudio`.
696
697 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
698
699 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
700
701 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
702 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
703 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
704 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
705 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
706 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
707 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
708 - `fps`: Frame rate
709
710 Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains) and following string meta fields:
711
712 - `ext`: File extension
713 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
714 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
715 - `container`: Name of the container format
716 - `protocol`: The protocol that will be used for the actual download, lower-case (`http`, `https`, `rtsp`, `rtmp`, `rtmpe`, `mms`, `f4m`, `ism`, `http_dash_segments`, `m3u8`, or `m3u8_native`)
717 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
718 - `language`: Language code
719
720 Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation `!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g. `!*=` (does not contain).
721
722 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.
723
724 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.
725
726 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 the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg/avconv.
727
728 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]'`.
729
730 Since the end of April 2015 and version 2015.04.26, youtube-dl 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. 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.
731
732 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.
733
734 #### Format selection examples
735
736 Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
737
738 ```bash
739 # Download best mp4 format available or any other best if no mp4 available
740 $ youtube-dl -f 'bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/best[ext=mp4]/best'
741
742 # Download best format available but no better than 480p
743 $ youtube-dl -f 'bestvideo[height<=480]+bestaudio/best[height<=480]'
744
745 # Download best video only format but no bigger than 50 MB
746 $ youtube-dl -f 'best[filesize<50M]'
747
748 # Download best format available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol
749 $ youtube-dl -f '(bestvideo+bestaudio/best)[protocol^=http]'
750
751 # Download the best video format and the best audio format without merging them
752 $ youtube-dl -f 'bestvideo,bestaudio' -o '%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s'
753 ```
754 Note that in the last example, an output template is recommended as bestvideo and bestaudio may have the same file name.
755
756
757 # VIDEO SELECTION
758
759 Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options `--date`, `--datebefore` or `--dateafter`. They accept dates in two formats:
760
761 - Absolute dates: Dates in the format `YYYYMMDD`.
762 - Relative dates: Dates in the format `(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?`
763
764 Examples:
765
766 ```bash
767 # Download only the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
768 $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-6months
769
770 # Download only the videos uploaded on January 1, 1970
771 $ youtube-dl --date 19700101
772
773 $ # Download only the videos uploaded in the 200x decade
774 $ youtube-dl --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20091231
775 ```
776
777 # FAQ
778
779 ### How do I update youtube-dl?
780
781 If you've followed [our manual installation instructions](https://ytdl-org.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html), you can simply run `youtube-dl -U` (or, on Linux, `sudo youtube-dl -U`).
782
783 If you have used pip, a simple `sudo pip install -U youtube-dl` is sufficient to update.
784
785 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 https://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.
786
787 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
788
789 sudo apt-get remove -y youtube-dl
790
791 Afterwards, simply follow [our manual installation instructions](https://ytdl-org.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html):
792
793 ```
794 sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
795 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
796 hash -r
797 ```
798
799 Again, from then on you'll be able to update with `sudo youtube-dl -U`.
800
801 ### youtube-dl is extremely slow to start on Windows
802
803 Add a file exclusion for `youtube-dl.exe` in Windows Defender settings.
804
805 ### I'm getting an error `Unable to extract OpenGraph title` on YouTube playlists
806
807 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.
808
809 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 people](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.
810
811 ### I'm getting an error when trying to use output template: `error: using output template conflicts with using title, video ID or auto number`
812
813 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.
814
815 ### Do I always have to pass `-citw`?
816
817 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`.
818
819 ### Can you please put the `-b` option back?
820
821 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.
822
823 ### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
824
825 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/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/154), but at the moment, your best course of action is pointing a web browser to the youtube URL, solving the CAPTCHA, and restart youtube-dl.
826
827 ### Do I need any other programs?
828
829 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.
830
831 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](https://mplayerhq.hu/) or [mpv](https://mpv.io/) to be installed.
832
833 ### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
834
835 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as [mpv](https://mpv.io/), [vlc](https://www.videolan.org/) or [mplayer](https://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
836
837 ### I extracted a video URL with `-g`, but it does not play on another machine / in my web browser.
838
839 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 and/or HTTP headers. 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. You can also get necessary cookies and HTTP headers from JSON output obtained with `--dump-json`.
840
841 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.
842
843 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.
844
845 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.
846
847 ### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
848
849 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.
850
851 ### ERROR: unable to download video
852
853 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.
854
855 ### 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`
856
857 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).
858
859 For example if your URL is https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc you should end up with following command:
860
861 ```youtube-dl 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc'```
862
863 or
864
865 ```youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4\&v=BaW_jenozKc```
866
867 For Windows you have to use the double quotes:
868
869 ```youtube-dl "https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc"```
870
871 ### ExtractorError: Could not find JS function u'OF'
872
873 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.
874
875 ### HTTP Error 429: Too Many Requests or 402: Payment Required
876
877 These two error codes indicate that the service is blocking your IP address because of overuse. Usually this is a soft block meaning that you can gain access again after solving CAPTCHA. Just open a browser and solve a CAPTCHA the service suggests you and after that [pass cookies](#how-do-i-pass-cookies-to-youtube-dl) to youtube-dl. Note that if your machine has multiple external IPs then you should also pass exactly the same IP you've used for solving CAPTCHA with [`--source-address`](#network-options). Also you may need to pass a `User-Agent` HTTP header of your browser with [`--user-agent`](#workarounds).
878
879 If this is not the case (no CAPTCHA suggested to solve by the service) then you can 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.
880
881 ### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character
882
883 The error
884
885 File "youtube-dl", line 2
886 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\x93' ...
887
888 means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python 2.6 or 2.7.
889
890 ### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
891
892 Since June 2012 ([#342](https://github.com/ytdl-org/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`.
893
894 ### The exe throws an error due to missing `MSVCR100.dll`
895
896 To run the exe you need to install first the [Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Service Pack 1 Redistributable Package (x86)](https://download.microsoft.com/download/1/6/5/165255E7-1014-4D0A-B094-B6A430A6BFFC/vcredist_x86.exe).
897
898 ### On Windows, how should I set up ffmpeg and youtube-dl? Where should I put the exe files?
899
900 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.
901
902 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.
903
904 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.
905
906 ### How do I put downloads into a specific folder?
907
908 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).
909
910 ### How do I download a video starting with a `-`?
911
912 Either prepend `https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=` or separate the ID from the options with `--`:
913
914 youtube-dl -- -wNyEUrxzFU
915 youtube-dl "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wNyEUrxzFU"
916
917 ### How do I pass cookies to youtube-dl?
918
919 Use the `--cookies` option, for example `--cookies /path/to/cookies/file.txt`.
920
921 In order to extract cookies from browser use any conforming browser extension for exporting cookies. For example, [Get cookies.txt](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/get-cookiestxt/bgaddhkoddajcdgocldbbfleckgcbcid/) (for Chrome) or [cookies.txt](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cookies-txt/) (for Firefox).
922
923 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 and `LF` (`\n`) for Unix and Unix-like systems (Linux, macOS, etc.). `HTTP Error 400: Bad Request` when using `--cookies` is a good sign of invalid newline format.
924
925 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).
926
927 ### How do I stream directly to media player?
928
929 You will first need to tell youtube-dl to stream media to stdout with `-o -`, and also tell your media player to read from stdin (it must be capable of this for streaming) and then pipe former to latter. For example, streaming to [vlc](https://www.videolan.org/) can be achieved with:
930
931 youtube-dl -o - "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKcj" | vlc -
932
933 ### How do I download only new videos from a playlist?
934
935 Use download-archive feature. With this feature you should initially download the complete playlist with `--download-archive /path/to/download/archive/file.txt` that will record identifiers of all the videos in a special file. Each subsequent run with the same `--download-archive` will download only new videos and skip all videos that have been downloaded before. Note that only successful downloads are recorded in the file.
936
937 For example, at first,
938
939 youtube-dl --download-archive archive.txt "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
940
941 will download the complete `PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re` playlist and create a file `archive.txt`. Each subsequent run will only download new videos if any:
942
943 youtube-dl --download-archive archive.txt "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
944
945 ### Should I add `--hls-prefer-native` into my config?
946
947 When youtube-dl detects an HLS video, it can download it either with the built-in downloader or ffmpeg. Since many HLS streams are slightly invalid and ffmpeg/youtube-dl each handle some invalid cases better than the other, there is an option to switch the downloader if needed.
948
949 When youtube-dl knows that one particular downloader works better for a given website, that downloader will be picked. Otherwise, youtube-dl will pick the best downloader for general compatibility, which at the moment happens to be ffmpeg. This choice may change in future versions of youtube-dl, with improvements of the built-in downloader and/or ffmpeg.
950
951 In particular, the generic extractor (used when your website is not in the [list of supported sites by youtube-dl](https://ytdl-org.github.io/youtube-dl/supportedsites.html) cannot mandate one specific downloader.
952
953 If you put either `--hls-prefer-native` or `--hls-prefer-ffmpeg` into your configuration, a different subset of videos will fail to download correctly. Instead, it is much better to [file an issue](https://yt-dl.org/bug) or a pull request which details why the native or the ffmpeg HLS downloader is a better choice for your use case.
954
955 ### Can you add support for this anime video site, or site which shows current movies for free?
956
957 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.
958
959 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.
960
961 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.
962
963 ### How can I speed up work on my issue?
964
965 (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:
966
967 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.
968
969 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.
970
971 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).
972
973 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`.
974
975 ### How can I detect whether a given URL is supported by youtube-dl?
976
977 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 https://example.com/video/1234567 to https://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.
978
979 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.
980
981 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.
982
983 # Why do I need to go through that much red tape when filing bugs?
984
985 Before we had the issue template, despite our extensive [bug reporting instructions](#bugs), about 80% of the issue reports we got were useless, for instance because people used ancient versions hundreds of releases old, because of simple syntactic errors (not in youtube-dl but in general shell usage), because the problem was already reported multiple times before, because people did not actually read an error message, even if it said "please install ffmpeg", because people did not mention the URL they were trying to download and many more simple, easy-to-avoid problems, many of whom were totally unrelated to youtube-dl.
986
987 youtube-dl is an open-source project manned by too few volunteers, so we'd rather spend time fixing bugs where we are certain none of those simple problems apply, and where we can be reasonably confident to be able to reproduce the issue without asking the reporter repeatedly. As such, the output of `youtube-dl -v YOUR_URL_HERE` is really all that's required to file an issue. The issue template also guides you through some basic steps you can do, such as checking that your version of youtube-dl is current.
988
989 # DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS
990
991 Most users do not need to build youtube-dl and can [download the builds](https://ytdl-org.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html) or get them from their distribution.
992
993 To run youtube-dl as a developer, you don't need to build anything either. Simply execute
994
995 python -m youtube_dl
996
997 To run the test, simply invoke your favorite test runner, or execute a test file directly; any of the following work:
998
999 python -m unittest discover
1000 python test/test_download.py
1001 nosetests
1002
1003 See item 6 of [new extractor tutorial](#adding-support-for-a-new-site) for how to run extractor specific test cases.
1004
1005 If you want to create a build of youtube-dl yourself, you'll need
1006
1007 * python
1008 * make (only GNU make is supported)
1009 * pandoc
1010 * zip
1011 * nosetests
1012
1013 ### Adding support for a new site
1014
1015 If you want to add support for a new site, first of all **make sure** this site is **not dedicated to [copyright infringement](README.md#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**.
1016
1017 After you have ensured this site is distributing its content legally, you can follow this quick list (assuming your service is called `yourextractor`):
1018
1019 1. [Fork this repository](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/fork)
1020 2. Check out the source code with:
1021
1022 git clone git@github.com:YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/youtube-dl.git
1023
1024 3. Start a new git branch with
1025
1026 cd youtube-dl
1027 git checkout -b yourextractor
1028
1029 4. Start with this simple template and save it to `youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py`:
1030
1031 ```python
1032 # coding: utf-8
1033 from __future__ import unicode_literals
1034
1035 from .common import InfoExtractor
1036
1037
1038 class YourExtractorIE(InfoExtractor):
1039 _VALID_URL = r'https?://(?:www\.)?yourextractor\.com/watch/(?P<id>[0-9]+)'
1040 _TEST = {
1041 'url': 'https://yourextractor.com/watch/42',
1042 'md5': 'TODO: md5 sum of the first 10241 bytes of the video file (use --test)',
1043 'info_dict': {
1044 'id': '42',
1045 'ext': 'mp4',
1046 'title': 'Video title goes here',
1047 'thumbnail': r're:^https?://.*\.jpg$',
1048 # TODO more properties, either as:
1049 # * A value
1050 # * MD5 checksum; start the string with md5:
1051 # * A regular expression; start the string with re:
1052 # * Any Python type (for example int or float)
1053 }
1054 }
1055
1056 def _real_extract(self, url):
1057 video_id = self._match_id(url)
1058 webpage = self._download_webpage(url, video_id)
1059
1060 # TODO more code goes here, for example ...
1061 title = self._html_search_regex(r'<h1>(.+?)</h1>', webpage, 'title')
1062
1063 return {
1064 'id': video_id,
1065 'title': title,
1066 'description': self._og_search_description(webpage),
1067 'uploader': self._search_regex(r'<div[^>]+id="uploader"[^>]*>([^<]+)<', webpage, 'uploader', fatal=False),
1068 # TODO more properties (see youtube_dl/extractor/common.py)
1069 }
1070 ```
1071 5. Add an import in [`youtube_dl/extractor/extractors.py`](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/extractors.py).
1072 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 (actually, test case) 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. Note:
1073 * the test names use the extractor class name **without the trailing `IE`**
1074 * tests with `only_matching` key in test's dict are not counted.
1075 8. Have a look at [`youtube_dl/extractor/common.py`](https://github.com/ytdl-org/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/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/blob/7f41a598b3fba1bcab2817de64a08941200aa3c8/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py#L94-L303). Add tests and code for as many as you want.
1076 9. Make sure your code follows [youtube-dl coding conventions](#youtube-dl-coding-conventions) and check the code with [flake8](https://flake8.pycqa.org/en/latest/index.html#quickstart):
1077
1078 $ flake8 youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py
1079
1080 9. Make sure your code works under all [Python](https://www.python.org/) versions claimed supported by youtube-dl, namely 2.6, 2.7, and 3.2+.
1081 10. When the tests pass, [add](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-add) the new files and [commit](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-commit) them and [push](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-push) the result, like this:
1082
1083 $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/extractors.py
1084 $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py
1085 $ git commit -m '[yourextractor] Add new extractor'
1086 $ git push origin yourextractor
1087
1088 11. Finally, [create a pull request](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-pull-request). We'll then review and merge it.
1089
1090 In any case, thank you very much for your contributions!
1091
1092 ## youtube-dl coding conventions
1093
1094 This section introduces a guide lines for writing idiomatic, robust and future-proof extractor code.
1095
1096 Extractors are very fragile by nature since they depend on the layout of the source data provided by 3rd party media hosters out of your control and this layout tends to change. As an extractor implementer your task is not only to write code that will extract media links and metadata correctly but also to minimize dependency on the source's layout and even to make the code foresee potential future changes and be ready for that. This is important because it will allow the extractor not to break on minor layout changes thus keeping old youtube-dl versions working. Even though this breakage issue is easily fixed by emitting a new version of youtube-dl with a fix incorporated, all the previous versions become broken in all repositories and distros' packages that may not be so prompt in fetching the update from us. Needless to say, some non rolling release distros may never receive an update at all.
1097
1098 ### Mandatory and optional metafields
1099
1100 For extraction to work youtube-dl relies on metadata your extractor extracts and provides to youtube-dl expressed by an [information dictionary](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/blob/7f41a598b3fba1bcab2817de64a08941200aa3c8/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py#L94-L303) or simply *info dict*. Only the following meta fields in the *info dict* are considered mandatory for a successful extraction process by youtube-dl:
1101
1102 - `id` (media identifier)
1103 - `title` (media title)
1104 - `url` (media download URL) or `formats`
1105
1106 In fact only the last option is technically mandatory (i.e. if you can't figure out the download location of the media the extraction does not make any sense). But by convention youtube-dl also treats `id` and `title` as mandatory. Thus the aforementioned metafields are the critical data that the extraction does not make any sense without and if any of them fail to be extracted then the extractor is considered completely broken.
1107
1108 [Any field](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/blob/7f41a598b3fba1bcab2817de64a08941200aa3c8/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py#L188-L303) apart from the aforementioned ones are considered **optional**. That means that extraction should be **tolerant** to situations when sources for these fields can potentially be unavailable (even if they are always available at the moment) and **future-proof** in order not to break the extraction of general purpose mandatory fields.
1109
1110 #### Example
1111
1112 Say you have some source dictionary `meta` that you've fetched as JSON with HTTP request and it has a key `summary`:
1113
1114 ```python
1115 meta = self._download_json(url, video_id)
1116 ```
1117
1118 Assume at this point `meta`'s layout is:
1119
1120 ```python
1121 {
1122 ...
1123 "summary": "some fancy summary text",
1124 ...
1125 }
1126 ```
1127
1128 Assume you want to extract `summary` and put it into the resulting info dict as `description`. Since `description` is an optional meta field you should be ready that this key may be missing from the `meta` dict, so that you should extract it like:
1129
1130 ```python
1131 description = meta.get('summary') # correct
1132 ```
1133
1134 and not like:
1135
1136 ```python
1137 description = meta['summary'] # incorrect
1138 ```
1139
1140 The latter will break extraction process with `KeyError` if `summary` disappears from `meta` at some later time but with the former approach extraction will just go ahead with `description` set to `None` which is perfectly fine (remember `None` is equivalent to the absence of data).
1141
1142 Similarly, you should pass `fatal=False` when extracting optional data from a webpage with `_search_regex`, `_html_search_regex` or similar methods, for instance:
1143
1144 ```python
1145 description = self._search_regex(
1146 r'<span[^>]+id="title"[^>]*>([^<]+)<',
1147 webpage, 'description', fatal=False)
1148 ```
1149
1150 With `fatal` set to `False` if `_search_regex` fails to extract `description` it will emit a warning and continue extraction.
1151
1152 You can also pass `default=<some fallback value>`, for example:
1153
1154 ```python
1155 description = self._search_regex(
1156 r'<span[^>]+id="title"[^>]*>([^<]+)<',
1157 webpage, 'description', default=None)
1158 ```
1159
1160 On failure this code will silently continue the extraction with `description` set to `None`. That is useful for metafields that may or may not be present.
1161
1162 ### Provide fallbacks
1163
1164 When extracting metadata try to do so from multiple sources. For example if `title` is present in several places, try extracting from at least some of them. This makes it more future-proof in case some of the sources become unavailable.
1165
1166 #### Example
1167
1168 Say `meta` from the previous example has a `title` and you are about to extract it. Since `title` is a mandatory meta field you should end up with something like:
1169
1170 ```python
1171 title = meta['title']
1172 ```
1173
1174 If `title` disappears from `meta` in future due to some changes on the hoster's side the extraction would fail since `title` is mandatory. That's expected.
1175
1176 Assume that you have some another source you can extract `title` from, for example `og:title` HTML meta of a `webpage`. In this case you can provide a fallback scenario:
1177
1178 ```python
1179 title = meta.get('title') or self._og_search_title(webpage)
1180 ```
1181
1182 This code will try to extract from `meta` first and if it fails it will try extracting `og:title` from a `webpage`.
1183
1184 ### Regular expressions
1185
1186 #### Don't capture groups you don't use
1187
1188 Capturing group must be an indication that it's used somewhere in the code. Any group that is not used must be non capturing.
1189
1190 ##### Example
1191
1192 Don't capture id attribute name here since you can't use it for anything anyway.
1193
1194 Correct:
1195
1196 ```python
1197 r'(?:id|ID)=(?P<id>\d+)'
1198 ```
1199
1200 Incorrect:
1201 ```python
1202 r'(id|ID)=(?P<id>\d+)'
1203 ```
1204
1205
1206 #### Make regular expressions relaxed and flexible
1207
1208 When using regular expressions try to write them fuzzy, relaxed and flexible, skipping insignificant parts that are more likely to change, allowing both single and double quotes for quoted values and so on.
1209
1210 ##### Example
1211
1212 Say you need to extract `title` from the following HTML code:
1213
1214 ```html
1215 <span style="position: absolute; left: 910px; width: 90px; float: right; z-index: 9999;" class="title">some fancy title</span>
1216 ```
1217
1218 The code for that task should look similar to:
1219
1220 ```python
1221 title = self._search_regex(
1222 r'<span[^>]+class="title"[^>]*>([^<]+)', webpage, 'title')
1223 ```
1224
1225 Or even better:
1226
1227 ```python
1228 title = self._search_regex(
1229 r'<span[^>]+class=(["\'])title\1[^>]*>(?P<title>[^<]+)',
1230 webpage, 'title', group='title')
1231 ```
1232
1233 Note how you tolerate potential changes in the `style` attribute's value or switch from using double quotes to single for `class` attribute:
1234
1235 The code definitely should not look like:
1236
1237 ```python
1238 title = self._search_regex(
1239 r'<span style="position: absolute; left: 910px; width: 90px; float: right; z-index: 9999;" class="title">(.*?)</span>',
1240 webpage, 'title', group='title')
1241 ```
1242
1243 ### Long lines policy
1244
1245 There is a soft limit to keep lines of code under 80 characters long. This means it should be respected if possible and if it does not make readability and code maintenance worse.
1246
1247 For example, you should **never** split long string literals like URLs or some other often copied entities over multiple lines to fit this limit:
1248
1249 Correct:
1250
1251 ```python
1252 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqZTN594JQw&list=PLMYEtVRpaqY00V9W81Cwmzp6N6vZqfUKD4'
1253 ```
1254
1255 Incorrect:
1256
1257 ```python
1258 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqZTN594JQw&list='
1259 'PLMYEtVRpaqY00V9W81Cwmzp6N6vZqfUKD4'
1260 ```
1261
1262 ### Inline values
1263
1264 Extracting variables is acceptable for reducing code duplication and improving readability of complex expressions. However, you should avoid extracting variables used only once and moving them to opposite parts of the extractor file, which makes reading the linear flow difficult.
1265
1266 #### Example
1267
1268 Correct:
1269
1270 ```python
1271 title = self._html_search_regex(r'<title>([^<]+)</title>', webpage, 'title')
1272 ```
1273
1274 Incorrect:
1275
1276 ```python
1277 TITLE_RE = r'<title>([^<]+)</title>'
1278 # ...some lines of code...
1279 title = self._html_search_regex(TITLE_RE, webpage, 'title')
1280 ```
1281
1282 ### Collapse fallbacks
1283
1284 Multiple fallback values can quickly become unwieldy. Collapse multiple fallback values into a single expression via a list of patterns.
1285
1286 #### Example
1287
1288 Good:
1289
1290 ```python
1291 description = self._html_search_meta(
1292 ['og:description', 'description', 'twitter:description'],
1293 webpage, 'description', default=None)
1294 ```
1295
1296 Unwieldy:
1297
1298 ```python
1299 description = (
1300 self._og_search_description(webpage, default=None)
1301 or self._html_search_meta('description', webpage, default=None)
1302 or self._html_search_meta('twitter:description', webpage, default=None))
1303 ```
1304
1305 Methods supporting list of patterns are: `_search_regex`, `_html_search_regex`, `_og_search_property`, `_html_search_meta`.
1306
1307 ### Trailing parentheses
1308
1309 Always move trailing parentheses after the last argument.
1310
1311 #### Example
1312
1313 Correct:
1314
1315 ```python
1316 lambda x: x['ResultSet']['Result'][0]['VideoUrlSet']['VideoUrl'],
1317 list)
1318 ```
1319
1320 Incorrect:
1321
1322 ```python
1323 lambda x: x['ResultSet']['Result'][0]['VideoUrlSet']['VideoUrl'],
1324 list,
1325 )
1326 ```
1327
1328 ### Use convenience conversion and parsing functions
1329
1330 Wrap all extracted numeric data into safe functions from [`youtube_dl/utils.py`](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/utils.py): `int_or_none`, `float_or_none`. Use them for string to number conversions as well.
1331
1332 Use `url_or_none` for safe URL processing.
1333
1334 Use `try_get` for safe metadata extraction from parsed JSON.
1335
1336 Use `unified_strdate` for uniform `upload_date` or any `YYYYMMDD` meta field extraction, `unified_timestamp` for uniform `timestamp` extraction, `parse_filesize` for `filesize` extraction, `parse_count` for count meta fields extraction, `parse_resolution`, `parse_duration` for `duration` extraction, `parse_age_limit` for `age_limit` extraction.
1337
1338 Explore [`youtube_dl/utils.py`](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/utils.py) for more useful convenience functions.
1339
1340 #### More examples
1341
1342 ##### Safely extract optional description from parsed JSON
1343 ```python
1344 description = try_get(response, lambda x: x['result']['video'][0]['summary'], compat_str)
1345 ```
1346
1347 ##### Safely extract more optional metadata
1348 ```python
1349 video = try_get(response, lambda x: x['result']['video'][0], dict) or {}
1350 description = video.get('summary')
1351 duration = float_or_none(video.get('durationMs'), scale=1000)
1352 view_count = int_or_none(video.get('views'))
1353 ```
1354
1355 # EMBEDDING YOUTUBE-DL
1356
1357 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/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/new).
1358
1359 From a Python program, you can embed youtube-dl in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1360
1361 ```python
1362 from __future__ import unicode_literals
1363 import youtube_dl
1364
1365 ydl_opts = {}
1366 with youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1367 ydl.download(['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
1368 ```
1369
1370 Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of options available, have a look at [`youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py`](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/blob/3e4cedf9e8cd3157df2457df7274d0c842421945/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py#L137-L312). For a start, if you want to intercept youtube-dl's output, set a `logger` object.
1371
1372 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:
1373
1374 ```python
1375 from __future__ import unicode_literals
1376 import youtube_dl
1377
1378
1379 class MyLogger(object):
1380 def debug(self, msg):
1381 pass
1382
1383 def warning(self, msg):
1384 pass
1385
1386 def error(self, msg):
1387 print(msg)
1388
1389
1390 def my_hook(d):
1391 if d['status'] == 'finished':
1392 print('Done downloading, now converting ...')
1393
1394
1395 ydl_opts = {
1396 'format': 'bestaudio/best',
1397 'postprocessors': [{
1398 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
1399 'preferredcodec': 'mp3',
1400 'preferredquality': '192',
1401 }],
1402 'logger': MyLogger(),
1403 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
1404 }
1405 with youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1406 ydl.download(['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
1407 ```
1408
1409 # BUGS
1410
1411 Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: <https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues>. Unless you were prompted to or there is another pertinent reason (e.g. GitHub fails to accept the bug report), please do not send bug reports via personal email. For discussions, join us in the IRC channel [#youtube-dl](irc://chat.freenode.net/#youtube-dl) on freenode ([webchat](https://webchat.freenode.net/?randomnick=1&channels=youtube-dl)).
1412
1413 **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:
1414 ```
1415 $ youtube-dl -v <your command line>
1416 [debug] System config: []
1417 [debug] User config: []
1418 [debug] Command-line args: [u'-v', u'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKcj']
1419 [debug] Encodings: locale cp1251, fs mbcs, out cp866, pref cp1251
1420 [debug] youtube-dl version 2015.12.06
1421 [debug] Git HEAD: 135392e
1422 [debug] Python version 2.6.6 - Windows-2003Server-5.2.3790-SP2
1423 [debug] exe versions: ffmpeg N-75573-g1d0487f, ffprobe N-75573-g1d0487f, rtmpdump 2.4
1424 [debug] Proxy map: {}
1425 ...
1426 ```
1427 **Do not post screenshots of verbose logs; only plain text is acceptable.**
1428
1429 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.
1430
1431 Please re-read your issue once again to avoid a couple of common mistakes (you can and should use this as a checklist):
1432
1433 ### Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?
1434
1435 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.
1436
1437 So please elaborate on what feature you are requesting, or what bug you want to be fixed. Make sure that it's obvious
1438
1439 - What the problem is
1440 - How it could be fixed
1441 - How your proposed solution would look like
1442
1443 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.
1444
1445 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.
1446
1447 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/).
1448
1449 **Site support requests must contain an example URL**. An example URL is a URL you might want to download, like `https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc`. There should be an obvious video present. Except under very special circumstances, the main page of a video service (e.g. `https://www.youtube.com/`) is *not* an example URL.
1450
1451 ### Are you using the latest version?
1452
1453 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.
1454
1455 ### Is the issue already documented?
1456
1457 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/ytdl-org/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.
1458
1459 ### Why are existing options not enough?
1460
1461 Before requesting a new feature, please have a quick peek at [the list of supported options](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/blob/master/README.md#options). Many feature requests are for features that actually exist already! Please, absolutely do show off your work in the issue report and detail how the existing similar options do *not* solve your problem.
1462
1463 ### Is there enough context in your bug report?
1464
1465 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).
1466
1467 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.
1468
1469 ### Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?
1470
1471 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.
1472
1473 In particular, every site support request issue should only pertain to services at one site (generally under a common domain, but always using the same backend technology). Do not request support for vimeo user videos, White house podcasts, and Google Plus pages in the same issue. Also, make sure that you don't post bug reports alongside feature requests. As a rule of thumb, a feature request does not include outputs of 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.
1474
1475 ### Is anyone going to need the feature?
1476
1477 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.
1478
1479 ### Is your question about youtube-dl?
1480
1481 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.
1482
1483 # COPYRIGHT
1484
1485 youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
1486
1487 This README file was originally written by [Daniel Bolton](https://github.com/dbbolton) and is likewise released into the public domain.
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