1 youtube-dl - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms
3 - [INSTALLATION](#installation)
4 - [DESCRIPTION](#description)
6 - [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
7 - [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
8 - [VIDEO SELECTION](#video-selection)
10 - [DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS](#developer-instructions)
12 - [COPYRIGHT](#copyright)
16 To install it right away for all UNIX users (Linux, OS X, etc.), type:
18 sudo curl https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
19 sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
21 If you do not have curl, you can alternatively use a recent wget:
23 sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
24 sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
26 Windows users can [download a .exe file](https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl.exe) and place it in their home directory or any other location on their [PATH](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PATH_%28variable%29).
28 OS X users can install **youtube-dl** with [Homebrew](http://brew.sh/).
30 brew install youtube-dl
34 sudo pip install youtube-dl
36 Alternatively, refer to the developer instructions below for how to check out and work with the git repository. For further options, including PGP signatures, see https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html .
39 **youtube-dl** is a small command-line program to download videos from
40 YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version
41 2.6, 2.7, or 3.2+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on
42 your Unix box, on Windows or on Mac OS X. It is released to the public domain,
43 which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
45 youtube-dl [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
48 -h, --help print this help text and exit
49 --version print program version and exit
50 -U, --update update this program to latest version. Make sure that you have sufficient permissions (run with sudo if needed)
51 -i, --ignore-errors continue on download errors, for example to skip unavailable videos in a playlist
52 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos (in the playlist or the command line) if an error occurs
53 --dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
54 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs they would handle
55 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported extractors
56 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos from google videos for youtube-dl "large apple".
57 Use the value "auto" to let youtube-dl guess ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
58 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if this is not possible instead of searching.
59 --ignore-config Do not read configuration files. When given in the global configuration file /etc/youtube-dl.conf: Do not read the user configuration
60 in ~/.config/youtube-dl/config (%APPDATA%/youtube-dl/config.txt on Windows)
61 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist, only list them.
62 --no-color Do not emit color codes in output.
65 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy. Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for direct connection
66 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
67 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to (experimental)
68 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4 (experimental)
69 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6 (experimental)
70 --cn-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for some Chinese sites. The default proxy specified by --proxy (or none, if the options is
71 not present) is used for the actual downloading. (experimental)
74 --playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is 1)
75 --playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
76 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC playlist video items to download. Specify indices of the videos in the playlist seperated by commas like: "--playlist-items 1,2,5,8"
77 if you want to download videos indexed 1, 2, 5, 8 in the playlist. You can specify range: "--playlist-items 1-3,7,10-13", it will
78 download the videos at index 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13.
79 --match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or caseless sub-string)
80 --reject-title REGEX skip download for matching titles (regex or caseless sub-string)
81 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
82 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
83 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
84 --date DATE download only videos uploaded in this date
85 --datebefore DATE download only videos uploaded on or before this date (i.e. inclusive)
86 --dateafter DATE download only videos uploaded on or after this date (i.e. inclusive)
87 --min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less than COUNT views
88 --max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than COUNT views
89 --match-filter FILTER (Experimental) Generic video filter. Specify any key (see help for -o for a list of available keys) to match if the key is present,
90 !key to check if the key is not present,key > NUMBER (like "comment_count > 12", also works with >=, <, <=, !=, =) to compare against
91 a number, and & to require multiple matches. Values which are not known are excluded unless you put a question mark (?) after the
92 operator.For example, to only match videos that have been liked more than 100 times and disliked less than 50 times (or the dislike
93 functionality is not available at the given service), but who also have a description, use --match-filter "like_count > 100 &
94 dislike_count <? 50 & description" .
95 --no-playlist If the URL refers to a video and a playlist, download only the video.
96 --yes-playlist If the URL refers to a video and a playlist, download the playlist.
97 --age-limit YEARS download only videos suitable for the given age
98 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the archive file. Record the IDs of all downloaded videos in it.
99 --include-ads Download advertisements as well (experimental)
102 -r, --rate-limit LIMIT maximum download rate in bytes per second (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
103 -R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is 10), or "infinite".
104 --buffer-size SIZE size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K) (default is 1024)
105 --no-resize-buffer do not automatically adjust the buffer size. By default, the buffer size is automatically resized from an initial value of SIZE.
106 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
107 --xattr-set-filesize (experimental) set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with expected filesize
108 --hls-prefer-native (experimental) Use the native HLS downloader instead of ffmpeg.
109 --external-downloader COMMAND Use the specified external downloader. Currently supports aria2c,curl,wget
110 --external-downloader-args ARGS Give these arguments to the external downloader.
112 ## Filesystem Options:
113 -a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)
114 --id use only video ID in file name
115 -o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(title)s to get the title, %(uploader)s for the uploader name, %(uploader_id)s for the uploader
116 nickname if different, %(autonumber)s to get an automatically incremented number, %(ext)s for the filename extension, %(format)s for
117 the format description (like "22 - 1280x720" or "HD"), %(format_id)s for the unique id of the format (like Youtube's itags: "137"),
118 %(upload_date)s for the upload date (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the video id,
119 %(playlist_title)s, %(playlist_id)s, or %(playlist)s (=title if present, ID otherwise) for the playlist the video is in,
120 %(playlist_index)s for the position in the playlist. %(height)s and %(width)s for the width and height of the video format.
121 %(resolution)s for a textual description of the resolution of the video format. %% for a literal percent. Use - to output to stdout.
122 Can also be used to download to a different directory, for example with -o '/my/downloads/%(uploader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
123 --autonumber-size NUMBER Specifies the number of digits in %(autonumber)s when it is present in output filename template or --auto-number option is given
124 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
125 -A, --auto-number [deprecated; use -o "%(autonumber)s-%(title)s.%(ext)s" ] number downloaded files starting from 00000
126 -t, --title [deprecated] use title in file name (default)
127 -l, --literal [deprecated] alias of --title
128 -w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
129 -c, --continue force resume of partially downloaded files. By default, youtube-dl will resume downloads if possible.
130 --no-continue do not resume partially downloaded files (restart from beginning)
131 --no-part do not use .part files - write directly into output file
132 --no-mtime do not use the Last-modified header to set the file modification time
133 --write-description write video description to a .description file
134 --write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
135 --write-annotations write video annotations to a .annotation file
136 --load-info FILE json file containing the video information (created with the "--write-json" option)
137 --cookies FILE file to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in
138 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl can store some downloaded information permanently. By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl
139 or ~/.cache/youtube-dl . At the moment, only YouTube player files (for videos with obfuscated signatures) are cached, but that may
141 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
142 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
145 --write-thumbnail write thumbnail image to disk
146 --write-all-thumbnails write all thumbnail image formats to disk
147 --list-thumbnails Simulate and list all available thumbnail formats
149 ## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
150 -q, --quiet activates quiet mode
151 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
152 -s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write anything to disk
153 --skip-download do not download the video
154 -g, --get-url simulate, quiet but print URL
155 -e, --get-title simulate, quiet but print title
156 --get-id simulate, quiet but print id
157 --get-thumbnail simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
158 --get-description simulate, quiet but print video description
159 --get-duration simulate, quiet but print video length
160 --get-filename simulate, quiet but print output filename
161 --get-format simulate, quiet but print output format
162 -j, --dump-json simulate, quiet but print JSON information. See --output for a description of available keys.
163 -J, --dump-single-json simulate, quiet but print JSON information for each command-line argument. If the URL refers to a playlist, dump the whole playlist
164 information in a single line.
165 --print-json Be quiet and print the video information as JSON (video is still being downloaded).
166 --newline output progress bar as new lines
167 --no-progress do not print progress bar
168 --console-title display progress in console titlebar
169 -v, --verbose print various debugging information
170 --dump-intermediate-pages print downloaded pages to debug problems (very verbose)
171 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files in the current directory to debug problems
172 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
173 -C, --call-home Contact the youtube-dl server for debugging.
174 --no-call-home Do NOT contact the youtube-dl server for debugging.
177 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
178 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation.
179 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve information about the video. (Currently supported only for YouTube)
180 --user-agent UA specify a custom user agent
181 --referer URL specify a custom referer, use if the video access is restricted to one domain
182 --add-header FIELD:VALUE specify a custom HTTP header and its value, separated by a colon ':'. You can use this option multiple times
183 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv or fribidi executable in PATH
184 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each download.
186 ## Video Format Options:
187 -f, --format FORMAT video format code, specify the order of preference using slashes, as in -f 22/17/18 . Instead of format codes, you can select by
188 extension for the extensions aac, m4a, mp3, mp4, ogg, wav, webm. You can also use the special names "best", "bestvideo", "bestaudio",
189 "worst". You can filter the video results by putting a condition in brackets, as in -f "best[height=720]" (or -f "[filesize>10M]").
190 This works for filesize, height, width, tbr, abr, vbr, asr, and fps and the comparisons <, <=, >, >=, =, != and for ext, acodec,
191 vcodec, container, and protocol and the comparisons =, != . Formats for which the value is not known are excluded unless you put a
192 question mark (?) after the operator. You can combine format filters, so -f "[height <=? 720][tbr>500]" selects up to 720p videos
193 (or videos where the height is not known) with a bitrate of at least 500 KBit/s. By default, youtube-dl will pick the best quality.
194 Use commas to download multiple audio formats, such as -f 136/137/mp4/bestvideo,140/m4a/bestaudio. You can merge the video and audio
195 of two formats into a single file using -f <video-format>+<audio-format> (requires ffmpeg or avconv), for example -f
197 --all-formats download all available video formats
198 --prefer-free-formats prefer free video formats unless a specific one is requested
199 --max-quality FORMAT highest quality format to download
200 -F, --list-formats list all available formats
201 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest Do not download the DASH manifest on YouTube videos
202 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g. bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg, webm, flv.Ignored if no
206 --write-sub write subtitle file
207 --write-auto-sub write automatic subtitle file (youtube only)
208 --all-subs downloads all the available subtitles of the video
209 --list-subs lists all available subtitles for the video
210 --sub-format FORMAT subtitle format, accepts formats preference, for example: "ass/srt/best"
211 --sub-lang LANGS languages of the subtitles to download (optional) separated by commas, use IETF language tags like 'en,pt'
213 ## Authentication Options:
214 -u, --username USERNAME login with this account ID
215 -p, --password PASSWORD account password. If this option is left out, youtube-dl will ask interactively.
216 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR two-factor auth code
217 -n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
218 --video-password PASSWORD video password (vimeo, smotri)
220 ## Post-processing Options:
221 -x, --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files (requires ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)
222 --audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", or "wav"; "best" by default
223 --audio-quality QUALITY ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification, insert a value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse) for VBR or a specific bitrate like 128K
225 --recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if necessary (currently supported: mp4|flv|ogg|webm|mkv)
226 -k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the post-processing; the video is erased by default
227 --no-post-overwrites do not overwrite post-processed files; the post-processed files are overwritten by default
228 --embed-subs embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4 videos)
229 --embed-thumbnail embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
230 --add-metadata write metadata to the video file
231 --xattrs write metadata to the video file's xattrs (using dublin core and xdg standards)
232 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only emit a warning), detect_or_warn(the default;
233 fix file if we can, warn otherwise)
234 --prefer-avconv Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running the postprocessors (default)
235 --prefer-ffmpeg Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running the postprocessors
236 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg/avconv binary; either the path to the binary or its containing directory.
237 --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after downloading, similar to find's -exec syntax. Example: --exec 'adb push {} /sdcard/Music/ && rm
239 --convert-subtitles FORMAT Convert the subtitles to other format (currently supported: srt|ass|vtt)
243 You can configure youtube-dl by placing default arguments (such as `--extract-audio --no-mtime` to always extract the audio and not copy the mtime) into `/etc/youtube-dl.conf` and/or `~/.config/youtube-dl/config`. On Windows, the configuration file locations are `%APPDATA%\youtube-dl\config.txt` and `C:\Users\<user name>\youtube-dl.conf`.
247 The `-o` option allows users to indicate a template for the output file names. 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 parenthesis, followed by a lowercase S. Allowed names are:
249 - `id`: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier.
250 - `url`: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL.
251 - `uploader`: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the person who uploaded the video.
252 - `upload_date`: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date in YYYYMMDD format.
253 - `title`: The sequence will be replaced by the video title.
254 - `ext`: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension (like flv or mp4).
255 - `epoch`: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when creating the file.
256 - `autonumber`: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.
257 - `playlist`: The name or the id of the playlist that contains the video.
258 - `playlist_index`: The index of the video in the playlist, a five-digit number.
260 The current default template is `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`.
262 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:
265 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
266 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
267 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
268 youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
273 Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options `--date`, `--datebefore` or `--dateafter`, they accept dates in two formats:
275 - Absolute dates: Dates in the format `YYYYMMDD`.
276 - Relative dates: Dates in the format `(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?`
281 # Download only the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
282 $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-6months
284 # Download only the videos uploaded on January 1, 1970
285 $ youtube-dl --date 19700101
287 $ # will only download the videos uploaded in the 200x decade
288 $ youtube-dl --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20091231
293 ### How do I update youtube-dl?
295 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`).
297 If you have used pip, a simple `sudo pip install -U youtube-dl` is sufficient to update.
299 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 distributions serves a really outdated version. You can (and should) complain to your distribution in their bugtracker or support forum.
301 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
303 sudo apt-get remove -y youtube-dl
305 Afterwards, simply follow [our manual installation instructions](http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html):
308 sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
309 sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
313 Again, from then on you'll be able to update with `sudo youtube-dl -U`.
315 ### I'm getting an error `Unable to extract OpenGraph title` on YouTube playlists
317 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.
319 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.
321 ### Do I always have to pass in `--max-quality FORMAT`, or `-citw`?
323 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, `--max-quality` *limits* the video quality (so if you want the best quality, do NOT pass it in), and the only option out of `-citw` that is regularly useful is `-i`.
325 ### Can you please put the -b option back?
327 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.
329 ### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
331 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.
333 ### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
335 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as [vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or [mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
337 ### I extracted a video URL with -g, but it does not play on another machine / in my webbrowser.
339 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.
341 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.
343 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.
345 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.
347 ### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
349 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.
351 ### ERROR: unable to download video ###
353 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.
355 ### ExtractorError: Could not find JS function u'OF'
357 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.
359 ### HTTP Error 429: Too Many Requests or 402: Payment Required
361 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 `--network-address` options](#network-options) to select another IP address.
363 ### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character ###
367 File "youtube-dl", line 2
368 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\x93' ...
370 means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python 2.6 or 2.7.
372 ### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
374 Since June 2012 (#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`.
376 ### The exe throws a *Runtime error from Visual C++*
378 To run the exe you need to install first the [Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package](http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29).
380 ### On Windows, how should I set up ffmpeg and youtube-dl? Where should I put the exe files?
382 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.
384 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.
386 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.
388 ### How do I put downloads into a specific folder?
390 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).
392 ### How do I download a video starting with a `-` ?
394 Either prepend `http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=` or separate the ID from the options with `--`:
396 youtube-dl -- -wNyEUrxzFU
397 youtube-dl "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wNyEUrxzFU"
399 ### Can you add support for this anime video site, or site which shows current movies for free?
401 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.
403 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.
405 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.
407 ### How can I detect whether a given URL is supported by youtube-dl?
409 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.
411 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.
413 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.
415 # DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS
417 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.
419 To run youtube-dl as a developer, you don't need to build anything either. Simply execute
423 To run the test, simply invoke your favorite test runner, or execute a test file directly; any of the following work:
425 python -m unittest discover
426 python test/test_download.py
429 If you want to create a build of youtube-dl yourself, you'll need
437 ### Adding support for a new site
439 If you want to add support for a new site, you can follow this quick list (assuming your service is called `yourextractor`):
441 1. [Fork this repository](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/fork)
442 2. Check out the source code with `git clone git@github.com:YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/youtube-dl.git`
443 3. Start a new git branch with `cd youtube-dl; git checkout -b yourextractor`
444 4. Start with this simple template and save it to `youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py`:
447 from __future__ import unicode_literals
449 from .common import InfoExtractor
452 class YourExtractorIE(InfoExtractor):
453 _VALID_URL = r'https?://(?:www\.)?yourextractor\.com/watch/(?P<id>[0-9]+)'
455 'url': 'http://yourextractor.com/watch/42',
456 'md5': 'TODO: md5 sum of the first 10241 bytes of the video file (use --test)',
460 'title': 'Video title goes here',
461 'thumbnail': 're:^https?://.*\.jpg$',
462 # TODO more properties, either as:
464 # * MD5 checksum; start the string with md5:
465 # * A regular expression; start the string with re:
466 # * Any Python type (for example int or float)
470 def _real_extract(self, url):
471 video_id = self._match_id(url)
472 webpage = self._download_webpage(url, video_id)
474 # TODO more code goes here, for example ...
475 title = self._html_search_regex(r'<h1>(.*?)</h1>', webpage, 'title')
480 'description': self._og_search_description(webpage),
481 # TODO more properties (see youtube_dl/extractor/common.py)
484 5. Add an import in [`youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py`](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py).
485 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 be then be named `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor`, `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_1`, `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_2`, etc.
486 7. Have a look at [`youtube_dl/common/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 return](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py#L38). Add tests and code for as many as you want.
487 8. If you can, check the code with [flake8](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/flake8).
488 9. 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:
490 $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py
491 $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py
492 $ git commit -m '[yourextractor] Add new extractor'
493 $ git push origin yourextractor
495 10. Finally, [create a pull request](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-pull-request). We'll then review and merge it.
497 In any case, thank you very much for your contributions!
499 # EMBEDDING YOUTUBE-DL
501 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).
503 From a Python program, you can embed youtube-dl in a more powerful fashion, like this:
509 with youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
510 ydl.download(['http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
513 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#L69). For a start, if you want to intercept youtube-dl's output, set a `logger` object.
515 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:
521 class MyLogger(object):
522 def debug(self, msg):
525 def warning(self, msg):
528 def error(self, msg):
533 if d['status'] == 'finished':
534 print('Done downloading, now converting ...')
538 'format': 'bestaudio/best',
540 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
541 'preferredcodec': 'mp3',
542 'preferredquality': '192',
544 'logger': MyLogger(),
545 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
547 with youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
548 ydl.download(['http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
553 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 on freenode.
555 **Please include the full output of youtube-dl when run with `-v`**.
557 The output (including the first lines) contain important debugging information. Issues without the full output are often not reproducible and therefore do not get solved in short order, if ever.
559 Please re-read your issue once again to avoid a couple of common mistakes (you can and should use this as a checklist):
561 ### Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?
563 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.
565 So please elaborate on what feature you are requesting, or what bug you want to be fixed. Make sure that it's obvious
567 - What the problem is
568 - How it could be fixed
569 - How your proposed solution would look like
571 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 commiter 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.
573 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.
575 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.
577 ### Are you using the latest version?
579 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.
581 ### Is the issue already documented?
583 Make sure that someone has not already opened the issue you're trying to open. Search at the top of the window or at https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/search?type=Issues . 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.
585 ### Why are existing options not enough?
587 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.
589 ### Is there enough context in your bug report?
591 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).
593 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.
595 ### Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?
597 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.
599 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.
601 ### Is anyone going to need the feature?
603 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.
605 ### Is your question about youtube-dl?
607 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.
611 youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
613 This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton (<https://github.com/dbbolton>) and is likewise released into the public domain.