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 - [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
9 - [VIDEO SELECTION](#video-selection)
11 - [DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS](#developer-instructions)
12 - [EMBEDDING YOUTUBE-DL](#embedding-youtube-dl)
14 - [COPYRIGHT](#copyright)
18 To install it right away for all UNIX users (Linux, OS X, etc.), type:
20 sudo curl https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
21 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
23 If you do not have curl, you can alternatively use a recent wget:
25 sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
26 sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
28 Windows users can [download an .exe file](https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl.exe) and place it in any location on their [PATH](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PATH_%28variable%29) except for `%SYSTEMROOT%\System32` (e.g. **do not** put in `C:\Windows\System32`).
30 OS X users can install **youtube-dl** with [Homebrew](http://brew.sh/):
32 brew install youtube-dl
34 Or with [MacPorts](https://www.macports.org/):
36 sudo port install youtube-dl
40 sudo pip install youtube-dl
42 Alternatively, refer to the [developer instructions](#developer-instructions) for how to check out and work with the git repository. For further options, including PGP signatures, see the [youtube-dl Download Page](https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html).
45 **youtube-dl** is a small command-line program to download videos from
46 YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version
47 2.6, 2.7, or 3.2+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on
48 your Unix box, on Windows or on Mac OS X. It is released to the public domain,
49 which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
51 youtube-dl [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
54 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
55 --version Print program version and exit
56 -U, --update Update this program to latest version. Make
57 sure that you have sufficient permissions
58 (run with sudo if needed)
59 -i, --ignore-errors Continue on download errors, for example to
60 skip unavailable videos in a playlist
61 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos (in the
62 playlist or the command line) if an error
64 --dump-user-agent Display the current browser identification
65 --list-extractors List all supported extractors
66 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
68 --force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic
70 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
71 example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
72 from google videos for youtube-dl "large
73 apple". Use the value "auto" to let
74 youtube-dl guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
75 warning when guessing). "error" just throws
76 an error. The default value "fixup_error"
77 repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
78 this is not possible instead of searching.
79 --ignore-config Do not read configuration files. When given
80 in the global configuration file
81 /etc/youtube-dl.conf: Do not read the user
82 configuration in ~/.config/youtube-
83 dl/config (%APPDATA%/youtube-dl/config.txt
85 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
87 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (YouTube only)
88 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (YouTube only)
89 --no-color Do not emit color codes in output
92 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy.
93 To enable experimental SOCKS proxy, specify
94 a proper scheme. For example
95 socks5://127.0.0.1:1080/. Pass in an empty
96 string (--proxy "") for direct connection
97 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
98 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
100 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
102 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
104 --cn-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
105 some Chinese sites. The default proxy
106 specified by --proxy (or none, if the
107 options is not present) is used for the
108 actual downloading. (experimental)
111 --playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is 1)
112 --playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is last)
113 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download. Specify
114 indices of the videos in the playlist
115 separated by commas like: "--playlist-items
116 1,2,5,8" if you want to download videos
117 indexed 1, 2, 5, 8 in the playlist. You can
118 specify range: "--playlist-items
119 1-3,7,10-13", it will download the videos
120 at index 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13.
121 --match-title REGEX Download only matching titles (regex or
123 --reject-title REGEX Skip download for matching titles (regex or
125 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
126 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
127 SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
128 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
130 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded in this date
131 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
132 this date (i.e. inclusive)
133 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
134 this date (i.e. inclusive)
135 --min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less than
137 --max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than
139 --match-filter FILTER Generic video filter (experimental).
140 Specify any key (see help for -o for a list
141 of available keys) to match if the key is
142 present, !key to check if the key is not
143 present,key > NUMBER (like "comment_count >
144 12", also works with >=, <, <=, !=, =) to
145 compare against a number, and & to require
146 multiple matches. Values which are not
147 known are excluded unless you put a
148 question mark (?) after the operator.For
149 example, to only match videos that have
150 been liked more than 100 times and disliked
151 less than 50 times (or the dislike
152 functionality is not available at the given
153 service), but who also have a description,
154 use --match-filter "like_count > 100 &
155 dislike_count <? 50 & description" .
156 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
157 to a video and a playlist.
158 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
159 a video and a playlist.
160 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
162 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
163 archive file. Record the IDs of all
164 downloaded videos in it.
165 --include-ads Download advertisements as well
169 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
171 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
173 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default
174 is 10), or "infinite" (DASH only)
175 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
177 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer
178 size. By default, the buffer size is
179 automatically resized from an initial value
181 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
182 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
183 expected filesize (experimental)
184 --hls-prefer-native Use the native HLS downloader instead of
186 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg Use ffmpeg instead of the native HLS
188 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos,
189 allowing to play the video while
190 downloading (some players may not be able
192 --external-downloader COMMAND Use the specified external downloader.
194 aria2c,avconv,axel,curl,ffmpeg,httpie,wget
195 --external-downloader-args ARGS Give these arguments to the external
198 ## Filesystem Options:
199 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ('-' for
201 --id Use only video ID in file name
202 -o, --output TEMPLATE Output filename template. Use %(title)s to
203 get the title, %(uploader)s for the
204 uploader name, %(uploader_id)s for the
205 uploader nickname if different,
206 %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
207 incremented number, %(ext)s for the
208 filename extension, %(format)s for the
209 format description (like "22 - 1280x720" or
210 "HD"), %(format_id)s for the unique id of
211 the format (like YouTube's itags: "137"),
212 %(upload_date)s for the upload date
213 (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
214 (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the
215 video id, %(playlist_title)s,
216 %(playlist_id)s, or %(playlist)s (=title if
217 present, ID otherwise) for the playlist the
218 video is in, %(playlist_index)s for the
219 position in the playlist. %(height)s and
220 %(width)s for the width and height of the
221 video format. %(resolution)s for a textual
222 description of the resolution of the video
223 format. %% for a literal percent. Use - to
224 output to stdout. Can also be used to
225 download to a different directory, for
226 example with -o '/my/downloads/%(uploader)s
227 /%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
228 --autonumber-size NUMBER Specify the number of digits in
229 %(autonumber)s when it is present in output
230 filename template or --auto-number option
232 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
233 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
235 -A, --auto-number [deprecated; use -o
236 "%(autonumber)s-%(title)s.%(ext)s" ] Number
237 downloaded files starting from 00000
238 -t, --title [deprecated] Use title in file name
240 -l, --literal [deprecated] Alias of --title
241 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite files
242 -c, --continue Force resume of partially downloaded files.
243 By default, youtube-dl will resume
244 downloads if possible.
245 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded files
246 (restart from beginning)
247 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly
249 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
250 the file modification time
251 --write-description Write video description to a .description
253 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
254 --write-annotations Write video annotations to a
255 .annotations.xml file
256 --load-info FILE JSON file containing the video information
257 (created with the "--write-info-json"
259 --cookies FILE File to read cookies from and dump cookie
261 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
262 can store some downloaded information
263 permanently. By default
264 $XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl or
265 ~/.cache/youtube-dl . At the moment, only
266 YouTube player files (for videos with
267 obfuscated signatures) are cached, but that
269 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
270 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
273 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
274 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
275 --list-thumbnails Simulate and list all available thumbnail
278 ## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
279 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode
280 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
281 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
283 --skip-download Do not download the video
284 -g, --get-url Simulate, quiet but print URL
285 -e, --get-title Simulate, quiet but print title
286 --get-id Simulate, quiet but print id
287 --get-thumbnail Simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
288 --get-description Simulate, quiet but print video description
289 --get-duration Simulate, quiet but print video length
290 --get-filename Simulate, quiet but print output filename
291 --get-format Simulate, quiet but print output format
292 -j, --dump-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information.
293 See --output for a description of available
295 -J, --dump-single-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON information
296 for each command-line argument. If the URL
297 refers to a playlist, dump the whole
298 playlist information in a single line.
299 --print-json Be quiet and print the video information as
300 JSON (video is still being downloaded).
301 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
302 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
303 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
304 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
305 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
306 to debug problems (very verbose)
307 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
308 files in the current directory to debug
310 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
311 -C, --call-home Contact the youtube-dl server for debugging
312 --no-call-home Do NOT contact the youtube-dl server for
316 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
317 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
318 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
319 information about the video. (Currently
320 supported only for YouTube)
321 --user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
322 --referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the video
323 access is restricted to one domain
324 --add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
325 separated by a colon ':'. You can use this
326 option multiple times
327 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
328 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
329 or fribidi executable in PATH
330 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
333 ## Video Format Options:
334 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see the "FORMAT
335 SELECTION" for all the info
336 --all-formats Download all available video formats
337 --prefer-free-formats Prefer free video formats unless a specific
339 -F, --list-formats List all available formats of requested
341 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest Do not download the DASH manifests and
342 related data on YouTube videos
343 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
344 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
345 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
346 webm, flv. Ignored if no merge is required
349 --write-sub Write subtitle file
350 --write-auto-sub Write automatically generated subtitle file
352 --all-subs Download all the available subtitles of the
354 --list-subs List all available subtitles for the video
355 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats
356 preference, for example: "srt" or
358 --sub-lang LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download
359 (optional) separated by commas, use --list-
360 subs for available language tags
362 ## Authentication Options:
363 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
364 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
365 out, youtube-dl will ask interactively.
366 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor auth code
367 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
368 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, smotri, youku)
370 ## Post-processing Options:
371 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
372 (requires ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or
374 --audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format: "best", "aac",
375 "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", or "wav";
377 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg/avconv audio quality, insert
378 a value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse)
379 for VBR or a specific bitrate like 128K
381 --recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if
382 necessary (currently supported:
383 mp4|flv|ogg|webm|mkv|avi)
384 --postprocessor-args ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessor
385 -k, --keep-video Keep the video file on disk after the post-
386 processing; the video is erased by default
387 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files; the
388 post-processed files are overwritten by
390 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
392 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
393 --add-metadata Write metadata to the video file
394 --metadata-from-title FORMAT Parse additional metadata like song title /
395 artist from the video title. The format
396 syntax is the same as --output, the parsed
397 parameters replace existing values.
398 Additional templates: %(album)s,
399 %(artist)s. Example: --metadata-from-title
400 "%(artist)s - %(title)s" matches a title
401 like "Coldplay - Paradise"
402 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
403 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
404 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
405 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
406 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
407 default; fix file if we can, warn
409 --prefer-avconv Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running the
410 postprocessors (default)
411 --prefer-ffmpeg Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running the
413 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg/avconv binary;
414 either the path to the binary or its
415 containing directory.
416 --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
417 downloading, similar to find's -exec
418 syntax. Example: --exec 'adb push {}
419 /sdcard/Music/ && rm {}'
420 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to other format
421 (currently supported: srt|ass|vtt)
425 You can configure youtube-dl by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. On Linux and OS X, the system wide configuration file is located at `/etc/youtube-dl.conf` and the user wide configuration file at `~/.config/youtube-dl/config`. On Windows, the user wide configuration file locations are `%APPDATA%\youtube-dl\config.txt` or `C:\Users\<user name>\youtube-dl.conf`.
427 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:
431 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
432 -o ~/Movies/%(title)s.%(ext)s
435 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`.
437 You can use `--ignore-config` if you want to disable the configuration file for a particular youtube-dl run.
439 ### Authentication with `.netrc` file
441 You may also want to configure automatic credentials storage for extractors that support authentication (by providing login and password with `--username` and `--password`) in order not to pass credentials as command line arguments on every youtube-dl execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in the shell command history. You can achieve this using a [`.netrc` file](http://stackoverflow.com/tags/.netrc/info) on per extractor basis. For that you will need to create a `.netrc` file in your `$HOME` and restrict permissions to read/write by you only:
444 chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
446 After that you can add credentials for extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of extractor in lowercase:
448 machine <extractor> login <login> password <password>
452 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
453 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
455 To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to youtube-dl or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
457 On Windows you may also need to setup the `%HOME%` environment variable manually.
461 The `-o` option allows users to indicate a template for the output file names.
463 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
465 The basic usage is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in `youtube-dl -o funny_video.flv "http://some/video"`. However, it may contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences have the format `%(NAME)s`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by a lowercase S. Allowed names are:
467 - `id`: Video identifier
468 - `title`: Video title
470 - `ext`: Video filename extension
471 - `alt_title`: A secondary title of the video
472 - `display_id`: An alternative identifier for the video
473 - `uploader`: Full name of the video uploader
474 - `license`: License name the video is licensed under
475 - `creator`: The creator of the video
476 - `release_date`: The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released
477 - `timestamp`: UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
478 - `upload_date`: Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)
479 - `uploader_id`: Nickname or id of the video uploader
480 - `location`: Physical location where the video was filmed
481 - `duration`: Length of the video in seconds
482 - `view_count`: How many users have watched the video on the platform
483 - `like_count`: Number of positive ratings of the video
484 - `dislike_count`: Number of negative ratings of the video
485 - `repost_count`: Number of reposts of the video
486 - `average_rating`: Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
487 - `comment_count`: Number of comments on the video
488 - `age_limit`: Age restriction for the video (years)
489 - `format`: A human-readable description of the format
490 - `format_id`: Format code specified by `--format`
491 - `format_note`: Additional info about the format
492 - `width`: Width of the video
493 - `height`: Height of the video
494 - `resolution`: Textual description of width and height
495 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
496 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
497 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
498 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
499 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
501 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
502 - `container`: Name of the container format
503 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
504 - `filesize_approx`: An estimate for the number of bytes
505 - `protocol`: The protocol that will be used for the actual download
506 - `extractor`: Name of the extractor
507 - `extractor_key`: Key name of the extractor
508 - `epoch`: Unix epoch when creating the file
509 - `autonumber`: Five-digit number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero
510 - `playlist`: Name or id of the playlist that contains the video
511 - `playlist_index`: Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
513 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
514 - `chapter`: Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
515 - `chapter_number`: Number of the chapter the video belongs to
516 - `chapter_id`: Id of the chapter the video belongs to
518 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
519 - `series`: Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
520 - `season`: Title of the season the video episode belongs to
521 - `season_number`: Number of the season the video episode belongs to
522 - `season_id`: Id of the season the video episode belongs to
523 - `episode`: Title of the video episode
524 - `episode_number`: Number of the video episode within a season
525 - `episode_id`: Id of the video episode
527 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
528 - `track`: Title of the track
529 - `track_number`: Number of the track within an album or a disc
530 - `track_id`: Id of the track
531 - `artist`: Artist(s) of the track
532 - `genre`: Genre(s) of the track
533 - `album`: Title of the album the track belongs to
534 - `album_type`: Type of the album
535 - `album_artist`: List of all artists appeared on the album
536 - `disc_number`: Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
537 - `release_year`: Year (YYYY) when the album was released
539 Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. Note that some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, such sequences will be replaced with `NA`.
541 For example for `-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and mp4 video with title `youtube-dl test video` and id `BaW_jenozKcj` this will result in a `youtube-dl test video-BaW_jenozKcj.mp4` file created in the current directory.
543 Output template can also contain arbitrary hierarchical path, e.g. `-o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s'` that will result in downloading each video in a directory corresponding to this path template. Any missing directory will be automatically created for you.
545 To specify percent literal in output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
547 The current default template is `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`.
549 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:
551 #### Output template examples
553 Note on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
556 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc
557 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
559 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
560 youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
562 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
563 $ youtube-dl -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
565 # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
566 $ youtube-dl -o '%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists
568 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
569 $ 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/
571 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
572 $ youtube-dl -o "C:/MyVideos/%(series)s/%(season_number)s - %(season)s/%(episode_number)s - %(episode)s.%(ext)s" http://videomore.ru/kino_v_detalayah/5_sezon/367617
574 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
575 $ youtube-dl -o - BaW_jenozKc
580 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**.
582 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.
584 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.
586 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
588 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.
590 You can also use a file extension (currently `3gp`, `aac`, `flv`, `m4a`, `mp3`, `mp4`, `ogg`, `wav`, `webm` are supported) to download best quality format of particular file extension served as a single file, e.g. `-f webm` will download best quality format with `webm` extension served as a single file.
592 You can also use special names to select particular edge case format:
593 - `best`: Select best quality format represented by single file with video and audio
594 - `worst`: Select worst quality format represented by single file with video and audio
595 - `bestvideo`: Select best quality video only format (e.g. DASH video), may not be available
596 - `worstvideo`: Select worst quality video only format, may not be available
597 - `bestaudio`: Select best quality audio only format, may not be available
598 - `worstaudio`: Select worst quality audio only format, may not be available
600 For example, to download worst quality video only format you can use `-f worstvideo`.
602 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.
604 If you want to download several formats of the same video use comma as a separator, e.g. `-f 22,17,18` will download all these three formats, of course if they are available. Or more sophisticated example combined with precedence feature `-f 136/137/mp4/bestvideo,140/m4a/bestaudio`.
606 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
608 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
609 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
610 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
611 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
612 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
613 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
614 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
615 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
618 Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals), `^=` (begins with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains) and following string meta fields:
619 - `ext`: File extension
620 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
621 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
622 - `container`: Name of the container format
623 - `protocol`: The protocol that will be used for the actual download, lower-case. `http`, `https`, `rtsp`, `rtmp`, `rtmpe`, `m3u8`, or `m3u8_native`
624 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
626 Note that none of the aforementioned meta fields are guaranteed to be present since this solely depends on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, i.e. the metadata offered by video hoster.
628 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.
630 You can merge the video and audio of two formats into a single file using `-f <video-format>+<audio-format>` (requires ffmpeg or avconv installed), for example `-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download best video only format, best audio only format and mux them together with ffmpeg/avconv.
632 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]'`.
634 Since the end of April 2015 and version 2015.04.26 youtube-dl uses `-f bestvideo+bestaudio/best` as default format selection (see [#5447](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/5447), [#5456](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/5456)). If ffmpeg or avconv are installed this results in downloading `bestvideo` and `bestaudio` separately and muxing them together into a single file giving the best overall quality available. Otherwise it falls back to `best` and results in downloading the best available quality served as a single file. `best` is also needed for videos that don't come from YouTube because they don't provide the audio and video in two different files. If you want to only download some DASH formats (for example if you are not interested in getting videos with a resolution higher than 1080p), you can add `-f bestvideo[height<=?1080]+bestaudio/best` to your configuration file. Note that if you use youtube-dl to stream to `stdout` (and most likely to pipe it to your media player then), i.e. you explicitly specify output template as `-o -`, youtube-dl still uses `-f best` format selection in order to start content delivery immediately to your player and not to wait until `bestvideo` and `bestaudio` are downloaded and muxed.
636 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.
638 #### Format selection examples
640 Note on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single.
643 # Download best mp4 format available or any other best if no mp4 available
644 $ youtube-dl -f 'bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/best[ext=mp4]/best'
646 # Download best format available but not better that 480p
647 $ youtube-dl -f 'bestvideo[height<=480]+bestaudio/best[height<=480]'
649 # Download best video only format but no bigger that 50 MB
650 $ youtube-dl -f 'best[filesize<50M]'
652 # Download best format available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol
653 $ youtube-dl -f '(bestvideo+bestaudio/best)[protocol^=http]'
659 Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options `--date`, `--datebefore` or `--dateafter`. They accept dates in two formats:
661 - Absolute dates: Dates in the format `YYYYMMDD`.
662 - Relative dates: Dates in the format `(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?`
667 # Download only the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
668 $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-6months
670 # Download only the videos uploaded on January 1, 1970
671 $ youtube-dl --date 19700101
673 $ # Download only the videos uploaded in the 200x decade
674 $ youtube-dl --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20091231
679 ### How do I update youtube-dl?
681 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`).
683 If you have used pip, a simple `sudo pip install -U youtube-dl` is sufficient to update.
685 If you have installed youtube-dl using a package manager like *apt-get* or *yum*, use the standard system update mechanism to update. Note that distribution packages are often outdated. As a rule of thumb, youtube-dl releases at least once a month, and often weekly or even daily. Simply go to http://yt-dl.org/ to find out the current version. Unfortunately, there is nothing we youtube-dl developers can do if your distribution serves a really outdated version. You can (and should) complain to your distribution in their bugtracker or support forum.
687 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
689 sudo apt-get remove -y youtube-dl
691 Afterwards, simply follow [our manual installation instructions](http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html):
694 sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
695 sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
699 Again, from then on you'll be able to update with `sudo youtube-dl -U`.
701 ### youtube-dl is extremely slow to start on Windows
703 Add a file exclusion for `youtube-dl.exe` in Windows Defender settings.
705 ### I'm getting an error `Unable to extract OpenGraph title` on YouTube playlists
707 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.
709 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.
711 ### I'm getting an error when trying to use output template: `error: using output template conflicts with using title, video ID or auto number`
713 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.
715 ### Do I always have to pass `-citw`?
717 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`.
719 ### Can you please put the `-b` option back?
721 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.
723 ### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
725 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.
727 ### Do I need any other programs?
729 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.
731 Videos or video formats streamed via RTMP protocol can only be downloaded when [rtmpdump](https://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu/) is installed. Downloading MMS and RTSP videos requires either [mplayer](http://mplayerhq.hu/) or [mpv](https://mpv.io/) to be installed.
733 ### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
735 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as [mpv](https://mpv.io/), [vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or [mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
737 ### I extracted a video URL with `-g`, but it does not play on another machine / in my webbrowser.
739 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.
741 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.
743 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.
745 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.
747 ### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
749 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.
751 ### ERROR: unable to download video
753 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.
755 ### 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`
757 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).
759 For example if your URL is https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc you should end up with following command:
761 ```youtube-dl 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc'```
765 ```youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4\&v=BaW_jenozKc```
767 For Windows you have to use the double quotes:
769 ```youtube-dl "https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc"```
771 ### ExtractorError: Could not find JS function u'OF'
773 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.
775 ### HTTP Error 429: Too Many Requests or 402: Payment Required
777 These two error codes indicate that the service is blocking your IP address because of overuse. Contact the service and ask them to unblock your IP address, or - if you have acquired a whitelisted IP address already - use the [`--proxy` or `--source-address` options](#network-options) to select another IP address.
779 ### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character
783 File "youtube-dl", line 2
784 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\x93' ...
786 means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python 2.6 or 2.7.
788 ### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
790 Since June 2012 ([#342](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/342)) youtube-dl is packed as an executable zipfile, simply unzip it (might need renaming to `youtube-dl.zip` first on some systems) or clone the git repository, as laid out above. If you modify the code, you can run it by executing the `__main__.py` file. To recompile the executable, run `make youtube-dl`.
792 ### The exe throws an error due to missing `MSVCR100.dll`
794 To run the exe you need to install first the [Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x86)](https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/download/details.aspx?id=5555).
796 ### On Windows, how should I set up ffmpeg and youtube-dl? Where should I put the exe files?
798 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.
800 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.
802 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.
804 ### How do I put downloads into a specific folder?
806 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).
808 ### How do I download a video starting with a `-`?
810 Either prepend `http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=` or separate the ID from the options with `--`:
812 youtube-dl -- -wNyEUrxzFU
813 youtube-dl "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wNyEUrxzFU"
815 ### How do I pass cookies to youtube-dl?
817 Use the `--cookies` option, for example `--cookies /path/to/cookies/file.txt`. Note that the cookies file must be in Mozilla/Netscape format and the first line of the cookies file must be either `# HTTP Cookie File` or `# Netscape HTTP Cookie File`. Make sure you have correct [newline format](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newline) in the cookies file and convert newlines if necessary to correspond with your OS, namely `CRLF` (`\r\n`) for Windows, `LF` (`\n`) for Linux and `CR` (`\r`) for Mac OS. `HTTP Error 400: Bad Request` when using `--cookies` is a good sign of invalid newline format.
819 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).
821 ### Can you add support for this anime video site, or site which shows current movies for free?
823 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.
825 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.
827 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.
829 ### How can I speed up work on my issue?
831 (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:
833 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.
835 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.
837 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).
839 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`.
841 ### How can I detect whether a given URL is supported by youtube-dl?
843 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.
845 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.
847 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.
849 # Why do I need to go through that much red tape when filing bugs?
851 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 alrady 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.
853 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.
855 # DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS
857 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.
859 To run youtube-dl as a developer, you don't need to build anything either. Simply execute
863 To run the test, simply invoke your favorite test runner, or execute a test file directly; any of the following work:
865 python -m unittest discover
866 python test/test_download.py
869 If you want to create a build of youtube-dl yourself, you'll need
872 * make (both GNU make and BSD make are supported)
877 ### Adding support for a new site
879 If you want to add support for a new site, first of all **make sure** this site is **not dedicated to [copyright infringement](#can-you-add-support-for-this-anime-video-site-or-site-which-shows-current-movies-for-free)**. youtube-dl does **not support** such sites thus pull requests adding support for them **will be rejected**.
881 After you have ensured this site is distributing it's content legally, you can follow this quick list (assuming your service is called `yourextractor`):
883 1. [Fork this repository](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/fork)
884 2. Check out the source code with `git clone git@github.com:YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/youtube-dl.git`
885 3. Start a new git branch with `cd youtube-dl; git checkout -b yourextractor`
886 4. Start with this simple template and save it to `youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py`:
889 from __future__ import unicode_literals
891 from .common import InfoExtractor
894 class YourExtractorIE(InfoExtractor):
895 _VALID_URL = r'https?://(?:www\.)?yourextractor\.com/watch/(?P<id>[0-9]+)'
897 'url': 'http://yourextractor.com/watch/42',
898 'md5': 'TODO: md5 sum of the first 10241 bytes of the video file (use --test)',
902 'title': 'Video title goes here',
903 'thumbnail': 're:^https?://.*\.jpg$',
904 # TODO more properties, either as:
906 # * MD5 checksum; start the string with md5:
907 # * A regular expression; start the string with re:
908 # * Any Python type (for example int or float)
912 def _real_extract(self, url):
913 video_id = self._match_id(url)
914 webpage = self._download_webpage(url, video_id)
916 # TODO more code goes here, for example ...
917 title = self._html_search_regex(r'<h1>(.+?)</h1>', webpage, 'title')
922 'description': self._og_search_description(webpage),
923 'uploader': self._search_regex(r'<div[^>]+id="uploader"[^>]*>([^<]+)<', webpage, 'uploader', fatal=False),
924 # TODO more properties (see youtube_dl/extractor/common.py)
927 5. Add an import in [`youtube_dl/extractor/extractors.py`](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/extractors.py).
928 6. Run `python test/test_download.py TestDownload.test_YourExtractor`. This *should fail* at first, but you can continually re-run it until you're done. If you decide to add more than one test, then rename ``_TEST`` to ``_TESTS`` and make it into a list of dictionaries. The tests will then be named `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor`, `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_1`, `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_2`, etc.
929 7. Have a look at [`youtube_dl/extractor/common.py`](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py) for possible helper methods and a [detailed description of what your extractor should and may return](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/58525c94d547be1c8167d16c298bdd75506db328/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py#L68-L226). Add tests and code for as many as you want.
930 8. Keep in mind that the only mandatory fields in info dict for successful extraction process are `id`, `title` and either `url` or `formats`, i.e. these are the critical data the extraction does not make any sense without. This means that [any field](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/58525c94d547be1c8167d16c298bdd75506db328/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py#L138-L226) apart from aforementioned mandatory ones should be treated **as optional** and extraction should be **tolerate** to situations when sources for these fields can potentially be unavailable (even if they always available at the moment) and **future-proof** in order not to break the extraction of general purpose mandatory fields. For example, if you have some intermediate dict `meta` that is a source of metadata and it has a key `summary` that you want to extract and put into resulting info dict as `description`, you should be ready that this key may be missing from the `meta` dict, i.e. you should extract it as `meta.get('summary')` and not `meta['summary']`. Similarly, you should pass `fatal=False` when extracting data from a webpage with `_search_regex/_html_search_regex`.
931 9. Check the code with [flake8](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/flake8).
932 10. When the tests pass, [add](http://git-scm.com/docs/git-add) the new files and [commit](http://git-scm.com/docs/git-commit) them and [push](http://git-scm.com/docs/git-push) the result, like this:
934 $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/extractors.py
935 $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py
936 $ git commit -m '[yourextractor] Add new extractor'
937 $ git push origin yourextractor
939 11. Finally, [create a pull request](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-pull-request). We'll then review and merge it.
941 In any case, thank you very much for your contributions!
943 # EMBEDDING YOUTUBE-DL
945 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).
947 From a Python program, you can embed youtube-dl in a more powerful fashion, like this:
950 from __future__ import unicode_literals
954 with youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
955 ydl.download(['http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
958 Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of what can be done, have a look at [`youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py`](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py#L121-L269). For a start, if you want to intercept youtube-dl's output, set a `logger` object.
960 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:
963 from __future__ import unicode_literals
967 class MyLogger(object):
968 def debug(self, msg):
971 def warning(self, msg):
974 def error(self, msg):
979 if d['status'] == 'finished':
980 print('Done downloading, now converting ...')
984 'format': 'bestaudio/best',
986 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
987 'preferredcodec': 'mp3',
988 'preferredquality': '192',
990 'logger': MyLogger(),
991 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
993 with youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
994 ydl.download(['http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
999 Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: <https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues>. Unless you were prompted so or there is another pertinent reason (e.g. GitHub fails to accept the bug report), please do not send bug reports via personal email. For discussions, join us in the IRC channel [#youtube-dl](irc://chat.freenode.net/#youtube-dl) on freenode ([webchat](http://webchat.freenode.net/?randomnick=1&channels=youtube-dl)).
1001 **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:
1003 $ youtube-dl -v <your command line>
1004 [debug] System config: []
1005 [debug] User config: []
1006 [debug] Command-line args: [u'-v', u'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKcj']
1007 [debug] Encodings: locale cp1251, fs mbcs, out cp866, pref cp1251
1008 [debug] youtube-dl version 2015.12.06
1009 [debug] Git HEAD: 135392e
1010 [debug] Python version 2.6.6 - Windows-2003Server-5.2.3790-SP2
1011 [debug] exe versions: ffmpeg N-75573-g1d0487f, ffprobe N-75573-g1d0487f, rtmpdump 2.4
1012 [debug] Proxy map: {}
1015 **Do not post screenshots of verbose log only plain text is acceptable.**
1017 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.
1019 Please re-read your issue once again to avoid a couple of common mistakes (you can and should use this as a checklist):
1021 ### Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?
1023 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.
1025 So please elaborate on what feature you are requesting, or what bug you want to be fixed. Make sure that it's obvious
1027 - What the problem is
1028 - How it could be fixed
1029 - How your proposed solution would look like
1031 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.
1033 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.
1035 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/).
1037 **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.
1039 ### Are you using the latest version?
1041 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.
1043 ### Is the issue already documented?
1045 Make sure that someone has not already opened the issue you're trying to open. Search at the top of the window or browse the [GitHub Issues](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/search?type=Issues) of this repository. If there is an issue, feel free to write something along the lines of "This affects me as well, with version 2015.01.01. Here is some more information on the issue: ...". While some issues may be old, a new post into them often spurs rapid activity.
1047 ### Why are existing options not enough?
1049 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.
1051 ### Is there enough context in your bug report?
1053 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).
1055 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.
1057 ### Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?
1059 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.
1061 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.
1063 ### Is anyone going to need the feature?
1065 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.
1067 ### Is your question about youtube-dl?
1069 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.
1073 youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
1075 This README file was originally written by [Daniel Bolton](https://github.com/dbbolton) and is likewise released into the public domain.