-% youtube-dl(1)
+% YOUTUBE-DL(1)
# NAME
youtube-dl
-i, --ignore-errors continue on download errors
-r, --rate-limit LIMIT download rate limit (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
-R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is 10)
+ --buffer-size SIZE size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16k) (default
+ is 1024)
+ --no-resize-buffer do not automatically adjust the buffer size. By
+ default, the buffer size is automatically resized
+ from an initial value of SIZE.
--dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
--user-agent UA specify a custom user agent
--list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs they
would handle
-## Video Selection:
+ Video Selection:
--playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is 1)
--playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
--match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or caseless
caseless sub-string)
--max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
-## Filesystem Options:
+ Filesystem Options:
-t, --title use title in file name
--id use video ID in file name
-l, --literal [deprecated] alias of --title
-A, --auto-number number downloaded files starting from 00000
- -o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(stitle)s to get the
+ -o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(title)s to get the
title, %(uploader)s for the uploader name,
- %(autonumber)s to get an automatically incremented
- number, %(ext)s for the filename extension,
- %(upload_date)s for the upload date (YYYYMMDD),
- %(extractor)s for the provider (youtube, metacafe,
- etc), %(id)s for the video id and %% for a literal
- percent. Use - to output to stdout.
+ %(uploader_id)s for the uploader nickname if
+ different, %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
+ incremented number, %(ext)s for the filename
+ extension, %(upload_date)s for the upload date
+ (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
+ (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the video id
+ and %% for a literal percent. Use - to output to
+ stdout. Can also be used to download to a different
+ directory, for example with -o '/my/downloads/%(upl
+ oader)s/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
+ --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters, and
+ avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
-a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)
-w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
-c, --continue resume partially downloaded files
--write-description write video description to a .description file
--write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
-## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
+ Verbosity / Simulation Options:
-q, --quiet activates quiet mode
-s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write anything
to disk
--console-title display progress in console titlebar
-v, --verbose print various debugging information
-## Video Format Options:
+ Video Format Options:
-f, --format FORMAT video format code
--all-formats download all available video formats
--prefer-free-formats prefer free video formats unless a specific one is
--srt-lang LANG language of the closed captions to download
(optional) use IETF language tags like 'en'
-## Authentication Options:
+ Authentication Options:
-u, --username USERNAME account username
-p, --password PASSWORD account password
-n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
-## Post-processing Options:
+ Post-processing Options:
-x, --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files (requires
ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)
--audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", or "wav";
specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
-k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the post-
processing; the video is erased by default
+ --no-post-overwrites do not overwrite post-processed files; the post-
+ processed files are overwritten by default
+
+# CONFIGURATION
+
+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 `~/.local/config/youtube-dl.conf`.
+
+# OUTPUT TEMPLATE
+
+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:
+
+ - `id`: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier.
+ - `url`: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL.
+ - `uploader`: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the person who uploaded the video.
+ - `upload_date`: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date in YYYYMMDD format.
+ - `title`: The sequence will be replaced by the video title.
+ - `ext`: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension (like flv or mp4).
+ - `epoch`: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when creating the file.
+ - `autonumber`: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.
+
+The current default template is `%(id)s.%(ext)s`, but that will be switchted to `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` (which can be requested with `-t` at the moment).
+
+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:
+
+ $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
+ youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
+ $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
+ youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
# FAQ
The error
File "youtube-dl", line 2
- SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\x93' ...
+ SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\93' ...
means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python 2.6 or 2.7.
-To run youtube-dl under Python 2.5, you'll have to manually check it out like this:
-
- git clone git://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl.git
- cd youtube-dl
- python -m youtube_dl --help
-
-Please note that Python 2.5 is not supported anymore.
-
### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
-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 repo to see the code. If you modify the code, you can run it by executing the `__main__.py` file. To recompile the executable, run `make compile`.
+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`.
### The exe throws a *Runtime error from Visual C++*
Please include:
* Your exact command line, like `youtube-dl -t "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHlDtZ6Oc3s&feature=channel_video_title"`. A common mistake is not to escape the `&`. Putting URLs in quotes should solve this problem.
+* If possible re-run the command with `--verbose`, and include the full output, it is really helpful to us.
* The output of `youtube-dl --version`
* The output of `python --version`
* The name and version of your Operating System ("Ubuntu 11.04 x64" or "Windows 7 x64" is usually enough).
+
+For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.
projects / youtube-dl / blobdiff