youtube-dl/README.md

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% YOUTUBE-DL(1)
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# NAME
youtube-dl
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# SYNOPSIS
**youtube-dl** [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
# DESCRIPTION
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**youtube-dl** is a small command-line program to download videos from
YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version
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2.6, 2.7, or 3.3+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on
your Unix box, on Windows or on Mac OS X. It is released to the public domain,
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which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
# OPTIONS
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-h, --help print this help text and exit
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--version print program version and exit
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-U, --update update this program to latest version
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-i, --ignore-errors continue on download errors
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-r, --rate-limit LIMIT maximum download rate (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
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-R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is 10)
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--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.
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--dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
--user-agent UA specify a custom user agent
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--list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs they
would handle
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## Video Selection:
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--playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is 1)
--playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
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--match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or caseless
sub-string)
--reject-title REGEX skip download for matching titles (regex or
caseless sub-string)
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--max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
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--min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE (e.g.
50k or 44.6m)
--max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE (e.g.
50k or 44.6m)
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## Filesystem Options:
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-t, --title use title in file name
--id use video ID in file name
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-l, --literal [deprecated] alias of --title
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-A, --auto-number number downloaded files starting from 00000
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-o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(title)s to get the
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title, %(uploader)s for the uploader name,
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%(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
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-a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)
-w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
-c, --continue resume partially downloaded files
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--no-continue do not resume partially downloaded files (restart
from beginning)
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--cookies FILE file to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in
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--no-part do not use .part files
--no-mtime do not use the Last-modified header to set the file
modification time
--write-description write video description to a .description file
--write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
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## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
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-q, --quiet activates quiet mode
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-s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write anything
to disk
--skip-download do not download the video
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-g, --get-url simulate, quiet but print URL
-e, --get-title simulate, quiet but print title
--get-thumbnail simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
--get-description simulate, quiet but print video description
--get-filename simulate, quiet but print output filename
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--get-format simulate, quiet but print output format
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--newline output progress bar as new lines
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--no-progress do not print progress bar
--console-title display progress in console titlebar
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-v, --verbose print various debugging information
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## Video Format Options:
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-f, --format FORMAT video format code
--all-formats download all available video formats
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--prefer-free-formats prefer free video formats unless a specific one is
requested
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--max-quality FORMAT highest quality format to download
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-F, --list-formats list all available formats (currently youtube only)
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--write-sub write subtitle file (currently youtube only)
--only-sub downloads only the subtitles (no video)
--all-subs downloads all the available subtitles of the video
(currently youtube only)
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--list-subs lists all available subtitles for the video
(currently youtube only)
--sub-format LANG subtitle format [srt/sbv] (default=srt) (currently
youtube only)
--sub-lang LANG language of the subtitles to download (optional)
use IETF language tags like 'en'
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## Authentication Options:
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-u, --username USERNAME account username
-p, --password PASSWORD account password
-n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
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## Post-processing Options:
-x, --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files (requires
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ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)
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--audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", or
"wav"; best by default
--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 (default 5)
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--recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if necessary
(currently supported: mp4|flv|ogg|webm)
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-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
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# CONFIGURATION
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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.conf`.
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# 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.
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- `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.
- `playlist`: The name or the id of the playlist that contains the video.
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
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### Can you please put the -b option back?
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.
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### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
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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.
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### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as [vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or [mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
### The links provided by youtube-dl -g are not working anymore
The URLs youtube-dl outputs require the downloader to have the correct 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.
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### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
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youtube has switched to a new video info format in July 2011 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl with `sudo youtube-dl --update`.
### ERROR: unable to download video ###
youtube requires an additional signature since September 2012 which is not supported by old versions of youtube-dl. You can update youtube-dl with `sudo youtube-dl --update`.
### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character ###
The error
File "youtube-dl", line 2
SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\x93' ...
means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python 2.6 or 2.7.
### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
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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`.
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### The exe throws a *Runtime error from Visual C++*
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).
# COPYRIGHT
youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton (<https://github.com/dbbolton>) and is likewise released into the public domain.
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# BUGS
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Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: <https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues>
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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.
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* 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).
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For discussions, join us in the irc channel #youtube-dl on freenode.