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README.txt
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README.txt
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[Build Status]
youtube-dl - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms
- INSTALLATION
- DESCRIPTION
- OPTIONS
- CONFIGURATION
- OUTPUT TEMPLATE
- FORMAT SELECTION
- VIDEO SELECTION
- FAQ
- DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS
- EMBEDDING YOUTUBE-DL
- BUGS
- COPYRIGHT
INSTALLATION
To install it right away for all UNIX users (Linux, macOS, etc.), type:
sudo curl -L https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
If you do not have curl, you can alternatively use a recent wget:
sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
Windows users can download an .exe file and place it in any location on
their PATH except for %SYSTEMROOT%\System32 (e.g. DO NOT put in
C:\Windows\System32).
You can also use pip:
sudo -H pip install --upgrade youtube-dl
This command will update youtube-dl if you have already installed it.
See the pypi page for more information.
macOS users can install youtube-dl with Homebrew:
brew install youtube-dl
Or with MacPorts:
sudo port install youtube-dl
Alternatively, refer to the 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.
DESCRIPTION
YOUTUBE-DL is a command-line program to download videos from YouTube.com
and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version 2.6,
2.7, or 3.2+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on your
Unix box, on Windows or on macOS. It is released to the public domain,
which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you
like.
youtube-dl [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
OPTIONS
-h, --help Print this help text and exit
--version Print program version and exit
-U, --update Update this program to latest version.
Make sure that you have sufficient
permissions (run with sudo if needed)
-i, --ignore-errors Continue on download errors, for
example to skip unavailable videos in a
playlist
--abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos (in
the playlist or the command line) if an
error occurs
--dump-user-agent Display the current browser
identification
--list-extractors List all supported extractors
--extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
extractors
--force-generic-extractor Force extraction to use the generic
extractor
--default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs.
For example "gvsearch2:" downloads two
videos from google videos for youtube-
dl "large apple". Use the value "auto"
to let youtube-dl guess ("auto_warning"
to emit a warning when guessing).
"error" just throws an error. The
default value "fixup_error" repairs
broken URLs, but emits an error if this
is not possible instead of searching.
--ignore-config Do not read configuration files. When
given in the global configuration file
/etc/youtube-dl.conf: Do not read the
user configuration in
~/.config/youtube-dl/config
(%APPDATA%/youtube-dl/config.txt on
Windows)
--config-location PATH Location of the configuration file;
either the path to the config or its
containing directory.
--flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a
playlist, only list them.
--mark-watched Mark videos watched (YouTube only)
--no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (YouTube
only)
--no-color Do not emit color codes in output
Network Options:
--proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS
proxy. To enable SOCKS proxy, specify a
proper scheme. For example
socks5://127.0.0.1:1080/. Pass in an
empty string (--proxy "") for direct
connection
--socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in
seconds
--source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
-4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
-6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
Geo Restriction:
--geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address
for some geo-restricted sites. The
default proxy specified by --proxy (or
none, if the option is not present) is
used for the actual downloading.
--geo-bypass Bypass geographic restriction via
faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
--no-geo-bypass Do not bypass geographic restriction
via faking X-Forwarded-For HTTP header
--geo-bypass-country CODE Force bypass geographic restriction
with explicitly provided two-letter ISO
3166-2 country code
--geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK Force bypass geographic restriction
with explicitly provided IP block in
CIDR notation
Video Selection:
--playlist-start NUMBER Playlist video to start at (default is
1)
--playlist-end NUMBER Playlist video to end at (default is
last)
--playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Playlist video items to download.
Specify indices of the videos in the
playlist separated by commas like: "--
playlist-items 1,2,5,8" 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
download the videos at index 1, 2, 3,
7, 10, 11, 12 and 13.
--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)
--max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
--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)
--date DATE Download only videos uploaded in this
date
--datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or
before this date (i.e. inclusive)
--dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or
after this date (i.e. inclusive)
--min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less
than COUNT views
--max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more
than COUNT views
--match-filter FILTER Generic video filter. Specify any key
(see the "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a list
of available keys) to match if the key
is present, !key to check if the key is
not present, key > NUMBER (like
"comment_count > 12", also works with
>=, <, <=, !=, =) to compare against a
number, key = 'LITERAL' (like "uploader
= 'Mike Smith'", also works with !=) to
match against a string literal and & to
require multiple matches. Values which
are not known are excluded unless you
put a question mark (?) after the
operator. For example, to only match
videos that have been liked more than
100 times and disliked less than 50
times (or the dislike functionality is
not available at the given service),
but who also have a description, use
--match-filter "like_count > 100 &
dislike_count <? 50 & description" .
--no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL
refers to a video and a playlist.
--yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL
refers to a video and a playlist.
--age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the
given age
--download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
archive file. Record the IDs of all
downloaded videos in it.
--include-ads Download advertisements as well
(experimental)
Download Options:
-r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per
second (e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
-R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
"infinite".
--fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment
(default is 10), or "infinite" (DASH,
hlsnative and ISM)
--skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments (DASH,
hlsnative and ISM)
--abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading when some fragment is
not available
--keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
downloading is finished; fragments are
erased by default
--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.
--http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
downloading (e.g. 10485760 or 10M)
(default is disabled). May be useful
for bypassing bandwidth throttling
imposed by a webserver (experimental)
--playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse
order
--playlist-random Download playlist videos in random
order
--xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
expected file size
--hls-prefer-native Use the native HLS downloader instead
of ffmpeg
--hls-prefer-ffmpeg Use ffmpeg instead of the native HLS
downloader
--hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS
videos, allowing to play the video
while downloading (some players may not
be able to play it)
--external-downloader COMMAND Use the specified external downloader.
Currently supports aria2c,avconv,axel,c
url,ffmpeg,httpie,wget
--external-downloader-args ARGS Give these arguments to the external
downloader
Filesystem Options:
-a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ('-'
for stdin), one URL per line. Lines
starting with '#', ';' or ']' are
considered as comments and ignored.
--id Use only video ID in file name
-o, --output TEMPLATE Output filename template, see the
"OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for all the info
--output-na-placeholder PLACEHOLDER Placeholder value for unavailable meta
fields in output filename template
(default is "NA")
--autonumber-start NUMBER Specify the start value for
%(autonumber)s (default is 1)
--restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
filenames
-w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite files
-c, --continue Force resume of partially downloaded
files. By default, youtube-dl will
resume downloads if possible.
--no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
files (restart from beginning)
--no-part Do not use .part files - write directly
into output file
--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
--write-annotations Write video annotations to a
.annotations.xml file
--load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video
information (created with the "--write-
info-json" option)
--cookies FILE File to read cookies from and dump
cookie jar in
--cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where
youtube-dl can store some downloaded
information permanently. By default
$XDG_CACHE_HOME/youtube-dl or
~/.cache/youtube-dl . At the moment,
only YouTube player files (for videos
with obfuscated signatures) are cached,
but that may change.
--no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
--rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
Thumbnail images:
--write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
--write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to
disk
--list-thumbnails Simulate and list all available
thumbnail formats
Verbosity / Simulation Options:
-q, --quiet Activate quiet mode
--no-warnings Ignore warnings
-s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not
write anything to disk
--skip-download Do not download the video
-g, --get-url Simulate, quiet but print URL
-e, --get-title Simulate, quiet but print title
--get-id Simulate, quiet but print id
--get-thumbnail Simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
--get-description Simulate, quiet but print video
description
--get-duration Simulate, quiet but print video length
--get-filename Simulate, quiet but print output
filename
--get-format Simulate, quiet but print output format
-j, --dump-json Simulate, quiet but print JSON
information. See the "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
for a description of available keys.
-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
information in a single line.
--print-json Be quiet and print the video
information as JSON (video is still
being downloaded).
--newline Output progress bar as new lines
--no-progress Do not print progress bar
--console-title Display progress in console titlebar
-v, --verbose Print various debugging information
--dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using
base64 to debug problems (very verbose)
--write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
files in the current directory to debug
problems
--print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
-C, --call-home Contact the youtube-dl server for
debugging
--no-call-home Do NOT contact the youtube-dl server
for debugging
Workarounds:
--encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding
(experimental)
--no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
--prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to
retrieve information about the video.
(Currently supported only for YouTube)
--user-agent UA Specify a custom user agent
--referer URL Specify a custom referer, use if the
video access is restricted to one
domain
--add-header FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its
value, separated by a colon ':'. You
can use this option multiple times
--bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
bidirectional text support. Requires
bidiv or fribidi executable in PATH
--sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
download when used alone or a lower
bound of a range for randomized sleep
before each download (minimum possible
number of seconds to sleep) when used
along with --max-sleep-interval.
--max-sleep-interval SECONDS Upper bound of a range for randomized
sleep before each download (maximum
possible number of seconds to sleep).
Must only be used along with --min-
sleep-interval.
Video Format Options:
-f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see the "FORMAT
SELECTION" for all the info
--all-formats Download all available video formats
--prefer-free-formats Prefer free video formats unless a
specific one is requested
-F, --list-formats List all available formats of requested
videos
--youtube-skip-dash-manifest Do not download the DASH manifests and
related data on YouTube videos
--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 merge is
required
Subtitle Options:
--write-sub Write subtitle file
--write-auto-sub Write automatically generated subtitle
file (YouTube only)
--all-subs Download all the available subtitles of
the video
--list-subs List all available subtitles for the
video
--sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format, accepts formats
preference, for example: "srt" or
"ass/srt/best"
--sub-lang LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download
(optional) separated by commas, use
--list-subs for available language tags
Authentication Options:
-u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
-p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is
left out, youtube-dl will ask
interactively.
-2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
-n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
--video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
Adobe Pass Options:
--ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso
for a list of available MSOs
--ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
--ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account
password. If this option is left out,
youtube-dl will ask interactively.
--ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system
operators
Post-processing Options:
-x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
(requires ffmpeg/avconv and
ffprobe/avprobe)
--audio-format FORMAT Specify audio format: "best", "aac",
"flac", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", "vorbis",
or "wav"; "best" by default; No effect
without -x
--audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg/avconv audio quality,
insert a value between 0 (better) and 9
(worse) for VBR or a specific bitrate
like 128K (default 5)
--recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if
necessary (currently supported:
mp4|flv|ogg|webm|mkv|avi)
--postprocessor-args ARGS Give these arguments to the
postprocessor
-k, --keep-video Keep 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
--embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for
mp4, webm and mkv videos)
--embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the audio as cover
art
--add-metadata Write metadata to the video file
--metadata-from-title FORMAT Parse additional metadata like song
title / artist from the video title.
The format syntax is the same as
--output. Regular expression with named
capture groups may also be used. The
parsed parameters replace existing
values. Example: --metadata-from-title
"%(artist)s - %(title)s" matches a
title like "Coldplay - Paradise".
Example (regex): --metadata-from-title
"(?P<artist>.+?) - (?P<title>.+)"
--xattrs Write metadata to the video file's
xattrs (using dublin core and xdg
standards)
--fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of
the file. One of never (do nothing),
warn (only emit a warning),
detect_or_warn (the default; fix file
if we can, warn otherwise)
--prefer-avconv Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running
the postprocessors
--prefer-ffmpeg Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running
the postprocessors (default)
--ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg/avconv binary;
either the path to the binary or its
containing directory.
--exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
downloading and post-processing,
similar to find's -exec syntax.
Example: --exec 'adb push {}
/sdcard/Music/ && rm {}'
--convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to other format
(currently supported: srt|ass|vtt|lrc)
CONFIGURATION
You can configure youtube-dl by placing any supported command line
option to a configuration file. On Linux and macOS, the system wide
configuration file is located at /etc/youtube-dl.conf and the user wide
configuration file at ~/.config/youtube-dl/config. On Windows, the user
wide configuration file locations are %APPDATA%\youtube-dl\config.txt or
C:\Users\<user name>\youtube-dl.conf. Note that by default configuration
file may not exist so you may need to create it yourself.
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:
# Lines starting with # are comments
# Always extract audio
-x
# Do not copy the mtime
--no-mtime
# Use this proxy
--proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
# Save all videos under Movies directory in your home directory
-o ~/Movies/%(title)s.%(ext)s
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.
You can use --ignore-config if you want to disable the configuration
file for a particular youtube-dl run.
You can also use --config-location if you want to use custom
configuration file for a particular youtube-dl run.
Authentication with .netrc file
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 on a per extractor basis. For that you
will need to create a .netrc file in your $HOME and restrict permissions
to read/write by only you:
touch $HOME/.netrc
chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc
After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following
format, where _extractor_ is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
machine <extractor> login <login> password <password>
For example:
machine youtube login [email protected] password my_youtube_password
machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
To activate authentication with the .netrc file you should pass --netrc
to youtube-dl or place it in the configuration file.
On Windows you may also need to setup the %HOME% environment variable
manually. For example:
set HOME=%USERPROFILE%
OUTPUT TEMPLATE
The -o option allows users to indicate a template for the output file
names.
TL;DR: navigate me to examples.
The basic usage is not to set any template arguments when downloading a
single file, like in youtube-dl -o funny_video.flv "https://some/video".
However, it may contain special sequences that will be replaced when
downloading each video. The special sequences may be formatted according
to python string formatting operations. For example, %(NAME)s or
%(NAME)05d. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in
parentheses, followed by formatting operations. Allowed names along with
sequence type are:
- id (string): Video identifier
- title (string): Video title
- url (string): Video URL
- ext (string): Video filename extension
- alt_title (string): A secondary title of the video
- display_id (string): An alternative identifier for the video
- uploader (string): Full name of the video uploader
- license (string): License name the video is licensed under
- creator (string): The creator of the video
- release_date (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was
released
- timestamp (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became
available
- upload_date (string): Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)
- uploader_id (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
- channel (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
- channel_id (string): Id of the channel
- location (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
- duration (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
- view_count (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the
platform
- like_count (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
- dislike_count (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
- repost_count (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
- average_rating (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale
used depends on the webpage
- comment_count (numeric): Number of comments on the video
- age_limit (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
- is_live (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a
fixed-length video
- start_time (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should
start, as specified in the URL
- end_time (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should
end, as specified in the URL
- format (string): A human-readable description of the format
- format_id (string): Format code specified by --format
- format_note (string): Additional info about the format
- width (numeric): Width of the video
- height (numeric): Height of the video
- resolution (string): Textual description of width and height
- tbr (numeric): Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
- abr (numeric): Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
- acodec (string): Name of the audio codec in use
- asr (numeric): Audio sampling rate in Hertz
- vbr (numeric): Average video bitrate in KBit/s
- fps (numeric): Frame rate
- vcodec (string): Name of the video codec in use
- container (string): Name of the container format
- filesize (numeric): The number of bytes, if known in advance
- filesize_approx (numeric): An estimate for the number of bytes
- protocol (string): The protocol that will be used for the actual
download
- extractor (string): Name of the extractor
- extractor_key (string): Key name of the extractor
- epoch (numeric): Unix epoch when creating the file
- autonumber (numeric): Number that will be increased with each
download, starting at --autonumber-start
- playlist (string): Name or id of the playlist that contains the
video
- playlist_index (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded
with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
- playlist_id (string): Playlist identifier
- playlist_title (string): Playlist title
- playlist_uploader (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
- playlist_uploader_id (string): Nickname or id of the playlist
uploader
Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
- chapter (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
- chapter_number (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
- chapter_id (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
- series (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode
belongs to
- season (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
- season_number (numeric): Number of the season the video episode
belongs to
- season_id (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
- episode (string): Title of the video episode
- episode_number (numeric): Number of the video episode within a
season
- episode_id (string): Id of the video episode
Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
- track (string): Title of the track
- track_number (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a
disc
- track_id (string): Id of the track
- artist (string): Artist(s) of the track
- genre (string): Genre(s) of the track
- album (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
- album_type (string): Type of the album
- album_artist (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
- disc_number (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium
the track belongs to
- release_year (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will
be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. Note
that some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they
depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor. Such
sequences will be replaced with placeholder value provided with
--output-na-placeholder (NA by default).
For example for -o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s and an mp4 video with title
youtube-dl test video and id BaW_jenozKcj, this will result in a
youtube-dl test video-BaW_jenozKcj.mp4 file created in the current
directory.
For numeric sequences you can use numeric related formatting, for
example, %(view_count)05d will result in a string with view count padded
with zeros up to 5 characters, like in 00042.
Output templates can also contain arbitrary hierarchical path, e.g.
-o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' which will
result in downloading each video in a directory corresponding to this
path template. Any missing directory will be automatically created for
you.
To use percent literals in an output template use %%. To output to
stdout use -o -.
The current default template is %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s.
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:
Output template and Windows batch files
If you are using an output template inside a Windows batch file then you
must escape plain percent characters (%) by doubling, so that
-o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s" should become
-o "%%(title)s-%%(id)s.%%(ext)s". However you should not touch %'s that
are not plain characters, e.g. environment variables for expansion
should stay intact: -o "C:\%HOMEPATH%\Desktop\%%(title)s.%%(ext)s".
Output template examples
Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of
single.
$ 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
# Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
$ youtube-dl -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re
# Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
$ youtube-dl -o '%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists
# Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
$ 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/
# Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
$ youtube-dl -o "C:/MyVideos/%(series)s/%(season_number)s - %(season)s/%(episode_number)s - %(episode)s.%(ext)s" https://videomore.ru/kino_v_detalayah/5_sezon/367617
# Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
$ youtube-dl -o - BaW_jenozKc
FORMAT SELECTION
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.
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.
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.
TL;DR: navigate me to examples.
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.
You can also use a file extension (currently 3gp, aac, flv, m4a, mp3,
mp4, ogg, wav, webm are supported) to download the best quality format
of a particular file extension served as a single file, e.g. -f webm
will download the best quality format with the webm extension served as
a single file.
You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
- best: Select the best quality format represented by a single file
with video and audio.
- worst: Select the worst quality format represented by a single file
with video and audio.
- bestvideo: Select the best quality video-only format (e.g. DASH
video). May not be available.
- worstvideo: Select the worst quality video-only format. May not be
available.
- bestaudio: Select the best quality audio only-format. May not be
available.
- worstaudio: Select the worst quality audio only-format. May not be
available.
For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use
-f worstvideo.
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.
If you want to download several formats of the same video use a comma as
a separator, e.g. -f 22,17,18 will download all these three formats, of
course if they are available. Or a more sophisticated example combined
with the precedence feature: -f 136/137/mp4/bestvideo,140/m4a/bestaudio.
You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in
brackets, as in -f "best[height=720]" (or -f "[filesize>10M]").
The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons <, <=, >,
>=, = (equals), != (not equals):
- filesize: The number of bytes, if known in advance
- width: Width of the video, if known
- height: Height of the video, if known
- tbr: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
- abr: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
- vbr: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
- asr: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
- fps: Frame rate
Also filtering work for comparisons = (equals), ^= (starts with), $=
(ends with), *= (contains) and following string meta fields:
- ext: File extension
- acodec: Name of the audio codec in use
- vcodec: Name of the video codec in use
- container: Name of the container format
- protocol: The protocol that will be used for the actual download,
lower-case (http, https, rtsp, rtmp, rtmpe, mms, f4m, ism,
http_dash_segments, m3u8, or m3u8_native)
- format_id: A short description of the format
- language: Language code
Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation ! in order to
produce an opposite comparison, e.g. !*= (does not contain).
Note that none of the aforementioned meta fields are guaranteed to be
present since this solely depends on the metadata obtained by particular
extractor, i.e. the metadata offered by the video hoster.
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.
You can merge the video and audio of two formats into a single file
using -f <video-format>+<audio-format> (requires ffmpeg or avconv
installed), for example -f bestvideo+bestaudio will download the best
video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with
ffmpeg/avconv.
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]'.
Since the end of April 2015 and version 2015.04.26, youtube-dl uses
-f bestvideo+bestaudio/best as the default format selection (see #5447,
#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.
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 in order not to type it every time you run youtube-dl.
Format selection examples
Note that on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of
single.
# Download best mp4 format available or any other best if no mp4 available
$ youtube-dl -f 'bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/best[ext=mp4]/best'
# Download best format available but no better than 480p
$ youtube-dl -f 'bestvideo[height<=480]+bestaudio/best[height<=480]'
# Download best video only format but no bigger than 50 MB
$ youtube-dl -f 'best[filesize<50M]'
# Download best format available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol
$ youtube-dl -f '(bestvideo+bestaudio/best)[protocol^=http]'
# Download the best video format and the best audio format without merging them
$ youtube-dl -f 'bestvideo,bestaudio' -o '%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s'
Note that in the last example, an output template is recommended as
bestvideo and bestaudio may have the same file name.
VIDEO SELECTION
Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options --date,
--datebefore or --dateafter. They accept dates in two formats:
- Absolute dates: Dates in the format YYYYMMDD.
- Relative dates: Dates in the format
(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?
Examples:
# Download only the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
$ youtube-dl --dateafter now-6months
# Download only the videos uploaded on January 1, 1970
$ youtube-dl --date 19700101
$ # Download only the videos uploaded in the 200x decade
$ youtube-dl --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20091231
FAQ
How do I update youtube-dl?
If you've followed our manual installation instructions, you can simply
run youtube-dl -U (or, on Linux, sudo youtube-dl -U).
If you have used pip, a simple sudo pip install -U youtube-dl is
sufficient to update.
If you have installed youtube-dl using a package manager like _apt-get_
or _yum_, use the standard system update mechanism to update. Note that
distribution packages are often outdated. As a rule of thumb, youtube-dl
releases at least once a month, and often weekly or even daily. Simply
go to https://yt-dl.org to find out the current version. Unfortunately,
there is nothing we youtube-dl developers can do if your distribution
serves a really outdated version. You can (and should) complain to your
distribution in their bugtracker or support forum.
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
sudo apt-get remove -y youtube-dl
Afterwards, simply follow our manual installation instructions: