4 youtube-dl [options] url [url...]
7 **youtube-dl** is a small command-line program to download videos from
8 YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version
9 2.x (x being at least 5), and it is not platform specific. It should work in
10 your Unix box, in Windows or in Mac OS X. It is released to the public domain,
11 which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
14 -h, --help print this help text and exit
15 -v, --version print program version and exit
16 -U, --update update this program to latest version
17 -i, --ignore-errors continue on download errors
18 -r, --rate-limit LIMIT download rate limit (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
19 -R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is 10)
20 --dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
21 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs they
25 --playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is 1)
26 --playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
27 --match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or caseless
29 --reject-title REGEX skip download for matching titles (regex or
31 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
33 ### Filesystem Options:
34 -t, --title use title in file name
35 -l, --literal use literal title in file name
36 -A, --auto-number number downloaded files starting from 00000
37 -o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(stitle)s to get the
38 title, %(uploader)s for the uploader name,
39 %(autonumber)s to get an automatically incremented
40 number, %(ext)s for the filename extension, and %%
42 -a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)
43 -w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
44 -c, --continue resume partially downloaded files
45 --no-continue do not resume partially downloaded files (restart
47 --cookies FILE file to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in
48 --no-part do not use .part files
49 --no-mtime do not use the Last-modified header to set the file
51 --write-description write video description to a .description file
52 --write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
54 ### Verbosity / Simulation Options:
55 -q, --quiet activates quiet mode
56 -s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write anything
58 --skip-download do not download the video
59 -g, --get-url simulate, quiet but print URL
60 -e, --get-title simulate, quiet but print title
61 --get-thumbnail simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
62 --get-description simulate, quiet but print video description
63 --get-filename simulate, quiet but print output filename
64 --get-format simulate, quiet but print output format
65 --no-progress do not print progress bar
66 --console-title display progress in console titlebar
68 ### Video Format Options:
69 -f, --format FORMAT video format code
70 --all-formats download all available video formats
71 --max-quality FORMAT highest quality format to download
72 -F, --list-formats list all available formats (currently youtube only)
74 ### Authentication Options:
75 -u, --username USERNAME account username
76 -p, --password PASSWORD account password
77 -n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
79 ### Post-processing Options:
80 --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files (requires
82 --audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis" or "mp3"; best by default
83 --audio-quality QUALITY ffmpeg audio bitrate specification, 128k by default
84 -k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the post-
85 processing; the video is erased by default
89 ### Can you please put the -b option back?
91 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.
93 ### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
95 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.
97 ### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
99 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as [vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or [mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
101 ### The links provided by youtube-dl -g are not working anymore
103 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.
105 ### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
107 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`.
111 youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
113 This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton (<https://github.com/dbbolton>) and is likewise released into the public domain.
117 Bugs and suggestions should be reported at: <https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues>
121 * 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.
122 * The output of `youtube-dl --version`
123 * The output of `python --version`
124 * The name and version of your Operating System ("Ubuntu 11.04 x64" or "Windows 7 x64" is usually enough).