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 - [VIDEO SELECTION](#video-selection)
10 - [DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS](#developer-instructions)
12 - [COPYRIGHT](#copyright)
16 To install it right away for all UNIX users (Linux, OS X, etc.), type:
18 sudo curl https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
19 sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
21 If you do not have curl, you can alternatively use a recent wget:
23 sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
24 sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
26 Windows users can [download a .exe file](https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl.exe) and place it in their home directory or any other location on their [PATH](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PATH_%28variable%29).
28 OS X users can install **youtube-dl** with [Homebrew](http://brew.sh/).
30 brew install youtube-dl
34 sudo pip install youtube-dl
36 Alternatively, refer to the developer instructions below for how to check out and work with the git repository. For further options, including PGP signatures, see https://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html .
39 **youtube-dl** is a small command-line program to download videos from
40 YouTube.com and a few more sites. It requires the Python interpreter, version
41 2.6, 2.7, or 3.2+, and it is not platform specific. It should work on
42 your Unix box, on Windows or on Mac OS X. It is released to the public domain,
43 which means you can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.
45 youtube-dl [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
48 -h, --help print this help text and exit
49 --version print program version and exit
50 -U, --update update this program to latest version. Make
51 sure that you have sufficient permissions
52 (run with sudo if needed)
53 -i, --ignore-errors continue on download errors, for example to
54 skip unavailable videos in a playlist
55 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos (in the
56 playlist or the command line) if an error
58 --dump-user-agent display the current browser identification
59 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and the URLs
61 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
63 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. For
64 example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos
65 from google videos for youtube-dl "large
66 apple". Use the value "auto" to let
67 youtube-dl guess ("auto_warning" to emit a
68 warning when guessing). "error" just throws
69 an error. The default value "fixup_error"
70 repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if
71 this is not possible instead of searching.
72 --ignore-config Do not read configuration files. When given
73 in the global configuration file /etc
74 /youtube-dl.conf: Do not read the user
75 configuration in ~/.config/youtube-
76 dl/config (%APPDATA%/youtube-dl/config.txt
78 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
82 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy. Pass in
83 an empty string (--proxy "") for direct
85 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
86 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
88 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
90 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
94 --playlist-start NUMBER playlist video to start at (default is 1)
95 --playlist-end NUMBER playlist video to end at (default is last)
96 --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC playlist video items to download. Specify
97 indices of the videos in the playlist
98 seperated by commas like: "--playlist-items
99 1,2,5,8" if you want to download videos
100 indexed 1, 2, 5, 8 in the playlist. You can
101 specify range: "--playlist-items
102 1-3,7,10-13", it will download the videos
103 at index 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13.
104 --match-title REGEX download only matching titles (regex or
106 --reject-title REGEX skip download for matching titles (regex or
108 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
109 --min-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos smaller than
110 SIZE (e.g. 50k or 44.6m)
111 --max-filesize SIZE Do not download any videos larger than SIZE
113 --date DATE download only videos uploaded in this date
114 --datebefore DATE download only videos uploaded on or before
115 this date (i.e. inclusive)
116 --dateafter DATE download only videos uploaded on or after
117 this date (i.e. inclusive)
118 --min-views COUNT Do not download any videos with less than
120 --max-views COUNT Do not download any videos with more than
122 --match-filter FILTER (Experimental) Generic video filter.
123 Specify any key (see help for -o for a list
124 of available keys) to match if the key is
125 present, !key to check if the key is not
126 present,key > NUMBER (like "comment_count >
127 12", also works with >=, <, <=, !=, =) to
128 compare against a number, and & to require
129 multiple matches. Values which are not
130 known are excluded unless you put a
131 question mark (?) after the operator.For
132 example, to only match videos that have
133 been liked more than 100 times and disliked
134 less than 50 times (or the dislike
135 functionality is not available at the given
136 service), but who also have a description,
137 use --match-filter "like_count > 100 &
138 dislike_count <? 50 & description" .
139 --no-playlist If the URL refers to a video and a
140 playlist, download only the video.
141 --age-limit YEARS download only videos suitable for the given
143 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
144 archive file. Record the IDs of all
145 downloaded videos in it.
146 --include-ads Download advertisements as well
150 -r, --rate-limit LIMIT maximum download rate in bytes per second
152 -R, --retries RETRIES number of retries (default is 10), or
154 --buffer-size SIZE size of download buffer (e.g. 1024 or 16K)
156 --no-resize-buffer do not automatically adjust the buffer
157 size. By default, the buffer size is
158 automatically resized from an initial value
160 --playlist-reverse Download playlist videos in reverse order
161 --xattr-set-filesize (experimental) set file xattribute
162 ytdl.filesize with expected filesize
163 --external-downloader COMMAND (experimental) Use the specified external
164 downloader. Currently supports
167 ## Filesystem Options:
168 -a, --batch-file FILE file containing URLs to download ('-' for
170 --id use only video ID in file name
171 -o, --output TEMPLATE output filename template. Use %(title)s to
172 get the title, %(uploader)s for the
173 uploader name, %(uploader_id)s for the
174 uploader nickname if different,
175 %(autonumber)s to get an automatically
176 incremented number, %(ext)s for the
177 filename extension, %(format)s for the
178 format description (like "22 - 1280x720" or
179 "HD"), %(format_id)s for the unique id of
180 the format (like Youtube's itags: "137"),
181 %(upload_date)s for the upload date
182 (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider
183 (youtube, metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the
184 video id, %(playlist_title)s,
185 %(playlist_id)s, or %(playlist)s (=title if
186 present, ID otherwise) for the playlist the
187 video is in, %(playlist_index)s for the
188 position in the playlist. %(height)s and
189 %(width)s for the width and height of the
190 video format. %(resolution)s for a textual
191 description of the resolution of the video
192 format. %% for a literal percent. Use - to
193 output to stdout. Can also be used to
194 download to a different directory, for
195 example with -o '/my/downloads/%(uploader)s
196 /%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .
197 --autonumber-size NUMBER Specifies the number of digits in
198 %(autonumber)s when it is present in output
199 filename template or --auto-number option
201 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII
202 characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in
204 -A, --auto-number [deprecated; use -o
205 "%(autonumber)s-%(title)s.%(ext)s" ] number
206 downloaded files starting from 00000
207 -t, --title [deprecated] use title in file name
209 -l, --literal [deprecated] alias of --title
210 -w, --no-overwrites do not overwrite files
211 -c, --continue force resume of partially downloaded files.
212 By default, youtube-dl will resume
213 downloads if possible.
214 --no-continue do not resume partially downloaded files
215 (restart from beginning)
216 --no-part do not use .part files - write directly
218 --no-mtime do not use the Last-modified header to set
219 the file modification time
220 --write-description write video description to a .description
222 --write-info-json write video metadata to a .info.json file
223 --write-annotations write video annotations to a .annotation
225 --load-info FILE json file containing the video information
226 (created with the "--write-json" option)
227 --cookies FILE file to read cookies from and dump cookie
229 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl
230 can store some downloaded information
231 permanently. By default $XDG_CACHE_HOME
232 /youtube-dl or ~/.cache/youtube-dl . At the
233 moment, only YouTube player files (for
234 videos with obfuscated signatures) are
235 cached, but that may change.
236 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
237 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
240 --write-thumbnail write thumbnail image to disk
241 --write-all-thumbnails write all thumbnail image formats to disk
242 --list-thumbnails Simulate and list all available thumbnail
245 ## Verbosity / Simulation Options:
246 -q, --quiet activates quiet mode
247 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
248 -s, --simulate do not download the video and do not write
250 --skip-download do not download the video
251 -g, --get-url simulate, quiet but print URL
252 -e, --get-title simulate, quiet but print title
253 --get-id simulate, quiet but print id
254 --get-thumbnail simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL
255 --get-description simulate, quiet but print video description
256 --get-duration simulate, quiet but print video length
257 --get-filename simulate, quiet but print output filename
258 --get-format simulate, quiet but print output format
259 -j, --dump-json simulate, quiet but print JSON information.
260 See --output for a description of available
262 -J, --dump-single-json simulate, quiet but print JSON information
263 for each command-line argument. If the URL
264 refers to a playlist, dump the whole
265 playlist information in a single line.
266 --print-json Be quiet and print the video information as
267 JSON (video is still being downloaded).
268 --newline output progress bar as new lines
269 --no-progress do not print progress bar
270 --console-title display progress in console titlebar
271 -v, --verbose print various debugging information
272 --dump-intermediate-pages print downloaded pages to debug problems
274 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to
275 files in the current directory to debug
277 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
278 -C, --call-home Contact the youtube-dl server for
280 --no-call-home Do NOT contact the youtube-dl server for
284 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
285 --no-check-certificate Suppress HTTPS certificate validation.
286 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
287 information about the video. (Currently
288 supported only for YouTube)
289 --user-agent UA specify a custom user agent
290 --referer URL specify a custom referer, use if the video
291 access is restricted to one domain
292 --add-header FIELD:VALUE specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
293 separated by a colon ':'. You can use this
294 option multiple times
295 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
296 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
297 or fribidi executable in PATH
298 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
301 ## Video Format Options:
302 -f, --format FORMAT video format code, specify the order of
303 preference using slashes, as in -f 22/17/18
304 . Instead of format codes, you can select
305 by extension for the extensions aac, m4a,
306 mp3, mp4, ogg, wav, webm. You can also use
307 the special names "best", "bestvideo",
308 "bestaudio", "worst". You can filter the
309 video results by putting a condition in
310 brackets, as in -f "best[height=720]" (or
311 -f "[filesize>10M]"). This works for
312 filesize, height, width, tbr, abr, vbr,
313 asr, and fps and the comparisons <, <=, >,
314 >=, =, != and for ext, acodec, vcodec,
315 container, and protocol and the comparisons
316 =, != . Formats for which the value is not
317 known are excluded unless you put a
318 question mark (?) after the operator. You
319 can combine format filters, so -f "[height
320 <=? 720][tbr>500]" selects up to 720p
321 videos (or videos where the height is not
322 known) with a bitrate of at least 500
323 KBit/s. By default, youtube-dl will pick
324 the best quality. Use commas to download
325 multiple audio formats, such as -f
326 136/137/mp4/bestvideo,140/m4a/bestaudio.
327 You can merge the video and audio of two
328 formats into a single file using -f <video-
329 format>+<audio-format> (requires ffmpeg or
330 avconv), for example -f
332 --all-formats download all available video formats
333 --prefer-free-formats prefer free video formats unless a specific
335 --max-quality FORMAT highest quality format to download
336 -F, --list-formats list all available formats
337 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest Do not download the DASH manifest on
339 --merge-output-format FORMAT If a merge is required (e.g.
340 bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given
341 container format. One of mkv, mp4, ogg,
342 webm, flv.Ignored if no merge is required
345 --write-sub write subtitle file
346 --write-auto-sub write automatic subtitle file (youtube
348 --all-subs downloads all the available subtitles of
350 --list-subs lists all available subtitles for the video
351 --sub-format FORMAT subtitle format (default=srt) ([sbv/vtt]
353 --sub-lang LANGS languages of the subtitles to download
354 (optional) separated by commas, use IETF
355 language tags like 'en,pt'
357 ## Authentication Options:
358 -u, --username USERNAME login with this account ID
359 -p, --password PASSWORD account password. If this option is left
360 out, youtube-dl will ask interactively.
361 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR two-factor auth code
362 -n, --netrc use .netrc authentication data
363 --video-password PASSWORD video password (vimeo, smotri)
365 ## Post-processing Options:
366 -x, --extract-audio convert video files to audio-only files
367 (requires ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or
369 --audio-format FORMAT "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a",
370 "opus", or "wav"; "best" by default
371 --audio-quality QUALITY ffmpeg/avconv audio quality specification,
372 insert a value between 0 (better) and 9
373 (worse) for VBR or a specific bitrate like
375 --recode-video FORMAT Encode the video to another format if
376 necessary (currently supported:
377 mp4|flv|ogg|webm|mkv)
378 -k, --keep-video keeps the video file on disk after the
379 post-processing; the video is erased by
381 --no-post-overwrites do not overwrite post-processed files; the
382 post-processed files are overwritten by
384 --embed-subs embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4
386 --embed-thumbnail embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art
387 --add-metadata write metadata to the video file
388 --xattrs write metadata to the video file's xattrs
389 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
390 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
391 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
392 emit a warning), detect_or_warn(the
393 default; fix file if we can, warn
395 --prefer-avconv Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running the
396 postprocessors (default)
397 --prefer-ffmpeg Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running the
399 --exec CMD Execute a command on the file after
400 downloading, similar to find's -exec
401 syntax. Example: --exec 'adb push {}
402 /sdcard/Music/ && rm {}'
406 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/config`. On Windows, the configuration file locations are `%APPDATA%\youtube-dl\config.txt` and `C:\Users\<user name>\youtube-dl.conf`.
410 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:
412 - `id`: The sequence will be replaced by the video identifier.
413 - `url`: The sequence will be replaced by the video URL.
414 - `uploader`: The sequence will be replaced by the nickname of the person who uploaded the video.
415 - `upload_date`: The sequence will be replaced by the upload date in YYYYMMDD format.
416 - `title`: The sequence will be replaced by the video title.
417 - `ext`: The sequence will be replaced by the appropriate extension (like flv or mp4).
418 - `epoch`: The sequence will be replaced by the Unix epoch when creating the file.
419 - `autonumber`: The sequence will be replaced by a five-digit number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero.
420 - `playlist`: The name or the id of the playlist that contains the video.
421 - `playlist_index`: The index of the video in the playlist, a five-digit number.
423 The current default template is `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`.
425 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:
428 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
429 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4 # All kinds of weird characters
430 $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
431 youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4 # A simple file name
436 Videos can be filtered by their upload date using the options `--date`, `--datebefore` or `--dateafter`, they accept dates in two formats:
438 - Absolute dates: Dates in the format `YYYYMMDD`.
439 - Relative dates: Dates in the format `(now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?`
444 # Download only the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
445 $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-6months
447 # Download only the videos uploaded on January 1, 1970
448 $ youtube-dl --date 19700101
450 $ # will only download the videos uploaded in the 200x decade
451 $ youtube-dl --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20091231
456 ### How do I update youtube-dl?
458 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`).
460 If you have used pip, a simple `sudo pip install -U youtube-dl` is sufficient to update.
462 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 distributions serves a really outdated version. You can (and should) complain to your distribution in their bugtracker or support forum.
464 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
466 sudo apt-get remove -y youtube-dl
468 Afterwards, simply follow [our manual installation instructions](http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html):
471 sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
472 sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
476 Again, from then on you'll be able to update with `sudo youtube-dl -U`.
478 ### I'm getting an error `Unable to extract OpenGraph title` on YouTube playlists
480 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.
482 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.
484 ### Do I always have to pass in `--max-quality FORMAT`, or `-citw`?
486 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, `--max-quality` *limits* the video quality (so if you want the best quality, do NOT pass it in), and the only option out of `-citw` that is regularly useful is `-i`.
488 ### Can you please put the -b option back?
490 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.
492 ### I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's this?
494 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.
496 ### I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
498 Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as [vlc](http://www.videolan.org) or [mplayer](http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).
500 ### I extracted a video URL with -g, but it does not play on another machine / in my webbrowser.
502 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.
504 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.
506 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.
508 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.
510 ### ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
512 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`.
514 ### ERROR: unable to download video ###
516 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`.
518 ### SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character ###
522 File "youtube-dl", line 2
523 SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\x93' ...
525 means you're using an outdated version of Python. Please update to Python 2.6 or 2.7.
527 ### What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
529 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`.
531 ### The exe throws a *Runtime error from Visual C++*
533 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).
535 ### On Windows, how should I set up ffmpeg and youtube-dl? Where should I put the exe files?
537 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.
539 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.
541 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.
543 ### How do I put downloads into a specific folder?
545 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).
547 ### How do I download a video starting with a `-` ?
549 Either prepend `http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=` or separate the ID from the options with `--`:
551 youtube-dl -- -wNyEUrxzFU
552 youtube-dl "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wNyEUrxzFU"
554 ### Can you add support for this anime video site, or site which shows current movies for free?
556 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.
558 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.
560 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.
562 ### How can I detect whether a given URL is supported by youtube-dl?
564 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/v/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.
566 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.
568 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.
570 # DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS
572 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.
574 To run youtube-dl as a developer, you don't need to build anything either. Simply execute
578 To run the test, simply invoke your favorite test runner, or execute a test file directly; any of the following work:
580 python -m unittest discover
581 python test/test_download.py
584 If you want to create a build of youtube-dl yourself, you'll need
592 ### Adding support for a new site
594 If you want to add support for a new site, you can follow this quick list (assuming your service is called `yourextractor`):
596 1. [Fork this repository](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/fork)
597 2. Check out the source code with `git clone git@github.com:YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/youtube-dl.git`
598 3. Start a new git branch with `cd youtube-dl; git checkout -b yourextractor`
599 4. Start with this simple template and save it to `youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py`:
602 from __future__ import unicode_literals
604 from .common import InfoExtractor
607 class YourExtractorIE(InfoExtractor):
608 _VALID_URL = r'https?://(?:www\.)?yourextractor\.com/watch/(?P<id>[0-9]+)'
610 'url': 'http://yourextractor.com/watch/42',
611 'md5': 'TODO: md5 sum of the first 10241 bytes of the video file (use --test)',
615 'title': 'Video title goes here',
616 'thumbnail': 're:^https?://.*\.jpg$',
617 # TODO more properties, either as:
619 # * MD5 checksum; start the string with md5:
620 # * A regular expression; start the string with re:
621 # * Any Python type (for example int or float)
625 def _real_extract(self, url):
626 video_id = self._match_id(url)
627 webpage = self._download_webpage(url, video_id)
629 # TODO more code goes here, for example ...
630 title = self._html_search_regex(r'<h1>(.*?)</h1>', webpage, 'title')
635 'description': self._og_search_description(webpage),
636 # TODO more properties (see youtube_dl/extractor/common.py)
639 5. Add an import in [`youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py`](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py).
640 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 be then be named `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor`, `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_1`, `TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_2`, etc.
641 7. Have a look at [`youtube_dl/common/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 return](https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py#L38). Add tests and code for as many as you want.
642 8. If you can, check the code with [flake8](https://pypi.python.org/pypi/flake8).
643 9. 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:
645 $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py
646 $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py
647 $ git commit -m '[yourextractor] Add new extractor'
648 $ git push origin yourextractor
650 10. Finally, [create a pull request](https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-pull-request). We'll then review and merge it.
652 In any case, thank you very much for your contributions!
654 # EMBEDDING YOUTUBE-DL
656 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).
658 From a Python program, you can embed youtube-dl in a more powerful fashion, like this:
664 with youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
665 ydl.download(['http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
668 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#L69). For a start, if you want to intercept youtube-dl's output, set a `logger` object.
670 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:
676 class MyLogger(object):
677 def debug(self, msg):
680 def warning(self, msg):
683 def error(self, msg):
688 if d['status'] == 'finished':
689 print('Done downloading, now converting ...')
693 'format': 'bestaudio/best',
695 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
696 'preferredcodec': 'mp3',
697 'preferredquality': '192',
699 'logger': MyLogger(),
700 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
702 with youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
703 ydl.download(['http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])
708 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 on freenode.
710 **Please include the full output of youtube-dl when run with `-v`**.
712 The output (including the first lines) contain important debugging information. Issues without the full output are often not reproducible and therefore do not get solved in short order, if ever.
714 Please re-read your issue once again to avoid a couple of common mistakes (you can and should use this as a checklist):
716 ### Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?
718 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.
720 So please elaborate on what feature you are requesting, or what bug you want to be fixed. Make sure that it's obvious
722 - What the problem is
723 - How it could be fixed
724 - How your proposed solution would look like
726 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 commiter 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.
728 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.
730 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.
732 ### Are you using the latest version?
734 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.
736 ### Is the issue already documented?
738 Make sure that someone has not already opened the issue you're trying to open. Search at the top of the window or at https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/search?type=Issues . 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.
740 ### Why are existing options not enough?
742 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.
744 ### Is there enough context in your bug report?
746 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).
748 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.
750 ### Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?
752 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.
754 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.
756 ### Is anyone going to need the feature?
758 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.
760 ### Is your question about youtube-dl?
762 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.
766 youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.
768 This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton (<https://github.com/dbbolton>) and is likewise released into the public domain.