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1 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
2 <div align="center">
4 [](#readme)
6 [](#installation "Installation")
7 [](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp "PyPi")
8 [](Collaborators.md#collaborators "Donate")
9 [](https://matrix.to/#/#yt-dlp:matrix.org "Matrix")
10 [](https://discord.gg/H5MNcFW63r "Discord")
11 [](supportedsites.md "Supported Sites")
12 [](LICENSE "License")
13 [](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/actions "CI Status")
14 [](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
15 [](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits "Commit History")
17 </div>
18 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
20 yt-dlp is a [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl) fork based on the now inactive [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc). The main focus of this project is adding new features and patches while also keeping up to date with the original project
22 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "USAGE AND OPTIONS" SECTION HERE -->
24 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
25 * [NEW FEATURES](#new-features)
26 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
27 * [INSTALLATION](#installation)
28 * [Detailed instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation)
29 * [Update](#update)
30 * [Release Files](#release-files)
31 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
32 * [Compile](#compile)
33 * [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
34 * [General Options](#general-options)
35 * [Network Options](#network-options)
36 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
37 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
38 * [Download Options](#download-options)
39 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
40 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
41 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
42 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
43 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
44 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
45 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
46 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
47 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
48 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
49 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
50 * [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
51 * [Configuration file encoding](#configuration-file-encoding)
52 * [Authentication with .netrc file](#authentication-with-netrc-file)
53 * [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
54 * [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
55 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
56 * [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
57 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
58 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
59 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
60 * [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
61 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
62 * [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
63 * [PLUGINS](#plugins)
64 * [Installing Plugins](#installing-plugins)
65 * [Developing Plugins](#developing-plugins)
66 * [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
67 * [Embedding examples](#embedding-examples)
68 * [DEPRECATED OPTIONS](#deprecated-options)
69 * [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
70 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
71 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
72 * [WIKI](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki)
73 * [FAQ](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/FAQ)
74 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
77 # NEW FEATURES
79 * Merged with **youtube-dl v2021.12.17+ [commit/2dd6c6e](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/2dd6c6e)** ([exceptions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/21)) and **youtube-dlc v2020.11.11-3+ [commit/f9401f2](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/commit/f9401f2a91987068139c5f757b12fc711d4c0cee)**: You get all the features and patches of [youtube-dlc](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc) in addition to the latest [youtube-dl](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl)
81 * **[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in YouTube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
83 * **[Format Sorting](#sorting-formats)**: The default format sorting options have been changed so that higher resolution and better codecs will be now preferred instead of simply using larger bitrate. Furthermore, you can now specify the sort order using `-S`. This allows for much easier format selection than what is possible by simply using `--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
85 * **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from [animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including `--write-comments`, `BiliBiliSearch`, `BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that NicoNico livestreams are not available. See [#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
87 * **YouTube improvements**:
88 * Supports Clips, Stories (`ytstories:<channel UCID>`), Search (including filters)**\***, YouTube Music Search, Channel-specific search, Search prefixes (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`)**\***, Mixes, and Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`, `:ytnotif`)
89 * Fix for [n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326) **\***
90 * Supports some (but not all) age-gated content without cookies
91 * Download livestreams from the start using `--live-from-start` (*experimental*)
92 * `255kbps` audio is extracted (if available) from YouTube Music when premium cookies are given
93 * Channel URLs download all uploads of the channel, including shorts and live
95 * **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using `--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]`
97 * **Download time range**: Videos can be downloaded partially based on either timestamps or chapters using `--download-sections`
99 * **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using `--split-chapters`
101 * **Multi-threaded fragment downloads**: Download multiple fragments of m3u8/mpd videos in parallel. Use `--concurrent-fragments` (`-N`) option to set the number of threads used
103 * **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use `aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
105 * **New and fixed extractors**: Many new extractors have been added and a lot of existing ones have been fixed. See the [changelog](Changelog.md) or the [list of supported sites](supportedsites.md)
107 * **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN etc.
109 * **Subtitle extraction from manifests**: Subtitles can be extracted from streaming media manifests. See [commit/be6202f](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/be6202f12b97858b9d716e608394b51065d0419f) for details
111 * **Multiple paths and output templates**: You can give different [output templates](#output-template) and download paths for different types of files. You can also set a temporary path where intermediary files are downloaded to using `--paths` (`-P`)
113 * **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for details
115 * **Output template improvements**: Output templates can now have date-time formatting, numeric offsets, object traversal etc. See [output template](#output-template) for details. Even more advanced operations can also be done with the help of `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
117 * **Other new options**: Many new options have been added such as `--alias`, `--print`, `--concat-playlist`, `--wait-for-video`, `--retry-sleep`, `--sleep-requests`, `--convert-thumbnails`, `--force-download-archive`, `--force-overwrites`, `--break-match-filter` etc
119 * **Improvements**: Regex and other operators in `--format`/`--match-filter`, multiple `--postprocessor-args` and `--downloader-args`, faster archive checking, more [format selection options](#format-selection), merge multi-video/audio, multiple `--config-locations`, `--exec` at different stages, etc
121 * **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
123 * **Self updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`, and downgraded using `--update-to` if required
125 * **Nightly builds**: [Automated nightly builds](#update-channels) can be used with `--update-to nightly`
127 See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
129 Features marked with a **\*** have been back-ported to youtube-dl
131 ### Differences in default behavior
133 Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
135 * yt-dlp supports only [Python 3.7+](## "Windows 7"), and *may* remove support for more versions as they [become EOL](https://devguide.python.org/versions/#python-release-cycle); while [youtube-dl still supports Python 2.6+ and 3.2+](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/30568#issue-1118238743)
136 * The options `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
137 * `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
138 * yt-dlp stores config files in slightly different locations to youtube-dl. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for a list of correct locations
139 * The default [output template](#output-template) is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`. There is no real reason for this change. This was changed before yt-dlp was ever made public and now there are no plans to change it back to `%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s`. Instead, you may use `--compat-options filename`
140 * The default [format sorting](#sorting-formats) is different from youtube-dl and prefers higher resolution and better codecs rather than higher bitrates. You can use the `--format-sort` option to change this to any order you prefer, or use `--compat-options format-sort` to use youtube-dl's sorting order
141 * The default format selector is `bv*+ba/b`. This means that if a combined video + audio format that is better than the best video-only format is found, the former will be preferred. Use `-f bv+ba/b` or `--compat-options format-spec` to revert this
142 * Unlike youtube-dlc, yt-dlp does not allow merging multiple audio/video streams into one file by default (since this conflicts with the use of `-f bv*+ba`). If needed, this feature must be enabled using `--audio-multistreams` and `--video-multistreams`. You can also use `--compat-options multistreams` to enable both
143 * `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
144 * When writing metadata files such as thumbnails, description or infojson, the same information (if available) is also written for playlists. Use `--no-write-playlist-metafiles` or `--compat-options no-playlist-metafiles` to not write these files
145 * `--add-metadata` attaches the `infojson` to `mkv` files in addition to writing the metadata when used with `--write-info-json`. Use `--no-embed-info-json` or `--compat-options no-attach-info-json` to revert this
146 * Some metadata are embedded into different fields when using `--add-metadata` as compared to youtube-dl. Most notably, `comment` field contains the `webpage_url` and `synopsis` contains the `description`. You can [use `--parse-metadata`](#modifying-metadata) to modify this to your liking or use `--compat-options embed-metadata` to revert this
147 * `playlist_index` behaves differently when used with options like `--playlist-reverse` and `--playlist-items`. See [#302](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/302) for details. You can use `--compat-options playlist-index` if you want to keep the earlier behavior
148 * The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
149 * Live chats (if available) are considered as subtitles. Use `--sub-langs all,-live_chat` to download all subtitles except live chat. You can also use `--compat-options no-live-chat` to prevent any live chat/danmaku from downloading
150 * YouTube channel URLs download all uploads of the channel. To download only the videos in a specific tab, pass the tab's URL. If the channel does not show the requested tab, an error will be raised. Also, `/live` URLs raise an error if there are no live videos instead of silently downloading the entire channel. You may use `--compat-options no-youtube-channel-redirect` to revert all these redirections
151 * Unavailable videos are also listed for YouTube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
152 * The upload dates extracted from YouTube are in UTC [when available](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/89e4d86171c7b7c997c77d4714542e0383bf0db0/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L3898-L3900). Use `--compat-options no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date` to prefer the non-UTC upload date.
153 * If `ffmpeg` is used as the downloader, the downloading and merging of formats happen in a single step when possible. Use `--compat-options no-direct-merge` to revert this
154 * Thumbnail embedding in `mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use `--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
155 * Some private fields such as filenames are removed by default from the infojson. Use `--no-clean-infojson` or `--compat-options no-clean-infojson` to revert this
156 * When `--embed-subs` and `--write-subs` are used together, the subtitles are written to disk and also embedded in the media file. You can use just `--embed-subs` to embed the subs and automatically delete the separate file. See [#630 (comment)](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/630#issuecomment-893659460) for more info. `--compat-options no-keep-subs` can be used to revert this
157 * `certifi` will be used for SSL root certificates, if installed. If you want to use system certificates (e.g. self-signed), use `--compat-options no-certifi`
158 * yt-dlp's sanitization of invalid characters in filenames is different/smarter than in youtube-dl. You can use `--compat-options filename-sanitization` to revert to youtube-dl's behavior
159 * yt-dlp tries to parse the external downloader outputs into the standard progress output if possible (Currently implemented: [~~aria2c~~](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/5931)). You can use `--compat-options no-external-downloader-progress` to get the downloader output as-is
161 For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
163 * `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options (Do NOT use)
164 * `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams`
165 * `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect`
166 * `--compat-options 2021`: Same as `--compat-options 2022,no-certifi,filename-sanitization,no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date`
167 * `--compat-options 2022`: Same as `--compat-options no-external-downloader-progress`. Use this to enable all future compat options
170 # INSTALLATION
172 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
173 [](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)
174 [](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)
175 [](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)
176 [](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
177 [](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
178 [](#release-files)
179 [](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
180 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
182 You can install yt-dlp using [the binaries](#release-files), [pip](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp) or one using a third-party package manager. See [the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation) for detailed instructions
185 ## UPDATE
186 You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are using the [release binaries](#release-files)
188 If you [installed with pip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
190 For other third-party package managers, see [the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#third-party-package-managers) or refer their documentation
192 <a id="update-channels"/>
194 There are currently two release channels for binaries, `stable` and `nightly`.
195 `stable` is the default channel, and many of its changes have been tested by users of the nightly channel.
196 The `nightly` channel has releases built after each push to the master branch, and will have the most recent fixes and additions, but also have more risk of regressions. They are available in [their own repo](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds/releases).
198 When using `--update`/`-U`, a release binary will only update to its current channel.
199 `--update-to CHANNEL` can be used to switch to a different channel when a newer version is available. `--update-to [CHANNEL@]TAG` can also be used to upgrade or downgrade to specific tags from a channel.
201 You may also use `--update-to <repository>` (`<owner>/<repository>`) to update to a channel on a completely different repository. Be careful with what repository you are updating to though, there is no verification done for binaries from different repositories.
203 Example usage:
204 * `yt-dlp --update-to nightly` change to `nightly` channel and update to its latest release
205 * `yt-dlp --update-to stable@2023.02.17` upgrade/downgrade to release to `stable` channel tag `2023.02.17`
206 * `yt-dlp --update-to 2023.01.06` upgrade/downgrade to tag `2023.01.06` if it exists on the current channel
207 * `yt-dlp --update-to example/yt-dlp@2023.03.01` upgrade/downgrade to the release from the `example/yt-dlp` repository, tag `2023.03.01`
209 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
210 ## RELEASE FILES
212 #### Recommended
214 File|Description
215 :---|:---
216 [yt-dlp](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)|Platform-independent [zipimport](https://docs.python.org/3/library/zipimport.html) binary. Needs Python (recommended for **Linux/BSD**)
217 [yt-dlp.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary (recommended for **Windows**)
218 [yt-dlp_macos](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)|Universal MacOS (10.15+) standalone executable (recommended for **MacOS**)
220 #### Alternatives
222 File|Description
223 :---|:---
224 [yt-dlp_x86.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_x86.exe)|Windows (Vista SP2+) standalone x86 (32-bit) binary
225 [yt-dlp_min.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_min.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x64 binary built with `py2exe`<br/> ([Not recommended](#standalone-py2exe-builds-windows))
226 [yt-dlp_linux](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux)|Linux standalone x64 binary
227 [yt-dlp_linux.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux.zip)|Unpackaged Linux executable (no auto-update)
228 [yt-dlp_linux_armv7l](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_armv7l)|Linux standalone armv7l (32-bit) binary
229 [yt-dlp_linux_aarch64](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_aarch64)|Linux standalone aarch64 (64-bit) binary
230 [yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
231 [yt-dlp_macos.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos.zip)|Unpackaged MacOS (10.15+) executable (no auto-update)
232 [yt-dlp_macos_legacy](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos_legacy)|MacOS (10.9+) standalone x64 executable
234 #### Misc
236 File|Description
237 :---|:---
238 [yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball
239 [SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
240 [SHA2-512SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA512 sums
241 [SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
242 [SHA2-256SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA256 sums
244 The public key that can be used to verify the GPG signatures is [available here](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/public.key)
245 Example usage:
246 ```
247 curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/raw/master/public.key | gpg --import
248 gpg --verify SHA2-256SUMS.sig SHA2-256SUMS
249 gpg --verify SHA2-512SUMS.sig SHA2-512SUMS
250 ```
251 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
253 **Note**: The manpages, shell completion files etc. are available inside the [source tarball](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
255 ## DEPENDENCIES
256 Python versions 3.7+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
258 <!-- Python 3.5+ uses VC++14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
259 <!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999 --x>
260 On windows, [Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86)](https://download.microsoft.com/download/1/6/5/165255E7-1014-4D0A-B094-B6A430A6BFFC/vcredist_x86.exe) is also necessary to run yt-dlp. You probably already have this, but if the executable throws an error due to missing `MSVCR100.dll` you need to install it manually.
261 -->
263 While all the other dependencies are optional, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended
265 ### Strongly recommended
267 * [**ffmpeg** and **ffprobe**](https://www.ffmpeg.org) - Required for [merging separate video and audio files](#format-selection) as well as for various [post-processing](#post-processing-options) tasks. License [depends on the build](https://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html)
269 There are bugs in ffmpeg that causes various issues when used alongside yt-dlp. Since ffmpeg is such an important dependency, we provide [custom builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#ffmpeg-static-auto-builds) with patches for some of these issues at [yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds). See [the readme](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#patches-applied) for details on the specific issues solved by these builds
271 **Important**: What you need is ffmpeg *binary*, **NOT** [the python package of the same name](https://pypi.org/project/ffmpeg)
273 ### Networking
274 * [**certifi**](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi)\* - Provides Mozilla's root certificate bundle. Licensed under [MPLv2](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi/blob/master/LICENSE)
275 * [**brotli**](https://github.com/google/brotli)\* or [**brotlicffi**](https://github.com/python-hyper/brotlicffi) - [Brotli](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brotli) content encoding support. Both licensed under MIT <sup>[1](https://github.com/google/brotli/blob/master/LICENSE) [2](https://github.com/python-hyper/brotlicffi/blob/master/LICENSE) </sup>
276 * [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
278 ### Metadata
280 * [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For `--embed-thumbnail` in certain formats. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
281 * [**AtomicParsley**](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley) - For `--embed-thumbnail` in `mp4`/`m4a` files when `mutagen`/`ffmpeg` cannot. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/wez/atomicparsley/blob/master/COPYING)
282 * [**xattr**](https://github.com/xattr/xattr), [**pyxattr**](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr) or [**setfattr**](http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/attr) - For writing xattr metadata (`--xattr`) on **Linux**. Licensed under [MIT](https://github.com/xattr/xattr/blob/master/LICENSE.txt), [LGPL2.1](https://github.com/iustin/pyxattr/blob/master/COPYING) and [GPLv2+](http://git.savannah.nongnu.org/cgit/attr.git/tree/doc/COPYING) respectively
284 ### Misc
286 * [**pycryptodomex**](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome)\* - For decrypting AES-128 HLS streams and various other data. Licensed under [BSD-2-Clause](https://github.com/Legrandin/pycryptodome/blob/master/LICENSE.rst)
287 * [**phantomjs**](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs) - Used in extractors where javascript needs to be run. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/LICENSE.BSD)
288 * [**secretstorage**](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage) - For `--cookies-from-browser` to access the **Gnome** keyring while decrypting cookies of **Chromium**-based browsers on **Linux**. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/mitya57/secretstorage/blob/master/LICENSE)
289 * Any external downloader that you want to use with `--downloader`
291 ### Deprecated
293 * [**avconv** and **avprobe**](https://www.libav.org) - Now **deprecated** alternative to ffmpeg. License [depends on the build](https://libav.org/legal)
294 * [**sponskrub**](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) - For using the now **deprecated** [sponskrub options](#sponskrub-options). Licensed under [GPLv3+](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub/blob/master/LICENCE.md)
295 * [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with `--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
296 * [**mplayer**](http://mplayerhq.hu/design7/info.html) or [**mpv**](https://mpv.io) - For downloading `rstp`/`mms` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with `--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/Copyright)
298 To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
300 The standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with **\*** included.
302 If you do not have the necessary dependencies for a task you are attempting, yt-dlp will warn you. All the currently available dependencies are visible at the top of the `--verbose` output
305 ## COMPILE
307 ### Standalone PyInstaller Builds
308 To build the standalone executable, you must have Python and `pyinstaller` (plus any of yt-dlp's [optional dependencies](#dependencies) if needed). Once you have all the necessary dependencies installed, simply run `pyinst.py`. The executable will be built for the same architecture (x86/ARM, 32/64 bit) as the Python used.
310 python3 -m pip install -U pyinstaller -r requirements.txt
311 python3 devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
312 python3 pyinst.py
314 On some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`.
316 `pyinst.py` accepts any arguments that can be passed to `pyinstaller`, such as `--onefile/-F` or `--onedir/-D`, which is further [documented here](https://pyinstaller.org/en/stable/usage.html#what-to-generate).
318 **Note**: Pyinstaller versions below 4.4 [do not support](https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller#requirements-and-tested-platforms) Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment.
320 **Important**: Running `pyinstaller` directly **without** using `pyinst.py` is **not** officially supported. This may or may not work correctly.
322 ### Platform-independent Binary (UNIX)
323 You will need the build tools `python` (3.7+), `zip`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`\* and `pytest`\*.
325 After installing these, simply run `make`.
327 You can also run `make yt-dlp` instead to compile only the binary without updating any of the additional files. (The build tools marked with **\*** are not needed for this)
329 ### Standalone Py2Exe Builds (Windows)
331 While we provide the option to build with [py2exe](https://www.py2exe.org), it is recommended to build [using PyInstaller](#standalone-pyinstaller-builds) instead since the py2exe builds **cannot contain `pycryptodomex`/`certifi` and needs VC++14** on the target computer to run.
333 If you wish to build it anyway, install Python and py2exe, and then simply run `setup.py py2exe`
335 py -m pip install -U py2exe -r requirements.txt
336 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
337 py setup.py py2exe
339 ### Related scripts
341 * **`devscripts/update-version.py`** - Update the version number based on current date.
342 * **`devscripts/set-variant.py`** - Set the build variant of the executable.
343 * **`devscripts/make_changelog.py`** - Create a markdown changelog using short commit messages and update `CONTRIBUTORS` file.
344 * **`devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py`** - Create lazy extractors. Running this before building the binaries (any variant) will improve their startup performance. Set the environment variable `YTDLP_NO_LAZY_EXTRACTORS=1` if you wish to forcefully disable lazy extractor loading.
346 Note: See their `--help` for more info.
348 ### Forking the project
349 If you fork the project on GitHub, you can run your fork's [build workflow](.github/workflows/build.yml) to automatically build the selected version(s) as artifacts. Alternatively, you can run the [release workflow](.github/workflows/release.yml) or enable the [nightly workflow](.github/workflows/release-nightly.yml) to create full (pre-)releases.
351 # USAGE AND OPTIONS
353 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
354 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
356 `Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
357 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
359 <!-- Auto generated -->
360 ## General Options:
361 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
362 --version Print program version and exit
363 -U, --update Update this program to the latest version
364 --no-update Do not check for updates (default)
365 --update-to [CHANNEL]@[TAG] Upgrade/downgrade to a specific version.
366 CHANNEL can be a repository as well. CHANNEL
367 and TAG default to "stable" and "latest"
368 respectively if omitted; See "UPDATE" for
369 details. Supported channels: stable, nightly
370 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
371 The download will be considered successful
372 even if the postprocessing fails
373 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download errors;
374 e.g. to skip unavailable videos in a
375 playlist (default)
376 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
377 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
378 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
379 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
380 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
381 extractors and exit
382 --use-extractors NAMES Extractor names to use separated by commas.
383 You can also use regexes, "all", "default"
384 and "end" (end URL matching); e.g. --ies
385 "holodex.*,end,youtube". Prefix the name
386 with a "-" to exclude it, e.g. --ies
387 default,-generic. Use --list-extractors for
388 a list of extractor names. (Alias: --ies)
389 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. E.g.
390 "gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
391 google videos for the search term "python".
392 Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
393 ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when
394 guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
395 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken
396 URLs, but emits an error if this is not
397 possible instead of searching
398 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
399 except those given by --config-locations.
400 For backward compatibility, if this option
401 is found inside the system configuration
402 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
403 (Alias: --no-config)
404 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
405 (default). When given inside a configuration
406 file, ignore all previous --config-locations
407 defined in the current file
408 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
409 either the path to the config or its
410 containing directory ("-" for stdin). Can be
411 used multiple times and inside other
412 configuration files
413 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
414 only list them
415 --no-flat-playlist Fully extract the videos of a playlist
416 (default)
417 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
418 Currently only supported for YouTube
419 (Experimental)
420 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
421 (default)
422 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
423 available. Pass the minimum number of
424 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
425 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
426 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
427 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
428 --color [STREAM:]POLICY Whether to emit color codes in output,
429 optionally prefixed by the STREAM (stdout or
430 stderr) to apply the setting to. Can be one
431 of "always", "auto" (default), "never", or
432 "no_color" (use non color terminal
433 sequences). Can be used multiple times
434 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
435 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
436 configurations by reverting some of the
437 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
438 default behavior" for details
439 --alias ALIASES OPTIONS Create aliases for an option string. Unless
440 an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
441 prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
442 according to the Python string formatting
443 mini-language. E.g. --alias get-audio,-X
444 "-S=aext:{0},abr -x --audio-format {0}"
445 creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
446 takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
447 "-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
448 All defined aliases are listed in the --help
449 output. Alias options can trigger more
450 aliases; so be careful to avoid defining
451 recursive options. As a safety measure, each
452 alias may be triggered a maximum of 100
453 times. This option can be used multiple times
455 ## Network Options:
456 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
457 enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme,
458 e.g. socks5://user:pass@127.0.0.1:1080/.
459 Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for
460 direct connection
461 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
462 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
463 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
464 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
465 --enable-file-urls Enable file:// URLs. This is disabled by
466 default for security reasons.
468 ## Geo-restriction:
469 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
470 some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy
471 specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
472 is not present) is used for the actual
473 downloading
474 --xff VALUE How to fake X-Forwarded-For HTTP header to
475 try bypassing geographic restriction. One of
476 "default" (only when known to be useful),
477 "never", an IP block in CIDR notation, or a
478 two-letter ISO 3166-2 country code
480 ## Video Selection:
481 -I, --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Comma separated playlist_index of the items
482 to download. You can specify a range using
483 "[START]:[STOP][:STEP]". For backward
484 compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.
485 Use negative indices to count from the right
486 and negative STEP to download in reverse
487 order. E.g. "-I 1:3,7,-5::2" used on a
488 playlist of size 15 will download the items
489 at index 1,2,3,7,11,13,15
490 --min-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is smaller than
491 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
492 --max-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is larger than
493 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
494 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
495 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
496 [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
497 E.g. "--date today-2weeks" downloads only
498 videos uploaded on the same day two weeks ago
499 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
500 this date. The date formats accepted is the
501 same as --date
502 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
503 this date. The date formats accepted is the
504 same as --date
505 --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
506 field can be compared with a number or a
507 string using the operators defined in
508 "Filtering Formats". You can also simply
509 specify a field to match if the field is
510 present, use "!field" to check if the field
511 is not present, and "&" to check multiple
512 conditions. Use a "\" to escape "&" or
513 quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
514 the filter matches if atleast one of the
515 conditions are met. E.g. --match-filter
516 !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?100 &
517 description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'" matches
518 only videos that are not live OR those that
519 have a like count more than 100 (or the like
520 field is not available) and also has a
521 description that contains the phrase "cats &
522 dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
523 interactively ask whether to download each
524 video
525 --no-match-filters Do not use any --match-filter (default)
526 --break-match-filters FILTER Same as "--match-filters" but stops the
527 download process when a video is rejected
528 --no-break-match-filters Do not use any --break-match-filters (default)
529 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
530 to a video and a playlist
531 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
532 a video and a playlist
533 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
534 age
535 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
536 archive file. Record the IDs of all
537 downloaded videos in it
538 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
539 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
540 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
541 a file that is in the archive
542 --break-per-input Alters --max-downloads, --break-on-existing,
543 --break-match-filter, and autonumber to
544 reset per input URL
545 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
546 terminates the entire download queue
547 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
548 the playlist is skipped
550 ## Download Options:
551 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
552 video that should be downloaded concurrently
553 (default is 1)
554 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second,
555 e.g. 50K or 4.2M
556 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
557 below which throttling is assumed and the
558 video data is re-extracted, e.g. 100K
559 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
560 "infinite"
561 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
562 error (default is 3), or "infinite"
563 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
564 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
565 --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR Time to sleep between retries in seconds
566 (optionally) prefixed by the type of retry
567 (http (default), fragment, file_access,
568 extractor) to apply the sleep to. EXPR can
569 be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=1]] or
570 exp=START[:END[:BASE=2]]. This option can be
571 used multiple times to set the sleep for the
572 different retry types, e.g. --retry-sleep
573 linear=1::2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=1:20
574 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
575 hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
576 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragments)
577 --abort-on-unavailable-fragments
578 Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
579 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
580 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
581 downloading is finished
582 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
583 downloading is finished (default)
584 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer, e.g. 1024 or 16K
585 (default is 1024)
586 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
587 from an initial value of --buffer-size
588 (default)
589 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
590 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
591 downloading, e.g. 10485760 or 10M (default
592 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
593 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
594 (experimental)
595 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
596 --lazy-playlist Process entries in the playlist as they are
597 received. This disables n_entries,
598 --playlist-random and --playlist-reverse
599 --no-lazy-playlist Process videos in the playlist only after
600 the entire playlist is parsed (default)
601 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
602 expected file size
603 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
604 allowing some players to play the video
605 while downloading, and reducing the chance
606 of file corruption if download is
607 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
608 live streams
609 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
610 videos. This is default when not downloading
611 live streams
612 --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters whose title matches
613 the given regular expression. Time ranges
614 prefixed by a "*" can also be used in place
615 of chapters to download the specified range.
616 Needs ffmpeg. This option can be used
617 multiple times to download multiple
618 sections, e.g. --download-sections
619 "*10:15-inf" --download-sections "intro"
620 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
621 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
622 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
623 use it for. Currently supports native,
624 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
625 wget. You can use this option multiple times
626 to set different downloaders for different
627 protocols. E.g. --downloader aria2c
628 --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
629 aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
630 native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
631 (Alias: --external-downloader)
632 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
633 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
634 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
635 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different
636 positions using the same syntax as
637 --postprocessor-args. You can use this
638 option multiple times to give different
639 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
640 --external-downloader-args)
642 ## Filesystem Options:
643 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
644 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
645 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
646 comments and ignored
647 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
648 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
649 downloaded. Specify the type of file and the
650 path separated by a colon ":". All the same
651 TYPES as --output are supported.
652 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
653 (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary
654 files are first downloaded to the temp path
655 and then the final files are moved over to
656 the home path after download is finished.
657 This option is ignored if --output is an
658 absolute path
659 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
660 TEMPLATE" for details
661 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
662 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" (default: "NA")
663 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
664 and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
665 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
666 filenames (default)
667 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
668 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
669 using Windows (default)
670 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
671 extension) to the specified number of
672 characters
673 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
674 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This
675 option includes --no-continue
676 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
677 related files (default)
678 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
679 (default)
680 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
681 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
682 restart download of the entire file
683 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
684 into output file (default)
685 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into
686 output file
687 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file
688 modification time (default)
689 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
690 the file modification time
691 --write-description Write video description to a .description file
692 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
693 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
694 (this may contain personal information)
695 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
696 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
697 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
698 --write-description etc. (default)
699 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
700 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
701 --clean-info-json Remove some private fields such as filenames
702 from the infojson. Note that it could still
703 contain some personal information (default)
704 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
705 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
706 infojson. The comments are fetched even
707 without this option if the extraction is
708 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
709 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
710 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
711 --no-get-comments)
712 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
713 (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
714 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from
715 and dump cookie jar in
716 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
717 (default)
718 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]
719 The name of the browser to load cookies
720 from. Currently supported browsers are:
721 brave, chrome, chromium, edge, firefox,
722 opera, safari, vivaldi. Optionally, the
723 KEYRING used for decrypting Chromium cookies
724 on Linux, the name/path of the PROFILE to
725 load cookies from, and the CONTAINER name
726 (if Firefox) ("none" for no container) can
727 be given with their respective seperators.
728 By default, all containers of the most
729 recently accessed profile are used.
730 Currently supported keyrings are: basictext,
731 gnomekeyring, kwallet
732 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
733 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where yt-dlp can
734 store some downloaded information (such as
735 client ids and signatures) permanently. By
736 default ${XDG_CACHE_HOME}/yt-dlp
737 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
738 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
740 ## Thumbnail Options:
741 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
742 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default)
743 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
744 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
745 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
747 ## Internet Shortcut Options:
748 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
749 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
750 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
751 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
752 OS caches the URL based on the file path
753 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
754 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
756 ## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
757 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
758 print the log to stderr
759 --no-quiet Deactivate quiet mode. (Default)
760 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
761 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
762 anything to disk
763 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
764 options are used
765 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
766 extracting metadata even if the videos are
767 not actually available for download
768 (experimental)
769 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
770 formats are found (default)
771 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
772 related files (Alias: --no-download)
773 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
774 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
775 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
776 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
777 --use-postprocessor (default: video).
778 Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
779 --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
780 used. This option can be used multiple times
781 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
782 Append given template to the file. The
783 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as that
784 of --print. FILE uses the same syntax as the
785 output template. This option can be used
786 multiple times
787 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
788 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
789 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
790 description of available keys
791 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
792 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
793 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
794 a playlist, the whole playlist information
795 is dumped in a single line
796 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
797 as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
798 another simulation option is used (Alias:
799 --force-download-archive)
800 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
801 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
802 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
803 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
804 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
805 Template for progress outputs, optionally
806 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
807 "download-title:" (the console title),
808 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
809 The video's fields are accessible under the
810 "info" key and the progress attributes are
811 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.
812 --console-title --progress-template
813 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
814 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
815 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
816 to debug problems (very verbose)
817 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files
818 in the current directory to debug problems
819 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
821 ## Workarounds:
822 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
823 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to servers
824 that do not support RFC 5746 secure
825 renegotiation
826 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
827 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
828 information about the video (Currently
829 supported only for YouTube)
830 --add-headers FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
831 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
832 option multiple times
833 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
834 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
835 or fribidi executable in PATH
836 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
837 during data extraction
838 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
839 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
840 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
841 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
842 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only
843 be used along with --min-sleep-interval
844 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
845 subtitle download
847 ## Video Format Options:
848 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
849 for more details
850 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
851 "Sorting Formats" for more details
852 --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
853 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
854 Formats" for more details (Alias: --S-force)
855 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
856 specified sort order (default)
857 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
858 into a single file
859 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
860 output file (default)
861 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
862 into a single file
863 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
864 output file (default)
865 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
866 over non-free ones of same quality. Use with
867 "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers
868 irrespective of quality
869 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
870 containers (default)
871 --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
872 those that are actually downloadable
873 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
874 actually downloadable
875 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
876 downloadable
877 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
878 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
879 --merge-output-format FORMAT Containers that may be used when merging
880 formats, separated by "/", e.g. "mp4/mkv".
881 Ignored if no merge is required. (currently
882 supported: avi, flv, mkv, mov, mp4, webm)
884 ## Subtitle Options:
885 --write-subs Write subtitle file
886 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
887 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
888 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
889 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
890 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
891 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
892 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
893 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
894 e.g. "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
895 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
896 be regex) or "all" separated by commas, e.g.
897 --sub-langs "en.*,ja". You can prefix the
898 language code with a "-" to exclude it from
899 the requested languages, e.g. --sub-langs
900 all,-live_chat. Use --list-subs for a list
901 of available language tags
903 ## Authentication Options:
904 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
905 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
906 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
907 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
908 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
909 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
910 either the path or its containing directory.
911 Defaults to ~/.netrc
912 --video-password PASSWORD Video password (vimeo, youku)
913 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
914 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
915 a list of available MSOs
916 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
917 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
918 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
919 interactively
920 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
921 --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
922 format. May include the private key
923 --client-certificate-key KEYFILE
924 Path to private key file for client
925 certificate
926 --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
927 Password for client certificate private key,
928 if encrypted. If not provided, and the key
929 is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask interactively
931 ## Post-Processing Options:
932 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
933 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
934 --audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
935 used. (currently supported: best (default),
936 aac, alac, flac, m4a, mp3, opus, vorbis,
937 wav). You can specify multiple rules using
938 similar syntax as --remux-video
939 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
940 converting the audio with -x. Insert a value
941 between 0 (best) and 10 (worst) for VBR or a
942 specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
943 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
944 necessary (currently supported: avi, flv,
945 gif, mkv, mov, mp4, webm, aac, aiff, alac,
946 flac, m4a, mka, mp3, ogg, opus, vorbis,
947 wav). If target container does not support
948 the video/audio codec, remuxing will fail.
949 You can specify multiple rules; e.g.
950 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
951 mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
952 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
953 necessary. The syntax and supported formats
954 are the same as --remux-video
955 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
956 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
957 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
958 to give the argument to the specified
959 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
960 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
961 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
962 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
963 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
964 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
965 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
966 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
967 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
968 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
969 specified executable only when being used by
970 the specified postprocessor. Additionally,
971 for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
972 appended to the prefix optionally followed
973 by a number to pass the argument before the
974 specified input/output file, e.g. --ppa
975 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
976 this option multiple times to give different
977 arguments to different postprocessors.
978 (Alias: --ppa)
979 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
980 after post-processing
981 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
982 post-processing (default)
983 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
984 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
985 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
986 webm and mkv videos)
987 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
988 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
989 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
990 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
991 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
992 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are
993 used (Alias: --add-metadata)
994 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
995 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
996 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
997 (Alias: --add-chapters)
998 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias:
999 --no-add-chapters)
1000 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
1001 mkv/mka video files
1002 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
1003 to the video file
1004 --parse-metadata [WHEN:]FROM:TO
1005 Parse additional metadata like title/artist
1006 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
1007 for details. Supported values of "WHEN" are
1008 the same as that of --use-postprocessor
1009 (default: pre_process)
1010 --replace-in-metadata [WHEN:]FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
1011 Replace text in a metadata field using the
1012 given regex. This option can be used
1013 multiple times. Supported values of "WHEN"
1014 are the same as that of --use-postprocessor
1015 (default: pre_process)
1016 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
1017 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
1018 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
1019 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
1020 (default; only when the videos form a single
1021 show). All the video files must have same
1022 codecs and number of streams to be
1023 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
1024 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1025 the output filename for the concatenated
1026 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1027 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
1028 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
1029 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
1030 default; fix file if we can, warn
1031 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
1032 already exists)
1033 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
1034 path to the binary or its containing directory
1035 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
1036 when to execute it, separated by a ":".
1037 Supported values of "WHEN" are the same as
1038 that of --use-postprocessor (default:
1039 after_move). Same syntax as the output
1040 template can be used to pass any field as
1041 arguments to the command. After download, an
1042 additional field "filepath" that contains
1043 the final path of the downloaded file is
1044 also available, and if no fields are passed,
1045 %(filepath,_filename|)q is appended to the
1046 end of the command. This option can be used
1047 multiple times
1048 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
1049 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
1050 (currently supported: ass, lrc, srt, vtt)
1051 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
1052 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
1053 (currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
1054 can specify multiple rules using similar
1055 syntax as --remux-video
1056 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
1057 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can
1058 be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
1059 the output filename for the split files. See
1060 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
1061 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters (default)
1062 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
1063 given regular expression. The syntax is the
1064 same as --download-sections. This option can
1065 be used multiple times
1066 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
1067 (default)
1068 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes at cuts when
1069 downloading/splitting/removing sections.
1070 This is slow due to needing a re-encode, but
1071 the resulting video may have fewer artifacts
1072 around the cuts
1073 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
1074 when cutting/splitting (default)
1075 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS]
1076 The (case sensitive) name of plugin
1077 postprocessors to be enabled, and
1078 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
1079 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
1080 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
1081 The "when" argument determines when the
1082 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
1083 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
1084 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
1085 "video" (after --format; before
1086 --print/--output), "before_dl" (before each
1087 video download), "post_process" (after each
1088 video download; default), "after_move"
1089 (after moving video file to it's final
1090 locations), "after_video" (after downloading
1091 and processing all formats of a video), or
1092 "playlist" (at end of playlist). This option
1093 can be used multiple times to add different
1094 postprocessors
1096 ## SponsorBlock Options:
1097 Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1098 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
1099 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1101 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1102 for, separated by commas. Available
1103 categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
1104 selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
1105 music_offtopic, poi_highlight, chapter, all
1106 and default (=all). You can prefix the
1107 category with a "-" to exclude it. See [1]
1108 for description of the categories. E.g.
1109 --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1110 [1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1111 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1112 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1113 category is present in both mark and remove,
1114 remove takes precedence. The syntax and
1115 available categories are the same as for
1116 --sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
1117 refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight,
1118 chapter are not available
1119 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
1120 An output template for the title of the
1121 SponsorBlock chapters created by
1122 --sponsorblock-mark. The only available
1123 fields are start_time, end_time, category,
1124 categories, name, category_names. Defaults
1125 to "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1126 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1127 --sponsorblock-remove
1128 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1129 https://sponsor.ajay.app
1131 ## Extractor Options:
1132 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors
1133 (default is 3), or "infinite"
1134 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1135 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1136 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1137 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1138 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1139 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1140 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1141 formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
1142 (default)
1143 --extractor-args IE_KEY:ARGS Pass ARGS arguments to the IE_KEY extractor.
1144 See "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You
1145 can use this option multiple times to give
1146 arguments for different extractors
1148 # CONFIGURATION
1150 You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
1152 1. **Main Configuration**:
1153 * The file given by `--config-location`
1154 1. **Portable Configuration**: (Recommended for portable installations)
1155 * If using a binary, `yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the binary
1156 * If running from source-code, `yt-dlp.conf` in the parent directory of `yt_dlp`
1157 1. **Home Configuration**:
1158 * `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given by `-P`
1159 * If `-P` is not given, the current directory is searched
1160 1. **User Configuration**:
1161 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp.conf`
1162 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1163 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1164 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp.conf`
1165 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1166 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1167 * `~/yt-dlp.conf`
1168 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
1169 * `~/.yt-dlp/config`
1170 * `~/.yt-dlp/config.txt`
1172 See also: [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
1173 1. **System Configuration**:
1174 * `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
1175 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config`
1176 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1178 E.g. with the following configuration file yt-dlp will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime, use a proxy and save all videos under `YouTube` directory in your home directory:
1179 ```
1180 # Lines starting with # are comments
1182 # Always extract audio
1183 -x
1185 # Do not copy the mtime
1186 --no-mtime
1188 # Use this proxy
1189 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1191 # Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1192 -o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
1193 ```
1195 **Note**: 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`. They must also be quoted when necessary as-if it were a UNIX shell.
1197 You can use `--ignore-config` if you want to disable all configuration files for a particular yt-dlp run. If `--ignore-config` is found inside any configuration file, no further configuration will be loaded. For example, having the option in the portable configuration file prevents loading of home, user, and system configurations. Additionally, (for backward compatibility) if `--ignore-config` is found inside the system configuration file, the user configuration is not loaded.
1199 ### Configuration file encoding
1201 The configuration files are decoded according to the UTF BOM if present, and in the encoding from system locale otherwise.
1203 If you want your file to be decoded differently, add `# coding: ENCODING` to the beginning of the file (e.g. `# coding: shift-jis`). There must be no characters before that, even spaces or BOM.
1205 ### Authentication with `.netrc` file
1207 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 yt-dlp execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in the shell command history. You can achieve this using a [`.netrc` file](https://stackoverflow.com/tags/.netrc/info) on a per-extractor basis. For that you will need to create a `.netrc` file in `--netrc-location` and restrict permissions to read/write by only you:
1208 ```
1209 touch ${HOME}/.netrc
1210 chmod a-rwx,u+rw ${HOME}/.netrc
1211 ```
1212 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1213 ```
1214 machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
1215 ```
1216 E.g.
1217 ```
1218 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1219 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1220 ```
1221 To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
1223 The default location of the .netrc file is `~` (see below).
1225 ### Notes about environment variables
1226 * Environment variables are normally specified as `${VARIABLE}`/`$VARIABLE` on UNIX and `%VARIABLE%` on Windows; but is always shown as `${VARIABLE}` in this documentation
1227 * yt-dlp also allow using UNIX-style variables on Windows for path-like options; e.g. `--output`, `--config-location`
1228 * If unset, `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}` defaults to `~/.config` and `${XDG_CACHE_HOME}` to `~/.cache`
1229 * On Windows, `~` points to `${HOME}` if present; or, `${USERPROFILE}` or `${HOMEDRIVE}${HOMEPATH}` otherwise
1230 * On Windows, `${USERPROFILE}` generally points to `C:\Users\<user name>` and `${APPDATA}` to `${USERPROFILE}\AppData\Roaming`
1232 # OUTPUT TEMPLATE
1234 The `-o` option is used to indicate a template for the output file names while `-P` option is used to specify the path each type of file should be saved to.
1236 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1237 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
1238 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1240 The simplest usage of `-o` is not to set any template arguments when downloading a single file, like in `yt-dlp -o funny_video.flv "https://some/video"` (hard-coding file extension like this is _not_ recommended and could break some post-processing).
1242 It may however also contain special sequences that will be replaced when downloading each video. The special sequences may be formatted according to [Python string formatting operations](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting), e.g. `%(NAME)s` or `%(NAME)05d`. To clarify, that is a percent symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by formatting operations.
1244 The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
1246 1. **Object traversal**: The dictionaries and lists available in metadata can be traversed by using a dot `.` separator; e.g. `%(tags.0)s`, `%(subtitles.en.-1.ext)s`. You can do Python slicing with colon `:`; E.g. `%(id.3:7:-1)s`, `%(formats.:.format_id)s`. Curly braces `{}` can be used to build dictionaries with only specific keys; e.g. `%(formats.:.{format_id,height})#j`. An empty field name `%()s` refers to the entire infodict; e.g. `%(.{id,title})s`. Note that all the fields that become available using this method are not listed below. Use `-j` to see such fields
1248 1. **Addition**: Addition and subtraction of numeric fields can be done using `+` and `-` respectively. E.g. `%(playlist_index+10)03d`, `%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
1250 1. **Date/time Formatting**: Date/time fields can be formatted according to [strftime formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-format-codes) by specifying it separated from the field name using a `>`. E.g. `%(duration>%H-%M-%S)s`, `%(upload_date>%Y-%m-%d)s`, `%(epoch-3600>%H-%M-%S)s`
1252 1. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a `,`. E.g. `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
1254 1. **Replacement**: A replacement value can be specified using a `&` separator according to the [`str.format` mini-language](https://docs.python.org/3/library/string.html#format-specification-mini-language). If the field is *not* empty, this replacement value will be used instead of the actual field content. This is done after alternate fields are considered; thus the replacement is used if *any* of the alternative fields is *not* empty. E.g. `%(chapters&has chapters|no chapters)s`, `%(title&TITLE={:>20}|NO TITLE)s`
1256 1. **Default**: A literal default value can be specified for when the field is empty using a `|` separator. This overrides `--output-na-placeholder`. E.g. `%(uploader|Unknown)s`
1258 1. **More Conversions**: In addition to the normal format types `diouxXeEfFgGcrs`, yt-dlp additionally supports converting to `B` = **B**ytes, `j` = **j**son (flag `#` for pretty-printing, `+` for Unicode), `h` = HTML escaping, `l` = a comma separated **l**ist (flag `#` for `\n` newline-separated), `q` = a string **q**uoted for the terminal (flag `#` to split a list into different arguments), `D` = add **D**ecimal suffixes (e.g. 10M) (flag `#` to use 1024 as factor), and `S` = **S**anitize as filename (flag `#` for restricted)
1260 1. **Unicode normalization**: The format type `U` can be used for NFC [Unicode normalization](https://docs.python.org/3/library/unicodedata.html#unicodedata.normalize). The alternate form flag (`#`) changes the normalization to NFD and the conversion flag `+` can be used for NFKC/NFKD compatibility equivalence normalization. E.g. `%(title)+.100U` is NFKC
1262 To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1263 ```
1264 %(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
1265 ```
1267 Additionally, you can set different output templates for the various metadata files separately from the general output template by specifying the type of file followed by the template separated by a colon `:`. The different file types supported are `subtitle`, `thumbnail`, `description`, `annotation` (deprecated), `infojson`, `link`, `pl_thumbnail`, `pl_description`, `pl_infojson`, `chapter`, `pl_video`. E.g. `-o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "thumbnail:%(title)s\%(title)s.%(ext)s"` will put the thumbnails in a folder with the same name as the video. If any of the templates is empty, that type of file will not be written. E.g. `--write-thumbnail -o "thumbnail:"` will write thumbnails only for playlists and not for video.
1269 <a id="outtmpl-postprocess-note"/>
1271 **Note**: Due to post-processing (i.e. merging etc.), the actual output filename might differ. Use `--print after_move:filepath` to get the name after all post-processing is complete.
1273 The available fields are:
1275 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1276 - `title` (string): Video title
1277 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
1278 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1279 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
1280 - `description` (string): The description of the video
1281 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1282 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1283 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1284 - `creator` (string): The creator of the video
1285 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
1286 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
1287 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
1288 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
1289 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
1290 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
1291 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1292 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1293 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
1294 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
1295 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1296 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
1297 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
1298 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1299 - `concurrent_view_count` (numeric): How many users are currently watching the video on the platform.
1300 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1301 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1302 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1303 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
1304 - `comment_count` (numeric): Number of comments on the video (For some extractors, comments are only downloaded at the end, and so this field cannot be used)
1305 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
1306 - `live_status` (string): One of "not_live", "is_live", "is_upcoming", "was_live", "post_live" (was live, but VOD is not yet processed)
1307 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
1308 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
1309 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
1310 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
1311 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1312 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
1313 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1314 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
1315 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
1316 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`
1317 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
1318 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
1319 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1320 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1321 - `playlist` (string): `playlist_id` or `playlist_title`
1322 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
1323 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1324 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
1325 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1326 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
1327 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
1328 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1329 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
1330 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)
1332 All the fields in [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats) can also be used
1334 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1336 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1337 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1338 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1340 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1342 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1343 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1344 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1345 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1346 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1347 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1348 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1350 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1352 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1353 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1354 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1355 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track
1356 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track
1357 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1358 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1359 - `album_artist` (string): List of all artists appeared on the album
1360 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1361 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the album was released
1363 Available only when using `--download-sections` and for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
1365 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1366 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1367 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1368 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1370 Available only when used in `--print`:
1372 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1373 - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the [actual filename may differ](#outtmpl-postprocess-note)
1374 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by `--list-formats`
1375 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by `--list-thumbnails`
1376 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1377 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1380 Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1382 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1383 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1384 - `categories` (list): The [SponsorBlock categories](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Category) the chapter belongs to
1385 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1386 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1387 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
1388 - `type` (string): The [SponsorBlock action type](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Action_Type) of the chapter
1390 Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. E.g. for `-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an mp4 video with title `yt-dlp test video` and id `BaW_jenozKc`, this will result in a `yt-dlp test video-BaW_jenozKc.mp4` file created in the current directory.
1392 **Note**: 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).
1394 **Tip**: Look at the `-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
1396 For numeric sequences you can use [numeric related formatting](https://docs.python.org/3/library/stdtypes.html#printf-style-string-formatting); e.g. `%(view_count)05d` will result in a string with view count padded with zeros up to 5 characters, like in `00042`.
1398 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.
1400 To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
1402 The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
1404 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.
1406 #### Output template examples
1408 ```bash
1409 $ yt-dlp --print filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1410 test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1412 $ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1413 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
1415 $ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
1416 youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
1418 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
1419 $ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1421 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
1422 $ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1424 # Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
1425 $ yt-dlp -o '%(playlist_index|)s%(playlist_index& - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1427 # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
1428 $ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1430 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
1431 $ yt-dlp -u user -p password -P "~/MyVideos" -o "%(playlist)s/%(chapter_number)s - %(chapter)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.udemy.com/java-tutorial"
1433 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
1434 $ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -o "%(series)s/%(season_number)s - %(season)s/%(episode_number)s - %(episode)s.%(ext)s" "https://videomore.ru/kino_v_detalayah/5_sezon/367617"
1436 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1437 # and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1438 $ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1440 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1441 $ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" -o "subtitle:%(uploader)s/subs/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --write-subs
1443 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
1444 $ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
1445 ```
1447 # FORMAT SELECTION
1449 By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1450 This is generally equivalent to using `-f bestvideo*+bestaudio/best`. However, if multiple audiostreams is enabled (`--audio-multistreams`), the default format changes to `-f bestvideo+bestaudio/best`. Similarly, if ffmpeg is unavailable, or if you use yt-dlp to stream to `stdout` (`-o -`), the default becomes `-f best/bestvideo+bestaudio`.
1452 **Deprecation warning**: Latest versions of yt-dlp can stream multiple formats to the stdout simultaneously using ffmpeg. So, in future versions, the default for this will be set to `-f bv*+ba/b` similar to normal downloads. If you want to preserve the `-f b/bv+ba` setting, it is recommended to explicitly specify it in the configuration options.
1454 The general syntax for format selection is `-f FORMAT` (or `--format FORMAT`) where `FORMAT` is a *selector expression*, i.e. an expression that describes format or formats you would like to download.
1456 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1457 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
1458 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1460 The simplest case is requesting a specific format; e.g. 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.
1462 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.
1464 You can use `-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1466 You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1468 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1469 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
1470 - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio or both (ie; `vcodec!=none or acodec!=none`)
1471 - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1472 - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
1473 - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
1474 - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
1475 - `ba*`, `bestaudio*`: Select the best quality format that **contains audio**. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `best*[acodec!=none]` ([Do not use!](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/979#issuecomment-919629354))
1476 - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
1477 - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1478 - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
1479 - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
1480 - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
1481 - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
1483 For example, to download the worst quality video-only format you can use `-f worstvideo`. It is however recommended not to use `worst` and related options. When your format selector is `worst`, the format which is worst in all respects is selected. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use `-S +size` or more rigorously, `-S +size,+br,+res,+fps` instead of `-f worst`. See [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats) for more details.
1485 You can select the n'th best format of a type by using `best<type>.<n>`. For example, `best.2` will select the 2nd best combined format. Similarly, `bv*.3` will select the 3rd best format that contains a video stream.
1487 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 formats on the left hand side are preferred; e.g. `-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.
1489 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`.
1491 You can merge the video and audio of multiple formats into a single file using `-f <format1>+<format2>+...` (requires ffmpeg installed); e.g. `-f bestvideo+bestaudio` will download the best video-only format, the best audio-only format and mux them together with ffmpeg.
1493 **Deprecation warning**: Since the *below* described behavior is complex and counter-intuitive, this will be removed and multistreams will be enabled by default in the future. A new operator will be instead added to limit formats to single audio/video
1495 Unless `--video-multistreams` is used, all formats with a video stream except the first one are ignored. Similarly, unless `--audio-multistreams` is used, all formats with an audio stream except the first one are ignored. E.g. `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --video-multistreams --audio-multistreams` will download and merge all 3 given formats. The resulting file will have 2 video streams and 2 audio streams. But `-f bestvideo+best+bestaudio --no-video-multistreams` will download and merge only `bestvideo` and `bestaudio`. `best` is ignored since another format containing a video stream (`bestvideo`) has already been selected. The order of the formats is therefore important. `-f best+bestaudio --no-audio-multistreams` will download only `best` while `-f bestaudio+best --no-audio-multistreams` will ignore `best` and download only `bestaudio`.
1497 ## Filtering Formats
1499 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"`).
1501 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
1503 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1504 - `filesize_approx`: An estimate for the number of bytes
1505 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1506 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
1507 - `aspect_ratio`: Aspect ratio of the video, if known
1508 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1509 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1510 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1511 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1512 - `fps`: Frame rate
1513 - `audio_channels`: The number of audio channels
1514 - `stretched_ratio`: `width:height` of the video's pixels, if not square
1516 Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains), `~=` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
1518 - `url`: Video URL
1519 - `ext`: File extension
1520 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1521 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1522 - `container`: Name of the container format
1523 - `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`)
1524 - `language`: Language code
1525 - `dynamic_range`: The dynamic range of the video
1526 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
1527 - `format`: A human-readable description of the format
1528 - `format_note`: Additional info about the format
1529 - `resolution`: Textual description of width and height
1531 Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation `!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g. `!*=` (does not contain). The comparand of a string comparison needs to be quoted with either double or single quotes if it contains spaces or special characters other than `._-`.
1533 **Note**: 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 website. Any other field made available by the extractor can also be used for filtering.
1535 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 also use the filters with `all` to download all formats that satisfy the filter, e.g. `-f "all[vcodec=none]"` selects all audio-only formats.
1537 Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses; e.g. `-f "(mp4,webm)[height<480]"` will download the best pre-merged mp4 and webm formats with a height lower than 480.
1539 ## Sorting Formats
1541 You can change the criteria for being considered the `best` by using `-S` (`--format-sort`). The general format for this is `--format-sort field1,field2...`.
1543 The available fields are:
1545 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that have a video stream
1546 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that have an audio stream
1547 - `ie_pref`: The format preference
1548 - `lang`: The language preference
1549 - `quality`: The quality of the format
1550 - `source`: The preference of the source
1551 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > `mms`/`rtsp` > `f4f`/`f4m`)
1552 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other)
1553 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`flac`/`alac` > `wav`/`aiff` > `opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `ac4` > `eac3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other)
1554 - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
1555 - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `mov` > `webm` > `flv` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is preferred.
1556 - `aext`: Audio Extension (`m4a` > `aac` > `mp3` > `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, the order changes to `ogg` > `opus` > `webm` > `mp3` > `m4a` > `aac`
1557 - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
1558 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
1559 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize calculated from the manifests
1560 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
1561 - `height`: Height of video
1562 - `width`: Width of video
1563 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1564 - `fps`: Framerate of video
1565 - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `HLG` > `SDR`)
1566 - `channels`: The number of audio channels
1567 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1568 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1569 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1570 - `br`: Equivalent to using `tbr,vbr,abr`
1571 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
1573 **Deprecation warning**: Many of these fields have (currently undocumented) aliases, that may be removed in a future version. It is recommended to use only the documented field names.
1575 All fields, unless specified otherwise, are sorted in descending order. To reverse this, prefix the field with a `+`. E.g. `+res` prefers format with the smallest resolution. Additionally, you can suffix a preferred value for the fields, separated by a `:`. E.g. `res:720` prefers larger videos, but no larger than 720p and the smallest video if there are no videos less than 720p. For `codec` and `ext`, you can provide two preferred values, the first for video and the second for audio. E.g. `+codec:avc:m4a` (equivalent to `+vcodec:avc,+acodec:m4a`) sets the video codec preference to `h264` > `h265` > `vp9` > `vp9.2` > `av01` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` and audio codec preference to `mp4a` > `aac` > `vorbis` > `opus` > `mp3` > `ac3` > `dts`. You can also make the sorting prefer the nearest values to the provided by using `~` as the delimiter. E.g. `filesize~1G` prefers the format with filesize closest to 1 GiB.
1577 The fields `hasvid` and `ie_pref` are always given highest priority in sorting, irrespective of the user-defined order. This behaviour can be changed by using `--format-sort-force`. Apart from these, the default order used is: `lang,quality,res,fps,hdr:12,vcodec:vp9.2,channels,acodec,size,br,asr,proto,ext,hasaud,source,id`. The extractors may override this default order, but they cannot override the user-provided order.
1579 Note that the default has `vcodec:vp9.2`; i.e. `av1` is not preferred. Similarly, the default for hdr is `hdr:12`; i.e. dolby vision is not preferred. These choices are made since DV and AV1 formats are not yet fully compatible with most devices. This may be changed in the future as more devices become capable of smoothly playing back these formats.
1581 If your format selector is `worst`, the last item is selected after sorting. This means it will select the format that is worst in all respects. Most of the time, what you actually want is the video with the smallest filesize instead. So it is generally better to use `-f best -S +size,+br,+res,+fps`.
1583 **Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1585 ## Format Selection examples
1587 ```bash
1588 # Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
1589 # or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
1590 $ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
1592 # Download best format that contains video,
1593 # and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
1594 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
1596 # Same as above
1597 $ yt-dlp
1599 # Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1600 # For this case, an output template should be used since
1601 # by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
1602 $ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
1604 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1605 # and all audio-only formats into one file
1606 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
1608 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1609 # and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
1610 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
1613 # The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
1614 # and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
1616 # Download the worst video available (old method)
1617 $ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
1619 # Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
1620 $ yt-dlp -S "+res"
1622 # Download the smallest video available
1623 $ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
1627 # Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
1628 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
1630 # Download the best video with the best extension
1631 # (For video, mp4 > mov > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
1632 $ yt-dlp -S "ext"
1636 # Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1637 # or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
1638 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
1640 # Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1641 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1642 $ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
1644 # Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1645 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1646 # Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1647 # So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
1648 $ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
1652 # Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1653 # or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1654 $ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
1656 # Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1657 # or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1658 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
1660 # Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
1661 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
1665 # Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1666 # or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
1667 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
1669 # Download best video available via the best protocol
1670 # (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
1671 $ yt-dlp -S "proto"
1675 # Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1676 # or the best video if there is no such video
1677 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
1679 # Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1680 # or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
1681 $ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
1683 # Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1684 # or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
1685 $ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
1689 # More complex examples
1691 # Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1692 # or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
1693 $ yt-dlp -f "((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)"
1695 # Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
1696 # or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
1697 # preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
1698 $ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
1702 # Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1703 # or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
1704 # preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
1705 $ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
1706 ```
1708 # MODIFYING METADATA
1710 The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
1712 `--replace-in-metadata FIELDS REGEX REPLACE` is used to replace text in any metadata field using [python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax). [Backreferences](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html?highlight=backreferences#re.sub) can be used in the replace string for advanced use.
1714 The general syntax of `--parse-metadata FROM:TO` is to give the name of a field or an [output template](#output-template) to extract data from, and the format to interpret it as, separated by a colon `:`. Either a [python regular expression](https://docs.python.org/3/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax) with named capture groups, a single field name, or a similar syntax to the [output template](#output-template) (only `%(field)s` formatting is supported) can be used for `TO`. The option can be used multiple times to parse and modify various fields.
1716 Note that these options preserve their relative order, allowing replacements to be made in parsed fields and viceversa. Also, any field thus created can be used in the [output template](#output-template) and will also affect the media file's metadata added when using `--embed-metadata`.
1718 This option also has a few special uses:
1720 * You can download an additional URL based on the metadata of the currently downloaded video. To do this, set the field `additional_urls` to the URL that you want to download. E.g. `--parse-metadata "description:(?P<additional_urls>https?://www\.vimeo\.com/\d+)"` will download the first vimeo video found in the description
1722 * You can use this to change the metadata that is embedded in the media file. To do this, set the value of the corresponding field with a `meta_` prefix. For example, any value you set to `meta_description` field will be added to the `description` field in the file - you can use this to set a different "description" and "synopsis". To modify the metadata of individual streams, use the `meta<n>_` prefix (e.g. `meta1_language`). Any value set to the `meta_` field will overwrite all default values.
1724 **Note**: Metadata modification happens before format selection, post-extraction and other post-processing operations. Some fields may be added or changed during these steps, overriding your changes.
1726 For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1728 Metadata fields | From
1729 :--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1730 `title` | `track` or `title`
1731 `date` | `upload_date`
1732 `description`, `synopsis` | `description`
1733 `purl`, `comment` | `webpage_url`
1734 `track` | `track_number`
1735 `artist` | `artist`, `creator`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
1736 `genre` | `genre`
1737 `album` | `album`
1738 `album_artist` | `album_artist`
1739 `disc` | `disc_number`
1740 `show` | `series`
1741 `season_number` | `season_number`
1742 `episode_id` | `episode` or `episode_id`
1743 `episode_sort` | `episode_number`
1744 `language` of each stream | the format's `language`
1746 **Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1749 ## Modifying metadata examples
1751 ```bash
1752 # Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
1753 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
1755 # Regex example
1756 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
1758 # Set title as "Series name S01E05"
1759 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
1761 # Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
1762 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --embed-metadata
1764 # Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
1765 # handling multiple lines correctly
1766 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --embed-metadata
1768 # Do not set any "synopsis" in the video metadata
1769 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<meta_synopsis>)"
1771 # Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
1772 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<formats>)" -j
1774 # Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
1775 $ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
1777 ```
1779 # EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1781 Some extractors accept additional arguments which can be passed using `--extractor-args KEY:ARGS`. `ARGS` is a `;` (semicolon) separated string of `ARG=VAL1,VAL2`. E.g. `--extractor-args "youtube:player-client=android_embedded,web;include_live_dash" --extractor-args "funimation:version=uncut"`
1783 Note: In CLI, `ARG` can use `-` instead of `_`; e.g. `youtube:player-client"` becomes `youtube:player_client"`
1785 The following extractors use this feature:
1787 #### youtube
1788 * `lang`: Prefer translated metadata (`title`, `description` etc) of this language code (case-sensitive). By default, the video primary language metadata is preferred, with a fallback to `en` translated. See [youtube.py](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/c26f9b991a0681fd3ea548d535919cec1fbbd430/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L381-L390) for list of supported content language codes
1789 * `skip`: One or more of `hls`, `dash` or `translated_subs` to skip extraction of the m3u8 manifests, dash manifests and [auto-translated subtitles](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/4090#issuecomment-1158102032) respectively
1790 * `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web`, `android` and `ios` with variants `_music`, `_embedded`, `_embedscreen`, `_creator` (e.g. `web_embedded`); and `mweb` and `tv_embedded` (agegate bypass) with no variants. By default, `android,web` is used, but `tv_embedded` and `creator` variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly, the music variants are added for `music.youtube.com` urls. You can use `all` to use all the clients, and `default` for the default clients.
1791 * `player_skip`: Skip some network requests that are generally needed for robust extraction. One or more of `configs` (skip client configs), `webpage` (skip initial webpage), `js` (skip js player). While these options can help reduce the number of requests needed or avoid some rate-limiting, they could cause some issues. See [#860](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/860) for more details
1792 * `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
1793 * `max_comments`: Limit the amount of comments to gather. Comma-separated list of integers representing `max-comments,max-parents,max-replies,max-replies-per-thread`. Default is `all,all,all,all`
1794 * E.g. `all,all,1000,10` will get a maximum of 1000 replies total, with up to 10 replies per thread. `1000,all,100` will get a maximum of 1000 comments, with a maximum of 100 replies total
1795 * `include_duplicate_formats`: Extract formats with identical content but different URLs or protocol. This is useful if some of the formats are unavailable or throttled.
1796 * `include_incomplete_formats`: Extract formats that cannot be downloaded completely (live dash and post-live m3u8)
1797 * `innertube_host`: Innertube API host to use for all API requests; e.g. `studio.youtube.com`, `youtubei.googleapis.com`. Note that cookies exported from one subdomain will not work on others
1798 * `innertube_key`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
1800 #### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1801 * `skip`: One or more of `webpage` (skip initial webpage download), `authcheck` (allow the download of playlists requiring authentication when no initial webpage is downloaded. This may cause unwanted behavior, see [#1122](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/1122) for more details)
1802 * `approximate_date`: Extract approximate `upload_date` and `timestamp` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
1804 #### generic
1805 * `fragment_query`: Passthrough any query in mpd/m3u8 manifest URLs to their fragments if no value is provided, or else apply the query string given as `fragment_query=VALUE`. Does not apply to ffmpeg
1806 * `variant_query`: Passthrough the master m3u8 URL query to its variant playlist URLs if no value is provided, or else apply the query string given as `variant_query=VALUE`
1807 * `hls_key`: An HLS AES-128 key URI *or* key (as hex), and optionally the IV (as hex), in the form of `(URI|KEY)[,IV]`; e.g. `generic:hls_key=ABCDEF1234567980,0xFEDCBA0987654321`. Passing any of these values will force usage of the native HLS downloader and override the corresponding values found in the m3u8 playlist
1808 * `is_live`: Bypass live HLS detection and manually set `live_status` - a value of `false` will set `not_live`, any other value (or no value) will set `is_live`
1810 #### funimation
1811 * `language`: Audio languages to extract, e.g. `funimation:language=english,japanese`
1812 * `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`
1814 #### crunchyrollbeta (Crunchyroll)
1815 * `format`: Which stream type(s) to extract (default: `adaptive_hls`). Potentially useful values include `adaptive_hls`, `adaptive_dash`, `vo_adaptive_hls`, `vo_adaptive_dash`, `download_hls`, `download_dash`, `multitrack_adaptive_hls_v2`
1816 * `hardsub`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract, or `all` (default: `None` = no hardsubs), e.g. `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None`
1818 #### vikichannel
1819 * `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
1821 #### niconico
1822 * `segment_duration`: Segment duration in milliseconds for HLS-DMC formats. Use it at your own risk since this feature **may result in your account termination.**
1824 #### youtubewebarchive
1825 * `check_all`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails`, `captures`
1827 #### gamejolt
1828 * `comment_sort`: `hot` (default), `you` (cookies needed), `top`, `new` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1830 #### hotstar
1831 * `res`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd`, `hd`, `fhd`
1832 * `vcodec`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264`, `h265`, `dvh265`
1833 * `dr`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr`, `hdr10`, `dv`
1835 #### tiktok
1836 * `api_hostname`: Hostname to use for mobile API requests, e.g. `api-h2.tiktokv.com`
1837 * `app_version`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version`, e.g. `20.2.1`
1838 * `manifest_app_version`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with, e.g. `221`
1840 #### rokfinchannel
1841 * `tab`: Which tab to download - one of `new`, `top`, `videos`, `podcasts`, `streams`, `stacks`
1843 #### twitter
1844 * `legacy_api`: Force usage of the legacy Twitter API instead of the GraphQL API for tweet extraction. Has no effect if login cookies are passed
1846 ### wrestleuniverse
1847 * `device_id`: UUID value assigned by the website and used to enforce device limits for paid livestream content. Can be found in browser local storage
1849 #### twitchstream (Twitch)
1850 * `client_id`: Client ID value to be sent with GraphQL requests, e.g. `twitchstream:client_id=kimne78kx3ncx6brgo4mv6wki5h1ko`
1852 **Note**: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
1854 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1857 # PLUGINS
1859 Note that **all** plugins are imported even if not invoked, and that **there are no checks** performed on plugin code. **Use plugins at your own risk and only if you trust the code!**
1861 Plugins can be of `<type>`s `extractor` or `postprocessor`.
1862 - Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it.
1863 - Extractor plugins take priority over builtin extractors.
1864 - Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME`.
1867 Plugins are loaded from the namespace packages `yt_dlp_plugins.extractor` and `yt_dlp_plugins.postprocessor`.
1869 In other words, the file structure on the disk looks something like:
1871 yt_dlp_plugins/
1872 extractor/
1873 myplugin.py
1874 postprocessor/
1875 myplugin.py
1877 yt-dlp looks for these `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folders in many locations (see below) and loads in plugins from **all** of them.
1879 See the [wiki for some known plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugins)
1881 ## Installing Plugins
1883 Plugins can be installed using various methods and locations.
1885 1. **Configuration directories**:
1886 Plugin packages (containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder) can be dropped into the following standard [configuration locations](#configuration):
1887 * **User Plugins**
1888 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1889 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1890 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Windows)
1891 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1892 * `~/.yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1893 * `~/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1894 * **System Plugins**
1895 * `/etc/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1896 * `/etc/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1897 2. **Executable location**: Plugin packages can similarly be installed in a `yt-dlp-plugins` directory under the executable location (recommended for portable installations):
1898 * Binary: where `<root-dir>/yt-dlp.exe`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1899 * Source: where `<root-dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1901 3. **pip and other locations in `PYTHONPATH`**
1902 * Plugin packages can be installed and managed using `pip`. See [yt-dlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) for an example.
1903 * Note: plugin files between plugin packages installed with pip must have unique filenames.
1904 * Any path in `PYTHONPATH` is searched in for the `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder.
1905 * Note: This does not apply for Pyinstaller/py2exe builds.
1908 `.zip`, `.egg` and `.whl` archives containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder in their root are also supported as plugin packages.
1909 * e.g. `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/mypluginpkg.zip` where `mypluginpkg.zip` contains `yt_dlp_plugins/<type>/myplugin.py`
1911 Run yt-dlp with `--verbose` to check if the plugin has been loaded.
1913 ## Developing Plugins
1915 See the [yt-dlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) repo for a template plugin package and the [Plugin Development](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugin-Development) section of the wiki for a plugin development guide.
1917 All public classes with a name ending in `IE`/`PP` are imported from each file for extractors and postprocessors repectively. This respects underscore prefix (e.g. `_MyBasePluginIE` is private) and `__all__`. Modules can similarly be excluded by prefixing the module name with an underscore (e.g. `_myplugin.py`).
1919 To replace an existing extractor with a subclass of one, set the `plugin_name` class keyword argument (e.g. `class MyPluginIE(ABuiltInIE, plugin_name='myplugin')` will replace `ABuiltInIE` with `MyPluginIE`). Since the extractor replaces the parent, you should exclude the subclass extractor from being imported separately by making it private using one of the methods described above.
1921 If you are a plugin author, add [yt-dlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/yt-dlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability.
1923 See the [Developer Instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions) on how to write and test an extractor.
1925 # EMBEDDING YT-DLP
1927 yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1929 Your program should avoid parsing the normal stdout since they may change in future versions. Instead they should use options such as `-J`, `--print`, `--progress-template`, `--exec` etc to create console output that you can reliably reproduce and parse.
1931 From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1933 ```python
1934 from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
1936 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1937 with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1938 ydl.download(URLS)
1939 ```
1941 Most likely, you'll want to use various options. For a list of options available, have a look at [`yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py`](yt_dlp/YoutubeDL.py#L184).
1943 **Tip**: If you are porting your code from youtube-dl to yt-dlp, one important point to look out for is that we do not guarantee the return value of `YoutubeDL.extract_info` to be json serializable, or even be a dictionary. It will be dictionary-like, but if you want to ensure it is a serializable dictionary, pass it through `YoutubeDL.sanitize_info` as shown in the [example below](#extracting-information)
1945 ## Embedding examples
1947 #### Extracting information
1949 ```python
1950 import json
1951 import yt_dlp
1953 URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
1955 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
1956 ydl_opts = {}
1957 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1958 info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
1960 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
1961 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1962 ```
1963 #### Download using an info-json
1965 ```python
1966 import yt_dlp
1968 INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
1970 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1971 error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
1973 print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
1974 else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
1975 ```
1977 #### Extract audio
1979 ```python
1980 import yt_dlp
1982 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1984 ydl_opts = {
1985 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
1986 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
1987 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
1988 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
1989 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
1990 }]
1991 }
1993 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1994 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1995 ```
1997 #### Filter videos
1999 ```python
2000 import yt_dlp
2002 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2004 def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
2005 """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
2006 duration = info.get('duration')
2007 if duration and duration < 60:
2008 return 'The video is too short'
2010 ydl_opts = {
2011 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
2012 }
2014 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2015 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
2016 ```
2018 #### Adding logger and progress hook
2020 ```python
2021 import yt_dlp
2023 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2025 class MyLogger:
2026 def debug(self, msg):
2027 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
2028 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
2029 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
2030 pass
2031 else:
2032 self.info(msg)
2034 def info(self, msg):
2035 pass
2037 def warning(self, msg):
2038 pass
2040 def error(self, msg):
2041 print(msg)
2044 # ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
2045 def my_hook(d):
2046 if d['status'] == 'finished':
2047 print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
2050 ydl_opts = {
2051 'logger': MyLogger(),
2052 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
2053 }
2055 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2056 ydl.download(URLS)
2057 ```
2059 #### Add a custom PostProcessor
2061 ```python
2062 import yt_dlp
2064 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2066 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
2067 class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
2068 def run(self, info):
2069 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
2070 return [], info
2073 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
2074 # ℹ️ "when" can take any value in yt_dlp.utils.POSTPROCESS_WHEN
2075 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP(), when='pre_process')
2076 ydl.download(URLS)
2077 ```
2080 #### Use a custom format selector
2082 ```python
2083 import yt_dlp
2085 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2087 def format_selector(ctx):
2088 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
2089 NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
2091 # formats are already sorted worst to best
2092 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
2094 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
2095 best_video = next(f for f in formats
2096 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
2098 # find compatible audio extension
2099 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
2100 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
2101 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
2102 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
2104 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
2105 yield {
2106 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
2107 'ext': best_video['ext'],
2108 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
2109 # Must be + separated list of protocols
2110 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
2111 }
2114 ydl_opts = {
2115 'format': format_selector,
2116 }
2118 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2119 ydl.download(URLS)
2120 ```
2122 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "NEW FEATURES" SECTION HERE -->
2124 # DEPRECATED OPTIONS
2126 These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
2128 #### Almost redundant options
2129 While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
2131 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
2132 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
2133 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
2134 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
2136 #### Redundant options
2137 While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
2139 --get-description --print description
2140 --get-duration --print duration_string
2141 --get-filename --print filename
2142 --get-format --print format
2143 --get-id --print id
2144 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
2145 -e, --get-title --print title
2146 -g, --get-url --print urls
2147 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
2148 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
2149 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
2150 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
2151 --break-on-reject Use --break-match-filter
2152 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
2153 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
2154 --playlist-start NUMBER -I NUMBER:
2155 --playlist-end NUMBER -I :NUMBER
2156 --playlist-reverse -I ::-1
2157 --no-playlist-reverse Default
2158 --no-colors --color no_color
2161 #### Not recommended
2162 While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
2164 --force-generic-extractor --ies generic,default
2165 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
2166 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
2167 --all-formats -f all
2168 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
2169 --print-json -j --no-simulate
2170 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting, e.g. %(autonumber)03d
2171 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
2172 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2173 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
2174 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
2175 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
2176 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
2177 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
2178 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
2179 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
2180 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
2181 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
2182 --geo-bypass --xff "default"
2183 --no-geo-bypass --xff "never"
2184 --geo-bypass-country CODE --xff CODE
2185 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK --xff IP_BLOCK
2188 #### Developer options
2189 These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
2191 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
2192 --load-pages Load pages dumped by --write-pages
2193 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
2194 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
2195 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
2198 #### Old aliases
2199 These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
2201 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
2202 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
2203 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
2204 --dump-headers --print-traffic
2205 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
2206 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
2207 --load-info --load-info-json
2208 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
2209 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
2210 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
2211 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
2212 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
2213 --split-tracks --split-chapters
2214 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
2215 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
2216 --write-srt --write-subs
2217 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
2219 #### Sponskrub Options
2220 Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock` options
2222 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
2223 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
2224 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
2225 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
2226 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
2227 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
2228 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
2229 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
2231 #### No longer supported
2232 These options may no longer work as intended
2234 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
2235 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
2236 -C, --call-home Not implemented
2237 --no-call-home Default
2238 --include-ads No longer supported
2239 --no-include-ads Default
2240 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
2241 --no-write-annotations Default
2242 --compat-options seperate-video-versions No longer needed
2244 #### Removed
2245 These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
2247 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2248 -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2250 # CONTRIBUTING
2251 See [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp) for instructions on [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue) and [Contributing code to the project](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
2253 # WIKI
2254 See the [Wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki) for more information