| blob | 1e108a29c2250cb5f871a086d5fbfe6b0e2e2fc1 |
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/pulse/monthly "Last activity")
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 * [INSTALLATION](#installation)
26 * [Detailed instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation)
27 * [Release Files](#release-files)
28 * [Update](#update)
29 * [Dependencies](#dependencies)
30 * [Compile](#compile)
31 * [USAGE AND OPTIONS](#usage-and-options)
32 * [General Options](#general-options)
33 * [Network Options](#network-options)
34 * [Geo-restriction](#geo-restriction)
35 * [Video Selection](#video-selection)
36 * [Download Options](#download-options)
37 * [Filesystem Options](#filesystem-options)
38 * [Thumbnail Options](#thumbnail-options)
39 * [Internet Shortcut Options](#internet-shortcut-options)
40 * [Verbosity and Simulation Options](#verbosity-and-simulation-options)
41 * [Workarounds](#workarounds)
42 * [Video Format Options](#video-format-options)
43 * [Subtitle Options](#subtitle-options)
44 * [Authentication Options](#authentication-options)
45 * [Post-processing Options](#post-processing-options)
46 * [SponsorBlock Options](#sponsorblock-options)
47 * [Extractor Options](#extractor-options)
48 * [CONFIGURATION](#configuration)
49 * [Configuration file encoding](#configuration-file-encoding)
50 * [Authentication with netrc](#authentication-with-netrc)
51 * [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
52 * [OUTPUT TEMPLATE](#output-template)
53 * [Output template examples](#output-template-examples)
54 * [FORMAT SELECTION](#format-selection)
55 * [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats)
56 * [Sorting Formats](#sorting-formats)
57 * [Format Selection examples](#format-selection-examples)
58 * [MODIFYING METADATA](#modifying-metadata)
59 * [Modifying metadata examples](#modifying-metadata-examples)
60 * [EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS](#extractor-arguments)
61 * [PLUGINS](#plugins)
62 * [Installing Plugins](#installing-plugins)
63 * [Developing Plugins](#developing-plugins)
64 * [EMBEDDING YT-DLP](#embedding-yt-dlp)
65 * [Embedding examples](#embedding-examples)
66 * [CHANGES FROM YOUTUBE-DL](#changes-from-youtube-dl)
67 * [New features](#new-features)
68 * [Differences in default behavior](#differences-in-default-behavior)
69 * [Deprecated options](#deprecated-options)
70 * [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#contributing-to-yt-dlp)
71 * [Opening an Issue](CONTRIBUTING.md#opening-an-issue)
72 * [Developer Instructions](CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions)
73 * [WIKI](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki)
74 * [FAQ](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/FAQ)
75 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
78 # INSTALLATION
80 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
81 [](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.exe)
82 [](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp)
83 [](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos)
84 [](https://pypi.org/project/yt-dlp)
85 [](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
86 [](#release-files)
87 [](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
88 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
90 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
93 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
94 ## RELEASE FILES
96 #### Recommended
98 File|Description
99 :---|:---
100 [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**)
101 [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**)
102 [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**)
104 #### Alternatives
106 File|Description
107 :---|:---
108 [yt-dlp_x86.exe](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_x86.exe)|Windows (Win7 SP1+) standalone x86 (32-bit) binary
109 [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))
110 [yt-dlp_linux](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux)|Linux standalone x64 binary
111 [yt-dlp_linux.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux.zip)|Unpackaged Linux executable (no auto-update)
112 [yt-dlp_linux_armv7l](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_armv7l)|Linux standalone armv7l (32-bit) binary
113 [yt-dlp_linux_aarch64](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_linux_aarch64)|Linux standalone aarch64 (64-bit) binary
114 [yt-dlp_win.zip](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_win.zip)|Unpackaged Windows executable (no auto-update)
115 [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)
116 [yt-dlp_macos_legacy](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos_legacy)|MacOS (10.9+) standalone x64 executable
118 #### Misc
120 File|Description
121 :---|:---
122 [yt-dlp.tar.gz](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)|Source tarball
123 [SHA2-512SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS)|GNU-style SHA512 sums
124 [SHA2-512SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-512SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA512 sums
125 [SHA2-256SUMS](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS)|GNU-style SHA256 sums
126 [SHA2-256SUMS.sig](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/SHA2-256SUMS.sig)|GPG signature file for SHA256 sums
128 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)
129 Example usage:
130 ```
131 curl -L https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/raw/master/public.key | gpg --import
132 gpg --verify SHA2-256SUMS.sig SHA2-256SUMS
133 gpg --verify SHA2-512SUMS.sig SHA2-512SUMS
134 ```
135 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
137 **Note**: The manpages, shell completion (autocomplete) files etc. are available inside the [source tarball](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
140 ## UPDATE
141 You can use `yt-dlp -U` to update if you are using the [release binaries](#release-files)
143 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
145 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
147 <a id="update-channels"></a>
149 There are currently three release channels for binaries: `stable`, `nightly` and `master`.
151 * `stable` is the default channel, and many of its changes have been tested by users of the `nightly` and `master` channels.
152 * The `nightly` channel has releases scheduled to build every day around midnight UTC, for a snapshot of the project's new patches and changes. This is the **recommended channel for regular users** of yt-dlp. The `nightly` releases are available from [yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-nightly-builds/releases) or as development releases of the `yt-dlp` PyPI package (which can be installed with pip's `--pre` flag).
153 * The `master` channel features releases that are built after each push to the master branch, and these will have the very latest fixes and additions, but may also be more prone to regressions. They are available from [yt-dlp/yt-dlp-master-builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-master-builds/releases).
155 When using `--update`/`-U`, a release binary will only update to its current channel.
156 `--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.
158 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.
160 Example usage:
161 * `yt-dlp --update-to master` switch to the `master` channel and update to its latest release
162 * `yt-dlp --update-to stable@2023.07.06` upgrade/downgrade to release to `stable` channel tag `2023.07.06`
163 * `yt-dlp --update-to 2023.10.07` upgrade/downgrade to tag `2023.10.07` if it exists on the current channel
164 * `yt-dlp --update-to example/yt-dlp@2023.09.24` upgrade/downgrade to the release from the `example/yt-dlp` repository, tag `2023.09.24`
166 **Important**: Any user experiencing an issue with the `stable` release should install or update to the `nightly` release before submitting a bug report:
167 ```
168 # To update to nightly from stable executable/binary:
169 yt-dlp --update-to nightly
171 # To install nightly with pip:
172 python3 -m pip install -U --pre yt-dlp[default]
173 ```
175 ## DEPENDENCIES
176 Python versions 3.8+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
178 <!-- Python 3.5+ uses VC++14 and it is already embedded in the binary created
179 <!x-- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999 --x>
180 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.
181 -->
183 While all the other dependencies are optional, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` are highly recommended
185 ### Strongly recommended
187 * [**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)
189 There are bugs in ffmpeg that cause 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
191 **Important**: What you need is ffmpeg *binary*, **NOT** [the Python package of the same name](https://pypi.org/project/ffmpeg)
193 ### Networking
194 * [**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)
195 * [**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>
196 * [**websockets**](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets)\* - For downloading over websocket. Licensed under [BSD-3-Clause](https://github.com/aaugustin/websockets/blob/main/LICENSE)
197 * [**requests**](https://github.com/psf/requests)\* - HTTP library. For HTTPS proxy and persistent connections support. Licensed under [Apache-2.0](https://github.com/psf/requests/blob/main/LICENSE)
199 ### Metadata
201 * [**mutagen**](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen)\* - For `--embed-thumbnail` in certain formats. Licensed under [GPLv2+](https://github.com/quodlibet/mutagen/blob/master/COPYING)
202 * [**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)
203 * [**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 **Mac** and **BSD**. 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
205 ### Misc
207 * [**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)
208 * [**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)
209 * [**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)
210 * Any external downloader that you want to use with `--downloader`
212 ### Deprecated
214 * [**avconv** and **avprobe**](https://www.libav.org) - Now **deprecated** alternative to ffmpeg. License [depends on the build](https://libav.org/legal)
215 * [**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)
216 * [**rtmpdump**](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu) - For downloading `rtmp` streams. ffmpeg can be used instead with `--downloader ffmpeg`. Licensed under [GPLv2+](http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu)
217 * [**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)
219 To use or redistribute the dependencies, you must agree to their respective licensing terms.
221 The standalone release binaries are built with the Python interpreter and the packages marked with **\*** included.
223 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
226 ## COMPILE
228 ### Standalone PyInstaller Builds
229 To build the standalone executable, you must have Python and `pyinstaller` (plus any of yt-dlp's [optional dependencies](#dependencies) if needed). The executable will be built for the same CPU architecture as the Python used.
231 You can run the following commands:
233 ```
234 python3 devscripts/install_deps.py --include pyinstaller
235 python3 devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
236 python3 -m bundle.pyinstaller
237 ```
239 On some systems, you may need to use `py` or `python` instead of `python3`.
241 `python -m bundle.pyinstaller` 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).
243 **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.
245 **Important**: Running `pyinstaller` directly **instead of** using `python -m bundle.pyinstaller` is **not** officially supported. This may or may not work correctly.
247 ### Platform-independent Binary (UNIX)
248 You will need the build tools `python` (3.8+), `zip`, `make` (GNU), `pandoc`\* and `pytest`\*.
250 After installing these, simply run `make`.
252 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)
254 ### Standalone Py2Exe Builds (Windows)
256 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.
258 If you wish to build it anyway, install Python (if it is not already installed) and you can run the following commands:
260 ```
261 py devscripts/install_deps.py --include py2exe
262 py devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
263 py -m bundle.py2exe
264 ```
266 ### Related scripts
268 * **`devscripts/install_deps.py`** - Install dependencies for yt-dlp.
269 * **`devscripts/update-version.py`** - Update the version number based on current date.
270 * **`devscripts/set-variant.py`** - Set the build variant of the executable.
271 * **`devscripts/make_changelog.py`** - Create a markdown changelog using short commit messages and update `CONTRIBUTORS` file.
272 * **`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.
274 Note: See their `--help` for more info.
276 ### Forking the project
277 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.
279 # USAGE AND OPTIONS
281 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
282 yt-dlp [OPTIONS] [--] URL [URL...]
284 `Ctrl+F` is your friend :D
285 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
287 <!-- Auto generated -->
288 ## General Options:
289 -h, --help Print this help text and exit
290 --version Print program version and exit
291 -U, --update Update this program to the latest version
292 --no-update Do not check for updates (default)
293 --update-to [CHANNEL]@[TAG] Upgrade/downgrade to a specific version.
294 CHANNEL can be a repository as well. CHANNEL
295 and TAG default to "stable" and "latest"
296 respectively if omitted; See "UPDATE" for
297 details. Supported channels: stable,
298 nightly, master
299 -i, --ignore-errors Ignore download and postprocessing errors.
300 The download will be considered successful
301 even if the postprocessing fails
302 --no-abort-on-error Continue with next video on download errors;
303 e.g. to skip unavailable videos in a
304 playlist (default)
305 --abort-on-error Abort downloading of further videos if an
306 error occurs (Alias: --no-ignore-errors)
307 --dump-user-agent Display the current user-agent and exit
308 --list-extractors List all supported extractors and exit
309 --extractor-descriptions Output descriptions of all supported
310 extractors and exit
311 --use-extractors NAMES Extractor names to use separated by commas.
312 You can also use regexes, "all", "default"
313 and "end" (end URL matching); e.g. --ies
314 "holodex.*,end,youtube". Prefix the name
315 with a "-" to exclude it, e.g. --ies
316 default,-generic. Use --list-extractors for
317 a list of extractor names. (Alias: --ies)
318 --default-search PREFIX Use this prefix for unqualified URLs. E.g.
319 "gvsearch2:python" downloads two videos from
320 google videos for the search term "python".
321 Use the value "auto" to let yt-dlp guess
322 ("auto_warning" to emit a warning when
323 guessing). "error" just throws an error. The
324 default value "fixup_error" repairs broken
325 URLs, but emits an error if this is not
326 possible instead of searching
327 --ignore-config Don't load any more configuration files
328 except those given to --config-locations.
329 For backward compatibility, if this option
330 is found inside the system configuration
331 file, the user configuration is not loaded.
332 (Alias: --no-config)
333 --no-config-locations Do not load any custom configuration files
334 (default). When given inside a configuration
335 file, ignore all previous --config-locations
336 defined in the current file
337 --config-locations PATH Location of the main configuration file;
338 either the path to the config or its
339 containing directory ("-" for stdin). Can be
340 used multiple times and inside other
341 configuration files
342 --flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
343 only list them
344 --no-flat-playlist Fully extract the videos of a playlist
345 (default)
346 --live-from-start Download livestreams from the start.
347 Currently only supported for YouTube
348 (Experimental)
349 --no-live-from-start Download livestreams from the current time
350 (default)
351 --wait-for-video MIN[-MAX] Wait for scheduled streams to become
352 available. Pass the minimum number of
353 seconds (or range) to wait between retries
354 --no-wait-for-video Do not wait for scheduled streams (default)
355 --mark-watched Mark videos watched (even with --simulate)
356 --no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (default)
357 --color [STREAM:]POLICY Whether to emit color codes in output,
358 optionally prefixed by the STREAM (stdout or
359 stderr) to apply the setting to. Can be one
360 of "always", "auto" (default), "never", or
361 "no_color" (use non color terminal
362 sequences). Can be used multiple times
363 --compat-options OPTS Options that can help keep compatibility
364 with youtube-dl or youtube-dlc
365 configurations by reverting some of the
366 changes made in yt-dlp. See "Differences in
367 default behavior" for details
368 --alias ALIASES OPTIONS Create aliases for an option string. Unless
369 an alias starts with a dash "-", it is
370 prefixed with "--". Arguments are parsed
371 according to the Python string formatting
372 mini-language. E.g. --alias get-audio,-X
373 "-S=aext:{0},abr -x --audio-format {0}"
374 creates options "--get-audio" and "-X" that
375 takes an argument (ARG0) and expands to
376 "-S=aext:ARG0,abr -x --audio-format ARG0".
377 All defined aliases are listed in the --help
378 output. Alias options can trigger more
379 aliases; so be careful to avoid defining
380 recursive options. As a safety measure, each
381 alias may be triggered a maximum of 100
382 times. This option can be used multiple times
384 ## Network Options:
385 --proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy. To
386 enable SOCKS proxy, specify a proper scheme,
387 e.g. socks5://user:pass@127.0.0.1:1080/.
388 Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for
389 direct connection
390 --socket-timeout SECONDS Time to wait before giving up, in seconds
391 --source-address IP Client-side IP address to bind to
392 -4, --force-ipv4 Make all connections via IPv4
393 -6, --force-ipv6 Make all connections via IPv6
394 --enable-file-urls Enable file:// URLs. This is disabled by
395 default for security reasons.
397 ## Geo-restriction:
398 --geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
399 some geo-restricted sites. The default proxy
400 specified by --proxy (or none, if the option
401 is not present) is used for the actual
402 downloading
403 --xff VALUE How to fake X-Forwarded-For HTTP header to
404 try bypassing geographic restriction. One of
405 "default" (only when known to be useful),
406 "never", an IP block in CIDR notation, or a
407 two-letter ISO 3166-2 country code
409 ## Video Selection:
410 -I, --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC Comma separated playlist_index of the items
411 to download. You can specify a range using
412 "[START]:[STOP][:STEP]". For backward
413 compatibility, START-STOP is also supported.
414 Use negative indices to count from the right
415 and negative STEP to download in reverse
416 order. E.g. "-I 1:3,7,-5::2" used on a
417 playlist of size 15 will download the items
418 at index 1,2,3,7,11,13,15
419 --min-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is smaller than
420 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
421 --max-filesize SIZE Abort download if filesize is larger than
422 SIZE, e.g. 50k or 44.6M
423 --date DATE Download only videos uploaded on this date.
424 The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format
425 [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
426 E.g. "--date today-2weeks" downloads only
427 videos uploaded on the same day two weeks ago
428 --datebefore DATE Download only videos uploaded on or before
429 this date. The date formats accepted is the
430 same as --date
431 --dateafter DATE Download only videos uploaded on or after
432 this date. The date formats accepted is the
433 same as --date
434 --match-filters FILTER Generic video filter. Any "OUTPUT TEMPLATE"
435 field can be compared with a number or a
436 string using the operators defined in
437 "Filtering Formats". You can also simply
438 specify a field to match if the field is
439 present, use "!field" to check if the field
440 is not present, and "&" to check multiple
441 conditions. Use a "\" to escape "&" or
442 quotes if needed. If used multiple times,
443 the filter matches if atleast one of the
444 conditions are met. E.g. --match-filter
445 !is_live --match-filter "like_count>?100 &
446 description~='(?i)\bcats \& dogs\b'" matches
447 only videos that are not live OR those that
448 have a like count more than 100 (or the like
449 field is not available) and also has a
450 description that contains the phrase "cats &
451 dogs" (caseless). Use "--match-filter -" to
452 interactively ask whether to download each
453 video
454 --no-match-filters Do not use any --match-filter (default)
455 --break-match-filters FILTER Same as "--match-filters" but stops the
456 download process when a video is rejected
457 --no-break-match-filters Do not use any --break-match-filters (default)
458 --no-playlist Download only the video, if the URL refers
459 to a video and a playlist
460 --yes-playlist Download the playlist, if the URL refers to
461 a video and a playlist
462 --age-limit YEARS Download only videos suitable for the given
463 age
464 --download-archive FILE Download only videos not listed in the
465 archive file. Record the IDs of all
466 downloaded videos in it
467 --no-download-archive Do not use archive file (default)
468 --max-downloads NUMBER Abort after downloading NUMBER files
469 --break-on-existing Stop the download process when encountering
470 a file that is in the archive
471 --break-per-input Alters --max-downloads, --break-on-existing,
472 --break-match-filter, and autonumber to
473 reset per input URL
474 --no-break-per-input --break-on-existing and similar options
475 terminates the entire download queue
476 --skip-playlist-after-errors N Number of allowed failures until the rest of
477 the playlist is skipped
479 ## Download Options:
480 -N, --concurrent-fragments N Number of fragments of a dash/hlsnative
481 video that should be downloaded concurrently
482 (default is 1)
483 -r, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second,
484 e.g. 50K or 4.2M
485 --throttled-rate RATE Minimum download rate in bytes per second
486 below which throttling is assumed and the
487 video data is re-extracted, e.g. 100K
488 -R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
489 "infinite"
490 --file-access-retries RETRIES Number of times to retry on file access
491 error (default is 3), or "infinite"
492 --fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default is
493 10), or "infinite" (DASH, hlsnative and ISM)
494 --retry-sleep [TYPE:]EXPR Time to sleep between retries in seconds
495 (optionally) prefixed by the type of retry
496 (http (default), fragment, file_access,
497 extractor) to apply the sleep to. EXPR can
498 be a number, linear=START[:END[:STEP=1]] or
499 exp=START[:END[:BASE=2]]. This option can be
500 used multiple times to set the sleep for the
501 different retry types, e.g. --retry-sleep
502 linear=1::2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=1:20
503 --skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
504 hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
505 (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragments)
506 --abort-on-unavailable-fragments
507 Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
508 (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
509 --keep-fragments Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
510 downloading is finished
511 --no-keep-fragments Delete downloaded fragments after
512 downloading is finished (default)
513 --buffer-size SIZE Size of download buffer, e.g. 1024 or 16K
514 (default is 1024)
515 --resize-buffer The buffer size is automatically resized
516 from an initial value of --buffer-size
517 (default)
518 --no-resize-buffer Do not automatically adjust the buffer size
519 --http-chunk-size SIZE Size of a chunk for chunk-based HTTP
520 downloading, e.g. 10485760 or 10M (default
521 is disabled). May be useful for bypassing
522 bandwidth throttling imposed by a webserver
523 (experimental)
524 --playlist-random Download playlist videos in random order
525 --lazy-playlist Process entries in the playlist as they are
526 received. This disables n_entries,
527 --playlist-random and --playlist-reverse
528 --no-lazy-playlist Process videos in the playlist only after
529 the entire playlist is parsed (default)
530 --xattr-set-filesize Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with
531 expected file size
532 --hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos;
533 allowing some players to play the video
534 while downloading, and reducing the chance
535 of file corruption if download is
536 interrupted. This is enabled by default for
537 live streams
538 --no-hls-use-mpegts Do not use the mpegts container for HLS
539 videos. This is default when not downloading
540 live streams
541 --download-sections REGEX Download only chapters that match the
542 regular expression. A "*" prefix denotes
543 time-range instead of chapter. Negative
544 timestamps are calculated from the end.
545 "*from-url" can be used to download between
546 the "start_time" and "end_time" extracted
547 from the URL. Needs ffmpeg. This option can
548 be used multiple times to download multiple
549 sections, e.g. --download-sections
550 "*10:15-inf" --download-sections "intro"
551 --downloader [PROTO:]NAME Name or path of the external downloader to
552 use (optionally) prefixed by the protocols
553 (http, ftp, m3u8, dash, rstp, rtmp, mms) to
554 use it for. Currently supports native,
555 aria2c, avconv, axel, curl, ffmpeg, httpie,
556 wget. You can use this option multiple times
557 to set different downloaders for different
558 protocols. E.g. --downloader aria2c
559 --downloader "dash,m3u8:native" will use
560 aria2c for http/ftp downloads, and the
561 native downloader for dash/m3u8 downloads
562 (Alias: --external-downloader)
563 --downloader-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the external
564 downloader. Specify the downloader name and
565 the arguments separated by a colon ":". For
566 ffmpeg, arguments can be passed to different
567 positions using the same syntax as
568 --postprocessor-args. You can use this
569 option multiple times to give different
570 arguments to different downloaders (Alias:
571 --external-downloader-args)
573 ## Filesystem Options:
574 -a, --batch-file FILE File containing URLs to download ("-" for
575 stdin), one URL per line. Lines starting
576 with "#", ";" or "]" are considered as
577 comments and ignored
578 --no-batch-file Do not read URLs from batch file (default)
579 -P, --paths [TYPES:]PATH The paths where the files should be
580 downloaded. Specify the type of file and the
581 path separated by a colon ":". All the same
582 TYPES as --output are supported.
583 Additionally, you can also provide "home"
584 (default) and "temp" paths. All intermediary
585 files are first downloaded to the temp path
586 and then the final files are moved over to
587 the home path after download is finished.
588 This option is ignored if --output is an
589 absolute path
590 -o, --output [TYPES:]TEMPLATE Output filename template; see "OUTPUT
591 TEMPLATE" for details
592 --output-na-placeholder TEXT Placeholder for unavailable fields in
593 --output (default: "NA")
594 --restrict-filenames Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters,
595 and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames
596 --no-restrict-filenames Allow Unicode characters, "&" and spaces in
597 filenames (default)
598 --windows-filenames Force filenames to be Windows-compatible
599 --no-windows-filenames Make filenames Windows-compatible only if
600 using Windows (default)
601 --trim-filenames LENGTH Limit the filename length (excluding
602 extension) to the specified number of
603 characters
604 -w, --no-overwrites Do not overwrite any files
605 --force-overwrites Overwrite all video and metadata files. This
606 option includes --no-continue
607 --no-force-overwrites Do not overwrite the video, but overwrite
608 related files (default)
609 -c, --continue Resume partially downloaded files/fragments
610 (default)
611 --no-continue Do not resume partially downloaded
612 fragments. If the file is not fragmented,
613 restart download of the entire file
614 --part Use .part files instead of writing directly
615 into output file (default)
616 --no-part Do not use .part files - write directly into
617 output file
618 --mtime Use the Last-modified header to set the file
619 modification time (default)
620 --no-mtime Do not use the Last-modified header to set
621 the file modification time
622 --write-description Write video description to a .description file
623 --no-write-description Do not write video description (default)
624 --write-info-json Write video metadata to a .info.json file
625 (this may contain personal information)
626 --no-write-info-json Do not write video metadata (default)
627 --write-playlist-metafiles Write playlist metadata in addition to the
628 video metadata when using --write-info-json,
629 --write-description etc. (default)
630 --no-write-playlist-metafiles Do not write playlist metadata when using
631 --write-info-json, --write-description etc.
632 --clean-info-json Remove some internal metadata such as
633 filenames from the infojson (default)
634 --no-clean-info-json Write all fields to the infojson
635 --write-comments Retrieve video comments to be placed in the
636 infojson. The comments are fetched even
637 without this option if the extraction is
638 known to be quick (Alias: --get-comments)
639 --no-write-comments Do not retrieve video comments unless the
640 extraction is known to be quick (Alias:
641 --no-get-comments)
642 --load-info-json FILE JSON file containing the video information
643 (created with the "--write-info-json" option)
644 --cookies FILE Netscape formatted file to read cookies from
645 and dump cookie jar in
646 --no-cookies Do not read/dump cookies from/to file
647 (default)
648 --cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]
649 The name of the browser to load cookies
650 from. Currently supported browsers are:
651 brave, chrome, chromium, edge, firefox,
652 opera, safari, vivaldi. Optionally, the
653 KEYRING used for decrypting Chromium cookies
654 on Linux, the name/path of the PROFILE to
655 load cookies from, and the CONTAINER name
656 (if Firefox) ("none" for no container) can
657 be given with their respective seperators.
658 By default, all containers of the most
659 recently accessed profile are used.
660 Currently supported keyrings are: basictext,
661 gnomekeyring, kwallet, kwallet5, kwallet6
662 --no-cookies-from-browser Do not load cookies from browser (default)
663 --cache-dir DIR Location in the filesystem where yt-dlp can
664 store some downloaded information (such as
665 client ids and signatures) permanently. By
666 default ${XDG_CACHE_HOME}/yt-dlp
667 --no-cache-dir Disable filesystem caching
668 --rm-cache-dir Delete all filesystem cache files
670 ## Thumbnail Options:
671 --write-thumbnail Write thumbnail image to disk
672 --no-write-thumbnail Do not write thumbnail image to disk (default)
673 --write-all-thumbnails Write all thumbnail image formats to disk
674 --list-thumbnails List available thumbnails of each video.
675 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
677 ## Internet Shortcut Options:
678 --write-link Write an internet shortcut file, depending
679 on the current platform (.url, .webloc or
680 .desktop). The URL may be cached by the OS
681 --write-url-link Write a .url Windows internet shortcut. The
682 OS caches the URL based on the file path
683 --write-webloc-link Write a .webloc macOS internet shortcut
684 --write-desktop-link Write a .desktop Linux internet shortcut
686 ## Verbosity and Simulation Options:
687 -q, --quiet Activate quiet mode. If used with --verbose,
688 print the log to stderr
689 --no-quiet Deactivate quiet mode. (Default)
690 --no-warnings Ignore warnings
691 -s, --simulate Do not download the video and do not write
692 anything to disk
693 --no-simulate Download the video even if printing/listing
694 options are used
695 --ignore-no-formats-error Ignore "No video formats" error. Useful for
696 extracting metadata even if the videos are
697 not actually available for download
698 (experimental)
699 --no-ignore-no-formats-error Throw error when no downloadable video
700 formats are found (default)
701 --skip-download Do not download the video but write all
702 related files (Alias: --no-download)
703 -O, --print [WHEN:]TEMPLATE Field name or output template to print to
704 screen, optionally prefixed with when to
705 print it, separated by a ":". Supported
706 values of "WHEN" are the same as that of
707 --use-postprocessor (default: video).
708 Implies --quiet. Implies --simulate unless
709 --no-simulate or later stages of WHEN are
710 used. This option can be used multiple times
711 --print-to-file [WHEN:]TEMPLATE FILE
712 Append given template to the file. The
713 values of WHEN and TEMPLATE are same as that
714 of --print. FILE uses the same syntax as the
715 output template. This option can be used
716 multiple times
717 -j, --dump-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
718 video. Simulate unless --no-simulate is
719 used. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for a
720 description of available keys
721 -J, --dump-single-json Quiet, but print JSON information for each
722 url or infojson passed. Simulate unless
723 --no-simulate is used. If the URL refers to
724 a playlist, the whole playlist information
725 is dumped in a single line
726 --force-write-archive Force download archive entries to be written
727 as far as no errors occur, even if -s or
728 another simulation option is used (Alias:
729 --force-download-archive)
730 --newline Output progress bar as new lines
731 --no-progress Do not print progress bar
732 --progress Show progress bar, even if in quiet mode
733 --console-title Display progress in console titlebar
734 --progress-template [TYPES:]TEMPLATE
735 Template for progress outputs, optionally
736 prefixed with one of "download:" (default),
737 "download-title:" (the console title),
738 "postprocess:", or "postprocess-title:".
739 The video's fields are accessible under the
740 "info" key and the progress attributes are
741 accessible under "progress" key. E.g.
742 --console-title --progress-template
743 "download-title:%(info.id)s-%(progress.eta)s"
744 -v, --verbose Print various debugging information
745 --dump-pages Print downloaded pages encoded using base64
746 to debug problems (very verbose)
747 --write-pages Write downloaded intermediary pages to files
748 in the current directory to debug problems
749 --print-traffic Display sent and read HTTP traffic
751 ## Workarounds:
752 --encoding ENCODING Force the specified encoding (experimental)
753 --legacy-server-connect Explicitly allow HTTPS connection to servers
754 that do not support RFC 5746 secure
755 renegotiation
756 --no-check-certificates Suppress HTTPS certificate validation
757 --prefer-insecure Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve
758 information about the video (Currently
759 supported only for YouTube)
760 --add-headers FIELD:VALUE Specify a custom HTTP header and its value,
761 separated by a colon ":". You can use this
762 option multiple times
763 --bidi-workaround Work around terminals that lack
764 bidirectional text support. Requires bidiv
765 or fribidi executable in PATH
766 --sleep-requests SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep between requests
767 during data extraction
768 --sleep-interval SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
769 download. This is the minimum time to sleep
770 when used along with --max-sleep-interval
771 (Alias: --min-sleep-interval)
772 --max-sleep-interval SECONDS Maximum number of seconds to sleep. Can only
773 be used along with --min-sleep-interval
774 --sleep-subtitles SECONDS Number of seconds to sleep before each
775 subtitle download
777 ## Video Format Options:
778 -f, --format FORMAT Video format code, see "FORMAT SELECTION"
779 for more details
780 -S, --format-sort SORTORDER Sort the formats by the fields given, see
781 "Sorting Formats" for more details
782 --format-sort-force Force user specified sort order to have
783 precedence over all fields, see "Sorting
784 Formats" for more details (Alias: --S-force)
785 --no-format-sort-force Some fields have precedence over the user
786 specified sort order (default)
787 --video-multistreams Allow multiple video streams to be merged
788 into a single file
789 --no-video-multistreams Only one video stream is downloaded for each
790 output file (default)
791 --audio-multistreams Allow multiple audio streams to be merged
792 into a single file
793 --no-audio-multistreams Only one audio stream is downloaded for each
794 output file (default)
795 --prefer-free-formats Prefer video formats with free containers
796 over non-free ones of same quality. Use with
797 "-S ext" to strictly prefer free containers
798 irrespective of quality
799 --no-prefer-free-formats Don't give any special preference to free
800 containers (default)
801 --check-formats Make sure formats are selected only from
802 those that are actually downloadable
803 --check-all-formats Check all formats for whether they are
804 actually downloadable
805 --no-check-formats Do not check that the formats are actually
806 downloadable
807 -F, --list-formats List available formats of each video.
808 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
809 --merge-output-format FORMAT Containers that may be used when merging
810 formats, separated by "/", e.g. "mp4/mkv".
811 Ignored if no merge is required. (currently
812 supported: avi, flv, mkv, mov, mp4, webm)
814 ## Subtitle Options:
815 --write-subs Write subtitle file
816 --no-write-subs Do not write subtitle file (default)
817 --write-auto-subs Write automatically generated subtitle file
818 (Alias: --write-automatic-subs)
819 --no-write-auto-subs Do not write auto-generated subtitles
820 (default) (Alias: --no-write-automatic-subs)
821 --list-subs List available subtitles of each video.
822 Simulate unless --no-simulate is used
823 --sub-format FORMAT Subtitle format; accepts formats preference,
824 e.g. "srt" or "ass/srt/best"
825 --sub-langs LANGS Languages of the subtitles to download (can
826 be regex) or "all" separated by commas, e.g.
827 --sub-langs "en.*,ja". You can prefix the
828 language code with a "-" to exclude it from
829 the requested languages, e.g. --sub-langs
830 all,-live_chat. Use --list-subs for a list
831 of available language tags
833 ## Authentication Options:
834 -u, --username USERNAME Login with this account ID
835 -p, --password PASSWORD Account password. If this option is left
836 out, yt-dlp will ask interactively
837 -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR Two-factor authentication code
838 -n, --netrc Use .netrc authentication data
839 --netrc-location PATH Location of .netrc authentication data;
840 either the path or its containing directory.
841 Defaults to ~/.netrc
842 --netrc-cmd NETRC_CMD Command to execute to get the credentials
843 for an extractor.
844 --video-password PASSWORD Video-specific password
845 --ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
846 provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
847 a list of available MSOs
848 --ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
849 --ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
850 If this option is left out, yt-dlp will ask
851 interactively
852 --ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system operators
853 --client-certificate CERTFILE Path to client certificate file in PEM
854 format. May include the private key
855 --client-certificate-key KEYFILE
856 Path to private key file for client
857 certificate
858 --client-certificate-password PASSWORD
859 Password for client certificate private key,
860 if encrypted. If not provided, and the key
861 is encrypted, yt-dlp will ask interactively
863 ## Post-Processing Options:
864 -x, --extract-audio Convert video files to audio-only files
865 (requires ffmpeg and ffprobe)
866 --audio-format FORMAT Format to convert the audio to when -x is
867 used. (currently supported: best (default),
868 aac, alac, flac, m4a, mp3, opus, vorbis,
869 wav). You can specify multiple rules using
870 similar syntax as --remux-video
871 --audio-quality QUALITY Specify ffmpeg audio quality to use when
872 converting the audio with -x. Insert a value
873 between 0 (best) and 10 (worst) for VBR or a
874 specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)
875 --remux-video FORMAT Remux the video into another container if
876 necessary (currently supported: avi, flv,
877 gif, mkv, mov, mp4, webm, aac, aiff, alac,
878 flac, m4a, mka, mp3, ogg, opus, vorbis,
879 wav). If target container does not support
880 the video/audio codec, remuxing will fail.
881 You can specify multiple rules; e.g.
882 "aac>m4a/mov>mp4/mkv" will remux aac to m4a,
883 mov to mp4 and anything else to mkv
884 --recode-video FORMAT Re-encode the video into another format if
885 necessary. The syntax and supported formats
886 are the same as --remux-video
887 --postprocessor-args NAME:ARGS Give these arguments to the postprocessors.
888 Specify the postprocessor/executable name
889 and the arguments separated by a colon ":"
890 to give the argument to the specified
891 postprocessor/executable. Supported PP are:
892 Merger, ModifyChapters, SplitChapters,
893 ExtractAudio, VideoRemuxer, VideoConvertor,
894 Metadata, EmbedSubtitle, EmbedThumbnail,
895 SubtitlesConvertor, ThumbnailsConvertor,
896 FixupStretched, FixupM4a, FixupM3u8,
897 FixupTimestamp and FixupDuration. The
898 supported executables are: AtomicParsley,
899 FFmpeg and FFprobe. You can also specify
900 "PP+EXE:ARGS" to give the arguments to the
901 specified executable only when being used by
902 the specified postprocessor. Additionally,
903 for ffmpeg/ffprobe, "_i"/"_o" can be
904 appended to the prefix optionally followed
905 by a number to pass the argument before the
906 specified input/output file, e.g. --ppa
907 "Merger+ffmpeg_i1:-v quiet". You can use
908 this option multiple times to give different
909 arguments to different postprocessors.
910 (Alias: --ppa)
911 -k, --keep-video Keep the intermediate video file on disk
912 after post-processing
913 --no-keep-video Delete the intermediate video file after
914 post-processing (default)
915 --post-overwrites Overwrite post-processed files (default)
916 --no-post-overwrites Do not overwrite post-processed files
917 --embed-subs Embed subtitles in the video (only for mp4,
918 webm and mkv videos)
919 --no-embed-subs Do not embed subtitles (default)
920 --embed-thumbnail Embed thumbnail in the video as cover art
921 --no-embed-thumbnail Do not embed thumbnail (default)
922 --embed-metadata Embed metadata to the video file. Also
923 embeds chapters/infojson if present unless
924 --no-embed-chapters/--no-embed-info-json are
925 used (Alias: --add-metadata)
926 --no-embed-metadata Do not add metadata to file (default)
927 (Alias: --no-add-metadata)
928 --embed-chapters Add chapter markers to the video file
929 (Alias: --add-chapters)
930 --no-embed-chapters Do not add chapter markers (default) (Alias:
931 --no-add-chapters)
932 --embed-info-json Embed the infojson as an attachment to
933 mkv/mka video files
934 --no-embed-info-json Do not embed the infojson as an attachment
935 to the video file
936 --parse-metadata [WHEN:]FROM:TO
937 Parse additional metadata like title/artist
938 from other fields; see "MODIFYING METADATA"
939 for details. Supported values of "WHEN" are
940 the same as that of --use-postprocessor
941 (default: pre_process)
942 --replace-in-metadata [WHEN:]FIELDS REGEX REPLACE
943 Replace text in a metadata field using the
944 given regex. This option can be used
945 multiple times. Supported values of "WHEN"
946 are the same as that of --use-postprocessor
947 (default: pre_process)
948 --xattrs Write metadata to the video file's xattrs
949 (using dublin core and xdg standards)
950 --concat-playlist POLICY Concatenate videos in a playlist. One of
951 "never", "always", or "multi_video"
952 (default; only when the videos form a single
953 show). All the video files must have same
954 codecs and number of streams to be
955 concatable. The "pl_video:" prefix can be
956 used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
957 the output filename for the concatenated
958 files. See "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
959 --fixup POLICY Automatically correct known faults of the
960 file. One of never (do nothing), warn (only
961 emit a warning), detect_or_warn (the
962 default; fix file if we can, warn
963 otherwise), force (try fixing even if file
964 already exists)
965 --ffmpeg-location PATH Location of the ffmpeg binary; either the
966 path to the binary or its containing directory
967 --exec [WHEN:]CMD Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
968 when to execute it, separated by a ":".
969 Supported values of "WHEN" are the same as
970 that of --use-postprocessor (default:
971 after_move). Same syntax as the output
972 template can be used to pass any field as
973 arguments to the command. If no fields are
974 passed, %(filepath,_filename|)q is appended
975 to the end of the command. This option can
976 be used multiple times
977 --no-exec Remove any previously defined --exec
978 --convert-subs FORMAT Convert the subtitles to another format
979 (currently supported: ass, lrc, srt, vtt)
980 (Alias: --convert-subtitles)
981 --convert-thumbnails FORMAT Convert the thumbnails to another format
982 (currently supported: jpg, png, webp). You
983 can specify multiple rules using similar
984 syntax as --remux-video
985 --split-chapters Split video into multiple files based on
986 internal chapters. The "chapter:" prefix can
987 be used with "--paths" and "--output" to set
988 the output filename for the split files. See
989 "OUTPUT TEMPLATE" for details
990 --no-split-chapters Do not split video based on chapters (default)
991 --remove-chapters REGEX Remove chapters whose title matches the
992 given regular expression. The syntax is the
993 same as --download-sections. This option can
994 be used multiple times
995 --no-remove-chapters Do not remove any chapters from the file
996 (default)
997 --force-keyframes-at-cuts Force keyframes at cuts when
998 downloading/splitting/removing sections.
999 This is slow due to needing a re-encode, but
1000 the resulting video may have fewer artifacts
1001 around the cuts
1002 --no-force-keyframes-at-cuts Do not force keyframes around the chapters
1003 when cutting/splitting (default)
1004 --use-postprocessor NAME[:ARGS]
1005 The (case sensitive) name of plugin
1006 postprocessors to be enabled, and
1007 (optionally) arguments to be passed to it,
1008 separated by a colon ":". ARGS are a
1009 semicolon ";" delimited list of NAME=VALUE.
1010 The "when" argument determines when the
1011 postprocessor is invoked. It can be one of
1012 "pre_process" (after video extraction),
1013 "after_filter" (after video passes filter),
1014 "video" (after --format; before
1015 --print/--output), "before_dl" (before each
1016 video download), "post_process" (after each
1017 video download; default), "after_move"
1018 (after moving video file to it's final
1019 locations), "after_video" (after downloading
1020 and processing all formats of a video), or
1021 "playlist" (at end of playlist). This option
1022 can be used multiple times to add different
1023 postprocessors
1025 ## SponsorBlock Options:
1026 Make chapter entries for, or remove various segments (sponsor,
1027 introductions, etc.) from downloaded YouTube videos using the
1028 [SponsorBlock API](https://sponsor.ajay.app)
1030 --sponsorblock-mark CATS SponsorBlock categories to create chapters
1031 for, separated by commas. Available
1032 categories are sponsor, intro, outro,
1033 selfpromo, preview, filler, interaction,
1034 music_offtopic, poi_highlight, chapter, all
1035 and default (=all). You can prefix the
1036 category with a "-" to exclude it. See [1]
1037 for description of the categories. E.g.
1038 --sponsorblock-mark all,-preview
1039 [1] https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Segment_Categories
1040 --sponsorblock-remove CATS SponsorBlock categories to be removed from
1041 the video file, separated by commas. If a
1042 category is present in both mark and remove,
1043 remove takes precedence. The syntax and
1044 available categories are the same as for
1045 --sponsorblock-mark except that "default"
1046 refers to "all,-filler" and poi_highlight,
1047 chapter are not available
1048 --sponsorblock-chapter-title TEMPLATE
1049 An output template for the title of the
1050 SponsorBlock chapters created by
1051 --sponsorblock-mark. The only available
1052 fields are start_time, end_time, category,
1053 categories, name, category_names. Defaults
1054 to "[SponsorBlock]: %(category_names)l"
1055 --no-sponsorblock Disable both --sponsorblock-mark and
1056 --sponsorblock-remove
1057 --sponsorblock-api URL SponsorBlock API location, defaults to
1058 https://sponsor.ajay.app
1060 ## Extractor Options:
1061 --extractor-retries RETRIES Number of retries for known extractor errors
1062 (default is 3), or "infinite"
1063 --allow-dynamic-mpd Process dynamic DASH manifests (default)
1064 (Alias: --no-ignore-dynamic-mpd)
1065 --ignore-dynamic-mpd Do not process dynamic DASH manifests
1066 (Alias: --no-allow-dynamic-mpd)
1067 --hls-split-discontinuity Split HLS playlists to different formats at
1068 discontinuities such as ad breaks
1069 --no-hls-split-discontinuity Do not split HLS playlists to different
1070 formats at discontinuities such as ad breaks
1071 (default)
1072 --extractor-args IE_KEY:ARGS Pass ARGS arguments to the IE_KEY extractor.
1073 See "EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS" for details. You
1074 can use this option multiple times to give
1075 arguments for different extractors
1077 # CONFIGURATION
1079 You can configure yt-dlp by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file. The configuration is loaded from the following locations:
1081 1. **Main Configuration**:
1082 * The file given to `--config-location`
1083 1. **Portable Configuration**: (Recommended for portable installations)
1084 * If using a binary, `yt-dlp.conf` in the same directory as the binary
1085 * If running from source-code, `yt-dlp.conf` in the parent directory of `yt_dlp`
1086 1. **Home Configuration**:
1087 * `yt-dlp.conf` in the home path given to `-P`
1088 * If `-P` is not given, the current directory is searched
1089 1. **User Configuration**:
1090 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp.conf`
1091 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1092 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1093 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp.conf`
1094 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config` (recommended on Windows)
1095 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1096 * `~/yt-dlp.conf`
1097 * `~/yt-dlp.conf.txt`
1098 * `~/.yt-dlp/config`
1099 * `~/.yt-dlp/config.txt`
1101 See also: [Notes about environment variables](#notes-about-environment-variables)
1102 1. **System Configuration**:
1103 * `/etc/yt-dlp.conf`
1104 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config`
1105 * `/etc/yt-dlp/config.txt`
1107 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:
1108 ```
1109 # Lines starting with # are comments
1111 # Always extract audio
1112 -x
1114 # Do not copy the mtime
1115 --no-mtime
1117 # Use this proxy
1118 --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128
1120 # Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
1121 -o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
1122 ```
1124 **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.
1126 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.
1128 ### Configuration file encoding
1130 The configuration files are decoded according to the UTF BOM if present, and in the encoding from system locale otherwise.
1132 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.
1134 ### Authentication with netrc
1136 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:
1137 ```
1138 touch ${HOME}/.netrc
1139 chmod a-rwx,u+rw ${HOME}/.netrc
1140 ```
1141 After that you can add credentials for an extractor in the following format, where *extractor* is the name of the extractor in lowercase:
1142 ```
1143 machine <extractor> login <username> password <password>
1144 ```
1145 E.g.
1146 ```
1147 machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
1148 machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password
1149 ```
1150 To activate authentication with the `.netrc` file you should pass `--netrc` to yt-dlp or place it in the [configuration file](#configuration).
1152 The default location of the .netrc file is `~` (see below).
1154 As an alternative to using the `.netrc` file, which has the disadvantage of keeping your passwords in a plain text file, you can configure a custom shell command to provide the credentials for an extractor. This is done by providing the `--netrc-cmd` parameter, it shall output the credentials in the netrc format and return `0` on success, other values will be treated as an error. `{}` in the command will be replaced by the name of the extractor to make it possible to select the credentials for the right extractor.
1156 E.g. To use an encrypted `.netrc` file stored as `.authinfo.gpg`
1157 ```
1158 yt-dlp --netrc-cmd 'gpg --decrypt ~/.authinfo.gpg' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc
1159 ```
1162 ### Notes about environment variables
1163 * Environment variables are normally specified as `${VARIABLE}`/`$VARIABLE` on UNIX and `%VARIABLE%` on Windows; but is always shown as `${VARIABLE}` in this documentation
1164 * yt-dlp also allow using UNIX-style variables on Windows for path-like options; e.g. `--output`, `--config-location`
1165 * If unset, `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}` defaults to `~/.config` and `${XDG_CACHE_HOME}` to `~/.cache`
1166 * On Windows, `~` points to `${HOME}` if present; or, `${USERPROFILE}` or `${HOMEDRIVE}${HOMEPATH}` otherwise
1167 * On Windows, `${USERPROFILE}` generally points to `C:\Users\<user name>` and `${APPDATA}` to `${USERPROFILE}\AppData\Roaming`
1169 # OUTPUT TEMPLATE
1171 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.
1173 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1174 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#output-template-examples).
1175 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1177 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).
1179 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.
1181 The field names themselves (the part inside the parenthesis) can also have some special formatting:
1183 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
1185 1. **Arithmetic**: Simple arithmetic can be done on numeric fields using `+`, `-` and `*`. E.g. `%(playlist_index+10)03d`, `%(n_entries+1-playlist_index)d`
1187 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`
1189 1. **Alternatives**: Alternate fields can be specified separated with a `,`. E.g. `%(release_date>%Y,upload_date>%Y|Unknown)s`
1191 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`
1193 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`
1195 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)
1197 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
1199 To summarize, the general syntax for a field is:
1200 ```
1201 %(name[.keys][addition][>strf][,alternate][&replacement][|default])[flags][width][.precision][length]type
1202 ```
1204 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.
1206 <a id="outtmpl-postprocess-note"></a>
1208 **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.
1210 The available fields are:
1212 - `id` (string): Video identifier
1213 - `title` (string): Video title
1214 - `fulltitle` (string): Video title ignoring live timestamp and generic title
1215 - `ext` (string): Video filename extension
1216 - `alt_title` (string): A secondary title of the video
1217 - `description` (string): The description of the video
1218 - `display_id` (string): An alternative identifier for the video
1219 - `uploader` (string): Full name of the video uploader
1220 - `uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the video uploader
1221 - `uploader_url` (string): URL to the video uploader's profile
1222 - `license` (string): License name the video is licensed under
1223 - `creators` (list): The creators of the video
1224 - `creator` (string): The creators of the video; comma-separated
1225 - `timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available
1226 - `upload_date` (string): Video upload date in UTC (YYYYMMDD)
1227 - `release_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was released
1228 - `release_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released in UTC
1229 - `release_year` (numeric): Year (YYYY) when the video or album was released
1230 - `modified_timestamp` (numeric): UNIX timestamp of the moment the video was last modified
1231 - `modified_date` (string): The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was last modified in UTC
1232 - `channel` (string): Full name of the channel the video is uploaded on
1233 - `channel_id` (string): Id of the channel
1234 - `channel_url` (string): URL of the channel
1235 - `channel_follower_count` (numeric): Number of followers of the channel
1236 - `channel_is_verified` (boolean): Whether the channel is verified on the platform
1237 - `location` (string): Physical location where the video was filmed
1238 - `duration` (numeric): Length of the video in seconds
1239 - `duration_string` (string): Length of the video (HH:mm:ss)
1240 - `view_count` (numeric): How many users have watched the video on the platform
1241 - `concurrent_view_count` (numeric): How many users are currently watching the video on the platform.
1242 - `like_count` (numeric): Number of positive ratings of the video
1243 - `dislike_count` (numeric): Number of negative ratings of the video
1244 - `repost_count` (numeric): Number of reposts of the video
1245 - `average_rating` (numeric): Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage
1246 - `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)
1247 - `age_limit` (numeric): Age restriction for the video (years)
1248 - `live_status` (string): One of "not_live", "is_live", "is_upcoming", "was_live", "post_live" (was live, but VOD is not yet processed)
1249 - `is_live` (boolean): Whether this video is a live stream or a fixed-length video
1250 - `was_live` (boolean): Whether this video was originally a live stream
1251 - `playable_in_embed` (string): Whether this video is allowed to play in embedded players on other sites
1252 - `availability` (string): Whether the video is "private", "premium_only", "subscriber_only", "needs_auth", "unlisted" or "public"
1253 - `media_type` (string): The type of media as classified by the site, e.g. "episode", "clip", "trailer"
1254 - `start_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should start, as specified in the URL
1255 - `end_time` (numeric): Time in seconds where the reproduction should end, as specified in the URL
1256 - `extractor` (string): Name of the extractor
1257 - `extractor_key` (string): Key name of the extractor
1258 - `epoch` (numeric): Unix epoch of when the information extraction was completed
1259 - `autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each download, starting at `--autonumber-start`, padded with leading zeros to 5 digits
1260 - `video_autonumber` (numeric): Number that will be increased with each video
1261 - `n_entries` (numeric): Total number of extracted items in the playlist
1262 - `playlist_id` (string): Identifier of the playlist that contains the video
1263 - `playlist_title` (string): Name of the playlist that contains the video
1264 - `playlist` (string): `playlist_id` or `playlist_title`
1265 - `playlist_count` (numeric): Total number of items in the playlist. May not be known if entire playlist is not extracted
1266 - `playlist_index` (numeric): Index of the video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according the final index
1267 - `playlist_autonumber` (numeric): Position of the video in the playlist download queue padded with leading zeros according to the total length of the playlist
1268 - `playlist_uploader` (string): Full name of the playlist uploader
1269 - `playlist_uploader_id` (string): Nickname or id of the playlist uploader
1270 - `webpage_url` (string): A URL to the video webpage which if given to yt-dlp should allow to get the same result again
1271 - `webpage_url_basename` (string): The basename of the webpage URL
1272 - `webpage_url_domain` (string): The domain of the webpage URL
1273 - `original_url` (string): The URL given by the user (or same as `webpage_url` for playlist entries)
1274 - `categories` (list): List of categories the video belongs to
1275 - `tags` (list): List of tags assigned to the video
1276 - `cast` (list): List of cast members
1278 All the fields in [Filtering Formats](#filtering-formats) can also be used
1280 Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section:
1282 - `chapter` (string): Name or title of the chapter the video belongs to
1283 - `chapter_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter the video belongs to
1284 - `chapter_id` (string): Id of the chapter the video belongs to
1286 Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme:
1288 - `series` (string): Title of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1289 - `series_id` (string): Id of the series or programme the video episode belongs to
1290 - `season` (string): Title of the season the video episode belongs to
1291 - `season_number` (numeric): Number of the season the video episode belongs to
1292 - `season_id` (string): Id of the season the video episode belongs to
1293 - `episode` (string): Title of the video episode
1294 - `episode_number` (numeric): Number of the video episode within a season
1295 - `episode_id` (string): Id of the video episode
1297 Available for the media that is a track or a part of a music album:
1299 - `track` (string): Title of the track
1300 - `track_number` (numeric): Number of the track within an album or a disc
1301 - `track_id` (string): Id of the track
1302 - `artists` (list): Artist(s) of the track
1303 - `artist` (string): Artist(s) of the track; comma-separated
1304 - `genres` (list): Genre(s) of the track
1305 - `genre` (string): Genre(s) of the track; comma-separated
1306 - `composers` (list): Composer(s) of the piece
1307 - `composer` (string): Composer(s) of the piece; comma-separated
1308 - `album` (string): Title of the album the track belongs to
1309 - `album_type` (string): Type of the album
1310 - `album_artists` (list): All artists appeared on the album
1311 - `album_artist` (string): All artists appeared on the album; comma-separated
1312 - `disc_number` (numeric): Number of the disc or other physical medium the track belongs to
1314 Available only when using `--download-sections` and for `chapter:` prefix when using `--split-chapters` for videos with internal chapters:
1316 - `section_title` (string): Title of the chapter
1317 - `section_number` (numeric): Number of the chapter within the file
1318 - `section_start` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1319 - `section_end` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1321 Available only when used in `--print`:
1323 - `urls` (string): The URLs of all requested formats, one in each line
1324 - `filename` (string): Name of the video file. Note that the [actual filename may differ](#outtmpl-postprocess-note)
1325 - `formats_table` (table): The video format table as printed by `--list-formats`
1326 - `thumbnails_table` (table): The thumbnail format table as printed by `--list-thumbnails`
1327 - `subtitles_table` (table): The subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1328 - `automatic_captions_table` (table): The automatic subtitle format table as printed by `--list-subs`
1330 Available only after the video is downloaded (`post_process`/`after_move`):
1332 - `filepath`: Actual path of downloaded video file
1334 Available only in `--sponsorblock-chapter-title`:
1336 - `start_time` (numeric): Start time of the chapter in seconds
1337 - `end_time` (numeric): End time of the chapter in seconds
1338 - `categories` (list): The [SponsorBlock categories](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Category) the chapter belongs to
1339 - `category` (string): The smallest SponsorBlock category the chapter belongs to
1340 - `category_names` (list): Friendly names of the categories
1341 - `name` (string): Friendly name of the smallest category
1342 - `type` (string): The [SponsorBlock action type](https://wiki.sponsor.ajay.app/w/Types#Action_Type) of the chapter
1344 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.
1346 **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).
1348 **Tip**: Look at the `-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
1350 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`.
1352 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.
1354 To use percent literals in an output template use `%%`. To output to stdout use `-o -`.
1356 The current default template is `%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s`.
1358 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.
1360 #### Output template examples
1362 ```bash
1363 $ yt-dlp --print filename -o "test video.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1364 test video.webm # Literal name with correct extension
1366 $ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc
1367 youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.webm # All kinds of weird characters
1369 $ yt-dlp --print filename -o "%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
1370 youtube-dl_test_video_.webm # Restricted file name
1372 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
1373 $ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1375 # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directories according to their uploaded year
1376 $ yt-dlp -o "%(upload_date>%Y)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re"
1378 # Prefix playlist index with " - " separator, but only if it is available
1379 $ yt-dlp -o "%(playlist_index&{} - |)s%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenozKc "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1381 # Download all playlists of YouTube channel/user keeping each playlist in separate directory:
1382 $ yt-dlp -o "%(uploader)s/%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" "https://www.youtube.com/user/TheLinuxFoundation/playlists"
1384 # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
1385 $ 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"
1387 # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
1388 $ 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"
1390 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext", subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\subs\uploader\title.ext"
1391 # and put all temporary files in "C:\MyVideos\tmp"
1392 $ yt-dlp -P "C:/MyVideos" -P "temp:tmp" -P "subtitle:subs" -o "%(uploader)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s" BaW_jenoz --write-subs
1394 # Download video as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\title.ext" and subtitles as "C:\MyVideos\uploader\subs\title.ext"
1395 $ 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
1397 # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
1398 $ yt-dlp -o - BaW_jenozKc
1399 ```
1401 # FORMAT SELECTION
1403 By default, yt-dlp tries to download the best available quality if you **don't** pass any options.
1404 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`.
1406 **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.
1408 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.
1410 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1411 **tl;dr:** [navigate me to examples](#format-selection-examples).
1412 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
1414 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.
1416 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.
1418 You can use `-f -` to interactively provide the format selector *for each video*
1420 You can also use special names to select particular edge case formats:
1422 - `all`: Select **all formats** separately
1423 - `mergeall`: Select and **merge all formats** (Must be used with `--audio-multistreams`, `--video-multistreams` or both)
1424 - `b*`, `best*`: Select the best quality format that **contains either** a video or an audio or both (ie; `vcodec!=none or acodec!=none`)
1425 - `b`, `best`: Select the best quality format that **contains both** video and audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1426 - `bv`, `bestvideo`: Select the best quality **video-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[acodec=none]`
1427 - `bv*`, `bestvideo*`: Select the best quality format that **contains video**. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec!=none]`
1428 - `ba`, `bestaudio`: Select the best quality **audio-only** format. Equivalent to `best*[vcodec=none]`
1429 - `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))
1430 - `w*`, `worst*`: Select the worst quality format that contains either a video or an audio
1431 - `w`, `worst`: Select the worst quality format that contains both video and audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none][acodec!=none]`
1432 - `wv`, `worstvideo`: Select the worst quality video-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec=none]`
1433 - `wv*`, `worstvideo*`: Select the worst quality format that contains video. It may also contain audio. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec!=none]`
1434 - `wa`, `worstaudio`: Select the worst quality audio-only format. Equivalent to `worst*[vcodec=none]`
1435 - `wa*`, `worstaudio*`: Select the worst quality format that contains audio. It may also contain video. Equivalent to `worst*[acodec!=none]`
1437 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.
1439 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.
1441 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.
1443 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`.
1445 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.
1447 **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
1449 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`.
1451 ## Filtering Formats
1453 You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in `-f "best[height=720]"` (or `-f "[filesize>10M]"` since filters without a selector are interpreted as `best`).
1455 The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons `<`, `<=`, `>`, `>=`, `=` (equals), `!=` (not equals):
1457 - `filesize`: The number of bytes, if known in advance
1458 - `filesize_approx`: An estimate for the number of bytes
1459 - `width`: Width of the video, if known
1460 - `height`: Height of the video, if known
1461 - `aspect_ratio`: Aspect ratio of the video, if known
1462 - `tbr`: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s
1463 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1464 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1465 - `asr`: Audio sampling rate in Hertz
1466 - `fps`: Frame rate
1467 - `audio_channels`: The number of audio channels
1468 - `stretched_ratio`: `width:height` of the video's pixels, if not square
1470 Also filtering work for comparisons `=` (equals), `^=` (starts with), `$=` (ends with), `*=` (contains), `~=` (matches regex) and following string meta fields:
1472 - `url`: Video URL
1473 - `ext`: File extension
1474 - `acodec`: Name of the audio codec in use
1475 - `vcodec`: Name of the video codec in use
1476 - `container`: Name of the container format
1477 - `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`)
1478 - `language`: Language code
1479 - `dynamic_range`: The dynamic range of the video
1480 - `format_id`: A short description of the format
1481 - `format`: A human-readable description of the format
1482 - `format_note`: Additional info about the format
1483 - `resolution`: Textual description of width and height
1485 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 `._-`.
1487 **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.
1489 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 "bv[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.
1491 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.
1493 ## Sorting Formats
1495 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...`.
1497 The available fields are:
1499 - `hasvid`: Gives priority to formats that have a video stream
1500 - `hasaud`: Gives priority to formats that have an audio stream
1501 - `ie_pref`: The format preference
1502 - `lang`: The language preference
1503 - `quality`: The quality of the format
1504 - `source`: The preference of the source
1505 - `proto`: Protocol used for download (`https`/`ftps` > `http`/`ftp` > `m3u8_native`/`m3u8` > `http_dash_segments`> `websocket_frag` > `mms`/`rtsp` > `f4f`/`f4m`)
1506 - `vcodec`: Video Codec (`av01` > `vp9.2` > `vp9` > `h265` > `h264` > `vp8` > `h263` > `theora` > other)
1507 - `acodec`: Audio Codec (`flac`/`alac` > `wav`/`aiff` > `opus` > `vorbis` > `aac` > `mp4a` > `mp3` > `ac4` > `eac3` > `ac3` > `dts` > other)
1508 - `codec`: Equivalent to `vcodec,acodec`
1509 - `vext`: Video Extension (`mp4` > `mov` > `webm` > `flv` > other). If `--prefer-free-formats` is used, `webm` is preferred.
1510 - `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`
1511 - `ext`: Equivalent to `vext,aext`
1512 - `filesize`: Exact filesize, if known in advance
1513 - `fs_approx`: Approximate filesize
1514 - `size`: Exact filesize if available, otherwise approximate filesize
1515 - `height`: Height of video
1516 - `width`: Width of video
1517 - `res`: Video resolution, calculated as the smallest dimension.
1518 - `fps`: Framerate of video
1519 - `hdr`: The dynamic range of the video (`DV` > `HDR12` > `HDR10+` > `HDR10` > `HLG` > `SDR`)
1520 - `channels`: The number of audio channels
1521 - `tbr`: Total average bitrate in KBit/s
1522 - `vbr`: Average video bitrate in KBit/s
1523 - `abr`: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s
1524 - `br`: Average bitrate in KBit/s, `tbr`/`vbr`/`abr`
1525 - `asr`: Audio sample rate in Hz
1527 **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.
1529 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.
1531 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.
1533 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.
1535 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`.
1537 **Tip**: You can use the `-v -F` to see how the formats have been sorted (worst to best).
1539 ## Format Selection examples
1541 ```bash
1542 # Download and merge the best video-only format and the best audio-only format,
1543 # or download the best combined format if video-only format is not available
1544 $ yt-dlp -f "bv+ba/b"
1546 # Download best format that contains video,
1547 # and if it doesn't already have an audio stream, merge it with best audio-only format
1548 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba/b"
1550 # Same as above
1551 $ yt-dlp
1553 # Download the best video-only format and the best audio-only format without merging them
1554 # For this case, an output template should be used since
1555 # by default, bestvideo and bestaudio will have the same file name.
1556 $ yt-dlp -f "bv,ba" -o "%(title)s.f%(format_id)s.%(ext)s"
1558 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1559 # and all audio-only formats into one file
1560 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+mergeall[vcodec=none]" --audio-multistreams
1562 # Download and merge the best format that has a video stream,
1563 # and the best 2 audio-only formats into one file
1564 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*+ba+ba.2" --audio-multistreams
1567 # The following examples show the old method (without -S) of format selection
1568 # and how to use -S to achieve a similar but (generally) better result
1570 # Download the worst video available (old method)
1571 $ yt-dlp -f "wv*+wa/w"
1573 # Download the best video available but with the smallest resolution
1574 $ yt-dlp -S "+res"
1576 # Download the smallest video available
1577 $ yt-dlp -S "+size,+br"
1581 # Download the best mp4 video available, or the best video if no mp4 available
1582 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[ext=mp4]+ba[ext=m4a]/b[ext=mp4] / bv*+ba/b"
1584 # Download the best video with the best extension
1585 # (For video, mp4 > mov > webm > flv. For audio, m4a > aac > mp3 ...)
1586 $ yt-dlp -S "ext"
1590 # Download the best video available but no better than 480p,
1591 # or the worst video if there is no video under 480p
1592 $ yt-dlp -f "bv*[height<=480]+ba/b[height<=480] / wv*+ba/w"
1594 # Download the best video available with the largest height but no better than 480p,
1595 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1596 $ yt-dlp -S "height:480"
1598 # Download the best video available with the largest resolution but no better than 480p,
1599 # or the best video with the smallest resolution if there is no video under 480p
1600 # Resolution is determined by using the smallest dimension.
1601 # So this works correctly for vertical videos as well
1602 $ yt-dlp -S "res:480"
1606 # Download the best video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1607 # or the worst video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1608 $ yt-dlp -f "b[filesize<50M] / w"
1610 # Download largest video (that also has audio) but no bigger than 50 MB,
1611 # or the smallest video (that also has audio) if there is no video under 50 MB
1612 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize:50M"
1614 # Download best video (that also has audio) that is closest in size to 50 MB
1615 $ yt-dlp -f "b" -S "filesize~50M"
1619 # Download best video available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol,
1620 # or the best video available via any protocol if there is no such video
1621 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*+ba/b)[protocol^=http][protocol!*=dash] / (bv*+ba/b)"
1623 # Download best video available via the best protocol
1624 # (https/ftps > http/ftp > m3u8_native > m3u8 > http_dash_segments ...)
1625 $ yt-dlp -S "proto"
1629 # Download the best video with either h264 or h265 codec,
1630 # or the best video if there is no such video
1631 $ yt-dlp -f "(bv*[vcodec~='^((he|a)vc|h26[45])']+ba) / (bv*+ba/b)"
1633 # Download the best video with best codec no better than h264,
1634 # or the best video with worst codec if there is no such video
1635 $ yt-dlp -S "codec:h264"
1637 # Download the best video with worst codec no worse than h264,
1638 # or the best video with best codec if there is no such video
1639 $ yt-dlp -S "+codec:h264"
1643 # More complex examples
1645 # Download the best video no better than 720p preferring framerate greater than 30,
1646 # or the worst video (still preferring framerate greater than 30) if there is no such video
1647 $ yt-dlp -f "((bv*[fps>30]/bv*)[height<=720]/(wv*[fps>30]/wv*)) + ba / (b[fps>30]/b)[height<=720]/(w[fps>30]/w)"
1649 # Download the video with the largest resolution no better than 720p,
1650 # or the video with the smallest resolution available if there is no such video,
1651 # preferring larger framerate for formats with the same resolution
1652 $ yt-dlp -S "res:720,fps"
1656 # Download the video with smallest resolution no worse than 480p,
1657 # or the video with the largest resolution available if there is no such video,
1658 # preferring better codec and then larger total bitrate for the same resolution
1659 $ yt-dlp -S "+res:480,codec,br"
1660 ```
1662 # MODIFYING METADATA
1664 The metadata obtained by the extractors can be modified by using `--parse-metadata` and `--replace-in-metadata`
1666 `--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.
1668 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.
1670 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`.
1672 This option also has a few special uses:
1674 * 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
1676 * 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.
1678 **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.
1680 For reference, these are the fields yt-dlp adds by default to the file metadata:
1682 Metadata fields | From
1683 :--------------------------|:------------------------------------------------
1684 `title` | `track` or `title`
1685 `date` | `upload_date`
1686 `description`, `synopsis` | `description`
1687 `purl`, `comment` | `webpage_url`
1688 `track` | `track_number`
1689 `artist` | `artist`, `artists`, `creator`, `creators`, `uploader` or `uploader_id`
1690 `composer` | `composer` or `composers`
1691 `genre` | `genre` or `genres`
1692 `album` | `album`
1693 `album_artist` | `album_artist` or `album_artists`
1694 `disc` | `disc_number`
1695 `show` | `series`
1696 `season_number` | `season_number`
1697 `episode_id` | `episode` or `episode_id`
1698 `episode_sort` | `episode_number`
1699 `language` of each stream | the format's `language`
1701 **Note**: The file format may not support some of these fields
1704 ## Modifying metadata examples
1706 ```bash
1707 # Interpret the title as "Artist - Title"
1708 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "title:%(artist)s - %(title)s"
1710 # Regex example
1711 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:Artist - (?P<artist>.+)"
1713 # Set title as "Series name S01E05"
1714 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(series)s S%(season_number)02dE%(episode_number)02d:%(title)s"
1716 # Prioritize uploader as the "artist" field in video metadata
1717 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "%(uploader|)s:%(meta_artist)s" --embed-metadata
1719 # Set "comment" field in video metadata using description instead of webpage_url,
1720 # handling multiple lines correctly
1721 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "description:(?s)(?P<meta_comment>.+)" --embed-metadata
1723 # Do not set any "synopsis" in the video metadata
1724 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata ":(?P<meta_synopsis>)"
1726 # Remove "formats" field from the infojson by setting it to an empty string
1727 $ yt-dlp --parse-metadata "video::(?P<formats>)" --write-info-json
1729 # Replace all spaces and "_" in title and uploader with a `-`
1730 $ yt-dlp --replace-in-metadata "title,uploader" "[ _]" "-"
1732 ```
1734 # EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
1736 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"`
1738 Note: In CLI, `ARG` can use `-` instead of `_`; e.g. `youtube:player-client"` becomes `youtube:player_client"`
1740 The following extractors use this feature:
1742 #### youtube
1743 * `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
1744 * `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
1745 * `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`, `mweb_embedscreen` and `tv_embedded` (agegate bypass) with no variants. By default, `ios,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.
1746 * `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
1747 * `player_params`: YouTube player parameters to use for player requests. Will overwrite any default ones set by yt-dlp.
1748 * `comment_sort`: `top` or `new` (default) - choose comment sorting mode (on YouTube's side)
1749 * `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`
1750 * 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
1751 * `formats`: Change the types of formats to return. `dashy` (convert HTTP to DASH), `duplicate` (identical content but different URLs or protocol; includes `dashy`), `incomplete` (cannot be downloaded completely - live dash and post-live m3u8)
1752 * `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
1753 * `innertube_key`: Innertube API key to use for all API requests
1754 * `raise_incomplete_data`: `Incomplete Data Received` raises an error instead of reporting a warning
1756 #### youtubetab (YouTube playlists, channels, feeds, etc.)
1757 * `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)
1758 * `approximate_date`: Extract approximate `upload_date` and `timestamp` in flat-playlist. This may cause date-based filters to be slightly off
1760 #### generic
1761 * `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
1762 * `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`
1763 * `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
1764 * `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`
1766 #### funimation
1767 * `language`: Audio languages to extract, e.g. `funimation:language=english,japanese`
1768 * `version`: The video version to extract - `uncut` or `simulcast`
1770 #### crunchyrollbeta (Crunchyroll)
1771 * `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`
1772 * `hardsub`: Preference order for which hardsub versions to extract, or `all` (default: `None` = no hardsubs), e.g. `crunchyrollbeta:hardsub=en-US,None`
1774 #### vikichannel
1775 * `video_types`: Types of videos to download - one or more of `episodes`, `movies`, `clips`, `trailers`
1777 #### niconico
1778 * `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.**
1780 #### youtubewebarchive
1781 * `check_all`: Try to check more at the cost of more requests. One or more of `thumbnails`, `captures`
1783 #### gamejolt
1784 * `comment_sort`: `hot` (default), `you` (cookies needed), `top`, `new` - choose comment sorting mode (on GameJolt's side)
1786 #### hotstar
1787 * `res`: resolution to ignore - one or more of `sd`, `hd`, `fhd`
1788 * `vcodec`: vcodec to ignore - one or more of `h264`, `h265`, `dvh265`
1789 * `dr`: dynamic range to ignore - one or more of `sdr`, `hdr10`, `dv`
1791 #### niconicochannelplus
1792 * `max_comments`: Maximum number of comments to extract - default is `120`
1794 #### tiktok
1795 * `api_hostname`: Hostname to use for mobile API requests, e.g. `api-h2.tiktokv.com`
1796 * `app_version`: App version to call mobile APIs with - should be set along with `manifest_app_version`, e.g. `20.2.1`
1797 * `manifest_app_version`: Numeric app version to call mobile APIs with, e.g. `221`
1799 #### rokfinchannel
1800 * `tab`: Which tab to download - one of `new`, `top`, `videos`, `podcasts`, `streams`, `stacks`
1802 #### twitter
1803 * `api`: Select one of `graphql` (default), `legacy` or `syndication` as the API for tweet extraction. Has no effect if logged in
1805 #### stacommu, wrestleuniverse
1806 * `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
1808 #### twitch
1809 * `client_id`: Client ID value to be sent with GraphQL requests, e.g. `twitch:client_id=kimne78kx3ncx6brgo4mv6wki5h1ko`
1811 #### nhkradirulive (NHK らじる★らじる LIVE)
1812 * `area`: Which regional variation to extract. Valid areas are: `sapporo`, `sendai`, `tokyo`, `nagoya`, `osaka`, `hiroshima`, `matsuyama`, `fukuoka`. Defaults to `tokyo`
1814 #### nflplusreplay
1815 * `type`: Type(s) of game replays to extract. Valid types are: `full_game`, `full_game_spanish`, `condensed_game` and `all_22`. You can use `all` to extract all available replay types, which is the default
1817 #### jiosaavn
1818 * `bitrate`: Audio bitrates to request. One or more of `16`, `32`, `64`, `128`, `320`. Default is `128,320`
1820 **Note**: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
1822 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
1825 # PLUGINS
1827 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!**
1829 Plugins can be of `<type>`s `extractor` or `postprocessor`.
1830 - Extractor plugins do not need to be enabled from the CLI and are automatically invoked when the input URL is suitable for it.
1831 - Extractor plugins take priority over builtin extractors.
1832 - Postprocessor plugins can be invoked using `--use-postprocessor NAME`.
1835 Plugins are loaded from the namespace packages `yt_dlp_plugins.extractor` and `yt_dlp_plugins.postprocessor`.
1837 In other words, the file structure on the disk looks something like:
1839 yt_dlp_plugins/
1840 extractor/
1841 myplugin.py
1842 postprocessor/
1843 myplugin.py
1845 yt-dlp looks for these `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folders in many locations (see below) and loads in plugins from **all** of them.
1847 See the [wiki for some known plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugins)
1849 ## Installing Plugins
1851 Plugins can be installed using various methods and locations.
1853 1. **Configuration directories**:
1854 Plugin packages (containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder) can be dropped into the following standard [configuration locations](#configuration):
1855 * **User Plugins**
1856 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Linux/macOS)
1857 * `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1858 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/` (recommended on Windows)
1859 * `${APPDATA}/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1860 * `~/.yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1861 * `~/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1862 * **System Plugins**
1863 * `/etc/yt-dlp/plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1864 * `/etc/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1865 2. **Executable location**: Plugin packages can similarly be installed in a `yt-dlp-plugins` directory under the executable location (recommended for portable installations):
1866 * Binary: where `<root-dir>/yt-dlp.exe`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1867 * Source: where `<root-dir>/yt_dlp/__main__.py`, `<root-dir>/yt-dlp-plugins/<package name>/yt_dlp_plugins/`
1869 3. **pip and other locations in `PYTHONPATH`**
1870 * 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.
1871 * Note: plugin files between plugin packages installed with pip must have unique filenames.
1872 * Any path in `PYTHONPATH` is searched in for the `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder.
1873 * Note: This does not apply for Pyinstaller/py2exe builds.
1876 `.zip`, `.egg` and `.whl` archives containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder in their root are also supported as plugin packages.
1877 * e.g. `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/mypluginpkg.zip` where `mypluginpkg.zip` contains `yt_dlp_plugins/<type>/myplugin.py`
1879 Run yt-dlp with `--verbose` to check if the plugin has been loaded.
1881 ## Developing Plugins
1883 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.
1885 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`).
1887 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.
1889 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.
1891 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.
1893 # EMBEDDING YT-DLP
1895 yt-dlp makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any programming language.
1897 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.
1899 From a Python program, you can embed yt-dlp in a more powerful fashion, like this:
1901 ```python
1902 from yt_dlp import YoutubeDL
1904 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1905 with YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1906 ydl.download(URLS)
1907 ```
1909 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#L183) or `help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)` in a Python shell. If you are already familiar with the CLI, you can use [`devscripts/cli_to_api.py`](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/devscripts/cli_to_api.py) to translate any CLI switches to `YoutubeDL` params.
1911 **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)
1913 ## Embedding examples
1915 #### Extracting information
1917 ```python
1918 import json
1919 import yt_dlp
1921 URL = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'
1923 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL) for a list of available options and public functions
1924 ydl_opts = {}
1925 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1926 info = ydl.extract_info(URL, download=False)
1928 # ℹ️ ydl.sanitize_info makes the info json-serializable
1929 print(json.dumps(ydl.sanitize_info(info)))
1930 ```
1931 #### Download using an info-json
1933 ```python
1934 import yt_dlp
1936 INFO_FILE = 'path/to/video.info.json'
1938 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
1939 error_code = ydl.download_with_info_file(INFO_FILE)
1941 print('Some videos failed to download' if error_code
1942 else 'All videos successfully downloaded')
1943 ```
1945 #### Extract audio
1947 ```python
1948 import yt_dlp
1950 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1952 ydl_opts = {
1953 'format': 'm4a/bestaudio/best',
1954 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor) for a list of available Postprocessors and their arguments
1955 'postprocessors': [{ # Extract audio using ffmpeg
1956 'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
1957 'preferredcodec': 'm4a',
1958 }]
1959 }
1961 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1962 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1963 ```
1965 #### Filter videos
1967 ```python
1968 import yt_dlp
1970 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1972 def longer_than_a_minute(info, *, incomplete):
1973 """Download only videos longer than a minute (or with unknown duration)"""
1974 duration = info.get('duration')
1975 if duration and duration < 60:
1976 return 'The video is too short'
1978 ydl_opts = {
1979 'match_filter': longer_than_a_minute,
1980 }
1982 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
1983 error_code = ydl.download(URLS)
1984 ```
1986 #### Adding logger and progress hook
1988 ```python
1989 import yt_dlp
1991 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
1993 class MyLogger:
1994 def debug(self, msg):
1995 # For compatibility with youtube-dl, both debug and info are passed into debug
1996 # You can distinguish them by the prefix '[debug] '
1997 if msg.startswith('[debug] '):
1998 pass
1999 else:
2000 self.info(msg)
2002 def info(self, msg):
2003 pass
2005 def warning(self, msg):
2006 pass
2008 def error(self, msg):
2009 print(msg)
2012 # ℹ️ See "progress_hooks" in help(yt_dlp.YoutubeDL)
2013 def my_hook(d):
2014 if d['status'] == 'finished':
2015 print('Done downloading, now post-processing ...')
2018 ydl_opts = {
2019 'logger': MyLogger(),
2020 'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
2021 }
2023 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2024 ydl.download(URLS)
2025 ```
2027 #### Add a custom PostProcessor
2029 ```python
2030 import yt_dlp
2032 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2034 # ℹ️ See help(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor)
2035 class MyCustomPP(yt_dlp.postprocessor.PostProcessor):
2036 def run(self, info):
2037 self.to_screen('Doing stuff')
2038 return [], info
2041 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL() as ydl:
2042 # ℹ️ "when" can take any value in yt_dlp.utils.POSTPROCESS_WHEN
2043 ydl.add_post_processor(MyCustomPP(), when='pre_process')
2044 ydl.download(URLS)
2045 ```
2048 #### Use a custom format selector
2050 ```python
2051 import yt_dlp
2053 URLS = ['https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc']
2055 def format_selector(ctx):
2056 """ Select the best video and the best audio that won't result in an mkv.
2057 NOTE: This is just an example and does not handle all cases """
2059 # formats are already sorted worst to best
2060 formats = ctx.get('formats')[::-1]
2062 # acodec='none' means there is no audio
2063 best_video = next(f for f in formats
2064 if f['vcodec'] != 'none' and f['acodec'] == 'none')
2066 # find compatible audio extension
2067 audio_ext = {'mp4': 'm4a', 'webm': 'webm'}[best_video['ext']]
2068 # vcodec='none' means there is no video
2069 best_audio = next(f for f in formats if (
2070 f['acodec'] != 'none' and f['vcodec'] == 'none' and f['ext'] == audio_ext))
2072 # These are the minimum required fields for a merged format
2073 yield {
2074 'format_id': f'{best_video["format_id"]}+{best_audio["format_id"]}',
2075 'ext': best_video['ext'],
2076 'requested_formats': [best_video, best_audio],
2077 # Must be + separated list of protocols
2078 'protocol': f'{best_video["protocol"]}+{best_audio["protocol"]}'
2079 }
2082 ydl_opts = {
2083 'format': format_selector,
2084 }
2086 with yt_dlp.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
2087 ydl.download(URLS)
2088 ```
2091 # CHANGES FROM YOUTUBE-DL
2093 ### New features
2095 * Forked from [**yt-dlc@f9401f2**](https://github.com/blackjack4494/yt-dlc/commit/f9401f2a91987068139c5f757b12fc711d4c0cee) and merged with [**youtube-dl@be008e6**](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/commit/be008e657d79832642e2158557c899249c9e31cd) ([exceptions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/21))
2097 * **[SponsorBlock Integration](#sponsorblock-options)**: You can mark/remove sponsor sections in YouTube videos by utilizing the [SponsorBlock](https://sponsor.ajay.app) API
2099 * **[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))
2101 * **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.
2103 * **YouTube improvements**:
2104 * 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`)
2105 * Fix for [n-sig based throttling](https://github.com/ytdl-org/youtube-dl/issues/29326) **\***
2106 * Supports some (but not all) age-gated content without cookies
2107 * Download livestreams from the start using `--live-from-start` (*experimental*)
2108 * Channel URLs download all uploads of the channel, including shorts and live
2110 * **Cookies from browser**: Cookies can be automatically extracted from all major web browsers using `--cookies-from-browser BROWSER[+KEYRING][:PROFILE][::CONTAINER]`
2112 * **Download time range**: Videos can be downloaded partially based on either timestamps or chapters using `--download-sections`
2114 * **Split video by chapters**: Videos can be split into multiple files based on chapters using `--split-chapters`
2116 * **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
2118 * **Aria2c with HLS/DASH**: You can use `aria2c` as the external downloader for DASH(mpd) and HLS(m3u8) formats
2120 * **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)
2122 * **New MSOs**: Philo, Spectrum, SlingTV, Cablevision, RCN etc.
2124 * **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
2126 * **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`)
2128 * **Portable Configuration**: Configuration files are automatically loaded from the home and root directories. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for details
2130 * **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`
2132 * **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
2134 * **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
2136 * **Plugins**: Extractors and PostProcessors can be loaded from an external file. See [plugins](#plugins) for details
2138 * **Self updater**: The releases can be updated using `yt-dlp -U`, and downgraded using `--update-to` if required
2140 * **Automated builds**: [Nightly/master builds](#update-channels) can be used with `--update-to nightly` and `--update-to master`
2142 See [changelog](Changelog.md) or [commits](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commits) for the full list of changes
2144 Features marked with a **\*** have been back-ported to youtube-dl
2146 ### Differences in default behavior
2148 Some of yt-dlp's default options are different from that of youtube-dl and youtube-dlc:
2150 * yt-dlp supports only [Python 3.8+](## "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)
2151 * The options `--auto-number` (`-A`), `--title` (`-t`) and `--literal` (`-l`), no longer work. See [removed options](#Removed) for details
2152 * `avconv` is not supported as an alternative to `ffmpeg`
2153 * yt-dlp stores config files in slightly different locations to youtube-dl. See [CONFIGURATION](#configuration) for a list of correct locations
2154 * 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`
2155 * 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
2156 * 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
2157 * 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
2158 * `--no-abort-on-error` is enabled by default. Use `--abort-on-error` or `--compat-options abort-on-error` to abort on errors instead
2159 * 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
2160 * `--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
2161 * 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
2162 * `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
2163 * The output of `-F` is listed in a new format. Use `--compat-options list-formats` to revert this
2164 * 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
2165 * 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
2166 * Unavailable videos are also listed for YouTube playlists. Use `--compat-options no-youtube-unavailable-videos` to remove this
2167 * 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.
2168 * 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
2169 * Thumbnail embedding in `mp4` is done with mutagen if possible. Use `--compat-options embed-thumbnail-atomicparsley` to force the use of AtomicParsley instead
2170 * Some internal metadata such as filenames are removed by default from the infojson. Use `--no-clean-infojson` or `--compat-options no-clean-infojson` to revert this
2171 * 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
2172 * `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`
2173 * 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
2174 * ~~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~~
2175 * yt-dlp versions between 2021.09.01 and 2023.01.02 applies `--match-filter` to nested playlists. This was an unintentional side-effect of [8f18ac](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/8f18aca8717bb0dd49054555af8d386e5eda3a88) and is fixed in [d7b460](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/d7b460d0e5fc710950582baed2e3fc616ed98a80). Use `--compat-options playlist-match-filter` to revert this
2176 * yt-dlp versions between 2021.11.10 and 2023.06.21 estimated `filesize_approx` values for fragmented/manifest formats. This was added for convenience in [f2fe69](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/f2fe69c7b0d208bdb1f6292b4ae92bc1e1a7444a), but was reverted in [0dff8e](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/commit/0dff8e4d1e6e9fb938f4256ea9af7d81f42fd54f) due to the potentially extreme inaccuracy of the estimated values. Use `--compat-options manifest-filesize-approx` to keep extracting the estimated values
2177 * yt-dlp uses modern http client backends such as `requests`. Use `--compat-options prefer-legacy-http-handler` to prefer the legacy http handler (`urllib`) to be used for standard http requests.
2178 * The sub-modules `swfinterp`, `casefold` are removed.
2180 For ease of use, a few more compat options are available:
2182 * `--compat-options all`: Use all compat options (Do NOT use)
2183 * `--compat-options youtube-dl`: Same as `--compat-options all,-multistreams,-playlist-match-filter,-manifest-filesize-approx`
2184 * `--compat-options youtube-dlc`: Same as `--compat-options all,-no-live-chat,-no-youtube-channel-redirect,-playlist-match-filter,-manifest-filesize-approx`
2185 * `--compat-options 2021`: Same as `--compat-options 2022,no-certifi,filename-sanitization,no-youtube-prefer-utc-upload-date`
2186 * `--compat-options 2022`: Same as `--compat-options 2023,playlist-match-filter,no-external-downloader-progress,prefer-legacy-http-handler,manifest-filesize-approx`
2187 * `--compat-options 2023`: Currently does nothing. Use this to enable all future compat options
2189 ### Deprecated options
2191 These are all the deprecated options and the current alternative to achieve the same effect
2193 #### Almost redundant options
2194 While these options are almost the same as their new counterparts, there are some differences that prevents them being redundant
2196 -j, --dump-json --print "%()j"
2197 -F, --list-formats --print formats_table
2198 --list-thumbnails --print thumbnails_table --print playlist:thumbnails_table
2199 --list-subs --print automatic_captions_table --print subtitles_table
2201 #### Redundant options
2202 While these options are redundant, they are still expected to be used due to their ease of use
2204 --get-description --print description
2205 --get-duration --print duration_string
2206 --get-filename --print filename
2207 --get-format --print format
2208 --get-id --print id
2209 --get-thumbnail --print thumbnail
2210 -e, --get-title --print title
2211 -g, --get-url --print urls
2212 --match-title REGEX --match-filter "title ~= (?i)REGEX"
2213 --reject-title REGEX --match-filter "title !~= (?i)REGEX"
2214 --min-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count >=? COUNT"
2215 --max-views COUNT --match-filter "view_count <=? COUNT"
2216 --break-on-reject Use --break-match-filter
2217 --user-agent UA --add-header "User-Agent:UA"
2218 --referer URL --add-header "Referer:URL"
2219 --playlist-start NUMBER -I NUMBER:
2220 --playlist-end NUMBER -I :NUMBER
2221 --playlist-reverse -I ::-1
2222 --no-playlist-reverse Default
2223 --no-colors --color no_color
2225 #### Not recommended
2226 While these options still work, their use is not recommended since there are other alternatives to achieve the same
2228 --force-generic-extractor --ies generic,default
2229 --exec-before-download CMD --exec "before_dl:CMD"
2230 --no-exec-before-download --no-exec
2231 --all-formats -f all
2232 --all-subs --sub-langs all --write-subs
2233 --print-json -j --no-simulate
2234 --autonumber-size NUMBER Use string formatting, e.g. %(autonumber)03d
2235 --autonumber-start NUMBER Use internal field formatting like %(autonumber+NUMBER)s
2236 --id -o "%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2237 --metadata-from-title FORMAT --parse-metadata "%(title)s:FORMAT"
2238 --hls-prefer-native --downloader "m3u8:native"
2239 --hls-prefer-ffmpeg --downloader "m3u8:ffmpeg"
2240 --list-formats-old --compat-options list-formats (Alias: --no-list-formats-as-table)
2241 --list-formats-as-table --compat-options -list-formats [Default] (Alias: --no-list-formats-old)
2242 --youtube-skip-dash-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=dash" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-dash-manifest)
2243 --youtube-skip-hls-manifest --extractor-args "youtube:skip=hls" (Alias: --no-youtube-include-hls-manifest)
2244 --youtube-include-dash-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-dash-manifest)
2245 --youtube-include-hls-manifest Default (Alias: --no-youtube-skip-hls-manifest)
2246 --geo-bypass --xff "default"
2247 --no-geo-bypass --xff "never"
2248 --geo-bypass-country CODE --xff CODE
2249 --geo-bypass-ip-block IP_BLOCK --xff IP_BLOCK
2251 #### Developer options
2252 These options are not intended to be used by the end-user
2254 --test Download only part of video for testing extractors
2255 --load-pages Load pages dumped by --write-pages
2256 --youtube-print-sig-code For testing youtube signatures
2257 --allow-unplayable-formats List unplayable formats also
2258 --no-allow-unplayable-formats Default
2260 #### Old aliases
2261 These are aliases that are no longer documented for various reasons
2263 --avconv-location --ffmpeg-location
2264 --clean-infojson --clean-info-json
2265 --cn-verification-proxy URL --geo-verification-proxy URL
2266 --dump-headers --print-traffic
2267 --dump-intermediate-pages --dump-pages
2268 --force-write-download-archive --force-write-archive
2269 --load-info --load-info-json
2270 --no-clean-infojson --no-clean-info-json
2271 --no-split-tracks --no-split-chapters
2272 --no-write-srt --no-write-subs
2273 --prefer-unsecure --prefer-insecure
2274 --rate-limit RATE --limit-rate RATE
2275 --split-tracks --split-chapters
2276 --srt-lang LANGS --sub-langs LANGS
2277 --trim-file-names LENGTH --trim-filenames LENGTH
2278 --write-srt --write-subs
2279 --yes-overwrites --force-overwrites
2281 #### Sponskrub Options
2282 Support for [SponSkrub](https://github.com/faissaloo/SponSkrub) has been deprecated in favor of the `--sponsorblock` options
2284 --sponskrub --sponsorblock-mark all
2285 --no-sponskrub --no-sponsorblock
2286 --sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove all
2287 --no-sponskrub-cut --sponsorblock-remove -all
2288 --sponskrub-force Not applicable
2289 --no-sponskrub-force Not applicable
2290 --sponskrub-location Not applicable
2291 --sponskrub-args Not applicable
2293 #### No longer supported
2294 These options may no longer work as intended
2296 --prefer-avconv avconv is not officially supported by yt-dlp (Alias: --no-prefer-ffmpeg)
2297 --prefer-ffmpeg Default (Alias: --no-prefer-avconv)
2298 -C, --call-home Not implemented
2299 --no-call-home Default
2300 --include-ads No longer supported
2301 --no-include-ads Default
2302 --write-annotations No supported site has annotations now
2303 --no-write-annotations Default
2304 --compat-options seperate-video-versions No longer needed
2306 #### Removed
2307 These options were deprecated since 2014 and have now been entirely removed
2309 -A, --auto-number -o "%(autonumber)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2310 -t, -l, --title, --literal -o "%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s"
2313 # CONTRIBUTING
2314 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)
2316 # WIKI
2317 See the [Wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki) for more information