Provided by: cclive_0.9.3-0.1build3_amd64 
NAME
cclive - media stream extraction tool
SYNOPSIS
cclive [OPTIONS] [URL|FILE ...]
DESCRIPTION
cclive is a command line tool for downloading media streams from YouTube and similar websites.
INPUT
The command will read stdin by default. The input is expected to contain URLs. The command arguments are
expected to be either URLs or file paths. If the input is read from either stdin or a file, the contents
are read as RFC2483. The input may also contain URIs (file://) to local files.
OPTIONS
Core
-b, --background
Go to background after startup. The output written to stdout will be written to the file specified
with --log-file.
-F, --config-file <arg>
Read the program arguments from the specified file instead of the default ~/.ccliverc file. See also
the section called “FILES”.
-c, --continue
Resume partially downloaded media.
config:
continue = {true|false}
-e, --exec <arg>
Invoke the specified command after each successfully finished download. The command is also invoked
if the media is fully retrieved already. This option may be specified multiple times. See also the
section called “EXAMPLES”.
All occurences of the following sequences will be replaced in the arg:
%f .. Full path to the downloaded media file
%n .. Name of the downloaded media file
%t .. Unfiltered media title
config:
exec = arg
-n, --no-download
Do not download the media, print the details only.
-s, --stream <ID>
Download the specified media stream. By default the program will get the default stream. The stream
selection with libquvi(3) 0.4 is basic at most, whereas libquvi(3) 0.9+ provides a more advanced
facility for this.
libquvi(3) 0.9+ treats the ID value as a regex PATTERN and matches it against the libquvi-scripts(7)
returned media stream IDs. Additionally, the value of ID may be a comma-separated list of regex
PATTERNs.
In comparison, libquvi(3) 0.4 only checks whether the strings (the value of ID and the returned media
stream ID) are equal.
The ID value may also contain the following reserved keywords:
• croak - tell libquvi(3) (0.9+) to exit with an error when reached
• best - tell libquvi(3) to choose the best quality stream
The best quality is determined by libquvi-scripts(7). The method varies, depending on the libquvi(3)
version and the website.
For example, libquvi-scripts(7) 0.9+ would typically compare the media quality properties (e.g. the
video height property). In reality, the method will vary depending on the data provided by the media
hosting service, and the implementation of the support script that was written for the website.
See the --version output to confirm whether cclive was built with libquvi(3) 0.9 or later. See also
the section called “EXAMPLES”.
config:
stream = arg
-N, --timestamp
Try to preserve the file modification time (as returned by the server, if any). Using this option
will cause the program to change the modification time of the file to that of returned by the server.
Note
libcurl will parse this value from the returned "Last-Modified" HTTP header. This header may not
always be present in which case the program will quietly ignore this option.
config:
timestamp = {true|false}
Informative
-h, --help
Print help and exit.
-S, --print-streams
Print the available media streams. The printed values (media stream IDs) may be used with --stream
and --prefer-format options. The available streams are determined by libquvi(3) and libquvi-
scripts(7).
-D, --print-config
Print the value of all defined configuration options to stdout.
-u, --support
Print the supported website domains and exit.
-v, --version
Print the program version and exit.
Output
-f, --filename-format <arg>
Specify how the downloaded media file should be named. All occurences of the following sequences will
be replaced in the arg:
%t .. Media title (after applying --tr)
%s .. Media file extension
%i .. Media ID
The default value is "%t.%s".
config:
filename-format = arg
-l, --log-file <arg>
Write log output to the specified file. The program will ignore this option value unless it is being
used together with --background. The existing log file will be ovewritten. By default, the program
will use "cclive_log" as the log file name.
-d, --output-dir <arg>
Write downloaded media to the specified directory. By default, the program will write the media to
the current working directory.
config:
output-dir = arg
-O, --output-file <arg>
Write media to the specified file. Overrides --filename-format.
-W, --overwrite
Overwrite existing media files.
-R, --progressbar <arg>
Use the progressbar of the specified type. The program will ignore the value of this option with
--background. The arg may be one of the following values:
• dotline (also implied by --background)
• normal (default)
• simple
config:
progressbar = arg
-q, --quiet
Turn off all output to stdout and stderr with the exception of --verbose-libcurl.
-t, --tr <arg>
Specify to translate the characters in the media titles before they are used in the media file names.
The arg is a regular expression pattern. The default value is "/(\w|\s)/g". This option may be
specified multiple times. See also the section called “EXAMPLES”.
config:
tr = arg
-i, --update-interval <arg>
Specify the progressbar update interval in seconds. The default value is 1.
config:
update-interval = arg
-B, --verbose-libcurl
Enable libcURL verbose output.
Network
-a, --agent <arg>
Identify cclive as arg to the HTTP servers. The default value is "Mozilla/5.0".
config:
agent = arg
-C, --connect-timeout <arg>
Maximum time in seconds that the program should allow the connection to the server to take. This only
limits the connection phase, once it has connected, this option is no more of use. Set to 0 to
disable connection timeout (it will then only timeout on the system’s internal timeouts). The default
is 30.
config:
connect-time = arg
-A, --dns-cache-timeout <arg>
The name resolves will be kept in the memory for this number of seconds. Set to 0 to completely
disable DNS caching, or to -1 to make the cached entries to remain in the memory forever. The default
is 60.
config:
dns-cache-timeout = arg
-m, --max-retries <arg>
Specify the number of downloading retries before giving up. Set to 0 to disable. The default is 5.
Note that the program will skip retrying altogether if the server returned HTTP 400 (and over), or if
libquvi(3) returned an unrecoverable error (e.g. missing libquvi-scripts(7)).
config:
max-retries = arg
-X, --no-proxy
Disable use of HTTP proxy. Overrides --proxy and http_proxy environment settings.
-r, --no-resolve
Do not resolve HTTP URL redirections. Using this option will result in the program not being able to
follow URL redirections which are often used by different URL shortening services.
When libquvi 0.9 or later is being used with cclive, this option will be ignored. The library will
always resolve any URL redirections. See --version output to see if cclive was compiled with libquvi
0.9+.
config:
no-resolve = {true|false}
-x, --proxy I<arg>
Use the specified proxy address (e.g. http://foo:1234) for HTTP connections. By default, libcURL
(which cclive and libquvi(3) use) will use the value of http_proxy. Using this option will override
the http_proxy environment value.
See curl(1) for more information about the supported environment variables.
config:
proxy = arg
-w, --retry-wait <arg>
Wait the specified number of seconds before retrying after a failed attempt. The default is 5. If the
value is 0, the program will skip this step.
config:
retry-wait = arg
-H, --throttle <arg>
Do not exceed the specified transfer rate (Ki/s). If arg is 0 (default), the throttling will be
disabled.
config:
throttle = arg
-T, --transfer-timeout <arg>
Maximum time in seconds that the program should allow the transfer operation to take. Normally, name
lookups can take a considerable amount of time, and limiting operations to less than a few minutes
will risk aborting perfectly normal operations. This option will cause libcURL to use the SIGALRM to
enable the timeout system calls. The default is 0 (disabled).
config:
transfer-timeout = arg
Deprecated
These options will be removed eventually in the later versions of cclive.
-p, --prefer-format <arg>
The --stream is intended to replace this option, eventually. The stream selection will be provided by
libquvi 0.9+. This was done previously by cclive. See also the section called “EXAMPLES”.
Have the program choose the format (media stream) to download by matching the regular expression
pattern match to the media URL as specified in the arg.
This option may be specified multiple times. The use of --stream will override the rules specified
using this option.
The arg is a string pair separated by a colon. The string pair consists of:
• a regular expression pattern
• format (media stream) to download
config:
prefer-format = arg
EXAMPLES
• Typical use:
$ cclive "URL"
• Query the available media streams:
$ cclive -S "URL"
• Download the best quality media stream:
$ cclive -s best "URL"
• With libquvi(3) 0.9+, you can pass a list of stream ID patterns to match:
$ cclive -s foo,baz,best "URL"
See the --stream description for more details.
• Replace all occurences of foo with bar in the media title before it is used in the media file name:
$ cclive -t 's/foo/bar/g' "URL"
• Go to background, redirect output to foo.log file:
$ cclive -b --log-file foo.log "URL"
• Interrupt the current transfer of all of the matching processes, this (USR1) will cause cclive to
move onto the next URL in the batch:
$ pkill -USR1 cclive
• Print the path to the downloaded media file using echo(1) and open the media file in totem(1):
$ cclive --exec 'echo "%f"' --exec 'totem "%f"' "URL"
• Process a batch of media URLs:
$ cat URLs
http://foo
http://bar
http://baz
http://qux
$ cat URLs | cclive
$ cclive < URLs
$ cclive URLs
FILES
~/.ccliverc The program will read this location by default. A different location may be defined with --config-file. Example prefer-format = ^.*youtube.*\.com:fmt43_360p prefer-format = dailym:best filename-format = %i_(%t).%s tr = /(\w)/g progressbar = simple continue = true proxy = http://foo:1234 no-resolve = false exec = /usr/bin/totem %f
STREAMS
The availability and the identification of the media streams is determined by libquvi(3) and libquvi- scripts(7). YouTube libquvi-scripts(7) returns the media stream IDs containing the itag value so that they can be referred to as such using the --stream or --prefer-format options. The --print-streams may be used to get a list of the available media streams. libquvi-scripts 0.4 The fmt prefix is used to identify the streams. For example: itag: 22 quvi: fmt22_720p libquvi-scripts 0.9 and later The iXX prefix is used in the media stream IDs. For example: itag: 22 quvi: hd720_mp4_i22_720p For more information about the YouTube video quality and codecs, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube#Quality_and_codecs.
EXIT STATUS
The program will exit with EXIT_SUCCESS (on POSIX systems this is 0) on success, and with EXIT_FAILURE
(on POSIX systems this is 1) if an error occurred.
FURTHER RESOURCES
The development code may be cloned from git://repo.or.cz/cclive.git. The gitweb is accessible at
http://repo.or.cz/w/cclive.git.
AUTHORS
Toni Gundogdu <legatvs@gmail.com> Author.
REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to the cclive-devel mailing list <cclive-devel@lists.sourceforge.net> where the development and the maintenance is primarily done. You do not have to be subscribed to the list to send a message there.
LICENSE
cclive is Free Software, licensed under the GNU Affero GPLv3+.
SEE ALSO
libquvi-scripts(7), libquvi(3)