Provided by: cclive_0.7.16-2.1build1_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 program reads input from the stdin by default. The arguments may be either an URL or a FILE. When the
input is read from either stdin or a FILE, the data is expected to be a newline-separated list of URLs.
OPTIONS
Core
--agent <arg>
Identify cclive as arg to the HTTP servers. The default value is "Mozilla/5.0".
config:
agent = arg
-b, --background
Go to background after startup. The output written to stdout will be written to the file specified
with --log-file.
-c, --continue
Resume partially downloaded media.
config:
continue = {true|false}
-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}
--config-file <arg>
Read the program arguments from the specified file instead of the default ~/.ccliverc file. See also
the section called “FILES”.
--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.
-p, --prefer-format <arg>
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. See also the section called “EXAMPLES”.
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
-s,--stream <ID>
Download the specified media stream. By default the program will get the default stream. The ID may
also be best, in which case libquvi-scripts(7) will determine the best available quality stream.
Informative
-h, --help
Print help and exit.
--license
Print the license and exit.
-S, --print-streams
Query 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).
--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
--support
Print the supported website domains and exit.
--update-interval <arg>
Specify the progressbar update interval in seconds. Use of decimal fractions (e.g. "0.2") is
acceptable. The program will use the default value 1.
config:
update-interval = arg
-D, --print-config
Print the value of all defined configuration options to stdout.
-v, --version
Print the program version and exit.
Output
--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
--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.
--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.
-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
-B, --verbose-libcurl
Enable libcURL verbose output.
-W, --overwrite
Overwrite existing media files.
Network
--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
--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
--no-proxy
Disable use of HTTP proxy. Overrides --proxy and http_proxy environment settings.
--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
--retry-wait <arg>
Wait the specified number of seconds before retrying after a failed attempt. The default is 5.
config:
retry-wait = arg
--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
-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.
config:
no-resolve = {true|false}
--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
--throttle <arg>
Do not exceed the specified transfer rate (Ki/s). If arg is 0 (default), the throttling will be
disabled.
config:
throttle = arg
Deprecated
-f, --format <ID>
Identical to --stream. Deprecated as of 0.7.12.
-F, --query-formats
Identical to --print-streams. Deprecated as of 0.7.12.
--regexp <arg>
Specify the regular expression pattern to cleanup the media title before it is used to format the
media file name. The specifiers g and i are supported. Use --tr, instead.
--subst <arg>
Replace the matched occurences in the media file name. This option may not be specified multiple
times: to specify multiple substitutions, separate each regular expression pattern with a whitespace.
The specifiers g and i are supported. Use --tr, instead.
Supported delimiters: <> {} () /
Note that s/old/new/ is invalid, whereas s/old//new/ is accepted.
EXAMPLES
As a general rule of thumb: always put the URLs inside quotes. You can find more examples at
http://cclive.sourceforge.net/.
• Typical use:
$ cclive "URL"
• Query the available media streams:
$ cclive -S "URL"
• Download the best quality media stream:
$ cclive -s best "URL"
• Get the YouTube itag 43 format whenever possible:
# Save 'prefer-format' permanently to ~/.ccliverc file.
$ echo "prefer-format = ^.*youtube.*\.com:fmt43_360p" \
>> ~/.ccliverc"
# The above would cause the program to try to get fmt43_360p
# with media URLs of http://youtube.com/ if available.
$ cclive "YOUTUBE_URL"
# Using of --stream will override the --prefer-format
# setting. Get fmt22_720p (if available).
$ cclive -s fmt22_720p "YOUTUBE_URL"
See also the section called “STREAMS”.
• 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
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 GPLv3+
SEE ALSO
libquvi-scripts(7), libquvi(3)
cclive 0.7.16 09/14/2013 CCLIVE(1)