Provided by: youtube-dl_2016.02.22-1_all bug

NAME

       youtube-dl - download videos from youtube.com or other video platforms

SYNOPSIS

       youtube-dl [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]

DESCRIPTION

       youtube-dl  is a small command-line program to download videos from YouTube.com and a few more sites.  It
       requires the Python interpreter, version 2.6, 2.7, or 3.2+, and it is not platform specific.   It  should
       work  on  your Unix box, on Windows or on Mac OS X.  It is released to the public domain, which means you
       can modify it, redistribute it or use it however you like.

OPTIONS

       -h, --help
              Print this help text and exit

       --version
              Print program version and exit

       -U, --update
              Update this program to latest version.  Make sure that you have sufficient permissions  (run  with
              sudo if needed)

       -i, --ignore-errors
              Continue on download errors, for example to skip unavailable videos in a playlist

       --abort-on-error
              Abort downloading of further videos (in the playlist or the command line) if an error occurs

       --dump-user-agent
              Display the current browser identification

       --list-extractors
              List all supported extractors

       --extractor-descriptions
              Output descriptions of all supported extractors

       --force-generic-extractor
              Force extraction to use the generic extractor

       --default-search PREFIX
              Use  this  prefix for unqualified URLs.  For example "gvsearch2:" downloads two videos from google
              videos for youtube-dl "large apple".  Use the value "auto" to let youtube-dl guess ("auto_warning"
              to emit a warning when guessing).  "error" just throws an error.  The default value  "fixup_error"
              repairs broken URLs, but emits an error if this is not possible instead of searching.

       --ignore-config
              Do   not   read   configuration   files.   When  given  in  the  global  configuration  file  /etc
              /youtube-dl.conf: Do not read the user  configuration  in  ~/.config/youtube-  dl/config  (%APPDA‐
              TA%/youtube-dl/config.txt on Windows)

       --flat-playlist
              Do not extract the videos of a playlist, only list them.

       --no-color
              Do not emit color codes in output

   Network Options:
       --proxy URL
              Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS proxy.  Pass in an empty string (--proxy "") for direct connection

       --socket-timeout SECONDS
              Time to wait before giving up, in seconds

       --source-address IP
              Client-side IP address to bind to (experimental)

       -4, --force-ipv4
              Make all connections via IPv4 (experimental)

       -6, --force-ipv6
              Make all connections via IPv6 (experimental)

       --cn-verification-proxy URL
              Use  this  proxy  to verify the IP address for some Chinese sites.  The default proxy specified by
              --proxy (or none, if the options is not present) is used for the actual downloading.   (experimen‐
              tal)

   Video Selection:
       --playlist-start NUMBER
              Playlist video to start at (default is 1)

       --playlist-end NUMBER
              Playlist video to end at (default is last)

       --playlist-items ITEM_SPEC
              Playlist video items to download.  Specify indices of the videos in the playlist separated by com‐
              mas  like:  "--playlist-items  1,2,5,8"  if  you want to download videos indexed 1, 2, 5, 8 in the
              playlist.  You can specify range: "--playlist-items 1-3,7,10-13", it will download the  videos  at
              index 1, 2, 3, 7, 10, 11, 12 and 13.

       --match-title REGEX
              Download only matching titles (regex or caseless sub-string)

       --reject-title REGEX
              Skip download for matching titles (regex or caseless sub-string)

       --max-downloads NUMBER
              Abort after downloading NUMBER files

       --min-filesize SIZE
              Do not download any videos smaller than SIZE (e.g.  50k or 44.6m)

       --max-filesize SIZE
              Do not download any videos larger than SIZE (e.g.  50k or 44.6m)

       --date DATE
              Download only videos uploaded in this date

       --datebefore DATE
              Download only videos uploaded on or before this date (i.e.  inclusive)

       --dateafter DATE
              Download only videos uploaded on or after this date (i.e.  inclusive)

       --min-views COUNT
              Do not download any videos with less than COUNT views

       --max-views COUNT
              Do not download any videos with more than COUNT views

       --match-filter FILTER
              Generic  video  filter  (experimental).   Specify any key (see help for -o for a list of available
              keys) to match if the key is present, !key to check if the key is not present,key >  NUMBER  (like
              "comment_count  > 12", also works with >=, <, <=, !=, =) to compare against a number, and & to re‐
              quire multiple matches.  Values which are not known are excluded unless you put  a  question  mark
              (?)  after the operator.For example, to only match videos that have been liked more than 100 times
              and disliked less than 50 times (or the dislike functionality is not available at the  given  ser‐
              vice),  but  who  also have a description, use --match-filter "like_count > 100 & dislike_count <?
              50 & description" .

       --no-playlist
              Download only the video, if the URL refers to a video and a playlist.

       --yes-playlist
              Download the playlist, if the URL refers to a video and a playlist.

       --age-limit YEARS
              Download only videos suitable for the given age

       --download-archive FILE
              Download only videos not listed in the archive file.  Record the IDs of all downloaded  videos  in
              it.

       --include-ads
              Download advertisements as well (experimental)

   Download Options:
       -r, --rate-limit LIMIT
              Maximum download rate in bytes per second (e.g.  50K or 4.2M)

       -R, --retries RETRIES
              Number of retries (default is 10), or "infinite".

       --buffer-size SIZE
              Size of download buffer (e.g.  1024 or 16K) (default is 1024)

       --no-resize-buffer
              Do not automatically adjust the buffer size.  By default, the buffer size is automatically resized
              from an initial value of SIZE.

       --playlist-reverse
              Download playlist videos in reverse order

       --xattr-set-filesize
              Set file xattribute ytdl.filesize with expected filesize (experimental)

       --hls-prefer-native
              Use the native HLS downloader instead of ffmpeg (experimental)

       --hls-use-mpegts
              Use  the mpegts container for HLS videos, allowing to play the video while downloading (some play‐
              ers may not be able to play it)

       --external-downloader COMMAND
              Use the specified external downloader.  Currently supports aria2c,axel,curl,httpie,wget

       --external-downloader-args ARGS
              Give these arguments to the external downloader

   Filesystem Options:
       -a, --batch-file FILE
              File containing URLs to download ('-' for stdin)

       --id   Use only video ID in file name

       -o, --output TEMPLATE
              Output filename template.  Use %(title)s to get the title, %(uploader)s  for  the  uploader  name,
              %(uploader_id)s for the uploader nickname if different, %(autonumber)s to get an automatically in‐
              cremented  number, %(ext)s for the filename extension, %(format)s for the format description (like
              "22 - 1280x720" or "HD"), %(format_id)s for the unique id of the  format  (like  YouTube's  itags:
              "137"),  %(upload_date)s  for the upload date (YYYYMMDD), %(extractor)s for the provider (youtube,
              metacafe, etc), %(id)s for the video  id,  %(playlist_title)s,  %(playlist_id)s,  or  %(playlist)s
              (=title if present, ID otherwise) for the playlist the video is in, %(playlist_index)s for the po‐
              sition  in  the  playlist.  %(height)s and %(width)s for the width and height of the video format.
              %(resolution)s for a textual description of the resolution of the video format.  %% for a  literal
              percent.   Use  - to output to stdout.  Can also be used to download to a different directory, for
              example with -o '/my/downloads/%(uploader)s /%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' .

       --autonumber-size NUMBER
              Specify the number of digits in %(autonumber)s when it is present in output filename  template  or
              --auto-number option is given

       --restrict-filenames
              Restrict filenames to only ASCII characters, and avoid "&" and spaces in filenames

       -A, --auto-number
              [deprecated;  use  -o  "%(autonumber)s-%(title)s.%(ext)s"  ] Number downloaded files starting from
              00000

       -t, --title
              [deprecated] Use title in file name (default)

       -l, --literal
              [deprecated] Alias of --title

       -w, --no-overwrites
              Do not overwrite files

       -c, --continue
              Force resume of partially downloaded files.  By default, youtube-dl will resume downloads if  pos‐
              sible.

       --no-continue
              Do not resume partially downloaded files (restart from beginning)

       --no-part
              Do not use .part files - write directly into output file

       --no-mtime
              Do not use the Last-modified header to set the file modification time

       --write-description
              Write video description to a .description file

       --write-info-json
              Write video metadata to a .info.json file

       --write-annotations
              Write video annotations to a .annotations.xml file

       --load-info FILE
              JSON file containing the video information (created with the "--write-info-json" option)

       --cookies FILE
              File to read cookies from and dump cookie jar in

       --cache-dir DIR
              Location in the filesystem where youtube-dl can store some downloaded information permanently.  By
              default  $XDG_CACHE_HOME  /youtube-dl or ~/.cache/youtube-dl .  At the moment, only YouTube player
              files (for videos with obfuscated signatures) are cached, but that may change.

       --no-cache-dir
              Disable filesystem caching

       --rm-cache-dir
              Delete all filesystem cache files

   Thumbnail images:
       --write-thumbnail
              Write thumbnail image to disk

       --write-all-thumbnails
              Write all thumbnail image formats to disk

       --list-thumbnails
              Simulate and list all available thumbnail formats

   Verbosity / Simulation Options:
       -q, --quiet
              Activate quiet mode

       --no-warnings
              Ignore warnings

       -s, --simulate
              Do not download the video and do not write anything to disk

       --skip-download
              Do not download the video

       -g, --get-url
              Simulate, quiet but print URL

       -e, --get-title
              Simulate, quiet but print title

       --get-id
              Simulate, quiet but print id

       --get-thumbnail
              Simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL

       --get-description
              Simulate, quiet but print video description

       --get-duration
              Simulate, quiet but print video length

       --get-filename
              Simulate, quiet but print output filename

       --get-format
              Simulate, quiet but print output format

       -j, --dump-json
              Simulate, quiet but print JSON information.  See --output for a description of available keys.

       -J, --dump-single-json
              Simulate, quiet but print JSON information for each command-line argument.  If the URL refers to a
              playlist, dump the whole playlist information in a single line.

       --print-json
              Be quiet and print the video information as JSON (video is still being downloaded).

       --newline
              Output progress bar as new lines

       --no-progress
              Do not print progress bar

       --console-title
              Display progress in console titlebar

       -v, --verbose
              Print various debugging information

       --dump-pages
              Print downloaded pages encoded using base64 to debug problems (very verbose)

       --write-pages
              Write downloaded intermediary pages to files in the current directory to debug problems

       --print-traffic
              Display sent and read HTTP traffic

       -C, --call-home
              Contact the youtube-dl server for debugging

       --no-call-home
              Do NOT contact the youtube-dl server for debugging

   Workarounds:
       --encoding ENCODING
              Force the specified encoding (experimental)

       --no-check-certificate
              Suppress HTTPS certificate validation

       --prefer-insecure
              Use an unencrypted connection to retrieve information about the video.  (Currently supported  only
              for YouTube)

       --user-agent UA
              Specify a custom user agent

       --referer URL
              Specify a custom referer, use if the video access is restricted to one domain

       --add-header FIELD:VALUE
              Specify  a  custom  HTTP  header and its value, separated by a colon ':'.  You can use this option
              multiple times

       --bidi-workaround
              Work around terminals that lack bidirectional text support.  Requires bidiv or fribidi  executable
              in PATH

       --sleep-interval SECONDS
              Number of seconds to sleep before each download.

   Video Format Options:
       -f, --format FORMAT
              Video format code, see the "FORMAT SELECTION" for all the info

       --all-formats
              Download all available video formats

       --prefer-free-formats
              Prefer free video formats unless a specific one is requested

       -F, --list-formats
              List all available formats of requested videos

       --youtube-skip-dash-manifest
              Do not download the DASH manifests and related data on YouTube videos

       --merge-output-format FORMAT
              If a merge is required (e.g.  bestvideo+bestaudio), output to given container format.  One of mkv,
              mp4, ogg, webm, flv.  Ignored if no merge is required

   Subtitle Options:
       --write-sub
              Write subtitle file

       --write-auto-sub
              Write automatically generated subtitle file (YouTube only)

       --all-subs
              Download all the available subtitles of the video

       --list-subs
              List all available subtitles for the video

       --sub-format FORMAT
              Subtitle format, accepts formats preference, for example: "srt" or "ass/srt/best"

       --sub-lang LANGS
              Languages of the subtitles to download (optional) separated by commas, use --list- subs for avail‐
              able language tags

   Authentication Options:
       -u, --username USERNAME
              Login with this account ID

       -p, --password PASSWORD
              Account password.  If this option is left out, youtube-dl will ask interactively.

       -2, --twofactor TWOFACTOR
              Two-factor auth code

       -n, --netrc
              Use .netrc authentication data

       --video-password PASSWORD
              Video password (vimeo, smotri, youku)

   Post-processing Options:
       -x, --extract-audio
              Convert video files to audio-only files (requires ffmpeg or avconv and ffprobe or avprobe)

       --audio-format FORMAT
              Specify audio format: "best", "aac", "vorbis", "mp3", "m4a", "opus", or "wav"; "best" by default

       --audio-quality QUALITY
              Specify  ffmpeg/avconv audio quality, insert a value between 0 (better) and 9 (worse) for VBR or a
              specific bitrate like 128K (default 5)

       --recode-video FORMAT
              Encode the video to another format if necessary (currently supported: mp4|flv|ogg|webm|mkv|avi)

       --postprocessor-args ARGS
              Give these arguments to the postprocessor

       -k, --keep-video
              Keep the video file on disk after the post- processing; the video is erased by default

       --no-post-overwrites
              Do not overwrite post-processed files; the post-processed files are overwritten by default

       --embed-subs
              Embed subtitles in the video (only for mkv and mp4 videos)

       --embed-thumbnail
              Embed thumbnail in the audio as cover art

       --add-metadata
              Write metadata to the video file

       --metadata-from-title FORMAT
              Parse additional metadata like song title / artist from the video title.  The format syntax is the
              same as --output, the parsed parameters replace existing values.  Additional templates: %(album)s,
              %(artist)s.  Example: --metadata-from-title "%(artist)s - %(title)s" matches a title  like  "Cold‐
              play - Paradise"

       --xattrs
              Write metadata to the video file's xattrs (using dublin core and xdg standards)

       --fixup POLICY
              Automatically  correct  known  faults  of  the file.  One of never (do nothing), warn (only emit a
              warning), detect_or_warn (the default; fix file if we can, warn otherwise)

       --prefer-avconv
              Prefer avconv over ffmpeg for running the postprocessors (default)

       --prefer-ffmpeg
              Prefer ffmpeg over avconv for running the postprocessors

       --ffmpeg-location PATH
              Location of the ffmpeg/avconv binary; either the path to the binary or its containing directory.

       --exec CMD
              Execute a command on the file after downloading, similar to find's -exec syntax.  Example:  --exec
              'adb push {} /sdcard/Music/ && rm {}'

       --convert-subs FORMAT
              Convert the subtitles to other format (currently supported: srt|ass|vtt)

CONFIGURATION

       You  can  configure  youtube-dl by placing any supported command line option to a configuration file.  On
       Linux, the system wide configuration file is located at /etc/youtube-dl.conf and the user wide configura‐
       tion file at ~/.config/youtube-dl/config.  On Windows, the user wide  configuration  file  locations  are
       %APPDATA%\youtube-dl\config.txt or C:\Users\<user name>\youtube-dl.conf.  For example, with the following
       configuration file youtube-dl will always extract the audio, not copy the mtime and use a proxy:

              --extract-audio
              --no-mtime
              --proxy 127.0.0.1:3128

       You  can  use  --ignore-config  if you want to disable the configuration file for a particular youtube-dl
       run.

   Authentication with .netrc file
       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 com‐
       mand  line arguments on every youtube-dl execution and prevent tracking plain text passwords in the shell
       command history.  You can achieve this using a .netrc file (http://stackoverflow.com/tags/.netrc/info) on
       per extractor basis.  For that you will need to create a.netrc file in your $HOME  and  restrict  permis‐
       sions to read/write by you only:

              touch $HOME/.netrc
              chmod a-rwx,u+rw $HOME/.netrc

       After  that you can add credentials for extractor in the following format, where extractor is the name of
       extractor in lowercase:

              machine <extractor> login <login> password <password>

       For example:

              machine youtube login myaccount@gmail.com password my_youtube_password
              machine twitch login my_twitch_account_name password my_twitch_password

       To activate authentication with the .netrc file you should pass --netrc to youtube-dl or place it in  the
       configuration file (#configuration).

       On Windows you may also need to setup the %HOME% environment variable manually.

OUTPUT TEMPLATE

       The  -o  option allows users to indicate a template for the output file names.  The basic usage is not to
       set  any  template   arguments   when   downloading   a   single   file,   like   in   youtube-dl -o fun‐
       ny_video.flv "http://some/video".   However,  it may contain special sequences that will be replaced when
       downloading each video.  The special sequences have the format %(NAME)s.  To clarify, that is  a  percent
       symbol followed by a name in parentheses, followed by a lowercase S.  Allowed names are:

       • id: Video identifier

       • title: Video title

       • url: Video URL

       • ext: Video filename extension

       • alt_title: A secondary title of the video

       • display_id: An alternative identifier for the video

       • uploader: Full name of the video uploader

       • creator: The main artist who created the video

       • release_date: The date (YYYYMMDD) when the video was released

       • timestamp: UNIX timestamp of the moment the video became available

       • upload_date: Video upload date (YYYYMMDD)

       • uploader_id: Nickname or id of the video uploader

       • location: Physical location where the video was filmed

       • duration: Length of the video in seconds

       • view_count: How many users have watched the video on the platform

       • like_count: Number of positive ratings of the video

       • dislike_count: Number of negative ratings of the video

       • repost_count: Number of reposts of the video

       • average_rating: Average rating give by users, the scale used depends on the webpage

       • comment_count: Number of comments on the video

       • age_limit: Age restriction for the video (years)

       • format: A human-readable description of the format

       • format_id: Format code specified by --format

       • format_note: Additional info about the format

       • width: Width of the video

       • height: Height of the video

       • resolution: Textual description of width and height

       • tbr: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s

       • abr: Average audio bitrate in KBit/s

       • acodec: Name of the audio codec in use

       • asr: Audio sampling rate in Hertz

       • vbr: Average video bitrate in KBit/s

       • fps: Frame rate

       • vcodec: Name of the video codec in use

       • container: Name of the container format

       • filesize: The number of bytes, if known in advance

       • filesize_approx: An estimate for the number of bytes

       • protocol: The protocol that will be used for the actual download

       • extractor: Name of the extractor

       • extractor_key: Key name of the extractor

       • epoch: Unix epoch when creating the file

       • autonumber: Five-digit number that will be increased with each download, starting at zero

       • playlist: Name or id of the playlist that contains the video

       • playlist_index:  Index  of  the  video in the playlist padded with leading zeros according to the total
         length of the playlist

       Available for the video that belongs to some logical chapter or section: - chapter: Name or title of  the
       chapter  the  video belongs to - chapter_number: Number of the chapter the video belongs to - chapter_id:
       Id of the chapter the video belongs to

       Available for the video that is an episode of some series or programme: - series: Title of the series  or
       programme  the video episode belongs to - season: Title of the season the video episode belongs to - sea‐
       son_number: Number of the season the video episode belongs to - season_id: Id of  the  season  the  video
       episode  belongs  to  - episode: Title of the video episode - episode_number: Number of the video episode
       within a season - episode_id: Id of the video episode

       Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in output template will be replaced by the actual value cor‐
       responding to the sequence name.  Note that some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present  since
       they depend on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, such sequences will be replaced with NA.

       For  example  for  -o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s  and  mp4  video  with  title youtube-dl test video and id
       BaW_jenozKcj this will result in a youtube-dl test video-BaW_jenozKcj.mp4 file created in the current di‐
       rectory.

       Output template can also  contain  arbitrary  hierarchical  path,  e.g.   -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_in‐
       dex)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s'  that  will  result  in downloading each video in a directory corresponding to
       this path template.  Any missing directory will be automatically created for you.

       To specify percent literal in output template use %%.  To output to stdout use -o -.

       The current default template is %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s.

       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:

       Examples (note on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single):

              $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc
              youtube-dl test video ''_ä↭𝕐.mp4    # All kinds of weird characters

              $ youtube-dl --get-filename -o '%(title)s.%(ext)s' BaW_jenozKc --restrict-filenames
              youtube-dl_test_video_.mp4          # A simple file name

              # Download YouTube playlist videos in separate directory indexed by video order in a playlist
              $ youtube-dl -o '%(playlist)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwiyx1dc3P2JR9N8gQaQN_BCvlSlap7re

              # Download Udemy course keeping each chapter in separate directory under MyVideos directory in your home
              $ youtube-dl -u user -p password -o '~/MyVideos/%(playlist)s/%(chapter_number)s - %(chapter)s/%(title)s.%(ext)s' https://www.udemy.com/java-tutorial/

              # Download entire series season keeping each series and each season in separate directory under C:/MyVideos
              $ youtube-dl -o "C:/MyVideos/%(series)s/%(season_number)s - %(season)s/%(episode_number)s - %(episode)s.%(ext)s" http://videomore.ru/kino_v_detalayah/5_sezon/367617

              # Stream the video being downloaded to stdout
              $ youtube-dl -o - BaW_jenozKc

FORMAT SELECTION

       By default youtube-dl tries to download the best available quality, i.e.  if you want  the  best  quality
       you don't need to pass any special options, youtube-dl will guess it for you by default.

       But  sometimes  you may want to download in a different format, for example when you are on a slow or in‐
       termittent connection.  The key mechanism for achieving this is so called format selection based on which
       you can explicitly specify desired format, select formats based on  some  criterion  or  criteria,  setup
       precedence and much more.

       The  general syntax for format selection is --format FORMAT or shorter -f FORMAT where FORMAT is a selec‐
       tor expression, i.e.  an expression that describes format or formats you would like to download.

       The simplest case is requesting a specific format, for example 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.

       You can also use a file extension (currently 3gp, aac, flv, m4a, mp3, mp4, ogg, wav, webm are  supported)
       to  download best quality format of particular file extension served as a single file, e.g.  -f webm will
       download best quality format with webm extension served as a single file.

       You can also use special names to select particular edge case format: - best: Select best quality  format
       represented  by single file with video and audio - worst: Select worst quality format represented by sin‐
       gle file with video and audio - bestvideo: Select best quality video only format (e.g.  DASH video),  may
       not  be available - worstvideo: Select worst quality video only format, may not be available - bestaudio:
       Select best quality audio only format, may not be available - worstaudio: Select worst quality audio only
       format, may not be available

       For example, to download worst quality video only format you can use -f worstvideo.

       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 slash is left-associative, i.e.  formats on the left
       hand side are preferred, for example -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, other‐
       wise it will complain that no suitable formats are available for download.

       If  you  want  to  download several formats of the same video use comma as a separator, e.g.  -f 22,17,18
       will download all these three formats, of course if they are available.  Or  more  sophisticated  example
       combined with precedence feature -f 136/137/mp4/bestvideo,140/m4a/bestaudio.

       You can also filter the video formats by putting a condition in brackets, as in -f "best[height=720]" (or
       -f "[filesize>10M]").

       The following numeric meta fields can be used with comparisons <, <=, >, >=, = (equals), != (not equals):
       -  filesize:  The  number  of  bytes, if known in advance - width: Width of the video, if known - height:
       Height of the video, if known - tbr: Average bitrate of audio and video in KBit/s -  abr:  Average  audio
       bitrate in KBit/s - vbr: Average video bitrate in KBit/s - asr: Audio sampling rate in Hertz - fps: Frame
       rate

       Also  filtering  work  for  comparisons = (equals), != (not equals), ^= (begins with), $= (ends with), *=
       (contains) and following string meta fields: - ext: File extension - acodec: Name of the audio  codec  in
       use  -  vcodec:  Name of the video codec in use - container: Name of the container format - protocol: The
       protocol that will be used for the actual download, lower-case.  http, https, rtsp, rtmp, rtmpe, m3u8, or
       m3u8_native

       Note that 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 video hoster.

       Formats for which the value is not known are excluded unless you put a question mark (?) after the opera‐
       tor.   You  can  combine  format filters, so -f "[height <=? 720][tbr>500]" selects up to 720p videos (or
       videos where the height is not known) with a bitrate of at least 500 KBit/s.

       You can merge the video and audio of two formats into a single file  using  -f <video-format>+<audio-for‐
       mat>  (requires  ffmpeg or avconv installed), for example -f bestvideo+bestaudio will download best video
       only format, best audio only format and mux them together with ffmpeg/avconv.

       Format selectors can also be grouped using parentheses, for example if you want to download the best  mp4
       and webm formats with a height lower than 480 you can use -f '(mp4,webm)[height<480]'.

       Since the end of April 2015 and version 2015.04.26 youtube-dl uses -f bestvideo+bestaudio/best as default
       format  selection  (see  #5447,  #5456).   If  ffmpeg or avconv are installed this results in downloading
       bestvideo and bestaudio separately and muxing them together into a single file giving  the  best  overall
       quality available.  Otherwise it falls back to best and results in downloading the best available quality
       served  as a single file.  best is also needed for videos that don't come from YouTube because they don't
       provide the audio and video in two different files.  If you want to only download some DASH formats  (for
       example  if  you  are  not interested in getting videos with a resolution higher than 1080p), you can add
       -f bestvideo[height<=?1080]+bestaudio/best to your configuration file.  Note that if you  use  youtube-dl
       to  stream to stdout (and most likely to pipe it to your media player then), i.e.  you explicitly specify
       output template as -o -, youtube-dl still uses -f best format selection in order to start content  deliv‐
       ery immediately to your player and not to wait until bestvideo and bestaudio are downloaded and muxed.

       If  you  want  to  preserve the old format selection behavior (prior to youtube-dl 2015.04.26), i.e.  you
       want to download the best available quality media served as a single file, you should explicitly  specify
       your choice with -f best.  You may want to add it to the configuration file (#configuration) in order not
       to type it every time you run youtube-dl.

       Examples (note on Windows you may need to use double quotes instead of single):

              # Download best mp4 format available or any other best if no mp4 available
              $ youtube-dl -f 'bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/best[ext=mp4]/best'

              # Download best format available but not better that 480p
              $ youtube-dl -f 'bestvideo[height<=480]+bestaudio/best[height<=480]'

              # Download best video only format but no bigger that 50 MB
              $ youtube-dl -f 'best[filesize<50M]'

              # Download best format available via direct link over HTTP/HTTPS protocol
              $ youtube-dl -f '(bestvideo+bestaudio/best)[protocol^=http]'

VIDEO SELECTION

       Videos  can be filtered by their upload date using the options --date, --datebefore or --dateafter.  They
       accept dates in two formats:

       • Absolute dates: Dates in the format YYYYMMDD.

       • Relative dates: Dates in the format (now|today)[+-][0-9](day|week|month|year)(s)?

       Examples:

              # Download only the videos uploaded in the last 6 months
              $ youtube-dl --dateafter now-6months

              # Download only the videos uploaded on January 1, 1970
              $ youtube-dl --date 19700101

              $ # Download only the videos uploaded in the 200x decade
              $ youtube-dl --dateafter 20000101 --datebefore 20091231

FAQ

   How do I update youtube-dl?
       If you've followed our manual installation instructions  (http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/download.html),
       you can simply run youtube-dl -U (or, on Linux, sudo youtube-dl -U).

       If you have used pip, a simple sudo pip install -U youtube-dl is sufficient to update.

       If you have installed youtube-dl using a package manager like apt-get or yum, use the standard system up‐
       date  mechanism  to  update.   Note  that  distribution packages are often outdated.  As a rule of thumb,
       youtube-dl  releases  at  least  once  a  month,  and  often  weekly  or  even  daily.   Simply   go   to
       http://yt-dl.org/  to find out the current version.  Unfortunately, there is nothing we youtube-dl devel‐
       opers can do if your distribution serves a really outdated version.  You can  (and  should)  complain  to
       your distribution in their bugtracker or support forum.

       As  a  last  resort,  you can also uninstall the version installed by your package manager and follow our
       manual installation instructions.  For that, remove the distribution's package, with a line like

              sudo apt-get remove -y youtube-dl

       Afterwards, simply follow our  manual  installation  instructions  (http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/down‐
       load.html):

              sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
              sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
              hash -r

       Again, from then on you'll be able to update with sudo youtube-dl -U.

   I'm getting an error
       Unable to extract OpenGraph title on YouTube playlists

       YouTube  changed  their  playlist  format  in March 2014 and later on, so you'll need at least youtube-dl
       2014.07.25 to download all YouTube videos.

       If you have installed youtube-dl with a package manager, pip, setup.py or a tarball, please use  that  to
       update.   Note that Ubuntu packages do not seem to get updated anymore.  Since we are not affiliated with
       Ubuntu, there  is  little  we  can  do.   Feel  free  to  report  bugs  (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubun‐
       tu/+source/youtube-dl/+filebug)  to  the  Ubuntu packaging guys (mailto:ubuntu-motu@lists.ubuntu.com?sub‐
       ject=outdated%20version%20of%20youtube-dl) - all they have to do is update the package to a somewhat  re‐
       cent version.  See above for a way to update.

   Do I always have to pass -citw?
       By default, youtube-dl intends to have the best options (incidentally, if you have a convincing case that
       these  should be different, please file an issue where you explain that (https://yt-dl.org/bug)).  There‐
       fore, it is unnecessary and sometimes harmful to copy long option strings from webpages.  In  particular,
       the only option out of -citw that is regularly useful is -i.

   Can you please put the -b option back?
       Most  people  asking  this question are not aware that youtube-dl now defaults to downloading the highest
       available quality as reported by YouTube, which will be 1080p or 720p in some cases,  so  you  no  longer
       need  the  -b  option.  For some specific videos, maybe YouTube does not report them to be available in a
       specific high quality format you're interested in.  In that case, simply request it with  the  -f  option
       and youtube-dl will try to download it.

   I get HTTP error 402 when trying to download a video. What's
       this?

       Apparently  YouTube  requires  you to pass a CAPTCHA test if you download too much.  We're considering to
       provide a way to let you solve the CAPTCHA (https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/154), but at the mo‐
       ment, your best course of action is pointing a webbrowser to the youtube URL, solving  the  CAPTCHA,  and
       restart youtube-dl.

   Do I need any other programs?
       youtube-dl works fine on its own on most sites.  However, if you want to convert video/audio, you'll need
       avconv  (https://libav.org/) or ffmpeg (https://www.ffmpeg.org/).  On some sites - most notably YouTube -
       videos can be retrieved in a higher quality format without sound.  youtube-dl  will  detect  whether  av‐
       conv/ffmpeg is present and automatically pick the best option.

       Videos  or  video  formats streamed via RTMP protocol can only be downloaded when rtmpdump (https://rtmp‐
       dump.mplayerhq.hu/) is installed.  Downloading MMS and RTSP videos requires either mplayer (http://mplay‐
       erhq.hu/) or mpv (https://mpv.io/) to be installed.

   I have downloaded a video but how can I play it?
       Once the video is fully downloaded, use any video player, such as vlc (http://www.videolan.org) or mplay‐
       er (http://www.mplayerhq.hu/).

   I extracted a video URL with -g, but it does not play on
       another machine / in my webbrowser.

       It depends a lot on the service.  In many cases, requests for the video (to download/play it)  must  come
       from the same IP address and with the same cookies.  Use the --cookies option to write the required cook‐
       ies  into  a  file, and advise your downloader to read cookies from that file.  Some sites also require a
       common user agent to be used, use --dump-user-agent to see the one in use by youtube-dl.

       It may be beneficial to use IPv6; in some cases, the restrictions are only applied to  IPv4.   Some  ser‐
       vices  (sometimes  only  for  a subset of videos) do not restrict the video URL by IP address, cookie, or
       user-agent, but these are the exception rather than the rule.

       Please bear in mind that some URL protocols are not supported by browsers out of the box, including RTMP.
       If you are using -g, your own downloader must support these as well.

       If you want to play the video on a machine that is not running youtube-dl, you can relay the  video  con‐
       tent from the machine that runs youtube-dl.  You can use -o - to let youtube-dl stream a video to stdout,
       or simply allow the player to download the files written by youtube-dl in turn.

   ERROR: no fmt_url_map or conn information found in video info
       YouTube  has  switched  to a new video info format in July 2011 which is not supported by old versions of
       youtube-dl.  See above (#how-do-i-update-youtube-dl) for how to update youtube-dl.

   ERROR: unable to download video
       YouTube requires an additional signature since September 2012 which is not supported by old  versions  of
       youtube-dl.  See above (#how-do-i-update-youtube-dl) for how to update youtube-dl.

   Video URL contains an ampersand and I'm getting some strange
       output [1] 2839 or 'v' is not recognized as an internal or external command

       That's  actually the output from your shell.  Since ampersand is one of the special shell characters it's
       interpreted by the shell preventing you from passing the whole URL to youtube-dl.  To disable your  shell
       from  interpreting  the ampersands (or any other special characters) you have to either put the whole URL
       in quotes or escape them with a backslash (which approach will work depends on your shell).

       For example if your URL is https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc you should end up with follow‐
       ing command:

       youtube-dl 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc'

       or

       youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4\&v=BaW_jenozKc

       For Windows you have to use the double quotes:

       youtube-dl "https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=BaW_jenozKc"

   ExtractorError: Could not find JS function u'OF'
       In February 2015, the new YouTube player contained a character sequence in a string  that  was  misinter‐
       preted  by  old  versions  of  youtube-dl.   See  above  (#how-do-i-update-youtube-dl)  for how to update
       youtube-dl.

   HTTP Error 429: Too Many Requests or 402: Payment Required
       These two error codes indicate that the service is blocking your IP address because of overuse.   Contact
       the  service  and ask them to unblock your IP address, or - if you have acquired a whitelisted IP address
       already - use the --proxy or --source-address options (#network-options) to select another IP address.

   SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character
       The error

              File "youtube-dl", line 2
              SyntaxError: Non-ASCII character '\x93' ...

       means you're using an outdated version of Python.  Please update to Python 2.6 or 2.7.

   What is this binary file? Where has the code gone?
       Since June 2012 (#342) youtube-dl is packed as an executable zipfile, simply unzip it (might need  renam‐
       ing to youtube-dl.zip first on some systems) or clone the git repository, as laid out above.  If you mod‐
       ify  the  code,  you  can  run  it  by  executing the __main__.py file.  To recompile the executable, run
       make youtube-dl.

   The exe throws a Runtime error from Visual C++
       To run the exe you  need  to  install  first  the  Microsoft  Visual  C++  2008  Redistributable  Package
       (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29).

   On Windows, how should I set up ffmpeg and youtube-dl? Where should
       I put the exe files?

       If  you  put  youtube-dl  and  ffmpeg in the same directory that you're running the command from, it will
       work, but that's rather cumbersome.

       To make a different directory work - either for ffmpeg, or for youtube-dl, or for both  -  simply  create
       the  directory (say, C:\bin, or C:\Users\<User name>\bin), put all the executables directly in there, and
       then set your PATH environment variable (https://www.java.com/en/download/help/path.xml) to include  that
       directory.

       From  then  on,  after  restarting your shell, you will be able to access both youtube-dl and ffmpeg (and
       youtube-dl will be able to find ffmpeg) by simply typing youtube-dl or ffmpeg, no matter  what  directory
       you're in.

   How do I put downloads into a specific folder?
       Use  the  -o  to  specify  an output template (#output-template), for example -o "/home/user/videos/%(ti‐
       tle)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s".  If you want this for all of your downloads, put the option into  your  configura‐
       tion file (#configuration).

   How do I download a video starting with a -?
       Either prepend http://www.youtube.com/watch?v= or separate the ID from the options with --:

              youtube-dl -- -wNyEUrxzFU
              youtube-dl "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wNyEUrxzFU"

   How do I pass cookies to youtube-dl?
       Use  the  --cookies  option, for example --cookies /path/to/cookies/file.txt.  Note that the cookies file
       must be in Mozilla/Netscape format and the first line of the cookies file  must  be  either  # HTTP Cook‐
       ie File    or    # Netscape HTTP Cookie File.     Make    sure    you   have   correct   newline   format
       (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newline) in the cookies file and convert newlines if necessary  to  corre‐
       spond  with  your OS, namely CRLF (\r\n) for Windows, LF (\n) for Linux and CR (\r) for Mac OS.  HTTP Er‐
       ror 400: Bad Request when using --cookies is a good sign of invalid newline format.

       Passing cookies to youtube-dl is a good way to workaround login when a particular extractor does not  im‐
       plement  it  explicitly.   Another  use  case  is  working  around  CAPTCHA (https://en.wikipedia.org/wi‐
       ki/CAPTCHA) some websites require you to solve in particular cases in order to get access (e.g.  YouTube,
       CloudFlare).

   Can you add support for this anime video site, or site which shows
       current movies for free?

       As a matter of policy (as well as legality), youtube-dl does not include support for services  that  spe‐
       cialize  in infringing copyright.  As a rule of thumb, if you cannot easily find a video that the service
       is quite obviously allowed to distribute (i.e.  that has been uploaded by the creator, the creator's dis‐
       tributor, or is published under a  free  license),  the  service  is  probably  unfit  for  inclusion  to
       youtube-dl.

       A note on the service that they don't host the infringing content, but just link to those who do, is evi‐
       dence  that the service should not be included into youtube-dl.  The same goes for any DMCA note when the
       whole front page of the service is filled with videos they are not allowed to distribute.  A  "fair  use"
       note  is  equally unconvincing if the service shows copyright-protected videos in full without authoriza‐
       tion.

       Support requests for services that do purchase the rights to distribute their content are perfectly  fine
       though.  If in doubt, you can simply include a source that mentions the legitimate purchase of content.

   How can I speed up work on my issue?
       (Also  known  as: Help, my important issue not being solved!) The youtube-dl core developer team is quite
       small.  While we do our best to solve as many issues as possible, sometimes that can take quite a  while.
       To speed up your issue, here's what you can do:

       First  of  all, please do report the issue at our issue tracker (https://yt-dl.org/bugs).  That allows us
       to coordinate all efforts by users and developers, and serves as a  unified  point.   Unfortunately,  the
       youtube-dl project has grown too large to use personal email as an effective communication channel.

       Please  read the bug reporting instructions (#bugs) below.  A lot of bugs lack all the necessary informa‐
       tion.  If you can, offer proxy, VPN, or shell access to the youtube-dl developers.  If you are  able  to,
       test the issue from multiple computers in multiple countries to exclude local censorship or misconfigura‐
       tion issues.

       If  nobody  is  interested in solving your issue, you are welcome to take matters into your own hands and
       submit a pull request (or coerce/pay somebody else to do so).

       Feel free to bump the issue from time to time by writing a small comment  ("Issue  is  still  present  in
       youtube-dl  version  ...from  France,  but  fixed  from Belgium"), but please not more than once a month.
       Please do not declare your issue as important or urgent.

   How can I detect whether a given URL is supported by youtube-dl?
       For one, have a look at the list of supported sites (docs/supportedsites.md).  Note that it can sometimes
       happen that the site changes its URL scheme (say, from http://example.com/video/1234567  to  http://exam‐
       ple.com/v/1234567  )  and  youtube-dl  reports  an URL of a service in that list as unsupported.  In that
       case, simply report a bug.

       It is not possible to detect whether a URL is supported or not.  That's  because  youtube-dl  contains  a
       generic  extractor which matches all URLs.  You may be tempted to disable, exclude, or remove the generic
       extractor, but the generic extractor not only allows users to extract videos from lots of  websites  that
       embed  a video from another service, but may also be used to extract video from a service that it's host‐
       ing itself.  Therefore, we neither recommend nor support disabling, excluding, or  removing  the  generic
       extractor.

       If  you want to find out whether a given URL is supported, simply call youtube-dl with it.  If you get no
       videos back, chances are the URL is either not referring to a video or unsupported.   You  can  find  out
       which  by examining the output (if you run youtube-dl on the console) or catching an UnsupportedError ex‐
       ception if you run it from a Python program.

DEVELOPER INSTRUCTIONS

       Most users do not need to build youtube-dl and can  download  the  builds  (http://rg3.github.io/youtube-
       dl/download.html) or get them from their distribution.

       To run youtube-dl as a developer, you don't need to build anything either.  Simply execute

              python -m youtube_dl

       To  run  the  test,  simply invoke your favorite test runner, or execute a test file directly; any of the
       following work:

              python -m unittest discover
              python test/test_download.py
              nosetests

       If you want to create a build of youtube-dl yourself, you'll need

       • python

       • make

       • pandoc

       • zip

       • nosetests

   Adding support for a new site
       If you want to add support for a new site, you can follow this  quick  list  (assuming  your  service  is
       called yourextractor):

        1. Fork this repository (https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/fork)

        2. Check out the source code with git clone git@github.com:YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/youtube-dl.git

        3. Start a new git branch with cd youtube-dl; git checkout -b yourextractor

        4. Start with this simple template and save it to youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py:

                  # coding: utf-8
                  from __future__ import unicode_literals

                  from .common import InfoExtractor

                  class YourExtractorIE(InfoExtractor):
                      _VALID_URL = r'https?://(?:www\.)?yourextractor\.com/watch/(?P<id>[0-9]+)'
                      _TEST = {
                          'url': 'http://yourextractor.com/watch/42',
                          'md5': 'TODO: md5 sum of the first 10241 bytes of the video file (use --test)',
                          'info_dict': {
                              'id': '42',
                              'ext': 'mp4',
                              'title': 'Video title goes here',
                              'thumbnail': 're:^https?://.*\.jpg$',
                              # TODO more properties, either as:
                              # * A value
                              # * MD5 checksum; start the string with md5:
                              # * A regular expression; start the string with re:
                              # * Any Python type (for example int or float)
                          }
                      }

                      def _real_extract(self, url):
                          video_id = self._match_id(url)
                          webpage = self._download_webpage(url, video_id)

                          # TODO more code goes here, for example ...
                          title = self._html_search_regex(r'<h1>(.+?)</h1>', webpage, 'title')

                          return {
                              'id': video_id,
                              'title': title,
                              'description': self._og_search_description(webpage),
                              'uploader': self._search_regex(r'<div[^>]+id="uploader"[^>]*>([^<]+)<', webpage, 'uploader', fatal=False),
                              # TODO more properties (see youtube_dl/extractor/common.py)
                          }

        5. Add   an   import  in  youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py  (https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/mas‐
           ter/youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py).

        6. Run python test/test_download.py TestDownload.test_YourExtractor.  This should fail at first, but you
           can continually re-run it until you're done.  If you decide to add more than one  test,  then  rename
           _TEST  to  _TESTS  and  make  it into a list of dictionaries.  The tests will then be named TestDown‐
           load.test_YourExtractor, TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_1, TestDownload.test_YourExtractor_2, etc.

        7. Have   a   look   at   youtube_dl/extractor/common.py    (https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/mas‐
           ter/youtube_dl/extractor/common.py)  for  possible  helper methods and a detailed description of what
           your extractor should and  may  return  (https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/youtube_dl/ex‐
           tractor/common.py#L62-L200).  Add tests and code for as many as you want.

        8. If you can, check the code with flake8 (https://pypi.python.org/pypi/flake8).

        9. When  the  tests  pass,  add  (http://git-scm.com/docs/git-add) the new files and commit (http://git-
           scm.com/docs/git-commit) them and push (http://git-scm.com/docs/git-push) the result, like this:

                  $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/__init__.py
                  $ git add youtube_dl/extractor/yourextractor.py
                  $ git commit -m '[yourextractor] Add new extractor'
                  $ git push origin yourextractor

       10. Finally, create a  pull  request  (https://help.github.com/articles/creating-a-pull-request).   We'll
           then review and merge it.

       In any case, thank you very much for your contributions!

EMBEDDING YOUTUBE-DL

       youtube-dl  makes the best effort to be a good command-line program, and thus should be callable from any
       programming language.  If you encounter any problems parsing its output, feel free  to  create  a  report
       (https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/new).

       From a Python program, you can embed youtube-dl in a more powerful fashion, like this:

              from __future__ import unicode_literals
              import youtube_dl

              ydl_opts = {}
              with youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
                  ydl.download(['http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])

       Most  likely,  you'll  want  to  use  various  options.   For  a list of what can be done, have a look at
       youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py                                      (https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/mas‐
       ter/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py#L121-L269).  For a start, if you want to intercept youtube-dl's output, set a
       logger object.

       Here's a more complete example of a program that outputs only errors (and a short message after the down‐
       load is finished), and downloads/converts the video to an mp3 file:

              from __future__ import unicode_literals
              import youtube_dl

              class MyLogger(object):
                  def debug(self, msg):
                      pass

                  def warning(self, msg):
                      pass

                  def error(self, msg):
                      print(msg)

              def my_hook(d):
                  if d['status'] == 'finished':
                      print('Done downloading, now converting ...')

              ydl_opts = {
                  'format': 'bestaudio/best',
                  'postprocessors': [{
                      'key': 'FFmpegExtractAudio',
                      'preferredcodec': 'mp3',
                      'preferredquality': '192',
                  }],
                  'logger': MyLogger(),
                  'progress_hooks': [my_hook],
              }
              with youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(ydl_opts) as ydl:
                  ydl.download(['http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc'])

BUGS

       Bugs  and suggestions should be reported at: <https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues>.  Unless you were
       prompted so or there is another pertinent reason (e.g.  GitHub fails to accept the bug report), please do
       not send bug reports via personal email.  For  discussions,  join  us  in  the  IRC  channel  #youtube-dl
       (irc://chat.freenode.net/#youtube-dl)    on   freenode   (webchat   (http://webchat.freenode.net/?random‐
       nick=1&channels=youtube-dl)).

       Please include the full output of youtube-dl when run with -v, i.e.  add -v flag to  your  command  line,
       copy the whole output and post it in the issue body wrapped in ``` for better formatting.  It should look
       similar to this:

              $ youtube-dl -v <your command line>
              [debug] System config: []
              [debug] User config: []
              [debug] Command-line args: [u'-v', u'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKcj']
              [debug] Encodings: locale cp1251, fs mbcs, out cp866, pref cp1251
              [debug] youtube-dl version 2015.12.06
              [debug] Git HEAD: 135392e
              [debug] Python version 2.6.6 - Windows-2003Server-5.2.3790-SP2
              [debug] exe versions: ffmpeg N-75573-g1d0487f, ffprobe N-75573-g1d0487f, rtmpdump 2.4
              [debug] Proxy map: {}
              ...

       Do not post screenshots of verbose log only plain text is acceptable.

       The output (including the first lines) contains important debugging information.  Issues without the full
       output are often not reproducible and therefore do not get solved in short order, if ever.

       Please re-read your issue once again to avoid a couple of common mistakes (you can and should use this as
       a checklist):

   Is the description of the issue itself sufficient?
       We often get issue reports that we cannot really decipher.  While in most cases we eventually get the re‐
       quired  information  after  asking back multiple times, this poses an unnecessary drain on our resources.
       Many contributors, including myself, are also not native speakers, so we may misread some parts.

       So please elaborate on what feature you are requesting, or what bug you want to be fixed.  Make sure that
       it's obvious

       • What the problem is

       • How it could be fixed

       • How your proposed solution would look like

       If your report is shorter than two lines, it is almost certainly missing some of these,  which  makes  it
       hard  for  us to respond to it.  We're often too polite to close the issue outright, but the missing info
       makes misinterpretation likely.  As a committer myself, I often get frustrated by these issues, since the
       only possible way for me to move forward on them is to ask for clarification over and over.

       For bug reports, this means that your report should contain the complete output of youtube-dl when called
       with the -v flag.  The error message you get for (most) bugs even says so, but you would not believe  how
       many of our bug reports do not contain this information.

       If  your  server has multiple IPs or you suspect censorship, adding --call-home may be a good idea to get
       more diagnostics.  If the error is ERROR: Unable to extract ... and you cannot reproduce it from multiple
       countries, add --dump-pages (warning: this will yield a rather large output,  redirect  it  to  the  file
       log.txt  by  adding  >log.txt 2>&1  to  your command-line) or upload the .dump files you get when you add
       --write-pages somewhere (https://gist.github.com/).

       Site support requests must contain an example URL.  An example URL is a URL you might want  to  download,
       like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc.  There should be an obvious video present.  Except under
       very  special  circumstances,  the main page of a video service (e.g.  http://www.youtube.com/) is not an
       example URL.

   Are you using the latest version?
       Before reporting any issue, type youtube-dl -U.  This should report that you're up-to-date.  About 20% of
       the reports we receive are already fixed, but people are using outdated versions.  This goes for  feature
       requests as well.

   Is the issue already documented?
       Make  sure that someone has not already opened the issue you're trying to open.  Search at the top of the
       window or browse the GitHub Issues (https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/search?type=Issues) of this reposi‐
       tory.  If there is an issue, feel free to write something along the lines of "This affects  me  as  well,
       with  version  2015.01.01.   Here  is some more information on the issue: ...".  While some issues may be
       old, a new post into them often spurs rapid activity.

   Why are existing options not enough?
       Before  requesting  a  new  feature,  please  have  a  quick  peek  at  the  list  of  supported  options
       (https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/blob/master/README.md#synopsis).   Many  feature requests are for fea‐
       tures that actually exist already!  Please, absolutely do show off your work in the issue report and  de‐
       tail how the existing similar options do not solve your problem.

   Is there enough context in your bug report?
       People  want to solve problems, and often think they do us a favor by breaking down their larger problems
       (e.g.  wanting to skip already downloaded files) to a specific  request  (e.g.   requesting  us  to  look
       whether  the  file  exists  before  downloading the info page).  However, what often happens is that they
       break down the problem into two steps: One simple, and one impossible (or extremely complicated one).

       We are then presented with a very complicated request when the original problem could be solved far easi‐
       er, e.g.  by recording the downloaded video IDs in a separate file.  To avoid this, you must include  the
       greater  context  where it is non-obvious.  In particular, every feature request that does not consist of
       adding support for a new site should contain a use case scenario that  explains  in  what  situation  the
       missing feature would be useful.

   Does the issue involve one problem, and one problem only?
       Some of our users seem to think there is a limit of issues they can or should open.  There is no limit of
       issues  they can or should open.  While it may seem appealing to be able to dump all your issues into one
       ticket, that means that someone who solves one of your issues cannot mark the issue as closed.   Typical‐
       ly, reporting a bunch of issues leads to the ticket lingering since nobody wants to attack that behemoth,
       until someone mercifully splits the issue into multiple ones.

       In  particular,  every  site support request issue should only pertain to services at one site (generally
       under a common domain, but always using the same backend technology).  Do not request support  for  vimeo
       user  videos,  Whitehouse  podcasts,  and  Google Plus pages in the same issue.  Also, make sure that you
       don't post bug reports alongside feature requests.  As a rule of thumb, a feature request  does  not  in‐
       clude outputs of youtube-dl that are not immediately related to the feature at hand.  Do not post reports
       of a network error alongside the request for a new video service.

   Is anyone going to need the feature?
       Only post features that you (or an incapacitated friend you can personally talk to) require.  Do not post
       features  because they seem like a good idea.  If they are really useful, they will be requested by some‐
       one who requires them.

   Is your question about youtube-dl?
       It may sound strange, but some bug reports we receive are completely unrelated to youtube-dl  and  relate
       to  a  different  or  even  the reporter's own application.  Please make sure that you are actually using
       youtube-dl.  If you are using a UI for youtube-dl, report the bug to the maintainer of the actual  appli‐
       cation  providing  the UI.  On the other hand, if your UI for youtube-dl fails in some way you believe is
       related to youtube-dl, by all means, go ahead and report the bug.

COPYRIGHT

       youtube-dl is released into the public domain by the copyright holders.

       This README file was originally written by Daniel Bolton (https://github.com/dbbolton)  and  is  likewise
       released into the public domain.

                                                                                                   YOUTUBE-DL(1)