For a Mac OS X system, you can obtain the script using the
curl utility that is provided
with the operating system. You can also use curl on a Linux system, if you
have it installed on that system. Alternatively, you can use
wget, which isn't
provided with the OS X system, but which you may have on a Linux system, if
you don't have curl available. To obtain the youtube-dl script using curl on
a Mac OS X system, you can open a
Terminal
window and issue the command sudo curl -L
https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -o
/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl. That will download the script and place it in
the /usr/local/bin directory.
$ sudo curl -L https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
Password:
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- 0:00:01 --:--:-- 0
0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- 0:00:01 --:--:-- 0
100 582 0 582 0 0 276 0 --:--:-- 0:00:02 --:--:-- 3215
100 1369k 100 1369k 0 0 299k 0 0:00:04 0:00:04 --:--:-- 1443k
$Once you've downloaded it, you can make it available for execution by all
accounts on the system using the command
sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl to change the
file permissions, since it won't
by default be executable.
$ ls -l /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 1402826 Nov 26 20:53 /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl $ sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl Password: $ ls -l /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl -rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 1402826 Nov 26 20:53 /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
If you need to use Wget, instead, you can use the commands below:
sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
Once you've downloaded the file and made it executable, you can get help on
using the program by typing youtube-dl -h at a
shell prompt, e.g., a Terminal window.
$ youtube-dl -h
Usage: youtube-dl [OPTIONS] URL [URL...]
Options:
General 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 (%APPDATA%/youtube-dl/config.txt
on Windows)
--flat-playlist Do not extract the videos of a playlist,
only list them.
--mark-watched Mark videos watched (YouTube only)
--no-mark-watched Do not mark videos watched (YouTube only)
--no-color Do not emit color codes in output
--abort-on-unavailable-fragment Abort downloading when some fragment is not
available
Network Options:
--proxy URL Use the specified HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS proxy.
To enable experimental SOCKS proxy, specify
a proper scheme. For example
socks5://127.0.0.1:1080/. 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)
--geo-verification-proxy URL Use this proxy to verify the IP address for
some geo-restricted sites. The default
proxy specified by --proxy (or none, if the
options is not present) is used for the
actual downloading. (experimental)
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 commas 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 require
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
service), 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, --limit-rate RATE Maximum download rate in bytes per second
(e.g. 50K or 4.2M)
-R, --retries RETRIES Number of retries (default is 10), or
"infinite".
--fragment-retries RETRIES Number of retries for a fragment (default
is 10), or "infinite" (DASH and hlsnative
only)
--skip-unavailable-fragments Skip unavailable fragments (DASH and
hlsnative only)
--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
--hls-prefer-ffmpeg Use ffmpeg instead of the native HLS
downloader
--hls-use-mpegts Use the mpegts container for HLS videos,
allowing to play the video while
downloading (some players may not be able
to play it)
--external-downloader COMMAND Use the specified external downloader.
Currently supports
aria2c,avconv,axel,curl,ffmpeg,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, see the "OUTPUT
TEMPLATE" for all the info
--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 possible.
--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-json 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 when used alone or a lower bound
of a range for randomized sleep before each
download (minimum possible number of
seconds to sleep) when used along with
--max-sleep-interval.
--max-sleep-interval SECONDS Upper bound of a range for randomized sleep
before each download (maximum possible
number of seconds to sleep). Must only be
used along with --min-sleep-interval.
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 available 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)
Adobe Pass Options:
--ap-mso MSO Adobe Pass multiple-system operator (TV
provider) identifier, use --ap-list-mso for
a list of available MSOs
--ap-username USERNAME Multiple-system operator account login
--ap-password PASSWORD Multiple-system operator account password.
If this option is left out, youtube-dl will
ask interactively.
--ap-list-mso List all supported multiple-system
operators
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 mp4,
webm and mkv 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 "Coldplay - 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)
$To download a video, you can simply type youtube-dl
url where url is the
Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the video you wish to download. E.g.:
$ youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnBJDcM-qk8 [youtube] SnBJDcM-qk8: Downloading webpage [youtube] SnBJDcM-qk8: Downloading video info webpage [youtube] SnBJDcM-qk8: Extracting video information [youtube] SnBJDcM-qk8: Downloading MPD manifest [download] Destination: Dogo Argentino kills Puma to save two young girls-Must Watch!!!-SnBJDcM-qk8.mp4 [download] 100% of 34.00MiB in 00:09 $
In the above example, I would have a MPEG_4 (MP4) video file in the current working directory.