Yet another CLI based YouTube downloader tool for linux.
- Download only neccessary stream, not the whole video
- Download all videos or audios belong to a playlist
- Download with custom name and bounding
Just gather your favourite videos into a playlist, then let's ytdl
download them overnight.
- Fedora 32+, Ubuntu 20+, Debian 10+
- python 3.6.5 or newer
- ffmpeg 4.0 or newer
- YouTube API key
Recommend to use pipx:
pipx install ytdl
ytdl config
However, pip
may work too:
pip install ytdl
# don't
sudo pip install ytdl
Build from source requires poetry:
git clone [email protected]:ndaidong/ytdl.git && cd ytdl
poetry install
# use raw script
poetry run python main.py info
poetry run python main.py [command] [arguments]
# build wheel to `./dist` folder
poetry build
# then install it
pipx install dist/ytdl-VERSION-py3-none-any.whl
# test it
ytdl info
Command | Description | Shortcut |
---|---|---|
ytdl config KEY VALUE |
Set config value | c |
ytdl config KEY |
Show config property | |
ytdl playlist PLAYLIST_URL |
Get playlist index | p |
ytdl video VIDEO_URL |
Download a video | v |
ytdl audio VIDEO_URL |
Download audio only | a |
Almost cases, VIDEO_URL
and PLAYLIST_URL
can be replaced with video ID or playlist ID.
There are 2 properties to configure: api_key
and store_dir
.
At the first time, api_key
is empty and you have to set it before using other features.
# set new `api_key`
ytdl config api_key YOUR_OWN_YOUTUBE_API_KEY
# change `store_dir` to new path
ytdl config store_dir /storage/downloads/youtube
# get the current value of `api_key`
ytdl config api_key
# show all
ytdl config
By default, store_dir
is being set to /home/{YOUR_USER_NAME}/ytdl_files
, you should change it to more appropriate place.
Note that this command does not download actual video/audio, but a list of indexed items.
# get playlist metadata into `{store_dir}/{title}.json`
# this file contains a list of videos with their ID and title to download later
ytdl playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAYLIST_ID
# get playlist metadata into `{store_dir}/my_custom_playlist_name.json`
ytdl playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAYLIST_ID my_custom_playlist_name
For example if we download the playlist Linux Tips and Tricks
The indexed file looks like below:
Then we will have some powerful ways to download the videos in this list with ytdl video
or ytdl audio
.
Download a single video file.
# download a video file to `{store_dir}/video/{VIDEO_TITLE}.mp4`
ytdl video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID
# custom name
ytdl video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID my_custom_video_name
To download multi items from indexed playlist, please refer the following arguments:
--index_file
: path to playlist index file (required)--since
: video ID of the video where you want to start downloading from--limit
: number of items to download, count fromsince
or the begining of the list--prefix_name
: to auto naming downloaded file--prefix_num
: to auto naming downloaded file
Examples:
# download all videos from saved playlist index file above
# these video files will be stored in `{store_dir}/video`
ytdl video --index_file "/path/to/Linux Tips and Tricks.json"
# download 5 videos from saved playlist index file above, since first item
ytdl video --index_file "/path/to/Linux Tips and Tricks.json" --limit 5
# download 5 videos from saved playlist index file above, with prefix name
ytdl video --index_file "/path/to/Linux Tips and Tricks.json" --limit 5 --prefix_name "Linux Tutorial"
# downloaded videos should look like "Linux Tutorial - 1.mp4", "Linux Tutorial - 2.mp4" and so on
# prefix_name will be useful when you want to put these files into an already created list for your different purpose
# download 5 videos from saved playlist index file above, with prefix name and prefix number
ytdl video --index_file "/path/to/Linux Tips and Tricks.json" --limit 5 --prefix_name "Linux Tutorial" --prefix_num 25
# this will be useful for the playlists those are splited to multi parts
# in this case, your serie "Linux Tutorial" had already 24 items before, now count from 25 onwards
# downloaded videos should look like "Linux Tutorial - 25.mp4", "Linux Tutorial - 26.mp4" and so on
# similar to above command, but start from given item
ytdl video --index_file "/path/to/Linux Tips and Tricks.json" --since VIDEO_ID --limit 5 --prefix_name "Linux Tutorial" --prefix_num 25
While downloading video, the stream with highest resolution
will be selected.
This is similar to ytdl video
, but only download audio file.
While downloading, the stream with highest abr
(average bitrate) will be selected.
# download a audio file to `{store_dir}/audio/{VIDEO_TITLE}.mp3`
ytdl audio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID
# custom name
ytdl audio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID my_custom_audio_name
To download multi items from indexed playlist, please refer the following arguments:
--index_file
: path to playlist index file (required)--since
: video ID of the video where you want to start downloading from--limit
: number of items to download, count fromsince
or the begining of the list--prefix_name
: to auto naming downloaded file--prefix_num
: to auto naming downloaded file
Examples:
# download all audios from saved playlist index file above
# these audio files will be stored in `{store_dir}/audio`
ytdl audio --index_file "/path/to/Linux Tips and Tricks.json"
# download 5 audios from saved playlist index file above, since first item
ytdl audio --index_file "/path/to/Linux Tips and Tricks.json" --limit 5
# download 5 audios from saved playlist index file above, with prefix name
ytdl audio --index_file "/path/to/Linux Tips and Tricks.json" --limit 5 --prefix_name "Linux Tutorial"
# downloaded audios should look like "Linux Tutorial - 1.mp3", "Linux Tutorial - 2.mp3" and so on
# prefix_name will be useful when you want to put these files into an already created list for your different purpose
# download 5 audios from saved playlist index file above, with prefix name and prefix number
ytdl audio --index_file "/path/to/Linux Tips and Tricks.json" --limit 5 --prefix_name "Linux Tutorial" --prefix_num 25
# this will be useful for the playlists those are splited to multi parts
# in this case, your serie "Linux Tutorial" had already 24 items before, now count from 25 onwards
# downloaded audios should look like "Linux Tutorial - 25.mp3", "Linux Tutorial - 26.mp3" and so on
# similar to above command, but start from given item
ytdl audio --index_file "/path/to/Linux Tips and Tricks.json" --since VIDEO_ID --limit 5 --prefix_name "Linux Tutorial" --prefix_num 25
Downloaded stream will be converted to .mp3 with ffmpeg
.
This lib was built on top of the following packages:
Dependency | License |
---|---|
pytube3 | MIT |
python-youtube | MIT |
python-fire | Apache License v2 |
git clone [email protected]:ndaidong/ytdl.git && cd ytdl
poetry install
YOUTUBE_API_KEY=your_own_key ./run_test.sh
The MIT License (MIT)