youtube-dl

Download videos from youtube in node.js using youtube-dl.

If you're only interested in downloading only from youtube, you should consider using pure Javascript youtube downloading module.

Installation

With npm do:

npm install youtube-dl

Usage

Downloading videos

const fs = require('fs')
const youtubedl = require('youtube-dl')

const video = youtubedl('http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90AiXO1pAiA',
  // Optional arguments passed to youtube-dl.
  ['--format=18'],
  // Additional options can be given for calling `child_process.execFile()`.
  { cwd: __dirname })

// Will be called when the download starts.
video.on('info', function(info) {
  console.log('Download started')
  console.log('filename: ' + info._filename)
  console.log('size: ' + info.size)
})

video.pipe(fs.createWriteStream('myvideo.mp4'))

It will produce an output that looks like the following when ran.

Got video info
saving to T-ara - Number Nine - MV - 티아라-Seku9G1kT0c.mp4
100.00%

Resuming partially downloaded videos

const youtubedl = require('youtube-dl')
const fs = require('fs')
const output = 'myvideo.mp4'

let downloaded = 0

if (fs.existsSync(output)) {
  downloaded = fs.statSync(output).size
}

const video = youtubedl('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=179MiZSibco',

  // Optional arguments passed to youtube-dl.
  ['--format=18'],

  // start will be sent as a range header
  { start: downloaded, cwd: __dirname })

// Will be called when the download starts.
video.on('info', function(info) {
  console.log('Download started')
  console.log('filename: ' + info._filename)

  // info.size will be the amount to download, add
  let total = info.size + downloaded
  console.log('size: ' + total)

  if (downloaded > 0) {
    // size will be the amount already downloaded
    console.log('resuming from: ' + downloaded)

    // display the remaining bytes to download
    console.log('remaining bytes: ' + info.size)
  }
})

video.pipe(fs.createWriteStream(output, { flags: 'a' }))

// Will be called if download was already completed and there is nothing more to download.
video.on('complete', function complete(info) {
  'use strict'
  console.log('filename: ' + info._filename + ' already downloaded.')
})

video.on('end', function() {
  console.log('finished downloading!')
})

It will produce an output that looks like the following when ran.

Output:

[~/nodejs/node-youtube-dl/example]$ node resume.js
Download started
filename: 1 1 1-179MiZSibco.mp4
size: 5109213
^C

[~/nodejs/node-youtube-dl/example]$ node resume.js
Download started
filename: 1 1 1-179MiZSibco.mp4
size: 5109213
resuming from: 917504
remaining bytes: 4191709
finished downloading

Getting video information

const youtubedl = require('youtube-dl')

const url = 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKsjaOqDXgg'
// Optional arguments passed to youtube-dl.
const options = ['--username=user', '--password=hunter2']

youtubedl.getInfo(url, options, function(err, info) {
  if (err) throw err

  console.log('id:', info.id)
  console.log('title:', info.title)
  console.log('url:', info.url)
  console.log('thumbnail:', info.thumbnail)
  console.log('description:', info.description)
  console.log('filename:', info._filename)
  console.log('format id:', info.format_id)
})

Running that will produce something like

id: WKsjaOqDXgg
title: Ace Rimmer to the Rescue
url: http://r5---sn-p5qlsn7e.c.youtube.com/videoplayback?ms=au&ip=160.79.125.18&cp=U0hWTFVQVl9FTENONl9NSlpDOjgtU1VsODlkVmRH&id=58ab2368ea835e08&source=youtube&expire=1377558202&factor=1.25&key=yt1&ipbits=8&mt=1377534150&itag=34&sver=3&upn=-rGWz2vYpN4&fexp=912306%2C927900%2C919395%2C926518%2C936203%2C913819%2C929117%2C929121%2C929906%2C929907%2C929922%2C929127%2C929129%2C929131%2C929930%2C925726%2C925720%2C925722%2C925718%2C929917%2C906945%2C929919%2C929933%2C912521%2C932306%2C913428%2C904830%2C919373%2C930803%2C908536%2C904122%2C938701%2C936308%2C909549%2C900816%2C912711%2C904494%2C904497%2C900375%2C906001&sparams=algorithm%2Cburst%2Ccp%2Cfactor%2Cid%2Cip%2Cipbits%2Citag%2Csource%2Cupn%2Cexpire&mv=m&burst=40&algorithm=throttle-factor&signature=ABD3A847684AD9B39331E567568D3FA0DCFA4776.7895521E130A042FB3625A17242CE3C02A4460B7&ratebypass=yes
thumbnail: https://i1.ytimg.com/vi/WKsjaOqDXgg/hqdefault.jpg
description: An old Red Dwarf eposide where Ace Rimmer saves the Princess Bonjella.
filename: Ace Rimmer to the Rescue-WKsjaOqDXgg.flv
format id: 34

You can use an array of urls to produce an array of response objects with matching array index (e.g. the 1st response object will match the first url etc...)

const youtubedl = require('youtube-dl')

const url1 = 'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKsjaOqDXgg'
const url2 = 'https://vimeo.com/6586873'

youtubedl.getInfo([url1, url2], function(err, info) {
  if (err) throw err

  console.log('title for the url1:', info[0].title)
  console.log('title for the url2:', info[1].title)
})

Using a proxy

const youtubedl = require('youtube-dl')

const video = youtubedl('http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90AiXO1pAiA',
  // Optional arguments passed to youtube-dl.
  ['--proxy', 'http://ip:port'],

Downloading subtitles

const youtubedl = require('youtube-dl')
const url = 'https://youtu.be/PizwcirYuGY'

const options = {
  // Write automatic subtitle file (youtube only)
  auto: false,
  // Downloads all the available subtitles.
  all: false,
  // Subtitle format. YouTube generated subtitles
  // are available ttml or vtt.
  format: 'ttml',
  // Languages of subtitles to download, separated by commas.
  lang: 'en',
  // The directory to save the downloaded files in.
  cwd: __dirname,
}

youtubedl.getSubs(url, options, function(err, files) {
  if (err) throw err

  console.log('subtitle files downloaded:', files)
})

Downloading thumbnails

const youtubedl = require('youtube-dl')
const url = 'https://youtu.be/PizwcirYuGY'

const options = {
  // Downloads available thumbnail.
  all: false,
  // The directory to save the downloaded files in.
  cwd: __dirname,
}

youtubedl.getThumbs(url, options, function(err, files) {
  if (err) throw err

  console.log('thumbnail file downloaded:', files)
})

For more usage info on youtube-dl and the arguments you can pass to it, do youtube-dl -h or go to the youtube-dl documentation.

Downloading playlists

const path = require('path')
const fs   = require('fs')
const youtubedl = require('youtube-dl')

function playlist(url) {

  'use strict'
  const video = youtubedl(url)

  video.on('error', function error(err) {
    console.log('error 2:', err)
  })

  let size = 0
  video.on('info', function(info) {
    size = info.size
    let output = path.join(__dirname + '/', size + '.mp4')
    video.pipe(fs.createWriteStream(output))
  })

  let pos = 0
  video.on('data', function data(chunk) {
    pos += chunk.length
    // `size` should not be 0 here.
    if (size) {
      let percent = (pos / size * 100).toFixed(2)
      process.stdout.cursorTo(0)
      process.stdout.clearLine(1)
      process.stdout.write(percent + '%')
    }
  })

  video.on('next', playlist)
}

playlist('https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEFA9E9D96CB7F807')

Note node-youtube-dl does not currently support playlist urls with the "list" format:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=<video-id>&list=<playlist id>

Please use instead the equivalent "playlist" format as the example below:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=<playlist id>

The following snippet could be of use when making this format conversion.

function toSupportedFormat(url) {
    if (url.includes("list=")) {
        var playlistId = url.substring(url.indexOf('list=') + 5);
        return "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=" + playlistId;
    }
    return url;
}

var url = "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shF8Sv-OswM&list=PLzIUZKHPb1HbqsPMIFdE0My54iektZrNU"
url = toSupportedFormat(url);
console.log(url) // "https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzIUZKHPb1HbqsPMIFdE0My54iektZrNU"

Getting the list of extractors

const youtubedl = require('youtube-dl')

youtubedl.getExtractors(true, function(err, list) {
  console.log('Found ' + list.length + ' extractors')

  for (let i = 0 i < list.length i++) {
    console.log(list[i])
  }
})

Will print something like

Found 521 extractors
1up.com
220.ro
24video
3sat

Getting the binary path

const youtubedl = require('youtube-dl')

console.log(youtubedl.getYtdlBinary())

Changing the binary path

const path = require('path')
const youtubedl = require('youtube-dl')

const customBinaryPath = path.resolve('custom/path/to-binary')

youtubedl.setYtdlBinary(customBinaryPath)

Call the youtube-dl binary directly

This module doesn't have youtube-dl download the video. Instead, it uses the url key from the --dump-json CLI option to create a node stream. That way, it can be used like any other node stream.

If that, or none of the above support your use case, you can use youtubedl.exec() to call youtube-dl however you like.

const youtubedl = require('youtube-dl')

youtubedl.exec(url, ['-x', '--audio-format', 'mp3'], {}, function(err, output) {
  if (err) throw err

  console.log(output.join('\n'))
})

Update

Since the youtube-dl binary is updated regularly, you can run npm run update to check for and download any updates for it. You can also require youtube-dl/lib/downloader in your app if you'd like to place youtube-dl binary in a specific directory and control when it gets updates.

const downloader = require('youtube-dl/lib/downloader')

downloader('path/to-binary', function error(err, done) {
  'use strict'
  if (err) throw err

  console.log(done)
})

This script parses a couple of flags from argv:

• --platform=windows forces downloading the Windows version of youtube-dl.
• --overwrite overwrites the existing youtube-dl executable if it exists.

Update (promise version)

If you are using promises there's now a promise version, if you don't pass a function as second argument:

const downloader = require('youtube-dl/lib/downloader')

downloader('path/to-binary')
.then((message) => {
    console.log(message);
}).catch((err) => {
    console.log("err", err);
    exit(1);
});

Environment Variables

Youtube-dl looks for certain environment variables to aid its operations. If Youtube-dl doesn't find them in the environment during the installation step, a lowercased variant of these variables will be used from the npm config or yarn config.

• YOUTUBE_DL_DOWNLOAD_HOST - overwrite URL prefix that is used to download the binary file of Youtube-dl. Note: this includes protocol and might even include path prefix. Defaults to https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl.

Tests

Tests are written with vows

npm test

License

MIT