you-get

You can interrupt a download using Ctrl+C. you-get maintains a temporary .download file in the output directory. Running the same command again will resume the download from where it left off.

To force a complete re-download and overwrite existing files, use the --force or -f option.

you-get -f 'https://example.com/video.mp4'

You can specify an HTTP proxy using the --http-proxy or -x option. By default, you-get respects the system http_proxy environment variable. To disable all proxies, use the --no-proxy option.

For specific sites (like Youku) that require a proxy for information extraction, use --extractor-proxy or -y.

# Use a specific HTTP proxy
you-get -x 127.0.0.1:8087 'https://example.com/video'

# Use a proxy specifically for the extractor
you-get -y 127.0.0.1:8087 'https://youku.com/video'

To see all available formats, qualities, and codecs for a video before downloading, use the --info or -i option. This is particularly useful for selecting a specific itag for a preferred container (e.g., mp4 vs webm) or resolution.

you-get -i 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw'

To upgrade your existing installation, use the following commands depending on your installation method:

If installed via pip:

pip install --upgrade you-get

To force reinstall the latest develop branch via git:

pip install --upgrade --force-reinstall git+https://github.com/soimort/you-get@develop

Use the you-get command-line utility to download videos, audios, or images from various websites (including YouTube, Youku, and Niconico).

To download a video from a URL, run:

you-get 'URL'

If a site provides multiple stream formats (e.g., different qualities or containers), you-get will list them. You can select a specific stream using the --itag flag followed by the desired itag number.

$ you-get 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw'

You can install directly from a downloaded GitHub archive or a cloned repository.

From a directory containing the source:

# Install to a permanent path
python -m pip install .

# Or install to a user-specific path
python -m pip install . --user

Using pipenv (for virtual environments):

pipenv install -e .
pipenv run you-get --version

Using Git clone (Recommended for developers):

git clone git://github.com/soimort/you-get.git

Then either add the directory to your PATH or run python -m pip install path/to/you-get.

Instead of downloading the file to disk, use the --player or -p option to feed the stream directly into a media player like vlc, mpv, or even a browser like chromium.

you-get -p vlc 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw'

On FreeBSD, use the pkg package manager:

pkg install you-get

If you use Zsh and the Antigen plugin manager, add the following line to your .zshrc file:

antigen bundle soimort/you-get

Use Flox to install you-get across supported platforms:

flox install you-get

To access private or age-restricted videos, use the --cookies or -c option to provide browser cookies. Supported formats are Mozilla cookies.sqlite and Netscape cookies.txt.

you-get -c cookies.txt 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=private_video'

On macOS, you can install you-get using Homebrew:

brew install you-get