NAME

youtube-viewer - YouTube from command line.

See: youtube-viewer --help youtube-viewer --tricks youtube-viewer --examples youtube-viewer --stdin-help

CONFIGURATION OPTIONS

auto_captions

When set to 1, auto-generated captions will be retrieved. By default, auto-generated captions are ignored.

autoplay_mode

Enable autoplay mode, which will continuously play related videos.

bypass_age_gate_with_proxy

Bypass age-restricted videos using an YouTube Account Proxy.

cache_dir

Cache directory where to save temporary files.

comments_order

The sorting order for comments. Valid values: "time", "relevance".

confirm

Display a confirmation message after each video played.

convert_cmd

Command to convert videos.

Default value:

    "ffmpeg -i *IN* *OUT*"

*IN* gets replaced with the input file.

*OUT* gets replaced with the output file.

convert_to

Format to convert each downloaded video into. (e.g.: "mp3").

cookie_file

Load cookies from a file. Useful to overcome the "429: Too Many Requests" issue.

The file must be a "# Netscape HTTP Cookie File". Same format as "youtube-dl" requires.

copy_caption

When downloading a video, copy the closed-caption (if any) in the same folder with the video.

If "merge_into_mkv" and "merge_with_captions" are both enabled, there is no need to enable this option.

custom_layout_format

An array of hash values specifying a custom layout for video results.

    align       # "left" or "right"
    color       # any color supported by Term::ANSIColor
    text        # the actual text
    width       # width allocated for the text

The value for "width" can be either a number of characters (e.g.: 20) or can be a percentage of the terminal width (e.g.: "15%").

The special tokens for "text" are listed in:

    youtube-viewer --tricks

For better formatting, it's highly recommended to install Unicode::GCString or Text::CharWidth.

custom_channel_layout_format

An array of hash values specifying a custom layout for channel results.

custom_playlist_layout_format

An array of hash values specifying a custom layout for playlist results.

dash_segmented

Include or exclude streams in "Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP" (DASH) format.

dash_support

Enable or disable support for split videos.

debug

Enable debug/verbose mode, which will print some extra information.

Valid values: 0, 1, 2, 3.

downloads_dir

Directory where to download files and where to save converted files.

env_proxy

Load proxy settings from *_proxy environment variables (if any).

fat32safe

When downloading a video, make the filename compatible with the FAT32 filesystem.

force_fallback

Force the extraction of the streaming URLs to always use the fallback method (youtube-dl / invidious).

get_captions

Download closed-captions for videos (if any).

hfr

Prefer or ignore High Frame Rate (HFR) video streams.

Try to disable this option if the videos are lagging or dropping frames.

highlight_color

Highlight color used to highlight watched videos.

Any color supported by Term::ANSIColor can be used.

history

Enable or disable support for input history.

Requires Term::ReadLine::Gnu.

history_limit

Maximum number of entries in the history file.

When the limit is reached, the first half of the history file will be deleted.

Set the value to "-1" for no limit.

hl

Language code for categories. Default: "en_US".

http_proxy

Set HTTP(S)/SOCKS proxy, using the format:

    'proto://domain.tld:port/'

If authentication is required, use:

    'proto://user:pass@domain.tld:port/'

For example, to use Tor, install LWP::Protocol::socks and set this value to:

    "socks://127.0.0.1:9050"

ignored_projections

An array of video projections to ignore.

For example, to prefer rectangular projections of 360° videos, use:

    ignored_projections => ["mesh", "equirectangular"],

interactive

Interactive mode, prompting for user-input.

keep_original_video

Keep the original video after conversion. When set to 0, the original video will be deleted.

merge_into_mkv

During download, merge the audio+video files into an MKV container.

Requires "ffmpeg".

merge_into_mkv_args

Arguments for "ffmpeg" how to merge the files.

merge_with_captions

Include closed-captions inside the MKV container (if any).

order

Search order for videos.

Valid values:

    date       – Sorted in reverse chronological order.
    rating     – Sorted from highest to lowest rating.
    relevance  – By relevance to the search query. (default)
    title      – Sorted alphabetically by title.
    videoCount – Sory by number of videos (for channels).
    viewCount  – Sorted from highest to lowest number of views.

prefer_av1

Prefer videos in AV1 format. (just for testing)

prefer_mp4

Prefer videos in MP4 (AVC) format.

Try to enable this option if the videos are lagging or dropping frames.

prefer_m4a

Prefer audio streams in M4A (AAC) format.

By default, the OPUS format for audio is preferred.

The "publishedAfter" option indicates that the API response should only contain resources created at or after the specified time. The value is an RFC 3339 formatted date-time value (1970-01-01T00:00:00Z).

publishedBefore

The "publishedBefore" option indicates that the API response should only contain resources created before or at the specified time. The value is an RFC 3339 formatted date-time value (1970-01-01T00:00:00Z).

regionCode

The "regionCode" option instructs the API to return search results for videos that can be viewed in the specified country. The parameter value is an ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code. (default: "US")

remove_played_file

When "download_and_play" is enabled, remove the file after playing it.

resolution

Preferred resolution for videos.

Valid values: best, 2160p, 1440p, 1080p, 720p, 480p, 360p, 240p, 144p, audio.

safeSearch

The "safeSearch" option indicates whether the search results should include restricted content as well as standard content.

Valid values: "strict", "moderate", "none".

show_video_info

Show extra info for videos when selected.

skip_if_exists

When downloading, skip if the file already exists locally.

skip_watched

Skip already watched/downloaded videos.

srt_languages

List of SRT languages in the order of preference.

subscriptions_order

Sorting order for subscriptions.

Valid values:

    alphabetical – Sort alphabetically.
    relevance    – Sort by relevance.
    unread       – Sort by order of activity.

thousand_separator

Thousands separator character for numbers >= 1000.

timeout

HTTPS timeout value in seconds. The default value is 10 seconds.

user_agent

Token that is used to identify the user agent on the network. The agent value is sent as the "User-Agent" header in the requests.

video_filename_format

The format of filename for downloaded files.

The available special tokens are listed in:

    youtube-viewer --tricks

video_player_selected

The selected video player defined the "video_players" table.

video_players

A table of video players.

The keys for each player are:

    arg        # any arguments for the video player
    audio      # option specifying the *AUDIO* file
    cmd        # the main player command
    fs         # the fullscreen option
    novideo    # the no-video mode option
    srt        # option specifying the *SUB* file

videoCaption

The "videoCaption" option indicates whether the API should filter video search results based on whether they have captions.

Valid values:

    any           – Do not filter results based on caption availability.
    closedCaption – Only include videos that have captions.
    none          – Only include videos that do not have captions.

videoDefinition

The "videoDefinition" option lets you restrict a search to only include either high definition (HD) or standard definition (SD) videos.

Valid values:

    any      – Return all videos, regardless of their resolution.
    high     – Only retrieve HD videos.
    standard – Only retrieve videos in standard definition.

videoDimension

The "videoDimension" option lets you restrict a search to only retrieve 2D or 3D videos.

Valid values:

    2d  – Restrict search results to exclude 3D videos.
    3d  – Restrict search results to only include 3D videos.
    any – Include both 3D and non-3D videos in returned results.

videoDuration

The "videoDuration" parameter filters video search results based on their duration.

Valid values: "any", "short", "long".

Valid values:

    any     – Do not filter video search results based on their duration.
    long    – Only include videos longer than 20 minutes.
    medium  – Only include videos that are between 4-20 minutes.
    short   – Only include videos that are less than 4 minutes long.

videoLicense

The "videoLicense" option filters search results to only include videos with a particular license.

Valid values:

    any            – All videos, regardless of which license they have.
    creativeCommon – Only return videos that have a "Creative Commons" license.
    youtube        – Only return videos that have the standard YouTube license.

videoSyndicated

The "videoSyndicated" option lets you to restrict a search to only videos that can be played outside youtube.com.

Valid values:

    any  – Return all videos, syndicated or not.
    true – Only retrieve syndicated videos.

watch_history

Remember watched videos across multiple sessions.

The video IDs are saved in the filename specified by "watch_history_file".

This option is also required for "--watched-videos".

watch_history_file

File where to save the video IDs of watched/downloaded videos when "watch_history" is set to a true value.

wget_cmd

Command for "wget" when "download_with_wget" is set to a true value.

youtube_users_file

Path to a list of YouTube channels, using the following format:

    ChannelID NAME

The channels can be listed with the command-line option: "-fc".

youtube_video_url

Format for "sprintf()" for constructing an YouTube video URL given the video ID.

ytdl

Use "youtube-dl" for videos with encrypted signatures.

When set to 0, invidious instances will be used instead.

ytdl_cmd

Command for "youtube-dl" when "ytdl" is set to a true value.

CONFIGURATION FILES

The configuration files are:

    ~/.config/youtube-viewer/youtube-viewer.conf
    ~/.config/youtube-viewer/gtk-youtube-viewer.conf

YOUTUBE API REFERENCE

https://developers.google.com/youtube/v3/docs/

REPOSITORY

https://github.com/trizen/youtube-viewer

LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either: the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; or the Artistic License.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

See <https://dev.perl.org/licenses/> for more information.