3. Command line application¶

This section describes using the Ytpb command line application: from an overview and usage of commands to configuring and advanced use cases.

3.1. Overview ¶

3.1.1. Synopsis ¶

The general synopsis of ytpb commands is as follows:

ytpb [GLOBAL_OPTIONS] COMMAND [SUBCOMMAND] [OPTIONS] [ARGS]...

Commands ¶

Usage: ytpb [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

A playback for YouTube live streams

Global options:
  --no-config    Do not load any configuration files.
  --config PATH  Specifies a path to a configuration file.
  --report       Dump all output to a file. It implies --debug.
  --debug        Enable verbose output for debugging.
  -q, --quiet    Supress all normal output.

Other options:
  -V, --version  Show the version and exit.
  --help         Show this message and exit.

Top-level commands:
  download  Download excerpts.
  capture   Capture a single or many frames.
  mpd       Compose MPEG-DASH manifests.

Subcommands ¶

capture¶

Usage: ytpb capture [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

  Capture a single or many frames.

Options:
  --help  Show this message and exit.

Commands:
  frame      Capture a single frame.
  timelapse  Capture time-lapse frames.

mpd¶

Usage: ytpb mpd [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

Options:
  --help  Show this message and exit.

Commands:
  compose  Compose an MPEG-DASH manifest.
  refresh  Refresh a composed MPEG-DASH manifest.

3.1.2. Getting help ¶

To show a list of available options, type --help after commands or subcommands:

$ ytpb --help
$ ytpb download --help
$ ytpb mpd compose --help

The rewind interval can be specified with the `-i/--interval option. The formatting of input interval and its parts is closely compliant with the ISO-8601 time interval formatting. The interval composes of start and end parts, separated with the “/” symbol.

These parts are a pair of points in a stream (absolute or relative ones) or some special literals. The absolute points are date and times (indirect) and sequence numbers of media segments (direct). One of interval parts can be relative to another one by a time duration or date and time replacing components.

Using dates ¶

Date and time of a day¶

--interval <date-time>/<date-time>

where <date-time> = <date>"T"<time>"±"<shift>:

YYYY"-"MM"-"DD"T"hh":"mm":"ss"±"hh":"mm (I) or

YYYYMMDD"T"hhmmss"±"hhmm (II).

The extended (I) and basic (II) formats are supported.

For example, an interval with two complete date and time representations:

# Complete representations in extended format
$ ytpb download -i 2024-01-02T10:20:00+00/2024-01-02T10:20:30+00 ...

# Complete representations in basic format
$ ytpb download -i 20240102T102000+00/20240102T102030+00 ...

The time part can be also provided with a reduced precision, with some low-order components omitted (the date part should be always complete):

# Representations with reduced precision in extended format
$ ytpb download -i 2024-01-02T1020+00/2024-01-02T10:20:30+00 ...

# Representations with reduced precision in basic format
$ ytpb download -i 20240102T1020+00/20240102T102030+00 ...

Zulu time¶

Zulu time refers to the UTC time and denoted with the letter “Z” used as a suffix instead of time shift. It’s applicable for dates here and elsewhere, even if it’s not stated. For example, the following date will be resolved to the same date as in the example above:

$ ytpb download -i 20240102T1020Z/20240102T102030Z ...

Local time¶

To represent a local time, the time shift part can be omitted. For example, if you’re in the UTC+02 time zone, the above example can be represented as:

$ ytpb download -i 20240102T1220/20240102T122030 ...

Time of today¶

-i/--interval <time>±<shift>/<time>±<shift>

To refer to a current day, the date part can be ommited:

$ ytpb download -i 10:20+00/T102030+00 ...

Date and time replacing components¶

This allows to replace particular date and time components in another part of an interval. The components to replace are referred explicitly by their one-letter designators.

For example, the start part below:

$ ytpb download -i 2023Y12M31DT1H/2024-01-02T10:20:00+00 ...

will be resolved as:

$ ytpb download -i 2023-12-31T01:20:00+00/2024-01-02T10:20:00+00 ...

Note that the time part delimiter (“T”) is necessary when only time components to change are supplied:

$ ytpb download -i 2024-01-02T10:20:00+00/T25M30S ...

Unix timestamp¶

--interval <timestamp>/<timestamp>

where <timestamp> = "@"<epoch-seconds>.

The date and time interval can also be specified with Unix timestamps as:

$ ytpb download -i @1704190800/@1704190830 ...

Using duration ¶

-i/--interval <start>/<duration> or
-i/--interval <duration>/<end>,

where <duration> = "P"DD"D""T""hh"H"mm"M"ss"S".

Sometimes it would be more convenient to specify an interval with duration: (a) by start and duration and (b) by duration and end.

The duration string is prepended with “P” symbol and used one-letter date and time component designators. The highest order of date components is days (“D”).

For example, here are below two examples representing the same 30-second interval:

# Specified by a start and a duration
$ ytpb download -i 2024-01-02T10:20:00+00/PT30S ...

# Specified by a duration and an end
$ ytpb download -i PT30S/2024-01-02T10:20:30+00 ...

Using date and time arithmetic ¶

--interval <expression>/<expression>

where <expression> = <operand> "±" <duration> or <duration> "+" <operand> and <operand> = <date-time> or <time>. Also, the expression accepts the now keyword as: <expression> = "now" "-" <duration>.

Input dates can be represented as arithmetic expressions between dates (or times) and (positive) durations. Such temporal arithmetic supports addition and substitution. For example, this expression 2024-12-13T10:20:30 - P1DT30S results in 2024-12-12T10:20:00. To refer to the current time, use the now keyword.

Note that the option value needs to be quoted to handle whitespaces.

# Subtraction between date and duration
$ ytpb download -i '2024-12-13T10:20:30 - P1DT30S/PT30S' ...

# Download an excerpt around some specific today's time
$ ytpb download -i '12:00 - PT1M/12:00 + PT5M' ...

# Download an excerpt between 23:00 (yesterday) and 01:00 (today)
$ ytpb download -i '23:00 - P1D/01:00' ...

# Download a 30-second excerpt starting from one minute ago
$ ytpb download -i 'now - PT60S/PT30S' ...

Using sequence numbers ¶

-i/--interval <sequence-number>/<sequence-number>

Besides dates, you can specify the sequence number (positive, starting from 0) of an MPEG-DASH media segment to refer to a specific point in a live stream. Usually, sequence numbers are used when a segment has already been previously determined.

For example, an interval from the beginning to segment 100:

$ ytpb download -i 0/100 ...

Sequence numbers can also be combined with other types:

$ ytpb download -i 0/2024-01-02T10:20:30+00 ...
$ ytpb download -i 0/PT30S ...
$ ytpb download -i 0/now ...

Using keywords ¶

‘Earliest’ keyword¶

-i/--interval earliest/<end>

To refer to the earliest available moment, the start part accepts the earliest keyword:

$ ytpb download -i earliest/PT30S ...

It could refer to the beginning of a stream (e.g., the very first media segment) or the earliest available segment if a stream lasts longer than the time available to rewind.

‘Now’ keyword¶

-i/--interval <start>/now

To refer to the current moment, the end part accepts the now keyword:

$ ytpb download -i 20240102T1020+00/now ...

To be exact, it refers to the last available media segment.

Preview mode ¶

--interval <start>/<end> --preview-start
--interval <start>/<end> --preview-end
--interval <start>/.. --preview-start
--interval ../<end> --preview-end

If you only need to preview a moment in a stream, which you can refer to later, the -ps / --preview-start and -pe / --preview-end options exist. It’s basically an alias for the short end duration.

In the above, the closed intervals were used, while for the preview modes, you can define (not necessarily, though) intervals with an open end designated with the ‘..’ literal:

$ ytpb download -i 2024-01-02T10:20:00+00/.. -ps ...
$ ytpb download -i ../2024-01-02T10:20:00+00 -pe ...

(In case of a closed interval, the start or end part will be ignored, and you’ll see a note in the output that the preview mode is enabled.)

By default, the output preview duration varies from 10 to 10 + one segment duration seconds. The imprecision is due to the reliance on the full-length, uncut end segment (to reduce merging time). The minimal preview duration value can be changed via the general.preview_duration field in the config.toml file.

Compatibility table ¶

**Table:** Interval parts compatibility¶
	Date and time / Timestamp	Time	Duration	Replacing components	Sequence number	‘Earliest’	‘Now’, ‘..’
Date and time / Timestamp	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Time	Y	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y
Duration	Y	Y	N	N	Y	Y	N
Replacing components	Y	N	N	N	N	N	N
Sequence number	Y	Y	Y	N	Y	Y	Y
‘Earliest’	Y	Y	Y	N	Y	N	Y
‘Now’, ‘..’	Y	Y	N	N	Y	Y	N

3.2.2. Specifying formats ¶

Now let’s look at the -af/--audio-format(s) and -vf/--video-format(s) options. They accept the format spec string, a query expression used to select the desired formats (MPEG-DASH representations, to be exact), which are characterized by the itag values, qualities, used codecs, etc.

See Format spec for the grammar, aliases, and default option values.

Conditionals and lookup attributes

The itag values as format codes uniquely determine representations. For example, providing a format spec in the form of a conditional expression as below gives us a very specific audio stream:

$ ytpb download -af 'itag = 140' -vf none ...

The audio and video itag values for a playing live stream can be seen in the Stats for nerds popup in the browser. To show all available MPEG DASH-specific formats, running the yt-dlp program is helpful:

$ yt-dlp --live-from-start -F <STREAM>

Here are other examples using other lookup attributes and logical conditions:

$ ytpb download -vf 'format = mp4 and frame_rate = 30 | best' ...
$ ytpb mpd compose -vf 'codecs = vp9 and [height = 1080 or height = 720]' ...

(Note that all commands except mpd compose require query results to be non-ambiguous, with one representation per query. This is where the best function can be used to limit query results.)

Using format spec aliases

Aliases allow defining and use of a named condition (or conditions) and make expressions much shorter and easier to understand. There are plenty of the built-in aliases. For example, rewriting the example above:

$ ytpb download -vf '@mp4 and @30fps | best' ...

3.2.3. Specifying output name ¶

By default, merged files are saved in the current working directory with names composed of the adjusted title, video ID and formatted input start date:

$ ytpb download -i PT30S/20240102T102030+00 abcdefgh123 && ls
Stream-title_abcdefgh123_20240102T102000+00.mkv

There are several ways to change the output naming: (a) provide a full output path or (b) provide a template output path (c) change the default corresponding configuration value. All are without extension: the extension will be automatically determined during the merging step.

Provide a full value directly via the -o / --output option:

$ ytpb download -o output/path ... && ls output/*
output/path.mkv

Provide a template value via the -o / --output option:
```
$ ytpb download -o '{{ title|adjust }}_{{ input_start_date|isodate }}' ... && ls
Stream-title_20240102T102000+00.mkv
```
See Templating and context variables for templating and available variables.

Change the default option value in the config.toml file:

[options.download]
output = "{{ title|adjust }}_{{ input_start_date|isodate }}"

[options.capture.frame]
...

3.2.4. Saving segment files ¶

Related command: ytpb download

After merging downloaded segment files to make an excerpt, the segments will be deleted. Do you want to keep them? There are two options here.

First, download an excerpt and keep segment files by using the -S / --keep-segments option:

$ ytpb download ... -S <STREAM>
...
Success! Saved to 'Stream-Title_abcdefgh123_20240102T102030+00.mkv'.
~ Segments are kept in 'Stream-Title_abcdefgh123_20240102T102030+00'.

The download destination can be changed via -s / --segments-output-dir:

$ ytpb download ... -S --segments-output-dir segments <STREAM>
...
Success! Saved to 'Stream-Title_abcdefgh123_20240102T102030+00.mkv'.
~ Segments are kept in 'segments'.

Of course, the later option can be used without -S, for example, to download segments (will be deleted after merging) to another drive.

Second, download only segment files without merging them:

$ ytpb download ... --no-merge <STREAM>
...
Success! Segments saved to 'Stream-Title_abcdefgh123_20240102T102030+00'.

3.2.5. Resuming unfinished downloads ¶

Related command: ytpb download

If a download gets interrupted for some reason (network problems, unhandled exceptions, aborting with Ctrl+C, etc.), you can continue the unfinished download by execution of the same command again. Each run creates a resume file used to keep information needed for resumption, which is cleaned after successful completion. The commands are matched based on the following input option values: --interval, --audio-format, --video-format, and --segments-output-dir. Resuming behavior can be disabled by the --ignore-resume option to avoid using an existing resume file and start download from scratch.

3.3. Configuring ¶

The configuration provides the way to set up default values of the command options and change other settings via configuration files. It’s optional and the default, built-in settings are used otherwise.

By default, the config.toml file is looked up under the ~/.config/ytpb directory (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME) if you’re on Unix or under platform-specific system directories if you’re on macOS or Windows. Also, the --config option can be used to override the default file location.

The priority of applying settings is the following, from lowest to highest:

Default, built-in settings.
The config.toml file under the default directory.
A file specified via the --config option.
User-provided command options.

See config.toml.example for the available fields and their descriptions.

3.4. Advanced usage ¶

3.4.1. Writing metadata tags ¶

Related command: ytpb download

By default, metadata tags will be added to an output excerpt file. Use the --no-metadata option to disable it.

Metadata tags overview

class ytpb.cli.commands.download.MetadataTagsContext

Bases: TypedDict

title: str: Video’s title.

author: str: Video’s author (channel’s name).

comment: str: YouTube video URL as a comment.

input_start_date: str: Input start date.

input_end_date: str: Input end date.

actual_start_date: str: Actual start date.

actual_end_date: str: Actual end date.

start_segment: str: Start segment sequence number.

end_segment: str: End segment sequence number.

The input and actual date values are expected to be different in only two cases: (a) if the boundary (start and end) points fall in gaps or (b) the --cut option is not requested (default). In the opposite cases, after accurate cut, they’re supposed to be identical.

The dates can be represented as seconds since the epoch via the configuration value: output.metadata.dates = unix.

3.4.2. Running without downloading ¶

There is a dry run mode (-x / --dry-run) to run without downloading. It could be useful if you are not interested in having an output excerpt file: for example, you want to locate the rewind interval or debug just the first steps (by combining a dry run with the --debug global option).

For example, just to locate start and end moments, use:

$ ytpb download ... --dry-run <STREAM>
...
(<<) Locating start and end in the stream... done.
Actual start: 25 Mar 2023 23:33:54 +0000, seq. 7959120
Actual end: 25 Mar 2023 23:33:58 +0000, seq. 7959121

~ This is a dry run. Skip downloading and exit.

It can be combined with the --keep-temp option to keep temporary files:

$ ytpb download ... --dry-run --keep-temp <STREAM>

This option can also be also used twice (-xx) to run and exit before locating, for example, to check available audio and/or video streams matching format specs:

$ ytpb download ... -xx <STREAM>
...
These representations will be downloaded:
   - Audio: itag 140, mp4 (mp4a.40.2), 44100 Hz
   - Video: itag 248, webm (vp9), 1920x1080, 30 fps

~ This is a dry run, just exit.

3.4.3. Using cache ¶

Using cache helps to avoid getting information about videos and downloading MPEG-DASH manifest on every run. The cached files contain the basic information and the base URLs for segments, and are stored under $XDG_CACHE_HOME/ytpb. It’s a default behavior. The cache expiration is defined by the segment base URLs expiration time. The --no-cache option allows avoiding touching cache: no reading and writing. Another option, --force-update-cache, exists to trigger cache update.

Ytpb

Navigation

3. Command line application¶

3.1. Overview ¶

3.1.1. Synopsis ¶

Commands ¶

Subcommands ¶

capture¶

mpd¶

3.1.2. Getting help ¶

3.2. Usage ¶

3.2.1. Specifying rewind interval ¶

Using dates ¶

Date and time of a day¶

Zulu time¶

Local time¶

Time of today¶

Date and time replacing components¶

Unix timestamp¶

Using duration ¶

Using date and time arithmetic ¶

Using sequence numbers ¶

Using keywords ¶

‘Earliest’ keyword¶

‘Now’ keyword¶

Preview mode ¶

Compatibility table ¶

3.2.2. Specifying formats ¶

3.2.3. Specifying output name ¶

3.2.4. Saving segment files ¶

3.2.5. Resuming unfinished downloads ¶

3.3. Configuring ¶

3.4. Advanced usage ¶

3.4.1. Writing metadata tags ¶

3.4.2. Running without downloading ¶

3.4.3. Using cache ¶