A simple Node.js wrapper for yt-dlp.
Why
- Auto install the latest
yt-dlpversion available. - Executes any command in an efficient way.
- Promise & Stream interface support.
Install
Note: It requires Python 3.7 or above available in your system as
python3. Otherwise, the library will throw an error.
$ npm install youtube-dl-exec --saveBy default, the library will auto-install the latest yt-dlp available that will downloaded on build time.
Usage
Any yt-dlp flags is supported:
const youtubedl = require('youtube-dl-exec')
youtubedl('https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xKWiCMKKJg', {
dumpSingleJson: true,
noCheckCertificates: true,
noWarnings: true,
preferFreeFormats: true,
addHeader: ['referer:youtube.com', 'user-agent:googlebot']
}).then(output => console.log(output))It's equivalent to:
$ ./bin/yt-dlp \
--dump-single-json \
--no-check-certificates \
--no-warnings \
--prefer-free-formats \
--add-header='user-agent:googlebot' \
--add-header='referer:youtube.com' \
'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xKWiCMKKJg'Type yt-dlp --help for seeing all of them.
Custom binary
In case you need, you can specify your own binary path using .create:
const { create: createYoutubeDl } = require('youtube-dl-exec')
const youtubedl = createYoutubeDl('/my/binary/path')Progress bar
Since the library is returning a promise, you can use any library that makes a progress estimation taking a promise as input:
const logger = require('progress-estimator')()
const youtubedl = require('youtube-dl-exec')
const url = 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xKWiCMKKJg'
const promise = youtubedl(url, { dumpSingleJson: true })
const result = await logger(promise, `Obtaining ${url}`)
console.log(result)Alternatively, you can access to the subprocess to have more granular control. See youtubedl.exec.
Also, combine that with YOUTUBE_DL_SKIP_DOWNLOAD. See environment variables to know more.
API
youtubedl(url, [flags], [options])
It execs any yt-dlp command, returning back the output.
url
Required
Type: string
The URL to target.
flags
Type: object
Any flag supported by yt-dlp.
options
Any option provided here will passed to execa#options.
youtubedl.exec(url, [flags], [options])
Similar to main method but instead of a parsed output, it will return the internal subprocess object:
const youtubedl = require('youtube-dl-exec')
const fs = require('fs')
const subprocess = youtubedl.exec(
'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xKWiCMKKJg',
{
dumpSingleJson: true
}
)
console.log(`Running subprocess as ${subprocess.pid}`)
subprocess.stdout.pipe(fs.createWriteStream('stdout.txt'))
subprocess.stderr.pipe(fs.createWriteStream('stderr.txt'))
setTimeout(subprocess.cancel, 30000)youtubedl.create(binaryPath)
It creates a yt-dlp using the binaryPath provided.
Environment variables
The environment variables are taken into account when you perform a npm install in a project that contains youtube-dl-exec dependency.
These environment variables can also be set through "npm config", for example npm install --YOUTUBE_DL_HOST="Some URL", or store it in .npmrc file.
They setup the download configuration for getting the yt-dlp binary file.
YOUTUBE_DL_DIR
It determines the folder where to put the binary file.
The default folder is bin.
YOUTUBE_DL_FILENAME
It determines the binary filename.
The default binary file could be yt-dlp or youtube-dl.exe, depending of the YOUTUBE_DL_PLATFORM value.
YOUTUBE_DL_HOST
It determines the remote URL for getting the yt-dlp binary file.
The default URL is yt-dlp/yt-dlp latest release.
YOUTUBE_DL_PLATFORM
It determines the architecture of the machine that will use the yt-dlp binary.
The default value will computed from process.platform, being 'unix' or 'win32'.
YOUTUBE_DL_SKIP_DOWNLOAD
When is present, it will skip the postinstall script for fetching the latest yt-dlp version.
That variable should be set before performing the installation command, such as:
YOUTUBE_DL_SKIP_DOWNLOAD=true npm installYOUTUBE_DL_SKIP_PYTHON_CHECK
When is present, it skip the python step on installation.
License
youtube-dl-exec ยฉ microlink.io, released under the MIT License.
Authored and maintained by Kiko Beats with help from contributors.
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