Youtube-dl is an open source program written in Python for the command line but it does more than just download audio and video from youtube.

The official site of youtube-dl is at https://yt-dl.org/download.html

Installing Youtube-dl

Using Curl

$ sudo curl -L https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl

Using wget

$ sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl

$ sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl

After installing it remember to update it

$ sudo youtube-dl -U

Using Youtube-dl

1. To download a video

$ youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJg-Y5byMMw

2. To download a video and save with a specific name

$ youtube-dl -o ‘Warriyo - Mortals (feat. Laura Brehm)[NCS]’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJg-Y5byMMw

3. To download a video and save in a specific location

$ youtube-dl -o ‘~/Downloads/Warriyo - Mortals (feat. Laura Brehm)[NCS]’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJg-Y5byMMw

4. To download multiple videos

$ youtube-dl

5. To download multiple videos by passing a text file with multiple links

$ youtube-dl -a url.txt

6. To list all available formats of video

$ youtube-dl –list-formats https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJg-Y5byMMw

$ youtube-dl -F https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJg-Y5byMMw

7. To download videos in specific quality and format.

Note that the following options may be available but not always.

Option	Remarks
best	select the best quality format for the given file with video and audio
worst	select the worst quality format of the given file with video and audio
bestvideo	select the best quality video-only format
worstvideo	select the worst quality video-only format
bestaudio	select the best quality audio only-format
worstaudio	select the worst quality audio only-format

Example:

$ youtube-dl -f bestaudio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJg-Y5byMMw

You can also combine formats and merge them with ffmpeg (remember to have ffmpeg installed).

$ youtube-dl -f bestvideo+bestaudio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJg-Y5byMMw

You may also specify multiple format codes in any preferred order from the listed format you have listed in 6 above.

$ youtube-dl -f 22/17/18

8. To download videos by specific format

$ youtube-dl –format mp4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJg-Y5byMMw

9. To set size limit for videos

$ youtube-dl –min-filesize 100M

$ youtube-dl –max-filesize 100M

$ youtube-dl -f ‘best[filesize<100M]’

10. To download the 10th file from a playlist

$ youtube-dl –playlist-items 10

11. To download multiple random files

$ youtube-dl –playlist-items 2,3,7,10

12. To download a video playlist starting from a certain video

$ youtube-dl –playlist-start 10

13. To download only the files starting from 2nd to 5th in a playlist

$ youtube-dl –playlist-start 2 –playlist-end 5

14. To download audio only from a video (note that the default is in ogg format)

$ youtube-dl -x https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJg-Y5byMMw

15. To download audio only in mp3 format

$ youtube-dl -x –audio-format mp3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJg-Y5byMMw