yaydl

yet another youtube (and more) down loader

% yaydl "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw"

How? What? Why?

% yaydl --help

Features

• Can download videos.
• Can optionally keep only the audio part of them.
• Could convert the resulting file to something else (requires the ffmpeg binary).
• Comes as a single binary (once compiled) - take it everywhere on your thumbdrive, no Python cruft required.

Currently supported sites

• invidious (most of them) · porndoe.com · pr0gramm.com · spankbang.com · Vidoza · Vimeo · vivo.sx · voe.sx · watchdirty.to · xhamster.com · YouTube

There is an easy way to add more supported sites, see below for details.

Non-features

The list of features is deliberately kept short:

• No output quality choice. yaydl assumes that you have a large hard drive and your internet connection is good enough, or else you would stream, not download.
• No complex filters. This is a downloading tool.
• No image file support. Videos only.

How to install

Prebuilt Windows binaries

Available on cdn.tuxproject.de.

From the source code

Install Rust (e.g. with rustup), then:

using Fossil:

% fossil clone https://code.rosaelefanten.org/yaydl
% cd yaydl
% cargo build --release

using Git:

% git clone https://github.com/dertuxmalwieder/yaydl
% cd yaydl
% cargo build --release

From Cargo

% cargo install yaydl

From your package manager

pkgsrc (with pkg_add):

% pkg_add yaydl

pkgsrc (with pkgin):

% pkgin install yaydl

Other package managers:

• Nobody has provided any other packages for yaydl yet. You can help!

How to use the web driver (very beta, at your own risk!)

For some video sites, yaydl needs to be able to parse a JavaScript on them. For this, it needs to be able to spawn a headless web browser. It requires Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge or Mozilla Firefox to be installed and running on your system.

1. Install and run ChromeDriver (if you use Chrome), the typically named Microsoft Edge WebDriver (if you use Edge) or geckodriver (if you use Firefox) for your platform.
2. Tell yaydl that you have a web driver running: yaydl --webdriver <port> <video URL>. (The drivers usually run on port 4444 or 9515, please consult their documentation if you are not sure.) Hint: If you need this feature regularly, you can also use the environment variable YAYDL_WEBDRIVER_PORT to set the port number for all further requests.
3. In theory, it should be possible to use more sites with yaydl now. :-)

How to set the default Invidious instance

For rather obvious reasons, including (but not limited to) the fact that Google tries to choke third-party clients, yaydl has been using Invidious as a wrapper since version 0.13.0. Now sometimes, the default instance hard-coded into src/handlers/youtube.rs will fail to work properly. You can use the environment variable YAYDL_INVIDIOUS_INSTANCE to change that: Just set it to the URI (including "https://") of any other instance.

How to contribute code

1. Read and agree to the Code of Conduct Merit.
2. Implicitly agree to the LICENSE. Nobody reads those. I don't either.
3. Find out if anyone has filed a GitHub Issue or even sent a Pull Request yet. Act accordingly.
4. Send me a patch, either via e-mail (yaydl at tuxproject dot de), on the IRC or as a GitHub Pull Request. Note that GitHub only provides a mirror, so you'd double my work if you choose the latter. :-)

If you do that well (and regularly) enough, I'll probably grant you commit access to the upstream Fossil repository.

Add support for new sites

1. Implement definitions::SiteDefinition as handlers/<YourSite>.rs.
2. Push the new handler to the inventory: inventory::submit! { &YourSiteHandler as &dyn SiteDefinition }
3. Add the new module to handlers.rs.
4. Optionally, add new requirements to Cargo.toml.
5. Send me a patch, preferably with an example. (I cannot know all sites.)

Minimal example that does nothing

// handlers/noop.rs

use anyhow::Result;

use crate::definitions::SiteDefinition;
use crate::VIDEO;

struct NoopExampleHandler;
impl SiteDefinition for NoopExampleHandler {
    // Parameters sent to the handler by yaydl:
    // - url:            The video page's URL.
    // - webdriver_port: The port that runs the WebDriver client.
    //                   Defaults to 0 if there is no WebDriver configured.
    // - onlyaudio:      true if only the audio part of the video should be
    //                   kept, else false.
    fn can_handle_url<'a>(&'a self, url: &'a str, webdriver_port: u16) -> bool {
        // Return true here if <url> can be covered by this handler.
        // Note that yaydl will skip all other handlers then.
        true
    }

    fn does_video_exist<'a>(&'a self, video: &'a mut VIDEO, url: &'a str, webdriver_port: u16) -> Result<bool> {
        // Return true here, if the video exists.
        Ok(false)
    }

    fn is_playlist<'a>(&'a self, url: &'a str, webdriver_port: u16) -> Result<bool> {
    	// Return true here, if the download link is a playlist.
    	Ok(false)
    }

    fn find_video_title<'a>(&'a self, video: &'a mut VIDEO, url: &'a str, webdriver_port: u16) -> Result<String> {
        // Return the video title from <url> here.
        Ok("".to_string())
    }

    fn find_video_direct_url<'a>(&'a self, video: &'a mut VIDEO, url: &'a str, webdriver_port: u16, onlyaudio: bool) -> Result<String> {
        // Return the direct download URL of the video (or its audio version) here.
        // Exception: If is_playlist() is true, return the playlist URL here instead.
        Ok("".to_string())
    }

    fn find_video_file_extension<'a>(&'a self, video: &'a mut VIDEO, url: &'a str, webdriver_port: u16, onlyaudio: bool) -> Result<String> {
        // Return the designated file extension of the video (or audio) file here.
        Ok("mp4".to_string())
    }

    fn display_name<'a>(&'a self) -> String {
        // For cosmetics, this is the display name of this handler.
        "NoopExample"
    }

    fn web_driver_required<'a>(&'a self) -> bool {
        // Return true here, if the implementation requires a web driver to be running.
        false
    }
}

// Push the site definition to the list of known handlers:
inventory::submit! {
    &NoopExampleHandler as &dyn SiteDefinition
}

Fix some bugs or add new features

1. Do so.
2. Send me a patch.

Donations

Writing this software and keeping it available is eating some of the time which most people would spend with their friends. Naturally, I absolutely accept financial compensation.

• PayPal: GebtmireuerGeld
• Liberapay: Cthulhux

Thank you.

Contact

• Twitter: @tux0r
• Mastodon: @tux0r@layer8.space
• Forum: DonationCoder.com
• IRC: irc.oftc.net/yaydl