Install yt-dlp on Ubuntu 20.04

The yt-dlp is a tool that enables to download videos from YouTube and other websites via command line. The yt-dlp is based on youtube-dl with additional features and fixes. The yt-dlp supports many websites that list can be found in GitHub repository. The yt-dlp is a cross-platform tool that requires the Python interpreter.

This tutorial shows how to install yt-dlp on Ubuntu 20.04.

Install yt-dlp

Download the latest version of yt-dlp from GitHub repository:

sudo wget -qO /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp

Next, set read and execute permissions for a file:

sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp

Now yt-dlp can be used for all users as a system-wide command.

Check yt-dlp version:

yt-dlp --version

The yt-dlp can be updated to the latest version using the following command:

sudo yt-dlp -U

Testing yt-dlp

We can download video from website as follows:

yt-dlp <VIDEO_URL>

The <VIDEO_URL> is a video URL that you want to download. For example:

yt-dlp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0DPdy98e4c

In most cases, yt-dlp works fine without any external dependencies. However, if you want to convert video/audio, you should install FFmpeg. You can read post how to install it.

The -x option can be used to convert video files to audio only files. It requires FFmpeg.

yt-dlp -x https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0DPdy98e4c

Uninstall yt-dlp

If you decided to remove yt-dlp, run the following command:

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp