How to get information from youtube-dl in python ??

Question

I am making an API for youtube-dl in tkinter & python and need to know:

• How to get the info dict from youtube-dl in realtime (speed, percentage finished, file size, etc.) ??

I have tried:

import subprocess
def execute(command):
    process = subprocess.Popen(command, shell=True, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)

    # Poll process for new output until finished
    while True:
        nextline = process.stdout.readline()
        if nextline == '' and process.poll() != None:
            break
        sys.stdout.write(nextline.decode('utf-8'))
        sys.stdout.flush()

    output = process.communicate()[0]
    exitCode = process.returncode

    if (exitCode == 0):
        return output
    else:
        raise ProcessException(command, exitCode, output)

execute("youtube-dl.exe www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0 -t")

from this Question

But it had to wait until finishing downloading to give me the info; maybe there is a way of getting the info from the youtube-dl source code.

Answer 1

Try something like this:

from youtube_dl import YoutubeDL
video = "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc"
with YoutubeDL(youtube_dl_opts) as ydl:
      info_dict = ydl.extract_info(video, download=False)
      video_url = info_dict.get("url", None)
      video_id = info_dict.get("id", None)
      video_title = info_dict.get('title', None)

You may have figured this out by now, but it might help someone else.

Answer 2

1. Better to avoid using subprocess; you can use the module directly as usual python module; refer to this : use youtube-dl module this require downloading the source code not only installing the application to system.
2. To continue using subprocess; you should add the following arguments:

Verbosity / Simulation Options:

-q, --quiet              activates quiet mode

-s, --simulate           do not download the video and do not write anything to disk

--skip-download          do not download the video

-g, --get-url            simulate, quiet but print URL

-e, --get-title          simulate, quiet but print title

--get-thumbnail          simulate, quiet but print thumbnail URL

--get-description        simulate, quiet but print video description

--get-filename           simulate, quiet but print output filename

--get-format             simulate, quiet but print output format

3. for your code; Ithink the error in the line of return, you choose to return the last line of the sys.output, returned by communicate; I suggest this simple untested example:

def execute(command):

    process = subprocess.Popen(command, shell=True, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)

    #Poll process for new output until it is finished

    while True:

        nextline = process.stdout.readline()

        if nextline == '' and process.poll() != None:

             break

        yield nextline 

I have used it in :

for i in execute("sudo apt-get update"):
    print i 

In all conditions, don't foreget to update your version.