Short manual

YTFS mounting

To mount YTFS in a chosen directory, one should execute ytfs command and provide path to empty directory as argument.

Avalaible options:

-a : Download audio only.
-v : Download video only.
-f : Specify format as video height, e.g. -f 240.
-r : RickRoll flag.
-P : Load whole data before reading (disables streaming preference). Useful for obtaining heighest video quality.
-d : Debug - run YTFS in foreground.
-m : Obtain metadata. Available values: desc - descriptions, thumb - thumbnails. They will appear as a separate files in a search directory. If you want to specify more values than one, separate them with comma, e.g. -m desc,thumb.

You will be able to override those options for individual searches. See Overriding mount options for specific directory.

Important

By default, YTFS provides streamable full movie data. Most probably, it won’t be in the highest quality available. For best quality -P flag may be needed.

Warning

Some programs may have problems with preloaded files. They can fail after necessity of waiting for a long time after open call.

Example:

larry@localhost ~/ytfs $ ytfs -v /tmp/youtube-dir

YTFS will be mounted in /tmp/youtube-dir. Only video data will be downloaded (no sound).

Hint

If an error (which is not a Python interpreter error) occurs, e.g. fusermount: failed to open /etc/fuse.conf: Permission denied, then YTFS is probably mounted correctly and can be used with no problems.

Searching

To search for movies in YouTube, in a directory where YTFS is mounted (in previous example /tmp/youtube-dir) one should create a subdirectory. Its name will be a search query.

Example:

larry@localhost /tmp/youtube-dir $ mkdir orange

New search can be performed by renaming a directory which already exists. Previous search results and downloaded data will be lost.

It is possible to remove searches by rmdir or rm -r.

Example:

larry@localhost /tmp/youtube-dir $ mkdir kasztana
larry@localhost /tmp/youtube-dir $ mv kasztana banana
larry@localhost /tmp/youtube-dir $ rmdir banana

Advanced search parameters

To provide additional search parameters, append, prepend or insert a param:value string to your search query. If value contains spaces, surround it with parentheses: param:(foo bar baz).

Available parameters:

channel - Search only for movies that belong to specified channel. If channel isn’t found, then this parameter is ignored.
max - Value from 0 to 50. Specify max result number per search “page”. Defaults to 10.
before - Search before specified date. Format YYYY-MM-DD, e.g. 2010-10-10.
after - Search after specified date. Format as above.

Note

If channel is given, then you can ommit actual search query. Most popular videos of the channel will be returned.

Important

Invalid values for max, before, after parameters will render empty search directory.

Examples:

larry@localhost /tmp/youtube-dir/ $ mkdir "channel:foobar"
larry@localhost /tmp/youtube-dir/ $ mkdir "funny cats channel:(funny stuff) max:15"
larry@localhost /tmp/youtube-dir/ $ mkdir "oranges channel:fruits after:2015-06-01"
larry@localhost /tmp/youtube-dir/ $ mkdir "channel:snakes python"
larry@localhost /tmp/youtube-dir/ $ mkdir "foo bar max:1"

Overriding mount options for specific directory

If you have mounted YTFS with, let’s say, with default options, you can override them for a specific search. Append options between brackets ([, ]) to the directory name. If an option takes a parameter, specify it between parentheses. You don’t have to seperate options.

Available options:

a - Download audio
v - Download video
f - Specify format - takes a parameter.
s - Stream
P - Don’t stream (preload)
m - Specify metadata to obtain - can take a parameter. Giving no parameter will disable metadata.

Examples:

larry@localhost /tmp/youtube-dir/ $ mkdir "foo [a]"                # download audio only.
larry@localhost /tmp/youtube-dir/ $ mkdir "bar [vP]"               # download video only, don't stream.
larry@localhost /tmp/youtube-dir/ $ mkdir "baz channel:foo [avs]"  # download audio and video, stream.
larry@localhost /tmp/youtube-dir/ $ mkdir "foobar [vf(360)s]"      # download video (prefered quality: 360), stream.
larry@localhost /tmp/youtube-dir/ $ mkdir "foo [m(desc)]"          # obtain descriptions.
larry@localhost /tmp/youtube-dir/ $ mkdir "foo [m(desc,thumb)]"    # obtain descriptions and thumbnails.
larry@localhost /tmp/youtube-dir/ $ mkdir "foo [m]"                # don't obtain any metadata.
larry@localhost /tmp/youtube-dir/ $ mkdir "foo [m()]"              # the same as above.

Search results usage

Playback

To play a file, one should open it with a multimedia player of her choice.

Downloading on a hard drive

To download a movie, just copy file, e.g. with cp command or with file manager on a disk.

Example:

larry@localhost /tmp/youtube-dir/orange $ cp The\ Annoying\ Orange.mp4 ~/

YTFS unmounting

To unmount YTFS from a directory where it was mounted (e.g. /tmp/youtube-dir), make sure that no process uses any file from this directory, then use fusermount -u command or use a file manager.

Example:

larry@localhost /tmp $ fusermount -u youtube-dir/