1CLIVE.1(1) User Contributed Perl Documentation CLIVE.1(1)
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6 clive - (c)ommand (li)ne (v)ideo (e)xtraction tool
7
9 clive [<options>] [<url> | <file> ...]
10
12 clive is a command line media extraction tool for YouTube and similar
13 websites that require flash.
14 Background
16 clive originates from a simple shell script that was cooked up to work
17 around the YouTube's flash requirement back in 2006.
18 Getting started
20 Configuring
21 Autodetection
23 clive will attempt to autodetect the required commands from the $PATH,
25 when they have not been defined in either config file or the command
26 line.
27 Configuration file
29 See "FILES" for an example configuration file. You may want to consider
31 adding at least the "--quvi" and "--get-with" there.
32 See also
34 "TROUBLESHOOTING", "KNOWN ISSUES" and "EXAMPLES".
36
38 clive expects the URLs to be separated by a newline character when the
39 they are read from either stdin or files.
40 --help
42 Print help and exit.
43 --version
45 Print version and exit.
46 --license
48 Print license and exit.
49 -q, --quiet
51 Turn off all clive output excluding errors. Note that this switch has
52 no effect on any of the third party commands that clive invokes.
53 -F, --query-formats
55 Query available formats to an URL. The returned string will contain an
56 array of format strings, each separated by the '|' character. The
57 array is created, by libquvi, from the data returned by the server.
58 You can use these format strings with "--format".
59 See also "EXAMPLES" and "--format".
61 -f, --format arg (=default)
63 Download format arg of the media. The arg can also be "default",
64 "best", "help" or "list". Note, however, that of these, the "list" and
65 the "help" are deprecated and will be removed in the later versions of
66 clive.
67 The arg value is used with all of the URLs fed to clive at runtime. If
69 the arg is "best", libquvi will determine the "best" format available
70 to an URL.
71 If the arg is "default" libquvi attempts to return an URL to whatever
73 was deemed to be the "default" format to the URL. libquvi will switch
74 to "default" format if the arg was unregognized or the requested arg
75 format was unavailable.
76 For the above reasons, the downloaded format may be different from the
78 requested arg format.
79 For details about the YouTube's "fmt" IDs, refer to:
81 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube#Quality_and_codecs
82 See also "EXAMPLES", "--query-formats".
84 -O, --output-file arg
86 Write media to arg. Overrides "--filename-format".
87 -n, --no-download
89 Do not download the media, print details only.
90 --config-file arg
92 Path to a file to read clive arguments from. See also "FILES".
93
95 The "configuration" options may be read from the config file. See
96 "FILES".
97 --quvi arg
99 arg to be invoked to start the quvi(1) command which clive uses to
100 parse the media details. This is typically a full path to quvi(1) with
101 any additional options. Overrides any value set by autodetection.
102 The following specifiers can be used in the arg:
104 %u .. Media stream URL
106 All occurences of the specifier will be replaced. clive will
108 automatically append "--quiet" to arg.
109 --get-with arg
111 Path to a download command (e.g. wget(1) or curl(1)) with any
112 additional arguments. clive invokes this command to download the media.
113 Overrides any value set by autodetection.
114 The following specifiers are supported:
116 %n Media filename (after applying --regexp and --filename-format)
118 %f Path to downloaded media file (output path and %n)
119 %u Media stream URL
120 All occurences of the specifier will be replaced.
122 --filename-format arg (="%t.%s")
124 Use arg to specify the media output filename format. The following
125 specifiers are supported:
126 %t Media title (after applying --regexp)
128 %h Media host ID
129 %s File suffix
130 %i Media ID
131 All occurences of the specifier will be replaced.
133 --regexp arg (="/(\w|\s)/g")
135 Use regular expression arg to clean up the media title before it is
136 used in the filename. The syntax supports both "i" (case-insensitive)
137 and "g" (global or "find all").
138 --exec arg
140 Invoke arg after media download finishes. The following specifiers are
141 supported:
142 %f Path to the downloaded media file
144 All occurences of the specifier will be replaced.
146
148 error: specify path to quvi(1) command with --quvi
149 clive uses quvi(1) to parse the media details. Use the "--quvi" to
150 specify the path. See also "FILES".
151 error: specify path to a download command with --get-with
153 clive uses a 3rd party command to download the media. Use the
154 "--get-with" to specify the path to such command. See also "FILES".
155 HTTP/1.0 500 Internal Server Error
157 Any number of reasons. Some have been tracked back to unacceptable
158 user-agent string value and mangled HTTP headers (e.g. a green-eyed
159 HTTP proxy). See also "KNOWN ISSUES".
160
162 Resuming partially transferred files may fail
163 Some websites are known to refuse to work with the HTTP requests to
164 resume a file transfer.
165 Workaround
167 None known. You will have to remove the existing file before you try
169 again.
170 HTTP user-agent
172 Some websites refuse to play nice with renegade user-agent strings.
173 Recommendations
175 Make sure both quvi(1) and curl(1) use the same user-agent string.
177 Note that quvi(1) uses "Mozilla/5.0" by default. See also
178 "TROUBLESHOOTING" for "HTTP/500".
179 HTTP proxy
181 Generally OK, although some proxies may have been configured to "cook
182 up" the HTTP headers before they are sent back to the server. This may
183 sometimes lead to issues with the servers.
184 Recommendations
186 If you use an HTTP proxy, make sure you have configured all of the
188 commands that clive uses (e.g. quvi(1), curl(1), etc.) to use the same
189 proxy.
190 Exit status
192 If you are planning to use clive for anything more peculiar, consider
193 the following example:
194 * You feed clive two URLs
196 * The 1st one fails, quvi exits with a non-zero value
197 * clive proceeds to the 2nd URL, quvi now exits with zero value
198 * clive exits with the zero, even if the 1st URL failed
199 Workaround
201 Feed one URL at a time.
203
205 Local user
206 * ~/.config/clive/config
207 * ~/.clive/config
208 * ~/.cliverc
209 System wide
211 * /usr/local/share/clive/config
212 * /etc/xdg/clive/clive.conf
213 * /usr/share/clive/config
214 * /etc/xdg/clive.conf
215 * /etc/clive/config
216 CLIVE_CONFIG
218 You can also set CLIVE_CONFIG, e.g.:
219 env CLIVE_CONFIG=/path/to/config/file clive
221 --config-file
223 Or use "--config-file", e.g.:
224 clive --config-file /path/to/config/file
226 Example config
228 A typical configuration file could look like:
229 --get-with "/usr/bin/curl -L -C - -o %f %u --user-agent Mozilla/5.0"
231 --quvi "/usr/bin/quvi --category-http %u"
232 --filename-format "%t_%i.%s"
233 --exec "/usr/bin/vlc %f"
234
236 Note
237 Put the URLs inside quotes when they are specified as the command line
238 arguments to the program. This is the recommended practice.
239 clive "URL"
241 Typical use.
242 clive -f best "URL"
244 Download the best available format of the media.
245 clive -F "URL"
247 Query available formats to the URL. Use one of the returned format
248 strings from this list with "--format".
249 clive -n "URL"
251 Do not download the media, print the details only.
252
254 clive exits with 0 on success, otherwise the code is >0. For example,
255 if command line parsing fails, the exit status is 1.
256 When an error occurs in another command invoked by clive, e.g. quvi(1),
258 clive then exits with the exit status returned by that command.
259 See also "KNOWN ISSUES" for "Exit status".
261
263 quvi(1) curl(1)
264
266 Home : http://clive.sourceforge.net/
267 gitweb: http://repo.or.cz/w/clive.git
268
270 clive is free software, licensed under the GPLv3+.
271
273 Toni Gundogdu <legatvs at sign gmail com>
274 Thanks to all those who have contributed to the project by sending
276 patches, reporting bugs and writing feedback. You know who you are.
277perl v5.32.0 2020-07-27 CLIVE.1(1)