1quvi(1) quvi manual quvi(1)
2
6 quvi - query media tool
7
9 quvi [options] [url|file ...]
10
12 quvi is a command line tool for parsing Adobe Flash media stream URLs.
13 It supports many websites including YouTube and Dailymotion.
14 The parsed details are printed to standard output (in JSON), everything
16 else is printed to standard error.
17
19 quvi parses Adobe Flash media stream URLs for third party applications.
20 It originates from the idea of allowing users to view the videos
21 without having to install or use Adobe Flash Player. quvi is not an
22 "alternative" but rather a "workaround" to Adobe Flash Player.
23 Read also:
25 * <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Flash#Performance>
27 * <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Flash#Flash_client_security>
28 * <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Flash#Alternatives_to_Flash>
29
31 As of 0.2.12, quvi supports different "protocol categories". For
32 historical reasons, it defaults to the HTTP category. This means that
33 any website scripts that parse and return RTMP/MMS/RTSP media URLs are
34 not considered unless an appropriate category switch is used. For
35 example:
36 % quvi --support # HTTP websites only (default)
38 % quvi --support --category-rtmp # RTMP websites only
39 % quvi --support -a # Websites of all categories
40 With this in mind:
42 % quvi RTMP_URL
44 error: no support: RTMP_URL
45 % quvi -a RTMP_URL # OK
46 The default behaviour is planned to change to "all" in 0.2.20.
48
50 Unless an URL is specified in the command line, quvi reads from the
51 stdin and expects each URL to be separated by a newline. The command
52 line args may be either URLs or files to be read. As with reading from
53 the stdin, each URL in the file is expected to be separated by a
54 newline.
55 -h, --help
57 Print help and exit.
58 --version
60 Print program version and exit.
61 --license
63 Print license and exit.
64 --support
66 Print supported hosts and exit. To check if an URL is supported,
67 specify an URL as an argument to the program. See "EXAMPLES".
68 --xml
70 Print the details in XML (instead of JSON). URLs are escaped (URL
71 encoded, unlike in JSON). Encoding is always UTF-8 (like in JSON).
72 --old
74 Print the details in the previously used default output format
75 (0.2.3 and earlier).
76 -q, --quiet
78 Turn off all output printed to stderr (excl. any errors). libcurl
79 will continue to generate messages to stderr if the
80 "--verbose-libcurl" switch is used.
81 This switch has no no effect on the the media details which are
83 printed to stdout.
84 --verbose-libcurl
86 Turn on libcurl verbose mode.
87 --exec arg
89 Invoke arg for each (successfully) parsed media. You can use the
90 following specifiers in arg:
91 %u Media URL
93 Note that all occurences of the specifier will be replaced, and
95 each new value will be quoted ("").
96 -r, --no-resolve
98 Do not attempt to resolve URL redirections. If used, most of the
99 shortened URLs will stop working with quvi. Note that this switch
100 has no effect on website scripts that use the quvi.resolve
101 function.
102 -n, --no-verify
104 Do not verify media stream URL after parsing it. Normally this
105 serves two purposes:
106 * Check that the URL works
108 * Get content-length and content-type
109 If this switch used, the program will report invalid values for
111 those details (e.g. 0 content length, empty string for content-
112 type, etc.) but may save some bandwidth if those details are not
113 needed.
114 Note that the URL is verified for HTTP only.
116 --category-http
118 Enable category HTTP website scripts. This is the default category.
119 --category-mms
121 Enable category MMS website scripts.
122 --category-rtsp
124 Enable category RTSP website scripts.
125 --category-rtmp
127 Enable category RTMP website scripts.
128 --category-all
130 Enable all categories of website scripts.
131 -F, --query-formats
133 Query available formats to an URL.
134 -f, --format arg
136 Query for arg format. arg can also be "help". The resulting format
137 may be different from the requested one if the LUA script was
138 unable to parse an URL to the requested format. The scripts are
139 expected to fallback to the 'default' format if the requested
140 format could not be parsed and raise an error if that failed as
141 well.
142 --agent arg
144 Identify quvi as arg to servers. Default is "Mozilla/5.0".
145 --proxy arg
147 Use proxy for HTTP connections, e.g. "http://foo:1234". You can
148 also define http_proxy environment setting to achieve the same.
149 --no-proxy
151 Disable use of HTTP proxy completely. Proxy will not be used even
152 if defined in http_proxy.
153 --connect-timeout seconds
155 Maximum seconds allowed connection to server take. Default is 30.
156
158 Put the URLs inside quotes when they are specified as the command line
159 arguments to the program. This is the recommended practice.
160 quvi "URL"
162 Typical use.
163 quvi --xml "URL"
165 Same but print the results in XML.
166 quvi -f best "URL"
168 Get for the best available format of the media. This assumes >1
169 formats are supported, otherwise will fallback to default format.
170 quvi -F "URL"
172 Query available formats to the URL. Use one of the returned format
173 strings from this list with "--format".
174 quvi --support
176 Print supported website in the HTTP category and exit.
177 quvi --support --category-rtmp
179 Same but print only those from the RTMP category. See also "NOTES -
180 PROTOCOL CATEGORIES".
181 quvi --support "URL"
183 Check whether the URL is supported. This does not require an
184 Internet connection but will fail with most "shortened" URLs.
185
187 $HOME/.quvirc
188 You can define most of the command line options in the config file.
189 For example:
190 agent = some_agent/1.0 # --agent
192 proxy = http://foo:1234 # --proxy
193 no-verify # --no-verify
194 verbose-libcurl # --verbose-libcurl
195 You can use $QUVI_HOME instead of $HOME.
197
199 QUVI_HOME
200 Path to the directory with the configuration file. If set, quvi
201 command uses this instead of $HOME.
202 QUVI_BASEDIR
204 Path to the "base directory" with the libquvi LUA scripts.
205 Overrides the default search paths. e.g.:
206 % ls /usr/share/quvi/lua
208 README util website
209 % env QUVI_BASEDIR=/usr/share/quvi quvi
210 QUVI_SHOW_SCANDIR
212 If set, libquvi prints the LUA script search paths to the stderr.
213 QUVI_SHOW_SCRIPT
215 If set, the LUA scripts found by libquvi are printed to the stderr.
216 % env QUVI_SHOW_SCRIPT=1 quvi
218
220 quvi exits with 0 on success and >0 if an error occurred.
221 QUVI_OK = 0x00
223 QUVI_MEM = 0x01, Memory allocation failed
224 (or invalid quvi command line option)
225 QUVI_BADHANDLE = 0x02, Bad session handle
226 QUVI_INVARG = 0x03, Invalid function (or command line) arg
227 QUVI_CURLINIT = 0x04, libcurl initialization failed
228 QUVI_LAST = 0x05, Indicates end of list iteration
229 QUVI_ABORTEDBYCALLBACK= 0x06, Aborted by callback function
230 QUVI_LUAINIT = 0x07, Lua initialization failure
231 QUVI_NOLUAWEBSITE = 0x08, Failed to find lua website scripts
232 --
233 QUVI_PCRE = 0x40, libpcre error occurred, deprecated 0.2.9+
234 QUVI_NOSUPPORT = 0x41, libquvi does not support the host
235 QUVI_CURL = 0x42, libcurl error occurred
236 QUVI_ICONV = 0x43, libiconv error occurred
237 QUVI_LUA = 0x44, lua error occurred
238
240 --verbose-libcurl
241 Make libcurl verbose.
242 Debug symbols
244 Compile quvi with "-g", see also gcc(1).
245 Other tools
247 See also gdb(1), strace(1) and valgrind(1).
248
250 <http://quvi.sourceforge.net/>
251 <http://repo.or.cz/w/quvi.git>
253
255 <http://repo.or.cz/w/quvi.git/tree/HEAD:/doc>
256
258 quvi or "(qu)ery (vi)deo" for historical reasons. As of 0.2.15 a more
259 suitable name would be qume or "(qu)ery (me)dia".
260 quvi was inspired by cclive. Embeddable LUA scripting was introduced in
262 0.2.0.
263
265 quvi and libquvi are free software, licensed under the LGPLv2.1+. The
266 LUA scripts that quvi uses are considered as programs and using the LUA
267 scripts is linking.
268
270 Toni Gundogdu <legatvs at sign gmail com>
271 Thanks to all those who have contributed to the project by sending
273 patches, reporting bugs and writing feedback. You know who you are.
2740.2.16 2011-08-17 quvi(1)