Is it possible to output the archive file of a playlist with this syntax: "%(playlist_title)s/downloaded_archive.txt"

[cococry]

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• I'm asking a question and not reporting a bug or requesting a feature
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Please make sure the question is worded well enough to be understood

I want the archive file of my playlist to always be in the directory of where my music is. How to do that? Or is it even possible?

Command:

yt-dlp -i --embed-thumbnail --add-metadata --extract-audio --audio-format mp3 --output "%(playlist_title)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" --download-archive "%(playlist_title)s/downloaded_archive.txt" <playlist>

Error:

ERROR: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '%(playlist_title)s/downloaded_archive.txt'

Provide verbose output that clearly demonstrates the problem

• Run your yt-dlp command with -vU flag added (yt-dlp -vU <your command line>)
• If using API, add 'verbose': True to YoutubeDL params instead
• Copy the WHOLE output (starting with [debug] Command-line config) and insert it below

Complete Verbose Output

No response

[DavidPesticcio]

Have you tried --exec [WHEN:]CMD

I haven't tried exactly as you have it, but with an RSS feed for a podcast it works, so perhaps this will work for you also;

yt-dlp -i --embed-thumbnail --add-metadata --extract-audio --audio-format mp3 --output "%(playlist_title)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" --download-archive "downloaded_archive.txt" --exec "after_video:/bin/mv -v downloaded_archive.txt %(playlist_title)s/downloaded_archive.txt" <playlist>

See also for WHEN -

yt-dlp/yt_dlp/utils/_utils.py

Line 2795 in 3e35aa3

POSTPROCESS_WHEN = ('pre_process', 'after_filter', 'video', 'before_dl', 'post_process', 'after_move', 'after_video', 'playlist')

--exec [WHEN:]CMD               Execute a command, optionally prefixed with
                                when to execute it, separated by a ":".
                                Supported values of "WHEN" are the same as
                                that of --use-postprocessor (default:
                                after_move). Same syntax as the output
                                template can be used to pass any field as
                                arguments to the command. If no fields are
                                passed, %(filepath,_filename|)q is appended
                                to the end of the command. This option can
                                be used multiple times

[bashonly]

Or is it even possible?

Not without an external script.

Open feature request #953

[bashonly]

Have you tried --exec [WHEN:]CMD

On repeated runs, this suggestion will prevent yt-dlp from actually checking the archive before downloading, and mv would either clobber the existing archive file or fail

[DavidPesticcio]

This works (updated from %()s to %()q as per comments below from @bashonly)

Repeated runs will cause repeated entries for each ID in downloaded_archive.txt

Solved with sort -u downloaded_archive.txt -o downloaded_archive.txt

The rest is on you @cococry... 😃

yt-dlp -i --embed-thumbnail --add-metadata --extract-audio --audio-format mp3 --output "%(playlist_title)s/%(playlist_index)s - %(title)s.%(ext)s" --download-archive "downloaded_archive.txt" --exec "after_video:/bin/cat downloaded_archive.txt | tee -a %(playlist_title)q/downloaded_archive.txt; rm downloaded_archive.txt" https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0vfts4VzfNjQOM9VClyL5R0LeuTxlAR3

[bashonly]

A word of caution: using %()s in an --exec arg is NEVER safe -- if the value contains an ' it can escape your quoting and execute arbitrary shell commands

[DavidPesticcio]

A word of caution: using %()s in an --exec arg is NEVER safe -- if the value contains an ' it can escape your quoting and execute arbitrary shell commands

Sure, but that's something that yt-dlp should manage. After all, it's yt-dlp that's expanding the values of any %()s used.

[bashonly]

Sure, but that's something that yt-dlp should manage. After all, it's yt-dlp that's expanding the values of any %()s used.

No. You are responsible for how you use --exec. And %()q should always be used, NOT %()s.

[DavidPesticcio]

Sure, but that's something that yt-dlp should manage. After all, it's yt-dlp that's expanding the values of any %()s used.

No. You are responsible for how you use --exec. And %()q should always be used, NOT %()s.

Ah, so yt-dlp does mitigate those sort of issues by escaping/quoting problematic values that it expands.

Is there a documented example and explanation of why %()q should be favoured over %()s when using --exec? - I couldn't find anything, other than a passing mention of it in the README.md. 🫤

[bashonly]

https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp#output-template

7. More Conversions:

q = a string quoted for the terminal (flag # to split a list into different arguments)

Again, though, you are responsible for how you use --exec. It is basically just running commands with your shell. Your shell's documentation doesn't come with a warning telling you not to rm -rf /