With custom "-o" template: ERROR: Insufficient system charset 'UTF-8' (ver. 2013-08-08)

[zeroxia]

Hi,

An error is output if I set a custom filename template:

ERROR: Insufficient system charset 'UTF-8'

Command line is:

youtube-dl --verbose --proxy 'http://127.0.0.1:8080' -o '%(upload_date)-%(id).%(ext)' -f 37 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjxWpKCQqJc'

Initially the template I used is %(upload_date)-%(id).%(ext), then I tested a simpler one file.%(ext) would produce the same error.

If changing -o TEMPLATE to -o output.mp4, or simply omitting -o option, the command will work.

I have to use a stunnel created local proxy to access youtube, hence the --proxy option.

And I tried the same on a VPS having direct access to youtube, the result is similar:

ERROR: Insufficient system charset 'ANSI_X3.4-1968'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/root/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 261, in prepare_filename
    filename = self.params['outtmpl'] % template_dict
ValueError: incomplete format

Some info:

$ uname -a
Linux kanna 3.10-1-686-pae #1 SMP Debian 3.10.3-1 (2013-07-27) i686 GNU/Linux
$ cat /etc/debian_version 
jessie/sid
$ python --version
Python 2.7.5+

I have no idea if this is related, but here is the system locale command output:

LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

Dynamic demo:
http://ascii.io/a/4603

[phihag]

Thank you for the great report! The error message is misleading (fixed); the problem is that the template is invalid. In the Python formatting language, you need an s (or another format character) after parentheses.

Try:

youtube-dl --verbose  -o '%(upload_date)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s' -f 37 zjxWpKCQqJc