Exit code for --download-archive

[ghost]

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• I've verified and I assure that I'm running youtube-dl 2017.07.02

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Output

$ youtube-dl -v --download-archive archive https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPEE9ZwTmy0
[debug] System config: []
[debug] User config: []
[debug] Custom config: []
[debug] Command-line args: [u'-v', u'--download-archive', u'archive', u'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPEE9ZwTmy0']
[debug] Encodings: locale UTF-8, fs UTF-8, out UTF-8, pref UTF-8
[debug] youtube-dl version 2017.07.02
[debug] Python version 2.7.12 - Linux-4.4.0-83-generic-x86_64-with-Ubuntu-16.04-xenial
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg 2.8.11-0ubuntu0.16.04.1, ffprobe 2.8.11-0ubuntu0.16.04.1, rtmpdump 2.4
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[youtube] tPEE9ZwTmy0: Downloading webpage
[youtube] tPEE9ZwTmy0: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] tPEE9ZwTmy0: Extracting video information
[youtube] tPEE9ZwTmy0: Downloading MPD manifest
[download] Shortest Video on Youtube has already been recorded in archive
$ echo $?
0

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Issue

The exit code is 0 even though no video is downloaded. This makes it impossible in a script to determine if youtube-dl actually downloaded something. Could we have an appropriate exit code, like with --max-downloads? See also #10388

[tommcintyre]

An exit case of 0 in this case is correct; there was no failure, everything worked as expected, so a nonzero exit code would not be convention. There are better ways to do what you want.

--max-downloads should arguably not be abusing the exit code in such a way either - as discussed here: #10388 (comment).

[weedy]

I'm having the opposite problem.

youtube-dl ytuser:${channel} --console-title -f '298+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/137+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/best[ext=mp4]/best' --youtube-include-dash-manifest --output "%(upload_date)s-%(playlist_index)s-%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s" --restrict-filenames --download-archive ${channel}-youtube --ignore-errors --sleep-interval 3 --playlist-reverse --socket-timeout 11 --write-sub --sub-format 'ass/srt/best' --sub-lang en --embed-subs --rate-limit 7M --dateafter 20171022 --datebefore $(date --date='3 days ago' '+%Y%m%_d')
...
[download] MY HANGOVER MAKEUP ROUTINE // Grace Helbig has already been recorded in archive
[download] Downloading video 753 of 754
[download] MTV EMAs FASHION REVIEW w/KRISTEN MCATEE // Grace Helbig has already been recorded in archive
[download] Downloading video 754 of 754
[youtube] QdOVWsqPp2E: Downloading webpage
[youtube] QdOVWsqPp2E: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] QdOVWsqPp2E: Extracting video information
WARNING: video doesn't have subtitles
[youtube] QdOVWsqPp2E: Downloading MPD manifest
[download] 2017-11-17 upload date is not in range 2017-10-22 - 2017-11-16
[download] Finished downloading playlist: Uploads from Grace Helbig
Error code: 1
[youtube:user] graciehinabox: Downloading channel page
[youtube:playlist] UUIiBf-JbtCazHSFqXV4JgoA: Downloading webpage
[download] Downloading playlist: Uploads from Grace Helbig

youtube-dl has completed what I consider a successful run but isn't exiting with a 0.
Was this changed since this bug was created? It doesn't even happen on every channel.