Support for Downloading HTTP Authentication Protected Podcast Feeds

[jessebodin]

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Description of your issue, suggested solution and other information

One of my favorite uses of youtube-dl is as an archiving solution. Recently I was attempting to archive some podcasts that were protected by HTTP Authentication (https://username:password@example.com/podcast/feed). I know that premium podcasts distribute their URLs in this format for supporters. Most podcast clients can parse this type of url.

PS C:\Archive\Podcasts> .\youtube-dl.exe https://username:password@example.com/podcast/feed
[generic] feed: Requesting header
WARNING: Could not send HEAD request to https://username:password@example.com/podcast/feed: nonnumeric port: 'password@example.com'
[generic] feed: Downloading webpage
ERROR: Unable to download webpage: nonnumeric port: 'password@example.com' (caused by InvalidURL("nonnumeric port: 'password@example.com'",)); please report this issue on https://yt-dl.org/bug . Make sure you are using the latest version; type  youtube-dl -U  to update. Be sure to call youtube-dl with the --verbose flag and include its complete output.

I tried every combination of the -u username -p password I could.

Solution

You can get around this by inserting the Authorization header into youtube-dl's request.

The authorization header is formatted as "Authorization: Basic [username:password encoded with base64]"

Note that you have to encode your username:password beforehand.

username:password encoded with Base64 is dXNlcm5hbWU6cGFzc3dvcmQ=

So your authorization header will look like this Authorization: Basic dXNlcm5hbWU6cGFzc3dvcmQ=

You can insert this header with the --add-header command

Your new youtube-dl command will look like this:

PS C:\Archive\Podcasts> .\youtube-dl.exe https://example.com/podcast/feed --add-header "Authorization: Basic dXNlcm5hbWU6cGFzc3dvcmQ="

I was able to confirm that this works for me. Could this process be automated when "username:password@example.com" is detected in the URL?

[dstftw]

You must provide concrete examples with concrete reproducible credentials.

[jessebodin]

Any way I could privately relay an example with credentials?