[Feature Request] Searching Youtube

[HalosGhost]

I'm not sure how difficult this would be to implement, but the only thing I really feel like is missing in my experience with youtube-dl is to be able to search on the command-line.

So, for example, if I could run youtube-dl --query="people are awesome", I would be able to see (say, for instance) the top ten results from youtube (or another one of the supported sites from the extractors). It seems like it might not be terribly hard given that youtube-dl is able to "guess" particular videos with the --default-search option.

Is this {feasible,desirable}?

[HalosGhost]

I am aware of youtube-viewer, but I'd like to avoid having a whole extra application. Also, it would feel very redundant since I already use youtube-dl and mpv for video-playing; I don't need another tool to add to that list.

[phihag]

This is already implemented, for quite a while now:

$ youtube-dl 'people are awesome' --get-title
PEOPLE ARE AWESOME 2014! 1080p HD (41 MINS!)
$ youtube-dl 'gvsearch10:people are awesome' --get-title
PEOPLE ARE AWESOME (Hadouken! - Mecha Love)
PEOPLE ARE AWESOME 2013 (Hadouken! - Levitate)
PEOPLE ARE AWESOME 2013
PEOPLE ARE AWESOME 2013 FULL HD
PEOPLE ARE AWESOME 2012 - 2013
People Are Awesome
PEOPLE ARE AWESOME 2014! 1080p HD (41 MINS!)
PEOPLE ARE AWESOME 2014
PEOPLE ARE AWESOME • AMAZINGTAGES
PEOPLE ARE AWESOME 2013

Have a look at the output of youtube-dl --extractor-descs (look for search) to see all supported search extractors.

By default, youtube-dl downloads the first video. Pass in a number or all to download the specified number of videos.

[HalosGhost]

Oh my, this is awesome. Thanks for the heads up, and sorry for the unnecessary issue (github seems to have removed the ability to search through issues).

[phihag]

No problem, I don't think there is a single issue.

By the way, issue search works fine for me. Just type in the input field at the top:

[HalosGhost]

Oh, they just unified the search bar. That's even better! Thank you again.