youtube-dl fails with python version >= 3.2

[okurz]

error description

When executing youtube-dl on arch linux using python 3.3 I get the error message:

$ youtube-dl -u <username> -p <password> --title http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=<list_id>
[youtube] PL <list_id>: Downloading page #1
[youtube] PL <list_id>: Found 3 videos
[youtube] Setting language
[youtube] Logging in
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/youtube-dl", line 6, in <module>
    youtube_dl.main()
  File "/usr/lib/python3.3/site-packages/youtube_dl/__init__.py", line 512, in main
    _real_main()
  File "/usr/lib/python3.3/site-packages/youtube_dl/__init__.py", line 496, in _real_main
    retcode = fd.download(all_urls)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.3/site-packages/youtube_dl/FileDownloader.py", line 505, in download
    videos = ie.extract(url)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.3/site-packages/youtube_dl/InfoExtractors.py", line 93, in extract
    return self._real_extract(url)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.3/site-packages/youtube_dl/InfoExtractors.py", line 1690, in _real_extract
    self._downloader.download(['http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=%s' % id])
  File "/usr/lib/python3.3/site-packages/youtube_dl/FileDownloader.py", line 505, in download
    videos = ie.extract(url)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.3/site-packages/youtube_dl/InfoExtractors.py", line 92, in extract
    self.initialize()
  File "/usr/lib/python3.3/site-packages/youtube_dl/InfoExtractors.py", line 87, in initialize
    self._real_initialize()
  File "/usr/lib/python3.3/site-packages/youtube_dl/InfoExtractors.py", line 329, in _real_initialize
    login_results = compat_urllib_request.urlopen(request).read().decode('utf-8')
  File "/usr/lib/python3.3/urllib/request.py", line 160, in urlopen
    return opener.open(url, data, timeout)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.3/urllib/request.py", line 471, in open
    req = meth(req)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.3/urllib/request.py", line 1183, in do_request_
    raise TypeError(msg)
            compat_urllib_request.urlopen(request).read()
        except (compat_urllib_error.URLError, compat_http_client.HTTPException, socket.error) as err:
            self._downloader.to_stderr(u'WARNING: unable to set language: %s' % compat_str(err))
TypeError: POST data should be bytes or an iterable of bytes. It cannot be of type str.

proposed solution

This change should fix the issue:

--- /tmp/InfoExtractors.py.old  2013-02-21 15:48:21.891371538 +0100
+++ /tmp/InfoExtractors.py  2013-02-21 15:48:27.448074643 +0100
@@ -323,7 +323,8 @@
                 'username': username,
                 'password': password,
                 }
-        request = compat_urllib_request.Request(self._LOGIN_URL, compat_urllib_parse.urlencode(login_form))
+        data = compat_urllib_parse.urlencode(login_form).encode('utf-8')
+        request = compat_urllib_request.Request(self._LOGIN_URL, data)
         try:
             self.report_login()
             login_results = compat_urllib_request.urlopen(request).read().decode('utf-8')

references

According to http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5440485/typeerror-post-data-should-be-bytes-or-an-iterable-of-bytes-it-cannot-be-str
this happens since python >= 3.2

[phihag]

Sorry, I can't reproduce the error, and the patch is out of date. Which version of youtube-dl are you using? Does the problem persist if you update with

sudo youtube-dl -U

?

[arararar]

I have problems in the last time with youtube-dl -U
COuld have to do with python too.

(Ubuntu 12.04)

Errors:

youtube-dl --update
Updating to latest version...
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/youtube-dl", line 4645, in
main()
File "/usr/bin/youtube-dl", line 4636, in main
_real_main()
File "/usr/bin/youtube-dl", line 4610, in _real_main
updateSelf(fd, sys.argv[0])
File "/usr/bin/youtube-dl", line 4203, in updateSelf
urlh.close()
UnboundLocalError: local variable 'urlh' referenced before assignment

[phihag]

@arararar That's a completely different issue, please open a new one. The following should fix your problem though:

wget http://youtube-dl.org/downloads/2013.02.25/youtube-dl -O "$(which youtube-dl)"
sudo youtube-dl -U

[phihag]

I'm closing this issue since the error should have been solved by the recent changes. If it hasn't, please comment or open a new issue. Thanks!