trigerring youtube-dl by PHP exec() works but with some issues

[adrianTNT]

I tried to trigger the youtube-dl from browser with this PHP code

exec('youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVG-IFSjWJA --extract-audio --audio-format mp3 --id --embed-thumbnail', $output);

It seems to work for the most part, but the output file for that command is an m4a file and no mp3 file.
Full output is this:

[0] => [youtube] sVG-IFSjWJA: Downloading webpage
[1] => [youtube] sVG-IFSjWJA: Downloading video info webpage
[2] => [youtube] sVG-IFSjWJA: Extracting video information
[3] => [youtube] sVG-IFSjWJA: Downloading DASH manifest
[4] => [youtube] sVG-IFSjWJA: Downloading thumbnail ...
[5] => [youtube] sVG-IFSjWJA: Writing thumbnail to: sVG-IFSjWJA.jpg
[6] => [download] Destination: sVG-IFSjWJA.m4a
[7] => 
[download]   0.0% of 4.23MiB at 213.41KiB/s ETA 00:20
...
[download] 100% of 4.23MiB in 00:00

And from ssh I trieggered same command and it generated an mp3 file:

youtube-dl https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVG-IFSjWJA --extract-audio --audio-format mp3 --id --embed-thumbnail
[youtube] sVG-IFSjWJA: Downloading webpage
[youtube] sVG-IFSjWJA: Downloading video info webpage
[youtube] sVG-IFSjWJA: Extracting video information
[youtube] sVG-IFSjWJA: Downloading DASH manifest
[youtube] sVG-IFSjWJA: Downloading thumbnail ...
[youtube] sVG-IFSjWJA: Writing thumbnail to: sVG-IFSjWJA.jpg
[download] Destination: sVG-IFSjWJA.m4a
[download] 100% of 4.23MiB in 00:00
[ffmpeg] Correcting container in "sVG-IFSjWJA.m4a"
[ffmpeg] Destination: sVG-IFSjWJA.mp3
Deleting original file sVG-IFSjWJA.m4a (pass -k to keep)
[ffmpeg] Adding thumbnail to "sVG-IFSjWJA.mp3"

I notice now that from ssh output contains [ffmpeg] lines that are not present in PHP output, so I tried this in PHP code:

--ffmpeg-location /root/bin/ffmpeg

But output was the same, .m4a but no .mp3 file.

[jaimeMF]

Make sure you are redirecting stderr and post its output. Additionally as explained in the bug reporting instructions, you must use the --verbose option so that we get the required information.

[adrianTNT]

I added --verbose and 2>&1 at the end of exec() command, this is when also using --prefer-ffmpeg --ffmpeg-location /root/bin/ffmpeg, and this is the output, I can see this interesting one, but the file IS there, it is 24 MB:

[35] => WARNING: ffmpeg-location /root/bin/ffmpeg does not exist! Continuing without avconv/ffmpeg.

Full output:

[0] => [debug] System config: []
[1] => [debug] User config: []
[2] => [debug] Command-line args: [u'--verbose', u'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVG-IFSjWJA', u'--prefer-ffmpeg', u'--ffmpeg-location', u'/root/bin/ffmpeg', u'--extract-audio', u'--audio-format', u'mp3', u'--id', u'--embed-thumbnail']
[3] => [debug] Encodings: locale ANSI_X3.4-1968, fs ANSI_X3.4-1968, out None, pref ANSI_X3.4-1968
[4] => [debug] youtube-dl version 2015.10.18
[5] => [debug] Python version 2.6.6 - Linux-2.6.32-358.18.1.el6.x86_64-x86_64-with-centos-6.4-Final
[6] => WARNING: ffmpeg-location /root/bin/ffmpeg does not exist! Continuing without avconv/ffmpeg.
[7] => [debug] exe versions: none
[8] => [debug] Proxy map: {}
[9] => WARNING: ffmpeg-location /root/bin/ffmpeg does not exist! Continuing without avconv/ffmpeg.
[10] => WARNING: ffmpeg-location /root/bin/ffmpeg does not exist! Continuing without avconv/ffmpeg.
[11] => [youtube] sVG-IFSjWJA: Downloading webpage
[12] => [youtube] sVG-IFSjWJA: Downloading video info webpage
[13] => [youtube] sVG-IFSjWJA: Extracting video information
[14] => [youtube] {43} signature length 42.40, html5 player new-en_US-vflmR8A04
[15] => [youtube] {18} signature length 42.40, html5 player new-en_US-vflmR8A04
[16] => [youtube] {5} signature length 42.40, html5 player new-en_US-vflmR8A04
[17] => [youtube] {36} signature length 42.40, html5 player new-en_US-vflmR8A04
[18] => [youtube] {17} signature length 42.40, html5 player new-en_US-vflmR8A04
[19] => [youtube] {135} signature length 42.40, html5 player new-en_US-vflmR8A04
[20] => [youtube] {244} signature length 42.40, html5 player new-en_US-vflmR8A04
[21] => [youtube] {134} signature length 42.40, html5 player new-en_US-vflmR8A04
[22] => [youtube] {243} signature length 42.40, html5 player new-en_US-vflmR8A04
[23] => [youtube] {133} signature length 42.40, html5 player new-en_US-vflmR8A04
[24] => [youtube] {242} signature length 42.40, html5 player new-en_US-vflmR8A04
[25] => [youtube] {160} signature length 42.40, html5 player new-en_US-vflmR8A04
[26] => [youtube] {278} signature length 42.40, html5 player new-en_US-vflmR8A04
[27] => [youtube] {140} signature length 42.40, html5 player new-en_US-vflmR8A04
[28] => [youtube] {171} signature length 42.40, html5 player new-en_US-vflmR8A04
[29] => [youtube] sVG-IFSjWJA: Downloading DASH manifest
[30] => [youtube] sVG-IFSjWJA: Downloading thumbnail ...
[31] => [youtube] sVG-IFSjWJA: Writing thumbnail to: sVG-IFSjWJA.jpg
[32] => [debug] Invoking downloader on 'https://r1---sn-4g57knk7.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id=b151be2054a35890&itag=141&source=youtube&requiressl=yes&nh=IgpwcjAyLmZyYTE1KgkxMjcuMC4wLjE&ms=au&mn=sn-4g57knk7&mm=31&mv=m&pl=43&ratebypass=yes&mime=audio/mp4&gir=yes&clen=4434282&lmt=1392542714095340&dur=139.064&itag_bl=298,299,302,303,308,315&key=dg_yt0&fexp=9407002,9408710,9413123,9414764,9415863,9416126,9416729,9417707,9418019,9418204,9419802,9421254,9421711,9422287,9423431&sver=3&upn=HhK6W6uZNJw&signature=8220013227721FE6FE21071F74A5B4203528A62F.3F197C3E40F576C582F35359A677DD1E1CC12AD6&mt=1445603511&ip=2a01:4f8:151:10c7::2&ipbits=0&expire=1445625217&sparams=ip,ipbits,expire,id,itag,source,requiressl,nh,ms,mn,mm,mv,pl,ratebypass,mime,gir,clen,lmt,dur'
[33] => [download] sVG-IFSjWJA.m4a has already been downloaded
[34] => [download] 100% of 4.23MiB
[35] => WARNING: ffmpeg-location /root/bin/ffmpeg does not exist! Continuing without avconv/ffmpeg.
[36] => WARNING: sVG-IFSjWJA: writing DASH m4a. Only some players support this container. Install ffmpeg or avconv to fix this automatically.
[37] => ERROR: ffprobe or avprobe not found. Please install one.
[38] => Traceback (most recent call last):
[39] =>   File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 1712, in post_process
[40] =>     files_to_delete, info = pp.run(info)
[41] =>   File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/postprocessor/ffmpeg.py", line 215, in run
[42] =>     filecodec = self.get_audio_codec(path)
[43] =>   File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/postprocessor/ffmpeg.py", line 179, in get_audio_codec
[44] =>     raise PostProcessingError('ffprobe or avprobe not found. Please install one.')
[45] => PostProcessingError

[adrianTNT]

The above was when I forced the path to ffmpeg in the command, without it, output is like this:

[30] => [download] sVG-IFSjWJA.m4a has already been downloaded
[31] => [download] 100% of 4.23MiB
[32] => WARNING: sVG-IFSjWJA: writing DASH m4a. Only some players support this container. Install ffmpeg or avconv to fix this automatically.
[33] => ERROR: ffprobe or avprobe not found. Please install one.
[34] => Traceback (most recent call last):
[35] =>   File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/YoutubeDL.py", line 1712, in post_process
[36] =>     files_to_delete, info = pp.run(info)
[37] =>   File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/postprocessor/ffmpeg.py", line 215, in run
[38] =>     filecodec = self.get_audio_codec(path)
[39] =>   File "/usr/local/bin/youtube-dl/youtube_dl/postprocessor/ffmpeg.py", line 179, in get_audio_codec
[40] =>     raise PostProcessingError('ffprobe or avprobe not found. Please install one.')
[41] => PostProcessingError

[jaimeMF]

Can you run ffmpeg or /root/bin/ffmpeg (for example with -version) from PHP?

[adrianTNT]

With both ffmpeg or /root/bin/ffmpeg I see result is the same, I did have an older version installed before I compiled this from Git

/root/bin/ffmpeg -version
ffmpeg version git-2015-10-21-1ec8c15 Copyright (c) 2000-2015 the FFmpeg developers
built with gcc 4.4.7 (GCC) 20120313 (Red Hat 4.4.7-16)
configuration: --prefix=/root/ffmpeg_build --extra-cflags=-I/root/ffmpeg_build/include --extra-ldflags=-L/root/ffmpeg_build/lib --bindir=/root/bin --pkg-config-flags=--static --enable-gpl --enable-nonfree --enable-libfdk-aac --enable-libfreetype --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libvorbis --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265
libavutil      55.  4.100 / 55.  4.100
libavcodec     57.  7.100 / 57.  7.100
libavformat    57. 10.100 / 57. 10.100
libavdevice    57.  0.100 / 57.  0.100
libavfilter     6. 12.100 /  6. 12.100
libswscale      4.  0.100 /  4.  0.100
libswresample   2.  0.100 /  2.  0.100
libpostproc    54.  0.100 / 54.  0.100

[jaimeMF]

As I said, can you run them from PHP (using exec)?

[adrianTNT]

Sorry, I missed the php part. I tested now,

exec("/root/bin/ffmpeg -version 2>&1", $output);

says

Array ( [0] => sh: /root/bin/ffmpeg: Permission denied )

And without full path it says command not found.
Any tips ?

[adrianTNT]

After many tests, I was only able to make it work after I copied ffmpeg and ffprobe from /root/bin to /usr/local/bin without changing any permissions or owners, the two files still belong to root:root.

Strange that now it works even without specifying --ffmpeg-location in my PHP exec() function. Maybe youtube-dl has some commands that don't even use original path from /root/bin/ffmpeg but instead just triggered ffmpeg and failed (from PHP) ? I don't fully understand this.

[yan12125]

I'm not sure what's the cause. Here's my guess: usually the HTTP server is run under unprivileged user http or www. It's possible that they don't have permissions to access /root.