REQ: Flag to get duration of video without downloading

[msegar]

The ability to quickly get the duration of the requested video without downloading would be a very helpful feature. Currently, the only way (to my knowledge) to get the video duration is to download a JSON file for the video and parse out the 'duration' entry.

[jaimeMF]

You can get the JSON without downloading the video with youtube-dl "BaW_jenozKc" --skip-download --write-info-json.
But I guess you want an option like --get-duration, am I right?

[msegar]

Yes, a --get-duration flag would be helpful.

I currently use the JSON flag without downloading the video like you suggested, but for repeatedly finding videos of a certain length this method can be time consuming.

[FiloSottile]

ref: #826

[Elite]

Any updates to this? This is something which will be very helpful.

[phihag]

In youtube-dl 2013.12.16 and newer, you can use the --get-duration flag.

$ youtube-dl --get-duration O6w6GCm8wJI
30:59

It is meant for interactive use. In an automated process, you should use -j instead, and parse that result, for example with jq:

$ youtube-dl -j O6w6GCm8wJI | jq .duration
1859