A POSIX script that helps you find Youtube videos (without API) and opens/downloads them using mpv/youtube-dl

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This is a little showcase

Table of Contents

These links will take you where you want to go with the snap of a finger

• Usage instruction
• Features
• Examples
• Dependencies
• Installation
• Configuration
• External menu command (dmenu / rofi)

Initially this used to be a single line script.

#!/bin/sh
[ -z "$*" ] || curl "https://www.youtube.com/results" -s -G --data-urlencode "search_query=$*" |  pup 'script' | grep  "^ *var ytInitialData" | sed 's/^[^=]*=//g;s/;$//' | jq '..|.videoRenderer?' | sed '/^null$/d' | jq '.title.runs[0].text,.longBylineText.runs[0].text,.shortViewCountText.simpleText,.lengthText.simpleText,.publishedTimeText.simpleText,.videoId'| sed 's/^"//;s/"$//;s/\\"//g' | sed -E -n "s/(.{60}).*/\1/;N;s/\n(.{30}).*/\n\1/;N;N;N;N;s/\n/\t|/g;p" | column -t  -s "$(printf "\t")" | fzf --delimiter='\|' --nth=1,2  | sed -E 's_.*\|([^|]*)$_https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\1_' | xargs -r -I'{}' mpv {}

Usage-Instructions

Basic Usage: ytfzf [OPTIONS] <search-query>
  OPTIONS:
     -h, --help                           Show this help text
     -t, --thumbnails                     Show thumbnails (requires ueberzug)
                                          Doesn't work with -H -D
     -D, --ext-menu                       Use external menu(default dmenu) instead of fzf
     -H, --choose-from-history            Choose from history
     -x, --clear-history                  Delete history
     -m, --audio-only   <search-query>    Audio only (for music)
     -d, --download     <search-query>    Download to current directory
     -f                 <search-query>    Show available formats before proceeding
     -a, --auto-play    <search-query>    Auto play the first result, no selector
     -r  --random-play  <search-query>    Auto play a random result, no selector
     -n, --video-count= <video-count>     To specify number of videos to select with -a or -r
     -l, --loop         <search-query>    Loop: prompt selector again after video ends
     -s                 <search-query>    After the video ends make another search
     -L, --link-only    <search-query>    Prints the selected URL only, helpful for scripting
  Use - instead of <search-query> for stdin

To quit the script you can press ESC or ^C in the video selection prompt.

To use dmenu with a custom width

YTFZF_EXTMENU_LEN=250 ytfzf -D

Videos can be selected using fzf, dmenu or rofi.

Features

• Thumbnails
• History support
• Download support
• Format selection (and default formats)
• Queue multiple tracks (using fzf multiselection)

Examples

• Search with Thumbnails

  Find and watch videos with thumbnail previews

  ytfzf -t <query>
  

• Search without Thumbnails

  Find and watch videos without thumbnail previews (good if are on MacOS for example)

  ytfzf <query>
  

• You can use multiple options together, here are some examples

  • Stream audio (music), and prompt as the music finishes

    ytfzf -ml <query>
    

  • Download a video from your history

    ytfzf -dH
    

  • Open using dmenu in a certain format

    ytfzf -fD
    

• If you started watching a video and you wish to change format then first hit Q to save position and quit mpv, then choose your format using

  ytfzf -faH
  

Useful mpv key bindings

• Use f for full screen
• Use J for subtitles (also works with audio, if the music video has subtitles)
• Use L for single-loop

Update log

• Now ytfzf can queue videos using fzf multiselect option. Press tab to select a video. All the videos will be lined up in mpv. Use > and < to traverse them.
• Make continuous queries with -s
• Thumbnails! Using Ueberzug. Inspired by fontpreview-ueberzug.
• added MacOS support
• Stdin can be taken by using ytfzf -, for both fzf and external menu.

Dependencies

Fzf is optional, you can use an external menu (like dmenu) with the -D option (no thumbnail support).

• mpv
• youtube-dl
• fzf (Optional) - for menu
• jq - to parse json
• ueberzug (Optional) - for thumbnails

Thumbnails only work with fzf and Ueberzug as of now.

• Arch based

  sudo pacman -S jq mpv youtube-dl fzf
  

  For thumbnails

  sudo pacman -S ueberzug
  

• Debian based

  sudo apt install jq mpv youtube-dl fzf
  

  For thumbnails

  pip install ueberzug
  

  Note youtube-dl is usually outdated in debian repos, I suggest getting it from youtube-dl github

• MacOS

  brew install jq mpv youtube-dl fzf
  

  At the moment thumbnail previews aren't working on MacOS

Installation

• Cloning the repository

   git clone https://github.com/pystardust/ytfzf
   cd ytfzf

  • Install with the Makefile

     sudo make install

  • Uninstall with the Makefile

     sudo make uninstall

• Arch users can install ytfzf from the AUR

    yay -S ytfzf-git
  

• Gentoo users can install ytfzf from the nitratesky overlay

    eselect repository enable nitratesky
    emerge -a1 net-misc/ytfzf
  

Configuration

Default configuration can be set in the configuration file ~/.config/ytfzf/conf.sh or with environment variables.

• Defaults can be set in ~/.config/ytfzf/conf.sh

   YTFZF_HIST=0 # history is on by default it can be set to -> 0 history off, 1: history on
   YTFZF_LOOP=1 # if set to 1 it is on but normally it is off by default. Can be turned on using option -l
   YTFZF_PREF="bestvideo[height<=?1080]+bestaudio/best"
   YTFZF_ENABLE_FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS=1 # fzf colors are going to be the one from your fzf configuration

• Or export them in your shell config

   export YTFZF_HIST=0 # history is on by default it can be set to -> 0 history off, 1: history on
   export YTFZF_LOOP=1 # if set to 1 it is on but normally it is off by default. Can be turned on using option -l
   export YTFZF_PREF="bestvideo[height<=?1080]+bestaudio/best"
   export YTFZF_ENABLE_FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS=1 # fzf colors are going to be the one from your fzf configuration

• You can also specify settings that will be only be used for that specific query

   YTFZF_HIST=0 YTFZF_PREF="bestvideo[height<=?1080]+bestaudio/best" ytfzf  <query>

  • The setting in the config will always override environment variables. This command wouldn't function as expected if YTFZF_HIST=1 was mentioned in the config file.

  • The example shown above will launch ytfzf without including the video in your history and it will only display the best resolution available at 1080p or lower.

• This history will be stored in the cache directory as ytfzf_hst

   YTFZF_CACHE=~/.cache/ytfzf

  You can modify the file location by changing the cache directory

• Format

  If you prefer to watch Youtube videos with certain options without being prompted every single time you can use the following setting.

   YTFZF_PREF="22"

  If the preferred format is not available then it will revert back to auto selection. Documentation for ytdl formats

External-menu command

The currently supported ones are (dmenu / rofi)

• To use an external menu you will need to pass in the -D option

   ytfzf -D

  By default the external menu is set to dmenu dmenu -i -l 30. You can modify this to use rofi by using the following settings

   YTFZF_EXTMENU=' rofi -dmenu -fuzzy -width 1500'

  I don't use rofi much, I would love to hear from any rofi user on better defaults.

• You also may need to modify the width of the output that is being piped into the external menu.

  Depending on you screen resolution and font size this may need to be modified.

  • First option

    YTFZF_EXTMENU_LEN=180

  • Second option

    YTFZF_EXTMENU_LEN=180 ytfzf -D

WARNING : dmenu doesn't behave well with some fonts. Expect it to be slow with fonts you don't have.

Currently Playing

YTFZF is on by default. Stores the details of the currently playing track. Empty when nothing is playing. This could be used in status bar modules.

• This will allow you to disable it

   YTFZF_CUR=0

  It will be stored in the ytfzf cache directory as ytfzf_cur

Custom Player

By default, ytfzf uses mpv. Custom player should have the ability to launch youtube links.

# example: using devour
FZF_PLAYER="devour mpv"
YTFZF_PLAYER_FORMAT="devour mpv --ytdl-format="

Todo 📝

• Playlists
• Comments
• Icons

Bugs ❌

• dwm with swallow patch: Images don't render when looped (ie, option -l)

• Sometimes thumbnails may not get previewed. This is likely an issue with ueberzug itself. Try deleting .Xauthority and relogging.