[docs] Improvements

Closes #5846, closes #5774

README.md

@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ # NEW FEATURES
 
 * **[Format Sorting](#sorting-formats)**: The default format sorting options have been changed so that higher resolution and better codecs will be now preferred instead of simply using larger bitrate. Furthermore, you can now specify the sort order using `-S`. This allows for much easier format selection than what is possible by simply using `--format` ([examples](#format-selection-examples))
 
-* **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from [animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including `--write-comments`, `BiliBiliSearch`, `BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that the NicoNico livestreams are not available. See [#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
+* **Merged with animelover1984/youtube-dl**: You get most of the features and improvements from [animelover1984/youtube-dl](https://github.com/animelover1984/youtube-dl) including `--write-comments`, `BiliBiliSearch`, `BilibiliChannel`, Embedding thumbnail in mp4/ogg/opus, playlist infojson etc. Note that NicoNico livestreams are not available. See [#31](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/31) for details.
 
 * **YouTube improvements**:
     * Supports Clips, Stories (`ytstories:<channel UCID>`), Search (including filters)**\***, YouTube Music Search, Channel-specific search, Search prefixes (`ytsearch:`, `ytsearchdate:`)**\***, Mixes, YouTube Music Albums/Channels ([except self-uploaded music](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/723)), and Feeds (`:ytfav`, `:ytwatchlater`, `:ytsubs`, `:ythistory`, `:ytrec`, `:ytnotif`)
@@ -184,7 +184,7 @@ ## UPDATE
 
 If you [installed with PIP](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#with-pip), simply re-run the same command that was used to install the program
 
-For other third-party package managers, see [the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation) or refer their documentation
+For other third-party package managers, see [the wiki](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Installation#third-party-package-managers) or refer their documentation
 
 
 <!-- MANPAGE: BEGIN EXCLUDED SECTION -->
@@ -222,7 +222,7 @@ #### Misc
 <!-- MANPAGE: END EXCLUDED SECTION -->
 
 
-Note: The manpages, shell completion files etc. are available in the [source tarball](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
+**Note**: The manpages, shell completion files etc. are available in the [source tarball](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp.tar.gz)
 
 ## DEPENDENCIES
 Python versions 3.7+ (CPython and PyPy) are supported. Other versions and implementations may or may not work correctly.
@@ -238,8 +238,9 @@ ### Strongly recommended
 
 * [**ffmpeg** and **ffprobe**](https://www.ffmpeg.org) - Required for [merging separate video and audio files](#format-selection) as well as for various [post-processing](#post-processing-options) tasks. License [depends on the build](https://www.ffmpeg.org/legal.html)
 
-    <!-- TODO: ffmpeg has merged this patch. Remove this note once there is new release -->
+    There are bugs in ffmpeg that causes various issues when used alongside yt-dlp. Since ffmpeg is such an important dependency, we provide [custom builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#ffmpeg-static-auto-builds) with patches for some of these issues at [yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds). See [the readme](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#patches-applied) for details on the specific issues solved by these builds
-    **Note**: There are some regressions in newer ffmpeg versions that causes various issues when used alongside yt-dlp. Since ffmpeg is such an important dependency, we provide [custom builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#ffmpeg-static-auto-builds) with patches for these issues at [yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds). See [the readme](https://github.com/yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds#patches-applied) for details on the specific issues solved by these builds
+    
+    **Important**: What you need is ffmpeg *binary*, **NOT** [the python package of the same name](https://pypi.org/project/ffmpeg)
 
 ### Networking
 * [**certifi**](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi)\* - Provides Mozilla's root certificate bundle. Licensed under [MPLv2](https://github.com/certifi/python-certifi/blob/master/LICENSE)
@@ -286,7 +287,7 @@ ### Standalone PyInstaller Builds
 
 `pyinst.py` accepts any arguments that can be passed to `pyinstaller`, such as `--onefile/-F` or `--onedir/-D`, which is further [documented here](https://pyinstaller.org/en/stable/usage.html#what-to-generate).
 
-Note that pyinstaller with versions below 4.4 [do not support](https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller#requirements-and-tested-platforms) Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment.
+**Note**: Pyinstaller versions below 4.4 [do not support](https://github.com/pyinstaller/pyinstaller#requirements-and-tested-platforms) Python installed from the Windows store without using a virtual environment.
 
 **Important**: Running `pyinstaller` directly **without** using `pyinst.py` is **not** officially supported. This may or may not work correctly.
 
@@ -455,7 +456,9 @@ ## Video Selection:
     --date DATE                     Download only videos uploaded on this date.
                                     The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format 
                                     [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]].
-                                    E.g. --date today-2weeks
+                                    E.g. "--date today-2weeks" downloads
+                                    only videos uploaded on the same day two
+                                    weeks ago
     --datebefore DATE               Download only videos uploaded on or before
                                     this date. The date formats accepted is the
                                     same as --date
@@ -532,8 +535,8 @@ ## Download Options:
                                     linear=1::2 --retry-sleep fragment:exp=1:20
     --skip-unavailable-fragments    Skip unavailable fragments for DASH,
                                     hlsnative and ISM downloads (default)
-                                    (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragment)
+                                    (Alias: --no-abort-on-unavailable-fragments)
-    --abort-on-unavailable-fragment
+    --abort-on-unavailable-fragments
                                     Abort download if a fragment is unavailable
                                     (Alias: --no-skip-unavailable-fragments)
     --keep-fragments                Keep downloaded fragments on disk after
@@ -1000,9 +1003,9 @@ ## Post-Processing Options:
                                     additional field "filepath" that contains
                                     the final path of the downloaded file is
                                     also available, and if no fields are passed,
-                                    %(filepath)q is appended to the end of the
+                                    %(filepath,_filename|)q is appended to the
-                                    command. This option can be used multiple
+                                    end of the command. This option can be used
-                                    times
+                                    multiple times
     --no-exec                       Remove any previously defined --exec
     --convert-subs FORMAT           Convert the subtitles to another format
                                     (currently supported: ass, lrc, srt, vtt)
@@ -1149,7 +1152,7 @@ # Save all videos under YouTube directory in your home directory
 -o ~/YouTube/%(title)s.%(ext)s
 ```
 
-Note that options in configuration file are just the same options aka switches used in regular command line calls; thus there **must be no whitespace** after `-` or `--`, e.g. `-o` or `--proxy` but not `- o` or `-- proxy`. They must also be quoted when necessary as-if it were a UNIX shell.
+**Note**: Options in configuration file are just the same options aka switches used in regular command line calls; thus there **must be no whitespace** after `-` or `--`, e.g. `-o` or `--proxy` but not `- o` or `-- proxy`. They must also be quoted when necessary as-if it were a UNIX shell.
 
 You can use `--ignore-config` if you want to disable all configuration files for a particular yt-dlp run. If `--ignore-config` is found inside any configuration file, no further configuration will be loaded. For example, having the option in the portable configuration file prevents loading of home, user, and system configurations. Additionally, (for backward compatibility) if `--ignore-config` is found inside the system configuration file, the user configuration is not loaded.
 
@@ -1225,7 +1228,7 @@ # OUTPUT TEMPLATE
 
 <a id="outtmpl-postprocess-note"></a>
 
-Note: Due to post-processing (i.e. merging etc.), the actual output filename might differ. Use `--print after_move:filepath` to get the name after all post-processing is complete.
+**Note**: Due to post-processing (i.e. merging etc.), the actual output filename might differ. Use `--print after_move:filepath` to get the name after all post-processing is complete.
 
 The available fields are:
 
@@ -1346,7 +1349,7 @@ # OUTPUT TEMPLATE
 
 Each aforementioned sequence when referenced in an output template will be replaced by the actual value corresponding to the sequence name. E.g. for `-o %(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s` and an mp4 video with title `yt-dlp test video` and id `BaW_jenozKc`, this will result in a `yt-dlp test video-BaW_jenozKc.mp4` file created in the current directory.
 
-Note that some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor. Such sequences will be replaced with placeholder value provided with `--output-na-placeholder` (`NA` by default).
+**Note**: Some of the sequences are not guaranteed to be present since they depend on the metadata obtained by a particular extractor. Such sequences will be replaced with placeholder value provided with `--output-na-placeholder` (`NA` by default).
 
 **Tip**: Look at the `-j` output to identify which fields are available for the particular URL
 
@@ -1487,7 +1490,7 @@ ## Filtering Formats
 
 Any string comparison may be prefixed with negation `!` in order to produce an opposite comparison, e.g. `!*=` (does not contain). The comparand of a string comparison needs to be quoted with either double or single quotes if it contains spaces or special characters other than `._-`.
 
-Note that none of the aforementioned meta fields are guaranteed to be present since this solely depends on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, i.e. the metadata offered by the website. Any other field made available by the extractor can also be used for filtering.
+**Note**: None of the aforementioned meta fields are guaranteed to be present since this solely depends on the metadata obtained by particular extractor, i.e. the metadata offered by the website. Any other field made available by the extractor can also be used for filtering.
 
 Formats for which the value is not known are excluded unless you put a question mark (`?`) after the operator. You can combine format filters, so `-f "[height<=?720][tbr>500]"` selects up to 720p videos (or videos where the height is not known) with a bitrate of at least 500 KBit/s. You can also use the filters with `all` to download all formats that satisfy the filter, e.g. `-f "all[vcodec=none]"` selects all audio-only formats.
 
@@ -1740,7 +1743,7 @@ # EXTRACTOR ARGUMENTS
 The following extractors use this feature:
 
 #### youtube
-* `lang`: Language code to prefer translated metadata of this language (case-sensitive). By default, the video primary language metadata is preferred, with a fallback to `en` translated. See [youtube.py](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/c26f9b991a0681fd3ea548d535919cec1fbbd430/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L381-L390) for list of supported content language codes
+* `lang`: Prefer translated metadata (`title`, `description` etc) of this language code (case-sensitive). By default, the video primary language metadata is preferred, with a fallback to `en` translated. See [youtube.py](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/c26f9b991a0681fd3ea548d535919cec1fbbd430/yt_dlp/extractor/youtube.py#L381-L390) for list of supported content language codes
 * `skip`: One or more of `hls`, `dash` or `translated_subs` to skip extraction of the m3u8 manifests, dash manifests and [auto-translated subtitles](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/issues/4090#issuecomment-1158102032) respectively
 * `player_client`: Clients to extract video data from. The main clients are `web`, `android` and `ios` with variants `_music`, `_embedded`, `_embedscreen`, `_creator` (e.g. `web_embedded`); and `mweb` and `tv_embedded` (agegate bypass) with no variants. By default, `android,web` is used, but `tv_embedded` and `creator` variants are added as required for age-gated videos. Similarly, the music variants are added for `music.youtube.com` urls. You can use `all` to use all the clients, and `default` for the default clients.
 * `player_skip`: Skip some network requests that are generally needed for robust extraction. One or more of `configs` (skip client configs), `webpage` (skip initial webpage), `js` (skip js player). While these options can help reduce the number of requests needed or avoid some rate-limiting, they could cause some issues. See [#860](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/pull/860) for more details
@@ -1794,7 +1797,7 @@ #### rokfinchannel
 #### twitter
 * `force_graphql`: Force usage of the GraphQL API. By default it will only be used if login cookies are provided
 
-NOTE: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
+**Note**: These options may be changed/removed in the future without concern for backward compatibility
 
 <!-- MANPAGE: MOVE "INSTALLATION" SECTION HERE -->
 
@@ -1844,26 +1847,25 @@ ## Installing Plugins
 
 3. **pip and other locations in `PYTHONPATH`**
     * Plugin packages can be installed and managed using `pip`. See [yt-dlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) for an example.
-      * Note: plugin files between plugin packages installed with pip must have unique filenames
+      * Note: plugin files between plugin packages installed with pip must have unique filenames.
     * Any path in `PYTHONPATH` is searched in for the `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder.
       * Note: This does not apply for Pyinstaller/py2exe builds.
 
 
-.zip, .egg and .whl archives containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder in their root are also supported. These can be placed in the same locations `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folders can be found.
+`.zip`, `.egg` and `.whl` archives containing a `yt_dlp_plugins` namespace folder in their root are also supported as plugin packages.
-- e.g. `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/mypluginpkg.zip` where `mypluginpkg.zip` contains `yt_dlp_plugins/<type>/myplugin.py`
+* e.g. `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/yt-dlp/plugins/mypluginpkg.zip` where `mypluginpkg.zip` contains `yt_dlp_plugins/<type>/myplugin.py`
 
-Run yt-dlp with `--verbose`/`-v` to check if the plugin has been loaded.
+Run yt-dlp with `--verbose` to check if the plugin has been loaded.
 
 ## Developing Plugins
 
-See [yt-dlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) for a sample plugin package with instructions on how to set up an environment for plugin development. 
+See the [yt-dlp-sample-plugins](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp-sample-plugins) repo for a template plugin package and the [Plugin Development](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/wiki/Plugin-Development) section of the wiki for a plugin development guide.
 
-All public classes with a name ending in `IE`/`PP` are imported from each file for extractors and postprocessors repectively. This respects underscore prefix (e.g. `_MyBasePluginIE` is private) and `__all__`. Modules can similarly be excluded by prefixing the module name with an underscore (e.g. `_myplugin.py`)
+All public classes with a name ending in `IE`/`PP` are imported from each file for extractors and postprocessors repectively. This respects underscore prefix (e.g. `_MyBasePluginIE` is private) and `__all__`. Modules can similarly be excluded by prefixing the module name with an underscore (e.g. `_myplugin.py`).
 
-To replace an existing extractor with a subclass of one, set the `plugin_name` class keyword argument (e.g. `MyPluginIE(ABuiltInIE, plugin_name='myplugin')` will replace `ABuiltInIE` with `MyPluginIE`). 
+To replace an existing extractor with a subclass of one, set the `plugin_name` class keyword argument (e.g. `MyPluginIE(ABuiltInIE, plugin_name='myplugin')` will replace `ABuiltInIE` with `MyPluginIE`). Since the extractor replaces the parent, you should exclude the subclass extractor from being imported separately by making it private using one of the methods described above.
-Due to the mechanics behind this, you should exclude the subclass extractor from being imported separately by making it private using one of the methods described above.
 
-If you are a plugin author, add [yt-dlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/yt-dlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability
+If you are a plugin author, add [yt-dlp-plugins](https://github.com/topics/yt-dlp-plugins) as a topic to your repository for discoverability.
 
 See the [Developer Instructions](https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#developer-instructions) on how to write and test an extractor.
 

yt_dlp/options.py

@@ -587,8 +587,9 @@ def _alias_callback(option, opt_str, value, parser, opts, nargs):
         '--date',
         metavar='DATE', dest='date', default=None,
         help=(
-            'Download only videos uploaded on this date. The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format '
+            'Download only videos uploaded on this date. '
-            '[now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]]. E.g. --date today-2weeks'))
+            'The date can be "YYYYMMDD" or in the format [now|today|yesterday][-N[day|week|month|year]]. '
+            'E.g. "--date today-2weeks" downloads only videos uploaded on the same day two weeks ago'))
     selection.add_option(
         '--datebefore',
         metavar='DATE', dest='datebefore', default=None,
@@ -1653,7 +1654,7 @@ def _alias_callback(option, opt_str, value, parser, opts, nargs):
             'Supported values of "WHEN" are the same as that of --use-postprocessor (default: after_move). '
             'Same syntax as the output template can be used to pass any field as arguments to the command. '
             'After download, an additional field "filepath" that contains the final path of the downloaded file '
-            'is also available, and if no fields are passed, %(filepath)q is appended to the end of the command. '
+            'is also available, and if no fields are passed, %(filepath,_filename|)q is appended to the end of the command. '
             'This option can be used multiple times'))
     postproc.add_option(
         '--no-exec',

yt_dlp/utils.py

@@ -5438,7 +5438,7 @@ def traverse_obj(
 
     The keys in the path can be one of:
         - `None`:           Return the current object.
-        - `str`/`int`:      Return `obj[key]`. For `re.Match, return `obj.group(key)`.
+        - `str`/`int`:      Return `obj[key]`. For `re.Match`, return `obj.group(key)`.
         - `slice`:          Branch out and return all values in `obj[key]`.
         - `Ellipsis`:       Branch out and return a list of all values.
         - `tuple`/`list`:   Branch out and return a list of all matching values.