V2.4

This was originally going to be 2.3.1 because I wanted this to be a bugfix centric update.

But that did not end up happening.

Additions

Features

• Async thumbnail download.

  • Instead of having to wait for thumbnails to download, use --async-thumbnails (or async_thumbnails=1 in the config)
  • This will open the menu, then download thumbnails in the background.

• multi scraper, allows multiple ytfzf calls to be done at once

  • eg:
  • ytfzf -c M search 1 :NEXT search 2 :NEXT -c O odysee search :NEXT --pages=3 3 pages of youtube

• mpv thumbnail viewer, very similar to imv, but uses mpv as an image viewer instead of imv

• multi-search is smarter.

  • Each search is paired with a scraper
  • eg: ytfzf -cO,Y odysee search 1,youtube search 1,odysee search 2,youtube search 2

• on_no_thumbnail, a funciton that runs when no thumbnail is found, or when YTFZF:DEFUALT.jpg is used

• close_url_handler_<name>, a function that happens to clean up the url handler

  • should be the name of the url handler with _ replacing -

• after_close_url_handler, a function that happens after the clean up for url_handler.

• check_vars_exists is a variable that can only be set in the environment

  • if set to 1 variables set in envronment will be used (this is the default)

Options

• --ii, specifies the invidious instance to use
• --pages-start, specifies which page to start on, (only works for scrape_invidious_search)

Addons

Scrapers

• yt-music, scrapes youtube music

  • requires the yt-music-playlist scraper, and yt-music-utils folder to be in the scrapers folder.
  • it's a big buggy but it works

• feed-url, gets the rss feed of youtube channels and subreddits. (inspired by #542)

  • eg: ytfzf -c feed-url youtube/pewdiepie

Extensions

• pressing ctrl-c in mpv with the auto-play extension enabled, will also quit out of ytfzf (#538 @qoheniac )

Deprecated

• having --submenu-scraping-opts be seperate from --submenu-opts is confusing.
  • --submenu-opts now does both jobs

Changes

• The default search prompt prints to /dev/stderr instead of /dev/stdout
• --sort-name no longer looks in $PATH for a valid sort-name function, as 99.9% of the time this is not what's wanted, to use a file, use a relative or absolute path instead.

Fixes

• Many parameter expansions caused ytfzf to not play nicely with some shells
• --format-selection=simple will work significantly better
  • did not work with livestreams
  • more consistent with oddly sized videos
• chafa tried to use sixel sometimes.
• --channel-url now works properly with youtube links that don't contain www
• async scraping in subscriptions causes issues with fancy subs sometimes
• Submenus should generally work better

Removed

• multi filter, use ytfzf -cM --sort-by=sort-1 search :NEXT -cO --sort-by=sort-2 search instead
  • yes it's a bit long however multi-filter was very cumbersome in the code, and the use case was too specific.
• submenu and submenu.json files no longer exist due to the refactor of how submenus work

Technical

• Submenus no longer recursively call ytfzf, instead it

1. resets all variables to a default state
   • You may set keep_vars to 1 or use --keep-vars to override this
2. spawns a subshell
3. sources $YTFZF_CONFIG_DIR/submenu-conf.sh if it exists, otherwise it sources your config
4. parses opts given in --submenu-opts, and calls the main function again.

Edit:
ytfzf --version outputs an incorrect version, see #551

V2.3

Key

• bolded changes are changes that are more noticable to the user.
  • Only changes outside of the Additions section will be bolded

Additions

Features

• extensions, extra config files located in $YTFZF_CONFIG_DIR/extensions
• video recommendations scraper (video-recommended)
  • the recommendations are based on a video url
    • so use a video url instead of normal search for this scraper
• Search operators
  • This isn't really a new feature as addons could've done this previously
  • The real change is that :help should but doesn't have to be in every scraper
  • Usage: when the search is :help a little bit of information about the scraper will be printed
• swayimg image viewer, should work on all terminals in the sway compositor
• YTFZF:DEFAULT.jpg
  • is an image that can be in ~/.config/ytfzf/thumbnails
  • will be shown when the actual thumbnail doens't exist

Options

• --ext load an extension
• --list-addons lists all installed addons and exits
• --url-handler-opts extra opts to pass to the url handler, by default this is mpv

Addons

Extensions

• notify-info
  • notify-send info, errors, and warnings instead of printing it
• auto-play
  • when a video finishes, automatically play the next recommended one
• gui
  • a basic gui interface instead of using the commandline (is SERIOUSLY lacking in features)
  • requires the gui interface

Scrapers

• Scrape lists (a more powerful subscriptions file)
  • can be kinda buggy when provided another scrape list, hence why it's an addon
• ard, scrapes https://www.ardmediathek.de/ (@Xystel)
  • supports --pages, and partially --thumbnail-quality

Interfaces

• gui
  • opens a gui interface instead of a tui or other

Url Handlers

• mpvq (@jose1711)
  • socat, and lsof are required commands for this
  • works with --detach,
  • when selecting videos, instead of opening new mpv windows, it appends it to the queue of the current mpv instance

Changes

• The default format_selection_screen (-f) is now simple instead of normal
• Custom thumbnails are shown before downloaded thumbnails
• ytdl_pref now defaults to $video_pref+$audio_pref/best/$video_pref/$audio_pref instead of $video_pref+$audio_pref/$video_pref/$audio_pref
• use the ueberzug json parser instead of simple parser (31b365a)

Fixes

• The default interface breaks if column is not found
• The default interface breaks if tput is not found
• add_commas messing up the view count, giving an incorrect number (@gardockt)
• When a shortcut is used in fzf, it stays permenantly
• Quotation marks and backslashes are prefixed by a \ (@gardockt)
• -f is broken with a new version of yt-dlp
• IFS not unset in various places, which could cause weird behaviour
• When -s or search_again is enabled, submenus produce an error
• handling of duplicate entries is not very good (@gardockt)
• Use posix shell in fzf instead of $SHELL
• $session_temp_dir and $session_cache_dir are not set in url handlers
• Many typos were fixed in the man pages. (@jose1711)
• --pages not working in scrape_invidious_channel
• get_missing_thumbnails does not work with busybox utils.
• get_ueberzug_positioning does not work with chafa, and other thumbnail viewers
• -x is offset in the -h text
• on_startup_* is no longer called each time a new item is selected in fzf

Docs

• Remove mentions of display thumbnail viewer

Technical Changes

• scrapers are sourced after ytdl_pref is set instead of before

Style

• shiftwidth=4, and tabstop=4 are enforced in vim now

V2.2

To Update

If you installed with make on Linux on version 2.0 or prior, run sudo make uninstall-old before sudo make install doc

git clone -b v2.2 https://github.com/pystardust/ytfzf
cd ytfzf
sudo make install doc

Package maintainers, please read the notice at the bottom

Additions

Features

• addons folder for less supported features
• comments scraper, eg: ytfzf -c comments "https://vid.puffyan.us/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ" (658bf50)
• asynchronous scraping for youtube/Y and invidious-channel (43a06199ca0d37f419697a189982f11b4b0e1ec90)
• wait for input when using -I or -L (7691692)
• multi search, use multiple searches for multiple scrapers (f63b064)
• kitty thumbnail viewer (4a5ef64)

Options

• -S flag, a more presice -a flag. (793aa51)
• --format-sort A way to sort the formats with -f (1e5f672)
• --format-selection to choose between simple (the old way) and normal format selection screens (1e5f672)
• --disable-back to disable the back button, however leaving the submenu still goes back to main menu. (7650b4b)
• --fancy-subs has been readded (2a3f1c9)
• --sort-name a way to use a different sorting algorithm than the default --sort (7d79e4e)
• --fzf-opts and --fzf-thumbnail-opts (4a45b49)
• custom_search_scrape_exclude to more easily manage scrapes that don't need a search query (66e88d0)
• handle_keypress_*, eg: handle_keypress_alt_d this way you don't have to have a big case statement in handle_custom_keypresses (8ad6316)
• on_clean_up config function (d3114bb)
• on_opt_parse_<opt_name> config function (7d2f06b)

New Addons

Scrapers

• ani (anime scraper) (requires openssl)
• ddg (duckduckgo) (requires ddgr)
• invidious-popular
• recommended
• yt (regular youtube search (no invidious))
• osu (scrapes the new beatmaps on osu.ppy.sh)

Thumbnail Viewers

• display

Interfaces

• sxiv

Sort Names

• alpha
• alpha-rev

Changes

• -f now asks for audio pref and video pref separately instead of assuming bestaudio (6ec9c08)
• video_pref, audio_pref, and ytdl_pref are now 3 different variables to reduce confusion. (6ec9c08)
  • the default video_pref is now bestvideo instead of best
  • the default audio_pref is bestaudio
  • the default ytdl_pref is $video_pref+$audio_pref/$video_pref/$audio_pref
• changed the shebang from #!/bin/sh to #!/usr/bin/env sh to be more portable.
• the default thumbnail_quality is high instead of default (355b29b).
• the default yt_video_link_domain is now https://youtube.com for better compatibility with video players (66e6ab9).
• the order of log_level is now the opposite (2 = everything, 1 = warnings/errors, 0 = errors) (723f510)

Fixes

• playlists scrape infinitely (e9786b32167e648685fe7a4974e3cfc4b5d114330)
• relative paths to interfaces didn't work (3ef2e95)
• --detach works with -m (fd945ad)
• "%'" invalid directive (8d7b1b4)
• Having quotes in the search query breaks curl (6e1a7a2)
• Somtimes when not all info is provided the labels in thumbnail display were off.
• when -q and -s are enabled, it will ask for search normally after the first search. (68ef357)
• sub process of ytfzf are not killed when main thread is killed. (3abcd5c)
• --thumb-viewer can point to just a regular executable file (a86feb9)

Removed

• display thumbnail viewer is now an addon (a065223)
• set_save_custom_filters (bed5944)
• init_multi_filters (bed5944)
• manage_multi_custom_filters (bed5944)

Github

• added CONTRIBUTING.md
• added a credits section in the README

next update i probably won't keep track of commits as it was more effort than it was worth

For package maintainers

• There is a variable in the script called YTFZF_SYSTEM_ADDON_DIRS, if you want to package it so that addons are installed in a system path, make sure this variable points to the correct location.
  • Make sure to not point this to ~/.config/ytfzf/ as this is the user addons dir
  • You can either make it point to the correct location by either:
    • modifying the script
    • exporting it as an environment variable in a global startup file of some kind (eg: /etc/environment)

Ytfzf v2.1

To Update

The install location on linux has changed from /usr/bin to /usr/local/bin to be consistent on all OS, and to avoid gnumake only syntax.
In addition the man page location changed from /usr/share/man/man* to /usr/local/share/man to be consistent.

git clone https://github.com/pystardust/ytfzf
cd ytfzf
git checkout v2.1
#if on linux and installed any version 2.0 and prior run the command below
sudo make uninstall-old
#everyone uses the command below
sudo make install doc

If you wish to not install documentation (highly unrecommended) run sudo make install instead.

Additions

• Search history (-q)
• imv thumbnail viewer
• search again (-s)
• custom serch_prompt_menus depending on the interface
• custom quick_menus depending on the interface
• --submenu-scraping-opts, because --submenu-opts does not apply to scraping for submenus (eg: --pages)
• alt-s to search again
• alt-i to get all info about a video

Changes

• players are now not responsible for sending notifications, that is the job of handle_playing_notifications
• (linux only) make installs to /usr/local/bin instead of /usr/bin
• man pages install to /usr/local/share/man instead of /usr/share/man (@Vouivre)
• Makefile also now uses ${DESTDIR}, and ${PREFIX} (@Vouivre)
• search_prompt_menu has been documented.

Fixes

• man pages not able to install on mac.
• Makefile is now posix compliant
• Docs about -D, -a, -r, -A are outdated
  • is_ext_menu had been removed
  • is_interface_scripting had been removed
• $interface undocumented
• $external_menu_len undocumented
• alt-v, alt-d, and alt-m do nothing
• the default for submenu_opts is 1 (should be empty)
• make uninstall doesn't uninstall ytfzf(5)
• ytfzf(1) and ytfzf(5) install with execute permissions
• curl not treated as a dependency when it is
• thumbnail-viewers: chafa-16 and catimg-256 were broken
• No commas in view count
• add a backup posix compliant shuf function in case shuf is not installed
• -A selects a maximum of 100 videos
• if curl failed while downloading thumbnails for any reason, it would call curl again (@soystemd)
• Videos without a seperate audio stream will make video_pref default to best, overriding user selection with -f.
• notify_playing incorrectly documented as notify_video_playing

Codebase

• interface=scripting, interface=ext, and interface="" are now all treated the same as user created interfaces.
  • all have their own quick_menu*, and search_prompt_menu*

---

Next update I will also try to have links to commits for all changes.

---

Plans for 2.2

• scraping --pages in youtube asynchronously
  • you could scrape 100 pages in the time it takes to scrape 1
• addons folder that can be installed with make addons
  • this will allow us to add more buggy scrapers, menus, and thumbnail viewers, as they will be marked as unofficial
• --fzf-opts and --fzf-thumbnail-opts to pass opts to fzf in menu
• custom_scrape_search_exclude to simplify adding scrape search exceptions to scrape_search_exclude

---

If you find any bugs, have any questions, or anything else, feel free to open an issue :)

Ytfzf 2.0

We didn't like the old code base so we decided to rewrite it.
The goal is to keep the codebase simple, and avoid features that lots of complexity.

---

To update to the new release

git clone https://github.com/pystardust/ytfzf
cd ytfzf
sudo make install man

If you do not wish to install man pages (highly unrecommended) run sudo make install instead.

---

Changes

Assume your current config file doesn't work with this update, see ytfzf(1) and ytfzf(5).
Feel free to ask here or on the discord for help.

Breaking Changes

• Many variables have been renamed
• Many config options (such as video_player) that were strings are now functions

Additions

• Scrapers for invidious

• -I to get various information about a video instead of playing it

• support for w3m image display (although it's a bit buggy)

• submenus, eg: when clicking on a playlist, it scrapes the playlist and opens it

• multi-scrape, scrape multiple websites at once

• framework for playlists

  • To see what a playlist file looks like, check out the ~/.cache/ytfzf/watch_hist file (after you watch a video and if you have history enabled)

• Modularity

  • ability to add things such as scrapers, and thumbnail viewers yourself

Documentation

• All documentation has been moved into the man pages, instead of conf.sh
  • this allows us to change default settings to fix bugs as everyone seemed to copy and paste the default config file

Removed

• Search history
  • however it is possible to implement this yourself in conf.sh using the on_search function

Bugs

• At least 1 bug has been fixed
• Many bugs have probably been introduced and uncaught, please file a bug report if you find any :)