From 01702ea24b1f0b3bab065e95b5df7d4525cbe5ea Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: ergosteur Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2026 14:31:09 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] =?UTF-8?q?docs:=20fix=20the=20yt-dlp=20advice=20=E2=80=94?= =?UTF-8?q?=20a=20separate=20venv=20is=20not=20an=20importable=20one?= MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit `pipx install yt-dlp` was the instruction here, and it never worked. It gives yt-dlp its own venv, so the binary lands on PATH while gallery-dl, living in a different venv, still cannot `import yt_dlp`. Everything looks installed and the log keeps saying `Cannot import yt-dlp or youtube-dl` — which is exactly what the first run logged, and why it fell back to progressive URLs for DASH video, the path the CDN 429s hit hardest. `pipx inject gallery-dl yt-dlp` is the fix. Verify it by asking gallery-dl's own interpreter rather than the shell, since `which yt-dlp` succeeds either way and is what made the original advice look correct. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01UXfdJu7QhSJLr47K7koTDF --- docs/gallery-dl.md | 18 +++++++++++++++++- 1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/docs/gallery-dl.md b/docs/gallery-dl.md index 09af9ac..7507dc1 100644 --- a/docs/gallery-dl.md +++ b/docs/gallery-dl.md @@ -426,7 +426,23 @@ Re-running with those recovered both videos and produced **0 failures and 0 Without it, gallery-dl logs `Cannot import yt-dlp or youtube-dl` and falls back to a progressive URL for DASH videos. The fallback mostly works but is what the -429s hit hardest. `pipx install yt-dlp` on the fetch host. +429s hit hardest. + +**`pipx install yt-dlp` does not work** — it was the advice here until +2026-08-20, and it is wrong. It gives yt-dlp its own venv, so the binary lands +on `PATH` while gallery-dl, in a *different* venv, still cannot `import yt_dlp`. +The symptom is that everything looks installed and the log keeps saying +`Cannot import yt-dlp`. gallery-dl needs it importable, not runnable: + +```sh +pipx inject gallery-dl yt-dlp +``` + +Verify by asking gallery-dl's own interpreter, not the shell: + +```sh +/home/matt/.local/share/pipx/venvs/gallery-dl/bin/python -c 'import yt_dlp' +``` ## Known quirks