| Without --netrc | With --netrc | |------------------|----------------| | -u username -p password on command line (exposed in process list, shell history) | Credentials stored in a single, permission-restricted file | | Manual entry each time | Automatic, script-friendly | | No support for multiple sites | Can store creds for many sites in one file |
When you run:
The file should follow this specific syntax, with each website (extractor) on its own line: yt-dlp --netrc
machine <hostname> login <username> password <password> for sites without 2FA (like Twitch
yt-dlp (and its predecessor youtube-dl ) utilizes this standard to retrieve credentials for various websites. --netrc is often the preferred method.
However, for sites without 2FA (like Twitch, Nebula, Crunchyroll, etc.), --netrc is often the preferred method.