Tiny wrapper for yt-dlp to get subtitles

ytsubs.md

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

usage() {
    cat <<'TXT'
Usage:
  ytsubs FORMAT URL [LANG]
  ytsubs --list URL

Examples:
  ytsubs srt 'https://youtu.be/...'
  ytsubs vtt 'https://youtu.be/...' 'en.*'
  ytsubs --list 'https://youtu.be/...'

Formats: srt, vtt, ass, lrc
LANG defaults to en.*
TXT
}

[[ $# -gt 0 ]] || { usage; exit 2; }

if [[ $1 == --help || $1 == -h ]]; then
    usage
    exit 0
fi

if [[ $1 == --list || $1 == -l ]]; then
    [[ $# -eq 2 ]] || { usage >&2; exit 2; }
    exec yt-dlp --list-subs "$2"
fi

[[ $# -ge 2 && $# -le 3 ]] || { usage >&2; exit 2; }

format=${1,,}
url=$2
lang=${3:-en.*}

case $format in
    srt|vtt|ass|lrc) ;;
    *)
        printf 'error: unsupported subtitle format: %s\n' "$format" >&2
        usage >&2
        exit 2
        ;;
esac

args=(
    --skip-download
    --write-subs
    --write-auto-subs
    --sub-langs "$lang"
    --sub-format 'vtt/best'
    -o '%(title)s [%(id)s].%(ext)s'
)

[[ $format == vtt ]] || args+=(--convert-subs "$format")

exec yt-dlp "${args[@]}" "$url"

Install it:

install -Dm755 ytsubs ~/.local/bin/ytsubs

Usage:

# Show manual and automatic subtitles
ytsubs --list 'https://youtu.be/MFR6SMV64h4'

# Download English subtitles as SRT
ytsubs srt 'https://youtu.be/MFR6SMV64h4'

# Download as VTT
ytsubs vtt 'https://youtu.be/MFR6SMV64h4'

# Select another language or language pattern
ytsubs srt 'https://youtu.be/MFR6SMV64h4' 'pl.*'

# Download every available language
ytsubs srt 'https://youtu.be/MFR6SMV64h4' 'all'

It requests both manually uploaded subtitles and automatic captions, but downloads no video or audio.