Bug#535957: clive: --format switch doesn't work anymore

[Toni Gundogdu]

Gerfried Fuchs wrote:
> this ever changing thing with every single release and
> being incompatible with every version before is [...]

For the sake of this thread, lets take a look at the "timeline"
of those changes you wrote about:

  * 2.0.0 - late 2008 (first beta in September 2008)
    - config format change
    - config path change

  * 2.1.14 - late May 2009
    - initial --format ID changes for Youtube (excl. mp4)

  * 2.2.0 - mid June 2009
    - config format change
    - config path change
    - --format=mp4 -> fmt18 (Youtube)

That's 15 releases and about six months between 2.0.0 and 2.1.14 alone.
So what you are saying in the above quote is exaggeration.

For what it's worth, there are no further plans to change anything as
heavy handedly anymore. Only maintenance updates if anything breaks,
and additional support for new hosts if anyone happens to whip up patches.

2.2 ironed out everything that still had to go or get rewritten. I think
the changelog may have also implied that.

> When I did try -f fmt18 it worked, also with -f best -- both did
> get me mp4. Why doesn't -f mp4 give me mp4 anymore?

I'm assuming we are talking about the Youtube support. Google still
supports mp4.

We now use the same IDs that Youtube does instead of the aliases
that were usually only missleading. In the long run this is best
for everyone, only the users but whoever may try to fix the support.

For example, fmt18 and fmt22 are both mp4 formats, so we would
see reports from some users saying that mp4 download no longer
works -- when it fact it did, but resulted in lower quality of
mp4 when they used "-f mp4" while hoping to get the HD (fmt22)
version of the video. The use of mp4_hd only seemed to confuse
some users even further.

  * Youtube uses fmtxx for its formats
  * this makes debugging and finding a fix easier
  * this means less confusion about the formats among users & devs
  * no need to read source code to figure out the aliases
  * cleaner code

This goes also along with the rest of the program design. We have been
using host specific format IDs for Dailymotion for about year now.

With "-f best" you may have downloaded either one (fmt18 or fmt22 in
this case), depending on which was listed as first (best) in the HTML.

> Sorry, I can just encourage everyone to switch to a different
> product than clive

Well, that seems rather harsh. I guess you gotta do what you gotta do.

I should probably point out that clive is not a product. If it was,
I wouldn't be writing these emails.

Ryan Niebur wrote:
> I agree fully [with Fuchs], having a wrapper script around clive that I've
> had to update multiple times. at this point (despite me working on keeping
> the clive package up to date...)

Well, whatever the case, whatever you decide to do, thanks for keeping up
and making clive2 available for Debian users.