# VIDEO OF A MAN KILLING RATS

How I watch y*utube in ratpoison.

I'll explain using the default ratpoison keybindings and links2 in
graphical mode. This could be easily adapted to things like dmenu,
cwm, probably to any window manager that has a scriptable launcher.


__What you need:

* mpv (with yt-dlp)
   - yt-dlp comes bundled with mpv in most cases
     or it can be obtained separately
     or through python's pip
* any web browser that can render html
   - I'm using links2
* ratpoison...


__(!ba)shing rocks

Start by making a custom script, change BROWSER and INVIDIOUS_INSTANCE
accordingly. For example you could start links in a terminal ala
BROWSER="xterm -e links".

```
#!/bin/sh

BROWSER="links -g"
INVIDIOUS_INSTANCE="https://yewtu.be"

if [ -z "$1" ]; then
   $BROWSER "$INVIDIOUS_INSTANCE";
       else
   $BROWSER "$INVIDIOUS_INSTANCE/search?q=$*";
fi
```

If the script is executed without any arguments, a browser is opened
on the landing page of your selected invidious instance. If the script
is executed with a however many arguments, all the arguments will be
parsed as a search query.

Don't forget to make the script executable.

$ chmod u+x the_script.sh


__ratpoisonrc

Add this line to your ~/.ratpoisonrc file. We're declaring that running
'vid' inside ratpoison's prompt will execute the previous script.

```
alias vid exec /path/to/the/previous/the_script.sh $*
```

You can test it by entering the previous line in ratpoison's prompt,
ala

 C-t : alias vid exec /path/to/the/previous/the_script.sh $*

but this will not persist between restarts. Let's suggest the line was
placed in the configuration file.

 C-t : restart (this restarts ratpoison and loads the new configuration)


__grabbing a URL of a video

By now, if you do

 C-t : vid some video

Links2 will open and a search will be made. I like to use the graphical mode
for this part, because it makes it stupid simple to get the URL.

Select the video and either press the 'Menu' key on your keyboard, the thing
between AltGr and Ctrl, select 'Copy link location', or open the page with
the video, press Shift-G, this opens the url bar with the current page,
Control-U, this cuts the url into buffer.

Whichever method, the url of the video is now copied.


__playing the video

 C-t ! mpv C-y (this pastes the url into ratpoison's prompt)

For clarity. C-t ! opens ratpoison's shell prompt. Type 'mpv', then press Control-Y, hit enter.
mpv will begin playing the video in the current frame.

Done. Never visit youtube again. Never use firechromecryptobrowser.

run links.

__bonus

Rip audio from the video and download it.

$ yt-dlp -x $URL

---

* https://invidious.io
* https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp
* http://links.twibright.com/


This post is not sponsored by the #links2gang, but it should be.