[Software] How to update to newer version of YT-DLP?

[road hazard]

Linux newbie here........ I managed to install YT-DLP from backports (bookworm) on my Debian 12 system many months ago and all is well and it works fine. Today, I was thinking I should check for an update:

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yt-dlp -U
Current version: stable@2023.11.16 from yt-dlp/yt-dlp
Latest version: stable@2023.12.30 from yt-dlp/yt-dlp

... but when I try and update from the backport:

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apt install -t bookworm-backports yt-dlp
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
yt-dlp is already the newest version (2023.11.16-1~bpo12+1).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 96 not upgraded.

... it says I'm already on the latest/stable version (2023.11.16). And when I look at Debian packages it shows 2023.12.30 as being in sid/unstable.

Guess I just need help understanding what all that means.

Is the version I installed from bookworm (2023.11.16) the latest stable version (according to Debian) and even though YT-DLP itself thinks 2023.12.30 is stable, it's still in sid and the Debian folks haven't given their blessing for it to be considered stable yet?

TLDR: Can I get yt-dlp v2023.12.30 outside of using sid? Or if I want that version, I have to use the sid backport and deal with potential problems?

[sunrat]

What I do is download the (currently) 2.71 MB yt-dlp file from https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases . It's just a simple Python script.
Extract it and put it in ~/bin which will be used in preference to the version installed with apt. You can uninstall the apt version (although you will lose the man page, doesn't hurt to keep it).

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$ yt-dlp --version
2023.12.30

To update it to a newer version:

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yt-dlp -U

It is always ahead of the stable or backports version, and often a few days ahead of the Sid version.

[fbodymechanic]

youtubedl-gui is available as a flatpak which is likely newer than the deb package. . . ( I didn't verify, but on things I want more up to date, I regularly use flatpak for them - IE firefox for instance.)

[sunrat]

youtubedl-gui is available as a flatpak which is likely newer than the deb package. . . ( I didn't verify, but on things I want more up to date, I regularly use flatpak for them - IE firefox for instance.)

If you already have flatpak that may be an option. Bit of overkill to install the whole flatpak runtime when it is just a 2.3MB file you want to run. Flatpak is a second-last alternative and I avoid it and have never needed it in Debian. Absolute last option is snap which is akin to a virus IMO.

[fbodymechanic]

youtubedl-gui is available as a flatpak which is likely newer than the deb package. . . ( I didn't verify, but on things I want more up to date, I regularly use flatpak for them - IE firefox for instance.)

If you already have flatpak that may be an option. Bit of overkill to install the whole flatpak runtime when it is just a 2.3MB file you want to run. Flatpak is a second-last alternative and I avoid it and have never needed it in Debian. Absolute last option is snap which is akin to a virus IMO.

Most of my software is flatpak. My laptop currently is solid Debian base, more up to date on the packages that matter.I miss the AUR more than anything though and the number one reason Arch is still my forever home. My desktop has been Fedora for quite a while now. I'd rather set my computer on fire and throw it into traffic than to ever put snaps on it though. No question. It's malware of the highest degree. Ubuntusoft needs to go away.

[sunrat]

yt-dlp showed error messages today but still did the download. It's a known issue on the Github issues section and been fixed in the nightly version.
If you are impatient for it to upgrade in main and you have a manually installed version you can:

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yt-dlp --update-to nightly

[barlafuss]

good to know, thanks !