How to find location of downloaded files on Heroku

Question

I am using YouTube-dl with Python and Flask to download youtube videos and return them using the send_file function.

When running locally I have been using to get the file path:

username = getpass.getuser()
directories = os.listdir(rf'C:\\Users\\{username}')

I then download the video with YouTube-dl:

youtube_dl.YoutubeDL().download([link])

I then search the directory for the file based on the video code:

files = [file for file in directories]
code = link.split('v=')[1]
for file in files:
    if file.endswith('.mp4') is True:
        try:
            code_section = file.split('-')[1].split('.mp4')[0]
            if code in code_section:
                return send_file(rf'C:\\Users\\{username}\\{file}')
        except:
            continue

Finally, I return the file:

return send_file(rf'C:\\Users\\{username}\\{file}')

to find the location of the downloaded file, but, on Heroku, this doesn't work - simply the directory doesn't exist. How would I find where the file is downloaded? Is there a function I can call? Or is there a set path it would go to?

Or alternatively, is there a way to set the download location with YouTube-dl?

Answer 1

Since heroku is running Linux and not windows, you could attempt to download your files to your current working directory and then just send it from there.

The main tweak would be setting up some options in your YoutubeDL app:

import os

opts = {
  "outtmpl": f"{os.getcwd()}/(title)s.(ext)s"
}

youtube_dl.YoutubeDL(opts).download([link])

That will download the file to your current working directory. Then you can just upload it from your working directory using return send_file(file).