[reddit][error] DirectoryFormatError: Applying directory format string failed (ValueError: Single '{' encountered in format string)

[Miroslav-Cetojevic]

So I'm trying to download posts from a subreddit and have the following conf settings:

"extractor": {
    "reddit": {
      "refresh-token": "random string",
      
      "directory": [],
      "filename": "{id}-{num:>02}.{extension}",
      
      "videos": false
    }
}

On the command line I'm overriding the directory setting:

gallery-dl -o directory=["Homebrew {subreddit}","{title}"] https://www.reddit.com/r/SomeSubreddit/ -d "D:\path\to\dest"

As a result, I get this error

[reddit][error] DirectoryFormatError: Applying directory format string failed (ValueError: Single '{' encountered in format string)

How do I fix this?

[Hrxn]

This only happens with this "directory" setting when used from the command line? Could be the shell with Quoting/Escaping..
What happens if you set the equivalent directory option in your configuration file?

[Miroslav-Cetojevic]

Because I want the postprocessor be the default setting, the directory is what I want to customize.

[Hrxn]

Are you using CMD or PowerShell?

[Miroslav-Cetojevic]

CMD

[mikf]

Then that won't be easy. With PowerShell or anything other than CMD that supports single quotes, you could do -o 'directory=["Homebrew {subreddit}","{title}"]' to escape the double quotes and other special characters.

In CMD you have to use double quotes around the whole thing and backslash-escape all double quotes inside, at least that works for me: -o "directory=[\"Homebrew {subreddit}\",\"{title}\"]"

edit: here's a related issue: #1566

[Miroslav-Cetojevic]

This works, thanks.