Man Linux: Main Page and Category List

NAME

       Linklint - fast link checker and website maintenance tool

SYNOPSIS

       linklint [-cache directory] [-case] [-checksum] [-concise_url]
       [-db1..9] [-delay d] [-doc] [-docbase base] [-dont_output xxxx]
       [-error] [-flush] [-forward] [-help] [-help_all] [-host hostname:port]
       [-host hostname] [-htmlonly] [-http] [-http_header name:value] [-ignore
       ignoreset] [-index file] [-language zz] [-limit n] [-list] [-local
       linkset] [-map /a=[/b]] [-net] [-netmod] [-netset] [-no_anchors]
       [-no_query_string] [-no_warn_index] [-orphan] [-out file]
       [-output_frames] [-output_index filename] [-password realm
       user:password] [-proxy hostname[:port]] [-quiet] [-redirect] [-retry]
       [-silent] [-skip skipset] [-textonly] [-timeout t] [-url_doc_prefix
       url/] [-version] [-warn] [-xref] linkset

VERSION

       2.3.5 August 13, 2001

DESCRIPTION

       This manual page documents briefly the Linklint program, which is an
       Open Source Perl program that checks local and remote HTML links.

       This manual page was written for the Debian distribution because the
       original program does not have a manual page.  Instead, it has
       documentation in the HTML format; see below.

OPTIONS

       Input File Selection

       Whether you are doing a local site check or an HTTP site check, you
       specify which directories (presumably containing HTML files) to check
       with one or more linksets. A linkset uses two wildcard characters @ and
       #.  Each linkset specifies one or more directories much like the
       standard * and ? wildcard characters are used to specify the characters
       in the * names of files in one directory.

       The @ character matches any string of characters (this kind of acts
       like "*"), and the # character (which is kind of like "?") matches any
       string of characters except "/" . The best way to understand how @ and
       # work is to look at a few examples:

                                 the entire site /@
                     the homepage only (default) /
                files in the root directory only /#
                    . . . and one directory down /#/#
                 files in the sub directory only /sub/#
            files in the sub directory and below /sub/@
                                  specific files /file1 /file2 ...
                         specific subdirectories /sub1/@ /sub2/@ ...

       If you specify more than one linkset, files matching any of the
       linksets will be checked. HTML files that don’t match any of the
       linksets will be skipped. Linklint will see if they exist but won’t
       check any of their links.

       Other File Selection Options

       -skip skipset
           Skips HTML files that match skipset.  "Linklint" will make sure
           these files exist but won’t add any of their links to the list of
           files to check.  Multiple skipsets are allowed, but each must be
           preceded with -skip on the command line. Skipsets use the same
           wildcard characters as linksets.

       -ignore ignoreset
           Ignores files matching ignoreset.  "Linklint" doesn’t even check to
           see if these files exist.  Multiple ignoresets are allowed, but
           each must be preceded with -ignore on the command line.  Ignoresets
           use the same wildcard characters as linksets.

       -limit n
           Limits checking to n HTML files (default 500).  All HTML files
           after the first n are skipped.

       Local Site Checking

       If you are developing HTML pages on a computer that does not have an
       http server, or if you are developing a simple site that does not use
       Server Redirection or extensive CGI, you should use local site
       checking.

            linklint /@

       Checks all HTML files in the current directory and below. Assumes that
       the current directory is the server root directory so links starting
       with "/" default to this directory. You must specify /@ to check the
       entire site. See Which Files to Check for details.

            linklint -root dir /@

       Checks all HTML files in dir and below. This is useful if you want to
       check several sites on the same machine or if you don’t want to run
       Linklint in your public HTML directory.

       Other Local Site Options

       -host hostname
           By default "Linklint" assumes all links on your site that start
           with "http://" are remote links to other sites.  If you have
           absolute links to your own site, give "Linklint" your hostname and
           links starting with "http://hostname" will be treated as local
           files.  If you specify -host hostname:port, only http links to this
           hostname and port will be treated as local files.

       -case
           Makes sure that the filename (upper/lower) case used links inside
           of html tags matches the case used by the file system.  This is for
           Windows only and is very handy if you are porting a site to a Unix
           host.

       -orphan
           Checks all directories that contain files used on the site for
           unused (orphan) files.

       -index file
           Uses file as the default index file instead of the default list
           used by "Linklint". You can specify more than one file but each one
           must be preceded by -index on the command line.  If a default index
           file is not found, "Linklint" uses a listing of the entire
           directory. See the Default File section for details.

       -map /a=[/b]
           Substitutes leading /a with /b.  For server-side image maps or to
           simulate Server Redirection.

       -no_warn_index
           Turns of the "index file not found" warning.  Applies to local site
           checking only.

       -no_anchors
           Tells "Linklint" to ignore named anchors.  This could ease memory
           problems for people with large sites who are primarily interested
           in missing pages and not missing named anchors.  This option works
           for both HTTP and local site checks.

       HTTP Site Checking

       If you have a complicated site that uses lots of CGI or Server
       Redirection, you should use HTTP site checking. Even though an HTTP
       site check reads pages via your HTTP server, you will get the best
       performance if you do your checking on a machine that has a high speed
       connection to your server.

            linklint -http -host www.site.com /@

       The -http flag tells "Linklint" to check HTML files on the site
       www.site.com via a remote http connection. You must specify a -host
       whenever you do an HTTP site check (otherwise Linklint won’t where to
       get your pages). You can specify /@ to check the entire site.  See
       Which Files to Check for details.

       HTTP Site Check Options

       -http
           This flag tells Linklint to perform an HTTP site check instead of a
           local site check.  All files (except server side image maps) will
           be read via the HTTP protocol from your web server.

       -host hostname:port
           If you include :port at the end of your hostname, Linklint uses
           this port for the HTTP site check.

       -password realm user:password
           Uses user and password as authorization to enter password protected
           realm. Realms are named areas of a site that share a common set of
           usernames and passwords.  If passwords are needed to check your
           site, Linklint will tell you which realms need passwords in warning
           messages.  Enclose the realm in double quotes if it contains
           spaces.  If no password is given for a specific realm, Linklint
           will try using the password for the ""DEFAULT"" realm if it was
           provided.

       -timeout t
           Times out after t seconds (default 15) when getting files via http.
           Once data is received, an additional t seconds is allowed.  The
           timeout is disabled on Windows machines since the Windows port of
           Perl does not support the "alarm()" function.

       -delay d
           Delays d seconds between requests to the same host (default 0).
           This is a friendly thing to do especially if you are checking many
           links on the same host.

       -local linkset
           Gets files that match linkset locally.  The default -local linkset
           is @.map (which matches any link ending in .map).  This allows
           Linklint to follow links through server-side image maps.  The
           default is ignored if you specify your own -local expressions.  You
           need to specify the -root directory for this option to work
           propery.

       -map /a=[/b]
           Substitutes leading /a with /b.  For server-side image maps or to
           simulate Server Redirection.

       -no_anchors
           Tells "Linklint" to ignore named anchors.

       -no_query_string
           Up until version 2.3.4, Linklint did not use query strings while
           doing HTTP site checks.  Query strings were removed before making
           HTTP requests.  As of 2.3.4 query strings in links are used in the
           requests.  Use the -no_query_string flag to get back the "old"
           behavior.

       -http_header Name:value
           Adds the HTTP header Name: value to all HTTP requests generated by
           Linklint.  You will need to use quotation marks to hide spaces in
           the header line from the command line interpreter. Linklint will
           automatically add a space after the first colon if there is not one
           there already.  Multiple (unique) header lines are allowed.

       -language zz
           This option is only useful if you are checking a site that uses
           content negotiation to present the same URL in different languages.

           Creates an HTTP Request header of the form Accept-Language: zz that
           is included as part of all HTTP requests generated by Linklint.
           Multiple -language specifications are allowed.  This will result in
           a single Accept-Language: header that lists all of the languages
           you have specified in alphabetical order.  Some web sites can use
           this information to return pages to you in a specific language.

           If you need to get more complicated than this, use the more general
           purpose -http_header to create your own header.  There is a partial
           list of language abbreviations (taken from Debian) included as part
           of the Linklint documentation.

       Remote URL Checking

       A remote URL check is used to see if a remote URL exists (or has been
       recently modified). Links in the remote pages are not checked nor does
       Linklint look for named anchors in remote URLs.

       Remote URL checking can be used to check all of the "remote" links on
       your site (those that link to pages on other sites) or it can check a
       list of URLs. There are several ways to specify which remote URLs to
       check:

            linklint http://somehost/file.html

       Checks to see if /file.html exists on somehost. Multiple URLs can be
       entered on the command line, in an @commandfile, or in an @@httpfile.
       Every URL to be checked must begin with "http://". This will disable
       site checking.

            linklint @@httpfile

       Checks all the remote http URLs found in httpfile. Anything in the file
       starting with "http://" is considered to be a URL. If the file looks
       like a remoteX.txt file generated by Linklint then all failed URLs will
       be cross referenced.

            linklint @@ -doc linkdoc

       Assuming you have already done a site check and used -doc linkdoc to
       put all of your output files in the linkdoc directory, Linklint will
       check all the remote links that were found on your site and cross
       reference all failed URLs without doing a site check. You can use the
       -netmod or -netset flags to enable the status-cache.

            linklint -net [site check options]

       The -net flag tells Linklint to check all remote links after doing
       either a local or HTTP site check site. If you are having memory
       problems, don’t use the -net option, instead use one of the @@ options
       above.

       Other Remote URL Options

       -timeout t
           Times out after t seconds (default 15) when getting files via http.
           Once data is received, an additional t seconds is allowed.  The
           timeout is disabled on Windows machines since the Windows port of
           Perl does not support the "alarm()" function.

       -delay d
           Delays d seconds between requests to the same host (default 0).
           This is a friendly thing to do especially if you are checking many
           links on the same host.

       -redirect
           Checks for <meta> redirects in the headers of remote  URLs that are
           html files.  If a redirect is found it is followed.  This feature
           is disabled if the status cache is used.

       -proxy hostname[:port]
           Sends all remote HTTP requests through the proxy server hostname
           and the optional port.  This allows you to check remote URLs or
           (new with version 2.3.1) your entire site from within a firewall
           that has an http proxy server.  Some error messages (relating to
           host errors) may not be available through a proxy server.

       -concise_url
           Turns off printing successful URLs to STDOUT during remote link
           checking.

       Status Cache Options

       The Status Cache is a very powerful feature. It allows you to keep
       track of recent changes in all of the remote (off-site) pages you link
       to. You can then use the Linklint output files to quickly check changed
       pages to see if they still meet your needs.

       The flags below make use of the status cache file linklint.url (kept in
       your HOME or LINKLINT directory). This file keeps track of the
       modification dates of all the remote URLs that you check.

       -netmod
           Operates just like -net but makes use of the status cache.  Newly
           checked URLs will be entered in the cache.  Linklint will tell you
           which (previously cached) URLs have been modified since the last
           -netset.

       -netset
           Like -netmod but also resets the last modified status in the cache
           for all URLs that checked ok.  If you always use -netset, modified
           URLs will be reported just once.

       -retry
           Only checks URLs that have a host fail status in the cache.
           Sometimes a URL fails because its host is temporarily down.  This
           flag enables you to recheck just those links.  An easy way to
           recheck all the cached URLs with host failures is "linklint @@
           -retry".  Use "linklint @@linkdoc/remoteX.txt -retry" if you want
           failed URLs to be cross referenced.

       -flush
           Removes all URLs from the cache that are not currently being
           checked.  The -retry flag has no effect on which URLs are flushed.

       -checksum
           Ensures that every URL that has been modified is reported as such.
           This flag can make the remote checking take longer.  Many of the
           pages that require a checksum are dynamically generated and will
           always be reported as modified.

       -cache directory
           Reads and writes the linklint.url cache file in this directory.
           The default directory is set by your LINKLINT or HOME environment
           variables.

       Output Options

       No output files are generated by default, only progress and a brief
       summary of the results are printed to the screen. You can produce
       complete documentation (split up into separate files) in a -doc
       directory or put selected output in a single -out file or by
       redirecting the standard output to a file. See the Output File
       Specification section for a detailed description of all output files.

       Multi File Output

       -doc linkdoc
           Sends all output to the linkdoc directory.  The output is divided
           into separate .txt and .html files.  Complete documentation is
           always produced regardless of the single file flags.

           The file index.txt contains an index to all the other files;
           index.html is an HTML version of the index.  The index files for
           remote URL checking are ur_lindex.txt and url_index.html.

       -textonly
           Prevents any HTML files from being created in the -doc directory.

       -htmlonly
           Erases redundant text files in the -doc directory after they have
           been used to create the HTML output files.  The files remote.txt
           and remoteX.txt are not erased since they can be used by Linklint
           to recheck remote URLs.

       -docbase base
           Overrides the default base expression used for directing a browser
           to the resources listed in the output HTML files.  The base is
           prepended to local links in the output HTML files.  This only
           affects the links in HTML output files, it has no effect on what is
           displayed in these files.  Ordinarily this flag would only be used
           during a local site check to set the base to "http://host".

       -output_frames
           All HTML output data files are linked to from index.html.  If you
           use this flag then the the data files will be opened up in a new
           frame (window) which can be handy in some cases since it always
           leaves the index.html file open in its own window.

       -output_index filename
           The output index files were previously named linklint.txt and
           linklint.html.  These have now been changed to index.txt and
           index.html.  You can use the -output_index option to change this
           name back to "linklint" or to something else.

       -url_doc_prefix url/
           By default, the output files associate with remote URL checking all
           start with "url".  You can change this with the -url_doc_prefix
           option.  If the url_doc_prefix contains a "/" character then the
           appropriate directory will be created (as a subdirectory of the
           -doc directory).

       -dont_output xxxx
           Don’t create output files that contain "xxxx".  Can be repeated.
           Example:

                   -dont_output "X$"

           will supress the output of all cross reference files.

       Single File Output

       -error
           Lists missing files and other errors.

       -out file
           Sends list output and summary information to file.

       -list
           Lists all found files, links, directories etc.

       -warn
           Lists all warnings.

       -xref
           Adds cross references to the lists.

       -forward
           Sorts lists by referring file.

       Debug and other Flags

       -db1
           Debugs command line input and linkset expressions.

       -db2
           Prints the name of every file that gets checked (not just HTML
           files).

       -db3
           Debugs HTML parser, prints out tags and resulting links.

       -db4
           Debugs socket connection (kind of).

       -db5
           Not used.

       -db6
           Details last-modified status for remote URLs (requires -netset or
           -netmod).

       -db7
           Prints brief debug information while checking remote URLs.

       -db8
           Prints all http headers while checking remote URLs.

       -db9
           Generates random http errors.

       -version
           Gives version information.

       -help
           Lists a few simple examples of how to use Linklint.

       -help_all
           Lists all help (contained in program) including every input option.

       -quiet
           Disables printing progress to the screen.

       -silent
           Disables printing summarys to the screen.

AUTHOR

       Linklint is written by James B. Bowlin <jbowlin@linklint.org>.  This
       manual page was written by Denis Barbier <barbier@debian.org> for the
       Debian system (but may be used by others) by cut’n’paste from original
       documentation written in HTML.