Provided by: linklint_2.3.5-5.2_all bug

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.