CheckLink Manual

By Daniel Hellerstein (19 May 2001)

CheckLink ver 1.13b: Create, display, traverse, and index a web-tree

Abstract
CheckLink is a multi-threaded, socket aware utility used to create, verify, traverse, and index a web-tree; where "web-tree" is defined as all URLs (in-line images, anchors, etc.) that are referenced in a chosen HTML document, and in documents reachable from this document. CheckLink can be run as an SRE-http addon, or from an OS/2 command prompt.

I. Introduction
CheckLink is a robot that is used to create, verify, traverse and index a web-tree. In other words, CheckLink will find and variously display all the URLs (such as anchors and in-line images) that appear in a set of HTML documents. In particular, CheckLink will:

... given a "Starter-URL" provided by a client:

a) use TCP/IP socket calls to obtain the contents of the html document (that this "Starter-URL" points to)

Alternatively, in standalone mode you can use the FILE:///filename.ext syntax to read & process a file on your hard disk.

b) find URLs referred to by this document (i.e., <A Href=.. elements contained within the document)

c) verify the "existence" of all of these URLs

d) recursively check each URL that maps to an html document

The recursive part simply means "go back to step a" for each and every "on-site" text/html document pointed to by a URL in this "Starter-URL" (etc.).

The net effect is that a "web-tree" is mapped, with the base of the web-tree being the "Starter-URL" selected by the client, and with each element of the web-tree being a unique URL. Typically, the bulk of these URLs lie on a single site; though off-site URLs can be checked to see if the resources they point to are still available (off-site URLs will NOT be "recursively examined").

CheckLink will maintain information on all links "contained in", or that "point to", the resources represented by the URLs that comprise the web-tree. With this information in hand, CheckLink makes it easy to traverse a web-tree, such traversal being a handy way to ascertain the devious ways the web-site (or the portion of the web-site spanned by the web-tree) is interconnected.

Along with the "web tree creation" component of CheckLink, the CheckLink package also includes several utilities that allow you to index, report on connections, and traverse the links in a web-tree.

CheckLink is best run as an "addon" for the SRE-http web server (http://www.srehttp.org/). However, when run as an addon, you can select any "Starter-URL" desired - it need NOT be on the site hosting CheckLink.

For those lacking SRE-http, you can run several of the CheckLink components as standalone programs (running from an OS/2 prompt). You can also run one of the components (CHEKLNK2, used for web tree traversal), as a CGI-BIN script.

Lastly, CheckLink is multi-threaded, and uses non-blocking sockets. In addition to adding speed to web-traversals, the multi-threaded nature protects CheckLink against recalcitrant servers; servers that might stop or otherwise hang-up a single threaded link checker.

By the way. CheckLink is freeware. Please read the disclaimer for the usual details.

1.a. Quick Start
Of course you SHOULD READ THE ENTIRE MANUAL, but here's the quick start. This will give you the basics of CheckLink - illustrating the use of the ChekLINK, ChekRPT, and ChekFIX programs. Do note that each of these programs has on-line help -- use it when you are ready to deviate from the defaults!

a) Make a directory on your hard drive.

b) Unzip the CHEKLINK .ZIP file to this directory.

Do you have a site whose links you want to check. Let's say you choose the site "starting at" http://www.foo.bar.net/index.html

c) Run CHEKLINK.CMD, and use http://www.foo.bar.net/index.html as the "starter-URL".

For the other options, you can use the defaults,though you might want to pick your own names for the output and link files.

d) Sit back and watch. If you get bored, hit ESC to stop, or E to end (ESC is a cold stop, END will stop further link checking and report on what it has found).

Note that the speed of ChekLink is pretty much determined by the speed of your web connection, and the speed of the server(s) you are communicating with. An average processing time of 1 link per second is not unusual.

e) ChekLINK will fire up NetScape and show you a list of the various URLs it has found, with some information on the links between these URLs.

For more details, you an now run ChekRPT

f) Run CHEKRPT.CMD, and give it the link file you selected in step c. If you chose the default "link file" in step c, then choose the default when selecting the "link" file in ChekRPT.

g) Choose what you want to see. The defaults give you the basic info on link structure. If you want more, choose
 * Show Which URLS: Everything,
 * Display list of "links in this URL": Long
 * Display short list of "URLS that link to this URL": Yes

Caution: if you choose these "want to see more" options, the resulting output can be quite large.

h) ChekRPT finishes quickly, and will fire up NetScape - but if your report is long, if might take a minute or more to display.

Alternatively, instead of checking a URL on the web, you can check a file on your hard drive. The steps are the same, except when you run ChekLINK (step c), you should enter a file name using the syntax: FILE:///x:\dir\name.ext ChekLINK will examine this file, and attempt to read URLS both on the net (urls that start with http://) and on your hard drive (relative urls, or URLS that explicitly start with FILE:///).

If you do use a FILE as your starter-URL, you can then use the ChekFIX program to "note the busted links" (note that the use of ChekFIX is not a function of ChekRPT -- you can use them independently).

i) Run CHEKFIX.CMD, and give it the "link" file produced by ChekLINK (the default in ChekFIX is the same as the default in ChekLINK).

j) Choose the reporting options

k) When ChekFIX is done (it's quite fast), you can examine the files that were changed, and use the information placed there by ChekFIX to help you decide what links to remove and/or modify.

CheckLink has two other utilities that can only be run as web server "scripts".

ChexLNK2 allows you to traverse a web tree -- it makes it easy to see the links between the various URLS comprising the web tree.

ChekINDX helps make a "site index".

For those who are running the SRE-http web server:
 * you can use CHEKLINK.CMD, CHEKINDX.CMD and CHEKLNK2.CMD as "addons".

For users of other OS/2 web servers:
 * you can use CHEKINDX.CMD and CHEKLNK2.CMD as CGI-BIN scripts.

Then, instead of running CHEKLINK.CMD as a standalone program, you can use CHEKLINK.HTM as a convenient front-end. For the details see the installation section below!

1.b. Web Tree? Does that make sense?
Perhaps the use of the term "web-tree" is misleading - it's more of a web-network, web-graph, or (dare we say it?) a web-web. The point is that a tree implies a bottom-to-top branching structure, with a clearly defined set of precedences. In contrast, a web site is defined by a network of nodes, with each node connecting to a wide variety of other nodes. Although most web-sites do have some sort of hierarchy (i.e., there is usually one or several "home pages"), this is usually loosely defined, with lots of cross-cutting links.

Nevertheless, for reasons of brevity we will use the term "web-tree" in this documentation to refer to "the network of resources, as referred to by URLs, that may be reached from a single starting point". Although this single-starting point (the "Starter-URL") is really just a point of entry, one usually chooses a "Starter-URL" that is somehow more fundamental - say, a home page. Hence, this "Starter-URL" is referred to as the "base of the web-tree".

II. Installation
CheckLink consist of several separate program files, one sample HTML FORM, a sample input file, and this documentation file.

The files are: CHEKLINK.CMD - creates the web-tree, and displays basic information on the web tree CHECK1.SRF  - A "procedure file" used by CHEKLINK.CMD CHEKLNK2.CMD - examine and traverse a web-tree CHEKINDX.CMD - create a hierarchical index of a web-tree. CHEKRPT.CMD - standalone program to create reports using link files CHEKLINK.HTM - an HTML document with several forms for invoking the above programs. CHEKLINK.SMP - A sample CheckLink input file (used when CheckLink is run in standalone mode). CHEKRPT.SMP - A sample CheckLink Report Utility (CHEKRPT.CMD) options CHEKLINK.TXT - This file!

II.a : Installing as an SRE-http addon.
i) UNZIP CHEKLINK.ZIP to an empty temporary directory.

ii) Copy CHEKLINK.CMD, CHECK1.SRF, CHEKLNK2.CMD, CHEKRPT.CMD, and CHEKINDX.CMD to your SRE-http "ADDON" directory (i.e., D:\GOSERVE\ADDON)

iii) Copy CHEKLINK.HTM to your GoServe data directory, or some other WWW accessible location (i.e., D:\WWW)

iv) Optional:
 * a) create a CHEKLINK directory under your SRE-http directory
 * b) set the CHEKLINK_DIR parameter (in both CHEKLINK.CMD and in CHEKLNK2.CMD) to point to this directory.
 * c) Copy CHEKLINK.CMD and CHEKRPT.CMD to this directory (these two programs can be run in standalone mode).

The easiest way to use CheckLink is by pointing your browser at /CHEKLINK.HTM. CheckLink works with all browsers that understand tables, but the results look best with browsers that understand either multi-part documents or client pull (such as Netscape 2.01 and above).

II.b: Using CheckLink as a standalone program
If you are not an SRE-http user, you can run CheckLink as a standalone program - just copy all the files to an appropriate directory (say, D:\INTERNET\CHEKLINK). You may also want to set some of the user changeable parameters in each of the .CMD (in particular, the CHEKLINK_DIR parameter in CHEKLINK.CMD).

When you are ready to run CheckLink, just CD to this directory, run CHEKLINK from an OS/2 command prompt, and follow the directions. There is some on-line help, and you are given an opportunity to view the CHEKLINK.TXT documentation.

For example: D:>cd \internet\cheklink D:\INTERNET\CHEKLINK>cheklink When run in standalone mode, the i/o interface is somewhat primitive (no mouse, no graphics), and the final output is HTML code - it is meant to be viewed with a browser. Otherwise, the results are the same as when run as an SRE-http addon (it might even be a touch faster).

IMPORTANT NOTE: To use CheckLink as a standalone program, you MUST have REXXLIB.DLL. REXXLIB was a commercial package, which now seems to be in the public domain now. Regardless, you can obtain a legal-to-use-with-CheckLink version of REXXLIB.DLL from: http://www.srehttp.org/apps/cheklink/chekdll.zip

If you are running an OS/2 web server that understands CGI-BIN (most of them do), then you should copy the CHEKLNK2.CMD and CHEKINDX.CMD files to your CGI-BIN scripts directory. The output from CHEKLINK can be instructed to include appropriate calls to CHEKLNK2. In addition, you can use the CHEKLINK.HTM "front end" to invoke both of these utilities.

Thus, to use CheckLink in a non-SRE-http environment, you will

a) Run CHEKLINK.CMD, from an OS/2 command prompt, to generate the index of a web-tree, and to produce several tables of results.

BE SURE TO SAY Yes when asked: "Use CGI-BIN to specify CHEKLNK2 (web traversal) links?"

b) Invoke CHEKLNK2.CMD and CHEKINDX.CMD as CGI-BIN scripts

One way to do this is to ...

Invoke CHEKLNK2.CMD or CHEKINDX.CMD from CHEKLINK.HTM - you'll need to make a few simple modifications to CHEKLINK.HTM (see CHEKLINK.HTM for the details)

Alternatively, you can run CHEKRPT.CMD as standalone programs. CHEKRPT is not quite as powerful as CHEKLNK2, but it does have a number of nice report writing features, and the HTML documents it produces give you a limited amount of "web tree traversal" opportunities.

III. CheckLink parameters.
Regardless of how you run CheckLink, you may wish to first adjust several performance-tuning and display-customization parameters. Most of these appear at the top of the CHEKLINK.CMD, and there are a few in CHEKLNK2.CMD, CHEKRPT.CMD, and CHEKINDX.CMD - you should modify these files with your favorite text editor.

Note that to use any of the CheckLink programs you do NOT need to set these parameters - the default values work reasonably well.

However, if you intend to make more then occasional use of CheckLink, we recommend setting the LINKFILE_DIR parameter in CHEKLINK.CMD, CHEKLNK2.CMD, CHEKRPT.CMD, and CHEKINDX.CMD.

III.a. A Note on How CHEKLINK displays results
Before further discussion, a note on how CHEKLINK (the web-tree creator) displays results (when run as an SRE-http addon) is germane:

CHEKLINK can return results either in one long document, as a "two part" document, or in two separate documents.

In a "two part" document: In a "long document" these parts are concatenated -- the final output contains both "status" and "results" information (and will be a bit more cluttered as a result)
 * The first part contains status information, and is sent to the client in pieces.
 * The second part contains the results tables.

Since CHEKLINK can take several minutes to process a thousand or so links, the production of "status" information is crucial. In fact, this status information is "sent in pieces" - with some sort of output being sent to the client every few seconds. Not only does this help keep the client from giving up, it also prevents "server inactive" timeouts.

In fact, it's this "may take several minutes to finish" aspect of CHEKLINK that makes it very difficult to distribute a pure CGI-BIN version of CHEKLINK - most CGI-BIN implementations do NOT allow for "sending results as they become available", and one can not count on lengthy (i.e., more then a few minutes) inactive-timeouts.

Although two-part documents are the more elegant solution, with certain browsers some very annoying "over refresh" behavior occurs (i.e., every time you "back up" to the results, CHEKLINK is reinvoked).

As a work around, the "two document" strategy can be used, which will result in almost the same display as a two-part document (client pull is used to automatically replace the "status" document with the "results" document). The drawback is the requirement for semi-permanent storage of the results file on your server's disk - you may need to monitor disk space if you allow CHEKLINK to be extensively used in two-document mode.

III.b. CHEKLINK, CHEKLNK2, and CHEKINDX parameters
BACK_1 :  modifiers. BACK_2 BACK_1 and BACK_2 are used to set a BGCOLOR (or BACKGROUND) for the "two parts" of CheckLink's output. Note that if you are using CheckLink in single-part mode (i.e., if you are using an older web browser, or if you set the MULTI_USE option to 0) BACK_2 is ignored.

Examples: BACK_1='bgcolor="#668a78"' BACK_2='bgcolor="#8888dd" background="CL.GIF'

Note: BACK_1 (BACK_2) is ignored if INTRO_1A (INTRO_1B) is set to a non-null value.

CHEKLINK_HTM : URL pointing to CHEKLINK.HTM

CHEKLINK_HTM should contain a URL (usually, a relative URL) that points to the CHEKLINK.HTM file shipped with CheckLink. This variable is used to add a "generate another web-tree" option to the output file. Thus, neglecting to properly set CHEKLINK_HTM will have minimal deleterious effects.

Example: CHEKLINK_HTM = '/CHEKLINK.HTM'

CHECK_ROBOT : Suppress checking ROBOTS.TXT. If CHECK_ROBOT=1, then check the "Starter-URL" site for a /robots.txt file, and use it to control extent of search.

Proper net'iquette dictates that when checking a stranger's site, make sure you have set CHECK_ROBOT=1.

Note: the contents of a ROBOTS.TXT file are added to the special "site-specific" EXCLUSION_LIST -- it only effects URLs on the "Starter-URL" site.

Example: CHECK_ROBOT=1

DOUBLE_CHECK:

Since servers can be momentarily busy, it's often wise to "double check" busy servers.

DOUBLE_CHECK=0 : do NOT double check DOUBLE_CHECK=1  : double check "inaccessible servers" DOUBLE_CHECK=2  : double check "inaccessible servers" AND "missing resources"

Double checking will occur after all links have been examined (thus   giving the "not available" server a chance to become available.   Lastly, GET queries are used (instead of HEAD queries).

However, HTML documents retrieved via a double check will NOT be "recursively   processed, even if they should have been (even if they had not required   this double check).

GET_QUERY: As part of mapping a web-tree, CheckLink will query servers for basic information on URLs. These queries are best done with HEAD requests.

Unfortunately, there are a number of older servers that do not properly respond to HEAD requests. If you find that CheckLink is identifying many URLs as unavailable (even though your browser  can get to them readily), it may be due to their host server's failure to recognize these HEAD requests.

As a work around, you can use short GET requests instead of  HEAD requests. This method is engaged by setting GET_QUERY=1.

Example: GET_QUERY=0

Note: This GET_QUERY=1 method is not highly recommended -- it's slower, and somewhat "ruder" (connections are purposely broken, which        tends to add garbage to the visited server's log file). Instead, we recommend setting DOUBLE_CHECK=1

LINKFILE_DIR: directory to store "linkage" files in.

Linkage files contain "link" information on all the URLs discovered during CheckLink's recursive mapping of a "web tree". In particular, the LINKFILE option (see section IV) specifies a filename, which will then be stored in the LINKFILE_DIR.

By default, LINKFILE_DIR will be your OS/2 TEMP drive.

Example: LINKFILE_DIR='D:\GOSERVE\CHKLNKS'

Note: in addition to storing LINKFILEs, the LINKFILE_DIR is also used to store "RESULTS" files.

MAXATONCE: maximum number of "query" threads

Specifies the maximum number of threads to use when checking for the existence (and mimetype) of a link (using HEAD requests). Increasing this number may speed up throughput, but it may subject the target server(s) to excessive loads. Example: MAXATONCE=6

MAXATONCE_GET: maximum number of "read" threads.

Specifies the maximum number of threads to use when retrieving the contents of a URL (using GET requests). Increasing this number may speed up throughput, but it may subject the target server(s) to excessive loads.

Example: MAXATONCE_GET=2

MAXAGE: Kill a query if it's old

Specifies number of seconds to wait on a query (a HEAD request). You may need to increase this time span if sites are far away or otherwise slow. However, increasing MAXAGE will increase the time that CheckLink waits on "hung" sites.

Example: MAXAGE=30

MAXAGE2: Kill a read if it's old

Specifies number of seconds to wait on a read (a GET request). You may need to increase this time span if sites are far away or otherwise slow. However, increasing MAXAGE will increase the time that CheckLink waits on "hung" sites.

Example: MAXAGE2=60

PROXY_SERVER: Specify a proxy server to route request through

The proxy server to send http requests through. Use an IP name or numeric address, with optional port. If you are NOT using a proxy server, set this to 0 Examples: PROXY_SERVER='voxy.mycompany.com:8080' PROXY_SERVER=0 ROW_COLOR1  : Used to set the  in the results tables ROW_COLOR2 ROW_COLOR1A ROW_COLOR2A ROW_COLOR1 and ROW_COLOR2 set the odd and even rows (respectively) of tables used to display the results of checking IMG links.

ROW_COLOR1A and ROW_COLOR2A set the odd and even rows (respectively) of tables used to display the results of checking Anchor links.

Examples:

ROW_COLOR1='bgcolor="#bbcc66"' ROW_COLOR2='bgcolor="#aaccdd"'

ROW_COLOR1A='bgcolor="#bbaa44"' ROW_COLOR2A='bgcolor="#aaccdd"'

REMOVE_SCRIPT: Remove  blocks and JavaScript links 1 = Remove all  blocks, and all JavaScript links. 0 = Do not remove

It's safer to remove these links (since CheckLink is not very intelligent  about processing  blocks and JavaScript "URLs")

Example: REMOVE_SCRIPT=1

USER_INTRO1A : Files containing "header" information. USER_INTRO1B

Fully qualified file names containing "header" information, for each part. If ='', then a generic header is used If specified, the file MUST contain at least: ....   ...  Note: use of USER_INTRO1A (user_intro1b) means that back_1 (back_2) are NOT used. Examples: USER_INTRO1A='' USER_INTRO1B='D:\GOSERVE\CHEK1.HDR'

IV. CHEKLINK Options -- Create a Web Tree
Request options are specified when one of the CheckLink programs is requested as an SRE-http addon (or as a CGI-BIN script). The following briefly describe these options.

For further details, we recommend perusing CHEKLINK.HTM.

The only required option is URL (defaults will be used for the other options when they are not specified).

Options:

BASEONLY=0 : Read URLs relative to the root of the request BASEONLY=1 : Read URLs relative to the base of the request
 * BASEONLY:
 * Example: if URL=/dogs/foo.htm; then

BASEONLY=0 : /cats/bar.htm would be "recursively" read BASEONLY=1 : /cats/bar.htm would NOT "recursively" read

Notes:
 * root is usually the "server" of the "Starter-URL"
 * base is usually the "directory" of the "Starter-URL"
 * However, if the "Starter-URL" contains a  element, then its value is used as the base (and the root is derived from its "server")
 * see BASE_QUERY for an alternative

BASE_QUERY: Set the values of the BASEONLY and QUERYONLY parameters. Allowable values of BASE_QUERY are: 0_0 -- Neither BASE_ONLY or QUERY_ONLY are enabled (all HTML documents on-site will be recursively read) 1_0 -- BASEONLY is enabled (only read HTML documents that                are "under" the stater-URL.        1_1  -- BASEONLY and QUERYONLY are enabled (only read the starter- URL, though other links may be queried).  Notes:      * "Reading" means obtaining the contents, and parsing the contents        in order to find more links      * "Querying" means checking with the server to see if the resource is        still available.  The server will return some status information,        but will NOT return the contents of the URL.

DESCRIP: Create & save descriptions for "on-site" (and "in directory",        if BASEONLY=1) documents. DESCRIP=0  -- do not create descriptions DESCRIP=1  -- create descriptions for text/html documents DESCRIP=2  -- create descriptions for text/html and text/plain documents

DESCRIP=1 is fairly costless (it uses information that's already         been read). DESCRIP=2 requires reading additional files.

A maximum of 300 characters is retained (this can be modified        by changing the DSCMAX parameter in CHEKLINK.CMD).

EXCLUSION_LIST: Space delimited list of selectors to NOT query or read. *'s can be used as wildcards. Example:!* *?* *MAPIMAGE/* CGI-*' (this is also the default)

Note that the contents of a ROBOTS.TXT file (on the "Starter-URL's"        server) may be added to this (assuming you've enabled CHECK_ROBOT         in CHEKLINK.CMD).

LINKFILE : Name of a file to store "linkage" information.

Linkage information pertains to each and every URL in the web-tree. This information includes: * how many links this contains (if it's an HTML document) * how many other html documents in this web tree point to this URL * size and other information (i.e., a description) The LINKFILE is used to store this information. More importantly, CHEKLNK2.CMD uses the LINKFILE to "examine and traverse" the web tree.

Notes: * The LINKFILE should be a file name, without path or extension information. A default extension of .STM is used, and the file is written to the LINKFILE_DIR directory. * If you do not want to retain this information, set LINKFILE=0 * If you set LINKFILE (to a non-0 value), the output from CHEKLINK will contain links (one for each URL) to CHEKLNK2.

NAME: A descriptive name You can enter a descriptive name for this "web-tree" -- it will be        displayed at various points. If you do not specify a name, a default name will be constructed from the URL option (see below).

Example: NAME=A+Sample+web_tree (note the URL encoding of spaces as + characters)

OUTTYPE: A space delimited list of tables to produce.

The following values can be used in any combination: OK ) Display successfully found links NOSITE ) Display links to unreachable sites NOURL ) Display links missing resources> OFFSITE ) Display links to off-site URLs EXCLUDED ) Display links to excluded URLs (as specified in the EXCLUSION_LIST)    ALL ) Display all links

Examples: OUTTYPE='ALL' OUTTYPE='OK NOURL '

QUERYONLY : Only read the starter-URL (query links in the starter-URL,            but to not recursively process any of them). Set to 1 to enable. Otherwise, all accesible HTML documents will be "recursively" read and processed.

Example: QUERYONLY=1 BASEONLY=1&QUERYONLY=0 Notes: * The "accessibility" of an HTML document is s determined by whether it is are on-site, and by the value of the BASEONLY option. * See BASE_QUERY for an alternative

RESULTS : A file containing the results of a prior call to CheckLink (primarily for internal use by CheckLink). Due to inappropriate refreshing by certain browsers, CheckLink can be instructed to save it's results tables to a file (see       description of USE_MULTI). RESULTS points to one of these files -- when included, CheckLink will just return the RESULTS file.

Example: RESULTS="CHKS0001.HTM" Note that these "results" files are stored in the LINKFILE_DIR directory.

SITEONLY: SITEONLY=0 : Query (check the existence of) all URLs SITEONLY=1 : Query URLs the on "Starter-URL's "own site"

URL: URL=fully qualified, or relative, URL This is the "Starter-URL"

Example: URL="/samples/guide.htm"

USE_MULTI: USE_MULTI=0 : Return results in one long document USE_MULTI=1 : Return results in two-part document; with the second part replacing (overwriting) the first. USE_MULTI=2 : Return results in two separate documents, the second one being stored on the server's disk.

Note that if an older browser (that does not support connection:maintain) is used, then USE_MULTI is set to 2. The primary reason for USE_MULTI=2 is to work around the "over-refreshing" bugs of certain browsers.

Note that when USE_MULTI=2 is used, the RESULTS option is used internally by CHEKLINK to provide a link to the second document. This document, which will be assigned random name, will be stored on the LINKFILE_DIR directory.

Note that access to this RESULTS file is done via special calls to CHEKLINK. Typically, these files will NOT be directly accessible from the WWW.

V. CHEKLNK2 Options - Display and Traverse a Web Tree
CHEKLNK2 is used to examine and traverse a web tree. Typically, you would not code a request to CHEKLNK2 - you would use links to CHEKLNK2 in the table produced by CHEKLINK. In addition, CHEKLNK2 includes numerous links back into CHEKLNK2, links that utilize the options listed below.

That is, CHEKLNK2 is meant to be used in a fashion transparent to most users. Most CheckLink users will NOT ever use these CHEKLNK2 options. Therefore -- the following description will be rudimentary. Note that CHEKLNK2 can be called as an SRE-http addon, or as a CGI-BIN script (but not as a standalone program).

Options: Example: ENTRYNUM=12 If ENTRYNUM=0, an alphabetized index of all text/html documents (in the web-tree) will be displayed. ISIMG   -- Select between image & anchors links. Setting ISIMG=1 means to use "image" links; otherwise, use "anchor" links. Note that the combination of ENTRYNUM and ISIMG dictate which URL will be examined --
 * LINKFILE:Same definition as above -- the linkage file (relative to the LINKFILE_DIR directory) that was created by a request to CHEKLINK.
 * ENTRYNUM:pointer to an entry in the LINKFILE -- his entry corresponds to a unique URL; CHEKLNK2 will display links to and from this unique URL.

Example: ENTRYNUM=15&ISIMG=1 (examine "image link # 15") : ENTRYNUM=15&ISIMG=0 (examine "anchor link # 15")

VIA    -- Information on what location in the web-tree (which URL) was being examined prior to jumping here.

LIST    -- Enable "traverse web tree mode". LIST can take the following values:

LIST=0 (the default (used if LIST is not specified).               Display a "synopsis" of the URL. This synopsis includes                basic information (such as the size and mime type),                and a list of text/html URLs (in the web tree) that               contain links to this URL (the entrynum URL). In addition, if                this (the entrynum) URL is a text/html document, a table of all                its links (images and anchors) will be displayed.           LIST=1                  Display an (alphabetized) list of text/html links in this                  entrynum  (more precisely, by the text/html document pointed to by the ENTRYNUM URL).

LIST=2 Similar to LIST=1, but display text/html documents that point TO the "ENTRYNUM URL" (LIST=2 is the reverse                of LIST=1) LIST=3 Display an alphabetized table of ALL URLs contained in                  web-tree. ENTRYNUM is ignored. In contrast, using LIST=0 and ENTRYNUM=0 will generate a list of "on-site, text/html documents".

Example: LIST=1&ENTRYNUM=5 MIME  --   A space delimited list of mimetypes, possibly containing wildcards.

MIME is only used when LIST=3. When you specify MIME, then only URLs with a mimetype matching (one of) the elements of            the MIME value will be used. Examples: LIST=3&MIME=text/plain LIST=3&MIME=image/* LIST=3&MIME=application/pdf+application/x-pdf (note use of + as a url encoded space)

Special Note:

If you include an * in the LINKFILE value, CHEKLNK2 will produce a short list of currently available linkage files, and let you choose one to examine. The choice uses normal file matching rules. For example /CHEKLNK2?linkfile='CHK*' may yield CHK01, CHKNOW, and CHK_C.

VI. CHEKINDX - Create an Index of a Web Site
CHEKINDX is used to create a hierarchical index of your web-tree. By hierarchical index, we mean the sort of index we are all familiar with - a highly indented list, with more "subsidiary" resources on more indented lines. Basically, the notion is to use CHEKINDX to create a "web index" that you can post on your site (usually with suitable prettifications). Note that CHEKINDX can use either a TABLE or an "unordered lists" ( constructs) to display the hierarchical index.

As noted in section 1a, the web-tree is something of a misnomer; and construction of such a "hierarchical index" is not a cut and dried affair. That is, given the multiplicity of cross-cutting links, there is no single hierarchical representation of these "web-trees".

Therefore, CHEKINDX uses a simple heuristic: given a specified "entry-url" (which may, or may not, be the "Starter-URL"), CHEKINDX will determine the position in the hierarchy as a function of distance to the entry-url. Basically, the following rules are used:

Level 1 (starting closest to the left margin): The entry-url. There is only one "level 1" row (it's the top row).

Level 2: (second closest to the left margin): All URLs contained in the "entry-URL" (that is, contained in the text/html   document pointed to by the "entry-URL".

Level 3: All URLs contained in a level 2 URL.

Level 4, 5, etc. are defined similarly. Note that level 3 lists appear directly after the appropriate level 2 URL, and so forth.

Entry-URL 2A 2B 3B.i For example:            3B.ii                         3B.iii 2C 3C.i                        3C.ii                            4.C.ii.x                            4.C.ii.xx                         3.C.iii

The above heuristic contains a key rule:
 * Once listed, a URL can never appear in a "higher level". That is, 3C.i can NOT list 2A.

This rule can be applied at various levels of stringency. For example, you could allow "ties" to displayed multiple times, or you could only allow "one listing" per URL.

Controlling this stringency, as well as otherwise influencing the scope of the listing, is a function of the CHEKINDX options.

VI.a. CHEKINDX options.
Options:

CLEANUP : Used to remove "earlier, higher level references" CLEANUP=1 signals CHEKINDX to remove "higher level" references that preceded lower level references. In the examples used below (in the description of MULTI) setting MULTI=1 would cause the earlier "level 5" reference to be removed from the index.

CLEANUP has no effect when used with MULTI=0. When used with MULTI=1, then only the first (of several possible ties) is displayed. That is, MULTI=1 and CLEANUP=1 invokes a "use first occurrence of lowest level" rule.

When used with MULTI=2, all ties are displayed -- "use all occurrences of the best level".

Note that CLEANUP requires an extra iteration, hence requires more processing time.

Example: CLEANUP=1

By default, CLEANUP=0     (cleanup is not attempted).

DESCRIP: Write descriptions (if available)

DESCRIP=1 : Write descriptions (under the title-link), if available DESCRIP=0 : Do not write descriptions

DROP: Space delimited list of (possibly wildcarded) selectors to drop URL's with a selector portion that matches one of the items in DROP will not be displayed in the index.

However, links within "dropped" selectors may be displayed! Thus, you should coordinate DROP with EXCLUDE.

Examples: DROP=*SAMPLES/*FILELIST.HTM DROP=*/IND*.HTM+*/MAP*.HTM (note use of + as a URL-encoded space)

By default, DROP='' (nothing is dropped)

EXCLUDE: Space delimited list of (possibly wildcarded) selectors to "not expand".

URL's with a selector portion that matches one of the items in EXCLUDE will be included in the index, but will not be "expanded". That is, the "links" associated with an EXCLUDEd selector are not used. Contrast this with DROP, which drops display of the selector, but (possibly) retains URL's with links that appear within the document the selector refers to.

Examples: EXCLUDE=FILELIST.HTM EXCLUDE=*/SITEMAP.HTM+*/INDICE.HTM (note use of + as a URL-encoded space)

The primary use of EXCLUDE is to prevent some kind of "site index" from being placed at a low level and "capturing" the bulk of the URLs. Such an occurrence may distort the true relationship between URLs.

By default, EXCLUDE='' (nothing is excluded)

HEADER: Optional header to display at top of index.

If not specified, the servername will be displayed. Example: HEADER='This+is+OUR+Site'

LINKFILE: As defined above (filename only, no path).

LINKFILE is the only required parameter (note that the LINKFILE=* shortcut is NOT supported by CHEKINDX).

MIME: Space delimited list of mimetypes (possibly wildcarded) URLs to include in the index.

More precisely: The mimetype of the resource (that is pointed to by URLs in the web-tree) is compared to the list of mimetypes in the MIME option. If no match occurs, the URL is NOT included in the index.

Examples: MIME=text/* MIME=image/jpeg+image/gif (note use of + for URL-encoding) MIME=application/pdf By default, MIME=text/html.

MULTI: Used to control the "stringency" of display.

As mentioned above, it is likely that URLs will be referred to by several other "URLs" (that is, by html documents pointed to by several other URLs). To prevent infinite recursion, the basic rule is to: "never include a URL if it's already been included at a lower level"

MULTI controls the other cases: MULTI=0 -- The default. Only one reference to a URL per index. Thus, if the first reference found is at "level 5", and a "level 3" reference is found later, the "level 3" reference will NOT be displayed.

Note that "level 2" references are ALWAYS displayed -- since they are checked first (they are directly referred to by the entry-URL).

MULTI=1 -- If latter references are strictly lower, then also display them. Thus, the level 3 reference mentioned above would be displayed (along with the level 5 reference).

MULTI=2 -- Similar to MULTI=1, but ties are also displayed (thus, a second level 5 reference would be displayed if MULTI=2, but not if MULTI=1). Note that this only refers to "ties" -- higher level references (say, a level 6 reference) will NOT be displayed.

Example: MULTI=2

PIX. : Stem variable pointing to mime-type specific IMGs.

PIX. is a stem variable that points to small .GIF icons that will be displayed next to the title (or selector) of each entry in the index.

The syntax is: PIX.0=number of entries PIX.n="mime/type selector where n: 1.. pix.0 mime/type can include * as a wildcard selector is a selector PIX.!INCLUDE=text to include in IMG element

For example: pix.0=3 pix.1='text/plain /imgs/text.gif ' pix.2='image/* /imgs/image.gif ' pix.3='text/html ' pix.!include=' height=18 width=18 ALT="*" align="center" '

Note that when there is no "selector", no icon is drawn. Also, the first (of several possible) matches is used.

SITEONLY: Only include URLs on the "Starter-URL's" site. If SITEONLY=1, then URLs that point off-site will not be included in the index.

If SITEONLY=0, then all URLs may be included in the index. Note that "off-site" URLs will NEVER reference other links -- for purposes of the web-tree, they are all "leafs".

By default SITEONLY=1 (off-site URLs are excluded)

TYPE: Display type There are three types of display:

TYPE=1 : Use an Unordered List () TYPE=2 : Use a table () TYPE=3 : Return an "editable" document. You can use this to delete, change or move various records and fields (see section IV.c.iii for details).

Note: if you select TYPE=2, you might want to play with the various TABLE_, TR_ and TD_ parameters in CHEKINDX.CMD.

URL: The "entry-URL".

Actually, it's the "entry selector" -- you don't need to specify the http://a.b.c/ portion. CHEKINDX will use this "entry-URL" as the "level 1" of the hierarchical index.

Example: URL=/samples/index.htm

By default, the "Starter-URL" of the LINKFILE is used.

VI.b. CHEKINDX edit mode.
In many cases, the hierarchical index created the CheckLink can use editing. You may want to remove uninteresting links, change the indentation levels, modify uniformative descriptions, or even move index entries around. To facilitate such actions, you can invoke the "edit" mode of CHEKINDX (see the description of the TYPE option above).

In "edit" mode, an HTML form that lists all the entries, along with several options per entry, will be created. With this form you can: After making these changes, you can then create a  or  index; or, you can re-edit the index (and make additional changes).
 * Remove entries
 * Move entries
 * Change an entries indentation level
 * Modify the "title" of the entry
 * Modify the "description" of the entry.

Notes:
 * These edits do NOT effect the "link file" (from which the index is first generated).
 * Edit mode is NOT available when CHEKINDX is run as a cgi-bin script. It is only available if you are running this CheckLink package as an SRE-http addon.
 * You can re-edit several times, until you like what you see; and then you can finalize the index as a  or a TABLE.
 * After finalizing, you should save the index to an HTML document (you might then further modify it with your favorite text editor).
 * A <UL> version of the index (reflecting current changes) is written on the bottom portion of the customization page.

VII. CHEKRPT report writer -- Report Information about a Web Tree
As an alternative to using CHEKLNK2, the CHEKRPT.CMD "standalone" utility can be used to produce reports on the links between resources in a web tree. CHEKRPT uses the "link" files produced by CheckLink. It will produce a list of the URLs (or of a subset of the URLs) found in the web tree, displaying the links included in each URL, and the resources that contain links to each URL.

The results are written to an HTML document, that contains a number of internal links that permit a simple kind of web-tree traversal.

CHEKRPT should be run from an OS/2 command prompt. You will be asked several questions, which allow you control what you wish to have reported. Note that the report files can become large. For example, displaying all the information from a small web site (of 190 files) resulted in a report that is over 200k long. In fact, it takes a lot longer for Netscape to display the results than it does for CHEKRPT to write them!

As with CHEKLINK (when run as a standalone program), you can also use an "options" file to select the options to feed into CHEKRPT. See CHEKRPT.SMP for a sample of an options file.

VIII. CHEKFIX "fix" busted URLs - Note busted links in files that contain them
To help you find and fix busted links, the CHEKFIX "standalone" program can be used. CHEKFIX will:

1) scan through a CheckLink "link" file,

2) find all FILE:/// URLs,

3) for each FILE:/// url, see if it contains ANY busted links -- links for which either the resource is missing, or the server is unavailable  (for FILE:/// links, missing files are treated as "server n.a." errors).

4) If a FILE:/// url does contain busted links, write comments to the end of this file noting what the busted links are. Alternatively, for each busted link, a special tag can be added to the element containing the busted link.

After running CHEKFIX, you can then edit your files, and use the added comments (or special tags) to direct your modifications.

CHEKFIX does NOT use TCP/IP calls -- it can ONLY modify files on    your hard drive. Hence, CHEKFIX should ONLY be used with CheckLink "link" files that were created when: 1) You ran CHEKLINK in standalone mode       2) Your "Starter-URL" was a local file.
 * Important Limitation:

The special tags have the format: CheckLink="missing resource" or CheckLink="server n.a."

For example, suppose the following link occurs in your starter-URL <a href="http://foo.bar.net/help.htm">help!</a> Assuming that /help.htm does not exist on this server (on foo.bar.net), the above would be changed to: <a href="http://foo.bar.net/help.htm" CheckLink="missing resource">help!</a>

Actually, you can instruct CHEKFIX to add tags to ALL links, even non-busted ones. For non-busted links, a Checklink="Length: nnn" will be added, where nnn is the length (in bytes) returned when the URL was read (or, nnn is "unknown" if the URL's server did not provide a Content-Length header).

Lastly, CHEKFIX can either delete, or rename (to a backup file in the same directory) the original versions of the file containing the busted link.

IX. Notes:
Image Links: <IMG src="xxx"> <BODY background="XXX"> Anchor Links <A Href="XXX"> <AREA Href="xxx"> <FRAME src="XXX"> <EMBED src="XXX"> <LINK href="xxx"> <APPLET code="xxx" codebase="http://x.x.x/yy" > <OBJECT codebase="xxx"> Note that tags in comments (between are NOT processed.
 * CHEKLINK looks for a few kinds of "image" links, and several kinds of "anchor" links:

Note that if there is some tag I've left out, please contact me       (danielh@crosslink.net) if inclusion of such a capability would greatly enhance CheckLink!

? The major difference between IMG and ANCHOR links is that IMG links are never "read" (they are only queried). Should APPLET or OBJECT be         treated as images?


 * A possibility (given enough interest): A graphical web-mapper component for CheckLink.
 * To display some of the run-time status information, you'll need PMPRINTF.EXE (http://www2.hursley.ibm.com/goserve).
 * Sample speeds of CHEKLINK (on a Pentium 100 over a 16/4M Token Ring LAN based Intranet, with a T1 line to the outside world):
 * 1 GETs per second (of html/text URLs, average size of 20k).
 * 8 HEADs per second (requests for basic information)

X. Disclaimer and Acknowledgments
Copyright 1997,1998, 2001 by Daniel Hellerstein.

Permission to use this program for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that the author's name not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without specific written prior permission.

This includes the right to subset and reuse the code, with proper attribution; and with the following understanding:

We, the authors of CheckLink and any potentially affiliated institutions, disclaim any and all liability for damages due to the use, misuse, or failure of the product or subsets of the product.

Furthermore you may also charge a reasonable redistribution fee for CheckLink; with the understanding that this does not remove the work from the public domain and that the above proviso remains in effect.

THIS SOFTWARE PACKAGE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY. THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE PACKAGE, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR (Daniel Hellerstein) OR ANY PERSON OR INSTITUTION ASSOCIATED WITH THIS PRODUCT BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE PACKAGE.

We thank Buddy Donnely for beta testing, proofreading, and useful pestiness.