This distribution contains the W3C Link Checker.

The link checker can be run as a CGI script in a web server as well as on the command line. The CGI version provides a HTML interface as seen at https://validator.w3.org/checklink.

To install the distribution for command line use:

git clone https://github.com/w3c/link-checker.git
cd link-checker
#if you have cpanminus installed
cpanm --installdeps .
perl Makefile.PL
make
make test
make install # as root unless you are using local::lib

To install the CGI version, in addition to the above, copy the bin/checklink script into a location in your web server from where execution of CGI scripts is allowed, and make sure that the web server user has execute permissions to the script. The CGI directory is typically named "cgi-bin" somewhere under your web server root directory.

For more information, please consult the POD documentation in the checklink.pod file, typically (in the directory where you unpacked the source):

perldoc ./bin/checklink.pod

...as well as the HTML documentation in docs/checklink.html.

You may want to use @stupchiy's Dockerfile, which is based on Ubuntu Linux, and follow his instructions:

$ docker build -t link-checker .                                                                        # Build an image
$ docker run -it --rm link-checker                                                                      # Run a container
$ docker run -it --rm link-checker checklink https://foo.bar                                            # Run script directly
$ docker run -it --rm -v "$PWD":/home/checklink link-checker checklink -H https://foo.bar > report.html # Write to HTML file

• Archived bug list (Decommissioned Bugzilla)
• www-validator MailingList used to discuss the W3C Markup Validation Service, Link Checker and Log Validator.

Written by the following people for the W3C:

• Hugo Haas hugo@w3.org
• Ville Skyttä ville.skytta@iki.fi
• W3C QA-dev Team public-qa-dev@w3.org

Copyright (C) 1994-2023 World Wide Web Consortium Inc. All Rights Reserved. This work is distributed under the W3C Software License in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.