MAN page from Mandrake Other linbot-0.6.0-1.i386.rpm

LINBOT

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: 6 February 1998
Index

NAME

linbot - examine a hyperdocument for bad links

SYNOPSIS

linbot [-x xurl] ... [-b][-a][-o reportdir] base_url [ihost] ...

DESCRIPTION

The programlinbotwill check the hyperdocument found atbase_urland report on it in the directoryreportdir.A running report of what the robot is doing is written to stdout.

When checking url's,linbotchecks http:, ftp:, and file: schemas.All other schemas (like mailto:, gopher:, lynxcgi: etc.)are not checked and treated as "external".

The report can be viewed using most Web browsers. Browsersusing frames technology should initially open theindex.htmlfile. Browsers not using frames or with frames disabledcan initially open thenavbar.htmlfile. Note that these are the default filenames forlinbotand may be changed via the config file.

The report consists of the files (with constant names,so use different directories for different invocations oflinbot)broken.html,extern.html,images.html,index.html,map.html,navbar.html,new.html,andold.html.Hereindex.htmlandnavbar.htmlonly point at the other files.(The fileindex.htmlis a page with frames pointing atnavbar.htmlandmap.html,and the filenavbar.htmlpoints at the remaining six pages.)The filemap.htmlgives an overview of the hyperdocument (up to depth 5).The filebroken.htmlreports the broken links; the fileextern.htmlreports the external links; the fileold.htmlreports the ancient links; the filenew.htmlreports on the links that changed less than a week ago.Finallyimages.htmlcollects the images found.

Executinglinbotwithout any command-line arguments will cause it togive a simple synopsis of its usage and then quit.

You should decide beforehand which structures in yourhyperdocument should be considered "internal" and whichshould be considered "external".Aninternallink is a part of your document that you have control of andshould be checked, as well as the links that it points to. Basicallyan internal link is one that, if broken, you have the power to fix.Anexternallink is one that your document points to, but you have nojurisdiction over. It can also be a link that you may have power tochange, but need not be checked for broken links, such as CGI scriptsor pages that were generated by an automated tool (such aslinbotor any program that converts a document of one format to HTML).

Linbothonors therobots.txtfile/protocol.This protocol is useful to indicate to robots thatsome parts or your site, such as CGI scripts, internal documents, orserver stats, should not be explored. Therobots.txtprotocol is explained athttp://info.webcrawler.com/mak/projects/robots/exclusion-admin.html.Currentlylinbotidentifies itself as `User-Agent: Linbot'.You can allowlinbotto search a directory but restrict other bots, for example, like this:

   User-agent: *   Disallow: /   User-agent: Linbot   Allow: /

OPTIONS

-x url: Use this option to tell Linbot to consider any url starting withurlto be external. This option can be used multiple times.
-b: Base URLs only. This option tellslinbotto consider any url that does not start with thebase url to be external.
-a: Avoid external links. Normally, iflinbotis examining an HTML page and finds a link that points to an externaldocument, it will check to see if that document exists.If the -a option is chosen,linbotwill not check for the existence of external links.
-o reportdir: Used to specify the directory where the report files must be written.The default is the current directory or as specified inconfig.py.
ihost: This specifies that urls atihostare to be considered internal. This can be useful, for example, it thebase url is on one server but points to "internal" documentson another server.Ihostis the name of that server, forexample www2.someplaceonthenet.com. This can also be used,for example, if you have an intranet where some urls may pointto http://www.someplaceonthenet.com whereas some urls maypoint to just `www'. This option may be used more than once,but must follow the base url.

BUGS

If you have any questions about Linbot or would like to report a bug,send electronic mail to mardukAATTgte.net. Please mention Linbot in thesubject of the message. In order to assist in tracking down bugs,please include either a URL where the problem can be found, an HTMLfile where the error occurs or a (small) tar file of a site where theerror occurs. Suggestions for improvements are also welcomed.

This document was created byman2html,using the manual pages.