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A complete list of changes is available in the distribution directory.

Few changes. Almost 100% backward compatible (output index files are now index.* by default instead of linklint.*). Existing command files should still work.

Query string support for HTTP site checking has changed as of 2.3.4. This may change how Linklint checks your HTTP site if you have dynamic content. It now does "the right thing" by default. Use the -no_query_string flag to get back the old behavior.

• Linklint is free again!
• Better query string support
• Proxy support for site checking
• Output files are more configurable
• Input from STDIN
• Beta SSL support now available
• Language content negotiation

GNU General Public License

Linklint started out free. It became sharewhare when the flood of comments, suggestions and questions started turning it into a "full-time" job. Thanks to all who contributed! With the rise (and love) of Linux, we wanted to make it Open Source in a way that would not make previous contributors feel ripped off.

There was a gradual (unadvertised) change to Open Source. First, it was made free for use on Open Source operating systems. Then a GPL Open Source version was distributed as a part of the Meta Web Language system and shareware checks were no longer cashed. With the new Linklint web site, it is only being distributed as Open Source via the GNU General Public License.

Better Query String Support

Query strings were suppressed during site checks. This can be changed by commenting out one line in older versions. As of 2.3.4, query strings are used in HTTP site checks. To get the old behavior use the new -no_query_string flag.

If you have an older version of Linklint, you can get the new query string behavior by commenting out the one line that includes the comment "strip query string". This also applies to the 2.4.beta version.

Proxy Support for Site Checking

Previously, proxy support was only for remote-URL checking. Now proxy support has been extended to handle site checking as well. The conflict between proxies and virtual hosts has been resolved.

Output Options

-output_index xxxx The index output files were previously named linklint.* in order to prevent overwriting existing index.html files if the -doc directory collided with an existing HTML directory. By popular demand, these file names have been changed to index.*. This is more convenient for most, and a little more dangerous for a few. You can change back to linklint (or whatever) with the -output_index option.

-output_frames Uses <base> tags in the output files so that new browser windows will open when following links in the HTML output files. This prevents having to reload large output HTML files.

-url_doc_prefix some_prefix Gives control over the prefix of all output files associated with Remote-Url checking.

-dont_output xxx Suppress output of files that match /xxx/. In the past, I have told people to comment out lines in the program to suppress the generation of certain output files.

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

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

Read inputs from STDIN (keyboard)

@ or @STDIN will cause Linklint to read from STDIN (keyboard) as if it were an @command file. Great when you are using linklint from the shell and run out of space on the command line. Might make runing Linklint as a CGI program a little easier.

Other New Flags

-help_all -version -license are all pretty obvious.
-no_query_string Don't use query strings in HTTP site checks
-http_header Xxx:Yyy Add header lines to HTTP requests.
-language zz Add Accept-Language header line to HTTP requests.
-no_anchors Stops Linklint from checking named anchors. Could ease memory problems for people only interested in misssing pages, not missing anchors.

Beta Version with SSL Support

Now that someone else (Sampo Kellomak) has done the heavy lifting of providing a low level Perl interface to the OpenSSL package, we wrote a simple wrapper module around his Net::SSLeay module to provide SSL support in Linklint.

Be warned, this beta version requires the OpenSSL package and the Net::SSLeay module (and the Net::SSLeay::Handle wrapper) in order to run. You will need to install these first which is fairly easy (if you have root) on Linux. Your Win32 mileage may vary.

Once installed, you use -http to check HTTP sites and -https to check HTTPS sites.