| LinkScan for Unix. Reference Manual.
| Section 24 |
Weblint Man Page
weblint 1.020 weblint 1.020
NAME
weblint - pick fluff off web pages (HTML)
SYNOPSIS
weblint [ -d id ] [ -e id ] [ -f filename ] [ -i ] [ -l ]
[ -s ] [ -stderr ] [ -t ] [ -todo ] [ -help ] [ -U ] [
-urlget command ] [ -v ] [ -version ] [ -warnings ] [ -x
extension ] file1 .. fileN
DESCRIPTION
Weblint is a Perl script which picks fluff off HTML pages.
Files to be checked are passed on the command-line:
% weblint foobar.html ./dodgy-files/ index.html
If any of the arguments are directories weblint will
recurse in the directory, and check any HTML files found.
If an argument is a URL, then weblint will get the file
using a URL retrieval program, and then check the file:
% weblint http://www.foobar.com/
By default weblint will use lynx to retrieve URLs, but
this can be over-ridden. A filename of `-' specifies that
weblint should read from standard input:
% lynx -source http://www.foobar.com/ | weblint -
Warnings are generated a la lint:
home.html(9): unmatched </A> (no matching <A> seen).
Weblint includes the following features:
+ by default checks for HTML 3.2 (Wilbur)
+ 46 different checks and warnings
+ Warnings can be enabled/disabled individually,
as per your preference
+ basic structure and syntax checks
+ warnings for use of unknown elements and ele-
ment attributes.
+ context checks (where a tag must appear within
a certain element).
+ overlapped or illegally nested elements.
+ do IMG elements have ALT text?
+ flags obsolete elements.
+ support for user and site configuration files
+ stylistic checks
+ checks for html which is not portable across
all browsers
+ flags markup embedded in comments, since this
can confuse some browsers
+ support for Netscape, and Microsoft HTML exten-
sions
OPTIONS
-d warning-identifier
Disable the warning associated with the identifier.
Multiple identifiers can be specified, with a comma
between identifiers.
-e warning-identifier
Enable the warning associated with the identifier.
Multiple identifiers can be specified, with a comma
between identifiers.
-f config-file
Specify a weblint configuration file which should
be used in place of the user's default config file,
or the site configuration file.
-help Show a short usage summary.
-i Ignore case of element tags.
-l When recursing in directories, ignore any files
which are symlinks (also known as soft links).
This will also cause files on the command-line to
be ignored if they are symlinks, unless only one
file is given.
-pedantic
Turn on all warnings except the case-sensitive and
bad-link warnings.
-s Generate `short' warning messages, which do not
include the filename.
-stderr
Print warning messages to STDERR rather than STD-
OUT.
-t Enable terse warning mode, which is mainly useful
for the weblint testsuite.
-U Same as -help.
-urlget command
The command which should be used to retrieve HTML
pages specified by URL.
-v Display the version number.
-version
Display the version number.
-todo This prints out the URL for the online version of
the weblint ToDo list. This includes known bugs,
and requested/planned features.
-warnings
List all supported warnings, with warning identi-
fier, and whether the warning is enabled.
-x extension
Include checks for the specified HTML extension;
multiple extensions can be specified, separated
with a comma. Currently the only extensions sup-
ported are Netscape and Microsoft. This can also
be set in your weblint configuration file,
described below.
HTML EXTENSIONS
Unless you specify otherwise, weblint assumes you are
using HTML 3.2. Weblint supports the Netscape and
Microsoft HTML extensions in addition. For example,
weblint will complain that the BLINK element is not known,
unless you enable the Netscape extension. The following
extensions are currently supported:
Netscape
The HTML extensions supported by the Netscape
browser, version 4.
Microsoft
The HTML extensions supported by Microsoft Internet
Explorer, version 4.
To enable an extension, you can either use the -x command-
line switch:
% weblint -x Netscape foobar.html
Or you can use the extension keyword in your .weblintrc:
# enable the Microsoft extensions
extension Microsoft
CONFIGURATION FILE
Weblint can be configured using a file .weblintrc in your
home directory (or a file referenced by the WEBLINTRC
environment variable). This file can be used to enable or
disable specific warnings, set weblint variables, and
include HTML extensions, as described above. Each warning
has a short identifier string, used to refer to the warn-
ing in config files, and from the command-line. For exam-
ple, if you want to enable the check for tags in upper-
case, but disable the check for obsolete elements, then
you would include the following lines in your .weblintrc:
# specify the command used to retrieve URLs (-urlget switch)
set url-get = lynx -source
# the style of warning message to generate (lint, short, or terse)
set message-style = lint
# enable warning for tags not in upper-case
enable upper-case
# disable the warning for obsolete tags
disable obsolete
# enable the Netscape HTML extensions
extension Netscape
# when recursing in a directory,
# ignore files which are symlinks (also known as soft links)
ignore symlinks
The keywords can be followed by any number of arguments,
separated by spaces or tabs. Anything following a `#' is
treated as a comment.
A sample configuration file is included in the weblint
distribution (as of version 1.004), which mirrors the con-
figuration built-in to weblint.
Weblint also supports a site configuration file. If a
user does not have a personal configuration file, then
weblint will check for a local site configuration file.
To provide such a file, create a directory such as
/usr/local/weblint, and create a file global.weblintrc.
You need to edit the weblint script and modify the
$SITE_DIR variable, which you will find near the top of
the file. For example:
$SITE_DIR = '/usr/local/weblint';
At some point in the future there will be configuration
support for weblint, so you won't have to modify the
script directly yourself.
If you have a site configuration file, then users can
inherit the site defaults by adding the following line at
the top of their .weblintrc file:
use global weblintrc
WARNINGS
All warnings generated by weblint are listed below, along
with the associated identifier, and whether the warning is
enabled or disabled by default.
tag <...> is not in upper case.
Identifier: upper-case
Default: disabled
tag <...> is not in lower case.
Identifier: lower-case
Default: disabled
foo attribute is required for <...>
Identifier: required-attribute
Default: enabled
expected an attribute for <...>
Identifier: expected-attribute
Default: enabled
unknown element <...>
Identifier: unknown-element
Default: enabled
unknown attribute `...' for element <...>.
Identifier: unknown-attribute
Default: enabled
should not have whitespace between `<' and `...>'
Identifier: leading-whitespace
Default: enabled
bad form to use `here' as an anchor!
Identifier: here-anchor
Default: enabled
no <TITLE> in HEAD element.
Identifier: require-head
Default: enabled
tag <...> should only appear once. I saw one on line XX!
Identifier: once-only
Default: enabled
<BODY> but no <HEAD>.
Identifier: body-no-head
Default: enabled
outer tags should be <HTML> .. </HTML>.
Identifier: html-outer
Default: enabled
<...> can only appear in the HEAD element.
Identifier: head-element
Default: enabled
<...> cannot appear in the HEAD element.
Identifier: non-head-element
Default: enabled
<...> is obsolete.
Identifier: obsolete
Default: enabled
unmatched </...> (no matching <...> seen).
Identifier: mis-match
Default: enabled
IMG does not have ALT text defined.
Identifier: img-alt
Default: enabled
<...> cannot be nested.
Identifier: nested-element
Default: enabled
Did not see <LINK REV=MADE HREF=mailto:...> in HEAD.
Identifier: mailto-link
Default: disabled
</...> on line XX seems to overlap <...>, opened on line
YY.
Identifier: element-overlap
Default: enabled
no closing </...> seen for <...> on line XX.
Identifier: unclosed-element
Default: enabled
markup embedded in a comment can confuse some browsers.
Identifier: markup-in-comment
Default: enabled
odd number of quotes in element <...>.
Identifier: odd-quotes
Default: enabled
heading <H?> follows <H?> on line N.
Identifier: heading-order
Default: enabled
target for anchor
Identifier: bad-link
Default: disabled
unexpected < in <...> -- potentially unclosed element.
Identifier: unexpected-open
Default: enabled
illegal context for <...> - must appear in <...> element.
Identifier: required-context
Default: enabled
unclosed comment (comment should be: <!-- ... -->
Identifier: unclosed-comment
Default: enabled
element <...> is not a container -- </...> not legal.
Identifier: illegal-closing
Default: enabled
<...> is physical font markup -- use logical (such as XXX)
Identifier: physical-font
Default: disabled
attribute XYZ is repeated in element <...>
Identifier: repeated-attribute
Default: enabled
empty container element <...>
Identifier: empty-container
Default: enabled
use of ' for attribute value delimiter is not supported
by all browsers (attribute XYZ of tag ABC)
Identifier: attribute-delimiter
Default: enabled
closing tag <...> should not have any attributes speci-
fied.
Identifier: closing-attribute
Default: enabled
directory DIR does not have an index file (index.html)
Identifier: directory-index
Default: enabled
<...> must immediately follow <...>
Identifier: must-follow
Default: enabled
setting WIDTH and HEIGHT attributes on IMG tag can
improve ren- dering performance on some browsers
Identifier: img-size
Default: disabled
leading/trailing whitespace in content of container
element ...
Identifier: container-whitespace
Default: disabled
first element was not DOCTYPE specification
Identifier: require-doctype
Default: disabled
`>' should be represented as `>'
Identifier: literal-metacharacter
Default: enabled
malformed heading - open tag is <H?>, but closing is </H?>
Identifier: heading-mismatch
Default: enabled
illegal context, <...>, for text; should be in XXX.
Identifier: bad-text-context
Default: enabled
illegal value for AAA attribute of XXX (...)
Identifier: attribute-format
Default: enabled
<...> is extended markup (use '-x <extension>' to allow
this).
Identifier: extension-markup
Default: enabled
attribute `...' for <...> is extended markup (use '-x
<exten- sion>' to allow this).
Identifier: extension-attribute
Default: enabled
value for attribute XYZ (xyz-value) of element FOOBAR
should be quoted (i.e. XYZ='xyz-value')
Identifier: quote-attribute-value
Default: enabled
you should use '>' in place of '>', even in a PRE ele-
ment.
Identifier: meta-in-pre
Default: enabled
<A> should be inside <H?>, not <H?> inside <A>.
Identifier: heading-in-anchor
Default: enabled
The HTML spec. recommends the TITLE be no longer than 64
charac- ters.
Identifier: title-length
Default: enabled
TESTSUITE
A simple regression testsuite is included with weblint, in
the Perl script test.pl. You can run the testsuite with
either of the following commands:
% make test
% ./test.pl
The results are printed to STDERR, with a more complete
report generated in test.log.
All tests should pass. If any tests fail, please email
test.log to the address given in the AUTHOR section below.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
WEBLINTRC
If this variable is defined, and references a file,
then weblint will read the referenced file for the
user's configuration, rather than $HOME/.weblintrc.
TMPDIR The directory where weblint will create temporary
working files. Defaults to /usr/tmp.
FILES
$HOME/.weblintrc
The user's configuration file. See the section
`CONFIGURATION FILE'.
SEE ALSO
perl(1)
VERSION
This man page describes weblint 1.020.
AVAILABILITY
ftp://ftp.cre.canon.co.uk/pub/weblint/weblint.tar.gz
http://www.cre.canon.co.uk/~neilb/weblint/
KNOWN BUGS
The list of known bugs can be found on the weblint home
page:
http://www.cre.canon.co.uk/~neilb/weblint/todo/
Certain versions of Perl have bugs which are triggered by
weblint. You shouldn't experience problems if you have
4.036, or 5.002.
AUTHOR
Neil Bowers, Canon Research Centre Europe
[email protected]
CONTRIBUTIONS
Lots of people have contributed to weblint, in the form of
suggestions, bug reports, fixes, and contributed code.
Please email me if your name should appear in the roll
call below.
Abigail <[email protected]>; Anthony Thyssen
<[email protected]>; Axel Boldt <axel@uni-pader-
born.de>; Barry Bakalor <[email protected]>; Bill Arnett
<[email protected]>; Bob Friesenhahn <[email protected]
las.tx.us>; Mark Gates <[email protected]>; Bruce Speyer
<[email protected]>; Chris Siebenmann <cks@hawk-
wind.utcs.toronto.edu>; Clay Webster <[email protected]>;
Dana Jacobsen <[email protected]>; David Begley
<[email protected]>; David J. MacKenzie
<[email protected]>; Douglas Brick <[email protected]
ton.edu>; Gil Citro; Eric de Mund <[email protected]>; Richard
Finegold <[email protected]>; Joerg Heitkoetter
<[email protected]>; David Koblas
<[email protected]>; John Labovitz <[email protected]>;
Eric Maryniak <[email protected]>; John F. Whitehead
<[email protected]> Juergen Schoenwaelder
<[email protected]>; Frank Steinke
<[email protected]>; Larry Virden <[email protected]>;
Paul Black <[email protected]>; Doug Grinbergs
<[email protected]>; Philip Hallstrom <[email protected]>;
Craig Leres <[email protected]>; Richard Lloyd
<[email protected]>; Charles F. Randall <cran-
[email protected]>; Robert Schmunk
<[email protected]>; Jeff Schave
<[email protected]>; Jon Thackray
<[email protected]>; Jens Thordarson <thor-
[email protected]>; Ryan Waldron <[email protected]>; Thomas
Leavitt <[email protected]>; Tom Neff <[email protected]>;
Victor Parada <[email protected]>; Erick Branderhorst
<[email protected]>; Bryan O'Sullivan <bos@serpen-
tine.com>; Alan J. Flavell <[email protected]>;
Raphael Manfredi <[email protected]>; Keith
Iosso <[email protected]>; Chris Lambert <lam-
[email protected]>; Tristan Savatier <tristan@cre-
ative.net>; Phil Hooper <[email protected]>; Gerald
Viers <[email protected]>; Dean Brissinger <briss-
[email protected]>; Dave Schmitt <[email protected]>;
John Van Essen <[email protected]>; Brandon Bell
<[email protected]>; Fumio Moriya and Toshiaki
Nomura <[email protected]>; Vincent Lefevre
<[email protected]>; Jason Mathews <math-
[email protected]>; Lars Balker Rasmussen <lbr@mjol-
ner.dk>; Richard L. Hawes <[email protected]>.
LinkScan for Unix. Reference Manual. Section 24. Weblint Man Page
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