Link Checker

Check URLs for HTTP status codes, find broken links in documents, and track link health over time. Feed it a single URL, a file full of links, or a batch of addresses — it hits each one with curl, records the status code, and tells you what's alive and what's dead. Results are stored in ~/.link-checker/ so you can review history, pull stats, and export reports.

Commands

check

Check a single URL. Sends an HTTP HEAD request and returns the status code.

link-checker check <url>

Output includes status code, a human-readable label (OK, REDIRECT, CLIENT_ERROR, etc.), and an icon.

scan

Extract all URLs from a file (markdown, HTML, plain text — anything with http:// or https:// links) and check each one.

link-checker scan <file>

Uses grep to pull URLs, deduplicates them, then checks each. Prints a summary at the end with pass/fail counts.

batch

Check multiple URLs in one go. Pass them as arguments.

link-checker batch <url1> <url2> <url3> ...

report

Generate a report from the current session's results. Supports three formats.

link-checker report [txt|csv|json]

Default format is txt. Reports are saved to ~/.link-checker/report.<format>.

history

Display the last 50 check results from the history log.

link-checker history

Shows timestamp, status code, status label, and URL for each entry.

broken

Filter results to show only failed links — status codes 4xx, 5xx, timeouts, and connection errors.

link-checker broken

stats

Show statistics across all checks: total count, breakdown by status category (2xx, 3xx, 4xx, 5xx, timeout, error), success rate percentage, and the most common status codes.

link-checker stats

export

Export the full history log to a file. Supports csv, json, and txt.

link-checker export <format>

Exported files are timestamped and saved to ~/.link-checker/.

config

View current configuration or change settings.

link-checker config
link-checker config set <key> <value>

Available keys: timeout (seconds per request), retries (retry count on failure), user_agent.

help

Show usage information and available commands.

link-checker help

version

Print the current version.

link-checker version

Examples

# Check if a URL is reachable
link-checker check https://example.com

# Scan a markdown file for broken links
link-checker scan ./README.md

# Batch check several URLs
link-checker batch https://example.com https://httpstat.us/404 https://httpstat.us/500

# See only the broken ones
link-checker broken

# Get a stats overview
link-checker stats

# Generate a JSON report
link-checker report json

# Export full history as CSV
link-checker export csv

# Set request timeout to 15 seconds
link-checker config set timeout 15

# Set retry count to 3
link-checker config set retries 3

Configuration

Settings are stored in ~/.link-checker/config as key-value pairs.

Key	Default	Description
timeout	10	Connection timeout in seconds per request
retries	2	Number of retry attempts on timeout/error
user_agent	LinkChecker/1.0.0	User-Agent header sent with requests

Change any setting with link-checker config set <key> <value>.

Data Storage

All data lives in ~/.link-checker/:

File	Purpose
results.log	Current session results (pipe-delimited)
history.log	Cumulative log of all checks ever run
config	Configuration key-value file
report.*	Generated reports (txt/csv/json)
export_*.*	Timestamped exports

Log format: timestamp|url|status_code|status_label

Status Categories

Icon	Category	Codes
✅	OK	2xx
🔄	Redirect	3xx
❌	Client Error	4xx
⚠️	Server Error	5xx
⏱️	Timeout	Connection timed out
🚫	Error	DNS failure, connection refused

Requirements

• bash (4.0+)
• curl
• grep, sort, awk (standard Unix tools)

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