Re: URL checking

You could use fopen() to retreive the HTML of the page, then parse it taking your "best guess" at a 404 message. Not very robust though. It'd be much better to open up a socket to the site itself, then issue a "HEAD /<page here>" request. If the page is not found you'll have a line in the return result (should be the first line) which says "HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found", then your Content-type: will come across and the actual HTML for the 404 page. You'll have to parse the domain name off the entire URL that's stored in your database which could be done by chopping off a leading "http://" if any is provided, then split at the first / mark. Use the experimental socket() function (http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.socket.php) to make your connection and issue the HEAD request. Hope that helps... Justin Buist Trident Technology, Inc. 4700 60th St. SW, Suite 102 Grand Rapids, MI 49512 Ph. 616.554.2700 Fx. 616.554.3331 Mo. 616.291.2612 On Sat, 8 Sep 2001, Larry "RedCobra" Linthicum wrote: > I have a database with lots of urls stored > > I would like to build a script the retrieves them ... then somehow checks > each one to see if the link produces a "error 404" and is no longer good, > then ideally write a file of "bad links" for me > > this seems like it would be possible with PHP, could someone give me some > hints on where to start? I know very little about http headers and such > > any information will be appreciated > > > > -- > PHP Database Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) > To unsubscribe, e-mail: php-db-unsubscribe@lists.php.net > For additional commands, e-mail: php-db-help@lists.php.net > To contact the list administrators, e-mail: php-list-admin@lists.php.net >