Installation

If you are upgrading from older versions of LinkChecker you should also read the upgrading documentation.

Requirements for Unix/Linux or Mac OS X

  1. You need a standard GNU development environment with

    • C compiler (for example the GNU C Compiler gcc)

      Depending on your distribution, several development packages might be needed to provide a fully functional C development environment.

    Note for developers: if you want to regenerate the po/linkchecker.pot template from the source files, you will need xgettext with Python support. This is available in gettext >= 0.12.

  2. Python >= 2.4 from http://www.python.org/ with zlib support

    Be sure to also have installed the included distutils module. On most distributions, the distutils module is included in an extra "python-dev" package.

  3. Optional, for bash-completion: optcomplete Python module from http://furius.ca/optcomplete/

  4. Optional (speedup for i386 compatible PCs) Psyco from http://psyco.sourceforge.net/ [http://osdn.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/psyco/psyco-1.4-src.tar.gz]

Requirements for Windows

  1. Install Python >= 2.4 from http://www.python.org/ [http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.4.2/python-2.4.2.msi]
  2. Only needed if you compile from source: install the MinGW suite from http://mingw.sourceforge.net/ Be sure to install in the given order:
    1. MingGW [http://osdn.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/mingw/MinGW-4.1.1.exe]
    2. MSYS [http://osdn.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/mingw/MSYS-1.0.10.exe]
  3. Optional (speedup for i386 compatible PCs) Psyco from http://psyco.sourceforge.net/ [http://osdn.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/psyco/psyco-1.4.win32-py2.4.exe]

Setup for Unix/Linux or Mac OS X

  1. Install check

    Be sure to have installed all required Unix/Linux software listed above.

  2. Compile Python modules

    Run python setup.py sdist --manifest-only to create the MANIFEST file. Run python setup.py build to compile the Python files. For help about the setup.py script options, run python setup.py --help. The CC environment variable is checked before compilation, so you can change the default C compiler with export CC=myccompiler.

    1. Installation as root

      Run su -c 'python setup.py install' to install LinkChecker.

    2. Installation as a normal user

      Run python setup.py install --home $HOME. Note that you have to adjust your PATH and PYTHONPATH environment variables, eg. by adding the commands export PYTHONPATH=$HOME/lib/python and export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin to your shell configuration file.

      For more information look at the Modifying Python's search path documentation.

    If you downloaded Psyco please read the psyco installation docs.

Setup for Windows - the binary .exe installer:

  1. Install check

    Be sure to have installed all required windows software listed above.

  2. Execute the linkchecker-x.xx.win32-py2.4.exe file and follow the instructions.

Setup for Windows - compiling from source:

  1. Install check

    Be sure to have installed all required Unix/Linux software listed above.

  2. Preparing Python for the MinGW compiler

    Search the file python24.dll in your windows folder. After you found it, launch MSYS. Change into the windows folder, for example cd c:\winnt\system32. Then execute pexports python24.dll > python24.def. Then use the dlltool with dlltool --dllname python24.dll --def python24.def --output-lib libpython24.a. The resulting library has to be placed in the same directory as python24.lib. (Should be the libs directory under your Python installation directory, for example c:\Python24\Libs\.)

  3. Generate and execute the LinkChecker installer

    Close the MSYS application (by typing exit) and open a DOS command prompt. Change to the linkchecker-X.X.X directory and run python setup.py sdist --manifest-only to create the MANIFEST file and python setup.py build -c mingw32 bdist_wininst to build a binary installer.

    This generates a binary installer dist\linkchecker-X.X.X.win32-py2.4.exe which you just have to execute.

    If you downloaded Psyco please read the psyco installation docs.

After installation

LinkChecker is now installed. Have fun! See the main page on how to configure and start LinkChecker.

Installation for other platforms

If you happen to install LinkChecker on other platforms (for example Mac OS 9.x) then drop me a note.

(Fast)CGI web interface

The included CGI scripts can run LinkChecker with a nice graphical web interface. You can use and adjust the example HTML files in the lconline directory to run the script.

  1. Choose a CGI script. The simplest is lc.cgi and you need a web server with CGI support. The script lc.fcgi (I tested this a while ago) needs a web server with FastCGI support.
  2. Copy the script of your choice in the CGI directory. Note that only the local host (ie. 127.0.0.1) can access this script. If you want to enable access from other hosts you have to adjust the ALLOWED_HOSTS and ALLOWED_SERVERS variables in the lc.cgi (or lc.fcgi) script.
  3. Adjust the "action=..." parameter in lconline/lc_cgi.html to point to your CGI script.
  4. load the lconline/index.html file, enter an URL and klick on the check button
  5. If something goes wrong, check the following:
    1. look in the error log of your web server
    2. be sure that you have enabled CGI support in your web server do this by running other CGI scripts which you know are working
    3. try to run the lc.cgi script by hand
    4. try the testit() function in the lc.cgi script