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Wisp, a free open-source link checker, separates dead links from blocked ones

1 article1 sourcesince Oct 27Last article

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A solo developer says Wisp, a free open-source website link checker, avoids the false dead-link alarms common in other tools.

Wisp reports a link as dead only for a 404 or 410 status, a nonexistent domain, or a malformed address. Access refusals such as 403 responses and bot-blocked pages go into a separate "couldn't check" list. Before calling a 404 dead, Wisp retries the request with browser-like headers, and its weekly checks report only newly broken links. The developer built Wisp for a Haunted-themed hackathon. The report contains no measured comparison with other checkers.

Written by AI from the articles below · updated Oct 27, 1:36 PM ET

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Latest developmentOct 27, 1:19 AM ET
Wisp, a free open-source link checker, avoids false dead-link alarms

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Oct 27
  1. AshwiniX
    Wisp, a free open-source link checker, avoids false dead-link alarms

    AIThe developer of Wisp, a free open-source website checker built for a Haunted-themed hackathon, says standard link checkers wrongly flag 403 and bot-blocked 404 responses as dead. Wisp reports a link as dead only for a 404 or 410 status, a nonexistent domain, or a malformed address, and sorts access refusals and bot checks into a separate "couldn't check" list. It also retries a 404 with browser-like headers before calling it dead, and runs weekly checks that report only new problems.

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