P5-http-simplelinkchecker

Check the HTTP response code for a link

You don’t have to know anything about objected-oriented Perl, LWP, or the HTTP module to be able to check your links. This module is designed for the casual user. It has one function, check_link, that returns the HTTP response code that it receives when it tries to fetch the web address passed to it. The undef value is returned for any non-HTTP failure and the $HTTPSimpleLinkCheckerERROR variable is set.

The HEAD method is tried first, although if anything other than a good status code those less than 400 is received, another request is made with the GET method. Note, however, that even with the best code, no module can control how servers decide to respond to a check, or control any of the myriad things that can go wrong with the network between you and the remote server. Some may filter requests based on origin IP address, user-agent type, or any other arbitrary factor. Some servers may not respond correctly at all. Furthermore, some servers might be temporarily down or overloaded. I recommend that you recheck “broken” links a couple times over a long period like a day or two before you decide they are really broken.