content
introduction
try
why
README
usage
known issues
build
download
boot notes
copyright & licence
introduction
The static site checker is an opinionated HTML nitpicker, a command–line tool to validate static HTML & XHTML websites. I built it to nitpick my hand–coded identity website.
It should not be used on untrusted content; its parsers are holier than Robin’s cow.
If you want to try it, play with the form below, or, if you’re really enthusiastic, here’s the current source.
Dylan Harris
June 2022
try
notes
SSC is a site checker, not a page checker, yet here you can only input a page, at most. It is not the best possible illustration of the program’s abilities, but it is better than nothing. Testing a web site would require proof of control of that site, and I’m not going there for a simple demo.
SSC is pre–alpha software. It has more errors than Fido has fleas. This page is a demo of its potential, that’s all. Do not presume reported issues are correct. Do not presume unreported issues aren’t issues. If you’re unsure, check against the appropriate standard. There is no guarantee of anything, let alone accuracy.
There is a fairly tight limit on the size of a snippet.
why ssc
Why did I make the static site checker? Aren’t there a lot of other HTML validators around? Well, first of all, I’ve not found a website validator, only web page validators. Perhaps I didn’t search sufficiently.
I have a fairly big website, with more than 100,000 pages. I’m too impatient to run each through a validator individually; I want to validate my site as a whole. Some errors occur between pages, not specifically on pages: not just missing links, but, for example, it’s invalid to link to an otherwise valid id on another page when that id’s element, or one of its ancestors, is HIDDEN.
The validators I did find were incomplete. Now, admittedly, I checked these out a few years ago, and some may well have got better. Editor based validators are certainly very useful, but they only work on individual pages, not sites. You have to edit a page to get it validated, and if you have rather a lot of them, that’s a lot of time wasted opening and closing individual pages. To expand that ID example above, if, in a specialist editor, you add HIDDEN attribute to an element which has an id on a child element, does that editor then name & shame the other page you’ve just invalidated?
All this are part of the reason why many people use frameworks. (Another, the obvious one, is to get a site up quickly.) One of the difficulties I have with frameworks, is that, most of all, so many web frameworks are, visually speaking, boring and trite. The visual arts world has had centuries to work out excellent form and vision to fit in a rectangular space, and it seems to me the modern web hasn’t noticed. The best that can be said is that some of them have approached the advances made in the 14th century, and that’s just in the Western artistic tradition. So much more is possible, yet it hasn’t happened. I want to break free from this dull, stultifying conservatism.
It may be that I’m making the wrong comparison, that the web isn’t about image, it’s about type. The comparison should not be with pictures, but papers. There’s certainly something to that. The Western visual high arts never did really suss mixing writing and form (actually, that’s not really true, but, IMHO, such arts never broke out of their context). But arts from Japan, for example, certainly did, and the web doesn’t seem to have noticed them either.
Also, to be absolutely fair, there are experimental websites mixing imaginary and text rather well. But then we get back to my point about the 14th century. Those I’ve seen, and I’ve certainly not seen as many as there are, nor come close to it, those I’ve seen still seem not to have noticed the visual forms changes made since the middle ages.
Anyway, enough of this. Rather than criticising other people for not doing, I should do. I should make my point, not by criticising others for not thinking of it, but by example. I need to knock up some example sites. That’s where SSC comes in.
You see, if I am to build a site using what is effectively an experimental visual process, I can’t use existing web site design frameworks. But if I can’t use a framework, I have to hand code everything. And there’s a key problem: HTML is such a convoluted, evolved mess, that the people who design it, in their own design presentations, make errors. Ok, I only found this out by testing SSC on them, which perhaps illustrates my point about things being overcomplicated. Anyway, I’m not going to reveal any names because these people are actually working hard to make the web a better place. Let’s just say W3 has broken links, WhatWG references withdrawn standards, and many other authors’ sites have other internal inconsistencies. I must mention that my HTML code is far worse than any of these mild examples of technical naughtiness. But the fact that the people who define the web make mistakes in the usage of their design in the documents that espouse the design, does rather explain why most other people are forced to use dull, formulaic, archaic, boring, tools.
I’ve not yet built a site inspired by the visual art world’s lessons in form and layout. My efforts have been spent in building the tool to make that possible. But now, I contend, it is at least a little more possible than it was.
Since I’m here, I’ll list other issues I have with frameworks:
- They have to be regularly maintained. Every time an update comes out, that update has to be applied to a site, or, alternatively, the update is ignored and the site becomes vulnerable to exploits blocked by the update, and published when the update is released. This is time lost.
- Updates for frameworks don’t always work. Instead of fixing issues, they break the site. This why I dropped my experimental Drupal site a few years ago. This is why I stopped using NextCloud.
- Frameworks are usually written in scripted languages, such as PHP. Scripts are unavoidably insecure compared to no scripts: a script cannot be hacked if it does not exist. Thus a site with no scripts is inherently more secure than a site with scripts. For example, there are, as I write, five known vulnerabilities in PHP, a very popular server scripting language (better than it once was, admittedly). If you use PHP, your site, in principle, has those vulnerabilities, and you have to spend time mitigating them. If you do not use PHP, your site cannot have those vulnerabilities. This is why my sites have no scripts, and another reason why SSC does not analyse scripts (the main one being lack of time). I do accept that sophisticated sites have no choice but to use scripts, but I suggest many sites use them unnecessarily.
- The worst of them all, for me, is that some frameworks, and many scripts, pull in code residing on other sites, in third–party repositories and the like, as the script is run. If you do that, this means the integrity and security of your site is entirely dependent on the security of the repository. There are unfortunately many examples of repositories being hacked, and, in consequence, all the site that used those repositories are broken in turn.
Dylan Harris
October 2021
README
Static Site Checker (an opinionated HTML nitpicker) version 0.0.126 https://ssc.lu/ (c) 2020–2022 dylan harris see LICENCE.txt for copyright & licence notice see W3-LICENCE.txt for additional copyright & licence information WARNING: this code is: — incomplete — pre—alpha — IT PROBABLY WON’T BEHAVE AS YOU EXPECT :-) — do NOT feed it untrusted data ssc analyses static HTML snippets, files and sites: — HTML 1.0/+/2.0/3.0/3.2/4.00/4.01/5.0/5.1/5.2/5.3–draft — HTML living standard, Jan 2005 to Apr 2022 — SVG 1.0/1.1/1.2 Tiny/1.2 Full/2.0/2.x draft Apr 2021 — MathML 1/2/3/4–draft — XHTML 1.0/1.1/2.0/5.x — finds broken links (requires curl) — processes server side includes, mostly — checks microdata & RDFa with opinions on: — standard english where dialect is required — perfectly legal but sloppy HTML — abhorrent rudeness such as autoplay on videoss It does NOT: — behave securely: its parser is holier than robin’s cow — analyse or understand scripts — analyse or understand styles, beyond nicking class names from CSS — analyse or understand XML or derivatives except as noted above It can output: — ‘repaired’ HTML (not XHTML) — HTML with resolved Server Side Includes — JSON summaries of microformat and microdata content — website statistical information — updated website with datafile deduplication ssc -h for a usage summary. ssc -f config_file analyse site using preprepared configuration ssc directory analyse website based in directory To build & run: 1. Follow the build instructions in build.txt 2. Gleefully run ssc. It will misbehave if you are insufficiently gleeful. NOTE SSC can be run in a CGI environment. This is intended for use with OpenBSD’s native httpd web server (https://man.openbsd.org/httpd.8). You are reminded that SSC is pre-alpha software. Do NOT expose it to untrusted data sources, such as the open web, without taking serious precautions. SSC probably has more bugs than the Creator’s Ultimate All–Beetle Extravaganza (J.B.S. Haldane, apocryphal : “[the Creator has] an inordinate fondness for beetles.”). Notes on names: - recipe: a nod to Vernor Vinge’s “A Fire Upon the Deep” - tea: without tea, nothing works; then there’s builders’ tea - sauce: identifies those who presume; and anyway, it’s obvious - toast: toasts code; i like burnt toast - heater: i’m not stopping now - unii: my preferred plural of unix; both unixes and unices sound like they sing castrato SEE ALSO build.txt notes on building ssc gen.txt a model man page usage.txt how to use ssc releasenotes.txt a slight history of releases LICENCE.txt ssc licence information LICENSE.txt formal GPL 3 licence more licences licences for borrowed external content written by dylan harris mail@ssc.lu April 2022
usage
NAME
ssc - analyse static web site source
SYNOPSIS
ssc [...] directory
ssc -f config
ssc
DESCRIPTION
ssc (the Static Site Checker) is an opinionated HTML nit-picker, intended for
people, such as its author, who hand code websites. It doesn't just check
static websites for broken links, dubious syntax, and bad semantic data, it
will actively complain about things that are perfectly legal but just a little
bit untidy, like its author.
Except when serving CGI queries, it recursively scans the directory looking
for HTML source files to analyse. It produces a list of errors, warnings,
comments, and other hints of imperfection. Once complete, it summarises
internal site inconsistencies, and can produce some simple statistics.
Scripts are ignored. CSS is only processed for class declarations.
COMMAND LINE ONLY SWITCHES
These options are only available on the command line:
-f file Load configuration from file, which should be in .INI
file format. See CONFIGURATION FILE FORMAT below.
-F Load the configuration file .ssc/config in the current
directory.
-h Show a summary of switches, then exit.
--ontology.list List known schema versions, then exit.
-V Show version details, then exit.
--validation Show attribute extensions, then exit. Attribute
extensions are additional values that can be
associated with attributes on some X/HTML elements,
and is intended for use with bespoke extensions of
HTML.
COMMAND LINE AND CONFIGURATION FILES SWITCHES
These options are available on the command line (with dashes) and in
configuration files (without dashes). The short form alternative switches
only work on the command line.
Most binary options, e.g. those without arguments below that turn on a feature
(which may be the default), have a corresponding "no-" switch to turn it off.
The "no-" is inserted after the dot, so, for example, the contradiction to
"--general.class" is "--general.no-class". When both are specified, perhaps in
a configuration file and on the command line, the "no-" switch always applies.
--corpus.article Prefer the content of <ARTICLE> when gathering corpus
text.
--corpus.body Prefer the content of <BODY> when gathering corpus
text. This is the default.
--corpus.main Prefer the content of <MAIN> when gathering corpus
text.
--corpus.output file Dump XML corpus of site into file. This is intended
for use by a local search engine. If none of
--corpus.article, --corpus.body, or --corpus.main are
specified, the content of <BODY> is used. If more than
one are specified, then the text collected depends on
a page's content. This is incompatible with
--shadow.update.
--general.class Report unrecognised classes.
--general.cgi Check environment variables for snippets of HTML.
-W Expects environment variables as produced by
OpenBSD's native web server, httpd, produced
using <FORM METHOD=GET ...>. Do NOT let ssc
anywhere near untrusted data should you do so,
unless you are very confident about your system
configuration (because it'll defend you against
naughty people who may take advantage of ssc's
pre-alpha nature and its corresponding myriad
flaws). Ignores many options including shadowing.
--general.css Do NOT process .css files (for class names).
--general.custom EL Define a custom element <EL> for verifying the IS
attribute. May be repeated.
--general.datapath dir Look for any configuration, caches, and other useful
-p dir files, in this directory.
--general.error x If nits of the specified category or worse are
-E generated, then exit with an error code. Values are:
'catastrophe', 'error' (the default), 'warning',
'info', or 'comment'.
--general.file XXX File for persistent data. Requires -N. See also
--general.datapath. Default extension: .ndx.
--general.ignore EL ignore attributes and content of the element <EL>. May
be repeated.
--general.lang LA If an X/HTML file does not have a language / dialect
specified (e.g. "en" for generic English, "en-IE" for
Irish English, "lb-LU" for Luxembourgish, etc.),
default to 'LA'. If not given, the default is your
system default, or, if none, then "en-US" (standard
American English).
--general.maxfilesize n Do not process HTML source files that exceed n bytes
in size (default: 4M). Specify 0 for unlimited,
although be warned that ssc is stunningly stupid in
such circumstances and may even attempt to load files
that exceed available memory.
--general.output Output to the specified file. If this switch is not
-o file used, standard output is used.
--general.progress Dump progress information to standard output. This can
-D interfere with formatted output.
--general.rdfa Check RDFa attributes.
--general.rel Only mention <LINK> REL values, found neither in the
living standard nor at microformats.org, in debug
output.
--general.rpt Report CSS files that are opened. ssc opens CSS files
to verify classes; it does not verify CSS.
--general.slob Ignore perfectly legal but inefficient, indeed
thoroughly slobby, HTML, such as being far too lazy to
get round to bothering to close elements.
--general.ssi Process Server Side Includes. Although ssc can process
-I many server side includes, it cannot process those
containing formulae. Note that processing SSIs may
cause incorrect line numbers to be mentioned when an
issue is reported.
--general.test Output data in automated test format. Used by ssc-test.
-T Not generally useful. Documented so you can avoid it!
--general.verbose x Output nits to the specified verbosity: 'catastrophe',
-v 'error', 'warning', 'info', 'comment' (the default),
or '0' for silence. Additional values are available
when debugging. Each level includes its preceding
level, so, for example, 'warning' will also output
'catastrophe' and 'error' nits.
--html.rfc1867 Ignore the RFC 1867 (INPUT=FILE) extension when
processing HTML 2.0
--html.rfc1942 Ignore the RFC 1942 (tables) extension when processing
HTML 2.0.
--html.rfc19802 Ignore the RFC 1980 (client side image maps) extension
when processing HTML 2.0.
--html.rfc2070 Ignore the RFC 2070 (internationalisation) extension
when processing HTML 2.0.
--html.tags When an HTML file is loaded that contains no DOCTYPE,
ssc normally presumes it's an HTML 1 file. This switch
tells it to presume the file follows an earlier HTML
Tags specification (the one at CERN). This is
overridden by --html.version.
--html.title n If <TITLE> text is longer than n characters, say so.
-z n This applies to text enclosed by a <TITLE> element in
under <HEAD>, not the value of TITLE attributes.
--html.version X If no doctype (or xml header) is specified, presume
version X of HTML. X can be:
tags HTML tags (1991, informal),
1.0 HTML 1.0 (June 1993 draft),
+ HTML Plus (November 1993 draft),
2.0 HTML 2.0,
3.0 HTML 3.0 (March 1995 draft),
3.2 HTML 3.2,
4.0 HTML 4.0,
4.1 HTML 4.01,
4.2 XHTML 1.0,
4.3 XHTML 1.1 core,
4.4 XHTML 2.0 (December 2010 draft),
5.0 W3 HTML 5.0,
5.1 W3 HTML 5.1,
5.2 W3 HTML 5.2,
5.3 W3 HTML 5.3 (October 2018 draft),
2005/1/1 WhatWG WebApps draft (January 2005),
... (halfly)
2007/1/1 WhatWG WebApps draft (January 2007),
2007/7/1 WhatWG HTML 5 (July 2007),
... (halfly)
2021/1/1 WhatWG HTML 5 (January 2021),
... (quarterly)
2022/4/1 WhatWG HTML 5 (April 2022),
XHTML 1.0 XHTML 1.0,
XHTML 1.1 XHTML 1.1 core,
XHTML 2.0 (December 2010 draft),
XHTML 5.x XHTML corresponding to equivalent W3
HTML.
Although you can specify exact dates for versions of
the WhatWG HTML 5 living standard, currently only
broad versions published in January and July are
supported (quarterly from 2021).
Certain versions of HTML offer variants, such as loose
and strict definitions. ssc picks those up from the
<!DOCTYPE ...> in the HTML file, if any, and then
carefully ignores them.
Validation of XHTML is even less strict.
Just to remind you, there are no guarantees of
accuracy (or inaccuracy).
Copies of the appropriate standards can be found
online. A copy of the copies referenced during ssc's
development can be found at https://ssc.lu/.
--link.301 Normally, when ssc checks external links
-3 (--link.external), it does not report http forwarding
errors 301 and 308. Use this switch to have it do so.
--link.example Report linkd to faux domains, as defined by RFC 2606
(note ssc also reports links to example.edu)
--link.external Check external links, e.g. those not on the site being
-e checked. This requires a copy of curl on the path.
Note that, no matter what the switch, ssc will NOT
check certain special site names, such as example.com.
--link.ignore DOMAIN When checking external links, ignore this domain. May
be repeated.
--link.internal Check internal links, e.g. those within the website
-l being checked.
--link.local Report linkd to local domains, such as domains ending
in .lan, .home, .corp, and others.
--link.once Only report each broken external link once. If, for
-O example, the site has a number of references to a page
that does not exist, ssc will only report the first
instance of the broken link. Note that, even if it
reports every occurrence of the link, it will only
check it the first time it encounters it (requires
--link.external).
--link.report DOMAIN Report links to domain. May be repeated.
--link.revoke Do not check whether https links' certificates have
-r been revoked (requires --link.external).
--link.xlink Check crosslink IDs on the site being analysed. For
-X example, if a link goes to /index.html#id, then, when
this switch is set, ssc will verify that the id exists
and that it is not hidden.
--math.version Presume this version of MathML (1, 2 or 3). The
following versions are supported:
0 work it out from the (HTML) version of the
file being analysed,
1 MathML 1,
2 MathML 2,
3 MathML 3,
4 MathML 4 (December 2020 draft).
--microdata.verify Check microdata found in WhatWG microdata attributes
-m (itemprop, itemtype, etc.). Note that ssc only knows
about certain ontologies (see --ontology.list)
--microdata.export Export schema.org microdata encountered. This data is
exported in JSON format (not JSON-LD).
--microdata.root DIR When exporting microdata with --microdata.export,
write files into the directory DIR. ssc will create
the directory tree structure as appropriate.
--microdata.virtual v=d When exporting microdata using --microdata.export,
export the contents of virtual directory 'v' to 'd'.
'v' must match a directory identified with
--site.virtual. For example:
--microdata.virtual virtual=X:\virtual.
--microformat.verify Verify Microformats data in class and rel attributes
-M (see https://microformats.org/).
--microformat.export Export microformat data encountered in JSON format.
This option will write files in the same directory as
the source, with the extension .json.
--microformat.version x Presume microformats version x. The following values
are current accepted:
1 microformats version 1 only,
2 microformats version 2 only,
3 both microformats versions 1 and 2.
--nits.catastrophe n redefine nit n as a catastrophe; may be repeated (the
value of n can be determined using --nits.nids below).
--nits.codes Output nit codes.
--nits.comment n Redefine nit n as a comment; may be repeated (the
value of n can be determined using --nits.nids).
--nits.debug n Redefine nit n as a debug message; may be repeated
(the value of n can be determined using --nits.nids).
--nits.error n Redefine nit n as an error; may be repeated (the
value of n can be determined using --nits.nids).
--nits.format F Specify the output format; F is a template file (see
OUTPUT TEMPLATE below).
--nits.info n Redefine nit n as information; may be repeated (the
value of n can be determined using --nits.nids).
--nits.nids Output nit ids, which can be used to redefine nits.
--nits.quote X Specify quote style when using nit.format. X can be
one of 'text' or 'html'.
--nits.silence n Silence nit n; may be repeated (the value of n can be
determined using --nits.nids).
--nits.warning n Redefine nit n as a warning; may be repeated (the
value of n can be determined using --nits.nids).
--ontology.ONT X.Y Presume version X.Y of ontology ONT. For example:
--ontology.xsd 1.1
defaults usage of XSD to version 1.1. The versions
apply to RDFa, microdata, and microformats (using
class) analysis. If .Y is omitted, .0 is presumed.
X must be present. Unspecified defaults are
derived from the HTML version. For a list of
possible values, use --ontology.list.
At the time of writing, the following ontology
versions can be verified. Note that single version
ontologies cannot have their version changed:
article 12,14,18,22
as 1.0,2.0
bibo 1.3
book 12,14,18,22
cc 1.0
content 1.0
csvw 1.0
ctag 1.0
daq 1.0
dbp 1.0
dbp-owl 1.0
dbr 1.0
dc11 1.0,1.1
dcam 1.0
dcat 1.0,2.0
dcmi 1.0
dcterms 1.0,1.1
doap 1.0
dqv 1.0
describedby 1.0
duv 1.0
earl 1.0
event 1.0
foaf 0.1-0.99
frbr_core 1.0
gr 1.0
grddl 1.0
gs1 1.0
ical 1.0
icaltzd 1.0
jsonld 1.0,1.1
ldp 1.0
license 1.0
locn 1.0
ma 1.0
mf 1.0-2.255
music 12,14,18,22
oa 1.0
odrl 1.0
og 10,12,14,18,22
org 1.0
owl 1.0,2.0
poetry 1.0
profile 12,14,18,22
prov 1.0
ptr 1.0
qb 1.0
rdf 1.0-1.3
rdfa 1.0-1.3
rdfg 1.0
rdfs 1.0
rev 1.0
rif 1.0
role 1.0
rr 1.0
schema 0.10-14.0 (see below)
sd 1.0
sioc 1.0
sioc_s 1.0
sioc_t 1.0
skos 1.0
skosxl 1.0
sosa 1.0
ssn 1.0
taxo 1.0
time 1.0
v 1.0
vann 1.0,1.1
vcard 1,2,3,4
video 12,14,18,22
void 1.0
wdr 1.0
wdrs 1.0
website 12,14,18,22
wwg 1.0
xhv 1.0
xml 1.0
xsd 1.0,1.1
vCard versions correspond to RDFa specs, published in
2001, 2006, 2010 & 2014. They do NOT correspond to vCard
data format specifications.
Open Graph versions correspond to snapshots of the specs
from 2010, 2012, 2014, 2018 & 2022.
Most versions of schema (schema.org) should be
specified by their version number, but this doesn't
work with early versions, which should be specified as
follows:
Use For
0.10 June 2011
0.15 July 2011
0.20 August 2011
0.25 September 2011
0.30 October 2011
0.35 November 2011
0.40 December 2011
0.45 January 2012
0.50 February 2012
0.55 March 2012
0.60 April 2012
0.91-0.99 as version number
1.0 1.0a
1.1 1.0b
1.2 1.0c
1.3 1.0d
1.4 1.0e
1.5 1.0f
1.10 1.1
1.20 1.2
1.30 1.3
1.40 1.4
1.50 1.5
1.60 1.6
1.70 1.7
1.80 1.8
1.90 1.9
1.91... as version number
--shadow.changed When shadowing a site that has been previously
shadowed, only copy/link files that have changed.
--shadow.comment Do not delete comments when writing shadow pages.
--shadow.copy X Create a shadow directory structure from source HTML
files, with errors removed and some things tidied up.
X can be:
no copy nothing (default);
pages write 'fixed' source files, ignore non
source files;
hard set up hard links to non-source files
(requires source and shadow directories
to be on the same disk);
soft set up soft links to non-source files;
all copy non HTML files too;
dedu copy non HTML files too, but
deduplicate them, changing links in
HTML source if necessary;
report report duplicates (no shadowing).
ssc cannot convert between versions of HTML, nor
between HTML and XHTML. The soft and hard link options
are only available on systems that support them.
--shadow.enable Enable shadowing (set by other shadow options). If
shadowing is enabled, but shadow.root is not set, SSC
will litter the site source directories with .ndx
files.
--shadow.file f Write ssc's shadow cache to file f, to accelerate
future shadowing of the same content.
--shadow.ignore ext When shadowing, ignore files with this extension (may
be repeated).
--shadow.info Add a comment at or near the top of each shadowed HTML
file noting its generation time.
--shadow.msg text Insert a comment containing the text at the top of
every generated page. Note that, if any SSI included
file is updated, the comment will appear whether or
not the original page is updated.
--shadow.root dir Where to write the shadowed site.
--shadow.ssi Do NOT resolve SSIs when shadowing, even if
--general.ssi is set.
--shadow.space Leave excess/repeated spaces and blank lines in the
shadowed files untidily untouched.
--shadow.update Only examine files that have changed since the last
-u time ssc ran. This is incompatible with --corpus.file.
This requires --shadow.file. Nits of files that have
not changed will not be reported.
--shadow.virtual v=d When shadowing virtual directories, output the shadow
of virtual directory 'v' to directory 'd'. 'v' must
match a directory set up using --site.virtual.
--site.domain domain The domain name of the site is 'domain'. This can be
-S domain repeated. This is used to identify any URL that is
apparently external but is actually internal to the
site.
--site.extension ext Treat files with this extension as X/HTML source
-x ext files. This may be repeated. Files with extension
.html are always checked.
--site.index file This is the name of the index file in a directory.
-i file This can be repeated. This is used for checking
internal links.
--site.root dir This is the root of the website to analyse. ssc will
-g dir recursively scan the directory analysing any HTML
files it finds. The default is the current directory.
--site.virtual v=d The HTML virtual directory 'v' is located in actual
-L v=d directory 'd' on the local filesystem. For example:
--site.virtual virtual=D:\actual
--spell.accept XXX XXX is a correct spelling or a word (or a list of
words) in all languages.
--spell.check Check text spelling. Uses external spelling checkers,
so results may be inconsistent between systems.
--spell.dict LANG,DICT Unix only. Associate dictionary DICT with LANG. For
example, if the standard English dictionary is
en_GB-large:
--spell.dict en-GB,en_GB-large
(Under Windows, ssc uses the OS dictionaries.)
--spell.icu If "no", do not use the ICU libraries at all (they are
rather slow). This will increase the inaccuracy and
incorrectness of the spell checks.
--spell.list FN,LANG The file FN contains a list of valid spellings for
language LANG (which may include country info). If
LANG is omitted, the valid spellings apply to all
languages. For example:
--spell.list villages.txt,en-IE
--spell.list dorfer.txt,de
--spell.list letzstied.txt
--spell.path PATH Unix only. Path to spelling executable. Hunspell or
a compatible program is expected. If none is specified,
ssc will seek hunspell. (Under Windows, ssc uses the
OS spellchecker.)
--stats.meta Produce statistics on <META> usage in <HEAD>. Note
that pragmas reported (http-equiv) are those found in
the HTML source, not those returned by the HTTP
protocol. Remember that many web servers (not all)
will remove some pragmas when serving pages.
--stats.page Produce statistics for each source file encountered.
--stats.summary Produce a summary of overall statistics for the
website.
--svg.version x Presume any SVG code encountered is this version,
unless the SVG code itself specifies a version.
Versions recognised:
1.0,
1.1,
1.2 (really 1.2/tiny),
1.2/tiny,
1.2/full (May 2004 draft, incomplete, any conflict
with tiny always resolved in favour of
tiny),
2.0,
2.1 (april 2021 draft).
If this switch is not used, and some SVG code does not
identify its version, the version is derived from the
version of the host X/HTML code.
--validation.minor x When validating W3 HTML 5 source code, using this
-m x minor version of W3 HTML 5. Valid values are 0, 1, 2,
and 3. WhatWG versions are determined by date,
corresponding roughly to the date of the (online)
publication of the specific version. See the
--html.version switch.
--validation.microdata Validate (schema.org) microdata.
--validation.* Add a permitted value to a particular HTML
enumeration. Can be repeated. Extendable enumerations
include charset, class (valid values may also be
picked up from CSS files), colour, currency,
http-equiv, lang, metaname, mimetype, rel, SGML, and
many others. A full set of possible enumerations can
be listed using the --validation switch.
Webmention switches are noted in webmention.txt.
CONFIGURATION FILE FORMAT
If a configuration file is used, it should be in INI file format. All content
is optional.
Section and option names are derived from the long form switch name, which
consists of SECTION.OPTION, laid out in the format:
[SECTION]
OPTION=yes
OPTION=123456
Switches that do not have a long form version cannot be used in a
configuration file.
Each ssc test (in the toast folder) has a configuration file; browse them for
examples.
ENVIRONMENT
If you set --general.cgi, ssc will check these environment variables:
QUERY_STRING Run under OpenBSD's httpd server. See notes below.
SSC_CONFIG If no configuration file is given on the command line,
use this one
SSC_ARGS Preliminary command line parameters
If, when SSC is run, the environment variable QUERY_STRING is set to an
OpenBSD httpd server CGI value that includes the parameter html.snippet, then
SSC will nitpick that snippet only. Some other parameters are processed,
including general.verbose and html.version.
EXIT STATUS
If no significant nits are found, ssc exits with 0, otherwise it exits with a
value > 0.
OUTPUT TEMPLATE
The --nit.format switch allows control of output format. It takes a file name.
The format of that text file is a sequence of fixed section names, enclosed in
square brackets on their own lines, each optionally followed by text. In that
text, certain specific identifiers, enclosed in brace pairs, are substituted.
For example:
[dog-section]
My pet dog {{dog-name}} is a {{bad-dog}}.
For examples, browse recipe/toast/output/*.nit
If no file is specified, or if the file cannot be loaded, a default template is
used.
Note also the --nit.quote switch.
EXAMPLES
To verify the version of ssc:
ssc -V
To check the static web side source directory /home/site/wwwroot:
ssc /home/site/wwwroot
To check a static website for example.com which uses server side includes, that
lies in the current directory, with verification of external links, giving
rather verbose output:
ssc -e -I -x html -x shtml -s example.com -v 5 -i index.shtml
To check a static web side in the current directory, with a virtual directory,
verifying microformats:
ssc -L vitual=/home/site/virtual -M
To check a static web site using a configuration file:
ssc -f config.file
A simple configuration file might contain:
[general]
verbose=4
output=simple.out
[site]
domain=example.edu
extension=html
index=index.html
root=simple
A configuration file to check a site against HTML 5.2 and SVG 1.1 might
contain:
[general]
output=site.out
class=yes
[link]
check=yes
[site]
domain=example.edu
extension=html
index=index.html
root=site
[html]
version=5.2
[svg]
version=1.1
A configuration file to check against a particular WhatWG living standard,
gathering statistics:
[general]
output=jan21.out
[html]
version=2021/01/01
[link]
check=yes
[microdata]
version=11.0
[site]
domain=example.edu
extension=html
index=index.html
root=site
[stats]
summary=yes
meta=yes
A configuration file to shadow copy and deduplicate a site might contain:
[general]
output=dedu.out
class=yes
[site]
domain=example.edu
extension=html
index=index.html
root=site
[shadow]
copy=5
root=shadow
file=dedu.ndx
A configuration file to export microdata preparing against schema.org version
7.2 might contain:
[general]
output=export.out
class=yes
[site]
domain=example.edu
extension=html
index=index.html
root=site
[link]
check=yes
[microdata]
export=yes
root=export
version=7.2
PREPARING and UPDATING a SITE
These files are based on the steps I take to update an OpenBSD website.
Presume a directory containing the following:
site.conf ssc configuration file for a website
site shadow output produced by ssc
Then I run a script like this:
ssc -f site.conf
upload.sh site /var/www/site-upload server user 0
ssh user@server "cd /var/www ; mv site x ; mv site-upload site ;
mv x site-upload ; ln -sf site htdocs"
upload.sh is a macos bash script that can be found among the source code. Note
that I have rather naughtily replaced OpenBSD's httpd document directory
/var/www/htdocs with a link.
Here is site.conf:
[general]
verbose=info
class=yes
output=site.out
ssi=yes
ignore=pre
rpt=yes
[html]
version=2021/04/01
[link]
check=yes
xlink=yes
[microformat]
verify=yes
[site]
domain=example.com
extension=html
extension=shtml
index=index.shtml
root=corrupt_source
[stats]
summary=yes
[shadow]
copy=dedu
root=site
file=site.ndx
ignore=inc
info=yes
SEE ALSO
tidy
linkchecker
HISTORY
ssc is written by Dylan Harris, https://ssc.lu/.
known issues
SSC is pre–alpha software. It doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do, and what it’s supposed to do is wrong.
- SSC is built based on my understanding of various standards. My understanding is certainly wrong. I will have misread some text, and misunderstood what I read correctly;
- I had to make a number of compromises when building the code. Quite a lot of the checks are incomplete or even entirely missing;
- I put my emphasis on standards that are actively followed, and put little effort, beyond the basics, into those that were never properly implemented;
- I built an evolving product, reflecting evolving standards: biological evolution made the dodo, linguistic evolution made ‘hippopotamus’*, I made SSC;
- The code was built to get something working. In many places, it is horrible. A great deal of refactoring could take place, had I the time.
- No attempt was made to write secure code. It should only be run on trusted data. In particular, a great weakness of much software is the parser, and the parsers in SSC were handmade using hopeless optimism and bizarre ideas.
- No attempt was made to write multi–threading code (I consider SSC disk bound, and never mind that disks have evolved to SSDs since I started the project);
- The tests are incomplete. Emphasis is placed on HTML 5, but even those tests suffer from missing content.
Note that github hosts a list of known issues.
* How can such a dangerous animal have such a cuddly name? It’s like calling the Hound of Hell ‘Fluffy’.
build
BUILD NOTES static site checker https://ssc.lu/ (c) 2020-2022 Dylan Harris Introduction ============ SSC can be built from various unii using CMake, or with Visual Studios 2017 / 2019 / 2022 under Windows. I have built & tested it under x64 in selected OSs. Libraries ========= Common dependencies ------------------- You should install boost version 1.75 or better (https://boost.org), a recent version of the ICU libraries (https://icu-project.org/), & Microsoft's GSL library (https://github.com/Microsoft/GSL). Most unii have most available as packages. You can install build and install them yourself if you prefer. You may need to set these environment variables: - BOOST: if you're not using your operating system's packaged flavour of boost, then set BOOST to your boost source root directory (CMake may welcome BOOST_LIBRARYDIR & BOOST_INCLUDEDIR being set appropriately); - ICU_ROOT: similarly, if you're not using your operating system's packaged ICU, set ICU_ROOT to your ICU library source root directory; - GSL: set it to your GSL root directory. hunspell -------- Building SSC under unii, including macos, requires a development installation of hunspell (https://hunspell.github.io/). You may need to set these environment variables: - HUNSPELL_INCLUDE to point to the hunspell include directory - HUNSPELL_LIB to point to the hunspell library directory - HUNSPELL_VERSION, the actual library name (such as "hunspell-1.7.so") Once you've got them, navigate to recipe/tea, and run cmake. winspell -------- The Windows build, by default, uses the native Windows spellchecker, although, in multilingual contexts that doesn't work so well, unless you use Windows 11. Building ======== Windows ------- To build from Visual Studio, navigate to recipe/tea, open the appropriate .sln file, then build. Only Visual Studios 2017 / 2019 / 2022, 64 bit, have been built & tested, for Windows 8.1 & 10. Unii & mock Unii ---------------- You will need CMake 3.12 or better. From the home ssc directory, compile a normal release build thus: cd recipe/tea cmake . make ctest make install For a debug build: cd recipe/tea cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug . make ctest make install If everything works correctly, then everything will be built, a series of tests run, with a final result at the very end saying no failures. Having said that, given SSC is pre-alpha, don't be too surprised to see some warnings or some final test errors. Note in particular that complaints about being unable to find or copy files during testing are not of concern, these come from scripts that set up or tear down individual tests, and the standard commands used sometimes complain if they can't find files they're supposed to delete, which is a bit silly given things are already in the desired state. The following have been successfully built as x64 amd/intel, although not always under all versions of ssc: Linux: Centos 8/9 Streams, Ubuntu Server 20.04/20.10 OpenBSD: 7.0 / 6.9 / 6.8 MacOS: Monterey, Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra Note: Use clang if possible, gcc takes a wee while. OpenBSD ------- I've only tested the amd64 build under 6.8 / 6.9 / 7.0. The versions of boost and cmake in packages are sufficient. You will need to increase significantly the available memory setting in login.conf for the build account, if you have not done so already. Openbsd 6.8 offers hunspell 1.6, so if you use that version, you will need to set the HUNSPELL_VERSION environment variable appropriately.
notes
If everything works correctly, then everything will be built, a series of tests run, with a final result at the very end saying no failures. Having said that, given SSC is pre–alpha, don’t be too surprised to see some warnings or some final test errors.
source
0.0.128
- Moved CMakeLists.txt to project root to appease certain packagers
- process schema.org versions before v2.0
- fixed some ontology verification bugs
- underlying work
- download source
- released
0.0.127
- all versions of the gs1 ontology now recognised
- various refinements & bug fixes
- download source
- released
0.0.126
- Living Standard April 2022
- various refinements & bug fixes
- download source
- released
0.0.125
- schema.org 14.0
- mark schema.org attic content as deprecated
- gs1 microdata now recognised
- make default protocol https (it was http)
- removed webmention code
- various refinements & bug fixes
- download source
- released
0.0.124
- builds under Centos 9 streams
- report unexpected content in configuration file
- use a binary switch to select option, & a new ‘no’ switch to deselect it
- documented certain previously hidden switches
- various refinements & bug fixes
- download source
- released
0.0.123
- Improved spell checks with ICU libraries (use --spell.icu to disable them)
- added --link.example, --link.local and --link.report
- documented certain previously hidden switches
- various refinements & bug fixes
- download source
- released
0.0.122
- Added spelling checks & spell.xxx switches (requires hunspell on unix)
- Changed behaviour of binary switches (args are now processed, not presumed)
- A number of features are enabled by default
- underlying work / various refinements
- download source
- released
0.0.121
- Living Standard Jan 2022 (very similar to October 2021)
- Drop 32 bit builds & macos before catalina
- underlying work
- download source
- released
0.0.120
- RDFa
- added --ontology.list to list known ontology schema
- added --ontology.ONT x.y to set the default version of ontology ONT
- download source
- released
0.0.119
- macos Monterey
- underlying work / various refinements
- download source
- released
0.0.118
- Visual Studio 2022 solution
- underlying work / various refinements
- download source
- released
0.0.117
- underlying work / various refinements
- download source
- released
0.0.116
- change default HTML to living standard Oct 2021
- OpenBSD 6.9 / 7.0
- underlying work / various refinements
- download source
- released
0.0.115
- set unii installation directory to ~/bin
- added experimental solution for Visual Studio 2022 preview
- XHTML role attribute (https://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml-role/)
- now requires boost 1.75 or better
- unii builds now require CMake 3.12 or better
- underlying work
- download source
- released
0.0.114
- underlying work
- download source
- released
0.0.113
- RDFa with schema.org, but otherwise no core initial context (yet)
- restore progress report via -D switch
- underlying work
- download source
- released
0.0.112
- control output format
- underlying work
- download source
- released
0.0.111
- living standard july 2021
- schema.org v 13.0
- added --shadow.enable
- drop Visual Studio 2015
- download source
- released
0.0.110
- underlying work
- download source
- released
0.0.109
- update flag, so SSC only looks at files that have changed recently
- download source
- released
0.0.108
- default version of HTML 5 switched to W3’s HTML 5.2.
- added example website update script
- specify which page content goes in the corpus
- download source
- released
0.0.107
- SVG 1.2/Tiny
-
partial SVG 1.2/Full (May 2004 draft):
- conflicts with 1.2/Tiny always resolved in favour of 1.2/Tiny
- extensions parsed but not processed
- not complete, nor will it ever be
-
SVG 2.0 (August 2018) with:
- December 2018 Filter Effects
- April 2021 Animations draft
-
SVG 2.0 (April 2021 draft) (2.1 to be?) with:
- October 2019 Filter Effects
- April 2021 Animations draft
- download source
- released
0.0.106
- underlying work
- download source
- released
0.0.105
- improved diagnostics on abort
- underlying work
- download source
- released
0.0.104
- underlying work
- download source
- released
0.0.103
- underlying work
- download source
- released
0.0.102
- underlying work
- download source
- released
0.0.101
- MathML 4, Dec 2020 draft (it’s early days; MathML 4 is really MathML 3 with post–it notes)
- can run in the OpenBSD 6.8 httpd server CGI environment (do NOT expose SSC to untrusted data sources, such as those on the open web, without taking serious precautions: SSC is pre–alpha software, and probably has more bugs than the Creator’s Ultimate All–Beetle Extravaganza)
- --shadow.changed: only update files in the shadow directory when the originals have changed
- expanded ligature suggestions now work across systems
- recognise the non–standard character codes &bang; &hash; &splat; &squiggle; (! # * ~)
- improvements to corpus data extraction
- download source
- released
0.0.100
- can nitpick against WhatWG Living Standard April 2021 (except MathML 4 & SVG 2)
- expanded character code suggestions, particularly for ligatures (Windows only)
- improved aria attribute verification
- the environment variable SSC_CONFIG can specify a configuration file
- the environment variable SSC_ARGS can specify command line arguments
- specify custom elements and custom attributes (see recipe/toast/type/custom/* for example)
- dump site corpus with -d switch
- download source
- released
0.0.99
- checks microformats in microdata
- export living standard & microformats microdata
- download source
- released
0.0.98
- living standard microdata ITEMTYPEs processed
- stats now only counts reported errors
- download source
- released
0.0.97
- living standard jan 2005 – jan 2021, mostly
- MathML 4 and SVG 2 are not currently understood
- various microdata, including vcard, vevent, purl.org and n.whatwg.org, are not currently understood
- no spellchecker
- download source
- released
0.0.96
- underlying work
- download source
- released
0.0.95
- underlying work
- download source
- released
0.0.94
- <INPUT> PATTERN checks
- improved diagnosis output
- download source
- released
0.0.93
- processes schema.org 12.0 microdata
- download source
- released
0.0.92
- recognise open graph meta names
- expand mime type checking
- download source
- released
0.0.91
- underlying work
- download source
- released
0.0.90
- underlying work
- download source
- released
0.0.89
- more media type / file extension checks
- underlying work
- download source
- released
0.0.88
- added media type checks
- underlying work
- download source
- released
0.0.87
- underlying work
- download source
- released
0.0.86
- underlying work
- download source
- released
0.0.85
- additional stats options, reporting <DT><DD>, <ABBR>>, & <DFN> content
- download source
- released
0.0.84
- underlying work
- download source
- released
0.0.83
- verifies various new living standard referenced http-equiv pragmas
- download source
- released
0.0.82
- --schema.version now accepts + for HTML+
- download source
- released
0.0.81
- --schema.version now accepts x.y style versions
- --schema.minor removed
- download source
- released
0.0.80
- adds a (prototype) man page (recipe/tea/gen.txt)
- adds --stats.meta to generate stats on <META> usage in <HEAD>
- checks content-security-policy values
- download source
- released
0.0.79
- A new -z switch to specify the maximum preferred length of title text;
- download source
- released
0.0.78
- underlying work
- download source
- released
0.0.77
- checks that the HTML page and the charset declared on it (if any) have something in common
- download source
- released
0.0.76
- added --shadow.ignore to ignore files with specified extension
- download source
- released
0.0.75
- added --microdata.root and --microdata.virtual for microdata exports
- Ubuntu Server 20.10 amd64 build
- default dedu cache now based on config file name
- underlying work
- download source
- released
0.0.74
- can process schema.org 11.0 microdata;
- includes some microdata refinements.
- download source
- released
0.0.73
- Export ‘repaired’ HTML files, including processing of Server Side Include directives;
- Deduplicate non–HTML files. When used with export, it copies one version of the file and modifies links appropriately.
- download source
- released
0.0.71
- download source
- released
0.0.70
- download source
- released
0.0.60
- download source
- released
0.0.55
- download source
- released
0.0.2
- download source
- released
boot notes
Notes on folder names:
- recipe: a nod to Vernor Vinge’s “A Fire Upon the Deep”
- tea: without tea, nothing works; then there’s builders’ tea
- sauce: makes something dull quite delicious; identifies the arrogant; &, anyway, it’s obvious
- toast: toasts code; i like burnt toast
- heater: i’m not stopping now
copyright & licence
Any dispute shall be resolved in accordance with the law of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
SSC
SSC, static site checker, https://ssc.lu/
copyright (c) 2020-2022 dylan harris
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
W3
Some test files come from w3.org (some directly, in W3 documents, etc.), and are licensed as follows:
License
By obtaining and/or copying this work, you (the licensee) agree that you have read, understood, and will comply with the following terms and conditions.
Permission to copy, modify, and distribute this work, with or without modification, for any purpose and without fee or royalty is hereby granted, provided that you include the following on ALL copies of the work or portions thereof, including modifications:
The full text of this NOTICE in a location viewable to users of the redistributed or derivative work.
Any pre-existing intellectual property disclaimers, notices, or terms and conditions. If none exist, the W3C Software and Document Short Notice should be included.
Notice of any changes or modifications, through a copyright statement on the new code or document such as
"This software or document includes material copied from or derived from [title and URI of the W3C document]. Copyright © [YEAR] W3CÆ (MIT, ERCIM, Keio, Beihang)."
Disclaimers
THIS WORK IS PROVIDED "AS IS," AND COPYRIGHT HOLDERS MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR THAT THE USE OF THE SOFTWARE OR DOCUMENT WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY THIRD PARTY PATENTS, COPYRIGHTS, TRADEMARKS OR OTHER RIGHTS.
COPYRIGHT HOLDERS WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF ANY USE OF THE SOFTWARE OR DOCUMENT.
The name and trademarks of copyright holders may NOT be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to the work without specific, written prior permission. Title to copyright in this work will at all times remain with copyright holders.
Notes
This version: http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/2015/copyright-software-and-document
Previous version: http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/2002/copyright-software-20021231
This version makes clear that the license is applicable to both software and text, by changing the name and substituting "work" for instances of "software and its documentation." It moves "notice of changes or modifications to the files" to the copyright notice, to make clear that the license is compatible with other liberal licenses.
WhatWG
Some test files come from whatwg.org (some directly, in WhatWG documents, etc.), and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. See https://whatwg.org/ for details.
corruptpress.com
Some test files are derived from pages at corruptpress.com. They are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Browse https://corruptpress.com/ for details.
dylanharris.org
Some test files are derived from pages at https://dylanharris.org/. They are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Browse https://dylanharris.org/ for details.