## content

introduction
try
download
README
usage
known issues
build
source
boot notes
copyright & licence

## introduction

The static stite 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. I’m making it available should others find it useful.

It should not be used on untrusted content; its parsers are holier than Robin’s cow.

Dylan Harris
October 2021

## try

Version:
Verbosity:

### 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.

## download

linux (amd64) : centos 8 / ubuntu 20.04
macos (intel) : high sierra / mojave / catalina / big sur
openbsd (amd64) : 6.8 / 6.9 / 7.0
windows (x64) : 10
source (any) : gzip

### notes

These downloads are NOT signed (I’ve not got my act together). If that concerns you, grab the source and compile SSC yourself. Source is also available here, below, & on Github.

It may be necessary to install boost, icu4c & libiconv for the binaries to work. It is normally sufficient to install them using your operating system’s standard package manager.

The specifications used to make SSC were acquired from various public websites. To avoid confusion when discussing details, here is a humungous collection of the documents.

## README

    Static Site Checker
    (an opinionated HTML nitpicker)
    version 0.0.120
    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 Oct 2021
    - 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 (external links require curl)
    - processes server side includes, mostly
    - analyses schema.org microdata 2.0 to 13.0
    - analyses microformats v1 & v2

    with opinions on:
    - standard english where dialect is required
    - perfectly legal but sloppy HTML
    - abhorrent rudeness such as autoplay on videos

    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. Set the environment variable SSCPATH to point to the SSC root directory (the one containing recipe)
    2. If need be download, build and install ICU 63_1 or better (perhaps from icu-project.org)
    3. Set the environment variable ICUPATH to point to the ICU home directory
    4. If need be download, build and install boost 1.67 or better (perhaps from boost.org)
    5. Set the environment variable BOOST to point to the BOOST home directory
    6. -EITHER- build with CMake 3.11 or better ("cd recipe/tea" "cmake ." "make" "ctest" "make install")
    7. -OR- build with recipe\tea\ssc201?.sln in Visual Studios 2017/2019 under Windows
    8. If need be, download, build and install curl (perhaps from curl.haxx.se)
    9. 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.").

    written by dylan harris
    mail@ssc.lu
    October 2021

## 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.

    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.

    SSC ignores scripts.

    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 and exit.

    -V                      Show version details and exit.

    --validation            Show attribute extensions and exits. Attribute
                            extensions are additional values that can be
                            associated with attributes on many X/HTML elements.

    COMMAND LINE AND CONFIGURATION FILES SWITCHES

    These options are available on the command line and in configuration files:

    --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.css           Do NOT process .css files.

    --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.ignored 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.nochange      Report what SSC would do, but don't do it.
    -n

    --general.progress      Dump progress information to standard output. This can
    -D                      intefere with formatted output.

    --general.rdf           Check RDF attributes. This option currently
                            underperforms. An extension to properly support RDF
                            and RDFa is en route.

    --general.rel           Only mention <LINK> REL values, found neither in the
                            living standard nor at microformats.org, in debug
                            output.

    --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 described.

    --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 child text of a header <TITLE>
                            element, 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 (RFC 1860),
                                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),
                                ...
                                2007/1/1    WhatWG WebApps draft (January 2007),
                                2007/7/1    WhatWG HTML 5 (July 2007),
                                ...
                                2021/10/1   WhatWG HTML 5 (October 2021),

                                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 (and April & October 2021). It is expected
                            that, as the standard develops, more precision will be
                            applied to changes in SSC analysis.

                            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
                            carelessly ignores them.

                            Validation of XHTML is not strict.

                            Just to remind you, there are no guarantees of
                            accuracy (or inaccuracy).

                            Copies of the appropriate standards can be found
                            online at source.

    --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.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.internal         Check internal links, e.g. those within the website
    -l                      being checked.

    --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.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.microdata   Check microdata found in WhatWG microdata attributes
    -m                      (itemprop, itemtype, etc.). Note that SSC only knows
                            about schema.org and n.whatwg.org microdata.

    --microdata.export      Export schema.org microdata encountered. This data is
                            exported in JSON format.

    --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.version x.y Test for schema.org microdata version X.Y
                            The following values are valid:
                                    version 2: 2.0 to 2.2;
                                    version 3: 3.0 to 3.9;
                                    versions 4.0, 5.0, 6.0;
                                    version 7: 7.0 to 7.04;
                                    versions 8.0, 9.0, 10.0, 11.0, 12.0, 13.0.
                            If .Y is omitted, .0 is presumed.

    --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).

    --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 only 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

    --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.

    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 test (in the recipe/toast folder) has a configuration file; browse them for
    examples.

    ENVIRONMENT

    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

    Warning: output templates is work in progress, and may be subject to
    significant breaking change in future versions of SSC.

    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,  in the current directory, that
    uses server side includes, including verification of external links, with very
    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.

    Presumine 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

### introduction

SSC can be built from the unix command line using CMake version 3.11 or better, with a C++ 17 compiler such as appropriate versions of gcc or clang. It can also be built under Windows using Visual Studio 2017 or 2019.

### operating systems

I’ve successfully built SSC under:

- Windows 8.1 & 10.0 (x64), using Visual Studios 2017, 2019 & 2022 preview;
- macOS High Sierra, Mojave, Catalina & Big Sur (intel), using CMake with xCode (clang) from the command line;
- Linux centos 8 amd64, plus ubuntus 20.04 & 20.10 server, using CMake with gcc;
- openBSD amd64 6.8, 6.9 & 7.0, using CMake with clang.

I see no reason why it wouldn’t build under similar environments, but I make no promises.

### libraries

Before you can build SSC, you may need to install and build boost version 1.75 or better (some environments require 1.67 or better), and ICU 60.0 or better (I use 69.1).

You may need to set some environment variables:
`SSCPATH` to point to the SSC directory;
`BOOST_ROOT` to point to the boost root directory.
`ICU_PATH` to point to the ICU root directory.

Many contemporary unii have standard packages that can install Boost and ICU. These are often sufficient for building scc. When using standard packages, it is not necessary to set the environment variables for those packages.

### windows 10

To build from Visual Studio, navigate to recipe\tea, open the appropriate .sln, and build. I’ve built for Windows 8.1 / 10 using Visual Studios 2017 / 2019 / 2022 preview respectively. I’ve built successfully for x86 and x64, although I’ve now dropped x86. I am unable to test an ARM build.

### openbsd / macos / centos

You will need CMake 3.11 or better. You may need to configure the environment variables noted above. For macOS, I used the standard xCode command line tools. In OpenBSD, I used the default version of clang. Under Centos, I used gcc 8.3.1. Gcc is not the fastest for compilation.

From the SSC home directory:

    cd recipe/tea
    cmake .
    make
    ctest -V
    make install

### 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. I wouldn’t have made a release if I didn’t think it worked, so don’t be too concerned about any test failures on systems known to work.

## source

### 0.0.120

- underlying work / various refinements
- download source
- released 21 10 24

### 0.0.119

- added --schema.list
- replace --microdata.version with --schema.version
- macos Monterey
- underlying work
- download source
- released 21 12 21

### 0.0.118

- Visual Studio 2022
- underlying work
- download source
- released 21 11 21

### 0.0.117

- now using Microsoft's GSL library (https://github.com/Microsoft/GSL)
- underlying work / various refinements
- download source
- released 21 11 10

### 0.0.116

- change default HTML to living standard Oct 2021
- OpenBSD 6.9 / 7.0
- underlying work / various refinements
- download source
- released 21 10 24

### 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 21 10 17

### 0.0.114

- underlying work
- download source
- released 21 10 6

### 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 21 9 30

### 0.0.112

- control output format
- underlying work
- download source
- released 21 9 21

### 0.0.111

- living standard july 2021
- schema.org v 13.0
- added --shadow.enable
- drop Visual Studio 2015
- download source
- released 21 8 21

### 0.0.110

- underlying work
- download source
- released 21 8 2

### 0.0.109

- update flag, so SSC only looks at files that have changed recently
- download source
- released 21 6 29

### 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 21 6 15

### 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 21 6 05

### 0.0.106

- underlying work
- download source
- released 21 6 31

### 0.0.105

- improved diagnostics on abort
- underlying work
- download source
- released 21 6 24

### 0.0.104

- underlying work
- download source
- released 21 6 18

### 0.0.103

- underlying work
- download source
- released 21 5 11

### 0.0.102

- underlying work
- download source
- released 21 5 3

### 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 21 4 21

### 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 21 4 16

### 0.0.99

- checks microformats in microdata
- export living standard & microformats microdata
- download source
- released 21 4 11

### 0.0.98

- living standard microdata ITEMTYPEs processed
- stats now only counts reported errors
- download source
- released 21 4 7

### 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 21 3 31

### 0.0.96

- underlying work
- download source
- released 21 3 26

### 0.0.95

- underlying work
- download source
- released 21 3 25

### 0.0.94

- <INPUT> PATTERN checks
- improved diagnosis output
- download source
- released 21 3 20

### 0.0.93

- processes schema.org 12.0 microdata
- download source
- released 21 3 12

### 0.0.92

- recognise open graph meta names
- expand mime type checking
- download source
- released 21 3 16

### 0.0.91

- underlying work
- download source
- released 21 3 12

### 0.0.90

- underlying work
- download source
- released 21 3 12

### 0.0.89

- more media type / file extension checks
- underlying work
- download source
- released 21 3 5

### 0.0.88

- added media type checks
- underlying work
- download source
- released 21 3 2

### 0.0.87

- underlying work
- download source
- released 21 2 25

### 0.0.86

- underlying work
- download source
- released 21 2 15

### 0.0.85

- additional stats options, reporting <DT><DD>, <ABBR>>, & <DFN> content
- download source
- released 21 2 12

### 0.0.84

- underlying work
- download source
- released 21 2 01

### 0.0.83

- verifies various new living standard referenced http-equiv pragmas
- download source
- released 21 2 01

### 0.0.82

- --schema.version now accepts + for HTML+
- download source
- released 21 1 29

### 0.0.81

- --schema.version now accepts x.y style versions
- --schema.minor removed
- download source
- released 21 1 24

### 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 21 1 18

### 0.0.79

- A new -z switch to specify the maximum preferred length of title text;
- download source
- released 21 1 15

### 0.0.78

- underlying work
- download source
- released 21 1 3

### 0.0.77

- checks that the HTML page and the charset declared on it (if any) have something in common
- download source
- released 20 12 20

### 0.0.76

- added --shadow.ignore to ignore files with specified extension
- download source
- released 20 12 13

### 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 20 12 10

### 0.0.74

- can process schema.org 11.0 microdata;
- includes some microdata refinements.
- download source
- released 20 12 6

### 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 20 12 5

### 0.0.71

- download source
- released 20 11 25

### 0.0.70

- download source
- released 20 11 22

### 0.0.60

- download source
- released 20 10 29

### 0.0.55

- download source
- released 20 10 20

### 0.0.2

- download source
- released 20 4 20

## 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.