Installation
                    ==============

Requirements
------------
Python >= 1.5.2 from http://www.python.org/
Distutils >= 0.9.1 from http://www.python.org/sigs/distutils-sig/
Python 1.6 includes the Distutils 0.9.1,
Python 2.0 includes the Distutils 1.0.1


Optionally packages
-------------------
OpenSSL from http://www.openssl.org/
You will need Perl for Win32 (available from
http://www.activestate.com/ActivePerl) if you want to install OpenSSL
on Windows!


Setup
-----
Run "python setup.py config" to configure. This tests if we can
compile the SSL extension and writes the result in the file
LinkCheckerConf.py.
You can give additional parameters to help compiling, for example
Linux users can run "python setup.py config -lcrypto" to use the SSL
module.
Run "python setup.py build" to build.
Run "python setup.py install" to install.
Run "python setup.py --help" for help.
Debian users can build the .deb package with "debian/rules binary" as
root or "fakeroot debian/rules binary" as a normal user.

After installation, the system wide configuration file is in 
<prefix>/share/linkchecker/linkcheckerrc.
On Debian Linux systems it is in /etc/linkcheckerrc.
The local configuration file is ~/.linkcheckerrc on Unix platforms.

To run the program type "linkchecker" followed by your URLs you want 
to check.
Type "linkchecker -h" for help.


Note
----
If you want to make your own distribution with "python setup.py sdist",
you will need Distutils >= 0.9.4. Older versions are hanging when
they try to parse the MANIFEST.in file.


(Fast)CGI web interface
-----------------------
The *cgi files are three CGI scripts which you can use to run LinkChecker
with a nice graphical web interface.
You can use and adjust the example HTML files in the lconline directory
to run the script.
1) Choose a CGI script. The simplest is lc.cgi and you need a web server
   with CGI support.
   The scripts lc.fcgi (I tested this a while ago) and lc.sz_fcgi 
   (untested) need a web server with FastCGI support.
2) Copy the script of your choice in the CGI directory.
3) Adjust the "action=..." parameter in lconline/lc_cgi.html
   to point to your CGI script.
4) load the lconline/index.html file, enter an URL and klick on the
   check button
5) If something goes wrong, check the following:
   a) look in the error log of your web server
   b) be sure that you have enabled CGI support in your web server
      do this by running other CGI scripts from which you know that
      they are working
   c) try to run the lc.cgi script by hand
   d) try the testit() function in the lc.cgi script