Perl script for finding Broken links in Linux

Description:

Creating Symbolic links across filesystem are very handy but at the same time, they can be a real pain when they got broken. This script checks the directories and report for any broken symbolic links.

I used the Perl module File::Find (comes default with any Perl package) for traversing through all the filenames in a specified directory and report the broken links. To be honest, I grabbed this logic from an online book on Perl programming.

Supported platforms: Any Unix platform with Perl version 5.x installed.

How to use:

On executing this script, it will prompt you to enter the filesystem path as parameter.

An example is shown below:

[root@evtlsb01 opt]# ./check_broken_link.pl

Enter the filesystem path (like /etc /opt /var) : /var /etc /usr /home

Disconnected Link => /var/lib/jbossas/server/production/lib/jboss-remoting.jar -> /usr/share/java/jboss-remoting.jar

Disconnected Link => /var/lib/jbossas/server/default/lib/jboss-remoting.jar -> /usr/share/java/jboss-remoting.jar

Disconnected Link => /etc/alternatives/jaxws_api -> /usr/share/java/glassfish-jaxws.jar

Disconnected Link => /etc/alternatives/jaxws_2_1_api -> /usr/share/java/glassfish-jaxws.jar

Disconnected Link => /etc/alternatives/jaxb_2_1_api -> /usr/share/java/glassfish-jaxb.jar

Disconnected Link => /etc/alternatives/jaxb_api -> /usr/share/java/glassfish-jaxb.jar

Disconnected Link => /usr/share/java/jaxws_api.jar -> /etc/alternatives/jaxws_api

Disconnected Link => /usr/share/java/jaxb_api.jar -> /etc/alternatives/jaxb_api

Disconnected Link => /usr/share/java/jaxws_2_1_api.jar -> /etc/alternatives/jaxws_2_1_api

Disconnected Link => /usr/share/jbossas/client/jboss-remoting.jar -> /usr/share/java/jboss-remoting.jar

Total number of Disconnected links:  10

[root@evtlsb01 opt]# 

How it works:

As I mentioned in the description, it uses the Perl Module File::Find for traversing through all the filenames in a directory we specify and for each file it calls the &wanted subroutine, which in turn uses the Stat function to match the symbolic link files which are broken.

Script

#!/usr/bin/perl
# This script checks the filenames in a directory and report for any broken symbolic links
# Author:  Ashok Raj
# Version 1.2
# Date: 01/06/2008

use File::Find ();
use vars qw/*name *dir *prune/;
my ($cnt,$i,$cnt_sub) = (0,0,0);
print "\n";
*name = *File::Find::name;
*dir = *File::Find::dir;
*prune = *File::Find::prune;
print "Enter the filesystem path (like /etc /opt /var) : ";
my $arr = <>;
chomp($arr);
print "\n";
my @inpts = split(/ /, $arr);

foreach(@inpts)
{
    File::Find::find({wanted => \&wanted}, $inpts[$i] ); # Calling wanted subroutine which use stat function to match broken links
    $cnt = $cnt_sub + $cnt;
    $i++;
    $cnt_sub = 0;
}
print "Total number of Disconnected links: $cnt \n\n";

sub wanted {
                     if (-l $_) {
                                     @stat = stat($_);
                                      if ($#stat == -1)
                                      {
                                        $flname = `ls -l $name`;
                                        ($flperm, $numlnk, $flown1, $flown2, $dt, $mnth, $tm1, $tm2, $cfnm, $ar, $dsfl) = split /\s+/, $flname;
                                        print "Disconnected Link => $cfnm $ar $dsfl\n\n";
                                        $cnt_sub++;
                                         }
                                     }
}