#!/usr/bin/perl

use LWP::UserAgent;

($ua = LWP::UserAgent->new)->timeout(20);

$url = "http://202.103.25.186/music/Phil%20Collins%20-%20That's%20What
+%20You%20Said.mp3";

if(($ua->request(HTTP::Request->new('HEAD', $url)))->code() == 200) {
    print "GOOD\n";
} else { 
    print "BAD\n";
}
[download]

Ahh, it got a redirect! Use simple_request instead of request and you'll get back the 301/302 code which you can use as a "bad link" confirmation.

That's what I've done in the various link checkers I've written recently.

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

Randal Schwartz... cool! Your llama book got me going with Perl, and now you're helping me out on Perl Monks. Thanks!

Anyway... I've pasted my final code below and it works. I was just wondering if there was a more efficient way to do it. Right now I am making two requests for the url. I figure this eats up bandwidth and just plain takes longer. Can someone offer a little input? Thanks!

#!/usr/bin/perl

use LWP::UserAgent;

($ua = LWP::UserAgent->new)->timeout(20);

$url = "http://fly.hiwaay.net/~dbwalker/josie.mp3";

if(($ua->request(HTTP::Request->new('HEAD', $url)))->code() == 200) {
    $redirect = $ua->simple_request(HTTP::Request->new('HEAD', $url));
    if ($redirect->code == 301 or $redirect->code == 302) {
        print "BAD\n";
    } else {
        print "GOOD\n";
    }
} else {
    print "BAD\n";
}
[download]