Context
gomarklint's external-link rule validates external URLs by making HTTP requests. mdsmith's MDS027 only checks cross-file references (local paths and heading anchors), not external URLs.
Proposed rule
- ID: TBD (next available MDS ID)
- Name:
external-link-check
- What it detects: External URLs that return errors (404, timeouts, DNS failures)
- Severity: warning
- Autofix: no
- Default: off (requires network, slow)
Considerations
- Should be off by default (network dependency, latency)
- Support skip patterns (regex) for known-flaky URLs
- Caching to avoid redundant requests across files
- Timeout configuration
- Parallel requests with rate limiting
Discovered via comparison with gomarklint.
Context
gomarklint's
external-linkrule validates external URLs by making HTTP requests. mdsmith's MDS027 only checks cross-file references (local paths and heading anchors), not external URLs.Proposed rule
external-link-checkConsiderations
Discovered via comparison with gomarklint.