🌍 Check URL for Validity with WGET

Checks if a remote web server returns a valid page for a given URL.

url-validity-action

Usage Examples

Basic Usage

steps:
  - name: 'Check remote web server for URL'
    uses: lfreleng-actions/url-validity-action@main
    with:
      url: "https://linuxfoundation.org"

Advanced Usage

steps:
  - name: 'Check remote web server for URL'
    id: url-check
    uses: lfreleng-actions/url-validity-action@main
    with:
      url: "https://linuxfoundation.org"

  - name: 'Process results'
    run: |
      echo "URL is valid: ${{ steps.url-check.outputs.valid }}"
      echo "HTTP Status Code: ${{ steps.url-check.outputs.http_code }}"
      if [ -n "${{ steps.url-check.outputs.redirect_url }}" ]; then
        echo "Redirected to: ${{ steps.url-check.outputs.redirect_url }}"
        echo "Redirect is valid: ${{ steps.url-check.outputs.redirect_valid }}"
        echo "Redirect loop detected: ${{ steps.url-check.outputs.redirect_loop }}"
      fi

  - name: 'Handle different scenarios'
    run: |
      # Check for redirect loops first
      if [ "${{ steps.url-check.outputs.redirect_loop }}" = "true" ]; then
        echo "🔄 Redirect loop detected - URLs are redirecting in a cycle"
        exit 1
      fi

      # Handle different HTTP status codes
      case "${{ steps.url-check.outputs.http_code }}" in
        200)
          echo "✅ Success - URL is accessible"
          ;;
        301|302|303|307|308)
          echo "🔄 Redirect - Final URL: ${{ steps.url-check.outputs.redirect_url }}"
          if [ "${{ steps.url-check.outputs.redirect_valid }}" = "true" ]; then
            echo "✅ Redirected URL is valid"
          else
            echo "❌ Redirected URL is invalid"
          fi
          ;;
        404)
          echo "❌ Not Found - URL does not exist"
          ;;
        500|502|503|504)
          echo "🚫 Server Error - Remote server is experiencing issues"
          ;;
        *)
          echo "⚠️ Unexpected HTTP code: ${{ steps.url-check.outputs.http_code }}"
          ;;
      esac

Implementation

Uses the shell command:

wget [URL] --spider --server-response --max-redirect=10

This enhanced version captures HTTP status codes and follows up to 10 redirects to determine the final destination URL.

Inputs

Input	Required	Description	Example
url	true	URL to check	https://linuxfoundation.org

Outputs

Variable Name	Mandatory	Description
valid	True	Set true or false based on WGET exit status
http_code	False	HTTP status code returned by the server (e.g., 200, 404, 500)
redirect_url	False	Final URL after following redirects (empty if no redirects)
redirect_valid	False	True if redirected URL is valid, false if invalid, empty if no redirect
redirect_loop	False	True if redirect loop detected, false otherwise