Troubleshooting

Common Issues

“root_url is required” error

You must provide the root URL either as a positional argument or in the --config-file:

link_check https://example.com
# or
link_check --config-file config.yaml  # config.yaml must contain root_url

Too many requests / hitting rate limits

Reduce concurrency and add a longer timeout:

link_check https://example.com --max-threads 2 --timeout 30

SSL certificate errors

rms-link-checker always validates SSL certificates and logs one warning per affected domain. There is no --no-verify-ssl option by design. Check with your server administrator to fix the certificate.

Crawl takes too long

Use --max-depth and --max-requests to limit the scope:

link_check https://example.com --max-depth 3 --max-requests 500

Config file not found

Ensure the path is correct and the file exists:

link_check --config-file /absolute/path/to/config.yaml

Links on the same domain are treated as external

rms-link-checker treats subdomains as external. If your root URL is https://example.com, links to https://sub.example.com will be checked but not crawled.