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B.6 datalinklint: Validates DataLink documents

datalinklint runs a series of tests on a VOTable that is supposed to conform to the {links}-response format defined in the IVOA DataLink specification, and reports the results. This is not likely to be of use to normal users, it is intended for people developing or operating DataLink-compliant services to assess correctness, perhaps with a view to improving compliance.

To run it, you point it at the URL or filename of a VOTable of interest, and it runs various tests on it and reports them to standard output. Only the input table itself, and if the input location uses HTTP the HTTP headers, are tested, this validator does not inspect any other resources. As well as validation checks, some reporting of the table's content (such as a summary of the link defined by each row and a listing of the defined service descriptors) is provided as INFO-level output for convenience. This can be suppressed if preferred by use of the report parameter.

This operates in much the same way as the taplint command, and the output has a similar format, though unlike taplint this command does not divide the testing up into stages. Each report line is of the form:

   T-MMMMxN aaaaa...
where the parts have the following meanings:

If you don't like that format, others may be selected using the format parameter, which currently also supports JSON. For more flexible interaction with the output you can invoke datalinklint programmatically and supply your own OutputReporter instance.

As with any validator, this command does not guarantee to pick up everything wrong with the indicated VOTable, but it tries as hard as it can to check against the rules set out in the DataLink specification and other related documents as appropriate. A non-exhaustive list of the items checked is:

At present no checking is performed on the link targets; tests are confined to the presented document itself.

HTTP connections made by this validator are flagged in the User-Agent field with the token "(IVOA-test)".


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STILTS - Starlink Tables Infrastructure Library Tool Set
Starlink User Note256
STILTS web page: http://www.starlink.ac.uk/stilts/
Author email: m.b.taylor@bristol.ac.uk
Mailing list: topcat-user@jiscmail.ac.uk