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Sitemaps, Meta Data, and robots.txt Forum

    
robots.txt validator bug
The robots.txt validator accepts malformed files (missing User-agent).
mortenf




msg:1528317		 9:53 am on Nov 3, 2002 (gmt 0)

Hi there,

The robots.txt validator seems to have a small bug.

Trying to validate the file at [rdfig.xmlhack.com...] gives no errors, but the file only contains a single line:

Disallow:/search/

According to the specification, a record consists of at least on User-agent line and at least one Disallow line.

Shouldn't this file be flagged as in error?

Regards,
Morten Frederiksen

 

Brett_Tabke




msg:1528318		 10:10 pm on Nov 3, 2002 (gmt 0)

You are right - that should be invalid.
Brett_Tabke




msg:1528319		 10:17 pm on Nov 3, 2002 (gmt 0)

Should be set. Thanks! (I really enjoy finding new exceptions that the validator isn't handling just right).
jdMorgan




msg:1528320		 11:02 pm on Nov 3, 2002 (gmt 0)

Brett,

That reminds me... Did you see the post last month (or before) where a member reported that his problems with a French (IIRC) SE spider were caused by a missing "required" blank line after the final robots.txt record?

The quoted snippet from the spider operator claimed that the last line in the robots.txt file should be blank and have only a newline. I wish I could remember more...

Jim

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