Help with htmlproofer Errors: Missing References and Invalid Internal Links

[rafisics]

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Description

I'm currently using the following workflow on this site:

name: "Build and Deploy"
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
      - master
    paths-ignore:
      - .gitignore
      - README.md
      - LICENSE

  # Allows you to run this workflow manually from the Actions tab
  workflow_dispatch:

permissions:
  contents: read
  pages: write
  id-token: write

# Allow one concurrent deployment
concurrency:
  group: "pages"
  cancel-in-progress: true

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0
          # submodules: true
          # If using the 'assets' git submodule from Chirpy Starter, uncomment above
          # (See: https://github.com/cotes2020/chirpy-starter/tree/main/assets)

      - name: Setup Pages
        id: pages
        uses: actions/configure-pages@v4

      - name: Setup Ruby
        uses: ruby/setup-ruby@v1
        with:
          ruby-version: 3.3
          bundler-cache: true

      - name: Build site
        run: bundle exec jekyll b -d "_site${{ steps.pages.outputs.base_path }}"
        env:
          JEKYLL_ENV: "production"

      - name: Test site
        run: |
          bundle exec htmlproofer _site \
            \-\-disable-external \
            \-\-ignore-urls "/^http:\/\/127.0.0.1/,/^http:\/\/0.0.0.0/,/^http:\/\/localhost/"

      - name: Upload site artifact
        uses: actions/upload-pages-artifact@v3
        with:
          path: "_site${{ steps.pages.outputs.base_path }}"

  deploy:
    environment:
      name: github-pages
      url: ${{ steps.deployment.outputs.page_url }}
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: build
    steps:
      - name: Deploy to GitHub Pages
        id: deployment
        uses: actions/deploy-pages@v4

Here htmlproofer is used to check my Jekyll site after building it, and I'm encountering several errors that I'm struggling to understand and resolve. Here are the two main types of issues I’m facing:

1. Missing href references in <a> tags

I'm seeing the following errors in my site files:

'a' tag is missing a reference

This is happening across multiple pages in my _site directory, such as:

• 404.html
• about/index.html
• blogging/tutorial/customize-the-favicon/index.html
• and others.

It seems that htmlproofer is flagging <a> tags that are missing href attributes. I’ve checked my templates and content files, but I can’t seem to figure out why these links are missing references. Does anyone have suggestions for how to fix this?

2. Invalid internal links

I’m also getting warnings about internal links that point to non-existent pages:

internally linking to /chirpy-test/blogging, which does not exist

For example:

• blogging/tutorial/write-a-new-post/index.html is linking to ../text-and-typography/
• Several tags and categories pages are linking to paths like /chirpy-test/getting-started/ that don’t exist.

Could someone guide me on how to fix these broken internal links or why they might be incorrectly pointing to these paths?

Operations you have already tried

I’ve tried the following solutions:

• Double-checking my _config.yml for any misconfigurations.
• Ensuring all necessary files exist in the correct locations.
• Rebuilding the site to make sure the changes are reflected.

But I’m still facing these errors.

Anything else?

No response

[rafisics]

I am getting these errors:

  bundle exec htmlproofer _site \
    \-\-disable-external \
    \-\-ignore-urls "/^http:\/\/127.0.0.1/,/^http:\/\/0.0.0.0/,/^http:\/\/localhost/"
  shell: /usr/bin/bash -e {0}
  env:
    GITHUB_PAGES: true
Running 3 checks (Images, Links, Scripts) in ["_site"] on *.html files ...


Checking 134 internal links
Checking internal link hashes in 7 files
Ran on 24 files!


For the Links check, the following failures were found:

* At _site/chirpy-test/404.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/404.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/about/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/about/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/blogging/demo/text-and-typography/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/blogging/demo/text-and-typography/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/blogging/tutorial/customize-the-favicon/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/blogging/tutorial/customize-the-favicon/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/blogging/tutorial/getting-started/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/blogging/tutorial/getting-started/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/blogging/tutorial/write-a-new-post/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/blogging/tutorial/write-a-new-post/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/categories/blogging/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/categories/blogging/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/categories/demo/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/categories/demo/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/categories/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/categories/tutorial/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/categories/tutorial/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/cv/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/cv/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/demo/pwa-testing/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/demo/pwa-testing/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/posts/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/resources/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/resources/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/tags/favicon/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/tags/favicon/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/tags/getting-started/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/tags/getting-started/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/tags/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/tags/pwa/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/tags/pwa/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/tags/testing/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/tags/testing/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/tags/typography/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/tags/typography/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/tags/writing/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

* At _site/chirpy-test/tags/writing/index.html:1:

  'a' tag is missing a reference

For the Links > Internal check, the following failures were found:

* At _site/chirpy-test/blogging/tutorial/write-a-new-post/index.html:109:

  internally linking to ../text-and-typography/, which does not exist

* At _site/chirpy-test/categories/blogging/index.html:1:

  internally linking to /chirpy-test/blogging, which does not exist

* At _site/chirpy-test/categories/demo/index.html:1:

  internally linking to /chirpy-test/demo, which does not exist

* At _site/chirpy-test/categories/tutorial/index.html:1:

  internally linking to /chirpy-test/tutorial, which does not exist

* At _site/chirpy-test/tags/favicon/index.html:1:

  internally linking to /chirpy-test/favicon, which does not exist

* At _site/chirpy-test/tags/getting-started/index.html:1:

  internally linking to /chirpy-test/getting-started, which does not exist

* At _site/chirpy-test/tags/pwa/index.html:1:

  internally linking to /chirpy-test/pwa, which does not exist

* At _site/chirpy-test/tags/testing/index.html:1:

  internally linking to /chirpy-test/testing, which does not exist

* At _site/chirpy-test/tags/typography/index.html:1:

  internally linking to /chirpy-test/typography, which does not exist

* At _site/chirpy-test/tags/writing/index.html:1:

  internally linking to /chirpy-test/writing, which does not exist


HTML-Proofer found 50 failures!
Error: Process completed with exit code 1.

[SoumyaK4]

it basically means somewhere in your code where you use an <a href=""></a> for links, the href is actually not in the code

[LuizMeier]

I get that, but it was everything working normally until I started using polyglot, and I am struggling finding where I messed things up.

[rafisics]

I couldn't fix this issue yet.
So, I am thinking I might remove the part from my workflow!

      - name: Test site
        run: |
          bundle exec htmlproofer _site \
            \-\-disable-external \
            \-\-ignore-urls "/^http:\/\/127.0.0.1/,/^http:\/\/0.0.0.0/,/^http:\/\/localhost/"

[LuizMeier]

For a tags missing reference ChatGPT helped me by editing a custom file that I created, adding href="#" at the end of a specific line. You can check the change here.

I'm struggling now with the redirection issue, that in my case appear to be something with the tags. If I let the posts with no tags, everything works normally.

Edit1: I must have the same tags (in the same language) on both posts (en and pt-BR in my case) to get it working. Now i'm researching what should I do to have tags in different languages without duplicating it.

$ bundle exec htmlproofer _site --disable-external
Running 3 checks (Images, Links, Scripts) in ["_site"] on *.html files ...

Checking 310 internal links
Checking internal link hashes in 14 files
Ran on 33 files!

For the Links check, the following failures were found:

• At _site/tags/index.html:443:

  //tags/backstage/ is a protocol-relative URL, use explicit https:// instead

For the Links > Internal check, the following failures were found:

• At _site/404.html:635:

  internally linking to /en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/404.html:725:

  internally linking to /en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/about/index.html:634:

  internally linking to /en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/about/index.html:724:

  internally linking to /en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/archives/index.html:691:

  internally linking to /en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/archives/index.html:781:

  internally linking to /en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/categories/index.html:546:

  internally linking to /en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/categories/index.html:636:

  internally linking to /en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/index.html:1509:

  internally linking to /en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/index.html:1599:

  internally linking to /en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/posts/authentication-backstage-entra-id/index.html:2125:

  internally linking to /en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/posts/authentication-backstage-entra-id/index.html:2297:

  internally linking to /en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/posts/creating-your-own-custom-lld-in-zabbix/index.html:1929:

  internally linking to /en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/posts/creating-your-own-custom-lld-in-zabbix/index.html:2091:

  internally linking to /en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/posts/fortinet-vs-palo-alto-automating-load-balancing/index.html:1120:

  internally linking to /en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/posts/fortinet-vs-palo-alto-automating-load-balancing/index.html:1292:

  internally linking to /en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/posts/how-i-recovered-a-bricked-cctv-camera/index.html:2104:

  internally linking to /en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/posts/how-i-recovered-a-bricked-cctv-camera/index.html:2270:

  internally linking to /en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/posts/integrating-backstage-azure-devops/index.html:3628:

  internally linking to /en/tags/backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/posts/integrating-backstage-azure-devops/index.html:3730:

  internally linking to /en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/posts/integrating-backstage-azure-devops/index.html:3902:

  internally linking to /en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/posts/monitoring-cluster-shared-volumes-with-zabbix/index.html:1431:

  internally linking to /en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/posts/monitoring-cluster-shared-volumes-with-zabbix/index.html:1597:

  internally linking to /en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/posts/monitoring-palo-alto-firewalls-using-api/index.html:1605:

  internally linking to /en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/posts/monitoring-palo-alto-firewalls-using-api/index.html:1777:

  internally linking to /en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/pt-BR/404.html:635:

  internally linking to /pt-BR/en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/pt-BR/404.html:725:

  internally linking to /pt-BR/en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/pt-BR/about/index.html:634:

  internally linking to /pt-BR/en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/pt-BR/about/index.html:724:

  internally linking to /pt-BR/en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/pt-BR/archives/index.html:691:

  internally linking to /pt-BR/en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/pt-BR/archives/index.html:781:

  internally linking to /pt-BR/en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/pt-BR/categories/index.html:546:

  internally linking to /pt-BR/en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/pt-BR/categories/index.html:636:

  internally linking to /pt-BR/en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/pt-BR/index.html:1509:

  internally linking to /pt-BR/en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/pt-BR/index.html:1599:

  internally linking to /pt-BR/en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/pt-BR/posts/authentication-backstage-entra-id/index.html:2304:

  internally linking to /pt-BR/en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/pt-BR/posts/creating-your-own-custom-lld-in-zabbix/index.html:2079:

  internally linking to /pt-BR/en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/pt-BR/posts/fortinet-vs-palo-alto-automating-load-balancing/index.html:1273:

  internally linking to /pt-BR/en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/pt-BR/posts/how-i-recovered-a-bricked-cctv-camera/index.html:2253:

  internally linking to /pt-BR/en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/pt-BR/posts/integrating-backstage-azure-devops/index.html:3874:

  internally linking to /pt-BR/en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/pt-BR/posts/monitoring-cluster-shared-volumes-with-zabbix/index.html:1589:

  internally linking to /pt-BR/en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/pt-BR/posts/monitoring-palo-alto-firewalls-using-api/index.html:1697:

  internally linking to /pt-BR/en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/pt-BR/tags/index.html:543:

  internally linking to /pt-BR/en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/pt-BR/tags/index.html:633:

  internally linking to /pt-BR/en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/tags/backstage/index.html:275:

  internally linking to /pt-BR/tags/backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/tags/backstage/index.html:598:

  internally linking to /en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/tags/backstage/index.html:688:

  internally linking to /en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/tags/index.html:548:

  internally linking to /en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

• At _site/tags/index.html:638:

  internally linking to /en-tags-backstage/, which does not exist

HTML-Proofer found 50 failures!

[LuizMeier]

Just passing by to say that I "solved" my tag redirection problems by assuming all of them in english only. Later I will try to fnd how to get Polyglot localizing all of them.