from httplib import HTTP from urlparse import urlparse def checkURL(url): p = urlparse(url) h = HTTP(p[1]) h.putrequest('HEAD', p[2]) h.endheaders() if h.getreply()[0] == 200: return 1 else: return 0 if __name__ == '__main__': assert checkURL('http://slashdot.org') assert not checkURL('http://slashdot.org/notadirectory')