Check Beacon File for outdated IDs

check-gnds.sh

#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

# Script for checking GND IDs.
# 1. Grab all GNDs from the beacon file
# 2. Check every GND by making a HEAD request and see whether the returned status code is 303 

import httplib
from urlparse import urlparse

GND_BASE = "https://d-nb.info/gnd/"
BEACON_URL = "http://www.hait.tu-dresden.de/link/fhk.txt"

def make_request(url,verb):
    try:
        url_tokens = urlparse(url)
        if(url_tokens.scheme == 'http'):
            conn = httplib.HTTPConnection(url_tokens.netloc)
        elif(url_tokens.scheme == 'https'):
            conn = httplib.HTTPSConnection(url_tokens.netloc)
        conn.request(verb, url_tokens.path)
        return conn.getresponse()
    except StandardError:
        return None

def check_gnd(id):
    """ A http status code 303 (See Other) is considered good,
        everything else bad.
    """
    req = make_request(GND_BASE + id, 'HEAD')
    if (req.status == 303):
        return 1
    elif (req.status == 301):
        return req.getheader('location').split('/')[-1]
    else:
        return False

def read_gnds():
    req = make_request(BEACON_URL,'GET')
    if(req):
        dic = req.read().splitlines()
        while(dic[0][0] == '#'):
            dic = dic[1:]
        return dic
    else:
        return req

for gnd in read_gnds():
    """ Main loop
        Iterate over all GND IDs and print outdated ones
    """
    check = check_gnd(gnd)
    if(check != 1):
        print 'your ID: ' + gnd +  ' --> new ID: ' + str(check)

replace lines 42/43 with

        while(dic[0][0] == '#'):
          dic = dic[1:]
        return dic

Thanks! Just updated my gist (finally)