url-sanitizer

url-sanitizer is a Rust command-line tool designed to process and sanitize URLs, removing unwanted parameters or formatting them for safe use. This tool is lightweight, fast, and built for reliability.

Features

• Redirect URL Detection: Automatically detects and follows redirect URLs from platforms like YouTube, Google, Facebook, and Twitter
• Smart URL Extraction: Extracts the actual destination URL from redirect parameters (e.g., q, url, dest)
• Tracking Parameter Removal: Removes common tracking parameters including:
  • UTM parameters (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, etc.)
  • Social media trackers (fbclid, gclid, msclkid)
  • Platform-specific trackers (si for YouTube, ref, source, etc.)
• Recursive Processing: Handles nested redirects and sanitizes extracted URLs
• Fast execution with Rust's performance
• Portable, statically linked binary for easy distribution

Prerequisites - be Sure to have musl-tools

To build and install url-sanitizer on a Debian system, ensure the following are installed:

• Rust and Cargo: The Rust toolchain.

  curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
  source $HOME/.cargo/env

• musl-tools: For static linking with the musl target.

  sudo apt update
  sudo apt install musl-tools

• Git: To clone the repository (optional if you have the local codebase).

  sudo apt install git

Verify installations:

rustc --version && cargo --version && git --version

Building a Standalone Binary

Follow these steps to build a statically linked binary, which can run on any x86_64 Linux system without external library dependencies.

1. Clone the repository:

 # http git clone
 git clone https://github.com/LinuxUser255/url-sanitizer.git

 cd url-sanitizer

2. Add the musl Target:

   rustup target add x86_64-unknown-linux-musl

3. Build the Static Binary: Compile in release mode for an optimized, standalone binary:

   cargo build --release --target x86_64-unknown-linux-musl

   The binary will be at target/x86_64-unknown-linux-musl/release/url-sanitizer.

4. Verify Static Linking: Ensure the binary has no dynamic dependencies:

   ldd target/x86_64-unknown-linux-musl/release/url-sanitizer

   Expected output: statically linked or not a dynamic executable.

5. Optional: Strip the Binary: Reduce binary size by removing debug symbols:

   strip target/x86_64-unknown-linux-musl/release/url-sanitizer

6. Install Globally: Move the binary to /usr/local/bin for system-wide access:

   sudo mv target/x86_64-unknown-linux-musl/release/url-sanitizer /usr/local/bin/

   Verify it’s accessible:

   which url-sanitizer

7. Test the Binary: Run the tool to ensure it works:

   url-sanitizer --help

   (Replace --help with appropriate arguments if your CLI requires them.)

Usage

➜  ~ url-sanitizer -h
Usage: url-sanitizer --url <URL>

Options:
  -u, --url <URL>
  -h, --help       Print help
  -V, --version    Print version

Examples:

Simple YouTube link with tracking:

url-sanitizer --url https://youtu.be/gW464nWLdAs\?si\=TAZ3qCA1503uB__t
Sanitized URL: https://youtu.be/gW464nWLdAs

Complex YouTube redirect:

url-sanitizer --url 'https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhq...&q=https%3A%2F%2Fopenart.ai%2Fhome%3Fref%3Daitanalopez&v=fxiDS2C9XYA'
# Output: https://openart.ai/home
# (Extracts the actual URL from the redirect and removes the 'ref' tracking parameter)

URL with UTM parameters:

url-sanitizer --url 'https://example.com/page?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&id=123'
# Output: https://example.com/page?id=123
# (Preserves the 'id' parameter while removing UTM tracking)