} else {
			print "$repository is dead.\n";
		}
	}
}

#function that trims a domain
sub trim_domain {
	$_ = my $original_input = shift;
	$_ =~ s/^\s+//; #strip spaces at start of string
	$_ =~ s/\s+$//; #strip spaces at end of string
	$_ =~ s|^http://||; # strip http:// at begining
	$_ =~ s|/.*$||; # strip everything after the first /
	my $trimmed_domain = $_;
	
	unless ($trimmed_domain) {
		logMessage("trim_domain had a problem trimming $original_input");
		carp ("trim_domain had a problem trimming $original_input");
		$trimmed_domain = "$original_input couldn't be trimmed in trim_domain";
	} 
	return $trimmed_domain;	
}