code snippet

php remove traling slash
php remove last character
http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.rtrim.php

From a line in template.php that also takes out leading http:// to present a more human-friendly web address.

<?php
    $display = rtrim(str_replace('http://', '', $url), " /");
?>

drupal php check valid url

A too-simple snippet contributed elsewhere:

<?php
function valid_url($str)
{
    return ( ! preg_match('/^(http|https|ftp):\/\/([A-Z0-9][A-Z0-9_-]*(?:\.[A-Z0-9][A-Z0-9_-]*)+):?(\d+)?\/?/i', $str)) ? FALSE : TRUE;
}
?>

After following this epic thread
http://drupal.org/node/124492
it becomes clear that Drupal has a wonderful valid_url function of its own, thanks to mfer

php turn an array into variables matching keys
php associative array to variables

The function you want is

<?php
 extract($array);
?>

http://us.php.net/extract

You can also do it the hard way.

To get an agaric project repository, without the helper script, it's simply: git clone git.agariclabs.org:/srv/git/whoswho.git

And get the current version of the script at https://gitorious.org/agaric-scripts

We are fTollowing our Debian-inspired sysadmin, Stefan Freudenberg, in the locations of this extra-Drupal project, but you can put it anywhere.

Remember to check the Drush project page for the latest version to wget, and replace the CURRENT-VERSION tarball link with that. This will be the last module you ever have to do that for.