NAME

       liboping - Library to send ICMPv4/ICMPv6 echo packets to multiple hosts

DESCRIPTION

       This is an overview of liboping, a C library to send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST packets to remote hosts and
       measure the time it takes for replies to be received. This method, often simply called "ping", is a
       common way to measure network latency and/or host reachability.

       The goals of this library are to provide the above functionality in a platform and protocol independent
       manner. The interface is simple, object oriented and (hopefully) ANSI-C compliant.

GENERAL USAGE

       There are two main types that are used by applications. Both are "opaque types", meaning they are
       structures that are not completely defined in the header file, so you cannot access the structures'
       members. You don't need to, don't do it. These structures are subject to change without notice.

       "pingobj_t"
           A ping-object. You can set specific options for this object, add and remove hosts to/from it and send
           ICMP packets to all associated hosts. This is often called a "handle".

       "pingobj_iter_t"
           An iterator over the hosts associated with a "pingobj_t" object. This iterator can be used to query
           more information about a host, for example the hostname, the measured latency or the current ICMP
           sequence.

       Upon startup you usually create one or more "pingobj_t" objects and add hosts to it using the
       "ping_host_add" method (see below). You periodically send "echo requests" using the "ping_send" method,
       iterate over all hosts using "ping_iterator_get" and "ping_iterator_next". For each host you call
       "ping_iterator_get_info" to read the current latency and do something with it.

       If an error occurs you can use "ping_get_error" so get information on what failed.

LINKING WITH LIBOPING

       Depending on you platform you don't need any extra libraries (e.g. GNU/Linux) or "libsocket" (using
       "-lsocket") if the "socket" function is not in the C-library. The latter is the case for the Solaris
       operating system.

SYMBOL NAMES

       All "official" function or method names are prefixed with "ping_". Don't use any other functions or
       methods. Although no such functions should exist.

THREAD SAFETY

       liboping has been designed to be as thread safe a possible. However, this has not been tested and may
       need some additional work. Use at your own risk and please report back any problems or success messages.
       Thank you :)

SEE ALSO

       ping_construct(3), ping_setopt(3), ping_host_add(3), ping_send(3), ping_get_error(3),
       ping_iterator_count(3), ping_iterator_get(3), ping_iterator_get_info(3), ping_iterator_get_context(3)

LICENSE

       liboping is licensed under the LGPL 2.1 or later.

AUTHOR

       liboping is written by Florian "octo" Forster <ff at octo.it>.  Its homepage can be found at
       <http://noping.cc/>.

       Copyright (c) 2006-2017 by Florian "octo" Forster.