NAME

       ping - send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST to network hosts

SYNOPSIS

       ping [-aAbBdCDfhHLnOqrRUvV46] [-c count] [-e identifier] [-F flowlabel] [-i interval]
            [-I interface] [-l preload] [-m mark] [-M pmtudisc_option] [-N nodeinfo_option]
            [-w deadline] [-W timeout] [-p pattern] [-Q tos] [-s packetsize] [-S sndbuf] [-t ttl]
            [-T timestamp option] [hop...] {destination}

DESCRIPTION

       ping uses the ICMP protocol's mandatory ECHO_REQUEST datagram to elicit an ICMP
       ECHO_RESPONSE from a host or gateway. ECHO_REQUEST datagrams (“pings”) have an IP and ICMP
       header, followed by a struct timeval and then an arbitrary number of “pad” bytes used to
       fill out the packet.

       ping works with both IPv4 and IPv6. Using only one of them explicitly can be enforced by
       specifying -4 or -6.

       ping can also send IPv6 Node Information Queries (RFC4620). Intermediate hops may not be
       allowed, because IPv6 source routing was deprecated (RFC5095).

OPTIONS

       -4
           Use IPv4 only.

       -6
           Use IPv6 only.

       -a
           Audible ping.

       -A
           Adaptive ping. Interpacket interval adapts to round-trip time, so that effectively not
           more than one (or more, if preload is set) unanswered probe is present in the network.
           The default interval is 2 ms, for more info see option -i. On networks with low RTT
           this mode is essentially equivalent to flood mode.

       -b
           Allow pinging a broadcast address.

       -B
           Do not allow ping to change source address of probes. The address is bound to one
           selected when ping starts.

       -c count
           Stop after sending count ECHO_REQUEST packets. With deadline option, ping waits for
           count ECHO_REPLY packets, until the timeout expires.

       -C
           Call connect() syscall on socket creation.

       -d
           Set the SO_DEBUG option on the socket being used. Essentially, this socket option is
           not used by Linux kernel.

       -D
           Print timestamp (unix time + microseconds as in gettimeofday) before each line.

       -e identifier
           Set the identification field of ECHO_REQUEST. Value 0 implies using raw socket (not
           supported on ICMP datagram socket). The value of the field may be printed with -v
           option.

       -f
           Flood ping. For every ECHO_REQUEST sent a period “.” is printed, while for every
           ECHO_REPLY received a backspace is printed. This provides a rapid display of how many
           packets are being dropped. If interval is not given, it sets interval to zero and
           outputs packets as fast as they come back or one hundred times per second, whichever
           is more. Only the super-user may use this option with zero interval.

       -F flow label
           IPv6 only. Allocate and set 20 bit flow label (in hex) on echo request packets. If
           value is zero, kernel allocates random flow label.

       -h
           Show help.

       -H
           Force DNS name resolution for the output. Useful for numeric destination, or -f
           option, which by default do not perform it. Override previously defined -n option.

       -i interval
           Wait interval seconds between sending each packet. Real number allowed with dot as a
           decimal separator (regardless locale setup). The default is to wait for one second
           between each packet normally, or not to wait in flood mode. Only super-user may set
           interval to values less than 2 ms. Broadcast and multicast ping have even higher
           limitation for regular user: minimum is 1 sec.

       -I interface
           interface is either an address, an interface name or a VRF name. If interface is an
           address, it sets source address to specified interface address. If interface is an
           interface name, it sets source interface to specified interface. If interface is a VRF
           name, each packet is routed using the corresponding routing table; in this case, the
           -I option can be repeated to specify a source address. NOTE: For IPv6, when doing ping
           to a link-local scope address, link specification (by the '%'-notation in destination,
           or by this option) can be used but it is no longer required.

       -l preload
           If preload is specified, ping sends that many packets not waiting for reply. Only the
           super-user may select preload more than 3.

       -L
           Suppress loopback of multicast packets. This flag only applies if the ping destination
           is a multicast address.

       -m mark
           use mark to tag the packets going out. This is useful for variety of reasons within
           the kernel such as using policy routing to select specific outbound processing.

       -M pmtudisc_opt
           Select Path MTU Discovery strategy.  pmtudisc_option may be either do (set DF flag but
           subject to PMTU checks by kernel, packets too large will be rejected), want (do PMTU
           discovery, fragment locally when packet size is large), probe (set DF flag and bypass
           PMTU checks, useful for probing), or dont (do not set DF flag).

       -N nodeinfo_option
           IPv6 only. Send IPv6 Node Information Queries (RFC4620), instead of Echo Request.
           CAP_NET_RAW capability is required.

           help
               Show help for NI support.

           name
               Queries for Node Names.

           ipv6
               Queries for IPv6 Addresses. There are several IPv6 specific flags.

               ipv6-global
                   Request IPv6 global-scope addresses.

               ipv6-sitelocal
                   Request IPv6 site-local addresses.

               ipv6-linklocal
                   Request IPv6 link-local addresses.

               ipv6-all
                   Request IPv6 addresses on other interfaces.

           ipv4
               Queries for IPv4 Addresses. There is one IPv4 specific flag.

               ipv4-all
                   Request IPv4 addresses on other interfaces.

           subject-ipv6=ipv6addr
               IPv6 subject address.

           subject-ipv4=ipv4addr
               IPv4 subject address.

           subject-name=nodename
               Subject name. If it contains more than one dot, fully-qualified domain name is
               assumed.

           subject-fqdn=nodename
               Subject name. Fully-qualified domain name is always assumed.

       -n
           Numeric output only. No attempt will be made to lookup symbolic names for host
           addresses (no reverse DNS resolution). This is the default for numeric destination or
           -f option. Override previously defined -H option.

       -O
           Report outstanding ICMP ECHO reply before sending next packet. This is useful together
           with the timestamp -D to log output to a diagnostic file and search for missing
           answers.

       -p pattern
           You may specify up to 16 “pad” bytes to fill out the packet you send. This is useful
           for diagnosing data-dependent problems in a network. For example, -p ff will cause the
           sent packet to be filled with all ones.

       -q
           Quiet output. Nothing is displayed except the summary lines at startup time and when
           finished.

       -Q tos
           Set Quality of Service -related bits in ICMP datagrams.  tos can be decimal (ping
           only) or hex number.

           In RFC2474, these fields are interpreted as 8-bit Differentiated Services (DS),
           consisting of: bits 0-1 (2 lowest bits) of separate data, and bits 2-7 (highest 6
           bits) of Differentiated Services Codepoint (DSCP). In RFC2481 and RFC3168, bits 0-1
           are used for ECN.

           Historically (RFC1349, obsoleted by RFC2474), these were interpreted as: bit 0 (lowest
           bit) for reserved (currently being redefined as congestion control), 1-4 for Type of
           Service and bits 5-7 (highest bits) for Precedence.

       -r
           Bypass the normal routing tables and send directly to a host on an attached interface.
           If the host is not on a directly-attached network, an error is returned. This option
           can be used to ping a local host through an interface that has no route through it
           provided the option -I is also used.

       -R
           ping only. Record route. Includes the RECORD_ROUTE option in the ECHO_REQUEST packet
           and displays the route buffer on returned packets. Note that the IP header is only
           large enough for nine such routes. Many hosts ignore or discard this option.

       -s packetsize
           Specifies the number of data bytes to be sent. The default is 56, which translates
           into 64 ICMP data bytes when combined with the 8 bytes of ICMP header data.

       -S sndbuf
           Set socket sndbuf. If not specified, it is selected to buffer not more than one
           packet.

       -t ttl
           ping only. Set the IP Time to Live.

       -T timestamp option
           Set special IP timestamp options.  timestamp option may be either tsonly (only
           timestamps), tsandaddr (timestamps and addresses) or tsprespec host1 [host2 [host3
           [host4]]] (timestamp prespecified hops).

       -U
           Print full user-to-user latency (the old behaviour). Normally ping prints network
           round trip time, which can be different f.e. due to DNS failures.

       -v
           Verbose output. Do not suppress DUP replies when pinging multicast address.

       -V
           Show version and exit.

       -w deadline
           Specify a timeout, in seconds, before ping exits regardless of how many packets have
           been sent or received. In this case ping does not stop after count packet are sent, it
           waits either for deadline expire or until count probes are answered or for some error
           notification from network.

       -W timeout
           Time to wait for a response, in seconds. The option affects only timeout in absence of
           any responses, otherwise ping waits for two RTTs. Real number allowed with dot as a
           decimal separator (regardless locale setup). 0 means infinite timeout.

       When using ping for fault isolation, it should first be run on the local host, to verify
       that the local network interface is up and running. Then, hosts and gateways further and
       further away should be “pinged”. Round-trip times and packet loss statistics are computed.
       If duplicate packets are received, they are not included in the packet loss calculation,
       although the round trip time of these packets is used in calculating the
       minimum/average/maximum/mdev round-trip time numbers.

       Population standard deviation (mdev), essentially an average of how far each ping RTT is
       from the mean RTT. The higher mdev is, the more variable the RTT is (over time). With a
       high RTT variability, you will have speed issues with bulk transfers (they will take
       longer than is strictly speaking necessary, as the variability will eventually cause the
       sender to wait for ACKs) and you will have middling to poor VoIP quality.

       When the specified number of packets have been sent (and received) or if the program is
       terminated with a SIGINT, a brief summary is displayed. Shorter current statistics can be
       obtained without termination of process with signal SIGQUIT.

       This program is intended for use in network testing, measurement and management. Because
       of the load it can impose on the network, it is unwise to use ping during normal
       operations or from automated scripts.

EXIT STATUS

       If ping does not receive any reply packets at all it will exit with code 1. If a packet
       count and deadline are both specified, and fewer than count packets are received by the
       time the deadline has arrived, it will also exit with code 1. On other error it exits with
       code 2. Otherwise it exits with code 0. This makes it possible to use the exit code to see
       if a host is alive or not.

IPV6 LINK-LOCAL DESTINATIONS

       For IPv6, when the destination address has link-local scope and ping is using ICMP
       datagram sockets, the output interface must be specified. When ping is using raw sockets,
       it is not strictly necessary to specify the output interface but it should be done to
       avoid ambiguity when there are multiple possible output interfaces.

       There are two ways to specify the output interface:

       • using the % notation
           The destination address is postfixed with % and the output interface name or ifindex,
           for example:

           ping fe80::5054:ff:fe70:67bc%eth0

           ping fe80::5054:ff:fe70:67bc%2

       • using the -I option
           When using ICMP datagram sockets, this method is supported since the following kernel
           versions: 5.17, 5.15.19, 5.10.96, 5.4.176, 4.19.228, 4.14.265. Also it is not
           supported on musl libc.

ICMP PACKET DETAILS

       An IP header without options is 20 bytes. An ICMP ECHO_REQUEST packet contains an
       additional 8 bytes worth of ICMP header followed by an arbitrary amount of data. When a
       packetsize is given, this indicates the size of this extra piece of data (the default is
       56). Thus the amount of data received inside of an IP packet of type ICMP ECHO_REPLY will
       always be 8 bytes more than the requested data space (the ICMP header).

       If the data space is at least of size of struct timeval ping uses the beginning bytes of
       this space to include a timestamp which it uses in the computation of round trip times. If
       the data space is shorter, no round trip times are given.

DUPLICATE AND DAMAGED PACKETS

       ping will report duplicate and damaged packets. Duplicate packets should never occur, and
       seem to be caused by inappropriate link-level retransmissions. Duplicates may occur in
       many situations and are rarely (if ever) a good sign, although the presence of low levels
       of duplicates may not always be cause for alarm.

       Damaged packets are obviously serious cause for alarm and often indicate broken hardware
       somewhere in the ping packet's path (in the network or in the hosts).

ID COLLISIONS

       Unlike TCP and UDP, which use port to uniquely identify the recipient to deliver data,
       ICMP uses identifier field (ID) for identification. Therefore, if on the same machine, at
       the same time, two ping processes use the same ID, echo reply can be delivered to a wrong
       recipient. This is a known problem due to the limited size of the 16-bit ID field. That is
       a historical limitation of the protocol that cannot be fixed at the moment unless we
       encode an ID into the ping packet payload.  ping prints DIFFERENT ADDRESS error and packet
       loss is negative.

       ping uses PID to get unique number. The default value of /proc/sys/kernel/pid_max is
       32768. On the systems that use ping heavily and with pid_max greater than 65535 collisions
       are bound to happen.

TRYING DIFFERENT DATA PATTERNS

       The (inter)network layer should never treat packets differently depending on the data
       contained in the data portion. Unfortunately, data-dependent problems have been known to
       sneak into networks and remain undetected for long periods of time. In many cases the
       particular pattern that will have problems is something that doesn't have sufficient
       “transitions”, such as all ones or all zeros, or a pattern right at the edge, such as
       almost all zeros. It isn't necessarily enough to specify a data pattern of all zeros (for
       example) on the command line because the pattern that is of interest is at the data link
       level, and the relationship between what you type and what the controllers transmit can be
       complicated.

       This means that if you have a data-dependent problem you will probably have to do a lot of
       testing to find it. If you are lucky, you may manage to find a file that either can't be
       sent across your network or that takes much longer to transfer than other similar length
       files. You can then examine this file for repeated patterns that you can test using the -p
       option of ping.

TTL DETAILS

       The TTL value of an IP packet represents the maximum number of IP routers that the packet
       can go through before being thrown away. In current practice you can expect each router in
       the Internet to decrement the TTL field by exactly one.

       The TTL field for TCP packets may take various values. The maximum possible value of this
       field is 255, a recommended initial value is 64. For more information, see the
       TCP/Lower-Level Interface section of RFC9293.

       In normal operation ping prints the TTL value from the packet it receives. When a remote
       system receives a ping packet, it can do one of three things with the TTL field in its
       response:

           • Not change it; this is what Berkeley Unix systems did before the 4.3BSD Tahoe
           release. In this case the TTL value in the received packet will be 255 minus the
           number of routers in the round-trip path.

           • Set it to 255; this is what current Berkeley Unix systems do. In this case the TTL
           value in the received packet will be 255 minus the number of routers in the path from
           the remote system to the pinging host.

           • Set it to some other value. Some machines use the same value for ICMP packets that
           they use for TCP packets, for example either 30 or 60. Others may use completely wild
           values.

BUGS

           • Many Hosts and Gateways ignore the RECORD_ROUTE option.

           • The maximum IP header length is too small for options like RECORD_ROUTE to be
           completely useful. There's not much that can be done about this, however.

           • Flood pinging is not recommended in general, and flood pinging the broadcast address
           should only be done under very controlled conditions.

SEE ALSO

       ip(8), ss(8).

HISTORY

       The ping command appeared in 4.3BSD.

       The version described here is its descendant specific to Linux.

       As of version s20150815, the ping6 binary doesn't exist anymore. It has been merged into
       ping. Creating a symlink named ping6 pointing to ping will result in the same
       functionality as before.

SECURITY

       ping requires CAP_NET_RAW capability to be executed 1) if the program is used for non-echo
       queries (see -N option) or when the identification field set to 0 for ECHO_REQUEST (see
       -e), or 2) if kernel does not support ICMP datagram sockets, or 3) if the user is not
       allowed to create an ICMP echo socket. The program may be used as set-uid root.

AVAILABILITY

       ping is part of iputils package.