Mac OS X Tiger in a Nutshell

Name

ping

Synopsis

ping [options] host

Confirms that a remote host is online and responding. ping 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.

For a full list of options, see the ping manpage.

Options

-a

Beeps whenever a packet is received.

-c count

Stop after sending (and receiving) count ECHO_RESPONSE packets.

-d

Set the SO_DEBUG option on the socket being used.

-f

Flood ping-output packets as fast as they come back or 100 times per second, whichever is more. This can be very hard on a network and should be used with caution; only a privileged user may use this option.

-i wait

Send a packet every wait seconds. Default is to wait 1 second between each packet. wait must be a positive integer value. Cannot be used with the -f option.

-l preload

Send preload number of packets as fast as possible before changing to default packet dispatch frequency. High packet losses are to be expected during preload delivery.

-n

Only show host IP addresses, not hostnames.

-o

Stop after one reply packet.

-p digits

Specify up to 16-pad bytes to fill out packet sent. This is useful for diagnosing data-dependent problems in a network. The 32 most significant hexidecimal digits are used for the pattern. For example, -p ff causes the sent packet to be filled with all 1s, as does:

-p ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff0001

-q

Quiet output; nothing is displayed ...