ssmping(1)

💖 ssmping — the manual, but make it make sense 💖

okay bestie, sit down, we're learning ssmping(1) from the General Commands Manual and honestly? it's giving network detective energy. no cap.

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✨ NAME ✨

ssmping — check if you can receive IPv4/IPv6 multicast data from an internet host 🦋

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

ssmping [ -46v ] [ -I interface ] [ -c count ] [ -s size ] host

ssmpingd

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💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so ssmping and ssmpingd are network level multicast management tools, and their whole little job is checking whether you can receive multicast packets via SSM from a host. main character energy fr fr.

here's the tea: the host target you hand to ssmping has to be running the ssmpingd daemon. that daemon sits there listening on UDP port 4321 for IPv4 and IPv6 unicast requests. the moment it gets one, it responds to a well known SSM multicast group that ssmping just joined. 😭 iconic behaviour honestly.

and depending on whether the request came in over IPv4 or IPv6, the group is different:

• IPv4 → 232.43.211.234
• IPv6 → ff3e::4321:1234

so yeah. two groups, two vibes, one extremely specific handshake. iykyk. 💜

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🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

first things first: for ssmpingd there are no options. none. zero. it's minimal, it's mysterious, it's above flags. 👑

for ssmping, the options are as follows:

• -4 — Force IPv4 ✨
• -6 — Force IPv6 ✨
• -v — Print client and server version information. (receipts!! 🧾)
• -I interface — Interface to join on
• -c count — Stop after sending (and receiving) count requests (and replies)
• -s size — Request replies to have a size of size bytes

that's the whole list bestie, all six, nothing hidden, no secret menu. 🫶

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• asmping(1) — a tool for checking whether can receive ASM.
• dbeacon(1) — a distributed beacon multicast implementation.

go read those too, they're friends of the family. 💖

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💀 BUGS 💀

Please report them to Stig Venaas <venaas@uninett.no>, the author of this tool.

yes literally just email the author, that's the whole bug process, no jira, no ticket portal, no standup. we love a direct line. 🙈

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⭐ HISTORY ⭐

ssmping and ssmpingd were developed by Stig Venaas during the early days of the m6bone, the IPv6 multicast backbone. so this is basically vintage. a classic. the blueprint. 🌸

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and that's the page!! 🦋 it lives in the User Manuals section, filed under ssmping(1), and it's been serving multicast truth since the m6bone era. go ping something, bestie. slay. 💅✨🎀