PING(1)

📦 version 1.053, in alpine 3.24

💅 PING(1) — like, the ping page, from the Perl user-contributed docs bestie ✨

Okay so welcome to ping, a genuinely iconic little utility from the User Contributed Perl Documentation corner of the world. She's simple, she's efficient, she probes network hosts, and honestly? She ate. 🫶

🌸 NAME 🌸

ping — probe for network hosts 🛰️✨

Like literally, that's the whole job. Go poke a host, see what happens. Main character energy.

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

ping [-n] hostname [ timeout ]

That's it. That's the whole vibe check. One hostname, one optional flag, one optional timeout. Minimalist queen. 👑

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

So here's the tea, bestie 🍵 — ping looks up hostname and then it goes and attempts to contact it via the network. Like it's sliding into the host's DMs, but, y'know, technically. 📡

Now here's the part where it gets interesting 👀 — how it reaches out depends on your permissions:

  • If the effective userid permits it, an ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) ECHO_REQUEST packet gets sent. Fancy. Network-layer. Very demure. ✨
  • Otherwise, an attempt is made to connect to the echo port using the UDP protocol instead. Not the same flex, but she's still trying her best. 😭💜

You can also specify a timeout, and it's measured in seconds. If you don't say anything, the default is 20 seconds ⏳ — so like, no cap, she'll wait a whole twenty seconds before giving up on you. Patient icon. 🎀

One more thing, and this one's lowkey important: if the -n option is specified, then the address of hostname is reported as numbers. That's it. That's the flag. She's giving "just the numbers, no vibes." 🔢💅

🌈 AUTHOR 🌈

This beauty was written by Nick Ing-Simmons <nick@ni-s.u-net.com> — credit where credit is due, we love a legend who ships a tiny networking tool and dips. 👑🦋

And that's the whole page, bestie! No drama, no mystery, just a little probe, a little patience, and a whole lot of network host slaying. 💖✨🎀

Sign-off time 🫶 — this gem comes to you courtesy of perl v5.42.2, dated 2026-02-15. Screenshot it, frame it, whatever. It's iconic. 💀💜
📦 where this page comes from