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 :)

LICENSE

liboping is licensed under the GPLv2. No other version of the license is applicable.

AUTHOR

liboping is written by Florian "octo" Forster <octo at verplant.org>. Its homepage can be found at <http://verplant.org/liboping/>.