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.\"
.IX Title "liboping 3"
.TH liboping 3 2024-03-07 1.10.0 liboping
.\" For nroff, turn off justification.  Always turn off hyphenation; it makes
.\" way too many mistakes in technical documents.
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.SH NAME
liboping \- Library to send ICMPv4/ICMPv6 echo packets to multiple hosts
.SH DESCRIPTION
.IX Header "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.
.PP
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.
.SH "GENERAL USAGE"
.IX Header "GENERAL USAGE"
There are two main types that are used by applications. Both are "opaque
types", meaning they are structures that are \fBnot\fR 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.
.ie n .IP """pingobj_t""" 4
.el .IP \f(CWpingobj_t\fR 4
.IX Item "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".
.ie n .IP """pingobj_iter_t""" 4
.el .IP \f(CWpingobj_iter_t\fR 4
.IX Item "pingobj_iter_t"
An iterator over the hosts associated with a \f(CW\*(C`pingobj_t\*(C'\fR 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.
.PP
Upon startup you usually create one or more \f(CW\*(C`pingobj_t\*(C'\fR objects and add hosts
to it using the \f(CW\*(C`ping_host_add\*(C'\fR method (see below). You periodically send
"echo requests" using the \f(CW\*(C`ping_send\*(C'\fR method, iterate over all hosts using
\&\f(CW\*(C`ping_iterator_get\*(C'\fR and \f(CW\*(C`ping_iterator_next\*(C'\fR. For each host you call
\&\f(CW\*(C`ping_iterator_get_info\*(C'\fR to read the current latency and do something with it.
.PP
If an error occurs you can use \f(CW\*(C`ping_get_error\*(C'\fR so get information on what
failed.
.SH "LINKING WITH LIBOPING"
.IX Header "LINKING WITH LIBOPING"
Depending on you platform you don't need any extra libraries (e.g. GNU/Linux)
or \f(CW\*(C`libsocket\*(C'\fR (using \f(CW\*(C`\-lsocket\*(C'\fR) if the \f(CW\*(C`socket\*(C'\fR function is not in the
C\-library. The latter is the case for the Solaris operating system.
.SH "SYMBOL NAMES"
.IX Header "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.
.SH "THREAD SAFETY"
.IX Header "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 :)
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.IX Header "SEE ALSO"
\&\fBping_construct\fR\|(3),
\&\fBping_setopt\fR\|(3),
\&\fBping_host_add\fR\|(3),
\&\fBping_send\fR\|(3),
\&\fBping_get_error\fR\|(3),
\&\fBping_iterator_count\fR\|(3),
\&\fBping_iterator_get\fR\|(3),
\&\fBping_iterator_get_info\fR\|(3),
\&\fBping_iterator_get_context\fR\|(3)
.SH LICENSE
.IX Header "LICENSE"
liboping is licensed under the LGPL 2.1 or later.
.SH AUTHOR
.IX Header "AUTHOR"
liboping is written by Florian "octo" Forster <ff at octo.it>.
Its homepage can be found at <http://noping.cc/>.
.PP
Copyright (c) 2006\-2017 by Florian "octo" Forster.