Install and use Fping app on RHEL/CentOS 6.x/7.x

fping is a program like ping which uses the Internet Control Message Protocol ( ICMP ) echo request to determine if a target host is responding. fping differs from ping in that you can specify any number of targets on the command line, or specify a file containing the lists of targets to ping. Instead of sending to one target until it times out or replies, fping will send out a ping packet and move on to the next target in a round-robin fashion. In the default mode, if a target replies, it is noted and removed from the list of targets to check; if a target does not respond within a certain time limit and/or retry limit it is designated as unreachable. fping also supports sending a specified number of pings to a target, or looping indefinitely (as in ping ). Unlike ping, fping is meant to be used in scripts, so its output is designed to be easy to parse.

In this guide I am explaining how to install and use fping program on RHEL, CentOS and Fedora Linux.

How to install fping program

First, download fping source package (latest version is 3.10):

# wget http://fping.org/dist/fping-3.10.tar.gz

To install an application fping follows these steps:

# tar -xvf fping-3.10.tar.gz
# cd fping-3.10
# ./configure
# make
# make install

You can can compile fping with support for IPv6 addresses follow next steps:

# ./configure --prefix=/usr/local --enable-ipv4 --enable-ipv6
  # make
  # make install

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Example usage fping program

Fping multiple ip address:

# fping 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4 104.28.25.20
8.8.4.4 is alive
8.8.8.8 is alive
104.28.25.20 is alive

Fping range of ip address:

# fping -s -g 192.168.1.1 192.168.1.5
ICMP Network Unreachable from 83.231.213.65 for ICMP Echo sent to 192.168.1.1
ICMP Network Unreachable from 83.231.213.65 for ICMP Echo sent to 192.168.1.3
ICMP Network Unreachable from 83.231.213.65 for ICMP Echo sent to 192.168.1.5
ICMP Network Unreachable from 83.231.213.65 for ICMP Echo sent to 192.168.1.1
ICMP Network Unreachable from 83.231.213.65 for ICMP Echo sent to 192.168.1.3
ICMP Network Unreachable from 83.231.213.65 for ICMP Echo sent to 192.168.1.5
ICMP Network Unreachable from 83.231.213.65 for ICMP Echo sent to 192.168.1.1
ICMP Network Unreachable from 83.231.213.65 for ICMP Echo sent to 192.168.1.3
ICMP Network Unreachable from 83.231.213.65 for ICMP Echo sent to 192.168.1.5
ICMP Network Unreachable from 83.231.213.65 for ICMP Echo sent to 192.168.1.1
ICMP Network Unreachable from 83.231.213.65 for ICMP Echo sent to 192.168.1.3
ICMP Network Unreachable from 83.231.213.65 for ICMP Echo sent to 192.168.1.5
192.168.1.1 is unreachable
192.168.1.2 is unreachable
192.168.1.3 is unreachable
192.168.1.4 is unreachable
192.168.1.5 is unreachable

       5 targets
       0 alive
       5 unreachable
       0 unknown addresses

       5 timeouts (waiting for response)
      20 ICMP Echos sent
       0 ICMP Echo Replies received
      12 other ICMP received

 0.00 ms (min round trip time)
 0.00 ms (avg round trip time)
 0.00 ms (max round trip time)
        4.191 sec (elapsed real time)

Fping complite network

# fping -g -r 3 192.168.1.1/24

Show fping version

# fping -v
fping: Version 3.10
fping: comments to david@schweikert.ch

For more information about fping see fping manual page.
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