1 .\" $NetBSD: ping6.8,v 1.30 2015/05/15 08:02:39 kefren Exp $
2 .\" $KAME: ping6.8,v 1.57 2002/05/26 13:18:25 itojun Exp $
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37 .Tn ICMPv6 ECHO_REQUEST
38 packets to network hosts
41 .\" without IPsec, or new IPsec
44 .\" .Op Fl AdEfnNqRtvwW
56 .Op Fl S Ar sourceaddr
57 .Op Fl s Ar packetsize
67 .Tn ICMP6_ECHO_REQUEST
70 from a host or gateway.
71 .Tn ICMP6_ECHO_REQUEST
72 datagrams (``pings'') have an IPv6 header,
75 header formatted as documented in RFC 2463.
76 The options are as follows:
80 .\" Enables transport-mode IPsec authentication header
81 .\" .Pq experimental .
83 Generate ICMPv6 Node Information Node Addresses query, rather than echo-request.
85 must be a string constructed of the following characters.
86 .Bl -tag -width Ds -compact
88 requests unicast addresses from all of the responder's interfaces.
89 If the character is omitted,
90 only those addresses which belong to the interface which has the
91 responder's address are requests.
93 requests responder's IPv4-compatible and IPv4-mapped addresses.
95 requests responder's global-scope addresses.
97 requests responder's site-local addresses.
99 requests responder's link-local addresses.
101 requests responder's anycast addresses.
102 Without this character, the responder will return unicast addresses only.
103 With this character, the responder will return anycast addresses only.
104 Note that the specification does not specify how to get responder's
106 This is an experimental option.
109 Set socket buffer size.
119 option on the socket being used.
121 .\" Enables transport-mode IPsec encapsulated security payload
122 .\" .Pq experimental .
125 Outputs packets as fast as they come back or one hundred times per second,
131 is printed, while for every
133 received a backspace is printed.
134 This provides a rapid display of how many packets are being dropped.
135 Only the super-user may use this option.
137 This can be very hard on a network and should be used with caution.
142 as the next hop to the destination.
143 The gateway must be a neighbor of the sending node.
145 Specifies to try reverse-lookup of IPv6 addresses.
148 command does not try reverse-lookup unless the option is specified.
150 Set the IPv6 hoplimit.
151 .It Fl I Ar interface
152 Source packets with the given interface address.
153 This flag applies if the ping destination is a multicast address,
154 or link-local/site-local unicast address.
159 .Em between sending each packet .
160 The default is to wait for one second between each packet.
161 This option is incompatible with the
169 sends that many packets as fast as possible before falling into its normal
171 Only the super-user may use this option.
175 asks the kernel to fragment packets to fit into the minimum IPv6 MTU.
177 will suppress the behavior in the following two levels:
178 when the option is specified once, the behavior will be disabled for
180 When the option is specified more than once, it will be disabled for both
181 unicast and multicast packets.
184 No attempt will be made to lookup symbolic names from addresses in the reply.
186 Probe node information multicast group
187 .Pq Li ff02::2:xxxx:xxxx .
189 must be string hostname of the target
190 .Pq must not be a numeric IPv6 address .
191 Node information multicast group will be computed based on given
193 and will be used as the final destination.
194 Since node information multicast group is a link-local multicast group,
195 outgoing interface needs to be specified by
199 Exit successfully after receiving one reply packet.
201 You may specify up to 16
203 bytes to fill out the packet you send.
204 This is useful for diagnosing data-dependent problems in a network.
207 will cause the sent packet to be filled with all
212 specifies IPsec policy to be used for the probe.
215 Nothing is displayed except the summary lines at startup time and
218 Make the kernel believe that the target
226 is reachable, by injecting upper-layer reachability confirmation hint.
227 The option is meaningful only if the target
231 .It Fl S Ar sourceaddr
232 Specifies the source address of request packets.
233 The source address must be one of the unicast addresses of the sending node,
235 .It Fl s Ar packetsize
236 Specifies the number of data bytes to be sent.
237 The default is 56, which translates into 64
239 data bytes when combined
243 You may need to specify
245 as well to extend socket buffer size.
247 Generate ICMPv6 Node Information supported query types query,
248 rather than echo-request.
258 that are received are listed.
260 Generate ICMPv6 Node Information DNS Name query, rather than echo-request.
268 but with old packet format based on 03 draft.
269 This option is present for backward compatibility.
275 Time in milliseconds to wait for a reply for each packet sent.
277 Specify a timeout, in seconds, before ping exits regardless of
278 how many packets have been received.
280 IPv6 addresses for intermediate nodes,
281 which will be put into type 0 routing header.
283 IPv6 address of the final destination node.
288 for fault isolation, it should first be run on the local host, to verify
289 that the local network interface is up and running.
290 Then, hosts and gateways further and further away should be
292 Round-trip times and packet loss statistics are computed.
293 If duplicate packets are received, they are not included in the packet
294 loss calculation, although the round trip time of these packets is used
295 in calculating the round-trip time statistics.
296 When the specified number of packets have been sent
298 or if the program is terminated with a
300 a brief summary is displayed, showing the number of packets sent and
301 received, and the minimum, maximum, mean, and standard deviation of
302 the round-trip times.
304 This program is intended for use in network testing, measurement and
306 Because of the load it can impose on the network, it is unwise to use
308 during normal operations or from automated scripts.
309 .\" .Sh ICMP PACKET DETAILS
310 .\" An IP header without options is 20 bytes.
314 .\" packet contains an additional 8 bytes worth of
316 .\" header followed by an arbitrary amount of data.
319 .\" is given, this indicated the size of this extra piece of data
320 .\" .Pq the default is 56 .
321 .\" Thus the amount of data received inside of an IP packet of type
324 .\" will always be 8 bytes more than the requested data space
325 .\" .Pq the Tn ICMP header .
327 .\" If the data space is at least eight bytes large,
329 .\" uses the first eight bytes of this space to include a timestamp which
330 .\" it uses in the computation of round trip times.
331 .\" If less than eight bytes of pad are specified, no round trip times are
333 .Sh DUPLICATE AND DAMAGED PACKETS
335 will report duplicate and damaged packets.
336 Duplicate packets should never occur when pinging a unicast address,
337 and seem to be caused by
338 inappropriate link-level retransmissions.
339 Duplicates may occur in many situations and are rarely
341 a good sign, although the presence of low levels of duplicates may not
342 always be cause for alarm.
343 Duplicates are expected when pinging a multicast address,
344 since they are not really duplicates but replies from different hosts
347 Damaged packets are obviously serious cause for alarm and often
348 indicate broken hardware somewhere in the
351 .Pq in the network or in the hosts .
352 .Sh TRYING DIFFERENT DATA PATTERNS
355 layer should never treat packets differently depending on the data
356 contained in the data portion.
357 Unfortunately, data-dependent problems have been known to sneak into
358 networks and remain undetected for long periods of time.
359 In many cases the particular pattern that will have problems is something
360 that does not have sufficient
362 such as all ones or all zeros, or a pattern right at the edge, such as
365 necessarily enough to specify a data pattern of all zeros (for example)
366 on the command line because the pattern that is of interest is
367 at the data link level, and the relationship between what you type and
368 what the controllers transmit can be complicated.
370 This means that if you have a data-dependent problem you will probably
371 have to do a lot of testing to find it.
372 If you are lucky, you may manage to find a file that either
374 be sent across your network or that takes much longer to transfer than
375 other similar length files.
376 You can then examine this file for repeated patterns that you can test
383 exits with 0 on success (the host is alive),
384 and non-zero if the arguments are incorrect or the host is not responding.
390 would work; the following will send ICMPv6 echo request to
392 .Bd -literal -offset indent
396 The following will probe hostnames for all nodes on the network link attached to
401 is named the link-local all-node multicast address, and the packet would
402 reach every node on the network link.
403 .Bd -literal -offset indent
407 The following will probe addresses assigned to the destination node,
409 .Bd -literal -offset indent
410 ping6 -a agl dst.foo.com
425 .%T "Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMPv6) for the Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) Specification"
431 .%T "IPv6 Node Information Queries"
432 .%N draft-ietf-ipngwg-icmp-name-lookups-09.txt
434 .%O work in progress material
443 command with IPv6 support first appeared in the WIDE Hydrangea IPv6
448 is intentionally separate from