Package: inetutils-ping Version: 2:1.9.4-7 Severity: wishlist It would be amazing useful, especially for plotting data and ingesting into various monitoring systems to have an option (--time? --log? --verbose?) that makes each "response/lack of response" lines have some timestamp available, in machine readable form. Sticking to Unix timestamp (microsecond resolution), or using LC_TIME or strftime format argument to --time:
I.e. # ping6 --numeric --interval=1000 --count=3 --time google.com PING google.com (2a00:1450:400a:802::200e): 56 data bytes 64 bytes from 2a00:1450:400a:802::200e: icmp_seq=0 ttl=55 time=1.230 ms sent=1554913612.123456 received=1554913612.124676 64 bytes from 2a00:1450:400a:802::200e: icmp_seq=1 ttl=55 time=1.294 ms sent=1554913613.130000 received=1554913613.131294 64 bytes from 2a00:1450:400a:802::200e: icmp_seq=2 ttl=55 time=1.639 ms sent=1554913614.141000 received=1554913614.142639 --- google.com ping statistics --- 3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0% packet loss round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 1.230/1.388/1.639/0.180 ms # timestamps could be seconds, or miliseconds to be consistent with time and --interval options, as well with ICMP_TIMESTAMP feature (which is orthogonal to this wishlist). (using comma vs dot, depending on LC_ALL etc is optional, but would be consistent with its use in time= and in round-trip min/avg/max/... stats) The main reasoning is, that on Linux, doing pings using ICMP requires super user to open raw socket, so if integreating into various systems, one either need to install setuid binaries (which is a bit fragile and possibly less secure) or use existing ping/ping6 tool installed. >From normal user: ... socket(AF_INET, SOCK_RAW, IPPROTO_ICMP) = -1 EPERM (Operation not permitted) socket(AF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, IPPROTO_ICMP) = -1 EACCES (Permission denied) write(2, "ping: Lacking privilege for icmp"..., 41ping: Lacking privilege for icmp socket. ... On Linux, it mighte be possible to access functionality using CAP_NET_RAW, but 1) it again requires a setup, 2) allows too much than only required functionality. On other kernels it could be even worse. Adding timestamps would help a lot of this problem, as one could have ping running continously for various targets, and just ingest its output using pipes, named fifo or simply files for example. This alone would for example help with constantly starting processes (currently the method would be to send ~5 packets ever 100ms and then quit the ping), to have approximate time and required stats. However this will lead to a lot of forks, other overheads, and inprecise timeing. Currently ping also do not report missing responses, even with --timeout set manually, which is also unfortunate. fping kind of provides similar functionality, i.e. # fping --timestamp --loop -6 -A -d google.com [1554914467.234919] zrh04s14-in-x0e.1e100.net (2a00:1450:400a:802::200e) : [0], 64 bytes, 1.17 ms (1.17 avg, 0% loss) [1554914468.235169] zrh04s14-in-x0e.1e100.net (2a00:1450:400a:802::200e) : [1], 64 bytes, 1.35 ms (1.26 avg, 0% loss) [1554914469.236207] zrh04s14-in-x0e.1e100.net (2a00:1450:400a:802::200e) : [2], 64 bytes, 1.38 ms (1.30 avg, 0% loss) [1554914470.237207] zrh04s14-in-x0e.1e100.net (2a00:1450:400a:802::200e) : [3], 64 bytes, 1.35 ms (1.31 avg, 0% loss) zrh04s14-in-x0e.1e100.net (2a00:1450:400a:802::200e) : xmt/rcv/%loss = 4/4/0%, min/avg/max = 1.17/1.31/1.38 # but for non-root users persepective, ping is almost always installed, and fping isn't. fping doesn't print missing responses either: # fping --timestamp -6 -A -d --count 10 2a00:1450:400a:802::3 2a00:1450:400a:802::3 (2a00:1450:400a:802::3) : xmt/rcv/%loss = 10/0/100% # Cheers, Witold -- System Information: Debian Release: buster/sid APT prefers unstable APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental') Architecture: amd64 (x86_64) Foreign Architectures: i386 Kernel: Linux 4.19.0-2-amd64 (SMP w/32 CPU cores) Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system) LSM: AppArmor: enabled Versions of packages inetutils-ping depends on: ii libc6 2.28-8 ii libidn11 1.33-2.2 ii netbase 5.5 inetutils-ping recommends no packages. inetutils-ping suggests no packages. -- no debconf information
