Improve README and INSTALL

pull/5/merge
David Schweikert 13 years ago
parent d731dfc5b1
commit 7f35a34eb5

@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ Basic Installation
These are generic installation instructions.
--> See the README file for fping-specific instructions. <--
The `configure' shell script attempts to guess correct values for
various system-dependent variables used during compilation. It uses
those values to create a `Makefile' in each directory of the package.

@ -5,60 +5,28 @@ but much better performing when pinging multiple hosts. fping has a long long
story: Roland Schemers did publish a first version of it in 1992 and it has
established itself since then as a standard tool.
Current maintainer:
David Schweikert <david@schweikert.ch>
Website:
http://www.fping.org
Installation
------------
If you want to install fping from source, proceed as follows:
Original author: Roland Schemers (schemers@stanford.edu)
Previous maintainer: RL "Bob" Morgan (morgan@stanford.edu)
IPv6 Support: Jeroen Massar (jeroen@unfix.org / jeroen@ipng.nl)
to enable IPV6 compile with -DIPV6
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Original README (from 1992!)
1. Run ./configure with the correct arguments
(see: ./configure --help)
fping - A tool to quickly ping N number of hosts to determine
their reachability.
2. Run make; make install
Roland J. Schemers III - Stanford University
schemers@Stanford.EDU
3. Make fping either setuid, or, if under Linux:
fping is a ping(1) like program which uses the Internet Control
Message Protocol (ICMP) echo request to determine if a host is
up. fping is different from ping in that you can specify any
number of hosts on the command line, or specify a file containing
the lists of hosts to ping. Instead of trying one host until it
timeouts or replies, fping will send out a ping packet and move
on to the next host in a round-robin fashion. If a host replies,
it is noted and removed from the list of hosts to check. If a host
does not respond within a certain time limit and/or retry limit it
will be considered unreachable.
sudo setcap cap_net_raw+ep fping
Site
Stanford University has a large TCP/IP network with over 16,000
assigned IP addresses and over 100 IP subnets.
Problem and Issues
With a large a number of IP addresses in use, its becomes more and
more time consuming to check on which IP addresses are actively
in use, and which critical machines (routers, bridges, servers, etc)
are reachable. One example is we have a program which goes through
all of our routers arp caches looking for IP addresses that are in
use. After finding a list of IP addresses that aren't in any arp
caches fping can then be used to see if these IP addresses really
aren't being used, or are just behind the routers. Checking 2500
hosts (99% of which are unreachable) via ping can take hours.
fping was written to solve the problem of pinging N number of hosts
in an efficient manner. By sending out pings in a round-robin fashion
and checking on responses as they come in at random, a large number of
hosts can be checked at once.
Unlike ping, fping is meant to be used in scripts and its
output is easy to parse.
Credits
-------
Original author: Roland Schemers (schemers@stanford.edu)
Previous maintainer: RL "Bob" Morgan (morgan@stanford.edu)
IPv6 Support: Jeroen Massar (jeroen@unfix.org / jeroen@ipng.nl)
to enable IPV6 compile with -DIPV6

@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
Original README (from 1992)
fping - A tool to quickly ping N number of hosts to determine
their reachability.
Roland J. Schemers III - Stanford University
schemers@Stanford.EDU
fping is a ping(1) like program which uses the Internet Control
Message Protocol (ICMP) echo request to determine if a host is
up. fping is different from ping in that you can specify any
number of hosts on the command line, or specify a file containing
the lists of hosts to ping. Instead of trying one host until it
timeouts or replies, fping will send out a ping packet and move
on to the next host in a round-robin fashion. If a host replies,
it is noted and removed from the list of hosts to check. If a host
does not respond within a certain time limit and/or retry limit it
will be considered unreachable.
Site
Stanford University has a large TCP/IP network with over 16,000
assigned IP addresses and over 100 IP subnets.
Problem and Issues
With a large a number of IP addresses in use, its becomes more and
more time consuming to check on which IP addresses are actively
in use, and which critical machines (routers, bridges, servers, etc)
are reachable. One example is we have a program which goes through
all of our routers arp caches looking for IP addresses that are in
use. After finding a list of IP addresses that aren't in any arp
caches fping can then be used to see if these IP addresses really
aren't being used, or are just behind the routers. Checking 2500
hosts (99% of which are unreachable) via ping can take hours.
fping was written to solve the problem of pinging N number of hosts
in an efficient manner. By sending out pings in a round-robin fashion
and checking on responses as they come in at random, a large number of
hosts can be checked at once.
Unlike ping, fping is meant to be used in scripts and its
output is easy to parse.
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