ping: Packets to network hosts ¶ping uses ICMP datagrams to provoke a response
from the chosen destination host, mainly intending to probe
whether it is alive.
The used datagram, of type ECHO_REQUEST, contains some header
information and some additional payload, usually a time stamp.
By a suitable choice of payload, different host or router properties
are detectable, as the emitted datagram travels to its destination.
Synopsis:
ping [option...] host
Sending echo requests is the standard use of ping,
but by far not the only use case.