CODEWITHSUNDEEP
linuxshellunixcommandping
Madan Sapkota
Madan Sapkota

Reputation: 26071

Domain or IP exists check in Linux

I want to know if a given website or IP address is online or offline. I researched a lot, but all I can find is to install some software or using the ping command.

I did this test:

ping -c 5 -n example.com

It outputs the expected result, but when I do the following where a website does not ext, the result is almost the same as if website existed, with 0% packet loss. Please see the screenshot attached.

ping -c 5 -n examplesurenotexists.com

I am confused by this. Is there a better way to do this task?

Output of ping

Upvotes: 0

Views: 4627

Answers (1)

Alfe
Alfe

Reputation: 59416

If you want to know if a website is online of offline, simply check the website:

if curl -s http://www.alfe.de >/dev/null
then
  echo "online"
else
  echo "offline"
fi

Using ping instead would not test the HTTP protocol (which is for websites) but the ICMP protocol; one is merely independent from the other (but of course, if the host is down, both won't work). There are sites which still react on ICMP while the HTTP server is down (this is rather typical) and there are sites which won't react on ICMP although the HTTP server is up and running functioning perfectly well.

Upvotes: 4

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