Pinging servers in Python

Question

In Python, is there a way to ping a server through ICMP and return TRUE if the server responds, or FALSE if there is no response?

Solution 1

This function works in any OS (Unix, Linux, macOS, and Windows)
Python 2 and Python 3

EDITS:
By @radato os.system was replaced by subprocess.call. This avoids shell injection vulnerability in cases where your hostname string might not be validated.

import platform    # For getting the operating system name
import subprocess  # For executing a shell command

def ping(host):
    """
    Returns True if host (str) responds to a ping request.
    Remember that a host may not respond to a ping (ICMP) request even if the host name is valid.
    """

    # Option for the number of packets as a function of
    param = '-n' if platform.system().lower()=='windows' else '-c'

    # Building the command. Ex: "ping -c 1 google.com"
    command = ['ping', param, '1', host]

    return subprocess.call(command) == 0

Note that, according to @ikrase on Windows this function will still return True if you get a Destination Host Unreachable error.

Explanation

The command is ping in both Windows and Unix-like systems.
The option -n (Windows) or -c (Unix) controls the number of packets which in this example was set to 1.

platform.system() returns the platform name. Ex. 'Darwin' on macOS.
subprocess.call() performs a system call. Ex. subprocess.call(['ls','-l']).

Solution 2

If you don't need to support Windows, here's a really concise way to do it:

import os
hostname = "google.com" #example
response = os.system("ping -c 1 " + hostname)

#and then check the response...
if response == 0:
  print hostname, 'is up!'
else:
  print hostname, 'is down!'

This works because ping returns a non-zero value if the connection fails. (The return value actually differs depending on the network error.) You could also change the ping timeout (in seconds) using the '-t' option. Note, this will output text to the console.

Solution 3

There is a module called pyping that can do this. It can be installed with pip

pip install pyping

It is pretty simple to use, however, when using this module, you need root access due to the fact that it is crafting raw packets under the hood.

import pyping

r = pyping.ping('google.com')

if r.ret_code == 0:
    print("Success")
else:
    print("Failed with {}".format(r.ret_code))

Solution 4

import subprocess
ping_response = subprocess.Popen(["/bin/ping", "-c1", "-w100", "192.168.0.1"], stdout=subprocess.PIPE).stdout.read()

Solution 5

For python3 there's a very simple and convenient python module ping3: (pip install ping3, needs root privileges).

from ping3 import ping, verbose_ping
ping('example.com')  # Returns delay in seconds.
>>> 0.215697261510079666

This module allows for the customization of some parameters as well.

View more solutions

Comments

[jfs]

related: Ping a site in Python?

[Kudu]

The only problem with this is that it wouldn't work on Windows.

[Catskul]

It should be mentioned that the reason something like this is necessary is that ICMP requires root, and /bin/ping gets around this by being set SUID.

[octern]

Note: May fail if ping is in a different location. Use whereis ping to get the correct path.

[MGP]

I ended up with this variant response = os.system("ping -c 1 -w2 " + hostname + " > /dev/null 2>&1")

[MGP]

@jeckyll2hide man ping, send just 1 packet with deadline 2 seconds and redirect all output to /dev/null, retrieve just the return value.

[skrrgwasme]

This code may have the answer to the question, but it would be helpful to add some comments or explanation of how your code is solving the problem.

[eludom]

@ManuelGutierrez I think you want "-W 2000" (timeout after 2000 milliseconds) and maybe "-t 3" (exit after 3 seconds, no matter what)

[Victor Lellis]

This works on Windows: ping_response = subprocess.Popen(["ping", hostname, "-n", '1'], stdout=subprocess.PIPE).stdout.read()

[hek2mgl]

You missed to quote hostname!

[Alan Turing]

-w and -W take values in seconds not milliseconds. Check man ping to make sure.

[Pitto]

How can I parse the result to check if the response was ok or ko in Windows?

[xtofl]

To create the subprocess arguments, I usually do "ping -c1 -w100 192.168.0.1".split()

[Mawg says reinstate Monica]

pyping does not appear to be a standard module. Perhaps you could provide a link?

[Frerich Raabe]

Instead of False if platform.system().lower()=="windows" else True you could of course also just use platform.system().lower() != "windows".

[Thomas]

Thanks! However, I need to run this code as root to make it work.

[ikrase]

Note that this will still return true (on Windows) if you get a "destination host unreachable" reply from a different host.

[Keeely]

Doesn't os.name!="nt" also work? Admittedly I've not tried it on all ver/platform combos!

[Ben Hyde]

"Note that ICMP messages can only be sent from processes running as root (in Windows, you must run this script as ‘Administrator’)."

[emorris]

You don't need to use True if condition else False for returning True or False based on a condition. Just use e.g. shell_needed = operating_sys == 'Windows' and return success == 0

[MikeyE]

I like that you can specify the timeout and count of ICMP requests sent. I was able to write a script which discovers all hosts on the local sub-net. It executes in 1 second, instead of 255 seconds using the os.system('ping -c 1 -t 1 hostname') solution. Plus the pyping lib is very easy to use compared to using the TCP/IP sockets library. I wrote my ping program using both, and pyping is far quicker and easier to use, in my opinion, especially if one isn't familiar with using the TCP/IP sockets library.

[mountainclimber11]

Good answer. No admin rights required for Windows here.

[Craynic Cai]

awesome library, but need root privileges.

[womblerone]

In my case the default gateway returns an 'unreachable' message, but the windows ping command still has a return code of 0. So this approach worked (sorry for the formatting - its 6 lines, including the functiontion declaration): def ping(host): process = subprocess.Popen(["ping", "-n", "1",host], stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE) streamdata = process.communicate()[0] if 'unreachable' in str(streamdata): return 1 return process.returncode

[alireza]

not work with py3. ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'core'

[beeb]

@wellspokenman you would rather return 0 if unreachable is found in the pipe, no?

[Cucu]

Nice job mate! If anyone wants to see it in action, just use github.com/romana/multi-ping/blob/master/demo.py

[womblerone]

@beeb yeah I did that too but forgot to update the comment. My current function looks like this: pastebin.com/FEYWsVjK

[Andre]

the 'core' error comes from an incompatibility with python3. i tried to fix it for python3 but it constantly keeps sending me errors. the authors and projects github page is down (404 not found). we'll have to port it by ourselves to python3 :-)

[Markus]

I'm finding that I will occasionally get a ping success when my modem is off??? That's testing "8.8.8.8" and "google.com" on a Windows 10 OS. Something is not quite right.

[ePi272314]

That cannot happen @Markus. Please, test by hand and with a modified version of the code above, and tell us the result. By hand: 1) open cmd 2) ping 8.8.8.8 -n 1 3) echo %ERRORLEVEL%. Code: Modify the last line of the Python code to return system_call(command). With proper connectivity you will get 0 (zero). With your modem off, you must get some error code. Of course, both methods must return the same error code under same conditions.

[Markus]

It did happen and I was using the exact code, word for word. I understand and belief your comments, there is no way a command line ping could succeed when there in no connection, hence my thought something wasn't working correctly in the python to command line operation. I'll give the update a try and see how it goes. Thanks.

[Source Matters]

I'm just curious - why won't this actually work on Windows?

[yeaske]

@SourceMatters The param to specify number of packets is different for windows (-n) and unix (-c).

[Source Matters]

Ahh ok cool! I ultimately ended up doing the 2nd Answer instead, and parse the output, as I was a victim of the "Destination Host Unreachable" responses as well.

[beep_check]

for python3 try ping3: github.com/kyan001/ping3 pip install ping3

[Boris Verkhovskiy]

If you get the hostname string from a user, they could easily hack your server by giving you a "url" like 'google.com; rm -rf /*'. Use subprocess.run(["ping", "-c", "1", hostname]).returncode instead.

[Boris Verkhovskiy]

@Markus see ikrase's comment.

[ishahak]

Am I the only one here to notice that system.call is a typo and should be subprocess.call?

[ePi272314]

You are right. Some one edited my original answer. I will fix that. Thanks

[Guy Avraham]

@alireza - I have encountered it as well. Maybe this will help: stackoverflow.com/questions/35330964/…

[Stevoisiak]

How would we get the ping response time?

[Stevoisiak]

How would we get the response time as a variable?

[Stevoisiak]

Pyping's GitHub page no longer exists and the PyPI package has not been updated since 2016.

[xCovelus]

ping3: res = ping('8.8.8.8') Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> File "/home/env-admin/.local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/ping3.py‌​", line 165, in ping with socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_RAW, socket.IPPROTO_ICMP) as sock: File "/usr/lib/python3.6/socket.py", line 144, in init _socket.socket.__init__(self, family, type, proto, fileno) PermissionError: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted

[Dysmas]

If you want only 0 or 1, as a response : ping_response = subprocess.call(["ping", "-c1", "-w100", "10.0.0.254"], stdout=subprocess.DEVNULL)

[Dysmas]

The above solution does not work in Windows, even when adapted : subprocess.call(["ping", "-n", "1", "10.0.0.24"]) It always returns 0.

[joash]

Am either way receiving True both a right and wrong IP

[Dimitrios Mistriotis]

As edited requires root privileges, discussion on lifting this here: github.com/kyan001/ping3/issues/10

[Clock ZHONG]

Oh, need root prvilege not only for install, but also for execution: ping("example.com")

[Clock ZHONG]

I got thefollowing errors: import pyping Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/pyping/__init__.py", line 3, in <module> from core import * ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'core'

[MKANET]

Yeah this definitely doesn't work. Just returns :"true" either way on Windows

[MKANET]

Thanks @wellspokenman, pretty much nothing here worked for me correctly under Windows until I tried your solution posted on pastebin.com. Thank you. It's also very fast.

[Jerther]

Such strategy is also useful when the server has a firewall that drops real ICMP pings! Also, here's the GitHub page: github.com/zhengxiaowai/tcping

[Jann Poppinga]

It's worth mentioning that this too requires root privileges.

[joe_04_04]

How would you make a cross-compatible timeout flag?

[Ian Colwell]

Here's my solution from Python 3.6, using the newer subprocess.run: command = ["ping", "-c", "1", "-w2", host] return subprocess.run(args=command, stdout=subprocess.DEVNULL, stderr=subprocess.DEVNULL).returncode == 0

[Joshua]

I can confirm that the windows ping command is hokey with its return value. I am pinging a system I have disconnected from the network, another IP is responding that it isn't available, but I am getting 0% loss and an ERRORLEVEL of 0. Here is a paste of the results pastebin.pl/view/2437bb7c

[Amandeep Chugh]

This doesn't need sudo for execution. I'm running python 3.8.10

[NeilG]

Not ICMP but great way to test connection when you can't rely on underlying OS calls. And compact.

[Billy Cao]

On Windows, ping -w argument takes MILISECONDS.

[ratijas]

Timeout is measured in seconds, not milliseconds, so a default value of 1000 is unlikely to be useful. Please edit to just "1".

[Jose Francisco Lopez Pimentel]

@ratijas Timeout parameter must be passed in milliseconds, in Windows and Linux. I have just looked for the Mac OS command, and it uses seconds; but anyway, I can't test it on a Mac.

[Olivier B.]

This doesn't work on OSX. -w does not exist -> -W ; and it returns False when the ping call actually pings.

[Olivier B.]

This seem to works great, but ttl is lowercase on OSX on the ping command output, so for it to works, you need return 'TTL=' in result or 'ttl=' in result

[Sany]

If this doesn't work well on windows, it would be good to remove it from the title. This is not the super-universal solution.

[Sany]

No problem wit Destination Host Unreachable error - see comment above from @ikrase ?

[ePi272314]

Hello @Sany. This solution woks on Windows. The problem reported by ikrase could be solved. I can image two ways of doing that. However, I do not have any installation of Windows available to try. Maybe somebody in a future could improve the answer by including that fix.

[Florent]

In a Celery task and Python 3 it returns FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'ping': 'ping'