Zig Ping Program

This repository contains a simple implementation of a ping program written in Zig. It's a hobby project that sends ICMP echo requests to a specified IP address and listens for echo replies, displaying the round-trip time for each ping.

Features

• Sends ICMP echo requests (ping) to a specified IP address.
• Receives ICMP echo replies and calculates the round-trip time.
• Displays the ping results in a readable format.
• Handles timeouts and errors gracefully.
• Supports -h for help and -t for setting the Time-To-Live (TTL) value.

Requirements

• Zig compiler (tested with version 0.11.0)
• Linux operating system with standard networking capabilities

Installation

1. Clone the repository to your local machine:

   git clone https://github.com/meivantodorov/zig-ping.git

2. Navigate to the cloned directory:

   cd zig-ping

3. Compile the program using Zig:

   zig build --summary all

Usage

Run the compiled executable with the target IP address as an argument:

sudo ./zig-out/bin/zig-ping 1.1.1.1

Replace 1.1.1.1 with the IP address you wish to ping.

Command Line Options

• -h: Display help information.
• -t <value>: Set the Time-To-Live (TTL) value for ICMP packets.

Program Output

The program outputs the following information for each ping:

• The number of bytes received in the echo reply.
• The IP address of the responding host.
• The ICMP sequence number.
• The Time-To-Live (TTL) value.
• The round-trip time in milliseconds.

Example output:

PING 1.1.1.1 (1.1.1.1) 56(84) bytes of data
64 bytes from 1.1.1.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=9 ms
64 bytes from 1.1.1.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=9 ms
64 bytes from 1.1.1.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=10 ms

Important Notes

• Incorrectly provided arguments or arguments in the wrong sequence may lead to a crash of the program. Currently, error handling for such cases is not implemented.

TODO

• Implement interruption with Ctrl + C and display statistics upon exit.
• Modify the time calculation to use floating-point numbers for more accurate timing.
• Parse unsuccessful cases.
• Add functionality to ping hostnames.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.