arping

Examples (TL;DR)

• Ping a host by ARP request packets: arping host_ip
• Ping a host on a specific interface: arping -I interface host_ip
• Ping a host and stop at the first reply: arping -f host_ip
• Ping a host a specific number of times: arping -c count host_ip
• Broadcast ARP request packets to update neighbours' ARP caches: arping -U ip_to_broadcast
• Detect duplicated IP addresses in the network by sending ARP requests with a 3 seconds timeout: arping -D -w 3 ip_to_check

tldr.sh

Synopsis

arping [-AbDfhqUV] [-c count] [-w deadline] [-i interval] [-s source] [-I interface] {destination}

Description

Ping destination on device interface by ARP packets, using source address source.

Options

-A

The same as -U, but ARP REPLY packets used instead of ARP REQUEST.

-b

Send only MAC level broadcasts. Normally arping starts from sending broadcast, and switch to unicast after reply received.

-c count

Stop after sending count ARP REQUEST packets. With deadline option, instead wait for count ARP REPLY packets, or until the timeout expires.

-D

Duplicate address detection mode (DAD). See RFC2131, 4.4.1. Returns 0, if DAD succeeded i.e. no replies are received.

-f

Finish after the first reply confirming that target is alive.

-I interface

Name of network device where to send ARP REQUEST packets.

-h

Print help page and exit.

-q

Quiet output. Nothing is displayed.

-s source

IP source address to use in ARP packets. If this option is absent, source address is:

• In DAD mode (with option -D) set to 0.0.0.0.
• In Unsolicited ARP mode (with options -U or -A) set to destination.
• Otherwise, it is calculated from routing tables.

-U

Unsolicited ARP mode to update neighbours' ARP caches. No replies are expected.

-V

Print version of the program and exit.

-w deadline

Specify a timeout, in seconds, before arping exits regardless of how many packets have been sent or received. In this case arping does not stop after count packet are sent, it waits either for deadline expire or until count probes are answered.

-i interval

Specify an interval, in seconds, between packets.

See Also

ping(8), clockdiff(8), tracepath(8).

Author

arping was written by Alexey Kuznetsov <kuznet@ms2.inr.ac.ru>.

Security

arping requires CAP_NET_RAW capability to be executed. It is not recommended to be used as set-uid root, because it allows user to modify ARP caches of neighbour hosts.

Availability

arping is part of iputils package.

Referenced By

clockdiff(8).