How to “Ping” from a Node.js app?

Question

I want to ping a server from my node.js app.

Is that doable?

Thanks

Answer 1

Doing ping(programmable) requires root privileges because it requires raws sockets which require root access. You could perform ping following Gradwohl's snippet, but keep in mind that you are forking a new process which is expensive(relatively). If you don't need to do it a lot(concurrency) this will definitely work :)

To do it in node.js(only) without forking process I think you have a couple of options, which are both hard to implement :()

1. rewrite this ping python library to node.js and then run program as root user.
2. write a c++ extension/addon for node.js using asio c++ library for node.js. It also has a couple of examples how to do icmp ping.

Not (only) using node.js:

1. use python ping library ran as root and communicate with node.js instance via redis. => EASIEST to implement.(hardly any work but I think rather fast :))
2. write c(++) code again using asio c++ but instead of writing node.js extension communicate via hiredis with node.js which also uses redis.

As a side-note how to use redis on node.js:

• install redis from http://redis.io
• install the fast node_redis library