You might prefer to generate a special page with a particular value (e.g. 'success') which you can then retrieve, and if it comes back ok, then Everything Must Be All Right(tm).

Something like

use LWP::Simple;

print "Broken!\n" unless get('http://your.site/page') eq 'success';
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Alternatively, you could go to the Uptime tool at arsdigita.com, where someone else has done the work for you!

andy.

I looked at the module and it shows nothing about ports

use IO::Socket then...
Although you must be warned that ping isn't a PERFECT way to check if a server is up as some boxes are configured to ignore ICMP echo, and some routers even drop those packet...
(try pinging www.microsoft.com for example)
IMHO a tcp connect on a well known USED port (port 80 in the microsoft case...) is far better.

In brief if you use IO::Socket, Net::Ping shouldn't be necessary...

For pinging a particular TCP port you'll want to use something like IO::Socket::INET to make a connection to that port. The TCP option of Net::Ping has no port option and will only connect to the echo service/port.

elsif ($self->{"proto"} eq "tcp")           
{
  $self->{"proto_num"} = (getprotobyname('tcp'))[2] ||
  croak("Can't get tcp protocol by name");
  $self->{"port_num"} = (getservbyname('echo', 'tcp'))[2] ||
  croak("Can't get tcp echo port by name");
  $self->{"fh"} = FileHandle->new();
}
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#!/usr/bin/perl 
 
use Net::Ping; 
 
$host="localhost"; 
 
$p = Net::Ping->new(); 
print "$host is alive.\n" if $p->ping($host); 
$p->close();
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Bad arg length for Socket::unpack_sockaddr_in, length is 0, should be 
+16 at /usr/lib/perl5/5.00503/i386-linux/Socket.pm line 295.
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Any ideas?

I believe that Net::Ping isn't checking whether the hostname-to-IP-address lookup failed and is then trying to ping to an undefined IP address. You could try updating the module.

        - tye (but my friends call me "Tye")

#!/usr/local/bin/perl

use IO::Socket;

## Array of ports that you want to check.
$port = "27015";
$remoteip = "www.your_server.com";

print "\nChecking for service at $remoteip\n";
print "  ";
print "=" x (length($remoteip) + 25);
print "\n\n";

 $connected = 0;
 $checkport = IO::Socket::INET->new(
              PeerAddr => "$remoteip",
              PeerPort => "$port",
              Proto => 'tcp',
              Timeout => '0') or $connected = 1;

 if (!($connected)) {
   print "  Port $port is up.\n";
 } else {
  print "  Port $port is down.\n";
 }
 close $checkport;
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While i haven't a comment on the socket side of your code, you may want to reverse the logic of your $connected flag. Intuitively, if I see a flag such as "$connected", the assumption is that a true value would mean we are conencted.

Then you can say something like:

if ( $connected) {
    print " Port $port is up.\n";
}
else {
    print " Port $port is down.\n";
}
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That also means you will have to reverse the logic in your "or" modifier, but your program will more intuitive and easier to maintain.