A modern ping for humans. Terminal-native, real-time connectivity monitor that doesn't just measure packets — it interprets network context.

Status: functional and in active use, with a frozen JSON contract. Linux, macOS and Windows; x86_64, aarch64 and armv7 (Raspberry Pi).

Answers three questions at once:

1. Does the target respond? — RTT, TTL, jitter, loss, quality score, trend
2. Do I have network from this interface? — gateway reachable, WAN reachable
3. What type of problem is it? — correlated diagnostics, automatic

sping google.com (216.58.204.174) via eth0  ⠙ probing...

Pulse      █▇▆█▁▃█▄
Latency    now 13.8 ms · avg 13.9 ms · min 13.6 ms · max 14.1 ms · jitter 0.19 ms · dns 18.5 ms
Status     Reachable · loss 0% · sent 8 · recv 8 · ttl 112 (Windows) · hops ~16
Context    if eth0 · 192.168.1.100/24 · gw ● · wan ● · public
Quality    A (100) · stable

sping 192.168.1.1 8.8.8.8 google.com

Target                      RTT        Avg   Loss    Qual      Trend        TTL  Hops
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
192.168.1.1             0.31 ms    0.30 ms     0%    A100     stable    64(Lin)    ~0
8.8.8.8                 13.6 ms    13.6 ms     0%    A100     stable   112(Win)   ~16
google.com (216.58.…    13.7 ms    13.6 ms     0%    A100     stable   112(Win)   ~16

Download from the Releases page:

Verify with SHA256SUMS from the same release.

sudo dpkg -i sping_1.5.4-1_amd64.deb     # or _arm64.deb on aarch64

The package installs:

• binary at /usr/bin/sping
• man page (man sping)
• shell completions for bash, zsh and fish
• docs under /usr/share/doc/sping/

After download, macOS may refuse to run the binary because it's not notarised by Apple. Remove the quarantine attribute once:

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine sping-vX.Y.Z-macos-arm64
chmod +x sping-vX.Y.Z-macos-arm64
./sping-vX.Y.Z-macos-arm64 8.8.8.8

Requires Rust 1.88+ (edition 2024 + let-chains).

git clone https://github.com/LambdaBytes/sping.git
cd sping
cargo build --release
# Binary at ./target/release/sping

# Single target — compact view (default)
sping 8.8.8.8

# Multiple targets — dashboard table
sping 192.168.1.1 1.1.1.1 api.example.com

# Hostname
sping google.com

# Fast probing (200ms interval)
sping 8.8.8.8 -i 200

# Bind to interface / source IP (Linux)
sping 8.8.8.8 -I eth0
sping 8.8.8.8 -S 192.168.1.100

# Ping-style flags: count, timeout, payload size, TTL, quiet, family
sping 8.8.8.8 -c 5                # stop after 5 probes (any view)
sping 8.8.8.8 -W 1                # 1s per-probe timeout
sping 8.8.8.8 -s 120              # 120-byte payload
sping 8.8.8.8 -t 10               # outgoing TTL / hop limit
sping 8.8.8.8 -c 10 -q            # quiet: summary only (classic)
sping example.com -4              # force IPv4 (-6 for IPv6)

# ASCII-only output: automatic on non-UTF-8 locales and on the legacy
# Windows console (SPING_ASCII=0 forces Unicode); NO_COLOR honored
sping 8.8.8.8 --ascii

# List interfaces
sping --list-interfaces

# Debug mode
sping --debug 8.8.8.8

Exit codes are ping-compatible: 0 replies received, 1 no replies, 2 error.

Probe a list of targets from a file:

# Create a hosts file (one target per line, # comments allowed)
cat > hosts.txt << EOF
8.8.8.8
1.1.1.1
google.com
192.168.1.20
EOF

# Summary to stdout (10 probes per host)
sping --batch hosts.txt -c 10

# JSON output
sping --batch hosts.txt -c 20 --view json

# Save to file
sping --batch hosts.txt -c 10 -o results.txt

# JSON to file
sping --batch hosts.txt -c 10 -o results.json --view json

# Fast interval
sping --batch hosts.txt -c 50 -i 200

Output (summary):

8.8.8.8                  10/10  0%  avg 13.6 ms  min 13.6 ms  max 13.7 ms  jitter 0.05 ms  ttl 112 (Windows) hops ~16  A(100) stable
1.1.1.1                  10/10  0%  avg 20.0 ms  min 19.9 ms  max 20.1 ms  jitter 0.08 ms  ttl 52 (Linux) hops ~12  A(100) stable

All targets are probed in parallel. Full diagnostics (quality, trend, spikes) included.

sping 8.8.8.8                    # compact (default) — fixed TUI
sping 8.8.8.8 --view extended    # compact + RTT dist + echo path
sping 8.8.8.8 --view classic     # traditional ping scrolling
sping 8.8.8.8 --view json        # NDJSON for scripting
sping 8.8.8.8 --view json | jq '{rtt: .rtt_last, ttl: .ttl, quality: .quality}'

sping works without admin/sudo on all platforms. On Linux it uses unprivileged DGRAM ICMP sockets (the net.ipv4.ping_group_range sysctl, which covers all users by default on Debian and most distributions), and falls back to a RAW socket only when DGRAM is denied.

If DGRAM ICMP is restricted, widen the allowed group range:

sudo sysctl -w net.ipv4.ping_group_range='0 2147483647'

Two features require CAP_NET_RAW (the RAW fallback and interface binding with -I/--interface). Grant it to the binary without running as root:

sudo setcap cap_net_raw+ep /usr/bin/sping

• Quality score A–D (0–100) with trend detection (stable/improving/degrading)
• Spike detection with adaptive threshold and cooldown
• Outage timer with recovery events
• Diagnostic correlation: "target unreachable · internet still OK", "gateway unreachable · local network issue likely"
• TTL + OS hint + hop count: ttl 116 (Windows) · hops ~12
• Network context: interface, gateway, IP/prefix, target classification (same LAN / public / default gateway)
• GW/WAN auxiliary probes with hysteresis (3 fails → offline, 2 ok → online)
• RTT distribution (extended view): p50, p95, p99, range, spikes
• Echo path animation (extended view)
• IPv4 and IPv6
• JSON output — stable NDJSON format, see JSON_CONTRACT.md
• Debug mode — --debug or SPING_LOG=debug

Own ICMP implementation per platform. No third-party ping libraries.

• Linux: socket2 DGRAM + libc recvmsg for TTL
• macOS: socket2 DGRAM + IP header parsing for TTL
• Windows: IcmpSendEcho FFI from iphlpapi.dll

Async Tokio runtime, watch channels, single-writer renderer at 10 FPS.

x86_64, aarch64 and armv7 (armhf) are compile-checked; aarch64/armv7 cover Raspberry Pi OS (64- and 32-bit). Release artifacts are produced for Linux x86_64/aarch64, macOS arm64 and Windows x86_64.

• -I/--interface binds only on Linux: macOS accepts the flag but it has no effect, Windows prints a warning and probes unbound. -S/--source is ignored on Windows, where the OS picks the route.
• The raw-socket fallback and -I need CAP_NET_RAW (see SECURITY.md); the unprivileged DGRAM path covers the common case.
• Reverse DNS / hostname display follows the system resolver; there is no built-in DNS cache beyond the re-resolution interval.
• IPv6 replies carry a hop limit (ttl) on Linux only; on macOS and Windows it is not shown (0 in JSON). Gateway detection and --list-interfaces are IPv4 only.

• Distribution packaging: AUR, Fedora/COPR, Debian/Raspberry Pi OS, Homebrew (work in progress under packaging/).

Every view and mode in 80 seconds: the multi-target panel, batch mode from a file, NDJSON with jq, the extended view, the classic ping-compatible view with its exit codes, the diagnostics on a failing target, and the small things (interfaces, NO_COLOR, DNS timing).

MIT