From owner-freebsd-questions Tue Feb 3 01:28:09 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id BAA26016 for questions-outgoing; Tue, 3 Feb 1998 01:28:09 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from allegro.lemis.com (allegro.lemis.com [192.109.197.134]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id BAA26005 for ; Tue, 3 Feb 1998 01:28:01 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from grog@lemis.com) Received: from freebie.lemis.com (freebie.lemis.com [192.109.197.137]) by allegro.lemis.com (8.8.7/8.8.5) with ESMTP id TAA02906; Tue, 3 Feb 1998 19:57:52 +1030 (CST) Received: (from grog@localhost) by freebie.lemis.com (8.8.8/8.8.7) id TAA09478; Tue, 3 Feb 1998 19:57:52 +1030 (CST) (envelope-from grog) Message-ID: <19980203195751.03221@lemis.com> Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 19:57:51 +1030 From: Greg Lehey To: Leif Neland Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Modifyed ping References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.84e In-Reply-To: ; from Leif Neland on Tue, Feb 03, 1998 at 08:36:09AM +0100 Organization: LEMIS, PO Box 460, Echunga SA 5153, Australia Phone: +61-8-8388-8286 Fax: +61-8-8388-8725 Mobile: +61-41-739-7062 WWW-Home-Page: http://www.lemis.com/~grog Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG X-To-Unsubscribe: mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org "unsubscribe questions" On Tue, Feb 03, 1998 at 08:36:09AM +0100, Leif Neland wrote: > I have changed ping to only send 4 pings by default instead of infinite > (uninitialized, as far as I can see). > > SysV and M$ also only send 4 pings by default. > > If I think this should be standard in FreeBSD, how do I change the standard? I > mean, where, and who do I have to persuade to put this into the main > distribution. Is there a mailing list for discussing such changes? You will need to persuade the hackers. The mailing list is FreeBSD-hackers@FreeBSD.org, and you join in the same way as you joined this list. I don't think you have a bat's chance in hell of getting this change through. Just because System V does it doesn't mean that BSD people will think it good. The fact that Microsoft does it is probably enough reason in itself not to follow their example. But I think the best reason will be that most people, in this case including myself, prefer it the way it is. Don't let my opinion stop you from trying, though. > The reason: I have often started a ping in one window, jumped to > watch ppp in another, only to discover half an hour (or later) that > the ping is still pinging and keeping the line open. How about this script, called ping: #!/bin/sh ping -c 4 $* In addition, there is, of course, no reason why you shouldn't run your own modified version of ping. But persuading the community of what appear to be gratuitous changes is a very difficult thing. Greg