Hi folks,

I am betting this is a very simple thing, but I admit i don't know the proper terms to search it out correctly.

I am self-learning at work.
I've come on a section of code in a script:

/usr/sbin/ping $dev 5 2 2>&1 | /usr/xpg4/bin/egrep -s "unknown host|no answer"

Check man ping on that system (I'm guessing it is Solaris) to get explanation of 5 2 . 2>&1 is a redirection technique, allowing to "merge" standard error messages into standard output stream.

2>&1 directs standard error to standard output.

For the "$dev 2 5" arguments you will need to read the manual page ("man ping") for your system. My system does not support that usage.

It would appear that "$dev" is the hostname, and "2 5" possibly the timeout and count.

Check the man page.

The ping command on AIX uses those two parameters.

From the man page:

5
PacketSize
Specifies the number of data bytes to be sent. The default is 56, which translates into 64 ICMP data bytes when combined with the 8 bytes of ICMP header data. This parameter is included for compatibility with previous versions of the ping command.

2
Count
Specifies the number of echo requests to be sent (and received). This parameter is included for compatibility with previous versions of the ping command.

Example: ping server 5 2
PING server (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx): 5 data bytes
13 bytes from xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64
13 bytes from xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64

--- server ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 packets received, 0% packet loss

Thank you all for giving me the answer here! I had not tried this on an AIX box. Only a virtual linux box and a Solaris server I have access too.