POE::Component::Client::Ping(3pm)			User Contributed Perl Documentation			 POE::Component::Client::Ping(3pm)

NAME

       POE::Component::Client::Ping - a non-blocking ICMP ping client

SYNOPSIS

	 use POE qw(Component::Client::Ping);

	 POE::Component::Client::Ping->spawn(
	   Alias	       => "pingthing",	# defaults to "pinger"
	   Timeout	       => 10,		# defaults to 1 second
	   Retry	       => 3,		# defaults to 1 attempt
	   OneReply	       => 1,		# defaults to disabled
	   Parallelism	       => 64,		# defaults to autodetect
	   BufferSize	       => 65536,	# defaults to undef
	   AlwaysDecodeAddress => 1,		# defaults to 0
	 );

	 sub some_event_handler {
	   $kernel->post(
	     "pingthing", # Post the request to the "pingthing" component.
	     "ping",	  # Ask it to "ping" an address.
	     "pong",	  # Have it post an answer as a "pong" event.
	     $address,	  # This is the address we want to ping.
	     $timeout,	  # Optional timeout.  It overrides the default.
	     $retry,	  # Optional retries. It overrides the default.
	   );
	 }

	 # This is the sub which is called when the session receives a "pong"
	 # event.  It handles responses from the Ping component.
	 sub got_pong {
	   my ($request, $response) = @_[ARG0, ARG1];

	   my ($req_address, $req_timeout, $req_time)	   = @$request;
	   my ($resp_address, $roundtrip_time, $resp_time, $resp_ttl) = @$response;

	   # The response address is defined if this is a response.
	   if (defined $resp_address) {
	     printf(
	       "ping to %-15.15s at %10d. pong from %-15.15s in %6.3f s
",
	       $req_address, $req_time,
	       $resp_address, $roundtrip_time,
	     );
	     return;
	   }

	   # Otherwise the timeout period has ended.
	   printf(
	     "ping to %-15.15s is done.
", $req_address,
	   );
	 }

	 or

	 use POE::Component::Client::Ping ":const";

	 # Post an array ref as the callback to get data back to you
	 $kernel->post("pinger", "ping", [ "pong", $user_data ]);

	 # use the REQ_USER_ARGS constant to get to your data
	 sub got_pong {
	     my ($request, $response) = @_[ARG0, ARG1];
	     my $user_data = $request->[REQ_USER_ARGS];
	     ...;
	 }

DESCRIPTION

       POE::Component::Client::Ping is non-blocking ICMP ping client.  It lets several other sessions ping through it in parallel, and it lets
       them continue doing other things while they wait for responses.

       Ping client components are not proper objects.  Instead of being created, as most objects are, they are "spawned" as separate sessions.	To
       avoid confusion (and hopefully not cause other confusion), they must be spawned with a "spawn" method, not created anew with a "new" one.

       PoCo::Client::Ping's "spawn" method takes a few named parameters:

       Alias => $session_alias
	 "Alias" sets the component's alias.  It is the target of post() calls.  See the synopsis.  The alias defaults to "pinger".

       Socket => $raw_socket
	 "Socket" allows developers to open an existing raw socket rather than letting the component attempt opening one itself.  If omitted, the
	 component will create its own raw socket.

	 This is useful for people who would rather not perform a security audit on POE, since it allows them to create a raw socket in their own
	 code and then run POE at reduced privileges.

       Timeout => $ping_timeout
	 "Timeout" sets the default amount of time (in seconds) a Ping component will wait for a single ICMP echo reply before retrying.  It is 1
	 by default.  It is possible and meaningful to set the timeout to a fractional number of seconds.

	 This default timeout is only used for ping requests that don't include their own timeouts.

       Retry => $ping_attempts
	 "Retry" sets the default number of attempts a ping will be sent before it should be considered failed. It is 1 by default.

       OneReply => 0|1
	 Set "OneReply" to prevent the Ping component from waiting the full timeout period for replies.  Normally the ICMP protocol allows for
	 multiple replies to a single request, so it's proper to wait for late responses.  This option disables the wait, ending the ping
	 transaction at the first response.  Any subsequent responses will be silently ignored.

	 "OneReply" is disabled by default, and a single successful request will generate at least two responses.  The first response is a
	 successful ICMP ECHO REPLY event.  The second is an undefined response event, signifying that the timeout period has ended.

	 A ping request will generate exactly one reply when "OneReply" is enabled.  This reply will represent either the first ICMP ECHO REPLY to
	 arrive or that the timeout period has ended.

       Parallelism => $limit
	 Parallelism sets POE::Component::Client::Ping's maximum number of simultaneous ICMP requests.	Higher numbers speed up the processing of
	 large host lists, up to the point where the operating system or network becomes oversaturated and begin to drop packets.

	 The difference can be dramatic.  A tuned Parallelism can enable responses down to 1ms, depending on the network, although it will take
	 longer to get through the hosts list.

	   Pinging 762 hosts at Parallelism=64
	   Starting to ping hosts.
	   Pinged 10.0.0.25	  - Response from 10.0.0.25	  in  0.002s
	   Pinged 10.0.0.200	  - Response from 10.0.0.200	  in  0.003s
	   Pinged 10.0.0.201	  - Response from 10.0.0.201	  in  0.001s

	   real  1m1.923s
	   user  0m2.584s
	   sys	 0m0.207s

	 Responses will take significantly longer with an untuned Parallelism, but the total run time will be quicker.

	   Pinging 762 hosts at Parallelism=500
	   Starting to ping hosts.
	   Pinged 10.0.0.25	  - Response from 10.0.0.25	  in  3.375s
	   Pinged 10.0.0.200	  - Response from 10.0.0.200	  in  1.258s
	   Pinged 10.0.0.201	  - Response from 10.0.0.201	  in  2.040s

	   real  0m13.410s
	   user  0m6.390s
	   sys	 0m0.290s

	 Excessively high parallelism values may saturate the OS or network, resulting in few or no responses.

	   Pinging 762 hosts at Parallelism=1000
	   Starting to ping hosts.

	   real  0m20.520s
	   user  0m7.896s
	   sys	 0m0.297s

	 By default, POE::Component::Client::Ping will guess at an optimal Parallelism value based on the raw socket receive buffer size and the
	 operating system's nominal ICMP packet size.  The latter figure is 3000 octets for Linux and 100 octets for other systems.  ICMP packets
	 are generally under 90 bytes, but operating systems may use alternative numbers when calculating buffer capacities.  The component tries
	 to mimic calculations observed in the wild.

	 When in doubt, experiment with different Parallelism values and use the one that works best.

       BufferSize => $bytes
	 If set, then the size of the receive buffer of the raw socket will be modified to the given value. The default size of the receive buffer
	 is operating system dependent. If the buffer cannot be set to the given value, a warning will be generated but the system will continue
	 working. Note that if the buffer is set too small and too many ping replies arrive at the same time, then the operating system may
	 discard the ping replies and mistakenly cause this component to believe the ping to have timed out. In this case, you will typically see
	 discards being noted in the counters displayed by 'netstat -s'.

	 Increased BufferSize values can expand the practical limit for Parallelism.

       AlwaysDecodeAddress => 0|1
	 If set, then any input addresses will always be looked up, even if the hostname happens to be only 4 characters in size.  Ideally, you
	 should be passing addresses in to the system to avoid slow hostname lookups, but if you must use hostnames and there is a possibility
	 that you might have short hostnames, then you should set this.

       Payload => $bytes
	 Sets the ICMP payload (data bytes).  Otherwise the component generates 56 data bytes internally.  Note that some firewalls will discard
	 ICMP packets with nonstandard payload sizes.

       Sessions communicate asynchronously with the Client::Ping component.  They post ping requests to it, and they receive pong events back.

       Requests are posted to the component's "ping" handler.  They include the name of an event to post back, an address to ping, and an optional
       amount of time to wait for responses.  The address may be a numeric dotted quad, a packed inet_aton address, or a host name.  Host names
       are not recommended: they must be looked up for every ping request, and DNS lookups can be very slow.  The optional timeout overrides the
       one set when "spawn" is called.

       Ping responses come with two array references:

	 my ($request, $response) = @_[ARG0, ARG1];

       $request contains information about the original request:

	 my (
	   $req_address, $req_timeout, $req_time, $req_user_args,
	 ) = @$request;

       $req_address
	 This is the original request address.	It matches the address posted along with the original "ping" request.

	 It is useful along with $req_user_args for pairing requests with their corresponding responses.

       $req_timeout
	 This is the original request timeout.	It's either the one passed with the "ping" request or the default timeout set with "spawn".

       $req_time
	 This is the time that the "ping" event was received by the Ping component.  It is a real number based on the current system's time()
	 epoch.

       $req_user_args
	 This is a scalar containing arbitrary data that can be sent along with a request.  It's often used to provide continuity between requests
	 and their responses.  $req_user_args may contain a reference to some larger data structure.

	 To use it, replace the response event with an array reference in the original request.  The array reference should contain two items: the
	 actual response event and a scalar with the context data the program needs back.  See the SYNOPSIS for an example.

       $response contains information about the ICMP ping response.  There may be multiple responses for a single request.

	 my ($response_address, $roundtrip_time, $reply_time, $reply_ttl) =
	 @$response;

       $response_address
	 This is the address that responded to the ICMP echo request.  It may be different than $request_address, especially if the request was
	 sent to a broadcast address.

	 $response_address will be undefined if $request_timeout seconds have elapsed.	This marks the end of responses for a given request.
	 Programs can assume that no more responses will be sent for the request address.  They may use this marker to initiate another ping
	 request.

       $roundtrip_time
	 This is the number of seconds that elapsed between the ICMP echo request's transmission and its corresponding response's receipt.  It's a
	 real number. This is purely the trip time and does *not* include any time spent queueing if the system's parallelism limit caused the
	 ping transmission to be delayed.

       $reply_time
	 This is the time when the ICMP echo response was received.  It is a real number based on the current system's time() epoch.

       $reply_ttl
	 This is the ttl for the echo response packet we received.

       If the ":const" tagset is imported the following constants will be exported:

       REQ_ADDRESS, REQ_TIMEOUT, REQ_TIME REQ_USER_ARGS, RES_ADDRESS, RES_ROUNDTRIP, RES_TIME, RES_TTL

SEE ALSO

       This component's ICMP ping code was lifted from Net::Ping, which is an excellent module when you only need to ping one host at a time.

       See POE, of course, which includes a lot of documentation about how POE works.

       Also see the test program, t/01_ping.t, in the component's distribution.

BUG TRACKER

       https://rt.cpan.org/Dist/Display.html?Queue=POE-Component-Client-Ping

REPOSITORY

       http://github.com/rcaputo/poe-component-client-ping/

OTHER RESOURCES

       http://search.cpan.org/dist/POE-Component-Client-Ping/

AUTHOR &; COPYRIGHTS
       POE::Component::Client::Ping is Copyright 1999-2009 by Rocco Caputo.  All rights are reserved.  POE::Component::Client::Ping is free
       software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

       You can learn more about POE at http://poe.perl.org/

perl v5.14.2							    2012-03-07					 POE::Component::Client::Ping(3pm)