UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

if i wanted to ping all the machines in a given directory (/etc/hosts) and return a total count of responses how would i go about scripting that?

complete newbie...so be gentle

if [ -d "$1" ]; then //$1 = /etc/hosts
cd "$1"

//this puts me into the directory i need...but how do i send
//multiple pings? for loop? do loop?

fi

hope this makes sense!?

/etc/hosts isn't a directory, so here's what I'd do (just one possibility):

Code:

if [ -e "$1" ]; then
  awk '$1 != "" && $1 != "#" {print $1}' "$1" |
  while read COMP; do
    ping -c 1 "$COMP"
  done
fi

BTW, you can do away with the loop if you have xargs:

Code:

if [ -e "$1" ]; then
  awk '$1 != "" && $1 != "#" {print $1}' "$1" | xargs -i ping -c1 {}
fi