How To Execute Ping Command Only For N number of Packets

Question: When I execute ping command from the command line, it keeps sending the packets until I hit CTRL-C to terminate the ping command output. How can I execute ping command only for N number of packets and terminate the output automatically?

Answer: Use ping option -c to specify the number of packets. After sending N number of packets, ping command will terminate automatically as explained below.

Ping Command – Interactive Mode

In the following example, you have to press CTRL-C to terminate the ping command output.

$ ping 0
PING 0 (127.0.0.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.023 ms
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.006 ms
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0.004 ms
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=0.005 ms
....

Note: Press CTRL-C to terminate.

--- 0 ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 received, 0% packet loss, time 3999ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.004/0.008/0.023/0.007 ms

Note: ping 0 — pings the local host.

Ping Command – Non Interactive Mode (Specify number of packets to be sent)

In the following example, ping command will send only 2 packets and you don’t need to press CTRL-C to terminate the output.

$ ping 0 -c 2
PING 0 (127.0.0.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.024 ms
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.006 ms

--- 0 ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 received, 0% packet loss, time 999ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.006/0.015/0.024/0.009 ms

Ping Command Option -c Usages

Redirect the ping command output to a file

$ ping 127.0.0.1 -c 2 > ping-output.txt

$ cat ping-output.txt
PING 127.0.0.1 (127.0.0.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.015 ms
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.005 ms

--- 127.0.0.1 ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 received, 0% packet loss, time 999ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.005/0.010/0.015/0.005 ms

Redirect to another process. This example shows only the ping output summary (last two lines).

$ ping 127.0.0.1 -c 10 | tail -2
10 packets transmitted, 10 received, 0% packet loss, time 8999ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.005/0.006/0.014/0.003 ms

> Add your comment

Linux provides several powerful administrative tools and utilities which will help you to manage your systems effectively. If you don’t know what these tools are and how to use them, you could be spending lot of time trying to perform even the basic administrative tasks. The focus of this course is to help you understand system administration tools, which will help you to become an effective Linux system administrator.
Get the Linux Sysadmin Course Now!