Merge ping+ping6 and traceroue+traceroute6 to single utilities?

[Thomas Steen Rasmussen]

On 11-01-2014 14:36, sthaug at nethelp.no wrote:
>> Normal network enabled utilities like telnet or ftp or nc support
>> both because when using those you usually don't care about the
>> address family used, you just want to connect. This is a significant
>> difference from using ping or traceroute where you almost always
>> want a specific address family, depending on what you are testing.
> I strongly disagree with the "almost always want a specific address
> family". I normally want to verify that the IP at the other end is
> alive, or get some idea of how to get there. If I want a specific
> address family I'm very happy to use -4 / -6 options.

The IP at the other end will, by definition, always be either v4 or v6,
so yes, you do want a specific address family - namely the family your
IP belongs to.


Best regards,

Thomas Steen Rasmussen