Hi,

I'm trying to write a very simple shellscript, but somehow it does exactly the opposite of what I expected.
I want to run a script, but only if a particular server in my network is reachable.. So here's my script:
(note that the IP address does not exist in my network...)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
#!/bin/bash

pingresult=( `ping -w 3 192.168.1.100 |grep -i unreachable` )

if [ -z $pingresult ]
then
echo "Network-machine is not reachable"
else
echo "Yup, the machine replied"
fi
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I thought that the test -z checked for an empty string.
So, if $pingresult is empty, the test -z should return true, thus it should echo Network-machine not reachable.
However, it echos the Yup ... thing

When I use an existing IP address, it echo's the: Network-machine not reachable..

Shouldn't it be the other way around? Am I missing something here, or did I do something wrong???

(Or if anyone knows a better way to see if a machine can be reached through the network, please feel free to share it with me )

ping -w 3 192.168.1.100 | grep -qi unreachable; case $? in
0) echo "Network-machine is not reachable";;
1) echo "Yup, the machine replied";;
esac

What you did with pingresult is make an array you're not using ("echo ${pingresult[@]}"). Then you're not testing for the term "Unreachable" let alone use it. Besides, you do not need to work with the text, a quiet grep for the term would do, right? Exit status of grep provides enough info. Always try to use "set -x" to troubleshoot scripts, or execute as "sh -x /some/script".

If you went to Freshmeat you'd find clients for what you want to do, if you want, what I'd call the swiss armyknife amongst them, check out "Monit" it can check hosts, and much more.

Thanks unSpawn!

I do not completely understand your answer, but I do get where you go with you example.
What I want to do eventually is, when the machine can be pinged (thus is reachable) run another script to start some apps
If its not there, then just quit this script...