Package org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.condition

Class IsReachable

java.lang.Object
org.apache.tools.ant.ProjectComponent
org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.condition.IsReachable
All Implemented Interfaces:
java.lang.Cloneable, Condition
public class IsReachable
extends ProjectComponent
implements Condition

Test for a host being reachable using ICMP "ping" packets & echo operations. Ping packets are very reliable for assessing reachability in a LAN or WAN, but they do not get through any well-configured firewall. Echo (port 7) may.

This condition turns unknown host exceptions into false conditions. This is because on a laptop, DNS is one of the first services lost when the network goes; you are implicitly offline.

If a URL is supplied instead of a host, the hostname is extracted and used in the test--all other parts of the URL are discarded.

The test may not work through firewalls; that is, something may be reachable using a protocol such as HTTP, while the lower level ICMP packets get dropped on the floor. Similarly, a host may be detected as reachable with ICMP, but not reachable on other ports (i.e. port 80), because of firewalls.

Since:
Ant 1.7