[smokeping-users] fping 3: new version with improved performance, please test

[David Schweikert]

Dear SmokePing community:

I am about to announce fping version 3 (see the announcement text that I
prepared for it below). Before releasing it officially and calling it
"3.0", I'd like to ask for any volunteer to test a release candidate,
available here: http://fping.org/dist/

This new version includes a completely reworked main loop, which should
really make a difference in the total run time of fping. I am interested
to hear if it works well for you and if you get similar results as
before.

Thanks
David

------ DRAFT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR FPING 3.0 --------

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    (fping version 3.0-rc2)

What is fping?

    fping is a program to send ICMP echo probes to network hosts, similar
    to ping, but much better performing when pinging multiple hosts.

    fping has a long long story: Roland Schemers did publish a first
    version of it in 1992 and it has established itself since then as
    a standard tool.

Announcing version 3

    There has been no official fping release since 2002. Various patches
    exist, but were never integrated "upstream". Also, the current
    maintainer doesn't answer emails, so I decided to just step up and
    take over maintenanceship. If you disagree, please contact me.

    To mark this change of maintenance, and avoid confusion, I have
    decided to call it version 3. Besides a new maintainer, fping now also
    features a completely rewritten main loop implementation which
    improves performance significantly. The run time is now close to the
    theoretical time required to send and receive the pings under the
    specified parameters.

Included changes

    fping 3.0 includes the following changes, compared to the last
    released version 2.4b2-to-ipv6:

    - Debian patches until version 2.4b2-to-ipv6-16.
    - Modifications by Tobias Oetiker for SmokePing (2.4b2-to4)
    - Reimplemented main loop for improved performance (me)

Where to get

    http://fping.org/

    (see also that link for any feedback)