Change Proposal Name

Summary

ping is able to work with IPv6 and IPv4 addresses, eliminating the need for multiple tools.

Owner

Name: Jan Synacek, Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos
Email: <nmav@redhat.com>
Release notes owner:

Current status

Targeted release: Fedora 24
Last updated: 2016-01-22
Tracker bug: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>

Detailed Description

The current system of using different software (ping vs ping6) for different versions of the IP stack is broken. As the IPv6 transition moves ahead its unreasonable to expect users to know in advance the IP version of a peer referenced using a DNS name, nor expect them to switch tools based on the types of IPs they are testing.

ping must work with both protocol versions by default.

Benefit to Fedora

Administrators and users of Fedora will be able to use a single tool (ping) to test any type of address (IPv6 or IPv4).

The system gets closer to being IPv6-ready. While ping by itself is a minor tool, is a very popular tool for debugging networks. By supporting inherently IPv6 in that tool, we provide an example of the type of IPv6 support we expect from our included programs.

Scope

Proposal owners:

The ping tool should be able to test any address provided on command line, being IPv6 or IPv4. That means that the ping tool from iputils as we include it in Fedora needs to be modified.

Other developers: N/A (not a System Wide Change)

Release engineering: N/A (not a System Wide Change)

- List of deliverables: N/A (not a System Wide Change)

Policies and guidelines: N/A (not a System Wide Change)

Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)

Upgrade/compatibility impact

The new ping command will be backwards compatible with the old one, and the legacy ping6 command will also be provided (as a link to the new ping command).