# Install fping with Homebrew, apk, apt, dnf, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, zypper
Scriptable ping program for checking if multiple hosts are up. Version 5.5 via Homebrew; verified from local package data. Also installable with debian: sudo apt install fping.
## Install
```sh
sudo av install brew:fping
```
Additional install commands:
### macOS
- Homebrew (100%):
```sh
brew install fping
```
Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata
- MacPorts (94%):
```sh
sudo port install fping
```
Evidence: MacPorts ports tree: net/fping/Portfile from https://api.github.com/repos/macports/macports-ports/git/trees/master?recursive=1
### Linux
- apk (92%):
```sh
sudo apk add fping
```
Evidence: Alpine Linux edge package indexes: fping from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/main/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz
- Debian apt (92%):
```sh
sudo apt install fping
```
Evidence: Debian stable package indexes: fping from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz
- dnf (92%):
```sh
sudo dnf install fping
```
Evidence: Fedora Rawhide package metadata: fping from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/07190dc5ae9f35ae73866675fed6d95fe6e8d9fe22c9d7cdf85862cb2ed24a4c-primary.xml.zst
- Nix (92%):
```sh
nix profile install nixpkgs#fping
```
Evidence: nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/fp/fping/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1
- pacman (92%):
```sh
sudo pacman -S fping
```
Evidence: Arch Linux sync databases: fping from https://geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com/extra/os/x86_64/extra.db.tar.gz
- zypper (92%):
```sh
sudo zypper install fping
```
Evidence: openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: fping from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/50b07339cb64c8ed4091bdbabddadc1ff5737b090e478818a195b40d8a3292861a879139b4a3987c31109699fde9fbf4a716367ddf4eef77da75f96e3193d6ed-primary.xml.zst
## Package facts
- **Package key:** brew:fping
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 5.5
- **Source summary:** Scriptable ping program for checking if multiple hosts are up
- **Homepage:**
- **Repository:**
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T19:37:03+00:00
## Executables
- fping (alias)
## Install behavior
- Bottle: not available
## Freshness
- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 5.5
## Project history and usage
fping is a scriptable ICMP echo tool for checking many hosts. Its man page describes it as ping-like, but designed to send probes to multiple targets in round-robin fashion and to produce parseable output for scripts.
### Project history
The official homepage says Roland Schemers published the first version in 1992. It also records a long maintenance gap: no official release appeared from 2002 until the end of 2011, after which David Schweikert took over maintainership and called the new line version 3.
Version 3 incorporated Debian patches, Tobias Oetiker's SmokePing modifications, and a rewritten main loop intended to improve performance. The current official site points users to release source distributions and the GitHub repository for latest sources.
### Adoption history
The official homepage says fping has established itself as a standard tool for network diagnostics and statistics. It also names Debian, Gentoo, and Archlinux as examples of distributions providing fping packages.
Its adoption has been helped by the difference from traditional ping: administrators can feed it many hosts, generated ranges, or files, and use its output in monitoring scripts.
### How it is used
fping sends ICMP ECHO_REQUEST packets to targets, moves on rather than waiting on one host, removes hosts from the active list when they reply, and marks hosts unreachable after timeout or retry limits.
Common package-manager users care about options such as alive/unreachable filtering, count mode, looping, generated address ranges, per-target statistics, timestamped output, and machine-friendly output for monitoring systems.
### Why package nerds care
fping is package-nerd significant because it is one of the classic small C networking utilities whose behavior is different enough from the base-system ping to justify a separate package everywhere.
It is also historically interesting because downstream patches and monitoring-tool modifications accumulated during an upstream lull, then were folded into a revived upstream line in version 3.
### Timeline
- 1992: Roland Schemers published the first version.
- 2002-2011: No official upstream fping release.
- 2011: New maintainership began and version 3 marked the handoff.
- 2020: fping 5.0 released with incompatible output-size and loop/count behavior changes.
- 2025: fping 5.5 released with JSON output and IPv6 address generation support.
### Related projects
- ping is the baseline tool fping intentionally differs from.
- SmokePing is explicitly mentioned in the version 3 announcement because Tobias Oetiker's modifications were incorporated.
- Netdata is related through fping output support documented in the man page and changelog.
### Sources
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## Security Notes
narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.
- **Geiger risk:** green / low
- narrow executable package without higher-risk signals
## Other Package-Manager Records
- Debian apt - fping - 5.1-1: normalized package name match | Debian stable package indexes: fping from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz | sends ICMP ECHO_REQUEST packets to network hosts | https://www.fping.org/
- Nix - fping: normalized package name match | nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/fp/fping/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1
- Ubuntu apt - fping - 5.1-1: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: fping from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | sends ICMP ECHO_REQUEST packets to network hosts | https://www.fping.org/
- apk - fping - 5.5-r0: normalized package name match | Alpine Linux edge package indexes: fping from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/main/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz | A utility to ping multiple hosts at once | https://fping.org/
- apk - fping-doc - 5.5-r0: normalized package name match | Alpine Linux edge package indexes: fping-doc from https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/main/x86_64/APKINDEX.tar.gz | A utility to ping multiple hosts at once (documentation) | https://fping.org/
- dnf - fping - 5.5-2.fc45: normalized package name match | Fedora Rawhide package metadata: fping from https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/Everything/x86_64/os/repodata/07190dc5ae9f35ae73866675fed6d95fe6e8d9fe22c9d7cdf85862cb2ed24a4c-primary.xml.zst | Scriptable, parallelized ping-like utility | https://www.fping.org/
- pacman - fping - 5.5-1: normalized package name match | Arch Linux sync databases: fping from https://geo.mirror.pkgbuild.com/extra/os/x86_64/extra.db.tar.gz | Utility to ping multiple hosts at once | https://www.fping.org/
- zypper - fping - 5.5-1.5: normalized package name match | openSUSE Tumbleweed package metadata: fping from https://download.opensuse.org/tumbleweed/repo/oss/repodata/50b07339cb64c8ed4091bdbabddadc1ff5737b090e478818a195b40d8a3292861a879139b4a3987c31109699fde9fbf4a716367ddf4eef77da75f96e3193d6ed-primary.xml.zst | A program to ping multiple hosts | http://www.fping.org
- MacPorts - fping: normalized package name match | MacPorts ports tree: net/fping/Portfile from https://api.github.com/repos/macports/macports-ports/git/trees/master?recursive=1
## Combined YAML source
View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/fping.yml](https://github.com/mxcl/pkgdb/blob/main/combined/fping.yml)
## Sources
- pkg.so package database
- Geiger risk classifier
- curated package history
- pkgdb category and tag curation
- external package-manager database matches
- cross-ecosystem install command graph