xping

Beautiful CLI network diagnostics — ping, traceroute, network scanning, port scanning, TCP checks, and DNS lookup.

Pure stdlib apart from certifi (CA bundle for TLS checks). Linux, macOS & Windows.

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  network diagnostics  ·  beautiful by default

Created by Mehdi Askari — see LICENSE for attribution terms.

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Features

• Ping — Live per-packet latency bars, animated spinner, sparkline chart, full statistics
• Ping --watch — Continuous live ping with in-place sparkline; Ctrl-C for final summary
• Traceroute — Real-time hop-by-hop path with RTT colour coding and summary
• MTR — Combined live traceroute + per-hop ping, redraws in place each cycle
• DNS Lookup — A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, NS, TXT (incl. SPF) with reverse DNS
• DNS Health Check — SPF, DMARC (_dmarc.), DKIM (common selectors), NS redundancy, MX backup, 0–100 score
• Reverse DNS — PTR lookup with stdlib fallback to 8.8.8.8 for flaky resolvers
• TCP Connect — Live TCP port checks with connect timing, success rate, and timeline
• Port Scanner — Concurrent TCP port scans with service names and open-port summary
• IP Scan — Discover live hosts across CIDR blocks or IP ranges using ICMP echo probes
• IP Sweep — Scan CIDR blocks or IP ranges for hosts with open TCP services
• TLS Inspector — Certificate details, expiry countdown, cipher, and SAN list
• HTTP Diagnostics — Status, headers, redirect chain, TTFB, and total time
• WHOIS — Domain registration data via port 43 with automatic RDAP fallback over HTTPS
• Network Health Score — 0–100 score combining DNS time, packet loss, latency, and jitter
• Path MTU Discovery — Binary-search for the largest unfragmented packet size
• Saved Profiles — xping profile add prod-db 10.0.0.5 then use xping ping prod-db
• All-in-one — Run lookup, ping, trace, and TCP checks in a single command
• Dependency checker — xping deps detects missing tools and shows the correct install command for your distro
• Machine-readable export — --json, --csv, and --markdown on every diagnostic command
• man page included — man xping works after installation

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Windows

XPing is a first-class citizen on Windows. TCP, port scan, sweep, and DNS fallback work out of the box with Python 3.10+.

For ICMP ping and traceroute, install the built-in optional tools or let xping use subprocess fallbacks:

pipx install xping
xping ping 1.1.1.1
xping trace cloudflare.com
xping deps

xping deps prints install hints for missing ping, tracert, and dig when available through winget or chocolatey.

Installation

Ubuntu / Debian / Linux Mint / Pop!_OS — PPA (recommended)

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mehdiaskari/xping
sudo apt update
sudo apt install xping

Supported: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, 24.04 LTS, Linux Mint 21+, Pop!_OS 22.04+

PyPI (all platforms)

pipx install xping

From source

git clone https://github.com/mehdiaskari/xping
cd xping
pip install .

Arch Linux (AUR)

yay -S python-xping

Manual page (source installs)

sudo cp man/xping.1 /usr/share/man/man1/
sudo gzip /usr/share/man/man1/xping.1
sudo mandb
man xping

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Usage

xping <command> <host> [options]

Ping

xping ping google.com
xping ping 1.1.1.1 -c 10          # 10 packets
xping ping example.com -i 0.2     # 200 ms interval
xping ping host.local -t 5        # 5 s timeout
xping ping google.com --watch     # continuous live mode with sparkline

Traceroute

xping trace google.com
xping trace 8.8.8.8 --max-hops 15
xping trace example.com --probes 5

MTR (My Traceroute)

xping mtr google.com              # combined traceroute + live per-hop ping
xping mtr 1.1.1.1 --cycles 20    # 20 ping cycles per hop
xping mtr example.com --json      # export full hop statistics

DNS Lookup

xping lookup github.com
xping lookup github.com --full    # includes TXT records (SPF etc.)
xping dnscheck github.com         # SPF / DMARC / DKIM / NS / MX health check

Reverse DNS

xping rdns 8.8.8.8               # resolve IP → hostname (PTR record)
xping rdns 1.1.1.1 --json

TCP Connectivity

xping tcp example.com 443
xping tcp db.internal 5432 -c 5   # 5 connection attempts
xping tcp api.example.com 8443 -t 3 -i 1

TLS Inspector

xping tls github.com              # certificate details and expiry
xping tls example.com --port 8443
xping tls github.com --json

HTTP Diagnostics

xping http https://example.com    # status, headers, TTFB, redirect chain
xping http http://github.com      # follows redirects automatically
xping http https://api.example.com --json

WHOIS

xping whois cloudflare.com        # registration data, port 43 + RDAP fallback
xping whois github.com --json

Network Health Score

xping health google.com           # 0-100 score with actionable findings
xping health 1.1.1.1 -c 16       # more ping packets for better accuracy
xping health example.com --json

Path MTU Discovery

xping mtu 8.8.8.8                 # find largest unfragmented packet size
xping mtu example.com --max-mtu 9000  # for jumbo frames

Saved Profiles

xping profile add prod-db 10.0.0.5 --port 5432 --note "Production DB"
xping profile add staging-api staging.example.com
xping profile list
xping profile show prod-db
xping profile remove prod-db

# Use a profile name anywhere a host is expected:
xping ping prod-db
xping tcp prod-db 5432
xping health staging-api

Port Scan

xping portscan example.com
xping portscan example.com --ports 22,80,443
xping portscan 10.0.0.5 --ports 1-1024 -t 0.3 -w 200

IP Scan

xping ipscan 192.168.1.0/24
xping ipscan 10.0.0.10-10.0.0.50 -t 0.5 -w 128
xping ipscan 172.16.0.0/24 --limit 512

IP Sweep

xping sweep 192.168.1.0/24
xping sweep 10.0.0.10-10.0.0.50 --ports 22,80,443
xping sweep 172.16.0.0/24 --ports 3389,5985 --limit 512

All at once

xping all cloudflare.com
xping all example.com --json

Runs full DNS lookup, 4-packet ping, traceroute, and TCP checks on ports 443 and 80.

Export formats

Every diagnostic command accepts structured output flags (interactive rendering is suppressed). Redirect to save to a file:

xping ping 1.1.1.1 --json
xping trace example.com --csv
xping lookup github.com --full --markdown
xping all cloudflare.com --json > report.json

Dependency check

xping deps

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Permissions

ICMP raw sockets require root or cap_net_raw. Without them xping automatically falls back to the system ping / traceroute binaries.

Grant capability without running as root:

sudo setcap cap_net_raw+ep $(which xping)

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Environment variables

Variable	Effect
NO_COLOR	Disable all ANSI colour output
XPING_DEBUG	Print full Python tracebacks on errors

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Contributing

1. Fork and clone the repository
2. pip install -e ".[dev]"
3. Make your changes
4. Run python -m pytest tests/
5. Open a pull request

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License

MIT with Mandatory Attribution — see LICENSE.

Any fork, derivative work, or redistribution must visibly credit Mehdi Askari <iorganamis@gmail.com>.