#!/bin/bash
# example03

# Manually edit this variable declaration to test it with this script

IP1=192.168.9.90  

# Use ping -c1 to send one packet only
# Use > /dev/null 2>&1 to redirect standard out and
# error to /dev/null because we don't need to see it

ping -c1 $IP1 > /dev/null 2>&1

# Ping will return a zero if there was a packet returned
# from the target IP

if [ $? -eq 0 ];then
        echo "ping returned"
else
        echo "no ping returned"
fi

# "> /dev/null" redirects standard out (stdout) to /dev/null
# "which is where things go to dissappear on nix systems"
# "2>&1" redirects standard error (stderr) to stdout so that
# "they both go down the drain. In short there is no output
# from ping with the exception of 0 or 1 to the system at exit.

#end of script