{"id":153,"date":"2013-09-15T08:18:40","date_gmt":"2013-09-15T15:18:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/?p=153"},"modified":"2026-02-08T22:01:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T06:01:52","slug":"http-ping-6-0-returns-http-status-code","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/blog\/http-ping\/http-ping-6-0-returns-http-status-code\/","title":{"rendered":"Hey scripters, http-ping now returns the HTTP status code"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nSavvy programmers and administrators often use our free http-ping<\/a> command line utility to check that their web servers up and serving pages. http-ping’s return code (the percentage of page downloads that succeeded) lets them know when the web server is not responding, enabling them to take the appropriate action (for example sending an email or rebooting the server). This works very well when a web server fails to respond but it can’t detect more subtle problems, such as when the server is responding but returning an error.\n<\/p>\n

\nhttp-ping version 6.0 addresses that problem. By returning the HTTP status code<\/a> from the server’s response, a script can detect 404’s (Not Found)<\/a>, 500’s (Internal Server Error) or any other non-standard replies.\n<\/p>\n

\nUsers of AlwaysUp<\/a> (and Service Protector<\/a>) can deploy http-ping to detect failures and restart their web servers when necessary. For example, this sample “sanity check plugin” script below<\/a> signals a restart when it detects a server error (500-599).\n<\/p>\n

\nEnjoy!\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
<\/span>@echo<\/span> off\r\n:: This batch file uses the http-ping application to detect when<\/span>\r\n:: a web server is not responding, or responds with a 5XX status<\/span>\r\n:: code. It returns 0 if the server responds properly and 1 if not.<\/span>\r\n:: It is intended for use with AlwaysUp<\/span>\r\n:: (https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/products\/AlwaysUp\/)<\/span>\r\n:: or Service Protector<\/span>\r\n:: (https:\/\/www.coretechnologies.com\/products\/ServiceProtector\/).<\/span>\r\n:: Copyright \u00a9 Core Technologies Consulting, LLC. All<\/span>\r\n:: rights reserved.<\/span>\r\n\r\n\r\n:: Here are a few variables that you should adjust.<\/span>\r\n:: ** Please specify the URL you wish to ping, and the full path<\/span>\r\n:: to the http-ping executable on your system **<\/span>\r\nSET<\/span> url<\/span>=http:\/\/localhost:80\r\nSET<\/span> http-ping-exe-path<\/span>="C:\\Temp\\http-ping.exe"<\/span>\r\n:: num-times-to-ping == The number of ping attempts that will be<\/span>\r\n:: made. The default of 5 is probably OK, but you can increase<\/span>\r\n:: it if errors are frequent (but tolerable).<\/span>\r\nSET<\/span> num-times-to-ping<\/span>=5\r\n:: num-seconds-between-pings == The time to wait between ping<\/span>\r\n:: attempts. Increase this to give your server more time to get<\/span>\r\n:: back on its feet after an error.<\/span>\r\nSET<\/span> num-seconds-between-pings<\/span>=10\r\n\r\n\r\n:: Loop "num-times-to-ping" times.<\/span>\r\nFOR<\/span> \/L<\/span> %%<\/span>X IN<\/span> (1<\/span>,1<\/span>,%num-times-to-ping%<\/span>) DO<\/span> CALL<\/span> :loopbody<\/span> %%<\/span>X\r\n\r\n\r\n:: If we get here, then all ping attempts failed.<\/span>\r\necho<\/span> All %num-times-to-ping%<\/span> attempts of http-ping failed^!<\/span> ^<\/span>\r\nE<\/span>xiting with 1.\r\nexit<\/span> 1\r\n\r\n\r\n:loopbody<\/span>\r\n:: Ping your web server once, returning the HTTP status code<\/span>\r\n:: (or 0 if the ping failed to connect).<\/span>\r\n%http-ping-exe-path%<\/span> -e -n 1 %url%<\/span>\r\n:: http-ping returns the HTTP status code or 0 if the ping<\/span>\r\n:: failed to connect. The list of HTTP status codes is<\/span>\r\n:: described here:<\/span>\r\n:: http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/List_of_HTTP_status_codes<\/span>\r\n:: For this script, we'll panic on 0 or 5XX (server error)<\/span>\r\n:: and consider all other codes as a success.<\/span>\r\nIF<\/span> %ERRORLEVEL%<\/span> GTR<\/span> 0 (\r\n   IF<\/span> %ERRORLEVEL%<\/span> LSS<\/span> 500 (\r\n      echo<\/span> http-ping returned %ERRORLEVEL%<\/span> - not an error. ^<\/span>\r\nE<\/span>xiting with 0.\r\n      exit<\/span> 0\r\n   ) else<\/span> IF<\/span> %ERRORLEVEL%<\/span> GTR<\/span> 599 (\r\n      echo<\/span> http-ping returned %ERRORLEVEL%<\/span> - not an error. ^<\/span>\r\nE<\/span>xiting with 0.\r\n      exit<\/span> 0\r\n   )\r\n)\r\necho<\/span> On attempt #%1<\/span>, http-ping returned %ERRORLEVEL%<\/span> - an error.\r\n:: If this was not the last attempt, pause before trying again.<\/span>\r\n:: Since DOS doesn't have a "sleep" command, use ping with an<\/span>\r\n:: invalid address and a timeout (in milliseconds) to wait for<\/span>\r\n:: a while. You can adjust the timeout value<\/span>\r\n:: (num-seconds-between-pings) above.<\/span>\r\nIF<\/span> %1<\/span> LSS<\/span> %num-times-to-ping%<\/span> (\r\n   SET<\/span> \/A<\/span> milliseconds<\/span>=%<\/span>num<\/span>-<\/span>seconds<\/span>-<\/span>between<\/span>-<\/span>pings<\/span>%<\/span> *<\/span> 1000<\/span>\r\n   echo<\/span> Pausing for %num-seconds-between-pings%<\/span> second^(<\/span>s^)^<\/span>\r\nb<\/span>efore the next attempt...\r\n   ping 1.1.1.1 -n 1 -w %milliseconds%<\/span> > nul\r\n)\r\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n\n\n\n
More articles about http-ping…<\/nobr><\/span><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n