> Hi, > I am trying to write a script to use popclient to download the mail from > the office's server. This will run on a portable. I want the script to > check whether the network is up before attempting to retrieve any mail, > as I am likely to use the notebook in other places and won't be hooked > to the network. > > The question is: > > Is there any way of checking whether the network is responding so that I > only run popclient when it is?
Yes, there are probably a number of ways. You could check the output of netstat -r for a default route (something like "[ `netstat -rn | grep '^0\.0\.0\.0' | wc --lines` = 0 ] || popclient...", although there is probably an easier way to do that) I have set it up so that on my system, bringing up my PPP connection automatically creates a "/var/lock/ip-is-up", and bringing it down deletes that file. Since I only have a single net connection, this works. For multiple net connetions, some modification might have to be done. There are probably others, but I don't know them offhand. One final note: I don't use a lap-top, but my computer is also not connected to the internet fulltime. However, I run two popclients every 5 minutes via a cron entry. I've decided that I don't need to have then even check for the net connection first. Since popclient aborts very quickly when it can't establish a connection, I don't even notice that i have them running. Will this not work for you, too? > > Thanks. > Luis. > -- Buddha Buck [EMAIL PROTECTED] "She was infatuated with their male prostitutes, whose members were like those of donkeys and whose seed came in floods like that of stallions." -- Ezekiel 23:20