Checking host availability by using ping in bash scripts

Ping returns different exit codes depending on the type of error.

ping 256.256.256.256 ; echo $?
# 68

ping -c 1 127.0.0.1 ; echo $?
# 0

ping -c 1 192.168.1.5 ; echo $?
# 2

0 means host reachable

2 means unreachable

I can think of a one liner like this to run

ping -c 1 127.0.0.1 &> /dev/null && echo success || echo fail

Replace 127.0.0.1 with IP or hostname, replace echo commands with what needs to be done in either case.

Code above will succeed, maybe try with an IP or hostname you know that is not accessible.

Like this:

ping -c 1 google.com &> /dev/null && echo success || echo fail

and this

ping -c 1 lolcatz.ninja &> /dev/null && echo success || echo fail

You don't need the backticks in the if statement. You can use this check

if ping -c 1 some_ip_here &> /dev/null
then
  echo 1
else
  echo 0
fi

The if command checks the exit code of the following command (the ping). If the exit code is zero (which means that the command exited successfully) the then block will be executed. If it return a non-zero exit code, then the else block will be executed.