What does ping -4 do?

What does ping -4 do?

• A. Forces IPv6 and results in IPv6 based data.
• B. Pings until stopped with Ctrl+C.
• C. Forces the use of IPv4 and results in IPv4 based data.
• D. Resolves hostnames.

Answer: (C)

Controlling which IP protocol version the ping command uses is what's being tested. The flag -4 forces IPv4, so the echo requests are sent only over IPv4 networks. If the target hostname has IPv6 addresses as well, using -4 makes ping ignore those and attempt to reach the host via IPv4 instead. This is helpful when IPv6 isn’t available or is misconfigured on the network, ensuring you get IPv4-based responses. It doesn’t itself resolve hostnames—that step happens as part of ping’s normal operation, and -4 simply selects the protocol version used for the actual probe.

Controlling which IP protocol version the ping command uses is what's being tested. The flag -4 forces IPv4, so the echo requests are sent only over IPv4 networks. If the target hostname has IPv6 addresses as well, using -4 makes ping ignore those and attempt to reach the host via IPv4 instead. This is helpful when IPv6 isn’t available or is misconfigured on the network, ensuring you get IPv4-based responses. It doesn’t itself resolve hostnames—that step happens as part of ping’s normal operation, and -4 simply selects the protocol version used for the actual probe.