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Description of problem:

The arping man page shows it requires the '-I' option, but the help page shows that option as optional.

Whenever the command is executed without '-I' option it works without error.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):

iputils-20071127-21.el6

How reproducible:


Steps to Reproduce:
1. Show the arping help page:

$ arping -h

2. Open the arping man page:

$ man arping

3. Execute the arping command without '-I' option:

arping 192.168.1.1

Actual results:

The first step shows the help page where the '-I' option is shown as optional, between brackets:

Usage: arping [-fqbDUAV] [-c count] [-w timeout] [-I device] [-s source] destination

The second step shows the man page where th '-I' option is shown as required, without brackets:

 arping  [-AbDfhqUV]  [-c  count] [-w deadline] [-s source] -I interface
       destination

The third step works well.

Expected results:

The help page should show the same information. If the '-I' is not required that should be shown on both page.

Additional info:

On RHEL7 the behavior of arping requires the '-I' option.

The sources from iputils shows that the arping command detect if the 'device' variable is null, before to show an error message about the '-I' be required:

[arping.c]
...
468     if (device == NULL) {
469         fprintf(stderr, "arping: device (option -I) is required\n");
470         usage();
471     }
...

But, the 'device' variable is initialized as 'eth0':
[arping.c]
...
 40 char *device="eth0";
...

So, the correct behaviour should be the '-I' option required. Seems the but is not only related to the documentation.

Since the problem described in this bug report should be
resolved in a recent advisory, it has been closed with a
resolution of ERRATA.

For information on the advisory, and where to find the updated
files, follow the link below.

If the solution does not work for you, open a new bug report.

https://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2017-0604.html