Troubleshooting sockets with ss
Socket Wrench
© Lead Image © Chonchit Jansuebsri, 123RF.com
The unassuming ss utility is easy to understand and easy to type, but it adds some powerful options to your admin toolkit.
The names for a few Linux utilities are so small that you find yourself unexpectedly launching them by entering a typo on the command line. Why bother typing lengthy words when a perfectly suitable abbreviation will suffice? One minuscule command (both in name and its pocket-sized footprint on your hard disk) is a little utility called ss.
Ss punches several levels above its flyweight class. If you're familiar with any of the popular tools used by sys admins for checking network links, I'm sure you'll be glad to hear that its functionality won't be too tricky to get your head around.
For the curious among us, the "ss" abbreviation is apparently for the words "socket statistics." Ss is bundled with the iproute2 package. If, for some highly unusual reason you don't find ss on your Debian-like system, you can always install it by running:
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