[ILUG] mii-tool and link status

[Pádraig Brady]

Paul Mc Auley wrote:
> Is there an "official" way of testing the link status of an ethernet 
> device?
> 
> If, for instance eth0 is unplugged I can type (as root) mii-tool and get 
> back, eth0: no link
> 
> If there a way to do that as a non-root user short of writing a wrapper?
> Also the man page for mii-tool says:
> "This  program  is  obsolete. Valid media are only 100baseT4, 100baseTx-
>  FD,100baseTx-HD, 10baseT-FD and 10baseT-HD ethernet cards. For 
>  replacement check ethtool."
> 
> Which is fine, only I can't find a way of making ethtool do what I want.
> What's the story on this?
> 	Paul

sudo ethtool eth0 | grep -qF "Link detected: yes" && echo connected || echo disconnected