fix: raise clear error when ping utility is missing

Previously, if the system ping binary was not installed, os.system()
returned exit code 127 (shell command not found), which was silently
treated as a failed ping attempt. This caused a misleading assertion
failure like "Target is not pingable within expected time frame"
instead of indicating that ping itself is missing.

Fix by checking shutil.which("ping") before invoking the binary and
raising a RuntimeError with an actionable message if it is absent.

Add unit tests covering the missing-binary error, reachable host,
and unreachable host cases.

Closes #63

Author: ltekieli

score/itf/core/com/ping.py

@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
 # *******************************************************************************
 import os
+import shutil
 import time
 
 
@@ -19,6 +20,11 @@ def _execute_command(cmd):
 
 
 def _ping(address, wait_ms_precision=None):
+    if shutil.which("ping") is None:
+        raise RuntimeError(
+            "The 'ping' utility is not installed on this system. "
+            "Please install it (e.g. 'apt install iputils-ping' on Debian/Ubuntu systems)."
+        )
     timeout_command = f"timeout {wait_ms_precision} " if wait_ms_precision else ""
     return _execute_command(f"{timeout_command}ping -c 1 -W 1 " + address) == 0
 

test/BUILD

@@ -133,6 +133,13 @@ py_itf_test(
     ],
 )
 
+py_itf_test(
+    name = "test_ping",
+    srcs = [
+        "test_ping.py",
+    ],
+)
+
 py_itf_test(
     name = "test_qemu_config_schema",
     srcs = [

test/test_ping.py

@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+# *******************************************************************************
+# Copyright (c) 2026 Contributors to the Eclipse Foundation
+#
+# See the NOTICE file(s) distributed with this work for additional
+# information regarding copyright ownership.
+#
+# This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the
+# terms of the Apache License Version 2.0 which is available at
+# https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+# *******************************************************************************
+
+import pytest
+from unittest.mock import patch
+
+from score.itf.core.com.ping import ping
+
+
+def test_ping_raises_when_ping_utility_is_missing():
+    with patch("score.itf.core.com.ping.shutil.which", return_value=None):
+        with pytest.raises(RuntimeError, match="'ping' utility is not installed"):
+            ping("127.0.0.1")
+
+
+def test_ping_returns_true_when_host_is_reachable():
+    with patch("score.itf.core.com.ping.shutil.which", return_value="/usr/bin/ping"):
+        with patch("score.itf.core.com.ping.os.system", return_value=0):
+            assert ping("127.0.0.1") is True
+
+
+def test_ping_returns_false_when_host_is_unreachable():
+    with patch("score.itf.core.com.ping.shutil.which", return_value="/usr/bin/ping"):
+        with patch("score.itf.core.com.ping.os.system", return_value=1):
+            assert ping("192.0.2.1") is False