nc missing option -z

[Suvayu Ali]

Hi,

I used to use netcat to check if a particular host is up or if I have
internet connection before I run a few scripts.  I would use the -z
option in particular.  But now I see that has been removed:

$ nc -z imap.gmail.com 993 && sync-my-email.sh
  ncat: invalid option -- 'z'

Here is the excerpt from the old manual page:

-z Specifies that nc should just scan for listening daemons, without
     sending any data to them.  It is an error to use this option in
     conjunction with the -l option.

Any ideas what happened to it?  What can I use as replacement?

Thanks for any ideas.