Linux traceroute command

The Linux traceroute command is used to trace the route that packets take to reach a destination host. It shows the IP addresses of the routers along the path and the round-trip time it takes for a packet to travel to each router and back.

traceroute command

The general syntax of the command is as follows:

$ traceroute [options] [hostname or IP address]

The command reports the list of hops from the source to the destination host. ICMP or UDP is used in this communication. RTT is well reported.

The Windows equivalent command is: tracert

Example

To trace the route to a host with the domain name “example.com” using ICMP packets, the following command is used:

$ traceroute -I example.com

The following command is used for UDP packets:

$ traceroute -U example.com

Note that you need to replace the example.com with the actual domain name.