TRACEROUTE(8)                                                    TRACEROUTE(8)



NAME
       traceroute - print the route packets take to network host

SYNOPSIS
       traceroute [ -aDFPIdlMnrvx ] [ -f first_ttl ]
               [ -g gateway ] [ -i iface ] [ -m max_ttl ]
               [ -p port ] [ -q nqueries ] [ -s src_addr ]
               [ -t tos ] [ -w waittime ] [ -A as_server ]
               host [ packetlen ]

DESCRIPTION
       The  Internet  is  a large and complex aggregation of network hardware,
       connected together by gateways.  Tracking the route one's packets  fol-
       low  (or  finding the miscreant gateway that's discarding your packets)
       can be difficult.  Traceroute uses the IP protocol `time to live' field
       and attempts to elicit an ICMP TIME_EXCEEDED response from each gateway
       along the path to some host.

       The only mandatory parameter is the destination host name or IP number.
       The  default  probe  datagram  length  is  40  bytes,  but  this may be
       increased by specifying a packet length (in bytes) after  the  destina-
       tion host name.

       Other options are:

       -a     Turn on AS# lookups for each hop encountered.

       -A     Turn  on  AS#  lookups  and  use the given server instead of the
              default.

       -d     Turn on socket-level debugging.

       -D     Dump the packet data to standard error before transmitting it.

       -f     Set the initial time-to-live used in the  first  outgoing  probe
              packet.

       -F     Set the "don't fragment" bit.

       -g     Specify a loose source route gateway (8 maximum).

       -i     Specify  a network interface to obtain the source IP address for
              outgoing probe packets. This is normally only useful on a multi-
              homed host. (See the -s flag for another way to do this.)

       -I     Use ICMP ECHO instead of UDP datagrams.

       -l     Display  the  ttl  value of the returned packet.  This is useful
              for checking for asymmetric routing.

       -m     Set the max time-to-live (max number of hops) used  in  outgoing
              probe   packets.    The   default   value   is  taken  from  the
              net.inet.ip.ttl sysctl(3) variable.

       -M     If found, show the MPLS Label and the Experimental (EXP) bit for
              the hop.

       -n     Print  hop  addresses  numerically  rather than symbolically and
              numerically (saves a nameserver address-to-name lookup for  each
              gateway found on the path).

       -p     Set  the base UDP port number used in probes (default is 33434).
              Traceroute hopes that nothing is listening on UDP ports base  to
              base   +  nhops  -  1  at  the  destination  host  (so  an  ICMP
              PORT_UNREACHABLE message will be returned to terminate the route
              tracing).   If  something  is listening on a port in the default
              range, this option can be used to pick an unused port range.

       -P     Set the "don't fragment" bit, and use the next hop mtu each time
              we  get  the  "need  fragmentation" error, thus probing the path
              MTU.

       -q     Set the number of probe packets sent for each hop.  By  default,
              traceroute sends three probe packets.

       -r     Bypass  the normal routing tables and send directly to a host on
              an attached network.  If the host is not on a  directly-attached
              network,  an error is returned.  This option can be used to ping
              a local host through an interface that has no route  through  it
              (e.g., after the interface was dropped by routed(8)).

       -s     Use  the  following  IP address (which usually is given as an IP
              number, not a hostname) as the source address in outgoing  probe
              packets.   On  multi-homed  hosts  (those  with more than one IP
              address), this option can be used to force the source address to
              be  something  other  than  the  IP address of the interface the
              probe packet is sent on.  If the IP address is not one  of  this
              machine's  interface addresses, an error is returned and nothing
              is sent. (See the -i flag for another way to do this.)

       -t     Set the type-of-service in probe packets to the following  value
              (default  zero).   The  value  must  be a decimal integer in the
              range 0 to 255.  This option can be used  to  see  if  different
              types-of-service  result  in  different  paths.  (If you are not
              running 4.4BSD, this may be academic since  the  normal  network
              services  like  telnet  and  ftp don't let you control the TOS).
              Not all values of TOS are legal or meaningful - see the IP  spec
              for definitions.  Useful values are probably `-t 16' (low delay)
              and `-t 8' (high throughput).

       -v     Verbose output.  Received ICMP packets other than  TIME_EXCEEDED
              and UNREACHABLEs are listed.

       -w     Set  the  time  (in  seconds)  to wait for a response to a probe
              (default 5 sec.).

       -x     Toggle checksums. Normally, this prevents traceroute from calcu-
              lating  checksums. In some cases, the operating system can over-
              write parts of the  outgoing  packet  but  not  recalculate  the
              checksum  (so  in  some  cases  the  default is to not calculate
              checksums and using -x causes them to be calculated). Note  that
              checksums  are usually required for the last hop when using ICMP
              ECHO probes (-I).

       This program attempts to trace the route an IP packet would  follow  to
       some  internet  host  by  launching  UDP probe packets with a small ttl
       (time to live) then listening for an ICMP "time exceeded" reply from  a
       gateway.   We  start  our  probes with a ttl of one and increase by one
       until we get an ICMP "port unreachable" (which means we got to  "host")
       or  hit  a  max (which defaults to 30 hops & can be changed with the -m
       flag).  Three probes (change with -q flag) are sent at each ttl setting
       and a line is printed showing the ttl, address of the gateway and round
       trip time of each probe.  If the  probe  answers  come  from  different
       gateways,  the  address  of each responding system will be printed.  If
       there is no response within a 5 sec. timeout interval (changed with the
       -w flag), a "*" is printed for that probe.

       We  don't want the destination host to process the UDP probe packets so
       the destination port is set to an unlikely value (if some clod  on  the
       destination is using that value, it can be changed with the -p flag).

       A sample use and output might be:

              [yak 71]% traceroute nis.nsf.net.
              traceroute to nis.nsf.net (35.1.1.48), 30 hops max, 38 byte packet
               1  helios.ee.lbl.gov (128.3.112.1)  19 ms  19 ms  0 ms
               2  lilac-dmc.Berkeley.EDU (128.32.216.1)  39 ms  39 ms  19 ms
               3  lilac-dmc.Berkeley.EDU (128.32.216.1)  39 ms  39 ms  19 ms
               4  ccngw-ner-cc.Berkeley.EDU (128.32.136.23)  39 ms  40 ms  39 ms
               5  ccn-nerif22.Berkeley.EDU (128.32.168.22)  39 ms  39 ms  39 ms
               6  128.32.197.4 (128.32.197.4)  40 ms  59 ms  59 ms
               7  131.119.2.5 (131.119.2.5)  59 ms  59 ms  59 ms
               8  129.140.70.13 (129.140.70.13)  99 ms  99 ms  80 ms
               9  129.140.71.6 (129.140.71.6)  139 ms  239 ms  319 ms
              10  129.140.81.7 (129.140.81.7)  220 ms  199 ms  199 ms
              11  nic.merit.edu (35.1.1.48)  239 ms  239 ms  239 ms

       Note  that  lines 2 & 3 are the same.  This is due to a buggy kernel on
       the 2nd hop system - lilac-dmc.Berkeley.EDU  -  that  forwards  packets
       with  a  zero  ttl  (a bug in the distributed version of 4.3BSD).  Note
       that you have to guess what path the packets are  taking  cross-country
       since  the NSFNET (129.140) doesn't supply address-to-name translations
       for its NSSes.

       A more interesting example is:

              [yak 72]% traceroute allspice.lcs.mit.edu.
              traceroute to allspice.lcs.mit.edu (18.26.0.115), 30 hops max
               1  helios.ee.lbl.gov (128.3.112.1)  0 ms  0 ms  0 ms
               2  lilac-dmc.Berkeley.EDU (128.32.216.1)  19 ms  19 ms  19 ms
               3  lilac-dmc.Berkeley.EDU (128.32.216.1)  39 ms  19 ms  19 ms
               4  ccngw-ner-cc.Berkeley.EDU (128.32.136.23)  19 ms  39 ms  39 ms
               5  ccn-nerif22.Berkeley.EDU (128.32.168.22)  20 ms  39 ms  39 ms
               6  128.32.197.4 (128.32.197.4)  59 ms  119 ms  39 ms
               7  131.119.2.5 (131.119.2.5)  59 ms  59 ms  39 ms
               8  129.140.70.13 (129.140.70.13)  80 ms  79 ms  99 ms
               9  129.140.71.6 (129.140.71.6)  139 ms  139 ms  159 ms
              10  129.140.81.7 (129.140.81.7)  199 ms  180 ms  300 ms
              11  129.140.72.17 (129.140.72.17)  300 ms  239 ms  239 ms
              12  * * *
              13  128.121.54.72 (128.121.54.72)  259 ms  499 ms  279 ms
              14  * * *
              15  * * *
              16  * * *
              17  * * *
              18  ALLSPICE.LCS.MIT.EDU (18.26.0.115)  339 ms  279 ms  279 ms

       Note that the gateways 12, 14, 15, 16 & 17 hops away either don't  send
       ICMP  "time  exceeded"  messages  or  send them with a ttl too small to
       reach us.  14 - 17 are running the MIT C Gateway code that doesn't send
       "time exceeded"s.  God only knows what's going on with 12.

       The  silent  gateway  12 in the above may be the result of a bug in the
       4.[23]BSD network code (and its derivatives):  4.x (x <=  3)  sends  an
       unreachable  message  using  whatever ttl remains in the original data-
       gram.  Since, for gateways, the remaining ttl is zero, the  ICMP  "time
       exceeded"  is  guaranteed  to  not make it back to us.  The behavior of
       this bug is slightly more interesting when it appears on  the  destina-
       tion system:

               1  helios.ee.lbl.gov (128.3.112.1)  0 ms  0 ms  0 ms
               2  lilac-dmc.Berkeley.EDU (128.32.216.1)  39 ms  19 ms  39 ms
               3  lilac-dmc.Berkeley.EDU (128.32.216.1)  19 ms  39 ms  19 ms
               4  ccngw-ner-cc.Berkeley.EDU (128.32.136.23)  39 ms  40 ms  19 ms
               5  ccn-nerif35.Berkeley.EDU (128.32.168.35)  39 ms  39 ms  39 ms
               6  csgw.Berkeley.EDU (128.32.133.254)  39 ms  59 ms  39 ms
               7  * * *
               8  * * *
               9  * * *
              10  * * *
              11  * * *
              12  * * *
              13  rip.Berkeley.EDU (128.32.131.22)  59 ms !  39 ms !  39 ms !

       Notice  that  there are 12 "gateways" (13 is the final destination) and
       exactly the last half of them are "missing".  What's  really  happening
       is  that  rip  (a  Sun-3  running  Sun OS3.5) is using the ttl from our
       arriving datagram as the ttl in its ICMP reply.   So,  the  reply  will
       time out on the return path (with no notice sent to anyone since ICMP's
       aren't sent for ICMP's) until we probe with a ttl that's at least twice
       the  path  length.  I.e., rip is really only 7 hops away.  A reply that
       returns with a ttl of 1 is a  clue  this  problem  exists.   Traceroute
       prints  a  "!" after the time if the ttl is <= 1.  Since vendors ship a
       lot of obsolete (DEC's ULTRIX, Sun 3.x) or non-standard  (HP-UX)  soft-
       ware,  expect  to  see this problem frequently and/or take care picking
       the target host of your probes.

       Other possible annotations after the time are !H,  !N,  or  !P  (got  a
       host,  network or protocol unreachable, respectively), !S or !F (source
       route failed or fragmentation needed - neither  of  these  should  ever
       occur  and the associated gateway is busted if you see one), !X (commu-
       nication administratively prohibited), or !<N> (ICMP  unreachable  code
       N).   If  almost  all  the  probes  result in some kind of unreachable,
       traceroute will give up and exit.

              traceroute -g 10.3.0.5 128.182.0.0

       will show the path from the Cambridge Mailbridge to PSC, while

              traceroute -g 192.5.146.4 -g 10.3.0.5 35.0.0.0

       will show the path from the Cambridge Mailbridge to Merit, using PSC to
       reach the Mailbridge.

       This  program  is  intended for use in network testing, measurement and
       management.  It should be used primarily for  manual  fault  isolation.
       Because of the load it could impose on the network, it is unwise to use
       traceroute during normal operations or from automated scripts.

SEE ALSO
       netstat(1), ping(8)

AUTHOR
       Implemented by  Van  Jacobson  from  a  suggestion  by  Steve  Deering.
       Debugged by a cast of thousands with particularly cogent suggestions or
       fixes from C. Philip Wood, Tim Seaver and Ken Adelman.

       The current version is available via anonymous ftp:

              ftp://ftp.ee.lbl.gov/traceroute.tar.Z

BUGS
       Please send bug reports to traceroute@ee.lbl.gov.

       The AS number capability reports  information  that  may  sometimes  be
       inaccurate  due  to  discrepancies  between the contents of the routing
       database server and the current state of the Internet.



4.3 Berkeley Distribution      17 February 2006                  TRACEROUTE(8)
