TRACEROUTE(1)

📦 version 2.7, in nixpkgs unstable

💖 traceroute(1) — like, the User Commands one, bestie 💖

okay so this is traceroute, bestie. it lives in section 1 of the manual (the "User Commands" girlies ✨) and it's genuinely one of the most satisfying little tools out there. let me walk you through it 🫶

🦋 NAME 🦋

traceroute — trace the route to a host. that's it. that's the whole vibe. you point it at a host, it shows you the path your packets take to get there. iconic behaviour honestly 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

traceroute [OPTION...] HOST

so it's traceroute, then optionally a bunch of options, then the HOST you're trying to reach. HOST is not optional btw, you gotta give it a destination 👑

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

print the route that packets trace to a network host. like, it literally tells you where your packets go on their little journey. main character energy for packets 🌈

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

here's the whole menu, no skips, no cuts, everything's here 🍓

  • -f, --first-hop=NUM — sets the initial hop distance, i.e. the time-to-live. so you can start the tracing further out instead of hop 1 ✨
  • -g, --gateways=GATES — a list of gateways for loose source routing 🛣️
  • -I, --icmp — use ICMP ECHO as the probe instead 🔥
  • -m, --max-hop=NUM — sets the maximal hop count, and the default is 64. so yes, sixty-four hops of runway by default ✈️
  • -M, --type=METHOD — use METHOD for traceroute operations, and METHOD is either icmp or udp. defaults to udp 💜
  • -p, --port=PORT — use destination PORT port, and the default port is 33434 🎯
  • -q, --tries=NUM — send NUM probe packets per hop. default is 3, so three tries per hop, very generous of her 💖
  • --resolve-hostnames — resolve hostnames 🦋
  • -t, --tos=NUM — set the type of service (TOS) to NUM ⭐
  • -w, --wait=NUM — wait NUM seconds for a response, and the default wait is 3 seconds ⏳
  • -?, --help — gives you this help list 🥺
  • --usage — gives you a short usage message, the lite version 😌
  • -V, --version — prints the program version 👑
heads up bestie: mandatory or optional arguments to long options are also mandatory or optional for any corresponding short options. so like, the rules travel with the pair, yk? no cap 🫶

💜 AUTHOR 💜

written by Elian Gidoni. ty for your service 🫡

🙈 REPORTING BUGS 🙈

report bugs to <bug-inetutils@gnu.org>. pls be nice about it, they're doing their best 🥺

Copyright © 2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.

this is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. and there is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. like literally none, so don't come for them if something goes sideways 💀

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

the full documentation for traceroute is maintained as a Texinfo manual. if the info and traceroute programs are properly installed at your site, the command

info traceroute

should give you access to the complete manual. iykyk, go read it 📖✨

so yeah, that's the whole page 💖 and as a lil sign-off: this is GNU inetutils 2.7, dated December 2025 — go trace something iconic bestie, you've got this 🌸🦋💅

📦 where this page comes from