1TRACEPATH(8)           System Manager's Manual: iputils           TRACEPATH(8)
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NAME

6       tracepath,  tracepath6  - traces path to a network host discovering MTU
7       along this path
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SYNOPSIS

10       tracepath [ -n]  [ -b]  [ -l pktlen]  destination [ port]
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DESCRIPTION

14       It traces path to destination discovering MTU along this path.  It uses
15       UDP  port  port or some random port.  It is similar to traceroute, only
16       does not not require superuser privileges and has no fancy options.
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18       tracepath6 is good replacement for traceroute6 and classic  example  of
19       application  of  Linux error queues.  The situation with IPv4 is worse,
20       because commercial IP routers do not return enough information in  icmp
21       error  messages.   Probably, it will change, when they will be updated.
22       For now it uses Van Jacobson's trick, sweeping a range of UDP ports  to
23       maintain trace history.
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OPTIONS

26       -n     Print primarily IP addresses numerically.
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28       -b     Print both of host names and IP addresses.
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30       -l     Sets  the  initial  packet length to pktlen instead of 65536 for
31              tracepath or 128000 for tracepath6.
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OUTPUT

34       root@mops:~ # tracepath6 3ffe:2400:0:109::2
35        1?: [LOCALHOST]                              pmtu 1500
36        1:  dust.inr.ac.ru                   0.411ms
37        2:  dust.inr.ac.ru        asymm  1   0.390ms pmtu 1480
38        2:  3ffe:2400:0:109::2               463.514ms reached
39            Resume: pmtu 1480 hops 2 back 2
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41       The first column shows TTL of the probe, followed  by  colon.   Usually
42       value  of  TTL is obtained from reply from network, but sometimes reply
43       does not contain necessary information and we have to guess it. In this
44       case the number is followed by ?.
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46       The  second  column  shows the network hop, which replied to the probe.
47       It is either address of router or word [LOCALHOST], if  the  probe  was
48       not sent to the network.
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50       The rest of line shows miscellaneous information about path to the cor‐
51       respinding hetwork hop. As rule it contains value  of  RTT.   Addition‐
52       ally, it can show Path MTU, when it changes.  If the path is asymmetric
53       or the probe  finishes  before  it  reach  prescribed  hop,  difference
54       between  number of hops in forward and backward direction is shown fol‐
55       loing keyword async. This information is not reliable.  F.e. the  third
56       line  shows asymmetry of 1, it is because the first probe with TTL of 2
57       was rejected at the first hop due to Path MTU Discovery.
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59       The last line summarizes information about all the path to the destina‐
60       tion, it shows detected Path MTU, amount of hops to the destination and
61       our guess about amount of hops from the destination to us, which can be
62       different when the path is asymmetric.
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SEE ALSO

65       traceroute(8), traceroute6(8), ping(8).
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AUTHOR

68       tracepath was written by Alexey Kuznetsov <kuznet@ms2.inr.ac.ru>.
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SECURITY

71       No security issues.
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73       This lapidary deserves to be elaborated.  tracepath is not a privileged
74       program, unlike traceroute, ping and other beasts of this  kind.   tra‐
75       cepath  may  be  executed  by  everyone who has some access to network,
76       enough to send UDP datagrams to investigated  destination  using  given
77       port.
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AVAILABILITY

80       tracepath  is  part  of  iputils  package  and  the latest versions are
81       available in source form at  http://www.skbuff.net/iputils/iputils-cur
82       rent.tar.bz2.
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86iputils-100418                   13 July 2010                     TRACEPATH(8)
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