1MTR(8) System Administration MTR(8)
2
6 mtr - a network diagnostic tool
7
9 mtr [-4|-6] [-F FILENAME] [--report] [--report-wide] [--xml] [--gtk]
10 [--curses] [--displaymode MODE] [--raw] [--csv] [--json] [--split]
11 [--no-dns] [--show-ips] [-o FIELDS] [-y IPINFO] [--aslookup] [-i INTER‐
12 VAL] [-c COUNT] [-s PACKETSIZE] [-B BITPATTERN] [-G GRACEPERIOD]
13 [-Q TOS] [--mpls] [-a ADDRESS] [-f FIRST-TTL] [-m MAX-TTL]
14 [-U MAX-UNKNOWN] [--udp] [--tcp] [--sctp] [-P PORT] [-L LOCALPORT]
15 [-Z TIMEOUT] [-M MARK] HOSTNAME
16
18 mtr combines the functionality of the traceroute and ping programs in a
19 single network diagnostic tool.
20 As mtr starts, it investigates the network connection between the host
22 mtr runs on and HOSTNAME by sending packets with purposely low TTLs.
23 It continues to send packets with low TTL, noting the response time of
24 the intervening routers. This allows mtr to print the response per‐
25 centage and response times of the internet route to HOSTNAME. A sudden
26 increase in packet loss or response time is often an indication of a
27 bad (or simply overloaded) link.
28 The results are usually reported as round-trip-response times in mil‐
30 liseconds and the percentage of packetloss.
31
33 -h, --help
34 Print the summary of command line argument options.
35 -v, --version
37 Print the installed version of mtr.
38 -4 Use IPv4 only.
40 -6 Use IPv6 only. (IPV4 may be used for DNS lookups.)
42 -F FILENAME, --filename FILENAME
44 Reads the list of hostnames from the specified file.
45 -r, --report
47 This option puts mtr into report mode. When in this mode, mtr
48 will run for the number of cycles specified by the -c option,
49 and then print statistics and exit.
50 This mode is useful for generating statistics about network
52 quality. Note that each running instance of mtr generates a
53 significant amount of network traffic. Using mtr to measure the
54 quality of your network may result in decreased network perfor‐
55 mance.
56 -w, --report-wide
58 This option puts mtr into wide report mode. When in this mode,
59 mtr will not cut hostnames in the report.
60 -x, --xml
62 Use this option to tell mtr to use the xml output format. This
63 format is better suited for automated processing of the measure‐
64 ment results.
65 -t, --curses
67 Use this option to force mtr to use the curses based terminal
68 interface (if available). In case the list of hops exceeds the
69 height of your terminal, you can use the + and - keys to scroll
70 up and down half a page.
71 Ctrl-L clears spurious error messages that may overwrite other
73 parts of the display.
74 --displaymode MODE
77 Use this option to select the initial display mode: 0 (default)
78 selects statistics, 1 selects the stripchart without latency
79 information, and 2 selects the stripchart with latency informa‐
80 tion.
81 -g, --gtk
83 Use this option to force mtr to use the GTK+ based X11 window
84 interface (if available). GTK+ must have been available on the
85 system when mtr was built for this to work. See the GTK+ web
86 page at ⟨http://www.gtk.org/⟩ for more information about GTK+.
87 -l, --raw
89 Use the raw output format. This format is better suited for
90 archival of the measurement results. It could be parsed to be
91 presented into any of the other display methods.
92 Example of the raw output format:
94 h 0 10.1.1.1
95 p 0 339
96 h 1 46.149.16.4
97 p 1 530
98 h 2 172.31.1.16
99 p 2 531
100 h 3 82.221.168.236
101 p 3 1523
102 h 5 195.130.211.8
103 p 5 1603
104 h 6 193.4.58.17
105 p 6 1127
106 h 7 193.4.58.17
107 d 7 www.isnic.is
108 -C, --csv
110 Use the Comma-Separated-Value (CSV) output format. (Note: The
111 separator is actually a semi-colon ';'.)
112 Example of the CSV output format:
114 MTR.0.86+git:16e39fc0;1435562787;OK;nic.is;1;r-76520-PROD.greenqloud.internal;288
115 MTR.0.86+git:16e39fc0;1435562787;OK;nic.is;2;46.149.16.4;2086
116 MTR.0.86+git:16e39fc0;1435562787;OK;nic.is;3;172.31.1.16;600
117 MTR.0.86+git:16e39fc0;1435562787;OK;nic.is;4;82.221.168.236;1163
118 MTR.0.86+git:16e39fc0;1435562787;OK;nic.is;5;???;0
119 MTR.0.86+git:16e39fc0;1435562787;OK;nic.is;6;rix-k2-gw.isnic.is;1654
120 MTR.0.86+git:16e39fc0;1435562787;OK;nic.is;7;www.isnic.is;1036
121 -j, --json
123 Use this option to tell mtr to use the JSON output format. This
124 format is better suited for automated processing of the measure‐
125 ment results.
126 -p, --split
128 Use this option to set mtr to spit out a format that is suitable
129 for a split-user interface.
130 -n, --no-dns
132 Use this option to force mtr to display numeric IP numbers and
133 not try to resolve the host names.
134 -b, --show-ips
136 Use this option to tell mtr to display both the host names and
137 numeric IP numbers. In split mode this adds an extra field to
138 the output. In report mode, there is usually too little space
139 to add the IPs, and they will be truncated. Use the wide report
140 (-w) mode to see the IPs in report mode.
141 -o FIELDS, --order FIELDS
143 Use this option to specify which fields to display and in which
144 order. You may use one or more space characters to separate
145 fields.
146 Available fields:
147 ┌──┬─────────────────────┐
149 │L │ Loss ratio │
150 ├──┼─────────────────────┤
151 │D │ Dropped packets │
152 ├──┼─────────────────────┤
153 │R │ Received packets │
154 ├──┼─────────────────────┤
155 │S │ Sent Packets │
156 ├──┼─────────────────────┤
157 │N │ Newest RTT(ms) │
158 ├──┼─────────────────────┤
159 │B │ Min/Best RTT(ms) │
160 ├──┼─────────────────────┤
161 │A │ Average RTT(ms) │
162 ├──┼─────────────────────┤
163 │W │ Max/Worst RTT(ms) │
164 ├──┼─────────────────────┤
165 │V │ Standard Deviation │
166 ├──┼─────────────────────┤
167 │G │ Geometric Mean │
168 ├──┼─────────────────────┤
169 │J │ Current Jitter │
170 ├──┼─────────────────────┤
171 │M │ Jitter Mean/Avg. │
172 ├──┼─────────────────────┤
173 │X │ Worst Jitter │
174 ├──┼─────────────────────┤
175 │I │ Interarrival Jitter │
176 └──┴─────────────────────┘
177 Example: -o "LSD NBAW X"
178 -y n, --ipinfo n
180 Displays information about each IP hop. Valid values for n are:
181 0 Display AS number (equivalent to -z)
183 1 Display IP prefix
184 2 Display country code of the origin AS
185 3 Display RIR (ripencc, arin, ...)
186 4 Display the allocation date of the IP prefix
187 It is possible to cycle between these fields at runtime (using
189 the y key).
190 -z, --aslookup
192 Displays the Autonomous System (AS) number alongside each hop.
193 Equivalent to --ipinfo 0.
194 Example (columns to the right not shown for clarity):
196 1. AS??? r-76520-PROD.greenqloud.internal
197 2. AS51969 46.149.16.4
198 3. AS??? 172.31.1.16
199 4. AS30818 82.221.168.236
200 5. ???
201 6. AS??? rix-k2-gw.isnic.is
202 7. AS1850 www.isnic.is
203 -i SECONDS, --interval SECONDS
205 Use this option to specify the positive number of seconds
206 between ICMP ECHO requests. The default value for this parame‐
207 ter is one second. The root user may choose values between zero
208 and one.
209 -c COUNT, --report-cycles COUNT
211 Use this option to set the number of pings sent to determine
212 both the machines on the network and the reliability of those
213 machines. Each cycle lasts one second.
214 -s PACKETSIZE, --psize PACKETSIZE
216 This option sets the packet size used for probing. It is in
217 bytes, inclusive IP and ICMP headers.
218 If set to a negative number, every iteration will use a differ‐
220 ent, random packet size up to that number.
221 -B NUM, --bitpattern NUM
223 Specifies bit pattern to use in payload. Should be within range
224 0 - 255. If NUM is greater than 255, a random pattern is used.
225 -G SECONDS, --gracetime SECONDS
227 Use this option to specify the positive number of seconds to
228 wait for responses after the final request. The default value is
229 five seconds.
230 -Q NUM, --tos NUM
232 Specifies value for type of service field in IP header. Should
233 be within range 0 - 255.
234 -e, --mpls
236 Use this option to tell mtr to display information from ICMP
237 extensions for MPLS (RFC 4950) that are encoded in the response
238 packets.
239 -a ADDRESS, --address ADDRESS
241 Use this option to bind the outgoing socket to ADDRESS, so that
242 all packets will be sent with ADDRESS as source address. NOTE
243 that this option doesn't apply to DNS requests (which could be
244 and could not be what you want).
245 -f NUM, --first-ttl NUM
247 Specifies with what TTL to start. Defaults to 1.
248 -m NUM, --max-ttl NUM
250 Specifies the maximum number of hops (max time-to-live value)
251 traceroute will probe. Default is 30.
252 -U NUM, --max-unknown NUM
254 Specifies the maximum unknown host. Default is 5.
255 -u, --udp
257 Use UDP datagrams instead of ICMP ECHO.
258 -T, --tcp
260 Use TCP SYN packets instead of ICMP ECHO. PACKETSIZE is
261 ignored, since SYN packets can not contain data.
262 -S, --sctp
264 Use Stream Control Transmission Protocol packets instead of ICMP
265 ECHO.
266 -P PORT, --port PORT
268 The target port number for TCP/SCTP/UDP traces.
269 -L LOCALPORT, --localport LOCALPORT
271 The source port number for UDP traces.
272 -Z SECONDS, --timeout SECONDS
274 The number of seconds to keep probe sockets open before giving
275 up on the connection. Using large values for this, especially
276 combined with a short interval, will use up a lot of file
277 descriptors.
278 -M MARK, --mark MARK
280 Set the mark for each packet sent through this socket similar to
281 the netfilter MARK target but socket-based. MARK is 32 unsigned
282 integer. See socket(7) for full description of this socket
283 option.
284
286 mtr recognizes a few environment variables.
287 MTR_OPTIONS
289 This environment variable allows to specify options, as if they
290 were passed on the command line. It is parsed before reading
291 the actual command line options, so that options specified in
292 MTR_OPTIONS are overridden by command-line options.
293 Example:
295 MTR_OPTIONS="-4 -c 1" mtr -6 localhost
297 would send one probe (because of -c 1) towards ::1 (because of
299 -6, which overrides the -4 passed in MTR_OPTIONS).
300 MTR_PACKET
302 A path to the mtr-packet executable, to be used for sending and
303 receiving network probes. If MTR_PACKET is unset, the PATH will
304 be used to search for an mtr-packet executable.
305 DISPLAY
307 Specifies an X11 server for the GTK+ frontend.
308
310 Some modern routers give a lower priority to ICMP ECHO packets than to
311 other network traffic. Consequently, the reliability of these routers
312 reported by mtr will be significantly lower than the actual reliability
313 of these routers.
314
316 For the latest version, see the mtr web page at ⟨http://www.bitwizard.
317 nl/mtr/⟩
318 For patches, bug reports, or feature requests, please open an issue on
320 GitHub at: ⟨https://github.com/traviscross/mtr⟩.
321
323 mtr-packet(8), traceroute(8), ping(8), socket(7), TCP/IP Illustrated
324 (Stevens, ISBN 0201633469).
325mtr 0.92 MTR(8)