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] [-I NAME] [-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 packet loss.
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. Jansson library must have been available on the
126 system when mtr was built for this to work.
127 -p, --split
129 Use this option to set mtr to spit out a format that is suitable
130 for a split-user interface.
131 -n, --no-dns
133 Use this option to force mtr to display numeric IP numbers and
134 not try to resolve the host names.
135 -b, --show-ips
137 Use this option to tell mtr to display both the host names and
138 numeric IP numbers. In split mode this adds an extra field to
139 the output. In report mode, there is usually too little space
140 to add the IPs, and they will be truncated. Use the wide report
141 (-w) mode to see the IPs in report mode.
142 -o FIELDS, --order FIELDS
144 Use this option to specify which fields to display and in which
145 order. You may use one or more space characters to separate
146 fields.
147 Available fields:
148 ┌──┬─────────────────────┐
150 │L │ Loss ratio │
151 ├──┼─────────────────────┤
152 │D │ Dropped packets │
153 ├──┼─────────────────────┤
154 │R │ Received packets │
155 ├──┼─────────────────────┤
156 │S │ Sent Packets │
157 ├──┼─────────────────────┤
158 │N │ Newest RTT(ms) │
159 ├──┼─────────────────────┤
160 │B │ Min/Best RTT(ms) │
161 ├──┼─────────────────────┤
162 │A │ Average RTT(ms) │
163 ├──┼─────────────────────┤
164 │W │ Max/Worst RTT(ms) │
165 ├──┼─────────────────────┤
166 │V │ Standard Deviation │
167 ├──┼─────────────────────┤
168 │G │ Geometric Mean │
169 ├──┼─────────────────────┤
170 │J │ Current Jitter │
171 ├──┼─────────────────────┤
172 │M │ Jitter Mean/Avg. │
173 ├──┼─────────────────────┤
174 │X │ Worst Jitter │
175 ├──┼─────────────────────┤
176 │I │ Interarrival Jitter │
177 └──┴─────────────────────┘
178 Example: -o "LSD NBAW X"
179 -y n, --ipinfo n
181 Displays information about each IP hop. Valid values for n are:
182 0 Display AS number (equivalent to -z)
184 1 Display IP prefix
185 2 Display country code of the origin AS
186 3 Display RIR (ripencc, arin, ...)
187 4 Display the allocation date of the IP prefix
188 It is possible to cycle between these fields at runtime (using
190 the y key).
191 -z, --aslookup
193 Displays the Autonomous System (AS) number alongside each hop.
194 Equivalent to --ipinfo 0.
195 Example (columns to the right not shown for clarity):
197 1. AS??? r-76520-PROD.greenqloud.internal
198 2. AS51969 46.149.16.4
199 3. AS??? 172.31.1.16
200 4. AS30818 82.221.168.236
201 5. ???
202 6. AS??? rix-k2-gw.isnic.is
203 7. AS1850 www.isnic.is
204 -i SECONDS, --interval SECONDS
206 Use this option to specify the positive number of seconds
207 between ICMP ECHO requests. The default value for this parame‐
208 ter is one second. The root user may choose values between zero
209 and one.
210 -c COUNT, --report-cycles COUNT
212 Use this option to set the number of pings sent to determine
213 both the machines on the network and the reliability of those
214 machines. Each cycle lasts one second.
215 -s PACKETSIZE, --psize PACKETSIZE
217 This option sets the packet size used for probing. It is in
218 bytes, inclusive IP and ICMP headers.
219 If set to a negative number, every iteration will use a differ‐
221 ent, random packet size up to that number.
222 -B NUM, --bitpattern NUM
224 Specifies bit pattern to use in payload. Should be within range
225 0 - 255. If NUM is greater than 255, a random pattern is used.
226 -G SECONDS, --gracetime SECONDS
228 Use this option to specify the positive number of seconds to
229 wait for responses after the final request. The default value is
230 five seconds.
231 -Q NUM, --tos NUM
233 Specifies value for type of service field in IP header. Should
234 be within range 0 - 255.
235 -e, --mpls
237 Use this option to tell mtr to display information from ICMP
238 extensions for MPLS (RFC 4950) that are encoded in the response
239 packets.
240 -I NAME, --interface NAME
242 Use the network interface with a specific name for sending net‐
243 work probes. This can be useful when you have multiple network
244 interfaces with routes to your destination, for example both
245 wired Ethernet and WiFi, and wish to test a particular inter‐
246 face.
247 -a ADDRESS, --address ADDRESS
249 Use this option to bind the outgoing socket to ADDRESS, so that
250 all packets will be sent with ADDRESS as source address. NOTE
251 that this option doesn't apply to DNS requests (which could be
252 and could not be what you want).
253 -f NUM, --first-ttl NUM
255 Specifies with what TTL to start. Defaults to 1.
256 -m NUM, --max-ttl NUM
258 Specifies the maximum number of hops (max time-to-live value)
259 traceroute will probe. Default is 30.
260 -U NUM, --max-unknown NUM
262 Specifies the maximum unknown host. Default is 5.
263 -u, --udp
265 Use UDP datagrams instead of ICMP ECHO.
266 -T, --tcp
268 Use TCP SYN packets instead of ICMP ECHO. PACKETSIZE is
269 ignored, since SYN packets can not contain data.
270 -S, --sctp
272 Use Stream Control Transmission Protocol packets instead of ICMP
273 ECHO.
274 -P PORT, --port PORT
276 The target port number for TCP/SCTP/UDP traces.
277 -L LOCALPORT, --localport LOCALPORT
279 The source port number for UDP traces.
280 -Z SECONDS, --timeout SECONDS
282 The number of seconds to keep probe sockets open before giving
283 up on the connection. Using large values for this, especially
284 combined with a short interval, will use up a lot of file
285 descriptors.
286 -M MARK, --mark MARK
288 Set the mark for each packet sent through this socket similar to
289 the netfilter MARK target but socket-based. MARK is 32 unsigned
290 integer. See socket(7) for full description of this socket
291 option.
292
294 mtr recognizes a few environment variables.
295 MTR_OPTIONS
297 This environment variable allows one to specify options, as if
298 they were passed on the command line. It is parsed before read‐
299 ing the actual command line options, so that options specified
300 in MTR_OPTIONS are overridden by command-line options.
301 Example:
303 MTR_OPTIONS="-4 -c 1" mtr -6 localhost
305 would send one probe (because of -c 1) towards ::1 (because of
307 -6, which overrides the -4 passed in MTR_OPTIONS).
308 MTR_PACKET
310 A path to the mtr-packet executable, to be used for sending and
311 receiving network probes. If MTR_PACKET is unset, the PATH will
312 be used to search for an mtr-packet executable.
313 DISPLAY
315 Specifies an X11 server for the GTK+ frontend.
316
318 mtr can be controlled while it is running with the following keys:
319 ?|h help
320 p pause (SPACE to resume)
321 d switching display mode
322 e toggle MPLS information on/off
323 n toggle DNS on/off
324 r reset all counters
325 o str set the columns to display, default str='LRS N BAWV'
326 j toggle latency(LS NABWV)/jitter(DR AGJMXI) stats
327 c <n> report cycle n, default n=infinite
328 i <n> set the ping interval to n seconds, default n=1
329 f <n> set the initial time-to-live(ttl), default n=1
330 m <n> set the max time-to-live, default n= # of hops
331 s <n> set the packet size to n or random(n<0)
332 b <c> set ping bit pattern to c(0..255) or random(c<0)
333 Q <t> set ping packet's TOS to t
334 u switch between ICMP ECHO and UDP datagrams
335 y switching IP info
336 z toggle ASN info on/off
337 q exit
338
340 Some modern routers give a lower priority to ICMP ECHO packets than to
341 other network traffic. Consequently, the reliability of these routers
342 reported by mtr will be significantly lower than the actual reliability
343 of these routers.
344
346 For the latest version, see the mtr web page at ⟨http://www.bitwizard.
347 nl/mtr/⟩
348 For patches, bug reports, or feature requests, please open an issue on
350 GitHub at: ⟨https://github.com/traviscross/mtr⟩.
351
353 mtr-packet(8), traceroute(8), ping(8), socket(7), TCP/IP Illustrated
354 (Stevens, ISBN 0201633469).
355mtr 0.94 MTR(8)