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 quality.
52 Note that each running instance of mtr generates a significant
53 amount of network traffic. Using mtr to measure the quality of
54 your network may result in decreased network performance.
55 -w, --report-wide
57 This option puts mtr into wide report mode. When in this mode,
58 mtr will not cut hostnames in the report.
59 -x, --xml
61 Use this option to tell mtr to use the xml output format. This
62 format is better suited for automated processing of the measure‐
63 ment results.
64 -t, --curses
66 Use this option to force mtr to use the curses based terminal
67 interface (if available). In case the list of hops exceeds the
68 height of your terminal, you can use the + and - keys to scroll
69 up and down half a page.
70 Ctrl-L clears spurious error messages that may overwrite other
72 parts of the display.
73 --displaymode MODE
76 Use this option to select the initial display mode: 0 (default)
77 selects statistics, 1 selects the stripchart without latency in‐
78 formation, and 2 selects the stripchart with latency informa‐
79 tion.
80 -g, --gtk
82 Use this option to force mtr to use the GTK+ based X11 window
83 interface (if available). GTK+ must have been available on the
84 system when mtr was built for this to work. See the GTK+ web
85 page at ⟨http://www.gtk.org/⟩ for more information about GTK+.
86 -l, --raw
88 Use the raw output format. This format is better suited for
89 archival of the measurement results. It could be parsed to be
90 presented into any of the other display methods.
91 Example of the raw output format:
93 h 0 10.1.1.1
94 p 0 339
95 h 1 46.149.16.4
96 p 1 530
97 h 2 172.31.1.16
98 p 2 531
99 h 3 82.221.168.236
100 p 3 1523
101 h 5 195.130.211.8
102 p 5 1603
103 h 6 193.4.58.17
104 p 6 1127
105 h 7 193.4.58.17
106 d 7 www.isnic.is
107 -C, --csv
109 Use the Comma-Separated-Value (CSV) output format. (Note: The
110 separator is actually a semi-colon ';'.)
111 Example of the CSV output format:
113 MTR.0.86+git:16e39fc0;1435562787;OK;nic.is;1;r-76520-PROD.greenqloud.internal;288
114 MTR.0.86+git:16e39fc0;1435562787;OK;nic.is;2;46.149.16.4;2086
115 MTR.0.86+git:16e39fc0;1435562787;OK;nic.is;3;172.31.1.16;600
116 MTR.0.86+git:16e39fc0;1435562787;OK;nic.is;4;82.221.168.236;1163
117 MTR.0.86+git:16e39fc0;1435562787;OK;nic.is;5;???;0
118 MTR.0.86+git:16e39fc0;1435562787;OK;nic.is;6;rix-k2-gw.isnic.is;1654
119 MTR.0.86+git:16e39fc0;1435562787;OK;nic.is;7;www.isnic.is;1036
120 -j, --json
122 Use this option to tell mtr to use the JSON output format. This
123 format is better suited for automated processing of the measure‐
124 ment results. Jansson library must have been available on the
125 system when mtr was built for this to work.
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 be‐
206 tween ICMP ECHO requests. The default value for this parameter
207 is one second. The root user may choose values between zero and
208 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 ex‐
237 tensions for MPLS (RFC 4950) that are encoded in the response
238 packets.
239 -I NAME, --interface NAME
241 Use the network interface with a specific name for sending net‐
242 work probes. This can be useful when you have multiple network
243 interfaces with routes to your destination, for example both
244 wired Ethernet and WiFi, and wish to test a particular inter‐
245 face.
246 -a ADDRESS, --address ADDRESS
248 Use this option to bind the outgoing socket to ADDRESS, so that
249 all packets will be sent with ADDRESS as source address. NOTE
250 that this option doesn't apply to DNS requests (which could be
251 and could not be what you want).
252 -f NUM, --first-ttl NUM
254 Specifies with what TTL to start. Defaults to 1.
255 -m NUM, --max-ttl NUM
257 Specifies the maximum number of hops (max time-to-live value)
258 traceroute will probe. Default is 30.
259 -U NUM, --max-unknown NUM
261 Specifies the maximum unknown host. Default is 5.
262 -u, --udp
264 Use UDP datagrams instead of ICMP ECHO.
265 -T, --tcp
267 Use TCP SYN packets instead of ICMP ECHO. PACKETSIZE is ig‐
268 nored, since SYN packets can not contain data.
269 -S, --sctp
271 Use Stream Control Transmission Protocol packets instead of ICMP
272 ECHO.
273 -P PORT, --port PORT
275 The target port number for TCP/SCTP/UDP traces.
276 -L LOCALPORT, --localport LOCALPORT
278 The source port number for UDP traces.
279 -Z SECONDS, --timeout SECONDS
281 The number of seconds to keep probe sockets open before giving
282 up on the connection. Using large values for this, especially
283 combined with a short interval, will use up a lot of file de‐
284 scriptors.
285 -M MARK, --mark MARK
287 Set the mark for each packet sent through this socket similar to
288 the netfilter MARK target but socket-based. MARK is 32 unsigned
289 integer. See socket(7) for full description of this socket op‐
290 tion.
291
293 mtr recognizes a few environment variables.
294 MTR_OPTIONS
296 This environment variable allows one to specify options, as if
297 they were passed on the command line. It is parsed before read‐
298 ing the actual command line options, so that options specified
299 in MTR_OPTIONS are overridden by command-line options.
300 Example:
302 MTR_OPTIONS="-4 -c 1" mtr -6 localhost
304 would send one probe (because of -c 1) towards ::1 (because of
306 -6, which overrides the -4 passed in MTR_OPTIONS).
307 MTR_PACKET
309 A path to the mtr-packet executable, to be used for sending and
310 receiving network probes. If MTR_PACKET is unset, the PATH will
311 be used to search for an mtr-packet executable.
312 DISPLAY
314 Specifies an X11 server for the GTK+ frontend.
315
317 mtr can be controlled while it is running with the following keys:
318 ?|h help
319 p pause (SPACE to resume)
320 d switching display mode
321 e toggle MPLS information on/off
322 n toggle DNS on/off
323 r reset all counters
324 o str set the columns to display, default str='LRS N BAWV'
325 j toggle latency(LS NABWV)/jitter(DR AGJMXI) stats
326 c <n> report cycle n, default n=infinite
327 i <n> set the ping interval to n seconds, default n=1
328 f <n> set the initial time-to-live(ttl), default n=1
329 m <n> set the max time-to-live, default n= # of hops
330 s <n> set the packet size to n or random(n<0)
331 b <c> set ping bit pattern to c(0..255) or random(c<0)
332 Q <t> set ping packet's TOS to t
333 u switch between ICMP ECHO and UDP datagrams
334 y switching IP info
335 z toggle ASN info on/off
336 q exit
337
339 Some modern routers give a lower priority to ICMP ECHO packets than to
340 other network traffic. Consequently, the reliability of these routers
341 reported by mtr will be significantly lower than the actual reliability
342 of these routers.
343
345 For the latest version, see the mtr web page at ⟨http://www.bitwizard.
346 nl/mtr/⟩
347 For patches, bug reports, or feature requests, please open an issue on
349 GitHub at: ⟨https://github.com/traviscross/mtr⟩.
350
352 mtr-packet(8), traceroute(8), ping(8), socket(7), TCP/IP Illustrated
353 (Stevens, ISBN 0201633469).
354mtr 0.95 MTR(8)