mtr - a network diagnostic tool

mtr [c -hvrctglsni46c ] [c --helpc ] [c --versionc ] [c --reportc ] [c --report-cycles COUNTc ] [c --cursesc ] [c --splitc ] [c --rawc ] [c --no-dnsc ] [c --gtkc ] [c --address IP.ADD.RE.SSc ] [c --interval SECONDSc ] [c --psize BYTES | -p BYTESc ] HOSTNAME [PACKETSIZE]

mtr combines the functionality of the traceroute and ping programs in a single network diagnostic tool.

As mtr starts, it investigates the network connection between the host mtr runs on and HOSTNAME. by sending packets with purposly low TTLs. It continues to send packets with low TTL, noting the response time of the intervening routers. This allows mtr to print the response percentage and response times of the internet route to HOSTNAME. A sudden increase in packetloss or response time is often an indication of a bad (or simply overloaded) link.

-h

--help

Print the summary of command line argument options.

-v

--version

Print the installed version of mtr.

-r

--report

This option puts mtr into report mode. When in this mode, mtr will run for the number of cycles specified by the -c option, and then print statistics and exit.

c

This mode is useful for generating statistics about network quality. Note that each running instance of mtr generates a significant amount of network traffic. Using mtr to measure the quality of your network may result in decreased network performance.

-c COUNT

--report-cycles COUNT

Use this option to set the number of pings sent to determine both the machines on the network and the reliability of those machines. Each cycle lasts one second.

-p BYTES

--psize BYTES

PACKETSIZE

These options or a trailing PACKETSIZE on the commandline sets the packet size used for probing. It is in bytes inclusive IP and ICMP headers

-t

--curses

Use this option to force mtr to use the curses based terminal interface (if available).

-n

--no-dns

Use this option to force mtr to display numeric IP numbers and not try to resolve the host names.

-g

--gtk

Use this option to force mtr to use the GTK+ based X11 window interface (if available). GTK+ must have been available on the system when mtr was built for this to work. See the GTK+ web page at http://www.gimp.org/gtk/ for more information about GTK+.

-s

--split

Use this option to set mtr to spit out a format that is suitable for a split-user interface.

-l

--raw

Use this option to tell mtr to use the raw output format. This format is better suited for archival of the measurement results. It could be parsed to be presented into any of the other display methods.

-a IP.ADD.RE.SS

--address IP.ADD.RE.SS

Use this option to bind outgoing packets' socket to specific interface, so that any packet will be sent through this interface. NOTE that this option doesn't apply to DNS requests (which could be and could not be what you want).

-i SECONDS

--interval SECONDS

Use this option to specify the positive number of seconds between ICMP ECHO requests. The default value for this parameter is one second.

-4

Use IPv4 only.

-6

Use IPv6 only.

Some modern routers give a lower priority to ICMP ECHO packets than to other network traffic. Consequently, the reliability of these routers reported by mtr will be significantly lower than the actual reliability of these routers.

For the latest version, see the mtr web page at http://www.bitwizard.nl/mtr/.

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Bug reports and feature requests should be sent to the mtr mailing list.

traceroute(8), ping(8).