mtr
A network diagnostic tool that combines traceroute and ping functionality to analyze network connections.
What is mtr?
mtr is a network diagnostic tool that combines the functionality of traceroute and ping in a single command-line utility. It investigates network connections between hosts, identifies all intermediate hops, and measures link quality through continuous ICMP ECHO requests. The tool provides running statistics about each network node to help diagnose connectivity issues.
System administrators, network engineers, and developers who need to troubleshoot network connectivity problems and analyze network path performance.
Developers choose mtr because it provides real-time, continuous network diagnostics in a single tool, eliminating the need to run separate traceroute and ping commands. Its ongoing statistics display makes it easier to identify intermittent network issues and measure link quality over time.
Overview
Official repository for mtr, a network diagnostic tool
Use Cases
Best For
- Diagnosing intermittent network connectivity problems
- Identifying specific network hops causing packet loss or latency
- Continuous monitoring of network path quality
- Troubleshooting routing issues between hosts
- Comparing network performance across different paths
- Real-time network diagnostics during outages
Not Ideal For
- Environments with strict security policies prohibiting suid-root binaries
- Users requiring graphical interfaces or automated reporting for network diagnostics
- Diagnostics needing TCP/UDP-based path analysis instead of ICMP
- Windows systems without WSL or Cygwin installed
Pros & Cons
Pros
Combines traceroute and ping in a single utility, eliminating the need to run separate commands for route discovery and latency measurement, as highlighted in the README.
Displays live packet loss, latency, and jitter data for each network hop, providing continuous monitoring to identify intermittent issues, as described in the key features.
Available for Unix-like systems, macOS, and Windows via WSL or Cygwin, with installation steps detailed in the README for various environments.
Distributed under GPL v2, allowing users to modify and distribute the tool freely, as noted in the licensing section.
Cons
mtr-packet must be suid-root to access raw IP sockets, which introduces security risks and requires administrative privileges, as warned in the INSTALLING section.
Building from git requires running bootstrap.sh and configure, with noted issues on Solaris and potential dependency problems, making setup non-trivial for some users.
Primarily uses ICMP ECHO requests for diagnostics, lacking built-in options for other protocols like TCP, which might restrict deeper network analysis.
Frequently Asked Questions
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