MTR(8) mtr MTR(8)
NAME
mtr - a network diagnostic tool
SYNOPSIS
mtr [-BfhvrctglxspQemniuTP46] [--help] [--version] [--report] [--report-wide] [--report-cycles COUNT]
[--curses] [--split] [--raw] [ --xml] [--mpls] [--no-dns] [--show-ips] [--gtk] [--address IP.ADD.RE.SS]
[--interval SECONDS] [--max-ttl NUM] [--first-ttl NUM] [--bitpattern NUM] [--tos NUM] [--psize BYTES | -s
BYTES] [--tcp] [--udp] [--port PORT] [--timeout SECONDS] HOSTNAME [PACKETSIZE]
DESCRIPTION
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 purposely 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 packet loss or response time is often an indication of a bad (or sim‐
ply overloaded) link.
The results are usually reported as round-trip-response times in miliseconds and the percentage of packetloss.
OPTIONS
-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 speci‐
fied by the -c option, and then print statistics and exit.
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.
-w
--report-wide
This option puts mtr into wide report mode. When in this mode, mtr will not cut hostnames in the
report.
PACKETSIZE
These options or a trailing PACKETSIZE on the command line sets the packet size used for probing. It
is in bytes inclusive IP and ICMP headers
If set to a negative number, every iteration will use a different, random packet size upto that number.
-t
--curses
Use this option to force mtr to use the curses based terminal interface (if available).
-e
--mpls
Use this option to tell mtr to display information from ICMP extensions for MPLS (RFC 4950) that are
encoded in the response packets.
-n
--no-dns
Use this option to force mtr to display numeric IP numbers and not try to resolve the host names.
-b
--show-ips
Use this option to tell mtr to display both the host names and numeric IP numbers. In split mode this
adds an extra field to the output. In report mode, there is usually too little space to add the IPs,
and they will be truncated. Use the wide report (-w) mode to see the IPs in report mode.
-o fields order
--order fields order
Use this option to specify the fields and their order when loading mtr.
Available fields:
┌──┬─────────────────────┐
│L │ Loss ratio │
├──┼─────────────────────┤
│D │ Dropped packets │
├──┼─────────────────────┤
│R │ Received packets │
├──┼─────────────────────┤
│S │ Sent Packets │
├──┼─────────────────────┤
│N │ Newest RTT(ms) │
├──┼─────────────────────┤
│B │ Min/Best RTT(ms) │
├──┼─────────────────────┤
│A │ Average RTT(ms) │
├──┼─────────────────────┤
│I │ Interarrival Jitter │
└──┴─────────────────────┘
Example: -o "LSD NBAW"
-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.gtk.org/ for more information about GTK+.
-p
--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.
-x
--xml
Use this option to tell mtr to use the xml output format. This format is better suited for automated
processing of the measurement results.
-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.
-m NUM
--max-ttl NUM
Specifies the maximum number of hops (max time-to-live value) traceroute will probe. Default is 30.
-Q NUM
--tos NUM
Specifies value for type of service field in IP header. Should be within range 0 - 255.
-u
--udp
Use UDP datagrams instead of ICMP ECHO.
-T
--tcp
Use TCP SYN packets instead of ICMP ECHO. PACKETSIZE is ignored, since SYN packets can not contain
data.
-P PORT
--port PORT
The target port number for TCP traces.
--timeout SECONDS
The number of seconds to keep the TCP socket open before giving up on the connection. This will only
affect the final hop. Using large values for this, especially combined with a short interval, will use
up a lot of file descriptors.
-4
Use IPv4 only.
-6
Use IPv6 only.
BUGS
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.
CONTACT INFORMATION
For the latest version, see the mtr web page at http://www.bitwizard.nl/mtr/.
The mtr mailinglist was little used and is no longer active.
Bug reports and feature requests should be submitted to the launchpad mtr bugtracker.
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