What it does
mtr combines traceroute and ping to show running statistics for the hops between a computer and a destination.
Run mtr with a hostname or IP address to discover responding hops and collect running statistics from the machine where it is installed. This is useful for an intermittent path problem because the view changes as probes continue. Read an isolated lossy hop carefully: routers may suppress or rate-limit their own ICMP responses while still forwarding traffic. The measurement covers that origin-to-destination route and probe behavior, rather than proving an application failure’s cause. The packet helper needs raw-socket privileges; use the packaging and security guidance for the installed system. mtr is GPL software.
Strengths
- Route discovery and repeated probing in one tool
- Per-hop running statistics
Best for
- Investigating changing latency along a route
Sources
- MTR (Oct 26, 2026)
- mtr Official README (Oct 26, 2026)