Quickly discover hop-by-hop routes and path MTU without root privileges. 21.12.2025 | reading time: 2 min When packets take an unexpected path you need a quick, unprivileged way to see each hop; `tracepath` shows the route, round‑trip times and reports path MTU to help find routing and fragmentation issues. Follow a Packet Live Run `tracepath` against a remote host and watch hops appear; example run:\n```\n$ tracepath 8.8.8.8\n 1?: [LOCALHOST] pmtu 1500\n 1: 192.168.0.1 0.358ms\n 2: 10.1.0.1 1.129ms\n 3: 203.0.113.45 12.456ms\n 4: 8.8.8.8 24.789ms reached\n``` How to Read It Each line shows a hop number, the responding IP and one or more round‑trip times; the initial "pmtu" line gives the path MTU discovered, and an output ending with "reached" means the destination replied; `tracepath` relies on increasing TTLs and ICMP replies and runs without root privileges, and use `tracepath6` for IPv6 paths. When to Use It Use `tracepath` to validate routing after a change, to locate intermediate packet loss or latency, and to detect MTU issues that cause fragmentation or connectivity problems; it is fast, simple and good for a first diagnosis. Related Tools When you need more detailed options try `traceroute`, for continuous path monitoring use `mtr`, and use `ping` for basic reachability and latency checks. Next Steps Practice by tracing to several destinations, compare results with `traceroute` and `mtr`, and turn findings into repeatable troubleshooting steps; if you want structured learning, consider deeper Linux study and certification like CompTIA Linux+ or LPIC-1, and explore intensive exam preparation at bitsandbytes.academy. Join Bits & Bytes Academy First class LINUX exam preparation. network utilities troubleshooting
