Which network diagnostic command, similar to traceroute, displays the path taken by a packet and can be run by any user without superuser privileges on Linux?

Which network diagnostic command, similar to traceroute, displays the path taken by a packet and can be run by any user without superuser privileges on Linux?

• A. tracepath
• B. traceroute
• C. ping
• D. ifconfig

Answer: (A)

Packets reaching a destination reveal their path by letting probes travel with small TTL values and listening for the responses that come back when a hop expires. A tool that does this like traceroute, but is designed to run without root privileges on Linux, is tracepath. It achieves the same idea—showing each intermediate hop along the route—by using standard UDP probes and letting the kernel provide the ICMP Time Exceeded replies. It also often performs path MTU discovery as part of its probes, giving extra insight into the maximum packet size that can traverse the route. The other options don’t fit as neatly. Ping checks only whether a host is reachable and measures round-trip time, not the actual route taken. Ifconfig is for configuring network interfaces, not for tracing the path to a destination. While traceroute can show hops as well, many Linux implementations require elevated privileges to run, which tracepath eliminates, matching the requirement of running as a normal user.

Packets reaching a destination reveal their path by letting probes travel with small TTL values and listening for the responses that come back when a hop expires. A tool that does this like traceroute, but is designed to run without root privileges on Linux, is tracepath. It achieves the same idea—showing each intermediate hop along the route—by using standard UDP probes and letting the kernel provide the ICMP Time Exceeded replies. It also often performs path MTU discovery as part of its probes, giving extra insight into the maximum packet size that can traverse the route.

The other options don’t fit as neatly. Ping checks only whether a host is reachable and measures round-trip time, not the actual route taken. Ifconfig is for configuring network interfaces, not for tracing the path to a destination. While traceroute can show hops as well, many Linux implementations require elevated privileges to run, which tracepath eliminates, matching the requirement of running as a normal user.