On Linux systems, which command is commonly used to trace the route to a destination?

• A. traceroute
• B. ping
• C. tracert
• D. ipconfig

Answer: (A)

Traceroute is the tool used on Linux to map the path packets take to a destination. It works by sending probe packets with gradually increasing TTL values; as each hop decrements the TTL to zero, the router sends back an ICMP Time Exceeded message, letting traceroute reveal the address of each router along the route and the time to reach it. This shows the route and helps diagnose where delays or failures occur between your machine and the destination. Ping, in contrast, tests reachability and measures round‑trip time to a single host but doesn’t expose the intermediate hops. Tracert is the Windows version of this functionality, not a standard Linux command, and ipconfig displays network configuration rather than route information (Linux uses tools like ifconfig or ip for that).