How to Install traceroute Command on Ubuntu

If you’ve recently tried to use the traceroute command on your Ubuntu system and received a “command not found” error, don’t worry. This tutorial will guide you through the process of installing traceroute on your Ubuntu machine.

Why traceroute is not installed by default?

In newer Ubuntu versions, the traditional traceroute command has been replaced by the traceroute package which contains the traceroute program. This change was made in favor of the more feature-rich traceroute implementation.

Installation Steps

To install the traceroute command on Ubuntu, follow these steps:

1. Update your package list to ensure you have the latest available packages:

   sudo apt update
   

2. Install the traceroute package using the following command:

   sudo apt install traceroute
   

3. Once the installation is complete, you can verify the installation by running:

   traceroute --version
   

Compatibility Note

If you encounter any compatibility issues or if the above installation steps do not work for your Ubuntu version, you can use the following alternative command to install traceroute:

sudo apt-get install inetutils-traceroute

Conclusion

In this tutorial, you have learned how to install the traceroute command on Ubuntu, which is a useful tool for network troubleshooting by showing the route that packets take to reach a specified destination. Now that you have traceroute installed, you can use it to diagnose network connectivity issues and better understand your network’s topology.