A flexible, cross-platform traceroute library and CLI tool written in Go. It supports IPv4/IPv6 and TCP/UDP, and works on Linux, macOS, and Windows.
Tested on Linux — please open an issue if you hit a bug on other platforms.
✅ Supports IPv4 and IPv6.
✅ Supports TCP and UDP protcols.
✅ Works transparently across Unix and Windows (using golang.org/x/sys + build tags).
✅ Early stopping after N consecutive silent hops to speed up scans when destination is unreachable.
✅ Context-aware API for use as a library or CLI.
-
This tool depends on libpcap (on Linux/macOS) or Npcap SDK (on Windows) for capturing incoming TCP packets:
- On Linux:
sudo apt install libpcap-dev // Ubuntu, Debian, Kali sudo dnf install libpcap-devel // Fedora sudo yum install libpcap-devel // CentOS, RHEL sudo pacman -S libpcap // Arch Linux, Manjaro
- On macOS:
brew install libpcap
- On Windows: Download from here Npcap SDK.
- Install it with
go install:
go install github.com/0ne-zero/traceroute/cmd/gotraceroute@latest- Build from source code:
git clone https://github.com/0ne-zero/traceroute.git
cd traceroute/cmd/
go build -o gotraceroute ./gotraceroute.go
sudo ./gotraceroute -hOn Linux/macOS, raw sockets require sudo. On Windows, run from an elevated terminal.
- Download binary release: Download the appropriate binary for your OS and architecture from the releases page.
- Get the module:
go get github.com/0ne-zero/traceroute- Code example:
package main
import (
"fmt"
"log"
"github.com/0ne-zero/traceroute"
"github.com/0ne-zero/traceroute/pkg/core/options"
"github.com/0ne-zero/traceroute/pkg/core/hop"
)
func main() {
// Create traceroute options with defaults (max hops, timeouts, etc.)
opts := options.NewTracerouteOptions()
// Customize options as needed, (they've default value)
opts.SetProbeProtocol(options.PROTOCOL_TCP) // Use TCP instead of default UDP
opts.SetFirstHop(1) // Start from TTL=1
opts.SetMaxHops(30) // Limit max TTL to 30 hops
opts.SetTimeoutMs(5000) // 2 seconds timeout per probe
opts.SetDelayMs(100) // 100 ms delay between probes
opts.SetRetries(1) // Retry once if probe fails
opts.SetMaxConsecutiveNoReplies(5) // Stop early if 5 consecutive TTL probes get no replies (no ICMP or TCP response)
// --- Synchronous traceroute ---
// We pass a buffered channel sized to max hops, so traceroute can send results without blocking
resChan := make(chan hop.TracerouteHop, opts.MaxHops())
// Start traceroute and wait until it completes
if err := traceroute.Traceroute("google.com", opts, resChan); err != nil {
log.Fatal(err)
}
// Read results from the channel
for h := range resChan {
fmt.Printf("TTL %d\t%s\t%v\n", h.TTL, h.Address, h.ElapsedTime)
}
// --- Asynchronous traceroute ---
// Useful if you want to show hops live or do other work concurrently
resChan = make(chan hop.TracerouteHop)
errChan := make(chan error)
// Run traceroute in a separate goroutine, send any error to errChan
go func() {
if err := traceroute.Traceroute("google.com", opts, resChan); err != nil {
errChan <- err
}
}()
// Collect results as they arrive, or exit if an error occurs
for {
select {
case hop, ok := <-resChan:
if !ok {
fmt.Println("Traceroute completed successfully")
return // Channel closed → traceroute finished
}
fmt.Printf("TTL %d\t%s\t%v\n", hop.TTL, hop.Address, hop.ElapsedTime)
case err := <-errChan:
log.Fatal(err)
}
}
}