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hipercontracer(1) General Commands Manual hipercontracer(1)

NAME

hipercontracer — High-Performance Connectivity Tracer (HiPerConTracer)

SYNOPSIS

hipercontracer [-P | --ping]
[-T | --traceroute] [-L level | --loglevel level] [-Z on|off | --logcolor on|off] [-O file | --logfile file]
[-q | --quiet] [-w | --verbose]
[-U user|uid | --user user|uid]
[-# identifier | --measurement-id identifier]
[-S address|hostname[,traffic_class[,...]] | --source address|hostname[,traffic_class[,...]]]
[-D address|hostname | --destination address|hostname]
[--sources-from-file file]
[--destinations-from-file file]
[-M ICMP|UDP | --iomodule ICMP|UDP]
[-I number_of_iterations | --iterations number_of_iterations]
[--tracerouteinterval milliseconds]
[--tracerouteintervaldeviation fraction]
[--tracerouteduration milliseconds]
[--tracerouterounds rounds]
[--tracerouteinitialmaxttl value]
[--traceroutefinalmaxttl value]
[--tracerouteincrementmaxttl value]
[--traceroutepacketsize bytes]
[--tracerouteudpsourceport port]
[--tracerouteudpdestinationport port]
[--pinginterval milliseconds]
[--pingintervaldeviation fraction]
[--pingexpiration milliseconds]
[--pingburst packets]
[--pingttl value]
[--pingpacketsize bytes]
[--pingudpsourceport port]
[--pingudpdestinationport port]
[-R directory | --resultsdirectory directory]
[-x seconds | --resultstransactionlength seconds]
[-C none|XZ|BZip2|GZip|ZLIB|ZSTD | --resultscompression none|XZ|BZip2|GZip|ZLIB|ZSTD]
[-F version | --resultsformat version]
[-z depth | --resultstimestampdepth depth]
hipercontracer [--check]
hipercontracer [-h | --help]
hipercontracer [-v | --version]

DESCRIPTION

hipercontracer is a Ping/Traceroute service. It performs regular Ping and Traceroute runs among sites and can export the results into results statements for import into a database.

ARGUMENTS

The following arguments may be provided:

|
Start the Ping service.
|
Start the Traceroute service.
level | level
Sets the minimum logging level to the provided value: 0=trace, 1=debug, 2=info, 3=warning, 4=error, 5=fatal.
on|off | on|off
Enables (on) or disables (off) the usage of ANSI color escape sequences to colorise the log output according to its level.
file | file
Sets a file name for appending the log output to. If a file is set, no log output is made to the console. Otherwise, all log output will be written to the console.
|
Sets the minimum logging level to 3 (warning).
|
Sets the minimum logging level to 0 (trace).
user|uid | user|uid
After startup, HiPerConTracer uses UID and GID of the given user (by name or GID). The output directory's ownership as well as the ownership of the created results files will be set accordingly.
identifier | identifier
Sets a unique measurement identifier for the measurement. All output files will have this identifier in their file name (#<ID>). It can be used to set a setup-wide unique identifier to identify the vantage point. If no measurement identifier is specified, the files will contain the process ID instead (P<ID>). Range: 0-2147483647. Default: 0 (using process ID instead).
address|hostname[,traffic_class[,...]] | address|hostname[,traffic_class[,...]]
Adds the given source address or hostname. It is possible to use the ANY address (0.0.0.0 or ::), in order to just use the default route. If no traffic class is given, Best Effort (00) is used. Otherwise, the list of given traffic classes (in hexadecimal) is used. Alternatively, a traffic class can be specified by PHB name (BE, EF, AF11, AF12, AF13, AF21, AF22, AF23, AF31, AF32, AF33, AF41, AF42, AF43, CS1, CS2, CS3, CS4, CS5, CS6, CS7). In this case, the corresponding traffic class with ECN bits set to 0 is used. Note: use lower-case hexadecimal letters to avoid ambiguities with PHB name (e.g. be for 0xbe instead of BE PHB)! If a hostname is provided, a DNS resolution is performed and all returned addresses are added. If no source address is provided, HiPerConTracer automatically adds 0.0.0.0 if there is an IPv4 destination, and :: if there is an IPv6 destination given.
address|hostname | address|hostname
Adds the given destination address or hostname. If a hostname is provided, a DNS resolution is performed and all returned addresses are added.
file
Read sources from given file. This option may be used multiple times, to read from multiple files.
file
Read destinations from given file. This option may be used multiple times, to read from multiple files.
ICMP|UDP | ICMP|UDP
Adds an I/O module: ICMP or UDP. The option may be specified multiple times with different modules.
number_of_iterations | number_of_iterations
Limit the number of measurement iterations (measurement for all source/destination pairs) to the given number of iterations. The default 0 lets HiPerConTracer run continuously.
milliseconds
Sets the Traceroute interval (time for each full round of destinations).
fraction
Randomly deviate the Traceroute interval by the given fraction (as 0.0 to 1.0), that is to chose out of [interval - fraction * interval, interval + fraction * interval], in order to avoid synchronisation effects. Default is 0.1 (10%).
milliseconds
Sets the Traceroute duration (timeout for each destination).
rounds
For each Traceroute measurement, perform the given number of rounds simultaneously. Default is 1 round. Range: 1-64. Each TTL test of a round will have the same ICMP checksum value ("Oslo Traceroute"), in order to deal with load balancing in the Internet. Different rounds will have different checksums. That is, different rounds may experience different paths in the network.
value
Start with the given maximum TTL. Default is 6.
value
Finish with the given maximum TTL (when destination is not reached with current TTL setting). Default is 36.
value
Increase the maximum TTL by the given value (when destination is not reached with current TTL setting). Default is 6.
bytes
Sets the Traceroute packet size, that is IP header (20 for IPv4/40 for IPv6) + ICMP header (8)/UDP header (8) + HiPerConTracer header (16) + payload, in bytes. The actually sent packet size always covers at least the headers for IPv4/IPv6, ICMP and HiPerConTracer. Maximum packet size is 65535.
port
Sets the Traceroute source port for the UDP module (default: 0, for automatic allocation). Note: If using a fixed UDP port for Traceroute, different UDP source ports must be used for any other services!
port
Sets the Traceroute destination port for the UDP module (default: 7, for Echo).
milliseconds
Sets the Ping interval (time for each full round of destinations). Default is 5000 ms.
fraction
Randomly deviate the Ping interval by the given fraction (as 0.0 to 1.0), that is to chose out of [interval - fraction * interval, interval + fraction * interval], in order to avoid synchronisation effects. Default is 0.1 (10%).
milliseconds
Sets the Ping duration (timeout for each destination). Default is 10000 ms.
packets
For each Ping measurement, send a burst of the given number of packets. Default is 1 packet. Range: 1-1024.
value
Sets the Ping TTL value. Default is 64. Range: 1-255.
bytes
Sets the Ping packet size, that is IP header (20 for IPv4/40 for IPv6) + ICMP header (8)/UDP header (8) + HiPerConTracer header (16) + payload, in bytes. The actually sent packet size always covers at least the headers for IPv4/IPv6, transport protocol and HiPerConTracer. Default is 0 (use minimum possible value). Range: 0-65535.
port
Sets the Ping source port for the UDP module (default: 0, for automatic allocation). Note: If using a fixed UDP port for Ping, different UDP source ports must be used for any other services!
port
Sets the Ping destination port for the UDP module (default: 7, for Echo).
directory | directory
Sets the results files directory. The results will be stored there. If not specified, to results will be stored.
seconds | seconds
After a given number of seconds, begin a new results file.
none|XZ|BZip2|GZip|ZLIB|ZSTD | none|XZ|BZip2|GZip|ZLIB|ZSTD
Sets the compression for the output files. Default: XZ.
version | version
Sets the results file format version. Default: 2 (current version). Range (currently): 1-2. Note: A future version of HiPerConTracer may increase this default setting!
depth | depth
Create a timestamp-based directory hierarchy for the results, of given depth (default: 0). 0 = none, 1 = year, 2 = year/month, 3 = year/month/day, 4 = year/month/day/hour:00, 5 = year/month/day/hour:00/hour:minute.
Print build environment information for debugging.
|
Prints command help.
|
Prints program version.

OUTPUT FORMAT

The output file is a text file (possibly compressed). The format is as follows, depending on the measurement type:

Format identifier in first line
#? HPCT format version program
* format: Format of the output data (Ping, Traceroute, etc.).
 
* version: Version of the output data format (decimal).
 
* program: Identifier for the program generating the output (e.g. HiPerConTracer/2.1.12).
 
Ping (version 2, current)
Each Ping entry consists of a #P<m> line, with m=i for ICMP and m=u for UDP (according to underlying I/O module).
#P<m> measurementID sourceIP destinationIP timestamp burstseq traffic_class packetsize response_size checksum sourcePort destinationPort status timesource delay_app_send delay_queuing delay_app_receive rtt_app rtt_sw rtt_hw
* measurementID: Measurement identifier.
 
* sourceIP: Source IP address.
 
* destinationIP: Destination IP address.
 
* sendTimestamp: Send Timestamp (nanoseconds since the UTC epoch, hexadecimal).
 
* burstseq: Sequence number within a burst (decimal), numbered from 0.
 
* traffic_class: The IP Traffic Class/Type of Service value of the sent packets (hexadecimal).
 
* packet_size: The sent packet size (decimal, in bytes) including IPv4/IPv6 header, transport header and HiPerConTracer header.
 
* response_size: The response packet size (decimal, in bytes) including IPv4/IPv6 header, transport header and HiPerConTracer header.
 
* checksum: The checksum of the ICMP Echo Request packets (hexadecimal); 0x0000 for other protocols, 0xffff for unknown.
 
* sourcePort: Source port, 0 for ICMP (decimal).
 
* destinationPort: Destination port, 0 for ICMP (decimal).
 
* status: Status code (decimal):
- 1 = ICMP response: Time Exceeded
 
- 100 = ICMP response: Unreachable scope
 
- 101 = ICMP response: Unreachable network
 
- 102 = ICMP response: Unreachable host
 
- 103 = ICMP response: Unreachable protocol
 
- 104 = ICMP response: Unreachable port
 
- 105 = ICMP response: Unreachable, prohibited (firewall)
 
- 110 = ICMP response: Unreachable, unknown reason
 
- 200 = Timeout (no response from a router)
 
- 210 = sendto() call failed (generic error)
 
- 211 = sendto() error: tried to send to broadcast address (EACCES)
 
- 212 = sendto() error: network unreachable (ENETUNREACH)
 
- 213 = sendto() error: host unreachable (EHOSTUNREACH)
 
- 214 = sendto() error: address not available (EADDRNOTAVAIL)
 
- 215 = sendto() error: invalid message size (EMSGSIZE)
 
- 216 = sendto() error: not enough buffer space (ENOBUFS)
 
- 255 = Success (destination has responded)
 
Status values from 100 to 199 denote unreachability, as reported by ICMP error from a router. The rtt_* fields contain the response time of the corresponding router. Status values from 200 to 254 have the destination IP in their destinationIP field. However, there was no response from a router, so the rtt_* fields will be the configured timeout value (on timeout) or send trial time (on send errors)!
* timesource: Source of the timing information (hexadecimal) as: AAQQSSHH
AA: Application
 
QQ: Queuing (queuing packet until sending it by driver, in software)
 
SS: Software (sending request by driver until receiving response by driver, in software; decimal, in nanoseconds; -1 if not available)
 
HW: Hardware (sending request by NIC until receiving response by NIC, in hardware; decimal, in nanoseconds; -1 if not available)
 
Each byte AA, QQ, SS, HH provides the receive time source (upper nibble) and send time source (lower nibble):
0x0: Not available
 
0x1: System clock
 
0x2: SO_TIMESTAMPING socket option, microseconds granularity
 
0x3: SO_TIMESTAMPINGNS socket option (or SO_TIMESTAMPING+SO_TS_CLOCK), nanoseconds granularity
 
0x4: SIOCGSTAMP ioctl, microseconds granularity
 
0x5: SIOCGSTAMPNS ioctl, nanoseconds granularity
 
0x6: SO_TIMESTAMPING socket option, in software, nanoseconds granularity
 
0xa: SO_TIMESTAMPING socket option, in hardware, nanoseconds granularity
 
* delay_app_send: The measured application send delay (nanoseconds, decimal; -1 if not available).
 
* delay_queuing: The measured kernel software queuing delay (nanoseconds, decimal; -1 if not available).
 
* delay_app_receive: The measured application receive delay (nanoseconds, decimal; -1 if not available).
 
* rtt_app: The measured application RTT (nanoseconds, decimal).
 
* rtt_sw: The measured kernel software RTT (nanoseconds, decimal; -1 if not available).
 
* rtt_hw: The measured kernel hardware RTT (nanoseconds, decimal; -1 if not available).
 
Ping (version 1, SUPERSEDED!)
Each Ping entry consists of a #P line.
#P sourceIP destinationIP timestamp checksum status rtt [traffic_class [packet_size [timesource]]]
* sourceIP: Source IP address.
 
* destinationIP: Destination IP address.
 
* timestamp: Timestamp (microseconds since the UTC epoch, hexadecimal).
 
* checksum: The checksum of the ICMP Echo Request packets (hexadecimal).
 
* status: Status code (decimal)
 
* rtt: The measured RTT (microseconds, decimal).
 
* traffic_class: The outgoing IP Traffic Class/Type of Service value of the sent packets (hexadecimal).
This entry has been added with HiPerConTracer 1.4.0!
* packet_size: The sent packet size (decimal, in bytes) including IPv4/IPv6 header, transport header and HiPerConTracer header.
This entry has been added with HiPerConTracer 1.6.0!
* timesource: Source of the timing information (hexadecimal) as: AA (same as for Ping, see above).
This entry has been added with HiPerConTracer 2.0.0 development versions!
Traceroute (version 2, current)
Each Traceroute entry begins with a #Tm line, with m=i for ICMP and m=u for UDP (according to underlying I/O module). This is followed with one TAB-started line per each hop.
#T<m> measurementID sourceIP destinationIP timestamp round totalHops traffic_class packet_size checksum sourcePort destinationPort statusFlags pathHash
* measurementID: Measurement identifier.
 
* sourceIP: Source IP address.
 
* destinationIP: Destination IP address.
 
* timestamp: Timestamp (nanoseconds since the UTC epoch, hexadecimal) of the current run.
Note: This timestamp is only an identifier for the Traceroute run. All Traceroute rounds of the same run use the same timestamp here! The actual send timestamp of the request to each hop can be found in sendTimeStamp of the corresponding hop!
* round: Round number (decimal).
 
* totalHops: Total hops (decimal).
 
* traffic_class: The IP Traffic Class/Type of Service value of the sent packets (hexadecimal).
 
* packet_size: The sent packet size (decimal, in bytes) including IPv4/IPv6 header, transport header and HiPerConTracer header.
 
* checksum: The checksum of the ICMP Echo Request packets (hexadecimal); 0x0000 for other protocols, 0xffff for unknown.
 
* sourcePort: Source port, 0 for ICMP (decimal).
 
* destinationPort: Destination port, 0 for ICMP (decimal).
 
* statusFlags: Status flags (hexadecimal):
See the status code for Ping above for the lower 8 bits. Additionally:
- 0x100 = Route with * (at least one router did not respond)
 
- 0x200 = Destination has responded
 
* pathHash: Hash of the path (hexadecimal).
 
(TAB) sendTimeStamp hopNumber response_size status timesource delay_queuing delay_app_receive rtt_app rtt_app rtt_sw rtt_hw hopIP
* sendTimeStamp: Timestamp (nanoseconds since the UTC epoch, hexadecimal) for the request to this hop.
 
* hopNumber: Number of the hop.
 
* response_size: The response packet size (decimal, in bytes) including IPv4/IPv6 header, transport header and HiPerConTracer header.
 
* status: Status code (decimal; the values are the same as for Ping, see above).
 
* timesource: Source of the timing information (hexadecimal; the values are the same as for Ping, see above)
 
* delay_app_send: The measured application send delay (nanoseconds, decimal; -1 if not available).
 
* delay_queuing: The measured kernel software queuing delay (nanoseconds, decimal; -1 if not available).
 
* delay_app_receive: The measured application receive delay (nanoseconds, decimal; -1 if not available).
 
* rtt_app: The measured application RTT (nanoseconds, decimal).
 
* rtt_sw: The measured kernel software RTT (nanoseconds, decimal; -1 if not available).
 
* rtt_hw: The measured kernel hardware RTT (nanoseconds, decimal; -1 if not available).
 
* hopIP: Hop IP address.
 
Traceroute (version 1, SUPERSEDED!)
Each Traceroute entry begins with a #T line. This is followed with one TAB-started line per each hop.
#T sourceIP destinationIP timestamp round checksum totalHops statusFlags pathHash [traffic_class [packet_size [timesource]]]
* sourceIP: Source IP address.
 
* destinationIP: Destination IP address.
 
* timestamp: Timestamp (microseconds since the UTC epoch, hexadecimal) of the current run.
Note: This timestamp is only an identifier for the Traceroute run. All Traceroute rounds of the same run use the same timestamp here!
* round: Round number.
 
* checksum: The checksum of the ICMP Echo Request packets (hexadecimal).
 
* totalHops: Total hops.
 
* statusFlags: Status flags (hexadecimal).
 
* pathHash: Hash of the path (hexadecimal).
 
* traffic_class: The IP Traffic Class/Type of Service value of the sent packets (hexadecimal).
This entry has been added with HiPerConTracer 1.4.0!
* packet_size: The sent packet size (decimal, in bytes) including IPv4/IPv6 header, transport header and HiPerConTracer header.
This entry has been added with HiPerConTracer 1.6.0!
(TAB) hopNumber status rtt hopIP timesource
* hopNumber: Number of the hop.
 
* status: Status code (in hexadecimal here(!); the values are the same as for Ping, see above).
 
* rtt: The measured RTT (microseconds, decimal).
 
* hopIP: Hop IP address.
 
* timesource: Source of the timing information (hexadecimal) as: AA (same as for Ping, see above).
This entry has been added with HiPerConTracer 2.0.0 development versions!

EXIT STATUS

The hipercontracer tool exits with 0 on success, and >0 in case of an error.

EXAMPLES

hipercontracer -S 10.1.1.51 -D 10.1.1.6 -D 10.1.1.7 -D 10.1.1.8 -T --tracerouteinterval 10000 --tracerouteduration 1000 -v
 
hipercontracer --source 10.1.1.51 --destination 10.1.1.6 --destination 10.1.1.7 --destination 10.1.1.8 --traceroute --tracerouteinterval 10000 --tracerouteduration 1000
 
hipercontracer --source 172.16.0.127 --destination 8.8.8.8 --destination 193.99.144.80 --destination 132.252.181.87 --destination 10.254.254.254 --destination 91.189.93.5 --destination 128.112.139.90 --destination 4.31.198.44 --destination 136.186.1.10 --destination 101.4.112.170 --destination 77.36.144.2 --source 2a02:270:2014:40:92e2:baff:fe48:bde1 --destination 2400:cb00:2048:1::6814:155 --destination 2a02:2e0:3fe:1001:7777:772e:2:85 --destination 2a00:1450:400f:805::2004 --traceroute --ping --tracerouteduration 1000 --tracerouteinitialmaxttl 4 --traceroutefinalmaxttl 32 --tracerouteincrementmaxttl 4 --pinginterval 1000 --pingexpiration 7500 --pingttl 56 --resultsdirectory results --resultstimestampdepth 3
 
hipercontracer --source=0.0.0.0,00,AF11 --source=::,BE,EF,AF11 --destination=8.8.8.8 --destination=2606:4700:10::6814:155 --ping --traceroute --tracerouteduration=1000 --tracerouteinitialmaxttl=4 --traceroutefinalmaxttl=32 --tracerouteincrementmaxttl=4 --pinginterval=1000 --pingexpiration=7500 --pingttl=56 --resultsdirectory=/storage/hpct-results --resultstransactionlength=20 --resultstimestampdepth=4 --quiet
 
hipercontracer --user=hipercontracer --source=10.1.1.51 --destination=10.1.1.6 --destination=10.1.1.7 --destination=10.1.1.8 --traceroute --tracerouteinterval=10000 --tracerouteduration=1000
 
hipercontracer --user=hipercontracer --source=0.0.0.0 --destination=8.8.8.8 -M ICMP --ping --verbose
 
hipercontracer --user=hipercontracer --source=0.0.0.0 --source=::--destination=www.ietf.org --iomodule ICMP --ping --verbose
 
hipercontracer --user=hipercontracer --source=10.193.4.64 --destination 1.2.3.4 --iomodule ICMP --iomodule UDP --ping --traceroute
 
hipercontracer --version
 
hipercontracer -h
 

NOTES

This program is part of HiPerConTracer. The latest version of HiPerConTracer can be found on the HiPerConTracer Homepage at HiPerConTracer Homepage.

AUTHORS

Thomas Dreibholz, Homepage

May 26, 2026 hipercontracer