pingtrace

pingtrace combines ping, traceroute, MTR, TCP service reachability checks, private and public DNS enrichment, PeeringDB, ipinfo context and CSV/JSON export in a single cross-platform CLI. It is built for who need fast and exportable answers during incidents without jumping between multiple windows with ping, traceroute, mtr, dig, nmap, spreadsheets and notes.

Why pingtrace over the standard tools?

You usually run	pingtrace gives you in one command
ping then traceroute / tracert depending on OS then mtr	you run universally pingtrace that style the output and offer additional flags like MTR
dig +short for every hop	reverse DNS resolved automatically, with optional private DNS for internal hops
for ip in $(seq …) loops	simply pingtrace 10.0.0.0/24 or --file targets.csv
copy/paste into a spreadsheet or note	--export ./reports writes timestamped UTC CSVs and pingtrace 10.0.0.0/21 do it by default; add --json for a schema-validated JSON report alongside
nmap / masscan for port reachability	--ports TCP connect scan, no root required, IANA service names auto-resolved

It's the same probes you already trust (the OS ping / traceroute) pingtrace just runs them with no additional latency overhead, parallelize requests for faster CIDR resolution, decorates outputs for clear cross-platform readability including export.

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Install

macOS

brew tap skhell/pingtrace
brew install pingtrace

Linux

Download the .deb or .rpm from the latest GitHub Release:

# Debian / Ubuntu
sudo dpkg -i pingtrace_linux_amd64.deb

# Fedora / RHEL
sudo rpm -i pingtrace_linux_amd64.rpm

Any platform (Go toolchain required)

go install github.com/skhell/pingtrace/cmd/pingtrace@latest

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Quick start

# the headline command ping + trace + enrichment
pingtrace 1.1.1.1

# live MTR (Ctrl+C / q to stop)
pingtrace 1.1.1.1 --mtr

# bounded MTR, 10 cycles, 2s apart, exported to CSV
pingtrace 1.1.1.1 -m --cycles 10 --interval 2 --export ./reports

# CSV + JSON report (JSON validates against schema/pingtrace.schema.json)
pingtrace 1.1.1.1 --export ./reports --json

# CSV with no empty columns (e.g. skips PeeringDB columns when not configured or get empty results)
pingtrace 1.1.1.1 --export ./reports --compact-export
pingtrace 1.1.1.1 --export --json ./reports --compact-export

# multiple targets, a CIDR, or a file
pingtrace 1.1.1.1,1.1.1.1,example.com
pingtrace 10.0.0.0/30
pingtrace --file ./targets.csv

# script-friendly: pick your columns
pingtrace 1.1.1.1 --no-trace --columns seq,ip,time_ms,status

# TCP port scan (all 65535 ports) with IANA service name enrichment
pingtrace 10.0.0.1 --ports
pingtrace 10.0.0.0/28 --ports
pingtrace domain.com --ports

# scan specific ports or ranges with IANA service name enrichment
pingtrace 10.0.0.1 --ports 22,80,443,8000-9000

# CIDR port scan + export to CSV with IANA service name enrichment
pingtrace 10.0.0.0/28 --ports --export ./reports

Run pingtrace --help for the grouped, color-coded flag reference, and pingtrace config to open an interactive TUI for tokens, DNS, and thresholds.

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Operational notes

• pingtrace depends on system ping and traceroute tooling being available on PATH.
• On Windows, tracert is used.
• On Unix-like systems, traceroute is used, with tracepath as a fallback where available.
• --export without a path writes operation-specific CSV files in the current working directory.
• If --export points to a .csv file path, pingtrace uses that file's directory and still writes separate ping_...csv and trace_...csv files.
• CSV rows include a source column (local outbound IP of the machine running pingtrace) and a target column (the hostname or IP passed on the command line). Both appear on every row so exports from multiple machines can be merged and filtered without ambiguity.
• --compact-export omits columns that are entirely empty across all rows (e.g. PeeringDB columns when PeeringDB is not configured, ipinfo columns when no token is set). The column set is locked on the first write and stays consistent for the whole file.
• Private DNS enrichment is automatically skipped if the configured server does not respond within 5 seconds.
• --json writes a sibling JSON report (probe_...json for ping/trace runs, mtr_<target>_...json per MTR target) into the same directory as --export, or the current working directory when --export is omitted. The document validates against schema/pingtrace.schema.json and lists any CSVs written in its exportedFiles section.
• PeeringDB and ipinfo.io enrichment is skipped for private/RFC-1918 IP addresses.
• --ports runs a TCP connect scan (no raw sockets, no root/admin required). On first use, pingtrace auto-downloads the IANA service-names registry and caches it in the user config directory. Subsequent runs use the cache. The scan still works without the registry - ports will display without service names if the download fails. Use pingtrace config to manually sync the IANA database or adjust the download URL in case it change.

Feedback

If pingtrace saved you time in a troubleshooting session, it was worth building.

• Star the project on GitHub
• Report bugs or request features in Issues
• Buy me a coffee, or a snack for my buddy Schnauzer Tyson GitHub if you feel this project was useful to your or your team.