scamper

Internet measurement tool for traceroute and probing

TLDR

Traceroute

$ scamper -c "trace" -i [target]

Ping

$ scamper -c "ping" -i [target]

Multiple targets from file

$ scamper -c "trace" -f [targets.txt]

Output to file

$ scamper -c "trace" -o [output.warts] -i [target]

Set probing rate

$ scamper -c "trace" -p [100] -i [target]

DNS lookup

$ scamper -c "host" -i [example.com]

Dealias (alias resolution)

$ scamper -c "dealias" -i [ip1],[ip2]

SYNOPSIS

scamper [-c command] [-i target] [-f file] [-o output] [options]

scamper is a network measurement tool designed for large-scale Internet research. It supports multiple probing techniques including traceroute, ping, DNS lookups, alias resolution, and load-balanced path detection, running them efficiently against many targets with configurable parallelism and rate limiting.Results are stored in the warts binary format, which captures rich metadata including precise timing, ICMP responses, and measurement parameters. Companion tools (scwarts2json, scwarts2csv, etc.) convert warts data into common formats for analysis. Rate limiting controls prevent overwhelming target networks while maintaining measurement throughput.

PARAMETERS

-c COMMAND

Measurement command.

-i TARGET

Target address.

-f FILE

Target file.

-o FILE

Output file.

-p RATE

Packets per second.

-M MONITORNAME

Monitor name.

-l LISTID

List ID.

COMMANDS

trace - Tracerouteping - ICMP pinghost - DNS lookupdealias - Alias resolutiontracelb - Load-balanced traceroutesting - NAT detection

INSTALL

sudo apt install scamper

sudo zypper install scamper

brew install scamper

CAVEATS

Requires raw socket access. High-rate probing may cause issues. Research-oriented tool.

HISTORY

scamper was developed by Matthew Luckie for Internet measurement research. It's used by researchers studying network topology and performance.