traceroute:tldr:50624

The command traceroute -w ${0-5} ${host} is used to trace the route packets take from your computer to a specific destination host on the network. It helps identify the path and the latency of each network hop along the way.

Let's break down the command:

• traceroute: This is the main command that initiates the process of tracing the route.
• -w ${0-5}: This option specifies the timeout for each probe in milliseconds. It sets the maximum amount of time the command waits for a response from each network hop. ${0-5} is a range that represents the timeout interval. In this case, it means the timeout will vary randomly between 0 and 5 milliseconds for each hop.
• ${host}: This is a placeholder that should be replaced with the actual host you want to trace the route to. It can be an IP address or a domain name.

So, when you execute this command with a specific host, it will send a series of packets with increasing time-to-live (TTL) values to the destination. Each router along the path will decrement the TTL and send an ICMP time exceeded message back to your computer. By analyzing these messages, the command determines the route and measures the latency between each hop.