# Install tracebox with Homebrew, Nix

Middlebox detection tool. Version 0.4.4 via Homebrew; verified 2026-06-25. Also installable with nix: nix profile install nixpkgs#tracebox.

## Install

```sh
sudo av install brew:tracebox
```

Additional install commands:

### macOS

- Homebrew (100%):

```sh
brew install tracebox
```

  Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata

### Linux

- Nix (92%):

```sh
nix profile install nixpkgs#tracebox
```

  Evidence: nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/tr/tracebox/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1

## Package facts

- **Package key:** brew:tracebox
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 0.4.4
- **Source summary:** Middlebox detection tool
- **Homepage:** <https://github.com/tracebox/tracebox>
- **Repository:** <https://github.com/tracebox/tracebox>
- **Last updated:** 2026-06-25T13:38:09+02:00
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T19:37:03+00:00

## Executables

- luatracebox (alias)
- tracebox (alias)

## Install behavior

- Bottle: not available

## Freshness

- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 0.4.4
## Project history and usage

Tracebox is a network-diagnostics CLI for detecting middleboxes on an Internet path. Its README describes it as traceroute-like, but focused on identifying packet modifications by comparing probes with ICMP replies.

### Project history

Tracebox comes from the research and measurement side of networking. The project page explains that it detects middleboxes by using ICMP replies to identify changes in packets, relying on the common behavior of devices that return more of the original datagram than the minimum described by RFC 792.

The GitHub repository was created in 2013, with public release metadata from v0.3 in May 2015 through v0.4.4 in January 2018. The source tree includes C and C++ implementation code, Lua support, manual pages, and documentation.

### Adoption history

Tracebox's own README documents Homebrew installation for macOS, Linux builds from autotools dependencies, an OpenWRT package feed, and an Android build script for rooted phones. The OpenWRT section is explicitly marked unmaintained, which fits a project that was useful to network researchers and operators but did not become a constantly refreshed mainstream CLI.

### How it is used

Users run `tracebox` or `luatracebox` to probe a path and inspect hop-by-hop packet modifications. The README documents JSON output via `-j`, verbose modification details, hop data, ICMP extensions, additions, deletions, and modifications, making it scriptable for measurement workflows.

### Why package nerds care

In package-manager culture, Tracebox is a classic specialist network tool: packaged in Homebrew and Nix, rooted in Unix build conventions, and interesting because it extends the familiar traceroute mental model into middlebox detection and JSON-producing measurement.

### Timeline

- 2013-06: GitHub repository created.
- 2015-05: Tracebox v0.3 released.
- 2017-10: Tracebox v0.4.2 released.
- 2018-01: Tracebox v0.4.4 released.

### Related projects

- traceroute, ICMP, Lua, OpenWRT, Android builds, libpcap, netfilter queue.

### Sources

- <https://api.github.com/repos/tracebox/tracebox>
- <https://github.com/tracebox/tracebox#readme>
- <https://github.com/tracebox/tracebox/releases>
- <https://www.tracebox.org/>
- <https://www.tracebox.org/lua_doc>
- source_facts.package-manager


## Security Notes

narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.

- **Geiger risk:** green / low
- narrow executable package without higher-risk signals

## Other Package-Manager Records

- Nix - tracebox: normalized package name match | nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/tr/tracebox/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1


## Combined YAML source

View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/tracebox.yml](https://github.com/mxcl/pkgdb/blob/main/combined/tracebox.yml)


## Sources

- pkg.so package database
- Geiger risk classifier
- curated package history
- pkgdb category and tag curation
- external package-manager database matches
- cross-ecosystem install command graph