Which command can show the routed path a packet takes from source to destination?

The command that can show the routed path a packet takes from source to destination is traceroute. This command works by sending a sequence of packets to the destination address and time-stamping each hop along the path. It begins with a low time-to-live (TTL) value, which is incremented after each hop, allowing the command to identify each intermediary router and the time it takes for packets to travel to each hop. By doing this, traceroute builds a list of jumps through which the packet passes, effectively mapping the path taken from the source to the destination.

For context, ping is primarily used to test connectivity and measure round-trip time to a specific destination, but it does not provide information on the intermediary steps along the route. Nslookup is a tool used for querying Domain Name System (DNS) servers to obtain domain name or IP address mapping and does not relate to packet routing. The arp command is involved in mapping IP addresses to MAC addresses on a local network but does not provide routing information across different network segments.