Provided by: ntpsec_1.2.3+dfsg1-3_amd64 
NAME
ntpq - standard NTP query program
SYNOPSIS
ntpq [-46adhinpkwWu] [-c command] [host] [...]
DESCRIPTION
The ntpq utility program is used to monitor NTP daemon ntpd operations and determine
performance. It uses the standard NTP mode 6 control message formats defined in Appendix B
of the NTPv3 specification RFC 1305. The same formats are used in NTPv4, although some of
the variable names have changed, and new ones added. The description on this page is for
the NTPv4 variables.
The program can be run either in interactive mode or controlled using command line
arguments. Requests to read and write arbitrary variables can be assembled, with raw and
pretty-printed output options being available. It can also obtain and print a list of
peers in a common format by sending multiple queries to the server.
If one or more request options are included on the command line when ntpq is executed,
each of the requests will be sent to the NTP servers running on each of the hosts given as
command line arguments, or on localhost by default. If no request options are given, ntpq
will attempt to read commands from the standard input and execute these on the NTP server
running on the first host given on the command line, again defaulting to localhost when no
other host is specified. ntpq will prompt for commands if the standard input is a terminal
device.
ntpq uses NTP mode 6 packets to communicate with the NTP server, and hence can be used to
query any compatible server on the network which permits it. Note that since NTP is a UDP
protocol this communication will be somewhat unreliable, especially over large distances
in terms of network topology. ntpq makes one attempt to retransmit requests and will time
requests out if the remote host is not heard from within a suitable timeout time.
Note that in contexts where a host name is expected, a -4 qualifier preceding the host
name forces DNS resolution to the IPv4 namespace, while a -6 qualifier forces DNS
resolution to the IPv6 namespace.
For examples and usage, see the NTP Debugging <debug.html> Techniques" page.
For a simpler near-real-time monitor, see ntpmon(1).
OPTIONS
Command line options are described following. Specifying the command line options -c or -p
will cause the specified query (queries) to be sent to the indicated host(s) immediately.
Otherwise, ntpq will attempt to read interactive format commands from the standard input.
-4, --ipv4
Force DNS resolution of following host names on the command line to the IPv4
namespace.
-6, --ipv6
Force DNS resolution of following host names on the command line to the IPv6
namespace.
-a num, --authentication=num
Enable authentication with the numbered key.
-c cmd, --command=cmd
The following argument is interpreted as an interactive format command and is added to
the list of commands to be executed on the specified host(s). Multiple -c options may
be given.
-d, --debug
Increase debugging level by 1.
-D num, --set-debug-level=num
The debug level is set to the following integer argument.
-l filename, --logfile=filename
Log debugging output to the specified file.
-h, --help
Print a usage message summarizing options end exit.
-n, --numeric
Output all host addresses in numeric format rather than converting to the canonical
host names. You may get hostnames anyway for peers in the initialization phase before
DNS has resolved the peer name.
-s, --srcname
Output host addresses by: Names passed to ntpd, then names reverse resolved from
addresses and finally, IP addresses themselves
-S, --srcnumber
Output host addresses by: Names passed to ntpd, then IP addresses themselves
-p, --peers
Print a list of the peers known to the server as well as a summary of their state;
this is equivalent to the peers interactive command. The refid field is as described
under "Event Messages and Status Words" in the NTP documentation on the Web.
-k filename, --keyfile=filename
Specify a keyfile. ntpq will look in this file for the key specified with -a.
-V, --version
Print the version string and exit.
-w, --wide
Wide mode: if the host name or IP Address doesn’t fit, write the full name/address and
indent the next line, so columns line up. The default truncates the name or address.
-W num, --width=num
Force the terminal width. Only relevant for composition of the peers display.
-u, --units
Display timing information with units.
INTERNAL COMMANDS
Interactive format commands consist of a keyword followed by zero to four arguments. Only
enough characters of the full keyword to uniquely identify the command need be typed. The
output of a command is normally sent to the standard output, but optionally the output of
individual commands may be sent to a file by appending a >, followed by a file name, to
the command line. Some interactive format commands are executed entirely within the ntpq
program itself and do not result in NTP mode 6 requests being sent to a server. These are
described as following.
? [command_keyword], help [command_keyword]
A ? by itself will print a list of all the command keywords known to ntpq. A ?
followed by a command keyword will print function and usage information about the
command.
addvars name [ = value] [...]; rmvars name [...]; clearvars
The arguments to this command consist of a list of items of the form name = value,
where the = value is ignored and can be omitted in read requests. ntpq maintains an
internal list in which data to be included in control messages can be assembled and
sent using the readlist and writelist commands described below. The addvars command
allows variables and optional values to be added to the list. If more than one
variable is to be added, the list should be comma-separated and not contain white
space. The rmvars command can be used to remove individual variables from the list,
while the clearlist command removes all variables from the list.
authenticate [yes | no]
Normally ntpq does not authenticate requests unless they are write requests. The
command authenticate yes causes ntpq to send authentication with all requests it
makes. Authenticated requests causes some servers to handle requests slightly
differently. The command authenticate without arguments causes ntpq to display whether
or not ntpq is currently authenticating requests.
cooked
Display server messages in prettyprint format.
debug more | less | off
Turns internal query program debugging on and off.
noflake, +doflake probability
Disables or enables the dropping of control packets by ntpq for testing. Probabilities
0 and 1 should be certainly accepted and discarded respectively. No default, but 0.1
should be a one in ten loss rate.
logfile <stderr> | filename
Displays or sets the file for debug logging. <stderr> will send logs to standard
error.
delay milliseconds
Specify a time interval to be added to timestamps included in requests which require
authentication; this is used to enable (unreliable) server reconfiguration over long
delay network paths or between machines whose clocks are unsynchronized. The server
does not now require timestamps in authenticated requests so that this command may be
obsolete.
exit
Exit ntpq.
host name
Set the host to which future queries will be sent. The name may be either a DNS name
or a numeric address.
hostnames [yes | no]
If yes is specified, host names are printed in information displays. If no is
specified, numeric addresses are printed instead. The default is yes unless modified
using the command line -n switch.
keyid keyid
This command specifies the key number to be used to authenticate configuration
requests; this must correspond to a key ID configured with the controlkey command in
the server’s ntp.conf
keytype
Specify the digest algorithm to use for authenticated requests, with default MD5. The
keytype must match what the server is expecting for the specified key ID.
ntpversion 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
Sets the NTP version number which ntpq claims in packets. Defaults to 2, Note that
mode 6 control messages (and modes, for that matter) didn’t exist in NTP version 1.
passwd
This command prompts for a password to authenticate requests. The password must match
what the server is expecting. Passwords longer than 20 bytes are assumed to be hex
encoding.
quit
Exit ntpq.
raw
Display server messages as received and without reformatting. The only
formatting/interpretation done on the data is to transform non-ASCII data into a
printable (but barely understandable) form.
timeout milliseconds
Specify a timeout period for responses to server queries. The default is about 5000
milliseconds. Note that since ntpq retries each query once after a timeout, the total
waiting time for a timeout will be twice the timeout value set.
units
Toggle whether times in the peers display are shown with units.
version
Print the version of the ntpq program.
CONTROL MESSAGE COMMANDS
Association IDs are used to identify system, peer and clock variables. System variables
are assigned an association ID of zero and system name space, while each association is
assigned a nonzero association ID and peer namespace. Most control commands send a single
mode 6 message to the server and expect a single response message. The exceptions are the
peers command, which sends a series of messages, and the mreadlist and mreadvar commands,
which iterate over a range of associations.
associations
Display a list of mobilized associations in the form
ind assid status conf reach auth condition last_event cnt
┌───────────┬──────────────────────────────────┐
│ │ │
│Variable │ Description │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│ind │ index on this list │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│assid │ association ID │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│status │ peer status word │
│ │ <decode.html#peer> │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│conf │ yes: persistent, no: ephemeral │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│reach │ yes: reachable, no: unreachable │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│auth │ ok, yes, bad and none │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│condition │ selection status (see the select │
│ │ field of the peer status word │
│ │ <decode.html#peer>) │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│last_event │ event report (see the event │
│ │ field of the peer │
│ │ <decode.html#peer> status word" │
│ │ ) │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│cnt │ event count (see the count field │
│ │ of the peer <decode.html#peer> │
│ │ status word" ) │
└───────────┴──────────────────────────────────┘
authinfo
Display the authentication statistics.
clockvar assocID [name [ = value [...] ][...], cv assocID [name [ = value [...] ][...]
Display a list of clock variables <#clock> for those associations supporting a
reference clock.
:config [...]
Send the remainder of the command line, including whitespace, to the server as a
run-time configuration command in the same format as the configuration file. This
command is experimental until further notice and clarification. Authentication is of
course required.
config-from-file filename
Send each line of filename to the server as run-time configuration commands in the
same format as the configuration file. This command is experimental until further
notice and clarification. Authentication is required.
ifstats
Display statistics for each local network address. Authentication is required.
iostats
Display network and reference clock I/O statistics.
kerninfo
Display kernel loop and PPS statistics. As with other ntpq output, times are in
milliseconds. The precision value displayed is in milliseconds as well, unlike the
precision system variable.
lassociations
Perform the same function as the associations command, except display mobilized and
unmobilized associations.
lpeers [-4 | -6]
Print a peer spreadsheet for the appropriate IP version(s). dstadr (associated with
any given IP version).
monstats
Display monitor facility statistics.
direct
Normally, the mrulist command retrieves an entire MRU report (possibly consisting of
more than one MRU span), sorts it, and presents the result. But attempting to fetch an
entire MRU report may fail on a server so loaded that none of its MRU entries age out
before they are shipped. With this option, each segment is reported as it arrives.
mrulist [limited | kod | mincount=count | mindrop=drop | minscore=score |
maxlstint=seconds | minlstint=seconds | laddr=localaddr | sort=sortorder | resany=hexmask
| resall=hexmask | limit=limit | addr.num=address]
Obtain and print traffic counts collected and maintained by the monitor facility. This
is useful for tracking who uses or abuses your server.
Except for sort=sortorder, the options filter the list returned by ntpd. The limited
and kod options return only entries representing client addresses from which the last
packet received triggered either discarding or a KoD response. the addr.num= option
adds specific addresses to retrieve when limit=1. Values of 0 to 15 are supported for
num. Also, used internally with last.num=hextime to select the starting point for
retrieving continued response. the frags=frags option limits the number of datagrams
(fragments) in response. Used by newer ntpq versions instead of limit= when retrieving
multiple entries. The limit= option limits the MRU entries returned per response.
limit=1 is a special case: Instead of fetching beginning with the supplied starting
points (provided by a last.x and addr.x where 0 ⇐ x ⇐ 15, default the beginning of
time) newer neighbor, fetch the supplied entries. This enables fetching multiple
entries from given IP addresses (provided by addr.x= entries where 0 ⇐ x ⇐ 15). When
limit is not one and frags= is provided, the fragment limit controls. NOTE: a single
mrulist command may cause many query/response rounds allowing limits as low as 3 to
potentially retrieve thousands of entries in responses. The mincount=count option
filters out entries that have received less than count packets. The mindrop=drop
option filters out entries that have dropped less than drop packets. The
minscore=score option filters out entries with a score less than score. The
maxlstint=seconds option filters out entries where no packets have arrived within
seconds. The minlstint=seconds option filters out entries with a packet has arrived
within seconds. The laddr=localaddr option filters out entries for packets received on
any local address other than localaddr. resany=hexmask and resall=hexmask filter
entries containing none or less than all, respectively, of the bits in hexmask, which
must begin with 0x.
The sortorder defaults to lstint and may be any of addr, count, avgint, lstint, score,
drop or any of those preceded by a minus sign (hyphen) to reverse the sort order. The
output columns are:
┌───────────────┬──────────────────────────────────┐
│ │ │
│Column │ Description │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│lstint │ Interval in s between the │
│ │ receipt of the most recent │
│ │ packet from this address and the │
│ │ completion of the retrieval of │
│ │ the MRU list by ntpq. │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│avgint │ Average interval in s between │
│ │ packets from this address. │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│rstr │ Restriction flags associated │
│ │ with this address. Most are │
│ │ copied unchanged from the │
│ │ matching restrict command, │
│ │ however 0x400 (kod) and 0x20 │
│ │ (limited) flags are cleared │
│ │ unless the last packet from this │
│ │ address triggered a rate control │
│ │ response. │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│r │ Rate control indicator, either a │
│ │ period, L or K for no rate │
│ │ control response, rate limiting │
│ │ by discarding, or rate limiting │
│ │ with a KoD response, │
│ │ respectively. │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│m │ Packet mode. │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│v │ Packet version number. │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│count │ Packets received from this │
│ │ address. │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│score │ Packets per second (averaged │
│ │ with exponential decay). │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│drop │ Packets dropped (or KoDed) from │
│ │ this address. │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│rport │ Source port of last packet from │
│ │ this address. │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│remote address │ DNS name, numeric address, or │
│ │ address followed by claimed DNS │
│ │ name which could not be verified │
│ │ in parentheses. │
└───────────────┴──────────────────────────────────┘
mreadvar assocID assocID [ variable_name [ = value[ ... ], mrv assocID assocID [
variable_name [ = value[ ... ]
Perform the same function as the readvar command, except for a range of association
IDs. This range is determined from the association list cached by the most recent
associations command.
opeers
Obtain and print the old-style list of all peers and clients showing dstadr
(associated with any given IP version), rather than the refid.
passociations
Perform the same function as the associations command, except that it uses previously
stored data rather than making a new query.
peers
Display a list of peers in the form
tally remote refid st t when pool reach delay offset jitter
┌─────────┬──────────────────────────────────┐
│ │ │
│Variable │ Description │
├─────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│tally │ single-character code indicating │
│ │ current value of the select │
│ │ field of the peer status word │
│ │ <decode.html#peer> │
├─────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│remote │ host name (or IP address) of │
│ │ server │
├─────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│refid │ association ID or kiss code │
│ │ <decode.html#kiss> │
├─────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│st │ stratum │
├─────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│t │ u: server (u for unicast), l: │
│ │ local (reference clock), p: Pool │
│ │ name, 1-8 NTS server with this │
│ │ number of cookies stored. │
├─────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│when │ sec/min/hr since last received │
│ │ packet │
├─────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│poll │ poll interval (log2 s) │
├─────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│reach │ reach shift register (octal) │
├─────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│delay │ roundtrip delay │
├─────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│offset │ offset of server relative to │
│ │ this host │
├─────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│jitter │ jitter │
└─────────┴──────────────────────────────────┘
The t column has strange encodings due to historical use by old code. If you are looking
at an old server, you might also see: s: symmetric (peer), server, B: broadcast server,
The tally code is one of the following:
┌─────┬──────────────────────────────────┐
│ │ │
│Code │ Description │
├─────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│ │ discarded as not valid │
├─────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│x │ discarded by intersection │
│ │ algorithm │
├─────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│. │ discarded by table overflow (not │
│ │ used) │
├─────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│- │ discarded by the cluster │
│ │ algorithm │
├─────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│+ │ included by the combine │
│ │ algorithm │
├─────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│# │ backup (more than tos maxclock │
│ │ sources) │
├─────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│* │ system peer │
├─────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│o │ PPS peer (when the prefer peer │
│ │ is valid) │
└─────┴──────────────────────────────────┘
apeers
Display a list of peers in the form:
[tally]remote refid assid st t when pool reach delay offset jitter
where the output is just like the peers command except that the refid is displayed in
hex format and the association number is also displayed.
rpeers
Display a list of peers in the form
st t when pool reach delay offset jitter refid tally remote
pstats assocID
Show the statistics for the peer with the given assocID.
readvar assocID [ name ] [,...], rv assocID [ name ] [,...]
Display the specified variables. If assocID is zero, the variables are from the system
variables <#system> name space, otherwise they are from the peer variables <#peer>
name space. The assocID is required, as the same name can occur in both spaces. If no
name is included, all operative variables in the name space are displayed. In this
case only, if the assocID is omitted, it is assumed zero. Multiple names are specified
with comma separators and without whitespace. Note that time values are represented in
milliseconds and frequency values in parts-per-million (PPM). Some NTP timestamps are
represented in the format YYYYMMDDTTTT, where YYYY is the year, MM the month of the
year, DD the day of the month and TTTT the time of day.
reslist
Show the access control (restrict) list for ntpq.
timerstats
Display interval timer counters.
writelist assocID
Write the system or peer variables included in the variable list.
writevar assocID name = value [,...]
Write the specified variables. If the assocID is zero, the variables are from the
system variables <#system> name space, otherwise they are from the peer variables
<#peer> name space. The assocID is required, as the same name can occur in both
spaces.
sysinfo
Display operational summary.
sysstats
Print statistics counters maintained in the protocol module. Note that the
relationships among these counters can look unlikely because packets can get flagged
for inclusion in exception statistics in more than one way, for example by having both
a bad length and an old version.
mssntpinfo
Display a summary of the MS-SNTP traffic to a Samba server. This won’t work unless the
server you are looking at was built with the --enable-mssntp option.
ntsinfo
Display a summary of the NTS state, including both the the NTS client and NTS server
components. Note that the format of the output text may change as this feature is
developed. This command is experimental until further notice and clarification.
AUTHENTICATION
Four commands require authentication to the server: config-from-file, config, ifstats, and
reslist. An authkey file must be in place and a control key declared in ntp.conf for these
commands to work.
If you are running as root or otherwise have read access to the authkey and ntp.conf file,
ntpq will mine the required credentials for you. Otherwise, you will be prompted to enter
a key ID and password.
Credentials once entered, are retained and used for the duration of your ntpq session.
STATUS WORDS AND KISS CODES
The current state of the operating program is shown in a set of status words maintained by
the system and each association separately. These words are displayed in the rv and as
commands both in hexadecimal and decoded short tip strings. The codes, tips, and short
explanations are on the Event Messages and Status Words <decode.html> page. The page also
includes a list of system and peer messages, the code for the latest of which is included
in the status word.
Information resulting from protocol machine state transitions is displayed using an
informal set of ASCII strings called kiss codes <decode.html#kiss>. The original purpose
was for kiss-o'-death (KoD) packets sent by the server to advise the client of an unusual
condition. They are now displayed, when appropriate, in the reference identifier field in
various billboards.
SYSTEM VARIABLES
The following system variables appear in the rv billboard. Not all variables are displayed
in some configurations.
┌───────────┬─────────────────────────────────┐
│ │ │
│Variable │ Description │
├───────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│status │ system status word │
│ │ <decode.html#sys> │
├───────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│version │ NTP software version and build │
│ │ time │
├───────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│processor │ hardware platform and version │
├───────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│system │ operating system and version │
├───────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│leap │ leap warning indicator (0-3) │
├───────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│stratum │ stratum (1-15) │
├───────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│precision │ precision (log2 s) │
├───────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│rootdelay │ total roundtrip delay to the │
│ │ primary reference clock │
├───────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│rootdisp │ total dispersion to the primary │
│ │ reference clock │
├───────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│peer │ system peer association ID │
├───────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│tc │ time constant and poll exponent │
│ │ (log2 s) (3-17) │
├───────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│mintc │ minimum time constant (log2 s) │
│ │ (3-10) │
├───────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│clock │ date and time of day │
├───────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│refid │ reference ID or kiss code │
│ │ <decode.html#kiss> │
├───────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│reftime │ reference time │
├───────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│offset │ combined offset of server │
│ │ relative to this host │
├───────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│sys_jitter │ combined system jitter │
├───────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│frequency │ frequency offset (PPM) relative │
│ │ to hardware clock │
├───────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│clk_wander │ clock frequency wander (PPM) │
├───────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│clk_jitter │ clock jitter │
├───────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│tai │ TAI-UTC offset (s) │
├───────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│leapsec │ NTP seconds when the next leap │
│ │ second is/was inserted │
├───────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│expire │ NTP seconds when the NIST │
│ │ leapseconds file expires │
└───────────┴─────────────────────────────────┘
The jitter and wander statistics are exponentially-weighted RMS averages. The system
jitter is defined in the NTPv4 specification; the clock jitter statistic is computed by
the clock discipline module.
PEER VARIABLES
The following peer variables appear in the rv billboard for each association. Not all
variables are displayed in some configurations.
┌───────────────┬──────────────────────────────────┐
│ │ │
│Variable │ Description │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│associd │ association ID │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│status │ peer status word │
│ │ <decode.html#peer> │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│srcadr srcport │ source (remote) IP address and │
│ │ port │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│dstadr dstport │ destination (local) IP address │
│ │ and port │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│leap │ leap indicator (0-3) │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│stratum │ stratum (0-15) │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│precision │ precision (log2 s) │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│rootdelay │ total roundtrip delay to the │
│ │ primary reference clock │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│rootdisp │ total root dispersion to the │
│ │ primary reference clock │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│refid │ reference ID or kiss code │
│ │ <decode.html#kiss> │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│reftime │ reference time │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│reach │ reach register (octal) │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│unreach │ unreach counter │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│hmode │ host mode (1-6) │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│pmode │ peer mode (1-5) │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│hpoll │ host poll exponent (log2 s) │
│ │ (3-17) │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│ppoll │ peer poll exponent (log2 s) │
│ │ (3-17) │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│headway │ headway (see Rate Management and │
│ │ <rate.html> the Kiss-o'-Death │
│ │ Packet)" │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│flash │ flash status word │
│ │ <decode.html#flash> │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│offset │ filter offset │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│delay │ filter delay │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│dispersion │ filter dispersion │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│jitter │ filter jitter │
├───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│bias │ fudge for asymmetric links/paths │
└───────────────┴──────────────────────────────────┘
CLOCK VARIABLES
The following clock variables appear in the cv billboard for each association with a
reference clock. Not all variables are displayed in some configurations.
┌───────────┬──────────────────────────────────┐
│ │ │
│Variable │ Description │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│associd │ association ID │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│status │ clock status word │
│ │ <decode.html#clock> │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│device │ device description │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│timecode │ ASCII time code string (specific │
│ │ to device) │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│poll │ poll messages sent │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│noreply │ no reply │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│badformat │ bad format │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│baddata │ bad date or time │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│fudgetime1 │ fudge time 1 │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│fudgetime2 │ fudge time 2 │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│stratum │ driver stratum │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│refid │ driver reference ID │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│ │ │
│flags │ driver flags │
└───────────┴──────────────────────────────────┘
COMPATIBILITY
When listing refids, addresses of the form 127.127.x.x are no longer automatically
interpreted as local refclocks as in older versions of ntpq. Instead, a clock-format
display is requested by the NTPsec daemon when appropriate (by setting the srcaddr peer
variable). This means that when used to query legacy versions of ntpd, which do not know
how to request this, this program will do a slightly wrong thing.
In older versions, the type variable associated with a reference clock was a numeric
driver type index. It has been replaced by name, a shortname for the driver type.
In older versions, no count of control packets was listed under sysstats.
The -O (--old-rv) option of legacy versions has been retired.
KNOWN LIMITATIONS
It is possible for a ":config unpeer" command to fail silently, yielding "Config
Succeeded", if it is given a peer identifier that looks like a driver type name or a
hostname not present in the peer list. The error will, however, be reported in the system
log.
The config command cannot be used to change a server’s default restrictions.
Under some circumstances python 2 cannot emit unicode. When true, the display of units is
downgraded to non-unicode alternatives. One place a user is likely to encounter this is
when diverting output through a pipe. Attempts have been made to force the use of UTF-8,
all of which break the command history feature.
When using the -u option, very old xterms may fail to render μ correctly. If this
happens, be sure your xterm is started with the -u8 option, or the utf8 resource', and
that your console font contains the UTF-8 μ character. Also confirm your LANG
environment variable is set to a UTF-8 language, like this: "export LANG=en_US.utf8".
Timestamp interpretation in this program is likely to fail in flaky ways if the local
system clock has not already been approximately synchronized to UTC. Querying a server
based in a different NTP era than the current one is especially likely to fail.
This program will behave in apparently buggy and only semi-predictable ways when fetching
MRU lists from any server with sufficiently high traffic.
The problem is fundamental. The Mode 6 protocol can’t ship (and your client cannot accept)
MRU records as fast as the daemon accepts incoming traffic. Under these circumstances, the
daemon will repeatedly fail to ship an entire report, leading to long hangs as your client
repeatedly re-sends the request. Eventually the Mode 6 client library will throw an error
indicating that a maximum number of restarts has been exceeded.
To avoid this problem, avoid monitoring over links that don’t have enough capacity to
handle the monitored server’s entire NTP load.
You may be able to retrieve partial data in very high-traffic conditions by using the
direct option.
EXIT STATUS
One of the following exit values will be returned:
0 (EXIT_SUCCESS)
Successful program execution.
1 (EXIT_FAILURE)
The operation failed or the command syntax was not valid.