ntpq: Network Time Protocol Query User’s Manual

Short Table of Contents

ntpq: Network Time Protocol Query User Manual

The ntpq utility program is used to monitor the operational status and determine the performance of ntpd, the NTP daemon.

This document applies to version 4.2.8p15 of ntpq.

1 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 RFC1305. 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. The ntpq 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 is 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 Techniques page.

1.1 Invoking ntpq

The ntpq utility program is used to query NTP servers to monitor NTP operations and performance, requesting information about current state and/or changes in that state. The program may 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. The ntpq utility 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 is 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. The ntpq utility 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. The ntpq utility 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 resolution to the IPv4 namespace, while a -6 qualifier forces resolution to the IPv6 namespace. For examples and usage, see the “NTP Debugging Techniques” page.

Specifying a command line option other than -i or -n 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.

1.1.1 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.

A number of interactive format commands are executed entirely within the ntpq utility itself and do not result in NTP requests being sent to a server. These are described following.

? [command]

help [command]

A ‘?’ by itself will print a list of all the commands known to ntpq A ‘?’ followed by a command name will print function and usage information about the command.

addvars name[=value][,...]

rmvars name[,...]

clearvars

showvars

The arguments to this command consist of a list of items of the form name[=value], where the .No = Ns Ar value is ignored, and can be omitted, in requests to the server to read variables. The ntpq utility maintains an internal list in which data to be included in messages can be assembled, and displayed or set using the readlist and writelist commands described below. The addvars command allows variables and their 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 clearvars command removes all variables from the list. The showvars command displays the current list of optional variables.

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 causes ntpq to display whether or not it is currently authenticating requests.

cooked

Causes output from query commands to be "cooked", so that variables which are recognized by ntpq will have their values reformatted for human consumption. Variables which ntpq could not decode completely are marked with a trailing ‘?’.

debug [more|less|off]

With no argument, displays the current debug level. Otherwise, the debugging level is changed as indicated.

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. Actually the server does not now require timestamps in authenticated requests, so this command may be obsolete. Without any arguments, displays the current delay.

drefid [hash|ipv4]

Display refids as IPv4 or hash. Without any arguments, displays whether refids are shown as IPv4 addresses or hashes.

exit

Exit ntpq

host [name]

Set the host to which future queries will be sent. The name may be either a host name or a numeric address. Without any arguments, displays the current host.

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. Without any arguments, displays whether host names or numeric addresses are shown.

keyid [keyid]

This command allows the specification of a key number to be used to authenticate configuration requests. This must correspond to the controlkey key number the server has been configured to use for this purpose. Without any arguments, displays the current keyid.

keytype [digest]

Specify the digest algorithm to use for authenticating requests, with default MD5. If ntpq was built with OpenSSL support, and OpenSSL is installed, digest can be any message digest algorithm supported by OpenSSL. If no argument is given, the current keytype digest algorithm used is displayed.

ntpversion [1|2|3|4]

Sets the NTP version number which ntpq claims in packets. Defaults to 3, and note that mode 6 control messages (and modes, for that matter) didn’t exist in NTP version 1. There appear to be no servers left which demand version 1. With no argument, displays the current NTP version that will be used when communicating with servers.

passwd

This command prompts you to type in a password (which will not be echoed) which will be used to authenticate configuration requests. The password must correspond to the key configured for use by the NTP server for this purpose if such requests are to be successful.

poll [n] [verbose]

Poll an NTP server in client mode n times. Poll not implemented yet.

quit

Exit ntpq

raw

Causes all output from query commands is printed as received from the remote server. The only formating/interpretation done on the data is to transform nonascii 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. Without any arguments, displays the current timeout period. 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.

version

Display the version of the ntpq program.

1.1.1.1 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 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.

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.

associations

Display a list of mobilized associations in the form:

ind assid status conf reach auth condition last_event cnt

Sy Variable Ta Sy Description

ind Ta index on this list

assid Ta association id

status Ta peer status word

conf Ta yes: No persistent, no: No ephemeral

reach Ta yes: No reachable, no: No unreachable

auth Ta ok, yes, bad No and none

condition Ta selection status (see the select No field of the peer status word)

last_event Ta event report (see the event No field of the peer status word)

cnt Ta event count (see the count No field of the peer status word)

authinfo

Display the authentication statistics counters: time since reset, stored keys, free keys, key lookups, keys not found, uncached keys, expired keys, encryptions, decryptions.

clocklist [associd]

cl [associd]

Display all clock variables in the variable list for those associations supporting a reference clock.

clockvar [associd] [name[=value]][,...]

cv [associd] [name[=value]][,...]

Display a list of clock variables for those associations supporting a reference clock.

:config configuration command line

Send the remainder of the command line, including whitespace, to the server as a run-time configuration command in the same format as a line in 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 lines in the configuration file. This command is experimental until further notice and clarification. Authentication is required.

ifstats

Display status and statistics counters for each local network interface address: interface number, interface name and address or broadcast, drop, flag, ttl, mc, received, sent, send failed, peers, uptime. Authentication is required.

iostats

Display network and reference clock I/O statistics: time since reset, receive buffers, free receive buffers, used receive buffers, low water refills, dropped packets, ignored packets, received packets, packets sent, packet send failures, input wakeups, useful input wakeups.

kerninfo

Display kernel loop and PPS statistics: associd, status, pll offset, pll frequency, maximum error, estimated error, kernel status, pll time constant, precision, frequency tolerance, pps frequency, pps stability, pps jitter, calibration interval, calibration cycles, jitter exceeded, stability exceeded, calibration errors. As with other ntpq output, times are in milliseconds; very small values may be shown as exponentials. 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, including all clients.

lopeers [-4|-6]

Display a list of all peers and clients showing dstadr (associated with the given IP version).

lpassociations

Display the last obtained list of associations, including all clients.

lpeers [-4|-6]

Display a list of all peers and clients (associated with the given IP version).

monstats

Display monitor facility status, statistics, and limits: enabled, addresses, peak addresses, maximum addresses, reclaim above count, reclaim older than, kilobytes, maximum kilobytes.

mreadlist associdlo associdhi

mrl associdlo associdhi

Perform the same function as the readlist command for a range of association ids.

mreadvar associdlo associdhi [name][,...]

This range may be determined from the list displayed by any command showing associations.

mrv associdlo associdhi [name][,...]

Perform the same function as the readvar command for a range of association ids. This range may be determined from the list displayed by any command showing associations.

mrulist [limited | kod | mincount=count | laddr=localaddr | sort=[-]sortorder | resany=hexmask | resall=hexmask]

Display traffic counts of the most recently seen source addresses collected and maintained by the monitor facility. With the exception of sort=[-]sortorder, the options filter the list returned by ntpd(8). 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 mincount=count option filters entries representing less than count packets. The laddr=localaddr option filters 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 addr, avgint, count, lstint, or any of those preceded by ‘-’ to reverse the sort order. The output columns are:

Column

Description

lstint

Interval in seconds 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.

rport

Source port of last packet from this address.

remote address

host or DNS name, numeric address, or address followed by claimed DNS name which could not be verified in parentheses.

opeers [-4 | -6]

Obtain and print the old-style list of all peers and clients showing dstadr (associated with the 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 .Lk decode.html#peer "peer status word"

remote

host name (or IP number) of peer. The value displayed will be truncated to 15 characters unless the ntpq -w option is given, in which case the full value will be displayed on the first line, and if too long, the remaining data will be displayed on the next line.

refid

source IP address or .Lk decode.html#kiss "’kiss code"

st

stratum: 0 for local reference clocks, 1 for servers with local reference clocks, ..., 16 for unsynchronized server clocks

t

u: unicast or manycast client, b: broadcast or multicast client, p: pool source, l: local (reference clock), s: symmetric (peer), A: manycast server, B: broadcast server, M: multicast server

when

time in seconds, minutes, hours, or days since the last packet was received, or ‘-’ if a packet has never been received

poll

poll interval (s)

reach

reach shift register (octal)

delay

roundtrip delay

offset

offset of server relative to this host

jitter

offset RMS error estimate.

pstats associd

Display the statistics for the peer with the given associd: associd, status, remote host, local address, time last received, time until next send, reachability change, packets sent, packets received, bad authentication, bogus origin, duplicate, bad dispersion, bad reference time, candidate order.

readlist [associd]

rl [associd]

Display all system or peer variables. If the associd is omitted, it is assumed to be zero.

readvar [associd name[=value] [, ...]]

rv [associd name[=value] [, ...]]

Display the specified system or peer variables. If associd is zero, the variables are from the System Variables name space, otherwise they are from the Peer Variables 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 to be 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 YYYYMM DD TTTT, where YYYY is the year, MM the month of year, DD the day of month and TTTT the time of day.

reslist

Display the access control (restrict) list for ntpq Authentication is required.

saveconfig filename

Save the current configuration, including any runtime modifications made by :config or config-from-file, to the NTP server host file filename. This command will be rejected by the server unless .Lk miscopt.html#saveconfigdir "saveconfigdir" appears in the ntpd(8) configuration file. filename can use date(1) format specifiers to substitute the current date and time, for example,

saveconfig ntp-%Y%m%d-%H%M%S.conf. 

The filename used is stored in system variable savedconfig. Authentication is required.

sysinfo

Display system operational summary: associd, status, system peer, system peer mode, leap indicator, stratum, log2 precision, root delay, root dispersion, reference id, reference time, system jitter, clock jitter, clock wander, broadcast delay, symm. auth. delay.

sysstats

Display system uptime and packet counts maintained in the protocol module: uptime, sysstats reset, packets received, current version, older version, bad length or format, authentication failed, declined, restricted, rate limited, KoD responses, processed for time.

timerstats

Display interval timer counters: time since reset, timer overruns, calls to transmit.

writelist associd

Set all system or peer variables included in the variable list.

writevar associd name=value [, ...]

Set the specified variables in the variable list. If the associd is zero, the variables are from the System Variables name space, otherwise they are from the Peer Variables name space. The associd is required, as the same name can occur in both spaces. Authentication is required.

1.1.1.2 Status Words and Kiss Codes

The current state of the operating program is shown in a set of status words maintained by the system. Status information is also available on a per-association basis. These words are displayed by the readlist and associations commands both in hexadecimal and in decoded short tip strings. The codes, tips and short explanations are documented on the .Lk decode.html "Event Messages and Status Words" 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 .Lk decode.html#kiss "kiss codes" . 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.

1.1.1.3 System Variables

The following system variables appear in the readlist billboard. Not all variables are displayed in some configurations.

Variable

Description

status

.Lk decode.html#sys "system status word"

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

refid

reference id or .Lk decode.html#kiss "kiss code"

reftime

reference time

clock

date and time of day

peer

system peer association id

tc

time constant and poll exponent (log2 s) (3-17)

mintc

minimum time constant (log2 s) (3-10)

offset

combined offset of server relative to this host

frequency

frequency drift (PPM) relative to hardware clock

sys_jitter

combined system jitter

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.

When the NTPv4 daemon is compiled with the OpenSSL software library, additional system variables are displayed, including some or all of the following, depending on the particular Autokey dance:

Variable

Description

host

Autokey host name for this host

ident

Autokey group name for this host

flags

host flags (see Autokey specification)

digest

OpenSSL message digest algorithm

signature

OpenSSL digest/signature scheme

update

NTP seconds at last signature update

cert

certificate subject, issuer and certificate flags

until

NTP seconds when the certificate expires

1.1.1.4 Peer Variables

The following peer variables appear in the readlist billboard for each association. Not all variables are displayed in some configurations.

Variable

Description

associd

association id

status

.Lk decode.html#peer "peer status word"

srcadr

source (remote) IP address

srcport

source (remote) port

dstadr

destination (local) IP address

dstport

destination (local) 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 .Lk decode.html#kiss "kiss code"

reftime

reference time

rec

last packet received 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 .Lk rate.html "Rate Management and the Kiss-o’-Death Packet" )

flash

.Lk decode.html#flash "flash status word"

keyid

symmetric key id

offset

filter offset

delay

filter delay

dispersion

filter dispersion

jitter

filter jitter

bias

unicast/broadcast bias

xleave

interleave delay (see .Lk xleave.html "NTP Interleaved Modes" )

The bias variable is calculated when the first broadcast packet is received after the calibration volley. It represents the offset of the broadcast subgraph relative to the unicast subgraph. The xleave variable appears only for the interleaved symmetric and interleaved modes. It represents the internal queuing, buffering and transmission delays for the preceding packet.

When the NTPv4 daemon is compiled with the OpenSSL software library, additional peer variables are displayed, including the following:

Variable

Description

flags

peer flags (see Autokey specification)

host

Autokey server name

flags

peer flags (see Autokey specification)

signature

OpenSSL digest/signature scheme

initsequence

initial key id

initkey

initial key index

timestamp

Autokey signature timestamp

ident

Autokey group name for this association

1.1.1.5 Clock Variables

The following clock variables appear in the clocklist billboard for each association with a reference clock. Not all variables are displayed in some configurations.

Variable

Description

associd

association id

status

.Lk decode.html#clock "clock status word"

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

This section was generated by AutoGen, using the agtexi-cmd template and the option descriptions for the ntpq program. This software is released under the NTP license, <http://ntp.org/license>.

1.1.2 ntpq help/usage (--help)

This is the automatically generated usage text for ntpq.

The text printed is the same whether selected with the help option (--help) or the more-help option (--more-help). more-help will print the usage text by passing it through a pager program. more-help is disabled on platforms without a working fork(2) function. The PAGER environment variable is used to select the program, defaulting to more. Both will exit with a status code of 0.

ntpq - standard NTP query program - Ver. 4.2.8p14
Usage:  ntpq [ -<flag> [<val>] | --<name>[{=| }<val>] ]... [ host ...]
  Flg Arg Option-Name    Description
   -4 no  ipv4           Force IPv4 name resolution
                                - prohibits the option 'ipv6'
   -6 no  ipv6           Force IPv6 name resolution
                                - prohibits the option 'ipv4'
   -c Str command        run a command and exit
                                - may appear multiple times
   -d no  debug-level    Increase debug verbosity level
                                - may appear multiple times
   -D Num set-debug-level Set the debug verbosity level
                                - may appear multiple times
   -i no  interactive    Force ntpq to operate in interactive mode
                                - prohibits these options:
                                command
                                peers
   -n no  numeric        numeric host addresses
      no  old-rv         Always output status line with readvar
   -p no  peers          Print a list of the peers
                                - prohibits the option 'interactive'
   -r KWd refid          Set default display type for S2+ refids
   -w no  wide           Display the full 'remote' value
      opt version        output version information and exit
   -? no  help           display extended usage information and exit
   -! no  more-help      extended usage information passed thru pager
   -> opt save-opts      save the option state to a config file
   -< Str load-opts      load options from a config file
                                - disabled as '--no-load-opts'
                                - may appear multiple times

Options are specified by doubled hyphens and their name or by a single
hyphen and the flag character.

The following option preset mechanisms are supported:
 - reading file $HOME/.ntprc
 - reading file ./.ntprc
 - examining environment variables named NTPQ_*

The valid "refid" option keywords are:
  hash ipv4
  or an integer from 0 through 1

Please send bug reports to:  <http://bugs.ntp.org, bugs@ntp.org>

1.1.3 ipv4 option (-4)

This is the “force ipv4 name resolution” option.

This option has some usage constraints. It:

• must not appear in combination with any of the following options: ipv6.

Force resolution of following host names on the command line to the IPv4 namespace.

1.1.4 ipv6 option (-6)

This is the “force ipv6 name resolution” option.

This option has some usage constraints. It:

• must not appear in combination with any of the following options: ipv4.

Force resolution of following host names on the command line to the IPv6 namespace.

1.1.5 command option (-c)

This is the “run a command and exit” option. This option takes a string argument cmd.

This option has some usage constraints. It:

• may appear an unlimited number of times.

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).

1.1.6 interactive option (-i)

This is the “force ntpq to operate in interactive mode” option.

This option has some usage constraints. It:

• must not appear in combination with any of the following options: command, peers.

Force ntpq to operate in interactive mode. Prompts will be written to the standard output and commands read from the standard input.

1.1.7 numeric option (-n)

This is the “numeric host addresses” option. Output all host addresses in dotted-quad numeric format rather than converting to the canonical host names.

1.1.8 old-rv option

This is the “always output status line with readvar” option. By default, ntpq now suppresses the associd=... line that precedes the output of readvar (alias rv) when a single variable is requested, such as ntpq -c "rv 0 offset". This option causes ntpq to include both lines of output for a single-variable readvar. Using an environment variable to preset this option in a script will enable both older and newer ntpq to behave identically in this regard.

1.1.9 peers option (-p)

This is the “print a list of the peers” option.

This option has some usage constraints. It:

• must not appear in combination with any of the following options: interactive.

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.

1.1.10 refid option (-r)

This is the “set default display type for s2+ refids” option. This option takes a keyword argument.

This option has some usage constraints. It:

• This option takes a keyword as its argument. The argument sets an enumeration value that can be tested by comparing the option value macro (OPT_VALUE_REFID). The available keywords are:

      hash ipv4
  

  or their numeric equivalent.

Set the default display format for S2+ refids.

1.1.11 wide option (-w)

This is the “display the full ’remote’ value” option. Display the full value of the ’remote’ value. If this requires more than 15 characters, display the full value, emit a newline, and continue the data display properly indented on the next line.

1.1.12 presetting/configuring ntpq

Any option that is not marked as not presettable may be preset by loading values from configuration ("rc" or "ini") files, and values from environment variables named NTPQ and NTPQ_<OPTION_NAME>. <OPTION_NAME> must be one of the options listed above in upper case and segmented with underscores. The NTPQ variable will be tokenized and parsed like the command line. The remaining variables are tested for existence and their values are treated like option arguments.

libopts will search in 2 places for configuration files:

• $HOME
• $PWD

The environment variables HOME, and PWD are expanded and replaced when ntpq runs. For any of these that are plain files, they are simply processed. For any that are directories, then a file named .ntprc is searched for within that directory and processed.

Configuration files may be in a wide variety of formats. The basic format is an option name followed by a value (argument) on the same line. Values may be separated from the option name with a colon, equal sign or simply white space. Values may be continued across multiple lines by escaping the newline with a backslash.

Multiple programs may also share the same initialization file. Common options are collected at the top, followed by program specific segments. The segments are separated by lines like:

[NTPQ]

or by

<?program ntpq>

Do not mix these styles within one configuration file.

Compound values and carefully constructed string values may also be specified using XML syntax:

<option-name>
   <sub-opt>...&lt;...&gt;...</sub-opt>
</option-name>

yielding an option-name.sub-opt string value of

"...<...>..."

AutoOpts does not track suboptions. You simply note that it is a hierarchicly valued option. AutoOpts does provide a means for searching the associated name/value pair list (see: optionFindValue).

The command line options relating to configuration and/or usage help are:

version (-)

Print the program version to standard out, optionally with licensing information, then exit 0. The optional argument specifies how much licensing detail to provide. The default is to print just the version. The licensing infomation may be selected with an option argument. Only the first letter of the argument is examined:

‘version’

Only print the version. This is the default.

‘copyright’

Name the copyright usage licensing terms.

‘verbose’

Print the full copyright usage licensing terms.

1.1.13 ntpq 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.

‘66 (EX_NOINPUT)’

A specified configuration file could not be loaded.

‘70 (EX_SOFTWARE)’

libopts had an internal operational error. Please report it to autogen-users@lists.sourceforge.net. Thank you.

1.2 Usage

1.3 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. A number of 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 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</dt>

The arguments to these commands 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.

cooked

Display server messages in prettyprint format.

debug more | less | off

Turns internal query program debugging on and off.

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. Actually the server does not now require timestamps in authenticated requests, so this command may be obsolete.

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 in ntp.conf for this purpose.

keytype

Specify the digest algorithm to use for authenticated requests, with default MD5. If the OpenSSL library is installed, digest can be be any message digest algorithm supported by the library. The current selections are: AES128CMAC, MD2, MD4, MD5, MDC2, RIPEMD160, SHA and SHA1.

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 correspond to the key ID configured in ntp.conf for this purpose.

quit

Exit ntpq.

raw

Display server messages as received and without reformatting.

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.

1.4 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
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)
last_event	event report (see the event field of the peer status word)
cnt event count (see the count field of the peer status word)

clockvar assocID [name [ = value [...]] [...]]

cv assocID [name [ = value [...] ][...]]

Display a list of ‘clock variables’ 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 the 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.

monstats

Display monitor facility statistics.

mrulist [limited | kod | mincount=count | laddr=localaddr | sort=sortorder | resany=hexmask | resall=hexmask]

Obtain and print traffic counts collected and maintained by the monitor facility. With the exception of 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 mincount=count option filters entries representing less than count packets. The laddr=localaddr option filters 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, 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.
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.

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.
remote	host name (or IP number) of peer
refid	association ID or kiss code.
st	stratum
t	u: unicast or manycast client, b: broadcast or multicast client, l: local (reference clock), s: symmetric (peer), A: manycast server, B: broadcast server, M: multicast server.
when	sec/min/hr since last received packet
poll	poll interval (log(2) s)
reach	reach shift register (octal)
delay	roundtrip delay
offset	offset of server relative to this host
jitter	jitter

readvar assocID name [ = value ] [,...]

rv assocID [ name ] [,...]

Display the specified variables. If assocID is zero, the variables are from the ‘system variables’ name space, otherwise they are from the ‘peer variables’ 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 year, DD the day of month and TTTT the time of day.

saveconfig filename

Write the current configuration, including any runtime modifications given with :config or config-from-file, to the ntpd host’s file filename. This command will be rejected by the server unless saveconfigdir appears in the ntpd configuration file. filename can use strftime() format specifiers to substitute the current date and time, for example, saveconfig ntp-%Y%m%d-%H%M%S.conf. The filename used is stored in system variable savedconfig. Authentication is required.

writevar assocID name = value [,...]

Write the specified variables. If the assocID is zero, the variables are from the ‘system variables’ name space, otherwise they are from the ‘peer variables’ 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.

1.5 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 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. 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.

1.6 System Variables

The following system variables appear in the rv billboard. Not all variables are displayed in some configurations.

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.

When the NTPv4 daemon is compiled with the OpenSSL software library, additional system variables are displayed, including some or all of the following, depending on the particular Autokey dance:

1.7 Peer Variables

The following peer variables appear in the rv billboard for each association. Not all variables are displayed in some configurations.

The bias variable is calculated when the first broadcast packet is received after the calibration volley. It represents the offset of the broadcast subgraph relative to the unicast subgraph. The xleave variable appears only the interleaved symmetric and interleaved modes. It represents the internal queuing, buffering and transmission delays for the preceding packet.

When the NTPv4 daemon is compiled with the OpenSSL software library, additional peer variables are displayed, including the following:

1.8 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.