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 4.2.7p434 of ntpq.
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.
The
ntpq
utility program is used to query NTP servers which
implement the standard NTP mode 6 control message formats defined
in Appendix B of the NTPv3 specification RFC1305, requesting
information about current state and/or changes in that state.
The same formats are used in NTPv4, although some of the
variables have changed and new ones added. The description on this
page is for the NTPv4 variables.
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.
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.
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 mode 6
requests being sent to a server.
These are described following.
? [command_keyword]help [command_keyword]ntpq
A
?
followed by a command keyword will print function and usage
information about the command.
This command is probably a better
source of information about
ntpq
than this manual
page.
addvars variable_name [=value] ...rmvars variable_name ...clearvarsntpq
utility 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 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
clearlist
command removes all variables from the
list.
authenticate [yes | no]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, and can occasionally melt the CPU in
fuzzballs if you turn authentication on before doing a
peer
display.
The command
authenticate
causes
ntpq
to display whether or not
ntpq
is currently autheinticating requests.
cookedntpq
will have their
values reformatted for human consumption.
Variables which
ntpq
thinks should have a decodable value but didn't are
marked with a trailing
?.
debug [more | less | off]delay millisecondshost hostnamehostnames [yes | no]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 keyidntpversion [1 | 2 | 3 | 4]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.
quitntpq
passwdrawtimeout millisecondsntpq
retries each query once after a timeout, the total waiting time for
a timeout will be twice the timeout value set.
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>.
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. 4.2.7p433
Usage: ntpq [ -<flag> [<val>] | --<name>[{=| }<val>] ]... [ host ...]
Flg Arg Option-Name Description
-4 no ipv4 Force IPv4 DNS name resolution
- prohibits the option 'ipv6'
-6 no ipv6 Force IPv6 DNS 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
-p no peers Print a list of the peers
- prohibits the option 'interactive'
-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
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_*
Please send bug reports to: <http://bugs.ntp.org, bugs@ntp.org>
exit 0
This is the “force ipv4 dns name resolution” option.
This option has some usage constraints. It:
Force DNS resolution of following host names on the command line to the IPv4 namespace.
This is the “force ipv6 dns name resolution” option.
This option has some usage constraints. It:
Force DNS resolution of following host names on the command line to the IPv6 namespace.
This is the “run a command and exit” option. This option takes a string argument cmd.
This option has some usage constraints. It:
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).
This is the “print a list of the peers” option.
This option has some usage constraints. It:
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.
This is the “force ntpq to operate in interactive mode” option.
This option has some usage constraints. It:
Force ntpq to operate in interactive mode.
Prompts will be written to the standard output and
commands read from the standard input.
This is the “numeric host addresses” option. Output all host addresses in dotted-quad numeric format rather than converting to the canonical host names.
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.
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, 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>...<...>...</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:
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:
One of the following exit values will be returned:
| What | Default | Flag | Option
|
|---|---|---|---|
| configuration file | /etc/ntp.conf
| -c
| conffile
|
| frequency file | none | -f
| driftfile
|
| leapseconds file | none | leapfile
| |
| process ID file | none | -p
| pidfile
|
| log file | system log | -l
| logfile
|
| include file | none | none | includefile
|
| statistics path | /var/NTP
| -s
| statsdir
|
| keys path | /usr/local/etc
| -k
| keysdir
|
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]? 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> = 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 debug more | less | off delay milliseconds host name hostnames [yes | no]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 keyidntp.conf for this purpose.
keytypeMD5.
If the OpenSSL library is installed,
digest can be be any message digest algorithm supported by the library.
The current selections are: MD2, MD4, MD5, MDC2, RIPEMD160, SHA and SHA1.
ntpversion 1 | 2 | 3 | 4ntpq claims in packets.
Defaults to 2.
Note that mode-6 control messages (and modes, for that matter)
didn't exist in NTP version 1.
passwdntp.conf for this purpose.
quitntpq.
raw timeout millsecondsntpq retries each query once after a timeout
the total waiting time for a timeout will be twice the timeout value set.
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.
associationsind 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 [...] ][...]] :config [...] config-from-file filename ifstats iostats kerninfo lassociations monstats mrulist [limited | kod | mincount=count | laddr=localaddr | sort=sortorder | resany=hexmask | resall=hexmask]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.
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[ ... ]readvar command,
except for a range of association IDs.
This range is determined from the association list cached by
the most recent associations command.
passociationsassociations command, except that
it uses previously stored data rather than making a new query.
peers[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 ] [,...] saveconfig filename: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 [,...] sysinfo sysstatsThe 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.
The following system variables appear in the rv billboard.
Not all variables are displayed in some configurations.
| Variable | Description
|
|---|---|
status
|
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 (log(2) 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 (log(2) s) (3-17)
| |
mintc
minimum time constant (log(2) s) (3-10)
| |
clock
|
date and time of day
|
refid
reference ID or kiss code
| |
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.
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
|
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
|
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 (log(2) 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
|
reftime
|
reference time
|
reach
|
reach register (octal)
|
unreach
|
unreach counter
|
hmode
|
host mode (1-6)
|
pmode
|
peer mode (1-5)
|
hpoll
|
host poll exponent (log(2) s) (3-17)
|
ppoll
|
peer poll exponent (log(2) s) (3-17)
|
headway
|
headway (see Rate Management and the Kiss-o'-Death Packet)
|
flash
|
flash status word
|
offset
|
filter offset
|
delay
|
filter delay
|
dispersion
|
filter dispersion
|
jitter
|
filter jitter
|
ident
|
Autokey group name for this association
|
bias
|
unicast/broadcast bias
|
xleave
|
interleave delay (see 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 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
|
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
|
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
|