ntpq(1) User Commands ntpq(1)NAMEntpq - standard NTP query program
SYNOPSISntpq [-flags] [-flag [value]] [--option-name[[=| ]value]] [ host ...]
DESCRIPTION
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 cur‐
rent 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 com‐
mands 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 unreli‐
able, 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 suit‐
able 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.
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 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 com‐
mand keywords known to this incarnation of ntpq. A
‘?’ followed by a command keyword will print func‐
tion 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 ...
clearvars
showvars The data carried by NTP mode 6 messages consists of
a list of items of the form ‘variable_name=value’,
where the ‘=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 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 vari‐
ables 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 differ‐
ently, 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 cur‐
rently autheinticating 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 consump‐
tion. Variables which ntpq thinks should have a
decodable value but didn't are marked with a trail‐
ing ‘?’.
debug [more | less | off]
With no argument, displays the current debug level.
Otherwise, the debug level is changed to the indi‐
cated level.
delay milliseconds Specify a time interval to be added to timestamps
included in requests which require authentication.
This is used to enable (unreliable) server recon‐
figuration 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.
exit Exit ntpq.
host hostname Set the host to which future queries will be sent.
hostname may be either a host 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 allows the specification of a key num‐
ber 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.
keytype [md5 | OpenSSLDigestType]
Specify the type of key to use for authenticating
requests. md5 is alway supported. If ntpq was
built with OpenSSL support, any digest type sup‐
ported by OpenSSL can also be provided. If no
argument is given, the current keytype is dis‐
played.
ntpversion [1 | 2 | 3 | 4]
Sets the NTP version number which ntpq claims in
packets. Defaults to 3, and note that mode 6 con‐
trol 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 argu‐
ment, 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.
quit Exit ntpq.
raw Causes all output from query commands is printed as
received from the remote server. The only format‐
ing/interpretation done on the data is to transform
nonascii data into a printable (but barely under‐
standable) 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.
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:
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
·
authinfo Display the authentication statistics.
clockvar assocID [name[=value] [] ...]
cv assocID [name[=value] [] ...]
Display a list of clock variables for those associations sup‐
porting 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 a line in the configuration file. This command is
experimental until further notice and clarification. Authen‐
tication is of course required.
config-from-file filename
Send the each line of filename to the server as run-time con‐
figuration commands in the same format as a line in the con‐
figuration file. This command is experimental until further
notice and clarification. Authentication is required.
ifstats Display statistics for each local network address. Authenti‐
cation 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 dis‐
played is in milliseconds as well, unlike the precision sys‐
tem variable.
lassociations
Perform the same function as the associations command, except
display mobilized and unmobilized associations.
lopeers [-4 | -6]
Obtain and print a list of all peers and clients showing
dstadr (associated with any given IP version).
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.
mrulist [limited | kod | mincount=count | laddr=localaddr | sort=sor‐
torder | 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 discard‐
ing, or rate limiting with a KoD response, respec‐
tively.
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.
opeers [-4 | -6]
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:
Variable Description
[tally] single-character code indicating current value of
the select field of the
remote host name (or IP number) of peer. The value dis‐
played will be truncated to 15 characters unless
the -w flag is given, in which case the full value
will be displayed on the first line, and the
remaining data is displayed on the next line.
refid association ID or
st stratum
t u: unicast or manycast client, b: broadcast or mul‐
ticast client, l: local (reference clock), s: sym‐
metric (peer), A: manycast server, B: broadcast
server, M: multicast server
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
apeers Display a list of peers in the form: 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.
pstats assocID
Show the statistics for the peer with the given assocID.
readlist assocID
rl assocID
Read the system or peer variables included in the variable
list.
readvar assocID name[=value] [, ...]
rv assocID name[=value] [, ...]
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.
reslist Show the access control (restrict) list for ntpq.
saveconfig filename
Write the current configuration, including any runtime modi‐
fications given with :config or config-from-file, to the ntpd
host's file filename. This command will be rejected by the
server unless appears in the ntpd configuration file. file‐
name can use strftime() format specifies to substitute the
current date and time, for example, q]saveconfig
ntp-%Y%m%d-%H%M%S.confq]. The filename used is stored in
system variable savedconfig. Authentication is required.
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 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.
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 in the rv and as
commands both in hexadecimal and in decoded short tip strings. The
codes, tips and short explanations are documented on the 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 dis‐
played using an informal set of ASCII strings called The original pur‐
pose 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
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
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 aver‐
ages. 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
Peer Variables
The following peer variables appear in the rv billboard for each asso‐
ciation. Not all variables are displayed in some configurations.
Variable Description
associd association ID
status
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
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
flash
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
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 vari‐
able 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
Clock Variables
The following clock variables appear in the cv billboard for each asso‐
ciation with a reference clock. Not all variables are displayed in
some configurations.
Variable Description
associd association ID
status
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
OPTIONS-4, --ipv4
Force IPv4 DNS name resolution. This option must not appear in
combination with any of the following options: ipv6.
Force DNS resolution of following host names on the command line
to the IPv4 namespace.
-6, --ipv6
Force IPv6 DNS name resolution. This option must not appear in
combination with any of the following options: ipv4.
Force DNS resolution of following host names on the command line
to the IPv6 namespace.
-c cmd, --command=cmd
run a command and exit. This option 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).
-d, --debug-level
Increase debug verbosity level. This option may appear an
unlimited number of times.
-D number, --set-debug-level=number
Set the debug verbosity level. This option may appear an unlim‐
ited number of times. This option takes an integer number as
its argument.
-i, --interactive
Force ntpq to operate in interactive mode. This option must not
appear in combination with any of the following options: com‐
mand, peers.
Force ntpq to operate in interactive mode. Prompts will be
written to the standard output and commands read from the stan‐
dard input.
-n, --numeric
numeric host addresses.
Output all host addresses in dotted-quad numeric format rather
than converting to the canonical host names.
--old-rv
Always output status line with readvar.
By default, ntpq now suppresses the associd=... line that pre‐
cedes 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 read‐
var. Using an environment variable to preset this option in a
script will enable both older and newer ntpq to behave identi‐
cally in this regard.
-p, --peers
Print a list of the peers. This option must not appear in com‐
bination with any of the following options: interactive.
Print a list of the peers known to the server as well as a sum‐
mary of their state. This is equivalent to the 'peers' interac‐
tive command.
-w, --wide
Display the full 'remote' value.
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.
-?, --help
Display usage information and exit.
-!, --more-help
Pass the extended usage information through a pager.
-> [cfgfile], --save-opts [=cfgfile]
Save the option state to cfgfile. The default is the last con‐
figuration file listed in the OPTION PRESETS section, below.
The command will exit after updating the config file.
-< cfgfile, --load-opts=cfgfile, --no-load-opts
Load options from cfgfile. The no-load-opts form will disable
the loading of earlier config/rc/ini files. --no-load-opts is
handled early, out of order.
--version [{v|c|n}]
Output version of program and exit. The default mode is `v', a
simple version. The `c' mode will print copyright information
and `n' will print the full copyright notice.
OPTION PRESETS
Any option that is not marked as not presettable may be preset by load‐
ing values from configuration ("RC" or ".INI") file(s) and values from
environment variables named:
NTPQ_<option-name> or NTPQ
The environmental presets take precedence (are processed later than)
the configuration files. The homerc files are "$HOME", and ".". If
any of these are directories, then the file .ntprc is searched for
within those directories.
ENVIRONMENT
See OPTION PRESETS for configuration environment variables.
FILES
See OPTION PRESETS for configuration files.
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.
AUTHORS
The University of Delaware and Network Time Foundation
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 1992-2016 The University of Delaware and Network Time
Foundation all rights reserved. This program is released under the
terms of the NTP license, <http://ntp.org/license>.
BUGS
Please send bug reports to: http://bugs.ntp.org, bugs@ntp.org
NOTES
This manual page was AutoGen-erated from the ntpq option definitions.
4.2.8p6 20 Jan 2016 ntpq(1)
