     [file version.texi not included]

This file documents the use of the NTP Project's ntpq, a program for querying the state of an NTP server.

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 VERSION of ntpq.

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 (debug.html) page.

     [file invoke-ntpq.texi not included]

Usage
=====

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

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.

Control Message Commands
========================

Association IDs are used to identify system, peer and clock variables. System variables are assigned an association ID of zero and system name space, while each association is assigned a nonzero association ID and peer namespace. Most control commands send a single mode-6 message to the server and expect a single response message. The exceptions are the peers command, which sends a series of messages, and the mreadlist and mreadvar commands, which iterate over a range of associations.

associations
     Display a list of mobilized associations in the form: ind assid status conf reach auth condition last_event cnt

     Variable   Description

     ind
     index on this list

     assid
     association ID

     status
     peer status word (decode.html#peer)

     conf
     yes: persistent, no: ephemeral

     reach
     yes: reachable, no: unreachable

     auth
     ok, yes, bad and none

     condition
     selection status (see the select field of the peer status word (decode.html#peer))

     last_event
     event report (see the event field of the peer status word (decode.html#peer))

     cnt
     event count (see the count field of the peer status word (decode.html#peer))

 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 (decode.html#peer).

     remote

     host name (or IP number) of peer

     refid

     association ID or kiss code (decode.html#kiss).

     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 (miscopt.html#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.

Status Words and Kiss Codes
===========================

The current state of the operating program is shown in a set of status words maintained by the system and each association separately. These words are displayed in the rv and as commands both in hexadecimal and decoded short tip strings. The codes, tips and short explanations are on the Event Messages and Status Words (decode.html) page. The page also includes a list of system and peer messages, the code for the latest of which is included in the status word.

Information resulting from protocol machine state transitions is displayed using an informal set of ASCII strings called kiss codes (decode.html#kiss). The original purpose was for kiss-o'-death (KoD) packets sent by the server to advise the client of an unusual condition. They are now displayed, when appropriate, in the reference identifier field in various billboards.

System Variables
================

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

Variable   Description

status

system status word (decode.html#sys)

version

NTP software version and build time

processor

hardware platform and version

system

operating system and version

leap

leap warning indicator (0-3)

stratum

stratum (1-15)

precision

precision (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 (decode.html#kiss)

reftime

reference time

offset

combined offset of server relative to this host

sys_jitter

combined system jitter

frequency

frequency offset (PPM) relative to hardware clock

clk_wander

clock frequency wander (PPM)

clk_jitter

clock jitter

tai

TAI-UTC offset (s)

leapsec

NTP seconds when the next leap second is/was inserted

expire

NTP seconds when the NIST leapseconds file expires

The jitter and wander statistics are exponentially-weighted RMS averages. The system jitter is defined in the NTPv4 specification; the clock jitter statistic is computed by the clock discipline module.

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 association. Not all variables are displayed in some configurations.

Variable   Description

associd

association ID

status

peer status word (decode.html#peer)

srcadr
srcport

source (remote) IP address and port

dstadr
dstport

destination (local) IP address and port

leap

leap indicator (0-3)

stratum

stratum (0-15)

precision

precision (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 (decode.html#kiss)

reftime

reference time

reach

reach register (octal)

unreach

unreach counter

hmode

host mode (1-6)

pmode

peer mode (1-5)

hpoll

host poll exponent (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 (rate.html))

flash

flash status word (decode.html#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 NTP Interleaved Modes (xleave.html))

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

Clock Variables
===============

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

Variable   Description
associd
association ID
status
clock status word (decode.html#clock)
device
device description
timecode
ASCII time code string (specific to device)
poll
poll messages sent
noreply
no reply
badformat
bad format
baddata
bad date or time
fudgetime1
fudge time 1
fudgetime2
fudge time 2
stratum
driver stratum
refid
driver reference ID
flags
driver flags