System Administration Commands ntpq(1M)
NAME
ntpq - Network Time Protocol query program
SYNOPSIS
/usr/sbin/ntpq [-46dpinv?!] [-c command]
[-D debuglvl] [-< optfile] [-> optfile] [host] [...]
DESCRIPTION
The ntpq utility program is used to monitor NTP daemon ntpd
operations and determine performance. It uses the standard NTP mode 6 control message formats defined in Appendix B of the NTPv3 specification RFC1305. 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 can be run either in interactive mode or con-
trolled using command line arguments. Requests to read and write arbitrary variables can be assembled, with raw andpretty-printed output options being available. The ntpq
utility can also obtain and print a list of peers in a com-
mon format by sending multiple queries to the server. If one or more request options are included on the commandline 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 the 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 isspecified. ntpq will prompt for commands if the standard
input is a terminal device.The ntpq utility uses NTP mode 6 packets to communicate with
the NTP server, and hence can be used to query any compati-
ble server on the network which permits it. Note that since NTP is a UDP protocol this communication will be somewhatunreliable, especially over large distances in terms of net-
work topology. The ntpq program makes one attempt to
retransmit requests, and will time requests out if the remote host is not heard from within a suitable timeout time.In contexts where a host name is expected, a -4 qualifier
preceding the host name forces DNS resolution to the IPv4namespace, while a -6 qualifier forces DNS resolution to the
IPv6 namespace. On the command line, only one of the two can be given.For examples of usage of ntpq, see the NTP Debugging Tech-
niques page at file:///usr/share/doc/ntp/debug.html. SunOS 5.10 Last change: 1System Administration Commands ntpq(1M)
OPTIONSSpecifying a command line option other than -i or -n will
cause the specified query (queries) to be sent to the indi-
cated host(s) immediately. Otherwise, ntpq will attempt to
read interactive format commands from the standard input.-4, --ipv4
Force DNS resolution of following host names on the command line to the IPv4 namespace. Cannot be used withthe --ipv6 option.
-6, --ipv6
Force DNS resolution of following host names on the command line to the IPv6 namespace. Cannot be used withthe --ipv4 option.
-c cmd, --command=cmd
The following argument is interpreted as an interactive format command and is added to the list of commands to be executed on the specified host(s). This option may appear an unlimited number of times. After all such commands are executed against all listed hosts, the program exits.-d, --debug-level
Increase output debug message level. This option may appear an unlimited number of times.-D number, --set-debug-level=string
Set the output debug message level. This option may appear an unlimited number of times, but only the last one will be used.-p, --peers
Print a list of the peers known to the server as well as a summary of their state. This is equivalent to the 'peers' interactive command.-i, --interactive
Force ntpq to operate in interactive mode. Prompts
will be written to the standard output and commands read from the standard input. This option must notappear in combination with either the --command or --
peers options.-n, --numeric
Output all host addresses in numeric format rather than converting to the host names.-?, --help
Display usage information and exit. SunOS 5.10 Last change: 2System Administration Commands ntpq(1M)
-!, --more-help
Extended usage information passed thru a pager.-> rcfile, --save-opts=rcfile
Save the option state to rcfile.-< rcfile, --load-opts=rcfile, --no-load-opts
Load options from rcfile. The no-load-opts form will
disable the loading of earlier RC/INI files. --no-
load-opts is handled early, out of order.
-v, --version
Output version of program and exit. OPTION PRESETSMost options may be preset by loading values from configura-
tion file(s) and values from environment variables named:NTPQ_
The environmental presets take precedence (are processedor NTPQ later than) the configuration files. The option-name should
be in all capital letters. For example, to set the --
command option, you would set the NTPQ_COMMAND environment
variable. The users home directory and the current direc-
tory are searched for a file named .ntprc.USAGE
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. Internal Commands A number of interactive commands are executed entirelywithin the ntpq utility itself and do not result in requests
being sent to a server. These commands are as follows: cl clocklist timeout version poll SunOS 5.10 Last change: 3System Administration Commands ntpq(1M)
? [command_keyword], help [command_keyword]
Prints a list of all the command keywords known tontpq. Followed by a command keyword will print function
and usage information about the command.addvars variable_name[=value] ...
rmvars variable_name ...
showvars clearvars The data carried by NTP mode 6 messages consists of alist of items of the form variable_name=value. In
requests to read variable, the =value is ignored, andcan be omitted. The ntpq utility maintains an internal
list in which data to be included in control messagescan be assembled, and sent using the readlist and wri-
telist 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 showvars command lists the current variable list. The rmvars command can be used to remove individual variables from the list, while the clearlist command removes all variables from the list. authenticate [ yes | no ]Normally ntpq only sends authentication with write
requests. The command authenticate yes causes ntpq to
send authentication with all requests it makes. Thecommand authenticate with no keyword causes ntpq to
display whether or not ntpq is currently authenticating
requests.:config config_command
Sends the entire line after :config to the ntpd daemonto be interpreted as a configuration file command. Mul-
tiple commands may be separated by semi-colons.
config-from-file config_file
Sends the entire file config_file to the ntpd daemon to
be interpreted as configuration file commands. cooked Causes output from query commands to be "cooked", sothat variables which are recognized by ntpq will have
their values reformatted for human consumption. Vari-
ables which ntpq thinks should have a decodable value
but didn't are marked with a trailing ?. debug [ more | less | off ] SunOS 5.10 Last change: 4System Administration Commands ntpq(1M)
With no argument, displays the current debug level. Otherwise, the debug level is changed by the indicated amount. delay milliseconds Specify a time interval to be added to timestamps included in requests which require authentication.This is used to enable (unreliable) server reconfigura-
tion 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 [ [ -4 | -6 ] hostname ]
Set the host to which future queries will be sent. The hostname may be either a host name or a numeric address. With no argument, prints the current host. hostnames [ yes | no ]If yes is specified, host names are printed in informa-
tion displays. If no is specified, numeric addresses are printed instead. With no argument, prints the current setting. The default is yes, unless modifiedusing the command line -n switch.
keyid [ keyid# ]
This command specifies the key number to be used to authenticate configuration requests. This mustcorrespond to a key number the server has been config-
ured to use for this purpose. keytype [ md5 ] Prints or sets the type of key used for authentication. Currently only md5 is accepted. ntpversion [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 ]Sets the NTP version number which ntpq claims in pack-
ets. Defaults to 2. Note that mode 6 control messages didn't exist in NTP version 1. Luckily 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.quit Exit ntpq .
SunOS 5.10 Last change: 5System Administration Commands ntpq(1M)
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. Notethat 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 Each association known to an NTP server has a 16 bit integer association identifier. NTP control messages which carry peer variables must identify the peer the values correspond to by including its association ID. An association ID of 0is special, and indicates the variables are system vari-
ables, whose names are drawn from a separate name space. Control message commands result in one or more NTP mode 6 messages being sent to the server, and cause the data returned to be printed in some format. Most commands currently implemented send a single message and expect asingle response. The current exceptions are the peers com-
mand, which will send a preprogrammed series of messages to obtain the data it needs, and the mreadlist and mreadvar commands, which will iterate over a range of associations. associations Obtains and prints a list of association identifiersand peer statuses for in-spec peers of the server being
queried. The list is printed in columns. The first of these is an index numbering the associations from 1 forinternal use, the second the actual association iden-
tifier returned by the server and the third the status word for the peer. This is followed by a number of columns containing data decoded from the status word. See the peers command for a decode of the condition field. The data returned by the associations command iscached internally in ntpq and used in subsequent com-
mands. After the first associations command the index can be used in place of the association identifier by specifing the identifier in the form &index. clocklist [assocID] cl [assocID] Read the values of the clock variables included in the variable list SunOS 5.10 Last change: 6System Administration Commands ntpq(1M)
clockvar [assocID] [variable_name [ = value [...]] [...]
cv [assocID] [variable_name [ = value [...] ][...]
Requests that a list of the server's clock variables besent. Servers which have a radio clock or other exter-
nal synchronization will respond positively to this. If the association identifier is omitted or zero the request is for the variables of the system clock and will generally get a positive response from all serverswith a clock. If the server treats clocks as pseudo-
peers, and hence can possibly have more than one clock connected at once, referencing the appropriate peer association ID will show the variables of a particular clock. Omitting the variable list will cause the server to return a default variable display. lassociations Obtains and prints a list of association identifiers and peer statuses for all associations for which the server is maintaining state. This command differs from the associations command only for servers which retainstate for out-of-spec client associations (i.e., fuzz-
balls). Such associations are normally omitted from the display when the associations command is used, but are included in the output of lassociations. When used withthe ntpd in this distribution, this command is ideniti-
cal to associations. lpassociationsPrint data for all associations, including out-of-spec
client associations, from the internally cached list of associations. lopeers Same as opeers but from the internally cached data. lpeers Like peers, except a summary of all associations for which the server is maintaining state is printed. This can produce a much longer list of peers from fuzzball servers, but for most servers this is identical with peers. mreadlist assocID assocID mrl assocID assocID Like the readlist command, except the query is done for each of a range of (nonzero) association IDs. This range is determined from the association list cached by the most recent associations command. An assocIDs may be either an association identify or the equivilant &index form. SunOS 5.10 Last change: 7System Administration Commands ntpq(1M)
mreadvar assocID assocID [ variable_name [ = value[ ... ]
mrv assocID assocID [ variable_name [ = value[ ... ]
Like the readvar command, except the query is done for each of a range of (nonzero) association IDs. This range is determined from the association list cached by the most recent associations command. opeers An old form of the peers command with the reference ID replaced by the local interface address. passociationsDisplays association data concerning in-spec peers from
the internally cached list of associations. This com-
mand performs identically to the associations except that it displays the internally stored data rather than making a new query. peers Obtains a current list peers of the server, along with a summary of each peer's state. Summary information includes the address of the remote peer, the reference ID (0.0.0.0 if this is unknown), the stratum of theremote peer, the type of the peer (local, unicast, mul-
ticast or broadcast), when the last packet wasreceived, the polling interval, in seconds, the reacha-
bility register, in octal, and the current estimateddelay, offset and dispersion of the peer, all in mil-
liseconds. The character at the left margin of eachline shows the synchronization status of the associa-
tion and is a valuable diagnostic tool. The encoding and meaning of this character, called the tally code, is given later in this page. pstatus assocID Sends a read status request to the server for the given association. The names and values of the peer variables returned will be printed. Note that the status word from the header is displayed preceding the variables, both in hexadecimal and in pidgeon English. readlist [ assocID ] rl [ assocID ]Requests that the values of the variables in the inter-
nal variable list be returned by the server. If the association ID is omitted or is 0 the variables are assumed to be system variables. Otherwise they are treated as peer variables. If the internal variable list is empty a request is sent without data, which should induce the remote server to return a default SunOS 5.10 Last change: 8System Administration Commands ntpq(1M)
display.readvar assocID variable_name [ = value ] [ ...]
rv assocID [ variable_name [ = value ] [...]
Requests that the values of the specified variables be returned by the server by sending a read variables request. If the association ID is omitted or is given as zero the variables are system variables, otherwise they are peer variables and the values returned will be those of the corresponding peer. Omitting the variable list will send a request with no data which should induce the server to return a default display. The encoding and meaning of the variables derived fromNTPv3 is given in RFC-1305; the encoding and meaning of
the additional NTPv4 variables are given later in this page.writevar assocID variable_name [ = value [ ...]
Like the readvar request, except the specified vari-
ables are written instead of read. writelist [ assocID ] Like the readlist request, except the internal list variables are written instead of read. Tally Codes The character in the left margin in the peers billboard, called the tally code, shows the fate of each association in the clock selection process. Following is a list of these characters, the pidgeon used in the rv command, and a short explanation of the condition revealed. space reject The peer is discarded as unreachable, synchronized to this server (synch loop) or outrageous synchronization distance. x falseticker The peer is discarded by the intersection algorithm as a falseticker. . excess The peer is discarded as not among the first ten peers sorted by synchronization distance and so is probably a poor candidate for further consideration.- outlyer
The peer is discarded by the clustering algorithm as an outlyer. + candidate SunOS 5.10 Last change: 9System Administration Commands ntpq(1M)
The peer is a survivor and a candidate for the combin-
ing algorithm.# selected
The peer is a survivor, but not among the first sixpeers sorted by synchronization distance. If the asso-
ciation is ephemeral, it may be demobilized to conserve resources. * sys.peer The peer has been declared the system peer and lends its variables to the system variables. o pps.peer The peer has been declared the system peer and lends its variables to thesystem variables. However, theactual system synchronization is derived from a pulse-
per-second (PPS) signal, either indirectly via the PPS
reference clock driver or directly via kernel inter-
face. System VariablesThe status, leap, stratum, precision, rootdelay, rootdisper-
sion, refid, reftime, poll, offset, and frequency variablesare described in RFC-1305 specification. Additional NTPv4
system variables include the following: version Everything you might need to know about the software version and generation time. processor The processor and kernel identification string. system The operating system version and release identifier. state The state of the clock discipline state machine. The values are described in the architecture briefing on the NTP Project page linked from www.ntp.org. peer The internal integer used to identify the association currently designated the system peer. jitter The estimated time error of the system clock measured as an exponential average of RMS time differences. stability The estimated frequency stability of the system clock measured as an exponential average of RMS frequency SunOS 5.10 Last change: 10System Administration Commands ntpq(1M)
differences. In addition, some or all of the following system variablesrelated to the crypto authentication are displayed, depend-
ing on the state of the particular crypto dance in use: hostnameThe name of the host as returned by the Unix gethost-
name() library function. hostkey The NTP filestamp of the host key file. flagsThe current flags word bits and message digest algo-
rithm identifier (NID) in hex format. The high order 16bits of the four-byte word contain the NID from the
OpenSSL ligrary, while the low-order bits are inter-
preted as follows: 0x01: autokey enabled, 0x02: NIST leapseconds file loaded, 0x10: PC identity scheme, 0x20: IFF identity scheme, 0x40: GQ identity scheme. cert A list of certificates held by the host. Each entry includes the subject, issuer, flags and NTP filestamp in order. The bits are interpreted as follows: 0x01: signed by the server, 0x02: trusted, 0x04: private, 0x08: contains errors and is not trusted. leapseconds The NTP filestamp of the NIST leapseconds file. refresh The NTP timestamp when the host public cryptographic values were refreshed and signed. signature The host digest/signature scheme name from the OpenSSL library.tai The TAI-UTC offset in seconds obtained from the NIST
leapseconds table. Peer Variables The status, srcadr, srcport, dstadr, dstport, leap, stratum, precision, rootdelay, rootdispersion, readh, hmode, pmode, hpoll, ppoll, offset, delay, dspersion, reftime variablesare described in the RFC-1305 specification, as are the
timestamps org, rec and xmt. Additional NTPv4 system vari-
ables include the following. flash The flash code for the most recent packet received. The SunOS 5.10 Last change: 11System Administration Commands ntpq(1M)
encoding and meaning of these codes is given later in this page. jitter The estimated time error of the peer clock measured as an exponential average of RMS time differences. unreach The value of the counter which records the number of poll intervals since the last valid packet was received. In addition, some or all of the following peer variables are displayed related to the crypto auithentication: flags The current flag bits. This word is the server host status word with additional bits used by the Autokeystate machine. See the source code for the bit encod-
ing. hostname The server host name. initkey key The initial key used by the key list generator in the Autokey protocol. initsequence index The initial index used by the key list generator in the Autokey protocol. signature The server message digest/signature scheme name from the OpenSSL software library. timestamp time The NTP timestamp when the last Autokey key list was generated and signed. Flash Codes The flash code is a valuable debugging aid displayed in the peer variables list. It shows the results of the originalsanity checks defined in the NTP specification RFC-1305 and
additional ones added in NTPv4. There are 12 tests desig-
nated TEST1 through TEST12. The tests are performed in acertain order designed to gain maximum diagnostic informa-
tion while protecting against accidental or malicious errors. The flash variable is initialized to zero as each packet is received. If after each set of tests one or more bits are set, the packet is discarded. SunOS 5.10 Last change: 12System Administration Commands ntpq(1M)
Tests TEST1 through TEST3 check the packet timestamps from which the offset and delay are calculated. If any bits are set, the packet is discarded; otherwise, the packet header variables are saved. TEST4 and TEST5 are associated with access control and cryptographic authentication. If any bits are set, the packet is discarded immediately with nothing changed. Tests TEST6 through TEST8 check the health of the server. If any bits are set, the packet is discarded; otherwise, the offset and delay relative to the server are calculated and saved. TEST9 checks the health of the association itself. If any bits are set, the packet is discarded; otherwise, thesaved variables are passed to the clock filter and mitiga-
tion algorithms. Tests TEST10 through TEST12 check the authentication stateusing Autokey public-key cryptography, as described in the
Authentication Options page at file:///usr/share/doc/ntp/authopt.html. If any bits are set and the association has previously been marked reachable, the packet is discarded; otherwise, the originate andreceive timestamps are saved, as required by the NTP proto-
col, and processing continues. The flash bits for each test are defined as follows. 0x001 TEST1 Duplicate packet. The packet is at best a casual retransmission and at worst a malicious replay. 0x002 TEST2 Bogus packet. The packet is not a reply to a message previously sent. This can happen when the NTP daemon is restarted and before somebody else notices. 0x004 TEST3 Unsynchronized. One or more timestamp fields are invalid. This normally happens when the first packet from a peer is received. 0x008 TEST4 Access is denied. See the Access Control Options page at file:///usr/share/doc/ntp/accopt.html. 0x010 TEST5Cryptographic authentication fails. See the Authentica-
tion Options page referenced above. 0x020TEST6 The server is unsynchronized. Wind up its clock first. SunOS 5.10 Last change: 13System Administration Commands ntpq(1M)
0x040 TEST7The server stratum is at the maximum of 15. It is prob-
ably unsynchronized and its clock needs to be wound up. 0x080 TEST8 Either the root delay or dispersion is greater than one second, which is highly unlikely unless the peer is unsynchronized to Mars. 0x100 TEST9 Either the peer delay or dispersion is greater than one second, which is higly unlikely unless the peer is on Mars. 0x200 TEST10 The autokey protocol has detected an authentication failure. See the Authentication Options page. 0x400 TEST11 The autokey protocol has not verified the server or peer is proventic and has valid public key credentials. See the Authentication Options page. 0x800 TEST12 A protocol or configuration error has occurred in the public key algorithms or a possible intrusion event has been detected. See the Authentication Options page. NOTESSource for ntpq is available on http://src.opensolaris.org.
The documentation available at /usr/share/doc/ntp is pro-
vided as is from the NTP distribution and may contain infor-
mation that is not applicable to the software as provided in this partIcular distribution.The output of the ntpqP in version 4 differs from that in
version 3 by the replacement of the dispersion value with the jitter value in the peers output.ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-
butes: SunOS 5.10 Last change: 14System Administration Commands ntpq(1M)
____________________________________________________________
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Availability | service/network/ntp ||_____________________________|______________________________|_
| Interface Stability | Uncommitted ||_____________________________|_____________________________|
SEE ALSO
ntpd(1M), ntpdc(1M), ntprc(4), attributes(5) SunOS 5.10 Last change: 15