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NTPQ(8) System Manager's Manual (user) NTPQ(8)

ntpq — standard NTP query program

ntpq [-flags] [-flag [value]] [--option-name[[=| ]value]] [ host ...]

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]
 
[command_keyword]
A ‘?’ by itself will print a list of all the command keywords known to this incarnation of 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.
variable_name[=value] ...
 
variable_name ...
 
 
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 variables from the list. The showvars command displays the current list of optional variables.
[yes | no]
Normally ntpq does not authenticate requests unless they are write requests. The command ‘authenticate yes’ causes ntpq to send authentication with all requests it makes. Authenticated requests causes some servers to handle requests slightly differently, 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.
Causes output from query commands to be "cooked", so that variables which are recognized by ntpq will have their values reformatted for human consumption. Variables which ntpq thinks should have a decodable value but didn't are marked with a trailing ‘?’.
[more | less | off]
With no argument, displays the current debug level. Otherwise, the debug level is changed to the indicated level.
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.
Exit ntpq.
hostname
Set the host to which future queries will be sent. hostname may be either a host name or a numeric address.
[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
This command allows the specification of a key number to be used to authenticate configuration requests. This must correspond to the controlkey key number the server has been configured to use for this purpose.
[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 supported by OpenSSL can also be provided. If no argument is given, the current keytype is displayed.
[1 | 2 | 3 | 4]
Sets the NTP version number which ntpq claims in packets. Defaults to 3, and note that mode 6 control messages (and modes, for that matter) didn't exist in NTP version 1. There appear to be no servers left which demand version 1. With no argument, displays the current NTP version that will be used when communicating with servers.
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.
Exit ntpq.
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.
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.
Print the version of the ntpq program.

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.

Display a list of mobilized associations in the form:
ind assid status conf reach auth condition last_event cnt
index on this list
association ID
peer status word
: persistent, no: ephemeral
: reachable, no: unreachable
, yes, bad and none
selection status (see the select field of the peer status word)
event report (see the event field of the peer status word)
event count (see the count field of the peer status word)
Display the authentication statistics.
assocID [name[=value]] [...]
 
assocID [name[=value]] [...]
Display a list of clock variables for those associations supporting a reference clock.
[...]
Send the remainder of the command line, including whitespace, to the server as a run-time configuration command in the same format as a line in the configuration file. This command is experimental until further notice and clarification. Authentication is of course required.
filename
Send the each line of filename to the server as run-time configuration commands in the same format as a line in the configuration file. This command is experimental until further notice and clarification. Authentication is required.
Display statistics for each local network address. Authentication is required.
Display network and reference clock I/O statistics.
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.
Perform the same function as the associations command, except display mobilized and unmobilized associations.
[-4 | -6]
Obtain and print a list of all peers and clients showing dstadr (associated with any given IP version).
[-4 | -6]
Print a peer spreadsheet for the appropriate IP version(s). dstadr (associated with any given IP version).
Display monitor facility statistics.
[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
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.
Average interval in s between packets from this address.
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.
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.
Packet mode.
Packet version number.
Packets received from this address.
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.
[variable_name[=value]] ...
 
[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.
[-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.
Perform the same function as the associations command, except that it uses previously stored data rather than making a new query.
Display a list of peers in the form:
[tally]remote refid st t when pool reach delay offset jitter
Variable
Description
single-character code indicating current value of the select field of the peer status word
host name (or IP number) of peer. The value displayed 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.
association ID or 'kiss code
stratum
: 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
sec/min/hr since last received packet
poll interval (log2 s)
reach shift register (octal)
roundtrip delay
offset of server relative to this host
jitter
Display a list of peers in the form:
[tally]remote refid assid st t when pool reach delay offset jitter
where the output is just like the peers command except that the refid is displayed in hex format and the association number is also displayed.
assocID
Show the statistics for the peer with the given assocID.
assocID
 
assocID
Read the system or peer variables included in the variable list.
assocID name[=value] [, ...]
 
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.
Show the access control (restrict) list for ntpq.
filename
Write the current configuration, including any runtime modifications given with :config or config-from-file, to the ntpd host's file filename. This command will be rejected by the server unless saveconfigdir appears in the ntpd configuration file. filename can use strftime format 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.
Display interval timer counters.
assocID
Write the system or peer variables included in the variable list.
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.
Display operational summary.
Print statistics counters maintained in the protocol module.

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 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
system status word
NTP software version and build time
hardware platform and version
operating system and version
leap warning indicator (0-3)
stratum (1-15)
precision (log2 s)
total roundtrip delay to the primary reference clock
total dispersion to the primary reference clock
system peer association ID
time constant and poll exponent (log2 s) (3-17)
minimum time constant (log2 s) (3-10)
date and time of day
reference ID or kiss code
reference time
combined offset of server relative to this host
combined system jitter
frequency offset (PPM) relative to hardware clock
clock frequency wander (PPM)
clock jitter
TAI-UTC offset (s)
NTP seconds when the next leap second is/was inserted
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
Autokey host name for this host
Autokey group name for this host
host flags (see Autokey specification)
OpenSSL message digest algorithm
OpenSSL digest/signature scheme
NTP seconds at last signature update
certificate subject, issuer and certificate flags
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
association ID
peer status word
source (remote) IP address
source (remote) port
destination (local) IP address
destination (local) port
leap indicator (0-3)
stratum (0-15)
precision (log2 s)
total roundtrip delay to the primary reference clock
total root dispersion to the primary reference clock
reference ID or kiss code
reference time
reach register (octal)
unreach counter
host mode (1-6)
peer mode (1-5)
host poll exponent (log2 s) (3-17)
peer poll exponent (log2 s) (3-17)
headway (see Rate Management and the Kiss-o'-Death Packet)
flash status word
filter offset
filter delay
filter dispersion
filter jitter
Autokey group name for this association
unicast/broadcast bias
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 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
peer flags (see Autokey specification)
Autokey server name
peer flags (see Autokey specification)
OpenSSL digest/signature scheme
initial key ID
initial key index
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
association ID
clock status word
device description
ASCII time code string (specific to device)
poll messages sent
no reply
bad format
bad date or time
fudge time 1
fudge time 2
driver stratum
driver reference ID
driver flags

, --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.

, --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.

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).

, --debug-level
Increase debug verbosity level. This option may appear an unlimited number of times.

number, --set-debug-level=number
Set the debug verbosity level. This option may appear an unlimited number of times. This option takes an integer number as its argument.

, --interactive
Force ntpq to operate in interactive mode. This option must not appear in combination with any of the following options: command, peers.

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

, --numeric
numeric host addresses.

Output all host addresses in dotted-quad numeric format rather than converting to the canonical host names.

Always output status line with readvar.

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.

, --peers
Print a list of the peers. This option must not appear in combination with any of the following options: interactive.

Print a list of the peers known to the server as well as a summary of their state. This is equivalent to the 'peers' interactive command.

keyword, --refid=keyword
Set default display type for S2+ refids. This option takes a keyword as its argument. The argument sets an enumeration value that can be tested by comparing them against the option value macro. The available keywords are: 
hash ipv4
or their numeric equivalent.

The default keyword for this option is:
ipv4

Set the default display format for S2+ refids.

, --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 configuration 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.
[{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.

Any option that is not marked as not presettable may be preset by loading 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.

See OPTION PRESETS for configuration environment variables.

See OPTION PRESETS for configuration files.

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.

The University of Delaware and Network Time Foundation

Copyright (C) 1992-2017 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>.

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

This manual page was AutoGen-erated from the ntpq option definitions.

March 21 2017 FreeBSD-11.1