ntpq - standard NTP query program
Synopsis
ntpq [-inp] [-c command] [host] [...]
Description
The ntpq utility program is used to query NTP servers which
implement the recommended NTP mode 6 control message format about
current state and to request changes in that state. 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.
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.
ntpqwill 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.
For examples and usage, see the NTP Debugging
Techniques page.
Command line options are described following. 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.
- -c
- 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). Multiple -c options may be given.
- -i
- Force ntpq to operate in interactive mode. Prompts will be
written to the standard output and commands read from the standard
input.
- -n
- Output all host addresses in dotted-quad numeric format rather than
converting to the canonical host names.
- -p
- 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.
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]
helpl [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.
- addvars variable_name [ = value] [...]
rmvars variable_name [...]
clearvars
- 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. 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 their optional
values to be added to the list. If more than one variable is to be
added, the list should be comma-separated and not contain white space.
The rmvars command can be used to remove individual variables
from the list, while the clearlist command removes all
variables from the list.
- authenticate yes | no
- 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. [I didn't know
that - Ed.]
- cooked
- 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
?.
- 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 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 number to be used to
authenticate configuration requests. This must correspond to a key
number the server has been configured to use for this purpose.
- ntpversion 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
- Sets the NTP version number which ntpq claims in packets.
Defaults to 3, 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.
- quit
- Exit ntpq.
- 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.
- 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 millseconds
- 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
Each peer known to an NTP server has a 16 bit integer association
identifier assigned to it. NTP control messages which carry peer
variables must identify the peer the values correspond to by including
its association ID. An association ID of 0 is special, and indicates the
variables are system variables, 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 a single response. The current exceptions are the peers
command, 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 identifiers and 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 for internal use, the second the actual association
identifier 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. Note that the data returned by the
associations" command is cached internally in ntpq.
The index is then of use when dealing with stupid servers which use
association identifiers which are hard for humans to type, in that for
any subsequent commands which require an association identifier as an
argument, the form and index may be used as an alternative.
- clockvar [assocID] [variable_name [ = value
[...]] [...]
- cv [assocID] [variable_name [ = value [...]
][...]
- Requests that a list of the server's clock variables be sent.
Servers which have a radio clock or other external 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 servers with 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.
- lassocations
- 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 retain state for out-of-spec client associations (i.e.,
fuzzballs). Such associations are normally omitted from the display when
the associations command is used, but are included in the
output of lassociations.
- lpassociations
- Print data for all associations, including out-of-spec client
associations, from the internally cached list of associations. This
command differs from passociations only when dealing with
fuzzballs.
- lpeers
- Like R 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- passociations
- Displays association data concerning in-spec peers from the
internally cached list of associations. This command 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 the remote peer, the type of the peer (local, unicast, multicast or
broadcast), when the last packet was received, the polling interval, in
seconds, the reachability register, in octal, and the current estimated
delay, offset and dispersion of the peer, all in milliseconds.
- The character in the left margin indicates the fate of this peer in
the clock selection process. Following is a list of these characters,
the
pigeon 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 falsetick
- 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.
- + candidat
- The peer is a survivor and a candidate for the combining
algorithm.
- # selected
- The peer is a survivor, but not among the first six peers sorted by
synchronization distance. If the assocation 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, the actual system synchronization is
derived from a pulse-per-second (PPS) signal, either indirectly via the
PPS reference clock driver or directly via kernel interface.
- The flash variable is a valuable debugging aid. It
displays the results of the original sanity checks defined in the NTP
specification RFC-1305 and additional ones added in NTP Version 4. There
are eleven tests called TEST1 through TEST11. The
tests are performed in a certain order designed to gain maximum
diagnostic information while protecting against accidental or malicious
errors. The flash variable is first initialized to zero. If
after each set of tests one or more bits are set, the packet is
discarded.
Tests TEST4 and TEST5 check the access permissions
and cryptographic message digest. If any bits are set after that, the
packet is discarded. Tests TEST10 and TEST11 check the
authentication state using Autokey public-key cryptography, as described
in the Authentication Options page. If any bits
are set and the association has previously been marked reachable, the
packet is discarded; otherwise, the originate and receive timestamps are
saved, as required by the NTP protocol, and processing continues.
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. 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.
Test TEST9 checks the health of the association itself. If any
bits are set, the packet is discarded; otherwise, the saved variables
are passed to the clock filter and mitigation algorithms.
The flash bits for each test read in increasing order from
the least significant bit are defined as follows.
- TEST1
- Duplicate packet. The packet is at best a casual retransmission and
at worst a malicious replay.
- 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.
- TEST3
- Unsynchronized. One or more timestamp fields are invalid. This
normally happens when the first packet from a peer is received.
- TEST4
- Access is denied. See the Access Control
Options page.
- TEST5
- Cryptographic authentication fails. See the Authentication Options page.
- TEST6
- The server is unsynchronized. Wind up its clock first.
- TEST7
- The server stratum is at the maximum than 15. It is probably
unsynchronized and its clock needs to be wound up.
- TEST8
- Either the root delay or dispersion is greater than one second,
which is highly unlikely unless the peer is synchronized to Mars.
- TEST9
- Either the peer delay or dispersion is greater than one second,
which is higly unlikely unless the peer is on Mars.
- TEST10
- The autokey protocol has detected an authentication failure. See the
Authentication Options page.
- TEST11
- The autokey protocol has not verified the server or peer is
authentic and has valid public key credentials. See the Authentication Options page.
- Additional system variables used by the NTP Version 4 Autokey
support include the following:
- leaptable filestamp/
-
- Shows the NTP seconds when the NIST leapsecond table file was
created.
- hostname host/
-
- Shows the name of the host as returned by the Unix
gethostname() library function.
- params filestamp/
-
- Shows the NTP seconds when the Diffie-Hellman agreement parameter
file was created.
- publickey filestamp/
-
- Shows the NTP seconds when the RSA public/private key files were
created.
- refresh timestamp/
-
- Shows the NTP seconds when the public cryptographic values were
refreshed and signed.
- Additional peer variables used by the NTP Version 4 Autokey
support include the following:
- hcookie hex/
-
- Shows the host cookie used in the key agreement algorithm.
- initkey key/
-
- Shows the initial key used by the key list generator in the autokey
protocol.
- initsequence index/
-
- Shows the initial index used by the key list generator in the
autokey protocol.
- pcookie hex/
-
- Specifies the peer cookie used in the key agreement algorithm.
- timestamp time/
-
- Shows the NTP seconds when the last autokey key list was generated
and signed.
- 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 hexidecimal and in pidgeon English.
- readlist [ assocID ]
rl [ assocID ]
- Requests that the values of the variables in the internal 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 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.
- writevar assocID variable_name [ = value [
...]
- Like the readvar request, except the specified variables are written
instead of read.
- writelist [ assocID ]
- Like the readlist request, except the internal list variables are
written instead of read.
Bugs
The peers command is non-atomic and may occasionally result in
spurious
error messages about invalid associations occurring and terminating the
command. The timeout time is a fixed constant, which means you wait a
long time for timeouts since it assumes sort of a worst case. The
program should improve the timeout estimate as it sends queries to a
particular host, but doesn't.
David L. Mills <mills@udel.edu>