ntpq(1)

NTPQ(1) BSD General Commands Manual NTPQ(1)

NAME
ntpq -- standard NTP query program

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

DESCRIPTION
The ntpq utility program is used to query NTP servers to monitor NTP op-
erations and performance, requesting information about current state
and/or changes in that state. The program may be run either in interac-
tive 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 com-
mands from the standard input and execute these on the NTP server running
on the first host given on the command line, again defaulting to local-
host 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 re-
quests, 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 pre-
ceding the host name forces resolution to the IPv4 namespace, while a -6
qualifier forces resolution to the IPv6 namespace. For examples and us-
age, see the "NTP Debugging Techniques" page.

Specifying a command line option other than -i or -n will cause the spec-
ified 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 iden-
tify 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 requests being sent to a
server. These are described following.
? [command]
help [command] A '?' by itself will print a list of all the com-
mands known to ntpq. A '?' followed by a command
name will print function and usage information
about the command.
addvars name[=value][,...]
rmvars name[,...]
clearvars
showvars The arguments to this command consist of a list of
items of the form name[=value], where the =value is
ignored, and can be omitted, in requests to the
server to read variables. The ntpq utility main-
tains an internal list in which data to be included
in messages can be assembled, and displayed or set
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
clearvars command removes all variables 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 re-
quests it makes. Authenticated requests causes
some servers to handle requests slightly differ-
ently. The command authenticate causes ntpq to
display whether or not it is currently authenticat-
ing 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 could not decode com-
pletely are marked with a trailing '?'.
debug [more|less|off]
With no argument, displays the current debug level.
Otherwise, the debugging level is changed as indi-
cated.
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 au-
thenticated requests, so this command may be obso-
lete. Without any arguments, displays the current
delay.
drefid [hash|ipv4]
Display refids as IPv4 or hash. Without any argu-
ments, displays whether refids are shown as IPv4
addresses or hashes.
exit Exit ntpq.
host [name] Set the host to which future queries will be sent.
The name may be either a host name or a numeric ad-
dress. Without any arguments, displays the current
host.
hostnames [yes|no]
If yes is specified, host names are printed in in-
formation displays. If no is specified, numeric
addresses are printed instead. The default is yes,
unless modified using the command line -n switch.
Without any arguments, displays whether host names
or numeric addresses are shown.
keyid [keyid] This command allows the specification of a key num-
ber to be used to authenticate configuration re-
quests. This must correspond to the controlkey key
number the server has been configured to use for
this purpose. Without any arguments, displays the
current keyid.
keytype [digest]
Specify the digest algorithm to use for authenti-
cating requests, with default MD5. If ntpq was
built with OpenSSL support, and OpenSSL is in-
stalled, digest can be any message digest algorithm
supported by OpenSSL. If no argument is given, the
current keytype digest algorithm used is displayed.
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.
poll [n] [verbose]
Poll an NTP server in client mode n times. Poll
not implemented yet.
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.
Without any arguments, displays the current timeout
period. 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 Display 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 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.
apeers 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 asso-
ciation number is also displayed.
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
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)
last_event event report (see the event field of
the
peer
status
word)
cnt event count (see the count field of
the
peer
status
word)
authinfo Display the authentication statistics counters: time
since reset, stored keys, free keys, key lookups, keys
not found, uncached keys, expired keys, encryptions, de-
cryptions.
clocklist [associd]
cl [associd]
Display all clock variables in the variable list for
those associations supporting a reference clock.
clockvar [associd] [name[=value]][,...]
cv [associd] [name[=value]][,...]
Display a list of clock variables for those associations
supporting a reference clock.
:config configuration command line
Send the remainder of the command line, including white-
space, 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.
config-from-file filename
Send each line of filename to the server as run-time
configuration commands in the same format as lines in
the configuration file. This command is experimental
until further notice and clarification. Authentication
is required.
ifstats Display status and statistics counters for each local
network interface address: interface number, interface
name and address or broadcast, drop, flag, ttl, mc, re-
ceived, sent, send failed, peers, uptime. Authentica-
tion is required.
iostats Display network and reference clock I/O statistics: time
since reset, receive buffers, free receive buffers, used
receive buffers, low water refills, dropped packets, ig-
nored packets, received packets, packets sent, packet
send failures, input wakeups, useful input wakeups.
kerninfo Display kernel loop and PPS statistics: associd, status,
pll offset, pll frequency, maximum error, estimated er-
ror, kernel status, pll time constant, precision, fre-
quency tolerance, pps frequency, pps stability, pps jit-
ter, calibration interval, calibration cycles, jitter
exceeded, stability exceeded, calibration errors. As
with other ntpq output, times are in milliseconds; very
small values may be shown as exponentials. The preci-
sion 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,
including all clients.
lopeers [-4|-6]
Display a list of all peers and clients showing dstadr
(associated with the given IP version).
lpassociations
Display the last obtained list of associations, includ-
ing all clients.
lpeers [-4|-6]
Display a list of all peers and clients (associated with
the given IP version).
monstats Display monitor facility status, statistics, and limits:
enabled, addresses, peak addresses, maximum addresses,
reclaim above count, reclaim older than, kilobytes, max-
imum kilobytes.
mreadlist associdlo associdhi
mrl associdlo associdhi
Perform the same function as the readlist command for a
range of association ids.
mreadvar associdlo associdhi [name][,...]
This range may be determined from the list displayed by
any command showing associations.
mrv associdlo associdhi [name][,...]
Perform the same function as the readvar command for a
range of association ids. This range may be determined
from the list displayed by any command showing associa-
tions.
mrulist [limited | kod | mincount=count | laddr=localaddr |
sort=[-]sortorder | resany=hexmask | resall=hexmask]
Display traffic counts of the most recently seen source
addresses collected and maintained by the monitor facil-
ity. With the exception of sort=[-]sortorder, the op-
tions filter the list returned by ntpd(8). 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 en-
tries 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 addr, avgint,
count, lstint, or any of those preceded by '-' to re-
verse the sort order. The output columns are:
Column Description
lstint Interval in seconds between the receipt
of the most recent packet from this ad-
dress and the completion of the re-
trieval 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 pe-
riod, L or K for no rate control re-
sponse, rate limiting by discarding, or
rate limiting with a KoD response, re-
spectively.
m Packet mode.
v Packet version number.
count Packets received from this address.
rport Source port of last packet from this
address.
remote address
host or DNS name, numeric address, or
address followed by claimed DNS name
which could not be verified in paren-
theses.
opeers [-4 | -6]
Obtain and print the old-style list of all peers and
clients showing dstadr (associated with the 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:
[tally]remote refid st t when pool reach delay
offset jitter
Variable Description
[tally] single-character code indicating cur-
rent value of the select field of the
peer status word: decode.html#peer
remote host name (or IP number) of peer. The
value displayed will be truncated to 15
characters unless the ntpq -w option is
given, in which case the full value
will be displayed on the first line,
and if too long, the remaining data
will be displayed on the next line.
refid source IP address or 'kiss code:
decode.html#kiss
st stratum: 0 for local reference clocks,
1 for servers with local reference
clocks, ..., 16 for unsynchronized
server clocks
t u: unicast or manycast client, b:
broadcast or multicast client, p: pool
source, l: local (reference clock), s:
symmetric (peer), A: manycast server,
B: broadcast server, M: multicast
server
when time in seconds, minutes, hours, or
days since the last packet was re-
ceived, or '-' if a packet has never
been received
poll poll interval (s)
reach reach shift register (octal)
delay roundtrip delay
offset offset of server relative to this host
jitter offset RMS error estimate.
pstats associd
Display the statistics for the peer with the given
associd: associd, status, remote host, local address,
time last received, time until next send, reachability
change, packets sent, packets received, bad authentica-
tion, bogus origin, duplicate, bad dispersion, bad ref-
erence time, candidate order.
readlist [associd]
rl [associd]
Display all system or peer variables. If the associd is
omitted, it is assumed to be zero.
readvar [associd name[=value] [, ...]]
rv [associd name[=value] [, ...]]
Display the specified system or peer 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 in-
cluded, all operative variables in the name space are
displayed. In this case only, if the associd is omit-
ted, it is assumed to be zero. Multiple names are spec-
ified 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 YYYYMM DD
TTTT, where YYYY is the year, MM the month of year, DD
the day of month and TTTT the time of day.
reslist Display the access control (restrict) list for ntpq.
Authentication is required.
saveconfig filename
Save the current configuration, including any runtime
modifications made by :config or config-from-file, to
the NTP server host file filename. This command will be
rejected by the server unless saveconfigdir:
miscopt.html#saveconfigdir appears in the ntpd(8) con-
figuration file. filename can use date(1) format speci-
fiers to substitute the current date and time, for exam-
ple,
saveconfig ntp-%Y%m%d-%H%M%S.conf.
The filename used is stored in system variable
savedconfig. Authentication is required.
sysinfo Display system operational summary: associd, status,
system peer, system peer mode, leap indicator, stratum,
log2 precision, root delay, root dispersion, reference
id, reference time, system jitter, clock jitter, clock
wander, broadcast delay, symm. auth. delay.
sysstats Display system uptime and packet counts maintained in
the protocol module: uptime, sysstats reset, packets re-
ceived, current version, older version, bad length or
format, authentication failed, declined, restricted,
rate limited, KoD responses, processed for time.
timerstats
Display interval timer counters: time since reset, timer
overruns, calls to transmit.
writelist associd
Set all system or peer variables included in the vari-
able list.
writevar associd name=value [, ...]
Set the specified variables in the variable list. 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. Authentication is
required.

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 by the readlist and
associations 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: decode.html page. The page also in-
cludes 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 kiss codes:
decode.html#kiss. The original purpose was for kiss-o'-death (KoD) pack-
ets 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 readlist 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 (log2 s)
rootdelay total roundtrip delay to the primary reference clock
rootdisp total dispersion to the primary reference clock
refid reference id or kiss code: decode.html#kiss
reftime reference time
clock date and time of day
peer system peer association id
tc time constant and poll exponent (log2 s) (3-17)
mintc minimum time constant (log2 s) (3-10)
offset combined offset of server relative to this host
frequency frequency drift (PPM) relative to hardware clock
sys_jitter
combined system jitter
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, ad-
ditional 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 readlist 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 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 kiss code: decode.html#kiss
reftime reference time
rec last packet received 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 Rate Management and the Kiss-o'-Death
Packet: rate.html)
flash flash status word: decode.html#flash
keyid symmetric key id
offset filter offset
delay filter delay
dispersion
filter dispersion
jitter filter jitter
bias unicast/broadcast bias
xleave interleave delay (see NTP Interleaved Modes:
xleave.html)
The bias variable is calculated when the first broadcast packet is re-
ceived 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, ad-
ditional 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
ident Autokey group name for this association

Clock Variables
The following clock variables appear in the clocklist 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

OPTIONS
-4, --ipv4
Force IPv4 name resolution. This option must not appear in com-
bination with any of the following options: ipv6.

Force resolution of following host names on the command line to
the IPv4 namespace.

-6, --ipv6
Force IPv6 name resolution. This option must not appear in com-
bination with any of the following options: ipv4.

Force 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 num-
ber 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 unlim-
ited 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: command,
peers.

Force ntpq to operate in interactive mode. Prompts will be writ-
ten to the standard output and commands read from the standard
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 combi-
nation 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.

-r 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.

-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 loading
values from configuration ("RC" or ".INI") file(s) and values from envi-
ronment 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

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.

BSD March 3 2020 BSD

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