xntpdc(1M)

The following command 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 commands may be given.

Debugging information is printed.

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

Obtain a list of peers which are known to the server(s). This option is equivalent to -c listpeers command. See "CONTROL MESSAGE COMMANDS" below.

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

Print a list of peers known to the server as well as a summary of their state. This is equivalent to -c peers command. See "CONTROL MESSAGE COMMANDS" below.

Print a list of peers known to the server as well as a summary of their state, but in a slightly different format than the -p command. This is equivalent to -c dmpeers command. See "CONTROL MESSAGE COMMANDS" below.

A ? or help by itself will print a list of all the command keywords. ntpq. A ? or help followed by a command keyword (command_keyword) will print function and usage information about the command.

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.

Set the host to which future queries will be sent. The hostname may be either a host name or a numeric address.

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 command.

This command allows the specification of a key number to be used to authenticate configuration requests. The keyid must correspond to a key number that the server has been configured to use for this purpose.

Exit xntpdc.

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.

Specify a timeout period for responses to server queries. The default is about 8000 milliseconds. Note that since xntpdc retries each query once after a timeout, the total waiting time for a timeout will be twice the timeout value set.

Obtains and prints a brief list of the peers for which the server is maintaining state. This list should include all configured peer associations as well as those peers whose stratum is such that they are considered by the server to be possible future synchronization candidates.

Obtains a list of peers for which the server is maintaining state, along with a summary of that state. Summary information includes the address of the remote peer, the local interface address (0.0.0.0 if a local address has yet to be determined), the stratum of the remote peer (a stratum of 16 indicates the remote peer is unsynchronized), the polling interval in seconds, the reachability register in octal, and the current estimated delay, offset and dispersion of the peer, all in seconds. In addition, the character in the left margin indicates the mode this peer entry is operating in.

The contents of the host field may be a host name, an IP address, a reference clock implementation name with its parameter or REFCLK (implementation number, parameter). For hostnames no, only IP addresses will be displayed.

A slightly different peer summary list. The output is similar to that of the peers command, except for the character in the leftmost column. Characters only appear beside peers which were included in the final stage of the clock selection algorithm. A period (.) indicates that this peer was cast off in the falseticker detection. A plus (+) indicates that the peer made it through. An asterisk (*) denotes the peer that the server is currently synchronizing with.

Shows a detailed display of the current peer variables for one or more peers. Most of these values are described in the NTP Version 2 specification.

Show per-peer statistic counters associated with the specified peer(s).

Obtain and print information concerning a peer clock. The values obtained provide information on the setting of fudge factors and other clock performance information.

Obtain and print kernel phase-lock loop operating parameters. This information is available only if the kernel has been specially modified for a precision timekeeping function.

Print the values of selected loop filter variables. The loop filter is the part of NTP which deals with adjusting the local system clock. The offset is the last offset given to the loop filter by the packet processing code. The frequency is the frequency error of the local clock in parts-per-million (ppm). The time_const controls the stiffness of the phase-lock loop and thus the speed at which it can adapt to oscillator drift. The watchdog timer value is the number of seconds which have elapsed since the last sample offset was given to the loop filter. The oneline and multiline options specify the format in which this information is to be printed. multiline is the default.

Print a variety of system state variables, i.e., the state related to the local server.

The system flags show various system flags, some of which can be set and cleared by the enable and disable configuration commands, respectively. The configurable flags are the auth, bclient, monitor, pll, pps and stats flags. Refer to xntpd(1M) for the description of these flags.

The stability is the residual frequency error remaining after the system frequency correction is applied and is intended for maintenance and debugging. In most architectures, this value will initially decrease from as high as 500 ppm to a nominal value in the range .01 to 0.1 ppm. If it remains high for some time after starting the daemon, something may be wrong with the local clock, or the value of the kernel variable tick may be incorrect.

The broadcastdelay shows the default broadcast delay, as set by the broadcastdelay configuration command.

The authdelay shows the default authentication delay, as set by the authdelay configuration command.

Print statistics counters maintained in the protocol module.

Print statistics counters related to memory allocation code.

Print statistics counters maintained in the input-output module.

Print statistics counters maintained in the timer/event queue support code.

Obtain and print the server's restriction list. This list is (usually) printed in sorted order and may help to understand how the restrictions are applied.

Obtain and print traffic counts collected and maintained by the monitor facility. The version number should not normally need to be specified.

Obtain debugging information for a reference clock driver. This information is provided only by some clock drivers and is mostly undecodable without a copy of the driver source.

Add a configured peer association at the given address and operating in symmetric active mode. Note that an existing association with the same peer may be deleted when this command is executed, or may simply be converted to conform to the new configuration, as appropriate. If the optional keyid is a nonzero integer, all outgoing packets to the remote server will have an authentication field (encrypted) attached with this key. If the value is 0 (or not given) no authentication will be done. The version # can be 1, 2 or 3 and defaults to 3. The prefer keyword indicates a preferred peer (and thus will be used primarily for clock synchronization if possible). The preferred peer also determines the validity of the PPS signal - if the preferred peer is suitable for synchronization so is the PPS signal.

Identical to the addpeer command, except that the operating mode is client.

Identical to the addpeer command, except that the operating mode is broadcast. In this case a valid key identifier and key are required. The peer_address parameter can be the broadcast address of the local network or a multicast group address assigned to NTP. If using a multicast address, a multicast-capable kernel is required.

This command causes the configured bit to be removed from the specified peer(s). In many cases this will cause the peer association to be deleted. When appropriate, however, the association may persist in an unconfigured mode if the remote peer is willing to continue on in this fashion.

This command provides a way to set certain data for a reference clock. See the source listing for further information.

These commands operate in the same way as the enable and disable configuration file commands of xntpd. Described below are the flags supported.

This command operates in the same way as the restrict configuration file commands of xntpd.

Unrestrict the matching entry from the restrict list.

Delete the matching entry from the restrict list.

Causes the current set of authentication keys to be purged and a new set to be obtained by rereading the keys file (which must have been specified in the xntpd configuration file). This allows encryption keys to be changed without restarting the server.

These commands operate in the same way as the trustedkey and untrustkey configuration file commands of xntpd.

Returns information concerning the authentication module, including known keys and counts of encryptions and decryptions which have been done.

Display the traps set in the server. See the source listing for further information.

Set a trap for asynchronous messages. See the source listing for further information.

Clear a trap for asynchronous messages. See the source listing for further information.

Clear the statistics counters in various modules of the server. See the source listing for further information.