ntpdc(ADMN)

Syntax

Description

If one or more request options is included on the command line when ntpdc 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, ntpdc 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. ntpdc will prompt for commands if the standard input is a terminal device.

ntpdc uses NTP mode 7 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. ntpdc makes no attempt to retransmit requests, and will timeout requests if the remote host is not heard from within a suitable timeout time.

The operation of ntpdc is specific to the particular implementation of the ntpd daemon and can be expected to work only with this, and maybe some previous versions of the daemon. Requests from a remote ntpdc program which affect the state of the local server must be authenticated, which requires that both the remote program and local server share a common key and key identifier.

Options

-c command

The following argument is interpreted as an interactive format command and is added to the list of commands to be executed on the specified hosts. Multiple -c options may be given.

-d

Enable additional debugging output.

-i

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

-l

Obtain a list of peers which are known to the servers. This is equivalent to -c listpeers.

-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 -c peers.

-s

Print a list of the peers known to the server as well as a summary of their state, but in a slightly different format from the -p switch. This is equivalent to -c dmpeers.

Interactive commands

A number of interactive format commands are executed entirely within the ntpdc program itself and do not result in NTP mode 7 requests being sent to a server. These are:

? [command_keyword]
help [command_keyword]

A ? by itself will print a list of all the command keywords known to this incarnation of ntpdc. A ? followed by a command keyword will print function and usage information about the command. This command provides additional information that supplements this manual page.

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 that the server has been configured to use for this purpose.

quit

Exit ntpdc.

passwd

This command prompts you to type in a password (which is not echoed) that 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.

timeout milliseconds

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

Control message commands

listpeers

Obtain and print a brief list of the peers for which the server is maintaining state. These 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 synchonization candidates.

peers

Obtain 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

• local interface address (0.0.0.0 if a local address has yet to be determined)

• stratum of the remote peer (a stratum of 16 indicates the remote peer is unsynchronized)

• polling interval in seconds

• reachability register in octal

• 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:

+

denotes symmetric active

-

indicates symmetric passive

=

means the remote server is being polled in client mode

^

indicates that the server is broadcasting to this address

~

denotes that the remote peer is sending broadcasts

marks the peer the server is currently synchonizing to

The contents of the host field may be one of four forms:

• a host name (only IP-addresses are displayed)

• an IP address

• a reference clock implementation name with its parameter

• REFCLK(implementation_number, parameter)

dmpeers

A slightly different peer summary list. Identical to the output 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.

.

indicates that this peer was cast off in the falseticker detection

+

indicates that the peer made it through

denotes the peer the server is currently synchronizing with

showpeer peer_address [...]

Show 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.

pstats peer_address [...]

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

clockinfo clock_peer_address [...]

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

kerninfo

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.

loopinfo [oneline | multiline]

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, with multiline as the default.

sysinfo

Print a variety of system state variables; that is state related to the local server. All except the last four lines are described in the NTP Version 3 specification, RFC 1305.

The ``system flags'' show various system flags, some of which can be set and cleared by the enable and disable configuration commands, respectively. These are the auth, bclient, monitor, pll, pps and stats flags. See ntpd(ADMN) for the meanings of these flags. There are two additional flags which are read-only: kernel_pll and kernel_pps. These flags indicate the synchronization status when the precision time kernel modifications are in use. The kernel_pll indicates that the local clock is being disciplined by the kernel, while the kernel_pps indicates the kernel discipline is provided by the PPS signal.

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 500ppm to a nominal value in the range 0.01 to 0.1ppm . 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.

sysstats

Print statistics counters maintained in the protocol module.

memstats

Print statistics counters related to memory allocation code.

iostats

Print statistics counters maintained in the input-output module.

timerstats

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

reslist

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

monlist [version]

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

clkbug clock_peer_address [...]

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 in hand.

Runtime configuration requests

Authenticated requests always include a timestamp in the packet data, which is included in the computation of the authentication code. This timestamp is compared by the server to its receive timestamp. If they differ by more than a small amount, the request is rejected. This is done for two reasons. Firstly, it makes simple replay attacks on the server (by someone who might be able to overhear traffic on your LAN) much more difficult. Secondly, it makes it more difficult to request configuration changes to your server from topologically remote hosts. While the reconfiguration facility will work well with a server on the local host, and may work adequately between time-synchronized hosts on the same LAN, it will work very poorly for more distant hosts. As such, if reasonable passwords are chosen, and care is taken in the distribution and protection of keys and appropriate source address restrictions are applied, the run time reconfiguration facility should provide an adequate level of security.

The following commands all make authenticated requests:

addpeer peer_address [keyid] [version] [prefer]

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 non-zero integer, all outgoing packets to the remote server will have an authentication field attached, encrypted with this key. If the value is 0 (or not given), no authentication will be done. version can be 1, 2 or 3 (the default). The prefer keyword indicates a preferred peer (and thus will be used primarily for clock synchronisation if possible). The preferred peer also determines the validity of the PPS signal -- if the preferred peer is suitable for synchronisation, so is the PPS signal.

addserver peer_address [keyid] [version] [prefer]

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

broadcast peer_address [keyid] [version] [prefer]

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.

unconfig peer_address [...]

This command causes the configured bit to be removed from the specified peers. 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 in this fashion.

fudge peer_address [time1] [time2] [stratum] [refid]

This command provides a way to set certain data for a reference clock.

enable [flag] [...]
disable [flag] [...]

These commands operate in the same way as the enable and disable configuration file commands of ntpd. The following is a description of the flags. Note that only the auth, bclient, monitor, pll, pps and stats flags can be set by ntpdc; the pll_kernel and pps_kernel flags are read-only.

auth

Enables the server to synchronize with unconfigured peers only if the peer has been correctly authenticated using a trusted key and key identifier. The default for this flag is enable.

bclient

Enables the server to listen for a message from a broadcast or multicast server, as in the multicastclient command with default address. The default for this flag is disable.

monitor

Enables the monitoring facility. See the ntpdc program and the monlist command for further information. The default for this flag is enable.

pll

Enables the server to adjust its local clock by means of NTP. If disabled, the local clock free-runs at its intrinsic time and frequency offset. This flag is useful in case the local clock is controlled by some other device or protocol and NTP is used only to provide synchronization to other clients. In this case, the local clock driver is used. See ``Reference clock options'' for further information. The default for this flag is enable.

pps

Enables the pulse-per-second (PPS) signal when frequency and time is disciplined by the precision time kernel modifications. The default for this flag is disable.

stats

Enables the statistics facility. See ``Monitoring options'' for further information. The default for this flag is enable.

pll_kernel

When the precision time kernel modifications are installed, this indicates the kernel controls the clock discipline; otherwise, the daemon controls the clock discipline.

pps_kernel

When the precision time kernel modifications are installed and a pulse-per-second (PPS) signal is available, this indicates the PPS signal controls the clock discipline; otherwise, the daemon or kernel controls the clock discipline, as indicated by the pll_kernel flag.

restrict address mask flag [flag]

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

unrestrict address mask flag [flag]

Unrestrict the matching entry from the restrict list.

delrestrict address mask [ntpport]

Delete the matching entry from the restrict list.

readkeys

Cause 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 ntpd configuration file). This allows encryption keys to be changed without restarting the server.

trustkey keyid [...]
untrustkey keyid [...]

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

authinfo

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

traps

Display the traps set in the server.

addtrap address [port] [interface]

Set a trap for asynchronous messages.

clrtrap address [port] [interface]

Clear a trap for asynchronous messages.

reset

Clear the statistics counters in various modules of the server.

See also

RFC 1305