NTPQ(1)                       Programmer's Manual                      NTPQ(1)



NAME
       ntpq - standard NTP query program

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

DESCRIPTION
       This manual page briefly documents the ntpq command.  The [= prog-name
       =] 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 [= prog-name =] 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 [=
       prog-name =] 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, [= prog-
       name =] 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 [= prog-name =] utility will prompt for commands if the
       standard input is a terminal device.

       The [= prog-name =] utility 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 [= prog-name =] 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 or will cause the specified
       query (queries) to be sent to the indicated host(s) immediately.
       Otherwise, [= prog-name =] 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 [= prog-name =] utility itself and do not result in NTP mode 6
       requests being sent to a server.  These are described following.

       ? [command_keyword]

       A by itself will print a list of all the command keywords known to this
       incarnation of [= prog-name =] .  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 [= prog-name =] than
       this manual page.

       addvars

       rmvars variable_name ...

       clearvars The data carried by NTP mode 6 messages consists of a list of
       items of the form where the is ignored, and can be omitted, in requests
       to the server to read variables.  The [= prog-name =] utility maintains
       an internal list in which data to be included in control messages can
       be assembled, and sent using the and commands described below.  The
       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 command can be used
       to remove individual variables from the list, while the command removes
       all variables from the list.

       authenticate [ yes | no ] Normally [= prog-name =] does not
       authenticate requests unless they are write requests.  The command
       causes [= prog-name =] 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 display.  The command causes
       [= prog-name =] to display whether or not [= prog-name =] is currently
       autheinticating requests.

       cooked Causes output from query commands to be "cooked", so that
       variables which are recognized by [= prog-name =] will have their
       values reformatted for human consumption.  Variables which [= prog-name
       =] thinks should have a decodable value but didn't are marked with a
       trailing ] With no argument, displays the current debug level.
       Otherwise, the debug level is changed to the indicated level.

       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 Cm yes | Cm no If is specified, host names are printed in
       information displays.  If is specified, numeric addresses are printed
       instead.  The default is unless modified using the command line 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 [ ] Sets the NTP version number which [= prog-name =] 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.  With no argument, displays
       the current NTP version that will be used when communicating with
       servers.

       quit Exit [= prog-name =] .

       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 Ar milliseconds Specify a timeout period for responses to
       server queries.  The default is about 5000 milliseconds.  Note that
       since [= prog-name =] retries each query once after a timeout, the
       total waiting time for a timeout will be twice the timeout value set.


OPTIONS
       -4, --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.

       -6, --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.

       -c 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).

       -d, --debug-level
              Increase output debug message level.  This option may appear an
              unlimited number of times.

              Increase the debugging message output level.

       -D string, --set-debug-level=string
              Set the output debug message level.  This option may appear an
              unlimited number of times.

              Set the output debugging level.  Can be supplied multiple times,
              but each overrides the previous value(s).

       -p, --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.

       -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
              written 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
              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.

       -?, --help
              Display extended usage information and exit.

       -!, --more-help
              Extended usage information passed thru pager.

       -> [rcfile], --save-opts[=rcfile]
              Save the option state to rcfile.  The default is the last
              configuration file listed in the OPTION PRESETS section, below.

       -< rcfile, --load-opts=rcfile, --no-load-opts
              Load options from rcfile.  The no-load-opts form will disable
              the loading of earlier RC/INI files.  --no-load-opts is handled
              early, out of order.

       - [{v|c|n}], --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 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.

AUTHOR
       David L. Mills and/or others
       Please send bug reports to:  http://bugs.ntp.org, bugs@ntp.org


       see html/copyright.html

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



( 4.2.6p2)                        2010-07-09                           NTPQ(1)
