xntpdc(8) — Maintenance
NAME
xntpdc − monitor program for the Network Time Protocol daemon
SYNOPSIS
/usr/bin/xntpdc [-ilnps] [-c command] [host1 host2 ...]
FLAGS
-iForces xntpdc to operate in interactive mode. Prompts will be written to the standard output and commands read from the standard input.
-lObtains a list of peers which are known to the server(s). This switch is equivalent to -c listpeers.
-nOutputs all host addresses in dotted decimal notation rather than converting to the canonical host names.
-pPrints a list of the peers known to the server as well as a summary of their state. This is equivalent to -c peers.
-sPrints a list of the peers known to the server as well as a summary of their state, but in a slightly different format than the -p option. This is equivalent to -c dmpeers.
-c commandInterprets command as an interactive format command and adds it to the list of commands to be executed on the specified host(s). Multiple -c options may be given.
Specifying a command line option other than -i or -n sends the specified query (queries) to the indicated host(s) immediately; if no host is specified, localhost is the default. Otherwise, xntpdc will attempt to read interactive format commands from the standard input.
DESCRIPTION
xntpdc is used to monitor the xntpd(8) daemon, and provides information similar to ntpq; ntpq is recommended. The program may be run either in interactive mode or controlled using command line arguments. Extensive state and statistics information is available through the xntpdc interface.
If one or more request options is included on the command line when xntpdc 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, xntpdc 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. xntpdc will prompt for commands if the standard input is a terminal device.
xntpdc 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: Since NTP uses the UDP protocol, this communication will be somewhat unreliable, especially over large network topologies. Xntpdc makes no attempt to retransmit requests, and will time out if the remote host is not heard from within a suitable time.
COMMANDS
Interactive Commands
Interactive format commands consist of a keyword followed by zero or more 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 xntpdc program itself and do not result in NTP mode 7 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 xntpdc. A "?" followed by a command keyword will print function and usage information about the command.
help [command_keyword]
A synonym for the ? command.
timeout milliseconds
Specifies a time out period for responses to server queries. The default is about 8000 milliseconds.
host [hostname]
Sets the host to which future queries will be sent. Hostname may be either a host name or a numeric address. If hostname is not specified, the current hostname is used.
hostnames yes|no
If yes is specified, prints host names in information displays. If no is given, prints numeric addresses instead. The default is yes unless modified using the command line -n option.
quitExits xntpdc.
Query Commands
Query commands result in NTP mode 7 packets containing requests for information being sent to the server.
listpeersObtains and prints 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 synchronization candidates.
peersObtains 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 current mode for this peer entry. A + denotes symmetric active, a - indicates symmetric passive, a = means the remote server is being polled in client mode, a ^ indicates that the server is broadcasting to this address, a ~ denotes that the remote peer is sending broadcasts and a ∗ marks the peer the server is currently synchronizing to.
dmpeersA 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. A . indicates that this peer was cast off in the falseticker detection, while a + indicates that the peer made it through. A ∗ denotes the peer the server is currently synchronizing with.
showpeer peer_address [addr2] [addr3] [addr4]
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.
pstats peer_address [addr2] [addr3] [addr4]
Shows per−peer statistic counters associated with the specified peer(s).
loopinfo [oneline|multiline]
Prints 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 actually the frequency error, or drift, of your system’s clock in the units NTP uses for internal computations. Dividing this number by 4096 should give you the actual drift rate. The compliance is actually a long term average offset and is used by NTP to control the gain of the loop filter. The timer value is the number of seconds which have elapsed since a new 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.
sysinfoPrints a variety of system state variables, i.e. state related to the local server. Many of these values are described in the NTP Version 2 specification, RFC 1119.
sysstatsPrints a number of stat counters maintained in the protocol module.
memstatsPrints a number of counters related to the peer memory allocation code.
iostatsPrints counters maintained in the input−output module.
timerstatsPrints counters maintained in the timer/event queue support code.
clockstat clock_peer_address [addr2] [addr3] [addr4]
Obtains and prints information concerning a peer clock. The values obtained provide information on the setting of fudge factors and other clock performance information.
clkbug clock_peer_address [addr2] [addr3] [addr4]
Obtains debugging information for a clock peer. This information is provided only by some clock drivers and is mostly undecodable without a copy of the driver source in hand.
ERRORS
∗∗∗Can’t find host hostname
The hostname is not in the local /etc/hosts file.
hostname: timed out, nothing received
∗∗∗Request timed out
Check that xntpd is running on the remote host being queried.