freebsd-nq/ntpq/ntpq.1

.TH NTPQ 1 2008-08-17 "( 4.2.4p5)" "Programmer's Manual"
.\"  EDIT THIS FILE WITH CAUTION  (ntpq.1)
.\"  
.\"  It has been AutoGen-ed  Sunday August 17, 2008 at 05:26:57 AM EDT
.\"  From the definitions    ntpq-opts.def
.\"  and the template file   agman1.tpl
.\"
.SH NAME
ntpq \- standard NTP query program
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B ntpq
.\" Mixture of short (flag) options and long options
.RB [ \-\fIflag\fP " [\fIvalue\fP]]... [" \--\fIopt-name\fP " [[=| ]\fIvalue\fP]]..."
.br
.in +8
[ host ...]
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
This manual page documents, briefly, the \fBntpq\fP 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
.Fl i
or
.Fl n
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.
.Ss "Internal Commands"
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.
.sp
.IR "? [command_keyword]"
.sp 1x help [command_keyword]
A
.Ql \&?
by itself will print a list of all the command
keywords known to this incarnation of
[= prog-name =] .
A
.Ql \&?
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.
.sp
.IR "addvars"
.Ar variable_name [=value] ...
.Xc
.sp
.IR "rmvars variable_name ..."
.sp
.IR "clearvars"
The data carried by NTP mode 6 messages consists of a list of
items of the form
.Ql variable_name=value ,
where the
.Ql =value
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
.Ic readlist
and
.Ic writelist
commands described below.
The
.Ic 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
.Ic rmvars
command can be used to remove individual variables from the list,
while the
.Ic clearlist
command removes all variables from the
list.
.sp
.IR "authenticate [ yes | no ]"
Normally
[= prog-name =]
does not authenticate requests unless
they are write requests.
The command
.Ql authenticate yes
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
.Ic peer
display.
The command
.Ql authenticate
causes
[= prog-name =]
to display whether or not
[= prog-name =]
is currently autheinticating requests.
.sp
.IR "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
.Ql \&? .
.@item debug [
.Cm more |
.Cm less |
.Cm off
]
.Xc
With no argument, displays the current debug level.
Otherwise, the debug level is changed to the indicated level.
.sp
.IR "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.
.sp
.IR "host hostname"
Set the host to which future queries will be sent.
Hostname may
be either a host name or a numeric address.
.sp
.IR "hostnames Cm yes | Cm no"
If
.Cm yes
is specified, host names are printed in
information displays.
If
.Cm no
is specified, numeric
addresses are printed instead.
The default is
.Cm yes ,
unless
modified using the command line
.Fl n
switch.
.sp
.IR "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.
.sp
.IR "ntpversion ["
.Cm 1 |
.Cm 2 |
.Cm 3 |
.Cm 4
]
.Xc
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.
.sp
.IR "quit"
Exit
[= prog-name =] .
.sp
.IR "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.
.sp
.IR "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.
.sp
.IR "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.
.br

.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.BR \-4 ", " \--ipv4
Force IPv4 DNS name resolution.
This option is a member of the ipv4 class of options.
.sp
Force DNS resolution of following host names on the command line
to the IPv4 namespace.
.TP
.BR \-6 ", " \--ipv6
Force IPv6 DNS name resolution.
This option is a member of the ipv4 class of options.
.sp
Force DNS resolution of following host names on the command line
to the IPv6 namespace.
.TP
.BR \-c " \fIcmd\fP, " \--command "=" \fIcmd\fP
run a command and exit.
This option may appear an unlimited number of times.
.sp
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).
.TP
.BR \-d ", " \--debug-level
Increase output debug message level.
This option may appear an unlimited number of times.
.sp
Increase the debugging message output level.
.TP
.BR \-D " \fIstring\fP, " \--set-debug-level "=" \fIstring\fP
Set the output debug message level.
This option may appear an unlimited number of times.
.sp
Set the output debugging level.  Can be supplied multiple times,
but each overrides the previous value(s).
.TP
.BR \-p ", " \--peers
Print a list of the peers.
This option must not appear in combination with any of the following options:
interactive.
.sp
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.
.TP
.BR \-i ", " \--interactive
Force ntpq to operate in interactive mode.
This option must not appear in combination with any of the following options:
command, peers.
.sp
Force ntpq to operate in interactive mode.  Prompts will be written
to the standard output and commands read from the standard input.
.TP
.BR \-n ", " \--numeric
numeric host addresses.
.sp
Output all host addresses in dotted-quad numeric format rather than
converting to the canonical host names. 
.TP
.BR \-? , " \--help"
Display usage information and exit.
.TP
.BR \-! , " \--more-help"
Extended usage information passed thru pager.
.TP
.BR \-> " [\fIrcfile\fP]," " \--save-opts" "[=\fIrcfile\fP]"
Save the option state to \fIrcfile\fP.  The default is the \fIlast\fP
configuration file listed in the \fBOPTION PRESETS\fP section, below.
.TP
.BR \-< " \fIrcfile\fP," " \--load-opts" "=\fIrcfile\fP," " \--no-load-opts"
Load options from \fIrcfile\fP.
The \fIno-load-opts\fP form will disable the loading
of earlier RC/INI files.  \fI--no-load-opts\fP is handled early,
out of order.
.TP
.BR \-v " [{\fIv|c|n\fP}]," " \--version" "[=\fI{v|c|n}\fP]"
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.
.SH OPTION PRESETS
Any option that is not marked as \fInot presettable\fP may be preset
by loading values from configuration ("RC" or ".INI") file(s) and values from
environment variables named:
.nf
  \fBNTPQ_<option-name>\fP or \fBNTPQ\fP
.fi
.aj
The environmental presets take precedence (are processed later than)
the configuration files.
The \fIhomerc\fP files are "\fI$HOME\fP", and "\fI.\fP".
If any of these are directories, then the file \fI.ntprc\fP
is searched for within those directories.
.SH AUTHOR
David L. Mills and/or others
.br
Please send bug reports to:  http://bugs.ntp.isc.org, bugs@ntp.org

.PP
.nf
.na
see html/copyright.html
.fi
.ad
.PP
This manual page was \fIAutoGen\fP-erated from the \fBntpq\fP
option definitions.