Commands Reference, Volume 4

ntptrace Command

Purpose

Traces a chain of Network Time Protocol (NTP) hosts back to their master time source.

Syntax

ntptrace [ -d ] [ -n ] [ -v ] [ -r Retries ] [ -t TimeOut ] [ Server ]

Description

The ntptrace command determines where a given NTP server gets its time, and follows the chain of NTP servers back to their master time source. For example, stratum 0 server.

Flags

-d	Turns on debugging output.
-n	Outputs host IP addresses instead of host names.
-r Retries	Specifies the number of retransmission attempts for each host. The default is 5.
-t TimeOut	Specifies the retransmission timeout in seconds. The default is 2 seconds.
-v	Specifies verbose mode.

Parameters

Server

Specifies the server. The default is the local host.

Exit Status

This command returns the following exit values:

0	Successful completion.
>0	An error occurred.

Security

Access Control: You must be part of the system group to run this command.

Auditing Events: N/A

Examples

To trace where the local host NTP server gets its time from, enter:

ntptrace

Output similar to the following appears:

localhost: stratum 4, offset 0.0019529, synch distance 0.144135
server2.bozo.com: stratum 2, offset 0.0124263, synch distance 0.115784
usndh.edu: stratum 1, offset 0.0019298, synch distance 0.011993, refid
'WWVB'

On each line, the fields are:

the host's stratum,
the time offset between that host and the local host, as measured by the ntptrace command, (this is why it is not always zero for localhost).
the host's synchronization distance, which is a measure of the quality of the clock's time, and
the reference clock ID This only applies to stratum-1 servers.

All times are given in seconds.

Files

/usr/sbin/ntptrace

Contains the ntptrace command.

Related Information

Commands: ntpq, ntpdate, xntpdc

Daemons: xntpd,