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22<h1 class="settitle">ntpdc: NTPD Control User's Manual</h1>
23<div class="node">
24<p><hr>
25<a name="Top"></a>Next:&nbsp;<a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="#ntpdc-Description">ntpdc Description</a>,
26Previous:&nbsp;<a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="#dir">(dir)</a>,
27Up:&nbsp;<a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="#dir">(dir)</a>
28<br>
29</div>
30
31<h2 class="unnumbered">ntpdc: NTPD Control User Manual</h2>
32
33<p>This document describes the use of the NTP Project's <code>ntpdc</code> program,
34that can be used to query a Network Time Protocol (NTP) server and
35display the time offset of the system clock relative to the server
36clock.  Run as root, it can correct the system clock to this offset as
37well.  It can be run as an interactive command or from a cron job.
38
39  <p>This document applies to version 4.2.8p11 of <code>ntpdc</code>.
40
41  <p>The program implements the SNTP protocol as defined by RFC 5905, the NTPv4
42IETF specification.
43
44  <div class="shortcontents">
45<h2>Short Contents</h2>
46<ul>
47<a href="#Top">ntpdc: NTPD Control User Manual</a>
48</ul>
49</div>
50
51<ul class="menu">
52<li><a accesskey="1" href="#ntpdc-Description">ntpdc Description</a>:             Description
53<li><a accesskey="2" href="#ntpdc-Invocation">ntpdc Invocation</a>: 		Invoking ntpdc
54<li><a accesskey="3" href="#Usage">Usage</a>:                        Usage
55</ul>
56
57<div class="node">
58<p><hr>
59<a name="ntpdc-Description"></a>
60<br>
61</div>
62
63<!-- node-name,  next,  previous,  up -->
64<h3 class="section">Description</h3>
65
66<p>By default, <code>ntpdc</code> writes the local data and time (i.e., not UTC) to the
67standard output in the format:
68
69<pre class="example">     1996-10-15 20:17:25.123 (+0800) +4.567 +/- 0.089 secs
70</pre>
71  <p>where
72YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS.SUBSEC is the local date and time,
73(+0800) is the local timezone adjustment (so we would add 8 hours and 0 minutes to convert the reported local time to UTC),
74and
75the +4.567 +/- 0.089 secs indicates the time offset and
76error bound of the system clock relative to the server clock.
77
78<div class="node">
79<p><hr>
80<a name="ntpdc-Invocation"></a>
81<br>
82</div>
83
84<h3 class="section">Invoking ntpdc</h3>
85
86<p><a name="index-ntpdc-1"></a><a name="index-vendor_002dspecific-NTPD-control-program-2"></a>
87
88  <p><code>ntpdc</code>
89is deprecated.
90Please use
91<code>ntpq(1ntpqmdoc)</code> instead - it can do everything
92<code>ntpdc</code>
93used to do, and it does so using a much more sane interface.
94
95  <p><code>ntpdc</code>
96is a utility program used to query
97<code>ntpd(1ntpdmdoc)</code>
98about its
99current state and to request changes in that state.
100It uses NTP mode 7 control message formats described in the source code.
101The program may
102be run either in interactive mode or controlled using command line
103arguments.
104Extensive state and statistics information is available
105through the
106<code>ntpdc</code>
107interface.
108In addition, nearly all the
109configuration options which can be specified at startup using
110ntpd's configuration file may also be specified at run time using
111<code>ntpdc</code>
112
113  <p>This section was generated by <strong>AutoGen</strong>,
114using the <code>agtexi-cmd</code> template and the option descriptions for the <code>ntpdc</code> program.
115This software is released under the NTP license, &lt;http://ntp.org/license&gt;.
116
117<ul class="menu">
118<li><a accesskey="1" href="#ntpdc-usage">ntpdc usage</a>:                   ntpdc help/usage (<span class="option">--help</span>)
119<li><a accesskey="2" href="#ntpdc-ipv4">ntpdc ipv4</a>:                    ipv4 option (-4)
120<li><a accesskey="3" href="#ntpdc-ipv6">ntpdc ipv6</a>:                    ipv6 option (-6)
121<li><a accesskey="4" href="#ntpdc-command">ntpdc command</a>:                 command option (-c)
122<li><a accesskey="5" href="#ntpdc-interactive">ntpdc interactive</a>:             interactive option (-i)
123<li><a accesskey="6" href="#ntpdc-listpeers">ntpdc listpeers</a>:               listpeers option (-l)
124<li><a accesskey="7" href="#ntpdc-numeric">ntpdc numeric</a>:                 numeric option (-n)
125<li><a accesskey="8" href="#ntpdc-peers">ntpdc peers</a>:                   peers option (-p)
126<li><a accesskey="9" href="#ntpdc-showpeers">ntpdc showpeers</a>:               showpeers option (-s)
127<li><a href="#ntpdc-config">ntpdc config</a>:                  presetting/configuring ntpdc
128<li><a href="#ntpdc-exit-status">ntpdc exit status</a>:             exit status
129<li><a href="#ntpdc-Usage">ntpdc Usage</a>:                   Usage
130<li><a href="#ntpdc-See-Also">ntpdc See Also</a>:                See Also
131<li><a href="#ntpdc-Authors">ntpdc Authors</a>:                 Authors
132<li><a href="#ntpdc-Bugs">ntpdc Bugs</a>:                    Bugs
133</ul>
134
135<div class="node">
136<p><hr>
137<a name="ntpdc-usage"></a>Next:&nbsp;<a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="#ntpdc-ipv4">ntpdc ipv4</a>,
138Up:&nbsp;<a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="#ntpdc-Invocation">ntpdc Invocation</a>
139<br>
140</div>
141
142<h4 class="subsection">ntpdc help/usage (<span class="option">--help</span>)</h4>
143
144<p><a name="index-ntpdc-help-3"></a>
145This is the automatically generated usage text for ntpdc.
146
147  <p>The text printed is the same whether selected with the <code>help</code> option
148(<span class="option">--help</span>) or the <code>more-help</code> option (<span class="option">--more-help</span>).  <code>more-help</code> will print
149the usage text by passing it through a pager program.
150<code>more-help</code> is disabled on platforms without a working
151<code>fork(2)</code> function.  The <code>PAGER</code> environment variable is
152used to select the program, defaulting to <span class="file">more</span>.  Both will exit
153with a status code of 0.
154
155<pre class="example">ntpdc - vendor-specific NTPD control program - Ver. 4.2.8p11
156Usage:  ntpdc [ -&lt;flag&gt; [&lt;val&gt;] | --&lt;name&gt;[{=| }&lt;val&gt;] ]... [ host ...]
157  Flg Arg Option-Name    Description
158   -4 no  ipv4           Force IPv4 DNS name resolution
159                                - prohibits the option 'ipv6'
160   -6 no  ipv6           Force IPv6 DNS name resolution
161                                - prohibits the option 'ipv4'
162   -c Str command        run a command and exit
163                                - may appear multiple times
164   -d no  debug-level    Increase debug verbosity level
165                                - may appear multiple times
166   -D Num set-debug-level Set the debug verbosity level
167                                - may appear multiple times
168   -i no  interactive    Force ntpq to operate in interactive mode
169                                - prohibits these options:
170                                command
171                                listpeers
172                                peers
173                                showpeers
174   -l no  listpeers      Print a list of the peers
175                                - prohibits the option 'command'
176   -n no  numeric        numeric host addresses
177   -p no  peers          Print a list of the peers
178                                - prohibits the option 'command'
179   -s no  showpeers      Show a list of the peers
180                                - prohibits the option 'command'
181      opt version        output version information and exit
182   -? no  help           display extended usage information and exit
183   -! no  more-help      extended usage information passed thru pager
184   -&gt; opt save-opts      save the option state to a config file
185   -&lt; Str load-opts      load options from a config file
186                                - disabled as '--no-load-opts'
187                                - may appear multiple times
188
189Options are specified by doubled hyphens and their name or by a single
190hyphen and the flag character.
191
192
193The following option preset mechanisms are supported:
194 - reading file $HOME/.ntprc
195 - reading file ./.ntprc
196 - examining environment variables named NTPDC_*
197
198Please send bug reports to:  &lt;http://bugs.ntp.org, bugs@ntp.org&gt;
199</pre>
200  <div class="node">
201<p><hr>
202<a name="ntpdc-ipv4"></a>Next:&nbsp;<a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="#ntpdc-ipv6">ntpdc ipv6</a>,
203Previous:&nbsp;<a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="#ntpdc-usage">ntpdc usage</a>,
204Up:&nbsp;<a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="#ntpdc-Invocation">ntpdc Invocation</a>
205<br>
206</div>
207
208<h4 class="subsection">ipv4 option (-4)</h4>
209
210<p><a name="index-ntpdc_002dipv4-4"></a>
211This is the &ldquo;force ipv4 dns name resolution&rdquo; option.
212
213<p class="noindent">This option has some usage constraints.  It:
214     <ul>
215<li>must not appear in combination with any of the following options:
216ipv6.
217</ul>
218
219  <p>Force DNS resolution of following host names on the command line
220to the IPv4 namespace.
221<div class="node">
222<p><hr>
223<a name="ntpdc-ipv6"></a>Next:&nbsp;<a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="#ntpdc-command">ntpdc command</a>,
224Previous:&nbsp;<a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="#ntpdc-ipv4">ntpdc ipv4</a>,
225Up:&nbsp;<a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="#ntpdc-Invocation">ntpdc Invocation</a>
226<br>
227</div>
228
229<h4 class="subsection">ipv6 option (-6)</h4>
230
231<p><a name="index-ntpdc_002dipv6-5"></a>
232This is the &ldquo;force ipv6 dns name resolution&rdquo; option.
233
234<p class="noindent">This option has some usage constraints.  It:
235     <ul>
236<li>must not appear in combination with any of the following options:
237ipv4.
238</ul>
239
240  <p>Force DNS resolution of following host names on the command line
241to the IPv6 namespace.
242<div class="node">
243<p><hr>
244<a name="ntpdc-command"></a>Next:&nbsp;<a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="#ntpdc-interactive">ntpdc interactive</a>,
245Previous:&nbsp;<a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="#ntpdc-ipv6">ntpdc ipv6</a>,
246Up:&nbsp;<a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="#ntpdc-Invocation">ntpdc Invocation</a>
247<br>
248</div>
249
250<h4 class="subsection">command option (-c)</h4>
251
252<p><a name="index-ntpdc_002dcommand-6"></a>
253This is the &ldquo;run a command and exit&rdquo; option.
254This option takes a string argument <span class="file">cmd</span>.
255
256<p class="noindent">This option has some usage constraints.  It:
257     <ul>
258<li>may appear an unlimited number of times.
259</ul>
260
261  <p>The following argument is interpreted as an interactive format command
262and is added to the list of commands to be executed on the specified
263host(s).
264<div class="node">
265<p><hr>
266<a name="ntpdc-interactive"></a>Next:&nbsp;<a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="#ntpdc-listpeers">ntpdc listpeers</a>,
267Previous:&nbsp;<a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="#ntpdc-command">ntpdc command</a>,
268Up:&nbsp;<a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="#ntpdc-Invocation">ntpdc Invocation</a>
269<br>
270</div>
271
272<h4 class="subsection">interactive option (-i)</h4>
273
274<p><a name="index-ntpdc_002dinteractive-7"></a>
275This is the &ldquo;force ntpq to operate in interactive mode&rdquo; option.
276
277<p class="noindent">This option has some usage constraints.  It:
278     <ul>
279<li>must not appear in combination with any of the following options:
280command, listpeers, peers, showpeers.
281</ul>
282
283  <p>Force ntpq to operate in interactive mode.  Prompts will be written
284to the standard output and commands read from the standard input.
285<div class="node">
286<p><hr>
287<a name="ntpdc-listpeers"></a>Next:&nbsp;<a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="#ntpdc-numeric">ntpdc numeric</a>,
288Previous:&nbsp;<a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="#ntpdc-interactive">ntpdc interactive</a>,
289Up:&nbsp;<a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="#ntpdc-Invocation">ntpdc Invocation</a>
290<br>
291</div>
292
293<h4 class="subsection">listpeers option (-l)</h4>
294
295<p><a name="index-ntpdc_002dlistpeers-8"></a>
296This is the &ldquo;print a list of the peers&rdquo; option.
297
298<p class="noindent">This option has some usage constraints.  It:
299     <ul>
300<li>must not appear in combination with any of the following options:
301command.
302</ul>
303
304  <p>Print a list of the peers known to the server as well as a summary of
305their state. This is equivalent to the 'listpeers' interactive command.
306<div class="node">
307<p><hr>
308<a name="ntpdc-numeric"></a>Next:&nbsp;<a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="#ntpdc-peers">ntpdc peers</a>,
309Previous:&nbsp;<a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="#ntpdc-listpeers">ntpdc listpeers</a>,
310Up:&nbsp;<a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="#ntpdc-Invocation">ntpdc Invocation</a>
311<br>
312</div>
313
314<h4 class="subsection">numeric option (-n)</h4>
315
316<p><a name="index-ntpdc_002dnumeric-9"></a>
317This is the &ldquo;numeric host addresses&rdquo; option.
318Output all host addresses in dotted-quad numeric format rather than
319converting to the canonical host names.
320<div class="node">
321<p><hr>
322<a name="ntpdc-peers"></a>Next:&nbsp;<a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="#ntpdc-showpeers">ntpdc showpeers</a>,
323Previous:&nbsp;<a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="#ntpdc-numeric">ntpdc numeric</a>,
324Up:&nbsp;<a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="#ntpdc-Invocation">ntpdc Invocation</a>
325<br>
326</div>
327
328<h4 class="subsection">peers option (-p)</h4>
329
330<p><a name="index-ntpdc_002dpeers-10"></a>
331This is the &ldquo;print a list of the peers&rdquo; option.
332
333<p class="noindent">This option has some usage constraints.  It:
334     <ul>
335<li>must not appear in combination with any of the following options:
336command.
337</ul>
338
339  <p>Print a list of the peers known to the server as well as a summary
340of their state. This is equivalent to the 'peers' interactive command.
341<div class="node">
342<p><hr>
343<a name="ntpdc-showpeers"></a>Next:&nbsp;<a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="#ntpdc-config">ntpdc config</a>,
344Previous:&nbsp;<a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="#ntpdc-peers">ntpdc peers</a>,
345Up:&nbsp;<a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="#ntpdc-Invocation">ntpdc Invocation</a>
346<br>
347</div>
348
349<h4 class="subsection">showpeers option (-s)</h4>
350
351<p><a name="index-ntpdc_002dshowpeers-11"></a>
352This is the &ldquo;show a list of the peers&rdquo; option.
353
354<p class="noindent">This option has some usage constraints.  It:
355     <ul>
356<li>must not appear in combination with any of the following options:
357command.
358</ul>
359
360  <p>Print a list of the peers known to the server as well as a summary
361of their state. This is equivalent to the 'dmpeers' interactive command.
362
363<div class="node">
364<p><hr>
365<a name="ntpdc-config"></a>Next:&nbsp;<a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="#ntpdc-exit-status">ntpdc exit status</a>,
366Previous:&nbsp;<a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="#ntpdc-showpeers">ntpdc showpeers</a>,
367Up:&nbsp;<a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="#ntpdc-Invocation">ntpdc Invocation</a>
368<br>
369</div>
370
371<h4 class="subsection">presetting/configuring ntpdc</h4>
372
373<p>Any option that is not marked as <i>not presettable</i> may be preset by
374loading values from configuration ("rc" or "ini") files, and values from environment variables named <code>NTPDC</code> and <code>NTPDC_&lt;OPTION_NAME&gt;</code>.  <code>&lt;OPTION_NAME&gt;</code> must be one of
375the options listed above in upper case and segmented with underscores.
376The <code>NTPDC</code> variable will be tokenized and parsed like
377the command line.  The remaining variables are tested for existence and their
378values are treated like option arguments.
379
380<p class="noindent"><code>libopts</code> will search in 2 places for configuration files:
381     <ul>
382<li>$HOME
383<li>$PWD
384</ul>
385  The environment variables <code>HOME</code>, and <code>PWD</code>
386are expanded and replaced when <span class="file">ntpdc</span> runs.
387For any of these that are plain files, they are simply processed.
388For any that are directories, then a file named <span class="file">.ntprc</span> is searched for
389within that directory and processed.
390
391  <p>Configuration files may be in a wide variety of formats.
392The basic format is an option name followed by a value (argument) on the
393same line.  Values may be separated from the option name with a colon,
394equal sign or simply white space.  Values may be continued across multiple
395lines by escaping the newline with a backslash.
396
397  <p>Multiple programs may also share the same initialization file.
398Common options are collected at the top, followed by program specific
399segments.  The segments are separated by lines like:
400<pre class="example">    [NTPDC]
401</pre>
402  <p class="noindent">or by
403<pre class="example">    &lt;?program ntpdc&gt;
404</pre>
405  <p class="noindent">Do not mix these styles within one configuration file.
406
407  <p>Compound values and carefully constructed string values may also be
408specified using XML syntax:
409<pre class="example">    &lt;option-name&gt;
410       &lt;sub-opt&gt;...&amp;lt;...&amp;gt;...&lt;/sub-opt&gt;
411    &lt;/option-name&gt;
412</pre>
413  <p class="noindent">yielding an <code>option-name.sub-opt</code> string value of
414<pre class="example">    "...&lt;...&gt;..."
415</pre>
416  <p><code>AutoOpts</code> does not track suboptions.  You simply note that it is a
417hierarchicly valued option.  <code>AutoOpts</code> does provide a means for searching
418the associated name/value pair list (see: optionFindValue).
419
420  <p>The command line options relating to configuration and/or usage help are:
421
422<h5 class="subsubheading">version (-)</h5>
423
424<p>Print the program version to standard out, optionally with licensing
425information, then exit 0.  The optional argument specifies how much licensing
426detail to provide.  The default is to print just the version.  The licensing infomation may be selected with an option argument.
427Only the first letter of the argument is examined:
428
429     <dl>
430<dt><span class="samp">version</span><dd>Only print the version.  This is the default.
431<br><dt><span class="samp">copyright</span><dd>Name the copyright usage licensing terms.
432<br><dt><span class="samp">verbose</span><dd>Print the full copyright usage licensing terms.
433</dl>
434
435<div class="node">
436<p><hr>
437<a name="ntpdc-exit-status"></a>Next:&nbsp;<a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="#ntpdc-Usage">ntpdc Usage</a>,
438Previous:&nbsp;<a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="#ntpdc-config">ntpdc config</a>,
439Up:&nbsp;<a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="#ntpdc-Invocation">ntpdc Invocation</a>
440<br>
441</div>
442
443<h4 class="subsection">ntpdc exit status</h4>
444
445<p>One of the following exit values will be returned:
446     <dl>
447<dt><span class="samp">0 (EXIT_SUCCESS)</span><dd>Successful program execution.
448<br><dt><span class="samp">1 (EXIT_FAILURE)</span><dd>The operation failed or the command syntax was not valid.
449<br><dt><span class="samp">66 (EX_NOINPUT)</span><dd>A specified configuration file could not be loaded.
450<br><dt><span class="samp">70 (EX_SOFTWARE)</span><dd>libopts had an internal operational error.  Please report
451it to autogen-users@lists.sourceforge.net.  Thank you.
452</dl>
453  <div class="node">
454<p><hr>
455<a name="ntpdc-Usage"></a>Next:&nbsp;<a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="#ntpdc-See-Also">ntpdc See Also</a>,
456Previous:&nbsp;<a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="#ntpdc-exit-status">ntpdc exit status</a>,
457Up:&nbsp;<a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="#ntpdc-Invocation">ntpdc Invocation</a>
458<br>
459</div>
460
461<h4 class="subsection">ntpdc Usage</h4>
462
463<div class="node">
464<p><hr>
465<a name="ntpdc-See-Also"></a>Next:&nbsp;<a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="#ntpdc-Authors">ntpdc Authors</a>,
466Previous:&nbsp;<a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="#ntpdc-Usage">ntpdc Usage</a>,
467Up:&nbsp;<a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="#ntpdc-Invocation">ntpdc Invocation</a>
468<br>
469</div>
470
471<h4 class="subsection">ntpdc See Also</h4>
472
473<div class="node">
474<p><hr>
475<a name="ntpdc-Authors"></a>Next:&nbsp;<a rel="next" accesskey="n" href="#ntpdc-Bugs">ntpdc Bugs</a>,
476Previous:&nbsp;<a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="#ntpdc-See-Also">ntpdc See Also</a>,
477Up:&nbsp;<a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="#ntpdc-Invocation">ntpdc Invocation</a>
478<br>
479</div>
480
481<h4 class="subsection">ntpdc Authors</h4>
482
483<div class="node">
484<p><hr>
485<a name="ntpdc-Bugs"></a>Previous:&nbsp;<a rel="previous" accesskey="p" href="#ntpdc-Authors">ntpdc Authors</a>,
486Up:&nbsp;<a rel="up" accesskey="u" href="#ntpdc-Invocation">ntpdc Invocation</a>
487<br>
488</div>
489
490<h4 class="subsection">ntpdc Bugs</h4>
491
492<div class="node">
493<p><hr>
494<a name="Usage"></a>
495<br>
496</div>
497
498<!-- node-name,  next,  previous,  up -->
499<h3 class="section">Usage</h3>
500
501<p>The simplest use of this program is as an unprivileged command to
502check the current time, offset, and error in the local clock.
503For example:
504
505<pre class="example">    ntpdc ntpserver.somewhere
506</pre>
507  <p>With suitable privilege, it can be run as a command or in a
508<code>cron</code> job to reset the local clock from a reliable server, like
509the <code>ntpdate</code> and <code>rdate</code> commands.
510For example:
511
512<pre class="example">    ntpdc -a ntpserver.somewhere
513</pre>
514  </body></html>
515
516