xref: /freebsd/usr.sbin/ntp/doc/ntptrace.8 (revision 17d6c636720d00f77e5d098daf4c278f89d84f7b)
1.\"
2.\" $FreeBSD$
3.\"
4.Dd January 6, 2000
5.Dt NTPTRACE 8
6.Os
7.Sh NAME
8.Nm ntptrace
9.Nd "trace a chain of NTP servers back to the primary source"
10.Sh SYNOPSIS
11.Nm
12.Op Fl vdn
13.Op Fl r Ar retries
14.Op Fl t Ar timeout
15.Op Ar server
16.Sh DESCRIPTION
17.Nm
18determines where a given Network Time Protocol (NTP) server gets
19its time from, and follows the chain of NTP servers back to their
20master time source.
21If given no arguments, it starts with
22.Dq localhost .
23.Pp
24Here is an example of the output from
25.Nm :
26.Bd -literal
27% ntptrace
28localhost: stratum 4, offset 0.0019529, synch distance 0.144135
29server2ozo.com: stratum 2, offset 0.0124263, synch distance 0.115784
30usndh.edu: stratum 1, offset 0.0019298, synch distance 0.011993, refid 'WWVB'
31.Ed
32.Pp
33On each line, the fields are (left to right): the host name, the
34host stratum,
35the time offset between that host and the local host
36(as measured by
37.Nm ;
38this is why it is not always zero for
39.Dq localhost ) ,
40the host
41synchronization distance,
42and (only for stratum-1 servers) the reference clock ID.  All times
43are given in seconds.
44Note that the stratum is the server hop count to the primary source,
45while the synchronization distance is the estimated error
46relative to the primary source.
47These terms are precisely defined in RFC 1305.
48.Pp
49The following options are available:
50.Bl -tag -width indent
51.It Fl d
52Turn on some debugging output.
53.It Fl n
54Turn off the printing of host names; instead, host IP addresses
55are given.  This may be necessary if a nameserver is down.
56.It Fl r Ar retries
57Set the number of retransmission attempts for each host; the default is 5.
58.It Fl t Ar timeout
59Set the retransmission timeout (in seconds); the default is 2.
60.It Fl v
61Print verbose information about the NTP servers.
62.El
63.Sh SEE ALSO
64.Xr ntpd 8 ,
65.Xr ntpdc 8
66.Rs
67.%A D L Mills
68.%T Network Time Protocol (Version 3)
69.%O RFC1305
70.Re
71.Sh BUGS
72This program makes no attempt to improve accuracy by doing multiple
73samples.
74