xref: /freebsd/usr.sbin/ntp/doc/ntptrace.8 (revision 38f0b757fd84d17d0fc24739a7cda160c4516d81)
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
17The
18.Nm
19utility determines where a given Network Time Protocol (NTP) server gets
20its time from, and follows the chain of NTP servers back to their
21master time source.
22If given no arguments, it starts with
23.Dq localhost .
24.Pp
25Here is an example of the output from
26.Nm :
27.Bd -literal
28% ntptrace
29localhost: stratum 4, offset 0.0019529, synch distance 0.144135
30server2ozo.com: stratum 2, offset 0.0124263, synch distance 0.115784
31usndh.edu: stratum 1, offset 0.0019298, synch distance 0.011993, refid 'WWVB'
32.Ed
33.Pp
34On each line, the fields are (left to right): the host name, the
35host stratum,
36the time offset between that host and the local host
37(as measured by
38.Nm ;
39this is why it is not always zero for
40.Dq localhost ) ,
41the host
42synchronization distance,
43and (only for stratum-1 servers) the reference clock ID.
44All times
45are given in seconds.
46Note that the stratum is the server hop count to the primary source,
47while the synchronization distance is the estimated error
48relative to the primary source.
49These terms are precisely defined in RFC 1305.
50.Pp
51The following options are available:
52.Bl -tag -width indent
53.It Fl d
54Turn on some debugging output.
55.It Fl n
56Turn off the printing of host names; instead, host IP addresses
57are given.
58This may be necessary if a nameserver is down.
59.It Fl r Ar retries
60Set the number of retransmission attempts for each host; the default is 5.
61.It Fl t Ar timeout
62Set the retransmission timeout (in seconds); the default is 2.
63.It Fl v
64Print verbose information about the NTP servers.
65.El
66.Sh SEE ALSO
67.Xr ntpd 8 ,
68.Xr ntpdc 8
69.Rs
70.%A D L Mills
71.%T Network Time Protocol (Version 3)
72.%O RFC1305
73.Re
74.Sh BUGS
75This program makes no attempt to improve accuracy by doing multiple
76samples.
77