NAME¶
ntptrace - trace a chain of NTP servers back to the primary source
SYNOPSIS¶
ntptrace [ -m max_hops ] [ -n ]
DESCRIPTION¶
ntptrace determines where a given Network Time Protocol (NTP) server gets its
time from, and follows the chain of NTP servers back to their master time
source. If given no arguments, it starts with localhost. Here is an example of
the output from ntptrace:
% ntptrace
localhost: stratum 4, offset 0.0019529, synch distance 0.144135
server2ozo.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 (left to right): the host name, the
host stratum, the time offset between that host and the local host (as
measured by ntptrace; this is why it is not always zero for
"localhost"), the host synchronization distance, and (only for
stratum-1 servers) the reference clock ID. All times are given in seconds.
Note that the stratum is the server hop count to the primary source, while
the synchronization distance is the estimated error relative to the primary
source. These terms are precisely defined in RFC-1305.
OPTIONS¶
- -m max_hops
- Sets the number of server hops to follow (default = 99).
- -n
- Turns off the printing of host names; instead, host IP addresses are
given. This may be useful if a nameserver is down.
BUGS¶
This program makes no attempt to improve accuracy by doing multiple samples.