6.3 NTPTrace

NTPTrace is a utility to query the time server and its servers until the master server is queried. NTPTrace determines where a given 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 local host. An example of the output from NTPTrace is given below:

% 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):

Usage:

NTPTrace [ -dhnv ] [ -r retries ] [ -t timeout ] [ server ]

Table 6-5 NTPTrace Parameters

Parameter

Description

-d

Turns on debugging output.

-h

Displays the help.

-n

Turns off the printing of hostnames; instead, host IP addresses are given. This can be useful if a nameserver is down.

-r retries

Sets the number of retransmission attempts for each host (default = 5).

-t timeout

Sets the retransmission timeout (in seconds) (default = 2).

-v

Displays verbose information about the NTP servers.