Updated: 2025/Nov/16

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 .Dd March 3 2020 [host] ntptrace is a perl script that uses the ntpq utility
program to follow the chain of NTP servers from a given host back to the
primary time source. For ntptrace to work properly, each of these servers must
implement the NTP Control and Monitoring Protocol specified in RFC 1305 and
enable NTP Mode 6 packets.

If given no arguments, ntptrace 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.
Print IP addresses instead of hostnames.

Output hosts as dotted-quad numeric format rather than converting to the
canonical host names.  Maximum number of peers to trace.  This option takes an
integer number as its argument.  The default for this option is:
     99

This option has not been fully documented.  Single remote host.  The default
for this option is:
     127.0.0.1

This option has not been fully documented.  Display usage information and
exit.  Pass the extended usage information through a pager.  Output version of
program and exit.  The default mode is `v', a simple version.  The `c' mode
will print copyright information and `n' will print the full copyright notice.
One of the following exit values will be returned: Successful program
execution.  The operation failed or the command syntax was not valid.  libopts
had an internal operational error.  Please report it to
autogen-users@lists.sourceforge.net.  Thank you.  This manual page was
AutoGen-erated from the ntptrace option definitions.

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