summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/contrib/ntp/ntpd/ntpd-opts.def
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to 'contrib/ntp/ntpd/ntpd-opts.def')
-rw-r--r--contrib/ntp/ntpd/ntpd-opts.def611
1 files changed, 611 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/contrib/ntp/ntpd/ntpd-opts.def b/contrib/ntp/ntpd/ntpd-opts.def
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dee484d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/ntp/ntpd/ntpd-opts.def
@@ -0,0 +1,611 @@
+/* -*- Mode: Text -*- */
+
+autogen definitions options;
+
+#include copyright.def
+
+prog-name = "ntpd";
+prog-title = "NTP daemon program";
+argument = "[ <server1> ... <serverN> ]";
+
+#include ntpdbase-opts.def
+
+/* explain: Additional information whenever the usage routine is invoked */
+explain = <<- _END_EXPLAIN
+ _END_EXPLAIN;
+
+doc-section = {
+ ds-type = 'DESCRIPTION';
+ ds-format = 'mdoc';
+ ds-text = <<- _END_PROG_MDOC_DESCRIP
+The
+.Nm
+utility is an operating system daemon which sets
+and maintains the system time of day in synchronism with Internet
+standard time servers.
+It is a complete implementation of the
+Network Time Protocol (NTP) version 4, as defined by RFC-5905,
+but also retains compatibility with
+version 3, as defined by RFC-1305, and versions 1
+and 2, as defined by RFC-1059 and RFC-1119, respectively.
+.Pp
+The
+.Nm
+utility does most computations in 64-bit floating point
+arithmetic and does relatively clumsy 64-bit fixed point operations
+only when necessary to preserve the ultimate precision, about 232
+picoseconds.
+While the ultimate precision is not achievable with
+ordinary workstations and networks of today, it may be required
+with future gigahertz CPU clocks and gigabit LANs.
+.Pp
+Ordinarily,
+.Nm
+reads the
+.Xr ntp.conf 5
+configuration file at startup time in order to determine the
+synchronization sources and operating modes.
+It is also possible to
+specify a working, although limited, configuration entirely on the
+command line, obviating the need for a configuration file.
+This may
+be particularly useful when the local host is to be configured as a
+broadcast/multicast client, with all peers being determined by
+listening to broadcasts at run time.
+.Pp
+If NetInfo support is built into
+.Nm ,
+then
+.Nm
+will attempt to read its configuration from the
+NetInfo if the default
+.Xr ntp.conf 5
+file cannot be read and no file is
+specified by the
+.Fl c
+option.
+.Pp
+Various internal
+.Nm
+variables can be displayed and
+configuration options altered while the
+.Nm
+is running
+using the
+.Xr ntpq 1ntpqmdoc
+and
+.Xr ntpdc 1ntpdcmdoc
+utility programs.
+.Pp
+When
+.Nm
+starts it looks at the value of
+.Xr umask 2 ,
+and if zero
+.Nm
+will set the
+.Xr umask 2
+to 022.
+ _END_PROG_MDOC_DESCRIP;
+};
+
+doc-section = {
+ ds-type = 'USAGE';
+ ds-format = 'mdoc';
+ ds-text = <<- _END_MDOC_USAGE
+.Ss "How NTP Operates"
+The
+.Nm
+utility operates by exchanging messages with
+one or more configured servers over a range of designated poll intervals.
+When
+started, whether for the first or subsequent times, the program
+requires several exchanges from the majority of these servers so
+the signal processing and mitigation algorithms can accumulate and
+groom the data and set the clock.
+In order to protect the network
+from bursts, the initial poll interval for each server is delayed
+an interval randomized over a few seconds.
+At the default initial poll
+interval of 64s, several minutes can elapse before the clock is
+set.
+This initial delay to set the clock
+can be safely and dramatically reduced using the
+.Cm iburst
+keyword with the
+.Ic server
+configuration
+command, as described in
+.Xr ntp.conf 5 .
+.Pp
+Most operating systems and hardware of today incorporate a
+time-of-year (TOY) chip to maintain the time during periods when
+the power is off.
+When the machine is booted, the chip is used to
+initialize the operating system time.
+After the machine has
+synchronized to a NTP server, the operating system corrects the
+chip from time to time.
+In the default case, if
+.Nm
+detects that the time on the host
+is more than 1000s from the server time,
+.Nm
+assumes something must be terribly wrong and the only
+reliable action is for the operator to intervene and set the clock
+by hand.
+(Reasons for this include there is no TOY chip,
+or its battery is dead, or that the TOY chip is just of poor quality.)
+This causes
+.Nm
+to exit with a panic message to
+the system log.
+The
+.Fl g
+option overrides this check and the
+clock will be set to the server time regardless of the chip time
+(up to 68 years in the past or future \(em
+this is a limitation of the NTPv4 protocol).
+However, and to protect against broken hardware, such as when the
+CMOS battery fails or the clock counter becomes defective, once the
+clock has been set an error greater than 1000s will cause
+.Nm
+to exit anyway.
+.Pp
+Under ordinary conditions,
+.Nm
+adjusts the clock in
+small steps so that the timescale is effectively continuous and
+without discontinuities.
+Under conditions of extreme network
+congestion, the roundtrip delay jitter can exceed three seconds and
+the synchronization distance, which is equal to one-half the
+roundtrip delay plus error budget terms, can become very large.
+The
+.Nm
+algorithms discard sample offsets exceeding 128 ms,
+unless the interval during which no sample offset is less than 128
+ms exceeds 900s.
+The first sample after that, no matter what the
+offset, steps the clock to the indicated time.
+In practice this
+reduces the false alarm rate where the clock is stepped in error to
+a vanishingly low incidence.
+.Pp
+As the result of this behavior, once the clock has been set it
+very rarely strays more than 128 ms even under extreme cases of
+network path congestion and jitter.
+Sometimes, in particular when
+.Nm
+is first started without a valid drift file
+on a system with a large intrinsic drift
+the error might grow to exceed 128 ms,
+which would cause the clock to be set backwards
+if the local clock time is more than 128 s
+in the future relative to the server.
+In some applications, this behavior may be unacceptable.
+There are several solutions, however.
+If the
+.Fl x
+option is included on the command line, the clock will
+never be stepped and only slew corrections will be used.
+But this choice comes with a cost that
+should be carefully explored before deciding to use
+the
+.Fl x
+option.
+The maximum slew rate possible is limited
+to 500 parts-per-million (PPM) as a consequence of the correctness
+principles on which the NTP protocol and algorithm design are
+based.
+As a result, the local clock can take a long time to
+converge to an acceptable offset, about 2,000 s for each second the
+clock is outside the acceptable range.
+During this interval the
+local clock will not be consistent with any other network clock and
+the system cannot be used for distributed applications that require
+correctly synchronized network time.
+.Pp
+In spite of the above precautions, sometimes when large
+frequency errors are present the resulting time offsets stray
+outside the 128-ms range and an eventual step or slew time
+correction is required.
+If following such a correction the
+frequency error is so large that the first sample is outside the
+acceptable range,
+.Nm
+enters the same state as when the
+.Pa ntp.drift
+file is not present.
+The intent of this behavior
+is to quickly correct the frequency and restore operation to the
+normal tracking mode.
+In the most extreme cases
+(the host
+.Cm time.ien.it
+comes to mind), there may be occasional
+step/slew corrections and subsequent frequency corrections.
+It
+helps in these cases to use the
+.Cm burst
+keyword when
+configuring the server, but
+ONLY
+when you have permission to do so from the owner of the target host.
+.Pp
+Finally,
+in the past many startup scripts would run
+.Xr ntpdate 1ntpdatemdoc
+to get the system clock close to correct before starting
+.Xr ntpd 1ntpdmdoc ,
+but this was never more than a mediocre hack and is no longer needed.
+If you are following the instructions in
+.Sx "Starting NTP (Best Current Practice)"
+and you still need to set the system time before starting
+.Nm ,
+please open a bug report and document what is going on,
+and then look at using
+.Xr sntp 1sntpmdoc .
+.Pp
+There is a way to start
+.Xr ntpd 1ntpdmdoc
+that often addresses all of the problems mentioned above.
+.Ss "Starting NTP (Best Current Practice)"
+First, use the
+.Cm iburst
+option on your
+.Cm server
+entries.
+.Pp
+If you can also keep a good
+.Pa ntp.drift
+file then
+.Xr ntpd 1ntpdmdoc
+will effectively "warm-start" and your system's clock will
+be stable in under 11 seconds' time.
+.Pp
+As soon as possible in the startup sequence, start
+.Xr ntpd 1ntpdmdoc
+with at least the
+.Fl g
+and perhaps the
+.Fl N
+options.
+Then,
+start the rest of your "normal" processes.
+This will give
+.Xr ntpd 1ntpdmdoc
+as much time as possible to get the system's clock synchronized and stable.
+.Pp
+Finally,
+if you have processes like
+.Cm dovecot
+or database servers
+that require
+monotonically-increasing time,
+run
+.Xr ntp-wait 1ntp-waitmdoc
+as late as possible in the boot sequence
+(perhaps with the
+.Fl v
+flag)
+and after
+.Xr ntp-wait 1ntp-waitmdoc
+exits successfully
+it is as safe as it will ever be to start any process that require
+stable time.
+.Ss "Frequency Discipline"
+The
+.Nm
+behavior at startup depends on whether the
+frequency file, usually
+.Pa ntp.drift ,
+exists.
+This file
+contains the latest estimate of clock frequency error.
+When the
+.Nm
+is started and the file does not exist, the
+.Nm
+enters a special mode designed to quickly adapt to
+the particular system clock oscillator time and frequency error.
+This takes approximately 15 minutes, after which the time and
+frequency are set to nominal values and the
+.Nm
+enters
+normal mode, where the time and frequency are continuously tracked
+relative to the server.
+After one hour the frequency file is
+created and the current frequency offset written to it.
+When the
+.Nm
+is started and the file does exist, the
+.Nm
+frequency is initialized from the file and enters normal mode
+immediately.
+After that the current frequency offset is written to
+the file at hourly intervals.
+.Ss "Operating Modes"
+The
+.Nm
+utility can operate in any of several modes, including
+symmetric active/passive, client/server broadcast/multicast and
+manycast, as described in the
+.Qq Association Management
+page
+(available as part of the HTML documentation
+provided in
+.Pa /usr/share/doc/ntp ) .
+It normally operates continuously while
+monitoring for small changes in frequency and trimming the clock
+for the ultimate precision.
+However, it can operate in a one-time
+mode where the time is set from an external server and frequency is
+set from a previously recorded frequency file.
+A
+broadcast/multicast or manycast client can discover remote servers,
+compute server-client propagation delay correction factors and
+configure itself automatically.
+This makes it possible to deploy a
+fleet of workstations without specifying configuration details
+specific to the local environment.
+.Pp
+By default,
+.Nm
+runs in continuous mode where each of
+possibly several external servers is polled at intervals determined
+by an intricate state machine.
+The state machine measures the
+incidental roundtrip delay jitter and oscillator frequency wander
+and determines the best poll interval using a heuristic algorithm.
+Ordinarily, and in most operating environments, the state machine
+will start with 64s intervals and eventually increase in steps to
+1024s.
+A small amount of random variation is introduced in order to
+avoid bunching at the servers.
+In addition, should a server become
+unreachable for some time, the poll interval is increased in steps
+to 1024s in order to reduce network overhead.
+.Pp
+In some cases it may not be practical for
+.Nm
+to run continuously.
+A common workaround has been to run the
+.Xr ntpdate 1ntpdatemdoc
+or
+.Xr sntp 1sntpmdoc
+programs from a
+.Xr cron 8
+job at designated
+times.
+However, these programs do not have the crafted signal
+processing, error checking or mitigation algorithms of
+.Nm .
+The
+.Fl q
+option is intended for this purpose.
+Setting this option will cause
+.Nm
+to exit just after
+setting the clock for the first time.
+The procedure for initially
+setting the clock is the same as in continuous mode; most
+applications will probably want to specify the
+.Cm iburst
+keyword with the
+.Ic server
+configuration command.
+With this
+keyword a volley of messages are exchanged to groom the data and
+the clock is set in about 10 s.
+If nothing is heard after a
+couple of minutes, the daemon times out and exits.
+After a suitable
+period of mourning, the
+.Xr ntpdate 1ntpdatemdoc
+program will be
+retired.
+.Pp
+When kernel support is available to discipline the clock
+frequency, which is the case for stock Solaris, Tru64, Linux and
+.Fx ,
+a useful feature is available to discipline the clock
+frequency.
+First,
+.Nm
+is run in continuous mode with
+selected servers in order to measure and record the intrinsic clock
+frequency offset in the frequency file.
+It may take some hours for
+the frequency and offset to settle down.
+Then the
+.Nm
+is
+stopped and run in one-time mode as required.
+At each startup, the
+frequency is read from the file and initializes the kernel
+frequency.
+.Ss "Poll Interval Control"
+This version of NTP includes an intricate state machine to
+reduce the network load while maintaining a quality of
+synchronization consistent with the observed jitter and wander.
+There are a number of ways to tailor the operation in order enhance
+accuracy by reducing the interval or to reduce network overhead by
+increasing it.
+However, the user is advised to carefully consider
+the consequences of changing the poll adjustment range from the
+default minimum of 64 s to the default maximum of 1,024 s.
+The
+default minimum can be changed with the
+.Ic tinker
+.Cm minpoll
+command to a value not less than 16 s.
+This value is used for all
+configured associations, unless overridden by the
+.Cm minpoll
+option on the configuration command.
+Note that most device drivers
+will not operate properly if the poll interval is less than 64 s
+and that the broadcast server and manycast client associations will
+also use the default, unless overridden.
+.Pp
+In some cases involving dial up or toll services, it may be
+useful to increase the minimum interval to a few tens of minutes
+and maximum interval to a day or so.
+Under normal operation
+conditions, once the clock discipline loop has stabilized the
+interval will be increased in steps from the minimum to the
+maximum.
+However, this assumes the intrinsic clock frequency error
+is small enough for the discipline loop correct it.
+The capture
+range of the loop is 500 PPM at an interval of 64s decreasing by a
+factor of two for each doubling of interval.
+At a minimum of 1,024
+s, for example, the capture range is only 31 PPM.
+If the intrinsic
+error is greater than this, the drift file
+.Pa ntp.drift
+will
+have to be specially tailored to reduce the residual error below
+this limit.
+Once this is done, the drift file is automatically
+updated once per hour and is available to initialize the frequency
+on subsequent daemon restarts.
+.Ss "The huff-n'-puff Filter"
+In scenarios where a considerable amount of data are to be
+downloaded or uploaded over telephone modems, timekeeping quality
+can be seriously degraded.
+This occurs because the differential
+delays on the two directions of transmission can be quite large.
+In
+many cases the apparent time errors are so large as to exceed the
+step threshold and a step correction can occur during and after the
+data transfer is in progress.
+.Pp
+The huff-n'-puff filter is designed to correct the apparent time
+offset in these cases.
+It depends on knowledge of the propagation
+delay when no other traffic is present.
+In common scenarios this
+occurs during other than work hours.
+The filter maintains a shift
+register that remembers the minimum delay over the most recent
+interval measured usually in hours.
+Under conditions of severe
+delay, the filter corrects the apparent offset using the sign of
+the offset and the difference between the apparent delay and
+minimum delay.
+The name of the filter reflects the negative (huff)
+and positive (puff) correction, which depends on the sign of the
+offset.
+.Pp
+The filter is activated by the
+.Ic tinker
+command and
+.Cm huffpuff
+keyword, as described in
+.Xr ntp.conf 5 .
+ _END_MDOC_USAGE;
+};
+
+doc-section = {
+ ds-type = 'FILES';
+ ds-format = 'mdoc';
+ ds-text = <<- _END_MDOC_FILES
+.Bl -tag -width /etc/ntp.drift -compact
+.It Pa /etc/ntp.conf
+the default name of the configuration file
+.It Pa /etc/ntp.drift
+the default name of the drift file
+.It Pa /etc/ntp.keys
+the default name of the key file
+.El
+ _END_MDOC_FILES;
+};
+
+doc-section = {
+ ds-type = 'SEE ALSO';
+ ds-format = 'mdoc';
+ ds-text = <<- _END_MDOC_SEE_ALSO
+.Xr ntp.conf 5 ,
+.Xr ntpdate 1ntpdatemdoc ,
+.Xr ntpdc 1ntpdcmdoc ,
+.Xr ntpq 1ntpqmdoc ,
+.Xr sntp 1sntpmdoc
+.Pp
+In addition to the manual pages provided,
+comprehensive documentation is available on the world wide web
+at
+.Li http://www.ntp.org/ .
+A snapshot of this documentation is available in HTML format in
+.Pa /usr/share/doc/ntp .
+.Rs
+.%A David L. Mills
+.%T Network Time Protocol (Version 1)
+.%O RFC1059
+.Re
+.Rs
+.%A David L. Mills
+.%T Network Time Protocol (Version 2)
+.%O RFC1119
+.Re
+.Rs
+.%A David L. Mills
+.%T Network Time Protocol (Version 3)
+.%O RFC1305
+.Re
+.Rs
+.%A David L. Mills
+.%A J. Martin, Ed.
+.%A J. Burbank
+.%A W. Kasch
+.%T Network Time Protocol Version 4: Protocol and Algorithms Specification
+.%O RFC5905
+.Re
+.Rs
+.%A David L. Mills
+.%A B. Haberman, Ed.
+.%T Network Time Protocol Version 4: Autokey Specification
+.%O RFC5906
+.Re
+.Rs
+.%A H. Gerstung
+.%A C. Elliott
+.%A B. Haberman, Ed.
+.%T Definitions of Managed Objects for Network Time Protocol Version 4: (NTPv4)
+.%O RFC5907
+.Re
+.Rs
+.%A R. Gayraud
+.%A B. Lourdelet
+.%T Network Time Protocol (NTP) Server Option for DHCPv6
+.%O RFC5908
+.Re
+ _END_MDOC_SEE_ALSO;
+};
+
+doc-section = {
+ ds-type = 'BUGS';
+ ds-format = 'mdoc';
+ ds-text = <<- _END_MDOC_BUGS
+The
+.Nm
+utility has gotten rather fat.
+While not huge, it has gotten
+larger than might be desirable for an elevated-priority
+.Nm
+running on a workstation, particularly since many of
+the fancy features which consume the space were designed more with
+a busy primary server, rather than a high stratum workstation in
+mind.
+ _END_MDOC_BUGS;
+};
+
+doc-section = {
+ ds-type = 'NOTES';
+ ds-format = 'mdoc';
+ ds-text = <<- _END_MDOC_NOTES
+Portions of this document came from FreeBSD.
+ _END_MDOC_NOTES;
+};
OpenPOWER on IntegriCloud