NTPD.CONF(5) BSD File Formats Manual NTPD.CONF(5)NAMEntpd.conf — Network Time Protocol daemon configuration file
DESCRIPTION
This manual page describes the format of the ntpd(8) configuration file.
ntpd.conf has the following format:
Empty lines and lines beginning with the ‘#’ character are ignored.
Keywords may be specified multiple times within the configuration file.
They are as follows:
listen on address [rtable table-id]
ntpd(8) has the ability to sync the local clock to remote NTP
servers and, if this directive is specified, can act as NTP
server itself, redistributing the local clock.
Specify a local IP address or a hostname the ntpd(8) daemon
should listen on to enable remote clients synchronization. If it
appears multiple times, ntpd(8) will listen on each given
address. If ‘*’ is given as an address, ntpd(8) will listen on
all local addresses using the specified routing table. ntpd(8)
does not listen on any address by default. The optional rtable
keyword will specify which routing table to listen on, if the
operating system supports rdomains. By default ntpd(8) will lis‐
ten using the current routing table. For example:
listen on *
or
listen on 127.0.0.1
listen on ::1
listen on 127.0.0.1 rtable 4
sensor device [correction microseconds] [weight weight-value] [refid
string] [stratum stratum-value]
Specify a timedelta sensor device ntpd(8) should use, if the
operating system supports sensors. The sensor can be specified
multiple times: ntpd(8) will use each given sensor that actually
exists. Non-existent sensors are ignored. If ‘*’ is given as
device name, ntpd(8) will use all timedelta sensors it finds.
ntpd(8) does not use any timedelta sensor by default. For exam‐
ple:
sensor *
sensor nmea0
An optional correction in microseconds can be given to compensate
for the sensor's offset. The maximum correction is 127 seconds.
For example, if a DCF77 receiver is lagging 70ms behind actual
time:
sensor udcf0 correction 70000
The optional weight keyword permits finer control over the rela‐
tive importance of time sources (servers or sensor devices).
Weights are specified in the range 1 to 10; if no weight is
given, the default is 1. A server with a weight of 5, for exam‐
ple, will have five times more influence on time offset calcula‐
tion than a server with a weight of 1.
An optional reference ID string - up to 4 ASCII characters - can
be given to publish the sensor type to clients. RFC 2030 sug‐
gests some common reference identifiers, but new identifiers "can
be contrived as appropriate." If an ID string is not given,
ntpd(8) will use a generic reference ID. For example:
sensor nmea0 refid GPS
A stratum value other than the default of 1 can be assigned using
the stratum keyword.
server address [weight weight-value] [rtable table-id]
Specify the IP address or the hostname of an NTP server to syn‐
chronize to. If it appears multiple times, ntpd(8) will try to
synchronize to all of the servers specified. The rtable option
specifies which routing table should be used for connection
attempts. Hostname resolution will still happen using the
default routing table. If a hostname resolves to multiple IPv4
and/or IPv6 addresses, ntpd(8) uses the first address. If it
does not get a reply, ntpd(8) retries with the next address and
continues to do so until a working address is found. For exam‐
ple:
server 10.0.0.2 weight 5
server ntp.example.org weight 1 rtable 4
To provide redundancy, it is good practice to configure multiple
servers. In general, best accuracy is obtained by using servers
that have a low network latency.
servers address [weight weight-value] [rtable table-id]
As with server, specify the IP address or hostname of an NTP
server to synchronize to. If it appears multiple times, ntpd(8)
will try to synchronize to all of the servers specified. Should
the hostname resolve to multiple IP addresses, ntpd(8) will try
to synchronize to all of them. For example:
servers pool.ntp.org
servers pool.ntp.org rtable 5
FILES
/usr/local/etc/ntpd.conf default ntpd(8) configuration file
SEE ALSOntpd(8), sysctl(8)HISTORY
The ntpd.conf file format first appeared in OpenBSD 3.6.
CAVEATS
When using different rtable options, ntpd(8) must be started in rtable 0.
BSD April 28, 2024 BSD
