NTPSTAT(1)

💖 NTPSTAT — bestie edition 💖

okay so this is ntpstat(1), a little section 1 manual page, and honestly? it's giving "tiny script, huge main character energy." she prints NTP synchronisation status. that's it. that's the whole job. and she ATE. ✨

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✨ NAME ✨

ntpstat — Print NTP synchronisation status 🕐💅

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

ntpstat [-m MAXERROR]

like… one optional flag. we love a low-maintenance queen. 👑

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so ntpstat is a script, and what she does is print a lil brief summary of your system clock's synchronisation status — but ONLY when the ntpd or chronyd daemon is actually running, bestie. no daemon, no tea. 🙈

when she does run, she spills all of this:

• the time source (an NTP server or a reference clock) that your system clock is currently synchronised to
• its stratum
• how often the server gets polled
• the maximum estimated error of the clock

and the way she gets all that info is by calling up her besties ntpq or chronyc and asking the daemon directly. queen never guesses, she ASKS. 🫶

okay now the important lore. following the NTPv4 specification (RFC 5905): if your time source becomes unreachable and there are no other sources that could be selected, the status of the clock will still be "synchronised" — but the maximum error will be slowly increasing. so like… technically fine? technically?? it's giving "smiling through the pain" 😭 the error is literally creeping up on you and the status is out here saying everything's chill.

exit statuses — memorize these, they're the whole vibe check:

• 0 — the clock is synchronised ✅ slay
• 1 — the clock is not synchronised 💀
• 2 — the status could not be determined, e.g. when the daemon is not running 🤷
• 3 — an invalid command-line option was specified 🙃

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -m MAXERROR — specify a maximum acceptable error of the clock, in milliseconds. so if the clock IS synchronised, but its maximum estimated error is larger than MAXERROR, or is unknown, then ntpstat will exit with a status of 1. yes bestie, she WILL call it out. that's boundaries. 💖
• -h — print a help message and exit. the classic. the icon. the escape hatch. 🌈

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⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

ntpd(8), ntpq(8), chronyd(8), chronyc(1)

the whole friend group, fr fr 🦋

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and that's the page!! this was ntpstat, from the NTPSTAT(1) manual (section 1, general commands manual, the classic). go check your sync status bestie, and remember: "synchronised" with a slowly growing error is still technically synchronised. iykyk. 💜🎀