.\" $OpenBSD: ntpd.conf.5,v 1.24 2012/09/20 12:43:16 patrick Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 2003, 2004 Henning Brauer <henning@openbsd.org>
.\"
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.Dd $Mdocdate: September 20 2012 $
.Dt NTPD.CONF 5
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm ntpd.conf
.Nd Network Time Protocol daemon configuration file
.Sh DESCRIPTION
This manual page describes the format of the
.Xr ntpd 8
configuration file.
.Pp
.Nm
has the following format:
.Pp
Empty lines and lines beginning with the
.Sq #
character are ignored.
.Pp
Keywords may be specified multiple times within the configuration file.
They are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Xo Ic listen on Ar address
.Op Ic rtable Ar table-id
.Xc
Specify a local IP address or a hostname the
.Xr ntpd 8
daemon should listen on.
If it appears multiple times,
.Xr ntpd 8
will listen on each given address.
If
.Sq *
is given as an address,
.Xr ntpd 8
will listen on all local addresses using the specified routing table.
.Xr ntpd 8
does not listen on any address by default.
The optional
.Ic rtable
keyword will specify which routing table to listen on.
By default
.Xr ntpd 8
will listen using the current routing table.
For example:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
listen on *
.Ed
.Pp
or
.Bd -literal -offset indent
listen on 127.0.0.1
listen on ::1
listen on 127.0.0.1 rtable 4
.Ed
.It Xo Ic sensor Ar device
.Op Ic correction Ar microseconds
.Op Ic weight Ar weight-value
.Op Ic refid Ar string
.Op Ic stratum Ar stratum-value
.Xc
Specify a timedelta sensor device
.Xr ntpd 8
should use.
The sensor can be specified multiple times:
.Xr ntpd 8
will use each given sensor that actually exists.
Non-existent sensors are ignored.
If
.Sq *
is given as device name,
.Xr ntpd 8
will use all timedelta sensors it finds.
.Xr ntpd 8
does not use any timedelta sensor by default.
For example:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sensor *
sensor nmea0
.Ed
.Pp
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:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sensor udcf0 correction 70000
.Ed
.Pp
The optional
.Ic weight
keyword permits finer control over the relative 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 example,
will have five times more influence on time offset calculation
than a server with a weight of 1.
.Pp
An optional reference ID string - up to 4 ASCII characters - can be
given to publish the sensor type to clients.
RFC 2030 suggests some common reference identifiers, but new identifiers
"can be contrived as appropriate."
If an ID string is not given,
.Xr ntpd 8
will use a generic reference ID.
For example:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
sensor nmea0 refid GPS
.Ed
.Pp
A stratum value other than the default of 1 can be assigned using
the stratum keyword.
.It Xo Ic server Ar address
.Op Ic weight Ar weight-value
.Op Ic rtable Ar table-id
.Xc
Specify the IP address or the hostname of an NTP
server to synchronize to.
If it appears multiple times,
.Xr ntpd 8
will try to synchronize to all of the servers specified.
The
.Cm 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,
.Xr ntpd 8
uses the first address.
If it does not get a reply,
.Xr ntpd 8
retries with the next address and continues to do so until a working address
is found.
For example:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
server 10.0.0.2 weight 5
server ntp.example.org weight 1 rtable 4
.Ed
.Pp
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.
.It Xo Ic servers Ar address
.Op Ic weight Ar weight-value
.Op Ic rtable Ar table-id
.Xc
As with
.Cm server ,
specify the IP address or hostname of an NTP server to synchronize to.
If it appears multiple times,
.Xr ntpd 8
will try to synchronize to all of the servers specified.
Should the hostname resolve to multiple IP addresses,
.Xr ntpd 8
will try to synchronize to all of them.
For example:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
servers pool.ntp.org
servers pool.ntp.org rtable 5
.Ed
.El
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width "/etc/ntpd.confXXX" -compact
.It Pa /etc/ntpd.conf
default
.Xr ntpd 8
configuration file
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr ntpd 8 ,
.Xr sysctl 8
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
file format first appeared in
.Ox 3.6 .
.Sh CAVEATS
When using different
.Cm rtable
options,
.Xr ntpd 8
must be started in rtable 0.