.\" $OpenBSD: ntpd.conf.5,v 1.9 2004/11/08 19:09:19 otto Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 2003, 2004 Henning Brauer <henning@openbsd.org>
.\"
.\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
.\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
.\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
.\"
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.\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
.\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
.\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
.\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF MIND, USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN
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.\"
.Dd June 17, 2004
.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.
It 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 Ic listen on Ar address
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.
.Xr ntpd 8
does not listen on any address by default.
For example:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
listen on *
listen on 127.0.0.1
listen on ::1
.Ed
.It Ic server Ar address
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.
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
server ntp.example.org
.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 Ic servers Ar address
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
.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
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
file format first appeared in
.Ox 3.6 .