Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)

FreeBSD Manual Pages

  
 
  

home | help
NTPD.CONF(5)		       File Formats Manual		    NTPD.CONF(5)

NAME
     ntpd.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.
     The basic configuration options 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 rdo-
	     mains.  By default ntpd(8) will listen 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

     query from sourceaddr
	     Specify a local IP address the ntpd(8) daemon should use for outgo-
	     ing  queries  to subsequently specified servers, which is useful on
	     machines with multiple interfaces.  For example:

		   query from 192.0.2.1
		   query from 2001:db8::1

     sensor  device  [correction  microseconds]   [refid   ID-string]	[stratum
	     stratum-value] [trusted] [weight weight-value]
	     Specify  a timedelta sensor device ntpd(8) should use, if the oper-
	     ating system supports sensors.  The sensor can be specified  multi-
	     ple 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 example:

		   sensor *
		   sensor nmea0

	     A	correction  in	microseconds  can be given to compensate for the
	     sensor's offset.  The maximum correction is 127 seconds.  For exam-
	     ple, if a DCF77 receiver is lagging 70ms behind actual time:

		   sensor udcf0 correction 70000

	     A refid ID-string of up 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 ap-
	     propriate." If an ID-string  is  not  given,  ntpd(8)  will  use  a
	     generic reference ID.  For example:

		   sensor nmea0 refid GPS

	     The  stratum  keyword  can be used to change the stratum value from
	     the default of 1.

	     The trusted keyword indicates the time learned is secure, trustwor-
	     thy,  and	not  vulnerable   to   man-in-the-middle   attacks,   so
	     constraints  validation  is  skipped.  This is useful for boot-time
	     correction in environments where constraints cannot be used.

	     The weight keyword permits finer control over the	relative  impor-
	     tance  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.

     server address [trusted] [weight weight-value]
	     Specify the IP address or the hostname of an NTP server to synchro-
	     nize  to.	 If  it appears multiple times, ntpd(8) will try to syn-
	     chronize to all of the servers specified.	If a  hostname	resolves
	     to  multiple IPv4 and/or IPv6 addresses, ntpd(8) uses the first ad-
	     dress.  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 example:

		   server 10.0.0.2 weight 5
		   server ntp.example.org weight 1

	     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 [trusted] [weight weight-value]
	     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 host-
	     name resolve to multiple IP addresses, ntpd(8) will try to synchro-
	     nize to all of them.  For example:

		   servers pool.ntp.org
		   servers pool.ntp.org weight 5

CONSTRAINTS
     ntpd(8) can be configured to query the `Date' from  trusted  HTTPS  servers
     via  TLS.	 This  time information is not used for precision but acts as an
     authenticated constraint, thereby reducing the  impact  of  unauthenticated
     NTP  man-in-the-middle attacks.  Received NTP packets with time information
     falling outside of a range near the constraint will be discarded  and  such
     NTP servers will be marked as invalid.

     Support  for  constraints is only available if ntpd(8) has been linked with
     libtls from  LibreSSL.  Configuring  a  constraint  without  libtls  causes
     ntpd(8) to log a warning message on startup.

     constraint from url [ip...]
	     Specify  the  URL, IP address or the hostname of an HTTPS server to
	     provide a constraint.  If the url is followed by one  or  more  ad-
	     dresses  the url and addresses will be tried until a working one is
	     found.  The url path and expected certificate name is always  taken
	     from the url specified.  If constraint from is used more than once,
	     ntpd(8)  will  calculate  a  median constraint from all the servers
	     specified.

		   server ntp.example.org
		   constraint from www.example.com
		   constraint from "https://9.9.9.9" "2620:fe::9"

     constraints from url
	     As with constraint from, specify the URL, IP address or  the  host-
	     name  of an HTTPS server to provide a constraint.	Should the host-
	     name resolve to multiple IP addresses, ntpd(8) will calculate a me-
	     dian constraint from all of them.	For example:

		   servers pool.ntp.org
		   constraints from "https://www.google.com/"

FILES
     /usr/local/etc/ntpd.conf	  Default ntpd(8) configuration file.

SEE ALSO
     ntpctl(8), ntpd(8), sysctl(8)

HISTORY
     The ntpd.conf file format first appeared in OpenBSD 3.6.

FreeBSD ports 15.quarterly	  May 16, 2020			    NTPD.CONF(5)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ntpd.conf&sektion=5&manpath=FreeBSD+Ports+15.1.quarterly>

home | help