[ntp:questions] Re: Which ntpq command gives me the best idea of my clock error?

Joshua Coombs jcoombs at gwi.net
Fri Mar 18 14:22:24 UTC 2005


"Mxsmanic" <mxsmanic at hotmail.com> wrote in message 
news:idvk31997rbqcctrq689e2s0nd6rsdas40 at 4ax.com...
> Which command can I use in ntpq to tell me just how accurate/inaccurate
> my local RTC clock is?  I'm interested mainly in knowing how much it
> deviates from the correct time over the long term, expressed as x%
> accurate, or ppm of error, or something like that.  There are lots of
> commands that spit out lots of numbers, and I'm not sure which command
> and which number to look at.

ntpdc -c kerninfo, if your OS supports it, will spit out the ppm correction 
being applied to the clock by ntp.  The rougher means of getting that value, 
read your drift file every few hours or so.  If your clock is stable, the 
correction value won't change.  If you're drifting, you'll see it in 
varrying correction values.

(Basically, dump that number into RRD or something similar and graph it over 
time)

Joshua Coombs 





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