from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
Caterpillar knows all the error codes, which is more than most of us do.
Last update: 26-Jul-2015 06:26 UTC
This page lists the status words, event messages and error codes used for ntpd reporting and monitoring. Status words are used to display the current status of the running program. There is one system status word and a peer status word for each association. There is a clock status word for each association that supports a reference clock. There is a flash code for each association which shows errors found in the last packet received (pkt) and during protocol processing (peer). These are commonly viewed using the ntpq program.
Significant changes in program state are reported as events. There is one set of system events and a set of peer events for each association. In addition, there is a set of clock events for each association that supports a reference clock. Events are normally reported to the protostats monitoring file and optionally to the system log. In addition, if the trap facility is configured, events can be reported to a remote program that can page an administrator.
This page also includes a description of the error messages produced by the Autokey protocol. These messages are normally sent to the cryptostats monitoring file.
In the following tables the Event Field is the status or event code assigned and the Message Field a short string used for display and event reporting. The Description field contains a longer explanation of the status or event. Some messages include additional information useful for error diagnosis and performance assessment.
The system status word consists of four fields LI (0-1), Source (2-7), Count (8-11) and Event (12-15). It is reported in the first line of the rv display produced by the ntpq program.
Leap |
Source |
Count |
Event |
The Leap Field displays the system leap indicator bits coded as follows:
| Code | Message | Description |
| 0 | leap_none | normal synchronized state |
| 1 | leap_add_sec | insert second after 23:59:59 of the current day |
| 2 | leap_del_sec | delete second 23:59:59 of the current day |
| 3 | leap_alarm | never synchronized |
The Source Field displays the current synchronization source coded as follows:
| Code | Message | Description |
| 0 | sync_unspec | not yet synchronized |
| 1 | sync_pps | pulse-per-second signal (Cs, Ru, GPS, etc.) |
| 2 | sync_lf_radio | VLF/LF radio (WWVB, DCF77, etc.) |
| 3 | sync_hf_radio | MF/HF radio (WWV, etc.) |
| 4 | sync_uhf_radio | VHF/UHF radio/satellite (GPS, Galileo, etc.) |
| 5 | sync_local | local timecode (IRIG, LOCAL driver, etc.) |
| 6 | sync_ntp | NTP |
| 7 | sync_other | other (IEEE 1588, openntp, crony, etc.) |
| 8 | sync_wristwatch | eyeball and wristwatch |
| 9 | sync_telephone | telephone modem (ACTS, PTB, etc.) |
The Count Field displays the number of events since the last time the code changed. Upon reaching 15, subsequent events with the same code are ignored.
The Event Field displays the most recent event message coded as follows:
| Code | Message | Description |
| 00 | unspecified | unspecified |
| 01 | freq_not_set | frequency file not available |
| 02 | freq_set | frequency set from frequency file |
| 03 | spike_detect | spike detected |
| 04 | freq_mode | initial frequency training mode |
| 05 | clock_sync | clock synchronized |
| 06 | restart | program restart |
| 07 | panic_stop | clock error more than 600 s |
| 08 | no_system_peer | no system peer |
| 09 | leap_armed | leap second armed from file or Autokey |
| 0a | leap_disarmed | leap second disarmed |
| 0b | leap_event | leap event |
| 0c | clock_step | clock stepped |
| 0d | kern | kernel information message |
| 0e | TAI... | leapsecond values update from file |
| 0f | stale leapsecond values | new NIST leapseconds file needed |
The peer status word consists of four fields: Status (0-4), Select (5-7), Count (8-11) and Code (12-15). It is reported in the first line of the rv associd display produced by the ntpq program.
Status |
Select |
Count |
Code |
The Status Field displays the peer status code bits in hexadecimal; each bit is an independent flag. (Note this field is 5 bits wide, and combines with the the 3-bit-wide Select Field to create the first full byte of the peer status word.) The meaning of each bit in the Status Field is listed in the following table:
| Code | Message | Description |
| 08 | bcst | broadcast association |
| 10 | reach | host reachable |
| 20 | auth | authentication ok |
| 40 | authenb | authentication enabled |
| 80 | config | persistent association |
The Select Field displays the current selection status. (The T Field in the following table gives the corresponding tally codes used in the ntpq peers display.) The values are coded as follows:
| Code | Message | T | Description |
| 0 | sel_reject | discarded as not valid (TEST10-TEST13) | |
| 1 | sel_falsetick | x | discarded by intersection algorithm |
| 2 | sel_excess | . | discarded by table overflow (not used) |
| 3 | sel_outlier | - | discarded by the cluster algorithm |
| 4 | sel_candidate | + | included by the combine algorithm |
| 5 | sel_backup | # | backup (more than tos maxclock sources) |
| 6 | sel_sys.peer | * | system peer |
| 7 | sel_pps.peer | o | PPS peer (when the prefer peer is valid) |
The Count Field displays the number of events since the last time the code changed. Upon reaching 15, subsequent events with the same code are ignored.
The Event Field displays the most recent event message coded as follows:
| Code | Message | Description |
| 01 | mobilize | association mobilized |
| 02 | demobilize | association demobilized |
| 03 | unreachable | server unreachable |
| 04 | reachable | server reachable |
| 05 | restart | association restart |
| 06 | no_reply | no server found (ntpdate mode) |
| 07 | rate_exceeded | rate exceeded (kiss code RATE) |
| 08 | access_denied | access denied (kiss code DENY) |
| 09 | leap_armed | leap armed from server LI code |
| 0a | sys_peer | become system peer |
| 0b | clock_event | see clock status word |
| 0c | bad_auth | authentication failure |
| 0d | popcorn | popcorn spike suppressor |
| 0e | interleave_mode | entering interleave mode |
| 0f | interleave_error | interleave error (recovered) |
The clock status word consists of four fields: Unused (0-7), Count (8-11) and Code (12-15). It is reported in the first line of the clockvar associd display produced by the ntpq program.
Unused |
Count |
Code |
The Count Field displays the number of events since the last lockvar command, while the Event Field displays the most recent event message coded as follows:
| Code | Message | Description |
| 00 | clk_unspe | nominal |
| 01 | clk_noreply | no reply to poll |
| 02 | clk_badformat | bad timecode format |
| 03 | clk_fault | hardware or software fault |
| 04 | clk_bad_signal | signal loss |
| 05 | clk_bad_date | bad date format |
| 06 | clk_bad_time | bad time format |
When the clock driver sets the code to a new value, a clock_alarm (11) peer event is reported.
The flash status word is displayed by the ntpq program rv command. It consists of a number of bits coded in hexadecimal as follows:
| Code | Tag | Message | Description |
| 0001 | TEST1 | pkt_dup | duplicate packet |
| 0002 | TEST2 | pkt_bogus | bogus packet |
| 0004 | TEST3 | pkt_unsync | server not synchronized |
| 0008 | TEST4 | pkt_denied | access denied |
| 0010 | TEST5 | pkt_auth | authentication failure |
| 0020 | TEST6 | pkt_stratum | invalid leap or stratum |
| 0040 | TEST7 | pkt_header | header distance exceeded |
| 0080 | TEST8 | pkt_autokey | Autokey sequence error |
| 0100 | TEST9 | pkt_crypto | Autokey protocol error |
| 0200 | TEST10 | peer_stratum | invalid header or stratum |
| 0400 | TEST11 | peer_dist | distance threshold exceeded |
| 0800 | TEST12 | peer_loop | synchronization loop |
| 1000 | TEST13 | peer_unreach | unreachable or nonselect |
Kiss codes are used in kiss-o'-death (KoD) packets, billboard displays and log messages. They consist of a string of four zero-padded ASCII charactes. In practice they are informal and tend to change with time and implementation. Some of these codes can appear in the reference identifier field in ntpq billboards. Following is the current list:
| Code | Description |
| ACST | manycast server |
| AUTH | authentication error |
| AUTO | Autokey sequence error |
| BCST | broadcast server |
| CRYPT | Autokey protocol error |
| DENY | access denied by server |
| INIT | association initialized |
| MCST | multicast server |
| RATE | rate exceeded |
| TIME | association timeout |
| STEP | step time change |
These messages are sent to the cryptostats file when an error is detected in the Autokey protocol.
| Code | Message | Description |
| 01 | bad_format | bad extension field format or length |
| 02 | bad_timestamp | bad timestamp |
| 03 | bad_filestamp | bad filestamp |
| 04 | bad_public_key | bad or missing public key |
| 05 | bad_digest | unsupported digest type |
| 06 | bad_identity | unsupported identity type |
| 07 | bad_siglength | bad signature length |
| 08 | bad signature | extension field signature not verified |
| 09 | cert_not_verified | certificate signature not verified |
| 0a | cert_expired | host certificate expired |
| 0b | bad_cookie | bad or missing cookie |
| 0c | bad_leapseconds | bad or missing leapseconds values |
| 0d | cert_missing | bad or missing certificate |
| 0e | bad_group_key | bad or missing group key |
| 0f | proto_error | protocol error |