CLI Reference

CLI reference

ntpstats <command> --help shows every option. Common input options (info, stability, dynamic, plot, network, filter, report):

Option	Meaning
-f/--format	force a format instead of auto-detection; profile:NAME or profile:FILE.toml for instrument exports
--negate	flip the offset sign (for sources that log local − reference)
--peer ADDR / --all-peers	pick one peer/source (substring match) or analyse all
--start, --end	time window (POSIX seconds or ISO 8601 UTC)
--outliers K	drop samples beyond K·MAD of the detrended median
--tau0 S	sample interval of single-column files; also the stability grid

Command	Purpose
info	summary statistics (percentiles, trend, gaps, auxiliary columns)
timeerror	max|TE|, cTE, dTE_L/dTE_H, max|TEL|, MTIE/TDEV of dTE_L; --limits, --mask (exit code 3 on failure), --input-is-te, --units (PTP & time error)
convert	write a log as a Stable32 phase/frequency file, plain CSV or Parquet (--to, --no-timetags)
stability	ADEV/OADEV/MDEV/TDEV/HDEV/TOTDEV/MTOT/TTOT/HTOT/Theo1/TheoBR/TheoH/MTIE/TIErms with CIs; --mask FILE (exit code 3 on failure), --exact, --raw-mtot, --csv, --json
dynamic	sliding-window stability matrix (time × τ)
network	delay floor, queueing, asymmetry indicator, floor packet percentage
filter	Kalman / RTS smoother / min-delay filter, output CSV
compare A B	error of A against reference B: bias, RMS, TDEV and MTIE of the error
plot	static report figure (matplotlib)
report	self-contained HTML report; --time-error adds time-error cards and a TE/TEL chart
simulate	simulate NTP exchanges with ground truth; --benchmark
bench	estimators × scenarios × seeds against ground truth; --html, --csv, --list; trace:FILE replays a capture or log
trace	per-direction delays of a capture or log (floors, PDV, loss), --csv to replay it (Trace replay)
chain	simulate a PTP grandmaster and N boundary clocks; time error per hop and at the end against a class and budget; exit code 3 on failure
query	one-shot measurement: NTPv4, --nts, --pool N (NTS pool), --interleaved (RFC 9769), --ntpv5, --probe-v5, -4/-6 (Protocols)
roughtime	signed coarse time from several Roughtime servers, chained nonces, causal check; --report writes a malfeasance report, --verify-report, --check-local; exit code 3 on malfeasance
monitor	periodic SNTP/NTS/NTPv5 measurements to CSV (polite polling); --metrics-port serves OpenMetrics, --otlp pushes to OpenTelemetry (Monitoring)
watch	sample the local chrony (chronyc -c tracking), ntpd (ntpq -c rv), ptp4l (pmc) or ptpcheck; --metrics-port as for monitor
audit	UTC traceability evidence: per-sample error bound with stated assumptions, windows, coverage; HTML/JSON with input hashes; exit code 3 on failure (Assurance)
events	phase steps, spikes, frequency changes, delay-floor (route) changes and leap smears
prom	fetch a Prometheus range query (ntpd-rs, chrony_exporter, …) to a JSON file every command reads
noise	fit h_α (white/flicker PM, white/flicker/random-walk FM, optional drift) with bootstrap intervals and corner τ; --scenario writes a simulator clock (Metrology)
spectrum (psd)	phase or frequency PSD (Welch or sine multitaper, gap-aware, log bins), --carrier for L(f)
hat	individual stability of 3+ sources from their differences: Groslambert covariance, three- or N-cornered hat
holdover	predicted TIE after loss of reference, time to violate --limits, --backtest calibration, --min-holdover (exit code 3)
plugins	installed plugins (parsers, estimators, detectors, masks, profiles) and load errors (Writing a plugin)
dataset	summary of the open interop dataset (data/interop/): availability, median offset and delay, protocol support per server
cv	GNSS time transfer between two CGGTTS files: common view or all in view (Research data)
bounds	validate clock-error bounds (ClockBound, fbclock, CSV) against a reference; exit code 3 on violations
ui	start the local web UI