PTP4l(8) System Manager's Manual PTP4l(8)
NAME
ptp4l - PTP Boundary/Ordinary Clock
SYNOPSIS
ptp4l [ -AEP246HSLmqsv ] [ -f config ] [ -p phc-device ] [ -l print-level ] [ -i interface ] ...
DESCRIPTION
ptp4l is an implementation of the Precision Time Protocol (PTP) according to IEEE standard 1588 for Linux. It implements Boundary Clock
(BC) and Ordinary Clock (OC).
OPTIONS
-A Select the delay mechanism automatically. Start with E2E and switch to P2P when a peer delay request is received.
-E Select the delay request-response (E2E) mechanism. This is the default mechanism. All clocks on single PTP communication path must
use the same mechanism. A warning will be printed when a peer delay request is received on port using the E2E mechanism.
-P Select the peer delay (P2P) mechanism. A warning will be printed when a delay request is received on port using the P2P mechanism.
-2 Select the IEEE 802.3 network transport.
-4 Select the UDP IPv4 network transport. This is the default transport.
-6 Select the UDP IPv6 network transport.
-H Select the hardware time stamping. All ports specified by the -i option and in the configuration file must be attached to the same
PTP hardware clock (PHC). This is the default time stamping.
-S Select the software time stamping.
-L Select the legacy hardware time stamping.
-f config
Read configuration from the specified file. No configuration file is read by default.
-i interface
Specify a PTP port, it may be used multiple times. At least one port must be specified by this option or in the configuration file.
-p phc-device
With hardware time stamping, force which PHC device (e.g. /dev/ptp0) should be used.
-s Enable the slaveOnly mode.
-l print-level
Set the maximum syslog level of messages which should be printed or sent to the system logger. The default is 6 (LOG_INFO).
-m Print messages to the standard output.
-q Don't send messages to the system logger.
-v Prints the software version and exits.
-h Display a help message.
CONFIGURATION FILE
The configuration file is divided into sections. Each section starts with a line containing its name enclosed in brackets and it follows
with settings. Each setting is placed on a separate line, it contains the name of the option and the value separated by whitespace charac-
ters. Empty lines and lines starting with # are ignored.
The global section (indicated as [global]) sets the program options, clock options and default port options. Other sections are port spe-
cific sections and they override the default port options. The name of the section is the name of the configured port (e.g. [eth0]).
Ports specified in the configuration file don't need to be specified by the -i option. An empty port section can be used to replace the
command line option.
PORT OPTIONS
delayAsymmetry
The time difference in nanoseconds of the transmit and receive paths. This value should be positive when the master-to-slave propa-
gation time is longer and negative when the slave-to-master time is longer. The default is 0 nanoseconds.
logAnnounceInterval
The mean time interval between Announce messages. A shorter interval makes ptp4l react faster to the changes in the master-slave
hierarchy. The interval should be the same in the whole domain. It's specified as a power of two in seconds. The default is 1 (2
seconds).
logSyncInterval
The mean time interval between Sync messages. A shorter interval may improve accuracy of the local clock. It's specified as a power
of two in seconds. The default is 0 (1 second).
logMinDelayReqInterval
The minimum permitted mean time interval between Delay_Req messages. A shorter interval makes ptp4l react faster to the changes in
the path delay. It's specified as a power of two in seconds. The default is 0 (1 second).
logMinPdelayReqInterval
The minimum permitted mean time interval between Pdelay_Req messages. It's specified as a power of two in seconds. The default is 0
(1 second).
announceReceiptTimeout
The number of missed Announce messages before the last Announce messages expires. The default is 3.
transportSpecific
The transport specific field. Must be in the range 0 to 255. The default is 0.
path_trace_enabled
Enable the mechanism used to trace the route of the Announce messages. The default is 0 (disabled).
follow_up_info
Include the 802.1AS data in the Follow_Up messages if enabled. The default is 0 (disabled).
fault_reset_interval
The time in seconds between the detection of a port's fault and the fault being reset. This value is expressed as a power of two.
Setting this value to -128 or to the special key word "ASAP" will let the fault be reset immediately. The default is 4 (16 sec-
onds).
fault_badpeernet_interval
The time in seconds between the detection of a peer network misconfiguration and the fault being reset. The port is disabled for the
duration of the interval. The value is in seconds and the special key word ASAP will let the fault be reset immediately. The
default is 16 seconds.
delay_mechanism
Select the delay mechanism. Possible values are E2E, P2P and Auto. The default is E2E.
network_transport
Select the network transport. Possible values are UDPv4, UDPv6 and L2. The default is UDPv4.
neighborPropDelayThresh
Upper limit for peer delay in nanoseconds. If the estimated peer delay is greater than this value the port is marked as not 802.1AS
capable.
PROGRAM AND CLOCK OPTIONS
twoStepFlag
Enable two-step mode for sync messages. One-step mode can be used only with hardware time stamping. The default is 1 (enabled).
slaveOnly
The local clock is a slave-only clock if enabled. The default is 0 (disabled).
priority1
The priority1 attribute of the local clock. It is used in the best master selection algorithm, lower values take precedence. Must be
in the range 0 to 255. The default is 128.
priority2
The priority2 attribute of the local clock. It is used in the best master selection algorithm, lower values take precedence. Must be
in the range 0 to 255. The default is 128.
clockClass
The clockClass attribute of the local clock. It denotes the traceability of the time distributed by the grandmaster clock. The
default is 248.
clockAccuracy
The clockAccuracy attribute of the local clock. It is used in the best master selection algorithm. The default is 0xFE.
offsetScaledLogVariance
The offsetScaledLogVariance attribute of the local clock. It characterizes the stability of the clock. The default is 0xFFFF.
domainNumber
The domain attribute of the local clock. The default is 0.
free_running
Don't adjust the local clock if enabled. The default is 0 (disabled).
freq_est_interval
The time interval over which is estimated the ratio of the local and peer clock frequencies. It is specified as a power of two in
seconds. The default is 1 (2 seconds).
assume_two_step
Treat one-step responses as two-step if enabled. It is used to work around buggy 802.1AS switches. The default is 0 (disabled).
tx_timestamp_timeout
The number of milliseconds to poll waiting for the tx time stamp from the kernel when a message has recently been sent. The default
is 1.
clock_servo
The servo which is used to synchronize the local clock. Currently only one servo is implemented, a PI controller. The default is
pi.
pi_proportional_const
The proportional constant of the PI controller. When set to 0.0, the proportional constant will be set by the following formula from
the current sync interval. The default is 0.0.
kp = min(kp_scale * sync^kp_exponent, kp_norm_max / sync))
pi_integral_const
The integral constant of the PI controller. When set to 0.0, the integral constant will be set by the following formula from the
current sync interval. The default is 0.0.
ki = min(ki_scale * sync^ki_exponent, ki_norm_max / sync)
pi_proportional_scale
The kp_scale constant in the formula used to set the proportional constant of the PI controller from the sync interval. When set to
0.0, the value will be selected from 0.7 and 0.1 for the hardware and software time stamping respectively. The default is 0.0.
pi_proportional_exponent
The kp_exponent constant in the formula used to set the proportional constant of the PI controller from the sync interval. The
default is -0.3.
pi_proportional_norm_max
The kp_norm_max constant in the formula used to set the proportional constant of the PI controller from the sync interval. The
default is 0.7
pi_integral_scale
The ki_scale constant in the formula used to set the integral constant of the PI controller from the sync interval. When set to 0.0,
the value will be selected from 0.3 and 0.001 for the hardware and software time stamping respectively. The default is 0.0.
pi_integral_exponent
The ki_exponent constant in the formula used to set the integral constant of the PI controller from the sync interval. The default
is 0.4.
pi_integral_norm_max
The ki_norm_max constant in the formula used to set the integral constant of the PI controller from the sync interval. The default
is 0.3.
pi_offset_const
The maximum offset the PI controller will correct by changing the clock frequency instead of stepping the clock. When set to 0.0,
the controller will never step the clock except on start. The default is 0.0.
pi_f_offset_const
The maximum offset the PI controller will correct by changing the clock frequency instead of stepping the clock. This is only
applied on the first update. When set to 0.0, the controller won't step the clock on start. The default is 0.0000001 (100 nanosec-
onds).
pi_max_frequency
The maximum allowed frequency adjustment of the clock in parts per billion (ppb). This is an additional limit to the maximum allowed
by the hardware. When set to 0, the hardware limit will be used. The default is 900000000 (90%).
ptp_dst_mac
The MAC address where should be PTP messages sent. Relevant only with L2 transport. The default is 01:1B:19:00:00:00.
p2p_dst_mac
The MAC address where should be peer delay messages the PTP peer. Relevant only with L2 transport. The default is
01:80:C2:00:00:0E.
udp6_scope
Specifies the desired scope for the IPv6 multicast messages. This will be used as the second byte of the primary address. This
option is only relevant with IPv6 transport. See RFC 4291. The default is 0x0E for the global scope.
logging_level
The maximum logging level of messages which should be printed. The default is 6 (LOG_INFO).
verbose
Print messages to the standard output if enabled. The default is 0 (disabled).
use_syslog
Print messages to the system log if enabled. The default is 1 (enabled).
summary_interval
The time interval in which are printed summary statistics of the clock. It is specified as a power of two in seconds. The statistics
include offset root mean square (RMS), maximum absolute offset, frequency offset mean and standard deviation, and path delay mean
and standard deviation. The units are nanoseconds and parts per billion (ppb). If there is only one clock update in the interval,
the sample will be printed instead of the statistics. The messages are printed at the LOG_INFO level. The default is 0 (1 second).
time_stamping
The time stamping method. The allowed values are hardware, software and legacy. The default is hardware.
productDescription
The product description string. Allowed values must be of the form manufacturerName;modelNumber;instanceIdentifier and contain at
most 64 utf8 symbols. The default is ";;".
revisionData
The revision description string which contains the revisions for node hardware (HW), firmware (FW), and software (SW). Allowed val-
ues are of the form HW;FW;SW and contain at most 32 utf8 symbols. The default is an ";;".
userDescription
The user description string. Allowed values are of the form name;location and contain at most 128 utf8 symbols. The default is an
empty string.
manufacturerIdentity
The manufacturer id which should be an OUI owned by the manufacturer. The default is 00:00:00.
kernel_leap
When a leap second is announced, let the kernel apply it by stepping the clock instead of correcting the one-second offset with
servo, which would correct the one-second offset slowly by changing the clock frequency (unless the pi_offset_const option is set to
correct such offset by stepping). Relevant only with software time stamping. The default is 1 (enabled).
timeSource
The time source is a single byte code that gives an idea of the kind of local clock in use. The value is purely informational, hav-
ing no effect on the outcome of the Best Master Clock algorithm, and is advertised when the clock becomes grand master.
TIME SCALE USAGE
ptp4l as domain master either uses PTP or UTC time scale depending on time stamping mode. In software and legacy time stamping modes it
announces Arbitrary time scale mode, which is effectively UTC here, in hardware time stamping mode it announces use of PTP time scale.
When ptp4l is the domain master using hardware time stamping, it is up to phc2sys to maintain the correct offset between UTC and PTP times.
See phc2sys(8) manual page for more details.
SEE ALSO
pmc(8), phc2sys(8)
linuxptp July 2013 PTP4l(8)