Most systems rely on a daemon (like chronyd or ntpd) to synchronize time. But what if you just want to inspect the current offset between your system clock and one or more NTP servers - without root, without installing anything heavy and in a simple CLI command ?
RKIK is a Rust-based CLI tool designed for stateless and passive NTP inspection, just as dig or ping are for DNS and ICMP.
Link to Documentation page
- Query any NTP server (IPv4 or IPv6)
- Compare offsets between X servers
- Output formats: human-readable or JSON - both shortable (
-S) - Verbose mode for advanced metadata
- Accepts both FQDN and raw IPv4/6 addresses
- Continuous diag with either infinite or static count
- Port specification
# Download rkik-linux-x86_64.tar.gz on https://github.com/aguacero7/rkik/releases/latest
tar xvfz rkik-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
cd rkik-linux-x86_64/
sudo cp ./rkik /usr/local/bin# Download rkik-<X.Y.Z-R>.x86_64.rpm on https://github.com/aguacero7/rkik/releases/latest
rpm -U <rkik-<X.Y.Z-R>.x86_64.rpm>
# OR
dnf install <rkik-<X.Y.Z-R>.x86_64.rpm>
# OR
yum install <rkik-<X.Y.Z-R>.x86_64.rpm># Download rkik-<X.Y.Z-R>.x86_64.deb on https://github.com/aguacero7/rkik/releases/latest
apt install <rkik-<X.Y.Z-R>.x86_64.deb>cargo install rkikgit clone <repository-url>
cd rkik
cargo build --release
sudo cp target/release/rkik /usr/local/bin
rkik --helpTo enable rkik to apply queried time to your system, you must include sync feature to rkik's compilation
cargo build --release --features sync| Command | Description |
|---|---|
rkik -V |
Display rkik installed version |
rkik pool.ntp.org |
Query an NTP server (positional) |
rkik pool.ntp.org -6 |
Query an NTP server using IPv6 (positional) |
rkik pool.ntp.org:123 |
Same as above, explicit specification of a port |
rkik --server time.google.com -v |
Verbose query output |
rkik --server time.cloudflare.com -jp |
JSON output for a single server |
rkik --compare pool.ntp.org time.google.com |
Compare two servers |
rkik time.google.com -8 -j |
Continuously query a server and display a raw json output (useful for monitoring scripts) |
rkik es.pool.ntp.org -S |
Query a server and display a short minimalist output |
rkik -C ntp1 ntp2 -c 2 -i 0.1 --nocolor |
Compare 2 servers twice with an interval of 100ms and display a nocolor output |
rkik -S time.google.com --sync |
Query a server and apply returned time to system (sync feature -> requires root or specific permissions)) |
Human-readable:
Server: time.google.com
IP: 216.239.35.4:123
UTC Time: Wed, 3 Sep 2025 09:44:43 +0000
Local Time: 2025-09-03 11:44:43
Clock Offset: -6776478.958 ms
Round Trip Delay: 33.192 ms
JSON:
{
"schema_version": 1,
"run_ts": "2025-09-03T11:37:57.240321504+00:00",
"results": [
{
"name": "time.google.com",
"ip": "216.239.35.4",
"port": 123,
"offset_ms": -6774948.655983666,
"rtt_ms": 46.76786344498396,
"utc": "2025-09-03T09:45:02.291616786+00:00",
"local": "2025-09-03 11:45:02",
"timestamp": null
}
]
}
Rusty Klock Inspection Kit - NTP Query and Compare Tool
Usage: rkik [OPTIONS] [TARGET]
Arguments:
[TARGET] Positional server name or IP (can include port specification) - Examples: [time.google.com, [2001:4860:4860::8888]:123, 192.168.1.23:123]
Options:
-s, --server <SERVER> Query a single NTP server (optional)
-C, --compare <COMPARE> <COMPARE>... Compare multiple servers
-v, --verbose Show detailed output
-f, --format <FORMAT> Output format: text or json [default: text] [possible values: text, json, simple, json-short]
-j, --json Alias for JSON output
-S, --short Alias for simple / short text output
-p, --pretty Pretty-print JSON
--no-color Disable colored output
-6, --ipv6 Use IPv6 resolution only
--timeout <TIMEOUT> Timeout in seconds [default: 5.0]
-8, --infinite Infinite count mode
-i, --interval <INTERVAL> Interval between queries in seconds (only with --infinite or --count) [default: 1.0]
-c, --count <COUNT> Specific count of requests [default: 1]
-h, --help Print help
-V, --version Print versionSometimes, the monitoring system shows up with a ntp error on a server.
You don't know if the problem comes from this server or its reference.
Then you try rkik ntp.server.local -v
Server: ntp.server.local
IP: 192.168.1.123:123
UTC Time: Wed, 3 Sep 2025 13:06:15 +0000
Local Time: 2025-09-03 15:06:15
Clock Offset: 5000.145 ms
Round Trip Delay: 27.420 ms
Stratum: 2
Reference ID: 145.238.80.80At this moment, we can assure there is an offset between our system and the distant server, we can also know which is the reference of that server.
We will chick whether this reference has an offset with us or not with rkik 145.238.80.80
Server: 145.238.80.80
IP: 145.238.80.80:123
UTC Time: Wed, 3 Sep 2025 13:09:57 +0000
Local Time: 2025-09-03 15:09:57
Clock Offset: 5001.531 ms
Round Trip Delay: 8.804 msIt does, we now can assure the problem is external to our server, we may now connect on the system to change its reference with another server.