HowTo: Verify My NTP Working Or Not

I've setup an NTP (Network Time Protocol) client and/or server to manage the system clock over a network. But, how do I verify that it is working correctly?

You can use any one of the following program to verify ntp client configuration:

ntpq - standard NTP query program
ntpstat - show network time synchronisation status

ntpstat command

The ntpstat command will report the synchronisation state of the NTP daemon running on the local machine. If the local system is found to be synchronised to a reference time source, ntpstat will report the approximate time accuracy.

exit status

You can use the exit status (return values) to verify its operations from a shell script or command line itself:

exit status 0 - Clock is synchronised.
exit status 1 - Cock is not synchronised.
exit status 2 - If clock state is indeterminant, for example if ntpd is not contactable.

Type the command as follows:
$ ntpstat
Sample outputs:

synchronised to NTP server (149.20.54.20) at stratum 3
   time correct to within 42 ms
   polling server every 1024 s

Use the echo command to display exit status of ntp client:
$ echo $?
Sample outputs:

ntpq command

The ntpq utility program is used to monitor NTP daemon ntpd operations and determine performance. The program can be run either in interactive mode or controlled using command line arguments. Type the following command
$ ntpq -pn
OR
$ ntpq -p
Sample outputs:

     remote           refid      st t when poll reach   delay   offset  jitter
==============================================================================
*dione.cbane.org 204.123.2.5      2 u  509 1024  377   51.661   -3.343   0.279
+ns1.your-site.c 132.236.56.252   3 u  899 1024  377   48.395    2.047   1.006
+ntp.yoinks.net  129.7.1.66       2 u  930 1024  377    0.693    1.035   0.241
 LOCAL(0)        .LOCL.          10 l   45   64  377    0.000    0.000   0.001

The above is an example of working ntp client. Where,

-p : Print a list of the peers known to the server as well as a summary of their state.
-n : Output all host addresses in dotted-quad numeric format rather than converting to the canonical host names.