An IPv6 Enabled NTP Client for Windows in Python

Python NTP library (ntplib) offers a simple interface to query NTP servers from Python. But it does not support IPv6 NTP servers. I wrote a patch for ntplib to support IPv6 connections. You can download the patch file here and the patched library here.

The code bellow is a simple IPv6 enabled NTP client (ntpdate.py) in Python for Windows, using the patched ntplib. It doesn't (and won't) support Linux because the official NTP release offers IPv6 support on that platform.

#!/usr/bin/env python
# ntpdate.py - set the date and time via NTP
# An IPv6 enabled ntp client, for Windows ONLY.

import ntplib, time
from os import system
from sys import argv

def usage():
  print '''Usage: ntpdate.py  [-qh] server
Example:
  ntpdate.py 210.72.145.44      # IPv4
  ntpdate.py ntp6.remco.org     # IPv6
Options:

  -q     Query only - don't set the clock.
  -h     Print this message.

IPv6 NTP Server List:
  ntp6.remco.org               [2001:888:1031::2]
  ntp6.space.net               [2001:608:0:dff::2]
  time.buptnet.edu.cn          [2001:da8:202:10::60]
  time.join.uni-muenster.de    [2001:638:500:717:2e0:4bff:fe04:bc5f]
  ntp.sixxs.net                [2001:1291:2::b]
  ntp.eu.sixxs.net             [2001:808::66]
  ntp.us.sixxs.net             [2001:1291:2::b]
  ntp.rhrk.uni-kl.de           [2001:638:208:9::116]
  ntp.ipv6.uni-leipzig.de      [2001:638:902:1::10]
  ntp.hexago.com               [2001:5c0:0:2::25]
  ntp1.bit.nl                  [2001:7b8:3:2c::123]

Report bugs to http://solrex.org.'''
  sys.exit()

def main():
  ntp_svr = ''
  query = False

  for a in argv[1:]:
    if a == '-q':
      query = True
    elif a == '-h':
      usage()
    else:
      ntp_svr = a
  if ntp_svr == '':
    usage()

  c = ntplib.NTPClient()
  res = c.request(ntp_svr, version=3)
  t_epoch = res.offset + res.delay + time.time()
  t = time.localtime(t_epoch)
  centi_sec = t_epoch%1 * 100
  time_str = time.strftime('%H:%M:%S', t)
  if not query:
    system('time %s.%2.0f' % (time_str, centi_sec))
    date_str = time.strftime('%Y-%m-%d', t)
    system('date %s' % date_str)
  if query:
    print 'server %s, stratum %d, offset %f, delay %f' % (
           ntp_svr, res.stratum, res.offset, res.delay)
  print '%s %s ntpdate.py: time server %s offset %f sec' % (
         time.strftime('%d %b', t), time_str, ntp_svr, res.offset)

if __name__ == '__main__':
  main()