How to get time from an NTP server?

Question

I need to get the time for the UK from an NTP server. Found stuff online however any time I try out the code, I always get a return date time, the same as my computer. I changed the time on my computer to confirm this, and I always get that, so it's not coming from the NTP server.

import ntplib
from time import ctime
c = ntplib.NTPClient()
response = c.request('uk.pool.ntp.org', version=3)
response.offset
print (ctime(response.tx_time))
print (ntplib.ref_id_to_text(response.ref_id))

x = ntplib.NTPClient()
print ((x.request('ch.pool.ntp.org').tx_time))

Recuperative

Answer 1

This will work (Python 3):

import socket
import struct
import sys
import time

def RequestTimefromNtp(addr='0.de.pool.ntp.org'):
    REF_TIME_1970 = 2208988800  # Reference time
    client = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_DGRAM)
    data = b'\x1b' + 47 * b'\0'
    client.sendto(data, (addr, 123))
    data, address = client.recvfrom(1024)
    if data:
        t = struct.unpack('!12I', data)[10]
        t -= REF_TIME_1970
    return time.ctime(t), t

if __name__ == "__main__":
    print(RequestTimefromNtp())

Shirelyshirey

To make it work for me this line had to be explicitly bytes: data = b'\x1b' + 47 * b'\0' – Linsang

For the UK use addr='0.uk.pool.ntp.org'. – Aniakudo

Answer 2

The timestamps returned as call to the NTP server returns time in seconds. ctime() provides datetime format based on local machine's timezone settings by default. Thus, for uk timezone you need to convert tx_time using that timezone. Python's in-built datetime module contains function for this purpose

import ntplib
from datetime import datetime, timezone
c = ntplib.NTPClient()
# Provide the respective ntp server ip in below function
response = c.request('uk.pool.ntp.org', version=3)
response.offset
print (datetime.fromtimestamp(response.tx_time, timezone.utc))

UTC timezone used here. For working with different timezones you can use pytz library

Mississippian

Answer 3

This is basically Ahmads answer but working for me on Python 3. I am currently keen on Arrow as simplifying times and then you get:

import arrow
import socket
import struct
import sys

def RequestTimefromNtp(addr='0.de.pool.ntp.org'):
    REF_TIME_1970 = 2208988800      # Reference time
    client = socket.socket( socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_DGRAM )
    data = b'\x1b' + 47 * b'\0'
    client.sendto( data, (addr, 123))
    data, address = client.recvfrom( 1024 )
    if data:
        t = struct.unpack( '!12I', data )[10]
        t -= REF_TIME_1970
    return arrow.get(t)

print(RequestTimefromNtp())

Linsang

Answer 4

The following function is working well using python 3:

def GetNTPDateTime(server):
    try:
        ntpDate = None
        client = ntplib.NTPClient()
        response = client.request(server, version=3)
        ntpDate = ctime(response.tx_time)
        print (ntpDate)
    except Exception as e:
        print (e)
    return datetime.datetime.strptime(ntpDate, "%a %b %d %H:%M:%S %Y")

Mcandrew

requires the following imports: from time import * import ntplib import datetime also, the line "response.offset" does nothing also, to get the ntp unix time one only has to run: client = ntplib.NTPClient() response = client.request(server, version=3) (and only import ntplib) – Dunfermline

Answer 5

I used ntplib server and get date and change format in dd-mm-yyyy

Apologize

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