// Explain the MRU stall problem and why ntpq has 'direct' mode.

This program will behave in apparently buggy and only semi-predictable
ways when fetching MRU lists from _any_ server with sufficiently high
traffic.

The problem is fundamental. The Mode 6 protocol can't ship (and your
client cannot accept) MRU records as fast as the daemon accepts
incoming traffic. Under these circumstances, the daemon will
repeatedly fail to ship an entire report, leading to long
hangs as your client repeatedly re-sends the request. Eventually the
Mode 6 client library will throw an error indicating that a maximum
number of restarts has been exceeded.

To avoid this problem, avoid monitoring over links that don't have
enough capacity to handle the monitored server's _entire_ NTP load.



