[wellylug] NTP

David Antliff david.antliff at gmail.com
Sat Dec 17 00:00:14 NZDT 2005


Cliff Pratt wrote:
> David Antliff wrote:
>> I think NTP only works if your time is within about 15 minutes of 
>> correct. You often need to use ntpdate or manually set the time before 
>> starting ntpd to bring it into range. I don't think ntpd does this 
>> automatically.
>>
> Stop, stop, stop! ntpd is *designed* to keep the time correct! If your 
> clock drifts enough to need being set manually there is something wrong, 
> even if you shut the machine down periodically as I do every night. ntpd 
> should keep it up to date.

Yes, if it's 'near-enough' correct at the time ntpd is started. Or can 
ntpd now cope with any arbitrary offset correction? There was a time 
where it would not work if the correct time and the system time varied 
by more than about 15 minutes. In another reply you said that ntpdate is 
"not necessary" and you suggest using 'date' instead. How exactly do you 
automate 'date' so that it corrects the time to a suitable degree for 
ntpd to run for a machine that has an arbitrarily set system clock? 
(Human intervention is not allowed)

If you haven't seen a RTC on an old PC drift much, you are either 
(un?)lucky or inexperienced. I had a machine that would drift by about 
an hour every 24 - ntpdate would run on boot, correcting the time 
(roughly) and then ntpd would take over and keep it in sync.

-- 
David.




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