Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: Stroller <stroller@××××××××××××××××××.uk>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: [gentoo-user] /etc/init.d/: ntpd or ntp-client?
Date: Wed, 04 Feb 2009 13:38:23
Message-Id: 43F46B7E-4EA3-471C-9C64-9A516B32FFE8@stellar.eclipse.co.uk
1 Hi there,
2
3 I just logged into one of my machines that has recently been powered
4 down for a few days - not a terribly common occurrence with my servers
5 - to find a date of January 30th showing.
6
7 I used to run ntp-client, but AIUI adding this to the default runlevel
8 only sets the clock once at boot up. Of course the problem with that
9 is that the computer's clock can become inaccurate if the spring
10 tension is weak, as is obviously the case in my older PCs.
11
12 So a while back I changed /etc/runlevels/default so that ntpd is
13 started instead.
14
15 I understood that ntpd was not only a server for my LAN (a facility I
16 don't use) but that it would also periodically check the time with
17 upstream servers & keep the machine's clock in constant sync.
18
19 So when I found the clock to be a week out of date I checked that ntpd
20 appeared to be running (it was) and restarted it. The date remained
21 the same. Stopping ntpd & starting ntp-client corrected the date
22 immediately.
23
24 Before I do any investigation, can someone tell me if my understanding
25 so far is correct? Is ntpd supposed to keep the machine's clock in
26 constant sync, or is it only (say) a server to offer the date to
27 clients? (depending upon the clock being set correctly by other means)
28 I thought I had configured ntpd with upstream servers separately from
29 ntp-client.
30
31 Stroller.

Replies

Subject Author
Re: [gentoo-user] /etc/init.d/: ntpd or ntp-client? Justin <justin@×××××××××.net>
Re: [gentoo-user] /etc/init.d/: ntpd or ntp-client? Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@×××××.com>
Re: [gentoo-user] /etc/init.d/: ntpd or ntp-client? Neil Bothwick <neil@××××××××××.uk>
Re: [gentoo-user] /etc/init.d/: ntpd or ntp-client? Dale <rdalek1967@×××××.com>