[Mageia-dev] Why ntpdate still there?

[Pierre Jarillon]

Le lundi 11 février 2013 13:18:23, Colin Guthrie a écrit :
> So ntpdate as a service is just a one-shot thing, it happens once at
> boot to ensure the clocks are properly set and then ntpd takes over for
> the rest of the time that machine stays up.
> 
> As far as I'm aware, there is nothing integrated into crontab regarding
> ntpdate, but please feel free to correct me on that one.

Yes, this was the old system. I am not an expert in ntp, but I have read 
carefully http://ntp.org few years ago and I return on it now and then.
I can miss something... I am not the truth!

On the web site http://www.ntp.org/  ->Implementation Documentation
http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~mills/ntp/html/ntpdate.html said:
Disclaimer: The functionality of this program is now available in the ntpd 
program. See the -q command line option in the ntpd - Network Time Protocol 
(NTP) daemon page. After a suitable period of mourning, the ntpdate program is 
to be retired from this distribution

And http://www.eecis.udel.edu/~mills/ntp/html/ntpd.html and the man tell us:

-q
Exit the ntpd just after the first time the clock is set. This behavior mimics 
that of the ntpdate program, which is to be retired. The -g and -x options can 
be used with this option. Note: The kernel time discipline is disabled with 
this option.
-g
Normally, ntpd exits with a message to the system log if the offset exceeds the 
panic threshold, which is 1000 s by default. This option allows the time to be 
set to any value without restriction; however, this can happen only once. If 
the threshold is exceeded after that, ntpd will exit with a message to the 
system log. This option can be used with the -q and -x options. See the tinker 
command for other options.

The same options are set in the man of ntp.

IMO, ntpdate should be replaced with: ntpd -gq
I don't understand why ntpdate is listed as an active daemon in drakxservices.

In /etc/sysconfig/ntpd :
- Mageia 1 : OPTIONS="-u ntp:ntp -p /var/run/ntpd.pid"
- Mageia 2 : OPTIONS="-g"
- Mageia 3 : OPTIONS="-g"

Then it seems that ntpdate is no longer useful since Mageia 2.

-- 
Pierre Jarillon - http://pjarillon.free.fr/
Vice-président de l'ABUL : http://abul.org
Microsoft is for computers what McDonald is for French gastronomy