[pkg-ntp-maintainers] Bug#370332: Bug#370332: ntp: keep server list separate from other ntp.conf settings

[Kurt Roeckx]

On Wed, Feb 06, 2008 at 02:43:08PM +1100, Drew Parsons wrote:
> I've noticed over the last year or so occasional updates have been made
> to /etc/ntp.conf.  Because I've tried to optimise my server list to use
> local servers, I've missed these changes.  During the upgrade I get the
> option to accept the new version of /etc/ntp.conf or to keep my current
> version, so I kept the old, not wanting to have to go through my server
> list again.  

You can also look at the diff and merge them.

> But I think some of the non-server changes to /etc/ntp.conf must have
> been important, and in fact I eventually reached the point where ntp
> plain failed to work, e.g.
> Feb 6 13:48:53 pug ntpd_initres[5745]: ntpd returns a permission denied
> error!

You probably have:
restrict 127.0.0.1 nomodify

Which should get changed to:
restrict 127.0.0.1

That will allow the slave process to set the ip addresses.

> I think it must be a relatively common configuration, to want to define
> your own servers but otherwise leave other ntp.conf settings at their
> default values.
> 
> It would therefore make sense if the server list could be read in from a
> separate file, /etc/ntp.servers say.  This could be done either as an
> #include mechanism reading /etc/ntp.conf (bug #370332 says this does not
> yet exist),

The current version has an "includefile" option which you can use for
this.


Kurt