[pkg-ntp-maintainers] Bug#484974: Bug#484974: Bug#484974: Bug#484974: ntpdate's ip-up script runs even for virtual interfaces

[Steve Kostecke]

Josip Rodin said:

>On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 10:18:24PM -0400, Steve Kostecke wrote:
>
>> A better question is why are you using ntpdate at all?

[snip]

>I answered this earlier, but here goes one more time: I use ntpdate for its
>exact simplest purpose - setting the clock ad hoc from a specified NTP
>server. The machine doesn't have ntpd installed, and I either don't want
>it at all, or I don't want ntpd but openntpd on it.

ntpdate is not that much different from rdate (except for the fact that
ntpdate can slew the clock and, of course, the protocol being used).

ntpdate just polls the given servers and uses the first response.
ntpdate does not compare the responses from multiple sources to
ascertain the correct time; so it is possible for ntpdate to use an
incorrect time.

ntpd -gq is the recommended replacement for ntpdate. Unless you need to
use ntpdate's debug/query or alternate source port features.

ntpq -gq uses all ntpd features (including Autokey/SymmetricKey
authentication, clock selection algorithms), polls all time sources with
iburst, and exits after stepping/slewing the clock.

>> FWIW, ntpdate is deprecated upstream ...
>
>Well, if that's supposed to mean that you don't want to maintain it
>because of that,

What that means is the ntpdate is no longer being maintained by the
upstream developers (not me, I handle other things).

The planned replacement for ntpdate will be the new sntp client.

>then I can only suggest that nobody's forcing you to do it... also,
>nobody's forcing you to make random changes which "seem like a useful
>generalization", but aren't necessarily...

I don't understand this.

-- 
Steve Kostecke <kostecke at ntp.org>
NTP Public Services Project http://support.ntp.org/
Public Key at http://support.ntp.org/Users/SteveKostecke