[pkg-ntp-maintainers] Bug#242629: ntptrace manpage is STILL wrong after 4 years

[JP Vossen]

Package: ntp
Version: all?
Severity: annoying

PROBLEM:  The manpage for ntptrace is wrong (looks like its for the old 
C version instead of the new Perl version of 'ntptrace')

SOLUTION: Fix/rewrite the manpage (maybe from upstream)

NOTE: This is an upstream bug that claims to have been fixed 
(https://support.ntp.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=419), but various old 
versions of the incorrect docs are still out there, including 
http://www.ece.udel.edu/~mills/ntp/html/ntptrace.html and all of the 
aforementioned Linux distros.


DETAILS:

I've tested this in Debian Etch and Lenny, and Ubuntu Gutsy and Hardy. 
All are wrong in the same way, which is pretty sad given how old the 
original report is and the fact that it is not rocket science to fix a 
man page.  (Though adding -h or --help to the actual script would be 
nice too.)

Manpage says:
	ntptrace [ -vdn ] [ -r retries ] [ -t timeout ] [ server ]


Actual /usr/bin/ntptrace Perl script says:
	getopts('nm:');

E.g.:

# ntptrace -v
Unknown option: v
[...]

# ntptrace -d
Unknown option: d
[...]

# ntptrace -r 4
Unknown option: r
[...]

# ntptrace -t 4
Unknown option: t
[...]



So, the actual script supports *only* a -n flag and -m option.  From 
looking at the code, -n turns off DNS name lookups, and -m specifies the 
max_hosts (default 99).  That code is ugly too, I'd have written:

$dodns     = $opt_n ?  '0' : '1'; # -n turns off DNS lookups else on
$max_hosts = $opt_m || '99';      # -m <max hosts> else 99