Confusing comments in /etc/default/ntpdate
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ubuntu Server papercuts |
Won't Fix
|
Low
|
Dave Walker | ||
ntp (Ubuntu) |
Won't Fix
|
Wishlist
|
Unassigned |
Bug Description
Binary package hint: ntpdate
Not sure, if this is a bug at all, but i see strange things. Fact is, system clock was totally wrong (about half an hour). Calling ntpdate with ntp.ubuntu.com as timeserver corrected the system time. I now started to explore. Thats what I've found: In if-up.d directory ntpdate-debian is called. This one uses /etc/default/
to 'yes'. But ntp has never been installed on my system (as far as i know) and so config files for ntp did not exist (such as /etc/ntp.conf). So no servers from ntp, NTPSERVERS=
Workaround: Installed ntp and removed it. -> /etc/ntp.conf now exists -> ntpdate-debian syncs system time.
BTW: I'm on lucid
greetings!
ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Thu Mar 11 16:55:15 2010
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: ntpdate 1:4.2.4p8+
ProcEnviron:
LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
PATH=(custom, user)
LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSign
SourcePackage: ntp
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-16-generic i686
Changed in server-papercuts: | |
importance: | Undecided → Low |
milestone: | none → maverick-alpha-3 |
status: | New → Triaged |
Changed in server-papercuts: | |
assignee: | nobody → Dave Walker (davewalker) |
Changed in server-papercuts: | |
milestone: | maverick-alpha-3 → maverick-beta |
ntpdate-debian uses /etc/default/ ntpdate for its configuration file. /etc/default/ ntpdate should have a list of ntp servers in it:
# Set to "yes" to take the server list from /etc/ntp.conf, from package ntp, USE_NTP_ CONF=yes
# so you only have to keep it in one place.
NTPDATE_
# List of NTP servers to use (Separate multiple servers with spaces.) USE_NTP_ CONF is yes. "ntp.ubuntu. com"
# Not used if NTPDATE_
NTPSERVERS=
I'm not sure what your problem is. ntpdate-debian is run only *once* when the network interface is brought up. If the system has been running from some time and the time drifted ntpdate-debian won't fix the time in a continuous manner: this is what ntp is for.
To summarize: ntpdate-debian corrects the time once, ntp corrects the time continuously.