conf/144804: ntpd cannot resolve hostnames at system start

[Garrett Cooper]

The following reply was made to PR conf/144804; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: Garrett Cooper <yanefbsd at gmail.com>
To: andy wilson <wilson.andrew.j at gmail.com>
Cc: freebsd-gnats-submit at freebsd.org
Subject: Re: conf/144804: ntpd cannot resolve hostnames at system start
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:22:42 -0700

 On Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 4:11 PM, Garrett Cooper <yanefbsd at gmail.com> wrote:
 > On Tue, Mar 16, 2010 at 1:02 PM, andy wilson <wilson.andrew.j at gmail.com> =
 wrote:
 >>
 >>>Number: =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 144804
 >>>Category: =A0 =A0 =A0 conf
 >>>Synopsis: =A0 =A0 =A0 ntpd cannot resolve hostnames at system start
 >>>Confidential: =A0 no
 >>>Severity: =A0 =A0 =A0 non-critical
 >>>Priority: =A0 =A0 =A0 low
 >>>Responsible: =A0 =A0freebsd-bugs
 >>>State: =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0open
 >>>Quarter:
 >>>Keywords:
 >>>Date-Required:
 >>>Class: =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0sw-bug
 >>>Submitter-Id: =A0 current-users
 >>>Arrival-Date: =A0 Tue Mar 16 20:10:00 UTC 2010
 >>>Closed-Date:
 >>>Last-Modified:
 >>>Originator: =A0 =A0 andy wilson
 >>>Release: =A0 =A0 =A0 =A08.0-RELEASE-p2
 >>>Organization:
 >>>Environment:
 >> FreeBSD urania.tx.net 8.0-RELEASE-p2 FreeBSD 8.0-RELEASE-p2 #1: Wed Mar =
 10 13:27:38 CST 2010 =A0 =A0 root at urania.tx.net:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/URANIA=
  =A0i386
 >>>Description:
 >>
 >> Due to network initialization taking longer at system startup on 8.0, nt=
 pd cannot resolve hostnames when it is run by /etc/rc.d/ntpd
 >>
 >>
 >> It spits out some messages that look something like:
 >>
 >> ntpd_initres[1469]: host name not found: time.nist.gov
 >> ntpd_initres[1469]: couldn't resolve `time.nist.gov', giving up on it
 >> ntpd_initres[1469]: host name not found: time-b.nist.gov
 >> ntpd_initres[1469]: couldn't resolve `time-b.nist.gov', giving up on it
 >> ntpd_initres[1469]: host name not found: time-c.timefreq.bldrdoc.gov
 >> ntpd_initres[1469]: couldn't resolve `time-c.timefreq.bldrdoc.gov', givi=
 ng up on it
 >>
 >>
 >> In this state ntpd isn't very useful until it is restarted after the net=
 work is ready to go.
 >>
 >>
 >>
 >> # ntpq -p
 >> No association ID's returned
 >> # /etc/rc.d/ntpd restart
 >> Stopping ntpd.
 >> Starting ntpd.
 >> # ntpq -p
 >> =A0 =A0 remote =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 refid =A0 =A0 =A0st t when poll reach=
  =A0 delay =A0 offset =A0jitter
 >> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
 =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
 =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
 =3D=3D=3D=3D
 >> =A0time.nist.gov =A0 .ACTS. =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 1 u =A0 =A03 =A0 64 =A0 =
 =A01 =A0 40.103 =A0-20.364 =A0 0.004
 >> =A0time-b.nist.gov .ACTS. =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 1 u =A0 =A02 =A0 64 =A0 =
 =A00 =A0 =A00.000 =A0 =A00.000 =A0 0.000
 >> =A0time-C.timefreq .ACTS. =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 1 u =A0 =A01 =A0 64 =A0 =
 =A01 =A0 40.769 =A0-20.209 =A0 0.004
 >> =A0nist1.symmetric .ACTS. =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 1 u =A0 =A01 =A0 64 =A0 =
 =A01 =A0 67.883 =A0-11.069 =A0 0.004
 >>
 >>
 >>
 >>>How-To-Repeat:
 >>
 >> Configure time servers by hostname in /etc/ntp.conf, set ntpd_enable=3D"=
 YES" in rc.conf and reboot.
 >
 > Same thing applies to ntpdate, so if there are already some bugs in
 > GNATS about that, this should be duped appropriately.
 
     Something else to think about (for someone that may attempt to fix
 this bug) is that 1) ntpdate features a -q option for querying an ntpd
 server. 2. Would it be better to implement either a background and
 wait, or a limited query poll and update option if there's an
 equivalent to -q in ntpd (former would probably be preferred as it's
 simpler to implement and user tunable and I'm not sure whether or not
 -q exists in ntpd)?
 
 Thanks,
 -Garrett