ntpd configutration -- a small suggestion from the peanut gallery

[Ronald F. Guilmette]

In message <alpine.BSF.2.20.1906051648560.44637 at fledge.watson.org>, 
doug at fledge.watson.org wrote:

>> Did I just miss those ntpd death messages somehow?
>
>I'm not sure. Somewhere in the ntp docs it says ntpd will not change the time if 
>the offset is too large...

Yes.  Here is the exact quote from the current man page for ntpd:

     -g, --panicgate
             Allow the first adjustment to be Big.  This option may appear an
             unlimited number of times.

             Normally, ntpd exits with a message to the system log if the
                                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
             offset exceeds the panic threshold, which is 1000 s by default.

So either I need new glasses or else that part underlined above is just plain
wrong.  Because even after my ntpd died several times, I was unable to find
-any- message telling me that ntpd had chosen suicide, let alone what the
reasons for that might have been.  At least not in /var/log/messages.

>You can use ntpq to check the status of things ntp. There are lots of "neat" 
>commands...

Yea.  I know.  But thank you.

Alas, that command/program isn't really all that informative if ntpd isn't
even running.


Regards,
rfg