Add ntpdate_hosts to rc.conf

[Alex Zbyslaw]

John Marshall wrote:

>>Is there a reason you are using ntpdate rather than ntpd?  ntpdate is 
>>supposedly deprecated and ntpd can do what ntpdate does:
>>
>>    
>>
>Perhaps a better question, along the same lines, would be, Why does the
>FreeBSD RC system use ntpdate?
>
>If the idea is to disappear the ntpdate phase from startup, then let's
>ditch it and add the -g flag as default for ntpd_flags. If ntpdate is
>staying, for the time being, then it can't hurt to add a missing
>defaults variable, can it?
>  
>
But ntpdate isn't on by default (not on my 5.4-RELEASE system, anyway).
 From defaults/rc.conf
 > ntpdate_enable="NO"             # Run ntpdate to sync time on boot 
(or NO).

I'm sure you're right about the variable being missing, but you are 
still left with the choice of using ntpdate or ntpd.  If you choose to 
use ntpd, your problem goes away.

And a second question for you: your problem arises because you 
apparently have an ntp.conf and then still run ntpdate.  Since ntp.conf 
isn't part of the default install, why do you have it, and with servers 
defined, if you are running ntpdate?

My own bet would be that the whole "parse hosts out of ntp.conf" came 
from an era before ntpd had the relevant flags.  Now that it does, you 
can disable ntpdate and just run ntpd with the flags you need.

--Alex