svn commit: r338195 - head/share/man/man5

[Ian Lepore]

On Wed, 2018-08-22 at 13:30 +0000, Mateusz Piotrowski wrote:
> Author: 0mp (ports committer)
> Date: Wed Aug 22 13:30:48 2018
> New Revision: 338195
> URL: https://svnweb.freebsd.org/changeset/base/338195
> 
> Log:
>   Note that ntpd_sync_on_start is a preferred alternative to ntpdate_enable.
>   
>   A similar note is already present in the description of the
>   ntpd_sync_on_start variable.
>   
>   This patch adds a note to the description of the ntpdate_enable variable.
>   This way it would be easier to spot.  Otherwise a user might skip the part
>   of the manual describing ntpd_sync_on_start if they stop reading after
>   learning about ntpdate_enable.
>   
>   Reviewed by:	bcr
>   Approved by:	mat (mentor)
>   Differential Revision:	https://reviews.freebsd.org/D16519
> 
> Modified:
>   head/share/man/man5/rc.conf.5
> 
> Modified: head/share/man/man5/rc.conf.5
> ==============================================================================
> --- head/share/man/man5/rc.conf.5	Wed Aug 22 13:25:41 2018	(r338194)
> +++ head/share/man/man5/rc.conf.5	Wed Aug 22 13:30:48 2018	(r338195)
> @@ -24,7 +24,7 @@
>  .\"
>  .\" $FreeBSD$
>  .\"
> -.Dd June 27, 2018
> +.Dd August 22, 2018
>  .Dt RC.CONF 5
>  .Os
>  .Sh NAME
> @@ -2562,6 +2562,14 @@ This command is intended to
>  synchronize the system clock only
>  .Em once
>  from some standard reference.
> +.Pp
> +Note that the use of the
> +.Va ntpd_sync_on_start
> +variable is a preferred alternative to the
> +.Xr ntpdate 8
> +utility as
> +.Xr ntpdate 8
> +is to be retired from the NTP distribution.
>  .It Va ntpdate_config
>  .Pq Vt str
>  Configuration file for
> 

Fwiw, the ntp project has claimed that ntpdate is deprecated for at
least 15 years that I know of, maybe longer. It doesn't look like it's
ever actually going away. If the program itself went away, we would
likely reimplement our rc.d/ntpdate to use sntp(1) instead.

That said, ntpd_sync_on_start is the better option, and this doc update
is a good one. There may be a few special situations where people want
to update the time once at boot or periodically via cron because they
can't run ntpd continuously, but ntpd_sync_on_start=yes is the right
thing for most people.

-- Ian