[ntp:questions] Re: Mac OS X + ntpd?

[brad at shub-internet.org]

brad at shub-internet.org wrote:

> Yeah, I've had that problem myself.  There's code down in
> /System/Library/StartupItems/NetworkTime/NetworkTime that runs "ntpdate
> -bvs" and then fires up "ntpd -g -f /var/run/ntp.drift -p
> /var/run/ntpd.pid".  It's easy enough to comment out the starting of
> "ntpdate", and I haven't had an Apple OS upgrade yet that touched this
> file, but you have to assume that will happen some day.
>
> However, I have yet to figure out where they are re-writing the ntp.conf
> file.  Once I figure that out, it should be an easy matter to keep them
> from "fixing" the configuration that I have carefully created.

Doing a bit more searching, I find that there is a /private/etc/ntp.conf
file, which is referenced in
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Installation.framework/Versions/A/\
Resources/CIList.plist, and there are some other binaries in
/System/Library which also match the case-insensitive string "ntp.conf",
but I can't figure out where the actual re-writing is occurring.

Perhaps it's in a binary somewhere that will make it difficult to just
"comment out" things.

I'll keep looking.

-- 
Brad Knowles, <brad at stop.mail-abuse.org>

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
    -Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania.

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