[ntp:questions] stepping and slewing

[Richard B. Gilbert]

castellani.riccardo at tiscali.it wrote:
> I hadn't understood what means "stepping" ( applied when offset is 
> greater than 128 ms ), infact I believed clock converged gradually to 
> real time with for example (3 sec for minute) in like manner to slewing 
> method.
> Now I understand that stepping set clock immediately to correct time 
> (both forward and backward) while slewing permit to adjust gradually 
> time at max 0.5 ms /sec rate (ONLY forward). is'tt OK ?
> I'm going to use ntpd -qg to synchronize my Linux DB "clients" because 
> I think today machine clocks are enough accurate and I don't await 
> significant offsets (between real time and local time) from first 
> synchronization, my opinion is to not use service but a program which 
> starts at specific intervals.
> 
<snip>

There may be a good reason not to run ntpd as a daemon but I can't think 
of one!