[ntp:questions] ntpdate.c unsafe buffer write

Richard B. Gilbert rgilbert88 at comcast.net
Sat Feb 9 12:18:54 UTC 2008


David Woolley wrote:
> David L. Mills wrote:
> 
>> Harlan,
>>
>> You make some good points. However, if folks want SNTP from here I 
>> think they would prefer it in its own distribution rather than bundle 
>> it with the huge NTP distribution. You can make a strong argument to 
>> host here 
> 
> 
> I don't think you are ever going to get rid of ntpdate from the 
> distribution (as supplied by packagers and vendors) until ntpd offers a 
> mode which sets the time within about one second of being started.  I'm 
> not convinced that SNTP will displace ntpdate for this purpose.  People 
> don't want to delay boot sequences, but they also don't want to start 
> applications until the time has been set.

How long does "ntpd -g" take to set the time?  As I understand it, it's 
supposed to query the configured servers, make a "best guess" as to what 
time it is, set that, and then go to normal operation.

That should put you within a second or so.  If you need better, either 
wait for it, or keep your server alive 24x7x365.  I think most data 
centers do run 24x7x365.  If you're talking about a "data center" that 
lives under the boss's desk, consider buying a UPS and hope that the 
power doesn't fail for longer than the run time.





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